By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Days after the city released a report showing Seattle’s tree canopy continues to shrink, proposed tree removal drew most of the comments at an online public hearing about a Delridge development site.
The hearing was about 6504 24th SW [map], the official address for an 11-unit proposal on a 46,000-square-foot site that also includes 6363 23rd SW. That stretch of 24th SW is a (corrected) dead-end street close to Longfellow Creek. The hearing was called for community feedback, by community request. The online-hosting system indicated 15 people were in attendance along with four city staffers.
This wasn’t a design-review meeting; there was no presentation by the developer or architect. Instead, city planning staffer David Sachs gave a very brief description of the project – 5 two-story single-family houses, 3 attached accessory dwelling units, and 3 detached accessory dwelling units, with 11 parking spaces, mostly garages.
As noted on that slide, the site includes what the city considers Environmentally Critical Areas. The development’s potential effect on the environment was the subject of most of the comments. First, a city staffer summarized written comments that had been received before the hearing, voicing concerns over the loss of exceptional trees and past flooding. (The arborist report for the site says 85 trees were assessed, and 52 met the “exceptional” criteria. Other project documents say 34 trees would be removed.) One written comment pointed out that the city had purchased parcels across 24th to keep as creek-area habitat and wondered why the same couldn’t be done with this site. Another suggested “humbler housing” would be more appropriate on the site.
That was a point made by some of those who offered comments, both spoken and written, during the hearing. They weren’t opposed to building new housing on the site – just to the amount of tree removal that would be required by the current proposal. One commenter, identifying himself as an architect, even presented a short slide deck with an alternative proposal that he said would retain more of the trees and only require removal of seven large ones:
One subsequent commenter offered enthusiastic support for that idea, but the city staffers had to remind them that it was not part of what the project team had proposed, so it’s not part of what they’re reviewing. Meantime, other commenters had concerns including 11 more residences overburdening the narrow dead-end street and its utility system, but Longfellow Creek was a major concern, particularly its salmon run, already beset with significant pre-spawn mortality blamed on pollution from runoff. “It would be a tragedy to lose precious greenspace in the neighborhood,” said another neighbor. Other comments included a complaint that there hadn’t been adequate public notice of the scope of the proposal, and that since a ‘luxury developer” was working on the project, it wouldn’t truly make a dent in the housing crisis.
The hearing ran exactly its one-hour allotment. Here’s what happens next:
If you have a comment but didn’t get to the hearing, you can still get it to the assigned city planner, David Sachs, by emailing david.sachs@seattle.gov.
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