Tag Archives: montlake

‘Downscale the Proposed One Seattle Rezoning Plans for Madrona’ — How Hollingsworth’s office is handling neighborhood pushback on Seattle growth plan update

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There are petitions in Madrona and letters from angry realtors.

“We are welcoming any and all feedback,” Anthony Derrick, chief of staff to District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth tells CHS about the ongoing process the council member is leading to forge an update to the city’s comprehensive plan and new zoning across its neighborhoods. “With the law, the city is going to see some massive density changes.”

Wednesday afternoon, the Seattle City Council committee Hollingsworth leads formed to take on the nearly impossible task of reaching compromise on Seattle’s comprehensive plan update will meet.

A report on displacement, a core issue for Hollingsworth who grew up watching her Central District neighborhood struggle with gentrification, is on the agenda. But the important statistics and challenges raised in the presentation on the city’s Anti-Displacement Action Plan (PDF) might get lost.

The second half of Wednesday’s meeting will focus on public engagement around the comprehensive plan update — including the city’s meetings on the update it has been hosting since 2022.

Protests and pushback from a growing chorus of property, business, and homeowners from across the city and District 3 are becoming louder as a key February 5th public forum on the comprehensive plan update proposal approaches.

In Madrona, groups are forming to oppose upzoning in the neighborhood as Seattle leaders say more areas of the city must rise to meet state required changes hoped to address growing housing and affordability challenges.

The Madrona neighborhood, they argue, should be treated differently than the rest of the city when it comes to efforts to increase density. Continue reading →

How long to lid I-5 between Capitol Hill and downtown? Years and years and years — but the plan is being shaped now

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(Image: Lid I-5)

A view from the new lid over 520 in Montlake (Image: Lid I-5)

Last month, the new SR-520 bike and pedestrian bridge opened to counterbalance the flow of motor vehicles traveling across the new Montlake Lid. Longstanding hopes to cover freeways in other parts of the city are also taking shape. Between Capitol Hill and downtown, the Lid I-5 group has been working on its initiative long enough that its years-old utility pole flyers have become part of the area’s gritty urban landscape. The effort has a $2.2 million boost to work with in 2025.

John Feit has been part of the group pursuing the lidding of I-5 through downtown to cap noise and pollution, and to reconnect neighborhoods while filing gaping holes in the city—like the affordable housing supply. Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the city $2 million and the state legislature added another $200,000 in planning grants. Lid I-5 and other proponents of Seattle lids are pushing forward.

“We’re going to use that recent money to come up with an urban design vision, which means understanding what the people of Seattle would like to see with the lid accomplished,” Feit told CHS.

A rendering of a Lid I-5 concept that includes park space and new buildings (Image: Lid I-5)

Continue reading →

Don’t let new 520 bike/walk bridge get lost in the Montlake Lid’s sea of cars — Opening celebration Saturday

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The bridge crosses 520 just east of the new lid (Image: Washington State Department of Transportation)

Saturday, the Washington State Department of Transportation is inviting you to “walk/roll” across the ready-to-open bike and pedestrian bridge crossing the newly expanded SR-520 just east of the pretty much completed Montlake lid.

It’s understandable if you weren’t aware of a ready-to-open bike and pedestrian bridge crossing the newly expanded 520 just east of the pretty much completed Montlake lid. The $455.3 million Montlake Project to expand the freeway and lid it is a pretty car-forward project as it finally reaches completion after years of construction. The snarl of criss-crossing traffic lanes interconnecting with 24th Ave on the lid is bigger and busier than ever.

The pedestrian/bicyclist bridge just east of the new lid will provide some counterbalance to that motor vehicle snarl. It provides a north-south connection across the freeway for walkers and rollers only and connects to the SR 520 Trail, Bill Dawson Trail, or along Lake Washington Boulevard via the Montlake Lid. Continue reading →

Good vibrations? WSDOT says construction underway for seven-year 520 Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid project

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Design concept for a new bridge over Portage Bay

Just as the Montlake Lid project is laying down its final layers of landscaping bark, the Washington Department of Transportation says construction began this week for SR-520’s Roanoke Lid and Portage Bay Bridge project:

Beginning the week of Nov. 4, crews will start piledriving in Portage Bay to build the temporary work trestle and future westbound Portage Bay bridge. A work trestle is essentially a temporary platform that crews need to build so they can construct the permanent bridge. This will be the first of six piledriving “seasons” allowed on this project. Each season lasts from September through April. This first season – from November 2024 through April 2025 – will be the most significant season of impact piledriving work. The following seasons will have less piledriving – and some seasons may not drive piles at all.

The bridge work is a long process. The state says crews will use two methods to install or “drive” the piles. The first method uses a vibratory hammer to “vibrate” the piles into the bottom of the bay. The second method uses an impact hammer to strike the piles like a hammer into the base of the bay: Continue reading →

With G humming on Madison, SDOT completes work on Route 48 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor Project, the 23rd Ave RapidRide route that never was

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(Image: SDOT)

RapidRide G has settled in after a bumpy but much-anticipated start with service that probably falls somewhere below the loftiest goals of completely reinventing public transit along the Madison corridor. While the new G line and the changes and cuts to dozens of adjoining bus lines got the headlines, another important Central Seattle transit corridor also has been upgraded.

At one point, Seattle planned to make Route 48 and the 23rd Ave/24th Ave corridor a RapidRide route, too.

Years later, the Seattle Department of Transportation has completed work in the final weeks of summer on the Route 48 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor Project.

Construction began in March to support more reliable trips for people riding the Route 48 between Mount Baker, the Central District and the University of Washington across the backside of Capitol Hill. Continue reading →

Montlake’s Ramps to Nowhere are gone — but plans for a memorial park to Seattle’s ‘Freeway Revolt’ live on

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The project to replace and expand SR-520 will end — eventually — with a new park space recognizing the community effort that stopped a freeway expansion 50 years ago that would have ripped a hole through the Central District and neighborhoods from Montlake to Madison Valley to Leschi.

Representatives from the group Seattle ARCH — Activists Remembered, Celebrated, and Honored — gathered over the weekend where the much-loved “Ramps to Nowhere” have been dismantled as part of the 520 expansion project to recognize a new effort they hope will help the city remember the community that came together in a “Freeway Revolt” to stop the R.H. Thomson Expressway, a 15-mile roadway that would have stretched from the Duwamish to Bothell through the heart of Seattle through the Central District.

“We are really here to recognize an extraordinary moment of Seattle history over 50 years ago and it’s not about any individual,” organizer Kenan Block said Saturday. “It was an astounding moment of citizen activism where the Black Panthers and the gray haired Seattle Garden Club ladies linked arm and arm as neighbors, and, again against all odds, they killed the RH Thompson Expressway.” Continue reading →

Ahoy — Montlake Bridge to stay raised Saturday for its opening day of boating season tradition

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Ahoy there, drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, the opening day of boating season will keep the Montlake Bridge open only to floating vehicles Saturday.

The Seattle Yacht Club celebration will keep the bridge raised from 10 AM to 4 PM Saturday to keep boating traffic moving through the Montlake Cut below. Continue reading →

$1.4B Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid Project moving forward with order to identify ‘cost reduction opportunities’

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Design concept for a new bridge over Portage Bay

An early rendering of the Roanoke Lid concept

Washington is moving forward with the 520 Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid Project even as it is still scrambling for the best way to pay for it.

WSDOT announced it awarded a contract for the job to Skanska on March 11th.

CHS reported in November on the $1.375 billion price proposal from Skanska for the contract — a bid 70% higher than the state’s estimate. An agreement with Skanska extended the window to accept the bid, giving Washington legislators “more time to address the funding gap” during its just-wrapped budget process, WSDOT says.

The new plan? Move forward with the $1.375 billion bid but find a way to cut costs and close the gap. WSDOT says legislators have ordered it to seek “cost reduction opportunities.” That could mean new, scaled back designs for the planned lid and new bridge. Continue reading →

Are you ready to rock, Montlake? School of Rock planning 24th Ave E location

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(Image: School of Rock)

The national music school franchise School of Rock is planning to open its second location in Seattle to start 2024 in a space not far from Capitol Hill’s bustling nightlife and live music scene. Are you ready to rock, Montlake?

News of the planned opening comes as a key Capitol Hill music venue where some of those Montlake kids might eventually rock faces permanent closure.

The new “School of Rock Seattle Downtown” will be offering music classes and camps for ages six and up along 24th Ave in Montlake.

“We want to be the music in the community,” says Chad Fondren, co-owner and general manager. “There’s no better way to learn an instrument through the performance-based music education program that we offer. We use rock music and rock instruments as a vehicle, so it’s gonna be a little more fun.”

There have been School of Rock performances on Capitol Hill in the past. Cafe Racer and Neumos have all hosted end-of-season performances. The new spot might mean Capitol Hill will see more of them.

But Cafe Racer may never host another young Seattle band. The 11th Ave venue has been shuttered since being forced to close earlier this month over unpaid rent. Racer’s Jeff Ramsey said he has been scrambling to change the club’s business model and find a more sustainable path forward. So far, the cafe has remained dark.

Chad and Tracy Fondren also run the School of Rock in Issaquah while planning the Montlake location. School of Rock in Issaquah grew to hire 19 instructors and teach around 250 students. They’ll also be bringing a third co-owner and music director with them, Cole Paramore, who was the first instructor hired in Issaquah. Fondren says he and his wife love Issaquah, but are excited to be in Seattle. Continue reading →

‘Feedback from neighbors’ halts work on massive Montlake sign bridges

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Work on a small — but surprisingly imposing — component of the $455.3 million Highway 520 project have come to a halt over neighbor complaints about new, oddly-looming sign bridges.

The Washington State Department of Transportation says crews have paused installation after two of the three massive structures were put in place and generated immediate complaints.

“We have received feedback from neighbors about the sign bridges and have paused installation of a third sign bridge pending additional community input,” WSDOT said about the situation. “It’s important to note the project area is still under construction.” Continue reading →