Nothing, it seems, is ever simple when plans for the city's parks are involved. But the proposal to fix up Marshall Park and the Betty Bowen Viewpoint at the end of West Highland Drive is especially complicated.
Technically, it's a viewpoint park, one of 24 in the city. But Seattle Parks and Recreation admits that a lack of maintenance over literally decades has resulted in trees that have grown so tall they block a significant portion of the view.
"The reality is, we haven't had the resources to maintain them," explained Mark Mead, senior urban forester for the Parks Department.
That's changed, and it's about time, according to Roger Belanich, who lives near the park on West Prospect Street. "The view has to be opened up; it belongs to the city," he said.
Belanich says he's not the only one who feels that way. "There's been a lot of support from a lot of neigh-borhood people."
But the vegetation-management plan (VMP) to restore Marshall Park has residents at the bottom of the park's incredibly steep slopes worried about the hillside coming loose and ruining their homes once the trees and groundcover have been cleared away.
One of them is Tracy Goodwin, a land-use attorney and president of Queen Anne Park Stewards, a group of 20 to 25 people, she said. "We've been focusing on vegetation-management plans," said Goodwin, who added that the group is starting with Betty Bowen.
Parks has developed a VMP for all of the viewpoint parks, and part of that effort was the completion of a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) checklist that supported a Declaration of Non-Significance for the projects, Goodwin said.
That's not good enough for her. "Given the fact that many of the parks contain steep slopes and are located in ECAs [Environmentally Critical Areas]," she wrote Parks in July, "the SEPA checklist fails to provide sufficient guidance as to how the VMP guidelines will be conditioned to protect the parks and neighboring parties against soil erosion, surface water damage and adverse aesthetic impacts."
According to Goodwin, the city's Critical Areas Ordinance governing slopes of 40 percent and more requires a deeper level of review, a full-blown Environmental Impact Study (EIS). That's something that would have been triggered if the checklist used by the Parks Department led to a Determination of Significant Impact.
"It's a completely different level of inquiry," Mead said of the EIS. Parks hasn't planned or budgeted for that, and it isn't necessary in any case, he added.
"In most cases, [the EIS] would be a lot more detailed, but it would govern the same issues," Mead said. "The outcome is pretty much the same."
However, Parks did commission a geotechnical report about Marshall Park that was prepared by Zipper Zeman Associated.
The plan
The report notes the proposed work consists of three phases. The first is removing and pruning trees. The second is eradicating invasive weeds and groundcover, covering the slopes with an erosion-control mat, planting layered vegetation and providing temporary irrigation. The third phase involves planting a hedge at the top of the slope.
"Based upon the subsurface exploration program and the slope stability analysis," the report states, "it is our opinion that the proposed work will not adversely impact the stability of the slope provided the following recommendations are incorporated into the final proposed scope of work."
Among those recommendations is that new trees be planted only on the lower half of the slope, along with covering the slope with an erosion-control mat as soon as possible following the removal of the invasive groundcover.
Goodwin said she was afraid that Parks was going to tackle the project on the hill all at one time. "That's been our concern all the way along," she added.
"That wasn't what we intended at all," Mead said. Instead the work would be staggered. Removing the groundcover would be done only during the dry season, while planting would take place in the wet season, he said. In between, hydro-mulch consisting of sticky, modified wood chips would be applied to the ground, along with a fabric cover if need be, Mead added.
"You don't need to put the fabric everywhere." New plantings would be put in place by cutting the fabric in areas where it is located, and the hydro-mulch serves three purposes, he said. It helps prevent erosion, it keeps invasives out and it provides biomaterial that creates better soil.
None of the steps he outlined involved new approaches, according to Mead. "We're talking about a series of best-management practices that evolved over 50 years."
The rationale
Goodwin thinks it would be wise to hold off doing any work at Mar-shall Park until the city updates its Critical Areas Ordinance. "It would be nice if they took it off the table," she said.
But Mead points out that Parks manages its property with specific purposes in mind. "And at this location, we manage for the view." It's a value that has been established for a long time, but the flipside is that 2,500 to 3,000 acres of Parks green- belt can't be clear cut by private property owners who want to improve their views, he said.
"The plan is a very reasonable one," according to Belanich, who said the park has been mistakenly portrayed as a slide area. "It hasn't slid, ever, in 103 years."
Goodwin concedes that there is no history of landslides at the park. "But no one has disturbed the slope," she countered.
Belanich charges that the whole issue has gotten caught up in "process" that is so popular in Seattle, and he said the money spent on detailed studies has been wasted. "It's just pathetic," Belanich groused.
He points to the same effort to reestablish views at Kerry Park just a few blocks away on Highland as an example of how difficult it is for Parks to do its job when even one person complains. "It's very hard for me to understand why people go to such lengths," he said.
Next steps
The plan for managing viewpoint parks in general and Marshall Park in particular will be submitted to the Board of Park Commissioners and Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds within the next three weeks, Mead said. He concedes it is a difficult situation for those involved.
"There's no doubt there will be an impact on them," Mead said of residents living near the viewpoint parks.
"The question is, is that impact more important than the value to the public?"
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.
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