SPAC meeting cancelled / Summit Skatedot saved.

The regularly scheduled SPAC meeting tonight from 6-8pm has been cancelled.  Our next scheduled meeting is Monday night September 12.

More importantly, the Seattle Parks Superintendant voted to save the Summit and John Skate Dot that came under fire from a small group of neighbors that live directly adjacent to the skate dot!  For those of you who attended the Parks Board Meeting you know that their primary issue with the skate dot is noise.  Following the Parks Board meeting (where the vast majority of the citizens spoke in support of the skate dot), the Parks Board discussed the fate of the skate dot based on all of the testimony received and a briefing by Parks staff.  We watched a video of the discussion (no longer available on Parks website here:  http://seattle.gov/parks/parkboard/default.asp ) and it was very, very close.  We should all thank Commissioner Terry Holme because without his experience and input the skate spot would have met it’s demise (was a 4-3 vote in favor of maintaining the skate spot).  The discussion led the following two Board recommendations: 1) Keep the skatedot, and 2) Study noise related to skateparks.  The Superintendents decision to follow the Board of Parks Commissioners recommendation to maintain the skate spot is summarized in the Capital Hill Blog at the following link:  http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2011/06/29/after-year-of-debate-on-capitol-hill-skateboard-feature-city-decides-to-leave-well-enough .  A short snippet from the article is below:

“The Summit John skatedot will, indeed, continue its service to Seattle as the first skateboard-dedicated parks feature of its kind in the city. Superintendent Christopher Williams has agreed with the Seattle Parks Board recommendation to keep the Summit Slope Park featurebut scuttled the recommendation to create a working group that would have been assigned to further anti-skateboarding noise modifications of the already heavily modified park.”

–  Ryan Barth