For Kathy Talley, change is a difficult thing. But as the owner of Images Styling Salon on Northeast 165th Street in Shoreline’s Ridgecrest neighborhood, she’s aware it could be heading her direction.
The now largely residential neighborhood where she runs her hair salon used to include a single screen movie theater, a Laundromat, a Tradewell Store, dentist office, beauty shops and a hardware store, according to Talley. Throughout the years, new shops took the place of the old, the Tradewell Store site eventually became the home of the Cascade Bingo parlor and the Crest Theatre expanded.
On March 31 the City Council will decide if a proposed zoning change for the southwest corner of 165th Street and Fifth Avenue Northeast could set a maximum building height of up to six stories or 65 feet for any future development in the Ridgecrest neighborhood.
“I can see improving things but not to that point,” Talley said. “I don’t know what more business this area could sustain, I’m at a loss.”
Her landlord and owner of the Crest Theatre in the mid-1970s, Ann Segale, agrees.
“The whole idea is to put as many apartments as they can with the least amount of parking and I’d like a study to see how that works,” Segale, a Seattle resident, said.
Along with her business partner, Lucile Flanagan, Segale owns a stretch of property along Northeast 165th between Fifth Avenue Northeast and Sixth Avenue Northeast. Her property includes the Aroma Café, a Shoreline Police storefront and a Puget Sound Energy location among other storefront sites. If the old bingo site is developed under the proposed zoning, residents may have little choice but to park along Northeast 165th Street, she said.
“Our biggest concern is parking,” Segale said. “There’s got to be a study of off-street parking.”
Tom Dunn, Ridgecrest resident and owner of All Done Delivery, has been one of Segale’s tenants in the area for the past seven years. Parking is already a neighborhood issue and led him to change store hours in an effort to compensate for the periods of time vehicles were most likely to be parked outside his store, making it difficult for him to attract customers.
“If they build an apartment there I might as well close my store because people won’t be able to park here,” Dunn said. “I don’t blame developers for wanting to build something but stay within the current zoning. This is not a high rise area.”
The issue of parking as it pertains to the proposed zoning change in the Ridgecrest commercial area was most recently discussed by the City Council on March 3. At the meeting, the council directed city staff to incorporate changes to parking regulations into continued deliberation scheduled for the March 24 meeting. Council also directed city staff to hire an independent consultant to study the financial feasibility of allowing four, five, and six stories. The results of a study by the economic consulting firm, Community Attributes, should be available for council review on March 24, according to city manager Bob Olander.
While she would prefer a four-story development on the site, Talley said other improvements in Ridgecrest might consist of something family-friendly. Her adult children moved out of the area because they couldn’t afford to live in Shoreline, she said.
“I would like to see things around that are geared toward building neighborhoods again instead of just housing,” Talley said. To her, rolling rinks and bowling alleys are examples of things “to keep families in the area.”
A potential six-story building with the proper building setbacks and step backs may be right for the site, said Karen Phillips, owner of the 7-Eleven and property behind it along Northeast 165th Street.
“We’re going to need business here and it can’t be all residential,” Phillips said. “First and foremost we need things that will serve our immediate community as well as bring people to this area. Keep in mind, the development is for us.”
One thing seems to ring true for those who open shop along Northeast 165th Street — a mutual appreciation for the Crest Theatre.
“They show good, inexpensive films and that’s going to be even more popular as prices go up,” Segale said.
“Keeping the show (at the Crest) is a must,” Phillips said.
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