Park plan in Ballard stirs parking controversy

Everybody loves a park. Unless, perhaps, you can’t find a
parking spot in East Ballard.

For years, some Ballard residents have been trying
to convert a wide, two-block section of 14th Avenue
Northwest into a park. The grand plan is to turn an old
street car line into a greenway from Ballard High School
to
the Ship Canal.

But some argue the cost of the new two-block-long
park is too high. Not the $1.5 million development cost,
but
the cost of 90 lost street parking spaces. Park critics
tell The Seattle
Times that demand from apartment residents is
gobbling up street parking.

The city claims its studies show loss of parking
on
14th Northwest can be absorbed by available parking on
nearby East Ballard streets.

It’s a city-wide controversy. How much parking is
enough? The Seattle City Council is debating rules to
relax
the amount of parking developers must include in their
projects, if they build near transit lines.