By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Three topics dominated this month’s Alki Community Council meeting: The Harbor Avenue RVs, the Stone Cottage’s future, and the Alki Point “Healthy Street.”

ACC president Tony Fragada facilitated the meeting, held hybrid-style – in person at Alki UCC and online – on Thursday night; we covered it via Zoom.

(WSB photo, earlier this week)

HARBOR AVENUE RVs: Alki-area residents who have been demanding action from the city to make the RV residents move say they’re not getting it, while the roadside encampment grows (it’s up to 12 RVs and trailers, plus associated vehicles including an old school bus and a truck full of wooden pallets, at last count). Discussion with SPD’s night-shift commander Lt. Nathan Shopay focused on what police can and can’t do. If crimes are being committed, call 911. If you’re just upset that they’re there, police can’t do anything about that. There is still an interdepartmental city team meeting weekly – Lt. Shopay says he attends that meeting – and they discuss the status of various encampments around the city, but he says they’re “inundated” with demands for action. Nonetheless, he says, keep reporting concerns via Find It Fix It and sites will move up the priority list. This area’s new point person for LEAD, Michelle McClendon, jumped in to talk about outreach done with RV residents like those on Harbor. She said their methods include “motivational interviewing, trauma-informed … this does not happen overnight.” They “assess each person’s needs” – some qualify for permanent supportive housing, for example. But she reminded attendees that even if they offer someone services, they can’t be forced to accept the offer. As for the perennial issue of enforcing the 72-hour parking rule, Lt. Shopay was asked if bringing Parking Enforcement Officers back into the Police Department would help; Most likely, he replied, though it’d not clear yet how long that will take.

STONE COTTAGE SITE SEARCH: Almost a year and a half has passed since the historic Stone Cottage was moved from its location at 1123 Harbor Avenue SW because of then-imminent (since stalled) development.

(August 2021 reader photo by Rachel)

It remains in storage on Port of Seattle land while the preservationist volunteers who worked to save it tackle the next task: Finding a permanent home. Two of those volunteers, Mike Shaughnessy and Deb Barker, came to the ACC meeting with an update; Shaughnessy recapped the effort to date, and pre-pandemic progress with a proposal that they fix up the Stone Cottage and then donate it to Seattle Parks and Recreation – a proposal that he said was gaining traction until COVID shut down everything down and set back many Parks projects, Now, in addition to that, Parks is under new leadership, with recently appointed Superintendent AP Diaz, so they are “starting from scratch … taking a ‘Hail Mary’ approach” to pitch the project again. If Parks doesn’t want it, they’ll find a site. Whatever happens, the “Save the Stone Cottage” effort will soon go into Phase 2.

ALKI POINT HEALTHY STREET: SDOT hasn’t made a final decision on the permanent “design” for the stretches of Beach Drive and Alki Avenue north/east of 63rd SW. As shown during a community meeting in November (WSB coverage here), they’re looking at a variety of traffic-calming features. A few community advocates recently hosted SDOT director Greg Spotts for an unpublicized visit to the area. They said he was particularly interested in the idea of restricting parking adjacent to Constellation Park, saying he talked about Stonehenge in the UK once allowing parking so close to the historic stones that it took away from the attraction. Their contention is that the Healthy Street doesn’t need added features such as traffic circles and chicanes – they think the city should just focus on emphasizing traffic calming at the entry points (63rd/Beach and 63rd/Alki). They also want to see some parking preserved for area residents as well as for visitors; the 63rd/Beach area is particularly problematic, it was noted. ACC members agreed to send a letter of support to the city.

NEXT MEETING: The ACC meets third Thursdays most months, in-person and online; watch alkicommunitycouncil.org for updates.

The areas served by the community coalition HPAC – Highland Park, Riverview, South Delridge – have been through a lot of transportation issues in recent years, particularly the two and a half years of traffic overload from the West Seattle Bridge closure detours. But the reopening of the bridge didn’t solve everything. If you live/work/study/do business in those areas, check out HPAC’s first meeting of 2023 this coming Wednesday (January 25), when guests will include new SDOT director Greg Spotts, visiting to hear about the area’s transportation concerns and ideas. Another guest of note: Michelle McClendon is the new LEAD project manager for the Southwest Precinct area, and she’ll be there to talk and hear about public-safety issues. And HPAC co-chair Craig Rankin will talk about the new West Duwamish Greenbelt Trails map, reported on and discussed here last month. One more hot topic: The city’s Comprehensive Plan update, which the meeting announcement points out “has numerous implications for the future way our community grows. Notably the plan lists our area as one with a high risk of displacement.” All this and more is part of HPAC’s agenda for 7 pm Wednesday, online. Attendance info, via video or phone, is in the full announcement on HPAC’s website.