DEVELOPMENT: Early Community Outreach meeting for HALA-upzoned site

(King County Assessor photo)

Another HALA MHA-upzoned site in Morgan Junction has a redevelopment plan, and the project team sent word of an Early Community Outreach meeting. It’s 6035 42nd SW, currently holding the 94-year-old house shown above, upzoned to Lowrise 1 by HALA MHA and now proposed for five townhouses, with two more to be built behind the not-to-be-demolished house to the south at 6039 42nd SW. The project team invites interested community members to come to C & P Coffee Company (5612 California SW; WSB sponsor) 7-8 pm Monday, October 14th. They’ve also set up a project website here.

Yma September 26, 2019 (10:25 pm)

Danga beautiful almost 100 year old West Seattle home – going to be demolished.nothing being done on roads nor transit.we can’t keep packing people in here without addressing commute.

Swede. September 27, 2019 (10:33 am)

The contractors/developers aren’t responsible for roads, transit etc. that’s the county and city.
Steve September 27, 2019 (11:08 am)

What do you propose we do with the roads? Widen them by tearing down even more houses?
neighbor September 27, 2019 (11:30 am)

The best way to address commute issues would be to attract more employers to West Seattle so that people can live and work in the same area.
- KM September 28, 2019 (10:33 am)
  
  I think it would be great to have more employers here, sure. But assuming these businesses are going to hire a lot of talent living in West Seattle and therefore commutes will be eased, I don’t think is reasonable. People hire for talent and personality primarily. People will need to commute into West Seattle as well if we add more businesses, because employers won’t find all their employees in our neighborhood. I think our city (and nation) needs to work hard at addressing our archaic zoning laws to allow for more mixed use and density everywhere to really ease commutes and allow for people to work closer to their homes. Simply bringing more employers into a neighborhood mostly zoned for single family homes probably won’t help much.

Mike September 27, 2019 (5:55 am)

Good bye neighborhood family home. Your previous owners enjoyed you for 3 whole years. The more they build, the more my single family home becomes a rare item and the price just goes up up up.

maddy September 27, 2019 (6:47 am)

Says “not to be demolished” house.

WSB September 27, 2019 (7:02 am)

The house that the site plan says will remain is next door. Not shown.

HS September 27, 2019 (8:19 am)

Nickel Bros is the company that moves homes if someone is interested in recycling that home.

Airwolf September 27, 2019 (8:25 am)

Project website says 2 townhouses not five. Maybe I missed something?

WSB September 27, 2019 (9:07 am)

No, the project website says:

one 3-story, 4 unit building w/ garages (8123 SF)

one 3-story, 3 unit building w/ garages (4750 SF)

That’s 7 townhouses. However, it also advises checking the city files for more information, which is what we routinely do anyway, and that’s where the “site plan” shows the adjacent parcel holding part of the project behind another house (6039) that won’t be removed.

Rick September 27, 2019 (9:01 am)

Great. More boxes.

Jethro Marx September 27, 2019 (12:21 pm)

The old house pictured is a box with a peaked roof. I don’t like poor design, but it’s completely arbitrary to decide that architecture that harkens to the 1920s is good and anything else is bad. In fact, “craftsman” homes built new are just as likely to exhibit poor design or mediocre materials as more rectilinear designs. But I know, change is hard. Are you outraged that new cars don’t have wooden door panels? And what’s with these modern streets? Brick arterials and dirt side-streets were good enough for the Dennys, what?
- john September 27, 2019 (3:17 pm)
  
  Right you are Jethro. The house shown is the cheapest type built in that era, even more shoddy than anything built to the codes now required.

BJG September 28, 2019 (6:56 am)

An aside, but if you haven’t seen the Church of the Nazarene’s completed townhouses near 42nd and Juneau, you should. What an asset to that neighborhood. The architecture blends perfectly with the existing homes and shows consideration for the place it is sited. Seems like a rarity in West Seattle these days. There would be more acceptance of multifamily building if developers paid this kind of attention to the character of a place it joins. Good for these planners.

anonyme September 29, 2019 (5:37 am)

Some friends of mine recently sold their new, million-dollar house, in part because the construction was so poor. The notion that new construction is superior to old is a generalization that doesn’t usually hold water. Many old houses, including the one above, were built with old-growth timber by real carpenters – not flimsy new wood slapped together by unskilled laborers in impossible amounts of time, driven by greed-fueled developers. The new, faux-Craftsman houses are some of the worst. I have nothing against modern architecture well done, but these new “boxes” will not be standing in 94 years. And it will also be interesting to see how ‘affordable’ these new HALA/MHA townhouses are.

WSB September 29, 2019 (4:20 pm)

The upzoning doesn’t mean they have to be “affordable.” It does mean the developer has to either include a percentage of the development as affordable, or pay a fee. Now that about five months or so have passed since HALA MHA’s passage, it’s about time to follow up on how the trend’s going …

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