(New design proposal for Alki Elementary, with 15 parking spaces in southwest corner of site)

Two months after Seattle Public Schools proposed a new plan for the Alki Elementary rebuild/expansion, with 15 offstreet parking spaces instead of zero, the city has approved it. This comes six months after a city hearing examiner told SPS it had to revisit its no-on-site-parking plan, after nearby residents appealed the original city decision allowing nine zoning exceptions (“departures”) for the project. Without a zoning exception, the rebuilt/expanded school would require 48 spaces. We discovered the decision on the plan revision while checking online files today; it’s scheduled to be widely circulated via tomorrow’s twice-weekly Land Use Information Bulletin. From the 21-page decision document, here’s the bottom line:

In evaluating the initial parking departure request, the Director reviewed the district required school program, the DON recommendations, public comment, the proposed site plan, and location of the programmatic elements such as circulation, shared learning areas, outdoor play area, and classroom spaces, and all technical information and analysis. The Director approved the initial parking departure request (for zero on-site vehicular parking stalls) with the conditions listed at the end of this report (May 2023). The Hearing Examiner Decision (August 2023) returned the parking departure request back to the Director for additional study of parking impacts. Upon further review of the proposal, including the additional parking analyses, revised site plan (to include 15 on-site vehicular parking spaces), and all public comment, the Director finds that the departure is appropriate in relation to the character and scale of the area; there is a presence of edges, a right of way, a park and a topographic break which provides a transition in bulk and scale and the departure does not exacerbate or diminish the area character; and the departure will not significantly exacerbate traffic, noise, circulation, parking or impact housing or open space in the area.

The Director finds that the educational need for this departure is met and that the impacts of the proposal could be adequately mitigated by the conditions recommended by DON and the Director. Therefore, the Director grants the departure request …

The “educational need” is explained elsewhere in the decision document as the district’s contention that providing more parking would require actions that would affect how well the new school could function, Meantime, the decision argues that the new plan is actually an increase in official parking for the site, compared to the now-demolished school:

The proposed departure request will result in no significant loss of vehicular parking on site and will establish an increase in parking for the record. First, the prior Alki Elementary had a surface service area that was informally used by staff for vehicular parking and was estimated to accommodate approximately 19-20 vehicles. The hard surface play area north of the building (and off-site) is City of Seattle property and is signed for “Community Center Parking Only” but was used for school-event parking and was estimated to accommodate approximately 27 vehicles. In addition, there was a right-of-way that was used for informal parking at the northeast corner of the site, where Parks has a community center. This city property will continue to exist. Further, Parks has two parking spots for the community center that continue to exist (one 15-minute load space and one accessible permit space). To the east of these spaces are six spaces signed for “Alki Community Center Permitted Staff Parking Only.” SPS’s revised site plan for Alki Elementary now includes 15 medium-sized vehicular parking stalls with an ADA accessible space located in the southwest portion of the Alki Elementary site. The addition of these 15 parking spaces required redesign or elimination of project elements previously included in the design such as the staging area for delivery trucks and garbage pickup, location of the transformer, building storage space, bicycle storage area, and pedestrian path.

As with the original zoning-exception decision, this approval can be appealed. The publication notice explains how, and sets a deadline of March 7. The original plan was for Alki Elementary to hold classes at the former Schmitz Park Elementary this year and next, but the construction delay already has the district acknowledging Alki will be housed there for 2025-2026 too.

Before we get to what’s happening today – here’s a heads-up for tomorrow: The Seattle Public Schools Board director for West Seattle and most of South Park, Gina Topp, is hosting her second community-conversation meeting Thursday night (February 22). This time, it’s online, 6-7 pm. The link for participating is here. These are usually informal meetings with an opportunity to ask questions and discuss concerns; here’s our coverage of her first one last month.