(File photo, courtesy Urban Homestead Foundation)
The future of the former Seattle City Light substation across from Genesee Hill Elementary remains unsettled, more than a decade after the city decided to put it and other former substations up for sale. Tonight the nonprofit that formed in 2016 to try to buy the 50th/Dakota site, the Urban Homestead Foundation, announced it is ending its attempt to buy the site for educational/environmental use – but says the nonprofit Forterra will take the campaign on. Here’s what the UHF told its supporters tonight:
A new way forward to conserve the Dakota Homestead land!
We are pleased to announce that Forterra – Land for GoodTM, a well established land conservation nonprofit in King County, will be taking the Dakota Homestead project into the future, effective immediately. Forterra is committed to continuing the vision that so many of us in West Seattle have held for more than a decade. Urban Homestead Foundation will transfer its remaining financial assets (donations received) to Forterra in the coming months and dissolve our foundation in accordance with state law.
There are so many people to thank for bringing this work to successful completion.
● To the original dreamers whose passion for community, land use, and environmental education launched the mission and raised the rallying cry to preserve this piece of our neighborhood.
● To the City of Seattle, who continued to hold onto the property during our community-led efforts to purchase the land.
● To the numerous non-profit organizations and government agencies who pledged their support.
● And most importantly, to all of you, the individuals who donated time and money to our organization over the years. The financial seeds you planted will continue to grow.
We’d also like to acknowledge that this land is not just a parcel to be preserved, but a part of the ancestral home of the Duwamish people since time immemorial. In so doing, we’d like to express gratitude to the Duwamish people, past, present and future, for their stewardship of the land we live, work and play on.
For a small organization to garner such visibility and support across the city is a huge undertaking, and this partnership with Forterra to preserve the land is an incredible win. We couldn’t have done it without all of you – thank you.
Please take a moment today to visit the website of Forterra – Land for Good at <strong>https://forterra.org to learn about their mission. We think you’ll understand why we feel so strongly that our original vision will live on and be realized.
Finally, the work to preserve this property is not done yet! Forterra will still need to close the funding gap to complete the purchase of this land. Therefore, if you’d like to continue to support this project, you can donate directly to Forterra at the following link https://forterra.org/donate-web and specify “Dakota Homestead” in the “additional comment/notes” field.
Thank you all and see you in the community!
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors, Urban Homestead Foundation
We had inquired last September with UHF about the project’s status and while they acknowledged our inquiry at the time, they hadn’t been ready to comment until this announcement. We’re following up with them regarding the unspecified “funding gap” that remained, and we’ll be following up with Forterra tomorrow.
OTHER SITES: Of the other ex-substation sites the city declared “surplus” at the same time, one other has become an environmental-education site, Delridge Wetland Park. Another, on Pigeon Point, has become “tiny townhouses”; the 16th/Holden site in north Highland Park awaits future redevelopment as affordable housing; and two other sites in Fauntleroy and south Highland Park also remain vacant.