Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Part 2: Why Plan for 35th Ave NE? Missed Opportunities.

If you follow the Seattle Department of Planning and Development's (DPD's) NE Seattle Land Use Information Bulletin, you'll occasionally notice bulletins for redevelopments within the 35th Ave Business District.  There have been two recent bulletins for redeveloping older homes along 35th Ave NE within our planning boundaries into town homes with or without live-work units on the ground floor.

One of these projects is the redevelopment of the old "Green House," located immediately south of the Sunshine Cleaners and north of the Rxtra Care pharmacy.  Another project (DPD Project No. 3014188) is located further south in the business district, north of Grateful Bread.   One could make a case that both of these projects are within the center of the business district and are ideal locations for additional retail space, should redevelopment occur as planned.

This is not intended diminish the merits of these projects individually, but rather to identify these as potentially missed opportunities due to the absence of a well thought out plan for the business district that describes a shared vision for the future of 35th Ave NE.  Had we had an appropriate plan and completed a review of the zoning for 35th Ave NE, developers may have selected a different outcome for these two projects that included increased retail space and provide a healthy return on investment for the developer.