A mixed-use townhouse-style development small enough to avoid the city’s public design review process but big enough to fill a Madison Valley parking lot is moving forward.
The city is conducting an “administrative review” of design plans for a proposed project to build a set of small apartment buildings in the surface parking lot outside the neighborhood’s popular Cafe Flora restaurant.
The proposal would create one four-story, two-unit apartment building with retail and a second four-story, two-unit building on the land currently used as a surface parking lot. The proposal includes parking for four vehicles.
The property has been owned by Flora’s David Foecke but is being purchased by The Flanigan Group, a development arm of Keller Williams. Seattle firm H+dlT Collaborative is the architect on the project.
With its few units, the four-story project qualifies for the city’s “streamlined” design review and won’t be subject to a public review with the board. Under the streamlined process, no public meetings are held and a Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections planner conducts the review. The city’s outreach requirements were met, the developers say, by mailing notices to residents in the area.
Administrative Design Review – No Meeting2919 E Madison St
Administrative Design Review for 1, 4-story, 2-unit apartment building with retail and 1, 4-story, 2-unit apartment building. Parking for 4 vehicles proposed.
View Design Proposal (28 MB)
Review Meeting
N/AReview Phase
EDG–Early Design GuidanceProject Number
3038148 View Related RecordsPlanner
Sean Conrad
The E Madison corridor continues to be a prime candidate for redevelopment. Starting this fall, the corridor’s streetscape is set for a major overhaul as construction begins on the $134 million, 2.3-mile, 10-station Madison bus rapid transit route connecting the waterfront through First Hill and Capitol Hill to Madison Valley.
The area’s largest planned redevelopment has faced a long road. In June, developers of the planned six-story, mixed-use apartment building and PCC grocery planned for the land currently home to the City People’s Garden Store won a crucial Hearing Examiner victory but no ground has been broken some six years now since the project was first announced.
UPDATE: We asked the city about the public notice component of administrative design review and why the reviews are still posted to the review meeting calendar. Here’s what we heard back:
Administrative design review requires public notice and posting of the design packet and design guidance similar to the full board process. Posting it to the calendar offers a mechanism for providing that information publicly. Typically, the date for the “meeting” is posted the week following submittal of a complete application.
The 2919 E Madison project was posted on Friday, September 17th. You can provide design related feedback on the early proposal via email at [email protected], reference project #3038148.
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Great news!
Wow, the disconnect between the Hearing Examiner delaying the PCC project next door over invented rules about climate change mitigation when next door this project is allowed to severely underbuild, maintaining most of the surface parking lot for private car storage and ensuring additional sprawl and emissions in exurban Puget Sound.
It is difficult to write a sentence that long which lacks a clear ending, but you Ryan, have managed to achieve it. Congratulations to you, I suppose.
Someone doesn’t do much reading, I suppose.
Not every building has to be a skyscraper. I am personally very excited to see how E Madison Street will evolve in the next few years!
I do hope they encourage builders to have setbacks from the street and create parks and public spaces.
Just walked by it today. A muddy surface parking lot to be transformed into several non-gigantic living units. I say yes!