Shoreline residents Erik and Yuki Spicer want what many couples hope to have. They want to live in a nice home, located on a safe street in a neighborhood where they know their neighbors.
Erik, a carpenter, is working on remodeling parts of their three bedroom residence on 32nd Avenue Northeast. The couple hopes the work of a developer will help clean up their street.
If a proposal to rezone seven parcels on the street is passed by the city council later this month, the Spicers may begin to see the changes they want on their street.
On Jan.17 the Planning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend that the City Council approve a rezone proposal to allow for the development of townhomes with up to a combined 35 units on seven parcels located along 32nd Avenue Northeast. A quasi-judicial hearing on the rezone is scheduled for Feb. 25 at the City Council meeting.
According to the Planning Commission report, the rezone would encourage development of an area where redevelopment is expected. New development would trigger public amenities such as curbs, sidewalks and updated drainage facilities — all things the Spicers would appreciate coming to their street.
“It’s nothing but a big parking lot and trash and old houses,” Erik said about the street he lives on. “People fly down this street at about 50 mph … I’ve heard stories of all the stolen cars left up and down the street. A couple of blocks up it’s nicer.”
He has lived on 32nd Avenue Northeast for four years now and said he has seen very little change over the period of time. Most of the single family homes on the street are rented out, he said. If townhomes begin to replace some of the rental homes, he he hopes new neighbors will be owners and take pride of ownership in their residences.
“I’m in favor of just about any improvement,” he said.
One at a time townhomes
The applicant for the rezone, Scott Solberg, is the owner of three parcels on 32nd Avenue Northeast. Four additional parcels were included in the request to broaden the area to be consistent with the same zoning and development potential in the future when owners decide to redevelop or sell their property.
According to the report reviewed by the Planning Commission, an R-24 zoning on the parcels “would allow greater development intensity and be compatible with the already approved zoning townhome development to the south and west.”
Shoreline Municipal Code 20.40.030 states the purpose of R-24 zoning is to “provide for a mix of predominately apartment and townhouse dwelling units and other compatible uses.”
Solberg said he wants to construct townhomes on his property, one at a time.
“That’s what I’m used to building with a lot of green landscape,” he said. “I always try to do something (where) neighbors will be proud to be neighbors and people will be proud to buy.”
He said more neighbors spoke in favor of the rezone at the Jan. 17 Planning Commission meeting than he expected. He has been to neighborhood meetings and spoken with neighbors who in turn told their neighbors about the proposed rezone.
“I’m really interested in finding out what they would like to have there,” Solberg said. “It’s my intention to improve — through development — the neighborhood.”
Solberg said he imagines that most of the area will be built out to townhomes over the course of the next ten years.
If the rezone is not approved by the City Council, Solberg said he will have little choice but to develop his property under current zoning regulations. Although the Briarcest neighborhood is part of a study area being conducted by the city, nailing down a plan takes time and Solberg said he cannot hold off development of the property until enactment of a plan has begun.
“One (parcel) is rented back to the owner I bought it from and the other two we weren’t able to get as much rent for as we would in another neighborhood with the same square footage homes,” Solberg said. “I bought the homes with intent to develop to some extent in the future anyway.”
Neighbor concerns
Although Spicer and other neighbors are in favor of the potential rezone, some neighbors have raised concerns about drainage issues, the potential for increased traffic, impact to the environment and a potential loss of small and seemingly affordable single family residences.
“The street they’re talking about is definitely a transitional type of street,” Diana Herbst, a resident on 30th Avenue Northeast said. “For the cops to come occasionally would be nice and to have some lighting there would be nice also.”
She would like to see sidewalks in the neighborhood as well but worries that any development allowed before a study of the area is complete will potentially “stack the deck in a direction (Briarcrest neighbors) may not want the area to go in.”
“Rather than doing it piecemeal we need to look at the situation,” Herbst said. “I’m not necessarily against development. What I want to see is an overall plan where we’ve got some continuity.”
A special study area in the Briarcrest neighborhood from approximately 31st Avenue Northeast to 23rd Avenue Northeast and from 145th Street to 150th Street was set before the adoption of the city’s current comprehensive plan in 2005, according to city planner Steve Cohn.
The area between 31st Avenue Northeast and Bothell Way was not part of the study area.
Now the city is focused on updating the plan and is planning to kick off a southeast Shoreline subarea process that includes a special study area from 31st Avenue Northeast to Bothell Way within the next two to three months, Cohn said.
“We are finalizing the schedule right now and once the schedule is available we will make sure neighbors can participate in a subarea plan process,” he said.
The subarea plan process will take anywhere from nine months to a year. The process includes community involvement, a planning commission recommendation and council adoption. In the meantime, Cohn said a rezone of an area within the study area is effective upon adoption by the City Council.
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