There have been some posts over the past few days trying to get a sustained conversation started about our neighborhood, the good, the bad and the ugly. This was prompted in part by the murder the other night. It seems as if we have neighborhood meetings, and we have small neighborhood groups such as blockwatches, but nothing really coordinated or sustained (Squire Park CC doesn’t quite fit the bill). Should we get a group of people together to help plan a possible revitalization of the Central Neighborhood Association? If you have interest in getting together to discuss next Tuesday, location TBD, please comment.

Thus far we’ve been of the mind that a small group meeting to plan larger neighborhood action might be an effective way to get started.

Tales of crime, shenanigans, and tomfoolery from Seattle’s East Precinct – Wednesday, July 23, 2008

With the pending closure of the Starbucks at 22nd & Madison, we’ll soon be left with a string of vacant storefronts there next to Safeway along Madison St.

Our friend Andrew has a theory:  businesses would have a better chance of taking root there if parking was available on the street in front of them.  He’s proposing that we work together as a neighborhood to get the city to remove the no-parking signs on that side of the street.

He’s even set up a survey to get your thoughts and ideas on the topic.   Click here to help fill it out.  

Summary Report on Early Design Guidance
The Design Review Board comments included these recommendations:
Celebrate the wide planting strips through landscaping and designing the commercial space to interact with the pedestrian space.
Commercial storefronts should reflect the area’s commitment to pedestrian activity.
The Board supports the open space buffer adjacent to the single family residents.
It will consider a modest departure from the residential set back requirements.
The Board is interested in knowing the exact placement of residential unit access.
The open space behind the commercial storefronts should be usable for residents and possibly available to the commercial tenants.
Below grade parking is preferred.
Proposal should reflect the quiet, unobtrusive character of this stretch of E., Union with no excessive use of balconies.
The board strongly agrees with placing the parking entrance on 20th Avenue.
Open space along southern boundary should be secure.
Signage and lighting concepts will be reviewed at the Recommendations meeting.
High quality landscaping recommended.

The developer is instructed to contact the Planner as soon as Master Use Permit (MUP)intake appointment has been scheduled.

CF 308565: Petition of 2203 East Union LLC to rezone from NC2-40 to NC3-65 is scheduled before the Council’s Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on August 13, 2008, 9:30 a.m. in City Hall, 600 4th Avenue, 2nd Floor in Council Chambers. The Committee will consider the proposal and may vote regarding a recommendation to the full Council. This review will be based solely on the Hearing Examiner’s record and no further testimony will be allowed. The public may attend as observers only.

For further information you may contact Bob Morgan, 684-8150 or [email protected].

where is the cordoned off blockade ala the philly’s cheesesteak murder?

where is the news coverage?

where is the search for the possible suspect?

I can understand when non-white folks think the greater public don’t give a damn about crime unless it impacts them. Guess it’s just another ho hum day for the rest of the city, but to me somebody just got murdered and nobody seems to care.

Likewise, did anybody notice on the KomoTV clip that the police gravitated to the notorious house on 27th and Spring once again?

http://www.komonews.com/news/25754809.html

That house is evil, pure and simple. I feel bad for their neighbors.

Seattle University is developing a new master plan (Major Institution Master Plan — MIMP). You may have seen one of the “Land Use Action” signs posted around the neighborhood. The process involves public meetings over the course of many months. All meetings are open to the public.(Steve Sheppard at the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods is staffing these meetings. Contact him — [email protected]. — to ask for notices of future meetings of the Seattle U MIMP Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC).) The next meeting is Wednesday, July 23 at 5:30 P.M. in room 114 (Stimson Room) of the Lemieux Library on the Seattle U. campus.

Some of the important issues posed by the proposed MIMP include the possible expansion of the S.U. campus boundaries, and a proposed increase of allowed heights for future buildings in some areas east of 12th Avenue.

On the east side of the campus two distinct areas are at issue:
1. Between 13th and 14th Aves. from E. Jefferson to E. Marion (with some partial block exceptions immediately south of E. Marion) S.U. is asking for an increase in the height limit to allow it to build to 65 feet, an increase from the currently allowed height of 37 or 50 feet. An increase to 65 feet could most seriously affect properties on James Ct. and Barclay Ct. The properties on the east side of 14th Avenue between E. Cherry and E. Marion could be impacted by the possibility of greater height on the west side of 14th Avenue, including the site of the Coca Cola bottling plant. That site, most recently owned by Qwest, is now owned by S.U. and is considered as the possible location for a sports arena to accommodate S.U.’s, now Division I, basketball team, although apparently that’s not in the near term plans.(The Landmarks Preservation Board will consider the nomination of the Coca Cola Building for historic landmark status at a public meeting on August 6, at 3:30 P.M. in the conference room on the 40th floor of the Seattle Municipal Tower. See a related article in Central District News.)

2. The University is proposing to expand its boundaries to the east side of 12th Avenue in the block from E. Marion to E. Spring. This area is now zoned Neighborhood Commercial with a 40 foot height limit. The S.U. proposal would allow University-related development and increase the possible height of buildings to 65 feet. This could displace the potential for neighborhood-serving residential and retail space, and could present a taller view of the back-side of buildings to resdinces to the east.

To learn more about these issues and to express your opinions, a very good place is the next meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee. If personal attendance is not possible you can send written comments to the Seattle U. Citizens Advisory Committee c/o Steve Sheppard.

Also, the S.U. Web site has some information about its present and future plans and links (not quite up to date) to minutes of past CAC meetings: http://www.seattleu.edu/facilities/projects.aspx?x=3

Like or hate the new name for these posts?  Leave a comment below.  Otherwise things have been very quiet on the scanner for the last couple of hours.

(updated at 9:03am, also see the great update from gatortv) I just got the details on this from Renee Witt at SPD.   Late Monday night at around 11:30pm, 911 received several reports from residents who heard 2-3 shots fired in the area southwest of 25th & E. Columbia.   Officers arrived and located a victim lying on the sidewalk near the alley on Columbia between 25th & 26th, bleeding from a single gunshot wound to the chest.  

A large number of medics were dispatched to the scene at 11:40pm and performed life-saving measures for about 25 minutes.  The victim was then transported to Harborview where he expired and was pronounced dead at 12:49am.

Police have not found any solid evidence at the scene such as shell casings or a weapon.  But, the police spokeswoman says it’s too early to determine if he was actually shot in the 2500 block of E. Columbia or if he was shot somewhere else and collapsed there.   We spoke to a man near the scene last night at 24th & Columbia who heard the shots and said they came from the north, towards Marion.  He speculated that the victim then traveled under his own power the spot where he was found on Columbia.

K-9 units were brought in to try and track down the shooter.  We heard them following several tracks to the north, eventually settling on a house in the 900 block of 27th, near E Spring St.   Several people were removed from the house but a search came up negative.

Police say they have no active suspects or persons of interest so far, but the investigation is active and continuing.

Here’s what we wrote up real-time:

Pretty sketchy info at this point, but here’s what we know:

• Police got a 911 report of 2 shots fired somewhere SW of 25th & E. Columbia
• A large number of medics are treating a victim with gunshot wounds in the alleyway on Columbia between 25th & 26th.  A large response usually indicated life-threatening injuries
• A man working in his yard at 24th & Columbia reported hearing two shots from the north, near Marion (NW of E. Columbia)
• Radio reports 2-3 “shadowy figures” were seen heading west on Columbia
• K-9 units are conducting a search in the area, following a possible track to the north towards 25th & Spring eastbound on Marion towards MLK

Update: 12:23am –  K-9 has followed a track to a house in the 900 block of 27th Ave.  They’re going to do a “knock and talk” there

Update x2: 12:50am – Police are searching a house on 27th Ave

Update x3: 1:04am – The house checks clear

Today I got a call back from Alan Justad, spokesman for the Seattle Development & Planning Department, to give some of the details behind the denied permitting of the proposed restaurant at 25th & Union.  

According to Mr. Justad, the permit wasn’t officially denied.  What was rejected was the classification of the business as a restaurant.  Instead, department planners had decided that it was a “liquor establishment” that bumped it into a different level of permitting, requiring a separate conditional-use permit that would set additional approval steps such as an additional layer of community comment and stipulations surrounding things like noise levels, maximum size, etc.  The requirement for conditional-use permits applies to liquor establishments in NC1 and NC2 zoned areas, but not NC3 (24th & Union is on the eastern edge of a NC2-40 zone).   

In an email response, Bottleneck owner Erin Nestor says that they take exception with the city’s classification, saying that they had presented a restaurant concept with a full menu and had consulted with chefs to confirm it was feasible at that location.   Their position is that the conditional-use permits should only apply to businesses that are just bars, not restaurants that include liquor on their menus.

It’s not clear right now why the additional permitting steps killed the project, but one can imagine that the cost and time of a separate permitting process would be difficult for a small establishment that had a limited window to make a deal on the real estate and get an operation going.  

I’m sure the regulations were designed to prevent the worst case scenarios, such as a new Deano’s suddenly opening up next door to your or my house.  But it seems like there should be some way to more easily accommodate applications for neighborhood businesses that have the wide-ranging community support that this one clearly had.  But for now, it seems like a lost opportunity.