(Graphic courtesy Judy Pickens, showing culvert’s route, schoolhouse at left, church at right)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Two culverts carrying salmon-bearing Fauntleroy Creek underground below two streets must be replaced and widened. That’s long been known. But a behind-the-scenes part of the story has just come to light.

One of the replacement plans, for the section beneath 45th SW, has not been particularly controversial – it’s in city right-of-way and the planning is under way after the “restart” about which we reported back in March.

The other is an entirely different story – one that has just closed the book on a difficult chapter.

Fauntleroy Church and the City of Seattle have reached agreement on how to deal with the other section of culvert, which carries the creek under California SW and the church parking lot – a 130-foot city culvert, almost a third of which extends under the church parking lot [vicinity map], where it joins a 230-foot church-installed culvert. At one point in this “long conversation,” as Fauntleroy Church senior pastor Leah Atkinson-Bilinski describes it, there was the possibility that the church would face a giant price tag for the culvert project – potentially $7 million – a sum that would have bankrupted the church.

(WSB photo, exploratory drilling in 2020)

That was the state of things in 2019. Then in 2020, the church says, a city contractor doing geotechnical boring “inaccurately locate(d) the culvert and punche(d) two holes in it.” That took the situation to a different level, with the church pursuing city commitments regarding responsibility for the resulting damage, and the need to replace the 70+-year-old culvert. The conversation came to “dead ends, where it felt like we couldn’t move forward,” the pastor said. Eventually, the church felt compelled to file a lawsuit against the city, and did so last year (but did not serve it).

As the result of that, the church and city have struck a deal – recently signed by both parties – under which the church will deed part of its land to the city, enough for construction of the new city/church culvert. How much, nobody knows until the new culvert is designed. The agreement includes stipulations to protect the church’s future, such as protecting the garden outside its basement-level preschool space and a certain number of ADA parking spaces, plus the fire lane. And as part of the deal, the city is relieved of liability for damaging the church’s current culvert. And there is a provision to ensure the city would be compensated for the investment of public funds, should the church site be sold to a for-profit buyer within the next quarter-century.

Many, but not all, details of the culvert replacement itself will be guided by state and federal requirements. Rev. Atkinson-Bilinski says that ideally the deal would have given the church a bit more say in the future plan, but it does guarantee they’ll be consulted as “important partners” and that their ideas “will be considered.” When the time comes, she adds, it will be very important for community voices to weigh in on prospective designs – not just what happens in the culvert itself, but the project features above-ground.

Just getting to this point, though, is a victory, church leaders reiterate. This all dates back to the original construction of the culvert – at a time when nobody considered looking far into the future to imagine a time when restoration of salmon habitat would be important, and possible. The city first looked at culvert replacements in 2001, but shelved the idea, which resurfaced after a partial blockage hit the 45th SW culvert in 2015. (That culvert also had a clog last year.) In 2019, design concepts were presented by the city, and that’s when the church learned it could face a multi-million-dollar expense.

(2021 reader photo, salmon in Fauntleroy Creek)

Judy Pickens, who has been involved for decades with bringing Fauntleroy Creek back to life as a salmon-bearing stream, co-chaired the church’s committee dealing with the culvert issue. She says it’s important to note that reaching the agreement doesn’t just settle the stalemate between the church and city, but also means the church is “walking its talk” regarding respect for tribal fishing rights. In addition to legal requirements, a church background document explains, “as a congregation we have accepted a moral responsibility to steward the land and water that were taken from Coast Salish peoples.”

This section of culvert has been completely underground since the early 1950s. At some point before that, there was a trestle bridge over California, the church says. Mobility was a motivation when the project was planned back in the ’50s; in addition to the ecosystem, safety is a key concern now. Four preschools are in the area, and one side of California holds one of them plus the church and the Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor), while the other side holds historic Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, home to other schools, multiple small businesses, and a popular event venue, The Hall at Fauntleroy. Once a year, the Fauntleroy Fall Festival spans all of those venues, with a huge all-ages throng visiting for the afternoon.

Will the future expanded culvert bring salmon back to the upper reaches of Fauntleroy Creek, steeper than many such streams? “The potential is there … they’ve surprised us before,” Pickens says, while tempering her optimism.

“If you build it, they will come. Hopefully!” adds pastor Atkinson-Bilinski.

But for now, some relief that they know a multimillion-dollar culvert repair isn’t looming over the church. “We’re just gratified,” says church board chair Greg Dirks, “and looking forward to partnership with the city and community.”

Watch for more on how you can get involved, via the Seattle Public Utilities project page.