FOLLOWUP: Alki Elementary rebuild/expansion challenger announces decision about what’s next after losing appeal

(Rendering of new Alki Elementary entrance on north side of school)

As we reported July 1, a deputy city hearing examiner has ruled against area residents’ appeal of the Alki Elementary rebuild‘s zoning exception for parking. That means the city’s decision to approve a zoning exception for the 15-space redesign – 33 spaces less than what zoning requires – is affirmed. The appellants’ only potential avenue to challenge that would be via taking it to court within three weeks of the decision. So will they? We inquired immediately after the ruling, and have finally heard back from Steve Cuddy, an Alki resident and lawyer who led the appeal by Friends for a Safe Alki Community. Cuddy tells WSB, “I do not personally plan to appeal the Alki Elementary case further. It is possible that others in our ‘Friends’ group may decide to appeal to Court, but so far no one has, and I would be surprised if anyone does.” If no challenge emerges, that clears the way for the city to finalize the permits for the project to build a larger new Alki Elementary on the same site (3010 59th SW) where the original school was demolished a year ago. (The old school’s capacity was 371; the new school is designed for 500, plus two preschool classrooms estimated to potentially hold 40.)

The appeal was argued in a three-day hearing that we covered in the Hearing Examiner’s chambers downtown in May and June; we recapped the backstory here, with links to hearing coverage. The wheels were set in motion for this appeal when the same deputy examiner, Susan Drummond, ruled in favor of a different group’s appeal of the original plan, which had no offstreet parking (while dismissing that group’s appeals of several other zoning exceptions).

Cuddy’s response to our request for comment arrived in a long letter explaining the most recent challenge; you can read it in its entirety here. He cites what he considers “positive results” of the appeal, despite the outcome: “The members of our group who filed the first successful appeal gained 15 off-street parking spots, which will be available to more safely accommodate ADA and special needs students than the dangerous on-street parking for them that was originally proposed by the School District. -The second appeal forced the School District to finally admit that Alki Elementary’s past traffic and parking problems were serious, and that its previous traffic management arrangements at the school were inadequate and dangerous. As a consequence of that admission, for the second appeal, the District created a draft traffic management plan in advance of school construction. I do not believe this has ever happened before. The District’s draft traffic management plan has significant problems … but it is at least an advance start on what will be a difficult task.” He says “continued community involvement” will be vital as the project proceeds. If permits are granted soon, the school could open in fall 2026, by which time Alki will have spent three years in temporary quarters at the former Schmitz Park Elementary.

31 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Alki Elementary rebuild/expansion challenger announces decision about what's next after losing appeal"

  • Kudos to Selfish parents July 11, 2024 (2:03 pm)

    People saying go ahead with few or no parking spots have zero foresight. You want to bulldoze ahead with the plan so your kids can be in daycare for the day but you’ve permanently handicapped the school getting exceptional teachers and staff. Who’s going to want to spend a minimum of an hour to get to the school and find parking every day? 

    • And you have the audacity to say that they should just take public transportation. You want them to sacrifice time they can spend with their own families just to teach your kids. 
    • Alkilocal July 11, 2024 (2:31 pm)

      They can park on our street just one block away.Win:win! The parked cars will act as a traffic calming measure and the staff only has to walk a short distance.   School days there are always many open spots.just don’t try to park when school is out, on nice weekends, when the pirates land, or one of our summer festivals (like the art fair) I’m a nurse – we don’t get parking unless we want to pay $$$ for it. We sacrifice our time, weekends, holidays et al to care for other’s families- and chalk up extra unpaid time to park blocks away. yeah to moving forward! 

    • Alki Parent July 11, 2024 (2:45 pm)

      I worked as a teacher in NYC. Guess how many parking spots the school had? As cities grow, optimizing for parking becomes untenable. 

      • Hey Genius July 11, 2024 (3:29 pm)

        Alki isn’t a metropolitan city like NYC. It’s a suburb of the city of Seattle and has one of the lowest accessibility. You need a minimum of 2 buses to get there unless you happen to live near a bus that goes direct. You’re talking about apples when this is about oranges. 

        • Derp July 11, 2024 (5:00 pm)

          Well I guess we should leave that decision up to the teachers at the school, not the residents.  Because you will not have any say with them not to drive to work, like everyone else that works. It is THEIR choice afterall, not OURS. 

        • Alki Parent July 11, 2024 (5:14 pm)

          The school carries the name of its neighborhood, originally called New York, Alki. The idea that this would be a city has been here since before Seattle even existed. By and by, change comes.  

          • Irrelevant July 11, 2024 (8:32 pm)

            I am a teacher and I’ve already written off taking a job there because of this issue and I mainly use public transportation anyway. I don’t understand what a name of a neighborhood, a city across the country have anything to do with this specific issue. I don’t care if anyone wants to work there or not. At this point I’ve accepted the ruling. Like myself other staff will look and see that this hassle is not worth taking a job.

        • CAM July 11, 2024 (11:03 pm)

          Alki is a neighborhood inside the city of Seattle. People out here really need to get their geography down. I do not choose to live in a suburb. If you want to live in a suburb you will need to move to one. You don’t just get to make up your own rules. 

    • Arbor Heights Resident July 11, 2024 (2:51 pm)

      Yeah and that ignores the fact that there is very little public transit serving that area. It would be one thing if this was a school along light rail/rapid transit corridor but it isn’t, and metro has drastically cut service to the alki/beach drive area over the past few years, so transit to Alki elementary isn’t really a viable option.

      • Teacher July 11, 2024 (5:34 pm)

        Current Alki teacher here. There won’t be a problem retaining and recruiting great staff. Street parking is available in the area when we arrive at 7:25 am. It’s time to build this school.

        • Mike July 12, 2024 (6:57 am)

          👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

    • Sam July 11, 2024 (5:37 pm)

      IDK I worked there years ago and there was only a few parking spots back there. I always parked on the street. I think most teachers did then also.    

    • SLJ July 11, 2024 (5:52 pm)

      Wow, that’s quite an insult to say schools are daycares. Nothing against daycares (our kids went to a great one), but most teachers have a master’s degree. 

  • SJ July 11, 2024 (2:19 pm)

    Why is the school district spending millions on a school rebuild when they are talking aboutclosing as many as twenty existing schools due to financial issues and low enrollment?Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

    • Admiral Parent July 12, 2024 (3:55 pm)

      The district’s operating expenses pocket is empty while the capital projects pocket is full. These building costs won’t increase the operating deficit at all.The school closures should be referred to as consolidations. If you move two tiny schools into one new larger building, you need one less principal, one less half time librarian, less office total office admin. That’s where the savings comes from. Building a larger Alki allows the district to bus kids in from another neighborhood and close a different school. 

      • Melissa Westbrook July 23, 2024 (3:57 pm)

        So more kids in a building with fewer staff? How does that work well? Legally, they are closures, not consolidations.  But really, go tell the kids at the school that closes not to be sad because it’s really just a consolidation. They will have a different school name, location, mascot, colors, etc. but kids are resilient, right? 

  • Admiral-2009 July 11, 2024 (2:56 pm)

    I just rolled by the site and construction is underway!

    • WSB July 11, 2024 (3:21 pm)

      What exactly did you see? They’ve had permits for site prep for a long time but at least in theory the rest of the permits are pending.

  • Frustrated Parent July 11, 2024 (3:01 pm)

    Am I the only parent of a kid with disabilities who is just wants to scream every time some neighborhood activist screams “what about ADA/special needs kids”?  Please stop using my child to prop up your arguments.  Giant parking lots don’t automatically make the school disability-friendly.  The appeals were not about accommodating disabilities and in many instances, appellants made arguments against school features that would be helpful to kids with developmental disabilities.  So just stop.  Please.

    • Al July 11, 2024 (4:03 pm)

      What’s going to happen when you have a so called state of the art school that has various technologies and equipment to assist all learners….. and minimum teachers who want to work there? This school will end up on a list to shut down soon enough because of poor planning ahead. 

      • Teacher July 11, 2024 (5:37 pm)

        Why won’t teachers want to work in a gorgeous, state-of-the-art building?

  • Al King July 11, 2024 (3:17 pm)

    SJ. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Warning: someone will comment on here that you’re standing in the way of “desperately needed progress” and you’re a “nimby” for asking too many questions.

  • AHT July 11, 2024 (4:00 pm)

    Teachers work weekends and holidays too but don’t get paid for it plus they  carry stuff back and forth usually daily also working without pay. Not worrying where to park shouldn’t be an additional thing to deal with 

    • Derp July 11, 2024 (5:05 pm)

      Now why not let the teachers at the school make that decision,  and not guess at they want or need. Come on people,  it is a brand new school for the kids. Quit complaining what the teachers want or don’t want.  Because you probably don’t have that answer,  since you are not the teachers. 

    • Teacher July 11, 2024 (5:40 pm)

      Thanks, but we’re good. Build the school.

  • Admiral-2009 July 11, 2024 (5:05 pm)

    The work appeared to be prep associated activety.

  • Bbron July 11, 2024 (8:53 pm)

    hilarious the commenter saying a measure of a good teacher is whether they drive or not. we are truly in peak car maximalism.

  • Grump July 11, 2024 (9:20 pm)

    While it’s easy to roll one’s eyes at the residents, this kind of public input is really important in design phases.  SPS decided that it would be maybe easier to just skip that collaboration and input stuff and see if the neighborhood would just lie down and take it.  As a result, the way to give feedback was to file suit and delay the project – delays I lay firmly at the feet of SPS whose fragile and avoidant modus operandi creates crises for themselves on a regular basis.  Do they learn?  No, they just cultivate bad blood with their constituents.  Surely this won’t affect future project planning, yes?

    • Charles Burlingame July 11, 2024 (10:49 pm)

      Not if we eliminate parking minimums at freaking schools like a real twenty-first century city.

    • K July 13, 2024 (7:23 am)

      SPS is a school district, Grump.  Their job is to think of and plan for the students, not the people who feel entitled to taxpayer-funded car storage on public right-of-ways.  The neighbors already knew there was a school there.  When they made a choice to live near a school, they were choosing everything that comes with living near a school, including crowded streets twice a day.  I am annoyed at the people abusing the review process to try and take things away from kids so they have more storage for their cars, and I’m even more annoyed that they drained district resources with that process, which takes even more away from the kids even though the appeal failed.  If you don’t like kids, don’t live by a school.

  • B D L July 19, 2024 (12:37 am)

    Their job is to think of and plan for the students    You’d think that… but SPS mostly appears to think and plan for themselves. And when I say SPS I really mean SPS administration…

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