(King County Assessor’s Office photo of 3650 55th SW in 1953, shortly after it was built)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

While our coverage of – and your comments about – West Seattle development tends to focus on multi-family projects (with more than 2,000 apartments in the works), single-family-home development is intensifying too.

And because much of it is “infill,” since a city neighborhood like this tends not to have wide stretches of undeveloped land – it often touches the nerve related to the same issue that swirls around apartments: Density, which means taller structures with smaller footprints.

Citywide, the One Home Per Lot movement has gained attention – residents in various single-family-home neighborhoods opposed to new homes being built on smaller lots that were originally used as side yards or backyards.

Much of their scrutiny (as detailed in this Seattle Weekly story last summer) has focused on West Seattle developer Dan Duffus, who is a prolific “infill” developer, houses as well as townhomes and live-work units, here and around the city.

Duffus is co-founder of the Blueprint Capital funding group, which declares itself the leading residential-housing lender in the area, and which has a membership list including two companies who have just bought and are seeking to subdivide a corner site in a northwest West Seattle neighborhood where neighbors rallied this week as part of their attempt to stop the plan.

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10:12 PM: Reminder if you are tracking Junction development: The newest proposed project, Junction Flats (4433 42nd SW), gets its first Southwest Design Review Board meeting tomorrow (Thursday) night. The time is unusual, and was in fact wrong on the city’s “Design Review Upcoming” page until a few days ago – though it’s the only review of the night for the board, it’s at 8 pm (Senior Center of West Seattle, California/Oregon). Also unusual, the packet of early-design graphics and information has not appeared online, though the city planner assigned to the project confirmed when we contacted her today that packets are supposed to be available to the public a week in advance. The proposal (first reported here in November) is for a four-story, 71-unit complex on a site that now holds three houses.

ADDED 9:47 AM: The city has added the packet to the website this morning; the developer tells us the delay isn’t their fault, as they got it to the city in plenty of time. See it here.

Looks like 2013 will be “The Year of the Crane” in West Seattle. We have finally finished updating the latest version of the development-in-the-works map, first published in August (separate from a version we updated repeatedly back during the 2008 boom) – click any marker to find out more about the project at that site. Just as well we didn’t publish it earlier, since this week has brought more updates. A three-block stretch of California SW’s east side will have three projects under way by spring, if current plans come to fruition, including Wednesday’s announcement about The Blake.

When we published the previous version in August, we counted about 1,500 units either under construction or on the drawing board; now, with a few additions and a few subtractions (noted below), we count more than 2,000. A few notes:

-In addition to what is visible in the map window above, our current list has one more development on the map, but it’s out of view because it’s in south West Seattle at 9051 20th SW – you can grab the map to manipulate it to see that 41-apartment project (or click the small blue link below the map to see it full-size on Google Maps); otherwise, everything of note is concentrated in the area shown by default – the Junction/Triangle/Avalon area.

-Two buildings from the August edition have been removed, because both are now leasing – NOVA (WSB sponsor) and The Residences at 3295.

-Though they are not apartments in the classic sense, we include the 66-unit DESC Delridge Supportive Housing project in North Delridge and the early-stage proposal for a “50-60-unit Alzheimer’s housing” project in The Junction, as both are of significant size and neighborhood impact.

-We’ve used a variety of methods – maps, databases, city webpages, driving around, etc. – to keep watch for new projects. But it’s possible we’ve missed something – so if you know about an early-stage proposal on a site not mentioned here, please let us know!

Update since we first reported six days ago that the signs were up and the comment period had opened for the 370-apartment 4755 Fauntleroy Way SW project’s land-use permit application: The deadline’s been extended two more weeks, to January 23rd. In our December 21st report, the project’s assigned DPD planner Bruce Rips had pointed out that the extension was available on request, and he confirms to WSB this afternoon that (as commenter Steve noted here) it’s been requested and granted. To comment on the project by January 23rd, e-mail him at bruce.rips@seattle.gov. Meantime, the project awaits its third Southwest Design Review Board meeting; no date set yet, though the project team has told us they hope it’ll be within the next month or so.

Yet another Junction-area project is getting ready for groundbreaking. It’s a site we have been tracking for more than five years – 5020 California SW, formerly known as “Spring Hill,” dating back to its time in the fold of BlueStar Development, the original developer of what became “The Hole.” When BlueStar’s West Seattle plans went awry, 5020 California SW went into foreclosure, and then was sold to a Burien-based company last year. Four months ago, we spoke with the site’s new managers, who told us nothing was likely to happen before year’s end, and that the project hadn’t changed much; today, the management company, Indigo Real Estate Services, just sent an official announcement of the site’s new name and imminent construction::

After much anticipation, groundbreaking for The Blake (formerly known as Spring Hill) at 5020 California Ave SW is slated to begin in January 2013 with a target opening of summer 2014.

Named for the most prominent island seen from the building’s expansive rooftop deck, The Blake will offer sweeping views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains for all residents to enjoy.

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The notification signs are up, one week after the prospective developers of 4755 Fauntleroy Way SW – the 350-apartment, almost-600-parking-spot proposal for Fauntleroy/Alaska/40th, with Whole Foods signed on – applied for its Master Use Permit (as reported here). The sign is a reminder that the formal comment period is open – including issues beyond design, such as traffic, noise, and other “environmental” factors. Here’s the application’s official page on the DPD website; if you have a comment, send it to the official planner, Bruce Rips, at bruce.rips@seattle.gov ASAP (we’re checking on the deadline). Meantime, the project still will have at least one more Southwest Design Review Board meeting, also including public comment; the date is not yet set, but a project spokesperson told us they are hoping to return to the board in a month or so.

ADDED: Regarding the deadline for comments, DPD’s Bruce Rips replied, “The comment period ends on January 9, 2013. It can be extended by two weeks upon request. I accept comments throughout the review process.”

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Almost exactly six years after its last look at what was then Fauntleroy Place, the Seattle Design Commission got a look this afternoon at what is now planned for the notoriously idle West Seattle development site at 3922 SW Alaska, which since has become widely known as “The Hole.”

The land-use lawyer who led the project team at the hearing told WSB they hope to start construction “as soon as possible” – once the last few approvals are in place.

As first reported here last July, the project now owned by Madison Development does have a new name – Spruce West Seattle – and that was publicly shown on renderings for the first time at this afternoon’s downtown review. (We photographed some of the key images, but hope to get electronic copies later.)

Though the project obtained some permits long ago, its master-use permit won’t have a final signoff until the City Council gives one last OK, which can’t happen any sooner than January, when council meetings resume. They, the Design Commission, and SDOT are involved because the project involves an alley vacation – part of public right-of-way being in effect given to the developer, though as was pointed out at the hearing, they are creating a new alley at another spot on the site. Much of the discussion centered on the “pocket park” that will be right at the Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th corner:

Project team members at the hearing included land-use lawyer Roger Pearce from Foster Pepper, lead architect Joe Workman from Collins Woerman, landscape architect Andy Rasmussen, and West Seattle artist Lezlie Jane, whose role in the project we learned about for the first time – she is designing art for the “pocket park” at the 39th/Alaska corner.

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As we continue to track major local projects, we have two updates on two Junction-area plans that both have been long in the works (and both on sites visible in the photo below by Long Bach Nguyen):

JUNCTION PROJECT DEMOLITION DELAY: When last we talked with Equity Residential‘s team about their two-building, 206-apartment project coming to California/Alaska/42nd, they told us they planned to start demolition right after Christmas. (The businesses that had been on the site, you’ll recall, had to clear out by July 31st, but the project team says site cleanup issues have taken more time than expected.) We just checked in again to see if they’re still planning on starting work by year’s end – and now the answer is “no.” It’ll be “early next year.” They have not yet chosen a general contractor, we also were told.

‘THE HOLE’ GOES BACK TO THE DESIGN COMMISSION: The agenda for this Thursday’s Seattle Design Commission meeting caught our eye with an item titled “Spruce Project (Hancock Fabrics).” As we first reported in July, “The Hole” at 3922 SW Alaska – formerly Fauntleroy Place – is now Spruce West Seattle, and Hancock is no longer part of it, according to the plans we’ve seen (instead, the retail space is sketched out as an L.A. Fitness outlet). So we called the Design Commission office to see if that’s the project they’re taking up, and indeed it is, according to spokesperson Valerie Kinast. The 216-apartment plan has undergone some revisions, as summarized in this city memo, which presaged the project’s return before the commission:

The final plan for the public space within the right-of-way, as required by the City Council’s preliminary street vacation approval will be reviewed by the Seattle Design Commission, with final approval by the Seattle City Council when the final alley vacation approval is considered.

The meeting is open to the public, on the lower level of City Hall downtown, and this item is scheduled to be considered at 1:30 pm Thursday (December 20th).

Demolition is under way right now at 47th and Othello, just northeast of Lincoln Park and south of The Kenney (WSB sponsor), where Build Urban plans to build 6 detached single-family homes (according to this webpage, which says they’ll be “Built Green 4 star”). The firm, headquartered on Lake Union, has at least one previous West Seattle project – Solamar on Alki, on the once-contested 59th/Stevens site across from the Alki Elementary School playground

(The triplex and houses at the future project site – 4441, 4437, and 4433 42nd SW)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Another Junction apartment project has emerged.

This one, called Junction Flats, has a few differences from others in the works.

One, the project proposed to replace a triplex and two houses in the 4400 block of 42nd SW (photo above) – across from Hope Lutheran – will be four stories high.

That’s the maximum allowed for that block, explains Brandon Nicholson, the West Seattle architect/developer who is part of the ownership group. And that itself is another difference, Nicholson told WSB when we contacted him to ask about the project – it’s West Seattle-owned, unlike most of the other projects now in the pipeline. “We’re not builders or flippers – we’re a group of local West Seattle people (developing a building) that we all intend to keep for a long time” – even the financing (40 years) underscores that, he says.

We found out about Junction Flats when its tentatively scheduled Early Design Guidance meeting turned up on the city website.

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Dozens of vigilant neighbors comprised a standing-room-only crowd in the Senior Center of West Seattle‘s upstairs meeting room as another 7-story Avalon Way apartment-building proposal debuted before the Southwest Design Review Board last night, second one in two months.

The residents of 32nd SW, north of the proposed development’s vicinity, again wore “Love The ‘Hood” stickers, as they had at the September meeting for 3078 Avalon Way, a similar building proposed next to the site of this one. In this rendering, 3078 is at the left, 3062 (with some coloring) is at right:

At the meeting’s start, people were still streaming in, then waiting in line to get their names on the city’s sign-up sheets for e-mail notification about actions related to the project.

They were a little feistier at this meeting, with two 7-story buildings now proposed to rise south of their neighborhood, a more acute reminder that there is no transition zone between the dense Avalon Way apartment/condo strip and their neighborhood of single-family homes.

The neighbors’ pre-meeting research turned up a planning document from years earlier that exhorted “protecting” the character of their neighborhood and two other pockets of single-family residences in the greater “West Seattle Junction urban village” area, but that, they were told, did not mean the Avalon properties couldn’t be developed to the full size their zoning allowed.

Nonetheless, this meeting brought a reminder that strong public presence and comment can inspire even-more intense scrutiny by the board, which discussed details and ideas at length – more length than often seen/heard – before arriving at the decision: Allow the project to pass Early Design Guidance and move to the second phase of Design Review, but with a two-and-a-half-hour meeting worth of input to guide revisions.

Here’s how it unfolded:

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(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of two detailed reports from the Southwest Design Review Board’s two-project meeting last Thursday night.)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

4724 California – the 7-story mixed-use building planned for what used to be the Junction’s Petco store (among other things) – could start construction as soon as April 1st.

That is, if the rest of the planning/permitting process goes as smoothly as the project’s second and final session before the Southwest Design Review Board.

We reported the result shortly after the meeting last Thursday night at the Senior Center of West Seattle. Our report ahead, for those interested, runs through the details of what was shown, discussed, and recommended, from the board and the public:

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We’ll have separate full-length reports later on both parts of tonight’s Design Review Board doubleheader, but since it has just wrapped up after more than 3 1/2 hours, we have toplines: The board gave its final blessing to 4724 California, the building planned for the ex-Petco site in The Junction, and allowed 4755 Fauntleroy Way – the megaproject that we now know will include Whole Foods – to move on to the second phase of Design Review. 4724 California still has other parts of the permit process to go through, but now that this stage is complete, they’re expecting to start construction – with demolition first – around April 1st. A fair amount of public comment was provided on both projects, mostly positive for 4724 California, some negative for 4755 Fauntleroy Way – “South Lake Union next to West Seattle” was one vivid phrase. Again, full coverage coming up later.

(Street-level view of 4724 California, along its namesake street)
Two major Junction-area developments go back to the Southwest Design Review Board tomorrow night, as first reported here last month. Last week, we showed you key points from the “packet” available online for 4755 Fauntleroy Way SW, which will have its second round of Early Design Guidance tomorrow. Now, we have new renderings for the project whose review will start the night, 4724 California (also known as the “ex-Petco” building). We talked about it with project rep Rob O’Dea, who says that while there’s a packet online for this project too, architects were still working on updates and what’s shown online may not reflect everything you see tomorrow night. It includes two views of the “passthrough” along the building’s north side – this one from California, looking toward the alley, with the apartment building’s entrance to the right:

Toward the right side of the rendering, the project’s lobby no longer will have a “grand staircase” to the second floor – access to the live-work units up there will be more utilitarian; the staircase would have taken lobby space out of commission -. Meantime, here’s the passthrough looking from the alley toward California:

O’Dea says the project team has continued to work on suggestions from community members, in conversations since the first Design Review meeting as well as since. There’s one “departure” – digression from what’s allowed by zoning – they plan to ask for. It would enable the project to have a “staging zone” for moving trucks fully enclosed on the lower level, with an entry off the alley, so that moving trucks wouldn’t block the alley. That would not, he says, enable the sort of curved parking-garage entry that was suggested at the first meeting – a straight-on parking-garage entry, which is the type that Mural has right across the alley, would be required, to facilitate the staging area and a utility zone between it and the garage entry. Also to be described/shown tomorrow night, proposed materials for the project, including some, O’Dea says, that are more expensive than originally envisioned, since the owners plan to hold this building for the long term.

Whether you have something to say about this project, about 4755 Fauntleroy Way, or about both, public comment is welcomed at tomorrow’s meeting, which starts with the 4724 California review at 6:30, moving to 4755 Fauntleroy Way at 8 pm. The meeting location is upstairs at the Senior Center of West Seattle, California/Oregon.

Two more projects are in the pipeline for Avalon Way. First, 3062 SW Avalon: The city website has just posted word of the first Design Review meeting for this project, described online as 7 stories, 107 units, and 80 parking spaces. The site (shown in county records as having been sold, twice, this past August). The first Design Review meeting, which will be formally announced in Thursday’s Land Use Information Bulletin, is set for 6:30 pm November 29th at the Senior Center of West Seattle (which is the site of a Design Review doubleheader this Thursday – another update on that, later today).

Second, 3050 SW Avalon. We noted in our August roundup of West Seattle development (seriously overdue for an update – we’ll work on that) that we’d spotted a proposal for this site. At the time, it was listed as 20 multifamily units. Now it’s changed; a followup check of city records shows that it’s now proposed for a 14-unit building to be occupied as a “boarding house,” with the same developer as a site along Delridge Way (here’s our story on that). This is a brand-new proposal – city records include a preliminary assessment dated just last Friday.

These projects join an Avalon list that includes the finally-almost finished “Residences at 3295,” the under-construction 3261, and the awaiting-next-Design-Review 3078.

(Looking toward the California/Alaska corner of Equity Residential’s project)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

More than a dozen empty storefronts have sat at the Junction’s most prominent intersection for three months now, vacating by July 31st as ordered by their final landlord, the site’s future developer.

At the time, owner/developer Equity Residential said demolition to make way for their two-building apartments-over-retail project at California/Alaska could start as soon as mid-August.

Now it’s November, and nothing’s happened yet. So what’s the holdup, you might wonder? We wondered too and had been asking for information for a while. Today, we finally obtained it, meeting for the first time with executives from the Chicago-based corporation’s Puget Sound team to get the answer – and other project updates.

First, the answer to the biggest question: They expect to start demolition at the end of December, after Christmas. The permits were granted just last week, so they could start sooner if they wanted to, but they say they don’t want to have construction starting amid holiday shopping and festivities.

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With nine days to go till the second Early Design Guidance review of the biggest project on the boards for West Seattle right now, 4755 Fauntleroy Way SW, the information/graphics “packet” for the meeting is already available online – see it here (but be forewarned, it’s a 33-MB PDF). This means those who are interested have plenty of time for homework before it comes back to the Southwest Design Review Board on November 8th. Above, the concept for the two-building site, as if you were looking toward the Fauntleroy/Alaska corner (keep in mind, this is still the “early” phase, which means this is for size and shape, aka “massing,” not for any sort of final appearance). Next, the frontage along Fauntleroy (drugstore to the left, grocery to the right and wrapping around Alaska – also note the “mid-block connector” which goes through to 40th SW on the other side):

The proposal includes 43,000 square feet for a grocery store, 14,000 square feet for a drugstore, about 8,000 square feet for other retailers (no the tenants have been announced yet), more than 350 apartments, and an underground parking garage. The revised documents also includes sketches of loading-ramp options, a big topic of discussion at the first meeting last month (WSB coverage here), along with alleys. Here’s the overhead view (40th at top, Fauntleroy at bottom, the Masonic Hall property – which is NOT part of the project – at top left) including the landscape plan:

Next week’s review is part of a Design Review Board doubleheader, with 4724 California‘s second review (no “design packet” from them yet) at 6:30 pm and this one at 8 pm, both at the Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon). There is a public-comment period in which you will have the opportunity to get up and speak about your observations – providing they relate to the design; other comments can be sent to the project’s assigned city planner, Bruce Rips, at bruce.rips@seattle.gov.

(How 9051 20th SW should look to passersby along Delridge, per project team’s description)
9051 20th SW – 41 apartment and live-work units over retail – is done with the Design Review process. Its third and final session before the Southwest Design Review Board was relatively short, since there was no public comment. Your editor here was the only person in attendance besides the board, the project’s designated city planner, and the project team. “It seems very few people show up just to say ‘hey, I like the project’,” one board member observed at the meeting’s end. (The other side of the Senior Center‘s 2nd floor, though, had a rollicking party going.) The building will be 4 stories along 20th SW, 3 stories along SW Barton, with big trees on two sides – Norwegian Sunset Maples along 20th and elms around SW Barton, “at the request of SDOT,” per the landscape architect, who pointed out that the full planting list is in the “information packet” available online.

Board members had a few concerns:

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