West Seattle, Washington
12 Thursday
Here’s the latest on Fauntleroy Place, the mixed-use megaproject with the future Whole Foods Market that’s been in the works almost 2 years for Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th. Eric Radovich with BlueStar Management, the FP developer, tells WSB today that they’re still hoping for groundbreaking by April, as reported in our last update in September. But first – the project has to get through one more key public meeting, for which the date has just been set — the Southwest Design Review Board “recommendations” meeting for Fauntleroy Place has is now on the city schedule for February 14. As noted on the BlueStar site, the architect on the project has changed to CollinsWoerman, but Radovich says the rendering above from the previous architect is still fairly true to the plan — 5 stories, Whole Foods and a new Hancock Fabrics store at ground level, more than 150 apartments above, parking garage with room for more than 500 vehicles (city project page here). We also asked about BlueStar’s more-recently revealed West Seattle mixed-use project, Spring Hill (no relation to the future restaurant) at 5020 California just south of The Junction (as reported by WSB here and here) — the first Design Review Board meeting for that is listed on the city site as January 10th, but Radovich says that might be changed to later in the month. He also says there’s no publicly available rendering for Spring Hill just yet.
This Tacoma News-Tribune article reminds us that West Seattle’s Department of Licensing office will soon be one of only 11 in the state (full list here) where you can get the new “enhanced” driver licenses and ID cards that can get you into and out of Canada by land or sea. They’re supposed to be available starting January 22nd, and you’ll have to make an appointment if you want to get one. The state DOL website has a sheaf of info about how these new licenses/cards work.
Thanks to Bill for e-mailing us with news this sign had gone up in the window at the future Spring Hill restaurant (the sign says “restaurant & bar”) next to Seattle Fish Company on the north edge of The Junction; we subsequently snagged this photo while Christmas shopping (very busy in The Junction, watch out for crazy drivers like the 3 who almost ran us down). We have been following the progress of Spring Hill for more than a year now, since first word of its impending arrival came in the form of a liquor-license application; most recently, we noted a building permit last month, five months after the architects’ sign went up in the corner of the window.
Finally finished surveying almost all the West Seattle coffee shops – so far, we’ve found six that will be open on Christmas; 
the list is on the Holidays page, as is our list of West Seattle Christmas Eve/Christmas Day church services (still a few more phone calls to make but even at this point we have Christmas Eve services for 15 WS churches), as well as our supermarket survey. And in the new WSB Forums, we’re still looking for West Seattle restaurants that will be open Christmas Day; jump in on the topic if you’ve found one.
(Dec. 3 photo along Longfellow Creek was taken by Tim, originally featured here.)
For those of us who made it through the December 3 Deluge without much if any damage, it’s just a soggy memory (albeit one reopened easily by new rounds of rain like the one we’re having right now). But some people in areas including right here in West Seattle are still working to clean up and fix up, like Gary in North Delridge, who e-mailed WSB to ask us to share with you that individual property owners in King County are now able to apply for federal assistance (governor’s press release is here — instructions on how to apply are here).
We recently mentioned that Jeanne Clem, wife of Bill Clem – a Mars Hill-West Seattle pastor after leading Doxa, the church that had the space previously – was losing her fight with cancer. Now there’s word she died this week, and a memorial service is set for 3 pm today (more on the Mars Hill website, which says the church will be running shuttles from the Chief Sealth HS parking lot for attendees).
2 sizable projects in the south half of West Seattle got a second look from the Southwest Design Review Board tonight. One will be the new home of Swedish Auto Repair, at 7901 35th, currently home to the ex-Adventist church building and a Mars Hill bus pen; concerns from board members and neighbors have sent it back to the drawing board for one more round of revisions, particularly regarding the need for its 30-plus-foot-high L-shaped building fronting 35th and Kenyon to be more streetfront-friendly. However, city planner Holly Godard did laud the project for its voluntary “green” features such as solar panels and rainwater-collecting barrels. So that one will be back for one more SWDRB meeting. This next project, though, got the green light:
That’s what you’re going to see in a year or two at California/Graham, kitty corner from the almost-condos of Strata, north of the ex-Chuck and Sally’s. We knew this would be “live/work units” as well as townhouses, but now we have even more details:Read More
The main questions left for us after the Denny/Sealth discussion at last night’s Seattle School Board meeting (which we covered with in-progress reports here and here) were, what now, and when? We got some new info today from West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist. But first – we wanted to let you know, if you want to watch the meeting, particularly the testimony on this project during the public-comment period near the start, the video is now available online at the Seattle Channel site. (Regardless of where you stand on the project, you have to agree it’s particularly heartening to see students show up and speak to the board.) Back to “what’s next” — Sundquist says the Denny/Sealth “work session” at 4 pm January 9th will be open to the public; he tells WSB its format and participants are not all set yet, but he’s expecting there to be “some element of presentation” as part of it. He thinks it’ll last an hour to an hour and a half, since it’s before the board’s regular meeting at 6 pm that same night. As for any sort of a deadline to decide whether the Denny/Sealth project will proceed, change, or be scrapped altogether, Sundquist acknowledges that West Seattle families’ enrollment decisions make this time-sensitive as well as the oft-cited construction-cost factor, so he hopes it will be settled “within the first couple months of the year.”
Tonight, the Southwest Design Review Board is set for its final recommendations on the project planned for 6053 California, currently home of the former Butcher Block Espresso/martial arts/butcher shop/etc. building shown above (future townhouses and “live/work” units), and 7901 35th (ex-church, future auto repair). The meeting starts @ 6:30 pm in the library at Denny Middle School (different location than usual).
As announced by the city Department of Transportation, crews are out on the repaved stretch of Admiral right now, planting trees in the medians.
In a separate project, we have word from Seattle City Light of major tree work coming to West Seattle early next year: The utility is ramping up its tree trimming, so that it can work toward a cycle of ensuring that every tree near its lines citywide is checked every four years for proper clearance – 10 feet from the wires. We were downtown at the Municipal Tower yesterday talking with City Light’s Scott Thomsen, who tells WSB that the next big round of trimming work will be here in West Seattle. Here are some details:Read More
Meeting’s in a 10-minute break right now. Since the previously mentioned public comment against the project (no one spoke in favor):
-District superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson and West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist both reiterated (as he had told us would happen) that the scheduled votes later tonight would not commit the board to the Denny/Sealth project as it now stands. It also was announced that the board DOES have the authority — last week, Sundquist said they were awaiting a legal answer on this — to “modify the project if we see the need.”
-Board president Cheryl Chow asked members to clear time on their calendar the afternoon of January 9, before the next board meeting, for a work session on the Denny/Sealth project.
–Susan Harmon from the Westwood Neighborhood Council, speaking during the public-comment period, asked the board to delay Denny-Sealth votes until after a meeting WNC is working to organize for late January or early February to examine both the potential impacts of the shared high school/middle school campus concept, and the future of the current Denny land if the project proceeds as currently planned.
More details as they happen, plus a full all-in-one wrapup by night’s end in the morning (we have a followup question out). 8:46 PM UPDATE: The meeting is adjourned. The matching-funds item involving the Denny-Sealth project passed unanimously, after yet another reiteration that it does not commit the board to the project as it now stands. One other note of interest, Sundquist will chair the board’s Finance Committee next year.
Just back from the Southwest Precinct, where Lt. Steve Paulsen kindly made time to talk with WSB about West Seattle, its neighborhoods, its crime and safety challenges, and how all of us can work together to be safer, etc. While there, we took the occasion to ask for a followup on the “peeper” reports from a few weeks ago. Background — the first reports emerged on November 26 (our coverage here); then Dec. 3, we ran a reader report about another sighting, and on Dec. 6, another reader reported a police search with K-9 officers in the same general area. Lt. Paulsen confirmed for us this afternoon that those were all part of the investigation — not only did they bring in the K-9s after a “suspicious person” sighting on the night of 12/5, but they also assigned officers to patrol the neighborhoods on foot after those first reports in late November. Lt. Paulsen notes that no new reports have come in during the past couple weeks and says they have identified a potential “person of interest” but don’t have probable cause to make an arrest at this point.
This just hit the inbox, from the Seattle Department of Transportation – tree replacement starts tomorrow. Here’s the full text of the SDOT announcement:Read More
As mentioned earlier, somebody smashed into the Chelan Cafe overnight. Here are two angles – first a WSB photo, second photo thanks to JenV:
No, that doesn’t refer to some old joke – rather, to that 35th/Avalon crash that Creighton told us all about on Sunday morning. Last night, that post drew a comment from “lara7,” who included a Flickr link to the following photo:
Explanation from “lara7”:
I was one of the 3 Santas in the Cab- lady ran the red light by the KFC and plowed into the cab and another car. No one was hurt. But if you want coal in your stocking, hitting Santa’s cab is a sure way.
Now, you ask, what was the deal with all those people in Santa suits who didn’t exactly look like they’d just been spending their evening listening to tiny tots’ wish lists? Following a link from lara7’s photo, they appear to have been part of Santarchy 2007 (explained here).
The kerfuffle over the decision to change West Seattle High School‘s unique 4-period-day schedule is apparently far from over. WSB has received announcements of the creation of two pro-4-period-day websites — “West Seattle Parents and Citizens for 4 Period Day” has just inaugurated a blog (find it here) with a post titled “Why Arguments for the 6 Period Day Don’t Hold Water,” and “Students for Democratic Process” has set up a site titled “Less Is More – Go for 4.” If there are any pro-6-period-day websites, we would be happy to mention them as well; meantime, the WSHS website continues to post transition updates on this page.
Thanks to everybody in WSB-land who e-mailed about this after seeing the scene while passing by this morning – the Chelan Cafe confirms that a truck crashed into the building overnight, and “took off” after taking out the front wall of the lounge. However – the cafe is still open; just has quite the mess to clean up. We’ll have a photo up later.
Thanks to Susan in Westwood for pointing out that tomorrow night’s Seattle School Board agenda includes an item regarding the controversial Denny-Sealth combined-campus proposal, updated and discussed at a Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting last week (our detailed report here). The item is explained on the agenda as, “Approval of this item will certify that the existing space to be replaced through new construction in lieu of modernization at Denny Middle School/Chief Sealth High School will not be used in the future for District instructional purposes or be eligible for future state financial assistance.” If you read the report linked from the agenda item, it sounds like a technicality, rather than any key vote regarding the project – but just to be sure, we checked with West Seattle’s new school board rep Steve Sundquist, who was at last week’s WNC meeting. He replied:
“… my understanding is that Action Item 4 is an administrative action concerning state matching funds, and passing it does not bind the board or district into a particular outcome regarding the Sealth/Denny project. Consequently, I do not consider it a major directional vote on the project. Having said that, I have asked the district to go on record publicly to that effect before we vote in our Legislative Meeting tomorrow evening, and Superintendent Dr. Goodloe-Johnson has agreed to ensure that it happens.”
We also asked if there was an update regarding Sundquist’s statement last week that the board needed legal counsel’s opinion on whether it would be potentially empowered to change or scrap the Denny-Sealth project; he said, “I am expecting to hear that announced publicly soon, possibly as early as tomorrow evening’s meeting.” That meeting starts at 6 pm Wednesday at school district HQ, the John Stanford Center in Sodo (map linked from this page).
Another sign the store planned for the remaining space in the ex-Alki Market building (next to All the Best Pet Care and Cactus) is getting closer to reality – the proprietors-to-be of Alki Urban Market have just applied for a liquor license, under the “grocery store/beer and wine” category.
On the day one local nonprofit organization says its sad goodbye, another one is expanding by looking for its first Executive Director. Here’s what Ann Kendall wrote about the search in e-mail to WSB:
Family Promise Seattle is a new nonprofit here in West Seattle – we are seeking our first-ever director. We’re part of a national network (familypromise.org) – helping newly homeless families with temporary shelter (in local congregations of all faiths), and by operating a Day Center where folks can have an address, phone, internet and a case worker who will assist the families with all transitional needs. Goal is to get folks into permanent housing asap. Nationally the average stay for a family in the program is just about 40 days and we are hopeful we can do the same once we get going.
… Finding someone with ties to W. Seattle area would be great in getting us started. Full job description is located on our “director search” page. We will be operating our Day Center right next to West Side Presbyterian.
Here’s the direct link to the page Ann mentioned.
We haven’t updated the West Seattle Gas Price Watch for a while (past editions archived here) — prices would go up a bit, then go down a bit, and we figured wasting pixels on the seesawing might bore you. However, we were out doing other things a short time ago when what should appear through the downpour, between the furiously fast sweeps of our windshield wipers, but — a milestone worth mentioning: The first $2-something price in a while (photo at left). Yes, it’s “only” the Arco on Delridge, but still.
After four years, the West Seattle community-building group Megawatt just announced it’s shutting down. Full text of the Megawatt announcement is on its website; excerpt: “We have succeeded with many things and take pride in our vision for the community and commitment to high quality service. Unfortunately, our dreams exceeded our resources, and thus we have faltered in our ability to reach a point of sustainability with the organization.” 
10:45 AM UPDATE: If you wondered whether this has been coming for a while — given that Megawatt announced in October it would have to cancel the annual “Gathering of Neighbors” that had been set for November — we asked Mark Wainwright, Megawatt board member, and he said, “It hasn’t been coming for awhile. We were sincere when we said that we wanted to come back with a great GON in 2008. At least for the last year, we’ve been running very lean, so it’s not like we just ran out of money. We didn’t have much to begin with. The decision was a recent and tough one.”
No, not looking for a new arena site on all that suddenly vacant property; it was a special holiday-shopping spree at Westwood Village Target, according to the official Sonics blog.
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