Duwamish Waterway Park Expansion

Location

1024 S Elmgrove Street, 98108

Budget

TBD

Acquisition: Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) funded the acquisition using the Parks Fund, with the expectation that the site planning process will identify a mix of grants and other sources to reimburse the Parks Fund. 

• The city and community were approved for a Conservation Future Tax (CFT) grant for open space purposes.

Design: The Duwamish Valley Program (DVP) secured $45,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Global Ideas for U.S. Solutions: Cities Taking Action to Address Health, Equity, and Climate Change to support the current site planning. This will fund the development of a site plan that reflects a community-led decision-making process and SPR reviews.

$100,000 is allocated through the Parks Fund (a revenue stream from scheduling and reservation fees) to support preliminary planning and design for the site.

Development: The final budget will depend on project timing and the result of site planning. Potential additional sources include King County Parks Levy and funds raised by partner organizations, including philanthropy. 

Schedule

Site Planning: 2021 - 2025
Design: 2025
Agreed Order - Site Clean-up: 2023-2028
Construction: TBD to occur after the Agreed order is complete - at the earliest, 2029.
Completion: TBD

Project Description

In early 2019, community members learned that the property owner was possibly interested in selling a site next to Duwamish Waterway Park on the river at 1024 S Elmgrove Street. The Duwamish Valley Program, working with SPR, the Duwamish Rowing Club, the South Park Area Redevelopment Committee, and the Seattle Parks Foundation, submitted a grant request to King County to buy the property.

The community saw the potential to improve Duwamish Waterway Park, increase access to the waterfront and create a River Walk of connected open spaces along the Duwamish River, and to build community-supportive spaces currently lacking in the neighborhood. In August 2021, Seattle Parks and Recreation purchased this property.

Through an agreement with SPR, the Duwamish Valley Program is working with community and agency partners, including SPR, to lead site planning for this 1-acre site next to Duwamish Waterway Park. The goals of planning are to advance neighborhood priorities for developing open space and community-supportive non-profit spaces, increasing access to the Duwamish River, restoring aquatic habitat, creating a network of connected open spaces along the Duwamish River, and expanding opportunities for cultural activities and uses for the site.   

The project will also be a learning opportunity for project partners to identify and learn about best practices for creating a community-led Duwamish Valley Resilience District, including shared funding, processes (e.g., shared decision-making, multisector collaboration), science (e.g., habitat), health equity, and anti-displacement. These will serve as a model for upcoming multimillion-dollar capital investments in the Duwamish Valley.

Community Participation

The Duwamish Valley Program and SPR worked with the South Park Capacity Building Group,  through which leaders from South Park community organizations collaborate and coordinate efforts to advance community priorities, to help guide community engagement and cooperate with agencies for the site planning. The Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition helped assess the need and interest of community-serving nonprofits for affordable office and program space.  

What has happened:

The site planning team wrapped up its first round of engagement in the summer of 2023. The purpose was to educate the community about the project and gather general input on the full site. During this engagement, we connected with the following organizations that represent Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. 80 community members responded to a multi-lingual survey that included English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Somali, and Khmer. 

• Duwamish Valley Youth Corps
• Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association  
• Duwamish River Community Hub 
• Vietnamese and other elders at a Senior Center Karaoke night
• Duwamish River Community Coalition  
• Duwamish Tribal members and council
• South Park Neighborhood Association meetings

The landscape architecture (site planning) and architecture (multipurpose building) firms compiled information into common themes. The landscape architect and architecture teams used this information to develop preliminary alternative site plan options. During the summer and fall of 2023, SPR reviewed and provided feedback to the design team. 

In 2023, Washington State Ecology issued an Agreed Order, moving the Site into a formal process under which Ecology will have more oversight over the cleanup than an independent cleanup process, including consistent and proactive community involvement and outreach. SPR is complying with the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Agreed Order.

Site planning paused for the first part of 2024 as the team understood the implications for the timeline and costs. At this point, it is unclear if there are organizations whose ability to partner with development fits with the funding parameters for this site. Due to this, SPR may not be able to move forward with a site plan that includes a building over 6,377 sq ft. SPR anticipates using King County Conservation Futures Tax (CFT) program funds to purchase some or all of the site. Future use of the property [acquired with CFT funds] is restricted to low-impact, passive-use recreation, which means that development of facilities to support organized/structured athletic activities such as ballfields, courts, and gyms is not allowed. A maximum of 15% (6,376.5 sq ft) of the total surface area of a proposed acquisition project may be developed or maintained with non-vegetative impervious surfaces, if shown necessary to provide for public use while protecting open space resources. Trail surfaces (soft-surface or paved) are not included in the calculation of this restriction.

What is happening in the future: 

We anticipate producing a report in 2025. This will include a map showing the general location and extent/size of uses, and a document summarizing input, design inspirations, environmental remediation strategy, and identifying implementation steps. The eventual development of park spaces would require future funding and more detailed engagement and design processes.