(WSB file photo, future park site at 48th/Charlestown)

Just last week, we published a followup on one of the three future “landbanked” parks in West Seattle. Today, the Parks Department has sent an update on one of the other two, the 48th/Charlestown site:

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) is hosting a booth at the West Seattle Farmers Market, 44th Ave. SW and SW Alaska St., on Sunday, February 10, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is an opportunity for the community to learn about the new park project at 48th Ave. SW and SW Charlestown St., meet the design team from Cascade Collaborative and provide input on the design of this new neighborhood park.

SPR will work with the community on the park design and encourages community participation. Please visit our booth on Sunday, participate in this short survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/D7T5HPM) and post design ideas on your social media with the hashtag #48thandCharlestown.

SPR purchased the .23-acre property in 2014. The design of the park will incorporate accessibility features in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and provide access to open space for the neighborhood.

This park project is made possible by the voter-approved Seattle Park District, which provides more than $47 million a year in long-term funding for SPR, including maintenance of parklands and facilities, operation of community centers and recreation programs, and development of new neighborhood parks on previously acquired sites.

For more information or for meeting notification translations please (go here).

For questions about the project or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact Ed Pottharst at 206-386-4232 or Ed.pottharst@seattle.gov

$1.2 million in Park District levy funding has been earmarked for developing this site.

Almost a year after the last public meetings about the West Seattle Junction park site on 40th SW, across from the Alki Masonic Center, a WSB reader wondered about the project status. As they pointed out at the time, the project website hadn’t been updated in months. So we checked with Seattle Parks, which tells us the project is at 65 percent design – the renderings above and below are two views from project architect GGLO:

They expect to have one more public meeting, date TBA, when they’re ready to discuss the construction timeline. (And after our inquiry, they updated the project website. It also reflects a change in project managers since last year’s meetings – Kelly Goold is now in charge.) This two-thirds-of-an-acre site is one of three “landbanked” sites set for city park development in West Seattle.

They’re cabins in the woods … in the city. 2019 reservations for cabins at Camp Long (5200 35th SW) start next week – here’s the Seattle Parks announcement:

For a taste of the great outdoors without having to stay in a tent, the cabins at Camp Long are a great solution. These 10 privately-situated, rustic huts are each equipped with three double bunk beds, a sink and faucet, overhead lights, windows, 2 doors, a BBQ, and picnic tables. Showers and restrooms are nearby. Tell stories around the fire ring, explore 68 acres of trails or climb rocks during the day, and reconnect with the natural world – without the trip out of town.

Camp Long will begin taking 2019 reservations on January 2; cabins open March 1. The cost is $50 per night. (Plus a $50 damage/clean-up deposit of $50 per cabin.) For more information and to reserve, please call Camp Long at (206) 684-7434.

Share This

That’s the “before” photo … and here’s the “after”:

Don’t recognize the site? It’s the Wildlife Garden at Camp Long. This reader report explains what happened:

The Wildlife Garden at Camp Long was restored to its former glory as part of an Eagle Scout project completed last weekend. Despite the dismal weather conditions, over 30 volunteers pitched in to clear weeds and brush, reconstruct pathways, lay bark and gravel, build two planter boxes and plant new foliage.

Jackson Carney of West Seattle Boy Scout Troop 282, who organized and led the project, would like to thank West Seattle Nursery, Talarico’s, West Seattle Thriftway, John Demyanovich Construction, and West Seattle Fence Company, who supported this endeavor.

(WSB file photo, future park site at 48th/Charlestown)

Thanks to the texter who noted that an informational sign is finally up at the “landbanked” future park site at 48th SW and SW Charlestown. When last we checked in, earlier this year, the timeline was for planning to happen in the first half of this year, but now it’s expected to last into next year, and construction is still two years away, according to the newest update. Since the website doesn’t mention what kind of public process – meeting, survey, etc. – will be part of the design phase, we checked today with Seattle Parks. We’re told the project is in the middle of a change in planners so it’ll be a few weeks before that info is available. The park-development budget remains listed at $1.2 million.

Thanks to Lisa McGinty from Friends of Lincoln Park for the photos and report on the Green Seattle Day work party:

32 volunteers came out in the rain this morning to help 323 native trees and plants find their forever homes.

Friends of Lincoln Park want to thank everyone for their amazing efforts to help keep our urban forest healthy!

Missed this chance to help? Keep an eye on our calendar for other upcoming West Seattle work parties, at Lincoln Park and elsewhere!

(City of Seattle photo)

Seattle Parks sends the reminder that West Seattle’s Camp Long is moving to winter hours and will be closed Sundays starting this weekend, continuing through November, December, January, and February. Also:

Camp Long will begin to take cabin rentals starting on January 2, 2019. Cabins are available for use beginning on March 1. More information is available here. Questions? Please contact Camp Long at 206-684-7434.

More than a year and a half after first word of a renovation project at Don Armeni Boat Ramp, it’s finally ramping up. The ramp’s floating docks are set to be replaced. Early this year, the city announced it had received a state grant to help pay for the project, and an update was promised by summer, but none followed. Then a related notice turned up in the newest city-circulated Land Use Information Bulletin, so we checked the project’s status with Seattle Parks, whose senior capital-projects coordinator Garrett Farrell replied with this update:

The City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department is really happy to be getting the renovation of Don Armeni back underway.

The long delay is tied to the late state budget signing last year that held up our grants from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO)

RCO project 16-2356D provides $374,950 in grant funds allowing Parks to move ahead with the $500,000 project to replace the aged floating docks at Don Armeni. We were happy to see a budget get passed at the state level but really had nothing to report until that grant agreement was signed this quarter.

With the agreement in place we are working to secure our permits and move the project through design. We immediately started with those efforts as they will dictate when we can bid and perform the work.

When permit approvals are in, Farrell adds, there will be a public meeting about the project. Too soon to estimate the start date, but once the work gets going, he says, it should last about three months, and during that time, “we will keep one ramp open while we work on the other.” He expects a website for the project to be up and running next month.

P.S. The new notice we mentioned above is a Determination of Non-Significance – saying that a full environmental-impact review is not needed. The publication of that notice opens a window for comment/appeal – this explains how.

(WSB file photo of Colman Pool)

Later this week, the Seattle City Council starts getting down to specifics in potential changes/additions to the mayor’s proposed budget plan. One group of West Seattleites thinks a little money could be spent to get a little more use out of a public asset in West Seattle: Colman Pool. If you agree, now’s the time to speak up. The 77-year-old, city-owned outdoor saltwater pool on the Lincoln Park shore is open less than three months a year – it opens for weekends from Memorial Day until mid-June, then daily until Labor Day, and usually a post-season weekend.

The photo above was shared by Venkat Balasubramani, one of a group of Colman Pool fans who gather for an end-of-season picnic and talked about campaigning to add some operating days to the pool as well as some funding to address its maintenance backlog. He says the issues brought up by pool users ranged from pump maintenance (you might recall that the pool was closed for four days this summer because of pump trouble) to the need for better, more thorough cleaning of dressing areas and pathways, as well as the restrooms, which the swimmers say also are desperately in need of toilet seats.

They’ve contacted our area’s Councilmember Lisa Herbold as well as Councilmember Debora Juarez, who chairs the committee that oversees parks and other public assets. Herbold’s staff told the swimmers that she has “submitted a ‘Form A’ in the budget process which requests additional funding to extend the use of the pool by one month every year and to add any funds necessary to fix the maintenance backlog.” But public support is required for changes to the budget, so if you’re interested in more use of/support for Colman Pool, there are two ways to show it:

-Send e-mail that goes to the entire council, council@seattle.gov
-Show up at the next major public hearing on the budget, 5:30 pm Tuesday, October 23, at City Hall downtown

For the request to move forward, Herbold’s staff told the swimmers, they need at least two other councilmembers to sign on as co-sponsors by the day after that hearing, October 24th.

(WSB photo: Admiral Way Viewpoint, May 2018)

Back in May, when reader questions led us to ask Seattle Parks about the almost-viewlessness of some viewpoints like Admiral Way, they told us they were “pausing any view trimming while we review and update our viewpoint and tree trimming policies.” That process is happening now, and the city’s advisory Board of Park Commissioners got a briefing at its meeting this past week:

It’s the last big topic of the meeting, 1 hour and 33 minutes into the video (which you also can watch on the Seattle Channel website if the embedded version above doesn’t work for you). The briefing was presented by Parks’ Kathy Nyland and Jon Jainga, who brought along this document explaining where things are at:

They explained that a Viewpoint Advisory Team has been convened and has already met twice. It’s focusing on the 16 officially designated-by-the-city viewpoints (five of which are in West Seattle – Admiral Way [Belvedere], Charles Richey, Emma Schmitz, Hamilton, Rotary), though a fair amount of discussion at the meeting kept sidetracking to issues such as how to get other parks treated as viewpoints. But Parks can barely take care of what they already have: “We’ve got a maintenance problem and a capacity problem,” said Nyland. She and Jainga explained that not only does Parks have too few maintenance crew members for the 280,000 trees in the system, the work at some steeply sloped parks is too dangerous and requires hiring specially trained tree experts. Plus, they added, rules and practices have changed, and even if they had enough staff, they couldn’t do some of what used to be OK for maintaining views (tree-topping was mentioned). So they’re talking about what they can do, and where. Maybe figure out ways to have environmentally sustainable and not-labor-intensive landscaping in some areas, Jainga suggested, noting that Seattle is now a Bee City and a Bird City, among other things.

Interim Parks Superintendent Christopher Williams elaborated on the cost issue, saying Parks has to make decisions such as, maintain viewpoints or maintain ballfields? Money also factors into those considerations, he said, because organizations pay to use fields, while “views are free.”

The briefing document says Parks is considering using four viewpoints as “pilot” sites to try out whatever they come up with, adding, “This will allow us to ‘course correct’ as necessary before implementation across all designations.” The proposed “pilot” list includes Admiral Way and Hamilton Viewpoints.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Viewpoint Advisory Team is meeting again on October 10th and 24th (6 pm at Parks HQ downtown, open to the public) and after that is expected to return to the Parks Board with a final report and recommendations.