Seattle Press on Line - Sierra Club Backs Thornton Creek Activists

Northgate

Sierra Club Backs Thornton Creek Activists

By Tom Herriman

Rebecca Cochran, conservation director of the Sierra Club's Cascade Chapter, and Janet Way, a member of the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund.

Mar 08, 2000 -- The Sierra Club has declared daylighting Thornton Creek to be one of their top priorities in the Seattle area. The club, with 9,000 members in Seattle and 20,000 state-wide, held a public meeting three weeks ago attended by 140 people including several city and county officials. "We voted to set up a committee and to make this a top priority for the city," according to Rebecca Cochran, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club's Cascade Chapter.

The south fork of Thornton Creek now runs in a culvert beneath I-5 and under the south parking lot of Northgate Mall. Simon Properties, which owns the mall, wants to build a multiplex theater, stores, housing and an underground parking garage on the property. The City of Seattle owns a easement for the creek bed, which they have offered to relinquish to Simon, according to Janet Way of the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund. The Fund has challenged Simon's development plan for the site in King County Superior Court. They want the city and Simon to restore the creek.

Cochran said, "Our goals are to daylight the creek and re-connect it to wetlands on the North Seattle Community College campus on the west side of I-5. Re-establishing the wetlands, which are perfect Coho [salmon] habitat, would control flooding, help save endangered species, and add a tremendous natural amenity to the community and to the shopping center."

"We're not saying Simon shouldn't build," Cochran explained. "They can change their design and still have everything they need, and the people of Seattle will get their creek back."

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