Defenders of the right to be nude in Denny Blaine Park are cautious in victory this week as a King County Superior Court judge has denied a bid by a group of neighbors and nearby property owners to close off the public shoreline at the historically recognized LGBTQ+ nude beach.
In his decision, Judge Samuel Chung sided with the City of Seattle and the Friends of Denny Blaine community group in keeping the two-acre park on the shores of Lake Washington open — and nude — calling Denny Blaine “a limited natural resource that must be shared by the residents of the neighborhood and the Park’s visitors.”
While it will keep the park open, the ruling will put new pressures on Denny Blaine as it has become a center in debates over public space, community use, and personal expression in Seattle.
The ruling also cements some key elements for neighbors: property values.
The judge cited the King County Assessor’s Office’s designation of “thirteen properties as being negatively affected by ‘nuisance’ from the Park and decreased the assessed land value of these homes by at least ten percent” as a key element in his ruling.
Chung’s decision comes with caveats after several findings that, he said, justified the neighbors’ claims around lewd acts and criminal activity at the park. In the ruling, the judge said the city must implement and manage a previously approved abatement plan, and “develop and implement a park specific user plan and code of conduct to address overcrowding, safety, and prohibited and acceptable behaviors.”
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
Members of the Friends of Denny Blaine group said they would be at the park on the warm Wednesday evening following the ruling to celebrate but were also still digesting the judge’s findings and the potential impact on the space.
“We respectfully disagree with portions of the Court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. In particular, we believe the ruling gives substantial weight to conditions that predate the abatement measures now in place, and does not fully reflect the significant improvements at the park over the past year — improvements the evidence at trial documented,” the group said in a statement. “We believe that the evidence reflects that the Park is not currently a nuisance and that the Park should ultimately be restored to its full historical status as a fully clothing optional Park. We are reviewing the order carefully and evaluating our next steps.”
CHS reported here in late May as the trial began.
The court proceedings came two and a half years after an attempt by the city to add a children’s play area paid for by an “anonymous donor” to the popular nude beach park was stopped in its tracks by public outcry. Neighbors complained of illegal drug use and sexual activity around the park as well as more mundane complaints around issues like parking and public urination.
It was later revealed that text messages showed then-Mayor Bruce Harrell championed the “philanthropic position” of multimillionaire mall developer and Denny Blaine resident Stuart Sloan as the then-mayor pushed officials to address nudity in the park that has served as a gathering space for queer and naturist communities for decades.
In April 2025, the neighbors sued the city over its management of the lakefront public space.
A 2025 protest in the park
Complainants included Sloan, a serial property-tax appellant who acquired his neighborhood home in 1991 after renting in the area. The Friends group says Sloan rebuilt his home despite knowing the park’s character, and funded the masked proposal for a children’s playground to displace parkgoers. Other named property owners included David Rinn, who the group said admitted in depositions that he knew the shoreline was historically nicknamed “Dykiki” and a “topless lesbian beach” before closing on his adjacent home for $5.68 million in 2012.
As the legal battle played out, the city responded to the outcry as Seattle Parks added new signs and fences to the park establishing a “nude zone” at the beach — though somebody immediately tried to tear the new fencing down.
In October, the judge ruled against the immediate closure of the park as the case moved toward trial, saying the city was displaying “reasonable efforts in abatement” around illegal activity at the park.
2026 began with a boost in legal power for the park’s defense as the court proceeded toward trial. CHS reported in January as the Friends group filed to become “an intervening party” represented pro bono by law firm Perkins Coie.
2023
Now, two and a half years after the case was filed and Seattle leaders including Harrell, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth, and Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes were unable to broker peace around the park outside the courtroom, there will be new legal requirements place around the long-standing nude beach.
A major strengthening of the October abatement plan is at the center of the court’s ruling as the judge has called on the city to address his concerns over sexual activity in the park and implement a roster of policies specific to Denny Blaine:
- Custom Code of Conduct: Create a park-specific user plan to address safety, overcrowding, and acceptable behaviors
- Adequate Staffing: Deploy sufficient staff to monitor the park, report inappropriate behaviors, and ensure compliance
- Grounds Maintenance: Properly maintain vegetation to prevent and discourage hidden lewd acts
- Property Buffers: Establish physical buffers to block views of nude park users from adjacent homes and prevent trespassing
- Signage: Post clear instructions and disseminate informational materials regarding proper and improper behaviors
While the city pounds out the new Denny Blaine policies, the ruling seems unlikely to relieve pressure on the park’s place in the neighborhood. Friends of Denny Blaine has said private security guards hired by neighbors have been in place and reporting nudity to police as the legal proceedings continued earlier this summer.
With the new policies, Denny Blaine parkgoers will soon face more restrictions.
I am grateful to the friends of Denny Blaine for fighting the good fight. Considering the alternative, this feels like nearly as good a resolution as possible.
Friends of Denny Blaine deserve a key to the city. They are the true heroes in this story :)
My god, what a waste of time and resources.
I actually understand and sympathize with the complaint that a nearby park has become party central for whatever reason. If every day there were 50 people doing Nirvana singalongs at the Cobain park up the street, that might affect property values as well.
This “nuisance” however is considerably more predictable and historic, as well as being deeply connected with a demographic that has been systematically and unfairly targeted for “immoral” behavior for centuries. And it’s not like the nudity is new, though I do believe that the numbers have ramped up over the last decade.
In consequence I get that locals might want to say, “Look it used to be 10-20 people a day letting it all hang out. Now it’s ten times that. Let’s have a serious conversation about what that means for parking, noise, etc, and come to some agreement, maybe even make it official.”
But they escalated and backdoored instead and ended up looking like bigots and pearl-clutchers. Stay nude, Seattle!
There was a lot of evidence of a few creeps masturbating. Even though the city rightfully and embarrassedly state there’s this behavior in parks across city parks, legally there’s a case to be made that the creeps, not the nudity, is a nuisance
We need to hold the SPD accountable, with the amount of photos and videos they should be able to talk to and at least warn the creeps in the bushes, and a lot of the nude community wants the creeps gone. Instead under Chief Barnes the SPD decided the plan of action – documented in the OPA report – was tell everyone naked to put on clothes and arrest those who didn’t listen. No action was taken on the OPA report even though the officer admitted they aren’t following the law
Chief Barnes should be fired or at least strongly reprimanded
Spot on. Thank you and “like bye” to the Bruce regime. His goons are gone. They cost the city a lot more than money. They made us look like shit completely mishandling everything with photo ops in between. “Outreach” was a joke. Put cops in charge of LGBT ambassador who hated the gay community. Finally replaced by a gay dude. Had one right there the whole time! Musta overlooked him and kept him from being promoted or even recognised because he’s gay, openly even *dramatic music*. Suddenly? Silence from then on. Like no shit Sherlock…lol
These bad cops have cost Seattle tax payers 100’s of millions for bad behavior.
While Chief Shon Barnes is not personally named in major civil payouts as of mid-2026, his administration is facing active lawsuits. The vast majority of high-profile, high-dollar police lawsuits in Seattle involve his predecessor, former Chief Adrian Diaz. [1, 2, 3]
A breakdown of the lawsuits and legal actions involving both chiefs is as follows:
Chief Shon Barnes (Active & Ongoing)
Former Chief Adrian Diaz (Settled & Pending)
Other Notable SPD Lawsuits
Oh god…he’s discovered AI.
facts are a problem?
Yeah. “Not here for the gays ” Chief Barnes. That said, would often circle in on a bike ride and last few years, old guys jerking off on the top level. Not cool. Never saw that over many years in the past. I do not sympathize with Stuart Sloan but don’t like these old jerkoffs either, ruining what has been a safe LGBTQ place for so many years.
Agreed fully. I remember being there in 2024 and some creep was literally masturbating in the bushes and we yelled at him to get the fuck out.
It really is shocking that the SPD can’t stop the masturbation
Although not surprising cause I’ve seen multiple humans taking shits outside of Safeway on 15th. And there’s been creeps jacking off in Cal Anderson
The problem isn’t Nudity, the problem is Seattle allows creeps to jack off in all of our parks.
“But they escalated and backdoored instead and ended up looking like bigots and pearl-clutchers.”
“Looking like” because they are to the bone. And willing to spend 6 million on a home and legal fees and playgrounds and security guards and mines and boobytraps(see what I did there?).
That dude bought the house as an investment. Not a home. Not every home gets to go up in value every year for 40 years. Just here locally mostly. Lots of money think they can buy Seattle. Then mold it so they have a great investment portfolio.
These people know nothing about Seattle. They came in the last 30 years and simply ran the cost of living through the roof. Like locusts.
They can’t go back to panty raids at geh bars either. We shut that down as well. I wonder what soul crushing, culture dividing between haves and the nots scheme is next?
We got Katie squashing the NIMBY laws that are there for one reason. To stop everything from going ahead on housing especially. They cry about trees. Then ask for more parking. It’s so hypocritical it hurts. It’s also just pure evil in my book. Red lining is a thing still. We do not believe anyone has a right to own parts of Seattle and restrict and exempt everything because money equals litigation. The process is the punishment. And when one side is Godzilla $$$ and the other is Bambi? Well…That fight lasts a microsecond. Bambi loses everytime.
Okie-doke. Sure. You betcha. Dontcha know.
FWIW CM Hollingsworth was a big part in stopping the state raids of gay bars, which makes it so disappointing CM Hollingsworth stopped showing up for the Queer community, it was like as soon as it was Harrell election season CM Hollingsworth stopped caring about Queer issues and supporting us.
My take is the Bruce era was all performative. She’s your garden variety business owner who has a seat on the council.
Yeah well that’s actually not what happened with respect to the state and gay bars. If your going to bring it up you should have the follow through to state CM Hollingsworth actions, where CM Hollingsworth loudly stood up for the Queer community on the gay bar issue
um doesn’t Lee Keller have a huge conflict of interest with the King Country Accessor office? It looks like the judge didn’t take this into consideration at all, did the city lawyers not bring it up?
https://www.kuow.org/2026-06-15/criminal-charges-dropped-against-king-county-assessor
it sure would be nice if property values across d3 could be lowered and property taxes be dropped, Redfin is showing sale prices are dropping in d3
They be droppin’ nationwide.
Here in Seattle the Downtown towers are the biggest losers. But the account for less than 10% of the tax base. So 5% drop is not that horrible. Seattle is adaptable. Always has been and always will be.
Best way to increase the house properties around Denny Blaine is to up zone and turn the whole neighborhood in to a mixed community of renters and condos. The home owners would most likely make a ton from developmers.
Meh…Seattle needs to be walkable with real transit.
One thing people from all over the world mentioned was how walkable Seattle is and the transit is world class. That everything was right there in town near the venue. Making it a party atmosphere.
In other places? They built way out in the boonies for reasons of cost. All designed for cars to be main mode of transportation. It’s a stadium in the middle of nothing.
Here it is built into the neighborhood. Like The Cubs have. Our waterfront was the envy of the world as well. Being able to walk from Seattle center to the waterfront is big. Plus the Market. Then walk to the field for the game. Or watch party…lol…I heard 2/3 of the entire stadium did the march from the waterfront for USA. Both teams participated. It was a giant party.
This has to do with db how?
It’s far away from any real neighborhood. You can’t walk to the store ect.
Not disagreeing with your wider point but Wrigley is far better integrated into its neighborhood, with dozens of bars/restaurants of every stripe and budget, a lovely hotel, the El stop…all of it literally across the street on every side. And housing, right there! T-Mobile’s surroundings are much less vibrant…the train tracks don’t help. Now, here’s an idea: do a cut-and-cover tunnel for the freight/Amtrak rails and build housing and retail on the lid.
You are 100% right…lol
I think the train is a fun part of the park. The occasional horn. It could be better. But we have a deepwater port and the commerce on the west coast that takes priority.
“Seattle leaders including Harrell, District 3representative Joy Hollingsworth, and Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes were unable to broker peace around the park outside the courtroom”
That’s a pretty weak framing
Harrell – actively worked with Sloan on the playground, he didn’t show up to the community meeting and the park representative that did was very friendly with Sloan’s representatives at the meeting. Harrell wasted tax payers resources – Park Directors and staff – on a playground project that Seattle Parks Foundation would not work with the city on due to its impact on the Queer community.
CM Hollingsworth did show up to the community meeting with 400+ supporters of Denny Blaine and told us she listened and when she took office in a month she’d work to support us. Then in the testimony of the case it came out that after taking office CM Hollingsworth told the homers she was also disgusted and that she’d work to remove parking and to move the nudity out of Denny Blaine and into the abortorum. CM Hollingsworth choose to leave the change of policy out of her community emails or any other communication to the d3 voters
Under chief Barnes SPD officers went to Denny Blaine not to find the few creeps masturbating in the bushes, instead the SPD officers had a plan to tell everyone to put on clothes and arrest those that wouldn’t, which is a huge misunderstanding of the law. This is documented in the OPA report
Mayor Harrell, CM Hollingsworth and Chief Barnes all had HUGe failures wrt to supporting the queer community and should be held accountable
Those are more than failures to support or not support, they are failures of fundamental civic leadership responsibility on the part of each of them. Harrell long had a rep of lackluster timidity and passively bending to the power – two reasons he got bounced by a neophyte.
Can’t wait to bounce Joy from office forever. She’s pro business first.
Remember CM Hollingsworth ran as a queer voice and then turned on the Queer community
“Friends of Denny Blaine has said private security guards hired by neighbors have been in place and reporting nudity to police as the legal proceedings continued earlier this summer.“
is there no accountability for 911 calls on legal behavior?
“The court proceedings came two and a half years after an attempt by the city to add a children’s play area paid for by an “anonymous donor” to the popular nude beach park was stopped in its tracks by public outcry.”
Which is a total dick move and they know it. Thus they be unnamed.
And yes that was a total dick move.
How’s summer treating ya brother?
Thanks…going great so far. I broke down and got an indoor AC for my pad. It’s not overrated brother.
Extend the ruling to apply to all parks. It’s time we take them back from the criminals that have been destroying them.
Based on this if other local neighborhoods sue about tents, drugs and other behavior they will probably win. The problem is PR firms and lawyers cost a lot, so those living by 7Hills may not have the resources
FWIW Mayor Wilson should be vocal here and Mayor Wilson should be ashamed the city lawyers literally had a case that state all Seattle city parks have problems with drugs and masturbation and other issues
Mayor Wilson uses the Queer Community to promote her agenda around renting, she needs to show up for us and parks space is a huge renter issue
“all Seattle city parks have problems with drugs and masturbation and other issues”
All? That’s a whole lotta wanking. Wankers here, wankers there, wankers wankers everywhere! C’mon man. Why always with the over the top exaggerations?
You ever been to the other parks in d3? There’s quite a few junkies that use the parks for whatever they want
Cal Anderson had issues with guys jacking off and gun violence
The park next to Safeway on 15th has had people take shits in front of me on multiple occasions
Volunteer park is a well known hook up spot that you can find people fucking after dark.
7 hills has shootings
Pretty much all parks in d3 has nuisance issues
Judkins has had shootings
Smooth you just refuse to admit the state of parks in d3. They’re all nuisance propertie that any Mayor should be working to improve
Anecdotal, but one of my best friends is a long-time (~40 years) Seattle real estate agent and he said one of the most notable changes he’s seen in our market over that time is the relatively recent 180-degree switch in how people view proximity to parks. It used to be a reason you could ask more for a house…now he says more buyers are uneasy and want to be as far away from parks as possible. Too many people experienced and/or saw CHOP, Williams Place, Miller, 7 Hills, Tashkent, Ballard Commons…on and on and on. Parks can morph into garbage, drug, noise and crime dens practically overnight, with sometimes months of renters and owners trying to end the nightmare.
“now he says more buyers are uneasy and want to be as far away from parks as possible.”
A lot of that is bullshit. My daughter is a relator. She sees no differences really. The market has cooled a bit. People are not over paying for homes. But parks and schools are still highly desirable. She’s also really good at selling homes.
These are isolated and one off crap. It’s a city. It’s a little grungy. But to say nobody cares? Yeah okay…I understand the issue and it’s not ignored that’s for sure.
This “pretty much all” statement is also a bit much. I don’t go to “pretty much every park” as you must. This notion that your made up story is all happening all at once is a bad joke.
I have been to a few places you mention and I do not see it anymore. During and after Covid? Yes…You have a valid point. But today? Now, it’s a half story. There’s issues here and there. It happens. But it’s not the apocalyptic disaster you and the rest of the MAGA types are Henny Penny over.
Smooth have you paid any attention to the reporting on this site on 7Hills?
No man…Just here. I don’t doubt what you are saying. I am saying yes, but you are making it sound like a blizzard. It’s not.
We need more money and people power. Trying to restrict aid teams is a cop union move. These people are trained for mental health and drug addiction intervention. The cops are cops. Then the idiots decide if they need a care team? Sounds totally logical.
More people doesn’t mean cops only. It means every resource on the table.
Also I meant all or most parks have nuisance issues as the city themselves stated in the lawsuit, not all parks have wankers. Fentanyl usage is seen in most d3 parks, although some it’s clearly worse than others. Those who live close to Safeway on 15th have most likely experienced fentanyl usage and lewed behavior in parks in the mayors own neighborhood
Right…and these people got nowhere to go. No jail no rehab no housing or medical. How would you handle it w/o violating the constitution?
alot of meth addicts everywhere sprinkled about.
That park across the street from Safeway you mean? And kinda on the side near the bus stop right? That I do see. Dunno what the name is. Ain’t anywhere near what it was though. I refused to shop there it was a war zone. I shopped on Madison.