Information from the City of Seattle

Establishing a route in the city that's safe for pedestrians, and skaters, bikers and others is the aim of a greenway, which is the subject of a meeting Nov. 19 near White Center. An Open House for a project to establish a greenway for the Highland Park/Delridge neighborhood. Over the past four months the City of Seattle has been gathering input and studying a neighborhood greenway along 21st and 17th avenues SW between the W Seattle Bridge Trail and SW Cambridge Street. The Open House is set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Project Update/Most Promising Route

Neighborhood greenways provide people of all ages and abilities with comfortable and attractive places to walk, ride a bike, skate and run. They are residential streets where speed and volume traffic calming measures discourage cars from avoiding main streets by cutting through on neighborhood streets: and signs and pavement markings are used to guide people along the route. Local access to homes along neighborhood greenways is always preserved. Visit our neighborhood greenways home page to learn more.

Project Description

The city is studying the neighborhoods to the east of Delridge Way SW to determine the potential for a greenway. Our study is focusing on the routes shown on the map shown here. SDOT is working with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to find opportunities to combine a greenway with natural drainage – rain gardens built along the edges of streets. Over the next six months staff will meet with community members to discuss the best route, what type of traffic calming and natural drainage improvements might be needed and develop a design. Improvements may include:

• Wayfinding signs, 20 mph speed limit signs and neighborhood greenway signs and bicycle pavement markings
• Medians or rectangular rapid flash beacons at major intersections
• Speed humps to help lower speeds
• New stop signs to control traffic crossing the greenway
• ADA ramps, crosswalks and crossbikes
• Bicycle parking at destinations along or near the route
• Natural Drainage Systems
• Project Funding

Project design of the neighborhood greenway is locally funded by the nine-year voter-approved Bridging the Gap Levy. The natural drainage portion is funded by SPU.

Project Schedule for Neighborhood Greenway Portion

July 2013: Public Meeting

Fall/Winter 2013: Meetings with community groups and preliminary design

Winter 2014: Final design and 2nd public meeting

Visit SPU’s web page to learn more about the schedule to construct natural drainage in Delridge.

Outreach

Last July, the city conducted a survey and held a public meeting to discuss possible routes for a neighborhood greenway in the Delridge/Highland Park community (read the presentation and display boards for more details). After analyzing data and reviewing public input, the most-promising greenway route is 17th Avenue SW from Roxbury to SW Kenyon or Holden Streets. More studies will be done to see how to best make the connection north of Graham Street up to the West Seattle Bridge Trail. We will have a meeting this fall to get additional input from community members on this alignment. Potential east-west neighborhood greenway routes are also being considered for implementation in the future.

What kind of public input did we consider?

Neighborhood survey responses (more than 280)
July 9 public meeting (more than 80 participants)
Input provided by community groups about:
Traffic safety concerns
Known drainage or sewer back-up problems, and
Places people wanted to walk and bike
Staff also walked and biked around your neighborhood to review different routes and observe locations and grades. Other information considered included traffic volume, speed, and collision data.

Project Questions and Answers.

Questions? Contact John Vander Sluis at john.vandersluis@seattle.gov or 206.684.4617.

Project Open House
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The Salvation Army
Multi-Purpose Dining Room
9050 16th Avenue SW

NOTE: To see a larger version of the illustration above click HERE.