West Seattle Blog… | ‘A place you’d be proud to come to’: Possibilities unveiled, community suggestions voiced, for West Seattle Junction parking-lot parcels

From Tracy Record
West Seattle blog editor

An “incubator” hub for small businesses.

Affordable living space – including apartments for growing families and seniors.

Common areas, indoors and outdoors.

And yes, parking lot (underground).

These are some of the possibilities in concepts for redeveloping the West Seattle Junction Association-managed parking, as discussed at an online community meeting tonight.

Hosted the meeting West Seattle Junction Association Managing Director Lora Radford, and featured guests Living with community roots, who made a previously unaccepted $ 14 million offer to purchase the lots, and Ankrom Moisan, commissioned the architecture firm CRH to explore possibilities. The lots are located at 42nd / Oregon, 44th / Oregon, 44th / Alaska, and 44th between Edmunds and Alaska.

This is how the meeting went:

STORY: Radford said the history of the parking lots dates back to the 1950s when the area’s status as a hub was recognized and three parking lots were created. When a fire station was relocated years later, this was the fourth property. The companies were informally asked to contribute to the operating and maintenance costs. Then in 1987 that Business improvement area was officially founded, one of now 10 in the city, second oldest, all for different reasons – in this case “to pay for the parking spaces”. Other activities from summer Sidewalk sale to summer party to flower baskets to create “a great, beautiful, vibrant downtown” for West Seattle. Then came 2016 when the King County Assessor’s Office noted that the “highest and best use” per zone was for development, and the property tax bill (which was paid by WSJA as part of their rental terms) began to increase steadily and exponentially. Regarding the lots’ earlier status as free, Radford reminded participants that “it was never free” – dealers paid the cost. As we reported in passing, the plan for the use of the land was drawn up over the course of a few years and implemented at the beginning of the year. “Because it is in the middle of an urban village, we really asked ourselves in the 1950s whether it was that good… did it really make sense for these lots to be undeveloped here? … We decided what it would look like if this land could be built… (something) that would serve the community for many generations. ”This was followed by a discussion with Community Roots Housing. The city Housing Office was “fascinated by the possibility of creating affordable housing in the urban village of West Seattle Junction”. An evaluation followed; an offer has been made to the property owner Trustworthy properties (which was not part of today’s meeting). And then CRH asked Ankrom Moisan with a vision for what might be possible; Community Roots Housing financed the renderings they presented.

COMMUNITY ROOT HOUSING: Jeremy Wilkening started with an introduction to his organization, a public development agency that was chartered by the city and has been around for 40 years (formerly known as Capitol Hill Housing). CRH works with organizations across the city. One participant asked what “affordable housing” would mean for this project: “We are taking advantage of a low-income tax credit capped at 60 percent of the median income in the region – approximately $ 60,000 for a family of four. … We refer to this as ‘workplace apartments’, people who can no longer afford to live in the neighborhoods of our city. ”One participant asked what mix of 1-, 2-, and 3-room apartments he was considering . Too early to say, Wilkening replied. “We have some ideas, but we want to hear what the neighborhood would like to see.” He added that the city’s housing tax – a major source of funding – “favors smaller units” despite trying to grow into larger ones. City funding could not be used to fund public parking, he added in response to another question, but they were “very concerned” about how to fund “real public parking” – for business customers – in the projects. “We don’t have an answer, but we want to solve this with the community because we understand that’s an important part of it.” Radford mentioned a 2018 survey that found that 29 percent of Junction shoppers / – Guests drove alone to get there. (In the chat box, a dealer, Bruce Davis from Connection true value(, said that this was not the case for his business, which he estimates is 90 percent supported by drivers.) She also said that although the usage of tickets has been lower since switching to paid tickets, the most important question is whether Dealers See Lower Sales? . She asked them frequently and learned: “The answer is no.”

Akeyla Jimerson from CRH showed some of their projects – the Liberty Bank building, 50 units in the Central District on the site of the “first black-owned bank in the Pacific Northwest”, including three commercial spaces with black-owned companies as tenants, guard, 110 units on Sound Transit’s Capitol Hill property, which opened last March, and includes a common room that is open to the public. the White center HUB (Rendering above) – not yet built – is a project that is planned for the district’s own premises on which the White Center Food Bank; 80 apartments and spaces for local non-profit organizations are planned.

ANKROM MOISAN: Jason Roberts from the architects’ office emphasized: “Nothing is fixed here” – an idea of ​​what could be done with the locations. First, he noted the zoning for the sites – # 1 at 42nd / Oregon could go up to 95 ′, the other three could go up to 75 ′. (Your ideas are NOT going to the maximum allowed height.) They all have alleyways, he also noted. Power lines along the alley mean there has to be a backlash. And no parking spaces are required for new buildings at these locations. He said they were “interested in creating some outdoor areas next to the sidewalk”. “We imagine people can walk around these buildings and take a little break.” They would also create connections in the middle of the block (which The Junction already has, especially between Edmunds and Alaska). Other components could be an “incubator room” at Site 2, perhaps an open kitchen for food businesses and shared apartments such as rooftop terraces and common areas.

Here is the general map:

Since location 1 is the largest location, they would have more family apartments – 2 and 3 bedrooms – plus commercial space, a roof terrace, and it would be “efficient” to create an underground car park – maybe even 2 levels. A playground for the youngest residents is also planned.

Location 2 could have common rooms, a roof terrace, a mixture of apartment sizes, some parking spaces are also possible there. This could be the “incubator” space for promoting small businesses (restaurants, retail, with much lower rents ”and business support services).

Roberts also had an early “concept” rendering for Site 2 – facing its potential west side along 44th Street south of Oregon – showing the “Incubator” room winding around the courtyard. The northern part of the building could be smaller, on the order of the Oregonian Apartments to the north. “We really want to work with the standard” of existing buildings, he said.

Location 3, retail space in front of Busplatz, cheap senior citizens’ apartments, a communal area, some public outside areas – a smaller location so that an underground car park is less likely,

Same goes for location 4 – parking is less likely. It would reset to keep existing trees. Some units are on the ground floor.

For affordable construction, the height would be limited – concrete at ground level, wood above. Because of this, they wouldn’t build as high as the zoning would allow. Eight floors would be the highest.

Wilkening emphasized once again that “these are concepts” that do not always arise at this early stage in a potential development process, but “this process is a bit unique” because they have to deal with the property owner and therefore have to be more specific about them Concepts … starting with “our ideas” but ready to hear “your ideas”.

COMMENTS / QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMUNITY: These were addressed in the course of the meeting, but then in a special question and answer / comment. Period began, these included:

-Distribute the parking space instead of just concentrating it in one building
-Have you considered the impact of the future light rail system? (Answer: yes)
-Would these be MFTE units (multi-family tax exemption program that restricts rents)? No, the rents they would charge would be lower than MFTE rents and would last longer (MFTE currently expires after 12 years and these would be affordable “for at least 70 years”).
-What is the schedule for this potential construction? They don’t know which would be the first, but they wouldn’t expect construction until 2024, so the lots would remain parking lots “until we’re ready to develop”.
– Will there be more crosswalks as pedestrian traffic increases? You would surely meet with SDOT to see the streetscape.
-How would this affect the value of the surrounding properties if affordable housing were developed in these locations? Studies show no effects, said Wilkening.
-Could the alleys be pedestrian streets? One of the challenges is to ensure that business services are not compromised.

In response to a specific request for comments on “What would you like to see … consider it your legacy”
-Affordable living space, green spaces, more trees, quality of life
-More covered outdoor options
-Need a hospital

WHAT’S NEXT: The website owners would have to accept CRH’s offer before this could move forward. WSJA says the owners (a consortium of shareholders) are expected to consider this at a meeting later this month. In the meantime, CRH promises to create a “portal” for feedback in the near future. “If we are able to move on with this, we will be sure that we are getting it right,” promised Radford. “A place you’d like to come,” added CRH CEO Chris people.

VIDEO OF THE MEETING: We’ll add it to this story as soon as WSJA lets us know it’s uploaded and available.