The video to Dawn Hemminger’s presentation at Ignite Seattle on How to Grow a Park is now available.

There were so many fabulous presentations that evening
Click HERE, to watch them all!

Thank-you for the overwhelming support (76 responses!) and the personal stories shared in response to our online letter of support for safety improvements crossing 14th Ave NW at NW 62nd. On Dec 17, The EBCA submitted a grant application for Bridging the Gap Neighborhood Street Fund Projects to enhance safety for all users crossing 14th Ave NW at NW 62nd St. The proposal closely replicates the intersection treatment currently at 14th Ave NW and NW 58th installed in 2007 with SDOT/DON funding and would feature traffic-calming curb bulbs, a pedestrian-refuge median, an elevated crosswalk on the North, and an extension of the bicycle improvements on 14th Ave NW consistent with the Bike Master Plan. The curb-bulbs would feature rain gardens to collect project area and offsite stormwater runoff for water quality treatment and infiltration. These proposed safety improvements at NW 62nd are also an important piece of the neighborhood’s larger vision for a safe sustainable 14th Ave NW mile-long corridor between NW 65th to the Ship Canal.

Your input to our online letter of support  was a very important element to our grant application. We loved your stories and comments so much, we couldn’t resist sharing a few from neighbors who live very close to this intersection:

“I live on the northeast corner of 14th Ave NW and NW 62nd St and having a crosswalk there would make it a much safer intersection for my 3 year old son and I to cross when we explore the neighbourhood. We frequently cross this intersection because we like to use RapidRide on 15th Ave. The current state of the intersection makes it difficult for drivers to see us when we are crossing which means they are unlikely to stop.”

“A crosswalk at 14th Ave NW and NW 62nd St is very much needed. As a pedestrian walking home from the bus stop I constantly dodge traffic. As a driver, there are  times when I don’t see pedestrians and bicyclists very well due to the way cars and trucks are parked. I see neighbors with children trying to maneuver crossing the street safely on a regular basis. A second crosswalk will encourage drivers to realize that they are driving through a neighborhood and hopefully it will slow some drivers down (lots of drivers are traveling over the speed limit on 14th Ave NW).”

Click here, to view all comments and stories submitted by your neighbors.

What’s next?
January – Participating neighborhood District Councils select their top three projects.
February – May – SDOT completes a high level scope & cost estimate of the projects selected by neighborhood District Councils (up to 39 projects in all).
June – List of top projects are prioritized by neighborhood District Councils.
July – Bridging the Gap Oversight Committee evaluates and prioritizes projects for funding.
August –Oversight committee makes funding recommendations to the Mayor & City Council.
September – 2014 Budget adopted.
October/November – SDOT begins planning and design work.

Letter of support for a crosswalk at NW 62nd and 14th Ave NW
The East Ballard Community Association is applying for Seattle Neighborhood Street Funds through the Bridging the Gap Levy to improve safety for all modes of transportation crossing the north end of the median-divided intersection at 14th Ave NW and NW 62nd Street. The proposal will be for curb bulbs with rain gardens on the east and west sides and a marked crosswalk with a pedestrian refuge in the center. The proposed design will be similar to the crosswalk at NW 58th St and 14th Ave NW. The existing median would not be affected. Your input and support through signing this letter of support are important. We will submit this letter along with your response in our application to the City of Seattle on Dec 17, 2012.

Thank-you everyone for your responses. Input for this letter of support is now closed. Please contact eastballard@gmail.com if you’d like to provide additional input.

Since the March community involvement meeting, here has been some activity both behind the scenes and in the public news, so it’s time for an update.

Funding
For those who have been following our progress, you are aware that the 14th Ave NW park was awarded funds from the Seattle Parks and Green Spaces Levy back in August of 2010. These funds were allocated for acquiring new property within the Ballard Urban Village to create a park. Since the City already owns the 14th Ave NW right of way, no acquisition is needed, so the Parks Dept would like to use these funds to develop the park instead. This means getting permission from the Seattle Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight committee, City Council and the Mayor to transfer these funds from “acquisition” to “development”. Before going up in front of the Oversight committee in April and May of this year, the Parks Dept hired Mithun to work with the community, design the main concepts for this park and develop cost estimates. We are  happy to report that at the May meeting, the Parks Levy Oversight committee approved $2.9 million to be used in the development of the 14th Ave NW Park! We are now awaiting City Council’s approval, which according to a recent post by Council Member Sally Bagshaw,  could be as soon as late June/early July. Once the legislation is approved, The Parks Dept can begin the next phase, which is to bring back Mithun and the community for the next design phase and work through the SDOT Street Use Improvement Permit Process (SIP) to get this park built. If all goes well, construction should start sometime next year.

Design
The current park design (seen above) by Mithun shows 2 blocks of park along the east side of 14th Ave NW between NW 59th and NW 61st. The gravel center median will be removed and 2-way side by side vehicle traffic will run along the west side. Per the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan, the right of way will also include dedicated north and south bound bicycle lanes. The current drawing shows a block and a half  transition from traffic separated by a median to side by side on each end of the park. Thanks to the EBCA’s persistence in getting approval to reduce the speed limit on 14th Ave NW north of Market St to 25mph., the transitions should be reduced to just one block. The intersection at NW 60th will be designed to greatly improve crossing safety for all modes of transportation by incorporating a raised intersection. The park will also include a 13′ wide biofiltration swale that will not only  clean water runoff from north of the park before it enters Salmon Bay but will be a beautiful educational piece as well. Oh, and don’t forget the 29′ wide green space plus the 8′ wide existing sidewalk along the 2 blocks for strolling, respite and play!

Parking
The Parks Dept is moving ahead with their decision to not include street parking along the 2 block park. Street parking will be available along the transition blocks. This decision is what has allowed the park’s green space to be 29′ wide as opposed to 13′ (if parking was maintained on both sides of the street).  There has been some recent news (see links on our “In the News” page) about the loss of the 65-85 parking spaces currently provided in the gravel medians and curbs within the park footprint. In response to concerns that the original Parking Studies conducted by Fehr & Peers did not cover overnight parking use, the Parks Dept hired F&P to conduct an additional parking study between 2:30 and 3:30 am. With this additional study, F&P has concluded that, “…the park project would not have a substantial effect on the overall availability of local parking.”

These are exciting times for the East Ballard neighborhood where the new park with change forever the current lack of  green open space that is without having to cross a major arterial.  Thank-you to The Parks Dept for recognizing this need and providing us with this opportunity to transform 14th Ave NW into a space that will be loved and cherished by its community for generations to come.

–Dawn Hemminger is co-chair of the East Ballard Community Association

Last Wednesday, Nov 30, was a particularly cold morning, but untypically clear, which made for a great day for a walking audit along 14th. This day felt like the unofficial kickoff for the 14th Ave NW park boulevard. This was the first time the stakeholders came together to talk ‘Park’. Representatives  from the EBCA, Parks, Dept of Transportation, Mithun, Fehr and Peers and Mayfly met bright and early at the library at St. Alphonsus school for a quick Transportation 101 lesson, facilitated by Kendra from Fehr & Peers Traffic Engineering firm and followed up by an overview by Peter Locke on the history of the 14th Ave NW park boulevard community project. We then bundled up and headed out to walk together along 14th while being filmed and discuss topics of multi-modal transportation and possible treatments that could be applied along the corridor and intersections toward the goal of making 14th both safe and inviting.

We then headed over to the Ridgeback Cafe where they kindly accommodated us with a very large row of tables so we could lay out our map and further discuss the conditions of the corridor and Park elements in a warm setting with hot coffee in hand! The next step is for Fehr & Peers to put together notes and share them with the team to be used to  determine what types of traffic studies need to be performed and to be used when designing the park boulevard. We”ll share these notes on the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard Page when we  get them. Interim notes on discussion topics recorded by the EBCA are here. Thanks to everyone who dedicated their morning to making this Park happen!

Last week, a few members of the EBCA steering committee met with Pam Kliment from the Parks Dept to start an early discussion about trees on 14th (specifically those along the planting strip on the east and west side between NW 59th and NW 61st where the first phase of the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard will begin).

An arborist study will be part of the park-making process and the city wants to know early on if there are any existing trees along this corridor that are of particular interest to the community.

The EBCA has provided input, but more importantly, we want serious consideration and thoughtful input from you.  We encourage you to provide constructive feedback via the comments section for this post or contact Dawn Hemminger at eastballard@gmail.com.

Some things to think about:

1. Do you have a favorite tree or trees on 14th?
2. What kind of trees would you like to see along the park boulevard and why?

Recommendations made by the EBCA Steering Committee

• The cherry trees are important – Many people in the community enjoy the white blossoms of the cherry trees in Spring. There are some cherry trees that have been pruned very poorly or are poorly located. We recommend that it would be OK to remove some cherry trees if necessary for park design purposes and/or health, but at least one or two significant cherry trees should remain per block on each side of the street for heritage sake.
• Existing large trees should remain if healthy and are not a nuisance – There was a discussion about large trees, e.g. the 2 very large trees between 59th and 60th on the east side. We agreed that there are some benefits of large trees in that they can provide a privacy screen and shade. The benefits should, however, not be at the cost of displacing the walkways due to roots or interfering with the utility lines. Large trees should be proportionate to the scale of the neighborhood.
• A variety of complementing trees are preferred – A variety of different trees and shrubs that complement each other instead of a single specimen along the boulevard is preferred in order to prevent the spread of disease and provide different interests along the way.

Overall, the EBCA believes that it’s really too early to say which trees should stay and which should go until the park has been designed. We appreciate the Parks Dept thinking about this issue early in the process and we want to continue this open conversation throughout the design process. We will be keeping the community posted through this blog on further topics of discussion and will continue to value your thoughtful input.

The sign went up on Aug 12th in the median on 14th Ave NW at NW 60th. Now that the sign is up, it’s starting to feel very real that this park is going to happen! Interviews for a Landscape Design Consultants are scheduled for August 17th. Once we get a consultant on board, stay tuned for invites to design meetings. You’re also welcome to provide comment at any time to our project manager at Parks (contact info below).  Stay tuned to this site  for future updates! There will be many to come!

Seattle Parks Program Manager
Pam Kliment
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98134
206-684-7556
pamela.kliment@seattle.gov