Three notes related to the ongoing community feedback on proposed Mandatory Housing Affordability rezoning as part of the city’s HALA (Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda) initiative:

REMINDER – MORGAN JUNCTION COMMUNITY DESIGN WORKSHOP ON MONDAY: 6-9 pm Monday at The Hall at Fauntleroy (9131 California SW), it’s the Morgan Junction Urban Village version of the city-organized meeting that’s already been held in West Seattle’s three other urban villages (most recently Admiral last month – WSB coverage here – and The Junction in January – WSB coverage here). The city’s official description of the meeting – including how to RSVP, though that’s not required – is here.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK – WESTWOOD-HIGHLAND PARK CONVERSATION: This past Wednesday night, a community-led conversation about the proposed HALA rezoning happened at Highland Park Improvement Club:

Organizer Kim Barnes told the dozen or so attendees that she’s hoping to have two more meetings along the path of creating a community response to what’s proposed for the Westwood-Highland Park Urban Village. The affected area has three neighborhood groups, but she’s hoping their response can be coordinated. That was underscored by Cindi Barker, one of the West Seattle community advocates who have been helping neighborhoods around the area get up to speed on the proposals; she said that talking points are vital so that neighborhoods “don’t get steamrolled.” Attendee concerns included how to ensure that existing small businesses, especially those owned by people of color, aren’t put at risk by the upzoning. No dates for future meetings yet, but Barnes says she hopes that once the HALA Environmental Impact Statement comes out, that a city rep will come out and present a briefing.

TWO LINKS OF INTEREST: First – if you’ve been to a Community Design Workshop already (Westwood-HP in November, WS Junction in January, Admiral in February) – here’s a survey you might want to answer. Save the link if you’re going to Morgan on Monday, so you can answer afterward.

Second – If you’ve wondered how the city is talking with builders/developers about the proposed upzoning, read the newest SDCI newsletter, published online earlier this week.

… AND IF YOU’RE STILL NOT SURE IF/HOW YOU’RE AFFECTED BY ALL THIS – zoom in to your neighborhood via the interactive citywide map. You can comment via e-mail, at halainfo@seattle.gov, and the city has a feedback website, organized by urban village, at hala.consider.it.

South-end redevelopment continues in The Junction. In the city’s online files, an early-stage plan has just been filed for 24 microstudios in a building that would replace a 70-year-old duplex (county assessor photo at right) at 4807 41st SW, next to townhouses that were built last decade at 41st/Edmunds. They are officially described as SEDUs (small efficiency dwelling units, the city’s name for what used to be more commonly known as microhousing), 320 square feet each. The plan doesn’t mention the height, but the site is zoned Lowrise 2, which maxes out at 35′. This project is expected to go through the city’s Streamlined Design Review process, which means no public meeting, but an opportunity for public comment.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Though both were billed as “Community Design Workshops,” there were major differences in the meetings about Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda-related rezoning for Admiral, held this past Saturday, and for The Junction, held last month.

Turnout was different – about 50 people for Admiral, more than 200 for The Junction – though that’s proportionate to both the areas’ population differences and their respective scopes of change proposed by the rezoning for Mandatory Housing Affordability, in which developers/builders will get extra capacity and in exchange will have to include “affordable housing” in their projects or pay a fee into a city fund that will bankroll some. The changes are proposed in the city’s Urban Villages (West Seattle has four) and for all commercial/multifamily property citywide (check this map to see how/if you’re affected).

Also different: The meetings’ format.

At The Junction’s meeting on January 26th (WSB coverage here), the initial explanatory presentation by a city Office of Planning and Community Development staffer was followed by a Q/A period, with slips of paper having circulated at the start of the meeting for participants to write down questions.

That didn’t happen in Admiral; a few questions were addressed when people spoke out during the presentation, but at its end, facilitator John Owen of consulting firm Makers Architecture and Urban Design pushed to get everyone into small-group breakouts, despite one attendee requesting a chance for Q&A so everyone could hear.

At Admiral on Saturday (a morning meeting at West Seattle High School), small groups were not preassigned as they had been for pre-RSVP’d participants in The Junction (an evening meeting at the Senior Center). Their work did conclude with another difference: At Admiral, each group presented a summary to the entire room; in The Junction, that didn’t happen – tables just wrapped up, left their notes, and departed.

We recorded the Admiral summaries on video, and you’ll see those relatively short clips later in this story. But first, toplines from the opening presentation: Read More

One more reminder – tomorrow is the day that people who live and/or work in Admiral are invited to a Community Design Workshop about the rezoning that’s proposed for the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) component known as Mandatory Housing Affordability.

(Direct link to draft Admiral Urban Village rezoning map)

This proposal would upzone property within the city’s Urban Villages – plus all multifamily/commercial property, in an UV or not – and require builders/developers to either dedicate part of what they build as “affordable,” or pay into a fund that will go toward affordable housing somewhere in the city. You can click around this interactive map to see what’s proposed where you are. Then, 9:30 am-12:30 pm Saturday at West Seattle High School (3000 California SW), it’s the Admiral version of this big recent meeting in The Junction – first a presentation, then Q/A, then table-by-table conversation to get your feedback. Here’s the official city announcement. Whether or not you’re going, you can get your feedback to the city via hala.consider.it or e-mailing halainfo@seattle.gov.

Two updates and a reminder today in the ongoing discussion of rezoning proposed for the Mandatory Housing Affordability component of the city’s HALA (Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda) initiative:

(Direct link to draft Morgan Urban Village rezoning map)

NEW DATE SET FOR MORGAN JUNCTION ‘COMMUNITY DESIGN WORKSHOP’: Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s office sends word that the Morgan Junction Residential Urban Village’s rescheduled Community Design Workshop – a meeting like this one held in the West Seattle Junction two weeks ago – is set for Monday, March 6th, 6-9 pm, at The Hall at Fauntleroy (9131 California SW). From the city: “Please bring a neighbor or a friend to join the conversation. RSVP is not required to participate in the workshop but does give priority for facilitated working groups as well as assist our team in planning for staffing, room setup, and resources.” If you choose to RSVP, e-mail spencer.williams@seattle.gov.

REMINDER – ADMIRAL’S WORKSHOP COMING UP SATURDAY: This gives us the opportunity to remind you again that the Admiral Residential Urban Village’s Community Design Workshop is now three days away, 9:30 am-12:30 pm Saturday, February 11th, at West Seattle High School (3000 California SW).

ANOTHER WESTWOOD-HIGHLAND PARK URBAN VILLAGE MEETING: Announced at last night’s Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Council meeting (full report later today), the city will come back out for another HALA discussion regarding the WW-Highland Park Urban Village, on March 1st, start time TBA, since the Community Design Workshop back in November had low attendance due to little publicity.

WHEREVER YOU ARE … you can still comment on the proposed rezoning via hala.consider.it or by e-mailing halainfo@seattle.gov. Not sure whether/how HALA MHA is affecting the neighborhood(s) where you live/work? Check the citywide interactive map here.

A few notes today about the city’s proposed rezoning for the Mandatory Housing Affordability component of HALA (the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda):

COUNCIL BRIEFING MONDAY, WITH DEADLINE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT: On Monday morning, the City Council‘s weekly briefing meeting at 9:30 am will include a HALA briefing. The documents related to the briefing are already linked to the meeting’s agenda. Two of them announce a date for the end of public comment: June 30th. It’s in this memo, and on the last page of the briefing slide deck – here’s a framegrab:

(The briefing documents note that only 600 people have used the hala.consider.it site, which has drawn complaints about user-unfriendliness.) Earlier this week, we reported that City Councilmember Lisa Herbold had learned the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the MHA rezoning was expected to go public in May rather than March. Some community groups including the Junction Neighborhood Organization and Southwest District Council have asked for an extra six months to comment; the draft rezoning maps went public in October but without a clear citywide announcement of what they were and who they would affect. The city now says its upcoming outreach will include going door-to-door:

The City will be going door to door in our Urban Villages to answer questions and leave
information about ways to comment on the draft proposals. The doorbelling will take place in March
2017 and will focus on the single-family homes that will be changing to multifamily.

That’s an excerpt from the memo for Monday morning’s briefing. Public comment is not taken during council briefing meetings, but you can attend at City Hall, or watch live via seattlechannel.org (online or cable 21).

ADMIRAL MEETING REMINDER: One week from tomorrow is the Community Design Workshop for the Admiral Residential Urban Village, 9:30 am-12:30 pm at West Seattle High School. It’s the Admiral version of the well-attended Junction meeting last week (WSB coverage here). Here’s the official city weblink about the meeting (child care provided, by the way); if you still don’t know whether your neighborhood is proposed for rezoning, explore the citywide interactive map.

(WSB photo)

While out this morning, we spotted that demolition in progress at 5040 Fauntleroy Way SW, an 73-year-old home on a site zoned Lowrise 1, being demolished for replacement by three single-family houses.

This year, the backhoe/excavator is more of the West Seattle development icon than the tower crane – the peninsula does not have a single project with one of the latter right now. This month alone, demolition permits have been sought at these addresses (each one links to the DPD docket for the site, unless it’s a site we’ve already published a story about, in which case it’s asterisked):

3010 Fauntleroy Avenue SW
4103 SW Southern
4810 Delridge Way SW*
5015 Fauntleroy Way SW
2622 SW Nevada
2749 California SW* (apartments/PCC project, due back to Design Review on March 2nd)
6727 39th SW
3046 61st SW*
3050 61st SW*
6016 SW Admiral Way*
8854 Delridge Way SW* (fire-damaged auto-shop site, proposed for apartments)
6530 Delridge Way SW
4532 42nd SW* (mixed-use project)
7337 44th SW
4311 SW Brandon*
3044 38th SW
4748 23rd SW
4744 23rd SW
7531 13th SW (new proposal, 8-unit rowhouse)
1516 SW Henderson (new proposal, 8-unit rowhouse)
3028 63rd SW

We don’t have stats to compare if that’s more or less than usual … just a snapshot of one month in time. (Just to get those addresses, we had to search city data for any one of four terms – demolition, demo, remove, removal.) This also doesn’t necessarily mean the aforementioned demolitions are imminent … permit filings/updates vary widely in terms of timelines, from days to months. (For just one example – 2749 California SW, the apartments/PCC project, still has at least one more Design Review meeting to go, and that’s not until March 2nd, so that demolition is a ways off. And in some cases, permits are granted but the teardown doesn’t happen for quite some time; pending demolitions, with permits granted before this month, aren’t included in the list, just new applications/reviews dated this month.)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“How do we grow as a city and create more affordable housing in all of our neighborhoods?”

That’s the question the current proposal for Mandatory Housing Affordability rezoning, as part of the city’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda, is supposed to address.

But despite hundreds of properties proposed for rezoning, it could result in fewer than 100 affordable units over the next 20 years in the West Seattle Junction Urban Village, according to one part of the presentation seen by ~200 people last night, filling the upstairs hall at the Senior Center for a briefing, Q&A session, and small-group discussions of that area’s part of the plan.

The meeting was officially billed as a Community Design Workshop. We were there for the entire three hours. First – in case you are still catching up on HALA, which includes 60+ components in addition to the MHA rezoning – we recorded the half-hour primer provided by Brennon Staley of the Office of Planning and Community Development – “the background and how we got here,” regarding what he described as a “housing affordability crisis”:

Other city staffers from OPCD were there, as well as a representative from the office of Councilmember Rob Johnson – who chairs the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee through which the final proposals will go – District 1 Councilmember Lisa Herbold (observing rather than speaking), and consulting-firm employees who facilitated the small-group discussions.

The Junction area has 3,880 homes today – that includes apartments, townhouses, houses – Staley said. If nothing (zoning, etc.) changes, 2,300 new homes are expected to be added in the next 20 years. If MHA rezoning is approved, that number is expected to bump to 2,800 new homes, with 80 to 130 of them “affordable.” After the four-digit building boom of the past few years, those numbers drew some audible expressions of disbelief from around the room. Staley did offer the caveat that it’s “just an estimate, could be more or less.”

The presentation had a few points of customization for the West Seattle Junction area – including “retain(ing) highest density along the SW Alaska ‘transit spine’,” the “transition from (higher heights) to single-family areas,” and larger density increases near transit, stores, Fairmount Park.

That brought the question that resurfaced at last week’s Junction Neighborhood Organization Land Use Committee meeting – what about waiting for rezoning until the station locations for Sound Transit 3 are known? There was no real answer to that, aside from the acknowledgement that it’s a unique issue for this area.

Another common question was the potential effect of rezoning on property taxes. That’s where the question-and-answer section began – here’s our video of that half-hour:

That didn’t get to all the questions, and it was promised that they all will be answered on a TBA webpage. But that could take a month, the city reps acknowledged, when asked how long that would take, given that no summary of the December 7th open house – 7+ weeks ago – has turned up yet.

If you’re interested, but couldn’t go last night, we highly advise taking the time to listen to the video, but here are a few highlights:

Questions included how “infrastructure” is being addressed, including the need for more schools. The city is “working closely with Seattle Public Schools” as it plans for the BEX 5 ballot measure (followup to BEX 4, which built new schools including Genesee Hill and Arbor Heights Elementaries), reps said.

And then there was the question of whether the “affordable housing” to be generated by MHA will “contribute to solving the homeless problem.” Staley’s response was that it’s “interrelated but not the same issue” – homelessness, he said, is caused partly by the cost of housing, and also by “other issues” (he did not elaborate).

The Junction already has absorbed much more growth than was envisioned to have happened by now, so could some of the proposed growth be shifted to other areas of the city that have not? “That’s why we are out talking to people,” Staley replied.

The perennial issue of vehicle parking came up. “We know (it) is a concern,” Staley said, adding that there is no minimum or maximum for it in urban-village projects, but most projects, he said, include it. (Many attendees shouted, WRONG! at this point.)

And then there was a followup on the small number of affordable units expected to be generated, whether by percentages or fees, from Junction upzoning, and a question about where in this area that the city already had built affordable housing. Staley contended there had been a “lot,” and when asked where, started to mention the High Point redevelopment, but the discussion veered away at that point. (He said the Office of Housing has a map, but did not have a representative at the meeting.)

Around midway through the three-hour meeting, the small-group discussions began. People who had RSVPd were pre-assigned to certain tables, and more were added for those who had not – “there’s so much interest in your community,” the facilitator explained.

The room was abuzz with conversation all the way until the 9 pm conclusion – some left early, but not many. We listened in at multiple tables, where concerns ranged from wanting to exempt single-family areas from rezoning, to wanting more green space, to wanting to be sure that West Seattle’s hilly topography was taken into account when considering how height changes would play out. By the meeting’s end, maps on tables had many comments, from discrepancies to suggestions – here are a few examples:

West Seattle Junction is one of four urban villages in West Seattle – this type of meeting was held, though little-publicized, in Westwood-Highland Park in November; Admiral will have one the morning of Saturday, February 11th; and Morgan Junction will too, with a date TBA. MHA rezoning also affects commercial/multifamily property EVERYWHERE in the city, so you might be affected even if you’re not in an “urban village” area. (Added: Here’s the interactive map you can use to zoom in on any area of West Seattle – or the rest of the city – to see whether any particular spot is affected.)

COMMENT ONLINE: You can comment on any urban-village proposal at hala.consider.it. Or, you can e-mail comments to halainfo@seattle.gov.

(Direct link to draft West Seattle Junction rezoning map)

January 26th is the next major city meeting in West Seattle related to proposed rezoning for the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda‘s Mandatory Housing Affordability component – and this week, the Junction Neighborhood Organization has two meetings to prepare for it. From JuNO director René Commons:

1/17 Tuesday, JuNO Meeting, 6:30-7:30 pm – West Seattle Senior Center’s Nucor Room

Guest Speaker Cindi Barker: Cindi will be sharing the MoCA (Morgan Community Association) response to the MHA HALA rezone. She will offer her insights on how best to plan and prepare our WS Junction community to respond at the upcoming city meeting on 1/26.

1/19 Thursday, JuNO Land Use Committee meeting – 6:30-7:30 pm, West Seattle Senior Center’s Hatten Hall – for neighbors to provide input before the 1/26 City meeting.

JuNO is excited to announce Rich Koehler and Carl Guess are Co-Chairs for the newly formed JuNO Land Use Committee, which is a part of JuNO that will focus on helping the West Seattle Junction neighborhood influence programs that include proposed land use changes such as HALA and ST3! The JuNO Land Use Committee will be hosting this meeting. Thank you Rich, Carl, & all the new volunteers!

The January 19th meeting will be a community-organized “workshop meeting,” Commons says, “to discuss a response that is related to rezoning, infrastructure, and affordable housing in our West Seattle Junction Urban Village in an open forum.” Then a week later, it’s the city-sponsored January 26th workshop, also at the Senior Center, 6-9 pm. If you’re interested in being there, JuNO hopes to see you at one or both of this week’s meetings. The Senior Center (Sisson Building) is at 4217 SW Oregon.

It might take until next year before the City Council finalizes a rezoning plan for the Mandatory Housing Affordability component of the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda. That’s what Councilmember Lisa Herbold told us during an interview about her first year in office (full story on that here tomorrow). Meantime, her office has confirmed that three more “community design workshops” are planned in West Seattle in connection with the rezoning proposals. We’re sharing the dates so you can at least set your calendar:

*For Morgan Junction – January 23rd, 6-9 pm, Gatewood Elementary (4320 SW Myrtle)

*For West Seattle Junction – January 26th, 6-9 pm, Senior Center of West Seattle (4217 SW Oregon; final location confirmation pending)

*For Admiral – February 11th, 9:30 am-12:30 pm, West Seattle High School (3000 California SW)

The fourth “urban village” in West Seattle, Westwood-Highland Park, had a workshop in November.

The workshops are organized by the office of Councilmember Rob Johnson, who chairs the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, which is the lead on consideration of HALA-related items. Here’s how his office explains the design workshops:

The goal of this workshop is to help inform City Council about your community’s vision of how our Urban Villages should look, feel, and function in support of important citywide goals for increased affordability, design quality, and housing options in neighborhoods throughout the city.

We welcome a lively interchange of ideas and opinions on the recently proposed zoning changes for your neighborhood, including where the boundary for urban villages should be drawn, what mix of zones best support the context and conditions of local areas, and how to encourage more housing options and elements of livability (including neighborhood amenities such as frequent and reliable transit, community-serving businesses, parks and schools). Our goal is to increase choices for more people of all incomes to benefit from working and living in urban villages across the city. More information on other methods to provide input one the proposed draft urban village boundary, draft zoning changes, and building types can be found at www.seattle.gov/hala/focus-groups.

We look forward to hearing from you. To RSVP, please e-mail Spencer.Williams@Seattle.Gov or call (206) 384-2709. Please inform us at that time if you require accommodations for accessibility or interpretation services.

While the rezoning proposals are mostly focused on the “urban villages” around the city, they also involve multifamily/commercial property everywhere. Check this citywide map to see if/how your neighborhood would change under the current draft proposals, for which the city is still taking comment at halainfo@seattle.gov and via this website.

P.S. If you are just catching up on all this – our coverage of a neighbors-helping-neighbors briefing a little over a month ago will probably be helpful. It includes all four West Seattle urban villages’ draft maps, with current and proposed zoning.

12:23 PM: There’s a new development proposal for 4722 Fauntleroy Way SW, where – as reported here last summer – CVS gave up its plan for a drugstore. We just found the new early-stage proposal on the city docket, where it’s described as:

Construction of both a 7-story apartment structure on the Fauntleroy-facing property and a 4-story apartment structure on the 38th Ave SW facing property. Structures to include rental apartment units, commercial uses where appropriate, and structured indoor parking. All existing structures to be demolished.

No unit counts are mentioned in what’s online so far; the project will go through Design Review.

The site is currently home to West Seattle Produce and Suite Arrangements. The preliminary site plan shows the development also would include 4736 and 4740 Fauntleroy Way SW, bringing it all the way up to the proposed mixed-use building that’s in the works for the former pawn-shop site on the northeast corner of Fauntleroy and Edmunds; the property on 38th is listed as street number 4721, immediately east of the aforementioned business buildings. The prospective developer is listed as Legacy Partners, which built Youngstown Flats (WSB sponsor) in North Delridge; the architect is listed as Nicholson Kovalchick.

1:46 PM: While out of HQ just now, we went over for a quick look at the project site. The 38th SW-facing lot proposed for a 4-story apartment building is immediately south of Les Schwab and currently being used as food-truck parking. The two lots south of the Suite Arrangements/WS Produce building both have small structures on the alley side.

42nd Avenue SW continues to be the busiest street for West Seattle Junction redevelopment. Newly filed documents show the local developers who built Junction Flats at 4433 42nd SW have a new early-stage proposal on the same block, between SW Genesee and SW Oregon. We just found the “site plan” for 4417 42nd SW in the city Department of Construction and Inspection files. The site plan filed less than a week ago proposes a four-story building with 55 apartments and an unspecified number of underground parking spaces. The site plan shows the new building replacing what county records say are three 1930s-built houses at 4417, 4421, and 4423 42nd SW, separated from Junction Flats by a parking lot owned by the West Seattle Eagles. No formal application filed yet, but this will have to go through the Design Review process.