People's Parking Lot the next Capitol Hill park? Notes from the community council

The Capitol Hill Community Council offered a full plate of park, highway, and garbage discussions at Thursday night's meeting. Speakers from WSDOT, Seattle Parks & Rec, and waste contractor CleanScapes were present to talk about the 520 transformation, Cap Hill park land acquisitions, and a new waste reduction competition.

Seattle Parks' $24 million park acquisitions fund brought the idea of a new park to the meeting; and idea that is always welcomed in the Capitol Hill area . Adding to the new spaces Summit & John and 16th & Howell, Capitol Hill is near the top of a list of 20 neighborhoods qualifying for funds to acquire new park and green space property. A 5 step acquisition process begins with selecting a site, which was the main reason why Donald Harris from Seattle Parks was at yesterday's meeting. Harris explained some of the criteria: Approximately 10k Sq. Ft., flat terrain, under utilized, good sun orientation, properties with no or minimal relocation costs, frontage on key pedestrian routes, and of course willing sellers. Harris also identified the area west of 15th and south of Aloha as a region in need of a park. From the audience, suggestions included:

Harris estimated $1.3 million was available for the Capitol Hill acquisition, with possible additional funding from the County as well.

CHS previously covered the hunt for a new Capitol Hill park space here.

The 520 & HOV lane reconstruction project was a topic of much conversation despite being spread across a large portion of Seattle and the surrounding area. The current system, which includes the "east corridor", the floating bridge, the portage bay section, and the "west approach", is decades old and not suited to hold the volume of cars it currently serves. The current plan changes the current corridor between I-5 and Medina from a 4-lane to a 6-lane, including 3-person HOV lanes going both ways, widened shoulders, and a north side pedestrian/bike trail. However, WSDOT currently has 3 possible design options for the reconstruction that mainly differ in how the Montlake interchange is treated, as well as new options for the Montlake bridge and other street bridges. For the Hill, all options agree on improvement for the I-5 interchange area to the north, creating "lids" over 520 with street bridges surrounded by green space.

The new waste contractor CleanScapes was also at the meeting, fielding questions and announcing a friendly neighborhood competition for waste reduction. CleanScapes is giving away $50k to the neighborhood with the largest precent decrease in total tons from fall 2009 to spring 2010. Unfortunately, the neighborhoods are designated by pick up date, so the Hill is clumped with Montlake, Westlake, and a few stragglers in the Central Area. The money awarded will be to support a "community improvement project" decided by the winning "neighborhood.