The lot adjacent to Salty's on Alki will see some improvements which include separating parking from the pedestrian/view area, installing a hard surface for benches and bicycle racks and landscaping.
Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Department of Transportation are working together to improve public street ends and shoreline access in a program called Shoreline Street Ends. The public street ends along Lake Washington, Lake Union, Puget Sound, and other waterways provide public access to the shoreline. The purpose of these projects is to provide physical and/or visual access to the shoreline and water environment.
The improvements slated for the s.w. Bronson Way spot, which is just an unimproved parking lot just to the south of Salty's Restaurant now, include separating parking from the pedestrian/view area, and installing a hard surface for benches and bicycle racks and adding landscaping. The address is taken from the actual street end, derived from City of Seattle maps, which explains why it is not a Harbor Avenue address.
The Parks and Green Spaces Levy passed by voters in November 2008 provides $146 million for improvements to neighborhood play areas, improved playfields, reservoir lid parks, community gardens, safety upgrades at city owned cultural facilities and funding for a healthy ecosystem for Seattle. This “green” funding has three types of projects: Forest and stream restoration, community gardens and shoreline access (see a full list of improvements paid for by that levy, for our area below, some of which are of course already underway or completed).
There are between nine and 13 sites that will receive improvements that may include signs, benches, bicycle racks and minor landscaping. The first three sites to receive minor improvements to further open these spaces for public use are located in southwest Seattle at s.w. Bronson Way next to Salty's Restaurant, S Fidalgo St., and Spokane St. E on the east side of East Waterway. There are roughly 22 sites in Southwest Seattle on the list (depending on your definition of boundaries since there are 2 along 1st Avenue South).
The Parks and Green Spaces Levy provides funding planning, design, permitting and construction for these projects. Seattle Parks is currently in the design phase and anticipates construction starting this fall.
Here's a list of local projects paid for under the Parks and Green Space Levy for West Seattle:
DELRIDGE SKATESPOT (Funding Reallocated From Myrtle Reservoir) - Development of a new skatepark. $250,000
DELRIDGE PLAYFIELD IMPROVEMENTS - Renovate this lit sand field to provide synthetic turf. $3,200,000
CAMP LONG - Renovation of environmental learning center facility. $1,000,000
FAIRMOUNT PLAYGROUND - Renovation to improve and address safety issues. $170,000
PUGET RIDGE EDIBLE PARK-Aquire a site to create an urban community farm which includes a community food garden and a test site for environmentally conscientious sustainability. Opportunity Fund $520,000
WEST DUWAMISH TRAIL - Create a linear park, including bicycle and trail improvements, along the Duwamish River. $2,000,000
GEORGETOWN PLAYFIELD WADING POOL - Conversion of wading pool to a spraypark. $400,000
WALT HUNDLEY PLAYFIELD IMPROVEMENTS–Renovate this field providing a synthetic turf playfield. $1,000,000
ROXHILL PLAYGROUND & SKATESPOT - Improving and addressing safety issues at the playground and development
of a new skatespot. $1,050,000
HIGHLAND PARK PLAYGROUND WADING POOL - Conversion of wading pool to a spraypark. $635,000
WEST SEATTLE RESERVOIR AT WESTCREST - Development of a park on the reservoir lid. $3,000,000
MARRA-DESIMONE FARM - Develop this park, which includes Marra Farm, Seattle’s largest urban gardening site,
in accordance with long-range development plan. $1,100,000