It’s now September and time for an update on the 14th Ave NW Park. According to the Parks Dept schedule, we’re right on time and completed 30% SIP(Street Improvement Permit) last month. This means that our Parks Dept project manager (Patrick), our landscape architects (Noelle, Sandy and Deb) at Mithun and our Civil Engineer from MayFly (Robin) met with SDOT and SPU to review comments and recommendations for the submitted drawings. Some folks from the EBCA (Peter, Shannon and Dawn) recently met with the super design team for a recap of the SIP Review meeting and were introduced to the proposed changes. We had a very lively meeting and learned that the changes recommended by SDOT were extraordinary and will have a very positive impact on the overall design of the Park.

20 mi/hr speed limit
As we’ve been reporting over the years, 14th Ave NW is an arterial street. The speed limit today is 30 mi/hr. In 2012, SDOT approved lowering the speed limit to 25 mi/hr along this corridor for safety considerations and to reduce the length of the vehicle transition blocks at the north and south ends. Today, we are happy to announce that SDOT is dropping the speed limit along 14th between Market and NW 65th to just 20 mi/hr! Dropping the speed limit will remove the requirement for a block long transition lane from 58th to 59th and again from 61st to 62nd! A Stop Sign for northbound vehicles at 58th with a sign that has you cut over to the left and another similar transition at the north end at 61st may be all that’s needed.

A 3 block bicycle facility
Reworking of the transition at NW 58th opens up the opportunity to safely connect the Park with the new Ballard Greenway, providing up to 3 blocks of a safe bicycle/pedestrian connection between NW 61st and NW 58th! The option currently being examined is to have the bicycle facility run alongside the existing sidewalk so that it has the Park as a buffer from traffic between NW 59th and 61st. The section between NW 58th and 59th would have a buffer as well, just not as wide as the Park.

What’s next?
The folks at Mithun and Mayfly are continuing to absorb the recommendations from the 30% SIP meeting and are working on new drawings, which will be posted here when available. The next step is the 60% SIP review in November where the team will present designs based on all this new information. In the meantime,  mark your calendar for Oct 19 Adopt A Street Cleanup along 14th and stay posted for an opportunity to help name the new Park!