Judge decides Gas Works concerts suit can go ahead
The Seattle Times
June 28, 2006 Wednesday
Fourth Edition
Kayla Webley
Seattle Times staff reporter
Opponents of moving a popular summer concert series to Gas Works Park won a small court victory Tuesday when a judge ruled that their lawsuit against the city of Seattle and the concert promoter can go forward.
Both sides said after the King County Superior Court ruling by Judge Dean Lum that they were waiting for the other side to act, leaving unanswered the question of whether the city can host the Summer Nights series at Gas Works in the summer of 2007.
“It’s all up in the air right now. We don’t know what the plaintiffs are going to do,” said parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter.
“The ball is in the city’s court,” said David Bricklin, attorney for the plaintiffs, Friends of Gas Works Park. That group claimed that its concerns over noise, parking and traffic were not heard when the city was deciding to move the series to Gas Works.
In past years the series has included 17 to 23 concerts per summer, with as many as 3,800 tickets sold per show.
If the group does go to court and wins its lawsuit, the city and concert promoter One Reel would have to do a full environmental review before holding the shows at Gas Works.
The city has claimed it should not have to do such a review because the concerts are a temporary entertainment event, not a wholesale change to the park.
Bricklin disputed that, saying the city’s plans include building pathways, upgrading utilities and making other permanent changes.
The concert series began in 1991 at Pier 62/63 on Seattle’s central waterfront on Elliott Bay. But because that venue needed repair, the concerts were moved in 2005 to South Lake Union. The concerts needed to move again for 2006 because of park construction at the Lake Union site.
After the lawsuit was filed, the city said it would suspend the shows for this summer but resume them next summer.
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