Thanks to reader Neal for the picture

Broadway Hill Park schematic

Construction is finally ready to begin to create Broadway Hill Park on the empty lot at the corner of Federal and Republican some five years after the land was purchased by the city for $2 million.

The city’s Opportunity Fund grant process helped push the project to its final stages with a $750,000 boost. Another $17,500 from a Neighborhood Matching Fund Small and Simple grant paid for for the schematic design including community gardening, art, and open spaces. That design, by the way, has been ready and on the shelf since 2011. The long wait hasn’t been a total waste, however. Neighbors have put the lot at one time lined up for a development project to some good use as a place to hangout — and sometimes more.

Meanwhile, a new wave of grants will help create new greenspaces and community projects around Central Seattle. The Capitol Hill Tool Library and a pocket park at 19th and Madison are just a couple of the projects that received matching grants from the city last week.

The Department of Neighborhoods awarded just over $467,000 in neighborhood matching grants through its Small and Simple Projects Fund. Neighborhood groups have pledged match with $600,000 in volunteer hours and donations to receive the grants.

Here are the Capitol Hill and Central District specific projects:

• $25,000 to Friends of Cayton Corner Park to prepare construction documents for a neighborhood pocket park on Capitol Hill. (Community match: $12,630)
• $12,000 to Capitol Hill Housing Foundation to engage renters living in the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict in voter registration and a 2016 Renters Summit. (Community match: $30,980)
• $16,000 to Sustainable Capitol Hill to create a community tool library and fixer’s collective to provide items to check out or use in the workshop. (Community match: $42,100)
• $10,000 to Gay City Health Project to solicit public input to create a database of health care providers to ensure the LGBTQ community has access to high quality, competent healthcare. (Community match: $7,220)
• $11,500 to 23rd Avenue ACT (Action Core Team) to produce the Central Area Block Party in September to highlight the history and culture of the community. (Community match: $10,712)

Both the Cayton Corner Park and tool library are projects that have been several years in the making. Residents around the Cayton park have been working since at least 2013 to spruce up the triangle parcel. Sustainable Capitol Hill found a home for its tool share program in March at Crawford Pl and E Pike inside the First Covenant Church.

The application for Small and Simple grants reopens in October.