Seattle Press on Line - Greenwood Safeway Settlement Reached

Greenwood Safeway Settlement Reached

Mar 07, 2001 -- On Friday, March 2, Michael McGinn, president of the Greenwood Community Council, reached a settlement with Safeway regarding building permits for construction of a new store and parking garage at N 87th Street and Greenwood Avenue N. The council had appealed the building permits on the grounds that the new Safeway would add unacceptable amounts of traffic to the surrounding residential streets. The council noted that, while these are already some of the most heavily traveled residential streets in the city, they lack adequate walkways and are heavily used by pedestrians, including many children.

In the settlement, Safeway committed $30,000 to provide traffic-calming and pedestrian improvements in the vicinity of Phinney and Dayton Avenues and N 87th Street. The exact design will be worked out by SeaTran, the city's transportation division, in consultation with the Greenwood Community Council. The council hopes to leverage that money to get city funds for additional improvements.

Safeway also agreed to a turn restriction from the driveway at 87th to prevent exiting cars from driving through the adjacent residential neighborhood. Additionally, the company agreed to spend $5,000 for lighting fixtures on the exterior of the building that will match pedestrian light fixtures the council hopes to install throughout the neighborhood.

McGinn stresses that, like any settlement, this is a compromise. Safeway made some concessions, and while McGinn is not sure the agreed-upon improvements will adequately mitigate the traffic impact of the new store, he feels it is a fair settlement. McGinn believes the facts and the law were on the side of the council, but they had some difficult legal standards to overcome. In the end, this agreement could result in significant neighborhood improvements.

For more information on the settlement, contact Michael McGinn at michael.mcginn@stokeslaw.com.

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