In January, 2006 the American Institute of Architects Seattle Chapter (AIA Seattle) sponsored an Open House and Public Tour of the cottage housing discussed in this article: Seattle Times, March 24, 2005: Cottages: Too close for comfort? Shoreline neighbors balk at high-density housing Although Briarcliff will NOT be cottage housing, Briarcliff was mentioned in the article as an example of greater in-city density that some neighbors are opposing.

The Shoreline project is called the Reserve Cottages, at 20215 15th Ave. N.W. The development consists of a 20,000 square foot lot containing six two-story cottages, each smaller than 1000 square feet. The cottages are all separate buildings, with no shared walls, and they have been designed to present a friendly face toward an internal woodland knoll where native plants have been added to complement the original conifers that were preserved. The home designs are contemporary, warm, and inviting, utilize green building practices, and have sustainable storm-water run-off systems. All the homes are sold -- five to single people, and one to a couple. Northwest Home and Garden, January/February 2006 has published an article about the cottages, with pictures showing exterior and interior views and including a discussion of urban density issues that is very much on point as we consider the addition of a higher density housing development here in Magnolia.

Pacific Publishing requires sign-in to view, so Magnolia and Queen Anne News articles are copied in full for reader convenience.

Magnolia/Queen Anne News, December 7, 2005.

Setback on setbacks: Back to drawing board for Briarcliff developer
By Russ Zabel

The controversial, 39-home Cluster Housing project proposed for the site of the former Briarcliff Elementary School in Magnolia needs some adjustment, according to an October ruling by a city hearing examiner.

"It's back to the drawing board in a way, but a minor way," said Greg Cotter from the Magnolia Action Group (MAG), which is made up of neighborhood residents who oppose the project. The ruling does not change the number of homes planned for the luxury-housing development, he conceded.

What has changed are the required setbacks off West Dravus Street as well as the lot coverage for the entire project, said Alan Justad, a spokesman for the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), which OKd the project earlier this year. Standards for setbacks off West Dravus are 20 feet, he said. "Those must be met," Justad added. "That wasn't in the original plans."

The area of Magnolia around the school site is zoned single-family for 5,000-square-foot lots (SF 5000), and development standards call for a maximum lot coverage of 35 percent, or 1,750 square feet.

But a Cluster Housing development still allows 1,750 square feet of lot coverage even if the lots are 4,000 square feet or less, as some of the project's lots are, Justad said.

However, the hearing examiner ruled that the 35 percent lot coverage has to apply to the total site size of 200,000 square feet, Justad added. "They're going to have to shrink some of those houses... or all of them, depending on how they do it," he said of Lexington Fine Homes, the Bellevue-based developer of the project.

"It's not that big a deal," said John Cochenour, Lexington president. "When we originally submitted this, we had approximately the maximum of 72,000 square feet," he said of lot coverage using the 1,750-square-foot standard.

What the hearing examiner ruling calls for is only 70,000 square feet of total lot coverage for the site, Cochenour said. "What that meant is we have to adjust property lines."

The hearing examiner still has to approve of an Administrative Conditional Use for the project once the DPD OKs the revised plans, Justad said. Cochenour said he expects that will probably happen at a hearing in January.

That still isn't the end of the process. The Seattle City Council also has to approve of a subdivision for the project, Justad said.

Cochenour said he is confident that will happen, too, and he downplays objections from MAG about the project. "I still think this will be a marvelous addition to the neighborhood when it's done."

Still, Justad noted, approval of the project can be appealed to the Superior Court.

Reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at 461-1309 or by email at rzabel@nwlink.com.

Magnolia/Queen Anne News, August 31, 2005.

DPD gives thumbs-up to Briarcliff development: Opponents hire lawyer to continue fight
By: Russ Zabel

The Department of Planning and Development has recommended approval of the 39-home, cluster-housing project on the grounds of the former Briarcliff Elementary School in Magnolia. The recommendation is only part of the process; both the Seattle City Council and a Hearing Examiner have to approve the project as well.

But opponents of the unusually dense development in the affluent, single-family neighborhood near the water tower have vowed to fight it.

A core group of residents calling themselves the Magnolia Action Group has raised around $50,000 and hired well-known land-use attorney Richard Aramburu to plead their case on Oct. 5, said MAG member Greg Cotter.

Aramburu will represent MAG in front of a Hearing Examiner, a judge in what amounts to a land-use court who will rule on the Cluster Housing component of the project.

A subdivision is also required and has to be approved by the city council, Cotter said. No one is really surprised at the DPD recommendation, he added. "We sort of anticipated all along how this would come down."

Key to the argument is the Cluster Housing approach, a legal development standard that came out the state's Growth Management Act and the city's Comprehensive Plan, both of which seek to increase density in urban areas to prevent suburban sprawl.

Normal zoning for the area would allow 29 homes, said DPD spokesman Alan Justad. But putting 39 homes on the 4.58-acre site will ruin the character of the neighborhood and cause traffic and parking woes, according to opponents that MAG member Linda Carlson claims number in the thousands.

Of those opponents, 178 signed a letter to DPD director Diane Sugimura objecting to the project, Sugimura said. She added that she's received more numerous objections to other projects in Seattle.

The homes will at least fit in with the pricey real estate surrounding the project. The houses to be built by developer, Bellevue-based Lexington Fine Homes, will sell for around $1 million and up, said company president John Cochenour.

"We're glad we got to this point," he said. "It's been a long journey." Indeed, Lexington Fine Homes bought the property around two years ago and submitted its land-use application 4 months ago, Cochenour said. "We thought we submitted something up front that was within city code and a reasonable application."

Proposals for Cluster Housing projects aren't submitted to the city very often, according to Justad. "It's about once a year." The reason, he said, is that it's rare for large pieces of property like the Briarcliff site to become available for development in Seattle.

MAG member Carlson calls the development a "land grab" in an e-mail to the News. She charges that the DPD and Mayor Greg Nickels "are giving an Eastside developer carte blanche on a prime piece of real estate."

She also complains that the mayor and the DPD are saying that normal land-use rules don't apply to Lexington because the development at 3901 W. Dravus St. doesn't have to follow the same standards for lot sizes and setbacks required for other homes in the neighborhood.

She's right, according to Justad. Generally, the lot sizes are 5,000 square feet for surrounding homes. But standards for lot size in Cluster Housing projects allow Lexington to vary their size from a low of 3,360 square feet to a maximum of 6,778 square feet, according to the land-use application. That's possible in part because street rights-of-way on the lot count toward the minimum size, Justad said.

Carlson also faults the traffic study conducted for the project by Heffron Transportation Inc., a company that does consulting work for practically every development project of any significance in Magnolia and Queen Anne.

According to the DPD recommendation, the Heffron analysis indicates the project will generate 370 vehicle trips a day, with 29 of those during the peak a.m. hour and 39 during the peak p.m. hour. Carlson described that as a "ridiculously low traffic count" that doesn't take into account the impact on a neighborhood already burdened with narrow streets and several blind intersections.

The DPD recommendation indicates that, under the State Environmental Policy Act standards, the project deserves a Determination of Non Significance "with conditions." That means a full-blown Environmental Impact Study is not required.

One of the conditions calls for a continuation of 39th Avenue West across the site to be blocked off with removable barrier at the southern end near a heritage tree that required larger-than-normal setback to protect the root system. Carlson thinks the road should be open.

Also recommended as a condition is a call for construction activity to take place only from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and holidays.

the Stranger, November 17, 2004: FEAR OF CROWDS: Angry Neighbors Set to Sabotage Density Plan

As I am a focus of the Stranger article, I think some commentary is justified here. Based on the comment of a neighbor that "[Brown] frustrated the [MCC] Board, and she's no longer president," the article implies that I was "drummed out" as MCC president because of my views on Briarcliff, but this is not true. I have been MCC president for double the normal term and it's now time for someone else to have a turn at the helm. The neighbor's statement that I "frustrated" the MCC Board by "obstructing a vote" on Briarcliff is also untrue. It was my view that MCC, as a neighborhood organization whose primary mandate is community education on all sides of an issue that affect Magnolia, should not take a formal position for or against Briarcliff. The MCC Board agreed.

Seattle Times, August 23, 2004: High-density housing plan in Magnolia stirs protest

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 18, 2004: Magnolia high-density plan draws concern