It appeals to everyone -- and that has its price

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Green Lake appeals to everyone. President Clinton jogged here. Strolling busi-ness professionals, elite and recreational runners, outdoor enthusiasts in wheelchairs, lawn bowlers, soccer and rugby players, bird-watchers, anglers, rowers, sailors, Rollerbladers, bicyclists, senior swimmers, dog-walkers, hoop-shooting teens, stroller-pushing moms, toddlers feeding ducks -- all can wind up or wind down here, finding moments of simple pleasure.

Such popularity has its price. Green Lake was a Seattle suburb at the turn of the century; residents used to ride a trolley south to Lake Union and board a ferry for Seattle. Today's commute is quicker -- a key factor in residential growth and rising housing prices.

Green Lake is now looking at some of the biggest potential changes since the 1970s, when new zoning created multifamily housing developments and multistory businesses. While the community's most recent controversial issues have been path improvements and how to rid the lake of sometimes stinky algae, the neighborhood planning process is introducing a spectrum of issues that its highly educated citizens must address. (A whopping 49 percent of Green Lake's population completed four years of college).

The city's Office of Management and Planning estimates that by the year 2014, the number of existing households in the Green Lake area will grow by 400 households -- from the present 1,439 to 1,839. The projections mean an increased density from 13.4 households per gross acre to 17.2 households per gross acre (this does not refer to population).

Because it is classified as a residential urban village, Green Lake is among the 37 neighborhoods city-wide that in two years must submit its own plan for how to accommodate the projected growth. So Green Lake, a haven for athletic pursuits, is gearing up in another sense: in recent months citizens have formed a new Chamber of Commerce, a new Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce) and have launched a citizen group called Green Lake 2020 -- all designed to give residents and merchants greater self-determination for the neighborhood and city comprehensive planning processes.

Continued:

• Residents, business coexist in this recreational mecca
• Lake is the community's center, but not its heart
• Maintaining the park and water is a priority
• Merchants contribute to neighborhood's health