Contact: Patricia Graesser, (206) 764-3760

SEATTLE - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today issued a permit with special conditions for athletic field work at Magnuson Park in Seattle.

The permitted work includes construction of four regulation athletic fields and the sub-grade for a fifth future field, realigning an existing cross-park trail, and constructing new walking trails. This work would fill or adversely modify a maximum of 5.86 acres of emergent wetlands.

Mitigation is proposed on-site for adverse impacts to wetlands, via creation of new wetlands and rehabilitation of degraded wetlands. In addition several changes have been made to the field design in response to concerns about night time lighting.

The purpose of the project is to construct centrally located athletic fields within the City of Seattle, adjacent to existing roads, parking, and restroom facilities, to meet demand for recreational fields for the citizens of the City of Seattle.

A public notice for this proposal, describing the proposed work, and its purpose and intended use, was circulated Oct. 20, 2006. The formal expiration date for comments was Nov. 20, 2006. However, the Corps held the administrative record open informally to accept additional public comment after that date. The Corps received and considered over 160 comments on the proposal before coming to a decision on the application.

The decision document is available on-line at:
http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/PublicMenu/documents/REG/Magnuson_Park_DDoc.pdf