(Rendering by Mahlum Architects – north side of school)
After a pre-hearing conference today, the city Hearing Examiner’s Office has set the date for the hearing on the latest appeal of a zoning exception for the Alki Elementary rebuild: May 22. Today’s conference was presided over by the same deputy hearing examiner who ordered Seattle Public Schools last year to reconsider its “no on-site parking” plan, Susan Drummond, after different appellants challenged it. As we reported in December, SPS subsequently came up with a plan for 15 spaces; in February, the city Department of Construction and Inspections approved it (as they originally had done for the no-parking plan); then this month, a new group of appellants calling themselves Friends for a Safe Alki Community filed a challenge. Their lawyer was at today’s conference as were two lawyers for the school district as well as the SDCI land-use planner assigned to the project. The levy-funded rebuild and expansion of Alki Elementary is on hold until this is resolved, because the building permit can’t be granted until the zoning exception for parking is either finalized, or rendered unnecessary by a plan allowing for the 48 spaces the current zoning rules require. Meantime, all sides have a series of deadlines to prepare for the May 22 hearing (for which a second day is set aside May 23 if needed), per the order resulting from today’s conference.
ADDED APRIL 14: A routine check of the case file reveals the hearing date has changed to May 28.
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