On the next episode of “Maury” …
… 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.
Art at the firehouse
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.
West Seattle’s newest pay-to-park lot
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.
Hello fire station, goodbye house
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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Pizza plan
A little more information is now available about what’s proposed for the new Pegasus Pizza building. Linked from the city site announcing the project’s Design Review meeting this Thursday is assembled info including simple sketches for the plan (none of those fancy color renderings, though, nor could we find anything on the architect‘s site). Here’s the downloadable info; it includes three alternative sketches of what the new building might be like.
Two sets of “then & now”
Updates on two sites we last mentioned two months ago, both with pix. First set, the doomed south Beach Drive trees. Left photo below is from June; right photo from this weekend, when we noticed the chopping had begun:
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Next set, Erskine & Dawson, the former “Thor’s Towing” property, soon a new home. Old structures seen in June at left; right photo is courtesy of WSB reader Luckie (in the week since she took it, construction has begun):
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New condo/retail building advances in Admiral District
At the same Southwest Design Review Board meeting last night where the latest Charlestown/Cali Petco plan was panned, a condo/retail building in the Admiral District got thumbs up. It’s the project proposed for this space @ 2310 Cali, south of Admiral Pub:
Architect Terry Williams (of Thienes/Williams Architects) showed the board revised renderings for the 4-story building, which will maximize its 50-foot-wide lot with 12 condos, with a residential entrance on the left side of the first floor (see rendering below), retail to the right of that, with its entrance at the far right. Note the plantings and seating bench planned on the street in front:
The next rendering shows the rear view (thanks to Terry for sending us these images so we could share with you); 12 parking spaces are behind the first-floor doors.
Board members approved the design with just a few conditions: They want the flat roof over the parking area to become some sort of common space for residents; previously it was going to be simply a torch-down roof. They also asked for a few aesthetic changes around the front balconies, and tweaks to the rooftop deck, but overall had praise for the plan, which had undergone significant changes since its “Early Design Guidance” meeting exactly one year earlier. Next step, the developer applies for permits to get closer to construction.
Bulletin: Design Review Board keeps Petco project on a short leash
Just back from three hours at the Southwest Design Review Board meeting on two WS projects — the headliner was the reworked design for the Petco store proposed to take over the Charlestown Cafe site — board members still have major concerns and are basically sending the new architects back to the drawing board for a third “Early Design Guidance” meeting (some projects only need one). Detailed report to come.
Petco @ Charlestown Cafe site? Here’s what’s next
This Thursday night, the city’s Southwest Design Review Board will take a look at the latest design for the proposed Petco store at the Charlestown Cafe site.
We’ve received a pre-meeting update from Mark Wainwright with Our Town West Seattle, the community group keeping a close watch on this project and the restaurant’s fate; the group met last Thursday to look ahead to this week’s Design Review meeting.
Mark says there’s a new architect for the Petco plan, Sienna Architecture, based in Portland but with a Seattle office. He adds, “The project design is, in a word, better … this design may have the potential to be Petco’s nicest store.”
Click ahead to read what else Mark says:Read More
As mentioned below, tonight the
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