Buying the next park on Capitol Hill: Federal and Republican Acquisition

As you may know, the Parks Dept. has been working to acquire the empty lot at Federal and Republican in order develop it as a park. The site is near Lowell Elementary and has been empty for at least two years - it was cleared in expectation of a townhouse development that never occurred. The acquisition of Federal and Republican by Parks Dept. will go forward as long as it is approved by the City Council. The bill for the proposed acquisition will go to a vote in the full City Council session on Monday, March 29 at 2 p.m (you can see the meeting agenda here).

The Open Space Committee of the Capitol Hill Community Council/Unpaving Paradise supports the acquisition of this site for the following reasons:

• The site is at a good location on a quiet residential street that is near the main thoroughfare of Broadway Ave. E.
• The site is 12,000 sq.ft., larger even than the 9,600 sq.ft. park and P-Patch to be at John and Summit.
  
• This acquisition will help fill a need for open space in the Capitol Hill Urban Village area (see Gaps in Usable Public Space - Capitol Hill map).
• The site is flat, accessible, with good sun exposure, and is located where there are “eyes on the park” in order to discourage inappropriate activities.

We encourage community members to either attend the City Council meeting on Monday to give public comment or send emails encouraging City Council to pass this measure and authorize the purchase of the land at Federal and Republican. Public comment will take place during the first 15 minutes of the City Council meeting; you may want to come early in order to sign up for 2 minute slot to speak.

Emails for the Seattle City Council:

sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov
tim.burgess@seattle.gov
sally.clark@seattle.gov
richard.conlin@seattle.gov
jean.godden@seattle.gov
bruce.harrell@seattle.gov
nick.licata@seattle.gov
mike.obrien@seattle.gov
tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov

John & Summit Update: Bidding is open and Diamond Parking Lot is closed!

Two notes of note from the Parks Dept. concerning John and Summit Park:

From Kelly Davidson, our John and Summit Project Manager

Bids opened yesterday for John & Summit. We received nine bids, four of them where below the engineer’s estimate with all additives. This means that we will award all additives; sidewalk repair, ROW planting and retaining walls for the p-patch area.

We are working with DEA to determine that the current low bidder meets all of the qualifications necessary to initiate the contract. Once that is complete we will move forward with the contract and narrow in on a Notice to Proceed Date.

I’ll provide updates as I have them. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

~ Kelly Davidson (kelly.davidson(at)seattle.gov)

From Joelle Hammerstad, Parks Dept. Communications:

Seattle Parks and Recreation will permanently close the parking lot at 200 Summit Ave E. on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 3 p.m.

Parks purchased this .21 acre property in 2007 with funding from the Pro Parks Levy and is happy to announce that construction is moving forward for this new park on the western slope of Capitol Hill.

The park project develops the existing parking lot into a park that includes a terraced walkway and P-Patch gardens.

Click here for the website with details of the park development project.

~ Joelle Hammerstad (joelle.hammerstad(at)seattle.gov)