West Seattle, Washington
19 Tuesday
Oh sorry, we meant time travel AHEAD, not back – but the Municipal Archives are full of so many cool old photos, we had to put one up (1930, Youngstown area of North Delridge). Now, as for those two chances to shape THE FUTURE: Tuesday night is the REALLY big one – 6 pm, Delridge Community Center,, your long-awaited opportunity to join in “status checks” for the Neighborhood Plans (see them on the right sidebar here) created a decade ago — the plans that are referred to hundreds of times a year – they’re why The Junction, for example, has areas set for high-rise growth and some other neighborhoods don’t. Do the plans created a decade ago still make sense? How do you want to see your neighborhood grow? For your advance review before joining in Tuesday’s discussions, you can see the draft status “overviews” for the 5 West Seattle areas with NPs, published in preparation for the meeting, here:
Admiral
Delridge
Highland Park/Westwood Village
The Junction
Morgan Junction
Georgetown (here’s its “overview”) also will be discussed at the Delridge CC gathering; each of these neighborhoods will have its own “table” with facilitators; Spanish, Vietnamese and Tagalog translation will be available as well. There are even more documents you can review, grouped by neighborhood, linked from the city page about the meeting, the last of five citywide; this page shows you how to comment online if you absolutely can’t be there in person – but facilitators, which include local community leaders, stress it’ll be two hours well-spent – here’s what one of them, Sharonn Meeks, tells WSB:
West Seattle in particular is experiencing growing pains. There are transportation, parking and land use issues that your readers consistently respond to from your news reporting. I want to encourage all apartment residents, homeowners and businesses to bring those same comments to this Open House so they can be included in the discussions and decisions that lay ahead as we formalize our next 10 years of community.
We really aren’t exaggerating to say it’s something like “speak now or for another decade hold your peace.”
Meantime, a big discussion of where King County goes from here also is happening in West Seattle next week — your chance to suggest your “vision for the future and (to) help develop a countywide strategic plan that better aligns county functions and services.” The meeting (which will include “small group discussions”) is Thursday night, 6:30 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy, one of four this month around the county. Read more about it here.
More than three years after its first Design Review meeting, Golden Crest – the mixed-use (36 residential units over 4,000 square feet of retail) project at 4532 42nd SW, next to Capco Plaza – won final Southwest Design Review Board approval tonight. ADDED 2:11 AM: Some details from the review meeting – read on:Read More
Nine months after its “early design guidance” Southwest Design Review Board meeting (WSB coverage here), the proposed development at 4106 Delridge has moved to a new stage, applying for a land-use permit, as noted in today’s edition of the city’s twice-weekly Land Use Information Bulletin. It’s currently described as 5 stories, 4,000 square feet of retail, 36 residential units, parking “within the structure” for 39 vehicles.
Sharonn Meeks from the Fairmount Community Association went to last night’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting to hit the point home: West Seattle neighborhoods need to represent in a big way at next Tuesday night’s “Neighborhood Plan Status Report” meeting at Delridge Community Center (where she’ll be a facilitator). Five West Seattle neighborhoods have Neighborhood Plans crafted a decade ago — The Junction, Admiral, Morgan Junction, Delridge, Highland Park/Westwood (all linked in the right sidebar here). Some have called for revisiting them in a big way – that’s not on the drawing board yet, but next Tuesday’s meeting is designed to revisit them all in a small way, with official “status reports” and gathering of residents’ opinions.
There’s no shortage of those opinions, as evidenced in discussions here on WSB and in the few public meetings that relate to planning processes, such as Design Review Board meetings. But if ever you’ve wanted to say something about the future of West Seattle – and its state right now – this meeting is the place.
Meeks will facilitate one of the discussions at the session – each of the five neighborhoods will have its own discussion, and Georgetown will be part of this gathering too. Advance reading material, from the original plans to “status reports,” is now available on the city site – we’ll get to the direct links at the end of this story.
What Meeks told HPAC last night gets to the heart of why this meeting matters: She listened to what was discussed in the meeting before it was her turn, and she heard concerns about issues like traffic and safety. They all play into long-term planning, she stressed.
Delridge Neighborhoods District Council chair Pablo Lambinicio (seen in the background of our photo, facing the camera) then spoke. He said he’d been part of the process 10 years ago as a Westwood resident. At the time, he noted, the “urban village” was the central idea and all neighborhood planning was to revolve around the “urban villages.” That idea didn’t really draw Highland Park residents into the process a decade ago, Lambinicio noted, but now it’s a chance to take a step toward building a plan from the ground up, rather than the top down.
Rory Denovan, former HPAC vice chair, said it’s vital for this to be handled at the neighborhood level, since the neighborhoods live with the consequences. He urged others to get involved and make sure Highland Park residents are at Tuesday’s meeting to be heard. HPAC’s current chair Dan Mullins said he plans to follow up by gathering members to try to arrange a meeting with City Councilmember Sally Clark, who chairs the Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee. He also offered to accept questions/concerns from anyone who cannot make next Tuesday’s meeting.
The city is taking online comments too – but it can’t be stressed enough, there’s no substitute for being there, if there’s any way you can spare 2 hours next Tuesday night. Even if you don’t live in one of the five neighborhood-plan zones, you have a stake in one or more of them – particularly The Junction, with another major new building about to open and more in the wings once the economic bumpiness is past.
Each group at Tuesday’s meeting – again, those groups are Admiral, The Junction, Westwood Village/Highland Park, Delridge and Morgan Junction – will tackle four questions:
1. Most of the neighborhood plans were adopted about 10 years ago and are in their mid-life. How has your neighborhood changed in the last decade since the plan was adopted, (or since you’ve been there)?
2. What changes or aspects of your neighborhood are you most pleased about? Most dissatisfied about?
3. How well are your Neighborhood Plan vision and key strategies being achieved? Are they still the priority?
4. The city is completing neighborhood plan status reports focusing on demographics, development patterns, housing affordability, public amenities and transportation networks. What should there be more focus on (or less focus on) as the neighborhood status reports are completed in the coming months? Are there any important gaps in the draft status report?
See the draft status report and other documents by following links from the “Status Reports” list at the bottom of this page – note that the West Seattle neighborhoods are woven in with others. The documents are at local libraries, too. Again, the meeting is 6-8 pm next Tuesday (7/28), Delridge Community Center (map). But if you absolutely cannot make it Tuesday (again, going in person sends a major message that you care about your neighborhood’s future) — participate online by going here. Then watch for word of followup meetings this fall.
That’s the cover rendering for the revised design proposal for Golden Crest, the mixed-use (35 residential units, plus retail) building at 4532 42nd SW that’s been going through Design Review off and on since spring 2006. It’s the building at left – immediately south of Capco Plaza, which you see at right. The next Design Review meeting for Golden Crest could be its last if board members approve the latest version of the plan – the meeting’s at 6:30 pm tomorrow, Senior Center of West Seattle. You can see the full design proposal packet online here; the cover shot doesn’t appear much different from what was shown at the last meeting in April, but if you look very closely at the ground level, and read pages 3 and 4, you’ll see how the developer and architects believe they have addressed what was brought up at that meeting, including features to “emphasize the retail spaces.” (If the address still doesn’t jog your memory, this is the same site where the big old blue house – which had been a hospital long ago – was torn down in November.)
After breaking the news about a prospective Whole Foods site buyer not pursuing the purchase, and then a restaurant closure, while looking into a couple of other reportedly stalled developments, it seemed like time to break things up by checking with a developer whose project IS proceeding and in fact is almost done: Leon Capelouto, longtime Junction entrepreneur who is building Capco Plaza/Altamira Apartments along SW Alaska between 41st and 42nd. We talked with him in his nearby office this afternoon.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
A stone’s throw from the stalled project site dubbed “Hole Foods,” there’s a Junction development with a very different story to tell: Capco Plaza, the new home of QFC and Office Depot in The Junction, sharing its building with Altamira Luxury Apartments, is within a few months of opening for business.
In his office over nearby Matador, Leon Capelouto says he’s “very busy” with “hundreds of items” that need to be addressed before the building is done. He admits he’s very “hands on” – that’s part of his answer when we asked how he managed to keep this project on track when so many others of that scale have run into trouble. (Of course, financing is important too, he allows.)
The space where QFC will open a new store on the east side of his building has already been “turned over to the tenant,” Capelouto says – meaning the Kroger-owned store chain is now putting in its finishing touches. When we talked with a QFC spokesperson for our last update one month ago today, the company expected to open the store in “early fall,” ahead of schedule. Capelouto expects that is still the likelihood (we have a call out to QFC to doublecheck) – he showed us an e-mail exchange involving their scheduling of two Seattle Seahawks organization favorites, the Sea Gals and Blue Thunder drum line, for an event on October 10th that might be an official opening celebration after an earlier soft opening.
So what else is confirmed for the rest of the building?Read More
(June photo looking into the Whole Foods site excavation from its southeast side)
E-mail this week jolted us into realizing a whole month had passed since our last official update on what has become known as the “Hole Foods” site, the excavated hole where Whole Foods, Hancock Fabrics and more than 100 residential units were supposed to be built, till construction idled last fall and lawsuits erupted (as first reported here). If you have been following along, you may also remember that news broke in January of a new deal pending for the site, and two months later, an entity calling itself Alamo Manhattan surfaced, led by West Seattleite Matt Segrest, confirming Alamo Manhattan was “under contract to purchase the site” (4/7 WSB report here). We subsequently checked in with Segrest periodically for progress reports; last month, he told us he was “still working on a deal.” So with four weeks having passed, we pinged him on Wednesday to ask if he’s still pursuing the project. The answer that came in today: No. Segrest’s exact quote, via e-mail:
At this time, Alamo Manhattan has chosen to not move forward with the purchase. (We maintain interest in the opportunity, though.)
That’s all the details we have. Since we found this out late on a Friday, we won’t be able to check with others – such as the site’s current owner – till Monday. Meantime, the lawsuits involving the site are still listed in court records as pending, and a check of online records regarding the parcel shows 12 liens in all filed since late last year. (We couldn’t check further into court documents tonight – the service that makes them available online shut down for the night earlier than usual.)
The Southwest District Council usually meets the first Wednesday of the month but moved and shortened its meeting this month to combine with an SDOT presentation about neighborhood traffic calming – and that brought out more than a dozen extra attendees. At left, SDOT’s Christina Legazpi with a radar gun, which her colleague Jane Rebelowski explained is often the first tool to determine if your neighborhood really needs help. If you sign up and get at least four more people on your street to join you, you’ll be able to take a class on how to use a radar gun, which will be loaned to you. She suggests neighbors work in pairs to track how fast cars are going and what type of cars are seen speeding. They notch two hours of logged observations to gauge the speed problem. Then comes the next phase – SPD enforcement and/or installation of calming measures. They can include signs, humps, chicanes, chokers (chicanes right across from each other) … all explained here, all potentially funded by money you can apply for. So how effective are the various measures? she was asked – and: Why not put up more stop signs? She says the federal government outlaws simply using stop signs for traffic calming – and they’re easily ignored anyway. Some attendees said they’d applied for traffic calming and gotten turned down; Rebelowski said she’d take a look at the specifics of their applications. If you’re interested in finding out more about how to confirm whether your neighborhood has a problem, and then figure out what to do about it, e-mail her: jane.rebelowski@seattle.gov – and note that this year’s deadline to apply for projects like traffic circles is fast approaching, end of the month.
The group also heard from Andrea Petzel with the same presentation on “backyard cottages” that she gave to the Delridge District Council last month – the city is considering allowing them in more areas. One attendee asked if there would be a vote or whether the City Council would “just ram it down our throats.” Junction Neighborhood Organization president Erica Karlovits expressed concern about density; Petzel said the cottages would only be allowed on single-family lots, but Karlovits pointed out that in The Junction, single-family residences are in close proximity to the ongoing new high-density building. Petzel countered by saying the city planned a maximum of 50 permits per year and she didn’t think that would ultimately affect density. (According to the “backyard cottage” program website, they’ve been allowed in Southeast Seattle for three years, but only 18 permits have been sought.)
Is West Seattle ready for “flexible workspaces”? That’s what James Tjoa is trying to figure out, and he would love to know what you think. He is working on the residential side of the project that Admiral Safeway has proposed for redeveloping its site, and exploring an idea that came up in response to concerns voiced at previous Design Review Board meetings: 
Adding to the “density” of the residential section along 42nd (top-center of that rendering from last fall, which we use just as a reference) by turning part of that section of the building into workspace. The space in question involves about 18,000 square feet around what will be Safeway’s loading dock – Tjoa says they realized that having living units atop and alongside the loading dock wouldn’t be optimal anyway, with noise and other concerns. They took a look around West Seattle, and while there’s ActivSpace on Harbor Ave, there’s no flexible workspace of note in the business-district centers. The “flexible space” concept is very much in the roughing-out process, he explains — some of it might be small spaces for just one person (150 square feet?), some bigger (up to 700?). And he says they’re open to hearing thoughts on the concept of “shared space” too – one of those places where you pay a fee to have the right to use a desk on a drop-in basis. In addition to the density concern, Tjoa says this concept could solve another of the criticisms brought up during previous Design Review meetings – there was a “green wall” there by the loading dock, and now he says the workspace could come all the way down to the sidewalk and “activate” the area facing 42nd as a result. According to Tjoa, some additional parking would be added beyond what was previously envisioned – some underground parking on that side of the building, in addition to what’s proposed for the Safeway roof. As they continue roughing out this concept, they’re also wondering what people might want – a conference room? bike storage? or? If you’ve got some thoughts about what this kind of space would need, he would love to hear from you at james@jamestjoa.com or 206-726-6230 … or leave a comment on this story. As for the entire project’s official status – it’s been through two Design Review meetings (most recently in November), and the next one is not yet scheduled.
ORIGINAL 12:04 PM REPORT: If you saw this report in today’s Seattle Times regarding an Eastside foreclosure on property owned by Conner Homes, the developer for the California/Alaska/42nd parcels in The Junction, you may have wondered about the status of Conner’s West Seattle plans. We have phone and e-mail messages out to company owner Charlie Conner requesting comment. We also are checking online land/court records and so far have not found anything unusual. The most recent official activity regarding the 2-building proposal was its final Southwest Design Review Board meeting April 23 (WSB coverage here). Note that the official owner of the Junction property is 4700 California LLC (for which Charlie Conner is the contact listed in state records), which bought it in 2000; county property records say $1.4 million was the price for the western parcel, $2.1 million for the eastern parcel.
1:30 PM UPDATE: Charlie Conner just called us back. Regarding West Seattle (where the photo shows him at a 2008 meeting for this project), he says, “Different project, different company. West Seattle very much still makes economic sense.” Why? 
“Anything that’s worth more than what you paid for it!” (Note the links above regarding these parcels having been purchased in 2000.) “The other (Eastside) projects don’t make economic sense,” though he is hopeful of getting one of them back. Conner added, “What I can tell you is, everybody that works for me is paid in full. Only people that I owe money to are the banks and a contractor i’m paying on a monthly basis … we delivered all the homes to the customers that had presales …I take my commitments pretty seriously.” So what’s the status of the Junction project? “The drawings will be resubmitted to the city.” And he says he’s hoping to meet “in the next couple of weeks” with “a few folks in The Junction” whom he says are still not happy “with the process … (I want) to talk to them about that and see what else we might do to make sure everybody likes what we’re doing, and then we’ll be moving forward with (Master Use Permit) approval and the alley vacation … so we’ll be ready to start next year.” We asked about financing? He says they “haven’t even looked” for it yet because of the market conditions. We also asked him about rumors that the site is or will be for sale. “Everything’s always for sale,” he said wryly. “Are there buyers out there who’d want to pay me what it’s worth? Probably not.” However, he reiterated, it is not currently listed for sale and they currently are “NOT marketing the property.” The city’s official project page for the current proposal is here.
…As in, less (fewer) restrictions could mean more variety in housing units. Or, so said the architects from whom City Councilmember Sally Clark 
and her Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee heard at Youngstown Arts Center Tuesday night. A fair share of the two-dozen-plus audience members came from a class at the UW, according to a shoutout from Clark as the meeting wrapped up, but those on hand also included two West Seattle architects who have spoken out on the subject before: Brandon Nicholson, who recently completed a city consultancy contract to work on part of the Multi-Family Code Update – that’s the zoning section that includes townhouses – and David Foster, a former chair of the Southwest Design Review Board (of which Nicholson is a current member, though he’s been on hiatus while on the city contract). No votes were taken, no decisions were made, but it’s another stretch of the road toward a change. Read on for details:Read More
Will Seattle’s future townhouses transcend the dominant design critiqued in that city photo/graphic? City Councilmember Sally Clark hopes so. Tonight — almost one full year after she, Mayor Nickels and West Seattle architect Brandon Nicholson stood together at the Capitol Hill announcement (July 2008 WSB coverage here) of the proposal to change the Multi-Family Code, particularly as it affects townhouse design, the committee Clark chairs brings the topic to West Seattle. At 6 pm at Youngstown Arts Center, her Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee convenes a “review and discussion of issues surrounding townhouses and other low-rise housing.” Those issues are detailed in this 12-page memo, if you have time for a little advance studying – after which, if you have something to say, tonight’s agenda has room for it, with a full hour set aside for public comment. (And if you want to check on the status of the entire Multi-Family Code proposal, that’s all here.)
That’s one of four benches that are being installed this afternoon in front of the new loft-townhouse development at 1716 California SW (map). The benches, and the open-space easement they represent, will be at the heart of a celebration tomorrow morning, because of the neighborhood success story they represent, something we’ve told you a bit about before: In March of last year, we wrote about nearby residents’ concerns about whether the development would honor open-space easement requirements linked to a onetime Seattle City Light substation site on the property. Over the ensuing months, a plan was worked out, and we got final word recently from author/historian Clay Eals, who lives nearby; we didn’t shoot a closeup of the inscription on the benches, but he shared the text:
OPEN SPACE FOR ALL
Enjoy these benches for a brief respite. Thanks to the City of Seattle and to the owner of the project that replaced the City Light substation on this site, this 100-foot frontage strip is an easement for public use from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily through May 2026.
This open space is privately owned and maintained. Please pick up any stray items when you leave. Palm Avenue neighbors thank you!
As our 3/08 report noted, City Councilmembers got involved too, and one of them – Councilmember Jean Godden (described by Eals as “our champion to insure that a public easement was included in the sale documents”) – is expected to speak at tomorrow morning’s official unveiling of the benches. You’re welcome too – 10 am, out front at 1716 California SW, across from Park West.
LAND USE PERMIT FOR “LINK”: In the Triangle, the mixed-use building Harbor Properties plans to build at 38th/Alaska (on the site that’s been home to West Seattle Montessori School [WSB sponsor] and a former Huling auto shop) has received its land-use permit; we’ll be checking with Harbor to find out its newest plans for a construction timeline (those permits are still in the pipeline). ***Added 1:42 pm: Harbor’s Emi Baldowin tells WSB that Link construction is expected to start in early fall; they’re still securing financing but “it looks good.”**** (back to original report) Westward into The Junction:
DESIGN REVIEW MEETING SET FOR 4532 42ND SW: Three years after its first design-review meeting, and 7 months after the big old house on the site was demolished, this mixed-use project in The Junction still has at least one more Southwest Design Review Board meeting to go, and the date for that is now tentatively set for July 23 (time TBA) at the nearby Senior Center of West Seattle.
THREE CLOSED SCHOOLS: From this morning’s city Land Use Information Bulletin – a long list of “notices of interpretation” regarding closed Seattle Public Schools buildings around the city, including three in West Seattle – Fairmount Park, E.C. Hughes and the newly re-closed Genesee Hill. The text of each notice goes like this:
The issue raised, subject to Land Use Code Interpretation, was whether the (school building in question) may be converted to certain other uses permitted in the Single Family 5000 zone, without convening a School Use Advisory Committee. The Department has concluded that the school building may be converted to any of the following institutional uses, regardless of conformity with institutional development standards, without going through the SUAC process: Child care centers, public or private schools, educational and vocational training for the disabled, adult evening education classes, nonprofit libraries, community centers, community programs for the elderly or similar uses. The building also may be converted to any other use permitted outright in the SF 5000 zone, as listed at Seattle Municipal Code Section 23.44.006, without going through the SUAC process.
Anyone who disagrees with that interpretation has till July 9th to file an appeal. The notice for Fairmount Park is here; the notice for E.C. Hughes is here; the notice for Genesee Hill is here. We have a question out to Seattle Public Schools to find out if there’s any particular reason these “interpretations” were pursued for these and five other properties citywide. 3:19 PM UPDATE: From school district spokesperson David Tucker: “Nothing has changed regarding the buildings’ status.” He says this is a move made to enable “expanded usage in the future,” possibly so that community organizations could rent the buildings for usages beyond church, school or day care: “It’s to the district’s benefit to have community organizations in these buildings — they help maintain the buildings” and step up security. He stresses that any change in the buildings’ status would have to be approved by the School Board, and he doesn’t expect anything to be proposed until the rest of the Student Assignment Plan is finalized.
Those are the “before” and “after” photos from an Eastside project that won a REX (Remodeling Excellence) Award – presented by the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties – for West Seattle’s Weitzel Construction (WSB sponsor) this past weekend. As Dave Weitzel explains …
… there were 64 entrants in 19 categories from best Universal Design to Major Rebuild over $500,000. Our entry was in the Major Remodel $300,000 to $600,000 and won in its category against 6 other entrants. Also, all the people attending the event have the opportunity to view all the entrants before the program begins and vote for their favorite entrant, called the People’s Choice Award, and we also won in that category.
Weitzel Construction has won REX Awards before – see the list on their website. Also winning a REX Award — this time for Kitchen Remodeling — another West Seattle builder and WSB sponsor, Ventana Construction – here’s their winning project:
Anne Higuera from Ventana explains:
Each year, the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties and its Remodelors Council honor the best in local remodeling with the REX awards. Projects are judged on aesthetics, special or unique design solutions, quality workmanship, use of appropriate building material, budgetary consideration, and challenges and obstacles. Ventana was honored in the REX category for kitchen remodeling in the $75,000-$125,000 range, a category with 6 entrants. The project was part of a larger remodel on a 1923 home in Fremont.
You can read more about Ventana’s winning project here. Meantime, the full list of awards isn’t on the builders’ group’s website yet, but we’ll add it here when it is.
After our update Thursday on the stalled Whole Foods project, we got a note asking what’s new with The Junction area’s other new grocery store – the one where construction is almost done, the QFC at Capco Plaza along Alaska between 41st and 42nd. Just talked with Kristin Maas at QFC HQ, and she tells us that while there’s no exact grand-opening date set yet, it’s looking like “early fall” – which she describes as “ahead of schedule,” because they’d previously expected to open in “late fall.” This will be the second QFC in a mixed-use (commercial and residential) development, she notes, after the Uptown store at 5th/Mercer, which opened two-plus years ago; she says, “We’ve been learning ever since” and that the special features of the West Seattle store will include hot “bistro”-style food for takeout (though there will be some limited seating) – and pizza ovens. The other major retail tenant announced for the building was Office Depot; we’ll check with them next week. Meantime, we just noticed the website for the residential section of the building, Altamira Luxury Apartments, has been upgraded – the building features it lists include a “chic Internet cafe.” When they open later this year, it’ll be the second new set of apartments to open in The Junction this year – after Mural Apartments (WSB sponsor), now renting barely two blocks away.
CLEAN AND GREEN: This morning at 9 am, 42nd/Genesee (map) is the epicenter of Seattle’s community-cleanup movement – as the newly funded Genesee P-Patch hosts a city-supported Clean and Green event. It’ll coincide with the Junction Neighborhood Organization Adopt-a-Street cleanup, including the Junction Plaza Park site (getting ever-closer to full construction funding). A mayoral appearance is scheduled to kick it all off.
PARK PARTY: After you’ve recovered from helping clean up The Junction, head north to California Place Park to celebrate all the work that’s gone into the process of designing potential park improvements. 3:30 pm, entertainment, treats and good company – and a chance to see what landscape designer Karen Kiest came up with in her final report to Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral.
ICE-CREAM DONATIONS: Go wish Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center a happy 1st birthday today, and your purchase will be a triple gift – a treat for you, more support for this vibrant small business, and a matching ice cream donation to the White Center Food Bank.
Lots more fun in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup!
(photo taken Tuesday, looking east from the west side of the site)
We’ve received a couple notes in the past week or so inquiring about the status of what’s been dubbed the “Hole Foods” site at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th – where construction on a proposed Whole Foods Market/Hancock Fabrics/residential building has been stalled for more than half a year now – like this note from Dorothy:
I don’t see the Whole Foods sign at the dig at (Alaska) and Fauntleroy. Does this
mean they no longer plan to be there? What is the status of that construction site?
First of all – the banner that used to be on the fence there disappeared the day after our most recent report of vandalism (someone cut the W out of the word Whole). But aside from that, we were overdue for a project check anyway; read on to see what we have found out – both about this site, and another site linked to the Whole Foods project’s original developers:Read More
We published first word of this on June 8th. But it’s too important to not mention again, since the city’s sending notices around again today. The “Neighborhood Plan Status Check” meeting for West Seattle is July 28th. The plans (find them here), written a decade ago with community involvement, outline not what your neighborhood looks like now so much as what it will look like in the future. Read on for the meeting explanation/reminder issued today:Read More
While Satterlee House owner William Conner is pursuing his development-rights appeal on five main points, only one of those points was spotlighted in oral arguments this morning before the state’s second-highest court: “Whether the city’s landmarks ordinance is unconstitutionally vague,” as Conner’s lawyer Richard Hill described it. The arguments went quickly – as we noted in the morning preview from the Court of Appeals-Division 1 courtroom at One Union Square downtown, each side gets 10 minutes, and a digital clock tracks the time in glaring red illumination – starting just after 10 am, and concluding, with some questions from the judges along the way, just before 10:30. Read on for details (and backstory if you haven’t followed this case before):Read More
While much of the attention regarding the stalled Whole Foods development at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th has focused on what will happen to, and in, the huge hole – one WSBer has been worrying about the road alongside the hole. She contacted the city to express her concerns and wanted to share the e-mail she received, regarding how it’s being monitored — read on:Read More
The latest vandalism to the “Whole Foods Coming Soon” sign at the idled construction site at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th has morphed it into a display of the site’s nickname, “Hole Foods.” (Last incident, you’ll recall, involved a date change.) We also have a bit of news on the stalled project; its revised land-use permit was officially issued on Monday, as the end of a process triggered when the design changed last summer and the project returned for Design (re-)Review. We checked with city planner Michael Dorcy, who’s assigned to the project, and the permit issuance is not necessarily a sign of anything changing – it was the result of action put into motion long before the site was put up for sale, lawsuits erupted, etc. (Here’s the site’s official city permit-info page.) We also have checked back with Matt Segrest, the local investor who’s been working to put together a deal to buy the site (reported here in April), and his update was simply “nothing new.” UPDATE: As of Thursday, the sign is gone.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Sometimes when the public-comment period arrives midway through meetings of the Southwest Design Review Board – one of 7 such volunteer boards around the city charged with evaluating major development proposals – the concerns and complaints tend to meander away from the topic at hand, the project’s design.
Not last night, as The Kenney‘s redevelopment proposal returned to the SWDRB for a third “early design guidance” meeting (here’s our original as-it-happened update from last night; here’s coverage of the previous meeting in January).
Referring to the six-story “donut” building in the plans — a new formation since The Kenney announced it was shifting the design to scrap the panned plan to tear down the cupola-topped Seaview building — one neighbor declared, “I don’t want to live next to the Pentagon.”
“That’s a perfect design comment,” observed board chair Christie Coxley.
The building in question is envisioned in the newest design documents (see them all here) as actually more of a square, but before recommending that The Kenney move to the next phase of design review, board members had their own thoughts about it and other project aspects too, while architect Gene Guszkowski (from Wisconsin-based AG Architecture) revealed some news since the new design proposal was previewed at a community meeting last week:
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