Parkways Seattle Parks and Recreation

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the Wedgwood community to review the schematic design and provide input for a new park located at 8605 35th Ave. NE. in northeast Seattle. Please join SPR staff and the design consultant, Studio 41, on Saturday, June 29, 2019 from 10 a.m. to noon at the park site, 8605 35th Ave. NE. This Open House is an opportunity for the community to review the design and learn about the construction timeline. Additionally, this Open House will serve as the kick-off for the naming process for the site.

After working closely with the community to identify possible new park locations in the Wedgwood neighborhood, SPR purchased the .33-acre site at 8605 35th Ave. NE in 2014 to provide the neighborhood access to more open space in this urban area. SPR has hosted two community meetings and input received from the meetings has been incorporated into the schematic design. Funding for this park project is provided by the Seattle Park District.

Please submit suggestions for park names in writing by Thursday, September 12, 2019, and include an explanation of how your suggestion matches the naming criteria. The Park Naming Policy, clarifying the criteria applied when naming a park, can be found at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/Publications/namingPolicy.htm. Please send name suggestions to Seattle Parks and Recreation, Parks Naming Committee, 100 Dexter Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109, or by e-mail to paula.hoff@seattle.gov.The Parks Naming Committee will consider all suggestions and make a recommendation to Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Jesús Aguirre, who will make the final decision.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/wedgwood-landbanked-site-park-development. For additional questions about the project or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact Colin Campbell, colin.campbell@seattle.gov or 206-256-5604. Thank you Café Javasti for their support of this Open House and to the Wedgwood Community Council for their partnership with outreach for the project.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to Dragon Fest 2019 at Hing Hay Park on Saturday, June 29, 2019. Please visit our current concierge booth between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. to learn about the future Hing Hay Park Concierge Station and Single Use Restroom project. Hing Hay Park is located at 423 Maynard Ave. S, in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

SPR is moving forward with the planning, design and construction of this project that will be an added public benefit to the newly expanded Hing Hay Park in Seattle’s Chinatown International District. The new restroom will be located in the northeast area of the park in the basement of the Bush Hotel.

The SPR restroom will be designed with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles and constructed to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. The project will utilize SPR’s standard fixtures and finishes. The single use restroom will be available to the public when a concierge is present at the park and SPR will be responsible for the maintenance and cleaning of the facility.

For more information about Dragon Fest visit http://cidbia.org/events/dragonfest/.

For more information about the project please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/hing-hay-park For additional questions or if you need an interpreter or accommodations please contact CJ de Leon at CJ.deLeon@seattle.gov or 206-684-8568.

On May 29, 2019, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) finalized the acquisition of Lake Washington waterfront property, 13000 Riviera Place NE, in northeast Seattle. This site had been a public small street-end beach property used by the community as a public park and access to Lake Washington since the early 1900’s.

In 2013 in became clear that the land was not in fact publicly owned. 

Neighboring community members rallied the City to help restore public access to this waterfront property. In 2015, the City Council authorized the acquisition. The City initiated a condemnation process in 2016, and a settlement was reached. SPR finalized the purchase of this property last month. The property totals 13,736 sq. ft, mostly water, with a small shoreline area of 3,653 sq. ft. 

“Our City’s waterfront parks are the gems of the Seattle park system. This acquisition will produce many benefits for the surrounding neighborhood and every District 5 resident who enjoys recreation on Lake Washington. I am grateful to both Seattle Parks and Recreation and the City Attorney’s office for all the hard work that went into restoring public access to this space,” said Councilmember Debora Juarez.

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said, “As the weather heats up, the North Seattle public will have new access to the cool waters of Lake Washington. I’m proud of the dogged work of Assistant City Attorney Charles Gussow on my team and our Parks and Recreation Department to secure an agreement to further open our shorelines to the community.”

“We are thrilled to add this small beach into our city’s park system. Access to the natural environment and waterfront provides incredible health, mental health, and community benefits to our residents,” said Jesús Aguirre, Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent. 

This small beach is accessible by foot or by bike, and is most easily reached by the Burke Gilman Trail.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to participate in the design of the Morgan Junction Park expansion. Please join us at the Morgan Junction Community Festival on Saturday, June 22, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Community involvement is essential in developing the new open space at 6311 California Ave. SW, adjacent to Morgan Junction Park. SPR purchased this .28-acre space in 2014 to provide the community access to open space within this high-density urban area. Please stop by our booth and provide feedback.

The design firm, Board & Vellum, has been hard at work incorporating your input from the first open house and online survey into the development of three concept designs. We will present the three design options at the festival. The design of the park will incorporate accessibility features in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and low-impact, passive recreation features with impervious surface of the park site limited to 15% or less to minimize the effect of water run-off.

Following community input from this open house and another survey, we will develop and present a preliminary preferred design at a third community meeting which is yet to be scheduled.

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 please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/morgan-junction-park-addition. For questions about the project please contact Ed Pottharst at 206-386-4232 or Ed.pottharst@seattle.gov.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) and Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) invite the Maple Leaf community to an Open House at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, 1020 NE 82nd St., Seattle, WA 98115 on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. We will have a tent and table near the north entrance of the park, just south of the intersection of NE 88th St. and 12th Ave. NE. Please join us to discuss what you value in terms of the north park entrance and what enhancements could be made to improve the connection between the Neighborhood Greenway and the park. 

SDOT Neighborhood Greenways program creates corridors through residential streets with traffic calming measures designed to give bicycle and pedestrian travel priority. Neighborhood Greenways provide people of all ages and abilities with comfortable and attractive places to walk and ride.  

With funding from the Seattle Park District, SPR is collaborating with SDOT to connect, enhance and activate links from SDOT Neighborhood Greenways to parks by improving access and amenities for pedestrians and bicycles. For more information about the event please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/greenways-initiative or contact Mike Schwindeller at mike.schwindeller@seattle.gov or 206-615-1165.                

During SDOT’s public process for this new Neighborhood Greenway, which is scheduled for construction in 2020, the community identified a critical connection between Maple Leaf Reservoir Park and the future SDOT Neighborhood Greenway at NE 88th St. and 12th Ave. NE. (See the selected route map below). We are collaborating across the city to improve connections to parks and look forward to working with the community and SDOT to enhance the connection between Maple Leaf Reservoir Park and the Northgate Neighborhood Greenway.   

For more information about the event please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/greenways-initiative or contact Mike Schwindeller at mike.schwindeller@seattle.gov or 206-615-1165.         

Seattle Parks and Recreation(SPR) is excited to celebrate the opening of Alice Ball Park with the community. Please join us on Friday, June 14, 2019 from 6 to 8 p.m. at 8100 Greenwood Ave. N for a free community event and official ribbon cutting at 6:15 p.m. Alice Ball Park is the first of 14 new park sites being developed by SPR in urban neighborhoods around the city. The event includes music by Kenny Mandell duo, food from Valhalla Sandwiches, and crafts from Seattle Re-Creative. The Seattle Public Library is partnering with SPR on the event. Please stop by the Greenwood branch library and participate in making the community ribbon, a paper chain that will be used at the event. The event is held in conjunction with Art Up PhinneyWood.

“This new park offers valuable green and open space in the Greenwood/Phinney neighborhood and creates a great new gathering space for the community to enjoy,” said Jesús Aguirre, Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent. “Seattle Parks and Recreation is pleased to honor the legacy of Alice Ball with this new park, which is the first of 14 landbank sites across the city being developed into new parks.”

Cascade Design Collaborative, the community, and SPR worked together on the park design. The park features a large central open lawn, natural discovery and digging area, a reading nook, a plaza area with café furniture, a pervious concrete loop pathway and many new trees and plantings. Through the design process, SPR collaborated with SDOT to provide a raised crosswalk connecting the library to the park, allowing for one singular sidewalk that brings pedestrian flow off the street and into the park open space. The raised crosswalk features a book and leaf design voted on by the community. Reasonable public construction bids allowed for inclusion of the pedestrian lighting additive for the project advocated for by the community and Seattle’s Design Commission.

Alice Ball Park is named in honor of Alice Ball, an African American chemist who earned two degrees from the University of Washington School of Pharmacy in 1912 (pharmaceutical chemistry) and 1914 (pharmacy). She was born in Seattle in 1892. Ball became the first African-American woman to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii. She developed an injectable oil extract that was the most effective treatment for leprosy during the early 20th century.

SPR purchased the two property sites between N. 81st and N. 82nd on the east side of Greenwood to develop a park (the mini-mart site purchased in November 2012 and the pub property immediately north purchased in July 2015).

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, please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/greenwood-phinney-park-development. If you have questions about the event, please contact Karen O’Connor at karen.o’connor@seattle.gov or 206-233-7929. The Friends of Alice Ball Park worked with the design team throughout the process and will continue to work with the community to activate the park. To stay up to date on park events visit https://www.facebook.com/greenwoodlibrarypark/.

For more information about our community partners visit Art Up Phinneywood https://artupphinneywood.com/. For other activities and information about the Greenwood Branch library visit https://www.spl.org/hours-and-locations/greenwood-branch.  More information about Seattle ReCreative can be found here www.seattlerecreative.org.

Play area, tennis courts and north lawn remain open

Seattle Parks and Recreation(SPR) begins construction for the Brighton Playfield Renovation project, 6000 39th Ave. S, just north of Aki Kurose Middle School in mid-June 2019. SPR will replace the existing lighted natural turf playfield with a new lighted and renovated multi-sport, all season 200,000 sq. ft. synthetic turf field. The new field will use an alternative infill material, and LED lighting. It will accommodate baseball, softball, soccer, Ultimate Frisbee and football. The renovation will provide new/upgraded accessible pathways, spectator areas, and better connections to the existing park features. Additionally, outdoor adult exercise equipment will be installed near the play area and the restroom/comfort station will be renovated to meet Americans with Disabilities (ADA) standards.

During the design phase, we identified the opportunity to improve Seattle Public Utilities(SPU) drainage and wastewater sewer assets located in the project area. SPR and SPU are working together to incorporate SPU’s sewer mainline repairs into the Brighton Playfield Renovation Contract to improve City efficiency and minimize construction impacts. For this project, SPU will repair eight (8) sewer mainlines using cure-in-place-pipe (CIPP) lining technology. Implementing these repairs to existing sewer mainline pipes reduces the need for more costly future repairs and will help ensure reliable sewer service in this area. Affected residents will be notified prior to construction for site specific impacts and instructions. More information can be found here: www.seattle.gov/utilities/environment-and-conservation/projects/sewer-repair/.

Construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of the year with the field opening in early 2020. During construction the play area, tennis courts, basketball courts, north lawn and volleyball area will remain open. SPR and the contractor hired for the project will work to minimize impacts to the neighborhood and school.

Brighton Playfield is covered by the City’s Priority Hire program, which requires that contractors hire individuals living in economically distressed communities in Seattle and King County to work 32% of the project hours. Priority Hire creates equitable access to construction training and living-wage employment through worker development and public works investments. For more information on the Priority Hire program, go to www.seattle.gov/priorityhire.

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.

To see the plan and the area to be fenced off during construction please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/brighton-playfield-renovation or for more information please contact Jay Rood at jay.rood@seattle.gov or 206-733-9194.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to a fun time in the park at Lakeridge Playfield and Playground on Saturday, June 8 from noon to 2 p.m. Please join us and provide input on the upcoming renovation project. This is an opportunity for the community to learn about the project and provide input on play equipment and other improvements for the park.

This project includes new play equipment, new ballfield grass turf, irrigation and drainage renovation, courts resurfacing, retaining wall replacement study, and access improvements to meet Americans with Disabilities (ADA) standards.

The goal of the event is to gather community input and provide the community an enjoyable time at the park with food, an inflatable slide and soccer fun led by Rainier Beach High School soccer team. Lakeridge Playground, 10145 Rainier Ave S. 98178, is in southeast Seattle just south of Pulcinella Pizzeria.

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 please visit http://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/lakeridge-playground-improvements or contact Libby Hudson at Libby.hudson@seattle.gov or 206-256-5988.

Seattle Parks and Recreation is making needed improvements to the Amy Yee Tennis Center. The facility will close from June through November 2019 for maintenance improvements. During this time period, Amy Yee Tennis Center (AYTC) will continue to provide lessons at the outdoor courts. Outdoor court reservations for all the City courts will not be affected. Court reservations can be made at tenniscourtscheduling@seattle.gov or 206-684-4764.

The AYTC facility improvements include installation of a new fire alarm system, accessibility improvements to meet the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), a new raingarden/stormwater facility to treat parking lot runoff and remodeled fully accessible toilet and locker rooms. Additional work includes exterior painting as well as parking and entrance plaza accessibility improvements. Several bid additives have been accepted that include upgrades to the parking lot lighting, addressing the foundation leak at the east wall and insulation to all exterior building walls.

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. The additional bid additive for building wall insulation was funded in part by the Seattle Office of Sustainability and the Environment and their Municipal Energy Efficiency Program.

For more information please visit www.seattle.gov/parks/find/centers/amy-yee-tennis-center. For questions about the project please contact Mike Schwindeller at mike.schwindeller@seattle.gov or 206-615-1165. Each year the AYTC offers classes and flights for players of all ages and levels. For questions about AYTC, court reservations and lessons please visit www.seattle.gov/parks/find/centers/amy-yee-tennis-center or contact Matt Look at Matthew.look@seattle.gov.

Community invited to visit booth at Beacon Hill Festival

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) invites the community to visit our booth at the Beacon Hill Festival on Saturday, June 1, 2019 to learn about and comment on the upcoming renovation project at Jefferson Community Center.

This is an opportunity for the community to learn about the project that will improve access to the community center, update the kitchen and restrooms, and upgrade building systems so that the center can continue to serve Beacon Hill. SPR staff and the design team from Rolluda Architects will be available to explain the project and answer questions.

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 please visit https://www.seattle.gov/parks/about-us/current-projects/community-center-stabilization-overview/jefferson-community-center-stabilization or contact Oliver Bazinet at Oliver.bazinet@seattle.gov or 206-386-1959.