Monday, April 28th, 6:30 PM at Pinehurst School
The Seattle School District is requesting a waiver (departure) from some City zoning regulations for the construction of a new Jane Addams K-8 @ Pinehurst. The District plans to demolish the existing school and construct a new Kindergarten thru 8th grade including gym/commons, library, administrative offices, classrooms and other learning areas at 11530 12th Avenue. The School District is requesting modifications for increase lot coverage, greater than allowed height, less than required on-site parking spaces and on-street bus loading. The process for considering this request includes hearings before an advisory committee composed of neighbors and School District and City representatives.
The Committee was formed and is in the process of gathering and evaluating public comment on the departure request. The Committee can recommend waiver (departure) from some regulations and any relevant conditions to be applied to minimize its impacts on the surrounding neighborhood, or recommend denial. The Committee previously held a meeting in March and determined that a second meeting would be helpful prior to their making its recommendation.
The Committee will hold its second public meeting Monday April 28, 6:30 pm, Pinehurst School library, 11530 12th Ave NE.
The meeting will include a brief presentation on the requested modifications to development standards (zoning) that have been requested and information in response to questions that were raised at the previous meeting. The public is invited to make comments at the meeting.
Written comments may also be submitted to:
Steve Sheppard
Department of Neighborhoods
700 5th Avenue, Suite 1700
P.O. Box 94649
Seattle, WA 98124-4649
For more information, call:
Steve Sheppard at 206-684-0302, or e-mail steve.sheppard@seattle.gov
Still waiting to learn the results of the vote regarding the parking waiver…
The committee approved all of the departures. Honestly, we didn’t see daily staff parking as that much of an impact on the neighborhood. Sure, there will be more parked cars, and spots closest to the school will be frequently occupied. If parking availability becomes a problem, the way to deal with that is through the formation of residential parking zone.
We certainly couldn’t ask the school district to devote more of their site to pavement for parking, or spend millions of dollars on a parking structure. It’s not worth it.
There are two real problems with parking in the neighborhood, and they both have to do with lack of curb and sidewalk. Nobody knows where to park due to the lack of a curb, and parked cars create a hazard for pedestrians because there are no sidewalks. The real problem with parking will be when the school holds an evening event and everyone comes by car and parks in the nearby neighborhood.
To that end, we’re asking (demanding) that sidewalks be built out around the school. The committee doesn’t have any authority to ask for this, but we’re doing it anyway to get it into the public record.
Please attend the May 13th/14th public meetings with SDOT and demand sidewalks! http://www.pinehurstseattle.org/2014/05/07/pinehurst-school-traffic-safety-meetings/