West Seattle development: Land-use approvals for Conner project

| Development | West Seattle news

(WSB photo looking at the Conner site from QFC steps – it’s on Alaska’s south side, 42nd to California)
Another key approval is just in for the two-building Conner Homes project in the heart of The Junction – both of its buildings have won land-use approval. Here’s the notice for the California/Alaska building (7 stories, 70 apartments, 10,000+ square feet of commercial), and here’s the notice for the 42nd/Alaska building (7 stories, 126 apartments, 15,000 square feet of commercial). The decisions that triggered those two notices are both linked from the pages we’ve linked, as is information on how to appeal the decisions, which both finalize the reviewed design for the bulidings and the city’s determination of environmental non-significance. Anyone who wants to appeal either or both has to do so by July 7th.

The project roared back onto the front burner two months ago, when City Council votes were scheduled for an “alley vacation” needed to enable a single 271-space underground garage for both bulidings. For this story we published then, we spoke with site owner/developer Charlie Conner, who said they expect to start construction next year. One of the tenants on the site is vacating before then – as reported here on Monday, the city has decided to close the Neighborhood Service Center on June 30th.

Patrick June 23, 2011 (3:34 pm)

This is great news. This project will be a great improvement to the existing buildings.

Herman June 23, 2011 (3:43 pm)

God help us. Welcome to West Bellevue.

conlux June 23, 2011 (4:11 pm)

Better than West Federal Way.

I’ll take tall and ugly over short and ugly.

pam June 23, 2011 (4:28 pm)

All I can think about is: if there are kids who live in these buildings where the heck are they going to go to school? Everything is so crowded already… maybe a good rationale for Fairmount Park reopening.

jennie June 23, 2011 (5:18 pm)

i’ll miss you, sky :(

tmo June 23, 2011 (7:35 pm)

Really? More apartments? That’s our best thinking. Money talks, I guess. Sheesh.

NorthAd neighbor June 23, 2011 (7:38 pm)

Finally.
The City of Seattle is forcing growth in all neighborhoods, including ours. We’re fortunate to have ended up with someone like Conner – and lucky he held on through all the interminable meetings (many of which I sat through) – to come to a reasonable compromise.
Growth it is, but the best answer to nimby-ism one might hope for.
This building is going to make a good neighbor as West Seattle grows.

Neighbor June 23, 2011 (7:52 pm)

This sucks.

Dc June 23, 2011 (7:54 pm)

What will happen to the businesses there? Isn’t that where the Beer Junction is??!!

cj June 23, 2011 (8:22 pm)

Just how much do we think we can cram into West Seattle before its an utter mess? Might as well shut off most of the streets and force public transit on everyone cause there will not be enough room for all these cars. Oh wait were supposed to pretend like we can expand beyond the limits of West Seattle’s land mass, my bad.

coffee June 23, 2011 (8:40 pm)

I was wondering how the existing businesses feel about their need to relocate. Now, I realize that there are some open storefronts in West Seattle, but moving a business is no easy thing to do, and there is the whole loss of business, expenses, etc.

PT June 23, 2011 (9:26 pm)

So, we lose the small town feel of West Seattle so someone can make a ton of money renting out too many apartments. Sad. This is not what our Junction needs. I agree with many of the comments posted here. I feel like I’m being pushed out of my neighborhood.

Mark June 23, 2011 (9:53 pm)

West Seattle == Ballard South?

Genesee Hill June 23, 2011 (11:15 pm)

Great! I am so excited I could just ______!

pjmanley June 23, 2011 (11:21 pm)

Neighbors, I feel your pain. But as one who attended early design meetings and saw the initial proposals, I can attest that we are getting much better buildings than originally proposed. Yes, West Seattle is growing too fast, much like Ballard and Fremont, but if we work hard enough, we can salvage a lot of what we love about our town.

All you can do is get involved, get organized with your friends and neighbors and go to design review meetings. Despite the cynicism, a lot of good people worked very hard, giving up their free time, without pay, to persuade Connor to deliver a far better project than originally proposed. And we owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of them. If you don’t think so, go look at the earliest designs. You’ll quickly realize this development is substantially better than originally proposed.

kc June 23, 2011 (11:25 pm)

This sucks, why can’t they just build in the hole or the unfinished apartments at Avalon & 35th? Rocksport & Beer Junction better stay!!!

B-Squared June 24, 2011 (7:36 am)

It’s irritating to see all the vacant Huling property sit idle (despite the TJ renovations), and the “Hole”, while developers lick their chops over ripping up a functional business area. And they will be just too darn big.

CMT June 24, 2011 (8:18 am)

AND the shoe repair place is the best!

pjmanley June 24, 2011 (8:40 am)

It is going to change the Junction dramatically, no doubt. But blame SPS for carving up the Junction with high density zoning almost 20 years ago under the Seattle Comp Plan developed under Mayor Norm Rice. West Seattle got 3 Urban Villages, while Magnolia, right across the bay, got….None. See how it works?

Maybe we should hold a wake at Easy Street and the neighboring pubs as a final act of performance art & street theater, paying our respects and saying our final goodbyes to the Junction as we know it.

I just drove through Ballard yesterday, and for a moment thought I was in Bellevue. It’s hard to tell the difference between Market Street and Bellevue Way anymore. Is there any difference? Not much that I can tell.

Sue June 24, 2011 (9:32 am)

I wouldn’t mind them putting up so many apartments (in this and all the new developments over WS) if they were actually affordable. A friend recently looked at moving into Link, and the 2 bedroom apartments cost $300 more a month than I pay in rent for a house 4 blocks away and twice the square footage.

RickM June 24, 2011 (10:27 am)

Beer Junction is moving up by the liquor store on California, Seattle Integrated Martial Arts is moving to the Fauntleroy/35th intersection by Buddha Ruska and Limber Yoga is moving down towards Morgan Junction across the street from Meander’s. Not sure about the rest. Looking forward to having a bunch of empty store fronts with “For Lease” signs in a vibrant neighborhood once this new building is up.

godofthebasement June 24, 2011 (12:00 pm)

Goodby to the ugly, worn out buidlings. It’s about time we had some redevelopment. Now if we could just get more of these kinds of projects going in the Triangle…

Cowpie June 24, 2011 (2:25 pm)

This sucks big time! We already have a mess of traffic coming in and out of West Seattle. I’m one of the lucky ones because I’m on my bike most of the time…but for the rest this just adds to the trouble.

Great example of over population!

pjmanley June 24, 2011 (3:34 pm)

I wish we could stage the growth better than we do, so communities can react and reorganize themselves to accommodate these new developments as they occur. Today, we basically drop a bomb on neighborhoods and let them fend for themselves in dealing with the shock and aftershocks. We have the ability to predict the impacts, but city policy is to minimize impacts on areas, instead of being realistic about them. Remember Nickels’ folks reducing required parking spaces? And what do we get? One car at a time down, going one way, on streets North of the Junction with parking on both sides. Note to Seattle: People will not give up their cars. You’ve been trying since the 1960’s. Just deal with it like you ask your citizens to do, and require sufficient off street parking from developers.

duder June 24, 2011 (5:28 pm)

Personally, I welcome the new buildings and upgrade to the area. I don’t think anything currently on that spot is worthy of landmark status anyway…

watertowerjoey June 24, 2011 (5:39 pm)

Classic stuff.

People complaining that more people are moving to West Seattle after they move to West Seattle!

Mike June 25, 2011 (12:15 am)

post 2005 Ballard 2.0, I don’t think people need to worry about the population booming here, they will be vacant for years.

Peter on Fauntleroy June 25, 2011 (6:14 pm)

Hey Mike, looked at rental vanacy rates in Seattle recently? You should do that before you talk about vacant buildings. What vacant buildings?

cassandra conyers June 26, 2011 (11:57 pm)

The best comment so far is “bye sky.”
7 stories means lots of cars and people. 4 stories–like in Queen Anne neighborhood–is so much more of an urban village feel. Too bad all those years ago when the rezoning took place no one felt the need to speak up then. Now we have to live with developers taking advantage of the zoning (why wouldn’t they?) but the folks living here having to absorb the densifying consequences. I live in West Seattle to avoid what happened in Fremont and Queen Anne. Don’t get me started on Ballard. Oiy!

Sorry, comment time is over.