Word of the decision approving the Ken’s Market expansion didn’t reach everyone interested in knowing about it, so the city of Seattle is republishing the decision to give people additional time to appeal the project.
“We made a mistake,” Planner Molly Hurley said. “We inadvertently left about nine names off the mailing list.”
Prompt notification is important because the publication date kicks off a two-week period during which people can appeal the project to the city hearing examiner. Because that didn’t happen, the city is going to republish the decision on Oct. 16, reopening that appeal window until Oct. 30.
It’s a question of fairness, Hurley said. “It’s our mistake and we definitely want to be sure we follow the letter of the law.”
That’s good news for members of “Concerned Residents for a Safer NW 73rd.” Member Sheila Cloney, who first brought this to our attention, said that while they support the expansion of Ken’s, they want traffic calming measures on 73rd Street to be taken into account. According to Cloney, a city transportation study done earlier this summer showed NW 73rd carries up to three times the traffic of NW 72nd and NW 74th.
The written decision downplayed the issue:
The report indicates that there will be an increase of 250 daily trips, including 8 trips in the AM peak hour and 25 trips in the PM peak hour. Of these new trips, 90 daily trips, including 2 in the AM peak hour and 10 in the PM peak hour, would by “pass-by” trips. Pass-by trips are those that are already on the road, (e.g. commuting to or from work) but which would stop at the grocery store. The remaining trips (160 daily trips, including 6 in the AM peak hour, and 15 in the PM peak hour) would be “primary” trips that would represent people on the road specifically to travel to and from the grocery store.
The increase in traffic (15 PM peak hour trips) resulting from the proposed grocery store expansion would represent a relatively small percentage increase compared to traffic already on surrounding roadways. Even if all of this increased traffic were to use one particular local street, such as North 73rd Street, there would only be one additional trip every four minutes. This level of impact is not sufficient to warrant mitigation such as traffic calming.
Anyone who wishes to appeal the measure can get instructions here.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Carolyn // Oct 13, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Could someone post contact info for “Concerned Residents for a Safer NW 73rd”? We’re on N 73rd and while it’d be great to have a better Kens, I agree that traffic calming measures need to be addressed on both N and NW 73rd.
2 jm // Oct 14, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I hope they improve the traffic signals. Drivers going east and west on 73rd are always confused about who has to stop or when to go.
3 aerogiraffe // Oct 14, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Definately needs a working stop light for east / west drivers. Even now.
4 Trapper Graves-Lalor // Oct 16, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Personally, I’d like to see permitted parking on the streets surrounding Ken’s. That would help by limiting the time that people could park on our residential streets and guarantee that residents would actually have parking.
5 EnduroDriver // Oct 19, 2008 at 10:46 am
Careful what you ask for Trapper, just ask our friends to the south in Fremont who asked for residential parking permits and are going to get pay parking stations crammed down their throats along with the package.
http://www.fremontuniverse.com/2008/10/06/city-parking-crisis-in-fremont/
Since moving I live to far away to walk to my favorite Greenwood businesses so I have to drive. If I have to pay for the privilege to do so I’d probably make different shopping choices.
I agree the 73rd intersection needs a real stop light for east to west. That intersection is tricky and I bet a fair number of shoppers at Ken’s choose to head westbound out of the parking lot to avoid trying to navigate that intersection. I know I would usually head down to 3rd from there to avoid it.
6 Carolyn // Oct 22, 2008 at 7:47 pm
First – Carolyn…you can email me at cshe68@aol.com and I will include you on the email list for the 73 residents. Most of our communication takes place that way.
Second, let me be very clear that the residents of 73 street DO NOT WANT 4-WAY TRAFFIC LIGHT AT THE TOP OF OUR STREET. IT IS NOT AN ARTERIAL AND A LIGHT ONLY INVITES MORE PEOPLE TO USE IT AS SUCH.
7 EnduroDriver // Oct 22, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Even when you type it in all caps the logic of your argument still escapes me.
a) If the traffic is all caused by Ken’s then giving drivers a safe way to leave the parking lot and get onto Greenwood seems like it would reduce traffic on 73rd.
b) If the traffic has nothing to do with Ken’s then why all the grief over their remodel project.
c) If the worry is that the remodeled Ken’s will create more traffic then see item “a”.
8 Trapper // Oct 28, 2008 at 11:14 am
Hey, EnduroDriver…
If you read the Fremont article, there is a resident parking zone, where it is permits and not pay kiosks. For those of us who live within a block or two of Ken’s, the added employee traffic and parking is going to make a bad situation worse. We already have streets jammed up with employee cars for the area businesses, and I shudder to think what it’s going to be like with even more employees looking for spaces to park for the day or night.
9 Bill // Nov 9, 2008 at 12:21 am
Is parking really bad there now? I go maybe once a week and 9 times out of 10 I get a spot right in front of the store on Greenwood Ave.
And I agree with Enduro. If the worry is over the additional traffic then you need a way to mitigate that. The intersection as it is now is confusing/dangerous. With more traffic it’ll be worse, so then you’ll have to deal with more frequent accidents and more dangerous pedestrian conditions. It would be more consistent if you were just simply against expanding Ken’s.
Saying a traffic light will bring more traffic is like saying building a mass transit system will make people move to Seattle. No, the traffic will come because of the demand in the area, not because of the traffic light.
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