A few notes from these two public open houses in West Seattle tonight:
SPRING HILL (THE MIXED-USE PROJECT, NOT THE RESTAURANT) OPEN HOUSE: No new info or drawings since the Southwest Design Review Board meeting earlier this month (WSB coverage here). Project manager Barbara Hartley told WSB they hoped to use tonight’s open house to clarify some points of concern voiced at that meeting, such as the separation between Spring Hill and the building to the north (25 feet total), and gather more comments before architects revise the plans for the next SWDRB meeting (she says they’ll be ready next month, if the city can get them on the schedule). She also says they’re leaning toward designating the “residential units” as apartments, since “that’s where the development synergy seems to be right now, especially in West Seattle,” and for the ground-level commercial, they have no “anchor tenant” yet but are envisioning professional offices.
METRO RAPIDRIDE OPEN HOUSE: No major new info since the presentation we covered at the Junction Neighborhood Organization (JuNO) meeting earlier this month (WSB writeup here), but a few additional infoboards not shown at that meeting were on display here — including one listing possible stoplights that could have “transit priority” as part of speeding up the bus trips. (How much faster? one reader asked in earlier comments — Paul Roybal of Metro told WSB tonight, about 25% faster than the current 54.) We also learned tonight that before RapidRide starts up in 2011, Metro will do a West Seattle-wide review of ALL bus routes in 2010, figuring out how to make it all work together. Open houses without full presentations don’t make good writeups but they are EXCELLENT ways for you to get questions answered and register opinions, so if you have even the slightest interest in RapidRide, we strongly urge you to get to one of the next three West Seattle events: open house 5:30-8:30 pm Tuesday (1/29) @ West Seattle Senior Center, info table noon-3 pm Wednesday (1/30) @ WS Senior Center, 6 pm Feb. 19 @ Southwest Library. And an online questionnaire is still available for you to answer by Feb. 1; find it here. You can find more Metro contact info for RapidRide comments here.
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