Seattle City Council Public Assets and Native Communities Committee 8/3/21

We are recording.

Great.

Thank you.

So hold on a minute.

I'm going to do a call to order.

Good afternoon.

This is a meeting of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee meeting.

The date is August 3rd.

The time is 2.03.

I'm Council Member Deborah Juarez, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You have a quorum, correct?

Yes.

OK.

Thank you all for being here today.

I know you had a long morning and afternoon.

So thank you for being here.

I really appreciate it.

So approval of the agenda, since there is no if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Let's move on to the chair's report.

This is a brief overview of today's agenda items.

There are four items on today's agenda.

The first item will be, Nageen's word, not mine, but hopefully an exciting presentation by Seattle Kraken CEO Todd Lewicki on the climate pledge arena.

I understand we have a 23 page PowerPoint that we're going to go through.

The second item is a bill from SDOT that would finalize the arena term permit for the Thomas Street Tunnel.

If you remember, that's an underground tunnel used for trucking and commercial use for the Climate Pledge Arena.

Item number three is a bill that would authorize Seattle Parks and Recreation to purchase one acre of land adjacent to the Duwamish Waterway Park.

for a price under 3.9 million.

And as I've shared before, Seattle Parks and Rec owns the adjacent land, and this is another opportunity to expand the park base for the community in which Seattle Parks will work with OPCD to see what the community's needs are and what they would like to see done with that area.

Item four is a bill that would authorize Seattle Parks and Recreation for purchase of 0.3 acres of land identified in the North Rainier Urban Village for a price a little under $2 million.

And again, this is a continuation of growing green and park space in the North Rainier Urban Village.

And with that, we will go to public comment.

I will say a few words, and then I'm going to hand it off to our clerk, Nagin Kamkar.

At this time, we will open the remote public comment period.

It remains the strong intent of the Seattle Council to have public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, we reserve the right to end or eliminate this public comment period at any point if we deem that this system is being abused or is unsuitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and in a manner in which we're able to conduct our necessary business.

I will moderate the general public comment period in the following manner.

The public comment period for this meeting is up to eight minutes and perhaps more.

And each speaker will be given two minutes.

Nagin, how many people do we have signed up for public comment?

Council member, no one has signed up for public comment.

OK, we will still give the instructions.

Some people call in late and then we'll officially open it and we'll officially close it.

So at this point, Nagin, you want to go ahead and do the instructions for public comment.

Sure, so I as a clerk will call on two speakers at a time and in the order in which registered on the online sign up list.

If you have not yet registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of this public comment period by going to the council's website at seattle.gov slash council.

The public comment link is also listed on today's committee agenda.

Once the speaker's name is called, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of, you have been unmuted, will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak.

The speaker must also touch star six on their phone to unmute themselves after their name is called.

Please begin speaking by stating your name and the item that you are addressing on today's agenda.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

Once you hear the chime, We ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.

The speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided.

The speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Council Member, we still do not have anyone signed up.

Would you like to close?

Yes, thank you.

So we open public comment.

We don't have anyone signed up for the four matters in front of us today, so I will officially close the public comment period now.

Let's go to items of business.

First up, we have the Climate Pledge Arena construction update.

Nagin, can you please read item number one into the record?

We have a presentation by CEO Seattle Kraken for a Climate Pledge Arena construction update.

Thank you.

I'd like to invite the CEO of the Seattle Kraken to introduce yourself for the record and anyone else that you may have brought with you, sir.

Well, I am Todd Lewicki, and I am the CEO of the Seattle Kraken.

I'm pleased to be here today.

Great.

I understand, Mr. Lewicki, you have a presentation for us, and we got a copy.

Thank you very much.

And I believe our clerk's going to walk us through the PowerPoint, and you're going to narrate for us.

I am, and I'll just prompt this forward when I'm done.

But what we wanted to do is present today a construction update.

It's been an amazing journey.

Our city council showed a lot of courage in saying we can make this work some four years ago.

And I'm here to tell you today that we are making it work, and we're on the last steps of turning this arena into one of the most beautiful arenas in the world.

So allow me to go through my pages here, and then I am more than pleased to answer any questions.

There's 23 pages, but I'll be very respectful of time and try to move through this with pace.

This is one group, we can go to the first slide, that we don't really have to remind folks as to what state this arena was in.

It was in a state of decline.

You could see, this is a shot looking at the south side of the building.

The building was dysfunctional for concerts.

That little hole there on the side of the building is how trucks got in and out.

There were only two trucks that could load in at any given time.

And there were significant challenges.

But at its core, this was a landmark.

And for very good reasons, as the next slide sort of shows.

This building, if we can move to the next slide, went through various iterations.

In 1962, it was, it came to life as the Washington State Coliseum.

And it was really, it was an architect named Paul Thiry who designed the building.

It was a part of a competition to design it.

And the roof of the building was spectacular in that it replicated a Native American rain hat.

It served this community so well for many years.

It brought the NBA here.

It brought concerts.

But then, because of economics of leagues and other things, it felt like it was obsolete.

And in 1995, it went through a renovation.

And by most measures, the renovation didn't work.

It was only seven years after that renovation that it started to be discussed that the team needed a new arena.

So if you really look at this, what I call the Rubish Cube, this community struggled with having a first class arena for decades.

And it was through the courage of the city council and revisiting once again to see if there would be bidders, that bidders did step up, and that was in 2017. And Oak View Group, and I'm proud that Oak View Group was led by my brother Tim, put forward a really bold plan of not only holding that roof and maintaining this historic landmark, but building a brand new roof underneath.

We still hear today of people calling this a renovation, but it's not a renovation.

It's a spectacular new arena that's being built under the roof.

As the next slide shows, these renderings have now come true.

That which you saw on the south side of the building is now gone.

We have an incredible loading dock, which has now been pushed underground, 500 parking stalls.

And one of the things I love about this building is not just the grand plazas, but the impact that the building has on Seattle Center, the impact that we're going to have on one of our great city's treasures, this beautiful park.

And sometimes the renderings don't quite hold true to what's happening, but this is a pretty good depiction of what's actually happened.

You see the south end.

The only piece really added onto the building was a grand atrium, which creates circulation into the building.

You see where there was once that parking lot has now become part of the grand plaza, and the building's really quite spectacular.

I believe that this is the world's most beautiful arena, and we can justify that in many different ways, but I'll show you.

The next slide is actually an interior shot of the arena.

These were renderings, but these renderings have now come true.

Those stands are now going to be filled.

The response in the community has been spectacular.

The idea of two scoreboards, where we wouldn't have a jumbo scoreboard in the middle bifurcating the arena, but two scoreboards pushed to the end, fantastic.

They're actually on the floor being constructed, and I'm gonna show you a picture of that in a moment.

One of my favorite parts of the building is the reappearance of the glass on both ends of the building, but we're looking north here.

the design, but in the 95 renovation, it disappeared.

It's the seating bowl was placed in front of the glass.

It now reappears, and it's one of the great parts of this building.

When people walk in, they'll walk in from that upper concourse, and it's literally four stories down.

And part of what happened is we didn't get greedy with suites.

We didn't put in two additional levels of premium seating.

We kept this bowl tight and intimate.

And that's not only what the fans want, It's what the players want.

It's what the artists want.

This is one of the most intimate seating bowls of any arena in the world.

And I'm going to show you additional pictures.

But what you're seeing above the bowl is an acoustical treatment that will make this concert hall perfect.

So this dream that we showed you some three and a half years ago has actually come true and allowed me to show you some additional slides here of actual current conditions.

So the day the building opens, we'll open in a park.

Trees were preserved.

And one of the greatest assets of the building is it connects to this beautiful park and it connects again.

People in the upper deck will walk in, their seats will be 12 rows above them, but this is what they'll walk out to, this incredible park.

And I couldn't be more proud of the name on the building and what it stands for.

We didn't put a corporate name on the building.

We crafted a partnership with our, with Amazon to make this the first zero carbon arena in the world.

And that's easier said than done.

We eliminated all fossil fuels.

We had to change the way we cooked in the building.

All the way to the ice that the players will skate on will be rainwater collected from this very roof.

We're so proud, and this is now creating a trend.

In the second year of our operation, there'll be no single-use plastic in the building.

And at the end of every year, we will certify to a not-for-profit agency that we're indeed a zero-carbon facility building.

On the front end of the building are solar panels, and I'm gonna show you the Northgate project here in a moment.

The Northgate project's one of the largest solar installations in the entire state.

This name on this building gave us incredible, incredible mission.

And in fact, our first event will be a global event to honor sustainability.

And Seattle once again takes its rightful place as the center of sustainability on a global basis, and we couldn't be more proud The next slides show how the building's really coming along.

Here's the front atrium, the Alaska Airlines atrium.

The picture on the right is actually one of four snorkels.

HVAC couldn't be connected to this beautiful roof or punch through, so we created four distinct snorkels on the exterior of the building, which also act as ingress and egress opportunities for our fans.

I love this picture on the bottom because where there was dirt and lots of construction, it's now being cleaned up.

Floors are being polished, and we're getting ready for the opening of the building, which will happen in mid-October.

The next slide shows some interior spaces that are being done.

The picture on the top left there is our Mount Baker Club, a really cool, hip, young, vibrant area that faces the concert stage.

On the right is one of our suites, and that center picture is our locker room.

Next slide show the interior of the bowl.

There are twin scoreboards.

We're so excited by those and what they represent.

Um, you know, scoreboards weren't needed for the people with centralized seats or center court seats.

They were needed for the people on the ends, and that's what this delivers.

The image on the upper right there shows the acoustical treatment.

The building will be concert perfect because of millions of dollars spent on a baffling system.

not just on the roof, but throughout the entire building.

And what you're seeing there in the middle is the press box acoustical treatment.

The building seats 17,000 for hockey, 18,000 for storm basketball, and up to 19,000 for concerts.

And let me just report, if we could go back just one page, I'll give a brief report on Our hockey team, and I'm gonna talk about it in a moment, is poised to play in here, and the fans have reacted so well, but the concert side of this business is something else that was pledged to the city council four years ago, and that dream is coming true.

We believe that our first year of operations will have 70 concerts that will play in this building, giving every man, woman, and child in this community a reason to come into this building.

music of the entire spectrum, and artists from all over the world who will want to play here.

And we're already seeing an amazing reception.

And, you know, sustainability has been a concern.

Billie Eilish is one of the artists that we will proudly host in this building.

She stopped touring because of concerns about the impact that big events like this had on our world and the climate.

And so she's thrilled to be coming here, as are so many other artists.

And we've got an opening week planned.

Without revealing the specific details, our first event will be a private concert to honor the men and women who built this arena.

Through COVID, through thick and thin, the men and women of the trades have built the most beautiful arena in the world.

And the first event will be here to honor them.

On Friday night, we'll open up with a global concert broadcast throughout the globe by Amazon that will focus on sustainability with a world-renowned musical artist group.

And then that Saturday night will be the inaugural game for the Seattle Kraken.

A part of when we took on the next slide's address, which is transportation, We've worked really hard to be good neighbors, and I'm so proud we've had no litigation on this project.

We didn't have one challenge on the EIS, and we haven't had one legal challenge throughout this whole process.

A lot of pundits said it wasn't possible to build a project like this in a neighborhood and not have challenges.

But we've tried to build in a super responsible way.

We care a lot about transportation.

One of the things we've done, which no team has ever done, is we've embedded an Orca Pass in all of our tickets.

So when you buy a Kraken ticket, you literally have an Orca Pass on your device.

People will come, we hope, using public transportation.

But a significant issue for us has been the monorail, a system that was still largely a tourist attraction.

that didn't even accept the Orca Pass.

The next page shows you what we're doing with the monorail.

We entered partnership with Tom Albro.

We were able to go to the city and gain an extension on the concession based upon the fact that we would take the Orca Pass and we would invest dollars to revitalize the Westlake Station, and that's the rendering of the Westlake Station.

Modern and the basement of the station is where Sound Transit arrives.

And this last mile is such an important part of our transit plans.

It opens up not only thousands of parking stalls in Midtown, but also connects us to our transit system, which, by the way, when it's open, east to west will be as large as Washington, D.C.' 's metro system.

But that's not the only thing we're doing on transit.

All the way from this monorail plan to today, we purchased 20 pedicabs and everything in between.

We've taken transportation serious, not just because it's important to the economics of the building, but it's important to our fans.

We're very proud of what we've done here.

The other piece that we want to update this group on is the work we've done to build a training center in the city.

The city of Seattle did not have one sheet of ice.

And if we were serious about bringing a professional hockey team here, we felt it was important that we also create a home for ice sports in the city of Seattle.

We didn't want to build a training center in some distant suburb or in a business park.

We very much wanted to build a training center in the city that was accessible, that where we can encourage diversity and inclusion into the game of hockey.

And that's exactly what we've done is the next slides will show we can go to the next slide.

And here's some simple facts.

We're building about 170,000 square foot facility will actually draw more people to this facility than we will.

Our games are games are sold out.

We're programmed for 20,000 hours of programming everything from curling to figure skating to hockey to recreational skating.

We're going to have an incredible bar and grill that will honor the game and the sport.

It will be home of hockey in Seattle and home for the Kraken.

I'm going to share with this group something that's recently happened.

We're in final discussions with the women's U.S.

Olympic team about making this their home before they head to the Olympics.

The dream is coming true, and we're so proud.

We hope that future Kraken players will train on this ice.

We also hope that future young men and women who want to participate in figure skating and be in the Olympics will train here.

And this was a big bet that our owners made, but I'm super proud of how this is developing, as the next slides will show you.

We're proud of our partnership with Starbucks.

They didn't put their name on it, but they put their muscle behind it because they loved our story about diversity and inclusion.

This will be a place where kids will come never thinking that they could play hockey because of the barriers or the perceived barriers.

And this will be their home to take those first steps on the ice.

The Kraken Community Iceplex is supported by Starbucks.

And in fact, we're going to have a Starbucks community store 100% of the net proceeds from that store will go back to community enrichment, including giving kids a chance to play the game and to figure skate and do other things here.

Those are renderings of the exterior of the building.

It'll be a Virginia Mason community medical clinic.

It'll serve our players, but it will also serve the community.

The next slide show, uh, terrific exterior work.

This is a beautiful facility on the interior, but it's also a remarkable facility on the exterior, capable of being a centerpiece of a redevelopment of the Northgate Mall, and we're super excited by that.

And then this last slide starts to show these last couple of slides.

That's our 32-bar grill.

You see the lobby here on the upper right, and then rank one, which we're so proud of 1000 seats.

Every one of our team practices will be open to the public and free accessibility right on the north, right on the north gate, live rail line and free parking.

Next slide shows some additional shots.

The exterior, by the way, that's my shadow taking this picture.

That's the front entryway.

That's our lobby.

You go to the next slides, more shots of the exterior, shots of the interior.

These are rails that look in on the rink.

And then the last slide is our beautiful rink one.

There's the thousand seats, a beautiful video board.

Our team offices are up on the right here, 200 people moving up to Northgate.

And then the team training facilities are just beneath that.

spectacular training facilities, and we had the chance to take six of our players through during expansion draft.

And they told all their friends that Seattle was now the place to play.

We're really excited by it.

So let me tell you a little bit about the team, and we can go right to the first slide.

We can go to the next slide.

About a week and a half ago, we unveiled our team to the world at an event at Gasworks Park.

the perfect place not only to unveil our team, but to tell a positive story about our city.

It was broadcast on ESPN and there were a million viewers of this hour and a half broadcast.

And we didn't just introduce our team and share our vision.

We told the story of Seattle and what a beautiful city this was.

We shot images around the city.

Our friends with the storm and Sue Bird introduced the player.

And let me just pause and say this building is not only home to the Seattle Kraken, we have a fantastic relationship with the Seattle Storm.

And soon, the NBA will be coming back to Seattle, and this building will be the perfect home.

But first up is our hockey team.

So proud to have pulled our team together.

Only time will tell as to how we've done, but I think we're going to have a very fine team wearing this mark and S proudly across their chest.

Camp will begin in early September.

Our first preseason games will be played around the state.

One in Kent, one in Everett, one in Spokane as a benefit to youth hockey and giving back to those communities.

And we're super excited about the team and the team that's going to take the ice.

A few more things that we just want to share.

Early on, we made a serious commitment to diversity and inclusion.

I've been in this business for 30 years and there's just not been a front office that truly represents like we are going to represent.

I'm very proud to report that 45% of our front office staff represent gender diversity and 25% of our staff represent diversity and inclusion.

Radio Play by Play is the first African American to call games in the history of the league.

Our television team features a color analyst who was the first African American to do color on a local broadcast and we're truly pioneering with our team and couldn't be more excited.

Community engagement is why I came back to lead this project.

I'm a community activist.

I'm proud of what we've already done.

but we're gonna be active every event, every game, every day.

And then I've talked a lot about our commitment to sustainability here.

I'm proud to answer any questions you have.

I will say this on sustainability.

One of the features of the arena are two signature walls on the main concourse that will tell the story of the Climate Pledge.

But one wall will tell the story of the Climate Pledge.

The other wall will be one of the largest green walls And in fact, will be the only arena in the world that I know of that will have a full-time horticulturist on the staff to maintain that beautiful wall.

And they will talk about sustainability in a inspired sort of way.

And that's really the opportunity of the building.

I moved through that quickly.

We're going to get this off to an incredible start, but then the dreams begin.

a chance for the storm to play in the building.

They won two championships since they were out of the building, and now they get to call this beautiful home, their building.

And I think we're gonna change the WNBA because of the storm playing in the building and their economics.

And then trust me, the NBA is watching what's happened here.

They're studying this arena.

They're watching the success that the Kraken have had, and they will come back to Seattle, and this will be their home.

And with that, Chairperson, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Before we get started, Mr. Lewicki, Todd, thank you.

I know this is, as you said, it's been four years in the making.

And I really wanna thank the Seattle City Council that started some of this legislation.

Council Member Herbold, Council Member Sawant were there in the beginning.

And certainly as we continue with our other council members, Council Member Mosqueda and Council Member Peterson.

Just very briefly though, I know we've had a lot of work with your office, not only on the Seattle Center, but the Kraken Community Iceplex up in D5.

But I just wanna thank you for the work that you did with light rail and working with Sound Transit, North Seattle College with Dr. Crawford.

I know that you hired a good friend of ours, former state representative, Mr. Pettigrew.

His work has been great working out, reaching out to us and the community engagement that you've done and the work that we did with the monorail and the ORCA card and working with Mr. Albro.

I mean, I don't think people realize behind the scenes, all the work that we've been doing to make sure that people get to the arena, that you're trying to look at the sustainability, not have a carbon footprint, bringing in the sponsors, but still being true to the nature of Seattle and maintaining the original roof, which people thought was very important.

And of course, accommodating and meeting and working with the Seattle Storm folks, we often meet with the owners And we're excited, as you know, WNBA, Seattle Storm, four-time national champions, and hopefully a fifth one will become.

And also looking at other teams, particularly the NBA in our city, our great city again.

And, you know, you've just been a great partner, you and your brother and all the other folks.

And I know that we've had, that's a testament to why, you know, we've had some, you know, we've had a lot of work.

not a lot of litigation, which I'm happy and I'm happy that we got through the EIS and the analysis that had to be done there.

And I know we have more neighborhood issues to tackle.

And you've also been good about pledging money to like youth care and other community groups.

And you did that early on.

And a lot of what you did, you did without us or me asking.

And I want to thank you for that.

You guys have been great partners.

And hopefully in the next couple of years before I leave, We can get a lot of this stuff done, and I'm really looking forward.

I'm guessing we are still on track for the opening in October for the hockey, and the opening for the iceplex will be opening at the same time as light rail at Northgate as well.

Yes.

Okay.

I'm going to ask my colleagues if any of them, anyone has any questions that they may want to ask Mr. Lewicki while we have him here.

Okay, looks like we don't have anything here.

And if you want to stand on any other note, we can say goodbye and thank you for your time for coming here, Todd.

I mean, I appreciate your words.

The pride in which we've done it, I hope is evident.

This is the city I love.

I believe this city's best days are in front of it.

And we're gonna do our part.

We wanna win games, but we do have ulterior motives.

I think this is a project that has the potential to really contribute to the well-being of the city, to lift people up at each and every event.

I tried to do that when I ran the Seahawks for close to eight years.

But this is a chance to do something from absolute scratch.

And we've done everything we've said, and we've done it with pride because of where we're doing it.

And I think the best is yet to come.

And I can't wait to take this group and others through the building as it finishes in October so that you can see the brilliant work of not just the architects and the engineers, but the men and women of the trades who actually built this place.

Yeah, I should have said that.

I actually had that in my notes.

I'm glad you brought that up again.

We did several tours at the Climate Pledge and at the IcePlex and you know, a real big shout out to the trade unions and all the folks that kept working throughout the pandemic.

Everything's been done through the pandemic.

And you guys kept things moving.

So I appreciate that.

Was there anyone?

Yeah, Council Member Herbold.

wanting to ask for a tour invitation sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Put that out there.

That'd be great.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

We have 1,200 men and women working on the project.

We're going to create thousands of jobs.

You know what?

In a world where there's so much acrimony, We've not felt it.

We felt community support.

The fans bought the tickets.

The men and women never faltered.

The men and women who built it, if you hear my voice quiver a little bit talking about it, it's the admiration.

Where most people went home and conducted affairs on Zoom calls, they didn't do it.

We paused.

We built the best that became industry standards.

But the men and women kept showing up, and today they're responsible for building the world's most beautiful arena.

Amen.

Hey, Councilor Herbold, when you come up to the iceplex at D5, I will, again, throw in a sweet, and I'll take you out to Let's Go.

Yeah.

I want to go there, too.

Oh, I see.

OK.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else?

OK.

I think we're done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lewicki.

We'll talk next time.

Thank you.

OK.

Bye-bye.

And I should add for my colleagues, we've been organizing tours at the Iceplex and Seattle Center.

So we remain here for anybody who wants to work with our office and working with their staff.

We've also had tribal communities and tribal leadership do the tours as well, which has been exciting.

I think three, four tribes have gone through and their tribal councils have gone through to see the Seattle Center and the Iceplex.

Okay.

Okay, so with that, let's move on to item number two.

This is the term permit for the Seattle Arena Company.

Negin, can you read that into the record?

Yep, and I'll go ahead and add a note for the record that we are joined by Council Member Mosqueda.

Agenda item two, Council Bill 120139, an ordinance granting Seattle Arena Company LLC permit to construct, maintain, and operate a tunnel under and across Thomas Street, east of 1st Avenue North, and west of Warren Avenue North, and install permanently tensioned tiebacks in portions of Thomas Street, east of 1st Avenue North, and west of 2nd Avenue North, for the life of the Climate Pledge Arena building lease, specifying the conditions under which this permit is granted, and providing for the acceptance of the permit and conditions.

This item is up for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Okay, well, before we get started, go ahead.

Why doesn't everybody introduce themselves for the record, and then I have a few words to say, and then I'll turn it over to you guys.

Lish Whitson, Council Central staff.

Amy Gray, Seattle Department of Transportation.

Marshall Foster, Office of Waterfront and City Projects.

Marshall, you didn't you didn't ring in quick enough, buddy.

If this is jeopardy, you would have lost.

So ready to go.

I'll be faster next time.

I just want to say this.

Thank you for the memo that you provided for us on this whole Thomas underground pedestrian tunnel.

And the reason why we had the presentation with Mr. Legwicky is kind of a primer of why we need to do this tunnel under Thomas.

to meet the commercial and trucking needs for the Climate Pledge Arena.

So thank you for the memo.

I really appreciate it.

I always appreciate your writing.

So thank you for that.

So who's going to lead us off here on where we're at on this before we actually go to discussion with our colleagues?

I think Amy has a presentation that'll tee you up well.

OK.

Go ahead, Amy.

Hi.

Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today.

If you want to maybe skip to the third slide, that gets to the meat of why we're here.

Council has previously conceptually approved the project through two resolutions adopted in 2018 and 2019. And we are here for the final step of granting the ordinance that will become the permit.

The term permit defines the roles and responsibilities between the arena company and the city.

And it establishes terms such as protecting utilities, removing restoration of the right-of-way if necessary, insurance, and inspection reports.

And another big piece of the term permit ordinance is because this is a city-owned facility and the partnership with Seattle Arena Company, we are not recommending an annual fee for this project.

So that's next slide, please.

Mr. Lewicki had a much better image to show of Thomas Street.

So the red mark notes the tunnel, the vehicular tunnel that provides access and loading to the floating facilities, et cetera.

And the yellow bar is the portion of Thomas where the permanently tensioned tiebacks will remain.

Next slide, please.

Term permits are a two-step process.

The first is the resolution that grants conceptual approval, and the second is the ordinance that becomes the actual permit that city council authorizes.

Seattle Arena Company has met the conditions specified in the two conceptual approvals with the resolution, and so we are here today seeking final approval for this permit.

And that's it.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Just let me just before you.

Oh, who else is going to speak to this?

I have a few follow up issues, but I want to hear if there's anything else from your team and then see if my colleagues have any questions, which I'm guessing some people will.

Is there anything else from your team?

No.

OK, colleagues, are there any questions that we have regarding Council Bill one, two, zero, one, three, nine, the term permit ordinance regarding this underground tunnel on Thomas Street?

Okay, seeing none, one quickly though.

So the term permit ordinance is for 15 years?

So this one is a little different.

We will have this permit ordinance in effect for the entirety of the ground lease that we have with Seattle Arena Company.

Which is 39 years?

Yes.

Okay.

And we are careful to make sure that those, what the terms and conditions of the previous agreements were reflected in the term permit ordinance.

Okay, so it's a one-time, it's 15-year term with a one-time for a total term of 30 years.

That's, Lish, did you wanna say something?

Yeah, if that's in my memo, I'm sorry, that's a standard.

This one, it's the term of the lease.

Oh, it's the whole term of the lease.

Yeah, the whole 39, okay.

I'm sorry, that was my confusion, I apologize.

Got it, okay.

So quickly, just very quickly, Lesha, in your memo, you listed out, and I went through this, not line by line of the whole legislation, but just the parts from your memo that I linked back to the actual ordinance, and I saw that SDOT was saying that there were six conditions that the arena company had, Seattle Arena Company met, that they met the first four conditions, and then the last two, items five and six, those are the ones that are tied to this council bill.

Correct.

OK, so I'm guessing my colleagues have a copy of that memo.

And also, it's also on the website for today's meeting.

So people want to go ahead and pull that up.

Is there anything else you want to add to that for the viewing public?

No, it's a pretty simple bill and built on actions the council has already made.

OK, great.

Yeah, we've been working on this one for a while.

So is this the last one that cleans it all up?

Is this the last one on the tunnel?

I believe so, for the time permit.

OK, great.

Are there any more questions or any comments from my colleagues?

OK, seeing none, I will go forward.

And it looks like we're ready for a vote.

I move the committee recommend Council pass Council Bill 120139. Is there a second?

Second.

The motion has been moved and seconded.

Any other comments or concerns?

Seeing none, no further discussion.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Council Member Mosqueda, you might be on mute.

I'll come back.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

And Council Member Mosqueda?

All right, Chair Juarez, that is four in favor, none opposed.

So sorry, Madam Clerk, aye.

Okay, great, thank you.

Five in favor, none opposed.

It passes.

Councilor Mosqueda, sure there's nothing you want to say?

You okay?

I guess we're okay.

We've got a sick kiddo on hand here.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you for bearing with me.

OK.

I won't tease you today.

All right.

OK.

Just not today.

The motion passes, and the committee will recommend council, city council, full city council, pass council bill 120139. And I believe it'll be on the calendar Monday, correct?

Yes.

Yes.

OK.

Good.

Thank you.

Let's move to item.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Oh, are you leaving too, Beverly?

Yes.

Oh, OK.

So let's move to item three in the wonderful district one, Council Member Herbold.

This is Council Bill 120141. This has to do with the parks acquisition in what's going on at the Duwamish.

And again, you want to read this into the record?

Agenda item three, Council Bill 120141, an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation, authorizing the acquisition of real property commonly known as one, 024 South Elm Grove Street, authorizing acceptance of a recording of the deed for open space, park, and recreation purposes, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

This bill is up for a briefing discussion and possible vote.

Okay, Jesus, you want to introduce yourself for the record and your team?

And I see we got, oh, I'll let everyone introduce themselves.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, council members.

Jesus Aguirre, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Good afternoon, Lise Ward, Seattle Parks, Senior Real Property Agent.

Tracy Ratz of Council Central Staff.

Okay, so is Nagin operating your PowerPoint?

I believe so.

Okay, good.

So we got the Duwamish Waterway Park acquisition in front of us.

I'll let you go ahead and take it away, Jesus.

Great, thank you.

And at least Ward on our team is here, can answer specific questions.

And of course, Tracy Radcliffe also is an expert on all things here, Parks and Recreation, so.

Yes, she is.

So as you said, Council Member, we're here seeking authority to purchase an additional parcel of property in the South Park neighborhood in District 1. The first slide shows the photo here.

In the photo to the left, you see a green space.

That's our current Duwamish Waterway Park.

The site in question is on the right in yellow with the buildings currently there.

And this is really for us a unique opportunity to continue to add parks and open space to our inventory in the park community.

And for several years now as Council knows.

the Department of Parks and Recreation and other departments have been working together with community to continue to support the Duwamish Valley Action Plan.

Part of that action plan, one of the strategies at least talks about, some of the strategies talk about parks and open space.

So we're excited to take advantage of this opportunity and continue to enhance the work of the various agencies as well as the community.

Next slide, please.

Sorry, my computer froze.

This gives you a quick overview of where the property is in relation to all the other things that multiple departments are working on.

And again, we're looking to align the investments from our perspective here.

Kind of in the center, you see in orange, it's the Unity Electric site is sort of what it's referred to often.

And then right next to it, you see the Duwamish Waterway Park, both of these, of course, along to Duwamish.

So but the unity electric site, that's private property, right?

You're buying this from a private?

Yes, yes, that's correct.

Right.

It's adjacent to the park, but we're buying it from the private property owner.

Next slide, please.

And so again, here's sort of a street-level visual here.

You see that the current, there is a tenant on the property, so if we're able to purchase this property, we will take over a lease that's in place.

The tenant will continue to pay rent.

The size, as you see on the bullets here, is about almost an acre of land there, again, adjacent to an existing park, which, again, really an opportune thing.

We did given given its proximity and given sort of our, what's becoming our standard practice conducted both the phase one environmental studies as well as the phase two, both have been completed.

As part of the phase two, there was some findings for some heavy metals are found on site.

So that went into sort of the conversations we had with the owner to try to ensure that we had a plan for remediating that and the cost of the property at this point is at $3.9 million.

For one acre?

For one acre, yeah.

And again, we have, I believe, 6 years left in the lease here, so it'll remain operating as it currently is operating, which also gives us some time to continue to work with community, continue to work with other departments to create a final plan for here.

Um, we, we, this is also a culmination of a lot of work with various partners.

We did receive a grant in conjunction with other folks to purchase, uh, to, to, um, um, uh, attribute to this purchase and, and of course are continuing to look for additional grant sources.

And this is a pretty attractive, um, project for, for the various grant, uh, uh, authorities that we work with.

So we're, we're confident we'll continue to see more, but, but we do have funding, um, in our park fund that would cover this.

Again, as I said before, once this is this is completed, then we'll continue to work with OPCD and work with the community to to look at a longer term planning process here.

So Seattle City of Seattle is putting in two point nine then.

Yes, that's how much we've allocated.

But again, we're continuing to pursue other other funding sources for this funding sources.

But the county put in a million.

Yeah, that was a grant.

Yeah, that's good.

OK, good.

Yeah.

And so, happy to answer any questions.

It's pretty straightforward for us.

Again, really unique opportunity to add to the parks and open space availability in that community.

Happy to answer any questions.

And as I said, Lise here is the expert, can also answer specific questions.

It would probably be good for Lise to just briefly discuss the Fifth Amendment to the agreement and implications of that, just so everybody is aware of what that agreement says.

Thank you.

Apologies.

I forgot about that.

I forgot to mention that.

So, and Lisa can chime in and help.

But essentially, because we identified these heavy metals on the site as part of the phase two, we had already, because we believe that there might be some substances there, we had negotiated a $50,000 reduction in the purchase price with the owner that would then allow us to use that money to remediate.

When we did the phase two, we found some heavy metals and we estimate the cost is roughly eighty thousand dollars to cover the removal of those.

But as you can imagine, the owner wanted us to absolve them of any responsibility for any environmental issues at the site.

We did not agree to that.

What we agreed to do was to to waive or absolve them of any responsibility for the for the substances that we have actually identified.

So if anything else is found, they're still on the hook.

But we agreed based on sort of our understanding what's there, the reduced purchase price, to allow them to give them a pass on the stuff we found, but nothing new.

So I don't know, Lise, if you want to add anything, or I'm sorry if I didn't cover everything.

The owner is still in the chain of title, if there are any actions by outside parties.

So what I wanted to ask, Lise, did you draft the ordinance?

Who drafted it?

I started.

I had help.

I'm not an attorney.

I'm not trying to blame anyone.

I'm just, what I recognize, which I haven't seen in very many, in fact, I don't know if I've ever seen, well, maybe in some resolutions, but I haven't ever really seen a indigenous territorial land acknowledgement and an actual ordinance recognizing Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Yakima.

I don't think I've seen that.

I've seen a lot of revolutions.

So when I was reading it, I said, who wrote this?

So I was just wondering.

Well, it was a collaborative effort with OPCD because of the Duwamish Valley program.

So I didn't come up with that all by myself.

But it seemed like a nice thing to put in there at the time.

No, it is.

And I think this is something that we talked with Sam before he left.

on some of the language and some of the documents and the territorial acknowledgement.

And so I appreciate that.

So thank you.

I very seldom see that.

So I do appreciate that.

Council Member Herbold has a question.

I know I see your hand.

So I was just going to do that.

Thank you.

Go ahead Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I just want to confirm, Superintendent Gary, you said that there was six years left on the lease agreements, is that correct?

That's correct.

And can you just give us sort of a sense of the expected timeline for the community planning process?

Yeah, well, given that we've got a good bit of time, we've got some time and what we'll do once this closes, we'll work with OPCD.

And again, as you know, there's been lots of discussions already happening, so we will work closely.

I don't have a specific timeline, but what I can do is once this closes, we can get together with the team and I can give you sort of a more specific sort of planned schedule here.

And one of the things, and just to clarify, it is, I believe, six years that's left, and what we're looking to do is try to ensure that the funding that is going to be collected through those lease payments will be used both to deal with the remediation of the contamination as well as to maintain the property.

Now, the other piece here that will be important to note is that we don't have development money for this site, of course, so that'll have to be part of the longer-term process as we envision this.

Great, thank you.

I just want to sort of flag that, whereas I recognize that the community engagement process takes time, and even more so getting the development funding takes time, but should there be an opportunity for things to move more quickly, Is there a possibility that the city could buy the current tenant out of their lease early?

That's a good question.

I don't know, Lise, if you have information on the specifics of the lease.

I don't have that information in terms of, obviously, we will take the existing lease when we purchase it, but I'm not sure about the details there.

There's some language in the lease to that effect, but more importantly, this city has a relocation policy, so we could look to that as well.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just, I think I want the factors like the engagement, like the amount of time it takes to get funding for development.

I would like that to sort of drive the project, not the six years left up on the lease, if that makes sense.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

No, I completely agree with you, Council Member.

I think that is exactly where our starting point is.

Obviously, we want to do whatever we can to bring more parks and open space to this community that is in great need, particularly for open space.

Yeah.

But legally, with this ordinance and the lease, there's nothing stopping us what Councilor Herbold is bringing up to go back in for that remaining six.

I mean, there's nothing stopping us from doing that.

We could literally entertain that in the next year or so if need be, correct?

I mean, legally, right?

Yeah, you can always go back and amend the lease or changing conditions or if we raise more money or if there's more input from OPCD about getting it done sooner.

nothing would stop us from that.

And we can certainly stay on top of that.

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I, you know, I, and I don't know, Lisa, if you have any insight in terms of the current tenant about whether they're even looking to, to stay there for the roommate.

I mean, obviously they assigned at least, but they may even be interested in leaving earlier, but again, once we get this under, under title, then we'll, we'll start having some discussions.

Yeah.

And that's always a discussion that comes up.

That's why I asked if this was private property, when I was looking at the ordinance and looking at the memo.

It's always a little bit different when it's private property as opposed to non-profit or another government or, you know, S-DOT property or WSDOT property.

When it's private property, there's always a little bit more, but I'm really glad you brought that point up, Council Member Herbold.

Okay.

Is there anything else from you, Council Member Herbold?

I just had a few words to say once we're ready to vote, but I don't have any further questions.

Okay.

I think we are right.

I think we're wrapped up.

No other questions if there's anything else.

No, go ahead.

We want to get the for us or do not do it that way.

I was going to go ahead and see if you had anything to add before I move to refer it to the vote.

If you had any closing comments.

Sure.

I just want to say that I really appreciate that.

This is being brought to Council and thank the work of South Park community members who have shared their vision for shoreline access and public space large enough for community gatherings consistently over the years.

This park is used for really important local and regional festivals that bring together indigenous people and South Park's Latinx, Somali, Vietnamese, and Cambodian community members.

There's 5,000 feet of Duwamish River shoreline.

within a five-minute walk for South Park residents, but less than 400 feet of that 5,000 feet are public, and only 100 provide access to the water.

So improve access to open space, and particularly to the Duwamish River, is one of the very highest community priorities for South Park residents.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

I'm glad you said that, because a lot of what you shared, and this is why I brought my attention to what Lise dropped in, And the actual ordinance talks about what you shared what you just talked about about immigrant refugee families live work play worship along the lower Duwamish, and also their whole section on the equity and environmental agenda that sales blueprint and roadmap to advance race and social justice to environmental work identified Park as a focus area, all that's actually in the first page of the ordinance.

They're not original thoughts.

Chair Warren.

I know, but I'm just saying it's glad when it's codified.

That's all I'm saying.

So thank you.

All right.

So I see, oh, Council Member Esqueda.

Unmute.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Chair, good to see you.

Sorry for the delay on my part earlier on the kiddo here, but just wanted to chime in a few words as well.

We're really excited about this legislation.

I think it marries the recent land acquisition legislation that we approved for affordable housing, really led by Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition.

with some of the commitments that the city has been wanting to expand for a while, and specifically making sure that there's affordable housing developed where there will be a concentrated effort to try to combat displacement in South Park.

Really feels like we're coupling affordable housing investments with green space priorities, community space priorities, and making our area more resistant to climate change.

excited for the legislation in front of us and will be an enthusiastic yes.

Thank you.

And I should add one more plug here, whoever wrote this ordinance, that they also refer to the Duwamish Valley Cumulative Health Impacts Analysis of 2013, including a 13-year life expectancy difference between residents of South Park and people living in more affluent and less diverse neighborhoods within the city's limits.

So I'm going to keep coming back to this because I think it's really a well-written ordinance.

So thank you.

Okay, with that, I'm gonna move forward.

Tracy, is there anything you want to add?

You look like you're ready to say something.

You're good?

Okay, good.

Tracy's good, then we're good.

With that, let's go to a vote.

I move the committee recommend council pass council bill 120141. Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Are there any other comments, discussions, concerns?

Okay, seeing none.

Will the clerk please call the roll to recommend city council pass council bill 120141.

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

That's five in favor, none opposed.

The motion passes and the committee will recommend City Council pass Council Bill 120141. Thank you.

All right, we're on our last item.

Another great land acquisition.

This is item number four.

This is the parks acquisition in the North Rainier Urban Village.

And, Negin, can you read it into the record?

Item number four, Council Bill 120140, an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation authorizing the acquisition of real property commonly known as 3638 34th Avenue South, authorizing acceptance of a recording of the deed for open space park and recreation purposes and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

The bill is up for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

Go ahead and introduce yourselves again, then we'll go through this ordinance as well.

Thank you.

Jesus Aguirre, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Lee Sward, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Senior Real Property Agent.

Gracie Rath of Council Central Staff.

Great.

Jesus, you want to take us through this?

I do thank you and thanks again also for for projecting this one.

You know, Councilmember if I may, you know, thanks again for your points on the legislation, but I also wanted to highlight the great effort of Lisa Ward who's here with me today, who just is an amazing sort of has an amazing eye for these properties and is able to just stick with them and continue to connect with all of the various owners and really allows us to have this kind of opportunistic acquisition.

Because the one we're going to talk about again is also a really unique opportunity for us to add to an existing land bank site that is currently about to go out to bid for redevelopment.

So I want to just publicly thank Lise for her great work here and sticking with those owners to make sure we get a good deal for the city.

So again, this is an acquisition, as you mentioned, council members, in the North Rainier Valley, in the North Rainier Hub urban village.

The orange square you see on the slide is our existing North Rainier land bank site that is Moving forward with development and just to take a step back as Council knows, when we were required to make some significant capital reductions to our budget as a result of the impacts on our budget from from COVID and the pandemic etc.

We put most of our land bank sites on hold, except for this one, the one in South Park and the one in the international district, just given the fact that these were serving communities that are in greater need than other areas in the city.

So I'm really proud that we're able to do that.

And now we have an opportunity to add to that site by increasing it by approximately again, just a little under an acre here.

And it's the little rectangle that's demarcated by that yellow arrow shows you where the property is.

Just north of that you'll see is a SEED project, the Southeast Effective Development Senior Housing Project.

And part of the reason when Lisa saw this opportunity, part of the reason we really wanted to jump on this is because it allowed us, right now you'll see in the next slide, there's a dilapidated vacant warehouse that sits on this property.

And the owner of that property had already begun to look for buyers to buy some, excuse me, to build townhomes.

And so it was going to create this sort of blockade between us, the park, and then this lower senior housing, et cetera.

So this was just a really good opportunity.

And of course, this urban village has, in our gap analysis, has great need for open space, park space, et cetera.

So this was just a great opportunity.

You can see where it's located.

Again, there's the warehouse that I mentioned.

The original property was appraised about $1.62 million.

We went back and forth and wanted to try to get the cost down.

We landed on a $2 million acquisition, but we believe it's a good a price for this given that the owner has agreed to turn it over to us completely clean.

So they will demolish this warehouse.

They will remediate the soil and make sure that we get it clean, which I think is really a great way to get this property back.

Also, just like the prior property acquisition that you authorized, we continue to look for funding grant for this.

This is another one that the King County folks are pretty excited about and are looking to get additional funding.

And because this is an inequity zone, this would qualify for CFT money that doesn't require a match, so we could actually get the property without having to put in any matching dollars there.

Again, great opportunity for us.

It allows us to create sort of a public area there that isn't going to be separated by some market value townhomes, et cetera, and to just add to our open space.

Happy to answer any questions if folks have them.

Well, again, I want to again, like you said, for lease.

Thank you.

Because I think when we have these ordinances that we pass on like resolutions where you actually put in the language about and you did it again.

And I appreciate that about the North Rainier hub and the the need and the opportunity to have if you have that kind of density to have green areas and parks, because there are a large number of families and senior citizens that desire a future park.

use and the ability to get out and have green space and have trees.

And we saw with this heat wave, when you have no trees and it's hot and there's cement, you see this more in the density, more in the neighborhoods that don't have all these beautiful greenways and boulevards and trees and watersheds and walksheds.

So when we keep creating green space like this in parks, I really, really appreciate that.

And when you put that actual language and the intent and the actual ordinance, not just a resolution, for me, that's really powerful.

So thank you, Lise.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you guys for doing this.

Is there anything from my colleagues that they may want to ask regarding this acquisition?

Okay.

Go ahead, Councilor Muscat.

I'm sorry.

Thank you so much.

Most of what I want to say is just reiterating what you just said.

I really think that this is a great way for us to expand the use of open public space in our communities that have long had access to lower access to parks and open spaces.

I agree that acquiring this property that is situated next to affordable housing and multifamily senior housing will mean that kiddos and our elders and our families will be able to enjoy time together outside.

which is also a really positive thing on our mental health as well as our physical health.

And it bears mentioning that the majority of parkland that exists in Seattle exists in areas exclusively currently zoned for single family only detached housing.

which has a long-standing equity issue as we've been discussing in the Land Use Committee as well.

So looking forward to supporting this legislation today, I want to thank members of the Parks Department for working to help correct this inequity that we really saw on full display when we looked at that racial equity toolkit as we We're analyzing our current urban village strategy.

And as we continue to try to figure out the multiple layers and puzzle pieces that need to come together to address these inequities and to right some of the historic wrongs, we are really excited about legislation that helps open up access to areas where we can both build affordable housing and create green space because these are our backyards.

This is where family and friends play.

Thank you.

You know, and again, um, Jesus and lease for writing in there, they did sit falling out.

We've said customer mosquito, um, that they use the 2017 park plan used race, equity, health, poverty, and income and population density mapping among other criteria to help identify priority areas for the longterm acquisitions strategy.

And that's something that we've been working on since I've been in this job.

So 2016, So to see a lot of this come to fruition has been really nice.

And like I say, we can't always grow space, but we can certainly reclaim it and do something better with it for the public.

And so I appreciate that.

Thank you guys.

Is there, you know what's confusing is we have Council Member Mosqueda in person and then we have a picture of her.

That's why I didn't see you raising your hand because I'm looking at your picture, not you.

I have you on my phone in case I have to run upstairs to the sick baby, but she put herself back down.

Because there's two of you.

That's why I didn't see you raise your hand because I was looking at your other face.

Okay, good.

All right.

Council Member Juarez, I believe Council Member Herbold's hand is being raised.

Oh, she's gone.

Oh, there she is.

Council Member Herbold, or is that an old hand?

That's an old hand, sorry.

Yeah.

It's a high five, council member.

It's a high five.

There you go.

Thank you.

All right.

And thank you, Nageen, for letting me know whose hand is raised.

Always here for you.

Thank you.

OK, so we have done a presentation and I think we're done.

We have no more questions, no more discussion.

OK, we'll move on.

OK, so we're going to go to a vote.

So I move the committee recommend council pass council bill one two zero one four zero second second.

See, my vice president is right on it.

The motion has been moved and seconded.

Are there any other comments, concerns or discussions?

OK, seeing none.

Well, the clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

That is five in favor, none opposed.

Great.

The motion passes and the committee will recommend to the full city council that they pass Council Bill 120140. With that, that ends our business, but before we adjourn, Councilmember Morales.

I apologize.

Councilmember Mosqueda has raised her hand.

Oh she did.

Of course she did.

Thank you.

It was a preemptive raising of the hand with excitement to see if I could get in the queue for items before you adjourn today's meeting.

Absolutely.

This is your moment.

Go ahead Councilmember Mosqueda.

Well, thank you very much Madam Chair and Director Aguirre.

It's really good to see you.

I just wanted to use this as a quick chance to see if we might get an update from you on one of the biggest issues that I know is affecting many of the families who are interested in using our waiting pools.

So many people have written in with appreciation for opening those waiting pools again this year.

especially that weekend that it was so dang hot, but wanted to check in to see if we had any updates on the chlorine tablets and how we might be able to open more of those waiting pools for our kiddos and families to play in.

I'm glad you brought that up because we did have a chlorine crunch there.

So I'll let the superintendent respond to that?

Yeah, no, thank you.

Thanks for the question.

And I'm so glad that our community members have been able to enjoy the wading pools.

Unfortunately, the chlorine specifically that we use in the wading pools, the shortage has not gotten any better.

So at this point, we feel like we have enough chlorine to maintain our operations for the remainder of the season in sort of this curtailed schedule.

But, you know, we'll continue to monitor.

We haven't seen any change so far, but at least we're pretty confident we won't have to curtail our operations.

So that means that the pools that are open are the only ones that are going to remain open?

There won't be any additional openings?

Correct.

Correct.

And we're crossing our fingers to make sure we can keep them going through the end of the season.

What wading pools are open in West Seattle?

Delridge, I have to go to them.

I can pull them up.

Elementary.

I was there today.

Okay, so I think, yeah, I think we had some district questions about waiting pools too, but we just answered them through our constituents.

But can you pull that up real quick?

For counselor Mosqueda.

Also, I'll just put a plug in.

I went for the first time to the Splash Park in Highland Park.

Oh my goodness, how fun is that?

That's what I was just talking about.

I was just there this afternoon.

Awesome.

I will say, I know we've got a lot of work to do across the city, but if I had my druthers, I would convert all of our wading pools to splash pads, because just the sheer joy that children exhibit in these splash pads are great.

A little bit of both.

Parks Department had the Seahawks there a couple weeks ago as well for their free lunch distribution.

So that was really awesome.

All right, sorry, I'm pulling them up.

And I did learn something about The North Delridge wading pool, it does close earlier than the other pools, which was a concern I had heard about.

But my understanding is you are required to have an extra long cleaning process for the water so that it doesn't drain the chemicals into the waterways around here.

And that specific park is the reason that it closes a little early.

I know it's hard for families who might be getting off of work at 5 or 5.30 when the pool, pool closes at 530, but that's the rationale as I understood it.

Yeah, no, thank you.

And it's also a smaller pipe, so it just takes longer.

So, yeah, unfortunately, that's a facility piece there.

In West Seattle, we have, I'm pulling them up, we have Hiawatha, we have Lincoln Park, we have E.C.

Hughes and, sorry, my mouse won't open up, oh, and Highland Park.

Okay.

And those are on the website, your park website?

They are, sorry, as well as Delridge, yes.

And Delridge, okay.

Is there anything more from the great districts, West Seattle, that we need to know for District 1?

Nope, okay.

All right.

Maybe Council Member Juarez, we can go on a splash pad tour.

Yeah, I have one at my house, so we can come over there.

All right, splash pad.

Okay, so with that, before we adjourn, that does conclude our items of business.

All items passed of this committee will be in front of full council on Monday, August 9th.

The next public assets and native communities meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 10th at two.

And with that, thank you all so much for showing up and thank you and we stand adjourned.