Executive Summary
The University of Washington Farm (UW Farm) proposes to purchase and install a composting toilet at the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) farm site. There is increasing need for an outdoor bathroom facility at the farm, to support student famers working and volunteering at the UW Farm, as well as other groups using the space. In 2015, there were over 180 volunteers working at the farm. In addition, the farm offered tours to over 500 UW students in 2015 alone. The lack of a bathroom on the worksite negatively impact productivity and disrupts workflow (individuals have to stop work and leave the site to use the nearest restrooms), disrupts programing on the farm, and impedes access to any bathroom on weekends (the nearest bathrooms are locked on the weekend, a time when the farm has routine volunteer hours).
The farm would not be the only beneficiary however. An outdoor bathroom would greatly benefit a variety of community and university groups who operate adjacent to the farm. The facility would be an indispensable resource for: community visitors to the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA) and the CUH during daylight hours; participants in the neighboring Seattle Tilth Youth Garden Works program; youth participating in other educational programs at CUH; student ecologists and volunteers doing restoration work in UBNA; and UW grounds and maintenance members who frequently do work in the area.