Ever since the financial sector suffered a meltdown, we’ve had a lot of big building projects in the neighborhood get all the way through the permitting process and then languish without financing. But according to the developer of the proposed new apartment building at Broadway & Jefferson, that project has a firm funding commitment if it can get city approval by the fall of this year.

The funding was secured several years ago before the economy tanked, with a long lead-time that was driven by the need to remedy the many years of automotive pollution that had seeped into ground under the site. The contaminated soil was removed two years ago, and the remaining levels within the groundwater are now within an acceptable range.

Interestingly, the developer has cited the forthcoming First Hill Streetcar as a major motivation for the project, highlighting the potential for fixed transit to spur new economic development in neighborhoods.

The 6-story building would add 100 units of market-rate apartments within easy walking distance of the many medical jobs on First Hill, with below-ground parking for 83 vehicles. The apartments would be a roughly even mix of studios, 1, and 2-bedroom units. It would also add 5-8 new retail spaces on Broadway and Jefferson.

The big hurdle for the project is a requested re-zone that requires a long process and city council approval. Although the project fits within the rough bounds of the NC3-65 zoning on the north end and MR zoning on the south end of the property, the developers are asking for five more feet of height to enable them to build the retail spaces on the sloping property without having to step down or up into shops. Here’s the specifics of what they’re asking for:

• Five more feet of height, up to 70′ total, but still limited to six total stories
• Allow the retail space on the south end of the property to avoid the required setback of the MR zoning and maintain a flush set of storefronts along Broadway.
• Step the entire building 7′ back from the property line along Broadway, adding more sidewalk space and “spill-out zone” for retail, and a buffer of plants between the sidewalk and the fast-moving traffic on Broadway

Here’s photos of the project from its design review late last year:

View looking along Jefferson

View looking along Broadway

The court and office facilities at the King County Youth Service Center (aka juvie hall) are too small, too old, and too expensive to maintain. And as we told you last fall, the county is moving forward with big plans to rebuild them.

This weekend county officials and consultants gave the Squire Park Community Council a preview of what’s to come, presenting three options that they’re working on, each with different layouts and arrangement of buildings and open space. The county will refine the options over the next couple of months and choose one option to move forward with, subject to county council approval and a public vote in November to fund the multi-million dollar project.

Each of the three options have the same rough scope and size:

• Retention of the 90’s era detention center along Fir St.
• Demolition of the existing office tower and courtroom space
• Demolition of the old Alder detention block that sits closest to 14th
• Construction of a new 5-6 story office building along 12th, between Alder and Terrace Streets
• Construction of a new parking garage to the east of the new office building, with 560 new stalls (compared to 300 in the large existing surface lot)
• Making space for new private housing on the north and east end of the property, to be developed by a TBD private partner
• Reconnecting some of the street grid through the 6-block property
• Retention of open space roughly equivalent to the existing whale fin public art area at 14th & Remington Ct.
• Provides new commercial space along 12th Avenue

Option A does the most to reconnect the street grid to the rest of the neighborhood:

• Opens up Terrace St. to traffic between 12th & 14th
• Provides vehicle access to the court via Alder from 12th, with a pedestrian path and Fire access road through to 14th
• Opens up 12th for two blocks south of Remington Ct.
• Preserves the existing whale fin art and open space at the corner of 14th & Remington
• Devotes the block at 12th & Remington to a large new 6-story apartment building
• Provides for townhouse developments along 13th between Remington & Terrace, and along 14th between Terrace and Alder.
• Connects the new court structure to the detention facility via a sky bridge over Alder

YSC Development Option A

Option B moves the open space to the center of the property along the 13th Avenue corridor:

• Wide park space along 13th
• Existing corner park becomes space for condos
• Moves the parking structure back to where it borders 14th Avenue
• Maintains a large apartment building at 12th & Remington Ct.

YSC Development Option

Option C does the least to reconnect the street grid, connecting the new court building directly to the detention facility:

• Open space kept at 14th & Remington, with townhouses bordering the west along 13th
• Townhouses buffer the east end of the parking garage along 14th
• Two large apartment buildings between Terrace and Remington Court, bordering 12th Ave
• Connects the parking garage directly to the court building, and the court building directly to the detention center
• No reconnection of Alder Street through the property

YSC Development Option C

The strongest community reaction was to the location of the open space, with most people feeling that it was more accessible to the community at the existing corner location vs. being placed in the middle of the rest of the development. And one community member questioned the amount of private development, which has been a long-time request from some neighborhood leaders who would like to see a more active community there vs. the large parking lot that currently exists on the property.

There are also continuing community concerns about the large number of new parking spaces that will be added to the property. County officials made clear that underground parking is too expensive, to the above ground garage will stay in each option.

County officials committed to holding more detailed public meetings to collect community input in the next several months. We’ll let you know when those are scheduled.

Here’s some additional renderings that shows how things will look at eye level:

View of Terrace St. from 12th in Option C, looking east

View of the open space along 13th in Option B, looking south from Remington

I’m wondering if anyone is getting decent download speed from Qwest in the CD.  I am paying for 7.0 MB down / 1.5 MB up.  I’m actually getting about 1.6 down and 0.39 up. Shocker.

After some frustrating calls to Qwest, they now say I’ll have to pay for someone to come out and run a new line from the telephone pole to my house, install a new jack and start over.  I’m ok with that if it will solve my problem, but I’m skeptical.  I asked them if anyone else in my neighborhood is actually getting 7.0 down, and they told me that they can’t tell, because the mechanism they use to test that is broken (!) and they don’t know when it will be working again(!!).  Is anyone getting what they are paying for from Qwest?  Specifically, is anyone in the hood getting anywhere close to 7.0MB download speed?

If you want to test your speed, you can do it on Speakeasy’s site here:   http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Thanks, I’d appreciate hearing from you.

Wondering how to better support your child in school?   Seattle Public Schools invites you to a Family and Community Engagement Symposium on Saturday, April 24 from 9:00 AM – 3:30 PM at Aki Kurose Middle School, 3928 South Graham Street.   The goal of this event is to support families as key partners in their student’s academic success.   Attend free workshops on helping your child with math, science, reading, writing, bullying, college and career readiness.   Learn to understand school and student data, how teachers are evaluated and how to effectively advocate for your child.   Dr. Susan Enfield, Chief Academic Officer, is the keynote speaker.  

Breakfast (8:30 AM), lunch and childcare will be provided.  Translation services available for Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Oromo, Amharic, Tigrigna, Cambodian, and Samoan.   This event is FREE.  

Questions?  Contact Julie DeVito at (206) 252-0989 or [email protected]

It’s a busy day in Seattle’s East Precinct:

It’s been more than a month since the last public meeting on the topic of the transitional housing project on 22nd Avenue that was proposed by Reverend Jeffrey of the nearby New Hope Baptist Church. No felons have been placed in the home, and as of now there’s no specific date when they might start to move in.

The previous public meeting held in early March was intended to be a starting point for negotiations over a Good Neighbor Agreement between the project backers and members of the 22nd Avenue blockwatch who have resisted it. It was mediated by SPD Director John Hayes, who has long-standing ties to the community as the former Operations Lieutenant in the East Precinct. But the outcome of the meeting left some bad feelings on both sides and talks have ceased. 

A blockwatch member tells CDNews that the draft agreement presented in the meeting was too one-sided and was drawn up only in consultation with Black Dollar Days Task Force, which is the primary group backing the felon housing project. The following day the blockwatch sent a letter to Reverend Jeffrey and city officials, announcing their withdrawal from the negotiations.

Reverend Jeffrey says the letter went further, calling it “very hostile and unfair”, and said that it impugned the motives of Director Hayes as being too closely aligned with the project’s backers. Jeffrey says that he and Hayes have often been on opposing sides in various issues in the community, and that he saw Hayes as a fair, impartial arbitrator. He added that the tone of the blockwatch letter has caused Hayes to back away from the process, leaving it without a mediator.

Blockwatch leader Kris Fulsaas tells us that an effort is under way to get State Senator Adam Kline involved as a mediator after he expressed an interest in the issue. But no specific date has been set to resume negotiations, and Reverend Jeffrey told us he was unaware of the potential involvement of Kline.

Jeffrey says he understands neighbor’s concerns and wants to work with them to make the project a success. “I understand their frustrations, and understand their concerns. And we sincerely apologize for the initial lack of communication.  We don’t want to divide the community. We believe the blockwatch is right to question things that are happening on their block. What we want are reasonable people to sit down at a table and come up with a reasonable solution. And we’re still hopeful that that can happen.”

In the meantime, backers of the felon housing project have things on hold while they wait to sort out the next step in the process. But they say that they can’t keep things in limbo forever as they’re paying a monthly rent on the house where the project’s clients would reside.

This house on 22nd would serve as transitional housing for recently released felons

Have you mailed in your census forms yet? If not, dig into your pile of old mail and fill it out. It’s totally painless and only takes a few minutes to complete. 

Right now the Census Department shows that our area is running behind in getting the forms mailed in, with several tracts only in the 50% range, compared to 65% for the overall state of Washington. You have until Friday to mail the form and avoid having someone stop by in person to do the count manually.

In addition to making sure we get full representation in congress and our full share of federal funding, the census gives data nerds like us some fascinating stuff to dig through.

Until the early 60s, racist property covenants and red-lining practices of real-estate agents limited where African Americans could live in the city to the Central District, roughly bounded by Madison, Broadway, I-90, and 34th Avenue.

Here’s a map we found on the UW website that shows where African Americans lived in 1960, where each dot represents 25 people:

The data on small things is really interesting too. For example, in 1960 almost 10% of all homes in Washington State lacked complete plumbing. When we bought our house in the CD, I remember the plumber making the claim that 40% of all houses in the neighborhood still had outhouses in 1960. I found that very hard to believe, and we’ve dug up census data to prove the point. Out of the seven census tracts in the neighborhood only three had a significant number of homes without plumbing: 

• 9.2% in track 87
• 13% in tract 79
• 23% in tract 90

For more, here’s a map we put together where you can browse individual census tracts based on the data from the 1960 census:

View Census 1960 – % Minority in a larger map

The clouds have returned to the streets of Seattle’s East Precinct:

Everyone knows Monad in Madrona!

Unfortunately after 30 years as an icon in the Neighborhood, Pure Manifestations has closed up shop and the Art Studio. We want to wish Monad all the best and thank him for his welcome contribution to the Neighborhood!

The space (about 1000 SF)  that Monad was in is now available for a good prospective tenant, shop keeper and business owner that can use the excellent location!

Please contact Jaime Hernandez for more details of space at 206 227-7593.

The letter below is a response to her presentation at the Squire Park Community Council.  It was generally informative, and her enthusiasm for developing good programs is heartening.  Nonetheless, as noted in the letter, he thought to once again redraw our assignment boundaries was a bit alarming.

Kay, thank you for attending our meeting and sharing your vision and informative comments.   Your desire to develop programs to serve all our families here is shared by all.  While it is difficult to hear that a private school program will be using the TT Minor building, we appreciated the information. Residents here also want to be included in decisions around the use of the Mann building. Your energy, enthusiasm and attention to responding to emails is respected.  Nonetheless, a more solid strategy of involving families and citizens here in developing your vision should be developed. 

For instance,  if you surveyed the families here you would find most who have been assigned to Stevens prefer  maintaining that assignment until or unless they are empowered to particpate in the development of the program at TT Minor.   Stevens is a known, trusted and respected program.  Many breathed a sigh of relief after years of chaos in the neighborhood choices.  As you know these had been constantly destabilized by the constant shifting of programs at TT Minor and then its closing, one-year reassignment, and then new boundaries.  If, as you projected, TT Minor will  reopen in 3 to 5 years, consideration of changes to the new student assignment plan before then would not serve this community well.  While the assignment boundaries are odd, bringing Madrona’s assignment boundaries much further west would only again destabilize this community.  During the constant program and leadership changes at TT Minor many families either  fled the school  or were not allowed to enroll into the school and chose to attend Stevens.  Until a true and desirable neighborhood school program is developed at TT Minor, Stevens is probably the most acceptable assignment.  Students will have to bussed or transported, not walk, to any of the schools.

Yes, the new census figures will help firm up numbers, but even the old method of projections indicated a growth in the number of families with childrenin this area. TT Minor was a hot-spot of current and projected growth.  Projections for Madrona were also quite high.  In fact, the student population in Madrona’s current assignment area could easily fill the school.

Your interest in taking on the challenge developing a better and more functional per student funding formula is appreciated, as is your passion for identifying long term resources to serve the many needs of our families and students.  I am sure that many would offer to help support you in this effort.

There are also parents here that are concerned about the programs at Meany and the future of Nova.  Issues around how families and school communities can be included in the  choice of school leaders are also topics for future meetings. 

Most  can understand why you might hold monthly community meetings, but since the Squire Park Community Council  general membership meets only quarterly, and the agenda time for schools is limited there is a desire for opportunities for more in depth conversations.  The success of  meetings specifically held by School Board members is largely dependent on the outreach, frequency, and timing.  One community member also suggested that you could post the schedule of  the community meetings that you are attending so that all would have an opportunity to hear and share many of, what I am sure, are common concerns.  I do not know exactly what would work for you but urge you to consider more frequent opportunities for our community to have conversations with you. 

Thank you again for your thoughtful presentation at our meeting.