At the western foot of Gatewood Hill, just across from Seattle International Church, the fight over the last phase of a controversial townhouse project is over, after five months. We first told you about it in early February; that’s also when upset neighbors posted about it on their community website. Most of the construction carried on, except for one last slice of land below a community landmark (photo below), which we told you two weeks ago was going to an appeal hearing.

Now, the appeal hearing is off because of a settlement the developer reached with neighbors. Click ahead for full details about what’s in the deal:

First word of the deal came in this comment from neighborhood leader Vlad Oustimovitch, posted yesterday below our last update. He’s still not thrilled:

Thank you all for your interest in this project. Yesterday (July 11th), our community reached an agreement with the developer(s) of the project. In return for dropping our upcoming appeal to the Hearing Examiner, the developer has made a number of concessions.

These include a large landscaped area at the entrance to Orchard Street consistent with the “Green Crescent” outlined in the MoCA neighborhood plan, lowering rooflines in front of the hunting lodge to maintain views, and lowering fences on Orchard Street in order to allow some diagonal sightlines to the lodge from the street.

Ideally it would have been great to go back in time and start from the beginning, but that was not an option since 8 of the 13 units are near completion. Ultimately, it was the Seattle Department of Planning and Development that is most culpable for this mess. They were busy designating historic buildings in the downtown, while having a total disregard for West Seattle. SNAFU. I will post the full agreement on the ORCA website in the near future if you would like to see it.

We also have uploaded the agreement (kindly provided by Vlad); click here to read it.