Seattle Parks seeks public input on Denny Blaine Park redesign after court orders changes

Seattle Parks and Recreation is redesigning Denny Blaine Park, and the department wants input from neighbors and community members before redevelopment begins.

Denny Blaine Park, a lakeside space located in the neighborhood of the same name, has served as a clothing-optional gathering space for Seattle’s LGBTQ+ community for decades. Now, it’s the center of a years-long legal fight between neighboring residents and the city.

“There was a big legal fight over, not the nudity so much, but the lewd acts that were accompanying the nudity,” Jake said on “The Jake and Spike Show.” “In court findings, you can actually see that Seattle Parks and Rec staff literally were telling their staff members to not confront people in the middle of lewd acts and to essentially look the other way.”

The neighborhood group Denny Blaine Park for All sued Seattle, arguing the park had become a public nuisance due to lewd sexual conduct, drug use, illegal parking, and other issues, and that the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department had failed to act on repeated complaints. Court documents cited a 2022 internal email showing parks employees were told not to confront park visitors engaged in lewd acts.

In July, King County Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung ruled that illegal sexual conduct at the park constitutes a public nuisance and granted a permanent injunction requiring the city to address it further, but declined the neighbors’ request to close the park entirely.

Following the ruling, Seattle Parks and Recreation opened a public comment period on proposed supplemental use guidelines for the park, along with a separate community design process to plan longer-term improvements, including signage, parking, restrooms, and landscaping.

“They’re now asking for some community engagement. They want to do a revamp of this place,” Jake said. “They’re going to upgrade the signs, which detail the rich history of nudity and lewd acts at the park.”

The city’s abatement plan, developed in response to an earlier phase of the case, split the park into clothing-optional and clothing-required zones separated by a screening fence, with the clothing-optional area situated on the side with lake views.

KIRO guest host Mike Tomlin said he’s skeptical the physical barrier alone will resolve the underlying conduct issues.

“I think it’s dubious to think that all of this is going to magically go away when you just put a barrier up there,” Tomlin said. “I think the public comment will weigh in on whether or not that will be an eyesore of any kind, or a concrete structure.”

Both efforts include public meetings and an online survey open through Oct. 5. Several elements of the guidelines, including the location of the clothing-optional and clothing-required zones and the requirement for a visual screening barrier, are set by the court order and can’t be changed through the public process.

Jake questioned whether the city’s history of deprioritizing enforcement will carry into how it handles the new round of public feedback.

“Do you think the city is going to take meaningful suggestions from people who actually want to discourage the lewd behavior, or are they just going to keep doing what they were doing?” Jake asked.

Tomlin, who noted the park sits in one of Seattle’s more affluent neighborhoods near Madison Park, said some neighbors may ultimately decide it’s easier to leave than continue fighting the issue through the public process.

“If it was you, wouldn’t you just kind of up and move?” Tomlin said. “Those with means are typically the most mobile. At this point of the fight, I think I would just say we’re out of here.”

Chung’s ruling also cited a King County Assessor’s Office finding that the park’s “nuisance” had reduced the assessed land value of 13 neighboring properties by at least 10%.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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