A meeting over the new residential and commercial design for the QFC project that will replace Queen Anne's Metropolitan Market drew a couple hundred people to the Bethany Presbyterian Church on a steamy Monday night last week.
Members of the community council's Land Use Review Committee-which hosted the meeting-were generally pleased with the new approach.
But while strident public objections to the project have been dialed back a bit, resentment still runs deep in the community. Just how deep was revealed when Christina Cox, one of the property owners, told everyone that QFC had provided free bottled water for the meeting. The announcement was greeted with boos by several in the crowd.
Lee Beard, from Beard and Page Architects, used basic renderings to explain the new design, which still takes up the entire block. But the four-story development has been broken into three distinct blocks of buildings so that the project doesn't overwhelm the street, he said.
A 35,000-square-foot QFC still anchors the project, but there are now small commercial spaces at the north and south corners on Queen Anne Avenue, Beard said.
The plan calls for deliveries to made at a loading dock at the northeast corner next to a Baptist church, an arrangement that raised red flags for many in the crowd.
Underground parking is included for retail customers, along with above-grade parking under a terrace and residential units for tenants. Access to the garages will be off Crockett and Howe streets, not off the alley or off Queen Anne Avenue, according to the plan.
Committee member Martin Kaplan said he had been concerned with the project fitting in with the community and the streetscape. "I think we're moving a lot in that direction," he said of the new design.
Committee member Douglas McNutt worked on the Queen Anne Plan in the mid-1990s as part of the city's Comprehensive Plan. The goal of the plan was to increase density along the Queen Anne Avenue corridor at the top of the hill with a combination of residential units over a first floor of commercial use.
Although he's concerned about the overall size of the the new QFC design, McNutt said the overall project is "very close to what the Queen Anne Plan wanted us to be."
Kirk Robbins, another committee member, criticized the project because what he described as 13 units of affordable housing in the Elfrieda apartment house would disappear.
Keeping affordable housing was another goal in the Queen Anne Plan, Robbins added, but Cox has said in the past that the apartments are rented out at market rate.
Matthew Sutton, who once railed at the construction of the Larry's Market complex in Lower Queen Anne, has mellowed. "One of the things we have to understand is, change happens," he said. He thinks the public needs to give the property owners a chance.
Steve Wacker, on the other hand, thought most would people would support the owners having the right to develop their property, "just not at community expense." He described the project as too big, complained that the traffic plan wouldn't work, and said that the community doesn't want the project.
Scott Smith, from a project opposition group, Queen Anne Neighbors for Responsible Growth, was glad that the second-floor "strip mall" retail component had been eliminated, but he was still concerned about the scale of the development. "I think most people in this room don't want such a large grocery store on this site," he said to loud applause.
Several people also complained about the very idea of having a flagship QFC at the top of the Hill, with one man saying the store would lack a "bistro attitude." A woman in the crowd even complained that the design looked like World War II bunkers on the coast of France.
Declassé concerns aside, other comments were more forceful. "Most of us are here because we don't want this project to happen," railed David Law. "If Kroger (QFC's parent company) moves in, I ain't shopping there."
Numerous people were also concerned about traffic and delivery trucks. Steven Goddard said he was concerned about the safety of his 4-year-old daughter because she takes ballet lessons in the Baptist church, which has an entrance off the alley behind the QFC site.
Steve Matasy lives on Howe Street across from the site and has fought against the presence of delivery trucks at the grocery store for years. Matasy also went to court at one point over the issue, and he joined several others in complaining about the loading dock on Crockett. "This will not fly," he said of the traffic plan.
Committee chair Craig Hanway, who was concerned about the overall size of the project, said the delivery-truck issue would be dealt with in the SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) process.
"There will be an opportunity through the scoping process to make it part of the SEPA study of parking and deliveries," he added.
Scoping identifies environmental impacts that should be studied for projects, there will be public meetings about the issue, and scoping is part of the Master Use Permit process, which has already begun, Cox said.[[In-content Ad]]
