Neighbors of Jackson Park want free access to be par for the course

Only one of Seattle's largest parks is easily accessible via light rail: Jackson Park.

But unlike other large parks in Seattle, Jackson Park is only open to golfers.

Now, a neighborhood group wants to change that.

Just before the northbound light rail train pulls into 148th Street Station in Shoreline, it passes by the enormous green space that is Jackson Park, a publicly-owned golf course owned by the City of Seattle.

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It's around 12 times the size of Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill. To play the 18-hole course on the weekend costs just under $50 per adult. A much smaller nine-hole course costs less than $8 to play.

For fans of the sport, city-owned courses are celebrated for their relative accessibility.

For comparison, the next-closest course is the privately-owned Seattle Golf Club in Shoreline. To play there, you must be a member. To join, you must be invited by another member. The club doesn’t even post membership prices online, which are presumably significant.

In contrast, Jackson Park hosts school golf teams and other youth programs, and offers steeply discounted course fees for youth.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, after some recreational services opened back up, the park offered a lifeline for golfer Sanket Akerkar, who would drive in from Bellevue.

"It got me out of the house and got me out walking and in the green," Akerbar said. "And it was awesome."

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W

hile municipal golf courses are less exclusive than private ones, they cannot escape the exclusivity label completely. The entrance price, the huge amount of space per player relative to other sports, and a chain link fence that surrounds the property contribute to that feeling.

And with a new light rail station, more than 2,000 people per day will get off the train just steps away from the Northwest corner of the golf course. A local neighborhood group called "Jackson Park 4 All" says it's time to reconsider how that space is used.

After all, the group has said, no other major Seattle park (the scale of Seward Park, Discovery Park, or Volunteer Park) is so accessible by light rail.

The group has three main demands: Change the name (the park is named after Andrew Jackson); open up the park to more uses, including forested trails through the park serving light rail riders; and allow more apartments to be built around the park, so that more people can enjoy it.

On the unusually warm afternoon of Sept. 5, Shirley Leung, a car-free neighbor who lives out towards Lake City, got off the train at the Shoreline South Station and walked the perimeter trail around the park that’s open to the public. She wanted to demonstrate how the golf course acts as an impenetrable wall for pedestrians.

"Barbed wire fence, just to the right," she pointed out.

The northern part of the trail runs along NE 145th Street, the northern border of Seattle with Shoreline. Its sidewalk is narrow, dangerously close to cars, and overgrown in some places with blackberries and other weeds. Orange traffic markers placed haphazardly along the path seem to warn pedestrians not to go this way.

Other parts of the trail are more picturesque. Even as walkers are squeezed against an intimidating chain-link fence separating the trail from the golf course, it is sometimes shady and pleasant, and includes points of interest such as where a small, utilitarian bridge crosses a diminished Thornton Creek; the creek gives up a significant part of its water to irrigate the golf course (nearly 20 million gallons over the last year, some of which flowed back into the stream from ponds).

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On the other side of the fences is lush green lawn, landscaped areas, and occasional ponds. Leung imagines a smaller golf course, restored wetlands, nature trails, and soccer fields. A group of University of Washington students from the College of Built Environments drew up plans for what that could look like.

At a recent tabling event during the light rail opening, Leung heard from people receptive to that idea.

"We've had people tell us we should have a botanic garden here," she said. "There is enough space, 160 acres, for all of that."

Jackson Park 4 All also draws inspiration from Jefferson Park, which includes a reduced golf course and a broad range of recreational options on Beacon Hill.

Another group member, Andy Paroff, lives in a townhome just south of the golf course. He said when he and his partner bought their home, they saw the multi-colored Seattle Parks sign marking the entrance nearby. They assumed the huge green space across the street from their home would be useful after their child was born.

Now that they have a young son, they’ve discovered the truth. With no place to play, they make do with a small stretch of grass next to the golf course parking lot. When the lot is full, cars park there.

"I'm not anti-golf. I like golf," Paroff said. "But, it's not my number one activity. I just want to walk my dog or hang out with my kid at a playground."

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Seattle Parks and Recreation has no plans to shrink the popular golf course. Parks spokesperson Rachel Schulkin noted the golf course’s low course fees for youth and support for school sports teams among the reasons to keep it as is.

Of the more than 274,000 rounds of golf played at the city's four public courses, Schulkin said, about 72,000 were played at Jackson Park.

Out on the bright greens of the golf course, golfer Sanket Akerkar said shrinking the course would have unforeseen consequences.

"Otherwise, people are traveling farther and spending time to go do that," he said. "It's a hard thing. I don't know all the facts associated with it, but I think it's good as a golf course and it's good where it is."

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Schulkin said Parks and Recreation is hiring a consultant "to look at the feasibility of building a public-use trail through the golf course starting at the northwest corner and exiting on the east or south side of the course."

As for Jackson Park 4 All’s demand for more housing around the park, Office of Planning and Community Development spokesperson Seferiana Day pointed to dense areas being planned there as part of Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan update, expected to be finalized around the end of this year.

At the northeast corner, there’s a new "Neighborhood Center" planned. Pedestrians in that area would have to traverse the narrow sidewalk on NE 145th street to reach light rail, located on the park's northwest corner.

"Neighborhood Centers are defined as allowing development ranging from three to six stories, predominantly in the four- to five-story range," Day said.

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At the southwest corner, near a second light rail station at Jackson Park (130th Street Station) due to open in 2026, Seattle is planning an "Urban Center," "a mix of housing and commercial development at a scale that ranges generally from three to eight stories," Day added.

And by state law, the city must allow four-plexes and sometimes six-plexes (think: four or six townhomes) on properties once reserved for single-family homes.

UPDATE 9/10/2024,2:51 PM: Added info we were waiting for from Seattle Parks and Rec about the amount of water drawn from Thornton Creek.