West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
When we mentioned the other day that we had happened onto a teardown-to-mixed-use plan pending for 4515 44th (the site shown at right, across the street from the Junction parking lot that’s behind WaMu, the liquor store, etc.), we noted no Design Review Board meeting had been set yet. Today, that’s changed – the city website is now updated to say the Southwest DRB will meet on November 8th to review the plan.
Just 4 days after we told you they got the permits, they brought in the demolition crew at the ex-Guadalajara Hacienda site this morning. Here’s all that’s left of the bright pink building and the vivid murals on its sides:
Cross-checking some of the city’s alternate methods for unearthing proposed projects (the Activity Locator is a fun time-killer), we happened onto a proposal we hadn’t noticed before. It seeks to take down two small Junction buildings including the one shown below (4515 44th, across from the big parking lot behind WaMu/liquor store/etc.), so a 4-story mixed-use building can be built in their place.
The city system indicates a design review meeting for this hasn’t been set yet; the only date of any kind listed in the online records is 5/29/07, when the fee for the “pre-application site visit” was paid, so we’re not sure how long this has been pending (it doesn’t seem to have appeared in any of the city Land Use Information Bulletins, at least not the ones we searched going back to this time last year). Meantime, a second teardown proposal, this one from inland Alki, a new yellow land-use application sign just went up on the northwest corner of 60th/Admiral:
The teardown-to-townhome proposal for this parcel dates back to March, but the application to subdivide the lot was just filed a few weeks ago, hence the yellow sign.
Since our report yesterday quoting a 3811 California tenant as saying the endangered 80-year-old brick 4-plex across from Charlestown Cafe 
was apparently being evaluated for city landmark status, we’ve found out more from the city Landmarks Preservation Board. Coordinator Sarah Sodt tells WSB that the board has “asked the property owner to submit a landmark nomination … as part of the MUP-SEPA process.” That’s Master Use Permit and State Environmental Policy Act, both aspects of the development process. According to the city website, “All buildings over 50 years old that are proposed for redevelopment are referred to the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board as part of the city’s SEPA policies.” However, Sarah also said the board has not “been in communication” with the owner, and has not arranged for a site tour (contrary to what the tenants were led to believe, apparently), but believes the owner is “working on preparing the nomination” paperwork. The bar for landmark status seems pretty high; the list of official city landmarks in WS contains only two residential properties (the Hainsworth House on 37th, sold earlier this year for $1,490,000, and the Satterlee House, aka Painted Lady, still on the market for $2.2 million). The process is explained here; looks like the next step after the nomination application would be a public meeting. The board’s website says it takes up to a month to determine if an application is “complete,” and it wouldn’t be scheduled for consideration at a public meeting until it is. Here’s the board’s schedule for the rest of the year. If a landmark designation does happen, a whole separate process begins regarding setting guidelines for what can be done with the property and which of its features must be preserved; that’s all outlined here. We’ll keep checking with the Landmarks Board to see how this progresses.
Almost six months have passed since we first told you a teardown-to-mixed-use proposal was on the drawing board for the elegant old brick apartments shown above, at 3811 California (across from the also-in-limbo Charlestown Cafe), drawing laments from dozens of commenters (as well as from us). The four-story project planned for the site appeared to be proceeding full speed ahead. But maybe not – according to the following e-mail we received late last night from one of the current tenants:
I realize this is an old story for most, but for anyone interested in the fate of this beautiful building, we (the tenants) received a notice from the landlords today stating the following:
“The Landmark Preservation Board has determined that this property may meet the standards for Landmark Designation. Before this can be determined by the board, it is necessary to access the units for construction details.”
They’ll be doing a walk-through sometime tomorrow. The real significance for me is that this is the first documentation we’ve received at all from the landlords regarding the potential fate of our homes.
(On a side note, the notices were slipped into our mail slots in Omni
Construction envelopes — my first thought was they were our vacate
notices. Glad to see they weren’t!)
We will check today with the Landmarks Preservation Board to find out more about the expected inspection and what might happen next.
What’s left of the old Guadalajara Hacienda restaurant on Cali north of Morgan Junction is likely to be swept away any second now (if the backhoe’s not there already; we will be driving by shortly) – the city just granted a permit for townhouses on the site (and five other related project permits for townhouses and single-family homes, all California Ave addresses: 5919, 5921, 5925, 5927, 5929). The restaurant closed last February; the following photo was taken shortly afterward (the “bell tower” has since been taken down but the bulk of the building has stood, deteriorating):
Just got word from the Westwood Neighborhood Council that Seattle Public Schools has scheduled a community update meeting next week about the impending Chief Sealth High School/Denny Middle School campus consolidation construction project. The neighborhood group itself called the last update meeting, in June, after learning details about the project that previously hadn’t gotten much public airing. (We covered that meeting in-depth; here’s the link.) The district’s flyer (which touts a weblink, buildingexcellence.org, that as of this writing goes only to a “parking page”) says the meeting at 6:30 pm next Tuesday (10/9) in the Chief Sealth HS theater will include updates on the schedule and design for the project, and take Q/A. Here’s the flyer:Read More
First, a couple updates on this morning’s “doomed duplex” post. Seems demolition permits must be after-the-fact formalities unless all this happened in the hours after the permit was issued yesterday … the duplex and its former neighbor are already gone:
We also heard back from the ex-duplex’s former tenants. They found another rental just a block away; not as small as the ex-duplex (900 sf) but comparably priced per sf (less than $1 per). The kicker … it’s a townhouse. 2 stories, 8 years old. So perhaps some of today’s teardown replacements are tomorrow’s affordable rentals. Meanwhile, in future Fauntleroy construction news, a week after we mentioned the “one of the last (lots of its kind)” listing on the curve, a sign just went up:
Among the newly granted permits in the city’s latest “daily issuance report”: demolition of this duplex at 5935 Fauntleroy, which we wrote about exactly four months ago after hearing from its saddened, and surprised, tenants:
What’s replacing it? The usual. Meantime, we’re going to see if we can dig up the ex-tenants’ e-mail address and find out where they landed.
When the “Coming Soon/Office Depot” banner went up on the fence at the megaproject site across from Jefferson Square, we wondered why not a “Coming Soon/QFC” banner too, since those are the two major announced retail tenants. Three weeks later, QFC is now flying its colors too:
We wondered how much longer this triangle lot on the east side of Fauntleroy, just before Morgan Junction, could stay empty, especially after seeing a little clearing work on it recently. Perhaps not much longer, given this listing offering it for $1,450,000 as “one of the last 10-unit sites zoned L2 on Fauntleroy … flat as a pancake … No hillside means no need for expensive development of the lot with bulkheads and heavy excavating that drive up lot costs.”
… watch for Alki residents vs. city land-use planners. But seriously — we have attended two Alki Community Council meetings now, and they (the officers and the members/attendees) — are a genteel bunch, as well as lively, involved, engaged. All the things you would want a community group to be. ACC vice president Randie Stone ran tonight’s meeting and she was even passing around a basket of treats during a break in the action. But before visiting DPD planner Mark Troxel was finished with his guest appearance, the room was in a lather over teardowns and soulless redevelopment. Especially considering, as calm and polite as he tried to be, his answers about why there are no rules governing some preservation of neighborhood character in redevelopment, boiled down to nothing more than (we’re paraphrasing) “well, that would cost too much, and we really have to be concerned with housing affordability.” 
The spark for tonight’s briefly fiery discussion was the impending teardown-to-townhome project we have mentioned before at the site of the Shoremont Apartments (photo right) at 57th & Alki (on the corner east of Alki Auto Repair). “Those townhomes aren’t going to be affordable,” one attendee pointed out, laying waste to the “things might look nicer if it didn’t cost so darn much” defense. Another audience member chided the city, in the person of stalwart Mr. Troxel, for “lack of courage.” He was actually there to talk about amendments on the drawing board for a city planning document, but that discussion got derailed. After a cathartic burst of outrage about cookie-cutter townhouses, which the city rep said he isn’t thrilled about either (because they fail to maximize density potential, as well as because of their aesthetics), all ended fairly civilly, but we were a little worried there for a moment. Randie noted that the topic is enough for a meeting unto itself, and perhaps the group can invite Mr. Troxel, or another city planner, to return. Meanwhile — we’ll have several other ACC meeting items to report tomorrow, including what the city says can be done about those rental trucks that have long been bottlenecking Harbor Ave by ActivSpace. P.S. If you live in the Alki area and you’re not an ACC member yet, you can join online.
Hot out of today’s city Land Use Information Bulletin: A Design Review Board meeting has just been set for October 11th for a proposed 6-story, 90-unit mixed-use building at 4502 42nd SW (southeast corner of 42nd/Oregon); the architect for the project is Mark Travers, who has info, renderings, and more about it online here. If this goes through, there’ll be a whole lot happening in that area, with Hope Lutheran also planning a construction project nearby (congregational meetings on that are set for this weekend). Side note on a different project that we noticed the same architect is handling @ 3295 Avalon — Starbucks fans and foes alike will be interested in the renderings of that project here. (Three blocks from Java Bean?)
The next phase of work is beginning at the megaproject site across Alaska from Jefferson Square, former home of Hollywood Video etc., future home of QFC and Office Depot as well as other retail and residential units. A few days ago, the city granted a permit for excavation to begin; today, Christopher Boffoli took this photo of the first construction equipment to arrive at the scene:
Rhonda at Beach Drive Blog caught a sign of frustration at 4233 Beach Drive — the future teardown next to Schmitz Viewpoint that we mentioned 8/30. Looks like the neighbors filed a complaint in addition to posting that sign. The city site shows permits were granted 8/27 to demolish the old house and build two new single-family homes there, plus a DPD decision dated 8/30; the permit applications were filed 15 months earlier; property records show several transactions for the site since it was sold in March of last year by someone who’d owned it for a decade. (Its owner appears linked to a homebuilding company with addresses in Bothell and Lynnwood.) With all that recent administrative action, likely means the bulldozers are on the way, but in the meantime, the complaint certainly means that city inspectors are too. The city explains rules about vacant buildings on page 9 of this DPD newsletter.
While working on last week’s update about preparations to build the new Fire Station 37 at 35th/Holden, we found out a Portland artist has been commissioned for a “public art project” at the new station. 
We asked the artist, Pete Beeman, what that project will entail. He told us, “The selection was based on my past work and an interview, rather than on a specific proposal. So as yet there is no design. … It will probably be a freestanding iconic sculpture, separate from the fire station itself.” He added that once the contract is finalized, he will “come to Seattle and meet with the design team, hopefully spend some time at the existing station [our photo above], and possibly visit with some other interested parties. Those meetings will provide the parameters within which I will design the sculpture. That should be early October.” His site has photos of other projects he’s done.
… permit filings are now in to rebuild the “live-work units” project that went up in flames three weeks ago (4132 Cali; here’s the original plan), and to repair one of the damaged buildings next door (4138 Cali). The arsonist or arsonists, meanwhile, are still running free out there somewhere.
Some parts of Alki edge closer to something resembling the area’s original name: While we were on Alki Ave this morning watching the 3-Day walkers, we noticed the under-construction condos @ 1350 Alki promoting their “New York-style direct entry elevators.” And from the “soon to be history” file, take another look at a doomed classic brick building; nobody commented when we posted a couple weeks ago about the teardown-to-townhomes plan for the Shoremont Apartments @ 57th & Alki – will it really go without a fuss?
The north side of the big parking lot at the future site of Fauntleroy Place has turned into a pay lot. We asked Blue Star Management, which is developing FP, what’s up. Company rep Eric Radovich wrote back, “Having Diamond Parking manage the north side of the big parking lot greatly reduces our liability on the site. This also cleared out the Gee Motors vehicles that had been parking on the site without permission. The fee to park in the Diamond lot in the evening is just $2. There is still plenty of free parking for patrons of Schuck’s Auto Supply and Hancock Fabrics on the south end of the lot.” We also asked Eric about the FP retail status, given that we are frequently pinged about rumors of changes in megaprojects including that one; he says NO CHANGE – it’s still on for a 47,000-sf Whole Foods store and a 14,000-sf Hancock Fabrics store, and it now looks like demolition/groundbreaking should start next March/April.
Makes sense, given what happened — but it’s eerie just the same to find this on the “permits issued last Friday” city list tonight.
It’s almost the mid-Cali equivalent of those last few Alki cottages dwarfed by multistory condos — this 95-year-old house at 5232 Cali, between commercial/mixed-use buildings across from the West Seattle Veterinary Hospital/West Seattle Nursery block:
An application is on file to tear down this house and replace it with 3 “live/work” townhouses and 4 “residential” townhouses. The application mentions an architect from Place Architects, as well as Knoll Development, the company also behind the fire-gutted “live-work townhouse” project at 4132 Cali (where, following the rubble removal, only a charred foundation eerily stands).
Slew of West Seattle items on the latest Land Use Information Bulletin — busy folks at city HQ before everyone rushes out for the holiday weekend. Highlights:
OUT WITH THE APARTMENTS, IN WITH THE TOWNHOUSES: Application for six townhouses at 57th & Alki. This seems to have several addresses associated with it; main project filing is here.
DOUBLE THE FUN: One lot becomes two in the 4200 block of Beach Drive, as one last approval comes in for two new houses. 12th photo from the bottom on this busy page reminds us, that’s the last lot before the open shoreline of Schmitz Viewpoint.
CHURCH EXPANSION: Filing’s in for new building at West Seattle Christian Church. The church website describes the new multipurpose building planned there.
WSB reader Val sent the two photos below from 35th & Holden, where the end seems near for a nondescript little house that’s on part of the land where the city will build the new Fire Station 37 to replace the historic building 4 blocks north (the substation next door is on the other part of the land and is going away too).
From Val’s e-mail:
This house was remodeled a few years ago after being vacant for a while (before the remodel, it inexplicably had two front doors) and obviously wasn’t anything special, but I hate to see a loss of housing anywhere. I believe there is a new fire station going in to these two lots, and unlike in Queen Anne, there was no public outcry about the loss of historic housing in the neighborhood. I suppose it is too much to ask to hope that the house is being moved somewhere instead of being trashed … Plus, I’d like to see the old fire station become a local (British for nearby bar). There’s really nothing along 35th, and the E-9 in Tacoma has been doing great business for years.
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