12th Avenue Neighborhood & Business District

On Wednesday night, May 27th, the 12th Avenue neighborhood (residents, businesses, institutional representatives) gathered at Watertown Coffee to discuss the exciting things happening on and around 12th Avenue these days. Here are the meeting minutes from this gathering.

The picture above is the project by Capitol Hill Housing (CHH) planned for the corner of 12th Avenue and E Jefferson. Based on positive community feedback at the meeting, CHH is proceeding with a rezone on this site, so that it can build 40 units of workforce housing (affordable to folks making up to about $35,000/year) above one ground floor of neighborhood retail space.

In other news, the neighborhood formed two committees to work on new street furniture for 12th and to work with the Parks Department on the James Court Gathering Place Park . The Parks Department has recently assigned a project manager to this site and hopes to begin the development process soon. The group also touched on Seattle University’s recently released Draft Master Plan (see recent post here ) and upcoming public hearing on June 3rd.

All of this over a beautiful serving of homemade mac and cheese by Amy at Watertown. We love you WTC (yes, you too Daniel!) Thanks to all who attended.

Tomorrow (sorry for the late notice!) a group of community volunteers will be working together from 9am to 1pm to clean up the Central Area, focusing on the neighborhood between E Jefferson and E Jackson & 12th Avenue to 23rd Avenue.

The project will focus on litter pick-up, graffiti removal, removal of yard waste and helping neighbors clean-up alleys and walkways.

Volunteers are needed! To sign up, e-mail communityclean.project@gmail.com or just show up to the Orca Park (where the whalefin sculpture is) on the corner of 14th Avenue and E Remington Court! Food and festiviteis will follow the morning of clean-up fun.

Update: Please find the SU Draft MIMP here .

Seattle University is one of the biggest institutions in the City (and the neighborhood) and they are in the process of updating their Major Institution Master Plan (MIMP). This happens about every 20 years, with the goal of planning ahead for future institutional needs and growth. SU has been working with a Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) of neighborhood stakeholders on the Master Plan for the last two years, to get ongoing input on the drafts they have been formulating. However, now is the time for the general public to begin weighing in! SU is having its first public meeting about its Draft EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) on Wednesday June 3, 2009 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m . The meeting will be held at the following location:

Seattle University
Teilhard de Chardin Hall, Rm. 142
(The building is located in the southwest portion of campus – between Campion Hall and Logan Field — and north of E. Jefferson St.; the building is identified as #8 on Figure 2-4 in this Draft EIS)

Here is a campus map .

The Draft Master Plan and EIS is a HUGE document (so huge I cannot upload it here), but it is chock full of very interesting information, especially regarding future SU development plans on 12th Avenue and potential zoning changes to their Major Institution Overlay (the MIO is SU’s special institutional zoning boundaries and code). For more information about where the document can be viewed visit the City information here .  For more information on some of the details of the draft Master Plan see Capitol Hill Seattle’s recent post .

Please join us for the next 12th Avenue Stewardship Committee meeting on Wednesday May 27th at 6pm at Watertown Coffee at 550 12th Avenue . There is a lot going on right now on 12th Avenue, so come to engage more in the following topics:

• Streetscape improvements on 12th (fixing banner arms and new sidewalk furniture)
• Preliminary discussions about future James Court Pocket Park design
• SU Master Plan Update
• Capitol Hill Housing 12th & E Jefferson Workforce Housing Project Update
• First Hill/Capitol Hill Streetcar Update

Drinks and light snacks will be provided! Questions? Contact Bill Zosel at wmzosel@aol.com

On Wednesday, May 13th at 5pm there will be a Happy Hour at the Blue Nile Restaurant (456 12th Avenue just south of E Jefferson Street) for all 12th Avenue business owners. Drinks and finger food will be provided! This will be a casual get-together for business owners to meet each other, hear a little bit about the 12th Avenue Initiative and talk about any concerns they have about the business district. Representatives from Capitol Hill Housing, the Central Area Chamber of Commerce, the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and Community Capital Development will also be there. Please join us!

Capitol Hill Housing (CHH) will have their first early design guidance meeting this week for the project planned at 12th & E Jefferson. The EDG package submitted to the City by the design team at Environmental Works Community Design Center can be found here.

CHH met with the 12th Avenue Neighborhood Plan Stewardship Committee about this project in March 2009. This site is one of the last identified by the 1992 12th Avenue Neighborhood Plan as a community priority for redevelopment. Notes from that meeting can be found here. This EDG meeting is the first in the Design Review process, but it also kicks-off the request for a Contract Rezone on this parcel, from NC2-40 to NC3-65, to allow the project two more stories of residential height. This would make it possible for CHH to build 40 workforce housing affordable apartments that will convert to affordable condo units in year 2026 that residents will get first dibs on. The project also entails ground floor commercial space targeted to Central Area small businesses.

Please come out and attend this meeting on Wednesday, May 6th at Seattle Central Community College, Room 3211 at 6:30pm.

I just received word about this gathering on Saturday (tomorrow) at Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill. While a little last minute, it seems like it will be a nice, informal tour of what makes Capitol Hill great: walkability, activity on the street, preservation of old buildings, diversity, community involvement - all things that Jane Jacobs (RIP) taught us to love and fight to preserve in our communities.

Details can be found here.