The Queen Anne Community Council‘s transportation sub-committee is holding a meeting this Wednesday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Queen Anne Manor, located at 100 Crockett Street.

The main topic of discussion at this meeting is going to be the West Mercer Place debate and the five alternative plans developed by the Seattle Department of Transportation, which were presented to the community at a meeting earlier this month. For more information on the West Mercer Place issue, see our past coverage.

The meeting will be held in the Queen Anne Manor dining room. Attendees are asked to enter on the Crockett side of the building and sign in at the reception desk. Free parking is available in the lot, as well as on the street. The private dining room where the meeting will be held is located down the right hall from the main entrance and then to the left and in back of the main dining room back. Attendees are asked to not linger in the building long after the meeting concludes so as not to disturb the residents.

The Seattle Department of Transportation held an open house to inform and answer questions about the West Mercer Place portion of the Mercer West Project on Tuesday night.

The open house, held from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Northwest Rooms Plaza of the Seattle Center, gave the public a look at different possible plans for the street while providing a forum for comment and criticism with SDOT representatives. In the Rainier Room, posters of the different plans, stages of development, area studies and traffic analysis were displayed with a short video presentation at the front of the room.

“It’s been a good conversation and I think we had a good turnout,” said SDOT Project Manager Eric Tweit.

SDOT presented five alternative plans for West Mercer Place: Alternative No. 1 adds a sidewalk to West Mercer Place, Alternative No. 2 adds a sidewalk and a bike lane, Alternative No. 3 and No. 4 add the sidewalk and bike lane and extends the merge lane on West Mercer Place. Alternative No. 5, which can be a standalone or combined with any of the previous 4 alternatives, would extend the left-turn lanes on Elliott Avenue West. The illustrations of alternative No. 1 and No. 2 can be seen here, No. 3 and No. 4 can be seen here, and Elliot Avenue West left-turn lane extension with the alternatives summary can be seen here.

“More traffic is going to try to use Mercer, so the question became can West Mercer Place handle it? Do we need to or do we want to even increase the capacity?” said Tweit. “We were pretty concerned about what the cost and impact would be, so this is really the culmination of that evaluation of whether there is a benefit to doing it.”

The changes in traffic through West Mercer Place with the Mercer Corridor Project and the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct prompted many of those who live in that area to voice their opposition. (See our past coverage of public meetings and community events surrounding this debate here.)

“We recently heard from a lot of reasonably and understandably concerned people who live on West Mercer Place, so this is an opportunity… for people to see and comment on the project,” said Tweit.

Tweit said that those he spoke to were opposed to the addition of a lane on West Mercer Place, and, along with the increased traffic, many of them were concerned about the possible loss of parking in the area. He said of the alternatives, No. 1 and No. 5, those that made the least amount of change to the area, were most popular.

Community representatives, from organizations like the Queen Anne Community Council, the Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Neighborhoods were on hand to speak to the public and SDOT officials. Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce Director of Marketing Mary Chapman said she was glad to see SDOT taking input from residents and businesses in the area and thought it was a positive sign.

“I feel that the mayor did not listen to us in terms of the Nickerson street road diet, [the Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce] does not support the road diet, but we really hope that they will be listening more actively as the plans for West Mercer are being developed by the Seattle Department of Transportation,” said Chapman. “We highly suggest that everybody make comments and do so very soon so that they can get as much realistic input from the people who live in the neighborhood as possible.”

FOLKpark volunteers were on hand to present their conceptual plan for Lower Kinnear Park and the proposed Uptown Loop, a collection of pedestrian and bicycle routes that circle and traverse lower Queen Anne. FOLKpark Chair Debi Frausto said that, as the Mercer West Project coincide with Kinnear Park projects, they hope they can leverage dollars with SDOT to save money on different aspects of development, like design and surveys.

“There are things where there are overlaps between us, like at entrances to the park. Let’s work together so that where we do them coordinates with pedestrian crossings, bicycle safety and those types of things so that we’re not designing in isolation,” said Frausto.

The next step for SDOT is to present the alternative plans to the local community organizations and councils and evaluate public comments. This will last through April, after which SDOT will make a recommendation to Mayor McGinn.

Comments on the alternative plans or other ideas and considerations can be e-mailed at mercerwest@seattle.gov.

Update 4:40 p.m.: Traffic moving through West Mercer Place is projected to reach more than 800 vehicles every hour by 2015, according to figures by KPFF, an engineering firm used by SDOT. These figures, presented at the open house, take into account the waterfront construction during that time. Between 590 to 660 vehicles per hour are expected to move through West Mercer Place after the Mercer Corridor and waterfront construction is completed, compared to the estimated 372 an hour that move through the street now.

The Queen Anne Community Council held its last board meeting at the community center Wednesday night. The council will no longer be able to meet there due to the reduced hours of operation from Parks and Recreation Department budget cuts, but it was announced that future meetings will be held inside Queen Anne Manor located at 100 Crockett St.

Fittingly, the council discussed Jim Cunningham’s membership in the Community Center Advisory Team, spearheaded by Seattle Councilmember Sally Bagshaw to find possible solutions to the financial woes of the city’s community centers. Cunningham discovered in a budgeting statement received at the last CCAT meeting that the QA Community Center looses $700,000 a year. The public has been asked to submit ideas for saving money or generating revenue for the centers. Ideas can be submitted via a link found here.

Conversely, the Parks Committee report by Don Harper announced that the Parks and Green Spaces Levy had an excess of $10 million due to the lack of inflation. The excess funds will go into the opportunity fund and can be spent on projects chosen by community groups.

The disorganization and difficulty receiving public comments at last month’s meeting was also addressed. Ideas were offered on how to do a better job in the event of a large public turnout for a contentious issue, such as: signing up to speak, giving more time to hear public comments, signs to indicate time left to speak, using a timer, giving committee reports by e-mail if time is running short.

Additional council matters:

• Two council vacancies were filled in a vote.
• Board Member Scot Baker met with the owner of the Queen Anne Avenue North 7-Eleven regarding the sale of high-octane alcohol. Council Chair Ellen Monrad said the issue is not yet resolved, but it was a good first meeting in an on-going discussion.
• In the Transportation Committee report, Glenn Avery said that SDOT will give a public presentation of the West Mercer Place portion of the project March 15 at the Seattle Center Rainier Room from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (link). Also, SDOT is expected to attend the next council meeting.
• According to studies, the Kinnear Park forest is dying, said Harper. The plan is to cut down most of the trees and replace them with a different species. Climate change was cited as the reason.

Correction 3/7: An earlier version of this story misspelled Jim Cunningham’s last name.

The Queen Anne Community Council’s Transportation Committee meetingon Wednesday evening devoted itself to discussing West Mercer Place concerns over the Mercer West Project. Transportation Chair Glenn Avery and Uptown Alliance Co-President John Coney answered questions on the project posed by West Mercer Place area representative Greg Thompson.

Coney spoke about the Seattle Department of Transportation’s presentation on the plans for Mercer West tentatively scheduled for the middle of March and encouraged West Mercer Place residents to attend Mayor McGinn’s town hall meeting in Magnolia on March 1. The public has an opportunity to sign up to speak for two minutes at this event.

The 40-minute meeting was held in Queen Anne Community Center at 7:30 p.m. A cold, slightly snowy night may have contributed to the small turnout – only five people were in attendance.

The Queen Anne Community Council‘s transportation subcommittee is meeting tonight, Wednesday, February 23 at the Queen Anne Community Center. The primary topic on the agenda will be SDOT’s Mercer West Project, which plans to expand West Mercer Place by an additional lane, and has been the center of much debate in the Lower Queen Anne community recently.

Other agenda items include concerns over the area between 5th N to 5th W, and dedicated time for topics committee members may want to bring up.

The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. Attendees should enter through the community center north door.

Turnout at last night’s monthly Uptown Alliance meeting was high due to concerns from West Mercer Place residents over SDOT’s Mercer West Project.

A group of West Mercer Place residents submitted to the Alliance a letter voicing their opposition to plans for expanding West Mercer Place and West Mercer by one lane. The letter, covering such concerns as freight traffic, pedestrian sidewalks and parking, was addressed to Mayor McGinn, the Seattle City Council, and SDOT. The residents asked that the Alliance to send it as representative of their position. The vote on the motion to adopt the letter was approved.

The original draft of the letter was written by Bob Pennington, who also wrote the letter submitted to the Queen Anne Community Council last week that failed to be adopted, but prompted the council to write letters of their own that incorporated the same issues.

Held in the Uptown Metropolitan Market’s restaurant space, residents voiced their concerns and passed out fliers at the meeting. One issue addressed was the possible reallocating of 15 to 20 feet of land from Lower Kinnear Park to expand into an additional third lane of West Mercer Place, an area that is home to some 24 old-growth trees, according to one opponent, and would require the construction of a concrete retaining wall along the easternmost edge of the park. They also announced a “letter writing rally” (see the event flier here and Facebook event info here) to oppose the West Mercer traffic expansion.

“This Mercer West Place expansion, I don’t believe it’s going to stop there – I think this is a trend that we’re going to see over the next few years and beyond, for the continual aggression of traffic into our neighborhoods,” warned Pennington. “We have to take a stand on it now.”

SDOT Deputy Project Manager for the Mercer West Project Eric O’Brien attended but didn’t speak until the end of the meeting. He passed out a FAQ sheet on the possible changes to West Mercer Place and said he was available to speak to individuals after the meeting adjourned.

The FAQ sheet said they are “looking at the feasibility of several changes to West Mercer Place in the future. We may do a few of these or we may do none of them,” noting that SDOT expects to complete and present its results in March.

Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien, chair of the Seattle Public Utilities and Department of Neighborhoods, was a guest at the meeting and spoke on the restructuring of the Department of Neighborhoods due to the budget cuts. Although O’Brien said the mission of the department is the same, he doesn’t believe that they’ve seen the last of the cuts, and further “refining” is likely.

Photo from the West Mercer Place Facebook Page

“The question is how do we meet the neighborhoods’ goals, the citizens of Seattle’s needs with fewer resources, and I don’t know what the answer is,” O’Brien said.

He also spoke on the concerns of West Mercer and West Mercer Place residents, advising them to stay organized, attend meetings, perform letter or e-mail campaigns, encouraging them to reach out to city council members, and “if you want to get really creative and dress up in customs and stand in the street, that gets our attention too.”

“Folks who live closest to these things have a very important powerful voice, but they’re not the only voice in the city… everyone will be heard,” said O’Brien, adding, “I have some serious concerns with doing much to widen that roadway.”

Also discussed at the meeting:

• Co-President Rick Hooper provided a new construction report regarding four new projects in development for apartment buildings in Uptown under the Multifamily Property Tax Exemption Program. These projects are not yet under construction.
• Co-President John Coney reported that the governor has recommended in her draft budget a 50 percent cut in the Regional Mobility Grant line item, which would have adverse consequences for the Ballard RapidRide line, such as putting future lines at risk.
• Secretary Jean Sundborg discussed the three-day rummage sale the weekend of Feb. 25 held by the Uptown Alliance and FOLKpark to raise money for different projects in Uptown. She also reminded everyone of the Clean and Green event this Saturday beginning 9 a.m. at Counterbalance Park.
• Coney announced there is a town meeting with the mayor Tuesday, March 1 5:30 p.m. at Blaine School in Magnolia.
• It was found that the recently installed lights at Counterbalance Park were not designed for the outdoors. Parks and Recreation has ordered the parts to correct the matter, but the completion of the project is expected to take some time.

The next Uptown Alliance meeting will be Thursday, March 10 at the same location (Metropolitan Market). A report from SDOT on the Mercer West Project, including plans for West Mercer Place, is expected at that time.

In response to the numerous inquiries and complaints of West Mercer Place residents, most recently at the February 2 Queen Anne Community Council meeting, the board has written and sent two letters to city officials, according to an e-mail sent by QACC Chair Ellen Monrad.

The first letter, addressed to Mayor McGinn, was sent to the Mayor, the Seattle City Council and Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation Peter Hahn. It requests a comprehensive traffic plan for Queen Anne that takes into consideration the concerns over West Mercer and West Mercer Place. The second letter asks SDOT to present their plans on the West Mercer Place Project in a public forum.

From the QACC letter to Mayor McGinn:

Dear Mayor McGinn;

In several appearances before the Queen Anne Community Council and its committees, numerous residents of the West Mercer Place neighborhood have expressed their many concerns regarding potential changes to that street.

Mobility and safety are priorities for the area and must take into account traffic flow, sidewalk conditions, parking and ingress and egress to buildings. Mercer carries more traffic than most east-west streets in the area and serves as an important link between major highways, the urban village, west Queen Anne and Magnolia. It also is the center of a large, thriving residential area. We ask that the needs of the residents be heard in the city’s planning.

The Queen Anne Community Council has asked that a comprehensive traffic plan be developed and stands y that request. The need is stronger than ever with the Viaduct replacement Project underway. Already West Mercer Place neighbors report an increase in truck traffic as vehicles re pushed off a dieted Nickerson. The choking of Dexter will push even more traffic through Mercer. Out streets need to work and to work in conjunction with one another so that one neighborhood will not bear the brunt of the SR99 project.

As SDOT proceeds with the Mercer projects, especially those affecting West Mercer and West Mercer Place, we ask that the neighbors’ concerns be fully considered. We urge SDOT to schedule public events to inform those affected of proposed designs, to respond to their questions and to hear their concerns.

Sincerely,

Ellen Monrad
Chair, QACC

From the QACC letter to SDOT:

Dear Mr. Hahn;

Many West Mercer Place resident have attended the Queen Anne Community Council’s Transportation Committee meeting, as well as, our more recent QACC Board meeting.

There is no shortage of rumors and speculation as to what the project through their neighborhood will include. The neighbors have many concerns and questions that we are unable to answer. Their questions and concerns need to be heard.

Therefore, we ask that SDOT host a presentation of the West Mercer Place Project preliminary design as soon as it is available at a convenient location such as the Seattle Center. Public notice should be provided to businesses and residents in the area.

We look forward to hearing back from you as to the date and location.

Sincerely,

Ellen Monrad,
Chair, QACC

At the Queen Anne Community Council‘s monthly meeting last night a lively audience addressed concerns over SDOT’s West Mercer plans for the Mercer Corridor Project.

The redevelopment of West Mercer is part of phase II of the Mercer Corridor Project, and is anticipated to begin in the summer of 2012.

According to the SDOT website, this phase of the project, among other things, will provide freight with a route to and from 15th/Elliott Avenue West by adding a second eastbound lane, and improving key intersections to accommodate large trucks. The plan would also add a sidewalk to the narrow street that borders Lower Kinnear Park. But residents in the West Mercer Place area are concerned that the project will turn the residential street into a commercial truck thoroughfare.

A letter written by Rob Pennington, spokesman of a group of concerned residents in the West Mercer Place neighborhood, was submitted to the council’s transportation committee, intended to be sent to Mayor McGinn and the Seattle City Council as representative of the council’s official position. The primary issues outlined in the letter include the concerns over the truck routes and better conditions for pedestrians, bicyclists and businesses.

From the letter:

Uptown is a destination community, surrounded by a residential neighborhood that should be enhanced for pedestrian, bicycle and transit use with improvements to our North and South traffic flow. As projects proceed with the North Portal of SR 99 and the Mercer East Corridor, we believe that the concerns of West Mercer Street and West Mercer Place residents and businesses merit consideration over stakeholders outside our neighborhood.

The council ultimately voted against adopting the letter as it was written amidst protests from some of the citizens in attendance. Instead, a letter addressing Queen Anne transportation and incorporating Pennington’s West Mercer Place issues will be written and sent from the council.

Here are some of the highlights from the other issues discussed at the meeting:

• Updates from the Department of Neighborhoods from Central Team Neighborhood District Coordinator Christa Dumpys. There have been staff reductions and consolidations with the budget cuts, but Dumpys still remains the contact for Queen Anne and Magnolia. Both the director and deputy director of the Department of Neighborhoods have left, and the interim director starts on Friday. The Queen Anne/Magnolia Neighborhood Service Center has closed, and Dumpys is now working out of the Central Neighborhood Service Center on 23^rd and Jackson, but her phone number and e-mail are still the same.
• Council member Don Harper gave a summary of the Solarize Seattle program. In brief, the program will give tax credits and a bulk rate discount to Queen Anne residents who purchase solar panels for their home. More information can be found at solarizeseattle.org.
• Don Harper also spoke about the current state of the Smith Cove land trade. Certain issues (the inability to have an athletic field within 200 feet of a shoreline, and the Port of Seattle’s disinterested in making changes to the road) regarding the land in Interbay between the west yard and Smith Cove make the land swap unlikely, but Harper is proposing that the council asks the Port of Seattle for 50 more feet of Shoreline Parkway on the West Yard.

It’s that time again, the Queen Anne Community Council is having its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, February 2 at the Queen Anne Community Center.

Here’s a look at what’s on the agenda for tonight:

Update 9 a.m.: The QACC released last month’s agenda by accident, which was subsequently republished here. Below you’ll find the corrected, February meeting agenda.

• 7 p.m.: Adoption of Agenda; Approval of Minutes; Treasurer’s Report
• 7:10 p.m.: Open Forum—Comments
• 7:20 p.m.: FOLKpark—Don Harper
• 7:30 p.m.: Solarize Seattle—Update Don Harper
• 7:35 p.m.: West Mercer Place—Glenn Avery
• 7:55 p.m.: Smith Cove Land Trade—Don Harper
• 8:00 p.m.: Committee Reports

1. LURC/Planning—Craig Hanway
2. Transportation—Glenn Avery
3. Parks—Don Harper
4. Communication—Michael Lapin
5. District Council—Mike Warren
6. NAC—Kirk Robbins, Jim Smith, Glenn Avery, Don Harper
7. Social Issues—Kirk Robbins
8. Police & Crime—Allen Panich

• 8:45 p.m.: New Business
• 8:55 p.m.: Adjournment

Upcoming QACC meetings, sub-committee meetings, and events:

• QACC: March 2, TBA
• Parks Committee: February 15, Queen Anne Community Center, 7:30 p.m.
• LURC/Planning: February 28, Queen Anne Community Center, 7:00 p.m.
• Transportation: February 23, Queen Anne Community Center, 7:30 p.m.
• NAC: February 16, Port Headquarters, 4:30 p.m.
• District Council: February 14, Magnolia Community Center 7 p.m.
• Queen Anne Clean and Green February, 12 9 p.m.
• SNAP: Queen Anne Library February 8 6:30 p.m.

The area bounded by Denny Way, Broad, and Aurora, squeezed between the Seattle Center and South Lake Union, has been called by many names, but is probably most known as the “Uptown Triangle.” Some like to call it the “the lost triangle.”

The 36-acre area just southeast of Queen Anne, highlighted in pink above, is currently filled with wide roads and industrial buildings. But over the last year the Uptown Alliance and representatives from the Queen Anne Community Council have been working to get the city to redevelop the area, alongside development plans already in the works for the nearby Mercer corridor and deep bored tunnel projects.

In September QACC Land Use Regulation Commission and Planning chair Craig Hanway presented the City Council’s Committee on Built Environment with a plan (.pdf) to fix up the space. From the report:

A 36 acre area in Seattle’s Uptown Urban Center [is] surrounded by a vibrant community, rich with jobs, public amenities and cultural assets. However, the Triangle remains neglected and underutilized. It’s time to heal the scars created by Broad Street and the “Mercer Mess”.

At 12 p.m. on Thursday, January 27 Hanway and Uptown Alliance and QACC transportation chair John Coney will present the recent planning recommendations for the Uptown Triangle in a public forum.

With ideas on everything from building bike lanes and parks, mixed-use retail and apartment complexes, and promoting connections between the urban centers of Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, and downtown, Hanway and Coney envision creating a more residential, family friendly, transit-served, bike and pedestrian friendly neighborhood with its own identity. The ultimate goal of the Uptown Triangle development project is to create a vibrant urban community that serves as a crossroads between the high-tech, telecommunications, and arts and global health hubs that surround it.

Some of the early ideas being considered for the Uptown Triangle include:

• Adding a major bicycle route to John Street;
• Running streetcar lines on Thomas Street, 5th, and Republican;
• Envisioning Thomas Street as a café-lined thoroughfare with ground-floor retail;
• Townhouses on John Street, Taylor, and 6th;
• Diversity of housing types and affordability;
• Transit and walkable links to Denny Park and the Seattle Center;
• Using trees and green space to offset the urban environment at the Harrison Street portal to the SR 99 tunnel.

Thursday’s meeting will take place at GGLO Architecture, at 1301 First Avenue, Suite 301 (located on the north side of the Harbor Steps, across from the Seattle Art Museum). The QACC and Uptown Alliance are eager to hear comments from the community about the plan. For more information, contact John Coney at 206-283-2049.