More details on next week’s meeting about California Ave. upzoning

| California Ave upzoning | Development | West Seattle news

Background: A group of property owners led by well-known real-estate/property management partners Roger Cayce and Mike Gain are asking the city to “upzone” both sides of California Ave. between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit south of Hinds; city map screengrabbed above) from NC1-30 to NC2-40, as preparation for future redevelopment. The first details emerged at last week’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting; here’s our detailed report. Then, last Friday, the city set November 29 as the date for the first full public meeting on this. And tonight, we know that meeting will be at 6:30 pm in the library at West Seattle High School. Representatives for both the city and the property owners will be at the 11/29 meeting, and public comment will be important, for and from anyone interested/concerned in the plan. Here are a few other details of note:

First, you don’t have to wait for the meeting to comment on the proposal (its city page is here). You can e-mail or call the city planner who is assigned to the project:
Malli Anderson
206-233-3858
malli.anderson@seattle.gov

Second, in our previous reports, it had been suggested that we post a link to the Admiral Neighborhood Plan, for those interested in comparing whether this proposal seems to fit with it. Documents relating to the plan are linked here.

Third, if you are interested in looking up the individual properties involved (more than 20), you can do that with the King County Parcel Viewer.

chas redmond November 20, 2007 (11:25 pm)

One way to approach the height/loss of sun or view issue would be to modify the zoning request to require stepped height on both sides of the property. That way the adjacent residential structures wouldn’t be so impacted. That could lead to a weird form of California Avenue architecture – the near-pyramidal shape. That wouldn’t be so bad. Would it really hurt the local vibe to have a California Avenue with more businesses and more window-shopping sides. It’s really our Main Street and although I hear the complaints of those impacted directly, I think there can be ways to do this without losing that much of the California Avenue feel. On a lighter note, “we’ll always have Paris.”

chas redmond November 20, 2007 (11:28 pm)

Heck, maybe one of the new first-floor larger spaces could be the New Charlestown Cafe, it’d only be a couple blocks away and didn’t one of the plan modifications say indoor parking? Anyway, I can see lots of positives here.