Transit riders don't exactly find a smorgasbord of destinations waiting to greet them near either of Shoreline's two light rail stations. But a community-led effort to create a new community hub close to 185th Street station is taking off, with City officials taking the idea and running with it.
While the City of Shoreline has been successful in getting new homes to sprout up near its light rail stations at NE 148th Street and NE 185th Street, community amenities have lagged behind, with none of Shoreline's commercial districts within close walking distance.
A five-minute walk east of the light rail station, Shoreline's Rotary Park isn't really a park most people would spend much time in – it's a small triangle of grass, with a few flowering bushes and trees. Next door is a shuttered lawnmower repair shop and parking lot, sitting behind a fence. Further east are some Seattle City Light power lines.
It's a spot you could easily just walk by without really noticing. But this unassuming square of land has brought Shoreline urbanists and North City neighborhood advocates together to find a way to create the community hub the area sorely lacks.
Initially it was advocates with the North City Neighborhood Association that pitched the idea of doing much more at Rotary Park, but the City of Shoreline soon embraced it.
"There's not a lot of stuff right off this light rail line, but there are increasingly going to be a lot of homes right here, so they need a green space and a third place to be. There's not that much close by," Kevin Atkinson, the association's president, told The Urbanist during a visit to the site last week. "More broadly... there's a lot of nice parks in Shoreline. North City does not have a lot of parks."
The site that hosts the former lawnmower shop is owned by City Light, a fact that opens the door to a quicker urban transformation. Last year, the Shoreline City Council approved a $300,000 allocation to advance interim activation on the site, a concept that is being dubbed North City Station. A few months later, the Washington State Legislature nearly matched that, setting aside $275,000 in the state's supplemental capital budget. Earlier this month, the Council approved the idea of executing an initial five-year temporary use permit with City Light.
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"North City Station will feature open space and greenery that adjoin a community gathering place that includes affordable vending opportunities for food trucks and artists in a shipping container-based market," the City of Shoreline touted in a flyer released earlier this year. "A covered pavilion with restrooms and tables, with a performance space and play structures nearby, will give kids and adults a place to eat, shop, and play, or just relax in an outdoor oasis in the heart of the new high-density, mixed-use, mixed-income urban neighborhood."
While that vision is ambitious, Shoreline is actually setting its sights higher. Between 2020 and 2022, the City purchased four parcels immediately to the north of the City Light property for future park expansion in North City. Demolition of the three single family homes currently on those lots is set to take place later this year. Ultimately, North City Station is set to become part of what's being called North City Commons: a community hub within a park that also operates as a small business incubator space, with shops operating out of food trucks or portable shipping containers.
The project has significant momentum. Earlier this spring, the North City Neighborhood Association, Urbanist Shoreline, Salvation Artists and Makers Collective, and the City of Shoreline co-hosted a cleanup event on the site. To the organizers' surprise, around 100 people showed up to haul garbage and clear away brush.
One of those volunteers? Shoreline Mayor Betsy Robertson, along with State Senator Jesse Salomon (D-Shoreline, 32nd Legislative District).
"It's just so wonderfully exciting," Robertson told The Urbanist. "Obviously, there's more to do, but the fact that over 100 people showed up that day to put in a little sweat equity and just make this investment on a citywide asset that's going to hopefully be there for generations into the future, is really amazing."
The hope is that by the end of this year, the site will be activated, with a private company managing day-to-day operations, including potential food trucks.
"This has evolved brilliantly and has snowballed in the best possible way, as more people have gotten involved, and more community partners have been able to see the vision and see the potential," Atkinson said. "I've not just been surprised. I've been humbled, impressed... I'm not sure I can come up with the right adjective. Grateful, certainly, is at the top of the list. The amount of willingness and the people stepping forward to help and contribute enthusiastically has just really been overwhelming."
To Robertson, who has served on the Shoreline Council since 2019, the North City Commons concept epitomizes a necessary shift in the city, toward creating the new community assets that the thousands of new Shoreline residents will want as part of their neighborhoods.
"I want this to be the start of our community-building era in Shoreline. We have put a ton of energy and resources into the upzone[s]. We're watching the development happen, and those units, more and more of those units, come online and start to be occupied," Robertson said. "I think it's time to give people reasons, events, places, spaces to come out of their homes, get to know each other, and really start building community."
Larson McDonagh
Ryan Packer
