here okay um good afternoon this is a meeting of the civic development public asset and native communities committee it is tuesday november 27th it's 2 p.m i'm council member juarez and i'm the chair of the committee and i'm joined by council member gonzalez thank you for being here So, just did the call to order.
I'll move to the chair's report.
Today we have a capital projects update from the Department of Parks and Recreation.
The two items we will be discussing are Portage Bay Park and the Arboretum Loop Trail.
I had an opportunity to look at the slide or the PowerPoint.
It looks really good, you guys.
The pictures look great.
So let's move into public comment, and Nagin, I understand we have nobody for public comment.
Correct.
Okay.
Since we have no one signed up for public comment, we will move right into our presentation, right into our items of business.
So I'll let Nagin read this item into the record, and then we'll have you guys introduce yourselves, and then you will take us through your PowerPoint.
Great.
Do you want to do it from there, Nagin?
Okay.
Seattle Parks and Recreation Capital Projects Update.
Go ahead, introduce yourself and we'll start.
I'm Christopher Williams, Seattle Parks.
David Graves, Strategic Advisor, Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Great.
So maybe I'll just lead in here with a few opening remarks.
And I'll start out with a lot of our park development projects have a long arc of development.
These particular projects we begin talking about in the 2008-2009 timeframe.
And we just completed the walking trail in the Arboretum, and I think that really goes to how long it takes to create a legacy that will last for the next 100 years.
Well, that was what, six years?
I was looking at your chronology, six years to do this one?
Yeah, but I think the conversations with WSDOT begin a lot longer, earlier than that.
So we're pleased to provide another capital project update to the committee.
One thing I wanted to note about the two projects presented here today is they support or rather we received support from the state of Washington.
While the project to expand State Route 520 continues to impact the north end of Washington Park Arboretum, the project has also provided mitigation funds that have enabled Seattle Park and Recreation to undertake several projects that will benefit the Seattle citizens over the years to come.
The Arboretum Master Plan long envisioned a multi-use pathway through the Arboretum and a loop within the Arboretum without disturbing the more natural landscapes within the park.
The other project featured today is the Fritz Hedges Waterway Park.
This is a unique opportunity to develop a new park on the shore of nearby Portage Bay.
Public access to the water is a cherished and increasingly rare opportunity, and it isn't very often that we have the opportunity to acquire new waterfront park.
WSDOT contributed $7.8 million to the construction of the multi-use Arboretum Loop Trail and $9 million toward the development of the Fritz Hedges Park.
WSDOT also provided $13.6 million to the city to help purchase the property from the University of Washington to develop the park.
So I'm going to turn to the very capable David Graves who's going to start out with a presentation and walk through this.
Thank you all.
Hi David.
How are you?
Good.
So Arboretum Loop Trail, obviously in the Arboretum, the multi-use trail that we just completed is on the west side of the Arboretum, east side of Lake Washington Boulevard.
It was one of those projects that was in the Arboretum Master Plan that was adopted late 80s.
The thinking's been out there a long time.
It was a thought that you would be able to get families, kind of the slow moving cyclists off of Lake Washington Boulevard and through the arena without kind of disturbing the more contemplative spaces, and then also create a loop.
With the closure of Arboretum Drive, which is the roadway that went through the Arboretum, we were able to just do a loop for bicycles, little kids, a more kind of paved loop, multi-use loop through the Arboretum, but keeping folks off of the gravel trails.
So again, as Christopher said, it was constructed with funds from Washtenaw as part of the mitigation for the 520 project.
We opened it in November 2017. If you haven't been out there, it's really great.
It takes you to some spots through the Arboretum that I think folks haven't visited.
They were kind of out of the way spots.
There wasn't trails too.
And it's just a nice kind of walk, ride, what have you, through the Arboretum going south to north.
It's all downhill.
Going the other way, it's all uphill.
Are there bike lanes all through there?
Yeah, it's a shared resource.
There's a, so it's bikes and peds on the same facility, but there's a yellow line down the middle to keep, if you're going, I mean, stay to the right.
That's kind of the.
So if you did the whole loop, how long is it?
About three miles.
Okay, I could do that.
Just wanted to make sure.
If there's anything over that, I'll be.
And so you can see it here.
It's the blue dots.
The multi-use trail starts up at the south end, so south is to my left, along Lake Washington Boulevard, just adjacent to it, down to Foster Allen Road, and then back up Arboretum Drive.
The connection is right there, just to the north of the Stone Cottage.
And just by way of background, you know, the impetus for this trail was the impacts 520 expanded, so the waterfront trail would get you from Foster Island across Marsh Island to East Motley Park was originally constructed with land and water conservation fund, which Congress can't quite seem to reauthorize.
But anyway, so it was originally constructed with that, and so, As the highway expanded, it really impacted the user experience of that trail.
So that was where the mitigation dollars came from.
And the way Land and Water Conservation Fund is written, you have to provide replacement property and you can't just pay dollars for it.
So, and you know, I'm confusing the mitigation projects.
This is WSDOT dollars for impacts to recreation.
The next project is impacts to land and water conservation fund.
Sorry.
So anyway, so this is the loop trail.
And the plan is there.
With the gray area where it says the WSDOT SR 520, is that where the bridges to nowhere are?
Yes, exactly.
That's where the arch proposal will be.
That's what everyone affectionately calls the WSDOT peninsula.
And so it's all owned by WSDOT.
They're using it for construction staging for the next 10-ish years.
But the thinking is, when construction is completed, that will come to parks ownership.
Right.
That's for when they do the lid.
Yep.
OK.
That's also the site of the old MOHAI.
No, that's not the site.
No.
Well, here's some more pictures.
I'll show you that next.
So this is just kind of a snapshot of the loop trail.
It's really great.
It is a unique resource in the Arboretum that we didn't have before.
We had all these really nice kind of gravel pathways through the Arboretum, and the Arboretum is this great resource that people use, but I think it's really expanded the access for folks that wouldn't necessarily get out on the gravel pathways but feel more comfortable on a paved walking trail.
I see you don't have Christopher or Michael in these pictures like you do on the next slide.
And Mr. Fong, no wait, no, that's not, is it?
Okay, good.
I made a terrible mistake.
I'm sorry.
And then, sorry, so here we can see a little bit of background.
So Portage Bay Park is here, so sorry, The waterfront trail, this is Foster Island, Marsh Island, and then Mohai was here.
So this is the connection of the waterfront trail.
And so this was constructed by Atlanta Water Conservation Fund.
And so the impacts of that are what caused us to have to replace the property.
And so this was the only piece, this was the best piece of waterfront property that we could find.
in similar proximity and a similar recreation utility for that replacement.
UW was kind, we spent probably 18 months looking for replacement property because we needed a willing seller and UW was kind enough to offer up their old police station site as a replacement property.
I think there was some thinking that they needed a better police station anyway, so.
When did they give up their police station?
As part of this project when we purchased it in 07 the police department stayed there While they constructed a new police station a little bit it's Somewhere right here.
Just it's just south of Gould Hall is where the new police station is It was Fritz Hedges so right on time so Fritz Hedges was a longtime park and recreation employee and He started his career back in the 70s.
He was a grad school student who came to Seattle Parks as an intern and eventually became a full-time employee, became a division director, and developed the department's first comprehensive plan.
Fritz was one of those special park and recreation employees, a coach, a teacher, a mentor to a lot of people, including myself.
And he ran the citywide division.
And he lived in a houseboat on Portage Bay.
Somewhere right there.
Right there.
That's right.
Right where he lives right now.
Right there.
So he passed away in roughly 2004 after 30 years of work on a bike ride as a result of an aneurysm one day.
And during his tenure he was involved in a number of major projects.
He worked on implementing projects funded by the Ford Thrust Bond Initiative.
He was instrumental in the conversion of Army land into Discovery Park.
He helped create the second open space bond program.
He was an avid outdoors person, bike rider, and hiker, had a passion for parks and people.
And it's very fitting to have this park be named Fritz Hedges Park.
And when do we do that?
Oh geez, we probably did that, what, three years ago maybe?
Three years ago?
The naming was this year.
Oh, the naming was this year.
That's why he looked familiar, I forgot.
Did we do Proclamation 2 or something?
I thought we did a proclamation or a...
Yeah, we've done a couple of Fritz Hedges days and proclamations and that sort of thing.
I knew he was familiar.
It's an interesting site.
It was the first Chris Craft dealership on the West Coast.
It was always been a marina.
It was Bryant Marina, which was the first name for it.
And then it was UW Police Station.
Portage Bay Park was its working title, and now Fritch Hedges Park.
From a natural habitat standpoint, there's a seawall there now.
It'll be soft shoreline and shoreline vegetation.
So it'll be a stop along the juvenile salmon's out migration out to the locks.
They don't have currently.
Again, funding from U-Dub and there's some funding from University of Washington to get rid of some contamination on site.
It was a former marina, so there was a fair amount of stuff associated with the boat marina, plus an underground storage tank, some that sort of stuff.
These are the old boat buildings, the old police station, now demolished.
We started demolition last week, so the buildings are now down.
So we can start the park development once they're all cleaned up.
There's a fair amount of over water structures that we have to remove as well.
And this is what it will look like when it's completed.
An area of really great expansive lawn, gravel beach, a pier that gets you out over the water, and then here is native vegetation, shoreline restoration, and similarly more native vegetation here, and a kayak slide.
So there's short-term parking here, and repurposed wood from the old structure to be able to slide kayaks down into the water.
This is Sakumi Viewpoint if you're familiar with that.
And then Aqua Verde is right here.
UW Fisheries Building.
What is the one way up in the corner, the right-hand corner, that one?
That one?
It's part of UW Medical Center.
Oh, Medical Center, okay.
Yeah, and so the Medical Center is right here.
And it really, you know, UW, part of their long-term vision for West Campus is a big green space that comes through this area.
This parking lot goes away and it continues the green that's here adjacent to the fisheries building.
So it's a nice compliment to UW.
What UW's doing, there's a bunch of new student housing here.
So there's this really great resource at the south end of campus with access to the water for folks.
So what is the timeline on this?
Oh, here it is.
It's coming up on the next one.
Yeah.
So currently under construction, building demolition.
Next year, we'll start moving, mobilizing, moving in soil to construct the park.
And so it should be open to the public spring 2020. And then you can kind of see the park features here and plan views, come a viewpoint.
There's a parking, just a short-term drop-off.
All accessible pathways appear to get you out over the water and accessible down to the beach here.
These are stairs to a terrace lawn and then a sitting area up adjacent to the street, and then with a crossing here and connection to UW's big green space that's right here.
So how many acres is it approximately?
It's about, total including submerged lands are about three acres, but upland is about an acre and a half, acre and three quarters.
So it's a pretty big site.
It's not often we get new shorelines, so it's pretty exciting to be able to develop a shoreline park here in the U District.
They'd be open to the public.
Yes, absolutely.
Great.
Yeah, and open, yeah, 2020.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Is there any questions you have, Council Member Gonzalez?
No.
How about you, DeGene?
I know you said you were at that building.
I used to go running along that waterfront with my army.
Okay.
We're very excited for the updates.
Thank you.
Sure.
So with that, is there anything else you want to add?
You're good, okay.
Thank you.
Sir, I see that you come in late.
Did you want to provide public comment?
Well, I can't make them stay, but you're more than welcome to speak for two minutes.
We'll reopen public comment very briefly for you.
Hold on a second, let Nagin get you on the record.
Go ahead, sir.
I'm Bill Farmer, board president of Friends of Athletic Fields.
Sorry, I'm late.
I had a meeting at the board.
Since I probably have limited time, let me remind you, I sent you an email on November 4th about some Seattle budget items with regard to parks and play fields in particular.
I'd ask both of you and your colleagues to take a look at that.
And these are issues funding issues that will play on through the year and into the future.
As you know Seattle population is growing.
It's a much more youthful population.
The demand for athletic fields is only increasing.
So anything that can be done to improve play fields and provide more capacity is a benefit to the field user and active recreation community.
Some things I had pointed out in that email, which I can't, I don't have time to go into all of it, but the synthetic fields, the carpets wear out after about 10, 11, 12 years and they need to be replaced.
Last year all the carpets were in the budget.
This year There was a new category to address that, and not all the fields are in there.
So there needs to be a plan to address that, all the fields going down the line.
Magnuson Park is in that category.
A lot of fields were built in the 08, 09. Magnuson Park has a master plan, athletic fields and wetland development master plan was approved by council in 2004. There's four fields that are left to be built.
It's been approved in 2004 and it's a matter of funding.
So it's one of the few places where we can create new fields.
There's a field, I think it was moved up to 2021 to build one more field.
So there's more work to be done there.
It's a great spot to do that.
Anything you could do to help that happen, I'd really appreciate it.
Okay.
While I'm at it, Bobby Morris is,
I need you to wrap it up, sir.
Your time's up.
I need you to wrap it up.
OK, can I mention this one?
Bobby Morse is the only play field that's really in the heart of the city.
It's next to Seattle Central College.
It's a great field, but there are a lot of issues there with people interfering with the use of the field, whether it's drug use and whatever in the bathrooms there, or people just walking across the field.
Parks has tried to do rangers and tried to make that more usable.
We can talk more offline.
So I'm going to have to, you're over your time now.
I need you to kind of wrap it up.
Okay?
And we can talk.
Okay, thank you.
So that will end public comment.
And as of now, we will be in recess.
And I think we adjourn in the new year, correct?
Right.
So with that, and we'll have an opportunity to speak with you, sir.
And with that, we stand adjourned.
Thank you.
Thank you.