Beacon Hill residents have fought crime, helped clean up a local park known as "the Jungle" and now enthusiastically await a trail linking their neighborhood to the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway.

The proposal, offering a multipurpose north-south trail on the west side of Beacon Hill as well as a long-awaited connection to the Sodo area, will be discussed in a public meeting Wednesday.

Residents support the trail, saying it would better connect the neighborhood and link it to the city, and that it would enhance public safety by bringing more bicyclists, walkers, joggers and others through the area.

Jodie Vice, a Beacon Hill resident, chairwoman of the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board and co-chairwoman of the advocacy group Beacon Hill Pedestrians, said the trail would offer "a great opportunity to connect Beacon Hill and downtown."

"This is a community where people like to walk and bike into the city; we're close enough where we can," Vice said. "The connection over I-5 is very important to us, because I-5 is a barrier for a lot of people; it disconnects neighborhoods and communities."

The public will be briefed on the two phases of the project, estimated to cost about $5.2 million.

• The first part involves building a trail starting at the end of the existing Mountains-to-Sound Greenway Trail along Interstate 90, near the south end of the Jose Rizal Bridge (12th Avenue South). It would run south along the east side of Interstate 5 to the South Holgate Street Bridge and Beacon Avenue South.

  A long switchback would make the steep northwest slope of Beacon Hill more negotiable, said Seattle Department of Transportation officials, who plan to start constructing the trail beginning in 2008 or 2009.

• The next phase would connect the Greenway and Sodo via an I-5 bike and pedestrian overpass. The proposed trail would link with Fourth Avenue South and South Royal Brougham Way -- and allow bikers and hikers into downtown or to Alki via existing streets and trails.

Residents worked hard during the past few years to clean Jose Rizal Park at the north end of Beacon Hill, and to reclaim an adjacent greenbelt dubbed "the Jungle."

The Jungle, a steep, forested area on the west side of Beacon Hill, was known for its homeless encampments, then for its drug dealers, who assaulted and drove out the homeless.

Neighborhood activists and police worked together to get rid of the drug dealers.

Craig Thompson, a Beacon Hill resident who co-founded the Beacon Alliance of Neighbors, was a member of the "Jungle Interagency Task Force." He credited the volunteer efforts of many in the neighborhood as well as "really good police work" with improving public safety and aesthetics.

The proposed trail, combined with ongoing replanting and cleanup efforts, would help complete the Jungle's transformation, he said.

The community has already renamed the area "the Forest."

"The (Phase 1) path will open up that park and area a little more, and make it more user-friendly," said Gregg Hirakawa, spokesman for the Seattle Department of Transportation. "Having more people through there helps us deal with some of the criminal activity by making it less secluded."

"The whole effort showed what can happen when citizens and government come together as partners to do good," said Thompson, adding that the cleanup efforts alone involved 2,000 hours of volunteer work toward clearing more than 25,000 square feet of ivy.

"We're also going to have a forest experience again that's accessible from downtown; a true forest experience in an urban setting is a darn good thing."

Project manager Mike Ward of the Seattle Department of Transportation said developing the trails plan has been a multifaceted effort, including the city, the community, the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway Trust, many recreational groups and the state Department of Transportation, which owns 85 percent of the project's right of way.

"We're still figuring some things out, like the switchback, but the process has been pretty positive," Ward said.

"So far, things look pretty good."

Many also welcome the project because Phase 2 would address the toughest of several remaining gaps in the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway.

The city, with the help of bicycle, pedestrian and other recreation and local groups, has been trying to close the gap since 1999, when the city's bicycle and pedestrian program expert, Peter Lagerwey, applied for a federal grant.

But finding a way around what Lagerwey has called a "spaghetti" maze of freeways and arterials has been daunting, especially when freeway work near Safeco Field needed to be completed.

For years, Seattle-bound bicyclists across I-90 have had to travel along busy, bumpy South Dearborn Street to reach Sodo or downtown Seattle.

"I was happy to see something finally happening with this project," said Louise McGrody, special projects coordinator for the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.

"Any time we knew there was an opportunity to move this project forward, funding or otherwise, we supported it. It's really a valuable connection for anyone coming through I-90 into downtown Seattle."

IF YOU GO

The Seattle Department of Transportation is holding a public open house Wednesday to discuss extending the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway Trail in the Beacon Hill area south to the South Holgate Street Bridge (Phase One) and across Interstate 90 from North Beacon Hill to the Sodo area (Phase Two). The meeting is from 6 to 9 p.m. at Beacon Hill Elementary School, 2025 14th Ave. S. For more information: cityofseattle.net/ban or goto.seattlepi.com/r582.

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