Six acres of West Seattle waterfront industrial land on Harbor Avenue SW is proposed for a rezone that’s now before the City Council for approval.
It’s the site immediately southeast of the SW Bronson street-end park that in turn is east of the Salty’s on Alki parking lot. The site’s ownership of record is AnMarCo (owned by construction entrepreneur Gary Merlino) and has a history of development proposals, including the Pier 1 controversy of the ’90s, though city records show nothing pending right now – except the rezoning proposal.
Notification signs, including the one shown above, went up this week (thanks to David Hutchinson for the tip) and then the notice – see it here – appeared in the city’s latest Land Use Information Bulletin. Here’s the outline map included in the city’s notice:
The site’s owners want the council to approve rezoning for 275,000 square feet, described as currently zoned Industrial General 2/Urban Industrial, and seeking a change to Industrial Commercial/Urban Stable. This apparently has been in the works a while; we found a document online from last year, from a request to have the shoreline designation changed along the lines of this request, as part of the city’s Shoreline Master Program Update. The document, a letter from the land-use law firm McCullough Hill Leary, representing the property owners, included this statement:
The planned uses for the property would likely be mixed use commercial …
The city’s industrial-zoning designations are explained here; the proposed IC classification is intended for “businesses which incorporate a mix of industrial and commercial activities, including light manufacturing and research and development, while accommodating a wide range of other employment activities.” The “Urban Stable” designation is explained as an “environment” of a Seattle “shoreline district,” with a detailed description in this city ordinance, with its purpose including to “Provide opportunities for substantial numbers of people to enjoy the shorelines by encouraging water-dependent recreational uses and by permitting nonwater dependent commercial uses if they provide substantial public access and other public benefits.”
If approved, this would be the third major rezoning action in West Seattle in recent years, by our count. It’s almost twice the size of the California SW upzoning (between Hinds and Hanford) finalized last fall after four years; there also was a sizable zoning change approved by the City Council last year in The Triangle/east Junction area (map included in this city file).
If you are interested in commenting on the Harbor Avenue rezone proposal, July 18th is listed as the deadline, and you can comment online by using this project-specific form.
The proposal was on the council’s introduction calendar June 25th (scroll down this page), and has been referred to the Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability Committee; no date set for a review, so far, but we’ll keep watching the agendas.
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