Work has been going on at the Morgan Junction Park expansion site, north of the current park in the 6400 block of California SW [map], but it’s not a sign the long-shelved park-development project is getting under way. That and other “landbanked” park projects (including two others in West Seattle) have been indefinitely idled because of Parks revenue losses blamed on the pandemic. So, some asked, what’s up with the heavy equipment and piles of gravel/rocks that have shown up at this site?
Kelly Goold of Seattle Parks told WSB that it’s “being used by a contractor associated with a SPU project under a Revokable Use Permit. Instead of fees [for using the site] the contractor will perform work on the site – clearing and grubbing of blackberries and invasive, rough grading, limited demolition, and the like.” What’s the Seattle Public Utilities project? We asked SPU’s Sabrina Register, who said the project is almost next door, “repair to a section of the sewer main that runs along SW Beveridge Place as part of a multi-site sewer-rehabilitation project.” SPU has used other Parks property in similar ways before, such as a section of the Myers Way Parcels (explained here). As for the future of the Morgan Junction Park Addition, the site (which formerly held businesses including a dry cleaner) is still set for hazardous-materials remediation at some point in the not-too-distant future – Goold said the funding for that, unlike the park development itself, has not been suspended, but the work has to go out to bid. (Here’s the environmental “checklist” from earlier this year.) The city bought the park site seven years ago; its status is likely to be a topic during the next quarterly Morgan Community Association meeting (7 pm July 21st, full announcement to come).
JULY 21 UPDATE: SPU has corrected which project is being staged at the future park site – it’s for the water-main repair work on SW Othello in Gatewood, not the upcoming Beveridge work.
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