Seattle Fire back for more ‘live’ training across from Broadway Hill Park

A scene from the March training at the corner

Development of new housing near Broadway Hill Park will bring another opportunity for Seattle Fire Department crews to hone their firefighting skills.

SFD will be at the corner of Federal and Republican this week for three days of live-training involving plenty of real smoke and flames:

Today, the department will have 4-6 fire evolutions spread throughout the day each lasting 15-20 minutes. Residents will see smoke as controlled burns are set inside the vacant apartment structure. All carpet, plastics and toxic synthetic materials have been removed along with required asbestos abatement. The training officers will set wood fires in a controlled method with safety officers on-hand during the exercises.

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Seattle Fire battles blaze in basement of boarded-up house set to be demolished for new apartment building across from Broadway Hill Park

A boarded-up 1904-era house on the list for years for demolition to make way for new development next to Broadway Hill Park burned Friday night as Seattle Fire battled a stubborn basement fire.

Seattle Fire was called to the southwest corner of Federal and Republican around 10:30 PM to the reported basement fire in the single family style, one story structure. Continue reading

Broadway Hill sweep: Two referrals to a ‘shelter surge’ hotel, five ‘voluntarily relocated,’ and a bin of personal belongings

City crews are at work in Capitol Hill’s tiny Broadway Hill Park after Wednesday morning’s deadline for removing personal property from the public greenspace.

Seattle Parks and the Human Services Department say two people living in the park were referred to shelter at the Executive Hotel Pacific, one of the city-leased in a “shelter surge” effort to move more people out of camps as COVID-19 slows. One of the referrals came Wednesday morning, the city says, while five others “voluntarily relocated out of the park.” Continue reading

Dear humans, it’s time to help shape the design of new housing across from Broadway Hill Park

“Dear humans, I’m sad to say this will be my last spring bloom with you all…” (Image: @maniftendst)

There is good reason for the City of Seattle’s streamlined design review process. And there is good reason for new housing across from rare Capitol Hill parkland. But it doesn’t make the scene passed by on so many COVID-19 walks at Federal and Republican any less melancholy. The little house and the blossoming tree are, indeed, enjoying their final season.

The proposed project by Mercer Island-based Sealevel Properties at 1013 E Republican will use the outbreak-streamlined administrative design review process and is part of a sudden, busy pulse of review activity across Capitol Hill. It’s time to add your comments before the proposal is assessed. Owing to coronavirus restrictions, the city has adjusted development regulations to cut out the in-person meeting with the design review board and allow developers to instead go through an administrative process with a public comment period. The comment period for the project opened with notices to neighbors two weeks ago. It closes May 26. Continue reading

Net-zero energy project will connect to an uprooted house behind Broadway Hill Park

Screen Shot 2016-08-08 at 4.32.59 PMWe have seen old houses relocated to make space for a new apartment building, but linking the two structures to create a single property may be a first on Capitol Hill. Retrofitting the house and designing the new apartment building to meet some of the strictest environmental standards in the U.S. is definitely a first.

The unique plans for 11th and Republican Passive House Apartments faces another round of design review Wednesday night. The outcome of the meeting also carries a special significance for the neighborhood as the building will serve as the new backdrop to the recently opened Broadway Hill Park.

(Image: CHS)

(Image: CHS)

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Broadway Hill Park, Capitol Hill’s new ‘front porch,’ celebrates grand opening after years of community effort

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After more than six years of work by the community, Broadway Hill Park is officially open. At the Thursday night celebration, Mayor Ed Murray and the neighborhood residents responsible for the park’s creation spoke about the hard work it took to get the project off the ground. An impressive number of neighbors came to the celebration to enjoy what the park’s creators hope will become a communal yard for a neighborhood lacking in green space.

“This is a huge, open, inviting space,” said Kathleen Shea, a Capitol Hill resident involved in the park’s development and speaker at the celebration. “It was designed to be the front porch of the neighborhood.”

Community members say it took years of meetings and surveys to collect input and long nights writing grant applications to arrive at the final creation. Continue reading

Broadway Hill Park, last of its kind, now open on Capitol Hill

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It just might be the last of its kind. The fences have come down around Broadway Hill Park, 12,000 square feet of grass, benches, community gardening space, and a sure to be popular BBQ grill in the middle of Capitol Hill. There may never be another.

Seattle Parks acquired the land at the corner for Federal and Republican in 2010 for $2 million after a townhome project slated for the property fell through. In the time since the project started, Parks has opened small greenspaces just off E Olive Way at the garden-filled, skateboard-popular Summit Slope Park and near 15th Ave at the sleepy Seven Hills Park. It also opened 12th Ave Square Park across from Seattle U, but even that woonerf-y paved square featuring sculptures and seating doesn’t appear to be the direction Parks will be taking for future Capitol Hill-area open spaces. Continue reading