The current home of Taki’s Mad Greek and Wild Orchid restaurants — on 15th Ave. NW just north of NW 85th St. in Crown Hill — will be torn down to make room for a new 4-story apartment complex. The city gave the project a green light today with some conditions to update the design.
The 4-story building (.pdf) will house 36 apartments and 4 small efficiency units above retail space. Because the project is located in a “frequent transit corridor,” no vehicle parking will be provided — a detail that sparked concern from some neighbors in the public comment period.
In the city’s land use decision (.pdf), a study of on-street parking in the area that found nearly half of the spots are usually empty. The developers expect the new apartments will add 28 vehicles to on-street parking, and city concluded there will plenty of empty spots to accommodate them.
No word on the demolition schedule (which usually takes several months) or future plans for Taki’s Mad Greek or Wild Orchid.
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The address makes it appear this is North Ballard
I wish it was the block just south of this, but hey, that’ll happen eventually too.
Nice addition to the neighborhood. 15th Ave NW should be at least four stories up and down the corridor.
taki’s has a great falafel. bummer.
of course the city concludes this will have no impact on parking…
My fiance’s close friends own Taki’s. They said they are moving just a block or two away, I believe she said to that Moroccan restaurant behind Safeway on 85th and Mary. I love Taki’s!
North Belltown
“Change is good!”
Later:
“This place looks like everywhere else.”
_________________________________________________
“Seattle is unique.”
Later:
‘This happens everywhere why are you mad?”
UGH – THIS AGAIN !!!!!
36 apartments…. 28 vehicles…..
And these apartments will be expensive as hell and attract 2 vehicle families. I live in this neighborhood so I know exactly how good the public transportation is.
Why is it so hard to be realistic? 36 apartments = AT LEAST 36 additional vehicles.
Taki’s has a plan…we aren’t losing them.
All my friends living in Ballard don’t own a car. I know it’s hard for old people to believe, but young people don’t want to own cars. Why would you want to pour a ton of money into a rapidly depleting asset. Uber, car2go, bus, bike. It’s the future peiple.
Maybe if the boomers weren’t so car-centeric they could afford to eat out in Ballard.
@Concerned
I see lots of millennial hipster women driving their cars around, and why the boomer hate? The millennials bought all the bankrupt, warmed over 60s/70s boomer crap wholesale, and are the same type of entitled goobers who believe in New Age nonsense and magical woo woo solutions to problems. Yoga, anyone? Tax hikes, anyone?
You’re right about cars, but from the looks of it Seattle isn’t giving the autos up anytime soon.
I hope they rip down that strip joint, it’s a magnet for slimeballs at that intersection.
Does the city give ANY consideration to the fact that this WILL add traffic to adjacent streets without sidewalks as those residents drive around looking for a spot?
Haha old people – my god I was born in the 80s I am ANCIENT! Everyone I know has a car, but in my neighborhood (which is about 5 blocks from this building) every young family on my block (30 something’s so yeah probably “old people”) have two cars!! Per family! I think they want them because they have children, like ease of getting to grocery store, other parts of Seattle, etc. I’m all for public transport, but it has hardly kept up with the number of people moving to Seattle and moving into our totally sweet denser neighborhoods. So that incentivizes car ownership as well. Wealthier people are moving into the new construction and wealthier people prefer to drive and not spend hours on the bus. Maybe that’s good, maybe it’s bad, but it is what actually happens. So not planning for parking is just ignoring reality. I’m sure part of the plan is that it won’t affect traffic at all either. Why would it lol
If wealthy people prefer to drive, then certainly they have the money to pay for parking.
Sure this place will add some cars to the neighborhood (I really doubt 2 per unit– there are many one car families like mine that get by just fine even with kids). But the reality is there’s still plenty of parking available in this neighborhood and if it truly becomes scare, people will gladly pay.
I don’t think this building in this location is going to attract the “wealthy, multi-car/multi-kid families” people are envisioning. I suspect residents of this construction will be more moderate-income singles, couples, and young families with at most one car, or none.
Where exactly are these parking spaces? The parking is changeable by the hour. No car? Guess you won’t be taking advantage of the natural beauty of the Northwest. Can’t take an Uber or Car2go skiing, hiking, kayaking. A friend on 16th had an apodment go up next door. No parking. EVERY person living there has a car.
That’s pretty funny Julie because I don’t own a car yet I go skiing, hiking, kayaking, etc. frequently.
See there’s these things called busses. In fact some even go from the the city to local trail-heads.
And by bussing to work w/o a car, I save a shit-ton of money and rent an SUV at least once a month (and still come out way ahead w/o having to look for precious parking in the city).
The decision says 40 units with 60 off street parking spaces will be provided – did I read it correctly? Why are people commenting that there will be only 38 parking spaces provided?
“Can’t take an Uber or Car2go skiing, hiking, kayaking.”
This is the problem. The old people don’t understand how the world works.
I take a car2go hiking every weekend in the summer.
CONCERNED BALLARD MILLENIAL: Good for you. Wish all the hipster millenials were like you. Next door to my house there used to be a single family home with a REAL OLD GUY that did not have a car. The place was torn down and up went four large row houses. Seven people moved into the four units. And with them came SEVEN BLEEPING CARS.
Here’s an idea. Build the infrastructure first THEN start up building. Think our bus system is good enough to support growth without cars? For those millennials who think it’s so easy, do an experiment and travel from this location to Tacoma, Redmond, Everett then Portland and Vancouver B.C. and see how long it takes you. How much does it cost? Now add bags, a stroller with a 20lb bag of rice and your dog just to simulate a non-single person experience. If we had a system like Japan, building a big apartment complex with no parking would be no issue….but we don’t. Focus on infrastructure.
I read that the building will have 60 off-street parking spots. Is that correct?
From the city’s PDF: “The proposed development includes 40 residential units with 60 off street vehicular parking spaces.”
There will undoubtably come another massive apartment building where currently stands three closed business storefronts in one building and the former Bento Sushi. I hope the city is wise and allocates more frequent bus 15, D-Line and 40 trips in peak hours. There are certainly plenty of Lime Bikes and Car2Go to accommodate the new neighbors.
P.S. The developer is going to need to pave that alley if that’s where parking will be accessed. It’s a pothole dirt road MESS not suitable for garbage collection, let-alone 60 cars coming and going daily.
Wild Orchid restaurants, delicious!
I wish they would fix the traffic on the 15th and 85th intersection then. If you’re heading East on 85th they’ve purposely installed these sideway barriers that bottleneck cars into one lane each way. It’s created a ton of unnecessary traffic heading from Sunset Hill to the freeway. Those pedestrian lights could have been implemented without adding the barrier…
@Guesty:
of course the city concludes this will have no impact on parking…
There’s no street parking now up there and there be no street parking up there after. You can’t have negative street parking.
I really don’t think that Boomers “don’t understand how the world works” so much as they understand all too well how the world works. Only a fool would allow Uber or Car2Go track your visit to a doctor’s office, only to have a bunch of snot-nose millennials drunk on Ayn Rand cancel your health insurance based on their data tracking algorithms.
Stevie, your smugness is so adorable.
So many “created and maintained” people here on this thread. So many have totally bought what government is peddling. So many have no clue as to what freedom is or means today. So many willing to become Norway or some other European utopian place. So many “good democrats”. So YOU don’t own a car or feel others should. What then is next on YOUR horizon for me and my freedoms? Special stickers to park in front of YOUR home? For Gods sakes, does anybody think any longer? Or is it all about feelings? Stop electing these cardboard cut-out people. Nothing another sugar tax won’t fix though.
@Scott: We’re all just tickled pink in anticipation of your Libertarian paradise! Will the vast freedoms of your deranged paradise allow us Morlocks to eat the Eloi?
@KIP
I was forwarded an email the other day saying that exact same thing.
So it turns out I’m a complete idiot.
Anything compared to what there is now is an improvement.
I do very much agree with the other commenters that they should build the infrastructure first, and then the density. Especially in the “urban villages” further away from downtown.
Fun fact: King county metro – when they put the first levy on the ballot for rapid ride promised 100% of the street lights along the rapid ride routes would be bus-sensor timed. This is the definition of rapid bus transit everywhere else in the world. If the light is red, the system notices a bus approaching several hundred yards away, and then changes the light so that the bus will always get a green light. Go look of the levy info – its right there on it. (When I was in Sao Paulo, their bus system makes you wonder why any city- anywhere in the entire world would build light rail. It works so incredibly well)
Rapid Ride is no substitute for mass transit. If the light rail went to 15th and 85th, I’d be fine with 8 story apartment buildings, because those residents would actually be able to go somewhere.
Hi,
Nice article .i love it.thanks.
“Usually Empty”? The survey was probably PURPOSELY taken between the hours of 10 am and 2pm so that they would get the answer they wanted. I’d love to see that manufactured data.