As city prepares to reopen a Capitol Hill park, report cites hope for community gardening, youth play, and increased effort to address homelessness and services

Results of an online survey asking about preferred “potential uses” for Seven Hills Park

The fence has been up around Seven Hills Park since September (Image: CHS)

The city has set a date for the community meeting to reopen Capitol Hill’s Seven Hills Park and has released a report on what it has heard in community feedback about public safety upgrades officials say are necessary in a string of parks in the area.

The city highlights concerns around “long-term encampments” and the need for better integration of the parks system with “larger addiction, mental health, and/or housing initiatives” in its report.

Seattle Parks and Recreation announced it will hold the next Seven Hills Park meeting on February 10th. Officials started the year extending the closure of the fenced-off 16th Ave public space through the end of February. Seven Hills has been shuttered and fenced-off since September after “bouts of negative park activity” as parks officials said Broadway Hill Park and Tashkent Park have also been the source of frequent calls for the Seattle Police Department.

CHS reported here on a community meeting held by the city in November to gather feedback on Seven Hills and possible changes there and at the Broadway Hill Park and Tashkent Park spaces. Parks and recreation also posted an online survey to gather feedback.

In the city’s report on the meeting (PDF), officials highlighted an overall concern about encampments and camping in the parks and the need to better integrate the parks system into the city’s efforts around homelessness and addiction. The report also called for plans that “balance activation between recreation (movie nights) with human services (health clinics),” capturing community concerns around trying to mix in events and celebrations into parks where people are struggling with homelessness and addiction.

The report also captured feedback on issues specific to Seven Hills citing the impact from “nearby health services and sober facilities” as “potential driver of long-term encampments.” It also calls out nearby Kaiser Permanente‘s campus, saying the “vacant ground floor of and disinvested open space” along 15th Ave E “exacerbates” problems in Seven Hills. The report also documents concerns that the nearby Williams Place park across from the Capitol Hill Safeway and a few blocks away from Seven Hills “is immediately impacted by actions at this park, and vice versa.”

This fall, after CHS reporting on the issue, Kaiser Permanente launched a public campaign to fill its empty commercial spaces.

What solutions parks officials bring to the February 10th meeting remain to be seen.

The report captures community preferences for “community gardening, outdoor furniture, and youth play features, along with family-oriented programming such as movies in the park, outdoor markets, fitness classes, and food trucks” as possible initiatives for Seven Hills. Officials also got the note that the existing p-patch area in Seven Hills needs help. “P Patch is strong, positive use that needs support, especially from bio-hazard waste,” the report reads.

One goal? Little kids. The city’s report highlights a desire for “interventions that support nearby daycare centers’ return to site that were heavy users pre-2020.”

Meanwhile, across the Hill in Boylston Ave’s Tashkent Park, officials have already acted. Last week, CHS reported as District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth announced a public safety “facelift” for the park highlighted by new strings of catenary lights and improved maintenance.

The city has championed the Tashkent recipe of strings of lights, improved but not necessarily increased maintenance, and volunteer energy in its public safety discussions, pointing at the neighborhood’s most popular park as an example. Parks officials say the model of partnerships with a strong core community group in the Cal Anderson Park Alliance and events and clean-ups sponsored by area businesses and organizations like Capitol Hill development and real estate firm Hunters Capital have helped improve safety conditions around the neighborhood’s large central park.

“Seven Hills Park, you’re up next for some love and upgrades,” Hollingsworth said in the Tashkent announcement.

The process to reopen Seven Hills and address concerns with the other locations included in the “South Capitol Hill Parks Activation” plan will come under a new leader for the department as Mayor Katie Wilson has replaced Harrell appointee AP Diaz, Wilson tabbed Michele Finnegan, a 25-year veteran of the department, as interim superintendent.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place Tuesday, February 10th at 6 PM at Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave E.



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