Junction development: “Alley vacation” gets Thursday hearing

| Development | West Seattle news

Also just out of the inbox, the Seattle Design Commission meeting agenda for this Thursday — and it includes a design review of the “alley vacation” proposal for the Conner Homes two-building development at 42nd/Alaska/California. (Previous WSB coverage here, including links to our original report and Charlie Conner’s response.) The commission meets all day at City Hall; this item is scheduled to come up at 2 pm. The “alley vacation” is being requested so that Conner can use the underground portion of the alley and create one big parking area for both buildings, but there’s been concern, including a petition drive, that the closure time required by the project would harm alley-using businesses to the south. (Final approval on the request would have to come from the City Council.)

What November 17, 2008 (4:15 pm)

wait, isn’t this the same building that took away an entire parking lot that businesses already lost customers because of? Now they want to shut down the alley where a select few parking spots exists? If it’s the one I’m thinking of, I really don’t want to haul the 50lb bag of Purina dog food 2 blocks to my vehicle.

I guess one solution is that the developer needs to provide free parking for all customers of local businesses since a few will end up shutting down and going out of business because a developer is building a new housing facility that will not be able to sell it’s units.

WSB November 17, 2008 (4:24 pm)

no, that’s the Harbor Properties project on the parking lot behind Petco that at one point was supposed to be monorail land.
The Conner project would be the north “half” of the blocks, where the travel agency, Rocksport, city office, etc. are on the east side, Super Supplements through Rubato Records etc. on the west side.

sayo November 18, 2008 (10:55 am)

To: What…..You are confusing two differnt proects and whose closing the alley. This psot is about is Charlie Conner’s proposed project…..this is not the prject currently under construction.

Sue November 18, 2008 (11:10 am)

As a pedestrian, I’d love to see that alley permanently closed – I can’t tell you how many times cars fly out of that alley towards Alaska, not thinking about pedestrians that might be there – I’ve had several near misses in the past year. Now I have to stop always and peek into the alley to make sure there’s no one barrelling down at me.

Melanier November 18, 2008 (12:25 pm)

While the alley is an issue why is no one talking about SEVEN stories on Alaska and California and again on 42nd and Alaska. We as a community did our “urban village study” awhile back. Didn’t we say we wanted to keep our small town/lower level feel on California? This whole project is something that needs to be scaled down to meet standards we asked for. Then there is the issue of the “ugly box” standard of design.
This also ties into the need for more parking and the new extended “pay parking” issue coming up.
It all ties in and it is our quality of life that is on the table.

WSB November 18, 2008 (12:34 pm)

Speaking of which, the comment deadline for the MUP on the Conner projects is tomorrow, as reported here earlier this month:
https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=11698

That post has links you can use to send any and all comments about the project online directly to the city.

Sorry, comment time is over.