The calm after the storm: Lake City Beach Park
In 2018 Lake City Beach Park (aka NE 130th Street End) was added to the 149 street ends in Seattle and a neighborly dispute was put to rest. People got back to beaching and calm set in.
Lake City Beach Park (aka NE 130th Street End). Photo credit: Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times
It’s possible to solve street end disputes and provide an offramp for emotions. And although the circumstances differ, there’s a lot to learn from the NE 130th Street End kerfuffle outlined in this 2019 Seattle Times article.
Hidden Beach (aka E Harrison Street End) is about twice the size of Lake City Beach Park and is a well-established street end. In the case of Lake City, the property was fenced off by neighbors using eminent domain (basically: use it or lose it). The City stepped in and bought the land and it became a proper Street End.
Although Hidden Beach is well-established public land — we are reliving some of these patterns today:
THE 2015 PUBLIC PERSPECTIVE ON LAKE CITY BEACH
“I never saw a naked person there, never saw a person drinking on the beach.”
The public organized. A Facebook page, Friends of NE 130th Beach was created.
ADJOINING PROPERTY OWNERS 2015 PERSPECTIVE
“Alcohol, sex out there, drug use,” … “Hypodermic needles, syringes. Beer cans, hard-liquor bottles.”
“I’ve had people go by and leave dog poop in a plastic bag on my carport, people hollering things, I’ve been called . . . well, it rhymes with truck,”
WHAT THE CITY DID
In September 2015, the City Council approved an ordinance to acquire the tiny lot “through voluntary negotiation or it may use its powers of eminent domain to condemn the property.”
In 2018 the City purchased the Lake City Beach property for $58sf and it became a public street end.
HIDDEN BEACH
Hidden Beach has been an active community street end for at least 100 years. Folks knowingly purchased homes next to Hidden Beach. But there is a path to resolve the tensions—green up the space, move parking off the street end and onto the street, and provide acceptable driveway access to residences across public property. The proposal under review at the City is the road to calm.
