Weber Thompson’s design for 1321 Seneca
A group of neighbors has its turn in front of the Seattle Hearing Examiner in an attempt to scale back a 24-story apartment building planned for 1321 Seneca on First Hill.
The complaints and requested relief, below, call for additional conditions to be placed on the building, more study of the project’s potential impact on traffic and parking in the area, reducing the height of the building by shrinking rooftop amenities and changing the layout.
The neighbors also want construction work — currently permitted to go until 8p — to end at 6:
The appeal against the project’s land use permit was brought by lawyer and First Hill resident Steve Gaines. Despite the frequent outbursts of frustration and handwringing over the pace of development in the area, the Hearing Examiner appeal is one of the few brought against a major project in recent months.
CHS wrote about the Alecta-backed developments’ path through design review last year here and here. It’s a massive project:
Land Use Application to allow a 24-story building containing 215 residential units, 1,445 sq. ft. of commercial space (live/work units), five levels of below grade parking for 174 vehicles and storage for 80 bicycles. Project includes 27,700 cu. yds. of grading.
We’ll check in with the Hearing Examiner to find out how the neighbors fared later this week.
Fucking NIMBYs, perfectly happy living in a residential highrise as long as there isn’t a second one next door.
How do you know the neighbors/complainants are living in a high-rise?
Steve Gaines lives in First Hill Plaza, the tall building on the left in the picture above.
Also Ben Bridge owner and several other affluent retirees
Wow, I was thinking he had some good points in his appeal until I realized that the was living in a very similar building. What a hypocrite. I live on First Hill, about 2 blocks from the new building, and I am glad to see some new construction in the area (as long as they have adequate parking. Street parking really is terrible here.)
They have an apparently well-funded “First Hill Coalition” to influence the scope of building near their condo and are seeking to hire a law student as a half-time employee to push their agenda:
http://accesstojusticeinstitute.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/first-hill-coalition-outreach-coordinator-paid/
Seriously… why do these complaints so often come down to people who moved into a new building or a tall building complaining about other people doing the same thing?
Hypocrites. They should be ignored.
As someone who lives in the city, it pains me to see shit like this. And by shit, I mean self righteous assholes who by a condo in a high rise and feel like they own the right to their views. First of all, their is no right to private views. There are preserved PUBLIC views to certain Seattle landmarks and parks that are designated in the municipal code. No where does it protect private views. This joker is also trying to say that he will be impacted by glare from the new tower, but anyone with half a a brain can look at the site plan and realize that unless the sun starts rising in the west and setting in the east, there’s no fucking way he’ll have any issues. The only thing he can accomplish here is to stall the project, cost the developer more money, and they’ll end up taking out some ground floor landscaping to make up for the cost over run. He’s probably a f*cking lawyer.
We need to writw the same officials and let them know we approve of developments that meet all of the city’s zoning.
All this growly protest about those “fricking NIMBYs: cracks me up. You do know it means “not in my back yard”? Most all of these new development projects you anti-NIMBYs wish on the rest of us destroy any semblance of neighborhoods with “back yards.” You need a new acronym – maybe PKMBY – Please Kill My Back Yard.
Pretty sure everyone knows what the acronym means. NIMBY really stands for: “I’ve got mine just the way I like it and nothing around me should ever change”. NIMBY rolls off the tongue, err, keyboard easier. ;)
I live right by a major construction project — in a five-story building, NOT a high-rise — and the noise is hellish: starts at eight AM, goes on well past six, there’s no closing the windows as the temperatures rise because I don’t have A/C, but lots of gritty dust blows in. All kinds of terrible banging and sawing (some kind of metal grinding saw right now? I don’t even know) and other very loud noises audible at the other end of my apartment with all the windows shut. It’s really decreasing my enjoyment of the neighbourhood (and before you ask, I’ve lived here over 10 years).
I think the people living in high-rises complaining about other high-rises being built are just as hypocritical as everyone else, but the construction noise (and air quality issues due to dust from cement, bricks, &c) is going to be a real issue, especially as more projects get stated. Unless we assume everyone is out working at the mothership in Redmond all day long….?
not sure what you expect them to do, they have a building to build and the city allows them to make noise during certain hours. They can’t please everyone.
Really, your building should be discounting your rent if your unit faces into their construction site. That’s how my building handled it –there’s a 40 story apartment tower being built across the alley from my unit.
This is sort of an ironic situation. It’s right next to a taller building but they want it scaled down. It’s probably the wealthy people living in the taller building who don’t want any of their views obscured. :D
Wealthy people have a right to express their opinion, and advocate for change, as much as anyone else. If their proposals have no merit, then they will not succeed.
People who don’t like change and construction should not live in a city. End of story.
FYI – the Hearing Examiner meeting is scheduled for Monday June 24th @ 9am at the Seattle Municipal Tower.
http://www.seattle.gov/examiner/calendar.htm#/?i=1
I’m not surprised by this action of Steve Gaines and the First Hill “Plaza” Coalition, they are against any construction around their 30 story building. When FHP was built it too caused the same circumstances to the neighborhood by construction noise, increased traffic, blocked views, and caused glares to other buildings. They got theirs, but no one else can get have it.