Skyway Coalition's Green Space Project Aims to Transform Local BIPOC Communities With Sustainable Living Options

by Soumya Gupta

On Saturday, July 20, Skyway Coalition hosted a community event to present their longest-running project, Green Space, and talk about their plan to develop spaces that were easily accessible to communities. The project, in partnership with Homestead CLT, Washington Farmland Trust, Mithun, and Community Land Conservancy, aims to develop an innovative community space in the undeveloped Brooks Village property in addition to creating housing opportunities and furthering sustainability.

The event was hosted in collaboration with the Silent Task Force, a nonprofit supporting communities, especially those affected by trauma, through empowerment and innovation. Through the event, Skyway Coalition and its partners planned to seek input from community members while also providing a blueprint of the idea through a small tour of the property in Renton. The Skyway Housing and Green Space Project aims to provide affordable homeownership, promote community development, and preserve land for long-term public benefit.

The coalition aims to address the historic lack of investment, inequitable policies, and systems that have impacted Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. In December 2023, the organization, along with Homestead CLT, were granted permission to transfer land ownership of the Brooks Village property, which was primarily owned by King County. Skyway Coalition and its partners plan to host a "Design Party" to further build on the Green Space project with community input on Sept. 28, 2024.

The project property covers 14.3 acres, of which the coalition plans to use three acres to establish affordable housing for communities. The remainder of the property would be used for "green activities," like urban farming, building walking trails, and other opportunities for environment-based programs. The plot has the capacity for approximately 57 built homes and will be prioritized for BIPOC people who are current and former Skyway residents.

"The goal of the project is to develop Green Space simultaneously with affordable housing," said Sean Watts, founder of SM Watts Consulting. Watts is also on the advisory board of Community Land Conservancy, which works to acquire land to empower and support historically underserved communities. "We aim to build interest in local economic development to address issues like food justice and climate change."

According to Watts, the Green Space project would help achieve their dual goal of affordable housing and land ownership, as well as environmental and green restoration. Through the affordable housing units, the project would help provide homeownership opportunities to Communities of Color, as well as build affordable spaces. Along with this, Green Space would provide opportunities for urban farming to help address food insecurity and reduce carbon emissions to ensure that there are several opportunities to practice green restoration. Watts stated that some part of the property consists of wetlands, which would be conserved as part of integrating climate change mitigation and adapting to urban and suburban development.

"This project has been in the making for a few years now, and it's gotten us to a point where we want to transfer this property back to the community and facilitate resources," Hannah Wilson, farmers market and bazaar liaison at Skyway Coalition, said. "The property is in the process of being transferred to Homestead, along with Skyway, to build affordable housing."

Wilson said that a large factor in the Green Space project was building relationships with the community to ensure that the process was collaborative. Since the project took almost a decade to develop and reach its current stage, Wilson said that it was important to acknowledge this challenge of a long, drawn-out wait. They spoke about the need for conscious efforts to seek inputs from community members to further establish the project — a collective process based on trust.

"A big part of the project is to develop ways for the community to develop the Green Space land, which would help address their needs, and in a way, avoid gentrification of the land," Wilson said. "It's about making sure that people are aware of the property, learn about affordable housing, and support each other."

With the Green Space project, Watts said that the focus is to broaden community engagement, especially in the environmental sector, which would help provide social, economic, and environmental as well as health benefits to the community. With respect to community members, the project would build to increase representation with housing and green programs, while having culturally influenced spaces for residents and families.

Watts emphasized that the project would develop based on local input, in order to minimize impact on wetlands, while also maximizing opportunities for sustainability. Based on community interests, Skyway and its partners would work to demonstrate ecological master-planning, the hallmark of development to integrate nature in a mutually beneficial way.

"We are constantly thinking of integrating nature in every project, where we are paying attention to the environmental changes and how they impact housing infrastructure, to ensure minimal impacts on nature," Watts said. "This is to ensure that we have built-in climate resilience, by building resilient communities that are tied in with the nature that surrounds them."

📸 Featured Image: Visitors at the Skyway Coalition Green Space project event. (Photo: Michael B. Maine)