By Izzy Wallace

The SeaTac City Council voted to approve the name change of a local park, at a council meeting on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.

Des Moines Creek Park has officially changed to “SeaTac Des Moines Creek Park.”

This motion was passed unanimously, and was brought up by SeaTac parks, community programs & services director, Lawrence Ellis.

Ellis gave a presentation detailing why the name change was needed.

“Including ‘SeaTac’ in the name of the park is to reflect the financial contribution of purchasing the surplus WSDOT [Washington State Department of Transportation] property,” Ellis said.

The city of SeaTac had bought eight acres of surplus property from WSDOT back in 2021 for $5.5 million.

This was done by acquiring funds over several years, through the Conservation Futures Tax Levy grant, as well as matching funds.

“We entered several grants, and we were very successful in securing funding,” Ellis said. “But along that, there were matching grants. … The city has done a great job of matching those awards.”

The city had been interested in acquiring these eight acres since 2018, he said.

Former Councilmember Clyde “Fuzz” Hill had also submitted a Council Request Form, regarding adding SeaTac to the park’s name, in May 2021.

The name change proposal was then brought up to, and supported by, the Parks and Recreation Committee in August 2021.

A survey for SeaTac residents was then conducted from November 2021, through January 2022.

The survey asked: “Do you support changing the name from Des Moines Creek Park, to SeaTac Des Moines Creek Park?

“We received 64 responses, 40 said ‘yes,’ and 24 said ‘no,’” Ellis said.

Next, SeaTac will continue with new developments, features, and upkeep over the park area.

“We’ll be looking at a tree restoration plan,” Ellis said.

A new trail head off of 18th Avenue South is also being designed.

The SeaTac Des Moines Creek Trail Park is located at 2151 S. 200th Street:

Izzy Wallace is a graduate from Highline College, where she got her AA in Multimedia, and her BAS in Integrated Design. She had previously worked at Highline’s newspaper for several years as Editor-in-Chief. You can send her ideas for news stories, or photos of your dogs, at [email protected].