The 26 homes on Officer's Row and Montana Circle are within the Fort Lawton Landmark District in the very heart of Discovery Park. They are protected from alteration, and are subject to many Federal, State, and City Preservation restrictions. The US Navy formed a partnership with a private corporation, Forest City Military Communities, LLC to own and manage the housing in Discovery Park, and to develop new military housing near their Everett Home Base. The Everett housing is now complete, and the Navy personnel who wish to, have moved from Seattle to Everett. The homes in Discovery Park are still owned by Forest City, and are now under lease to a variety of occupants, no longer all Navy personnel. Forest City has negotiated with the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board to permit some minor improvements to the sites, and for permission to add some garage structures that are compatible in style with the former military homes. Forest City plans to either sell the homes as 26 individual condominiums, or sell them as one package to another developer/real estate company. Friends of Discovery Park made an offer to acquire all of these residences to be managed and maintained as a single entity, which offer was deemed insufficient. Friends still believes that a single ownership will be the best way to protect the quiet and tranquility of the Park in the future, when it will have 26 civilian inholders as occupants. Also, a single ownership of these residences, with a single set of written objectives and standards, is the best way to assure that they continue as quiet and dignified assets to the Park. As such they will continue to contribute to the overall experience of visiting Seattle's largest natural parkland. Further, we believe that the City's investment in maintaining such a pristine and unspoiled sanctuary as Discovery Park, should be managed in a way that primarily benefits the citizens of Seattle. Over the years, living within this Park should be a privilege available to many, rather than a right available only to a few. In September 2012, Forest City did put the properties on the market for purchase as a single package for all the units. |
