A tale of two open houses: Spring Hill, RapidRide

| Development | Transportation | West Seattle news

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.

chas redmond January 24, 2008 (10:39 pm)

– Metro says that between 40 and 50 individuals showed up during their 3 hour open house. The other night, more than 100 individuals showed up for the Myrtle Street Reservoir Park discussion. I hope more West Seattleites plan on attending these upcoming meetings because the Rapid Ride service and Metro’s existing and potential service here are at least as important in the long run as the new Reservoir Park. There are a lot of options we need to be looking at. Metro already knows mine, make yours known to them.

– It’s hard to trust organizations which might not have lived up to our high expectations, but like the new Parks Superintendent and the rest of Parks and Rec department, King County Metro and SDOT are a changed group with a new – listen to the citizens – attitude. And even if you still have distrust or skeptical feelings, at least give them your ideas and experience. I know we can improve bus service here, so do you, now go tell Metro how.

Sue January 25, 2008 (9:59 am)

I don’t think it’s necessary disinterest in the cause, but simply that everyone’s just busy. I think there were at least 3 different events last night listed here on WSB that we could choose from, and I couldn’t even consider any of them since I had plans last night that I made weeks ago. I have, however, contacted them with my thoughts on the project.
I’ll admit that I think SDOT has been listening to people a little more lately, but I’m quite skeptical about Metro. I contact them constantly about issues (both positive and negative) and no one ever gets back to me, nor does anything ever change. I won’t stop trying, but I won’t hold my breath.

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