to maintain parking and provide.
Use of that bridge, there is a sidewalk where there is a designated
pedestrian. So at the narrowest point, if there are pedestrians
Could you call upstairs and ask them to turn the video back on?
Mr. Chair, do you want us to use this time to be asking questions or
have to do the presentation in the public and then our questions? That's what she
said at the beginning, that if we had questions now, we can ask them. If
you want to hold off and do it all at once, we can do that.
I'm happy to provide clarifications now if that would be useful to the commission. That
would help me if it's alright. You say the truck traffic is going to be
limited, but my question would be how is it? Is the bridge going to be
raided or are there going to be signs or what's the mechanism? There would be
signs and the bridge, the example that we've looked
at is, he's not answering, okay.
The bridge that we've looked at was a five-ton bridge which would take
some of the truck traffic if it accidentally ended up on there, but it would
be carefully signed because it would not, we're not designing it with the intent that
a fire truck, for instance, would go across it. So the
pedestrian
question is there? Yes. This bridge is a shared surface, so that means that there
is not a separate sidewalk, so that the driving surface is the walking
surface is the bike surface. I
think I asked this question last time, but on the apartment side, it was not
permitted or approved with a connection to the road. Can you go back then and
require that they now make that a vehicular connection? I think because the
applicant is, you're right, if it was a different property owner, we would be in
a different circumstance. But at this point, because the applicant is
willing to do this, and as you could see
previously, imagine if you will, it was a very fairly minor
alteration to the parking that was necessary to accommodate this on the senior site, and
we anticipate the same ability to, with a minor alteration, adapt
it. So I believe that there was, are we still not, have you not been
able to reach them?
on the way back. So,
I believe it was a parallel parking stall that would have been around at that
point. So I think it's, yay. So you can see it's a fairly
minor adjustment to the parking lot that was needed and we would anticipate maybe one
parallel parking stall would need to be removed on the other side. That project
was well over in their provision of parking, so the loss of one parking stall
would not jeopardize their plan or their ability to meet code requirements. And they're willing
to agree to do it?
Any further clarifications on this?
Number three had to do with ped bike access to the site. I think the
piece that we want to focus on here is that in response to public comment
and commission comment on the AASs, the applicant and staff
put the sidewalk back where the orange line is shown, so there would be sidewalks
on both sides of that entry street.
Number four was an environmental change to the permits. I'm not sure whether the
commissioners commented, but we did receive some public comment suggesting that maybe it was not
necessary to reduce the buffer to the creeks and wetlands the full amount that was
allowed. Mr. Chair, can I, real quick since we're doing questions on the move and
we jump, can we, Lucy, go back one slide? Absolutely. So when you added the
sidewalk, it doesn't look like you moved the building, so
what moved to accommodate sidewalk on that side of the road. I believe
that this retaining wall was shifted slightly, but you can see that there was a
fair amount of land available, or
horizontal separation between the edge of the building and the edge of the road. So
while there was some adjustment to the grading, there was not a need to move
the buildings.
Thank you for stopping me. So public
comment had suggested that it might not have been necessary to reduce the buffer
to the fullest extent available and suggested that maybe a less
reduction would be possible. The full reduction had been done
early in the project when we thought that was necessary to accommodate everything on site.
in going back and re-reviewing this, there was a realization that the
buffer could be reduced from 100 to 90 feet and still accommodate the improvements shown
on site. And so the applicant agreed to do that. The green band that
you see at the top was their original proposal. This green band represents the building
setback line, so this edge here is the edge of the buffer And in this
case, the building setback line you can see is somewhat closer, but no
buildings are in it, and we've gotten at least a 90-foot buffer
along the creek. Building setback line, as the name suggests, doesn't
allow buildings, but other non-structures such as parkings,
drives, walks, and such are allowed in the building setback.
Land use, I'm not sure, again, that the commissioners had questions about this, but we
received quite a few public comments, and so we thought that it might be worth
touching on this. Again, there was a strong
reaction to the size of the building, the density of the
building, the fact that there was a building there, and so one of the things
that we wanted to discuss with the commission and the public was that in 2011,
before Central Issaquah was implemented, the zoning was professional office. The height that was
allowed was between 40 and 65, depending on various features of the site. And there
was no maximum residential density as long as a project met the
development standards such as height, impervious, et cetera, as many units as builder
could or would want to put on site were allowed. Under the Central Issaquah Village
Residential Zoning, the height is quite similar. Density is evaluated on
an FAR basis, but you can see that it is
well under the maximum that's allowed as the base FAR. Lucy, I
would ask that in the in these presentations, just for the benefit of the public,
when there is an acronym, if you would just explain. Thank you. I appreciate that.
We don't hand out decoder rings at the beginning of the meeting. FAR stands for
floor area ratio, which is a way of measuring building bulk on a site.
I won't go into the exact way you do it, but it has to do
with how much of the site you can cover and how high you
Another significant topic was views, particularly
from Bentley House, which is sort of across the street. I
took the cartoon that Amy had done and provided in the memo and
for the big picture blew it up a little bit, provided a little bit more
detail. Newport is at about 90 feet above sea level.
Bentley House, which is, this is the plan of Bentley House across the street, and
you can see that there are several rockeries that lift it up quite a bit
above the street level. And this line right here is grade line 110,
which would be at about this location. As you can see, maybe see, this is
kind of a small picture, but the ground floor of Bentley House is a level
of, parking, under building parking.
So the first floor is up a level. I estimated that it would be about
eight feet. The architect, Jim Bedoya, who's here for
Gateway Senior, said it was probably more like 10 feet, but we'll stick with eight
feet for this particular exercise. So assuming that the drive is at 110
feet above sea level and then you have this level of parking, the first floor
would be at 118 or 120 feet above sea level. These are all estimates.
And assuming that an eyeball is about five feet above the floor level, the
view from the first floor of Bentley House would be at about 123 feet above
sea level. The highest peak of the roof is at 130. So
this would indicate that some of the views on the ground floor would be changed.
I think if you look at the way Bentley House is sited, for many of
the units, they're going to kind of look past
Gateway Senior more towards the northeast than directly across the
street just due to the orientation of the building. And
as far as we're aware, we know that residents really value their views
and it is disappointing to many
residents when their views are changed with development. However, there weren't any
restrictions on the development of this property that would preclude any
changes to their views.
Just a general question. Are there regulations for view preservation in other communities in
the city, just as a point of reference? So as a point of reference, some
of the urban villages, the master developer has chosen to put view
covenants in place. It is something that the city has been very clear that they
don't want to be a party to. that can be something that a developer
can place upon themselves, but the city has not participated in those
determinations.
Thank you. Just one question
too, the roof line, the top of the roof is the same through the whole
building.
There is some, a couple of feet variation, maybe two or three feet, but they're
not like big gaps. Okay. Because I think as you move further
west on Newport, it gets up to what, maybe 98 feet or something in terms
of elevation as Newport rises. So the 90 we're seeing here would
Right. Newport changes, but the basic pad of this building would not change.
And as far as I can tell, using the city's GIS, so this is
an estimate, it looks like the pad that Bentley House is built on is relatively
level or rising. By that, I mean that This area is at about 110
feet above sea level, but this white area appears to be a driveway that
rises up to another entry for the sort of, this
back portion of the building. So I think that both buildings are relatively constant or
Bentley House is getting higher. Right, and I was thinking the houses to the, you
go further west on Newport, those houses there are,
relatively this building height relative to Newport will get shorter, right?
Yes, and there were some photos in your packet which I included here which,
this is from Pinecone Place which is I think maybe that area you're thinking of.
And so you get a sense they've added in how their
building might appear from up there, and again this is looking at street level. I
think one thing I would point out is they are going to be providing street
trees and other elements that will tend to soften that appearance over time as they
grow in. Thank you. Any questions? So
the last item, and again, any items that the commission would like us to speak
about, we'd be glad to do so. But the last item that we're choosing to
speak about is architecture. You can see condition, this is the same
language that was provided in your memo. We have not done any other further edits.
But this does show the proposed edits to the recommended condition number 17
based on the commission's comment and public comment last time
and now the applicant will talk a little bit about the refinements to the
architecture that they've made since our last meeting.
For the record, I'm Jim Bedoya with VIA Architects and our address is the
tower building on 7th Avenue in downtown Seattle, 98101,
zip code. I would like to start by
thanking the commission and the public at the last hearing for their input and suggestions
and would like to walk through the way we've responded to all of those
suggestions and comments and I believe have made some significant
improvements to the project. We'll start with the site plan again, even though Lucy has
done a
Oh, did it disappear? Let's just close it and...
Oh, this one. Oh, no, we pulled it
out. Oh, I see. Oh, it's
answering. Okay. It's not responding.
You build those in. Census stress.
Don't turn your back on it. Just trying to close things out.
Sorry for the interruption, but I would like to start just by walking through the
site plan once again and highlighting the elements of the site that have
been changed in response to the comments that came from both the public and the
Commission and also the staff at the last hearing. So as Lucy pointed out,
for pedestrian-bike connectivity into the project,
We've added the second sidewalk on both sides of the entry drive coming down to
our arrival court. And you may notice that we've changed the
orientation of the arrival court to be orthogonal to the southern portion of the building.
What that did was allow us to have a larger arrival court and I think
an easier one to negotiate in terms of arrival, just a little blow up of
that area. We've also added bollards on both sides so that the
vehicle traffic is contained within those bollards. The pedestrian traffic comes down either
from the north on this sidewalk, and we're working with the city in terms of
the type of crossing that we'll implement on either side of the
arrival court. So we'll have a safe crossing marking that happens on the north
side and on the south side of that arrival plaza, along with the
bollards that will separate vehicles from pedestrian.
The specialty paving will also act as a traffic calming. It'll slow traffic
down at that arrival point. As Lucy also mentioned, we'll have the ability for larger
tour buses and vans to turn around further into the site and then come back
and pick people up under the port cocher. On the
east side of the project, at this second entrance,
we have a story of difference between these two arrival points. This is
a really important connection to the wetland and to our open spaces that exist
adjacent to the wetland buffer. And we've expanded upon those elements
by adding a greenhouse and a work shed so that the people that are serious
about their gardening can get a jump start on the season. We like that idea.
And then we've expanded the paving at that entry point to be a
tabletop so that that will be flush with that entry and it'll
cross the roadway so the cars kind of come up and over. You've probably experienced
these in other locations. And it's a nice way of slowing down the traffic and
making a very safe crossing. for the residents and their guests to
enjoy the amenities that we've created. There were comments
about the architecture. I think generally, I think people were pretty much in favor of
the direction we were headed. I think we talked about the way we've modulated the
building to break it into pieces that are more recognizable in scale, using the
steep pitched roofs with the dormers on each of them to again replicate. kind of
the residential qualities in the neighborhood. We've spent some additional time
looking at the, you know, we have these sort of three important areas, the main
arrival point that's happening on the west side of the project, which is the main
front door for most people arriving. We've expanded the roof
vocabulary to be more sort of emulate some of the more traditional craftsmen
kind of elements by having an exaggerated roof overhang with the knee
braces similar to what we're employing on the east side of the project. We've also
added kind of a decorative bay window over the port cochere arrival point to help
again signal that this is our front door. I think it becomes fairly obvious. We
are constricted with how much depth we can build into that area just because of
how the internal street and the arrival court has to work. But
I think with the addition of some additional seating and landscaping adjacent to the energy
gives the people a safe place. We don't show the bollards in here, but they
will also help define that separation of car and pedestrians. So
I think there's the ability for people to safely wait out for someone to pick
them up if they have a ride coming. This is looking from the
south, excuse me, back at the building. A few things have
changed in this area. As Lucy pointed out, we no longer have a
hammerhead that we had in this corner of the site, and as a result of
that, we had about a 12 or 13-foot high retaining wall to hold
that grade back, but now we've done a series of terraced walls and landscaping, so
none of those wall sections are more than eight feet tall in terms of how
far they come out of the ground.
As we mentioned, there are street trees along Newport that will be added, so it'll
replicate kind of the existing tree edge that's
on the property currently that will have to be transformed as part of the road
improvement and the widening of Newport in that area. But it gives
a safe passage for the pedestrians and bikes and a barrier in terms of safety
at the edge of our property. We've also expanded that roof vocabulary to the end
elements where the gables are coming at 90 degrees to the axis of the building,
so there's a similar vocabulary on those elements, and we're also using the darkest
colors in our palette to, again, help book in the ends of the building, as
well as giving importance to that center section. As you can see in this,