Information from the City of Seattle

Delridge area residents have two current opportunities to provide input about the location of a future neighborhood greenway and natural drainage project on the east side of Delridge Way SW. The routes being considered would make it safer and easier to walk or ride a bike from SW Andover Street to SW Roxbury Street. Residents may provide their input about the choices via a survey arriving in mailboxes along the potential routes this week or by attending a community meeting on July 9, 6-7:30 p.m., at the Highland Park Improvement Club, 1116 SW Holden St.

The City of Seattle is working to make the Delridge neighborhood a safer and healthier place to live by making the streets safer for all users and by protecting Longfellow Creek from pollution. Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) manages stormwater throughout the city and right now is working in the Delridge neighborhood to prevent sewage overflows and polluted runoff from harming the creek. SPU is working with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to find the best walking and bicycling route – a neighborhood greenway – that could be combined with natural drainage – rain gardens built along the edges of the streets.

The initial review of information and visits to the neighborhood were used to identify five possible routes. Construction on a new neighborhood greenway along 26th Avenue SW is underway and SPU would like to know if people along that route would also like to have natural drainage located there.

The survey results and input from the July 9 community meeting will help to decide if one of the routes is feasible. The survey also asks for your input about known drainage issues in and around your home. SPU will use this information to identify up to 20 blocks where natural drainage could be built.

Community input will continue to be gathered this summer and fall. A recommendation about the conceptual design for the most-promising blocks for natural drainage would be made by the end of 2013. Residents of those blocks will also have opportunities to provide input during 2014 about the design of the natural drainage project. More information is available at www.seattle.gov/cso/delridge.