Orchard Street Ravine updates: Celebration on, but work not done

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We told you two weeks ago that the city had scheduled a celebration for the Orchard Street Ravine, a greenspace in Gatewood that neighbors and other volunteers have been working for years to restore. One key piece of the project isn’t done, though, so the city has just announced an open-house meeting to talk about that, one week before the celebration:

The construction of the through-trail, part of the Orchard Street Ravine project at 38th Ave. SW has been delayed due to design and project budget issues. Seattle Parks and Recreation remains committed to completing a through-trail from the street end at 38th Ave. SW to the existing lower loop trail at Orchard Street Ravine. To keep the project within its budget, Parks is proposing a new design for completing the through-trail, and would like to discuss the trail option with you at an open house at the lower loop trail site from 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday, October 4. This trail follows work done in the Pedestrian Connection Trail Feasibility Study and will link the upper and lower neighborhoods.

Here’s a map to Orchard Street Ravine.

2 Replies to "Orchard Street Ravine updates: Celebration on, but work not done"

  • Lisa Carey October 6, 2008 (7:38 am)

    I am very concerned about the pedestrian connection. It will be using the very road that we use to get to our property. My Mother has talked with an older gentleman and was brushed off with the comment that no one uses that road. Well, we do and have for over 60 years! Would someone please listen to us. I tried to talk to people this last July and got nowhere. We can not afford to have that road made narrower.

  • John Nuler October 11, 2008 (8:20 am)

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    A little history. After getting the city to purchase this site, purchase supporters immediately neighboring the property began encroaching, illegally cutting trees, storing motor homes & vehicles, building walls and structures in the city’s property and allowing the whole property to become overgrown with invasive plants.
    The Orchard Street Ravine was a mess until some well connected adjacent property owners realized that there was $175,000 up for grabs from the Parks Levy.
    The Parks Dept.Levy description states: “This project, part of the 2000 Parks Levy, develops trails to access ravine.” Although natural area restoration is not mentioned in this statement, it is discussed as a key element in all neighborhood planning documents that supported this Levy project, and was reaffirmed as a key element through the planning process.” – Parks Dept. Web Site.
    At the first community meeting stacked with a secret group that had had preliminary discussions with park personel, the NIMBY flags were raised. Because of crime, safety, property values, access, lack of facilities, parking, infrastructure etc. this group supported only “natural area restoration” despite the wording of the levy. They stood up at meeting and ridiculed the “concept” of the “Green Crescent”. Parks D. employees at that meeting Kevin Krauthamel, Karen Galt and Ted Holden claimed that Seattle’s Critical Areas Codes prohibited a trail on such slopes. After the meeting Kevin expressed to me his pleasure that no one wanted a trail. The next day, I phoned Kevin who then expressed his dismay that “the Levy wording requires a trail”. When this info got out the same group along with Parks figured a way to access the $175,000 by constructing their own Trail to Nowhere. This is the pathetic Loop Trail now complete for this weeks opening. It loops through the only portion of the ravine that has been cleared of invasives.
    Although “natural area restoration” is apparently where our money has gone, it has only restored the portion desirable to the NIMBY group. Much discussion at the meetings concerned clearing invasives from the hillside. Parks arborist Mark Mead talked at length about a machine called a Spider to clear the hillsides. Now Parks is saying that the hills will not be restored although that is still listed by them as a top priority. Indeed the new through trail is proposed to be cut through an eight foot wide tunnel of blackberries with no restoration.
    After members of the community at large, not just those immediate neighbors of the city’s land, got up to speed we formed our own open group and complained to Parks. This led to Ken Bounds, then Parks’ head and reputedly former neighbor of the NIMBY group’s organizer, to set aside another $140,000 for a through trail as worded by the levy.
    This in turn led to a through trail feasibility study that contradicted Parks’ claims. Unfortunately, “garbage in- garbage out” the primary criteria for this trail was, “Foremost among the criteria we provided was that the chosen
    option should have minimal impact on the land.” This criteria must have been designed to eliminate the communities’ preferred trail route. Which it did. Now Parks is eager to go ahead with a trail they have always claimed was not possible and one that does not have “minimal impact on the land”. On Saturday, Parks confirmed that they still were working off of a discredited LIDAR topo survey and have not done any soils tests as required by DPD Critical Areas Code.
    A trail through the park could provide exceptional views and an organic route to the Myrtle Park above. It could be used by families with kids at Gatewood. This new “hail mary” trail offers none of that and should be an embarasment to its designers.
    WSB reports that I “had been trying for months to get updates from the city”. True partially, I contacted Joe Neiford last May, July, August and September by e-mail and phone to get updates. He provided updates claiming in May that the design was 99% complete and construction would be starting in a few weeks. He made similar less believable claims all summer long. I even wrote asking why the city has a honeybucket at the stair site that has had no use for six months @$100 per month.
    He also assured me that park boundaries would be delineated with signage. Now read the handout from Parks received at Saturday’s meeting – “Survey markers were installed at most lot corners adjacent to Parks property…However, many of those survey markers have been removed by persons unknown…Addressing property encroachments onto Parks property is not part of the trails project.” This appears to be an invitation to encroachment.
    On WSB we often see NIMBY issues around parks – opposition to skateboards, play areas, lights and facilities. But never have I come across a group of NIMBYs as successful as in the Orchard Street Ravine. They have managed to acquire a park for themselves surrounded by an inpenetrable thicket of blackberries all the while consuming several hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars.
    Please do come to the Mayor’s grand opening this weekend to see for yourself where our $300,000 went and why this process has been a disgrace to the community. And maybe speculate on just who might be once again expanding their backyards through disappearing survey markers. Also please note the Alamo like masonry wall that is in the middle of 38th Ave right of way, yes the property line is between the wall and the house, hence the “extreme lack of parking” for the event.

    Comment by John Nuler — October 6, 08 11:15 pm #

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