ALL-WHEELS IN MORGAN JUNCTION: One step closer to a ‘skate dot’ design for park

By Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Members of the Morgan Junction All-Wheels Association (MJAWA) met online last week to discuss the latest plans and ideas for an all-wheeled “skate dot” area (dedicated to activities like skating, scooters, and biking) in the south part of eventually expanding Morgan Junction Park.

The overall “Morgan Junction Addition Project” timeline from Seattle Parks can be found here, with completion expected by Spring of 2025. For historical context: The site was purchased by the city in 2014 and then “landbanked” for park expansion (see our prior coverage here; the site was formerly a dry cleaning business, and “soil remediation” work has been required).

In recent months, MJAWA has been gathering community feedback about their three potential design concepts for the all-wheels area, which would be up to 1,500 square feet, within the larger park:

Skate dot designs

The community feedback came in via an online survey, in conjunction with in-person feedback from events like the Morgan Junction Community Festival and Gatewood Elementary’s Gator Fair. Previously, the group also held a community meeting in April to talk about the project.

During last week’s meeting, facilitated by Matt Johnston, the summarized feedback was presented to the MJAWA group by James Klinedinst, project manager for Grindline Skateparks (headquartered in West Seattle).

Klinedinst said the “winning” ideas were Concept 1 and Concept 2, which he described as “very similar; a vote for one is basically a vote for the other,” but added that there was also a lot of support amongst wheeled enthusiasts for certain ideas from Concept 3. So, his team is now taking some of those popular components of Concept 3 and incorporating them into Concept 1 and 2, to create a new “hybrid design” that the group will move forward with.

So, what’s next? Johnston said there are two key meetings coming up in August, with prep activities required for that, summarized as follows:

Between now and the Design Commission meeting (August 15th) and ProView meeting (August 20th or 27th), Grindline will be working on synthesizing the feedback from the survey and applying their design expertise to create a preferred design concept for the all-wheels area that incorporates the feedback. They will be handing off this design to Seattle Parks, who along with their design contractor Board & Vellum, will be presenting the overall Morgan Junction Park Addition design to the ProView Committee.

Johnston said that Seattle Parks project manager Kelly Goold is their point-of-contact for the Seattle Parks project overall. Information about Seattle’s ProView process can be found here and here. Johnston added that the group is not currently raising money for the “skate dot” project, because construction will be funded by the overall park project budget.

Attendees at the meeting also discussed ways to work together with various groups, to ensure that the best ideas are shared and considered. Deb Barker, president of the Morgan Community Association (MoCA), noted that the group should be sure to understand from Seattle Parks if there are “interim use” scenarios for the park, following soil cleanup but prior to the final completion of the construction.

Johnston adjourned the meeting by thanking everyone for their hard work, adding: “We’re almost there!”