Laurelhurst Community Club                                                     

Serving 2800 Households and Businesses in Seattle’s Laurelhurst Neighborhood

                                                                                     May 23, 2007

Mark A. Emmert

President, Office of the President

301 Gerberding Hall

Box 351230

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington 98195-1230

RE:  Replacement of Deteriorating Walkway

Dear President Emmert,

            The Laurelhurst Community Club Board of Trustees continues to receive complaints about the deteriorating asphalt walkway on Mary Gates Memorial Drive NE adjacent to the University’s property.  The walkway extends from the University’s Botanical Gardens up to the Ceramic Metal Arts Compound.  We hope you will schedule replacement of the walkway with a concrete sidewalk soon.

            The asphalt walkway is heavily used by students and faculty frequenting your facilities on Mary Gates and NE 41^st Street, the families who live in your graduate student housing, and by our Laurelhurst neighbors, many of whom are faculty members and students.  This is the route that many of our neighbors, some with baby strollers and children on bicycles, take to get to Five Corners and the University Village.  As you can see from the attached photos, the walkway is uneven, deteriorated, narrowed by grass overgrowth, and often submerged in puddles at its low points.  Some portions of the walkway are barely two feet wide and the minimum sidewalk width under the City’s Code is five feet.  As you may be aware, property owners are responsible for the condition of sidewalks abutting their property and there are liability issues in this regard.

            We have been in touch with the Department of Planning and Development about the condition of this walkway.  We were told that it appears as if the asphalt walkway was installed some time ago as a temporary measure to extend the existing concrete pedestrian sidewalk to prevent pedestrians from walking on the street roadway.  We suspect that the walkway was installed decades ago.

            We urge you to replace the deteriorating and unsafe walkway to comply with transportation department standards.  Please keep us informed as you develop a plan to address the walkway replacement. 

Sincerely,

Liz Ogden, Vice President                                         Jeannie Hale, President

5005 48^th Avenue NE                                                             3425 West Laurelhurst Drive NE

Seattle, Washington  98105                                        Seattle, Washington  98105

206-517-5862                                                              206-525-5135 / fax 206-525-9631

wizzet@comcast.net                                                   jeannieh@serv.net

cc:  Theresa Doherty