Ballard Commons Park to reopen in March

After a year of being closed, Ballard Commons Park will reopen to the public next month.

Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Ballard Alliance, and Councilmember Dan Strauss will host a grand reopening event on March 11 and 12 from noon to 6 p.m. with family-friendly events, games, music, and food.

Ballard Commons closed in December 2021 following an encampment cleanup. During the closure, Seattle Parks has been renovating and rehabilitating the park, including making the following improvements:

• Turf repair and landscaping: Seattle Parks repaired the turf, aerated, fertilized, and hydroseeded the grassy areas of the park. They replaced missing plants with sustainable vegetation, and replaced missing White Birch trees along with planting new trees. The parks department plans to conduct daily litter and garbage removal, daily hazardous material removal, weekly mowing, and pressure washing hard surfaces.
• Hardscape infrastructure maintenance: The parks department converted the pedestrian lighting to LEDs and repaired the restroom plumbing and restroom locking system. Other recreation equipment repairs included bench refurbishment, replacing signs, installing a new rainbow, replacing missing skate stops, and replacing missing bollards. The department removed and painted over graffiti and added concrete paving in some areas for new bike racks.
• Spray park maintenance: Crews changed out the sand and gravel in the spray park and installed a manual filter bypass for the spray area, along with some other upgrades to keep it good working condition.

There’s still a bit of work to be done—the new playground area is still in the works, which should be constructed this summer.