(WSB photo from Monday: Site where crash/fire damaged West Seattle Health Club, 4+ months later)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Four and a half months after a vehicle hit the West Seattle Health Club and sparked a fire, repairs are finally wrapping up at the fitness facility. And its management is still trying to get the city to take action to eliminate residential-RV parking nearby.
We went to WSHC to talk with its vice president of operations Dan Lehr after his ongoing requests – and frustration – resurfaced in an email discussion started by nearby resident Jill, concerned about trash by the RVs, with WSB among the CCs. (The photo above this paragraph is from Jill’s email.)
SW Andover across the street from the club’s north side, adjacent to the Nucor plant, has drawn RVs for years – we first reported on that in late 2015; it’s an industrial zone and overnight parking is not prohibited in such zones.
The number of RVs there fluctuates – we’ve counted several times since we talked with Lehr last Thursday, and it’s ranged between 8 and 10, but he says it’s been as high as 19.
(WSB photo, taken tonight)
Nucor has installed lights along Andover (above) and he’s getting an estimate for “big floodlights” on the club’s west side, on 28th SW between Andover and Yancy, where he says the most problematic activity has been there. He says that besides trash, he’s found needles there. And he says he’s been “physically confronted three times” while documenting what’s going on, to the point where he says he’s obtained a concealed-gun license and doesn’t go out on that side unarmed. He’s already installed fencing where the crash happened, and says he would like to put up a sturdier barrier but is caught up in the permit process.
Police parking enforcement does show up from time to time and tags the RVs; a reader sent us a photo of one getting towed last month during the snow.
(WSB photo from October 2018)
Whether the vehicle that hit the club last fall was residential or not – Lehr says he has evidence it was, though as we reported in October the city changed its original description – the incident has been costly. Lehr says the club has had to do $650,000 in repairs. While insurance will cover it, they’ve only been reimbursed for about $80,000 so far. The pool was out of service for about a month, he says, and the hot tub finally reopened in February.
Lehr says police were never able to cite anyone – whoever was in the vehicle fled the scene after it hit the building – and that’s “disappointing.” (We confirmed with SPD today that no arrest or citation has resulted so far – but they say that could still change, as the case status remains “open.”) The WSHC grounds also sustained at least $5,000 in damage, Lehr said, when an RV crashed on the east side of its parking lot, bordering Longfellow Creek, last July.
But what he’d most like to see is a ban on overnight parking. So far, he says the city has told him they’re looking at a more “wholistic” approach to the RV-parking situation. We asked if he was considering legal action; he says he’s watching to see how a Portland case turns out, and they’re considering partnering with other businesses that have had problems. It’s not just the damage, he points out, but all the time dealing with the claims and repairs, not to mention trying to monitor and report the ongoing problems like the aforementioned “drug activity” he hopes lighting will deter.
Regarding the bigger picture, he says he’s repeatedly contacted the mayor’s office and to date has not received a reply. City Councilmember Lisa Herbold has responded, he said. So we followed up with her. She told us she’s “been regularly engaged” with Lehr since the crash and that her involvement has included “advocacy with SPU, SDOT, SPD, and the Mayor’s Office,” plus relaying/explaining the various departments policies, as well as using her “bully pulpit to get SPD’s attention to this location,” while, she added, “I can’t make them or SDOT do something that is contrary to their policies.”
So what policies is she referring to? She cited SPD partnering with SPU for an “RV remediation program” with an “ultimate goal” described by SPD as trying “to connect the people to services, insure that they move their vehicles in conformance to city law (primarily the must-move-after-72-hours ordinance), and ensure we clean up any debris that is left behind. Using a team concept also allows us to insure we are consistent with recent court decisions regarding vehicle residents, so that we do not inadvertently expose the city to unnecessary legal jeopardy. The goal is not to impound these vehicles, but instead have them move regularly and be less impactful on the locations where they park.”
Herbold says the court reference in that SPD explanation involved a King County Superior Court case, but adds there are others, including this one in San Diego (which, we noticed while researching, factored into a recent City Council vote there repealing a ban on vehicle living)
Herbold summarizes that “it is not so simple as enforcing the laws. Both because (a) there are so many RVs throughout the city that are serving as residences, SPD doesn’t have the resources to enforce the laws everywhere, and (b) even if they did, there are legal questions about when and how we can do that because of the lawsuit mentioned above.” So, she says, city efforts have been focused on a voluntary “remediation” program, launched almost a year ago, to get RV residents to move so that sites can be cleaned up. A report on sites addressed by that program through the end of 2018 shows only one West Seattle location out of more than 30, the 2700 block of Harbor SW. So far, the area near WSHC has not surfaced as a priority for remediation, though Herbold tells us that she has contacted both SPD Chief Carmen Best and the mayor to advocate for it. In the meantime, Herbold’s legislative assistant Alex Clardy says, SPU does visit the site regularly to pick up trash.
As for changing the parking rules and policies, the councilmember notes that SDOT responded to Harbor Avenue neighbors’ similar requests last year by saying “SDOT no longer installs ‘No Parking, 2 am to 5 am’ or similar signs such as time limit signs if their intended purpose is only to prevent car camping on that block, as this simply moves the issue down the street. Real answers lie in more holistic social services.” And even if they did, she said, SPD has said it doesn’t have enough people/funding for enforcement.
So the parking issue remains unresolved, even as WSHC VP Lehr says with some relief that they are finally getting “pretty much back to 100 percent,” post-fire, for now.
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