Real Change News | And then there were two

November 26, 2008
Vol: 15 No: 49

Just Heard

And then there were two

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Residents of North Seattle can breathe a little easier: They’re no longer on the list of areas where the city may want to locate a 445-bed municipal jail.

The City of Seattle and other municipalities are facing down a date — Dec. 31, 2012 — by which their lease of jail space from King County ends. And they’re trying a couple different methods of meeting that deadline. Last summer Seattle identified four sites where it may want to build its own jail; then, last week, the Emerald City and 22 others in the northern and eastern side of the county went public with the six spots they’ll pick among for a shared facility. Bellevue, Shoreline, a spot just north of Kirkland, and downtown Seattle, near the current jail, are named.

Another two potential sites are within city limits, and they’re not news: 1600 W. Armory Way in the Interbay neighborhood, and a parcel at the intersection of Highland Park Way SW. and W. Marginal Way SW. have been on the city’s list since last year.

City jail project spokesperson Katherine Schubert Knapp says the two other sites the city named last summer — one on Aurora Ave. just north of 115th, another near the W. Marginal Way SW land that’s still in play — were on the losing end of an October feasibility study that noted flooding problems and wetland conditions at each. The two sites were eliminated, she says, and they won’t return — even if the city breaks from its peers and reverts back to building its own jail.

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