(Image: Daily Journal of Commerce)
The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections has issued its Director’s Decision approving the plans for a six-story development to rise on the block currently home to the old 15th Ave E QFC.
Just over a week remains for any possible appeals to be filed against the decision.
The process milestone marks nearly two years of meetings and debate about the development including the East Design Review Board’s approval last fall of a requested zoning departure to allow the building an extra story in exchange for a layout that will preserve a prized European hornbeam tree along E Republican while also transitioning the project to better mesh with the adjacent lower structures to the north.
Any appeals must be filed with the Hearing Examiner by May 29th.
A group of neighbors had opposed the plan for the extra height along this growing commercial corridor of Capitol Hill that has so-far lagged development seen in the neighborhood’s core.
The development from Capitol Hill-based Hunters Capital and Runberg Architecture Group will create a new mixed-use structure including a new 15th Ave E plaza to break up the retail facade that will also provide additional corner retail space, a north podium deck, and a “pedestrian through block” breezeway on the south end of the project next to the old firehouse building that will remain.
While the developers now begin the final process of preparatory inspections and studies and wait for the wheels of economic, financing, and contractor availability windows to line up, the old grocery lives on as the home for the Punk Rock Flea Market for at least another year.
Also in waiting mode is the redevelop plan at 15th and John where Safeway has been working to transform its property with developer Greystar. The Weber Thompson-design will create two new five-story buildings including the new grocery, around 330 market rate apartment units, some new, smaller retail spaces, and an underground parking lot for more than 300 cars.
Plans had called for a start of construction in 2024 and a possible 2026 opening of the project but there have been no updates and no demolition permits are close to being issued. CHS first broke the news on the Safeway redevelopment plans in 2019.
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That sounds nice. I’m glad the project is still moving forward.
2 years of meetings to build so I can apartments. Seattle is not a serious place.
This is my main reason for abandoning left week politics.its all about process and inclusion and doing anything is a complete afterthought.
2 *(two) years of meetings to build so I can apartments *(? Incomplete sentence). Seattle is not a serious place.
This is my main reason for abandoning left week (weak) politics. its ***(It is) all about process and inclusion and doing anything is a complete afterthought.
*Number between zero to ten are spelled out.
** there is no verb after the auxiliary verb “can”
***“Its” was not capitalized, and it’s possessive.
But over all your thoughts are valid.
2.1 out of a 4.0.
🚬😑 but hey what’s a typo vs a mistake huh?!
Aw brother…Don’t pick on folks spelling and grammar.
As long as you understand, that’s all that really matters.
I am mildly dyslexic. Dropped out with less than 1/2 semester credits 1/2 way through my JR. year of HS. I can’t spell and my grammar is gawd aweful…Still…lol
But I actually started commenting wayyyy back when Obama was running. OMG I was horrible at everything. Including being a human…lol I go back and remind myself how far I’ve come since then.
The MAGA doesn’t turn away the exceptional learners. They love the undereducated. The elderly. I wonder why?
As an editor for umpteen years, this is just mean. Congratulations for making someone feel bad for whatever “mistakes” they may have made.
Couldn’t agree more with that statement. The balance to putting weight on outcomes is missing, and yet the outcome is there anyway… housing is more expensive because the time delays add cost to the project. Glad to see this moving forward. It’s a project that makes a lot of sense and was due this decision.
Those aren’t left wing politics but rather centrist and neoliberals that use any and all means to stop development that isn’t in their interest and extract as much value via legal and engineering firms that prepare documens. SEPA and other regulations are tools they use with monied interests to keep things status quo, just like SFH zoning that keeps development out of their lands.
Look at the groups that oppose new housing in the name of trees, etc, and they are almost all backed by either an institution or group of citizens with money and financial interests that astroturf these campaigns.
The Seattle Process isn’t a left-wing idea, but a centrist neoliberal vision of what an open and fair government with “active involvement” of its citizenship looks like. It says government is fair if it’s “inclusive” by allowing passive participation with open periods of public comments/review. It’s fair on paper, but just another way that financial interests can continue to push their own agendas by cutting out the majority that don’t have the time outside of needing to work 40+ hours/week just to make a living.
If they do this? We are truly screwed. Corruption comes literally seconds after the votes are counted.
Except there’s no left wing group that is attempting to remove any process?
Here’s several from one article, many others but I won’t do your homework for you: https://www.sightline.org/2025/05/15/washington-takes-statewide-zoning-reform-to-the-next-level/
those are not left wing groups, those are clearly centrist or center left groups (my people, in other words). Sawantistas do not want this
This is from SI’s about us page:
“Since European sailing ships first touched Cascadia’s shores in the 1700s—and indeed, long before—Cascadia’s communities have struggled with inequalities and oppression. Slavery, colonialism, racial and sexual violence, land dispossession, enforced segregation and exclusion, Jim Crow laws, and Indian boarding schools—our history, like most histories, is rife with ugly injustices. This past, and the persistence of injustices in the present, too often divide Cascadians. They divide us by ability, class, creed, ethnicity, faith, gender identity, ideology, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and more.
Sightline understands its mission—to make Cascadia a global model of sustainability, with strong communities, a green economy, and a healthy environment—as necessarily intertwined with the effort to right current inequities and remedy historic wrongs. Solving the challenges at the core of our work, such as housing shortages, gridlocked democracy, and polluted air, often provides opportunities to advance equity as well. Sightline is committed to seizing these opportunities.”
How is this centrist or center left?
Do we need to run every idea past Sawant so you know how to feel about it?
That’s just standard center left stuff. No talk of overthrowing capitalism or moving to a socialist model of anything?
Lol, you would crap on them if there was on purely ideolgocal premise?
Translation: It costs money to file and pursue an appeal; lo and behold, the people who file appeals tend to be people who can afford to. Word is that developers, in contrast, have no institutional support or political influence and are forced to rely on Go Fund Me campaigns to scrape by.
No, the translation is that so-called liberals act and vote like conservatives when it comes to housing policies:
“Two survey experiments show that liberal homeowners are cross-pressured and barely more likely than conservative homeowners to support dense housing development. Messages appealing to homeowners’ self-interest reduce support further, while countervailing appeals about housing’s benefits to low- and middle-income families barely offset the negative effect.”
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711717
The developer wanted a departure from code. (Several actually)
They needed to get some shady new director rules issued as well, and that takes time.
If they would have kept this to 5 floors it would have been approved a long time ago.
why was the code so restrictive that this milquetoast building required departures?
They requested an exemption from the height requirements, claiming it was to preserve a tree—one I can almost guarantee will be destroyed during construction. The city was misled and should not have yielded to corporate interests.
Can’t wait for this to start, will be so GREAT to activate that area once again. Safeway reno can’t come soon enough either
INCLUDE: Green rooftop, 5 courtyards, 30 gardens, 70 percent vs 80 percent land coverage, 50 porches, 20,000 sqf retail space.
https://www.traditionalbuilding.com/opinions/a-vision-for-civic-conservation
And a pony. Or several.
you mean the Greystar that has been colluding with other huge landlords to fix rent prices and keep ‘em high? great. https://www.propublica.org/article/justice-department-sues-landlords-alleged-price-fixing-realpage-rent
Same question. F Greystar if it’s the same group. Can we not rein them in somehow with statewide legislation?
While we wait, the spaces remain activated! Thistle & Poppy at 428 15th will be there as long as we can — come by for a visit :)