It’s been quiet again on the 14th Ave NW Park front, but we did get some encouraging updates from the Parks Dept. this week that the Street Improvement Process (SIP) has started moving forward again and submittal for final approval to Seattle Dept. of Transportation should happen in 3-4 weeks. It will most likely be another 4 months after that before SDOT approves the design and allows permitting, which by this phase, should go more smoothly than in the past. At this pace, we’re looking at hopefully breaking ground near the end of this year (fingers crossed). In the meantime, the Parks Dept. feels confident enough that this Park is going to happen, that they’re ready to start taking names…for the Park that is!

What should we name the the Park?
Late last week, the Parks Dept issued a news release providing the opportunity for the public to submit a name for the 14th Ave NW Park. The EBCA plans to formally submit name suggestions before the March 31 deadline and would like to hear directly from you, our neighbors, what you’d like to name the Park. We encourage you to share your name suggestion on the EBCA Facebook page comments for this post with a short description of why you think it should have that name. If you like a name someone else suggests, than indicate that by ‘liking’ the comment. You can also email us and we’ll post the suggestion for you. We’ll keep you updated on the naming progress throughout the month!

Need some inspiration?
We asked at Ballard Summer Parkways in September what you’d like to name the Park and below is what we collected to help you get the ideas flowing. Please note that the City’s selection committee will be following some specific naming criteria which includes names referencing geographical location, historical or cultural significance, and natural or geological features. A park may be named for a person no longer living (deceased a minimum of three years) who made a significant contribution to parks and/or recreation.

We’ll keep you posted on the results and if you’d prefer to send your name suggestion directly to the City, here’s the contact info:

Paula Hoff
paula.hoff@seattle.gov or by mail to:
Seattle Parks and Recreation
Parks Naming Committee
100 Dexter Ave N
Seattle, WA, 98109

We’re happy to report that the 14th Ave NW Park has reached a new milestone! In City of Seattle terms, it has just reached 90% Complete Street Improvement Plan (SIP). Engineering drawings are now available on the City’s website. When these drawings are approved by Seattle Department of Transportation and once contractors are hired, construction could begin as early as Spring 2016. If all goes well, we may just have a new park by Fall of 2016!

If you’re not an engineering geek and your eyes just glaze over at the site of all those lines in the engineering drawings, then no worries, we sat down with our designers at Mithun and compiled the following overview to help you out…

What’s the park going to look like?
The 14th Ave NW Park is going to be a 2 block linear park that runs along the east side of 14th Ave NW from NW 59th St to NW 61st St. The current sidewalks on the east side (for these 2 blocks) will be replaced with brand new 12′ wide concrete sidewalks that will be wide enough for walking and wheeled activities. The park will include rain gardens that will not only filter stormwater before entering Salmon Bay, but will also provide a buffer between park users and vehicle traffic. Vehicle traffic will run side by side on the west side (no longer separated by a median) between NW 59th and NW 61st.

How are cars going to be diverted at NW 59th and NW 61st going north?
Speed limit on 14th Ave NW between Market and NW 65th will drop down to 20 mph (today, it’s 30 mph). This significant drop in speed will allow for vehicle transition to be done at stop signs. There will most likely be a 4-way stop at NW 59th and another at NW 61st. If you are traveling north, you will stop at NW 59th, transition diagonally to the west alongside south bound vehicles and then stop again at NW 61st where you’ll transition back to the east side with vehicles separated by a median again. If you’re traveling south, you’ll stay in the same lane along 14th and will stop at NW 61st and NW 59th.

What about lighting?
Pedestrian scale lighting, will be provided along the 2 block park that should provide adequate lighting of the walkway without affecting neighboring homes. The existing street-scale lighting will remain as well. It’s not clear what’s going to happen with the light between NW 59th and 60th that’s strung in the middle of the median. We’re pretty sure that’ll get replaced with pedestrian-scale lighting.

What’s going on at the NW 60th intersection?
The intersection at NW 60th will have a 4-way stop and will be raised to sidewalk level so that people driving across the intersection will encounter a bump up when approaching and a bump down when leaving. People walking or biking along the sidewalk through the intersection (north/south) will not experience an elevation change. There will also be bollards on the north and south sections of the intersection on the park side to provide a buffer from vehicles.

What about the trees?
Some existing trees will be removed and replaced with a mixture of larger and smaller trees where it makes sense. The significantly large tree near NW 59th on the east side will remain in place and accommodations will be made for its root system in the new sidewalk design.

Will there be play structures?
Not at this stage of the project. There will be a few grassy mounds to play/roll around on, plus the rain gardens will be accessible for learning and play. There will be grass space for lawn games as well. Once the park is complete and the community has played in it for a while AND there’s a strong interest for structured play equipment, this could be added at a later time.

What about an offleash dog park?
Sorry, no offleashing in this park. It’s really not big enough. You and your leashed dog will be more than welcome to enjoy the park!

What’s next?
The latest permit drawings have to get approved by Seattle Department of Transportation. When they get approved, we’ll be at 100% SIP and the Parks Department will have the authority to go out for bid to contractors, which will hopefully be this Spring. Construction could start as early as Spring 2016 and the park could be complete by end of Fall. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more!

Additional information about this park project and how to get in touch with our Parks Project manager can be found on the Parks Department website. You’re also welcome to contact us at the EBCA and we’ll do our best to get you the info you’re looking for.

Did you feel that something momentous happened in the East Ballard neighborhood at about 2 PM yesterday afternoon? Well, that “something” came from the Seattle City Council meeting where they unanimously passed legislation to fund the 14th Ave NW Park! Thank-you to those from the neighborhood who attended the City Council Parks Subcommittee last week to show support. Jean Godden and crew voted to approve legislation at that meeting, but full council approval was also needed. That official approval came yesterday with a unanimous 8-0 vote. We now have funding to go out for bid once the Parks Dept and SDOT finalize design. SDOT’s Street Improvement Process (SIP) continues to be a big hurdle. The Parks Dept is stalled at reaching 60% completion of SIP right now and working with other City Departments to get the process moving forward again. We’ll continue to keep you updated on the process and are pleased that the momentum is in the forward direction!

Just a quick note that Patrick Donohue, our Park Project Manager, recently provided us with an updated drawing of the 14th Ave NW Park that they are planning to present at their next meeting in submittal of 60% SIP (Street Improvement Process) to Seattle Dept of Transportation. Here’s a link to the presentation that better explains the lettered sections which make up the proposed rain gardens and plantings that will buffer traffic from the park. The little white stars are proposed seating areas and bollards. We also received an updated schedule with planned construction now scheduled to begin May 2015.

A new schedule from the Seattle Parks Department for the 14th Ave NW Park is hot off the presses.

Here are some of the schedule highlights…

Early June 2014 – Submittal of drawings for 60% Street Improvement Process (SIP)
Mid September 2014 – Submittal of drawings for 90% SIP
Early December 2014 – Submittal of drawings for 100% SIP
Late December 2014 – Put out bid for contractors
Early April 2015 – Begin construction
Late September 30, 2015 – Construction complete!

If all goes as planned, we’ll be having a big celebration in our new Park by next Fall!

News has been slow these past few months about the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard. We have a small update to share today, with hopes to have much more information to share, including proposed drawings and a schedule within the next few weeks. The good news is that although progress was stalled early this year due to the changes in the Mayor’s office, our Parks Dept. Project Manager, Patrick Donohue, was given the thumbs up  last week to move the Park project forward again. Some decisions have changed since our September update, but most are the same. The following are some quick points of interest:

20 mi/hr speed limit:
This is still a go, with plans to set the 20 mi/hr speed limit between Market St and NW 65th.

No bicycle facility:
This is new since September when we advised that there would be a 3 block long cycle track connecting the Greenway on NW 58th and running up along the park. Further analysis revealed that a dedicated cycle track would take away much of the available green space for the park and wouldn’t make sense to have for just 3 blocks. If, in the future, SDOT agrees to fund a dedicated bicycle facility from at least Market to NW 65th, then accommodations could be made to include it within the park.

New sidewalks along the 2 blocks of the park:
The existing sidewalks on the east side of 14th Ave NW between NW 59th and NW 61st are planned to be replaced with new sidewalks incorporated into the park design.

What’s next?
The folks at Mithun and Mayfly are on board again and will be preparing designs for the next SDOT review. In the meantime,  mark your calendar for the April 19 Adopt A Street Cleanup along 14th!

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!