West Seattle, Washington
21 Thursday
Four days after the 41st/42nd/Alaska megaproject (with QFC) cleared a city hurdle, the Fauntleroy Place megaproject just a couple blocks to the east (with Whole Foods) has cleared one too. The company in charge of the project, Blue Star Management, says city council members unanimously approved the “alley vacation” today, and explains the alley’s future: “The alley running north to south from SW Oregon Street to SW Alaska Street between 40th Ave SW and 39th Ave SW will be relocated into an L-shaped alley, running from SW Oregon Street south and then exiting west at about three-quarters block on to 40th Ave SW, instead of continuing toward SW Alaska Street.” Blue Star reiterates that it hopes to start construction early next year; below is the latest rendering of what Fauntleroy Place is supposed to look like.
Five months after we posted about a landowner’s application for a permit to chop down more than a dozen trees (and surrounding greenery) on a steep slope over Beach Drive — below a house on Atlas — the decision’s in.
It says in part “this … will result in adverse impacts to the environment,” but since those “impacts” are “not expected to be significant,” the greenery removal gets the green light. (The decision mentions one public comment of concern was received, focusing on slide risks in the area; appeals are also possible on decisions like these, and the city site explains how.)
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After 2 1/4 hours in a room last night with the Southwest Design Review Board and a hearteningly sized group of onlookers, here’s what we can tell you about the big building that’s to go up on the east edge of The Junction, where Hollywood Video etc. once stood:Read More
-The monthly West Seattle Art Walk, 6-9 pm in The Junction. Including shoe paintings!
-Less revelry, more revelatory: The city Design Review Board convenes @ 6:30 pm @ the SW Precinct, with just one project on the agenda — the first WS megaproject proposal that’s gone to demolition already (4100 Alaska/ex-Hollywood Video, photo below taken this week).
A WSB reader e-mailed us to ask if we knew what was going on with the triangular spot of commercial land along Erskine a little ways west of The Junction. We remember driving past for years and noticing what looked like an old gas pump, though now (barely visible in the left foreground below) there’s just a concrete pad.
County property records show the parcel was sold in April; city permit files show the “storage shed” will make way for a single-family house. The person who e-mailed us says this site used to house “Thor’s Towing”; any WSB oldtimers have stories to share?
Big article in today’s Times about the West Ridge Park condo-conversion project and Delridge-area housing development in general. Notable infobits in the article include the WRP developers’ expectations that only about a dozen of the 200-plus tenants will buy their units.
Chainsaw buzz is echoing through the Cali/Charlestown vicinity this morning as the Seattle Fire Dept. carries out a “training exercise” as part of the demolition of the teardowns-to-townhomes at 3906 and 3910 Cali. So far, as our photo shows, they’re tearing up the roofs; will they set the houses on fire later today? We’ll see what we can find out.
You are, if you expect the ravaged roadway of Sylvan/Orchard (east of High Point and home to the sign at left) to be all good as new once the upcoming closure is through. Nope, just a short stretch, reiterates the project spokesperson in today’s Herald.
-Funny, we were just talking about Fauntleroy Place: A city council committee agenda that just landed in our inbox mentions a “possible vote” next Monday morning regarding the “alley vacation” that is a key part of the FP project.
-Another council committee has a briefing at 2 pm today regarding the latest version of the citywide skatepark plan. Two (updated from first version of this post; thanks to the reader who corrected us) proposed WS skateparks are currently on the list: Roxhill and Delridge.
-The city kicked off a push for low-flow showerheads today. If you haven’t tried ’em, you might be surprised. We converted to one during a remodel a few years back and it’s really not that dramatic a change.
This Times article about a shelved QFC project in North Seattle got us thinking, again, about the pending supermarket projects here in WS. We dug back to last July to revisit this P-I article that included developers’ hopes that both the 4100 Alaska project (reportedly with QFC) 
and the Fauntleroy Place project at the Schuck’s/Hancock corner (left), with Whole Foods, would both have begun construction by now. In reality – 4100 Alaska has gone through demolition, but the rest of the pre-construction process isn’t done yet; the next Design Review Board meeting about it is one week from Thursday. And Fauntleroy Place is still making its way through the city-permitting process; its website now says construction is expected to start by “mid-2007” (late summer/early fall was mentioned in this Herald story a few months ago).
We usually find out about impending teardowns-to-townhomes by watching the city permit process. Today, though, we’ve got one that came to our attention from the people who are getting the boot before the backhoe shows up: the current renters of a doomed brick duplex along Fauntleroy, a couple who moved here from back east last year, and like so many of us, fell madly in love with WS. They aren’t ready to buy; one of them is in grad school. But now they’re on notice they’ve got to be out by the end of this month. There’s one instructive thing about their story; first, here’s a photo they kindly sent of their soon-to-be-ex-duplex …
The tenants note in their e-mail to us: “We rent through a property management company and didn’t know, till now, who the owner was — it’s Soleil Development.” (Which has other WS projects, including this one.) We checked property records for their address; Soleil technically didn’t take ownership till last winter, after these tenants moved in; but before their arrival last August, it was purchased last June by Dan Duffus, Soleil’s owner. So perhaps it would be worthwhile for would-be renters to use this site to check who owns their prospective new home; if it’s a development company, or someone you can easily see in search engines is linked to one, know you might not live there for long.
As discussed at the community meeting regarding efforts to save the Charlestown Cafe and stop the site from being turned into Petco’s new location or any other “big box” development, plans are now in place for a picketing demonstration. According to the announcement just posted on the Our Town West Seattle Yahoo! group, it’ll happen 11 am-2 pm June 30, along California, in front of the restaurant.
Taking a moment to more closely examine the land-use permit just granted for the burned-out Schuck’s site (second part of this post), we noted that what was originally described as approx. 5K square feet of “customer service office” has become approx. 5K square feet of “medical services.” (No change in the projected restaurant and retail space.)
-Now we know why the “for sale” sign on Beach Drive’s “Painted Lady” (aka the Satterlee House) has moved all the way to the front of the house: The city just issued a permit for the short-plat that will allow three homes to be built in what’s currently the historic home’s front yard. We’re working to find out what happens next and when.
–A land-use permit’s also been issued to allow a new commercial development where the burned-out Schuck’s store shell now sits, kitty corner from Charlestown Cafe.
There’s now a date set for a road closure that will mean months of detouring for people who use Sylvan Way/SW Morgan to get between 35th and Delridge: The closure starts June 18 and is expected to last through mid-September. It’s happening for underground utility work related to all the housing construction in the area; an open house is planned one week ahead of time to help make sure everyone has the info they need to get through the shutdown. This city press release has more info on the exact shutdown zone as well as detour plans.
Love the townhouse boom or hate it, you have to agree a lot of these projects seem cookie-cutter. 
Here’s one example that made us laugh: A Craigslist ad for “luxurious townhomes in West Seattle” with no address, just a rendering (left) that could be any one of at least half a dozen we’ve seen. Which reminds us that a reader pointed out a reassuring note in a recent city memo, about a “Townhouse Design Workshop” in the works. Whew. What a relief.
As we discuss and debate development here amid the pixels of WSB, it’s been mentioned that the city has Neighborhood Plans that were drawn up years ago, paving the way for what’s happening now. Here’s a rare chance to tell the city what you think about how those plans are working, or not working. Click here to take the survey (deadline May 28). If you want to review your Neighborhood Plan first, find it on the dropdown list here.
In Morgan Junction, exterior work on the ex-Video Vault building, future new home of Beveridge Place Pub, has accelerated lately, so we e-mailed the pub owners to ask what’s going on inside and when they’re planning to open. Here’s their reply, as well as photos we snapped on a sunnier day earlier this week:
Well, like most renovation projects, the more you get into it, the more problems you find. Right now we’re doing our best to make sure the building remains standing: replacing dry rot, new roof, shoring up a retaining wall, etc. The interior is nothing but stud walls. The false wall out front is there so we can start to replace all the windows and doors. Next we’ll build an addition on the north side to cover the stairwell and provide access to the 400 sq ft patio! We hope to be moved in while the weather’s still warm enough to use the patio this year, but no definitive date at this time.
Just south of the booming Cali/Charlestown intersection, on the east side of Cali between Belli Capelli and Moxie, two neighboring houses are both destined to make way for townhouse clumps. Construction and demolition permits have just been issued for 3910 Cali (which is so tree-obscured, we couldn’t get a photo); probably not far behind is neighboring 3906 (shown below), where progress is listed on the DPD site as “reviews completed.”
We had seen the “for sale” signs at the “Koze” store/house next door but didn’t realize till an e-mail tip that Carosello Coffee (the location’s latest incarnation) on 35th is for sale too. Interesting caveat in the listing fine print forwarded by our tipster (or is this par for the course with business listings?) — “DO NOT DISCUSS SALE WITH EMPLOYEES!”
For those who use Morgan/Sylvan to get between east and west WS, there’s word from the city’s Neighborhood District Coordinator that the construction company is now targeting mid-June for the upcoming summertime road closure — two weeks later than the most recent plan.
Nine months after the landmark Painted Lady of Beach Drive (aka the Satterlee House) went up for sale again, we just noticed a change in signage outside the house and its front lawn. 
Now, with a change in listing companies, it’s offered as one “estate” again, though the blurb goes on to say, “this property is actually two parcels … the one the house sits on and the front parcel which has been short platted for three homes. Buy one or both!” Hadn’t realized the short-plat had gotten final approval but it seems that happened right before Christmas, on a day most of us had something else (like this) on our minds. So then how come somebody hasn’t snapped up the land already? (P.S. Dear John L. Scott, the new blurb is kind of over the top. “Coyly awaits restoration”? And it’s not “near Alki Point.” 1.5 miles, to be precise. Plus “flair” is the word you’re looking for, not “flare.” /nitpick)
There’s a new development in Land Use Land regarding one of the first unique local buildings whose impending demise we lamented, 4532 42nd SW (original post from last August). An application is now filed (with less than two weeks for public comment) with some more specifics on what’s proposed there: Six stories, mixed-use, 35 residential units over 3,000-plus SF of “commercial space.”
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