The Scoop on the Roosevelt Reservoir

I get our local newsletter,The Roosie, for all things Roosevelt/Ravenna.  They had a lengthy article on the fate of the Roosevelt Reservoir in their latest issue (which, unfortunately, is not up at their website yet).

Highlights:

- the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association is putting together a working group to gather info and design for community input

- SPU says that there is a drinking water study being done to be completed by April 2015 to answer the question: Will the new Maple Leaf Reservoir provide adequate water for surrounding communities?  Then, a seismic study will be done on Seattle's whole water system and that may be another year. 

So, no decisions on the use of the RR will be made until at least the middle of 2016.  

If the RR is decommissioned/surplussed, SPU's must receive fair market value per state act.  If Parks, for example, wanted that, they would have to find the money to buy it from SPU.  There would be a "property disposition process" that the City would manage and there are policies set up by the City Council for steps in that process including public input.  

So if the district wanted another school, it would seem they would have to buy the property (or someone buys it and donates it to the district). 

RNA says that it would like to increase the amount of parks/open space and supports another city park.  One person is advocating for a "Roosevelt Sport Center" with two ice rinks(!!) and maybe a pool and outside fields. 

Given that there is a park directly to the south of the reservoir, maybe the two areas could be combined. 


Comments

Anonymous said…
I predict condos as far as the eye can see... tough for schools to compete with deep-pocket developers.

--PaveTheEarth
1/15/15, 11:13 AM
Anonymous said…
Gates can do what it did to the Asian Resource Center. Use its deep pockets to snatch a resource away from the community and hand it over to the corporate reformers for a new school.

Roosevelt Reservoir Charter High baby!

DistrictWatcher
1/15/15, 11:32 AM
Josh Hayes said…
First commenter is right: if it really IS going to be "fair market value", then SPS can't compete. That property would go for bunches of millions.
1/15/15, 12:32 PM
Ann D said…
It doesn't have to go to fair market, it is at the City's discretion:

http://clerk.seattle.gov/~archives/Resolutions/Resn_29799.pdf
1/15/15, 6:16 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more