33 Replies to "DEVELOPMENT: Apartments proposed at 4515 44th SW"

• Yma April 7, 2020 (11:43 am)

  50 units and NO off street parking – in the heart of the Junction?

• VLT April 7, 2020 (11:57 am)

  Are they kidding??  No off-street parking for 50 units!  That is just crazy!   There should certainly be off-street parking for this many units.  Who do we write to to protest?

• zephyr April 7, 2020 (12:11 pm)

  So how does that work–50 units of people/couples and no parking?  Is it just assumed that no one living there will have a car?  I would think some would be car-less, but is there any thought as to how the people with cars are to park?  Are there other similar buildings of that capacity with no parking? ****************************************************** I definitely understand the push for mass transit and the need for it.  But it just seems that the planners are putting their heads in the sand about the need for Some parking for a number of those folks.  This would have a definite impact on the surrounding homes in the area as the new tenants and their guests scramble to find a place to park their vehicles.  People may commute to work by bus, but many will want a car to do other things in their off hours–shopping, doctor/vet appointments, visiting others out of town, going to the mountains, etc.. 

• Leo April 7, 2020 (12:35 pm)

  50 units and no off street parking.  What could possibly go wrong?  I guess everyone will ride metro, ride  their bikes, or telecommute!

  • Tsurly April 7, 2020 (1:19 pm)

    Not necessarily; they can park there cars in the surrounding side streets.

    • Carrie April 7, 2020 (1:45 pm)

      Presumably by getting supernatural powers over time and space?  Do “side streets” in the Junction have space for 70+ more cars? 

      • chemist April 7, 2020 (2:16 pm)

        Each of those micro-apartments will be eligible for 4 RPZ passes and 1 guest RPZ pass.  In theory, a resident could obtain more RPZ parking sq ft than apartment space.

      • Tsurly April 7, 2020 (2:36 pm)

        Who knows. If not, people will push out a few blocks and park where it is available, that is life living in a city. 

    • WSEA April 7, 2020 (1:59 pm)

      Then what happens to those who want visit the junction via car?   All the street parking will taken up by the apartments. Its already hard enough to find parking in the lots or side streets. 

      • Wes C. Addle April 7, 2020 (8:39 pm)

        The Junction lots are never full. This argument has come up for years, yet there’s always parking.  Not to mention that the cars aren’t going to be parked permanently. 

        • Sunuva April 7, 2020 (9:35 pm)

          This is not true. I have, more than a few times, tried to go to businesses in the junction and ended up frustrated and left and went to Burien or White Center instead. Those free lots really are great at the right time, but then are absolutely full at other times. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has spent 15 to 20 minutes wasting gas, driving around and around, trying to find a spot, just to eventually give up. I get what you are saying that those lots *usually* have room, but they certainly are not “never full”.

        • Ice April 8, 2020 (1:40 am)

          I can’t even wrap my head around this. Even on the absolute most crazy days I’ve always been able to find parking at the junction within 10 minutes. How did you look for 15 minutes and not find parking? There is pretty much unlimited parking if you go 4 or 5 blocks off of the junction and the parking garage under Jefferson Square is always empty

        • Sunuva April 9, 2020 (8:58 am)

          Well, I’m not making it up, ICE. Again, YMMV (your mileage may vary). I can fully wrap my head around that you may not have had this same experience, but I don’t discount your perspective.

          The few times this has happened were on Friday/Saturday evenings and I have been with my family in tow. I will tell you I do not want to park 4 or 5 blocks way from the Junction when I had a toddler that I’d end up having to carry. The blocks are quite long in the North-south direction and have steep hills in the east-west direction. I’m sure others have even more reason they can’t or don’t want to walk that far.

          Also, isn’t Jefferson square supposed to be just for people who are actually shopping at Jefferson square? I never tried to park there for worry of coming back to a parking ticket.

• chemist April 7, 2020 (12:57 pm)

  50 units and 18,000 sq ft sounds like it’ll be microstudios/SEDUs (which is one of Blueprint’s focus areas).  They’ll also be required to have 50 bike parking spots accessible to tenants but no car parking.

  • Peter April 7, 2020 (5:47 pm)

    18,000/50= 360 sq. ft. per unit, which is large for a studio, bigger than any I ever rented, and those were not “micro” studios, they had full kitchens and baths. 

    • chemist April 7, 2020 (6:24 pm)

      The document WSB linked to says 18,000 Gross Floor Area, which is often just the space inside the building envelope including hallways, stairwells, garbage/bike storage rooms, etc.  The building’s exterior dimensions being roughly 40 x 95 and 5 stories (19,000 sq ft) supports that theory that the leased apartment rooms will be even smaller than 360 sq ft.  I think Seattle SEDUs can go down to 220 sq ft.

• 22blades April 7, 2020 (12:58 pm)

  Just heap that on top of losing the Parking Lot on the other side of the Junction. This is inordinately poor planning.

• Joe Z April 7, 2020 (1:06 pm)

  There are literally thousands of unused parking spots on city streets within 1/2 mile of this location.

• skeeter April 7, 2020 (1:43 pm)

  If the street parking around there is free it’s hard to charge people $200 or more per month for parking.  No one will pay for something if it’s being given away free.  

  • Ice April 7, 2020 (2:43 pm)

    yep, and if you can’t charge people for using it, than why build it?

• Alex April 7, 2020 (2:18 pm)

   This area is in a designated urban village and as such,  the developer is not required by city ordinance to include offstreet parking.  Even if the building came with 50 offstreet parking spaces, landlords are required to price the parking spot separately from the apartment. (another city ordinance) and what tenant wants to pay for a parking spot if they can find one reasonably close.    Neighbors should rightly be mad.   Its a level playing field to compete for parking with other single family homes but when a 50 unit building moves in next door, it’s a different story.     This is the Seattle City Council at work.  In case you missed it, the City’s Environmental Impact Statement analyzed parking through out Seattle and concluded there would be little impact due to these ordinances.    

• WS Guy April 7, 2020 (2:20 pm)

  Ugh, not Blueprint.  They have been extracting profit at the expense of West Seattle for years. 

• Aerial Observer April 7, 2020 (2:25 pm)

  Thanks for covering this, WSB. It’s great to see something moving forward, instead of yet another cancellation. A new building at The Junction will continue improving our already-great neighborhood.

  “50 units and NO off street parking – in the heart of the Junction?”

  Yes, that is indeed the point of our city’s policy. From 2016:

  “Now, in addition to all of downtown, parking is not required in select areas near bus and rail lines in neighborhoods such as Ballard, Fremont, the University District, Northgate, West Seattle, Columbia City, Beacon Hill and Rainier Beach.”

  Also, too:”No one will pay for something if it’s being given away free. “

  And parking spots cost money — perhaps over $10K per spot — for developers to build. Once the city relaxed the parking requirements, developers stopped building internal garages. Why spend the money, and take the risk, when it will likely drive up the cost of housing? Let the market, not government mandates,  decide on allocation of parking.

  • Peter April 7, 2020 (5:49 pm)

    It cost around $30,000 to build a parking spot, not 10. 

• Stevie J April 7, 2020 (2:27 pm)

  Personally I am more concerned during this housing crisis about housing PEOPLE, and the housing of large, polluting personal machines in the heart of an urban village is not anywhere near the top of my list of priorities. Notice how clean the air is right now with so few people driving. If you argue against housing with no parking, you are basically a climate change denialist in my mind. If we build more parking, more people will drive and the planet will melt even faster and you will die sooner from respiratory problems caused by tailpipe exhaust, tire particles, and brake dust.

  An added benefit of this plan is you will be able to walk on the sidewalk/alley without having to worry about drivers speeding across the sidewalk to get  into/out of a parking garage. 

  • Janelle April 7, 2020 (3:19 pm)

    Good points, thanks

  • Rumbles April 8, 2020 (8:08 pm)

    @Stevie, it seems the point many are making is people will Park their cars in the neighborhoods, thus negating your point that not having parking gets rid of cars.  You might not have read it that way.  

• D Del Rio April 7, 2020 (2:37 pm)

  Well if the West Seattle Bridge isn’t fixed for several years, this might not be built in the near future. Just think how much cheaper homes will be. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, it will be interesting to see what becomes of our local real estate market.

• Kc April 7, 2020 (6:45 pm)

  I worked for the company who built that building back in the 70’sit’s foundation was built to have Three floors above what is currently there. Plumbed and wired for it also. The greed for more is sillythe thinking that it is near a transit hub now  what if the “c” line goes away (nothing is for ever) specially these days  

• Leo April 7, 2020 (8:39 pm)

  West Seattle is not Manhattan.  If cars are outlawed, only outlaws will have cars!  

• BP April 7, 2020 (8:58 pm)

  50 units and zero parking is f’ed up. Sorry, but the notion that none of the occupants will have a vehicle is rediculous. This will only put more stress on the neighborhood streets, including the free lots that are already limited.

• ROBERT GOULET April 7, 2020 (11:00 pm)

  Sure, let’s bring in more apartments without off street parking.  The city was kind enough to add an RPZ in that area to include 45 ave SW.  Now we can add 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th…

• Diane April 8, 2020 (12:00 am)

  I’m shocked anyone is surprised by this anymore,  especially from infamous Blueprint, with rather long history of doing exactly this, over and over and over 

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