Zack Thomas from Board & Vellum presents new concepts for the Morgan park expansion.

Story and photos by Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Morgan Junction leaders and neighbors gathered Wednesday night at The Kenney (WSB sponsor).to discuss a wide variety of topics at the quarterly meeting of the Morgan Community Association.

Highlights included presentations about Morgan Junction Park expansion and the proposed development at 5917 California Ave, as well as updates about upcoming Morgan events, affordable housing, and light rail.

Vice president Phillip Tavel ran the first half of the meeting, then president Deb Barker (rushing from the Sound Transit Stakeholder Advisory Group meeting downtown) took over for the second half.

OFFICERS: The slate of Morgan Community Association officers was presented, voted on and approved:

• President – Deb Barker
• Vice President – Phillip Tavel
• Treasurer – Michael Brunner
• Secretary – Natalie Williams
• SW District Council Representative – Tamsen Spengler
• Community Information – VACANT (previous officer Marianne Holsman withdrew because of other time commitments)

“MORGAN MINUTE” QUICK UPDATES:

• June 1 emergency drill: From 9 am-noon on Saturday, June 1, West Seattle will participate in a city-wide emergency preparedness drill focused on a “Seattle Fault earthquake.” Morgan Junction has a participating hub (next to Whisky West), along with hubs in Hiawatha and either Delridge or Pigeon Point. Cindi Barker is leading the effort, as part of West Seattle Be Prepared.
• June 22 Morgan Junction Community Festival: MoCA treasurer Michael Brunner gave an update on behalf of the festival committee, which has been meeting monthly to prepare for the popular annual event. They recently received grant to fund an arts and crafts activity for middle-school-age kids. The festival will feature vendors, art, magicians, police horses and fire trucks, the “Bark of Morgan,” Endolyne Children’s Choir, the Bubbleman, and entertainers including Soyaya, and Gary Benson.
• SW District Council: Tamsen Spengler, who serves as SWDC co-chair, provided an update on the group’s recent meeting (full WSB coverage here). The agenda focused on a presentation from Sound Transit. Representatives from the new East Alaska Junction Neighborhood Coalition group were in attendance. Next meeting is Wednesday, May 1 at 630 pm at the Senior Center, featuring representatives from Port of Seattle and  Northwest Seaport Alliance, and director Andrés Mantilla from the city Department of Neighborhoods to talk about budget. Spengler then asked Yun Pitre from DoN to provide a quick update on matching funds, Neighborhood Street fund projects (vote by May 5), and Your Voice Your Choice.
• SW Precinct Advisory Committee: Quick update from the recent meeting — the precinct reports that crime has been decreasing (snowy winter conditions are a factor). Also, police want to encourage residents to always call 911 if you see anything suspicious – not only is it the most effective channel to get help, but it’s also crucial in helping police accurately track crime statistics.
• District 1 Community Network:  Jim Guenther gave an update on the D1CN “supergroup” of community associations in District 1. Of particular interest is the group’s soon-to-be-launched online survey to get community feedback about priorities and areas of focus to help the group expand beyond “the typical topics of land use and community grants,” as Guenther and Tavel put it, to hear from “people from every corner of the district” about what matters to them. The next D1CN meeting is April 23 at the Duwamish Longhouse, with Cindi Barker as facilitator.

MORGAN JUNCTION PARK EXPANSION: Next up was an update from Ed Pottharst from Seattle Parks (pictured below) along with Zack Thomas and Taylor McNeill from Seattle-based architectural firm Board & Vellum, regarding the status of the addition to Morgan Junction Park. As discussed at MoCA’s meeting last fall, the city bought and “landbanked” the area north of Morgan Junction Park in 2014 with the intent of expanding that park.

Pottharst said the expansion is a complex project for two reasons: 1) the Parks Department doesn’t own the whole property (SDOT owns the street portion, which means there is a legislative process that won’t be completed until later this year), and 2) there is soil contamination on the site (WSB note: there was a dry cleaner on the site in past years), which will be evaluated along with groundwater sampling. Pottharst said there is money budgeted to clean up contamination; if not needed, it will go toward other site improvements)  Pottharst said there was a community open house last year, and more events coming up with the goal of having 3 site concept options for the expanded park to show to the public and get feedback (at the Morgan festival last June, about 200 people commented). They will do an online survey, too. The plan is to complete the design/feedback process by the end of 2019, and to start/finish construction in 2020.

Thomas then joined Pottharst to show some new design concepts for the park (above, and here in PDF). He echoed Pottharst’s comments about the challenge of incorporating the street into the plans, but noted that their goal is to do a “simplified process” in which “no money changes hands” to make it work, and that they’re optimistic that things will proceed without issue. Thomas also went through the results of community surveys regarding the desired intent of the park (top responses were “community event space” at 27% and “play area” at 22%) and noted that their designs take into account things that have worked well at other parks with similar size and layout.  

Question from the audience: What about the existing park? Answer: We want to incorporate it, it’s certainly usable and funding is limited, so our preference is to make use of it.

Question: What about restrooms? We’ve heard lots of requests for that. Answer: These aren’t currently in the plan, for such a small site we typically don’t look at restrooms because of costs and maintenance. If local businesses want to support and potentially fund it, that could be an option. Neighborhood grants likely wouldn’t be an option. The site does have access to utilities and is “futureproofed” in that restrooms could be added later.

Question: What’s the size of the site? Answer: The whole area is just over a half-acre.

Question: If the street is taken away, how would food trucks get in for festivals and events? Answer: There is some space and curb cuts and areas to park, options to explore, typically a food truck will pay fees for parking in a city park. Some follow-up discussion about the park’s proximity to Rapid Ride, and the new Thunder Road Guitars location across the street.

In summary, Pottharst offered an apology that the process has taken a long time, with “lots of stops and starts,” but reiterated their plan to have 3 options available for public comment this summer.  Several attendees commented and agreed that “we are so ready” for the park to be complete in 2020, because the current site is “a bit of an eyesore.”

LOWMAN BEACH PARK SEAWALL: As reported last month by WSB (click the link for video and slides), there was a meeting led by David Graves from Seattle Parks regarding Lowman Beach Park, including possible plans to “daylight” Pelly Creek (currently underground) and allow it to run to Puget Sound. No new details at the Wednesday meeting, but much of the discussion about the plans has involved questions about the coastal area, tennis courts on the site and the availability of restrooms.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND MoCA: Quick update on how Morgan Junction was affected by HALA MHA – particularly the concept of Permanently Affordable Housing; see the briefing one-sheet here (PDF). Question from the audience: Is MoCA’s proposal unique, in terms of other Seattle neighborhoods? Answer from Tavel: Yes, many aspects of it are.

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1 RACE: Besides MoCA vice president Phil Tavel (whose campaign launch we covered here), one other candidate for City Council District 1 was present on Wednesday night and given the opportunity to speak: Brendan Kolding (whose campaign launch we covered here).

Brendan Kolding (standing) and Phil Tavel

Kolding lives with his wife and 3 kids in Delridge,  and worked as a police officer for 10 years. Big issues he wants to tackle include homelessness and improving the relationship between the council and the police department. He opposes the idea of “safe injection sites” for drug users (likening them to “a ‘safe’ car crash site; it doesn’t exist), supports putting parking in new housing developments, supports the “purple line” light-rail option (“the community wants a tunnel, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity”). He also stressed the importance of transparency, saying “I know the government wastes money,” and using resources wisely. He also noted that he and Tavel hold a “similar vision” and that he’s confident that the council will “see significant change” in the next election (already guaranteed since four of the seven incumbents whose terms are expiring have chosen not to run for re-election).

WEST SEATTLE LIGHT RAIL: MoCA president Deb Barker spent several hours at the Sound Transit Stakeholder Advisory Group meeting earlier that evening, and provided an update (see our full WSB coverage here). Barker said it was a productive meeting, and the group was asked to come up with two preferred alternatives: one option if 3^rd-party funding is not approved, and one “open checkbook” option if 3^rd-party funding is secured.  For the former, the group supported a “modified red line” that crosses the Duwamish River on the south side of the West Seattle bridge, goes down Fauntleroy to the Fauntleroy/Alaska intersection, and then probably down Alaska and proceeding to Jefferson Square.  For the latter, they had two options, similar to the “purple line” that was previously rejected by the Elected Leadership Group.  The overall idea of a station on 44th Ave SW did not make either cut.  Question: What about park-and-rides? A: Generally, Sound Transit will not fund parking garages or park and ride (other funding sources could potentially support that). Q: Wouldn’t some of these proposals mean the end of Jefferson Square? A: Yes, or would at least mean a significant redevelopment. Barker said that she thinks of Jefferson Square as “the first mixed-use building in our area” in many ways, and has served the community well.

5917 CALIFORNIA SW EARLY OUTREACH: As we reported last month, there was a meeting as part of the Early Design Outreach process regarding the proposed 5917 California project, which consists of 9 townhouses with 4 offstreet-parking spaces that replace the now-demolished Charmann Apartments. Slides of the full design proposal are here, and were presented at Wednesday’s meeting by Akasha Woolery, who works for the developer (who has a history of development in Hawaii but this is his first Seattle project).

The demolished apartments were “a 12-plex build in the 1950s” and had a significant rodent problem. The area is zoned LR3-RC (residential commercial), on California Ave between Raymond and Juneau, and is one of two new projects on the 5900 block. Woolery showed 3 design options they are currently looking at: “long skinny, staggered, and the preferred option of triplexes” inspired by what’s already in the neighborhood. Each unit is approximately 1200 square feet.  In response to some audience questions about parking , Woolery noted that because the area is an urban village, new developments aren’t required to have any parking, but the 5917 project does have 4 off-street spots on the alley. Attendees discussed the larger issue of new developments going up without parking and putting stress on residential streets, and the consensus was to continue commenting on that and to make sure elected representatives (particularly D1 city council) are aware.

The next MoCA meeting is Wednesday, July 17, at 7 pm at The Kenney.