-- The owner is proposing a full subdivision and a conditional use for a Clustered Housing Planned Development (CHPD) to construct 39 single family homes on the site.

-- MAG supports development of the 4.58 acre plot at 3901 West Dravus Street. The proposed CHPD subdivision does not, however, reflect the character of the nearby existing Magnolia neighborhood, and thus it is the intent of MAG that this CHPD, as proposed, be denied.

-- CHPD is a rarely used section of the Seattle Municipal Code (land use). Per SMC 23.44.024, CHPDs may be permitted as an administrative conditional use in single-family zones. A CHPD is intended to enhance and preserve natural features, encourage the construction of affordable housing, allow for development and design flexibility, and protect and prevent harm in environmentally critical areas.

-- There are no natural features to enhance or preserve.

-- No affordable housing is being proposed. Though no building plans have been put forward (this is a land use proposal), it has been indicated that homes will be for middle upper incomes, possibly $750000 to $1000000 each.

-- No development and design flexibility is evident, though the developer claims design flexibility is the reason a CHPD is being asked for. The plat clearly is nothing more than a series of small lots, in an arrangement wholly static, and showing no flexibility beyond that allowable under unit lot division standards. Design flexibility is merely used for maximizing the home count.

-- There are no environmentally critical areas.

-- The City, in it’s Analysis and Recommendation of 22 August 2005, is clearly acting to promote the private developer’s request and not the community’s concern, which will be irreversibly effected by this ill-conceived proposal. Wholesale variances are accepted, and indiscriminate set-back reductions are sanctioned, at odds with established land use development standards. Any over-arching reason for allowance of a CH per its intended purpose, in the spirit of public benefit, is never addressed.

-- The so-called benefits of new urbanism already exist in west Magnolia to a large degree. What in the Correction Notice the City responded to – the benefit of putting “eyes on the street” – also means eyes from your neighbor into your home. And if “eyes on the street” implies lowering street crime, it is already minimal in this area. Nothing new urbanism propounds is absent within the current unit lot zoning.

-- Potential for extending the street system is required per the City's subdivision analysis, yet is ignored. For example, extending 40th Avenue West to the north of the property. The DPD supports the request for an easement roadway, and a homeowner’s association incorporated to maintain the easements, sidewalks and storms.

-- The SDOT recommends DPD connect and dedicate as right-of-way 39th Avenue West, running north/south through the site.

-- The proposal offers no provision for a public green area or public open space, in accordance with the original intent of the CHPD section of the Land Use code.

-- All bending of the Seattle Land Use code springs from the CHPD request, and MAG requests the Hearing Examiner reverse the DPD decision.

-- Will this happen next on Queen Anne, Medina, or Washington Park?