Southwest Design Review Board gives its final OK to 9201 Delridge Way SW storage facility

| Delridge | Development | West Seattle news

(Rendering by Caron Architecture)

The four-story storage facility planned for an auto-shop site at 9201 Delridge Way SW won Southwest Design Review Board approval last night. It was the project’s second and final review, one year after its first. (See the “design packet” here.) The board approved a zoning exception to allow fewer windows along the 20th SW side. The architects (from Caron Architecture) told the board that they had met recently with community advocate Kim Barnes as well as the Southwest Precinct‘s crime-prevention specialist Jennifer Danner, so the revised proposal incorporates neighborhood suggestions and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles.

Traffic and pedestrian-safety issues came up several times, with suggestions including a right-turn-only sign for vehicles leaving the alley, as well as a crosswalk in the area. That’s outside the purview of Design Review but city planners can include it in their review of the project; Barnes noted that it’s being pursued through a city grant fund.

Also separate from the design discussion, neighbors still had concerns about the site currently drawing loiterers as well as currently holding an abandoned car and a pile of tires; a city inspector will be called out to check on that.

Besides the windows, other conditions of design approval include more-consistent lighting around the building’s perimeter, a barrier and shrubbery to more safely route foot traffic, and followup on how the building’s “green walls” will be irrigated.

KM February 22, 2019 (1:16 pm)

Boo. More housing, less storage.

AMD February 22, 2019 (4:21 pm)

My thoughts exactly. They better approve a crap ton of microhousing near this site in the near future to warrant using that space in such a way. We need way more housing than extra space for stuff.
- DBCoop February 23, 2019 (10:33 am)
  
  Wow, paid by the building industry much? Funny how quick you people respond to these articles with your pro build agendas. Since I live in this neighborhood within a stones throw from this property, I’m here to say less ugly and cheaply built micro housing and more useful businesses like this one, for those of us that already live here.
  - AMD February 23, 2019 (2:20 pm)
    
    I also live in this neighborhood and a stone’s throw from this property. We can respectfully agree to disagree on best use of this lot without the assumptions that those whose views differ from yours having a different buy-in.
  - KM February 23, 2019 (3:22 pm)
    
    Pretty sure this “useful” facility will be built by “the building industry” but who know, might be local baristas and lawyers.

mem February 22, 2019 (1:27 pm)

The site currently has an abundance of abandoned vehicles: SEVEN cars, a large pickup truck, FOUR business vans, one RV and over 50 tires thrown up on a low roof. This site is a mess! It is on our major thoroughfare, the beginning of our urban village, and it looks like a dump!!! Very concerned that the proposed usage is a storage facility and the owner can’t keep the site clean TODAY!

John February 22, 2019 (2:14 pm)

Surprisingly nice looking compared to existing storage facilities on Delridge, 35th and Yancy which are all rather dreadful. KM is correct. More housing is needed. But as people buy more and more stuff, after filling their garages with stuff and moving their vehicles to the streets, they buy those plastic sheds and load them full before finally hauling the excess to a space that requires additional monthly costs. Marie Kondo notwithstanding, are we such gluttons of stuff?

1.5 cents February 22, 2019 (3:40 pm)

That’s whack. Why would we need more self-storage in the area? Seems like a waste.

WSB February 22, 2019 (4:31 pm)

There must be a market for it. As we’ve reported, there are three other facilities on the drawing board in West Seattle – two on Harbor Ave., one on West Marginal, in addition to the ones in operation already. (Which leads me to wonder if we’re a “hot spot” because of zoning or cheap land or … or if other areas of the city have a similar concentration.)
Dustin February 22, 2019 (10:45 pm)

I wonder if there are fewer regulations on how to build storage facilities, which make developing and maintaining them less expensive. But are they actually profitable? Are the business models more vulnerable to hypersupply, particularly in a recession? West Seattle already has several storage facilities.
bolo February 24, 2019 (8:06 pm)

My theory is that with more apodments come more storage facilities. From what I’ve heard from commercial real estate investors, storage facilities can be very profitable investments.