Proposed plans for Queen Anne's Seattle Country Day School were discussed again in a public meeting last week. But unlike the sometimes-heated public meeting in August, the tone was calmer and the crowd about two-thirds smaller.
The contentious issues remained the same, but Department of Development and Planning meeting facilitator Jim Metz successfully urged those at the meeting to maintain "a respectful environment" as discussion focused on the project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
"What we want are substantive comments that will help staff make a decision," he said in reference to a required Administrative Conditional Use permit and a needed variance to the city's land-use code.
If approved, the project would take place in two phases, explained Jim Hanford from Carlson Architects, the project designer.
The first would include: the construction of 20,000 square feet of new building space, renovating existing buildings, adding new outdoor play areas, bringing the number of parking places up to 54, demolishing three single-family homes to make way for a cross-campus driveway between Fourth Avenue North and Nob Hill Avenue North, where a circular drive would be created to allow queuing of vehicles.
The circular drive at the south end of Nob Hill would increase the number of queuing vehicles from seven to almost 30, Hanford said. "The proposal is to cone that off," he said of efforts to stop school traffic from traveling north on the street. The first phase would be completed by September 2006, according to the proposed plan.
The second phase would include: the construction of an additional 14,000 or 24,000 square feet of new school buildings, the addition of 10,000 square feet of garage parking space, the demolition of two more single-family homes and the destruction of 12,000 square feet of institutional space.
"The second phase is four to 10 years down the road," Hanford said.
The conditional-use permit is needed because the school is in a single-family neighborhood, Hanford said. But institutional uses are allowed in single-family neighborhoods as long as certain conditions are met. And those conditions are being met, he said.
The required variance deals with the lack of necessary setbacks at a single-family house that would be retained at the northern portion of the school property as part of the second phase. "If the variance wasn't granted, that house would go away," Hanford said, adding later that the house would provide a buffer between the school grounds and the neighborhood.
Elliott Ohannes, chairman of the Mayfair Neighbors Association, lives in a house right next to the proposed turnaround on Nob Hill, and he said the school's expansion plan treats his family as expendable. "The code does not allow hardship to be put on any one family," Ohannes added.
"The queue is not our major concern," he said. "The queue is merely a symptom of 1,000 car trips through our neighborhood every day."
Still, several parents of students at the school maintained the plan will improve traffic and parking in the neighborhood. "I think the proposed plan is a brilliant plan," one father said.
Another father conceded that growth in the last 20 years has impacted the entire city, but he maintained that schools are vital to the success of neighborhoods.
Queen Anner Susan Allington objected to the slow but steady growth the school has experienced since it opened in 1975. "It does keep encroaching into our neighborhood," she said.
Craig Hanway, chair of the Queen Anne Community Council's Land Use Review Committee, said the school's proposed expansion is not an issue with the committee. "I want to speak out as a resident in support of this project," he said. "I feel we need to support [educational] institutions in neighborhoods."
Sal Thompson, another Queen Anne resident, said the Hefron & Associates traffic study cited in the proposal doesn't show the effects on a big enough area in the neighborhood.
"That has not been addressed," she complained. "If we don't do this properly ... traffic will get worse." Thompson also said that a second traffic study of the project backs up that contention.
"I'm aware there is a second traffic study that's been done," said Colin Vasquez, the DPD land-use planner in charge of the school's application. He said he's asked to see it, but so far hasn't gotten a copy.
Vasquez also said that the comment period is technically closed, but he added that written comments would be accepted until the decision is made about the project. That includes, he said, comments about the Final Environmental Impact Statement, which is due for release the first quarter of 2005.
Echoing facilitator Metz, Vasquez added: "Comments will help us shape our decision."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.
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