By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
The Morgan Junction Park expansion site, bought by the city 11 years ago, remains a fenced hole in the ground. And the matter of what will ultimately be built on it still isn’t settled.
The “all-wheels area” that seemed like a promising addition for so long is up in the air, since Seattle Parks now insists there’s not enough funding to include it in the project. Community supporters, who coalesced as MJAWA (Morgan Junction All-Wheels Area), just got word this week that their part of the project didn’t receive a $250,000 King County grant they were hoping would help cover the cost, so they say this means Parks will tell them to raise “$700,000 for a 1,500-sf skateable area.” They’re now looking ahead to conversations with Parks in the coming weeks.
In advance of that, MJAWA and the Morgan Community Association got a somewhat convoluted update last week from two Seattle Parks managers who came to MoCA’s quarterly meeting to provide a status update. MoCA has since sent the city a list of questions to be answered.
First – here’s what they did hear about the status of the site, where a jurisdictional conflict between Parks and SDOT has idled the soil-cleanup process – required because of contaminated soil from the site’s history (including time as a dry cleaner) – for many months. Parks’ Olivia Reed told MoCA that the cleanup should finally be complete “late this fall” – now that SDOT and Parks have reached an agreement about transferring some of the property – and they’re still planning to open the expansion site as a grassy public area after that.
(Schematic for ‘skate dot’ that MJAWA got Grindline to design for Morgan Junction Park site)
Will the final version of the site have an all-wheels area, aka “skate dot”? That would require added community funding, Reed reiterated, though MJAWA already has brought a lot of contributions to the project, from volunteer expertise to a grant. During the MoCA discussion, the project’s funding and price tag reained unclear, with the Parks reps saying the “total budget” is $1.2 million, as well as saying that amount had been “added” to the project this year. But, Parks’ Andy Sheffler insisted, “We have a commitment to get the project done” and he insisted they are “moving forward diligently now.”
That “moving forward” includes taking the plan back to a committee of the city Design Commission – the plan for what the site will look like when Phase 1, remediation and hydroseeding, is complete this fall. MoCA president Deb Barker expressed disappointment that the committee will end up seeing that plan before the community.
This was all largely a continuation of a similarly disappointing discussion with a different Parks official at the previous MoCA meeting in April, at which the $1.2 million budget and skate-dot skepticism were cited, while MJAWA pointed out that the budget seemed to be “missing a million” after previous citations of a $2.2 million budget. The $1.2 million apparently is only expected to cover some pathways and seating on the expansion site. Community fundraising could put the “all-wheels area” into the plan, but otherwise it would be “decoupled” for some possible future phase. Parks is focused on finishing the cleanup and settling the right-of-way issue with SDOT, which won’t be finalized until the City Council approves transferring SW Eddy Street right-of-way to Parks.
After the MoCA meeting, these questions were sent to the Parks reps, taking them up on a suggestion they made during the meeting:
Construction Costs
· You said the construction cost was 900k, we had heard the budget was 1.2m; is that accurate?
· So of the 1.2m, 900k is construction, with 300k for soft costs?
· Can you identify where the 1.2m was added to the budget? Who and where did this occur? What was it for?
· Three months ago, we were told by previous planner that there was not enough budget, is that no longer true?
· How can the total project be 1.2m, but 1.2m got added to the project budget this year?
· Still puzzled as to what happened to the soil, why is it more expensive?
· What happened, we were told that 1m had disappeared 3 months ago, and now you are saying 1.2m has been added?
· Restating: how was 1.2m added to the project, which appears to be the entire project budget? (apparently this is related to the “total project budget” which was going to be calculated)
· We want an accounting spreadsheet that shows the adds and the losses, real data, that an average person can understand.
Phasing
· Phase 1 was soil remediation and phase 2 was construction? (before the consolidation). And Phase 1 had its own budget? We were told that the phase 1 funding had not gone away because it was for soils remediation, is this correct?
· Is the rephasing of work related to using soils to fill the hole from regrading work?
· Is there a plan for the end of phase 1 on paper? (defining what the outcome will be as we await phase 2)
· Is everything on the “environmental Work Updates” slide intended for calendar year 2025 eg: hydroseedring complete in September, park will “open” sometime after that?
· We need a visual of what the phase 1 hyrdoseeding would look like, what would be the outcome of Phase 1. (soils remediation)
· Does the hydroseeding cover the entire site? Or just the hole that has been filled in? What about Eddy street? Will it be backfilled and hydroseeded in Sept 2025?
· Sum up: We want a diagram of the extent of the hydroseeding as of Sept 2025 (aka. Phase 1)
· We would also like the visual of Phase 2: park development scope.
· Is the new phase II park development proceeding in a way that works with the existing skate dot, so as not to create duplicate costs or rework?
Outreach
· Can you make sure that public input comes before this goes through the design review commission?
· When will community feedback be solicited for the current design / post the design committees?
Skate Dot/MJAWA
· Can your team please meet with us on the site to discuss and review? …
· MJAWA = we have delivered the construction documents re the skate dot, why would you need to make new ones? We would like to discuss this on site on the 28th
· Who is the point person with SPR for MJAWA? Olivia? Trae?
· What is the number is that would be needed from the community to cover skate dot construction costs?
Those questions were sent before MJAWA got word that the $250.000 grant, which Seattle Parks was expected to partly match, did not come through. MoCA president Deb Barker told WSB that so far, more than a week after the meeting, they’ve received only an acknowledgment.
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