Public hearing for Fircrest nursing facility “Grudgingly Accepted” by some

The Fircrest plan calls for a new nursing facility to replace the badly outdated buildings like this one.
 Photo by Oliver Moffat

By Oliver Moffat

A stroll along the meandering pathways of the forested 65 acre Fircrest campus provides a quiet and peaceful break from the busy car traffic of 15th Ave NE.

Despite the peaceful setting, the future of the Fircrest campus has long been the focus of controversy with some advocates calling for the facility be closed while others seek upgrades.

The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has applied for a permit to proceed with the Fircrest School Master Development Plan - a twenty year plan for the campus. A public hearing on the plan will be held on Wednesday night March 6, 2024 at Shoreline city hall.

The plan calls for the demolition of aging buildings that have fallen into disrepair. In their place, new residential cottages, and a commissary.

The southeastern quadrant where the dog park is today will be redeveloped into commercial spaces. In the center of the campus, the historic chapel will be preserved and the plan calls for retention of as many significant trees as possible. A new public, forested trail will connect the chapel to Hamlin Park to the north.

A rendering from the Fircrest plan shows the proposed nursing facility that has drawn criticism 

A controversial 120-bed nursing facility is also planned that would replace the dangerously aging “Y buildings”.

Originally a Naval Hospital during World War II, the site was used as a tuberculosis sanatorium before Fircrest opened in 1958. By the middle of the 1960s Fircrest was home to over a thousand residents with mental and physical impairments. 

Since then, the population has declined to about two hundred residents thanks to advances in rights for people with disabilities that moved people out of isolated institutions and helped parents support family members at home.

Some of those residents now live in the Fircrest nursing facility in the northwest quadrant of the campus in six Y-shaped buildings dating from the 1960s. These structures do not meet current seismic codes according to the plan and virtually everything needs to be replaced including heating, plumbing and electric.

Current view of Fircrest from Google Earth shows the Y shaped buildings.

After decades of conflict between advocates, families and caregivers, the State Legislature tasked a workgroup to broker consensus between stakeholders and make a specific set of recommendations.

According to the workgroup report, most adults with developmental disabilities live at home with their aging parents acting as caregivers. As their parents age and are no longer able to care for them, they need long-term supportive care.

After listening to over 135 people including residents, parents, and caregivers, the workgroup made a series of twenty recommendations five years ago.

One of those recommendations was for the state to build a new 120-bed nursing facility replacement on the Fircrest campus.

To many disability rights advocates, Fircrest is a relic of a bygone age when people with disabilities were segregated from the community. Advocates including The Arc of Washington and Disability Rights Washington have called for shutting down the facility arguing that residents can receive better care within the community.

An alternative preferred by some advocates was a plan to build multiple 6-bedroom homes across the state that would site residents closer to their communities of origin while allowing them to live in a non-institutional home.

According to a follow up report published by the workgroup early this week, the Fircrest recommendation is still contentious with some while others have “grudgingly accepted” that the facility will be built; like it or not.

DSHS is also seeking a special use permit to build a new 48 bed behavioral health facility on the campus that would provide urgently needed capacity to serve people who have been involuntarily committed to receive mental health treatment in a secure environment for up to six months. The facility will have large spaces for activities, exercise and life skills instruction to help transition patients back into the community.

Some neighborhood residents have expressed concern over the development of the campus, preferring preservation of open space and historic buildings instead of new buildings and commercial space.

In September of 2023, the Naval Hospital Chapel on the campus was listed on the Washington State Registry of Historic Places. (See previous articles about the Chapel and Fircrest)

A locked gate separating Fircrest from Hamlin Park could be removed under the plan.
Photo by Oliver Moffat

According to the proposed plan, the chapel and its surrounding forest will be preserved and a new network of trails will connect the chapel to Hamlin Park to the north. Currently, access to Hamlin Park is blocked by locked gates, preventing Fircrest residents and caregivers from waking north into the 80 acre forested park. The plan also includes badly needed sidewalk and bicycle lane improvements along 15th Ave NE to the west and NE 150th St to the south.

A study in 2023 recorded 2,258 significant trees within the Master Development Plan boundary. It is unclear at this point which trees will be retained: the plan says a minimum of 60% of significant trees will be retained while city staff are recommending that 80% of trees be retained.

A map from the Fircrest plan shows the location of the proposed nursing facility and walking trails connecting the historic chapel to Hamlin Park.

On a typical Saturday afternoon, the noisiest thing on the peaceful campus is the Eastside Off-Leash Dog Area located in the southeast quadrant of the campus. The city currently has a month-to-month lease to use the site which is expected to end when dog parks at Ridgecrest Park and James Keough Park funded by the 2022 Park Bond open. According to the proposed plan, the dog park will be redeveloped into commercial or office space and will include publicly accessible open space.

The Fircrest Master Development Plan does not include the southwest quadrant of the campus where the COVID testing site was located during the height of the pandemic. 

A proposed amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan would rezone that parcel which is owned by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). A bill (House Bill 2003) that would provide tax exemptions to incentivize affordable housing on DNR owned lands is on the way to the Governor’s desk after sailing through the House and Senate with broad bipartisan support in this year’s legislative session. State Representative Cindy Ryu has championed a proposal for an affordable housing development on the parcel.