(Image: Denny Blaine Park for All)

Homeowners in the wealthy neighborhood surrounding Denny Blaine Park and nude beach are suing the city over its management of the lakefront public space.

“It is now a regional venue for criminal and uncivil behavior that includes public masturbation, public sex and other types of indecent exposure, drug use, unlawful public nudity, environmental damage to the shoreline, and scofflaw parking that prevents fire trucks and ambulances from reaching neighborhood homes,” the complaint from lawyers representing the Denny Blaine Park for All “association of concerned neighbors” reads.

The lawsuit was sent to Seattle media and television stations this week but is not yet available from the King County Superior Court.

The Seattle Times posted a copy of the complaint Wednesday.

The lawsuit from Seattle’s Foster Garvey PC firm is a major wrinkle in any efforts hoped to bridge the gaps between area homeowners, Seattle Parks, and the nudist and queer communities working to “Keep Denny Blaine Nude” while also addressing concerns about access, cleanliness, and safety around the park.

CHS reported here last June as the growing Friends of Denny Blaine community group was working with the city to shape a new nude and neighbor-friendly policy following a misguided attempt by Seattle Parks to add a children’s play area at the popular clothing optional hangout just a short bus ride from Capitol Hill on the shores of Lake Washington.

CHS reported in December 2023 as the parks department backed off a plan to add a children’s play area paid for by an anonymous donor amid massive public outcry. The Stranger later discovered text messages revealing Mayor Bruce Harrell worked with multimillionaire mall developer and Denny Blaine resident Stuart Sloan in the fight over the playground plan and the nude beach at Denny Blaine Park.

Now Harrell finds himself part of the lawsuit from the neighbor group in one of the wealthiest areas in the city.

“Seattle’s officials – including the Mayor, Chair of the Parks Committee, and Superintendent of Parks and Recreation – are well aware of what is happening at Denny Blaine Park and express personal disgust at the evidence presented to them by the Park’s neighbors, yet those officials refuse to act,” the complaint reads.

“Approximately ten years ago, the Park began being used by people from outside the neighborhood for public nudity, and more recently for public masturbation and other forms of public sex that constitute the crime of indecent exposure,” the lawsuit alleges. “The frequency of public masturbation, public sex, and other acts of indecent exposure has increased each year, particularly in the last few years, and the Park is no longer welcoming to most adults or any children.”

Public meetings held in late 2023 had been the start of working toward improvements and compromises with neighbors

“Public masturbation, public sex, and other acts of indecent exposure are happening not just in good weather but year-round,” the complainant reads. “For example, on January 28, 2025, a woman took a video that documents a naked man masturbating in a red truck with the door open, and then again outside the truck. This same man in the same red truck is a regular visitor to the Park and one of the serial masturbators.”

The lawsuit claims residents have taken “hundreds” of videos and photographs documenting masturbation and sexual intercourse and includes a log of recent indecency reports including allegations that “a woman who works near the Park has witnessed 13 different men masturbating in the Park” in the past “15 months.”

“At least two of the men who publicly masturbate in the Park do so repeatedly throughout the year, even in cold weather,” one entry reads.

“The incidents of public masturbation are increasing in frequency as the weather improves,” the lawsuit claims.

Another man was reportedly witnesses “lying naked on his back and kneeling naked on the
hood of his car exposing his genitals to passersby for at least six hours.”

Sex and nudity isn’t the only problem. “Illegal drug use is common, with the odor from public use of marijuana often being so strong that neighbors cannot enjoy their yards and are driven indoors,” the lawsuit reads.

In the suit, the Denny Blaine Park for All says that the city is guilty of aiding in the crime of indecent exposure and is not meeting its “fiduciary” responsibility to make Denny Blaine Park available to all citizens.

“The public masturbation, other forms of public sex, and the public urination and defecation in the Park, all constitute the crime of indecent exposure, which is the intentionally open and obscene exposure of a person knowing that such conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm,” the lawsuit reads.

The group is demanding an order from Mayor Harrell directing his parks department “to immediately enforce its Code of Conduct at the Park by prohibiting nudity” and committing Seattle Police Department resources to enforcement — or closing the park until the city can show the park “is no longer a public nuisance.”

The Friends of Denny Blaine group, meanwhile, continues to work on community solutions for the popular park and is holding a meeting Sunday in the park. The weather is expected to be overcast and cool with highs in the low 60s F after a warm start to the weekend.

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