A plan to drop a full-size athletic field for Lincoln High School onto a wooded gravel lot at North 50th Street and Aurora Avenue North in Lower Woodland Park has turned into one of Seattle’s loudest neighborhood fights of the summer. On one side are families begging for a walkable home field. On the other are neighbors and tree advocates warning that the city is about to clear away a rare slice of urban forest.
District pushes for a walkable “home field”
Superintendent Ben Shuldiner told students on June 10 that Seattle Public Schools is asking Seattle Parks and Recreation to team up on designing and building a multi-sport field at the N. 50th and Aurora site, with the project still subject to environmental review and standard permitting. According to Seattle Public Schools, putting the field in Woodland Park would finally give Lincoln a home turf students can walk to and would cut the need to bus teams miles away just to practice or host games.
Parks Commission sets the clock
The first public test comes at the Board of Parks and Recreation commissioners, where Seattle Parks staff are slated to give a full briefing at a July 23 public hearing. Commissioners are then expected to take up discussion, and possibly a vote, at the board’s regular meeting on August 13, according to Parkways. The same notice spells out how residents can send in written comments ahead of the July session.
Tree fight heats up over conflicting counts
Local coverage and activists say the cost will not just be in dollars. They warn that dozens of mature trees could disappear if the field goes in as proposed. KOMO reports that early arborist notes show roughly 80 trees could be affected. Tree Action Seattle puts its own tally at a minimum of 79 “healthy significant” trees and warns that losing that kind of canopy would echo for decades in added heat and reduced shade in the surrounding neighborhood.
Options, price tags and contested math
None of this is cheap. Project concepts shared in outreach materials come with different footprints and budgets, with reporting pegging estimates at roughly 8.6 million to 11.5 million dollars across the various scenarios. The gravel-lot concept at N. 50th and Aurora is shown in some materials at about 9.5 million dollars, with a district figure of roughly 40 trees removed at the site, according to the Bulletin. Advocates and independent arborists counter that the lower district number understates the broader impact on trees across the whole project area.
What Lincoln families say they are living with now
Lincoln families and athletes argue that the status quo is not working. With no home field of their own, teams are routinely bussed to other schools for practices and games, chewing up after-school hours in transit. Seattle Public Schools says putting a field in Woodland Park would cut down travel time and open up safer, more accessible after-school options for students who currently have to chase practice sites around the city.
Long road ahead for approvals
Even if the Parks Commission signs off and advances the recommendation, the project still has a long checklist in front of it. The field proposal would have to clear design review, permitting and a full Environmental Impact Statement, a sequence that stretches the timeline out years rather than months. Reporting to date puts most completion estimates in the 2028 to 2029 range, with the larger buildout options commonly shown as opening in 2029, according to the Bulletin.
Neighbors gear up for the showdown
Neighbors, conservation groups and Lincoln supporters are all signaling they will show up in force for the July 23 hearing and the August 13 decision, when the Board of Parks and Recreation could either move the proposal ahead or send it back for more changes, according to Parkways. Until then, the fight over that Lower Woodland gravel lot stands as a very Seattle standoff, with urgent school needs running headfirst into cherished parkland and a stand of mature trees that many residents are not ready to lose.
