Council gives final OK to ‘alley vacation’ for Junction project

| Development | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

The underground “alley vacation” for the two-building Conner Homes project between Alaska/California/42nd (south side) in The Junction won final approval from the City Council this afternoon on a unanimous vote. The Seattle Channel video above shows the entire afternoon council meeting – this item is 30 minutes in; Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, whose Transportation Committee (with only one member, him, in attendance) presided over the official public hearing last week before recommending approval (WSB coverage here), spent several minutes explaining the project to his council colleagues. Then, they voted 9-0 in favor of it. Next step? The permits will finish going through the system, now that this component of the project (which facilitates a large underground parking garage) is finalized. Then, as developer Charlie Conner told WSB last month, he doesn’t expect anything to happen in terms of construction any sooner than the end of the year – the businesses now on the site have leases till then.

Alki Area May 2, 2011 (6:31 pm)

Fine…but what about Trader Joe’s? Almost mean it as a joke, but seriously, STILL no “coming soon” sign even? NO movement at all in months? Starting to smell like the old “Staples” or whatever that was “supposed” to come to the QFC building (that just never happened).

WSB May 2, 2011 (6:39 pm)

If you want to follow Trader Joe’s blow by blow, as we have been doing for months, just bookmark this page:
http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Project.aspx?id=6231775
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Look behind the “reviews” tab. It will tell you exactly what they are waiting on. Some of the letters that are involved (which until recently you had to go downtown, as I’ve done more than a few times, to read via hard copy files) are there. I will likely write about this in a day or two just because the questions are starting to roll in again … but it’s definitely in the works, just taking forever to get through the city system … TR

cj May 2, 2011 (9:22 pm)

So the merchants in the first floor retail are going to allow free access to these public amenities in front of their shops? The public walkway is going to remain open to the public over time?

My main concern though is that the Alaska Junction may not recover from the construction, become just another generic looking Seattle street corner and that the influx of so many new people with cars will cause WS to become a traffic congestion nightmare and more dangerous to pedestrians.

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