West Seattle, Washington
21 Monday
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
If you have been hoping to hear about another restaurant taking over the two-years-closed Charlestown Café – you’re likely out of luck.
While the first post-closure proposal for the site has long since been scrapped, a new one is in play – and it is primarily residential.
City records show that Intracorp – the same developers behind the 3210 California proposal a few blocks north, as well as another proposal across the street from that – is pursuing a plan for six 5-unit townhouse buildings “around a central drive aisle” on the ex-café site.
The west edge of the heart of The Junction is suddenly a hot spot. Less than a block from the 40-unit project at 4535 44th SW that passed Early Design Guidance earlier this month, a similar-size apartment building is proposed at the corner of 44th/Glenn Way/SW Alaska. This project at 4400 SW Alaska (map) would replace the 72-year-old brick multiplex in the top photo, along with an adjacent duplex. The city website shows it is proposed as a five-story building with 33 “residential units” above four live-work units, and six parking spaces. City records show the project is being designed by West Seattleite-owned Nicholson-Kovalchick Architects, as is 4535 44th SW, though the ownership is different. The developer for 4400 SW Alaska, according to documents filed with the city last week, is Isola Homes, which is completing the nearby Junction 5 “rowhouse” development at Glenn/Oregon. The newly proposed building at 4400 SW Alaska will require Southwest Design Review Board approval, and the first meeting has just been scheduled for 8 pm June 27th (Senior Center of West Seattle, California/Oregon).
The Southwest Design Review Board got its first look tonight at the 150~-apartment project proposed for 4745 40th SW – and asked the development team to take a second pass at Early Design Guidance. Bottom line: This means the project will be reviewed at least two more times.
As summarized toward the end of the two-hour meeting, with more than two dozen people in attendance, board members were particularly concerned with its ground floor and how its live-work units and lobby will relate to the new city park that’ll be on the north side of the site, among other factors. Most of those who commented on the project tonight identified themselves as residents of a condo building facing the sharply upward-sloped west edge of this project’s site; one noted that the parcel, part of which now holds a two-story office building, was zoned for four stories until a few years ago. (Now it’s partly zoned for six stories, partly for eight.)
Board members want the developers, Encore Architects and purchasers Alliance Residential, to also reconsider the massing options and the project’s relationship with the alley from which its parking garage will be entered, among other aspects. (It was also mentioned tonight that the project plans .7-.8 of a parking space per unit, though its location near the RapidRide bus line means it is not required to offer any parking.)
The project’s early-design “packet” was revised before the meeting, making changes to what had been made available via the city website, and we’ve been provided with a new copy – see it here. If you couldn’t make the meeting, the city planner assigned to the project, Bruce Rips, continues to accept comments, on issues beyond design too; bruce.rips@seattle.gov.
Tomorrow (Thursday) night, the Southwest Design Review Board takes its first look at 4745 40th SW, an apartment complex planned right across the street from the Masonic Temple and the southwest edge of the 4755 Fauntleroy Way megaproject.
Its design packet for the meeting is available online – you can see it here. We spoke recently with Suzi Morris from Phoenix-headquartered Alliance Residential, which is buying the property and developing the site, to find out more about the project in advance of the Early Design Guidance meeting.
The site is “split-zoned,” which means the two buildings comprising the project will be different heights:
The date’s been set – June 27 (technically tentative until the formal notice comes out) – for the second Early Design Guidance review of 3210 California SW. The five-story, 180-apartment, 180-parking-space project‘s first session before the Southwest Design Review Board was on April 12th (WSB coverage here; official city report here), and board members asked the development team to give it another try. Neighbors’ concerns include the project’s length – “200 feet longer than a downtown block,” as they described it – and height, with a single-family-zoned neighborhood right behind it to the east. The June 27th meeting is scheduled for 6:30 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle, site of most Design Review meetings these days, California/Oregon in The Junction.
(WSB photo of proposed rowhouse site, April 2013)
“Rowhouses” are a hot development trend right now, under construction and/or on the drawing boards for at least half a dozen West Seattle sites. Three weeks ago, we reported on a petition drive launched by neighbors of a proposal for four three-story rowhouses at 2414 55th SW in Alki. They had learned that, although the project did not hit the threshold for a mandatory public meeting of any kind (such as Design Review), if they gathered at least 50 signatures requesting one, the city would consider it. Neighbor Marie McKinsey says she heard back from the city Monday afternoon:
This is from Tami Garrett, the DPD planner in charge of this project: “DPD will facilitate a public meeting. The purpose of this meeting will be for Staff to provide an overview of the proposed project and for the public to provide comments about the proposal in person. The meeting date, location and time hasn’t been confirmed yet. It’s my understanding that the parties of record will be sent written notice of the date, time and location. Neighbors within close proximity of the proposal site, petition signers, and public commenters are considered part of this group.
McKinsey says Garrett also indicated it could take a month or more to schedule that meeting. (The neighbors’ reasons for requesting one were detailed in our previous story.)
(TOPLINE: After almost 3 hours, the Design Commission told 4755 Fauntleroy to tweak its proposed “public benefit” plan and come back a 4th time)
1:43 PM: We are downtown for the third review of the 4755 Fauntleroy Way (Whole Foods/apartments) megaproject before the Seattle Design Commission – and it’s another crowded room, more than 50 people this time, including golden-shirted members of UFCW Local 21, which has expressed consistent opposition to the project, and others including members of the project team, Parks and SDOT reps and, among community members, Steve Huling, former owner of most of the land on which the project will be built, and Nancy Woodland, from the board of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. The commission’s role in this is to review its “urban design merit” and the “public benefit” the developers plan to offer in exchange for the city granting an alley vacation. Highlights as they happen.
Lance Sherwood of Weingarten, the retail developer on the project, starts with three big announcements:
*There is no longer a drugstore drive-through in the project
*The developers will pay to improve the Masonic Temple’s nearby parking lot
*The developers will contribute money ($25,000) toward public outreach regarding the design of the park that the city plans to create on land it’s purchased across 40th from the project’s west side.
The presentation then is taken over by Bill Fuller of Fuller Sears Architects. He explains that the Masons’ parking lot will be graded to be at a single level (it’s on two now), with one entrance. He also notes that part of 40th SW will become the first true “Seattle Green Street” under their plan. Removing drugstore drive-through traffic and Masons’ entry from the project’s “midblock connection” will resolve many of the persistent concerns about it, he says.
He also shows the “iconic corner” at Fauntleroy/Alaska (northeast corner), which now will have glass and lighting.
Next, landscape architect Andy Rasmussen, a West Seattleite who works for Weisman Design Group, is talking about the corners of the project as part of its public benefit. An artist named Troy is here and is involved with the project, Rasmussen says.
The art will involve corten/rusted metal and will be inspired by maritime West Seattle – he shows anchors and pilings as “inspiration.”
He says the connection on 40th to the future park has been “strengthened” in the latest design. Also – more street trees, fewer curb cuts (4 total – compared to 15 on the site now), and overhead weather protection for pedestrians all around the project, he says.
2:02 PM: The discussion of the art, in particular at the Fauntleroy/Alaska SW corner, continues. Some of the forms also will be evocative of the mountains, Rasmussen explains; others, of waves. They also are continuing to work with SDOT, as mentioned previously, on a crosswalk across Alaska at that corner (where Spruce – which just started construction – will be). He says the “water-like” elements will continue down 40th south from Alaska, into the raingarden area that’s streetside on the site there:
Back to the midblock connector that will cut between the project’s two buildings, from Fauntleroy to 40th, it will still have a raised crosswalk midway through. One area on the Fauntleroy edges will also have some extra public space, north of the connector. It’ll carry on the nautical theme with “oar-like forms.”
On the Fauntleroy/Edmunds corner, it will be a more “pier-like/dock-like space,” Rasmussen continues. The major residential entry is there, as is bike parking. Fuller picks up the presentation after that, summarizing the points they believe comprise the public benefit – what’s mentioned above, and more.
OUR AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE CONTINUES BELOW: Read More
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
We learned a lot more about the “Lofts at the Junction” project last night during its first Southwest Design Review Board meeting, which ended with the board giving it clearance to move to the next phase of the process.
For one, while it does include about 40 apartments on a lot of less than 4,000 square feet at 4535 44th SW, it does not have all the attributes of so-called “microhousing” – each of its units will include a private kitchen and bath.
For two, the Nicholson Kovalchick Architects-designed project is now envisioned with an “industrial loft” type of look, and a brick facade, as shown in the “character sketches” (above is the 44th SW view) – completely different from what was shown in the design “packet” prepared for the meeting and shown here two weeks ago.
The Design Review process has drawn more consistent public interest lately, and this meeting brought another full house of about 40 in the upstairs meeting hall at the Senior Center of West Seattle.
Boyd Pickrell from NK Architects led the presentation, which was weighted toward context for the site and an overview of the project’s goals:
11:14 AM: West Seattle’s most notorious stalled-construction site, where ground was ceremonially broken almost five years ago for a project then called “Fauntleroy Place,” is now back in action. Multiple tipsters tell us crews are on site getting ready to work on what is now known as Spruce – the new name first reported here when we found the revised plans last July. The only commercial tenant planned for Spruce is an LA Fitness health club (the Whole Foods store it once was to hold is now destined for the future 4755 Fauntleroy project right across the street). We’re headed over for a look; more to come.
11:50 AM: Added two photos – the backhoe in the top image is visible at the site entrance off 39th SW, south of West Seattle Bowl; from the short alley off 40th SW, you can see a second one is onsite, too. Checking online files showing the site’s permits – many of which have long been approved and waiting, given the project’s history – the newest application is for onsite power, also a “getting started” sign.
After a long court fight that ensued when the project stalled after the site was excavated, Madison Development Group was the winning bidder for the site, $32 million, more than a year and a half ago. The only significant discussion of its plans since then – besides what we found in the files last summer – came at a Seattle Design Commission meeting last December (WSB coverage here), required before the project’s “alley vacation” could be finalized.
First one we’ve happened onto, anyway: An apartment project proposed for 5949 California SW (map), north of Morgan Junction, is described as a “boarding house,” one of the phrases used in city documentation for what’s becoming more widely known as “microhousing.” Its initial paperwork listed five levels (one basement, 4 above ground) and five residential units – but, as noted in City Council discussions recently, there has been a city loophole in which microhousing was allowed through the system despite equating the number of common kitchens to the number of units, instead of just declaring the total number of rentable units. That loophole is on its way out, and revised paperwork for this “five-unit” project shows it will include 38 “sleeping rooms.” Here’s the city webpage for the project; it hasn’t turned up on the Land Use Information Bulletin yet, so we’re not sure yet about the deadline for comments, but will check tomorrow.
Another new Junction-area development is set for its first hearing before the Southwest Design Review Board. A May 23rd meeting has just turned up on the SWDRB schedule for 4745 40th SW. The city’s online files say it is proposed for 150 apartments, 9 live-work units, and 100 parking spaces in a building of up to eight stories on a site north of SW Edmunds, south of a future city park, west (across 40th) from the Masonic Temple, and steps away from the southwest edge of the future Whole Foods (etc.) project (also across 40th). The May 23rd meeting is scheduled for 6:30 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle at California/Oregon.
(Before then, the board will meet this Thursday [May 9th], also at 6:30 at the Senior Center, for its first look at 4535 44th SW, a 4-story, 35-apartment, 4-live-work-unit project first mentioned here in March.)
Back in November 2009, the Southwest Design Review Board gave “early design guidance” thumbs up to 4435 35th SW (WSB coverage here), proposed at the time to be a development of about 100 condominiums over two floors of commercial. Three and a half years later, the project is tentatively scheduled to go back to EDG next month, essentially scrapping the first review, with a different plan: Six stories, 170 apartments, over 10,000+ square feet of commercial development, with 187 parking spaces. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 pm Thursday, June 13th, at the Senior Center of West Seattle.
Also penciled in for that same date, same place, at 8 pm: A third meeting for the 30-apartment, 30-parking-space proposal at 3829 California SW; the official city report details the concerns that led the board not to recommend final approval at its April 13th meeting.
After a daytime discussion last month, City Councilmembers have announced a nighttime meeting about “microhousing.” The trend is most prevalent on Capitol Hill and in the U-District, but as we’ve reported, several are under construction and on the drawing board here in West Seattle. One of the most commonly voiced concerns, as has been the case in WSB comments: The impact of developing such buildings without on-site parking. The meeting is set for 6 pm next Monday, May 6th, at Seattle First Baptist Church (1111 Harvard Avenue); the announcement describes its focus:
The purpose of the second meeting is to hear from neighborhood representatives who will give their views and recommendations on the micro-housing projects. Representatives of the developers who build micro-housing projects will be present to describe the projects and the market for this housing alternative and their response to concerns they are hearing from the community. …
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen stated: “A portion of the meeting will include an opportunity for the public to provide comments on what they have heard during the meeting and to provide recommendations on what, if any, regulations should be enacted for this unique type of housing.”
Many “microhousing” projects cluster multiple small living units around a common kitchen/laundry area, which the Department of Planning and Development has then counted as a single living unit, and the changes under discussion include ending that practice. In West Seattle, there is at least one such project, according to the citywide report on developments approved last year for the Multifamily Tax Exemption last year – “Avalon Studios,” with 56 studios (no address listed, so we haven’t yet found which of the Avalon Way “boarding house” projects it is).
Seattle city rules provide for hearings on certain types of developments – while other types only get internal reviews by planners. Then, there are situations in which hearings can be requested. That’s what’s happening with the Alki-area development site shown above, where four 3-story “rowhouses” containing 11 residential units are proposed for 2414 55th SW, a short distance inland from the beach, on a site that’s already gone through a “boundary adjustment.” Neighbor Marie McKinsey says that while she and other neighbors were doing research, they found out that the city MIGHT set a hearing if at least 50 people petition for it. So they’re collecting names right now – Alki residents interested in signing can contact her at marie.mckinsey@gmail.com. Ahead, the concerns she shared with the city:
(“Character” rendering of 4535 44th SW proposal, by Nicholson Kovalchick Architects)>
With two weeks till the first Southwest Design Review Board meeting about 4535 44th SW, the project’s “design packet” is now online, for anyone who wants a preview (see the 27-page PDF here). When we first reported on the proposal in mid-March, the early online documentation referred to it as “micros” – a hot-button word citywide right now – and then a later version used the term “studios.” Now, the project bears the name Lofts at the Junction, with some other changes – the plan now calls for a 4-story building with around 27 studio apartments (depending on the final approved configuration) and six live-work units – three along the 44th SW facade, three along the Glenn Way facade. No on-site parking; none required under city code, because it’s near what’s considered rapid transit (on SW Alaska). The review is scheduled for 6:30 pm Thursday 5/9 at the Senior Center of West Seattle (here’s the official notice, which explains how to comment in advance, whether or not you plan to be at the meeting).
P.S. If you’re interested in the Design Review process in general, the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability Committee plans a public hearing at City Hall next Monday, 5:30 pm, on new guidelines regarding how it works and what it’s about – here’s the agenda.
(TOPLINE: After a 2 1/2-hour meeting, the citywide Design Commission gave the project the first of two approvals it must confer before its “alley vacation” can be approved)
1:43 PM: We’re at City Hall for the Seattle Design Commission‘s second review of the 4755 Fauntleroy Way megaproject – and there’s even a bigger crowd than there was for the 1st review in March. The Design Commission does not review the entire project – their scope is to decide if it has “urban design merit” and “public benefits” worthy of city approval for the “alley vacation” that is part of the project. The presentation is starting with architect Bill Fuller recapping some of the key points of the 372-apartment, 60,000-square-feet-of-retail, 70-foot-high project. Key commission concerns the first time included how the “mid-block connector” through the two-building project would be configured. Fuller also notes that the plan for the “iconic corner” at Fauntleroy/Alaska is “under construction” since there was so much feedback to incorporate from the Southwest Design Review Board.
1:55 PM: Fuller is showing the newest version of the mid-block connector, which will incorporate more of a “city sidewalk” design. The west side of it will be narrower, so there’s more room for planters. That side also will include bicycle parking. There’ll be a six-inch-high concrete curb along the sidewalk side of the mid-block connector for people walking between the west and east sides (Fauntleroy and 40th SW). Next to the Whole Foods loading dock, which is enclosed and behind doors, there’ll be a raised crosswalk that will be “one more speed bump” as Fuller put it. There remains a drive-through for the tenant-not-yet-announced drug store, and Fuller is explaining why that’s needed – using the example of a parent driving up with a screaming, sick child in the car, needing to pick up some medication, wanting a “more private” transaction with the pharmacy. The rendering includes the re-created mural from the existing site, on the side of the drugstore, on the lane leading up to the drive-through, as Fuller shows a more detailed look on how the drive-through’s traffic will work.
He says there’s no way that cars can or would drive fast at that spot.
*EDITOR’S NOTE, POST-MEETING – THE REST OF OUR AS-IT-HAPPENED NOTES FROM THE MEETING ARE AFTER THE JUMP*
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
The 166-apartment project proposed for 3210 California SW will be back for a second round of Early Design Guidance, as a result of its first try last night, before a crowd of around 50 people at the Senior Center of West Seattle. That means it will come before the Southwest Design Review Board at least two more times – once a project passes EDG, a more fleshed-out version must be brought back for final recommendations.
While first word of this project came just two months ago, you could say it’s been almost six years in the making, dating back to the 2007 emergence of a plan to upzone California between Hanford and Hinds for larger potential development – this is the first one to be proposed since then, and as noted during the meeting, it’s potentially a precedent-setting building in terms of its length:
(Proposed ‘preferred’ massing for the development; rendering courtesy Nicholson Kovalchick Architects)
Ahead, toplines from the meeting, covered for WSB by Christopher Boffoli:
(Proposed ‘preferred’ massing for the development; rendering courtesy Nicholson Kovalchick Architects)
Tomorrow (Thursday) night is the first Southwest Design Review Board meeting for 3210 California SW, the 166-apartment project that’s the first proposal for a block-long stretch of South Admiral upzoned two years ago, after an at-times-contentious process that started more than three years earlier. The meeting was set to happen last month – until neighbors pointed out that the notice had not gone to everyone affected, so the city postponed it at the last minute. Those neighbors live in the single-family neighborhood behind the proposed development plan; while they expect to be at the meeting, they also have drafted a 13-page letter they sent in advance in hopes the board members would have time to consider it. Here’s a copy they provided. It details their concerns, particularly regarding height, bulk, and scale of the new development. Looking at homes to the east along 42nd, you can see its potential top floors in blue to the west.
An excerpt from the letter:
1. The proposed project abuts a much less intensive SF zone of substantially different scale, along its long axis. 80-percent of the abutting single-family residences are one or two-story bungalows on 5000 sf lots. The absence of an alley for access and buffer is conducive to a project of smaller scale.
2. The proposed project is two full stories taller than the buildings on California Ave to its north and south. (See Section D in the project packet.)
3. The development site is of such exceptional length not only for its immediate context, but for Seattle overall. The proposed building is 200 feet longer than a downtown block, with a footprint equivalent to 6 NC parcel lengths and 9 SF parcel lengths. Even with one “break” in the building’s upper stories, the two masses are still each far longer than any other buildings.
4. The current proposal appears substantially greater in height and scale than in representations made in connection with a 2011 rezone.
The project packet can be seen here. This review is the second one on the board’s agenda for tomorrow night at the Senior Center of West Seattle (second floor of California/Oregon building) – at 6:30 pm, they take up the 39-apartment building proposed for 3829 California SW, and then 3210 California SW’s part of the meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm. There’ll be a period for public comment on each project.
As discussed when the Whole Foods/370-apartment megaproject at 4755 Fauntleroy Way SW came back to the Southwest Design Review Board two weeks ago (WSB coverage here), the proposal also is in the midst of a crucial review by another city-organized group: The Seattle Design Commission. They must sign off on the developer’s request for an “alley vacation,” a process that would make public land private, and they must decide whether its “urban design merit” and “public benefits” pass muster. At their first review March 7 (WSB coverage here) they sent the project back for revisions and so will be reviewing its “merit” again on April 18th, 1:30-3:30 pm. The public is welcome; the meeting will be in the Boards and Commissions Room on the L2 level of City Hall downtown.
(Looking west toward the project site, from the alley on the east side of 44th)
Followup to the “microapartments” project in The Junction that we told you about last month – its first Southwest Design Review Board meeting is now tentatively scheduled for May 9th (6:30 pm, Senior Center of West Seattle). According to the project page on the city website, the 4-story building is now proposed for 34 “residential units” and 1 live-work unit; the page also has the notation, “No parking proposed.” A pre-Design Review draft document on the city’s website says that’s because of the site’s transit accessibility; that document also now refers to the project as “studios” rather than the term “micros” used on an earlier document in the online file.
Of the 4 sizable Junction apartment developments ready for construction, The Blake (5020 California SW) is the first to get off the ground. It’s been in the development-preparation process for almost six years, with the site’s former buildings cleared away a year and a half ago – and now, the heavy equipment has arrived (thanks to the WSB’ers who tipped us this afternoon, so we could get a photo before dark). This site has a relatively long history – it was once part of an ambitious West Seattle portfolio that was being amassed by BlueStar, the original developers of “The Hole” (which now, under different ownership and a different name, is one of the other 3 could-start-soon Junction developments). It became bank-owned, then sold to a Burien company, and then three months ago, its new name was announced – though the plan is essentially what was approved in 2008 via the Design Review process:
It’s now planned for six stories with 101 apartments. Right now, the next Junction development to start might be 4724 California SW, just a few blocks north, also on the east side of the street – as reported here last week, the DPD has issued a decision approving its Land Use Permit, and development-team spokesperson Rob O’Dea told WSB they hope to get the project under way at the start of June.
With the next Southwest Design Review Board meeting now less than a week away, the board has two new members, and the revised lineup is online. Departing after the March 28th meeting (three hours focused on the 4755 Fauntleroy Way project) were chair Robin Murphy and Norma Tompkins. New to the board: T. Frick McNamara and Todd Bronk. You might know McNamara as co-owner of the Bin 41 wine shop in The Junction; she has a background in landscape architecture, too. And that’s the specialty of Bronk, who is with the Berger Partnership. Their short bios are now on the SWDRB board along with second-term members Laird Bennion, Myer Harrell, and Daniel Skaggs. Next Thursday, April 11th, the board meets at the Senior Center of West Seattle for what’s likely to be a long night – at 6:30 pm they review 29-apartment 3829 California SW (as noted here on Thursday); at 8 pm, it’s the first review – aka Early Design Guidance – for the 166-apartment 3210 California SW. P.S. Not quite sure how Design Review works? Read this.
Two West Seattle development notes this morning:
4724 CALIFORNIA LAND-USE PERMIT DECISION: In March, the development team for 4724 California SW – a seven-story building with 73 apartments and 13 live-work units at the former Petco/Sound Ad Group storefront – told WSB they will likely start the project mid-May. We’re checking back to see if that’s still the plan, now that a key decision is in – for the Land Use Permit. The decision (read it here) announced today is subject to appeal, and the deadline for that is April 18th; the official notice has a link explaining how to do so.
About a mile north:
3829 CALIFORNIA PREVIEW, BEFORE DESIGN REVIEW NEXT WEEK: The “packet” for next Thursday’s Southwest Design Review Board meeting about 3829 California SW is now available online, so you can preview the newest design plans. It’s a three-story, 29-unit apartment building; that’s the rear and south-side view in the rendering above. The meeting is at 6:30 pm April 11th, Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon).
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