Dear Neighbors,
The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections (SDCI) has scheduled a public meeting so that neighbors concerned about the proposed 32-unit Lanz Fremont Microhousing project (#3026875-LU) at 3959 Fremont Ave N can provide their feedback to the city.
The public meeting location and date/time are:
Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Seattle, Room 202
on Tuesday, June 26th 6:30-8:00 p.m.
This is located on the east side of Meridian Park.
Our petition made this meeting happen
It is important to note that this meeting is not part of the default design review process for this project. The Lanz Fremont Microhousing project is subject to the Administrative Design Review Process, which does not include a public meeting. However, we submitted enough neighborhood signatures on a petition to force a public meeting (thanks to all who signed the petition!). Now the city is going to have to listen to what we have to say about placing an LR2 Urban Village 32-unit Microhousing complex, next to a Single Family zoned block, with only entrance off a narrow dead-end residential alley, requiring all vehicular traffic to go through our low-density neighborhood.
The city has posted information about this meeting around the neighborhood on telephone poles so we know the time and place of the upcoming meeting and can start preparing to be vocal. Please mark your calendars! Let’s plan to converge on this meeting in force to give the city an earful.
What is Lanz Fremont proposing to build now?
The developer of the Lanz Fremont Microhousing project is proposing to build a monolithic building consisting of 32-microunit apartments. These apartments will likely be less than 300 square feet each. The developer is also proposing to provide no off-street parking, and still wants to put the only entrance to the building off the narrow dead-end residential alley between N Bowdoin Pl and N 40th St, even though the project site is comprised of two Fremont Ave N addresses, 3959 & 3965 Fremont Ave N.
In this redesign, the developer has conceded to retaining and improving the existing old stairway from Fremont Ave N. to 3959 Fremont Ave N. However, no entrance on the east side of the building (facing Fremont Ave N.) has been added, and the stairs cannot serve as access for the disabled. The only entrance – for all – still remains off the alley. The developer is stubbornly refusing to put the primary entrance facing Fremont Ave N. because he understands, that for an apartment of this size, a Fremont Ave N. facing primary entrance would likely force him to install an elevator to provide access to the disabled from Fremont Ave N. to the building. Let’s try to make him put in that elevator by insisting that the primary accessible entry must be from Fremont Ave N.!
Fig 2. West view (from alley) of 32-unit Lanz Fremont
Fig 3. South view of 32-unit Lanz Fremont
Fig 4. North view of 32-unit Lanz Fremont
Shown below is a drawing created by our neighbor Emily Li, which clearly shows how large and out-of-scale with the rest of the neighborhood the proposed building is. The left of this sketch shows the size of a neighboring residential garage across the alley from the project site. Also note the car and people standing in the residential alley between the garage and microhousing building. It is off this very narrow alley where the developer proposes to put the only entrance to the building!
Fig 5. South view section of out-of-scale building compared to existing neighborhood garage and alley
Yes, yes, and the developer has responded by ignoring the city guidance to put the primary entrance from Fremont Ave N while additionally increasing the number of proposed apartments from 29 to 32. In other words, this Mercer Island based developer has chosen to give the proverbial middle finger to our neighborhood.
Please let the city know what you think of this ill-conceived project. Come to the scheduled public meeting and speak your mind! Again the public meeting location and date/time are:
Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Seattle, Room 202
on Tuesday, June 26th 6:30-8:00 p.m.
You can also submit written comments at the meeting, or you can send your comments to the PRC (as many comments as you want). Your comments can be written in an email, or letter attached to an email, and sent to:
prc@seattle.gov
subject: 3026875-LU at 3959 Fremont Ave N
Nice web site! Lot’s of good info on this poorly conceived project and the negative impacts it will have to this wonderful Seattle neighborhood. The pleasant, walkable neighborhood is being sacrificed for market rate housing in order to provide cash flow for individuals who don’t even live in Seattle! With 100 new people crammed onto two lots, with no parking or access to an arterial, this project will have an extremely negative affect over twenty-five square blocks of Upper Fremont. It demonstrates the city’s abdication of any responsibility to existing neighborhoods. The concept of planning neighborhoods, based on existing vernacular of the area is totally lost in the rush to develop to the highest and best use as defined by real estate investors. Existing residents, who have contributed time, money and taxes to make their neighborhood a great place to live are effectively excluded from having any influence on the outcome, though the city provides a process to make it seem that concerns will be considered and acted on.