We will be meeting in person at the Delridge Branch LibraryMeeting Room, Wed. 1/22 at 6:30PM*
While Highland Park, Riverview and South Delridge sit along a ridge, we have huge environmental impacts on the watersheds to our east and west. This month our meeting will hear reports from both sides, Longfellow Creek along Delridge and the Duwamish Waterway.
We are super excited to have guest Pamela Adams from BeaverInsights coming to discuss her research and observations of the beaver families living in Longfellow Creek.
It’s easy to pass over or near this urban creek daily without noticing it’s presence, but up and down the creekbed, from Nucor Steel to the Roxhill Bog, several families of beavers, plus other wild critters, have taken up residence and are busily going about their lives. Find out more about them and learn about the benefits they bring to water quality and salmon habitat. You can also follow Pamela on Facebook here!
On the Duwamish Waterway side, we will be hearing about progress in the plans for the new West Duwamish Wet Water Treatment Facility, soon to be built near the base of the Highland Park Way hill. King County Wastewater staff will update us on the design and upcoming construction milestones.
As usual, we will have a chance to speak with representatives from the Seattle Police Department about any public safety concerns. The Southwest Precinct building sits directly atop Longfellow Creek, as it runs through an underground culvert below the Home Depot parking lot.
Our meetings are free and open to the public, please join us!
*Note the early start time of the January meeting due to Library hours.
Hope all are enjoying this brisk weather and spooky time of year. HPAC will be gathering online this meeting for our monthly discussion.
We will have a change to chat with public safety folks, and hear more from King County Metro regarding planning for changes on the 125/128 bus routes through Westwood, Highland Park and Riverview.
As you may recall, riders were taken unaware and alarmed by notices Metro put up at various stops on these services last February.
As promised here, Metro staff are returning to HPAC on Wednesday as part of a second round of engagement regarding proposed bus stop changes on 16th Ave SW between SW Holden Street and SW Henderson St. The updated proposal has been substantially revised in response to community feedback received in early 2024. Metro staff want to share details on the new proposal and to hear feedback from the HPAC meeting attendees. All users of these routes are invited to attend.
Time permitting, we will take a quick dive into Mayor Harrell’s One Seattle Plan, the update to the Seattle Comprehensive Plan long in the works. There are some modest changes in Westwood Highland Park and South Delridge areas. Comment online here.
See you online Wednesday (link below), or join us Saturday Oct. 26 for the 4th annual Trick or Trees celebration at the Highland Park Corner Store. Great food and tunes, treats for kids, a pet costume contest and free trees!
Topic: HPAC Monthly Meeting Time: Oct 23, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Greetings to all! With signs of fall in the air and back to school traffic on the streets please be aware of buses and youth during your driving! Speaking of schools, after consideration, HPAC leadership has decided to cancel this month’s meeting due to recently announced meetings covering quickly developing local issues that need your attention that are in direct conflict with our usual time/date.
For those not aware, Seattle Public School Board has announced their plans around efforts to narrow their current budget shortfall. They plan to close and consolidate schools around the city, with two of the changes directly impacting students and families in our area. Both options currently on the table identify Sanislo and Louisa Boren STEM K-8 for closure as well as reallocating students to other locations, well covered by the West Seattle Blog here.
There will be two public meetings with School Board West Seattle/South Park director Gina Topp regarding this on Wednesday the 25th:
5-6 pm Admiral (West Seattle) Library, 2306 42nd SW
6:30 p.m. Genesee Hill Elementary, 5013 SW Dakota St.
In addition, there will be a public drop in to view/review the final EIS documents for the ST Link Light Rail service to West Seattle, which goes public Sept. 20.
When: Wednesday, Sept. 25, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Where: Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW, West Seattle
Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali interpretation will be provided.
Show up and make your voice heard! On other fronts-
HPAC leadership team remains in contact with SDOT regarding the Highland Park Way Connection project and will bring back information as it develops.
Also regarding the new MetroFlex service for our area, SDOT is now offering free rides to try the service. Here are a few more details about this program.
The sponsored ride code must be added to the user’s account by OCTOBER 15, 2024. Rides must be used by DECEMBER 31, 2024.
Each person can use up to four sponsoredrides.
Instructions on how to add the code to the Metro Flex app are on page 2 of this attachment. The sponsored ride code can also be used with a call center agent if the user does not want to use the phone app.
Rides are only valid in the Delridge/South Park service area. There is no refundable value to the rides.
Sponsored rides are provided by the Seattle Department of Transportation through the voter-approved Seattle Transit Measure.
Plus SAVE the DATE for Trees– join us on October 26 12-4pm for the 2024 Trick or Trees event-
School’s out and summer is here, we are cancelling this month’s meeting! Your HPAC eBoard continues working behind the scenes on a collaborative response to the Highland Park Way SW Connection design proposals from SDOT, we’ll keep you posted on those efforts.
Also, super neighbor Matthew is still pursuing resolution of the “Humm” problem from the Cal-Portland terminal equipment. We will let you know if we need folks to start adding their voices to that effort. Hopefully the new muffler(s) will be installed shortly!
If you are in town this July 19th, consider attending this fun, gala fundraiser for the Duwamish Tribe. Food, fun, native arts and a chance to help support the efforts of the tribe’s cultural initiatives.
Greetings to all. We wanted to send this notice out a bit earlier than usual due to some big planning and events happening soon in the neighborhood!
With the Highland/Holden intersection work almost completed, the Highland Park Way bike lane and pedestrian improvements project is now looking for comments & providing planning opportunities.
As noted on their website: “The Highland Park Way SW Connection project is intended to provide an improved path for people to walk, roll, and bike between the Highland Park and Riverview neighborhoods and the Duwamish River Trail.”
Besides connecting bikes and walkers from our ridge to the trail, this route serves as a major vehicle arterial in and out of West Seattle at large, carrying an important part of area traffic loads. So far planners are focusing on narrowing the Highland Park Way hill to three lanes of vehicle traffic to make this connection, if you have other ideas or suggestions we encourage you to be involved now.
SDOT has some preliminary plans posted online, and representatives will be attending our May HPAC meeting at 7pm on May 22nd. We will be using Zoom this month. You can log in to our meeting via the link below.
In addition, there will be SDOT folks at Highland Park Corner Store events on May 16 and 23rd for in-person conversations, as well as other nearby events, the West Seattle Bee Festival in High Point on May 18th, and Spring Fling at the SCC Campus on May 22. Times are found on the project webpage. SDOT encourages you to Share your thoughts by June 15!
Other News and Opportunities:
If you are looking to pitch in and help out the community, the One Seattle Day of Service on May 18 has multiple opportunities in Riverview and South Delridge! Come on out for planting, traffic circle restoration and neighborhood outreach events. More information and signups are found here.
If you were not able to make it to our discussion in April, the Highland Park/Delridge Healthy Streets project is still under review and open for comment(s). Three sections of the closures are under consideration for more permanent traffic restrictions. At the meeting we heard a lot of feedback about the SW Trenton St. section, if you have thoughts on 15th SW or 21st SW portions we encourage you to respond to SDOT via the contacts on the project page here.
You can read more about the planning process and get maps of the changes being considered via this West Seattle Blog coverage.
HPAC Coalition Hopes you can join our Zoom meeting:
Time: May 22, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
In addition, there will be SDOT folks at Highland Park Corner Store events on May 16 and 23rd for in-person conversations, as well as other nearby events, the Bee Festival in High Point and Spring Fling at the SCC Campus. Times and locations are found on the project webpage. SDOT encourages you to Share your thoughts by June 15!
(*note early start time due to library location hours)
As folks are starting to get out and about, gearing up for spring and summer walking and rolling, SDOT will be our guest this month to talk about the future for the Delridge/Highland Park Stay Healthy Street network. All users of the routes in question are welcome, regardless of where you live.
These routes were put in place during the pandemic to broaden access to safe outdoor spaces. Most often they were installed along existing or planned Neighborhood Greenways. Streets being considered for changes include portions of 21st Ave SW, 15th Ave SW, 17th Ave SW, 11th Ave SW, SW Webster and SW Trenton noted in dashed purple lines on this map.
We understand that Planners want to hear:
What part of the network should be kept and improved?
What kind of barriers, amenities and signage are preferred?
What part(s) should return to general usage?
We will also expect to have Seattle Police Department representatives on hand to answer community questions and hear any concerns.
Look forward to seeing folks in person!
General announcements:
Just in!! We have an Update on “The HUMM”. From concerned resident Matthew H who has been leading outreach on this quality of life issue:
“I’ve been in touch with CalPortland and they conceded their industrial vacuums are creating noise. The mufflers they installed wore out faster than they thought they would. They assured me that the new mufflers would be installed by the end of the month.”
For those not aware, or new to the area. These huge vacuums are used by the concrete supply companies along the Duwamish Waterway to unload powdered materials shipped here to use in their products. Hopefully they are able to get these repaired shortly as promised!
From SPD:
The Seattle Police Department will be hosting DEA Drug Take Back Day on April 27th 10:00AM to 2:00PM paired with a Shredathon to aid our communities in properly disposing of unwanted or expired medications and unwanted documents ALL IN ONE PLACE! We are thrilled to have partnered with Iron Mountain Shredding, who have generously donated their shredding services to benefit the communities of Seattle. This will be a free event, but we will be accepting canned and dry goods to benefit food banks in each drop-off location’s precinct.
West Seattle location: Southwest Precinct: 2300 SW Webster St, Seattle WA
With spring starting to role in in earnest, HPAC has a light meeting agenda this week. We won’t have any speakers or presentations, just a Zoom “Open House” for folks to drop in and say “Hi”, maybe bring up concerns or things to share. You’ll find the meeting link below. (We have an upcoming in-person meeting with Councilperson Saka shortly, and will be happy to bring up what we hear from you with him.)
We also have a couple of opportunities to announce:
Email HPAChair and we’ll pass you along to the HUB organizers. If you don’t know about the neighborhood HUB project, check here for more information. Basically, it is a pre-planned site to gather with communication protocols in place to assist in the event of a large earthquake or other infrastructure disruption. Once you have been oriented and been to a practice session or two, it requires little volunteer time, plus you can gain useful knowledge to protect your home and family in the event of a disaster.
We are also interested in connecting with anyone who worked on the Delridge Triangle Park planning, which happened in 2017-18, or lives near the site at 18th SW & SW Delridge. Seattle Parks Department is looking to improve open space opportunities for South Delridge and wants to hear from you in support of expanding this open space for the area.
Meanwhile your HPAC eBoard is working hard on issues to bring up at future meetings – watch for updates on the Stay Healthy Street(s) in our area, planning for bicycle improvements on Highland Park Way, and future updates from Metro on the 125/128 line service improvements. We hope to be in-person for our April meeting, until then we’ll see you online:
HPAC Coalition is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Welcome to spring time in Highland Park! We are gathering on zoom this month for our February meeting. Find the meeting link below.
Early signs of spring are popping up everywhere, including these signs from metro King County looking for input on dropping stops on the 125, 128 & 60 bus lines between Westwood Village and SW Holden, theoretically to speed up and make service more timely. Be sure to write to Metro at BusStopSW@kingcounty.gov to let them know what you think about the stops selected for closure. Comments have now been extended through March 14.
We will also be bringing you updates on the Sound Transit Delridge station planning process (and possibly new information on the south Delridge triangle area).
We are also asking for updates from public safety and outreach personnel on encampments on 1st Ave at South at Myers Way and Delridge across from the police station. Feel free to bring any other public safety concerns.
Finally, big congratulations to the Highland Park Improvement Club for making it through the strenuous city Master Use Permit process and moving us one step closer to rebuilding the heart of our neighborhood!!
HPAC Coalition is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Greetings and Happy New Year to all – friends and neighbors of Riverview, Highland Park, and South Delridgeand looking forward to the upcoming Lunar New Yearof the green wood Dragon!
HPAC announces our first gathering of 2024. We are meeting this month in person on Wednesday the 24th at the Southwest Library Branch, the meeting begins at 6:30- and will conclude by 7:45. This is a bit earlier than usual, due to the library open hours. We promise to have some snacks on hand for any coming directly from work. We know that location is a bit far from our parts of West Seattle, but we are trying out some alternative places to meet this year while the HPIC hall goes through rebuilding!
Seattle Public Utilities staff working on the Holden Natural Drainage System project at 17th and SW Holden will update meeting attendees on their work adding a swale and natural drainage to this area, as well as improving traffic safety on SW Holden. Here’s a link to their webpage.
Marcus White, co-chair of the City of Seattle Community Involvement Commission has generously offered to come and talk about the commission and their work. The Community Involvement Commission advises the Mayor, City Council, and the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods on equitable public engagement strategies with a focus on underrepresented communities.
Your HPAC eboard is also working to have representation from the new Cares Team branch of 911 as well as an officer from Seattle Police Department in attendance, schedules permitting.
Looking forward to meeting and seeing folks in person – hope you can make time to attend. Bring your ideas and concerns!
General Announcements:
We encourage all who may not have heard about this opportunity to comment on the Public Art component of the West Duwamish Wet Weather Storage Facility to do so by Jan. 26. Artist Ann Marie Schneider was selected to create the piece. This art will be a part of the fencing that King County will have around the facility to protect the installation, but it will also be a great opportunity to express public hopes and dreams for a cleaner, healthier Duwamish River.
In the community room at the Southwest Police Precinct building ~ 2300 SW Webster St, Seattle, WA 98106
Hope all are still enjoying the warm fall weather and looking forward to meeting with folks in person this month. Since the HPIC building remains in the SDCI permitting process, SPD has offered us the use of their community meeting room for this month.
Special guest for the evening will be Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison to answer your questions about her office’s work around public safety. Here she answers questions at last month’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting as reported in the West Seattle Blog.
Some folks may have noticed these signs up around Highland Park Playground and parts of South Delridge. Neighbor Jack Conness of South Delridge is asking the community to weigh in regarding his ideas for more traffic calming and pedestrian/bike infrastructure in the area. Have a look and comment here. He plans to submit these to SDOT before Oct. 23rd.
General Interest From the HPAC Inbox:
HPIC/ HPAC and King County Wastewater Treatment team up with Dirt Corps to give away free native trees and shrubs at our 2023 Trick or Trees event – Saturday Oct. 28, 12-4pm – Includes a pet costume contest and fun food and music from the Highland Park Corner Store.
If you haven’t driven through the Highland/Holden intersection lately, we are happy to share that all the ground work and paving is finally complete for the installation of the permanent stop lights later this winter. Next month we expect to see the public art piece arrive, “Where’s the Party”, by Artist Matthew Mazzotta.
SPU has been in contact us with information about this helpful program for homeowners facing difficulties with their sewers. Many are aging out here in this area and can require costly repairs. A side sewer is the pipe that carries sewage from toilets, showers, and sinks to the city’s main sewer line. Often homeowners are unaware that it is the property owner’s responsibility to maintain and repair the side sewer. Side sewer repairs can be expensive and a risk to your family’s health. As a result, we have a program to help repair your side sewer through grants or loans called the Side Sewer Assistance Program. Learn more about the program here. We also wanted to share a survey for our Side Sewer Assistance Program for program incentives if you as a community member are interested in providing input.
HPAC 