Six acres of ridge-top property in the West Duwamish greenbelt - once slated for surplus sale by the city for private condo development - are on their way to preservation as public open space.

The Seattle City Council's committee on parks, education, libraries and labor is scheduled to take up the matter Sept. 19.

Neighbors in the Riverview neighborhood objected four years ago to the city's proposed sale of the top of a 30-acre slice of the greenbelt, Seattle's largest forest. They wanted the ridge to be part of the greenbelt, not the residential area. The city relented and withdrew the land sale offer.

The West Duwamish greenbelt is a 181-acre forest along West Seattle's eastern edge. It is the largest greenbelt in Seattle.

The property at issue is between Morgan and Holly streets, with a western boundary at 15th Avenue Southwest. Besides the six acres that had been for sale at the top of the greenbelt, another 25 acres runs eastward and drops downhill to West Marginal Way by the Duwamish River.

"We're so happy," said Nancy Whitlock, director of the Nature Consortium, a nonprofit environmental organization based in the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. She joined with residents of the Riverview neighborhood to preserve the West Duwamish greenbelt. Her organization does a lot of forest restoration in West Seattle's eastern flank.

The ridge of the West Duwamish greenbelt includes several wetlands frequented by migratory as well as stay-around birds, Whitlock said. Thirty-five species have been spotted in the greenbelt.

The West Duwamish greenbelt also provides a noise-and-pollution buffer between West Seattle and the Duwamish industrial corridor.

More and more urban hikers are turning up on the greenbelt's trails, Whitlock said. Unfortunately so are all-terrain vehicles and motorbikes, she said.

The property had been purchased during the 1960s for a highway-and-bridge project called Sound Way. The highway would've cut across West Seattle to Fauntleroy and a bridge across Puget Sound to Vashon Island.

A few years ago, the city inventoried its surplus properties with plans to sell. Planners pointed out the sales-worthiness of the potential view lots at the ridge of the greenbelt.

But neighbors objected and urged the city to preserve the land as publicly owned open space.

The city gave the community nine months to raise $1.3 million for the land to be designated as open space, Whitlock recalled.

Opponents of the greenbelt land sale raised $6,000. Then West Seattle Sen. Erik Poulsen sponsored a bill in the Legislature contributing $500,000 toward the project.

Mayor Greg Nickels decided the community had raised enough money and the state to offset the city's loss of potential revenue, so he declared the matter settled.

If approved by the full City Council this fall, the swath of West Duwamish greenbelt could be officially designated as open space. The land would be transferred from the Department of Transportation to Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at timstc@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.