DEVELOPMENT: Official comment time for Morgan Junction rowhouse project, with address changed to 4300 SW Willow


(King County Assessor’s Office photo)

Back in June, we brought you first word of a then-early-stage proposal which at the time carried the address 6721 California SW – replacing the century-plus-old house shown above with a 7-unit rowhouse and 5 offstreet-parking spaces. The project address has since been changed to 4300 SW Willow – it’s at the corner of California/Willow in south Morgan Junction – and today’s Land Use Information Bulletin brings the official notice of the developer’s land-use-permit application. This opens a two-week comment period focused on environmental aspects of the proposal; you can use this form to comment – the deadline is Monday, October 9th.

23 Replies to "DEVELOPMENT: Official comment time for Morgan Junction rowhouse project, with address changed to 4300 SW Willow"

  • Row house fan September 25, 2017 (11:57 am)

    Really excited to see more row houses, each with a strong relationship to street.  Good for the neighborhood, incoming families, and local businesses.  More of these, please! 

    • Wsrez September 25, 2017 (1:54 pm)

      Sad to see a beautiful old craftsman torn down. More history gone from the birthplace of Seattle.

    • KM September 25, 2017 (3:12 pm)

      Really excited about row houses as well, exactly for the reasons you mentioned. Love the social community feeling they can create.

  • sc September 25, 2017 (1:45 pm)

    According to Ancestry in the 1930 Census,  Guy and Stella Connors lived at 6721 California Ave.

    He was a truck driver for a bakery and the home was owned and valued at $4000.

    They also owned a radio!

  • Gene September 25, 2017 (3:14 pm)

    Row House Fan—wish there were more local Morgan st businesses- not just restaurants.

  • Hate Row Houses September 25, 2017 (3:17 pm)

    More people, less space. More environmental damage, less salmon. More pollution, less Orca’s.

    People always ruin good places. Now it’s Seattle’s turn.

    • Peter September 25, 2017 (5:16 pm)

      You are dead on right! New growth should be in the subururbs to do EVEN MORE environmental damage and create EVEN MORE pollution! 

    • Treehouse September 26, 2017 (10:01 pm)

      Are you serious? Sprawl is a major contributor to pollution. Urbanism and density create major efficiencies that is dramatically better for our planet. 

  • M September 25, 2017 (6:09 pm)

    Where does the Morgan Junction technically end the Gatewood begin? I live very near this location and suffer an identity crisis. 

    • WSB September 25, 2017 (7:00 pm)

      M, I don’t believe there is an actual line. I consider it for reporting purposes south of Myrtle … WSUU for example is definitely Gatewood.

  • J September 25, 2017 (6:50 pm)

    Can someone tell me what the difference is between rowhouses and townhouses?

    • Jethro Marx September 25, 2017 (7:55 pm)

      Sure: A rowhouse is what you call a townhouse when people are tired of tacky townhouses. It sounds european and east-coasty! I bet the flyer will say they’re “brownstone-inspired” or some such drivel.

      4300 SW Willow is what you call your townhouse project on California avenue southwest when said avenue has too many townhouse projects on line already.

       I’m fine with density and boxy buildings if they’ve got style; can we stop it with the cheesy stacked stone veneer and faux reclaimed accent walls, though?

      • bolo September 26, 2017 (12:00 pm)

        I was wondering why they wanted to change the address from California to Willow; thanks for that explanation.

    • Matt September 25, 2017 (11:06 pm)

      Here is an overview:

      A Rowhouse lot extends from front to back of a parcel (townhouses on the other hand can be behind other townhouses). Further, It must have pedestrian entry on street front, front yard design features and architectural expression so that each row house reads as distinct from neighbors. Otherwise, height limits are similar to townhouses, but can have 8% more square footage. Where a rowhouse abuts single family zoning, the side yard setback is the same (5′) or more (7′) than what is required in the adjacent SF5000 zone, depending on how deep the rowhouse structure is.  

      See SMC chapter 23.45, if you need more info. 

  • rob September 25, 2017 (8:06 pm)

     we can’t live here or we can’t live there. Well where is mans natural habitat? 

    • Terri September 25, 2017 (9:01 pm)

      It’s here, but there are just too many of us. And wherever we live, we have to learn to do it differently.

  • happywalker September 25, 2017 (8:21 pm)

    Row house fan and KM…I thought you were being sarcastic.  That is exactly how I feel…but 

    sarcastically.  Yikes!

  • TJ September 25, 2017 (10:04 pm)

    The suburbs should be where growth is. This is America, not Europe, and americans like space and square footage. That is NOT going to change. And I don’t know what we need to learn to do differently? The population of the country actually would be flat in the coming years if not for immigration, and to believe the population growth here in the region will continue at this pace is fallacy. I heard our outgoing mayor on political radio a year ago and he said we are experiencing a “tech boom” driving people here, then went on to unbelievably say we will see “climate change drive lots of people here in the not so distant future”. Using that to help push zoning changes and density construction. 

    • Peter September 25, 2017 (10:38 pm)

      ” This is America, not Europe, and americans like space and square footage. That is NOT going to change.”

      No, that is not what “americans” (sic) want, it’s what YOU want. It is EXTREMELY arrogant of you to presume that everyone wants what you want, not to mention completely wrong. 

      • AT September 26, 2017 (11:08 am)

        @Peter, agreed.  Some of us are capable of seeing that Seattle has obvious physical boundaries with water on two sides and knowing that urban sprawl is not the best solution.  More concrete and more people wasting time and fossil fuels in traffic?  Less job flexibility for people living in the farthest ‘burbs?   I much prefer higher density instead of paving over more foothills and wetlands.

        While I can’t  get behind the micro-housing type units that seem like a lousy living experience, a handful of townhouses or row houses that retain some green space replacing a single-family dwelling is a reasonable way to increase density.   And yes, please, more businesses to serve and employ our growing community so West Seattle is vibrant and not just a quiet place to come home to.  

    • Poultine September 26, 2017 (8:19 am)

      Interesting viewpoint. I kind of thought the American thing was letting people do what they want with their money and property, like a family selling their house, or a developer deciding to build a new set of homes, or a bunch of new families buying them in a place they’d like to live. Everyone seems to love capitalism until it produces some outcome they dislike.

      “Three population of the country would be flat in the coming years if not for immigration”

      Where do you get that from? In 2015, the population grew by 2.4 million, a little over half of which was due to immigration. Without immigration, were have a 0.3% population growth. That’s not flat.

  • K September 26, 2017 (7:59 pm)

    Watching West Seattle die is hard….moved away a year ago…came back today….so much is different, don’t recognize anyone.  Every house that goes for apodments is a loss.  Change like this is not positive. Glad we left.

    • Matt September 29, 2017 (7:04 am)

      West Seattle is alive and well, and a great place to live!  Yesterday we grabbed cupcake Royale and headed done to the beach to bike and watch a fantastic sunset. Couldn’t have been a better evening.  

Sorry, comment time is over.