(Image: City of Seattle)

The City of Seattle has a new plan to manage the Seattle Japanese Garden, the 3.5-acre garden space in the southern end of the Washington Park Arboretum visited by more than 100,000 people a year.

The proposal was detailed by the city council’s public assets committee Wednesday.

Under the plan (PDF), the city would renew its partnership with the nonprofit Arboretum Foundation to manage the garden in a new 10-year deal that would add new public benefit measurements and shift the split on admissions. Under the new deal, the city would split the money 85%/15% on the first $500,000 in revenue, 50/50 on anything beyond that up to $750,000, and 40/60 in favor of the foundation for anything above $750,000.

2021 admissions came in above $600,000 but are expected to climb in 2023 with a planned hike in ticket prices.

The new deal which must be approved by the council will also include new metrics measuring public benefits including a requirement for at least 12 cultural programs, programming for 18 Free First Thursdays and Family Saturdays, and more than 80 docent led tours. The garden must also host at least two to five community events every year.

The city-owned garden debuted in 1960 and the original tea house burned down in the 1970s before being rebuilt in the early ’80s. An estimated 100,000 people a year visit the attraction.

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