Category Archives: Parks & Greenspace

What’s Up With That Fence?

Some neighbors of the Crown Hill School site have noticed that a new fence (without gates) has been erected across the paved area from approximately the southern addition to the building to the fence at the 13th Ave edge of the property. According to Catherine Weatbrook of the Crown Hill Project:

“The new fence, is a licensing issue for Small Faces and some barrier has always been in the plans.  With purchase rapidly approaching, we’re required to have a fence ASAP.  The current temporary fence meets an immediate need so Small Faces can remain open.  The next working group meeting will have a portion devoted to a discussion of what fence gates would make the most sense to all to allow pedestrian flow and allow license compliance, and satisfy parks requirements .  Look forward to your input on 2/19.  If you’re unable to attend at that time, you can provide your location/opening feedback before then either through me ( Catherine.Weatbrook@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 206.372.2033), or through another community member.”

The next working group meeting will be held at the school on Thursday, February 19th, at 6:30 PM in room 7 (no food or beverages please). Some portion of the meeting will be devoted to discussion of the fence and gates for ingress and egress.

In the plans for the future Crown Hill Park, a 30 foot strip along the east side of the property at 13th Ave NW is dedicated to a vegetated swale and walking area. Small Faces Child Development Center has until now used orange cones and a section of orange snow fence to keep playing children from straying. Lynn Wirta (director of Small Faces) has also indicated that some neighbors let their dogs run off-leash, and the fence will prevent the dogs running amongst the children at play.

Holman Road Median Study Meeting

December 10 at 7:00pm
Journey Church , 9204 11th Ave NW

On Thursday, December 10 at 7:00pm CHNA and the Crown Hill Business Association will host a community meeting to review designs for a series of planted medians for a section of the Holman Road / 15th Ave NW corridor.  Produced by a team of students from the University of Washington’s Community, Environment, and Planning Program, these designs reflect the feedback received from over 290 Crown Hill residents through an online survey, as well as conversations with SDOT, Metro transit officials, and business owners along the corridor.

The student team will present several options for your comment.  Feedback from the December meeting will be used to produce their final design recommendations.  Far from being merely an academic exercise, it is our hope that together we can create a design that will actually be implemented. The Holman Road / 15th Ave corridor is a dominant feature in our community, and improvements to the corridor have the potential to make our neighborhood safer for both drivers and pedestrians, nicer looking and greener.

Carkeek Park Salmon Migration Walk

Saturday, November 28th
10 AM to noon (or so)
Meet-up under the big oak tree at 13th and 95th

Crown Hill resident Doug Gresham will be leading a walking tour to observe the migration of salmon up Piper’s Creek in Carkeek Park. Doug has worked on making the creek more friendly to salmon returning to spawn, helping to design and construct some of the habitat improvements.

This is our third annual Thanksgiving walk to the creek and is a rain or shine event. An ideal antidote to all of that sleep-inducing tryptophan (http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question519.htm) ingested on Thanksgiving day. Come join your neighbors for a gently-paced, child-friendly amble to Carkeek Park. At previous walks, sharp-eyed participants have spotted masked marauding bandits (raccoons) sleeping in the tree-tops as well as hawks, woodpeckers, and other wildlife in addition to salmon.

Parks Levy passes!

Proposition 2 (Parks Levy) passed.

The November general election had a great turnout in the 36th district. Of particular interest to us in Crown Hill was the fate of the parks levy. This was especiallly important to our neighborhood as the acquisition and development of the park on the Crown Hill School Site was dependent on continued support from the measure.

The Crown Hill Neighborhood Association thanks all those who voted in support of parks in our city. And not just support of our park, but the preservation of green space city wide for future generations. Thanks to everyone who voted for Proposition 2, and to all who worked to pass out flyers, agreed to put a yard sign on your property. The passage of the levy sends a clear message to our elected representatives that Seattle resident support our parks in good and bad economic times.