The Maple Leaf Community Council announced today that its efforts to save the grove of 80 mature Douglas fir trees it calls “Waldo Woods” is one step closer to finalization. From David Miller, chairman of the council’s Waldo Working Group:
We received confirmation today the real estate deal at the core of the conservation easement process has been closed. Our thanks go to MMSC for making this happen, including meeting Camp Fire’s demand for immediate cash in exchange for signing the paperwork.
In late April, Camp Fire Puget Sound was the only party that didn’t sign off on an ordinance to preserve the trees, which eventually led to further negotiations over a $425,000 lien it held on the property. Camp Fire was the previous owner of the property, located at the corner of 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 85th Street, before recently selling it to Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder Day School.
The next step in the process is to determine how Waldo Woods will be maintained, which is being negotiated by the school, the Community Council and Seattle Parks and Recreation. From Miller:
Since all three parties want a vibrant Waldo Woods, we don’t anticipate any problems.
The Community Council has been fighting to preserve the trees since Camp Fire announced in 2006 that it had sold the 1.6-acre lot for a townhouse development.
Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder Day School, which already has begun construction on the building that once was Waldo Hospital, plans to sell a northern corner of the property that’s now a parking lot to a developer with plans to build seven to nine 950-square-foot homes.
