Pedestrian crossing improvements at the intersection of Leary Avenue Northwest and 20th Avenue Northwest are the number-one priority for Ballard's share – approximately $90,000 – of the 2010 Neighborhood Projects Fund.

The Ballard District Council voted July 14 on its top four projects to be paid for through the $1.25 million fund, with that intersection topping the list. Rounding out the top four were pedestrian safety improvements at 14th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 59th Street and traffic circles at Northwest 67th Street and 18th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 83rd Street and 26th Avenue Northwest.

Every year, Seattle's 13 district councils are asked to review neighborhood proposals for improvements to parks or transportation through the Neighborhood Projects Fund.

A four-member Ballard District Council committee selected two new proposals and three proposals from the approximately 40 projects not funded last year to submit to the Seattle Department of Transportation for pricing and consideration.

In choosing the five projects, the committee considered which address a recognized unsafe condition, which will bring benefit to the largest number of people, which will not require a great deal of planing and design work, which will disperse the funds through the neighborhoods in the district, and which are cheap enough to be able to fund multiple projects.

Pedestrian crossing improvements at Leary Avenue and 20th Avenue were priced by the Department of Transportation at $7,000. The original project request was for a signaled intersection, but the site does not currently meet federal regulations for a traffic signal.

The current plan for the project is to move the current crosswalk across Leary Avenue from 20th Avenue to Northwest Vernon Place, said Dennis Galvin, member of the Ballard District Council's Neighborhood Projects Fund review committee.

He said the committee gave that project top priority because it directly affects public safety and is in a high-traffic area.

The second project, pedestrian safety improvements in the form of a curb bulb and crosswalk at 14th Avenue and 59th Street, was picked because it fits with what the East Ballard Community Association is doing to beautify and improve 14th Avenue, Galvin said.

That project was priced at $57,354 by the Department of Transportation.

The third project is a traffic circle at the T-intersection of 67th Street and 18th Avenue adjacent to Salmon Bay School. The project is priced at $18,500.

Galvin said the purpose of the traffic circle would be to slow cars down as they go past the school and playground.

The final project chosen by the Ballard District Council is a traffic circle at 83rd Street and 26th Avenue priced at $18,000.

The total cost of those four projects is $100,854, more than Ballard's approximately $90,000 share of the $1.25 million fund.

"It's better to be requesting more than we can get rather than to give money back," Galvin said.

The fifth project submitted to the Seattle Department of Transportation for consideration – a sidewalk/walkway on 17th Avenue Northwest from Northwest 85th Street to Northwest 87th Street – was priced at $95,000 and deemed too expensive by the review committee.

The four projects will now be considered for the city's 2011 budget.