"Ruth Alice Williams" <ruth...@comcast.net>: Jan 18 01:24PM -0800
Greetings friends,
We at Thornton Creek Alliance thought you might like to comment on this project. Apologies for the short notice, but the deadline for comments is Jan. 20th. Details below.
Ruth
TCA Membership VP
The permit number is: 3035925-LU for residential development with 410 units and parking for 256 vehicles. Here is the link with all the project docs: <http://web6.seattle.gov/dpd/edms/default.aspx?ref=6788143-CN> http://web6.seattle.gov/dpd/edms/default.aspx?ref=6788143-CN.
8th Ave. NE is a designated greenway between NE 105th and NE 117th. The greenway plans include a two-way bike lane down the middle of the street, but don’t show any provision for pedestrians. ( <http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/greenways-program/northgate> http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/greenways-program/northgate)
The NE 105th-106th block is already a place where neighbors congregate in the street to chat and watch for wildlife in the park, even though there are no sidewalks. Drivers sometimes honk at distracted pedestrians.
Therefore, 8th NE traffic should be limited to local access only, or one-way. Vehicle access for the project is planned for 8th NE, but it would be much safer and kinder to the neighborhood if It was changed to 5th Ave. NE.
Suggestions:
· There should be no public parking allowed on the narrow blocks between NE 105th and NE Northgate Way.
· Sidewalks should be added along at least one side of 8th NE, and they should be the berm and swale design rather than the outmoded curb and gutter style. This is especially important in light of the increased pollution created by more vehicular traffic.
· Runoff from this property will continue to flow into the creek as it does today. During construction what precautions will be taken to ensure clean effluent?
Additional Info:
This eight-story building planned for a greenway does not list plans for any accessible parking or bike parking.
Send to: City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections. Attention: Carly Guillory
1- Having reduced parking spaces is okay if calculations of demand are supported by credible studies and we ask how any excess demand will be accommodated without choking local streets.
2- Also, how will any overflow parking and increased traffic be mitigated, both from the standpoint of local congestion, and from the standpoint of runoff pollutant issues. For example, recent findings regarding tire additive effects on coho salmon prespawn mortality has become a very serious environmental concern.
3- Finally, we must underscore the proximity of the south fork and Beaver Pond NA, which are barely 100 ft from the corner of the property and extra care needs to be taken during construction to keep impacts minimized.
<http://www.thornton-creek-alliance.org/> http://www.thornton-creek-alliance.org/
<mailto:thorntoncr...@gmail.com> thorntoncr...@gmail.com |
Anna Tsai <anna....@gmail.com>: Jan 18 08:15PM -0800
Hi all,
Before I dive into this email, just want to preface this with a disclaimer
that I used to work for the company currently providing civil engineering
services to the project. Also, sorry that this will be very long.
Taking a look at the project documents, and the above email from Ruth, I
agree with her points, but I don't know if advocating for them to be
addressed by this project is the most appropriate. Here is why:
- It is likely impossible for the project to provide vehicle access from
5th as there is a private parcel between the proposed development and 5th
Ave.
- While I agree that 8th Ave needs sidewalks, it is probably outside of the
scope of this project to provide a full redesign of the sidewalks along 8th
Ave NE as developers are typically only asked to redo the sidewalks along
their frontages and only to the maximum extent asked for by the city.
According to Seattle streets illustrated, 8th Ave NE would look something
like this:
https://streetsillustrated.seattle.gov/https-streetsillustrated-seattle-gov-wp-content-uploads-2019-12-streettyperelationships-movementplacev4-jpg/urban-village-neighborhood-access/.
Instead of asking a developer to do something they're not legally mandated
to do, is there a way we can reach out to the city to update these
guidelines to what we'd like to see?
- If anyone is curious about the runoff prevention measures, there are a
variety of city/state/federal laws (depending on where you are) that all
construction projects must follow during construction. This includes
additional protections in environmentally critical areas. These are
addressed in the drainage report starting on page 27, with a plan set
showing the construction measures visually on page 41 (under Appendix A2).
It's all a bit generic, and likely to change, but if anyone has any
questions about construction stormwater measures, feel free to reach out to
me as I used to work on erosion control for a general contractor, and have
some experience putting together these types of plans. It's definitely a
valid concern, but just wanted to point folks to where it is somewhat
addressed since those types of reports can be a bit hard to wade through.
- Taking a look at the plan-set: pre submittal conference plans it looks
like there is bike parking on level 1 (page 5). And there are a few ADA
spots marked on level P1 (page 4).
Finally, I just want to say that I'm personally very excited to see more
multi-family housing coming into our area, especially with the light rail
coming soon. However, I do think the city needs to do more to both increase
the housing stock and make active transportation and transit a more viable
option for everyone, which is part of why I joined this group! I'd love to
hear people's opinions on the best ways to make this possible as it's a
balance I'm still working on myself.
If anyone has any questions about the above, please let me know! I hope I
was able to shed some light on what is likely to be included in the scope
of the project, and hopefully we can find some good ways to push on the
great points Ruth stated above. I live just north of this project, and I
would love to see some improvements made along 8th, I'm just not super
optimistic that they will be meaningfully addressed in one apartment
project.
Best,
Anna
On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 1:25 PM Ruth Alice Williams <ruth...@comcast.net>
wrote:
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