Beacon Hill Blog

The Stranger weighs in on SE Seattle appeals

Cienna Madrid at The Stranger has written a story about the recent appeals filed against the North Beacon Hill, Othello, and North Rainier (Mount Baker) neighborhood plan updates. The article discusses El Centro de la Raza’s plans to develop the land just south of their building, plans which are—for now—on hold. State law allows neighborhood plans to be amended only once a year. Whether the appeals are upheld or not won’t be determined until it is too late to meet the deadline for this year, so the appeals are automatically forcing a one-year delay to any plan changes.

Madrid interviewed Estela Ortega from El Centro, Bill LaBorde of Transportation Choices Coalition, City Councilmember Sally Clark and David Goldberg of the Department of Planning and Development, and also attempted to speak with North Beacon appellant Frederica Merrell and the appellants from the other Southeast Seattle neighborhoods—for the most part, however, the petitioners aren’t talking. (The exception is Jenna Walden of the Othello group, who suggests that the reason for her group’s appeal is that it is a protest against marginalization of neighborhood groups.)

The resulting article pulls no punches; it concludes, “…Merrell and her cohorts appear to be more concerned with winning than pursuing the best interests of their neighborhoods and the city.”

Responses from The Stranger’s readers on the website have been mixed.

The article is here. Seattle Transit Blog also posted about the Stranger article.

(ed. note—Frederica Merrell occasionally contributes opinion articles to the Beacon Hill Blog.)

Tags: appeal, dns, dpd, el centro de la raza, environmental review, mount baker, neighborhood planning, north beacon, othello, the stranger, zoning

Artists, merchants and neighbors meeting to improve the Hill

Several meetings are coming up in the next week for groups of neighbors with big plans for Beacon Hill. Robert Hinrix writes:

Calling all Beacon Hill Artists!

We’re investigating starting an Arts Council for our neighborhood. While there are some artists groups up here on the hill, there is none willing to tackle the issues of how to schedule and promote the Lander Festival Street. We also want to promote other arts-related events up here on Beacon Hill—how about a craft market, or an outdoor cinema? And we want to create a forum for artists and musicians to share information: about grants, shows, projects, and ideas. Our first meeting will be next Monday, March 1, 6:30 at the Beacon Hill Library (2821 Beacon Avenue South). If more discussion is needed after the library closes, we’ll have to retire to our friendly neighborhood pub!

Let me know if you’d like to be included in future events but can’t make the meeting.

Robert also mentioned in a comment on this blog yesterday:

One thing we’re trying to do up here is start a Beacon Merchants Association. This would replace the Chamber of Commerce which is essentially defunct. Better communication among existing businesses could help them and the greater community. We’re just in the process of forming, having had one preliminary meeting. Our next meeting will be this Friday at noon at Baja Bistro (2414 Beacon Avenue South). Our intent is to capture home businesses as well, so if you’re a business owner drop by to get more info and contribute your ideas. Anyone wanting to be added to the list can contact me directly.

You can reach Robert at roberthinrix@gmail.com.

The North Beacon Hill Council’s March meeting will include a presentation from Findlay Church regarding the development at 14th and Bayview. Another presentation will be given by the Department of Planning and Development regarding proposed new development guidelines for the City of Seattle.

The NBHC meeting is on Thursday, March 4, 7:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library. It is open to all who wish to attend. Here’s the agenda:

• 7:00 pm: Welcomes and introductions
• 7:05 pm: Presentation by Findlay Street Church on proposed construction of church and market rate housing on 14th Avenue South
• 7:20 pm: Questions and answers
• 7:35 pm: Presentation by the Department of Planning and Development on proposed city development guidelines
• 7:40 pm: Questions and answers
• 8:05 pm: Update on Public Safety: South Precinct Seattle Police Department
• 8:15 pm: Community concerns, announcements

Tags: art, arts council, chamber of commerce, dpd, findlay street church, merchants association, nbhc

Beacon Bits: Bees, bandwidth, and Buddhist temple fire

Temple fire — The February 9th fire at the Buddhist temple on South Juneau Street near MLK resulted from a furnace malfunction and caused an estimated $75,000 in damage and displaced several people, but thankfully resulted in no injuries.

* * *

Slow video — Perhaps the most obvious sign that your broadband isn’t quite up-to-snuff is that streaming video stuh-stuh-stutters and re-buffers repeatedly. Sometimes this isn’t entirely an effect of the quality of the lines or the speed your provider is capable of providing to you; sometimes it’s the result of your ISP deciding that, rather than spend the money to improve its switching and delivery infrastructure, it will instead artificially limit how fast you’re allowed to receive high-bandwidth content like internet video. Google now provides a little insight into this situation with YouTube Video Speed History graphs, showing the average delivery speed for YouTube videos to your ISP (and, if you visit YouTube enough, your IP address) compared to the average speed for your city, state, country, and the world.
From BoingBoing via Joel Lee. Thanks Joel!

* * *

Local honey — Spotted on Craigslist:

…I keep bees. I have honey for sale. This is pure, raw, unfiltered honey. It has never been above bee hive temperature, it has never had anything added, and it has local Beacon Hill pollen in it. It is DELICIOUS! (If I do say so myself). I have two kinds: a lighter honey which is mostly maple and mild in flavor, and a dark fall honey which is complicated in flavor and almost spicy. If you plan to buy a bottle or two, I do have a sample jar of each so you can taste it before you buy it and decide which you like best. Comes in 8oz oval squeeze bottles. $6/bottle. Providing your phone number will make it faster to arrange pick up.

The only contact information provided is the Craigslist reply email.

* * *

Food health inspections — The Health Department inspected a number of north Beacon Hill establishments recently, visiting Amazon, the Amazon coffee shop, El Delicioso (inside ABC Market), La Bendicion, La Cabaña, Chinatown Cafe #12 (inside the Red Apple), and Golden Daisy. Special congratulations to La Cabaña and the Amazon coffee shop for a perfect zero-violation scores. Anyone know if the Amazon coffee shop is open to the public?

* * *

Attention on appeals — Publicola points back here, covering the Hearing Examiner appeal strategy and the opposition to it.

Tags: amazon, bandwidth, buddhist temple, dpd, el delicioso, fire, internet, la bendicion, La Cabaña, planning, streaming, video, zoning

14th and Bayview early design guidance meeting

A development is being proposed at 14th and Bayview, project #3005359. DPD’s summary describes the project briefly as “a three-story building containing 18 residential units and religious institution assembly space at grade.” The single family home there would be removed and replaced by the new structure.

The design review meeting is scheduled for 6:30pm on Tuesday, February 23rd at the Wellspring Family Services building at 1900 Rainier Avenue South.

Chris Bailey wrote about this project on the mailing list:

This is a complex project with full design review and is a good opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the design guidelines developed for North Beacon Hill. You can find the neighborhood design guidelines here.

Thanks to Robert Hinrix and Chris Bailey for the info!

Tags: bayview, development, dpd

North Beacon plan update appeal is one of three

Frederica Merrell’s appeal filed recently against the Determination of Nonsignificance (DNS) of the North Beacon Hill neighborhood plan update (also discussed here and here) is not unique. The Beacon Hill Blog has been made aware that Merrell’s appeal is one of three nearly-identical appeals filed on January 29 by residents in each of the Southeast Seattle neighborhoods that recently went through a neighborhood plan update: Othello, North Rainier (Mount Baker), and North Beacon Hill. (Read the Othello appeal here, the North Rainier appeal here, and the North Beacon appeal here.) The appeals are nearly word-for-word identical, with only a few minor differences (such as the sections describing each distinct neighborhood and the appellants’ connection with them).

The Othello appeal was filed by Ron Momoda, Patricia Paschal, and Jenna Walden. The North Rainier appeal was filed by Pat Murakami and Barbara Marino. Most are well-known neighborhood activists in Southeast Seattle, and several were active last year in speaking out against House Bill 1490 and Senate Bill 5687, which would have created incentives and requirements for transit-oriented development and density near light rail stations.

The three appeals all request the same thing: that DPD’s Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) for each neighborhood’s plan update be vacated, and that DPD be required to take other actions including additional community notification, review, and validation, and environmental impact analyses.

The North Beacon appeal has been the subject of some heated controversy in the comments sections of the BHB posts linked above, with some commenters suggesting that the appeals are specifically intended to cause the entire update process to be scrapped, or that they were filed in order to block any upzoning or increased density, while some others say the update plan was flawed from the start, and that appeals such as this are a necessary and important part of the process of making this update work for North Beacon Hill.

El Centro de la Raza, who have had plans to develop their property just north of Lander Street, have filed their own motion to intervene and dismiss Merrell’s appeal.

The recently published Neighborhood Plan updates (the North Beacon one is here) were developed through a process that began in Fall 2008 and continued through 2009 with community meetings and open houses in March, May, and September.

(ed. note—Frederica Merrell occasionally contributes opinion articles to the Beacon Hill Blog.)

Tags: appeal, dns, dpd, el centro de la raza, environmental review, mount baker, neighborhood planning, north beacon, othello, zoning

El Centro requests DNS appeal be dismissed

El Centro de la Raza has requested to the City of Seattle’s Hearing Examiner that the appeal of the Determination of Non-Significance filed by Frederica Merrell be dismissed, citing their own involvement in the neighborhood planning process, the impact on their property, and appeal issues said to be ‘not ripe’ for the premature involvement of the office of Hearing Examiner. If not dismissed, they have requested that the appeal be restricted solely to the legal issue of the proper execution of Washington Administrative Code sections 197-11-055 (Timing of the SEPA process), 197-11-060 (Content of environmental review), and 197-11-228 (Overall SEPA/GMA integration procedures).

The full letter as provided to us by Estela Ortega of El Centro de la Raza is after the jump, or available as a PDF here.

More »

Tags: appeal, dns, dpd, el centro de la raza, environmental review, zoning

Neighbor files petition against Neighborhood Plan update process

North Beacon Hill resident Frederica Merrell has filed an appeal with the City of Seattle Hearing Examiner, regarding the Determination of Nonsignificance (DNS) of the North Beacon Hill neighborhood plan update process.

In the appeal (read it in full here), Merrell states that North Beacon Hill residents and visitors will be “directly and significantly impacted” by the changes, including changes to zoning, density, protected views, pedestrian/bike/auto access, and more. She states that, among other problems, the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) erred in making a determination of non-significance, failed to take necessary steps to assess the impact of the plan changes, and also failed to give proper notice to the community.

The appeal requests that DPD’s DNS for the North Beacon Hill plan update be vacated, and DPD be required to take other actions including additional community notification and environmental impact analyses.

The Neighborhood Plan update process began in Fall 2008 and continued through 2009 with community meetings and open houses in March, May, and September, resulting in the recently published update.

(ed. note—Frederica has occasionally contributed opinion articles to the Beacon Hill Blog.)

Tags: dpd, legal stuff, neighborhood plan, north beacon

Beacon Bits: Affordable housing, volunteerism, and our own dive bar

It may be a dive, but it’s our dive: The Beacon Pub was featured recently in the Seattle Weekly website’s Dive Bar Advent Calendar.

* * *

Homestead Community Land Trust is a local nonprofit group, intended to create affordable housing by taking the cost of land out of the purchase price of a home by using a community land trust. The HCLT Advantage program provides funds for purchase assistance to help families buy homes in Seattle. Interested? Orientation classes for the HCLT Advantage program are held periodically at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South. The next two classes are Saturday, January 9, and Thursday, January 26. Further info is here.

* * *

Jefferson Community Center is again offering the $2 Try It program, in which you can try a class or program once for only $2. Class dates are between January 4 and January 30, and classes include Zumba, Yoga, Pottery, Pilates, Pickleball, Badminton, Hapkido, Ballet, Hip Hop Dance, Cartoon Drawing, Instructional Basketball, Little Dribblers, Creative Dance, and Line Dancing. See the Winter class catalog here.

Thanks to Doreen Deaver for the info!

* * *

Craig Thompson writes on the BAN list that many volunteers have been hard at work on Beacon Avenue and at Jose Rizal Park:

“Washington State Department of Corrections supervised a cleanup of street litter [Saturday] along Beacon Avenue and adjacent streets. Next week, WSDOC will continue cleanups of litter and trash in the East Duwamish Greenbelt, on the west side of Beacon Hill.
 
“At Jose Rizal Park, 20 volunteers, EarthCorps crew members, and community court service workers cut blackberries and moved 300+ potted native plants into the woods; these will be planted on Saturday, January 16, in a large volunteer event (100 people expected) that will kick off the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend of volunteer work in Seattle. On Saturday, January 9, the community court service workers will return for a general cleanup.”

* * *

For those who want to do their civic duty in other ways, there are a couple of upcoming possibilities to help make your neighborhood more livable. The first round of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund is currently open for your nominations of potential park development and acquisition projects. The nomination process begins with the submittal of a proposal letter, due by February 1, 2010. Letters and Opportunity Fund criteria may be found at this link. There will be workshops in early January to help develop proposal letters and explain the process. For more information, visit the Opportunity Fund website.

If pedestrian issues are your interest, you still have a day to apply for the city’s Pedestrian Advisory Board. Three volunteers are wanted for the board, which advises the Mayor and City Council, as well as participating in planning and policy activities relevant to pedestrians. The board meets on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at City Hall. Board members serve for two years, and must be Seattle residents who are not city employees. Those interested in serving should submit a resume and cover letter by Wednesday December 16 to brian.dougherty@seattle.gov. For more information, email Brian Dougherty, or call him at (206) 684-5124, or e-mail him at the address above.

* * *

The International District Housing Alliance (IDHA) is a non-profit organization that provides housing services and community building to the Chinatown/International District and greater Seattle’s low-income, Asian Pacific Islander, immigrant and refugee communities, including many who live in Beacon Hill and surrounding neighborhoods. The IDHA is holding a Holiday Dinner on Wednesday, December 16 from 4:00 to 7:00 p,, and a Holiday Gift Drive until December 18. The dinner, at the Four Seas Restaurant in the International District, will help elderly neighbors celebrate the season with friends and family.  Activities will include live entertainment, a six course Chinese banquet, a raffle, and door prizes. In the gift drive, CID elderly residents, youth and family clients send in gift requests, and Sound Transit and the University of Washington Law School help distribute gift requests and collect presents for participants. Presents will be wrapped and delivered between December 18-23. If you would like to donate to the holiday dinner, or to volunteer to wrap and/or deliver gifts, or you need information, contact Alma Dea Michelena at almadea@apialliance.org, or call 206-623-5132, extension 322.

* * *

An application has been made to the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to install T-Mobile antennas on the rooftop of the Amanuel Ethiopian Orthodox Church at 2101 14th Avenue South.

A couple of DPD decisions have been handed down related to Clearwire utilities in our area. At 3114 South Warsaw Street, a decision was made to allow a Clearwire utility (antennas and a microwave dish) to be mounted on a City Light transmission tower. At 3802 South Othello Street, a Determination of Non-Significance with conditions was decided regarding the installation of a Clearwire utility (antennas and an equipment cabinet) on the rooftop of the existing five-story residential building.

The deadline to appeal these decisions is December 28.

Tags: affordable housing, beacon avenue s, beacon pub, classes, donations, dpd, jefferson community center, jose rizal park, land trusts, land use, parks, pedestrians, pubs, volunteers

Pack the DPD Design Review Board

From the Seattle Department of Planning and Development via Steve Louie, your opportunity to decide what is or is not an eyesore (among other criteria):

The City of Seattle is seeking qualified candidates interested in serving on the 2010 Design Review Boards. The boards have 12 volunteer positions for terms beginning April 4, 2010. The is Southeast board will have two openings; general community interests representative and development interests representative. Would you please forward this to anyone you might know; members of organizations/community groups and anyone who would be a good candidate? We especially welcome applications from women and people of color.

The Design Review Board reviews mixed-use developments, multifamily housing, and commercial projects. It evaluates the design of these projects based on the city’s design guidelines. Board members are design professionals, developers, and community and business leaders with a passion for design in their our community. Learn more at www.seattle.gov/designreview

For more information on the board openings, read the Mayor’s press release: http://www.seattlechannel.org/news/detail.asp?ID=10167&Dept=4

Applications are due December 10, 2009 and are available at www.seattle.gov/designreview

Thanks Steve!

Tags: design review board, dpd

Another chance to opine about neighborhood plan Wednesday

The first DPD Neighborhood Plan Update Open House was on Sunday afternoon at the Asian Counseling and Referral Service building on MLK Way South. Neighbors had the chance to see the current draft proposals and comment on them. There is one more open house, this Wednesday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, at the same site. If you’re interested in the future of North Beacon Hill (or North Rainier, or Othello, both of which will also have draft proposals featured at the open house), this is an important chance to give your opinion on the various proposals.

(Our unscientific, quick impression from looking at the posted comments at the open house on Sunday: North Rainier residents seem to strongly favor redevelopment and density around the pedestrian wasteland that is Mount Baker Station. Othello residents are unhappy about planned new density in their neighborhood. Beacon Hill residents seemed to be somewhere in the middle — wanting improvements but skittish about some of the possible changes, particularly the “tower” zoning option.)

The Asian Counseling and Referral Service is located at 3639 Martin Luther King Jr Way South.

More »

Tags: dpd, neighborhood planning