West Seattle, Washington
29 Friday
(UPDATED WEDNESDAY MORNING with text toplines)
ORIGINAL 6:28 PM REPORT: Mayor McGinn has arrived, community organizations and city departments have been tabling for almost an hour, and the Town Hall is about to begin at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, with a performance by the Vicious Puppies Crew breakdancers. Seattle Channel is here to webcast the event, so we’ll put up their code in a minute so you can watch even if you’re not near a Channel 21-equipped TV. More shortly.
6:33 PM UPDATE: Here’s the code:
6:46 PM UPDATE: The mayor has started speaking – so the feed should be live – click the “play” button to watch.
(Substituted early Wednesday: Here’s our video, from the mayor’s first word to his last:)
8:18 PM UPDATE: The town hall is over. Topics ranged from arts funding to traffic/transportation challenges to the DESC Delridge project, and more.
ADDED 9:23 PM: Video clip above – that’s the VPC performance in its entirety. Text toplines to come.
ADDED WEDNESDAY MORNING: The aforementioned toplines:Read More
(Click for larger image)
The date is finally set for the Seattle Design Commission to hear from the developers of Youngstown Flats (the almost-200-unit project under construction at 26th/Dakota in North Delridge). But when they make their presentation to the SDC at 9 am this Thursday (in the Boards and Commissions Room at City Hall downtown), it won’t be about the building – it’s about the greenspace across 26th SW, which is actually a city-owned “street end.” The rendering above is what they hope to do to change it from a grassy lot, which you might not realize leads to a stairway down to Longfellow Creek, into a “green, inviting space,” as they explained earlier in the project. They are seeking a street-use permit to enable that, and that’s why the project is going before the Design Commission, which is required to review proposals for using city right-of-way as something other than traditional streets/sidewalks. P.S. The public is welcome at commission meetings, and is offered a chance to comment, too.
Quick topline as a 3 3/4-hour Southwest Design Review Board meeting wraps up: DESC‘s Delridge Supportive Housing project won a unanimous board vote recommending design approval, with a variety of conditions; the first project on the night’s agenda, what turns out to be a 2-phase, 43-unit-total project on 20th SW in South Delridge, will advance from Early Design Guidance to the second round.
ADDED: The 20th SW recap:Read More
Two notes about the DESC Delridge Supportive Housing project – first, the “packet” for this Thursday’s Design Review Board meeting (8 pm, Senior Center of West Seattle) is available online – download it here. Also, tonight is the second meeting of the Community Advisory Committee, which is tasked with prioritizing community concerns and will again listen to public comment; it meets at 6 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way).
(Click to see larger image)
That’s the “3-D” look at the area of north/central Delridge known as the “Brandon Node” – which was centerstage at last Wednesday night’s “visioning” open house sponsored by the North Delridge Neighborhood Council and Delridge Neighborhoods District Council at Martin’s Way. We dropped by in the first hour; now NDNC co-chair Parie Hines has put together and published a thorough look at the entire event, its results, and next steps. You can see her report here, on the NDNC website. One key summary point: The desire voiced for new food-related businesses in the area was four times the desire voiced for other types of businesses. However, as another chart in Parie’s report shows, that doesn’t mean everyone’s clamoring for restaurants – the #1 type of food-related business that open-house-goers wanted to see was “farmers’ market/produce,” followed by “bakery.” The most-desired non-food business: “Children’s or clothing consignment store.” Outside the business realm, street trees and bike racks were atop wish lists.
North Delridge leaders plan to pursue ways to make this all happen, including city support; attendees last Wednesday included City Council President Sally Clark and Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Richard Conlin – Clark mentioned the Brandon Node event during what amounts to council “open mike” time at their weekly briefing session yesterday.
11:08 PM: Second “fire in building” response of the day – this time, to apartments in the 5900 block of Delridge Way SW. Per the scanner, police are blocking off the street. We’re on the way to find out more.
(Photo courtesy S, shared by e-mail)
11:11 PM: “Fire’s out,” per scanner, and must have been small, since all but two units have just been canceled. We’re still en route.
11:38 PM NOTE: So small, the fire crews were gone when we got there.
For those tracking the DESC 66-unit “supportive housing” complex planned at 5444 Delridge Way SW (map), two meetings are on the schedule this week. Tuesday (6 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW) the Advisory Committee meets for a second time, with another opportunity for public comment. Thursday, it’s the second, and possibly final, Southwest Design Review Board session to look at the project. It’s the second project on the schedule, 8 pm at Senior Center of West Seattle, California/Oregon. (The “packet” for the first project to be considered that night, an unrelated 20-unit proposal at 9051 20th SW, is available online, but the DESC “packet” is not, yet.) More information and links are in a DESC-meetings preview published on the North Delridge Neighborhood Council website.
Many of West Seattle’s business districts are thoroughly developed. Not Delridge’s “Brandon Node,” the commercial (etc.) district centered around Delridge/Brandon (check out this photo tour). Wednesday night, community leaders issued an open invitation to come to one of that area’s newest businesses, Martin’s Way, and join an open house “visioning” the district’s future. It was a casual gathering, with four stations set up, each a place to offer answers to a key question.
While there for the first hour, here’s what we saw:
Question: How can the Brandon Node be better improved to support existing and future local businesses?
Answers included: sidewalk café, color-coordinating business buildings to show they are businesses, planter boxes, mailboxes, better lighting, starting a business organization.
Question: What do you love about living or working in Delridge? How could the Brandon Node become a destination for all West Seattle?
Answers included: Diversity, access to Longfellow Creek and Camp Long.
Question: What types of food options would you like to see in Delridge? Would you personally shop at a grocery or food co-op in the Brandon Node?
Answers included: Grocery, bakery, deli, healthy fast food.
Question: What types of products and services would you like to buy in the Brandon Node? What types of businesses would you support in the Brandon Node?
Answers included: Bakery, laundromat, produce stand, farmers’ market, grocery, & child care.
Parie Hines from the North Delridge Neighborhood Council – which co-sponsored the visioning session, along with the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council – told us she would gather up the evening’s suggestions and ideas and take them back to the existing businesses, while working further on helping the existing business owners get to know each other better. They’ll also be used in conversations with the city and others who are interested in helping the area grow.
ADDED FRIDAY MORNING: As noted, we were only able to stay for the first hour, but the event continued for another hour and a half beyond that, and you can see photos taken by Holli Margell here (including some of the butcher-paper notes with even more community suggestions).
Turns out there are two public hearings this week related to the 66-unit DESC homeless-housing project planned for 5444 Delridge Way SW (the site at right). The first one has already been announced – Tuesday night (February 21), 6:30 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, everyone with something to say about the project is invited to come say it to the Delridge Supportive Housing Advisory Committee, which is tasked for starters with identifying community concerns regarding the project. What they hear at this first hearing will shape their focus in the months ahead. The second one is a Thursday public hearing before the Washington State Housing Finance Commission; one of the remaining pieces of funding for the project comes from Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and it’s up to the commission to decide who gets them. The DESC Delridge project is part of a sizable list of projects up for tax credits this year – the credits actually go to investors in exchange for their help in financing a project like this. The hearing is at 1 pm Thursday (February 23rd) in the commission’s board room at their downtown offices, on the 28th floor at 1000 Second Avenue. The official notice also includes information on how you can send written comments, if you can’t be at the hearing, as well as these words of warning: “The Commission will not consider testimony and written comments regarding land use, zoning, and environmental regulation.”
The burger truck Charlie’s Buns ‘n’ Stuff has announced via Facebook that they’re opening a bricks-and-mortar location in West Seattle. While we await a reply to our request for comment, details are already in this link they shared from Seattle Metropolitan‘s website – which reports that Charlie’s has leased space at 5214 Delridge Way SW (right) and plans to open a burger/cheesesteak sitdown restaurant with room for 25 by early summer. The Charlie’s Buns truck first started visiting West Seattle last spring. It’s the third food truck working on a West Seattle bricks-and-mortar location right now (along with Athena’s and Marination).
Side note: If the Delridge address sounds familiar, that’s because it has made news in the past for previous and potential tenants, but it’s undergone a lot of remodeling and renovation work in the past year-plus.
Just announced: Mayor McGinn will be back in West Seattle during his next round of “Town Hall” meetings. March 13th is the date, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center at 4408 Delridge Way SW is the place – where he held one in December 2010 (photo above) – and the schedule, according to the city’s e-mailed announcement, is as follows:
5:30 to 6:30 pm: Community information fair
6:30 to 6:40 pm: Performance by local artists
6:40 to 8:00 pm: Open Q&A with Mayor McGinn and City staff
Here’s the official flyer for the event.
The biggest news at last night’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting came from guests: Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association reps told the council they may have to sell the three DNDA-owned units in Brandon Court because they won’t be able to make the next mortgage payment. (They’re already listed.) One of those units is empty – DNDA itself vacated last year, consolidating its offices in Youngstown Cultural Arts Center a mile away – and the other one is about to be vacated by the City of Seattle, moving its Neighborhood Service Center to the former Southwest Community Center (as finalized in last month’s budget vote). DNDA’s Patty Grossman and board chair Willard Brown told NDNC – meeting in the Delridge Library, near the units under discussion – that they were hoping to convince the city to change its mind, and that they believed they were getting at least a few months reprieve.
However, our followup conversation with the city today indicates otherwise. More on this, and other topics from the NDNC meeting, ahead:Read More
That rusty industrial building at 28th and Yancy often pronounced an “eyesore” is about to come down, we’ve learned, after noticing a demolition permit was granted Monday for the building, and silo, just south of Allstar Fitness. A few years back, it was supposed to come down as part of a development project that was shelved; there’s no active development plan now, so we went over to find out more in person. A worker at the site told us the building and silo will be razed – probably within days – for a “parking lot.” (Whose parking lot, we’re still checking – certainly parking can be a crunch in the area, with Allstar, Nucor, and Longfellow Creek in the area.) A crew is doing prep work at the site right now.
While in the area, we followed up on a story from earlier today:
The big construction crane is indeed going up right now at the 193-unit Youngstown Flats project. 26th SW will be blocked between SW Yancy and Dakota till the work is done at some point this afternoon. We talked with developer Maria Barrientos at the site; she said it’s scheduled to be done by day’s end (only one piece remained when we left around noon, in fact). The crane is expected to be on site for four months.
We’ve received some love-ly photos so far this Valentine’s Day, to share with you. First two are from Betsy Hoffmeister in Delridge, who writes of the photographed “yarnbombing,” “Some lovely neighbors did a good deed to cheer up a person very close to me who wishes to remain anonymous.”
That second photo – a little yarn creation springing up in the garden like a fungus – is the perfect segue to the photo Machel Spence shares:
Machel writes, “Slugs have been munching on the stipe and have managed to leave the shape of a heart…my kind of Valentine’s Day!” (The photo was taken in Machel’s favorite image-hunting grounds – Lincoln Park.)
The biggest construction project under way in West Seattle right now is scheduled to move to a new phase this week with the arrival of its crane, possibly as soon as today. We talked recently with Maria Barrientos and Steffenie Evans from the Youngstown Flats project at 26th/Dakota for some quick updates, including the crane status. The 193-apartment project’s general contractor, Absher Construction, created animation showing the order in which sections of the building are going up (the crane’s arrival is noted at 26 seconds in):
As discussed previously, art plays a big role in the project. The biggest pieces are about to be commissioned – sizable sculptures to be displayed in a prominent spot yet to be finalized. The project team also is still awaiting its date with the Seattle Design Commission to review its plan for improvements on the undeveloped street end immediately west of the site. Youngstown Flats is in its fourth month of construction and due for completion in spring of next year.
2:24 PM: Big police search under way right now for armed robbers: Southwest Precinct Lt. Pierre Davis confirms a “jewelry/pawn shop” in the 9400 block of 16th SW (map) was held up by four robbers wearing masks. He says officers are currently “conducting a search for evidence and suspects.” We also heard some potential description information on the scanner – a Crown Victoria car that “looks like an old green-over-red taxi” might be associated with the robbers. As always, call 911 if you think you see or hear something related.
2:37 PM UPDATE: There’s a sizable police presence off Roxbury that we are told is related to the search for the robbers and ‘evidence.’ And this is indeed why there was at least one TV helicopter over the area.
3:21 PM UPDATE: Police are still searching – right now we’re seeing some in Roxhill Park. We stopped by nearby Roxhill Elementary, too, after hearing it mentioned as part of scanner discussion; the staff told us the school “sheltered in place” for a short time.
4:15 PM UPDATE: Per scanner traffic, three vehicles, including a Crown Victoria, were being searched in connection with this investigation. But Lt. Davis says nobody’s been arrested yet.
8:33 PM UPDATE: From SPD Blotter, more details and descriptions:Read More
There’s one more week to go for public comment on the land-use-permit application for the DESC Delridge project (details here). And we just discovered tonight that the tentative date for the project’s next Design Review Board meeting has been moved up two weeks to March 8 (West Seattle Senior Center, 8 pm). But those are not the only opportunities you have for input on the proposed 66-unit homeless-housing project at 5444 Delridge Way SW. We’ve reported before on the community advisory group formed as part of the process – and tonight, its first public meeting has just been announced for February 21st. The official announcement was sent by Pete Spalding, who is co-chairing the group:Read More
Story and photos by Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
If all goes well, a corner store will open next month at Delridge and Findlay.
Look closely at the upper right corner of the mural on its north side, and you will see its name: Martin’s Way.
As in, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And that is your first hint that this is not just intended to be a store.
From the outside, it doesn’t look like one, and that’s exactly what proprietor Vik Puri intends.
We sat down with him this week to talk about Martin’s Way, its beginnings, and eventual hopes.
This is a labor of love for Vik and his partner Nikhi. As he tells it, that’s about all they have to put into it right now. It’s been in the works a long time, with a shortage of capital. But on the other hand, there are partnerships at its foundation – including the nonprofit that operates a day care immediately behind the building, a source of neighborhood mystery and intrigue as it was built a few years back.
(LOOKING FOR SNOW COVERAGE? UPDATES ARE HERE)
New details today about the Delridge Alliance, the advisory group that DESC committed to help convene as its Delridge Supportive Housing project plan continues. Until now, the newest major development is what we reported two weeks ago – that the plan is down to 66 units from the previous 75 because of a city decision (explained here); DESC’s Bill Hobson subsequently confirmed to WSB that the project is moving ahead:
Yes, we are proceeding. Clearly, the 75-unit plan presented at (Design Review) will now have to be modified somewhat but our architects assure me that modification will not be substantial and it will be under the WSHFC per-unit cost ceiling. And, the modification will respect the recommendations they received at EDG.
Now, the advisory-group details: This morning, North Delridge Neighborhood Council website features a detailed update this morning from Vonetta Mangaoang, who’s part of the advisory group, with details on who’s on it so far, the positions still open, what it’s about, and what happens next. Read it here. (No date set yet for the project’s second Design Review meeting, by the way.)
By Karen Berge
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The Downtown Emergency Service Center‘s (DESC) Delridge Supportive Housing project was the major discussion topic at the North Delridge Neighborhood Council (NDNC) January monthly meeting on Monday evening.
This first meeting of the new year, held at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, kicked off with brief introductions and reflections on New Year’s resolutions from the 15 neighborhood attendees. After that, meeting business quickly got underway. The very full agenda also included a proposal for a new committee on Community Design and Land Use; details about today’s North Delridge Walking Tour with City Council and SDOT representatives; information about potential Bridging the Gap grant projects; discussion of the recent request to the city regarding an update to the Delridge Neighborhood Plan; and other items and announcements.
First, since it’s about an event happening today:
NORTH DELRIDGE WALKING TOUR:
Jake Vanderplas, NDNC Transportation Committee chair, briefed the group on
details about the North Delridge walking tour set for 3-4:30 pm today (meet outside the Delridge Community Center). Tour participants will include City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, representative(s) from SDOT, members of NDNC, and any other interested Delridge neighbors or others who wish to attend. Issues include large and small items relating to bike, pedestrian, transit or driving safety (for example, a Walk-signal button that doesn’t activate the signal light when pressed). If you know of additional issues or sites that should be addressed/visited on the tour, they suggest that you post a comment on their site. A new pedestrian issue that was brought up during this meeting is an asphalt sidewalk with a mailbox positioned inconveniently in the very center of the walkway.
(Taken at 17th/Cambridge. We have blurred the face of one person who did not appear to be SPD.)
Two cases tonight: We don’t have official details on the one that’s still happening, but in South Delridge, police are out right now dealing with a report that was described on the scanner as an armed robbery, apparently at a business, possibly on 17th SW. We checked out the scene and saw what appeared to be a search, but it wasn’t clear exactly where the investigation was centered, so we’ll be checking back with SPD later.
There also was some scanner traffic about a strong-arm street robbery earlier – and we have received a note from the victim, a longtime WSB’er who says she was held up at knifepoint in Arbor Heights around 5:30 pm by someone who stole her iPhone 4S. She says police made an arrest but did not find the phone, so she is asking people in the area to be on the lookout for it. (We have a followup question out to ask where in AH this happened.) She says the data on it “has been wiped,” but she has its serial number from its original packaging.
ADDED 12:14 AM: The victim says it happened near 35th/106th, and that the suspect was found around the 9700-9900 block of 35th. The missing phone is a black iPhone 4S, 32GB, “in a black Marware flip case at the time.”
(June 2011 photo of DESC Delridge project’s proposed site)
The Downtown Emergency Service Center‘s proposed Delridge Supportive Housing project is suddenly undergoing a redesign, according to documents filed with the Washington State Housing Finance Commission as part of the next round of financing DESC is seeking – and that redesign will be for a project with 66 units, not 75 units as originally proposed.
The city Office of Housing had originally granted a waiver to DESC, allowing it to propose a 75-unit project even though the amount of “extremely low-income housing” in the area was supposed to max out at 63 units beyond what it currently has. Neighborhood advocates had questioned the information on which the waiver was based – and now, according to a city document also on file with the WSHFC as part of the DESC application, it appears they had grounds for concern.
Documents from the city, dated in mid-December, say that newly available 2010 census information superseded what DESC had been working with, and that the site now could only support 66 units in this income range. This notification came just as DESC was about to submit its application for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to the WSHFC, and since there wasn’t enough time for them to completely redo the application, they are redesigning the project right now, and expecting to submit new information by the end of this month. The documentation we just reviewed at WSHFC offices downtown includes this DESC explanation:
This late change creates both capital and operational inefficiencies. It is also driving the total development costs over the WSHFC cost limits. Our team is currently redesigning the project with a new cost estimate, and a revised development budget will be shared with WSHFC and other public funders by january 31, 2012.
We attempted to reach DESC leadership by phone and e-mail earlier today for comment, and so far have not heard back. We are still reviewing a few more documents related to this and will add any additional information of relevance.
The Delridge project first came to light last June and has since moved through stages including property purchase – $768,000 for three lots in the 5400 block of Delridge Way SW, with the sale initiated last April and closed one month ago – as well as city, county, and state financing approvals, plus the first round of city Design Review (with a second round to come, though no date is set). Our coverage of the project is archived here.
A question came in last night about a police/fire sighting at Sanislo Elementary on New Year’s Day. Nothing on the logs when we looked – but now the answer is in, via SPD Blotter:
On 01-01-2012, just shortly before 3:00 p.m., officers responded with school security, to an alarm at a school in the 1800 block of SW Myrtle St. Officers set up containment and used Seattle Fire Department ladders to gain access to the rooftop, where the 2 suspects (men 27 and 19 years-old) were hiding. The suspects were taking into custody without incident. The suspects had two packs filled with items stolen from the school. They also had burglary tools. Both suspects were booked into King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary.
That wasn’t the only time local police called on SFD to help with an investigation this past week – we covered a ladder-to-the-roof effort early December 29th in The Junction.
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