[EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated from earlier version.]
Queen Anne property owners Warren Farmer and Steve Matasy say they don’t like the current plans for a Metropolitan Market apartment complex and want them changed.
They are taking their campaign right to City Hall. Farmer, who is co-owner of an apartment building directly behind the Metropolitan Market, filed an appeal with the City of Seattle on Jan. 12 to block the project from going forward until it meets Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development guidelines. He maintains that the project would violate Seattle noise ordinances, create too much car and truck congestion and be a safety risk for local residents.
Developer Joe Geivett of Emerald Bay Equity said city officials have already agreed that the project would not violate the ordinances. In fact, he said the new configuration would actually be safer for local pedestrians.
One thing is for certain: this project remains controversial decades after it was first proposed.
The project, which has been proposed in one form or another for about three decades, calls for the Metropolitan Market property, at 1908 Queen Anne Ave, N., to be redeveloped, with 125 apartments built over an expanded grocery store on the bottom floor of the complex. The new market would be much larger than the current store and the site would also include other retail space. Altogether, the site will have about 45,000 square feet of retail space.
One of the sticking points between the neighbors and Geivett is that the delivery trucks are scheduled to drive from Queen Anne Avenue North, up Howe Street and turn onto an alleyway at the back of the Metropolitan Market property. Farmer’s apartment building and the Queen Anne Baptist Church are two of the properties on the other side of the alleyway from the Metropolitan Market.
Matasy maintains that more than 160 trucks a week would be going through the adjacent alleyway behind the store and down narrow side streets, to reach the market’s loading docks. He said the noise and traffic is already disrupting the neighborhood and it would get even worse with a new development.
For years, Matasy has videotaped the idling trucks waiting to make deliveries at the current Metropolitan Market and has sent the tapes to the city, complaining that the trucks are violating the noise codes.
Matasy said this group of neighbors is not trying to stop the project from being built. Instead, they want changes to the project’s design that would allow the delivery trucks to use Crockett Street, facing the Safeway parking lot to reach a bay for unloading. The trucks would then not use the alley behind the store.
“The property owners have the right to build something that meets code. But not to illegally impact their neighbors,” Matasy said. “With 160 or more trucks a week using that loading area, that is a violation of codes and would impact the neighbors.”
Geivett counters that the new development he is proposing would actually be quieter and better for Farmer and Matasy than the current configuration. Right now, the trucks sometimes wait in the grocery store parking lot, which is located next to the properties owned by Farmer and across the street from the house owned by Matasy.
The future development would bring the trucks into a covered bay area at the other end of the complex, where a gate would shut behind the trucks. The covered loading dock would help muffle the sound. Also, the dock would have two bays instead of only one currently used by the market. The extra bay would reduce the time trucks were waiting. He said that would be safer than trucks entering and leaving the property from the parking lots on Queen Anne Avenue North.
Farmer said he doesn’t want 160 delivery trucks going through the alleyway and right by his tenants’ windows each week. Other residents, property owners and members of the Queen Anne Baptist Church have joined him in the appeal. People affiliated with the Queen Anne Baptist Church are concerned because the loading docks would be directly behind the church, which is also home to the Sweet Pea Cottage Pre-School. They worry about the safety of the children and their church members.
Geivett said there would be only six large delivery trucks going down the alleyway each week. However, when all the smaller truck and van deliveries are added together, the number of deliveries would be approximately 160 a week. He said that many of those trucks will not use the back bays, but will unload in the front or side of the building.
Farmer contends that the expansion of the project is also a concern. He said he was told that the retail space at the project was expected to be between 20,000 and 35,000 square feet. Now, it is estimated to be more than 45,000 square feet.
His group believes that the increase means even more delivery trucks will be needed to service the businesses in the expanded retail space.
Geivett said the businesses that would be in the building are expected to be much like those that currently fill the retail space at Emerald Bay’ other properties that are located across the street and one block north of the Metropolitan Market. Geivett said the parking for his project would be underground and he is actually adding 15 more parking places on Queen Anne Avenue North than are there now.
“If the neighbors haven’t noticed an increase in truck traffic at those buildings, they won’t notice it at this new project,” Geivett said.
He said he has offered to talk with those opposed to the project and try to find solutions to their concerns, but Geivett maintains Farmer and Matasy have refused to meet with him to discuss the matter.
At this point, the appeal is expected to be heard by a City of Seattle Hearing Examiner within the next two months. Depending on the Examiner’s decision, either the project moves forward to the next phase of permitting or changes will have to be made. Geivett said he is hoping to break ground on the project in August of this year.
As for Farmer and Matasy, they continue to maintain that the city hasn’t examined the true impact of this project.
“We just feel like the ball has been hidden from us in this process,” Farmer said. “We want this to be done according to Department of Planning and Development regulations, which state that [the city] has to consider impacts on the immediate neighbors and property owners. We feel that is not being done.”
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