A years-long struggle to find a location and build a new skateboard park at the Seattle Center appears to have ended following a unanimous Seattle City Council vote on Monday afternoon, Aug. 6.
The council chose the Pavilion site at Second Ave. N. and Thomas St. as the preferred location. The vote this week eliminated an earlier, unanimous recommendation by council member David Della's Parks, Education, Libraries and Labor Committee to build a new skateboard park at the current location of Everett DuPen's Fountain of Creation sculpture and wading pool just north of KeyArena.
The recommendation - which included relocating the sculpture elsewhere on the campus - was panned by several arts organizations, the DuPen family, the Queen Anne Community Council and even city council member Tom Rasmussen.
Following the uproar, Della and his committee backed off and chose the Pavilion location, instead, he said at the council meeting on Monday. "This site is supported by the Century 21 Committee," he added.
"I'm putting this amendment forward ... as a way to honor our agreement in the sale of Lot 2," Della said of a provision in the sale of the property to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its world headquarters.
It was a sale that called for the removal of the old skateboard park at the location and its replacement on or near the Seattle Center campus as soon as the old one was demolished - or, alternatively, that the center should be in an active planning stage for a new one when the old one was lost.
The sale went through two and a half years ago, and the old skateboard park was torn down in January of this year, Della noted.
Rasmussen offered up his own amendment of Della's amendment, calling for the council to include the possibility of putting the skateboard park on the Broad Street Green in case the Pavilion site didn't work out. However, the idea failed to get enough traction with the other council members, and it was voted down 5-4.
Still, dropping the Pavilion location would have been just fine with a number of people who spoke at the beginning of the council meeting.
Karen Gates-Hildt, vice-chair of One Reel's board, slammed the preference for the Pavilion because One Reel's yearly Bumbershoot Festival uses the space. The financial model for the festival is based on the number of venues and the capacity for patrons, both of which would suffer if the Pavilion were lost, she said.
Alan Silverman, who produces the Bite of Seattle, had similar objections to losing the Pavilion location. "There are no other places we can use."
Also expressing misgivings about razing the Pavilion were Andrea Wagner, executive director of the International Children's Festival, and Michael Herschensohn, executive director of the Northwest Folklife Festival.
But council member Richard Conlin noted that it was far past time to make the call. "We must hold the Seattle Center's feet to the fire by choosing a site," he said. Conlin also pointed out that the Century 21 Committee had already called for the demolition of the Pavilion site.
Council member Peter Steinbrueck noted that Portland, Ore., has 19 skateparks. "At the rate we're going, it will take us 80 years to reach that number," he groused.
But Steinbrueck was concerned about the timeline in Della's amendment, which called for the Pavilion to be demolished by the end of the first quarter next year and for completing a new skateboard park there by the end of next year.
By contrast, Steinbrueck's amendment to Della's amendment called for an open-ended schedule for razing the Pavilion so new venues for more than 200 events each year can be found. Steinbrueck's amendment also called for the skateboard park to be completed by the first half of 2009.
His amendment passed in a 6-2 vote with one abstention. But as noted above, the amended legislation finally calling for a new skateboard park at the Seattle Center passed unanimously.
One of DuPen's children, Destia DuPen Hermes, was on hand for the city council vote, and she was happy to hear that her father's work would be staying where it is. "It's a great relief that future generations can enjoy and love the DuPen fountain," she grinned.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink or 461-1309.
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