That pile of debris is all that was left late today of the 96-year-old triplex at 4122 36th SW [map], where a microhousing building that drew concerns from dozens of neighbors is set to start going up. (Thanks to AA for the tip that demolition was under way.) We first reported on the plan in July 2015, when it was described as a four-story building with an unspecified number of “small efficiency dwelling units.”

(Rendering from design-review packet by architects Alloy Design Group)

It’s now a two-building, 4-story project, with some conflicting numbers – the official description mentions 20 units, but lines on the city docket mention wiring for “33 microunits.” (We’ll check with SDCI on Monday to confirm that’s just a mistake – the design-review packet reinforces the 20-unit count and shows floor plans.) One thing that’s remained consistent is that the project does not include offstreet parking spaces. The city file includes a generic acknowledgment of neighbors’ concerns about that, and points them to this city webpage, which says city planners are working on a citywide plan with these principles:

*Provide integrated and accessible transportation choices that are readily available for Seattle’s growing population – such as ORCA passes, car and bike sharing and shared parking.

*Support Comprehensive Plan goals to encourage growth in Urban Centers.

*Retain and enhance Seattle neighborhoods’ walkable and livable urban qualities, which are essential and preferable to automobile‐oriented public places and buildings.

*Prioritize housing affordability to preserve and enhance the ability of persons of all economic means to be able to live in Seattle. Parking is a significant cost factor for developers.

*Help ensure that racial and socio‐economic equity is a key consideration in setting parking policies.

*Manage on‐ and off‐street parking most efficiently.

*Promote designs for better quality, more secure, and more comfortable bicycle storage facilities.

*Achieve local and regional environmental objectives through sound choices to achieve air quality, climate change, and natural environmental protection goals.

To the south of 4122 36th SW, the single-family house at 4126 36th SW is set to be torn down and replaced by a two-unit rowhouse building that will have offstreet parking. The developer of that project had the lot split, and plans show that two parking spaces will go onto what is now technically a separate lot off the alley.

If you haven’t already taken a close look at the four maps below, now is the time. The city has yet to make a wide announcement about them, but this is the window for comments and questions. They are the West Seattle “draft maps” as part of the city’s plan to upzone properties for a component of the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda called Mandatory Housing Affordability – focused on the areas known as “urban villages”; beneath the maps, a special event at which your neighbors are offering to help you find out more about “what’s going on”:

(Direct link to West Seattle Junction map)

(Direct link to Morgan Junction map)

(Direct link to Admiral map)

(Direct link to Westwood-Highland Park map)

We first published those maps when they were released by the city, virtually unannounced, almost three weeks ago. Comments are being taken right now at this city website; an official city open house in West Seattle is planned December 7th, but before then, two community advocates with deep knowledge of land-use issues are leading a West Seattle/South Park meeting to help you understand the maps and the process. They have just formally announced it:

The Morgan Community Association (MoCA) will host an informational session to help you understand Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability rezones proposed for the five District 1 Urban Villages, in advance of a December city-sponsored Open House. This learning session will enable you to go the Open House knowing what is proposed and prepared to give input or ask questions of City staff.

For the past year, the City of Seattle has been developing plans to fund affordable housing. One of the proposals is the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) concept. Under MHA, new development in Seattle will contribute directly to affordable housing by either building affordable homes on site or making a payment to the City to fund affordable housing throughout Seattle. To put MHA requirements into effect, the City must make zoning changes that will allow more development within Urban Villages and other areas zoned for multifamily and commercial development. Proposed areas of rezoning are depicted in newly released maps, and City staff will want input on proposed District 1 rezones at their December 7 Open House.

It is a complicated issue, with lots of ‘moving parts.’ To help you figure out what is going on, we’re setting up a user-friendly informational session with goals of:

° To give enough background information so people understand the MHA proposed program;
° To understand how to read the proposed rezone maps;
° To remind people of their Urban Village Neighborhood Plan Goals and Policies and relationship to MHA principles;
° To give people tools so that they enter the City’s Open House able to give informed input and/or ask questions to get the information they need.

Please join us –

Rezoning for Affordability in District 1: The City Wants Your Input – Do You Know What’s Going On?
Tuesday, November 29, 2016, from 6:30 – 8:30pm
Highland Park Improvement Club
1116 SW Holden Street

o Street parking is available nearby
o Metro Routes 125 and 128 stop at 16th Ave. SW at Holden; walk east on Holden to 12th Street
o Light refreshments will be available
o There will be a coloring corner for kids.

Again, though MoCA is sponsoring it, it’s for everyone in West Seattle and South Park (whose “urban village” is to be upzoned as well).

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Less than a week after the city went public with proposed rezoning maps for the city’s “urban villages,” the feedback process remains diffuse.

Last night, for a firsthand look at how part of it is working, we went to one of the “focus groups” that have been meeting monthly on related matters involved with the initiative known as HALA, the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda. (We wrote about the recruitment process last winter.) This group has been focused on areas including the West Seattle Junction. More on that shortly, including an alternative way to comment if you are having trouble with the site the city set up at hala.consider.it.

And today, the city announced that Mayor Murray will preside over a live Q/A about HALA via the mayoral Facebook page tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 10:45 am. Since it’s not a two-way video connection, you are asked to post questions now, either via this “event” page or via your Twitter account, with the hashtag #AffordableSeattle.

Now, to the background. Read More

(June WSB photo of Ponderosa Pine at 3038 39th SW)

Two weeks after the city announced it would grant a “special exception” permit for a house to be built on a 3,166-sf lot at 3038 39th SW [map], taking out a Ponderosa Pine acknowledged as an “exceptional tree,” two appeals have just been filed with the city Hearing Examiner. This one is from a neighbor, making the argument that the lot previously used as a “side yard” had not been established as a buildable lot:

(If you can’t see the Scribd embedded version, here’s a direct link to that document on the city website.) And this one is from the Seattle Green Spaces Coalition:

The online file for that one is here.

We first reported in June about the neighborhood’s campaign to save the tree. Since the appeals have just gone into the system, no hearing date is set yet.

SIDE NOTE: While working on this, neighborhood advocates have been talking with Councilmember Lisa Herbold about a larger issue – the city’s requirement of a minimum payment for staff time to work on requests for interpretations, saying the resulting multi-thousand-dollar minimum can be onerous; as discussed briefly in today’s morning session of the Budget Committee, her proposal for a rule to require that requesters are charged only for the time needed:

Accompanying the budget, SDCI has submitted a bill that would adjust fees and charges (see the introduction for more details). This action would amend the bill to reduce the minimum number of hours charged for a code interpretation letter. A code interpretation is a process whereby someone can request a formal decision on the meaning, application, or intent of any development regulation in the Land Use or Environmentally Critical Area code. Examples include questions of how structure height or setback is properly measured, or how a proposed use should be categorized. Failure to request an interpretation can preclude raising the issue on appeal. Today, a request for a code interpretation letter is charged, at minimum, for 10 hours of work; hours worked beyond the minimum are charged the Land Use hourly rate (currently $280/hour; proposed to increase to $315/hour). The average number of hours charged for interpretations is 31.25 hours, however, in the rare case where the number of hours is less than 10, this change would ensure that the requesting party is only charged for time needed to produce the letter.

The proposal is not specific to this case; its fate will be determined when the budget is finalized in November.

We’ve received a couple questions about this site-clearing work underway in southeast Admiral.

It’s the site of the 14-house 3601 Fauntleroy Avenue SW [map] development. As we reported in August of last year, development proposals have been in the works for this site for at least nine years – in 2007, it was proposed for 21 houses, and then the plan resurfaced last year with 14 houses. After it received key approvals this past May, neighbors filed an appeal, then withdrew it following a settlement with the developer last month. The arborist report filed with the city says that the only “exceptional trees” on the site are four madrones in the “east steep slope buffer” that are not expected to be affected by the construction project; the report says the rest of the ~100 trees “in general” are “structurally weak … diseased … smothered in invasive species.” If you’re following the permit on this project, you’ll see here that the 14 houses will have addresses on SW Spokane.

Development updates from today’s edition of the city’s twice-weekly Land Use Information Bulletin:

4437-4439 41ST SW: Back in December, we mentioned the latest scaled-down plan for this Junction site once proposed for a 40-unit apartment building. According to today’s notices, the 7-unit plan remains; you can comment on the land-use-permit applications through August 10th. The notices are here and here.

These next projects, also announced via today’s Land Use Information Bulletin, are going through the no-meeting versions of Design Review – so your comment period starts now:

4 TOWNHOUSES AT 3032 CHARLESTOWN SW: Here’s the official notice of “administrative design review” for this proposal. It explains how you can comment, through August 10th.

5 TOWNHOUSES, 1 SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE AT 3710 21ST SW: Here’s the official notice of “streamlined design review” for this proposal. It also explains how you can comment, through August 10th.

5 TOWNHOUSES, 1 SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE AT 3722 21ST SW: This too is proposed for “streamlined design review”; here’s the official notice, which also has information on how to comment, through August 10th.

Also in today’s bulletin, two matters of land-use policy that you might want to take a closer look at, because they’re expected to lead to zoning changes; comment periods are now open:

POTENTIAL AMENDMENTS TO ‘MANDATORY HOUSING AFFORDABILITY’ PROPOSAL, RESIDENTIAL VERSION: Read about them here, and if you have something to say, August 15th is the deadline.

WHAT SHOULD ‘MANDATORY HOUSING AFFORDABILITY’ MULTI-FAMILY/COMMERCIAL REVIEW INCLUDE? Before the city’s environmental review of this part of the plan gets going, the city is asking what it should include. Here’s how to have a say.

Four West Seattle development notes this afternoon:

(Rendering courtesy Living Care Lifestyles)

QUAIL PARK: The 60+-bed memory-care center that’s long been in the works for 4515 41st SW in The Junction is about to begin construction, according to David Haack with parent company Living Care Lifestyles. If you have questions about the project, a community meet-and-greet is planned at Senior Center of West Seattle 2:30-4 pm on Wednesday, July 13th. Two weeks after that, they’re planning a groundbreaking ceremony on July 27th, time TBA. It’s been almost four years since we first found early word of the plan, which went through Design Review in 2014-2015.

Three projects covered here previously have formal notices in today’s city-circulated Land Use Information Bulletin:

DESIGN REVIEW DOUBLEHEADER FOR 9021 17TH SW & 2749 CALIFORNIA SW: We’ve already published word of both of these reviews set for a July 21st Southwest Design Review Board doubleheader – the four-story, 32-apartment building at 9021 17th SW at 6:30 pm (as reported here two weeks ago; formal notice here; and the four-story, 112-apartments-and-retail building at 2749 California SW (as reported here Monday, formal notice here) at 8 pm. If you can’t make it to the meetings, you can comment on the projects by following the instructions in the notices.

APPLICATION FOR 2116 ALKI SW: We mentioned this site back in January, when it was proposed for six condos and nine parking spaces. In today’s Land Use Information Bulletin, this notice announces its owners have applied to build a 3-story, 6-apartment, 11-offstreet-parking-space project. You have until July 29th to comment; here’s how.

(WSB photo)

Almost four years after an 18-house development proposal surfaced in the city permit system for the site above – now identified as 2768 SW Holden [map], previously 2646 SW Holden – there’s an “open-record hearing” downtown tomorrow morning. (We first mentioned it a month ago.) This has to do with splitting the site, currently on record as three lots, into 18, before the homes are built. The hearing is for anyone with something to say about the proposal and is set for the city Hearing Examiner‘s chambers starting at 9 am Monday, 40th floor of the city Municipal Tower downtown (700 5th Avenue). The project has been making its way through the city system since a “site plan” was filed in summer of 2012; the 18-house plan passed “streamlined design review” in early 2013, and other key approvals were granted in 2014.

The site stretches across more than one and a half acres between SW Holden and SW Webster, with one house remaining on the site (barely visible in our photo above). It had been on and off the market for a while and records show it sold within the past month for $2.2 million, not far below its previous asking price, to Jabooda Properties, an LLC with Mercer Island and Renton addresses. Neighbors have voiced concerns along the way including traffic, noise, and drainage effects; each house is planned with a two-car garage, and the subdivision entrance/exit will be from SW Holden. City planners’ report recommending approval is here.

From today’s city-circulated Land Use Information Bulletin, three West Seattle notes:

REVISED PLAN FOR 2626 ALKI SW: For those wondering what’s up with this mixed-use development, long slated for the corner of 59th SW and Alki Avenue SW:

(WSB file photo of future development site)

first announced at an Alki Community Council meeting three years ago – here’s an update. It went through two Design Review meetings in 2014 with at least one more required, yet, to date, not scheduled. In 2015, its official land-use application was submitted. Now, one year later, the prospective developer has turned in a revised application, according to this notice in today’s bulletin. It’s now summarized as “a 3-story structure containing restaurant, 12 apartment units and parking for 23 vehicles”; at the time of the last Design Review meeting almost two years ago (WSB coverage here), the description was “14 residential units, 5 live-work units, commercial space, and 23 parking spaces.” This opens a new comment period for the project – send comments to prc@seattle.gov by July 6th.

3601 FAUNTLEROY APPEAL: The recent approvals (reported here in May) for this proposed 14-house development in East Admiral have been appealed. Here’s the notice. A hearing is set August 23rd in the city Hearing Examiner‘s chambers downtown.

3838 59TH SW ROWHOUSE: The bulletin includes the “environmentally non-significant” decision allowing a 3-story, two-unit rowhouse building on a sloped site (“environmentally critical area”) uphill from Beach Drive. The decision is appealable, and the notice explains how, with a deadline of July 7th.

(King County Assessor photo)

The new owners of a former church in Highland Park have officially filed to replace it with a residential rowhouse. Until a few months ago, as 1200 SW Holden, it was The Potter’s House, on the northwest corner of 12th SW and SW Holden, across from the Highland Park Improvement Club. Now, with an address change to 7551 12th SW – the site plan on file shows the five units facing 12th – it’s proposed for a five-townhouse rowhouse building. (The church, by the way, has moved to White Center.)

Five development/construction updates:

COMMENT TIME FOR 3856 21ST SW: Another West Seattle project going through “streamlined design review” has just opened for comment. According to the notice in today’s city Land Use Information Bulletin, you can comment through June 15th on a three-story, 2-unit townhouse building proposed for 3856 21st SW on Pigeon Point. The notice explains how to comment.

COMMENT TIME FOR 4505 23RD SW: This is another three-story, 2-unit townhouse building. This one, however, is not going through design review; it’s being built behind 4506 Delridge Way SW, where the existing structure will NOT be torn down, the city website says, but it’s open for comments on potential environmental effects, as the notice explains.

FORMAL APPLICATION FOR 5908 FAUNTLEROY WAY SW: We first reported last September that a six-townhouse “rowhouse” building is planned for this once-commercial site northeast of Morgan Junction:

The formal application has just been filed, so watch for an official notice soon.

BLOCKS AWAY, AT 6311 FAUNTLEROY WAY SW: Another “rowhouse” project, four units this time, is in the early stages for this site that currently holds a 72-year-old single-family house (but is zoned Lowrise 1).

4505 42ND SW UPDATE: NLB, who sent the original tip yesterday about site-clearing work for this Junction project, tweeted this video of the house coming down this morning:

As noted again in our update last night, this is a mixed-use project with residential units, commercial space, and lodging.