FOLLOWUP: Ex-substation site in Highland Park closer to ‘affordable homeownership’ future

| Highland Park | West Seattle housing | West Seattle news

(2013 image via Seattle City Light)

More than a decade after the city started the process of selling off six former Seattle City Light substation sites in West Seattle, one of them is edging closer to a new use. City Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s newest weekly newsletter previews committee consideration tomorrow for the 10,376-square-foot site on the southwest corner of 16th/Holden known as the former Dumar Substation:

(I)n my Public Safety and Human Service Committee we will be hearing legislation that:

-Approves transfer of the Dumar site from SCL to the Office of Housing (OH) in exchange for $424,000

-Authorizes OH to: Conduct a competitive process to solicit proposals for the development of resale restricted homeownership and negotiate property transfer to the selected developer

As Councilmember Herbold goes on to recap, the site is not considered suitable for rental housing, but instead was determined most likely to work for the type of “affordable homeownership” provided with units developed by organizations such as Homestead Community Land Trust or Habitat For Humanity. Here’s the summary from the slide deck that’s among the documents linked to the agenda for Tuesday’s committee meeting:

The inclusion of commercial space was the result of longtime community advocacy, as Highland Park is fairly short on supply of that, and the intersection includes businesses at two other corners (Fire Station 11 is on the third); the site was rezoned to Neighborhood Commercial in 2019 to ensure that. Tomorrow’s committee meeting, which includes an opportunity for public comment (either in person at City Hall or via phone, as explained on the agenda) starts at 9:30 am.

Nathan H. November 27, 2023 (2:04 pm)

The last “affordable housing” at that location (a few plots up the street) saw various tenants jumping up and down on the hoods of cars in the nearby parking lot “for fun”, several actual assaults on passing pedestrians, and more than one multiple squad car drug bust. Literally everyone in the neighborhood was glad to see it come to an end. I guess we can always hope it works out better this time around.

WSB November 27, 2023 (4:49 pm)

As written in the story, this is affordable homeownership, not low-income housing. (Not that homeowners can’t cause trouble, because they certainly do too.) That also means the units cannot be rented. – TR
Mellow Kitty November 28, 2023 (8:50 am)

Wow. Really.

Chase N November 27, 2023 (5:44 pm)

What does this mean? What will actually be built here?

Kyle November 27, 2023 (8:17 pm)

Of note, parking will be removed on Holden in front of that site for an unrelated drainage project that was focused mostly on calming traffic based off the inputs of a few people walking around when the bridge was out, but they”re still going through with it.

KayK November 27, 2023 (11:16 pm)

From discussions so far, would be condo type units above Neighborhood Commercial on the lower floor. So affordable to lower income buyers, plus giving the area a bit more commercial space which is sorely lacking. SPU planners are aware of this transfer, not sure how they mean to work with the project – they had an open house in Nov and are due to attend HPAC meeting in January with more details.