Neighbors Battle Over Pocket Parks In Seattle

"There are about 150 shoreline street ends in Seattle, vestiges of early city street planning when city maps showed roads drawn right into Lake Washington, Lake Union, Puget Sound, Shilshole Bay, Portage Bay, Elliott Bay and other Seattle waterways.

In 2000, the city determined that public access to the water was the best use for street ends. A permit system discourages private use of the public property and raises almost $140,000 annually for street ends. About 100 street ends are open to the public. Some have been improved, often through neighborhood efforts, but many others are neglected, overgrown and unused. "They are effectively pocket parks that are scattered all over our city," Oppenheimer said.

But over many decades, some public street ends were absorbed into neighbors' yards. They sprouted fences, hedges, swing sets, hot tubs and gardens; sometimes they became equipment storage areas for businesses they border."

Now property owners, neighborhood groups, and park activists are squaring off over the future of the city's shoreline street ends.