Greetings supporters of protecting Volunteer Park. Protect Volunteer Park lost our summary earlier this month. We are disappointed that the hearing examiner did not require an EIS for the SAAM expansion project. This increases the importance of the Landmarks Preservation Board (LPB)'s decision of whether to allow the project. We will continue to advocate with the LPB and provide information to. We urge supporters to write letters to the decision makers to help our voices be heard. And please make a donation to help us to continue to fight and pay our legal fees The project still faces a number of hurdles, requiring Landmarks Board action, City Council zoning and funding action, and Parks Dept. action. We will continue to advocate with all these decision makers, do research and inform them, and reach out to the community like we did at the recent Pride Festival. We can also fight with Initiative 42, the Protect Our Parks Initiative (ordinance #118477) says that parkland cannot be converted to non-park use without a hearing and consideration of alternatives. The City has taken the position that a museum is still park use. Our attorney has written a substantive letter disputing this position, as described here: http://protectvolunteerpark.org/2017/05/14/press-release/ Above all, it is important to protect Seattle's public open space as a naturalistic respite from a growing urban environment. Our city parks are continually being threatened with privatization in one way or another. Here is a good article about Can density and open space co-exist on Crosscut, which mentions Protect Volunteer’s Park’s fight of stopping the SAAM expansion: http://features.crosscut.com/discovery-park-open-space?utm_source=Crosscut+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e02ce568d0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_efe7a35aed-e02ce568d0-279099365 Hope to see you in the park sometime and thank you for your support. Please continue to share this petition. Please DONATE to help with legal costs! https://thinkagainsaam.org/donations/ FOLLOW US on FB: https://www.facebook.com/protectvolunteerpark/ Protect Volunteer Park Team http://protectvolunteerpark.org