Lake City Floodplain Park Update

Here are some notes I took about the 1.5 acre Lake City Floodplain Park (the big property on NE125th St that the city bought) at the Thornton Creek Alliance (TCA) meeting last night, July 29.

Our King County Council Representative, Rod Dembowski, has been a great help throughout the purchase process, both helping Seattle realize the value of buying it to help restore/protect the Thornton Creek Watershed, and procuring funds through grants to buy and develop it. Thanks, Rod!

We can be thankful, also, to the owners, who wanted the land to be used by the community, and to the real estate, who procured TCA first right of refusal for the purchase, which allowed the property to stay off the market long enough for the city to be persuaded it was worth buying.

The two houses will be torn down by the end of September, and a big black locust tree is scheduled to be removed so its prolific reseeding won’t be a constant problem.

A non-profit based at Magunson Park, Mid-Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group, has been tapped to lead the habitat restoration. Being a non-profit makes it easy to use grant money for the project. Goals are 1) make it a green space with community access; 2) improve flood storage in the watershed; 3) provide quality habitat for critters. Note: salmon can’t reach that property yet due to some culverts, but future plans include altering the culverts to allow salmon to come through.

Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Parks will be heavily involved, and will do the long-term maintenance when the project is completed. A consultant team has been hired to carry out the community engagement plan Mid-Sound Fisheries developed. Currently it is collecting info on neighborhood groups, churches, communities and such to reach out to. Pinehurst Community Council has asked to be on the list. The first community workshop will be virtual in the fall. A project website is being developed, from which you can sign up for the mailing list and take surveys.

Community feedback will include giving them ideas about neighborhood access to the park. There is no parking along NE125th St, so it will be a walk-to place. It is a floodplain, so access might be an overlook, or (my idea) a boardwalk, or???

The current schedule, assuming funding will keep rolling in, is:

• Winter/spring – Community engagement
• 2022-2023 – Preliminary design
• 2023-2024 – Construction

After the Mid-Fisheries Enhancement Group presentation, Warren King George, Muckleshoot Tribe Historian, suggested some indigenous names for the property.