The idea of building a new private parking lot sitting next to the best transit system in the state is a bit shocking. Surface level parking lots are not the innovative TOC ideas we identified in our Transit Oriented Communities Report (co-authored with futurewise and GGLO).
From the post:
A January 31 letter from El Centro’s Estela Ortega (read the full letter here) to the Beacon Hill community requests support for a temporary parking lot in El Centro’s south lot, adjacent to Beacon Hill Station. The proposal is for 80 public parking spaces, to “help generate much needed revenue to support (El Centro’s) programs and mission during these difficult economic times.” The letter goes on to describe potential benefits to the neighborhood including security improvements, access to Link Light Rail and neighborhood businesses, hosting of mobile food vendors, and parking for Festival Street events.
Wow; we'll keep a close watch on this development and keep you posted.
If you want to attend the hearing on this issue and listen or make your voice heard here is the info:
You can give your opinion on the proposed parking lot at a hearing of the City Council’s Committee on the Built Environment on Wednesday, February 23 at 9:30 am in the City Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue.
Update:
We got word from our friend's at city hall that current permitting would only El Centro to build parking as an intern use and would only be a valid permit until 2012.
Here are the details on the legislation: http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scripts/nph-brs.exe?s1=&s2=&s3=311118&s4=&Sect4=AND&l=20&Sect2=THESON&Sect3=PLURON&Sect5=CFCF1&Sect6=HITOFF&d=CFCF&p=1&u=%2F~public%2Fcfcf1.htm&r=1&f=G
(Your commenting system is broken. I've tried to post under two legitimate identities. Each time it tells me it is not valid, then when I go back to this page to try another ID, my comment is gone. This is very much not cool. Anyway...)
ReplyDeleteYou may have misread the legislation -- as I understand it, El Centro can only *apply* for a permit through 2012, but the permitted use would then last for a maximum of 3 years, so in theory the parking lot could be there through 2015.
However, I don't think El Centro would wait until 2012 to apply, so make it 2014 instead.
You are right. Sorry about the comment system, not sure what the problem would be.
ReplyDelete(If it helps... The ones that bounced me were the Name/URL option (told me I had invalid characters in my URL... but I didn't) and the Wordpress.com option (said something like "You don't match this identity" or something like that, which is odd because I had just logged in to my Wordpress account). The Google account worked.)
ReplyDelete