• Neighborhood Greenways – Opportunities in Greenwood-PhinneyRidge.
• Metro Service Changes.
• Transportation System Design.
• Transportation System Design.
• 85th Street Rebuild.

• Greenwood-Phinney Neighborhood Park Acquisition (8102 Greenwood Ave N – QuickStop-AlohaRamen-MannaTeriyaki).
• Central Greenwood Zoning Revision Proposal.
• Greenwood Shopping Center Inc. plans.

• Neighborhood Recycling Rewards Program Challenge.
• Emergency/Crime Preparedness Network.

Greenwood Community Council Board Openings.
– Open forum.   This is a great way to participate on a rainy Seattle day.

Those plans go to the Northwest Design Review Board on December 13 at 6:30 p.m. The location has yet to be announced. Community support is an important part of the Seattle design review process and members of the community are encourage to share their point of view.

Initially purchasing the ERB in 2000 with plans to eventually expand, Taproot Theatre leased the building to several small businesses, waiting for the right time to begin the expansion process. However, the theatre’s timelines were changed on October 23, 2009, when Taproot became the victim of arson.

While Taproot’s original expansion plans would require years of planning and fundraising before even breaking ground, the theatre’s leadership has identified a solution that will both honor its original vision and its patrons’ investment, while serving the neighborhood with a timely restoration, infusing Greenwood with renewed vitality.

The proposed 12,000 square foot building will include an expanded lobby and café space, serving both Taproot’s patrons and the general public year-round. In addition, Taproot plans to add a second performance and rehearsal space, a new scene shop, and office space. The project follows “green construction” guidelines and is anticipated to be LEED certified.

First Ave would also get a pedestrian overlay. Both changes discourage auto-oriented development and encourage pedestrian-oriented development. Keep in mind that Seattle’s neighborhood design review allows for adjustments to pedestrian circulation, density or height (such as lower perimeter building heights and taller buildings in the center) during those public design reviews.

Full recommendation text below and detailed PDF attached with community input summary which indicated a “strong lack of community support” for all of the options analyzed.Seattle DPD Recommendations For Greenwood Town Center Seattle

It’s important to note that the city’s planner — Andrea (author of text below) — is leaving the DPD on November 19th. Will she be able to see this part of the rezone process through before her departure?

There are currently no set dates for public comment, but comments are very much encouraged at this blog.
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Subject: DPD Recommendations for Greenwood Rezone

Hello all,
Thank you for your patience while we worked out the details of DPD’s recommendations for the Greenwood Town Center Rezone. Attached, please find the report. For now, DPD recommends moving ahead with a rezone for subarea 1, while leaving the discussion open for subareas 2 and 3. The recommendations for subarea 1 are slightly different than the original proposal; DPD recommends the entire block of the “Fred Meyer site” be rezoned to NC3-65, with a P-zone overlay along NW 85th Street.

The next step will be to prepare a full rezone analysis along with a SEPA checklist, and this will likely happen very quickly. For one, it’s long overdue. Two, I will be leaving DPD effective November 19th, and I want to see this project through as far as I can before I leave. However, I’m not leaving the City so you will be able to reach me and I can continue to answer questions. I’ve taken a job with the Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) and will start there on November 29th.

So – please distribute widely, and Tyson will put this up on the Greenwood Rezone project website here at DPD. There is plenty of process left, so rest assured there will be time for public comments, and there will be a public hearing. With the SEPA determination there is a comment and appeal period. If there are no appeals, the legislation will continue on to City Council, and there will likely be a briefing or two ahead of the actual hearing. Once the SEPA determination is published there will be a better sense of timing and actual dates.

Please contact me with any questions and again, thank you so much for your patience.

Andrea

Andrea Petzel, LEED AP, cSBA
Senior Urban Planner
City of Seattle – DPD
andrea.petzel@seattle.gov

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.

Greenwood Rezone

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.”

PhinneyRidge thanks our sponsors who make our community reporting possible on an ongoing basis — Seattle Limousines and Airport Shuttles

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.

731 North 88th Street

6819 Phinney

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!

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

The Greenwood Fire Was Arson.

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.

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

6010 Phinney Building

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.