Seattle Press on Line - U-District Merchants Fight to Save the Neighborhood from the Big Box Boom

U-District Merchants Fight to Save the Neighborhood from the Big Box Boom

By Wallis Bolz

Patrons at Cafe Allegro just off 42nd Street enjoy sunshine; a planned development could shade them out.

Apr 21, 1999 -- Notice of Proposed Land Use Action: the ubiquitous white sign that might well stand as notice for the next neighborhood land use battle. And in spite of a new city process called Design Review, one such skirmish concerning the construction of a six-story building at NE 42nd Street and 15th Avenue NE is headed to King County Superior Court.

In 1994, DCLU added Design Review to the Master Use Permit process; it's mandatory for development projects that exceed SEPA threshholds in commercial and multifamily zones. Design Review is intended to get early feedback from a neighborhood early in the process, well before a developer has prepared a complete set of schematic drawings for DCLU. Each project has its own all-volunteer review board, which includes three people from the community, ostensibly representing at-large, residential, and business interests. Two other members are development and design professionals.

In 1997, the University Methodist Wesley Foundation applied for a Master Use Permit to build a six-story glass, steel, and brick box at the corner of NE 42nd Street and 15th Avenue NE. It's a lot line to lot line office building of 74,160 square feet, underground parking included. Sited within a neighborhood commercial zone and next to a Major Institution Overlay zone, the project fell under the aegis of Design Review.

U-District merchants, Allegro patrons, and residents turned out in force for the first pre-design meeting. We had, said David Hall, modest goals: a desire to make modest changes in the design.

Neighbors told the Design Review Board to take one full floor off the building. Daylight, they said, should be shared with the church and La Paz, too. They asked for a building less wide so that the Allegro, which has its storefront in the alley, might accomodate both pedestrians and trucks. They asked that the west, north and east sides of the building's top floor be stepped back 12 feet. They asked for a pedestrian passage between the church and the new building. They asked for less glass and more brick.

They didn't get any of it. Three meetings later, the building emerged virtually unscathed from the process. Design Review recommended awnings, a notch at the alley entrance, and the use of material a little more brick-like on the south and east facades.

Hall said that the process really deflated some people. "Design Review avoided addressing the most obvious aspect of the building's impacts on the neighborhood; instead, it focused on easy stuff around the edges."

But you can only push the developer so far. Sally Knodell, a member of the project's Design Review board said, "It's very rare that we get to knock a floor off the building. The Board makes recommendations, not decisions. DCLU makes decisions. It's a highly discretionary process.

"Design Review is hard for lay people. They get one shot. After the developer spiels for 20 to 30 minutes, the public gets 20 minutes. They have to figure it all out in those 20 minutes."

Vince Lyons, the DCLU project manager, agreed. "I think they learned a lot through this process about Design Review and its limitations."

Meanwhile, U-District merchants and residents have formed the 42nd Street Group. They've appealed the Hearing Examiner's decision to uphold DCLU's Determination of Non-Significance and are pressing for an EIS. And they continue to negotiate the design of the building with the Wesley Foundation. "They have had their opportunity to affect the design of this building," said Lyon. If the 42nd Street Group and the Wesley Foundation come up with a design that is not in line with the permit, "they're out of luck."

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