On the eve of the public meeting about the upzoning proposal for both sides of California Ave between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit south on the west side), two updates: Neighborhood opponents are distributing a flyer around the area with their concerns and full details of how to have a say (they sent us a copy; we uploaded it – click here to read it); supporters continue to add comments to our earlier posts (one comment is at the bottom of the list here; another one at the bottom here). Tomorrow night’s meeting is at West Seattle High School, 6:30 pm. For background info, the city’s page about the proposal is here; our report on informal presentations made 2 weeks ago to the Admiral Neighborhood Association by a developers’ rep and a city planner is here.

Reminder that this Thursday night (6:30 pm, West Seattle High School library) is the first major public meeting about the proposal to rezone both sides of California between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit further south on the west side of the street) to allow larger businesses and taller buildings (city map screengrab at right). Over the holiday, the major landowners behind the proposal (and four other site visitors) added comments to the original WSB report about the plan — since that report is almost 3 weeks old, there’s a 99.9% chance you haven’t seen the new comments, so here are the highlights:Read More

Background: A group of property owners led by well-known real-estate/property management partners Roger Cayce and Mike Gain are asking the city to “upzone” both sides of California Ave. between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit south of Hinds; city map screengrabbed above) from NC1-30 to NC2-40, as preparation for future redevelopment. The first details emerged at last week’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting; here’s our detailed report. Then, last Friday, the city set November 29 as the date for the first full public meeting on this. And tonight, we know that meeting will be at 6:30 pm in the library at West Seattle High School. Representatives for both the city and the property owners will be at the 11/29 meeting, and public comment will be important, for and from anyone interested/concerned in the plan. Here are a few other details of note:Read More

According to the city’s project page for the Hanford-to-Hinds upzoning proposal on California (Wednesday’s detailed report here), the public meeting is set for Thursday, November 29th, at West Seattle High School. We hope to hear back from DPD planners early next week regarding the time.

Continuing our report on details about the California Ave (Hanford to Hinds) rezoning request that were revealed at tonight’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting: While, as we mentioned earlier, there are two “primary applicants,” the area involved in this request to “upzone” from the current NC1-30 to NC2-40 has more than 20 property owners. The applicants’ rep Josh Stepherson says 70% of them have signed on for this, but even among the other 30%, he says, none are opposed. His presentation included bullet points on what “positive impacts” the applicants think this would have on the area — but first, the full text of their statement, included in the 10-page handout Stepherson distributed tonight:Read More

Just back from dropping in on the Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting to hear the promised mini-presentation on the proposed “upzoning” of both sides of California from Hanford to Hinds (and a bit beyond, on the west side). Not only was a DPD rep there as expected, so was Josh Stepherson, who’s representing the property owners behind the proposal. He brought along a 10-page handout, and among the new details included in that handout were the names of the “primary applicants” — Roger Cayce and Mike Gain. If you are a relatively recent West Seattle arrival, you might be thinking “Yes, and your point is — ?” It’s this: Back when we arrived in the early ’90s, they were the biggest names in WS real estate, with their names on almost every for-sale shingle. (We bought our house from a Cayce & Gain listing, after two years of renting a Cayce & Gain-managed condo.) Their names are still on a property-management firm in the proposed rezone area, but what was Cayce & Gain Real Estate is now Prudential NW (also in the proposed rezone area). So why are they (and other area property owners) asking to change the zoning? We have some details on that too, as well as on plans for a public meeting in about 2 weeks, coming up in a complete report we’ll post here later tonight.

There’s a real bulletin this time around in the semiweekly city Land Use Information Bulletin that just came out: A request to rezone both sides of California, between Hanford and Hinds on the east side, and from Hanford to 100′ south of Hinds on the west side. If this is granted, the zoning would change from NC1-30′ (the last number is max height) to NC2-40′. Looking now to find out more about what’s behind this, but wanted to pass it along in the short run – we’ve been following the LUIB fairly closely for more than a year and haven’t seen anything like this in that time.