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No Rezone Greenwood Community Council Meeting 2/23
We were able to attend the Greenwood Community Council (GCC) meeting last night. About 30 people attended and Trevor Stanley was the only Council member on the hot seat. He did a great job of facilitating considering the position that the GCC and/or Greater Greenwood Design & Development Advocacy Group (GGDDAG) got itself into. Many of us came because we were upset that we found out about a rezone of our neighborhood after it was underway and going to be discussed with the Seattle City Council’s land use committee today. Most of us only brought pitchforks, but Rob Fellows was thoughtful enough to bring two motions to the meeting. Formally, Motion #2 was voted in unanimously by the citizens last night: The Greenwood Community Council believes the City Council should set a high burden of proof on proponents of current or future legislative zoning changes to demonstrate community support for their proposal, and the notify those impacted by the change. Since those conditions have not been met for current comprehensive plan and zoning changes on the south side of N 87th St., the north side of N 87th St. and the est side of 3rd Ave. NW in Greenwood, we oppose city council action to adopt changes to the future land use map in the comprehensive plan, as well as any proposed changes in the zoning code for those areas at this time. Other highlights:
Trevor is a member of GGDDAG and president of the GCC Gary Brunt was present (represents Fred Meyer’s land owner) GCC stated that rezone was in good faith and had nothing to do with Fred Meyer project Bob Morenzy(?) talked about property tax concerns, stating that a $124k lot could get a tax bill for $500k in a short timeframe Barbara L Shale from local government brought some tax info and stated it would take years for property values to rise. She stated a bunch of other stuff that board me to tears, because I don’t understand taxes Generally there was no support for a Single Family to L3 rezone The GCC needs more members and board members
The second item on the Agenda was to discuss a new Greenwood Park. This will be discussed at the next meeting. These GCC meetings are every third Tuesday of the month at the Greenwood Library. It’s important that we start attending these meetings and I’m going to make an effort to go to them as well as notify people that they are happening. Heck, we can get a beer at Naked City Taphouse afterwords… Civic duty has its rewards. Related articles by Zemanta
Greenwood Council to discuss upzoning single-family areas (phinneywood.com)
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Greenwood Council to discuss upzoning single-family areas
The Greenwood Community Council is meeting Tuesday night to discuss a possible rezone of areas adjacent to the proposed Fred Meyer redevelopment on 85th Street. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N.
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MeritMail – Free Snail Mail for Changing the World
While reading Idealist’s newest idea for coordinating people, I got an idea for connecting volunteerism on the net to people who don’t use computers. Problem: It’s hard to reach people who don’t use computers! Only wealthy organizations can afford bulk mail. Solution: Anyone can post a card to be delivered to an area. They put in the info for the card and any additional information to “persuade” people to deliver it. MailCarriers: Anyone can go to MeritMail and “claim” messages for delivery. They print them out, cut them up and walk them to their neighbors mail boxes. They deliver only to their “block” or surroundings. No postage – messages are printed on home printers, cut in half or quarters and then stuck in peoples mailboxes or front doors. Merit Based – No spam (from the mail carriers perspective) gets through, because volunteers only print messages that they think have merit. Cheap – You are only informing your neighbors so 10 sheets of paper and a little ink. Cost of distribution is distributed across a city, block by block. If you know 4 of your neighbors are on Facebook, then you “deliver” the message that way and only print out 6 hard copies for the others. Opt Out – You can go and de-register an address and the system will advise MailCarriers to avoid that address. Guaranteed Delivery: Ya… no. Metaphorically, this works like the internet does… so packet delivery is not guaranteed. The internet works “100%” of the time (okay not really) because of all the routers and re-sending packets. Only when lots of MailCarriers are participating does MeritMail have a higher rate of delivery. But with one low tech system in place, the network effect would help spread the word and bridge the gap. What do you think?
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Design Review Board gets first look at Greenwood Fred Meyer proposal
Design Review Board gets first look at Greenwood Fred Meyer proposal
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Design Review Board gets first look at Greenwood Fred Meyer proposal
Last night at Ballard High School was the Design Review Board’s Early Design Guidance meeting. Originally scheduled to be held in the library, it ended up in a classroom and was so well attended that it spilled out into the hallway. The presentation, board Q&A, public Q&A, and lastly board deliberation lasted much longer than the planned 1 hour and 25 minutes.
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100 people attend Fred Meyer presentation
Great writeup about last nights meeting showing future plans of Fred Meyer for their Greenwood Shopping Center.
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Design Review Board to discuss Fred Meyer development
Design Review Board to discuss Fred Meyer development
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Fred Meyer presents building plans to packed Chamber meeting
Great write up of the Chamber of Commerce mixer which featured the Fred Meyer / Urban village. They have pictures, check it out.
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Greenwood Urban Village Update ala Chamber of Commerce
I went to the Chamber of Commerce Business Networking Meeting this morning to get an update on the Urban Village plans. We better feel good about what is being built, because Gary Brunt is giving Kroger a 50 year lease. Is that tantalizing enough? Read on for the Good, Bad, Neutral, and The fUgly: Good
They are planning to increase the verticality of the block to up to 6 stories They are adding new commercial spaces, that is not Fred Meyer, which would help promote diversity and small business The big box Fred Meyer has been broken up above ground, to give it more of a contemporary Urban Village layout A Fred Meyer rep and Gary Brunt were at the meeting, listening to people’s concerns
Neutral
They are adding more residential space, which makes sense from a long term planning point of view, but is not prudent in our current situation. This plan has made huge improvements over previously released plans. The plans are are an improvement over the current block This meeting was at 7:30 A.M to 10:00 A.M. which seems to preclude community participation. We need more meetings at 7PM so everyone can follow along
Bad
The big box still exists and has grown in size, it’s just not the top layer Most of the vertical space is a parking garage Fred Meyer is building a huge store. Massive. They are sinking the bulk of it 5’ below grade and building up from there. I don’t think this is a good idea for many reasons.
Impact on adjacent parcels - my house might sink Impact on watershed - This is the greenwood bog, the will replace thousands of square feed of earth with concrete Diversity - We are removing a fantastic community resource, the Greenwood Market, to replace it with a subterranean grocery store. Only Cheney would be excited about that.
The piper village “Morrow Lane” is touted as a key feature, but the parking garages are fed via 1st ave which cuts from 85th through Morrow Lane. Also Morrow Lane jogs around Fred Meyer instead of continuing as a walkable arcade through the center of the land. The site is littered with stair cases, so we will have to fight for ramps and make sure I don’t have to learn how to be Danny MacAskill to ride my bike through this property on my way to the library.
The fUgly
This talk was really fluffy. The top deck was being sold as a romantic plaza, but I asked to clarify that it was parking stalls and this stopped the waxing poetic. Multi-use, okay maybe but it should not having parking stalls. The are talking about farmers markets and swap meets happening here, but I am totally skeptical that Kroger is going to sacrifice prime loading space for selling gas mowers so a few hippies can barter heirloom tomatoes for city chicken eggs. This development project should be using it’s leverage to demand alternative transportation projects from various government sources.
There was a lot of marketing and hype during the discussion. Elephants in the room:
The development relies heavily on cars, but 85th has reached capacity and is a bottleneck Greenwood Market was forced out and is a much better community citizen than Fred Meyer, which is perceived as “the drunk”, wearing a wife beater t-shirt, who has a pit bull, and is always working on his car on the front lawn Site/Building Design is still informed by cars and hasn’t been shaped enough by long term thinking (foot traffic flow, etc) Our economy is fine and that the fundamentals are strong (right?)
I applaud Fred Meyer for working closely with local organizations and consultants to help mold this into a European style village. That said, they have a long way to go. The current site, aside from McDonalds, is the worst in the neighborhood. If Fredrics of Meyerwood wants to get on the “Green” “Sustainable” train, than they can start today by fixing their dangerous North facing side of the block which is inaccessible as a pedestrian. I am skeptical that “Sustainability” is anything but a buzz-word to them. They aren’t sustainable today. They don’t maintain their c-r-a-p-p-y block now, and they aren’t a Greenwood Citizen like Mud Bay Granary or Greenwood market is, today. When the loss of Greenwood Market was mentioned, it got quite emotional and the head (?) of the Chamber of Commerce stepped in and stopped the conversation, before the elephant’s tail was identified as indeed the tail of an elephant. I understand this and I think it was very professional, as the venue was a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting. I may question the moral ground that Gary operates on, but he is within his legal rights as the land owner. The Fred Meyer rep said himself that Fred Meyer “controls the land” and “will develop it” as they please. He also gave a shout out to Kruger and acknowledged them as Fred Meyer’s owners, which must be a painful situation as he has been with Fred Meyer 14 years. This is a very complicated project and it is going to be tough to make it work and end up with a great asset for everyone. Major Risks I am very naive when it comes to most aspects of this project, but I see it as incredibly risky, without any proper oversight to ensure a successful outcome for our community. Worst case scenarios:
The project is begun, we lose Greenwood Market and Fred Meyer and then funding is cancelled and we get a second “Leilani Lanes”. The project is executed, but do to economic constraints all pedestrian, bike, “Green”, and social features of the project are cut out. We are left with a reconfigured parking lot and a 3 story parking garage. The project is executed and no residents start renting the residential or commercial spaces. How long can Fred Meyer remain in the location before shutting down the store, talking apes evolve from man, and the whole complex becomes a haven for this human hating species?
All in all, lots of progress has been made on the Urban Village plan, by local consultants working with Fred Meyer. Please get involved with the conversation and let’s make sure that an Urban Village is built in a sane, eco-friendly, and economically viable way.
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