DEVELOPMENT: Early-design survey for 65-unit Duwamish Head project

| Development | West Seattle news

Also discussed at this month’s Alki Community Council meeting – an early-design survey has been launched by the developers of a Duwamish Head site on which we’ve reported multiple times in the past year. A 65-unit project is proposed for 1001-1116 Alki Avenue SW, currently the site of six old houses. As part of the “early community outreach” process, the developers have set up this project website, which notes:

N&M Management LLC and MZA Architecture are partnering on the redevelopment of 1001 – 1116 Alki Ave SW. The proposed 6-story residential building will include:

65 residential units
102 parking stalls
bike parking
a rooftop patio

(That’s the minimum number of offstreet-parking spaces mandated for area development by the Alki Parking Overlay district – one and a half per unit.) The website includes a community survey that’s open for two more weeks. The ACC discussion was brief; the developers weren’t at the meeting, so it was more of an FYI. But a few attendees expressed concern that the project’s size was out of scale for the area. The project’s official address is 1116 Alki.

Eric on Alki April 18, 2021 (12:24 pm)

If those parking stall numbers are true, welcome to the neighborhood!

Nico April 18, 2021 (1:46 pm)

Whoever is moving there will need a good stash of good quality ear plugs to shield their ears from stunt drivers for a good chunk of the year. The views are nice though.

JohnW April 19, 2021 (12:53 pm)

People developing these Gold Coast type residential projects are quite aware of the sounds of the beach, street cruising, motorcycles and competition style sound systems grandstanding below.Special and expensive beyond normal development are windows designed to dramatically reduce street noise.
They are a long established and a common retrofit in European cities.
The outdoor decks are another manner..

Auntie April 18, 2021 (7:55 pm)

It’s a sad day to see the last of the beachfront cottages go away. It’s a whole new world of condos and people who can afford them. Not like “back in the day” when we could rent a cottage for $100 a month. Wow – that makes me feel old. Sad to see them go, anyway. Welcome to Sausalito.

JohnW April 19, 2021 (1:07 pm)

Auntie,
My parents first arrived in Seattle in the late forties and live in one of those rentals.
They were cheap weekend beach cabins that survived past their original developer owners.
They were not constructed to any code as none existed. Their original owners with the growing convenience of car culture had decamped to more remote weekend houses as the city built out.I remember being offered one of those larger bungalow from the owners who joined our family for holiday meals as long as I could remember.
This was in the late seventies and I had no interest in becoming a homeowner.
Why would I tie myself to a mortgage for a house purchase of $35,000?
—-
Now I always begin by acknowledging the lands and waters on which I am living, and the ancestors who lie beneath the foundations of every home. Right now, I squat primarily on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish, Coast Salish, Nisqually, and Squaxin Island peoples. I live and work on stolen lands. The society in which I live was built on the attempted genocide of Native American peoples, which continues to this day through violations of treaty rights, denial of human rights, and desecration of sacred lands and watersheds. While much of this history has been either whitewashed or erased, it lives on.
Fern April 23, 2021 (1:15 am)

I hear you on the lost innocence front, but Sausalito is still beautifully quaint for the most part and no drag racing. Just pricey! Maybe the new developments have a Miami flavor to me? If they are made to install car elevators in a taller garage it would help with the parking, but I wouldn’t automatically count on the builders to properly install adequate noise barriers for the units. They don’t have to live there. Hearing is believing.

Bill April 18, 2021 (11:14 pm)

Depressing. Agree with Auntie.

22blades April 19, 2021 (6:10 am)

The rendering above is either a disingenuous depiction, a lazy developer or a woefully inept architect. Either way, the scene looks like a neutered Miami Beach before spring break. I doubt these developers have actually been here much less live here.

PJK April 19, 2021 (8:01 am)

Agree with Auntie and Bill – no longer the Alki I grew up loving. Not sure this is progress at all.

Barb Z April 19, 2021 (8:23 am)

So sad that it’s no longer a “beach community” where you didn’t need a bundle of money to live. My first apartment back in 1966 was on Alki in the top half of a house where condos with a swimming pool now exist – $75 a month!

Fern April 23, 2021 (1:45 am)

I envy folks who were lucky enough to experience a time when housing was nice and affordable because that has not been my experience and I’m guessing there are many like me – who neither like these often soulless developments that don’t seem to fit with the culture as good neighbors nor know what it was like to enjoy less competitive access to great communities like Alki.I just hope nothing is permitted that negatively impacts the environment and infrastructure or parking. Builders will make concessions if they’re pushed by a strong council or whomever holds approval.
- JohnW April 23, 2021 (8:45 am)
  
  I too, miss the days of 25 cent a gallon gas and $100 beach front rentals.
  –
  
  Back in the sixties 79% of American families did not own two cars and 20% owned no cars. Traffic flowed on our new super ‘freeways’ and parking spots were plenty downtown mechanical parking meters were a nickel. Trolleys served West Seattle, Fauntleroy and Alki.
  —————–
  Seen through the sepia tones of time, everything about West Seattle is different.
  Our growth has has attracted many more souls and sharing and housing them in this wonderful place is not always soulless.
  It is our community that these newcomers should be welcomed to and allowed to contribute,
  because souls do live in those “soulless” new homes.

TM7302 April 19, 2021 (10:15 am)

Yay, more affordable housing for Seattle!!!

Stevie J April 19, 2021 (11:25 am)

Nice, now 10x as many families are going to be able to live near the beach on these parcels. More nice neighbors who can visit local businesses and enhance safety by providing more eyes on the street.

Ex-Westwood Resident April 19, 2021 (11:49 am)

The 1.5 parking space requirement, per unit, should be city/county wide for ALL new multi-residential developments!!!

JohnW April 19, 2021 (2:21 pm)

One and one half spots for the mostly retired wealthy condo owners whose exotic cars are stored in those $150,000 parking places and primarily driven out to dinner and pleasure cruising, serving enviably ostentatious displays of wealth and car culture.
These are not generally the cars or commuters clogging rush hour traffic.
These condos are luxury high end multi-million dollar units with price points that separates them from all other new multi unit residential developments.
During a time of severe housing shortage and affordability, would it be wise to require all low income multi unit development to provide built in parking? Even new housing for homeless and displaced would end up with 1 1/2 parking places?
At what cost?
And for what end as once we emerge from our parking garage, exists gridlock, the streets are already beyond capacity for moving vehicles?
—
For the rest of us, let’s emulate their limited usage of cars and their responsible car storage.

skeeter April 19, 2021 (11:55 am)

Ugh. 102 more cars and SUVs in West Seattle. Our roads are already so congested. I wish we would outlaw parking spaces in new construction. I am sick and tired of waiting in traffic and projects like this make it so much worse.

D-ridge April 21, 2021 (9:58 am)

Seriously, I can’t believe folks here would be excited that a new building (located next to a bus stop, a bike path, and down from the water taxi) would be happy about the idea of 100 cars potentially pulling in and out of this site everyday. Especially onto Alki, the street everyone here complains about on the daily for having too many loud cars.

Flan April 19, 2021 (11:58 am)

Interesting there renders show a beach in front instead of what is actually there. Uncertain if they are even allowed to develop anything on the other side of the sidewalk.I love the fact they are including parking with the building, if they even provide extra they should consider doing some paid parking within the same building.They should also consider adding some retail below. Would love to see more dinning/cafe options on the other side of the Duwamish head and not just on the Alki beach strip.

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