Report on proposed Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands project by Friends of Atlantic City Nursery at Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition Meeting, March 18, 2010
Where? South of Pritchard Island Beach and North of Beer Sheva Park – on map you can see where we are now – labeled RB pool. History Started in 1935, run by Seattle Parks Department to grow trees and shrubs for park landscaping Characteristics ~7-8 acres Large greenhouses, shade houses, open space, wetlands
Seattle Parks relocating to another facility Parks will fully close in early 2010 Parks is soliciting input to determine future of the site – Meeting held by Parks in December to solicit community input This group (friends) came together to push an urban agriculture use. Existing, organic greenhouses easily repurposed for growing food Mara Farms, South Park – 13,000 llbs of food annually What we’re doing tonight won’t go directly to Parks – they will have their own meeting coming up soon, though it’s not yet scheduled. We’re hoping to influence their proposal for the design, and we can only do that by getting as much community support for this proposal as possible.
There are a number of possibilities that have come up already in our meetings, but we’re here to get more ideas from you. These are the ideas we’re thinking about now, broken into the RB coalition’s action areas of environment, economic development, family life, and education. After this presentation we’ll be asking for your ideas to add to this list and for your priorities about which to focus on first.