Past successes
- Citizens for Fort Lawton Park (FRIENDS sprang from this group) opposed and, with help from our congressional delegation, defeated a Department of Defense plan to place an anti-ballistic missile base at Fort Lawton.
- CFLP assisted the passage of the "Fort Lawton Bill" that for the first time allowed cities to obtain federal excess property for park and recreation uses at less that 50% of fair market value. A clause insured that Fort Lawton, which had been given by the people, would be returned without charge.
- CFLP worked in conjunction with Sen. Henry M. Jackson to see that title went for a park instead of to other claims, which included:
- A federal prison.
- An "Arlington of the West Cemetery"
- A state correctional building.
- Seattle School District proposed educational uses.
- Religious organizations claiming chapel property.
- Navy request for property.
- Coast Guard request for property.
- Native Americans claim of entire fort for social service needs of Indians.
Nearly all these proposals were turned aside in favor of Seattle's request for a park at Fort Lawton. The federal deed restricted the uses to "park and recreation" activities and granted a request by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to include an Indian Cultural Center in the park.
Friends of Discovery Park organized in 1974 and worked to defeat:
- Initiative for an 18-hole golf course
- Proposal for a tideland drive from Pier 91 to West Point
- Sewer sludge discharge into Puget Sound
- Proposal for an oceangoing barge dock and landfill at West Point
- Mountain bike use of unpaved walking trails
- Hang glider use of bluffs
- Off-leash areas for dogs are denied
- Saving all old Group 1 buildings
- State Oceanographic Aquarium
- Proposal to bring Navy Reservists to Fort Lawton from Lake Union
Our closest loss was a 3-3 vote by the State Shorelines Board that allowed Metro to expand the West Point Treatment Plant to secondary treatment. Imagine, if we'd had your help then, we might have won that one!
FRIENDS successfully worked to:
- Obtain $775,000 of state, county, Metro and private funds to buy property in the Kiwanis Ravine to protect wildlife corridor and nesting Great Blue Herons.
- Achieve settlement with Metro providing funds for new Visitor Center and habitat restoration in the park (settlement includes priority for funds for habitat)
- Save Magnolia Boulevard's Pacific Madrones.
- Get city to buy City Light Sub-Station as wildlife corridor from Kiwanis Ravine to park.
- Stop dumping of raw sludge on park meadow.
- Establish Discovery Park memorial fund in memory of Donald S. Voorhees. (Committee chaired by Bruce Bjerke raised over $30,000 for the fund, donated for improvements to the Discovery Park Visitor Center.)
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