Money sought for Green Lake; Rice cool to idea

By JANE HADLEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The long-delayed effort to deal with the poor condition and congestion ofthe popular path around Green Lake lurched forward yesterday when a Seattlecity councilwoman proposed spending up to $2.4 million to fix the problem.

But Councilwoman Sue Donaldson, who heads the council's parks committee,said she's unsure about support from other council members and sheacknowledged that Mayor Norm Rice has not been supportive.

"Even though it is the most heavily used park in the city, it apparentlyisn't the highest priority of the mayor and council," Donaldson said. "I'mafraid somebody is going to get hurt."

The existing asphalt path around the lake has two lanes divided by apainted strip, one for walkers and runners and a second for bicyclists andskaters.

Donaldson is seeking construction of a Parks Department design that wouldbasically rehabilitate the existing path but improve separation among users.

The proposal calls for a 6-foot-wide soft-surfaced path for joggers inbetween an 8-foot-wide hard-surfaced path for walkers along the lake and a6-foot-wide path for skaters and cyclists, also hard-surfaced, on the outside.The paths would be in contrasting colors.

Accidents and conflicts among users are frequent. The path is in poorcondition, with muddy spots and puddles and roots that have damaged the pathsurface.

Parks Superintendent Holly Miller said Green Lake is the most heavily usedpark in the state.

Proposals for fixing it have been discussed, studied, commented upon by thepublic, restudied and put on hold for years.

A public hearing was held in February about the design of the path, andMiller said then that she planned to produce a plan by April. But Rice neverforwarded a proposal to the City Council, Donaldson said.

"The holdup is the amount of money," said Donaldson.

Donaldson said she finally grew impatient waiting for Rice to forward aproposal to the council and took it upon herself to ask Rice's Office ofManagement and Planning to draft the legislation. She said her committee willdiscuss the legislation during the next few weeks and that she hopes for aCity Council vote before the end of the year.

The path would be constructed next year under Donaldson's proposal.

Miller and Deputy Mayor Anne Levinson said they had not sought to startbuilding the trail because of more pressing budget demands and questions aboutthe path design.

Levinson said the City Council and the mayor had agreed last year to bemore disciplined about undertaking capital projects and to realize thatgovernment "can't fund everything for everybody."

Levinson said the parks department has an $18 million maintenance budgetfor 1995-96 that is paying for higher-priority projects. These include accessfor the disabled at community centers, removal of underground storage tanks,piling replacements at Piers 62 and 63 on Elliott Bay, improvements to aBurke-Gilman Trail bridge, rehabilitation of ball fields and heating andventilation improvements at swimming pools.

A citizens task force earlier put forward a proposal for a separate cyclingpath, but that idea ran into opposition because of high cost and the loss ofopen space.

Miller said Rice has doubts about widening the path.

"Are we going to be building a freeway out there?" Miller said. "Will webe attracting additional users beyond the ones already there to alreadyovercrowded facilities?"

Council President Jim Street said yesterday he, too, has doubts about thedesign.

"I'm concerned that even with the expanded right-of-way they areproposing, the issues of conflict between pedestrian and bicyclist andRollerblader will not go away," Street said. Street, an avid biker, said itmight not be realistic to continue allowing bicyclists and in-line skaters onthe Green Lake path.

Fixing the path would be much cheaper if bikers and skaters were banned, hesaid.