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The Seattle Hearing Examiner has dismissed an appeal from a Capitol Hill new age church, upholding a city land use decision last year giving the go ahead to the planned redevelopment of the neighborhood’s Safeway to create a new 50,000-square-foot grocery store, new apartments, and a massive underground parking lot at 15th and John.

The decision eliminates one of the last major public process barriers to moving forward on the major new development project set to reshape the key intersection connecting the Capitol Hill core to the neighborhood’s eastern edges along 15th, 19th, and 23rd Avenues. Construction is still a long ways off with process around demolition permits and more still to come.

It the ruling, deputy hearing examiner Susan Drummond upheld the city’s 2023 decision to issue the crucial “master use permit” to the project as it completed multiple rounds of design review, dismissing the Aquarian Foundation’s arguments that the development would not be compatible with the neighboring converted two-story, 5,500-square-foot house on the $2.5 million 15th Ave E parcel that has been home to the New age religious organization for decades.

The group is one of the oldest corporations on Capitol Hill, formed as a church in the 1950s by a group including founder Keith Milton Rhinehart. Aquarian’s Rev. Cathryn Reid, who state records show also serves as the church’s treasurer, argued the organization’s case in front of the examiner, according to records from the procedures.

According to the hearing records, Reid argued that the development would violate city rules around its “monolithic” mass and potential impacts on adjacent properties, while also arguing that the developers had not completed the necessary public outreach despite having passed through the city design review process.

The examiner said the Aquarian Foundation will have to get accustomed to a new, larger neighbor — even if it looks a bit different than the old house the church calls home.

“The appeal asserts the project is inconsistent as: (1) the project, as a new building, does not fit with Aquarian’s older building; and (2) the project is inappropriately large or ‘monolithic,’ Drummond writes. “The Guidelines do not require a project to mimic neighboring buildings, but list ways projects are encouraged to ‘reference’ and ‘create compatibility’ with the existing architectural context.”

In her decision, Drummond pointed out that the project planners had made efforts to be good neighbors to the church, changing the development design “to remove planned windows from portions of the project closest to the Aquarian property and to remove balconies from the East Thomas Street façade to provide greater privacy.” The hearing examiner said the development will bring positive changes for the foundation.

“Several design elements reflect respect for the Aquarian building,” Drummond wrote. “The trash and loading areas will be moved from their current location inches from the Aquarian site and shielded by a residential portion of the project, significantly buffering Aquarian from these services’ noise and visual impacts. The setbacks between the project and the Aquarian site will be greater than now exist along most of the shared boundary, and the setback areas will incorporate landscaping to provide an additional buffer.”

Drummond also dismissed arguments that the project would violate various city ordinances including street and grading rules, the city tree code, and the Aquarian Foundation’s assertion that “it does not know who the Applicant is” while drifting off topic during the proceedings.

“Aquarian addressed several issues at hearing which the appeal did not raise or which had been dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” Drummond tersely summarized in the decision.

It isn’t clear if the decision will change the Aquarian Foundation’s plans for remaining on the block’s northeast corner. The foundation hasn’t replied to CHS’s inquiries about the project over the years and has refused efforts to visit the church.

Safeway and the foundation have been neighbors for a long time. Acquired for less than $1 million in 1993 according to King County records, the 15th and John Safeway land is nearly 100,000 square feet of property dominated by the large grocery store and the larger surface parking lot. Competing with the two Broadway QFCs within walking distance and a third QFC store that shuttered in 2021, Safeway #1551 has mostly stuck to the basics with few changes.

15th Ave’s grocery options are at the center of a wave of redevelopment on the street. The street’s QFC property is moving toward redevelopment as a new 170-unit, mixed-use building with about 10,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space. First, a decision about an extra floor of height requested by Capitol Hill-based developer Hunters Capital has to be worked out by the city in a process that could also eventually involve the hearing examiner. For now, there are plans for the Punk Rock Flea Market to move in and keep the block busy.

Blocks away at the corner with John, Safeway’s plans to redevelop the property with developer Greystar have been in the works for years. CHS first broke the news on the plans in 2019.

The Weber Thompson-design will create two new five-story buildings including the new grocery, around 330 market rate apartment units, some new, smaller retail spaces, and an underground parking lot for more than 300 cars. Plans had called for a start of construction in 2024 and a possible 2026 opening of the project.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.