Category Construction

Where College Way N and Meridian Ave N meet in Licton Springs there is a small police station. That station is responsible for serving all of North Seattle. From Ballard to UDistrict, Fremont to Haller Lake, all of them are served by the North Precinct. This easily makes it the station that serves both the largest land area and population.

Naturally, this has led for many calls to split the precinct, or most recently, replace it with a new much larger location (on Aurora). However, thus far, there hasn't been political alignment to turn these calls into reality. The most recent of which was stopped by a counter campaign to "Block the Bunker", primarily driven from those who live in areas that aren't in the area served by the precinct they wish to block.

Now, if you walk by the precinct, you will be greeted by many land use signs. The North Precinct plans to increase its footprint at its current location.

Where grass and greenery used to be, the precinct plans to pave additional parking and add portables. The plan isn't meant to be a permanent solution, but the hope is it will enable the precinct to keep up with the next 5-7 years of growth. And while there is concern by many over the loss of greenspace as illustrated in the public comments (record # 3031508-LU), with no other agreed on options, combined with an increasing call for greater public safety and police presence, it seems increasingly likely that we will see the start of an expanded precinct in Licton Springs come this time next year.

A friend of the blog wrote in to let us know the construction of the North Seattle Neighborhood Greenway project down 100th Ave N is set to begin as soon as tomorrow. The project aims to connect Crown Hill, Greenwood, and Licton Springs both to each other and to the upcoming pedestrian bridge that will provide direct access to the Northgate light rail station. While the entire project, which will stretch around 2 miles, is a welcome addition - of particular interest to those in the Licton Springs area are a new sidewalk from Linden Ave N to Aurora Ave N and sidewalk improvements being made between Aurora Ave N and Stone Ave N.

When the work is complete, the hope is that it will be possible to safely walk or ride a bicycle all the way from Crown Hill to the new light rail station, with sidewalk at a minimum from Linden Ave N eastward. You can find more information about the project on SDOT's overview page. The project should take around 6 months to complete with individual neighbors being directly contacted as construction work that impacts them is underway.

Meanwhile, the traffic circle on Wallingford Ave N and N 97th we wrote about earlier this year has now been completed and is just awaiting greenery.

We look forward to a safer and more walkable North Seattle!