Residents want respect for their neighborhood

One of the few affordable neighborhoods left in Seattle, Georgetown has become a battleground pitting community members against city planners.

Some residents say proposals to build a trash facility and allow strip clubs not far away are contrary to their hopes of improving the quality of life in a community that embraces its eclectic mix of industries, small businesses and homes.

The small neighborhood is booming with development. Residents are working to renovate the historic city hall, clean up the Duwamish River and create and renovate parks.

The Old City Hall renovation project, at a cost of $695,000, will preserve the building that once was the center of the neighborhood, said Seattle City Councilwoman Sally Clark.

Clark said money for the project will also be spent to improve low-income health-care facilities inside the building and to create new community meeting areas.

But two proposals from Mayor Greg Nickels' office have Georgetown residents upset about what they say are the city's attempts to use Georgetown as the site for Seattle's nuisances.

The first is the proposed trash facility, which the city said would bring 200 garbage trucks a day into Georgetown.

"The proposal hinders our growth. It's great that they're renovating [the old] city hall to give us meeting space, but then they want to run garbage trucks in front of it. It doesn't make any sense," said Kathy Nyland, chairwoman of the neighborhood's merchants association.

Some residents say the facility will have a negative impact on their daily lives, but the city disagrees.

"Our honest opinion is that this facility will not significantly impact Georgetown," said Andy Ryan, spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities.

"It's removed from a population center," he said. "Garbage trucks will not be going through residential neighborhoods."

The planned facility, just south of Georgetown, "is a necessary part of a proposed plan to replace the city's solid-waste infrastructure, which is falling apart," Ryan said. The aging transfer stations created the need for a third transfer station, he said.

The city picked the proposed site after a $1.2 million development plan determined it was the best home for the facility, Ryan said.

Another controversial proposal would create a 310-acre zone just outside the neighborhood where strip clubs could operate.

In response to a court ruling that requires Seattle to find space for new strip clubs, the city decided the area close to Georgetown was the best place, said Alan Justad, spokesman for the Department of Planning and Development.

Justad said the strip-club zone would be at least 1,000 feet from homes.

The site, he said, is one of the few areas that's as far as possible from schools, child-care facilities, light-rail systems, religious facilities and parks.

The City Council is expected to decide the matter sometime this month, Justad said.

At a recent council meeting, Clark said the neighborhood's lack of a library, meeting space and community center puts it at a disadvantage.

"Georgetown hasn't gotten the respect it deserves," she said.

Resident Domingo Barron agrees: "The city talks about social justice, but when it comes to a neighborhood that needs social justice, the city is working against us."

Last year, Georgetown successfully fought off a proposal that would have brought Southwest Airlines flights to nearby Boeing Field.

"We want to be treated like a neighborhood. Other neighborhoods get to worry about becoming beautiful while we're constantly fighting to survive," Nyland said.

Residents hope recent moves to create parks and meeting spaces will save their neighborhood from becoming sandwiched between strip clubs and the garbage facility, Nyland said.

Oxbow Park and Georgetown Playfield are part of a plan to renovate the city's green spaces, said Joelle Ligon, spokeswoman for Seattle Parks and Recreation.

The city put up $1.8 million to convert three acres into Georgetown Playfield, a soccer and baseball field, Ligon said. A patch of land in the neighborhood was recently converted into what is now Oxbow Park, she said.

"The city needs to protect us and allow us to grow without managing us," Nyland said. "Quality of life and affordable living shouldn't be mutually exclusive."