Work begins despite suit over wetlands

Despite a pending suit to stop the project, the Seattle parks department has begun detouring traffic and demolishing asphalt at Magnuson Park to restore wetlands and eventually add five new athletic fields.

Makeshift road detour signs started going up this week at the south end of the 350-acre park off Lake Washington in Northeast Seattle, and more construction equipment arrived. The sounds of jackhammers could be heard as workers started demolishing parking-lot asphalt near the tennis courts to make way for an open grassy area, part of the new wetlands.

Construction is to take place daily between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., with completion scheduled in September or early October 2009.

Sometime next week, temporary fencing will go up around the 43-acre development area, south of the existing Sports Meadow and near the north and south soccer fields, said John Jainga, the Seattle parks department manager overseeing the project.

It is to be the most ambitious renovation project in the park since the property was transferred from the Navy to the city in the mid-1970s.

Some critics have advocated more natural areas, and fewer sports fields at Magnuson. The community group Friends of Magnuson Park has filed suit in U.S. District Court to prevent the filling of existing wetlands for new athletic fields. The suit names the Army Corps of Engineers and the city for granting permits. A ruling is still pending.

Over the next 18 months, construction is expected to affect traffic flow at the south end of the park and curtail the use of some parking lots and picnic shelters, said parks department manager Eric Friedli.

According to plans, 10 acres of new wetlands will replace a dozen acres of asphalt in an area that formerly was the Navy commissary and parking lot at the south end of the park. Two lighted regulation-sized soccer fields, two baseball diamonds and a regulation rugby field will be constructed east of the community center.

And parks officials are touting other amenities, such as up to five miles of meandering gravel and asphalt walking trails and paths. Funding for the $13-million-dollar project is primarily from the city's 2000 Pro Parks levy.

A picnic shelter closest to the swim beach and shoreline wading pool on the east side of the park, and the picnic shelter south of the Junior League of Seattle Playground near the Northeast 74th Street park entrance both will be closed throughout the construction period, leaving two picnic shelters open for the public.

Friedli said the goal of renovating wetlands is to enhance and diversify wildlife at the park, a goal consistent with the Magnuson Park Master Plan developed by the mayor and Seattle City Council in the late 1990s.

Charles E. Brown: 206-464-2206 or cbrown@seattletimes.com