On June 6, 2019, Friends of Discovery Park (FoDP) President, Phil Vogelzang, provided testimony before the Seattle City Council’s Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers’ Rights Committee regarding proposed redevelopment plans for the Fort Lawton Army Reserve Center. The committee considered several proposals related to the future use of the remaining Fort Lawton property, including zoning changes, housing plans, and the Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan Application.
Friends of Discovery Park advocated for preserving this land as part of Discovery Park, continuing decades of community efforts to protect the park’s forests, meadows, beaches, and wildlife habitat. FoDP continues to advocate for thoughtful stewardship and protection of Seattle’s open spaces.
Learn more about Discovery Park’s history and the transition from Fort Lawton to today’s park on our History page, and learn how you can support ongoing preservation efforts through our Advocate page.
Seattle City Council Hearing: Fort Lawton Redevelopment
Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers’ Rights Committee
June 6, 2019 | 9:30 AM
View the recording
Agenda: Chair’s Report; Public Comment; Appointments to the City Light Review Panel, Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Program Governing Council; CB 119507: establishing a one-year prohibition on use of rental housing bidding platforms; Res 31887: adopting and approving an application for surplus federal property at Fort Lawton; CB 119510: rezone property at the Fort Lawton Army Reserve Center; CB 119535: Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan Application; CB 119537: relating to the sale of low-income housing; CB 119531: relating to housing for low-income households.
Testimony from Friends of Discovery Park President, Phil Vogelzang
The full statement delivered by Phil Vogelzang, President of Friends of Discovery Park, to Councilmembers Bagshaw and Mosqueda during the subcommittee meeting is below.
“Since the early 1960s, Friends of Discovery Park has been advocating for the beaches, the meadows and the forests of Seattles largest and most beloved Parks. At the time of its inception in 1974, large amounts of federally owned inholdings remained, which fragmented the Park and limited its full potential. In its original Master Plan, city leaders urged that: ‘all lands remaining as Fort Lawton be returned to the Park.’
Sadly, despite the best efforts of all of Discovery Parks’ supporters, this does not appear to be the course this council will elect to take. Decisions such as this are always difficult, and we recognize the many overlapping and conflicting interests this body must adjudicate. Nonetheless, we urge you to consider one last time this decision, which cannot be reversed and will change the landscape of Discovery Park forever.
This Park represents many decades of hard work and advocacy by Friends and many other groups. We ask that all of you to remain committed to the ideals as first put forth by Senator Henry Jackson, Bernie Whitebear, judge Don Voorhees, and Bob Kildall. To create and protect this place that is free from the noise and the clamor of the City, to provide its citizens a place of refuge and solitude.
Not only is this parcel adjacent to the Park. It also is located within a few hundred feet of the riparian zone of Salmon Creek and Kiwanis Ravine, where a small band of great blue herons have been living and nesting for literally thousands of years. They too are stakeholders in this decision. And we ask that you consider their fate.
Friends of Discovery Park would like to thank Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda for her diligent efforts to provide a small portion of the proposed Parks Department maintenance yard for demolition and reforestation. Although only a few acres, this will potentially enlarge the very limited strip of forested land that represents their ancestral home. As decisions regarding the development of this last remaining Fort Lawton parcel proceed, we ask you to remember that play-fields are not habitat. Paved surfaces are not “open space”. We ask you to commit to providing as much real habitat for these animals as we can, by creating as much forested canopy as possible for both the humans that will be living and recreating there and the great blue herons that have called this place home for millennia.
Thank you.”
Continue Following Discovery Park Advocacy Efforts
Friends of Discovery Park continues to advocate for thoughtful stewardship, preservation, and responsible land use decisions that protect the ecological and cultural value of this unique landscape.
Read more about the history of Fort Lawton and Discovery Park in our post, “Mankind Abhors A Vacuum”, and stay informed about future advocacy efforts by signing up for our newsletter.