The Thornton Creek Watershed Restoration Project in Meadowbrook
A car in the ditch…. and then another and another.
Over the past three years, residents of the Meadowbrook neighborhood in Seattle often noticed cars in the ditch on the north side of NE 110th Street nearest to the corner of 31st Ave NE.
With school athletic fields on both sides of NE 110th, it was apparent that cars were parking along there when spectators came to watch football or soccer games at the schools.
Since they first began keeping a tally in 2021, neighbors have counted seventeen cars in the ditch.
In 2021 a volunteer group formed to do something about this, based upon environmental concerns. It’s not just a ditch along NE 110th Street — the water flowing there is actually part of a creek system. Steps needed to be taken to prevent illegal parking, restore the landscaping and restore the ability of the soil to filter contaminants out of the water entering the creek, such as rain and roadway runoff.
The Thornton Creek Watershed Restoration Project was formed to restore the health of the creeklet along NE 110th Street. By restoring the landscaping, the soil would be able to filter out contaminants coming from the roadway. A King County Waterworks Grant provided funding, and Seattle Department of Transportation put in no-parking signs and curb stops on August 29, 2024.
Although the new curb stops are low and could conceivably be driven over, other measures such as no-parking signs and the restoration of the landscaping will tend to discourage parking along the creeklet.
This roadside creeklet could also be called a bioswale because it includes plants which stabilize the soil, absorb runoff water and filter pollutants.
On October 19, 2024, forty-four volunteers of all ages (including students) set and mulched 900 plants along the creeklet on NE 110th Street.
