With railroad out of the way, Kennydale Beach Park should get an ADA accessible entrance

Renton’s beautiful Kennydale Beach Park is not accessible to many residents because its steep, decade’s-old staircases provide the only public entrance. For years the railroad made improvements impossible, but now it would be possible to fix this deficiency.

Kennydale Beach Park is the oldest of Renton’s two beach parks, dating back to the post-war 1940s.  Long-time area residents tell stories of a young Clint Eastwood (the actor and director) sitting in the Kennydale Beach lifeguard stand squinting into the sunset and keeping an eye on swimmers.

During the park’s nearly 80-year history, every visitor has used an upper and lower steep narrow stairway to access the park from Lake Washington Boulevard.  The park has been inaccessible for anyone unable to climb these steep stairs.   The Eastside Railway that ran along the right-of-way between the staircases made any hope of improvement nearly impossible during that time.

Now, with the railway being transitioned into a permanent multi-use trail, Renton has an excellent opportunity to allow people of all mobilities, as well as families pushing strollers and pulling wagons, an opportunity to enjoy this park.  In the pictures below I describe how this could be done.

I’ve always been an outspoken advocate of improved accessibility to our waterfront and other public amenities.  In 2011 the Department of Ecology was pushing for Renton to build future and replacement docks at a width of no more than four feet.  I knew this narrow width was out of compliance with ADA guidelines, which would have made these docks hazardous for residents with mobility issues as well as young children. I pushed back on the errant Department of Ecology guidance, along with my council colleague Marcie Palmer, and we eventually won over our full Council, ensuring we came up with a design that both protected the fish and preserved safety for our residents with mobility challenges.  Other Washington State cities followed Renton’s lead afterwards, and our state’s docks are safer and more ADA compliant for this work.  This debate is captured in this blog entry here.

When approaching the park from Lake Washington Boulevard, this staircase takes visitors down to the Eastrail multi-use trail.

From the Eastrail trail, this staircase takes visitors down to the Kennydale Park entrance

This section of the Eastrail trail will eventually be paved. A valuable addition would be a ramp that gently ascends crosswise to the grade, from the trail to Lake Washington Blvd, at an ADA compliant slope. It could be built beyond the stairs or replace them. There is similar space on the downhill side that could provide an ADA accessible ramp down to the park. This would be useful for both Renton residents and trail users. Funding could come from a mix of Eastrail sources, Renton Parks capital budget, and potential state and federal accessibility grants like this.

“Now that’s a real good idea….”