Author Archives: Ari Cetron

About Ari Cetron

Ari is a Seattle-based writer and editor. Find out more about him at www.aricetron.com

Design review: Eight stories, mass timber, and within view of Capitol Hill Station

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(Image: CHS)

Revived redevelopment plans for a new project that will demolish E Olive Way’s All Seasons Cleaners will come in front of the East Design Review Board this week a vision for an eight-story mass timber building within sight of the Capitol Hill Station entrance.

The building at 1800 E Olive Way, the corner of Olive and Harvard a block west of Broadway, is home to one of the remaining dry cleaners on the Hill. Back in 2018, the then-busy drive thru laundry and home to one of the Hill’s busiest little weekend flea markets was being lined up for a project that would have risen seven stories and created around 45 apartments, and 3,200 square feet of retail just off Broadway — but longtime business and property owners the Kim family opted not to sell, putting any redevelopment on hold.

Four years later following the pandemic, the opening of hundreds of new apartments above Capitol Hill Station nearby, and an important land use change, plans are back in motion for a building that can now rise eight stories thanks to the new Mandatory Housing Affordability zoning. Continue reading →

Design review: With ‘quirkiness’ and trees on the table, eight stories proposed at 13th and John

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The concept for 13th and John

Part of the new wave of eight-story — and smaller —  projects coming to the E Olive Way-E John corridor

Capitol Hill’s East John-East Olive Way corridor continues to fill with redevelopment including an eight-story 13th Ave E project slated to come before the East Design Review Board later this week.

The board will also be considering a proposal for neighbors in Eastlake that will replace a commercial strip home to a grocery market and restaurants with a new six-story apartment building.

Nearly a year after its first go-round, a plan to bring an 8-story, 49 unit building to 13th Ave E will come before the board. The proposal, which had its first design review meeting last October, is proposed by G2 Development and designed by Skidmore Janette.

The site is at 131 13th Ave E., just south of the corner of East John. On the block currently are a mix of single-family and multi-family homes. The proposal calls for tearing down an existing two-story building and detached garage. The structure was built as a single-family home in 1912, but has since been carved up into three apartments. The 1903-built single family home on the corner would remain in place and neighbor the new project. Continue reading →

With eight stories, brick veneer, and preserving an ‘exceptional’ birch tree, development plans rise again across from Broadway Hill Park

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(Images: Grouparchitect)

A plan to bring new development to the corner of E Republican and Federal Ave E neighboring the area’s mix of single family-style homes and old apartment buildings stalled during the pandemic, but now it’s coming back and will appear before the East Design Review Board this week.

Three existing homes, each dating to the first years of the 20th century, will be demolished. According to tax records, two of the three are single family homes, while the third is a duplex. In a trade a city desperate for new housing should be happy to make, an eight-story, 75-unit building will rise across from Broadway Hill Park.

In the works for years, developers began meeting with the Pike Pine Urban Neighborhood Council in November 2019. There were more community outreach meetings in November of that year and in January 2020. Then 2020 happened. There was another, email evaluation by Pike Pine Urban Neighborhood Council. There was some movement later in 2020, but then things seems to have stalled. That earlier version had called for a 117-unit building, but there’s no longer any mention of that number.

And now, it’s back in the building pipeline with a recently released plan for design review (PDF). Continue reading →

More ‘urban villages’ and more ‘complete neighborhoods’ — Capitol Hill EcoDistrict helping to shape new comprehensive plan for Seattle

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The EcoDistrict hosted a seed swap and plant sale Sunday in Cal Anderson Park

Seattle is starting the process of taking a good, hard look at itself, and the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict is going to help.

Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, along with five other groups, will assist with outreach and connecting with residents as the city looks to review its comprehensive plan.

The groups, which might typically focus their work on geographic or interest areas, are not necessarily bound by that focus in this effort. Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, which already looks for way to help people engage with their community, decided last year that this sort of outreach work would be a natural fit, said Donna Moodie, executive director.

“It felt kind of like a culmination of what we do,” she said.

This outreach marks the start of a two-year process, mandated by state law, to update the city’s comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan is what underlies how the city manages growth and change. It is the backbone of the city’s land use decisions, which are then implemented by the zoning ordinance. It also touches transportation networks, parks, and the deployment of dozens of city resources – almost everything the city does is shaped by the comprehensive plan. It’s designed to look about 20 years into the future, predict what the city will look like then, and make sure the necessary services are in place. Continue reading →

With parks like Cal Anderson, Volunteer still the heart of the city, Seattle plans new spending on safety and recreation

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Cal Anderson’s fountain mountain (Image: City of Seattle)

Back in March 2020, the Seattle Park District released a long-range strategic plan, to guide park development through 2032. Also in March 2020, COVID happened. Pretty quickly, parts of that plan were put on hold as city tax revenues cratered owing to the lack of economic activity in the early stages of the pandemic.

Instead of grand plans for major renovations of park facilities, Seattle saw then-Mayor Jenny Durkan ordering a temporary park closure to stop people from congregating, and then having people with 6-foot long sticks walk through parks reminding residents of how far apart they needed to be. Remember that? Good times.

Delayed by the pandemic and the department’s shift to “critical services,” Seattle Parks is now ready to move forward on planning for its next six-year “Cycle 2” plan of spending on safety, maintenance, recreation affordability, park development, and supporting community events and programs. Continue reading →

2022 in Olympia: $17B transportation package and money for 520, police reform, gun control, and reproductive rights

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For the area around Capitol Hill, the biggest impact from 2022’s legislative session will be money needed to finish the 520 project including a new Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid (Image: WSDOT)

 

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Creating, changing, and cutting the laws of Washington seems like a full time job but state legislators wrapped up their 2022 session this month. Since this is an even numbered year, lawmakers are only in session for 60 days.

But even with the shorter session, there were a couple of major pieces of legislation which passed. There weren’t as many big changes as last year’s grab bag of progressive policies, but certainly some important laws.

Washington operates on a two-year budget cycle, and this year was not a budget year. However, state revenue forecasts were up, and the state, led by its democratic majority in both houses, added $5 billion in spending programs to the budget. This was largely done over the objections of GOP members who argued for a number of different tax cuts instead. So, it was really the typical fault lines of Democrats want more services, Republicans want lower taxes.

Among other spending, the budget supplement sent about $2 billion to the transportation package (see below), $400 million to build affordable housing, $350 million to the state’s family leave program, $351 toward caring for adults with disabilities or other long term needs, $220 million to address homelessness and $150 million to provide low-interest student loans.

Transportation funding: The biggest item this session was a $17 billion transportation package, with projects to be built over 16 years. This was done without a hike in the gas tax. Instead it relies on some federal funding, money from last year’s cap-and-trade carbon tax, increased fees on vehicle license plates and driver’s licenses, and some surplus funds.

Locally, the money will be used to complete the 520 project in Montlake, and some funding for more bus rapid transit lines. Beyond that, there’s funding for a new Columbia River Bridge – the one on I-5 connecting Washington to Oregon – something which has been on the state’s to-do list for years. There’s also money for helping replace the bridge over the Hood River to Oregon. There’s funding for four new ferries, money to continue court-ordered work to replace fish culverts, and funding for bike and pedestrian projects.

Finally, there’s $150 million set aside to start study of a high-speed rail project. If federal money gets added to the pot, the project is envisioned to provide service from Vancouver, B.C. to Portland via Seattle. Just don’t get your hopes up on this one, a similar bullet-train project in California remains little more than lines on a piece of paper after years and years of wrangling.

Initially, the proposal had called for imposing a tax on oil refined in the state and shipped out of state, but that was removed after blowback from nearby states.

Changes to last year’s policing reform: Last year, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the months of protests across the, well across the world, really, the Legislature passed a number of police reforms designed to increase police accountability and decrease the frequency of the use of force. Police officers around the state chafed at some of the new regulations, largely saying it was unclear when they might use force, and how much they might be able to use. Continue reading →

How should we reshape District 3? Here are four proposals to redraw Seattle City Council district borders

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After some hard-fought elections and a failed recall campaign, Capitol Hill’s representation on the City Council could end up being reshaped by the Seattle Redistricting Commission. The commission has released a set of four draft maps which propose new borders for the council districts to meet requirements for regularly rebalancing populations in each of Seattle’s seven districts.

At least one and possibly two of those maps move Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s current residence out of the 3rd District covering Capitol Hill, the Central District, and surrounding neighborhoods.

Surely, robust debate is ahead.

Seattle for decades had been represented by an entirely at-large city council, meaning that everyone in the city voted for everyone on the council. After a voter-approved change in 2013, the city went to its current makeup in 2015; two seats remain at large, and the remaining seven are elected by district. Continue reading →

What Capitol Hill’s new eight-story, mass timber City Market building — with corrugated steel and Japanese climbing vines — will look like

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(Image: Juno/Ennead Architects)

The eight-story, mass timber redevelopment of City Market will make a new home for the stalwart neighborhood grocer. It continues on its path through Seattle process this week with what could be the final design for the planned mixed-use project and new home for the longtime Capitol Hill grocery. The plan is slated to come before the East Design Review Board on Wednesday, February 23rd.

San Francisco-based property owner Juno has hired New York-based Ennead Architects to design the new building at the corner of E Olive Way and Bellevue. The existing City Market building, which dates to 1919 according to property tax records, will be demolished, along with its adjacent parking lot.

The new building will feature ground floor retail, topped with 98-residential units, including 58 studios, 21 “deep” one-bedrooms, 13 one-bedrooms and 5 two-bedrooms. The building will have the typical complement of amenities, including a rooftop deck. Continue reading →

What will the Capitol Hill Safeway redevelopment look like? Public design review process begins this week

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UPDATE: The developers say the look and feel of planned retail along 15th Ave E could echo this facade from the Hawkins building in Portland (Image: Weber Thompson)

The developer’s preferred massing proposal for the project — UPDATE: Yes, they’ve incorrectly labeled E Thomas as E John (Image: Weber Thompson)

In keeping with Capitol Hill development, an old, single-story building will be torn down and replaced with a five-story building of residential over retail.

This time around, the Safeway at 15th Ave E and E John is up, and early plans for what will replace the store will come before the East Design Review Board this week.

The new project will replace the existing 44,000-square-foot Safeway and its adjacent surface parking lot. The Safeway was built in 1998 and as of 2021, had an appraised value of $39.48 million, according to county tax records.

In its place, developer Greystar and architect Weber Thompson propose a new, 50,000-square-foot Safeway, about market rate 400 apartment units, some new, smaller retail locations and an underground parking lot for about 350 cars, according to the design review proposal.

1410 E John St

Design Review Early Design Guidance for 2, 5-story buildings, with a total of 400 apartment units and retail. Parking for 350 vehicles proposed. View Design Proposal  (55 MB)    

Review Meeting
February 9, 2022 5:00 pm

Meeting: https://bit.ly/Mtg3038145

Listen Line: 206-207-1700 Passcode: 2480 613 8372
Comment Sign Up: https://bit.ly/Comment3038145
Review Phase
EDG–Early Design Guidance  

Project Number

Planner
Abby Weber — Learn more about commenting — add your comments here.

The project is coming to a neighborhood suffering a bit of big grocery anxiety. Kroger chose to shut down the nearby 15th Ave E QFC last April in a tiff over the city’s hazard pay requirements and the company continues to hold a lease on that property. With the Ohio-based Kroger apparently uninterested in striking a deal to allow a competitor to use the building, efforts continue to find a Kroger-friendly tenant capable of filling the large space.

By the time the 15th and John Safeway needs to be demolished, hopefully the nearby QFC space will be back in motion with a new grocery store.

The 98,700-square-foot lot is a sort of lopsided square, with a stem sticking up where it touches E Thomas. The existing buildings including the Aquarian Foundation church on the block that are not Safeway will remain as they are.

The design
The developer has proposed three different options, and all three propose activating what is now a long, boring blank wall – that mirrored glass isn’t fooling anybody – along 15th. Continue reading →

With 49 buildings at highest risk across Capitol Hill and Central District, Seattle pushes for 2022 progress on mandatory earthquake retrofits

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Seattle Public Schools spent $260,000 on a seismic overhaul of Lowell Elementary

This time around, something might actually happen in Seattle’s 40-year quest to shore up unreinforced masonry buildings. A City Council resolution approved in December could finally lead to some budgetary heft behind the idea of retrofitting the buildings to modern safety standards. The action is likely to one day lead to mandatory retrofits of such buildings. Though there is no defined timeline for when a mandate might happen, the earliest possibility is still years away.

The effort is critical for Capitol Hill and the Central District. CHS analysis shows some 211 area properties in the city’s “unreinforced masonry” database. Of those, 49 are considered either critical or high risk and only nine of those have either been substantially altered or retrofitted. 17 have been permitted for the expensive retrofitting construction. CHS has reported on work done to protect some of them including E Mercer’s Lowell Elementary School.

Among other plans, the resolution calls for Mayor Bruce Harrell to add spending to ramp up staff in the city’s Department of Construction and Inspections, which could finally get things moving.

“While I’m not excited about a future earthquake, I am excited to get this program going,” said Nathan Torgelson, director of the department during a meeting of the city council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

The plans laid out by the resolution call for first defining and categorizing these buildings. Some of that work has been done, as the city has been tracking the buildings for years. It has identified more than 1,100 unreinforced masonry buildings across Seattle. Of these, 75 are a critical risk, according to a presentation given by Yolanda Ho of the city council staff at the Dec. 9 meeting. Another 184 are considered high risk, while the remainder are a medium risk.

Continue reading →