Fred Meyer Greenwood Peat Bog

What will the new Fred Meyer development do to Greenwood’s peat bog? That’s what Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development has to decide before they either let the project stand or order an additional environmental review.

Over 50 concerned neighbors showed up to a public meeting at Loyal Height Community Center on Thursday night to discuss the environmental impacts of the project. The central issue was the potential loss of water in Greenwood’s peat bog.

If a new development pushes water out of the peat bog, it could compress, and cause neighboring buildings to settle and start sinking. That’s what happened with the Safeway at 87th street, and neither Greenwood residents nor Fred Meyer want to see it happen again.

The meeting was run by Design Review Board representative Scott Kemp, and Fred Meyer engineers were present to field questions about the environmental studies they’ve done so far.

The Fred Meyer project could be fast-tracked without an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) based on a preliminary finding that it would do no harm to the surrounding environment, including the peat bog. That’s called a “Determination of Nonsignificance,” in city-speak.

Fred Meyer Greenwood

Kate Martin, neighborhood activist and somewhat of an expert on the peat bog, says there’s nothing non-significant about the potential impact.

“Greenwood is sinking, and continues to sink,” she said.

She explained how burying the new building 16 feet underground would displace a large amount of water from the area, and called for the use of pilings to elevate the building until it hovers above the peat, instead of sinking into it. The 8-acre development would take up 1/6th of the entire bog, Martin said.

Martin’s accusations that the science behind the project is unsound seemed to strike a chord with neighbors. Almost everyone at the meeting wanted to see an Environment Impact Statement, which would provide some of the science and hard data Martin called for. Several neighbors asked, “What’s the downside to getting more information?”

The only downside is for Fred Meyer, who will have to put additional time and money into something they say they’ve already studied carefully. There have been dozens of borings into the ground on and around the site of the new development, to determine where the peat bog ends.

There was some concern about whether Fred Meyer’s studies took into account the surrounding homes, and not just the site itself. What neighbors don’t understand, according to the project architects, is that any neighboring parcel that the peat bog “buffer zone” touches becomes entirely part of the buffer area. Because of that, they argued, their plan is actually conservative and fair.

Also, revisions to the plan include some of the pilings that Martin and others suggested, in areas where the architects found them necessary. That’s a good start, but the crowd didn’t seem to think it was enough. During a show of hands, support for the environmental review was near-unanimous.

Kemp said the ultimate decision about whether to issue the determination of non-significance or order further study wasn’t made in front of the Design Review Board last night. The Board will take neighbors’ concerns to the director of the Department of Design and planning, who has the authority to order the EIS.

Throughout the community, whether neighbors arrived via foot, bus, or Seattle taxi – there is no question that the Fred Meyer expansion and its impact on the environment is a hot topic in Greenwood, Phinney, and North Seattle.

Fred Meyer Greenwood Design

The major design element is that the Fred Meyer store will occupy a primarily underground space, with only four feet of the height of the store appearing above ground. The store will be approx 15 ft underground on the 85th St side, although the 5ft that is above ground will not actually “appear” because it will be wrapped with retail and housing. The full 20 ft of store height will be visible from 1st Ave, and from the proposed extension of Morrow Lane. What this means is that top or “lid” can be divided with housing units and retail facing 85th – so that pedestrians can walk throughout the housing grid. It does mean that the “lid” is at a height from the street ranging from 20 feet on 1st avenue to 6 feet on 3rd Avenue which requires a ramp, elevator, or stairs to reach that level of the development. There are a good variety of ways to walk through the housing development (approximately 200 rental housing apartments) and small retail spaces (25,000 square feet in total) that are above ground.

Vehicle Access Design Changes:
Vehicle access is proposed on 1st avenue at two ground level points, 3rd avenue for the lower level, and via 85th street through the rough center division of the housing area. This is intended to respond to community feedback that entry from 87th street would be destructive to the home environment for houses on 87th and nearby.

Pedestrian Access Design Changes:
Pedestrians may enter on all four sides of the development: on 87th, 1st Avenue, 3rd Avenue, and 85th. This is intended to respond to community feedback that the 160,000+ square foot Fred Meyer for Greenwood would block movement through the development lot. It remains that there is no access near the 85th Street bus stop. The main entrance to the Fred Meyer store will be via 1st Avenue through a pedestrian plaza. You can also enter the store via the parking lot in the rear, from a set of stairs.

Height and Scale:
The development will mix heights ranging from four stories at the 85th Street frontage to the lowest levels at the back of the development’s parking lot. The parking area which will be buffered by trees was focused towards the back of the development at 87th to protect the integrity of housing on that street. Housing was eliminated on top of the parking garage as part of the design changes from the previous community meeting.

Space Alignment with Neighborhood:
The housing units / apartments on the above-ground lid of the Fred Meyer Greenwood store are split into streets so that pedestrians and vehicles can pass through. There are a number of ways to move through the development via a grid, although it is not perfectly aligned to the existing street grid. Morrow Lane will also extend through the development to allow vehicles to pass fully through the alleyway (with parking spaces alongside) between 1st and 3rd Avenues.

Environmental Impacts / Peat Bog Risks
Community members have raised issues regarding the environmental impacts of the peat bog in the area. The developer noted that there are stricter environmental regulations in place today, versus the rules from when Safeway developed nearby. Many believe that the Safeway store had severe negative impacts on the peat bog in the area, by blocking water flow through the peat. This may have caused damage / settling to nearby housing due to changes in soil density. The developer noted their priority to understand the water flow through the building site today, and to ensure that the curent water table (which is 1-2 feet below the store’s planned level) needs to maintain water flow. The existing Fred Meyer and Greenwood Market are alredy built on top of peat, and how this development impacted the peat bog (upon its original construction) is unknown, prior to the current peat bog regulations being developed. The developer has set up numerous monitoring wells and soil logs on the site and is continuing to study the soil hydrology.

The current Fred Meyer and Greenwood Market stores are leased on an “air rights lease” from Greenwood Shopping Center, Inc. The lease for the Greenwood Market expires in 2011, and they have chosen not to renew at the current lease rates. The leases are written as 20 year leases with 5 year extension options.

This area of Greenwood has been designated as an Urban Village, with a goal of concentrating density in the area, convenient to major transit links. The planned site developer – Lorig – has developed over 2,500 apartments in the Seattle area, much of which is focused on student housing. This includes development of Thorton Place, Pike Place Market, and Ujimaya.

The Fred Meyer store is planned to be appproximately 160,000 square feet in a one story plan. Fred Meyer’s other stores (including Redmond) have demonstrated that a second story for the Fred Meyer stores both have much lower sales (by as much as half) and much higher maintenance costs to deliver goods to the 2nd story. The company has determined that a 2 story Fred Meyer at Greenwood is not an economic option to pursue.

Only four feet of the store will be above ground, with the remaining 16 feet below ground, depending on the side of the development that you are facing. The full 20 foot height of the building will be visible, above grade on 1st Avenue. The focus of the new plan is to allow multiple routes for vehicles to enter and multiple routes for pedestrians to pass through the housing grid. In addition – the design works to avoid impacts to the housing on 87th Street. Fred Meyer will also feature a seperate Garden Center with plants and gardening supplies near the small business retail area (above ground) which will have a “sunlight” roof to allow light to pass through to the plants.

Another big change was to eliminate the previously planned housing on top of the parking garage. Now the parking garage remains at the rear of the property – with two stories of parking and a top (3rd floor) for 3 total areas for stacked parking. Note that parking will be shared for the apartment tenants, and the store’s customers. There are 700 parking spaces planned — keeping in mind that we would estimate at least 200+ spaces to be filled by the apartment tenants. The intent here is some alternation of tenants heading to work versus Fred Meyer shoppers, and the store eventually closing. We could see some demand competing for these parking spaces and the average family tenant may have more than one car.

Lorig noted there is no rezoning required by their analysis for the current design of the Fred Meyer complex, named “Piper Village West” after the current Piper Village housing adjacent to the site. The current relatively narrow sidewalks on 85th would also be widened. Where the housing borders the street, a 15 foot setback will be planned that leverages a landscaped berm to buffer pedestrians and traffic from the apartments.

There is currently over 500,000 square feet of retail space in the Greenwood area, and a moderate degree of both vacancies, renovation, and out-of-date / uneconomic retail in the area by the developer’s analysis. The size of the Fred Meyer planned is very similar to the retailer’s presence in Ballard and other Seattle neighborhoods. The independent retail section is now continuous along the 85th street heavy traffic corridor for visibility of these businesses.The independent retailers would have 3 stories of housing atop their stores to make maximum denisty use of the land.

We wanted the community and surrounding Greenwood neighbors to be aware of the proposed changes and will continue to update the story with additional detail as it breaks.

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The Greater Greenwood Design Advisory Group has proposed in June 2009 that the proposed development be rezoned to Neighborhood Commericial. The detailed Fred Meyer Greenwood Design rezoning proposal can be found from the link which includes a number of drawings for the alternate vision of the site.