The Seattle Board of Parks Commissioners voted to build two loop trails in Orchard Street Ravine but not a public stairway as some neighbors had requested.

The board told Seattle Parks and Recreation to work with other city departments to explore the possibility of a future pedestrian connection through the ravine, which interrupts the southerly progress of 38th Avenue Southwest near the 7100 block.

The parks board's Feb. 23 decision clears the way for construction of the trails in the lower, relatively flat part of the ravine. Other work will include eradicating Himalayan blackberry, English ivy and other invasive species from the ravine and planting native trees and plants. Work is scheduled to begin this spring.

People living near the Orchard Street Ravine have been split over how best to reclaim the 2.2-acre property, which the city acquired through the Pro Parks levy voters approved a few years ago. Everyone seems to be in agreement that the blackberries and ivy should be replaced with Douglas fir, sword ferns and salal. But some people living near the ravine supported the parks department's loop trails idea. However other neighbors favored building a trail that would connect the higher elevation of the ravine with the lower. They suggested building a stairway or path down the ravine's steep slope to connect the higher northern side of the ravine, on 38th Avenue, to the bottom of the ravine on Orchard Street Southwest.

Karen Galt, a landscape architect with Seattle Parks and Recreation, told parks commissioners at a Feb. 9 meeting it would be best not to build on the slope. There are two types of soil in the Orchard Street Ravine slope so slides can occur, especially when the ground is wet, she said. The Orchard Street Ravine slope has a lot of water in it, she said.

Jim Young, member of a group calling itself Friends of the Orchard Street Ravine, cheered the Parks and Recreation proposal at the Feb. 9 meeting of the parks commissioners. He also voiced support for the plan to restore the ravine's wildlife habitat.

"We're eager to get started," Young said.

The plan is to build a small trailhead in the bottom of the ravine with a few parking spaces for visitors. That would dissuade some of the Illicit activities neighbors say occur in the Orchard Street cul-de-sac after hours. Galt said the parks department's proposal would bring more people to the ravine to hike the trails and enjoy the atmosphere. The presence of more people would lower the potential for crime in the ravine.

Numerous other people expressed support for the parks department's loop-trail plan. But some, such as neighbor Vlad Oustimovitch, accused people living closest to the ravine of "creating a park for themselves."

"The loop trail will benefit a very small group of people," he said. "They basically created a fiction that the community at large doesn't want access to the Orchard Street Ravine."

He also doubted assertions it would be unwise to build a pathway on the ravine's steep slope. Oustimovitch said he helps build hiking trails as a volunteer for the Washington Trails Association.

"That slope is easy," he said.

Another supporter of a trail through the Orchard Street Ravine, John Nuler, said it was a "great concept" to use such a trail to connect the highest elevation in Seattle, near the Myrtle Street water tower, all the way down to Puget Sound at Lowman Beach Park.

If a pathway were built through the ravine, it would be located just south of the 38th Avenue street end at the northern boundary of the ravine. Since that is within the right of way for 38th Avenue, any pathway through it would have to pass muster with the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Public stairways are not prohibited, said Patrice Gillespie-Smith, department spokeswoman. In fact, West Seattle has lots of public stairways, many of which were built in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration.

The difference is today architects must abide by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires public infrastructure to be accessible to disabled people. So a public stairway could be built down the steep slope in the Orchard Street Ravine, but it would probably have to be accompanied by switchback ramps that a person in a wheelchair could ascend and descend. If that were the case, the cost of stairs could be saved by building just a ramp.

The Pro Parks levy provided $175,000 to plan, design and build the Orchard Street Ravine project.

Trail work and reforestation could be completed by September 2007.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.