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Work wraps up on Capitol Hill’s Summit Slope Park enhancements and ‘pedestrianized’ street

Summit Slope Park — and its P-Patch — will get a little larger next month but some of the biggest changes from its most recent round of construction are already in place and in use.

The $260,000 project renovated the park at Summit and E John which first opened in 2011. Construction wrapping up to begin 2018 including preparing space for trees and turf patches to be installed along an extended sidewalk cut into half of the block. Vehicle traffic on E John will remain open, but parking in front of the park has been removed.

The enhancements to the small slice of open space and a short block of street in the middle of Capitol Hill entered the planning phase in 2012, but was on hold for a while, explained Toby Ressler of Seattle ParksSeattle City Light added new vaults – the large electrical boxes – on the periphery of the park, Ressler said. So the parks department thought it best to wait for those to be complete before making its changes.

With City Light’s project wrapped up, parks took over, pushing Summit Slope farther out toward John and creating more space for planting beds. The sidewalk was also moved out, and walkways and a paved area were added, which will soon see game tables. Ressler said the tables will come with a built-in checkerboard, so chess or checkers players can take advantage of the spot. They will, however, need to bring their own pieces.

In conjunction with the project, ramps were installed at some of the corner curbs in the area to make them more accessible to people with mobility impairments.

A controversial feature which allowed for skateboarding remains and was not touched during the renovation. Additionally, a broken irrigation system is being removed and replaced.

The Department of Neighborhoods, which manages the P-Patch, hasn’t yet had time to measure the new space, said Lois Maag. She expects it will add enough space for at least three or four new plots, but will know more after in March.

The waiting list for a spot at that P-Patch is 131 people, with the expectation of a two-year wait, Maag said. The P-patch, known as “Unpaving Paradise” in honor of the group that first advocated for the park, currently has 31 spots. The Urbanist wrote this week about the group’s early hopes for a better pedestrian experience around the park.

Reclaiming Street Space in Capitol Hill

 

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Dennis Saxman, an area resident who has had a spot at the P-Patch for eight years welcomed the changes, though he did note the project was taking a long time. Saxman also said he believed there was too much new pavement added.

“I would have rather had fewer sidewalks and more P-Patch,” he said.

Saxman was happy that the department had fixed the broken irrigation system at the park. The system helped water the common areas and had been broken for years, Saxman said.

Residents interested in joining the waiting list for a spot at the Summit Slope P-Patch can do so online or by calling (206) 684-0264, then pressing 7.

Maag pointed out there are a number of other P-Patches in the Capitol Hill area, some of which have shorter waiting lists. Information about them is available as a map or a list.

 

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chbff2018
chbff2018
6 years ago

I don’t understand this project at all. A quarter of a million dollars to add in mostly concrete, but not actually “pedestrianize” the street? The street still stands, though it’s far less useful, and the pedestrian area is only marginally expanded. I had thought that the idea was to take over the entire street and use it to enlarge the green space area that is largely absent from the original park. Instead, we get a bunch of sidewalk in an area where there already was a functional sidewalk. It was never so crowded that it merited being widened or expanded with other offshoots. What a waste of resources.

Mark
Mark
6 years ago
Reply to  chbff2018

100% agree with you. I expected this project to remove the street entirely and add more of the park. That’s even what the original renders showed, I swear, but I’m sure someone will post that I’m wrong.

The cost:benefit of this project is embarrassing.

Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer
6 years ago

Yeah, we could have bought 8 curb ramps.