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More details on next week’s meeting about California Ave. upzoning

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Background: A group of property owners led by well-known real-estate/property management partners Roger Cayce and Mike Gain are asking the city to “upzone” both sides of California Ave. between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit south of Hinds; city map screengrabbed above) from NC1-30 to NC2-40, as preparation for future redevelopment. The first details emerged at last week’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting; here’s our detailed report. Then, last Friday, the city set November 29 as the date for the first full public meeting on this. And tonight, we know that meeting will be at 6:30 pm in the library at West Seattle High School. Representatives for both the city and the property owners will be at the 11/29 meeting, and public comment will be important, for and from anyone interested/concerned in the plan. Here are a few other details of note:Read More

Once proposed for a park/pool, 4515 41st is back up for sale

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One year ago, we first wrote about the stretch shown above — 4515 41st and environs, on the east edge of The Junction. Neighbors were concerned at the time about a development proposal for a 7-story apartment/condo building on the 4515 41st parcel, and neighboring lots, that at one point even featured a “park & pool” plan. That had changed by the time the project finished going through the Design Review Board process, but neighbors’ concerns over the size of the proposed project remained. Now, WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli (who also took the photo above) reports, the original developers appear to be getting out — 4515 41st is on the market again. Two years ago, county records say, it sold for $925,000; now it’s offered for $1,500,000, with listing pages (such as this one) describing it as a “(f)antastic townhome or multi-unit site right in the heart of the West Seattle Junction.”

Revealed: What’s going into the old Bikes ‘n’ Brew spot

Several people have e-mailed WSB to ask about this – wondered about it ourselves – and finally we have the answer: The ex-Bikes & Brew (etc.) spot in The Junction, just west of Easy Street, will be the new West Seattle home of Twilight Artist Collective — here’s what Erin Crawford tells us about Twilight:Read More

Nucor permit application: Time running out to comment

WSB reader Julia called this to our attention. We have not been able to do a lot of research on it but wanted to let you know about it before it’s too late, in case you are interested in having a say: Nucor Steel is upgrading one of its cranes, to boost production, and because that could increase emissions of carbon monoxide and a variety of other components (details in this notice), Nucor has to get permits from the state Ecology Department and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Both are recommending approval; the deadline for public comment is tomorrow (the notice was apparently posted almost a month ago; as a result of this, we’ve learned about a new place to check for important public notices!), although it appears from the second part of a posting on this site that one piece of the project is open for comment until 12/12. Both these notices say a public hearing will be held only if there is “significant public interest” — contacts to express said interest can be found on the links.

First sightings of West Seattle Christmas trees

Five weeks till Christmas and the elves already have brought trees to certain corners of West Seattle. treesgraphic.jpgSpotted on an early-morning reconnaissance run: Trees at Tony’s (35th/Barton), True-Value in The Junction, and Rite-Aid on California. We also saw a sign on Harbor Ave pointing past a gate into a promised tree lot (will investigate more closely later), and of course the wildly popular Holy Rosary Tree Lot opens south of Admiral Safeway at noon Saturday. And if you want to cut your own – here’s the Pacific Northwest Tree Association guide to Washington U-Cut locations.

Jogger attacked in Lincoln Park

Police are looking for a man who jumped a jogger late yesterday: reports here and here. She got away OK; he unfortunately got away too and was described in the tv report as “25 to 35, about 5-7, light brown hair, possibly balding … wearing a white, oversized sweatshirt with a pattern on it, and gray sweatpants.” The attack location is described only as “a trail in the south end.”

Amazon Fresh says it’s now delivering to West Seattle

We signed ourselves up to be notified when Amazon‘s new grocery-delivery service came to our zip code – haven’t gotten a note that way yet, but the official WSB inbox just yielded this:

My name is Vincent and I’m a PM on the Amazon Fresh team. We’re part of the Amazon.com family, and we’re the Seattle area’s newest online grocery. We recently launched in July, only delivering to Mercer Island, but we’ve been expanding our coverage areas and now we just began delivery to West Seattle! I was wondering if your readers would be interested in the following news:

Beginning today, residents living in zip codes 98136, 98126, and 98116 can enjoy our pre-dawn delivery service: Place an order online as late as midnight, and we can deliver next morning as early as 6AM — free.*(minimum $25 order) This even includes Thanksgiving Day!

All you have to do is to browse to AmazonFresh.com and enter the address where you’d like to have your deliveries. Visit us and browse our selection of over 20,000 specialty and everyday items—get your milk, fresh fruit, and much more.

Much as we personally prefer to shop in our local West Seattle grocery stores and will continue to do so, we may place a test order just to report back on what happens. 8:45 PM UPDATE: Well, we tried. But then we hit the explanation of “pre-dawn delivery” – sometime before 6 am, the order is left by your door. Just not comfortable with that; not that we don’t trust our neighbors, but there’s a lot of wildlife around here. They would have had a field day with the turkey. Some interesting pricing in there, though, especially for produce and fresh herbs.

Crime alert: Marine View Drive car vandalism

November 19, 2007 4:40 pm
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 |   Arbor Heights | Crime | West Seattle news

Just out of the inbox, from Meg:

Just wanted to let you know that my truck window was smashed outside my house (Marine View Dr SW, Arbor Heights), last Monday night. Our street has experienced a fairly regular stream of crime over the last year or so, so maybe someone else will benefit by seeing a note on the blog. (The installation of motion sensor security lights and alert neighbors are always welcome.)

City budget passes unanimously

The $900 million-plus city budget for next year got unanimous approval from the City Council a few hours ago. That includes the Pedestrian Safety Initiative that councilmembers publicized with this event along Delridge just last week. Regarding specifics of interest to us in West Seattle — for starters, one note of interest from a newsletter sent by West Seattle-resident Councilmember Tom Rasmussen after the vote — he says the budget that was passed includes “Rental Assistance – Added $350,000 for emergency rental assistance and homeless prevention to include renters being evicted due to the conversion of their apartments to condominiums.” Brian Hawksford from Councilmember Rasmussen’s office also confirms that the $50,000 for a new pedestal for the Alki Statue of Liberty (as announced at the 9/11/07 unveiling) is in the budget that won final approval, and he says Rasmussen got $ added to the budget to help bring two areas of the city, including ours, up to parity with the rest of the city regarding Parks Department programs for the physically and developmentally disabled. 5 PM ADDENDUM: Dueling press releases are out from the Mayor and Council — here’s his (noting his disappointment that they killed the 311 emergency-infoline proposal), and here’s theirs.

Metropolitan Market goes green: Reusable bags debut

This just in, minutes after our update about holiday grocery-store hours: According to this press release, Metropolitan Market is debuting “REbag,” a reusable shopping bag — you can get one free if you spend at least $50 — and plans a big launch event at the Admiral store Wednesday morning featuring nearby-dwelling Mayor Nickels.

Junction Hometown Holidays: New details

The West Seattle Junction Association website now has new details about the snowflake.jpgHometown Holidays weekend-long celebration that’s less than two weeks away, including a new location for the tree — the site describes the Saturday night 12/1 event as “inaugural lighting of newly planted Community Holiday Tree at 6 pm … in the Farmers’ Market Parking Lot.” Check out the full list of activities here, including the especially festive-sounding “Adult Cheer Garden.”

Another Fauntleroy Way chunk on the market

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Even before the destiny of the ex-Gee/ex-Huling dealership parcels becomes clear … even before Fauntleroy Place breaks ground … another chunk of Fauntleroy Way business land east of The Junction is now on the market: 4415-4425 Fauntleroy (map), perhaps best known as home to Tervo’s Mini-Mart (whose proprietor died this past Labor Day), listed for sale for $2,900,000. Here’s the listing; the flyer describes it as “commercial, retail, or mixed use; potential for 79 units, plus 5 commercial units; 108 parking spaces.” Here’s a screen grab of the flyer:Read More

Pet projects: 3 notes for those who love ’em

November 18, 2007 9:37 am
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 |   High Point | How to help | Pets | West Seattle news

“TOAST TO THE ANIMALS” TONIGHT AT BEVERIDGE PLACE PUB: This puts the “fun” in “fundraiser” — a benefit for Furry Faces Foundation. Their announcement is livelier than any rewrite we could do:

“Raise your glasses and ring in the Holiday Cheer for rescued animals,” say Terri and Gary, owners of the Beveridge Place Pub, “as we are delighted to announce another Wine Tasting Fun-Raiser, benefiting Furry Faces Foundation, a.k.a., F3. And, if you like a particular wine (s), you may purchase a bottle or two or more … right then and there.” “For a mere $15 you get to taste 4-6 lovely wines, savor light appetizers, mingle with your neighbors, and help defray the cost of spaying ‘n’ neutering rescued animals,” raves Lora Vickrey, F3 treasurer and Hotwire Coffeehouse owner [also WSB sponsor], “plus, we will be previewing our soon to be infamous, nefarious game of kismet, called …. Box-a-Rama! Be there, or be square.”

That’s 4:30 pm-7 pm tonight (here’s a map to Beveridge Place Pub).

GET YOUR DOG GROOMED ON TURKEY DAY: Across California Ave from Beveridge Place and a bit north, The Wash Dog is taking appointments for grooming on Thanksgiving morning. We heard from Wash Dog owner Bernadette Cassidy after our post seeking info on West Seattle businesses open Thanksgiving. We’re building that list now; meanwhile, you can call Bernadette to snag one of those holiday appointments at 206-935-4546.

YOGA WITH YOUR DOG? Wendy Hughes-Jelen from the High Point K9 Club is trying to organize a “yoga with your dog” class or workshop. Wendy had a great time taking a class in Bellevue that’s taught by an instructor who lives in West Seattle, Brenda Bryan. Wendy is working with Brenda and the High Point Community Center to get West Seattle dog yoga going, but she needs at least 4 people/dog pairs to rev this up; e-mail her at wendyhj (at) greenspacesrealestate.com if you want to get in on it. (Read more about “yoga with your dog” at Brenda’s website.)

More live music in West Seattle tonight

November 17, 2007 7:55 pm
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 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

In addition to what’s already listed in our latest West Seattle Weekend Lineup (posted on WSB every Friday morning), we just got word from Julie @ Divina (California/Genesee) of an event there with live music 8-11 tonight. The rain stopped – go out! (We’re going to try to take that advice ourselves.)

Gee vs. Huling: No arbitration, says judge

November 17, 2007 2:22 pm
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 |   West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

The auction is over, the first ex-Huling employee verdict is in, but the court fight over who’s to blame for the dealership failure continues: Latest development in the Gee vs. Huling lawsuit (full lawsuit document linked from here), according to the newest publicly downloadable court documents, is this — geehulingicon.jpgKing County Superior Court Judge Harry McCarthy has ruled against the Hulings in their contention that the dispute with the Gees should go to arbitration rather than court because of terms in their original dealership sale agreement. (The judge wrote “… the dispute falls outside of the arbitration provision in the parties’ contract”; read the ruling here.) So now the Hulings are taking it to the state Court of Appeals. (Read the “notice of appeal” here.)

Signs of life at that other Junction restaurant-to-be

Since work on Shadowland started to pick up speed, we’ve received questions about the restaurant project across the street and a bit north — the ex-In Bloom space, first heralded one year ago as Spring Hill (not to be confused with the Spring Hill mixed-use building plan that recently emerged south of The Junction), to be opened by a local chef named Mark Fuller. This morning, we found a sign of life on that project, first one in months: A 30-day “get started” permit just issued by the city. Before now, the last major update on the Spring Hill restaurant came in June, when its design emerged on its architects’ website. Another link we found at the time (which doesn’t work any more) described Spring Hill as seeking to “redefine the French bistro in Seattle.” Guess we’ll see soon!

Another upzone update: The public meeting

November 16, 2007 9:45 pm
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 |   California Ave upzoning | Development | West Seattle news

According to the city’s project page for the Hanford-to-Hinds upzoning proposal on California (Wednesday’s detailed report here), the public meeting is set for Thursday, November 29th, at West Seattle High School. We hope to hear back from DPD planners early next week regarding the time.

Holiday help

November 16, 2007 7:59 pm
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 |   Holidays | How to help | West Seattle news

THANKSGIVING #1: Bless everyone who has to work on holidays. We know it’s no picnic. Again this year, we are compiling a list of who’s open on The Big Holidays in two categories: coffee shops and grocery stores. We have started our Thanksgiving list already but we are asking for your help, if you own or work at a West Seattle business in one of those categories — let us know whether you’re closed or open on Thanksgiving, and if open, what hours. Post a comment here or e-mail WSB directly. Thank you!

THANKSGIVING #2: We’ve talked here before about the free community Thanksgiving feast that will be hosted noon-3 pm Thursday by Tuxedos & Tennis Shoes on their home turf at The Hall @ Fauntleroy. According to the West Seattle Helpline website, while there are enough volunteers to serve the dinner, they need some things you could drop off at The Hall (map) before 11 am Thanksgiving morning: a pie, new socks, winter hats, or gloves.

CHRISTMAS ETC.: Once you get those outdoor decorations up (the weekend forecast doesn’t look too conducive) keep WSB in mind if you have an extra-festive display — let us know where you’re at so we can come by for pix/video, or send us your own pix/video for posting, so we can all share the season’s sights; a special Holidays page is one of two new features we’re adding to WSB this weekend.

2 notes from California & Graham

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First one has to do with the doomed building shown above (future home of a 3-story commercial building plus townhouses), which, as we first wrote in April, we have a soft spot for. Big green signs in its window today announce a “moving sale” this weekend for the martial-arts studio that’s been the storefront’s most recent tenant; we found more about the sale online.

Second note: Across the street and to the south from the aforementioned moving sale, the city seems to still be having trouble getting the ex-Chuck and Sally’s Tavern to comply with the rules regarding not using the property as a parking lot; this page says it’s failed two inspections and now is under a warning to comply by 11/30, or else.

Reader report: Gables condo conversion slowing?

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That was the scene outside the West Ridge Park apartment complex on Delridge in mid-summer, as the complex advertised cheerily for “month-to-month” and “short-term” renters while proceeding with plans to convert to condos and rename the complex “Gables,” under the umbrella of Mosaic Homes, which recently turned the Graham Street Apartments into “Strata.” We had been wondering why we hadn’t seen any stirrings of marketing yet for Gables, though the city permit files show work aplenty; this note from a reader may give us a clue:

Thought you might be interested to find out that the West Ridge Park Apartments are no longer going to be converted to condos anytime in the near future. I am a resident there and recently inquired to find out when I would receive my 90-day notice to vacate. The front office worker told me that I wouldn’t be receiving a notice because the real estate market had turned and the remaining buildings were no longer going to be converted (at least for a while). They have begun the conversion of four of the buildings, which are almost finished, but according to the worker, the owners haven’t decided what to do with them once they are finished. She thought they may either keep them vacant for purchase at a later date or eventually lease them out.

We have a message out to Mosaic asking for comment; will let you know if they respond.

West Seattle Weekend Lineup: ‘Tis the weekend b4 Thanksgiving …

A free early Thanksgiving dinner tonight … another chance for you to drop off donations to brighten somebody else’s Thanksgiving … bazaars, music, more … among 35 West Seattle events for today, tomorrow, and/or Sunday:Read More

Three ways to be greener

Three things of environmental note:

FREE E-CYCLING: This isn’t happening in West Seattle but it’s not far, and it’s free: 9 am-3 pm tomorrow, Safeco Field parking structure at Occidental & Edgar Martinez (map), you can bring certain electronic items for free recycling: specifically “any make or model of computers and related equipment, including monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice, laptops, gaming consoles, and mobile entertainment devices.”

authentichome.jpgGREEN PAINT: The folks who run Authentic Home, the bright blue interior-design shop (AH-provided photo at left) that relocated to The Junction 2 months back, have a new line of environmentally smarter paint, described thusly: “Our new paint is Zero VOC and solvent-free and environmentally responsible. All 60 of our colors can be made with Authentic Home COLOR Paint GREEN and remain true to the colors and vibrancy in our original low VOC paint.” We’ll confess, we had to look up “VOC” (here’s the explanation).

SUSTAINABLE WEST SEATTLE: Want to get an early start on a New Year’s resolution for all of West Seattle? Be at the Camp Long lodge tomorrow, 9 am-2 pm, for the Sustainable West Seattle Open Space Forum addressing “How do we make West Seattle more sustainable in 2008?” Free breakfast and beverages (bring your own mug and utensils, in the sustainability spirit). Read more here.