Development-related notes…
(WSB photo)

MICROHOUSING PROJECT SITE FOR SALE: There’s a new commercial-real-estate listing this week for 5952 California SW, which – as first reported here in May 2016 – is planned for a microhousing project. The listing itself is titled simply “SEDU Site”; as you might recall, SEDU is the city’s official name for microhousing, small efficiency dwelling units. The last official description on the city website says the project will have 29 microunits and 6 apartments, which is also what the listing’s online notes say: “Property in process of being permitted to build 35 units (Small Efficiency Dwelling Units) and also being approved to go up 5 stories …” County records show the site was sold last December for less than half its current $2 million listing price.

DEMOLITION PLANS: The following list shows West Seattle demolition permits/applications dated within the past two weeks, as found in the city’s online files:

(King County Assessor’s Office photo, 3276 California SW)

-3276 California SW, one-story commercial building to be replaced by live-work units
-3045 California SW, one-story commercial building to be replaced by building with ground-level commercial under 3 apartments
-9211 15th SW, house to be replaced by townhouses
-2950 Alki SW, house to be replaced by 3 townhouses
-4214-4218 30th SW, two houses to be replaced by 8 townhouses
-5033-5035 Delridge Way SW, houses to be replaced by townhouses
-5016 Fauntleroy Way SW, house to be replaced by two new houses
-8802 9th SW, house to be replaced by 8 townhouses
-7926 34th SW, house to be replaced by new house
-4725 SW Dawson, house to be replaced by new house
-6314 49th SW, house to be replaced by new house
-4415 48th SW, house to be replaced by new house

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Some neighborhoods have pushed back against the city’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda rezoning plans by pointing out that they conflict with longstanding community-crafted neighborhood plans.

Groups in Morgan Junction and the West Seattle Junction are pursuing amendments to the city’s comprehensive plan to try to ensure that HALA rezoning doesn’t overwrite parts of their neighborhood plan.

And this week, they learned that the city has launched a pre-emptive strike with its own amendment to do exactly that. Language in the Morgan, WS Junction, and Westwood-Highland Park plans, and six others citywide, would have specific zoning references struck by this part of what the city’s pursuing:

Make amendments to specific neighborhood plan policies.

Individual policies or goals in the Neighborhood Plan element of the Comprehensive Plan are proposed for amendment where they explicitly call for maintaining single-family zoning within an urban village or center. Certain policies that call for maintaining aspects of single-family areas (such as scale, character, or integrity) are proposed for amendment if they would clearly and directly conflict with the draft MHA implementation proposal. However, in cases where neighborhood plan policies call for maintaining aspects of a single-family areas (i.e. character) that are possible to achieve while implementing MHA, the neighborhood plan policy is not proposed for amendment.

Amendments would remove explicit references to preservation of zoning, in favor of statements to preserve physical scale or character where appropriate. For goal or policy statements that could be construed to directly conflict with MHA implementation short of direct references to zoning, policy language would be added to recognize the potential for addition of a variety of housing types, while preserving aspects of single family areas that are desired for preservation by the neighborhood plan policy. The following Neighborhood Plan policies would be amended.

• Fremont F-P13
• Morgan Junction MJ-P13, MJ-P14
• Northgate NG-P8
• Roosevelt R-LUG1
• Westwood/Highland Park W/HP-P3
• Aurora-Licton Springs AL-P2
• North Rainier NR-P9
• Wallingford W-P1
• West Seattle Junction WSJ-P13

You can read the entire city amendment document here. The next step in potential comprehensive-plan changes is a City Council committee hearing on July 24th – the proposed amendments, including those proposed by Morgan Junction and West Seattle Junction groups, are all linked here.

While those proposed changes are not part of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for HALA’s Mandatory Housing Affordability rezoning, the city’s counterproposal did come up at Tuesday night’s Junction Neighborhood Organization Land Use Committee (JLUC) workshop on DEIS commenting, which is open until August 7th. Here’s what happened during that workshop, including what committee leaders say they have found so far in their review of the document’s hundreds of pages: Read More

As reported here on Thursday, the city is giving you two extra weeks to comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA)’s Mandatory Housing Affordability rezoning proposals. The deadline is now August 7th. And another community group has announced a meeting about it. From the Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Council:

You’re invited to join WWRHAH on July 19th, from 6-7:30 pm at the Southwest Library, upstairs meeting room, 9010 35th Ave SW, to discuss in broad terms and as a community, the DEIS and how the neighborhood groups could respond as a coalition of voices in on behalf of the Westwood-Highland Park Residential Urban Village.

Westwood-Highland Park (map on page 2 of this document) is one of four urban villages in West Seattle. The HALA MHA rezoning proposals cover all multifamily and commercial property, whether in an urban village or not, and also single-family properties inside UV boundaries, which in some cases are proposed for expansion. The city has an online map you can use to see what the DEIS’s two rezoning options propose in your neighborhood (or any other part of the city that interests you).

(WSB video of the entire June 29th hearing, unedited)

Many people asked for a comment-period extension at last week’s public hearing on the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda‘s Mandatory Housing Affordability Draft Environmental Impact Statement (our complete video of the hearing – apparently a rare commodity since the Seattle Channel wasn’t there – is above). Now, the city just announced it’s granting that request, extending the comment period by two weeks:

Today the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) extended the public comment period until August 7 on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that studies three alternatives for zoning changes needed to implement Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) in Seattle’s urban villages and other commercial and multifamily residential zones across the city.

“Due to a high volume of requests, both online and at a recent public hearing, we are extending the written comment period on this environmental study an additional 15 days,” said OPCD Director Sam Assefa. “While there is broad agreement on the need for more affordable housing across Seattle, these documents are lengthy and complex, and we want to honor these requests for more time for public review.”

The public can provide feedback on the environmental study using this online form or by e-mailing MHA.EIS@Seattle.gov.

The original deadline had been July 23rd.

Semi-quick reminder: While the public-comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda‘s proposed rezoning is only about halfway over, the biggest public event is just three days away: A public hearing and open house at City Hall downtown (600 4th Ave.). As announced when the DEIS went public earlier this month, the event starts at 5:30 pm Thursday (June 29th), with public comment to follow a short briefing at 6:30 pm. The full document is linked from this city webpage, which has information on other ways to comment until the July 23rd deadline. If you haven’t been following the process until now, the rezoning would affect commercial/multifamily property throughout the city, as well as single-family property in urban villages (West Seattle has four – Admiral, Morgan Junction, West Seattle Junction, and Westwood-Highland Park), some of which would see expanded boundaries. The DEIS looks at two options for rezoning – you can use this interactive map to see whether/how each would affect your neighborhood.

(King County Assessor’s Office photo)

A century-plus-old house at 6721 California SW is proposed for replacement with seven rowhouse townhouses, according to a proposal that just showed up in city files. The early-stage site plan in city files shows the units fronting onto SW Willow on the south side of the site, with five offstreet parking spaces alongside the units on the north side. This represents continued densification to match what the area is already zoned for; this site is zoned Lowrise 2, as is the rest of the block, part of which has already been redeveloped, as has the entire block to the south.

A July 6th meeting is now scheduled for the Southwest Design Review Board, with these two projects:

3078 SW AVALON WAY, REVIVED: Back in 2014, neighbors won a fight over city planners’ contention that a ~100-apartment building proposed for this site was environmentally non-significant in some areas of consideration. But as noted in our report at the time, that didn’t mean the development was dead; the ruling ultimately said the project had to go back to the SW Design Review Board. And that’s what it’s doing at 6:30 pm Thursday, July 6th, front end of a doubleheader at the Senior Center/Sisson Building (4217 SW Oregon). The project, in the works since 2012, is still described on the city website as 7 stories, ~100 apartments, and ~60 parking spaces; the newest proposed design should be available when the July 6th meeting gets closer.

9049 20TH SW, EXPANDED: The headquarters of STS Construction Services (WSB sponsor) would get two added floors with 22 apartments and 5 microstudios in the project to be reviewed at 8 pm. The newest site plan also says the building footprint would be expanded for added office space at ground level. Any required parking would be provided in the garage of STS-owned Bluestone Apartments next door at 9051 20th SW.

SPEAKING OF DESIGN REVIEW: As reported here last week, some big changes are proposed for the process, and comments are being taken now.

The first Southwest Design Review Board hearing has been set for the newest project proposed at 4722 Fauntleroy Way SW, where a single-story CVS drugstore was planned for three years until it was unceremoniously scrapped last year. And we know more about the project now, too.

July 20th is the date that just appeared on the schedule for the two-building project we first told you about last December. At the time, details were few. Now, the meeting docket on the city website includes this:

Design Review Early Design Guidance application proposing … a 7-story building containing 233 residential units, 17 live-work units, and 10,000 sq. ft. of commercial space. Parking to be provided for 250 vehicles within the structure. Existing structure to be demolished. (And) a four-story building containing one live-work unit and 49 residential units.

Though the meeting listing doesn’t mention offstreet parking for the smaller building, a document mentions “30 parking stalls” under three residential floors.

This is all set for what’s becoming West Seattle’s most-redeveloped block – across from The Whittaker (WSB sponsor), and north of 4754 Fauntleroy Way SW, which just finished going through Design Review. With the 4722 Fauntleroy hearing almost two months away, no design renderings are in city files yet, but we’re contacting developers Legacy Partners – who you might know for Youngstown Flats (WSB sponsor) in North Delridge – to find out if they have anything to share. (Documents show LP is now working with Encore Architects on this project.)

The July 20th meeting is set to start at 6:30 pm at the SWDRB’s usual meeting spot, the Senior Center/Sisson Building (4217 SW Oregon).

This Saturday is the city’s next West Seattle “open house” about HALA – the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda, which has drawn the most attention in the past six months for its proposed MHA (Mandatory Housing Affordability) component. MHA seeks to upzone commercial and multifamily property around the city, and single-family property in urban villages, to give developers added capacity in exchange for either locking in a percentage of units as “affordable,” or contributing a set sum to a city fund that will be used to build “affordable” projects somewhere else. If you haven’t already checked to see what’s proposed for your neighborhood, here’s the citywide interactive map. Plus, we’ve learned that a new tool will be offered at Saturday’s open house:

(Photo courtesy Department of Neighborhoods)

You could say it’s HALA gone “holo.” Morgan Junction community advocate and citizen land-use watchdog Cindi Barker found out about it by going to a version of the open house held in the Northgate area last weekend. She discovered that the city is now offering “before”-to-“after” views of the proposed changes, including what she describes as “a station where you could put on a 3D lens/helmet and you ‘walked’ down the block and watched the older existing buildings go away and buildings built to the new zoning come in.” The technology the city is using is Microsoft HoloLens.

Saturday’s open house is 10 am-noon (May 6th) at Westside School (10404 34th SW; WSB sponsor) in Arbor Heights. Besides the opportunity to learn about and comment on the HALA proposals – including West Seattle’s four urban villages and South Park – the city says it’s expecting booths/tables for other initiatives/agencies: Age Friendly Seattle, Design Review (changes), Natural Drainage, Play Streets, Open Space Plan, Democracy Vouchers, Neighborhood Streets and Greenways Projects (SDOT), and Metro Transit.

Development notes this morning:

6010 CALIFORNIA WORK UNDER WAY: We first reported almost a year ago that a 95-year-old single-family house at this spot would be replaced with multiple residential buildings totaling seven units. Driving by Wednesday afternoon, we noticed the house is gone and site clearing is under way (photo above). Here’s what city files say the plan is now.

3045 CALIFORNIA: An early-stage plan has just turned up in city files to replace this small commercial building with a new four-story building – the maximum height the site is zoned for – that would have three residential units over ground-floor commercial.

9030 35TH SW: Someone asked us about this long-in-the-works project just a few days ago. Nothing new was in the files then, but today a demolition-permit application has shown up. A mixed-use building with ~40 apartments is proposed to replace two houses here.

And three Design Review notes:

OFFICIAL NOTICE FOR MAY 18 REVIEW OF 4417 42nd SW: We first told you two weeks ago that 4417 42nd SW is scheduled for an Early Design Guidance review before the Southwest Design Review Board on May 18th. Now, the official notice of that meeting is in today’s Land Use Information Bulletin. The project is described as a “4-story apartment building containing 58 units and 4 live-work units,” with 29 offstreet-parking spaces.

STREAMLINED DESIGN REVIEW FOR 4409 44TH SW: Also in The Junction, there’s early word that Streamlined Design Review will be ahead for a project to replace a 108-year-old single-family house with six townhouses. The notice mentions one offstreet-parking space is planned. Streamlined Design Review means no public meeting, but watch for an official public notice at some point.

STREAMLINED DESIGN REVIEW FOR 8802 9TH SW: City files have early word of a three-story, 8-unit townhouse project at this Highland Park site, with 8 offstreet parkings. This also is identified as headed for Streamlined Design Review.