Belltown park boulevard slated for next year

Four Belltown blocks are about to get beautified, the Seattle City Council decided this afternoon with a unanimous vote.

From First to Fifth avenues, Bell Street will become downtown's first park boulevard next year, when swales and natural landscaping will replace bare concrete.

The project will use $2.5 million of the 2008 voter-approved $146 million parks levy to eliminate one lane of traffic on the one-way street, reduce parking and widen one of the sidewalks to about 26 feet.

The specifics on the park boulevard's design are up to the public.

City officials said they'll start the design process this fall, asking residents for advice on how to transform each half-block. One area might become a children's playground, another could be used as a plaza with tables and umbrellas.

City officials said they hope the project, which will include better lighting at night, will help clean up crime.

They point to Regrade Park, an off-leash dog park on Third Avenue and Bell Street, as an example of the power of parks to reduce criminal activity: Before the dogs took over in 2004, the area was better known as a center for drug-dealing, officials say.

Park rangers would provide additional enforcement, and have the authority to ban people from the boulevard for repeated inappropriate behavior, like public drunkenness.

Parks officials say the park boulevard is a creative, inexpensive way to create a park downtown, where land costs can run $300 to $350 a square foot. Because the city already owns Bell Street, it wouldn't have to pay for the land. Instead, about $150 a square foot would go toward developing the park.

Work on the park boulevard would piggyback on a current City Light project to replace utilities beneath the street.

Although Bell Street was designated a "green street" more than 20 years ago, residents and city officials said they don't think the street ever met the criteria of being pedestrian-friendly or well-landscaped. With the park boulevard, the street would go above and beyond the standards.

Jean Guerrero: 206-464-2311 or jguerrero@seattletimes.com