After their first meeting with Seattle Department of Transportation and acquiring more than 30 planters earlier this month, the East Ballard Community Association has made progress on its “beautification project” that they hope will create more character and unity in the neighborhood.

Last April, the group hosted an Adopt-A-Street and Planting party where five or six different plants where chosen and placed in the curb bulbs at the crosswalk in front of Blowing Sands (14th and 58th.)

“This is sort of a planning scheme that will allow people to identify themselves as members of East Ballard,” Shannon Dunn, member of East Ballard Community Association and the 14th Avenue Steering Committee previously told the Ballard News-Tribune.

Hoping to replicate the plantings in planters at each end of the the gravel medians along 14th Avenue Northwest, thee group set up a discussion with Darren Morgan, field operations manager with the Seattle Transportation Department's Urban Forestry, to find out what their options were.

The group discussed how they would like to use the planters from the Third Avenue Merchants Association to incorporate them in the beautification project.

“These planters are coming from the Third Avenue Merchants who had them there for a year,” Dunn said. “But it was costing them too much money to maintain them and it’s a different environment because people were sticking cigarette butts or sitting on them so they’d have to replace them constantly.”

Now with 30 planters available, Dunn said they’ve set them aside and East Ballard may have preliminary approval to relocate them on 14th Avenue.

“What we’d like to do is use two planters at each end of the gravel medians between Northwest 65th and Market Street,” she said.

The ends of the medians are about 30 feet wide and the planters are about five feet by 18 inches. The two planters would cover about 10 feet at each end of the medians.

East Ballard would be using approximately 20 to 22 out of the 30 planters.

Catherine Weatbrook of the Crown Hill Business Association has also been involved with possibly acquiring the remaining planters for a few traffic circles in their neighborhood.

“The current plan has most, if not all, of the planters being used in the 14th Avenue project with a few possibly going into traffic circles,” Weatbrook said. “It’s a fluid plan right at this moment.”

East Ballard has also been tasked with a couple issues before approval for installation occurs.

In terms of maintenance, East Ballard is looking to either hire a watering service or start an Adopt-a-Planter program.

“(The transportation department) employs watering services and we did ask if there was a way to piggy back on their contract because they’re getting a discount because of the volume they have,” Dunn said. “But if that’s not a possibility we’re thinking it might be better to contract a watering service, make sure that parts get done and then fundraise to actually pay for the service.”

As for the Adopt-a-Planter idea, Dunn said it would be a little harder to control because they are concerned about how they will keep track of who and who is not caring for their designated planters. Maintenance may also bring up safety issues.

“We want to make sure if we choose to go the Adopt-a-Planter root that people are not at risk maintaining them on the street,” she said.

The group is choosing a combination of plants that are best for drought tolerance, sunny locations and wind, Dunn said.

Before any of that can happen, the city has to provide specifications for planter locations and permits.

“We would love to get this done in October, but we understand that we’re working with the city and other parties,” Dunn said.