West Seattle, Washington
28 Thursday
-From the latest Land Use Information Bulletin: More townhouses coming to Cali, this time north of the Junction, on and behind the site of a little two-business storefront (alterations and salon), a five-unit development proposed for 4045 Cali.
-Seattle City Council members are coming to West Seattle next week. The Economic Development and Neighborhoods Committee plans to meet @ High Point Community Center next Thursday (August 16th), 6-8 pm (agenda here). Councilmembers on this committee are Sally Clark, Jan Drago, Richard McIver, and Peter Steinbrueck.
-Also on the road, West Seattle 13-year-old Jeremy Scharff-Kim, a student at Pathfinder K-8. This Times article tells the tale of his trip to Hawaii in a quest for Pokemon glory. You can follow his progress here. Good luck!
-Congrats to WS “caffeine jazz” group Vente Caffeinato on its first CD. Get it here.
As mentioned below, tonight the Southwest Design Review Board took up – and spit out – the newest proposed design for a Petco store on the Charlestown Cafe site.
The meeting, in fact, started 15 minutes late, because of the architects’ tardiness. The project team “took a wrong turn,” we were told.
Eerily predictive, that turned out to be. Click ahead for a complete recap:Read More
Just back from three hours at the Southwest Design Review Board meeting on two WS projects — the headliner was the reworked design for the Petco store proposed to take over the Charlestown Cafe site — board members still have major concerns and are basically sending the new architects back to the drawing board for a third “Early Design Guidance” meeting (some projects only need one). Detailed report to come.
On the west end of the Alki restaurant district, the Pegasus Pizza building project (2758 Alki) is no longer alone. Another project has surfaced in the next block: The last little low-rise residence (2810 Alki), sandwiched between Bamboo and the ex-Alki Market, is slated to be replaced by a three-story building described as two floors of restaurant topped by one residential unit. A Design Review Board “early design guidance” meeting for the project is already set for September 13th.
This Thursday night, the city’s Southwest Design Review Board will take a look at the latest design for the proposed Petco store at the Charlestown Cafe site.
We’ve received a pre-meeting update from Mark Wainwright with Our Town West Seattle, the community group keeping a close watch on this project and the restaurant’s fate; the group met last Thursday to look ahead to this week’s Design Review meeting.
Mark says there’s a new architect for the Petco plan, Sienna Architecture, based in Portland but with a Seattle office. He adds, “The project design is, in a word, better … this design may have the potential to be Petco’s nicest store.”
Click ahead to read what else Mark says:Read More
Two things to tell you about quickly, before we run out to implore the current sunbreak to hold long enough for Blue Angels and hydros and all that:
-The semiweekly city Land Use Info Bulletin revealed a plan for a new 2-story building, described as “restaurant on the ground floor and offices above,” at the site of Pegasus Pizza. A Design Review Board meeting is already set for August 23rd. This would be the first big building project in that part of the Alki business district since the revamp of the former Alki Market (now Cactus and future All the Best Pet Care).
-Many potential WS projects we hadn’t previously heard about are listed on this message board we just discovered (along with many we HAD heard about). No clue what those folks’ sources are but we are trying to find out!
-If you live in/around The Junction, don’t miss the first meeting of JuNO — Junction Neighborhood Association. 6:30 pm Thursday @ the Senior Center.
-If you’re concerned about the future of the Charlestown Cafe and the site it’s on, Our Town West Seattle invites you there, 7 pm Thursday, for a briefing before the next city Design Review Board meeting on the project.
Brilliant line by Crosscut’s Knute Berger, toward the end of his “Mossback” column today featuring our weekend post about a Fauntlee Hills building beef.
If you’re looking for someplace to move a business, south of Morgan Junction is where you might want to be. In fact, space is available at the current home of Authentic Home, which is moving later this year to the north edge of The Junction (4151 Cali, former home of Emerald City Locksmith). Below the photo, some other changes in the same business area south of Morgan Junction, which covers two blocks north of Caffe Ladro:
In this block, the Tail Wag has rebranded itself as Stella Ruffington’s; in the block north of the photo, Chill is open, offering massages and “modern apothecary” (its website isn’t built out yet but the flyers at its storefront promise an intriguing mix of aromatherapy). All this within a stone’s throw of development/housing action we’ve reported on previously, including the SeventyOne apartments-turned-condos, the Housing Authority purchase of Riviera West, and the big clump of townhouses on former Gatewood Baptist church land across from the ex-GB/now Seattle International Church itself.
Catching up on info from Monday (one of the two days each week when the city sends out its Land Use Information Bulletin, among other info sources):
-The land-use permits have just been issued for the megaproject that will bring QFC, Office Depot, apartments, and more to the ex-Hollywood Video site (photo right): it’s got two addresses, so two permits (4100 Alaska and 4122 Alaska).
-The permit’s also finalized for the “vegetation/tree removal” plan along Beach Drive (it too has two addresses, one on Beach and one on Atlas) that we previously lamented.
-There’s an addition to the agenda for the Southwest Design Review Board meeting @ SW Precinct Community Room a week from Thursday: After board members get the latest on the Charlestown Cafe site at 6:30, they’ll be dealing at 8 with the “mixed-use” project @ 2310 Cali. (For those concerned about the cafe site’s future, remember the community meeting this Thursday.)
7:15 AM UPDATE: The morning digest of yesterday’s city action is just in; a land-use permit was issued for the other Junction Megaproject, Fauntleroy Place. Busy times.
A reader sent us this photo, saying he took it this morning while passing by a house under construction in Fauntlee Hills. Haven’t seen a whole lot of protest banners around here, so we looked around online and found some backstory …
The unfinished house (which is separate from the older brick home in the foreground) is for sale for $1.2 million, according to this listing, about $1 million more than the landowner paid for the 5k-sf lot a year and a half ago. So what’s the banner-inspiring beef about this development project, compared to the dozens of others under way around WS? The online city records give us a hint; a complaint filed earlier this month, investigated, and found without merit, carries a note about checking the house’s height at the “external nailing inspection.”
CHARLESTOWN CAFE CORNER: Our Town West Seattle is inviting those concerned about the cafe site’s future to gather at 7 pm next Thursday (August 2) to get the newest information one week before the next city Design Review meeting on the proposed project.
BURNED-OUT EX-SCHUCK’S CORNER (below): Finally, finally, finally the demolition permit application is in, two months after the land-use permit was OKd for the 2-story commercial building planned there (this page about that project has a small sketch of what it might look like).
The city proposes expanding incentives for “affordable housing” in “urban village” areas, of which we have a few (including The [Alaska] Junction and Morgan Junction). However, some are voicing skepticism till they’ve read the fine print, including (according to this P-I article) WS-based City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. EVENING UPDATE: A reader points out the Seattle Displacement Coalition is upset about this; click ahead to read parts of its own press release:Read More
Joining the WS Condo/Townhome Name Hall o’Fame along with Verge, NoMo 12, SeventyOne, Bayberry, Sea Holly, and so on, we now have Stratus and Gables — the names Mosaic is giving its condo conversions (“Stratus”=Graham Street Apts., sold for $9 million; “Gables”=West Ridge Park, sold for $22 million). We would like to see developers/marketers consider names that pay homage to the process, perhaps a townhouse complex called Nocquedowne and a condo conversion called Evixus.
Harbor Avenue around the northeastern edge of the WS peninsula will be in for big changes if either or both of two ambitious ideas presented at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting become reality. It was emphasized that the two plans are not officially linked — but they have undeniable “synergy.” They involve land adjacent to, and east of, what many describe as West Seattle’s “secret gem,” Jack Block Park.
First: The Pier 1/2 concept for a new Water Taxi dock. It’s an unofficial proposal but may be gaining steam, since most would agree the Water Taxi can’t stay at Seacrest forever (among other things, the parking crunch is just too ridiculous). Pier 1/2 is Port of Seattle property adjacent to Jack Block Park. Much more on this and the other proposal, after the click …Read More
We know more now about what’s planned for the NW corner of Cali/Graham (across from the big condo conversion), where as we noted 3 months ago we will be sad to see the ex-Butcher Block Espresso, ex-butcher shop, etc. go:
Here’s what’s new: The application for a permit to reclassify the site as seven separate parcels, and the land-use application specifying what would go on those parcels: Three 3-story buildings, one described as a “commercial” building with 6 “live/work units,” the other two described as 3-story “townhouse structures” with 9 total units. And these filings reiterate that the “existing structures” will be demolished. Sigh.
Less than a week after we told you about the deal that ended the fight over the clump of townhomes going up (one nearly complete building, shown below) at the SW foot of Gatewood Hill, the situation gets ink in this week’s Stranger (one correction, the church wasn’t demolished; the property had belonged to Gatewood Baptist Church across the street and was sold along with it, but the developers re-sold the church to Seattle International; also the arrival of equipment wasn’t the first word of the development — we posted here 3 months earlier when the permit applications were filed). P.S.: You can expect work to start any second now on the final disputed row of townhomes (permit just issued); the selling agents have just planted a big sign plugging the “Seattle Townhome Team“; and developer Dan Duffus is on the panel for a city-organized “Forum on Housing Affordability” this Friday.
Everyone watching the Charlestown Cafe site/potential Petco project has been waiting for another city Design Review Board meeting to be scheduled, as a key next step in the process. According to the city website, that meeting is now set for August 9th.
As mentioned in our weekend-events list, tonight is the fundraising dinner and auction for, and at (map), the Community School of West Seattle (photo right). As we reported 6 weeks ago, they are trying to raise enough money to buy their building, which otherwise will go to a developer, and they only have another month and a half. Here’s what one organizer writes about the event (6:30 pm tonight):
This will be a spectacular evening, with live entertainment by local performers and delicious food from local eateries. Some of the items available for auction include: a cruise to the Galapagos Islands, a week at Whistler, Botox cosmetic treatment, art from local artists, and exquisite jewelry.
If you can’t go but you still would like to help CSWS, donation information is on its website.
At the western foot of Gatewood Hill, just across from Seattle International Church, the fight over the last phase of a controversial townhouse project is over, after five months. We first told you about it in early February; that’s also when upset neighbors posted about it on their community website. Most of the construction carried on, except for one last slice of land below a community landmark (photo below), which we told you two weeks ago was going to an appeal hearing.
Now, the appeal hearing is off because of a settlement the developer reached with neighbors. Click ahead for full details about what’s in the deal:Read More
-Got $5 million? Get a historic waterfront home — the Colman estate at 9343 Fauntleroy (in Laurentide, south of the ferry dock). Its roots trace all the way back to Fauntleroy’s original development; a bit more history is here.
-If you only have about half that, you can still buy Fauntleroy property — this apartment building just north of Lincoln Park is now on the block.
-In the Admiral District, the city has just accepted the application for a 4-story mixed-use (retail and residential) building @ 2310 Cali, the eyesore-ish plot just south of Yen Wor/Admiral Pub.
If you have passed through the Fauntleroy/Alaska intersection lately, you might have noticed the big new sign on the side of the Schuck’s/Hancock building that Fauntleroy Place will replace, trumpeting “Coming Soon … Whole Foods Market.” Not that soon, according to the latest info from the project’s development/management company (more below the pic) …
We pinged Blue Star to find out the latest on how soon “coming soon” might be, and spokesman Eric Radovich was kind enough to reply quickly. He writes, “Timelines have been a bit of a moving target but suffice to say we would like to move forward as soon as possible with construction. We still have some work to do with the City of Seattle. The process of securing building permits from the city will likely take 8 to 10 months. It is possible that demolition of the existing structure and groundbreaking for the underground parking garage could begin as soon as late February 2008. If the above timeframes hold true we could begin construction in spring of 2008, with a 16-20 month buildout taking us to late 2009 for completion.”
He also notes that Blue Star will have a booth as part of its sponsorship of this weekend’s Summer Fest, and you can drop by to get more questions answered about Fauntleroy Place.
P.S. on the subject of the potential grocery-store glut once Whole Foods and the new QFC to the west arrive — anyone else notice that Target in Westwood Village is expanding its food aisles, with a slew of new refrigerated cases just arriving, and some shelf-shuffling under way on the south side of the store?
If you look between the townhomes almost complete on the controversial site across from Seattle International (formerly Gatewood Baptist) Church, you can still — for now — see the old house neighbors know as the “hunting lodge.”
But maybe not for long. The empty space, which was given the address 7204 Cali, is where two more townhouse buildings are supposed to go; those buildings probably would be as close to completion as their bookends, if not for feisty neighborhood pushback. First, neighbors protested the lack of environmental review of the townhouse projects (scroll down for details), which were processed separately rather than as one big new clump of housing. Then they chimed in about concerns that the “hunting lodge” will no longer be visible from Cali; their concerns are noted in this city memo about the project dated earlier this month. The latest ruling went against them and for the project, but an appeal’s been filed, and an “appeal hearing” is set for July 16.
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