The private Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences is expanding steadily on Capitol Hill. It could also be at the center of a plan to overhaul the fields and amenities around the South Park Community Center.
Wednesday afternoon, the Seattle City Council’s Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee will consider the proposal from the Seattle Academy and Seattle Parks and Recreation for a $4 million donation to power the creation of a new sports field and lighting as part of a larger overhaul of the South Park facility.
Under the agreement, the city is proposing to allow the academy to exclusively share the new fields with community drop-in hours for open use by neighbors. The fields would not be made available for general sports league scheduling for five years under the agreement.
In exchange, the community center would get the money needed to recreate the recreational areas outside the aging facility with new fields, a dog park, a spray park, and a large new playground area.
The partnership would also forge a growing relationship between the school and the South Park community. “Additionally, Seattle Academy has committed to provide at least 25 hours annually of programming in the South Park community (to be identified in collaboration with South Park CC, local schools and nonprofit organizations) that fills a gap in the community offerings and facilitates an on-going relationship between SAAS and South Park residents,” planners write.
An overhaul of the South Park Community Center building is also moving forward outside of the proposed academy partnership.
The proposal comes as pressures on Seattle’s sports fields has steadily increased, often leaving the city’s non-white and lower income communities without access.
City officials say the council’s approval of the sports field plan would allow the academy to begin fundraising for the $4 million project.
This past fall, the academy debuted its new $48 million Cardinal Union “vertically oriented middle school” building at 13th and Union. The growing school is also readying plans for expansion on 12th Ave that will eventually shutter its Mothers Place daycare facility.
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Awesome. All for tax dollars contributed to fund this project. I neither, live in South Park or have children.
Yeah, let’s just sell off our parks to the 1%. Shame on Seattle Parks & Rec. Where’s the accountability?
Obviously you have not been to South Park
Clearly not. Ask 20 people in South Park about this and probably 19 of them would say “great!”.
The last one…well, there’s always one.
I live in South Park. The community is not pleased about this.
Has anyone ever measured how much air pollution is coming off the highway? Just because you can’t see it or smell it doesn’t mean it’s not there…
I can’t tell if this is good for the community or not. If sports fields are at a premium, and it says the field won’t be available for general sports use for 5 years, how is this a good thing? Our kids played ultimate frisbee at this field often when they were younger. So now this field won’t available for frisbee? (or soccer, etc)
As stated in the article:
“Under the agreement, the city is proposing to allow the academy to exclusively share the new fields with community drop-in hours for open use by neighbors.”
Take whatever meaning you want from that. The devil is in the details though…
Exactly. Does this mean that, for some hours of the day, the facility will be off-limits to the general public, and that only the “rich kids” can use it during those hours?
I read it as Seattle Academy having first rights to use the softball/soccer field and if not in use by the academy, then the field will be open to the public. The basketball courts, loop trail, dog park, play areas, splash area, etc. will always be available for public use.
Basically Seattle Academy is paying $4 m to beautifully renovate a park so they can call first dibs on its soccer field.
Quick update per SAAS:
“Per our MOU, we will be allowed access between 3:00 and 5:30 during the Fall and Spring sports seasons. This equates to 7.5% of the annual programmable space for the field. Seattle Parks and Recreation will be responsible for assigning the remaining use of the space with the stipulation that SAAS imposed that the field is not in the regular field use rotation for the next 5 years in order to prioritize South Park community use.”
??? will Seattle Academy be busing it’s students to South Park for soccer practice/games???
of course. they bus them to delridge now…