Last November, we reported that the redevelopment plan for the small mixed-use building and house at 6016 California SW had been downsized – from 38 units (almost all microapartments) to seven townhouses. Now the city has published a key approval for the plan, which has no offstreet vehicle parking. The approval opens a 2-week period for appeals; this notice explains how to file one.
I miss my old barber shop but really miss the garage in the back. Do you know what you have to do with all that stuff when you have no place to put it?
So townhouses that will be about $750K to buy and Seattle thinks these buyers don’t have cars? The parking around there is time limited forcing people to park in another neighborhood or move their car every two hours. I would never buy a place for that amount of money and have no parking. Seattle is delusional.
No, the City of Seattle knows that some people will have cars and park them on the street the same as existing homeowners. Those $750,000 condos become $850,000 for the same unit with parking. For a hundred grand, many people are willing to put up with inconvenience. Of course, monetizing all street parking could solve the problem.
Why? Do you think people would sell their cars if they had to pay to park? I doubt it. Why give more revenue to the city?
Speaking from experience, I sold my car when I lived somewhere with no “free” parking.
Yes, Jake, there are people would absolutely get rid of their cars if they had to pay to park. Free parking is a massive incentive to own a car. Human beings make choices based on incentives.
“why give more revenue to the City?”Or “Why expect the City to provide you with free storage of your private property in our limited city right of way?”If convenient parking is a priority, we can all control that by buying/renting space for storage of our private cars on private property. Otherwise complaints are hollow.
Do we need more micro apartments? Genuinely curious about vacancy rates and also general rentals in WS. ************************
Please VOTE on November 3rd or SOONER
Real world talking here. VERY few renter’s will NOT own a car. Even fewer will have friends or family not visit by car. I can, and will GUARENTEE you the neighborhood will see an increase in cars parked.&; We do have traffic issues that need to be discussed by all of us and met head on.; Building sedu’s;apt’s; condo’s;homes with no parking will not solve any traffic issues. Pretending it does solves NOTHING .
Street parking – OK for some. But end of the world if someone else wants to use the public space.The hypocrisy isn’t even buried.
Requiring all new construction to include expensive anachronistic parking solves nothing. The problems inherent in our car based society have long been evident. We have ignored our single vehicle street capacities as we acquired more stuff and vehicles. We rejected repeatedly mass transit.The solution is discouraging the reliance and habitual assumptions concerning transportation. Recognizing the enormous subsidies (including free street parking) that cars are costing us is a start. The enormous environmental consequences of our car addiction also need to finally be addressed.Eliminating all free (subsidized) street parking would immediately address the ‘concerns’ so often expressed here. Of course, many of those concerned feel entitled to free street parking in front of their homes and they complain when any new vehicles park legally.Of those following this thread and are pro required parking for development, how do you feel about monetized street parking?
If I had to pay for a permit as a homeowner to park on the street I’d be okay with it. We have hobbies that require a car including towing a travel trailer and a boat so sometimes we have to park one of our cars on the street.
This neighborhood cannot handle any more units without parking. I thought the city was trying to use balance and consideration for the community in how we are building!! It seems that some parking would have to be established with any new construction.
Why is Seattle Department of Inspection and Construction approving this plan. NO PARKING? There are small businesses right there that have customers who park along the store front curb to patronize the businesses on this block. I am going to appeal this plan it cost $85.00 to file but at this point I dont care I want these money grubbing street clogging people to hear my frustration. Not to mention Seattle has cars stolen about ever 10 minutes. So isnt the city liable for creating an inventory for crime? We already have buildings full of empty condos why are they approving the construction of more ugly boxes?
Hi Silly. Please identify the empty condo buildings in West Seattle. Thanks in advance.
Hi SillyGoose. Just a heads up that SDIC is approving this plan because it conforms to the rules they set. The ‘money grubbing street clogging people’ are just following the rules Seattle has in place. There is no special consideration for this project. You do not need to offer parking if you meet certain conditions. These rules are in place (in part) because construction costs are astronomical. Offering parking means these becomes even more expensive. The builder is not the enemy here it is the city rules you don’t agree with. The builder is doing something for a profit, that is no more evil than any other business. It’s worth mentioning many fail because the risk and costs are so high. I would focus your energy on the city’s rules for building and not someone following the rules and trying to make a living. Lastly you could not be more wrong about empty condo buildings. Please do a little reading before commenting. Demand has never been higher…
This city is completely upside down, from top to bottom (actually, bottom to top). Will Seattle’s voting public ever wake up?! 😷
The parking-rule change had nothing to do with elections; it was a “director’s rule” first implemented eight years ago, not legislation.
http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/codes/dr/DR2012-11.pdf
Director’s Rules come down through the system of our Mayor’s & Council’s oversight and decisions. They are not the DCI acting alone as some here seem to think. The mayor and the City Council are where ‘the buck stops.’ Changes in building and development codes start with our elected representatives. In that sense they do at some point reflect changes in elected officials.
there is also an apodment building with no parking going in at 5952 California Ave SW, just a block up from this. Good thing these sleazy developers don’t live here, or have to deal with the parking and traffic.
Some developers live here; the 4515 44th project we noted yesterday is by West Seattle-based Blueprint. I checked the file on 5952 California and nothing’s happened in six months but code-violation complaints; I remember it went back up for sale at one point but seems to still have the same owners that bought the site four years ago. – TR
All of these complaints and anecdotal reports regarding street parking shortages can easily be resolved by monetizing all street parking. This would address all of our concerns about residents in apartments, mini/micro housing taking up on street parking. No additional and expensive car storage would need be built into dwellings. If people chose to own or are in the “must have” category for car ownership and storage they would pay exactly what the apartment dwellers do. If you drive to work here and your employer does not provide off street parking why should the employer benefit by getting free parking for their employees? Businesses also should not be given free ride with street parking as that is an unfair advantage over those that do provide off-street parking. The same goes for all of us homeowners who have filled our garages with stuff and feel entitled to free street parking in front of our homes. People that chose to or have a “necessity” for vehicles should not be given free parking any more than the new apartment dwellers. If you park it on the street, you pay. That is fair to all and rates can be demand driven like on express lanes.
Great, sell overnight street parking permits for $100 per month, and give out $50 tickets for violators, enforced 10pm to 6am. Also (my personal innovation) pay a 20% snitch commission for reporting violators. That way, car prowlers could make more money reporting illegally parked cars than breaking into them. The auto glass lobby would hate it, but you can’t please everyone.
Right on, John W! I find it hilarious that our neighbors who have a two car garage complain like crazy when anyone parks even close to what they feel is THEIR on street parking in front of the house. Yes, we own a house, but understand the purchase didn’t include the street as well.
There is also no shortage of parking in this city, or West Seattle. Just like there is a) no shortage of people who feel entitled to parking in front of their houses (even though most have off street parking that they do not use), and b) no shortage of people too lazy to walk at most a half block when parking on the street.
Unrelated note: awesome screen name!! I’ll always remember that name/character for some reason.
There is a shortage of free street parking near the junctions and some neighborhoods outside of West Seattle, e.g., Capitol Hill, Wallingford. Sufficient paid parking if you count parking lots. Personally, I don’t see the motivation for paying 700K plus for a townhouse without reserved parking spaces unless one lives in Capitol Hill since that neighborhood has light rail and we won’t have it possibly until the middle of the next decade (factoring in a Sound Transit revenue shortfall that may delay some projects).
I wholeheartedly disagree that there is a shortage of parking in the junction. But regardless, shortages are what you get when you give away something that is finite for free.
I think people confuse “parking shortages” with the inability to park 15 feet from the front door of their intended destination.
Did somebody say condos? Please show me where any significant condos have been built on the last 10 years here? Not townhomes like these here. Actual condos. I have a feeling people are confusing apartments for condos. Completely different. All the ewuiry in these apartment buildings goes into in many instances large developers pockets. Instead all these poeople are paying rent, creating a larger peasant class. Own, you are paying yourself
Yeah, I had two motorcycles in that garage but not a single car! I do miss my work bench and the tons of tools I gave away though.
As a believer in free markets, my feeling is that it should be up to the landowner to decide whether to provide off-street parking or not. If there is a shortage of parking on public streets then it should be priced appropriately.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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