There’s only a few development actions from the city planning department in this last week before Christmas.

We’ll start at the northwest corner of MLK & Lane St., where you’ll find two side-by-side parcels with a single-family house on each. The land use application will demolish one house and put two duplexes on that part of the property. The greenish two-story house on the corner will stay, and a new single-family residence will be built in its backyard. If you’ve got strong feelings pro or con this project, you’ve got until January 2nd 2008 to give them to the city.

Next head north to the southeast corner of 19th & Pine, where there’s a big townhouse development that’s approaching completion. For some reason they’re only now applying to subdivide the property into 7 new lots. I’ve never noticed this planning behavior before, and wondering if there’s any good reason to not split up the property at the beginning of the process. Let us know if you have any clues why. Any here’s some interesting property trivia: that lot was originally owned by City Councilmember Richard McIver, most recently in the news for alleged domestic violence.

And finally, here’s one that’s a bit out of the CD, but still within walking distance for many. Say goodbye to the old Foley Sign Co. building with its 1st-floor furniture store at the southeast corner of 12th & Pine. It will be replaced by a 5-story mixed-use structure with 61 residential units and about 6,000 square feet of retail and office space. There’s a Design Review Board meeting scheduled for January 9th at 8pm, in Seattle Central Community College room 3211.

That last project should give its 61+ residents all sorts of fun options for guiding visitors to their apartments:
1. “Across from the police station”
2. “Catty-corner from the Capitol Hill liquor store on 12th”
3. “You know where The Cuff is? It’s the 5-story building right behind that”