Magnolia Manor Park

Mission

“Making Magnolia Manor Park a mixed-use place of beauty, vibrancy and sustainability for all members of the community achieved through an open and transparent planning and design process with funding from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.”

Sustainable Magnolia, a neighborhood organization, has received funding from the Department of Neighborhoods (DON) through its Small and Simple matching grant program to fund a project entitled ”Envisioning a Vibrant Community Gathering Place for Manor Park.” The amount awarded is $20,000, and is expected to be matched in the form of volunteer hours and resources.

This project, led by a steering committee comprised of local community representatives and a landscape architect consultant, will engage the community in developing a conceptual plan for Magnolia Manor Park.  This is more than an effort to create a new landscape design for our park; it’s an opportunity for the local community to have an open conversation about  how it would like to use Magnolia Manor Park, which up to now has lacked such a plan.

It is hoped that through this process, Magnolia Manor Park will transform into a vibrant community gathering place while maintaining the park’s unique character, strengthening its neighborhood connections, and demonstrating aspects of sustainability, such as Low Impact Development (LID), Sustainable Sites Initiative (SSI) and Green Infrastructure.

In addition, the plan will incorporate a dog off leash area (OLA), pursuant to a public process and subsequent decisions in 2006 by the Parks Board of Trustees and Parks Superintendent. There are funds from the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy ($70,000) allocated for this use.

Depending on community input, and subject to site constraints, other elements will be considered, such as community gardens (according to Parks, Magnolia is in a gap area for P-Patches and may qualify for Parks and Green Spaces funding for this element), a children’s play area, picnicking ,or other uses.

The plan will also consider Hub Site requirements as defined by the Magnolia Queen Anne District Emergency Preparedness Committee (EPC).

The plan created through this process will be in the form of a “Schematic Design”. In order to move forward to implement the plan, funds will need to be secured – through fund-raising or grants – to carry the process through to construction. See “The Design” for more information.