Comments

1
This is great news. That empty lot has been both an eyesore and the City's greatest missed opportunity for years. Beacon Hill is going through a major renaissance, and this could be a key piece if done right. Who is actually developing the site, do you know?
2
WTF is a "cultural performance space"?

Is that fancy-wordplay for "stage"?
3

This is great...now people can move their businesses away from down town.
4
1. breathing space good.
2. building height is only marginally related to breathing space.
3. for nicer development, work to increase (a) the distance between building fa ades, (b) the sidewalk width, and (c) the amenitization of the space between the buildings. A 80 story building rising straight up next to a 5 foot wide sidewalk is ugly; so is a 4 story or 6 story building rising straight up. Just getting 5 more eet of setback though, pushing open the public space, that's what makes it all more livable. that's how density coexists with livability. just filling up building envelopes everywhere with the IKEA (TM) BILLY MODEL MIXED USE BUILDING MODULES that all look the same, is a good way to make seattle more ugly.

After you establish a bigger setback, then you turn to sculpting the space in the setbacks and the corners and making little fountains or curvy paths (like the sidewalks in waikiki) or cut off corners to have a radial swoop in the building or a little curved driveway that provides some space that is neither "Street" nor "building" not "hello, I am a squashed 3 foot wide sidewalk that now has a 115 unit building next to me". The beautiful side of things just does not happen if all you argue about is building height. Pay more attention to the spaces BETWEEN the buildings.
5
Good. Now maybe they'll approve the new Brooks HQ next to the dump in Wallingford.
6
If Cienna had read the council action in its entirety, I believe she would find this is not just a rezone of El Centro's lot but rather a comprehensive update of zoning all around the Beacon Hill light rail station.

I was at the public hearing on this a few weeks ago, and all but one of the people testifying were FOR the neighborhood-wide rezones. Please don't characterize all Beacon Hillers as NIMBYS or obstructionist. Yes, it's too bad that City processes are so arcane that one appeal hung it up for so long, but you can fault the City for that, not the neighborhood.

7
They just got the lighting in for the parking lot that is due to open where the new culturally vibrant walkable world-class affordable housing is scheduled to go.
8
Let us follow the advice of @4, because gargantuan streets, airport-runway sidewalks, arbitrary plazas and other setbacks are exactly what make Century City, Los Angeles and Albany, NY the kind of "breathable" urban paradises we should emulate!

No, siree! Skinny sidewalks and 4-to-6-story buildings directly abutting them can never make for pleasant, attractive, airy, desirable urban environments!

What this city where it rains most of the year desperately needs is open space devoid even of tree cover, and for everything to be as far as humanly possible from everything else!!
9
@7. I know. It is rather disheartening to see a PARKING LOT being developed in the Centro de la Raza area. Ugh. But hopefully this rezone will bring us one step closer to some true development on Beacon Hill.
10
Well, all indications point to it being a culturally vibrant walkable world-class affordable parking lot, if that's any consolation.
11
do you faggots really believe that those apartments will be affordable....
12

Well, consider The Station at Othello.

Do you consider:

Studio 1.0 408 - 523 $753 - $1,040
1 bed 1.0 577 - 662 $871 - $1,376
2 beds 1.0 759 $1,198 - $1,806

Affordable?

http://hotpads.com/search#lat=47.5370580…
13
wait they can pay a whole thousand dollars to live in a 400 sq foot studio!? wow those single mothers of color are soo lucky! That being said the new development on McClellan behind QFC was in talks with Othello developers about architecture and on site ammanetiies so you can be sure that those appartments rates will be similar. Frankly Im glad that the city of seattle and developers is putting all these new ammentiies into the south end now especially as it steadily becomes more affluent (ie White...)

My prediction is 20 years from now Beacon Hill, Columbia city, MLK will all be upper middle class neighborhoods.
14
As a beacon Hill resident I would like to see the designs....
15
Sounds good to me. More foot traffic in that neighborhood, more eyes on the street at night, it's right next to the train station, and it does something with that empty lot (finally!). I'm sure the owners of the Red Apple, the Delite Bakery, and the Chinese grocery are also looking forward to this.
16
Hooray! Yeah I live on Beacon and there are a few Pat Murakami clones who screech at any kind of development and loss of parking. That fast majority of Beaconians want urban density and amenities. That Centro building will replace the new parking lot no one has ever used.
17
We can't wait for the Oak, also! Hooray again.
18
Now if only Sound Transit could find buyers for the two lots to the south of the station. Chain-link fence and gravel is not exactly transit-oriented development.
19
@6 is correct--this isn't only about El Centro, it's the entire station overlay area. The majority if the community is happy with the 65' upzone and looking forward to responsible development. There are a few people who still wish we were getting 85', a few who wanted to leave things at 40', and some who hoped to extend the area of the upzone down the hill a ways. I guess you can call it in-fighting when neighbors attend dozens of meetings to hash out a compromise.

The appeal was part of a blatant attempt to stall development at all three of the ST stations undergoing Neighborhood Plan Updates--NOT a reflection of Beacon Hill community sentiment.

I'm disappointed there are parking lots right now, but I'm confident they're temporary.

@18 Some of the lots are privately owned by a family that isn't responding to offers.
20
Yay for the defeat of a bunch of crypto-racist NIMBY fuckwads! Still, if it always talks two whole years just to get a useful project approved, housing in Seattle will never be affordable in aggregate.

Please wait...

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