6010 Phinney Development – Chemical Contaminants May Delay Project

The developers of the proposed 4-story mixed-use building at 6010 Phinney hired consultants to conduct an environmental assessment last month. Now the results are back, and things don’t look good for the future of the development. Geotech Consultants Inc. drilled 22 feet into the ground under the property and found significant levels of PERC, a common dry-cleaning chemical.

After decades as the home of Phinney Ridge Cleaners, the site has accumulated an amount of PERC that was found to be above cleanup levels in 9 of the 11 borings. That means the developers of the 6010 project will have to do something about the soil before construction starts on their proposed mixed-use development.  The study offers two possible methods for cleanup: either the soil can be dug out and removed entirely, or the PERC can be removed by chemical treatment.

This study doesn’t call for any immediate cleanup action, but Geotech did recommend further testing to find out the exact depth, area and volume of the PERC in the soil. For the moment, the situation doesn’t appear to be serious. No spills or releases of PERC at 6010 have ever been reported to the Washington Department of Ecology.

Fortunately for both the developers and local residents, the study also didn’t find very much groundwater on the site. Water is the main way PERC can spread, and cleaning up the site will be easier and safer without it. The chemical evaporates in the air and doesn’t spread quickly in soil.

The developers haven’t said how this affects the timetable for the project, or their chances for getting a master use permit, but the current businesses on the property aren’t going anywhere for a while. Roosters Breakfast Club agreed to a new three-year lease on Thursday, according to the restaurant’s owner, who said he had already started scouting out possible new locations.  He also said that the business owners on the block haven’t seen the results of the Geotech study, so although it appears the cleanup issue and the lease extension are related, we can’t confirm that yet.

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6010 Phinney Design Approved – On-Site Report

Our neighborhood team was on-site at the final review of the 6010 Phinney building design which will make major changes to the Phinney Ridge neighobrhood area.

The proposed four-story mixed-use building at 6010 Phinney Ave. is one step closer to becoming a reality, after being approved by the Design Review Board in a public meeting at Ballard High School on Tuesday. About 30 neighbors showed up to comment on the latest plans for a building that’s slated to go in where Rooster’s Breakfast Club, Daily Planet, Chef Liao and the Phinney Dry Cleaners now stand. The new design addressed a lot of neighbors’ previous concerns, but nearly every speaker at the meeting had the same big problem with the new plans: the location of the driveway leading in and out of the building’s underground parking garage.

Architects from Kilburn, LLC, ran through 14 different changes that attempted to address neighbors’ concerns from the previous Design Review Board meeting back in February. These included things like reducing the size of one of the building’s stair towers, using materials that more closely match other buildings in the neighborhood, and creating a transparent canopy over the sidewalk instead of a solid brick one. Ventilation between the ground floor and the roof has also been added, which will allow restaurants to move into the building’s retail spaces. While most of the audience were pleased with the changes, the location of the driveway remains a sore spot for neighbors.

The driveway was initially going to be located on Phinney Ave., but that changed at the previous DRB meeting in February. The board recommended moving it around the corner to 61st St., where there’s generally less pedestrian traffic. After that meeting, the architects redrew the entire plan from the ground up to accommodate the new driveway. The developers claim this nearly doubled their design costs. However, neighbors were concerned that a driveway on 61st would provide less visibility for cars coming out of the underground garage and pose a danger to pedestrians. The Design Review Board said that the sight triangle at the driveway was large enough to meet code.

Moving the driveway back to Phinney would also significantly break up the retail storefronts on the busiest side of the building. During deliberations, members of the Board said that they’ve been approving driveways on side streets with less foot traffic all over the Northwest. Neighbors argued that the Roycroft Condominiums, right across the street from 6010, use a driveway on Phinney. The Board discussed this point . The developers, for their part, say they’re just “taking the City’s lead” and doing what they can to comply with code.

The Design Review Board is only one step in the process of getting the building at 6010 approved. To secure a Master Use Permit and start building, the site also has to pass an environmental review. The results of the environmental testing should be available to the public next week, but developers said that preliminary reports show some contaminants in the soil. It won’t be clear how much contamination, or whether it’s from chemicals used at the dry cleaner that’s been on the site for decades, until the final report comes out.

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6010 Phinney Building – Phinney Ridge Community Council

The Phinney Ridge Community Council held its September meeting this Tuesday. PRCC meetings are open to the public, so neighbors can drop by to voice concerns about everything from zoning to parking to the Zoo.

The fate of the 6010 Phinney building — home to Rooster’s Breakfast Club, The Daily Planet, Chef Liao’s, and Phinney Ridge Cleaners — is back on PRCC’s radar because of an upcoming Design Review Board meeting. On Sept. 14, the public will have a change to weigh in on the proposed development, which includes 18 residential units, 2,700 square feet of ground-floor retail, and 23 parking spaces. The meeting takes place at Ballard High School from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

There was no love lost for the 6010 proposal at the PRCC meeting, as members voiced several potential concerns about the design for 6010 Phinney. In particular, a proposed curb cut on 61st St., instead of facing out toward Phinney, could cause parking problems and create a crowded alleyway behind 6010 and neighboring Zeek’s Pizza. Building on top of the current Phinney Ridge Cleaners site worried some at the PRCC meeting.

The dry cleaner has been in operation since the 1930s, and nobody in attendance had seen any kind of environmental report from the developer, assuring that the site was free of hazardous chemicals. Some also felt that the new development doesn’t fit the character of the neighborhood, decrying its generic “Belltown-style” design.

And, with another large mixed-use building already in place across the street, nobody was in a hurry to support something that would block out even more of the sun on the 6000 block. Losing the existing businesses didn’t seem to be as big a concern for PRCC as gaining almost 3,000 square feet of retail that could be extremely difficult to fill. With other mixed-use developments in the area still not full, people at the meeting were skeptical that the new building could attract small businesses with the same local flavor. Some would have preferred a more restaurant-friendly retail space, particularly since two of the businesses currently occupying the building are restaurants. 6010 wasn’t the only thing on the agenda, though.

Design Draft for 6010 Phinney

There was also a brief discussion of potential new park sites in the neighborhood. Phinney Ridge has been identified as one of around 20 areas in Seattle that lack open space, and there’s money in the recent parks levee to acquire some. PRCC is looking at a handful of lots to potentially throw its support behind, but that hinges on finding an owner who’s willing to sell to the City. So far, that hasn’t happened.

If you’re at all interested in the direction development is taking in Phinney Ridge, make your voice heard by coming to the next PRCC meeting, which should take place on Tuesday, October 6, at 7:30 pm at the Phinney Neighborhood Center. On the agenda: revisiting Phinney Ridge’s ongoing parking problems.

By:  Jay Hathaway

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