FOLLOWUP: Opponents of SW Lander ‘people street’ flock to community design event

(WSB photos)

By Torin Record-Sand
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

More than forty people came to small section of SW Lander Street west of California SW last night – between local businesses The Good Society and Seattle Yarn, and neighboring Lafayette Elementary – for an SDOT-convened “community design charrette.”

It offered a preview of what the street might look like in the near future, as the purpose of the gathering was for city officials to get feedback about their plans to close the street to vehicle traffic and turn it into a “People Street” within a year.

SDOT closed the small section of SW Lander for the evening, bringing together city reps and associated consultants and designers with community members to talk in-person about the best way to implement changes, and what they might like to see from the project.

The project is a part of the city’s People Streets and Public Spaces Capital Program, which seeks to transform various streets across the city into miniature public parks. Traffic is blocked off, and the designated area is transformed with various architectural improvements and amenities to encourage community gathering and engagement. This site, on SW Lander, is one of two in West Seattle that are currently part of the program; we’ve previously covered the other proposed project, on 18th Avenue SW, between Delridge Way and Southwest Barton (which also had a recent meeting). The city says its goal is to transform SW Lander into public space offering cleaner air as well as an overall sense of safety and security for students.

The meetings for both sites aimed at a very preliminary stage of the process, akin loosely to ‘brainstorming’ with the community in a more free-form atmosphere. No concrete designs were presented; instead, community members were asked to write sticky notes on poster boards asking for feedback on things such as desired features, and put stickers on stock photo ‘mood boards’ representing which features or visuals they would find the most appealing.

The feedback will be used by the city as an initial step before they begin a more formal design processs. Beyond the feedback process, other light activities were available for attendees as well, such as over-sized street board games and coloring books for kids; refreshments were also available, featuring fruit empanadas from the Salvadorean Bakery in White Center.

Despite the festival atmosphere, the project proposal did not come without controversy. In addition to what was provided by the city, some community members brought some of their own boards and posters to protest the proposed project. One board offered two sign-up lists, asking attendees to pick a side: “Yes, close Lander Street” or “No street closure”. The latter choice had garnered around 10 signatures already by 15 minutes into the gathering, while the former had no signatures at all in the early going.

Another poster stapled to a local telephone pole called for neighbors to attend, framing the project as the city cutting off street access to California Avenue.

Words from attendees who spoke to us did not show much more positivity for the project either. “Well, this whole thing sucks!” said one of the attendees, an Admiral resident. “Congestion here is bad, and getting worse. Where are all the parents going to go to pick up their kids? […] The city is doing too much with too little, and too many people.”

People from local businesses and buildings in the block came to share their opinion too. Paul Cesmat, owner of the nearby Admiral Station apartments, came, also delivering a letter to city representatives from the owner of Financial Designs Insurance (in the same block) in absentia. Both of them expressed that the city’s plan would be negligent at best, actively harmful at worst – making it more difficult for emergency vehicles to access the school and commercial block, and increasing traffic congestion for the school: “In my 49 years here, there has never, ever, been an incident with a kid,” Cesmat said. He also expressed frustration with the city’s communication strategy. “There was no real mail notification to the neighbors; just some stuff stapled on the poles.” he said. “Neighbors had to communicate with each other to encourage turnout.”

According to SDOT, there will be more chances for the community to provide feedback through the design process, though dates are yet to be announced. The formal design process will begin this fall, with finalization of a plan expected next winter (early 2027).

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