Be a part of the Greenwood Council – Leadership Roles Available.

Rezoning near Fred Meyer?
Evan Bourquard of the Greater Greenwood Design & Development Advisory Group has responded to Town Center rezone concerns with the following update, and will discuss at the next GCC.
Greenwood Upzoning near Fred Meyer?
Next Meeting:
The next GCC meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 16th in the Greenwood library meeting room, from 7:00pm-8:30pm. The agenda includes: updates on the status of the Neighborhood Park Acquisition; elections for board members; and Greater Greenwood Design & Development Advisory Group presentation on the upzoning risks.

Board Positions:
We have Board positions for interested community members available including: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. and the following standing committee positions. If you’re interested, email info@greenwoodcommunitycouncil.org

Committees:
Planning and Land Use Committee: to engage ongoing neighborhood development activities and to proactively engage in community planning and development utilizing existing City and Neighborhood plans, including but not limited to zoning, parks, and design review.

Health and Safety Committee: to engage in neighborhood environmental health and safety issues, work with existing community/public safety groups including but not limited to G.A.I.N. (Greenwood Aurora Involved Neighbors) and local police/fire personnel.

Public Outreach Committee: to engage community neighbors on matters involving the GCC, solicit community involvement within the GCC, manage GCC social events, liaison with other community social groups, and update social events calendar, including events not directly associated with the GCC.

Transportation Committee: to engage in the maintenance and development of vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian circulation, including but not limited to sidewalks, traffic calming, crosswalks, pedestrian corridors and mass transit.

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Upzoning in Greenwood: How it can impact your home’s value.

Around 35 Greenwood neighbors showed up to the Greenwood Library on Tuesday night to discuss a new zoning proposal for the neighborhood’s urban core. Although the Greenwood Community Council has no power to change zoning on its own, it serves as liaison between Greenwood residents and the City Council. GCC president (and, currently, sole board member — contact him via the GCC website if you’d like to get involved!) Trevor Stanley emphasized the importance of getting input from the neighborhood before talking to City Council members.
The proposed rezoning plan would upzone the entire area around the planned Fred Meyer development project in Greenwood’s urban core, including some single-family houses that border the current Fred Meyer lot. Upzoning would mean taller buildings and more potential to bring new developers to the area, but it would also mean that those single-family dwellings could be replaced by Ballard-style townhouses.

Some neighbors expressed concerns that an upzone could also mean increased property taxes for residents who chose not to sell their lots to developers. Barbara L. Shale, of the King County Tax Advisory Office, addresse the issue by explaining that a jump from single-family to L3 zoning — L3 is the low-rise zone most commonly occupied by clusters of townhomes — wouldn’t increase anyone’s taxes overnight. She said that the value of a house often goes down when the value of the land itself goes up, and that taxes would likely stay about the same until the next physical property inspection of the area, in 2015 or 2016.

Although most of the debate was about the “buffer” of single-family homes, neighbors were also concerned about upzoning the commercial lots at the core of the Fred Meyer development. Proposed changes would allow buildings that currently top out at 40 feet to be raised to 65 feet. Although this is obviously attractive to developers, Stanley made it clear that the Advisory Group behind the zoning proposal was thinking about the future growth of Greenwood, not about Fred Meyer.

Fred Meyer’s plans for a new shopping center don’t actually include or require any zoning changes.
“I’m going to sorely miss Greenwood Market,” Stanley said, “but that’s not something [the GCC] have any control over. That’s not something we’re trying to have control over.”

The neighbors at the meeting felt they hadn’t been given enough time or information to make a decision about the new changes, so they unanimously passed Resolution 2. That resolution opposes the changes “at this time,” and urges the City Council to “demonstrate community support for [future changes] and the notify those impacted by the change.”

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Vote for change today. Wacktastic Light Show Greenwood-Phinney

It’s on. The two top homes for holiday lights in Greenwood Phinney are dominating the votes at the annual Wacktastic Light Show contest. Unless you make your voice heard – these homes will battle for the top prize. Check out what they have to offer – and contribute to our country’s democracy.

Awards Party

There will be a party at the Greenwood Collective (8537 Greenwood Avenue North) on December 20th 4p to 8p to honor the residents who won the community poll for favoritest lights!

4-6pm: Food and drink provided by lovely local Greenwood restauranteurs

Hot chai from Morning Glory Chai
a keg o’ beer from Naked City (we’ll have to make sure you’re over 21 for this goody)
… plus an ongoing slide show of entries and (if we’re really, really good) a roving Santa

… plus any donations to the Greenwood Food Bank collected

6-6:45pm: The Christmas musical stylings of band, Green Handshake

7 to 8p: Awards Ceremony and Prizes emceed by Rat City Rollergirl Mascot, Rocketman Houllahan. The results of the community vote revealed! The wackiest store display as determined by Esteemed Wacktastic Judges!

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Couth Buzzard Books – Opening Soon & Volunteers Wanted !!!

The new Couth Buzzard Books Espresso Buono Café (8310 Greenwood Ave. N) is counting down the days to their grand reopening! The tentative debut is now set for December 16th, pending final passage of the Seattle City Health Department Inspection.

In preparation for the big day, Couth Buzzard is actively soliciting volunteer help for sorting and shelving thousands of books. This Saturday and Sunday, (December 12-13) the owners will be hosting all-day work parties, so stop by if you have a chance and lend a hand!

Contact Couth Buzzard directly at 206 436-2960 or call Theo Dzielak (206 418-9522, melodyplay@earthlink.net) for more information.

By: Alicia Craven

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Seattle’s Greenwood Fire Was Arson.

The Greenwood Fire which destroyed four Seattle businesses including the Taproot Theatre was declared an arson by the Seattle Fire Department today. Phinneyridge.org first began our reporting on the potential for arson on Sunday, October 25th, in a photo-essay linking the fire to four other arsons in the Greenwood neighborhood. Our hearts to out to the impacted businesses, particularly the Taproot Theatre. The Taproot Theatre confirmed their commitment to the Greenwood neighborhood in a statement released tonight:

Taproot Theatre Company is brokenhearted to learn that the fire that devastated four of our neighboring businesses and damaged our theatre was reported to have been deliberately set. When Taproot Theatre moved into Greenwood, crime in the neighborhood decreased almost immediately. In the years since, we’ve watched Greenwood blossom into a vibrant community that’s focused on the arts, promoting small businesses and protecting the environment—values that we promote, as well, and that represent the spirit of Seattle. Greenwood deserves to have a top-notch theatre in its midst, and we at Taproot Theatre love this neighborhood and will continue bringing people from across the region to Greenwood for years to come.

Over 100 Seattle firefighters bravely fought the blaze for over two hours to contain the damage and protect surrounding buildings, including the PAWS Cat City shelter for felines. The fire began at approximately 4am in the morning on October 23rd.

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Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Association Director Retiring – Job Open

Ed Medeiros, the executive director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association is retiring after 29 years of great service to the organization. The job is posted here. After the purchase of the Phinney Neighborhood site from the Seattle School District – it is a high impact time for the organization to build community and infrastructure in the Phinney Ridge and Greenwood neighborhoods. We are thankful and proud of Ed Medeiros almost 30 years of service and accomplishments for the community and excited for the next phase of leadership in Phinney Ridge.

Phinney Neighborhood Center – 6532 Phinney Avenue North, Seattle

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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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