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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Changes for Chang’s

posted by on April 11 at 13:26 PM

According to a graffiti-covered land use action sign, the long-empty Chang’s Mongolian BBQ on Broadway will soon be torn down and replaced by a six-story, 65-unit apartment building with parking for 66 cars. According to Sound Transit, the former Chang’s will soon be torn down and replaced with a light rail station.

The debate over what will happen to the site (and another across the street) has been complicated by land-use changes on Broadway that allow developers to build more-valuable six-story buildings; previously, buildings on Broadway could only be four stories tall. The change could enable developers, claiming they plan to build, to get a higher price from Sound Transit for their property. Hugh Schaeffer with Driscoll Architects, which designed the six-story building and is pushing it through the city’s land use process, says the architects have “never talked to Sound Transit. We were hired to design the building and we did.” A final design review meeting is scheduled for April 18.

Sound Transit made its final offer to the owners of the property and filed for condemnation late last year. According to Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray, the dispute is scheduled to go to trial in August; however, he adds, “we’re hoping that we can come to an agreement before then.”

RSS icon Comments

1

I get the big ass grill.

Posted by Cochise. | April 11, 2007 1:52 PM
2

Huh. Seems like somebody would have thought to freeze the zoning regs for properties on the ST list in order to avoid exactly this sort of scenario.

Posted by COMTE | April 11, 2007 2:07 PM
3

Time for some eminent domain, bitches~

Posted by Andrew | April 11, 2007 2:10 PM
4

The most important question to ask is...what will become of the big green self-cleaning toilet in front of Chang's? Will it remain as the property is redeveloped? Will people continue to shoot up and have sex in it during the construction period?

Posted by Bloggie | April 11, 2007 3:03 PM
5

Eminent domain allows the government entity to buy it at fair market value, the seller gains some tax advantages by coming to agreement before a court ruling. If no deal has been made and the zoning changes, the value goes up or down. I don't believe that zoning changes can be selectively made so that one property is left out of the upzone. If it could be done, why not change any property desired to farm land and the agency could get it for a song.

Posted by Kush | April 11, 2007 4:07 PM
6

Seattle needs to get some Richard Daley, Chicago-style ass-kicking politicians who will tell developers to "go fuck youselves, you get as much money as I say you get, and I build my shit where I want to"

Posted by Andrew | April 11, 2007 4:28 PM
7

they never OFFICIALLY talked to Sound Transit.

i hope this pointless exercise - taking a building that has no intention of ever being built through the permit process @ DPD - makes some architecture intern very happy with their chosen career.

Posted by Max Solomon | April 11, 2007 5:12 PM
8

I wanna know: Why no light rail station planned for the north end of Broadway? Almost 2 whole blocks are being leveled and turned into condos up there and no station? Ridiculous.

Posted by Ken | April 11, 2007 7:43 PM
9

"what will become of the big green self-cleaning toilet in front of Chang's?"

The property owners of Broadway are buying it from the city. It will be bronzed and installed on a pedestal in front of the station as a metaphor for the redevelopment of Broadway.

Posted by Mr. Investalot | April 11, 2007 8:36 PM
10

Ken, baby! Sound Transit is primarily an incentive for development, not a transportation project. If the condos are built, that's what matters.

Posted by let'sgetourprioritiesstraight | April 11, 2007 8:43 PM
11

let's.get.our.facts.straight:

Your tired argument light rail is just a real estate program would be more valid if Sound Transit had pursued the Monorail Authority's strategy of buying more land than they needed for construction.

Ken: Broadway is a very walkable neighborhood. A five or even ten minute walk from John St. to the north end of Broadway doesn't justify a $250 million station. Plus, the planned First Hill Street car will possibly extend all the way up to Aloha and beyond, making for easy access to the Capitol Hill Station.

www.soundtransit.org/st2

Cheers.

Posted by braintrust | April 11, 2007 11:08 PM
12
I wanna know: Why no light rail station planned for the north end of Broadway? Almost 2 whole blocks are being leveled and turned into condos up there and no station? Ridiculous.
I talked to ST people about this back when they were still in the planning stages. I thought a pair of stations would make the most sense: one at the north end of broadway (where it jogs east at the gas station -- the "kinkos" building there was just an empty and condemned gas station at the time) and the other at Pine street, where it would serve SU, SCCC, and Pike-Pine.

Their response: no budget for two stations (and the positioning at Pine, where the tracks start to curve towards downtown, was problematic as well). So John split the difference (and is at the intersection of two major bus routes). Given that, a station at the north end of broadway would just be too close (that's just 5 blocks -- even Manhattan, with a much higher population density, puts its subway stations further apart than that).

I still don't get the mayor's fascination with streetcars, however. Other than causing accidents and snarling traffic, how are they better than buses?

Posted by Joe | April 12, 2007 11:33 AM
13

I'm not talking about people who live on one end of Broadway or the other. I live on lower capitol hill by the freeway (down mercer st) and there's no way I'm walkin to broadway and john to get on the train. I would walk to broadway and mercer, or roy. Broadway is very walkable -- but capitol hill is also very dense. And, you know. A hill.

Posted by Ken | April 12, 2007 5:19 PM
14

braintrust, I don't that comment referred to public housing.

Posted by Dave | April 12, 2007 7:06 PM
15

Ken, that's kind of funny, because that's almost exactly where I live too (I call it "Top Pot adjacent"). And when I take the bus I'm usually walking up to Broadway or all the way down Summit to John (or Olive, or Denny, or whatever it is at that corner). Even though the 14 runs right down Summit/Bellevue it usually isn't going where I want to go (though it can be convenient to get home from downtown). So as far as I'm concerned, walking to Broadway and John is not a big deal. And coming home, it will be a downhill walk.

I doubt I'll be here when they connect to the UW. But what I'm really jazzed about is being able to go to the airport without paying for a cab or a shuttle.

Posted by Joe | April 12, 2007 9:00 PM
16

Ken, that's kind of funny, because that's almost exactly where I live too (I call it "Top Pot adjacent"). And when I take the bus I'm usually walking up to Broadway or all the way down Summit to John (or Olive, or Denny, or whatever it is at that corner). Even though the 14 runs right down Summit/Bellevue it usually isn't going where I want to go (though it can be convenient to get home from downtown). So as far as I'm concerned, walking to Broadway and John is not a big deal. And coming home, it will be a downhill walk.

I doubt I'll be here when they connect to the UW. But what I'm really jazzed about is being able to go to the airport without paying for a cab or a shuttle.

Posted by Joe | April 12, 2007 9:00 PM
17

Ken, that's kind of funny, because that's almost exactly where I live too (I call it "Top Pot adjacent"). And when I take the bus I'm usually walking up to Broadway or all the way down Summit to John (or Olive, or Denny, or whatever it is at that corner). Even though the 14 runs right down Summit/Bellevue it usually isn't going where I want to go (though it can be convenient to get home from downtown). So as far as I'm concerned, walking to Broadway and John is not a big deal. And coming home, it will be a downhill walk.

I doubt I'll be here when they connect to the UW. But what I'm really jazzed about is being able to go to the airport without paying for a cab or a shuttle.

Posted by Joe | April 12, 2007 11:16 PM

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