Tag Archives: design review

Why construction cranes and design review meetings have disappeared — and higher rents will keep appearing — on Capitol Hill

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A construction crane towers above Capitol Hill in 2018

By Matt Dowell

Seattle’s affordable housing crisis is still here but construction cranes have pretty much disappeared from the Capitol Hill skyline. According to local housing developers, that’s because we aren’t building much these days.

“There is almost no new construction happening in Seattle right now,” said Ben Maritz of Great Expectations, a Seattle-based real estate firm.

Permit application trends on the city’s dashboard support the observations, showing a 47% year-over-year decrease last year in residential units under application. A statement from a spokesperson for the city confirmed that “Design Review and all other land use review permit volumes are down across the entire city.”

This 2024 UW study on the effects of City housing policy noted that a slowdown in permits is a precursor to a slowdown in units entering the market, and it takes a couple of years to feel those effects. The report showed a decline in permit issuance for multifamily housing since 2021.

According to the report, it’s market conditions in the last few years that “have had a chilling effect on housing production in Seattle.” Local developers agree.

Michael Oaksmith from Capitol Hill-based Hunters Capital, behind the recently finished Capitol Hilltop Apartments on 15th and Mercer, told us, “The recent run up of interest rates really makes it hard for a property to pencil. Most developers I know, including us, have slowed their expectations for projects and their appetites for projects have gone down as a result of not being able to pump out an acceptable return.”

“Most experts are looking at pretty flat [interest] rates over the next twelve months which does not bode well for a flurry of activity,” he said. “It’ll be a year or two of “sitting on our hands.”

Hunters is, meanwhile, preparing to redevelop 15th Ave E’s old QFC block with a new six-story, mixed-use apartment building — one of the few Capitol Hill projects to come in front of the East Design Review Board in 2024.

Real estate developers rely on investor money to get projects built, but investors aren’t signing up. Continue reading →

Seattle considers more design review changes that could cap number of meetings, create quicker, cheaper process, and let more buildings go without review

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The most recent new major development to open on Capitol Hill, the Capitol Hilltop Apartments hit a design review bump in 2020 (Image: Studio Meng Strazzara)

Seattle is continuing efforts to simplify its design review program while trying to maintain opportunities for community members to help shape buildings rising around the city. Changes in state law now have city officials looking at a new round of updates that need to be in place by next summer.

The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections is collecting feedback on proposed reforms to the program that could include changes that would please developers and affordability advocates who say the process is too slow, too unpredictable, and too expensive.

The city says it is considering a roster of updates including “limiting projects to only one public meeting, streamlining the Design Review process to be quicker and less costly for applicants, and reducing the number of projects that are required to go through Design Review.”

You can take a survey on the process and possible changes here.

The current basic framework of the design review program is required for most new larger buildings and includes public notice with the ability for neighborhoods to comment on the appearance of new buildings, and City of Seattle Staff and volunteer Design Review Boards who review new buildings to make sure they meet design guidelines. Continue reading →

Seattle prepares for new design review landscape

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E Union’s Heartwood was developed without the city’s full design review process thanks to exceptions already in place for affordable housing

 

 

Seattle’s next steps in streamlining its design review process will come amid an effort to “revitalize Seattle’s core” by encouraging more housing across downtown and on First Hill.

A Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection design review report that was delayed for months and eventually released this summer will be heard at the city council’s Land Use Committee this week. Part of the proposed legislation would allow for exemptions on certain types of new construction proposals from the design review process in order to accelerate development. Some worry these recommendations will harm residents by further eroding the city’s design review process. Others say reform can’t come fast enough for a city stuck in an affordability criss.

“Of course, we would have preferred issuing the report sooner, but a long session in Olympia ended in April 2023 and changed the design review landscape with the passage of HB 1293,” Bryan Stevens, SDCI spokesperson, told CHS. “This state legislative change and competing land use priorities in front of us and City Council…contributed to a delay in issuing the final SLI [Statement of Legislative Intent] response, which included the consultant’s stakeholder report and associated cover memo by SDCI and OPCD [Office of Planning & Community Development].”

Stevens said there was broad support among SLI stakeholders, including an 18-member group, for decreasing design review timelines, like rewriting the guidelines to improve clarity for applicants, the community and staff. Stevens said when considering refinements to the design review program, permit efficiency must balance out with housing production and design quality.

“We’re also continuing to respond to the call for supporting the safety and vibrancy of our downtown neighborhoods with a Mayor’s proposal under consideration by City Council to temporarily exempt certain new construction proposals from design review to streamline permitting as a part of the Mayor’s Downtown Activation Plan [DAP],” Stevens said.

If approved by the Council, Mayor Harrell’s proposal [Council Bill 120824] would apply to new housing units, hotels and research and development laboratories in Downtown, Uptown, SLU, parts of SODO, and First Hill for a three-year period. Continue reading →

Review board signs off on design for new 6-story apartment building on Broadway’s Bait Shop block

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The East Design Review Board has approved the final design proposal for a new six-story, 122-unit apartment building with retail and three live-work units on the 600 block of Broadway E.

The board Wednesday night reviewed the proposed design and heard public comment before recommending conditional approval of the design by Studio Meng Strazzara for developer Cascade Ridge Partners. The approval requires the project to meet conditions related to the “composition of exterior materials” and “the design of the street edges at pedestrian level,” the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections says. Continue reading →

East Review Board signs off on early design for 600 Broadway E development

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The planned massing of the preferred “u-shaped” design

The East Design Review Board got its first big decision of 2024 squared away Wednesday night as it signed off on the early design elements of a proposed six-story development planned to rise on the 600 block of Broadway E.

Wednesday, the board recommended the project move forward with its Master Use Permit application where the group’s attention will turn to elements including “scale mitigation, street edge composition and high-quality exterior materials.”

Studio Meng Strazzara is leading design on the Cascade Ridge Partners development and presented a set of three concepts for the general massing of the development including a preferred design that “continues the character of the Broadway E. corridor massing vernacular” with a U-shape concept. Continue reading →

Design review: Developers want QFC block project to make room for 10 businesses, 170 apartments, 1 ‘tier 2’ tree — and they want to rise 6 stories on 15th Ave E to do it — UPDATE

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(Images: Runberg Architecture Group)

The Capitol Hill developers behind the project to transform the old QFC block of 15th Ave E into new apartments, businesses, and plaza space want the new building to give the neighborhood a vibrant streetscape with a mix of trees old and new, small retail spaces to add to the street’s eclectic mix, and 170 new homes.

The only catch? They’ll need an extra story to pull it off. Wednesday, Hunters Capital will present its first public proposal for the property to the East Design Review Board and start the discussion about the tradeoff it is requesting to allow the project to reach six stories high in exchange for keeping two mature and well-loved European hornbeam trees on the north end of the property along E Republican.

“The scale of the property provides an opportunity to develop a variety of retail and restaurant spaces that will fit into the scale of the existing commercial context,” Hunters Capital’s design proposal reads. “Enhancing pedestrian life and access through the neighborhood is another priority that will contribute to the viability of the commercial spaces and help make this project a destination that draws neighborhood residents and visitors alike.” Continue reading →

Eight-story E Olive Way development finally ready for last step in Seattle design review process

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(Image: MG2)

There will be a small burst of design review activity around Capitol Hill as summer becomes fall including a project that could be key to the next steps in the long, slow climb of change reshaping E Olive Way. The major project replacing the former curving street’s Coldwell Banker building and three other with an eight-story mixed-use project from Canada-based real estate investment and management company Low Tide Properties is set to take what the project’s backers hope will be its final pass through the public review process this week and onto construction.

The plan for 1661 E Olive Way calls for tearing down the four existing buildings spanning the block between Boylston and Belmont on the south side of Olive. The project area is currently occupied by the former Coldwell Banker building which fronts Olive. It stretches along Boylston/Belmont to include the low-slung office/warehouse buildings and also includes the existing parking lot.

In its place will rise an 8-story building with space for about 160 apartments, about 2,400 square feet of commercial space and 90 underground parking spaces. The proposal calls for the commercial space to be split into two storefronts, with one providing access from Olive and the other from Belmont. Residential access, both for pedestrians and cars, would be on Belmont. Continue reading →

Design review: Two projects, 500 new apartments, and a new home for Photographic Center Northwest along 12th Ave

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The future Focus Apartments

A pair of development projects that would add more than 500 new apartments to the Central District along 12th Ave will come before the Central Area Design Review Board this week including a building that will create a new home for the Photographic Center Northwest and the restart of a long-delayed project at 12th and Spruce,

900 12TH AVE: The plan for the redevelopment of the Photographic Center Northwest at 12th Ave and E Marion continues to, well, develop.

Plans call for the demolition of the current building and parking lot, though the center will live on in the new construction. The new building is planned to be seven stories. The photo center will occupy about 10,000 square feet on the ground floor. Above will be about 170 apartments, 20% of which will be set aside as affordable housing. The building will run the length of the block along Marion. Continue reading →

Reshoot: Design for new Photographic Center Northwest mixed-use project goes back to review board

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Maybe projects that create cool new homes for neighborhood arts nonprofits should also be freed from design review. The Photographic Center Northwest will soon get that new home — and about 170 new neighbors in the new Focus Apartments — if a redevelopment proposal about to get a reshoot in the first stage of the city’s design review process can finally move forward.

The developer had proposed three alternatives at its first design guidance meeting back in September but none fully satisfied the Central Area Design Review Board. Now they’re back with two newly refined options.

The proposal for 900 12th Ave, at the corner of 12th and Marion, calls for removing the existing two-story building, longtime home of the photography center and the existing surface parking lot. In its place would be a new building spanning the blocks from 12th Avenue to 13th Ave along Marion.

CHS reported here earlier this year on the project and the opportunity for Photography Center Northwest to redevelop its long-held 12th Ave property.

900 12th Ave

Design Review Early Design Guidance for a 7-story, 171-unit apartment building with institution (Photographic Center Northwest) and retail. Parking for 42 vehicles proposed. View Design Proposal  (29 MB)    

Review Meeting
December 8, 2022 5:00 PM

Meeting: https://bit.ly/Mtg3039185

Listen Line: 206-207-1700 Passcode: 2487 511 7365
Comment Sign Up: https://bit.ly/Comment3039185
Review Phase
EDG–Early Design Guidance  See All Reviews

Project Number

Planner
David Sachs

The new building is planned to rise seven stories. The center would have about 10,000 square feet space on the ground floor, with its entrance at 12th and Marion, across 12th from Seattle University. There will be about 600 square feet more for ground floor retail, and 169 apartments perched atop the center’s new digs. About 20% of the units are expected to meet the city’s affordable housing guidelines, though that number has not be finalized. There are also plans for underground parking for 44 cars.

The project is proposed by Seattle-based developer Vibrant Cities and designed by Link Design Group of Kirkland which has brought photography-inspired design concepts to the project they say presents special challenges due to its relatively narrow width and depth and required setbacks due to utility lines.

The developer’s new proposal involves a ground floor that’s fairly rectangular. But on the above floors, there’s various degrees of articulation to the building. Continue reading →

Seattle proposal would free affordable projects from design review — and give all developers path to skip public meetings

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The affordable mass timber Heartwood project from Community Roots Housing at 14th and Union (Image: AIA Seattle)

The city’s COVID-19 emergency has ended but its affordable housing emergency continues. New legislation shaped by the pandemic and championed by the mayor and city council would speed up the public approval process to create new low-and-middle-income apartment buildings by exempting the developments from time consuming and expensive design reviews. The effort could also produce a two-year test where any major development in the city could choose to undertake a public review as is currently required or pursue the streamlined administrative design review with public feedback but without public meetings.

Mayor Bruce Harrell sent legislation to the Seattle City Council this week to begin the process of winding down what critics say is one of the city’s largest bureaucratic barriers to more rapidly addressing its housing issues. Continue reading →