Greenwood Market is in its last week of business at the corner of NW 85th Street and 3rd Avenue NW, before closing to make way for an expanded Fred Meyer.

I stopped by this afternoon to talk with Store Director Patty Nolan. She wanted customers to know that while everything is on clearance, currently priced from 10-50 percent off the lowest marked price, the store still has plenty of inventory.

Greenwood Market is still receiving shipments of bread.

While there are empty shelves, the store is still receiving dairy and bread shipments, and they’ve got a ton of canned pumpkin, plenty of juices, cooking oil and spices. The produce aisle is still fairly well stocked, too.

“We were joking that it looks like Thanksgiving,” Nolan said of the canned pumpkin display. “And we have lots of Gefilte Fish!”

Some shelves are empty, but Greenwood Market still has a lot of juice and crackers.

Nolan said Greenwood Market plans to hold a low-key open house for its regular customers from 5-7 p.m. Friday, as a way to say thank you to its loyal customers.

Greenwood Market’s last day will be Saturday.

The city’s Department of Planning and Development has conditionally approved the proposed four-building development at 10201 Greenwood Ave. N. The developer proposes 263 residential units in three, four-story buildings, plus six live-work units, 212 enclosed parking spaces, and 3,900 square feet of commercial space.

Sketch courtesy of Grouparchitect.

The city determined there were no significant environmental impacts associated with the project. You can view the full decision. Appeals of the decision must be received by the hearing examiner by Jan. 31, 2012.

Update Jan. 19: The city has reissued its decision on the project, making it more specific with regard to issues of soil remediation. You can read the full decision here.

Earlier: The proposed development at 6010 Phinney Ave. N. has hit a new snag. The Department of Planning and Development had previously issued a Master Use Permit for the project, but then withdrew that decision after questions about soil remediation on the site.

The project would demolish the one-story building now housing Chef Liao, Phinney Ridge Cleaners, Daily Planet Antiques and the former Roosters Breakfast Club, and replace it with a four-story mixed-use building with 19 residential units, 2,708 square feet of commercial space, and below-grade parking for 23 vehicles.

We’ve got a message in to DPD for more specifics. We’ll update this post when we know more.

DPD Planner Shelley Bolser tells us that the city withdrew its decision and is drafting a new one because it wanted to be more clear about the Washington State Department of Ecology’s role in soil cleanup.

“We…wanted to make sure that we had properly described any of the soil contamination impacts,” Bolser said. “The Washington State Department of Ecology is actually the entity that reviews soil contamination and any cleanup program. So the applicant has applied with that state agency to go through their voluntary cleanup program. We also added a condition that prior to issuance of a building permit, the applicant will need to show the city proof of whatever Ecology has approved for a cleanup plan.”

Cascade Drilling is installing a monitoring well in front of the old Oroweat Bakery Outlet site at Greenwood Avenue North and NW 70th Street.

A representative of Landau Associates, environmental consultants hired by the property owners, told me today that Cascade installed a two-inch PVC pipe about 100 feet into the ground. The site needs to be tested because he said a dry cleaners used to be on the site many years ago. He didn’t know what the property owner planned for the site.

The Greenwood Fred Meyer will close at 11 p.m. on Feb. 25 for extensive renovation and expansion. Work on the site begins March 1. The company hopes to reopen the store sometime in the late fall. Melinda Merrill, Director of Public Affairs, tells us that all Greenwood employees will work at other nearby Fred Meyers during construction.

Customers of the Fred Meyer pharmacy won’t have to drive far to get their prescriptions filled. Fred Meyer is opening a temporary pharmacy just across the street to the east, in an empty retail space in Piper Village on First Avenue, near the Mud Bay pet store. The temporary pharmacy opens on Feb. 27.

The Greenwood Market will be demolished to make way for the expansion. The Market’s tentative last day is Feb. 4, and the lease is up Feb. 29.

Fred Meyer is adding approximately 55,000 square feet to its Greenwood store, and will add groceries.

The city’s Department of Planning & Development has given preliminary approval to a proposed development on the corner of Greenwood Avenue North and North 107th Street, where an abandoned car wash now sits.

The proposed four-story building will have three live-work units on the ground floor and 54 apartments above, and 40 parking spaces.

DPD determined that there were no significant environmental impacts from the proposed development. DPD placed some conditions on the project, including increasing the landscaping. You can see the full decision here.

Appeals on the project must be received by the Hearing Examiner no later than Dec. 22.

The Seattle Department of Planning and Development hosted a public meeting last Monday night (Oct. 17) on Fred Meyer’s proposed expansion of its Greenwood store.

Dozens of people came to the open house meeting, viewing drawings and schematics of Fred Meyer’s plan to add 55,000 square feet to its current store. They pored over schematics of groundwater level contours, peat elevations and subsurface profiles. And they grilled Fred Meyer’s architects, engineers and consultants on storm water detention plans, pedestrian access across the site, and traffic.

Joel Howitt of Barghausen Consulting Engineers, which did the civil engineering and site planning, explained that trees and bushes will be planted in 53 locations throughout the site, most in the parking lot. And the existing fir trees along the back of the building on NW 87th Street will remain.

The pipe from the new underground storm water detention vault will connect to the current storm water pipe that goes off site. The water will be treated with a “storm filter” – essentially cans of compost material that naturally filters out pollutants. Those cans are replaced several times a year.

New sidewalks will be built along 1st Avenue NW and Northwest 87th Street, and a pedestrian walkway will run east-west across the length of the site, with a slight jog in the middle.

“We’re improving the site tremendously, adding landscaping and walkways,” Tom Gibbons, Fred Meyer’s Director of Real Estate, said. “The building as it exists today is a big sterile box and we’re adding some nice architectural elements to it.”

Terry A. Krause, architect with Group Mackenzie in Portland, said, “We’re trying to clean it up at street level…and creating green screens. It will have a much more natural look to it. Much more modern than what’s there now.”

Staff offices will be in the back of the building, along 87th Street, at ground level. That ground floor will be mostly for employees and the stockroom. Groceries will be on the west side on the upper floor.

The new entrance will be about where it is now, but will have a much larger vestibule, including an area for shopping carts.

“We’re just trying to keep it simple,” Krause said. “The main purpose of this is to add services to the building.”

Several neighbors said the plan doesn’t do enough to make the building fit into the neighborhood, that it’s still essentially a plain big box in the middle of a huge parking lot.

One neighbor wanted to see the “flexible programming space” discussed in prior development plans reinstated. In that scenario, a portion of the parking lot could be temporarily blocked off to cars and turned into a space for a farmers market, small carnival or other public use.

Evan Bourquard, an architect and co-chair of the volunteer group Greenwood Deserves Better, said bluntly, “Big picture, I think it’s a travesty that it’s going to be a parking lot for the next 60 years.”

He also felt the storm water detention vault was “pretty run of the mill” and wanted to see something more aggressive. He also wants better pedestrian access across the site, to bring people from the west side of Greenwood to the downtown core.

“We feel like they could do more to strengthen that,” he said. “We’re not real happy with it, but it is what it is. I do think it’s going to be better than it is now. But I think it’s a lost opportunity.”

One neighbor complained that the old DPD sign proclaiming the massive mixed-use development – which was shelved more than a year ago – still sits on 3rd Avenue NW. Several neighbors told me they believe some people are under the impression that the former development plan is still in the works since the sign is still there. City Planner Scott Kemp asked Fred Meyer representatives if they would take it down, and they agreed. (As of one week after the meeting, the sign was still there.)

The graffiti-covered land use sign on 3rd Avenue NW refers to mixed-use development plans that were shelved more than a year ago. A more current land use sign is placed on 87th Street, behind Fred Meyer’s underground parking.

Neighbors also were worried about pedestrian access along the west side, since there are no sidewalks on the west side of 3rd Avenue NW, except for the block between 85th and 86th streets.

They’d like the city to put in sidewalks along that stretch, as well as a crosswalk on the corner of 87th and 3rd. Otherwise, shoppers who are walking would have to walk up to 85th and 3rd, cross, then walk back to their houses without a sidewalk.

The west side of 3rd Avenue NW has just one block of sidewalk, then it disappears.

Fred Meyer’s loading docks will be in about the middle of the west side, facing 85th Street. Gibbons said they don’t like having the loading docks facing forward, but that the grading of the site demanded it, otherwise trucks backing up from the side could tip over. But those docks will be screened with some kind of greenery.

Fred Meyer expects to have about 50-60 trucks a week using the loading docks, with two or three a day being the larger semi- trucks.

There’s still time to submit your comments on the project. Send written comments to: Scott Kemp, Senior Land Use Planner, City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development, 700 5th Ave., Suite 2000, Seattle, WA 98124; or by email to scott.kemp@seattle.gov.

Don’t forget that Monday night is the public meeting on Fred Meyer’s expansion plans for its Greenwood store at 100 NW 85th St. The Department of Planning and Development meeting is at 7 p.m. Monday at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St.

Fred Meyer’s plans for the Greenwood store have changed over the years from a proposed mixed use development with residential, to a plan to turn the Greenwood Market building into a garden center, to the current proposal to demolish Greenwood Market and expand the current Fred Meyer by 55,305 square feet, with parking for 449 vehicles.

The project requires a SEPA Environmental Review.

Taproot Theatre is edging closer to replacing the neighboring Eleanor Roosevelt building, which was destroyed by an arsonist two years ago.

Taproot, at 204 N. 85th St., has applied for a Master Use Permit for the new building at 208 N. 85th St. Taproot had rented the building next door to four restaurants: Pho Tic Tac, Szechuan Bistro, Green Bean Coffeehouse and CC Teriyaki. Arsonist Kevin Todd Swalwell was sentenced to 30 years for setting the early-morning fire on Oct. 23, 2009, that burned down the building, as well as several other fires.

The new two-story, 12,200 square foot project needs an environmental review, design review, and liquor license approval. The public can comment on the plans through Oct. 12.

The building will be LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and will include a large lobby with a café that will be open seven days a week and into the evenings, a scene shop, a second theater with 120 seats, and staff offices upstairs.

The new building will be about 88 feet long, with a wall of storefront windows on the ground level, and “punch-out” windows (with no glass) on the second floor with a small garden.

Revised drawing of Taproot Theatre’s new building. By The Miller Hull Partnership.

“There’s a lot of light; a lot of steel and a lot of light,” Producing Artistic Director Scott Nolte says. “We’re calling it neo-Greenwood.”

That second theater is what they’re calling a “black box theater,” with collapsible seating that goes into the wall, opening up the space for rehearsals and events. The seats will be arranged in six rows of 20 seats. The grade of seating between rows is much greater than in Taproot’s Mainstage theater. Seats will be padded with armrests, and motorized to collapse.

Taproot doesn’t even have a true scene shop right now; they use the backstage area to build new sets for the mainstage and the touring company.

“They can’t really start working on things until our current show closes,” Nolte explains. “That means the turnaround time between shows is really, really frenetic.”

Nolte says having a dedicated scene shop will give them more time to build, and allow flexibility in scheduling.

“It means the turnaround time between the plays doesn’t have to be three weeks, it might be 10 days,” he says. “So if there’s a play that’s going especially well, let’s add another week to it.”

And the lobby café will serve theater patrons and passersby alike, during the day and evening.

“It especially serves us when there’s a play happening, but also during the rest of the week,” Nolte says of the cafe. “There are way too many storefronts for lease in downtown Greenwood. And after 6 o’clock at night there’s not a single building that’s lit up on that corner.”

Nolte says the theater is waiting for a final bid from its builder. Taproot is still conducting its $3.3 million fundraising campaign to pay for the new building, retire the mortgage on the current theater, and put some money into an emergency reserve fund. The current building’s mortgage has about $170,000 remaining.

“The whole thrust of the campaign is to really make sure we’re on solid financial footing,” Nolte says.

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development will host a public meeting regarding Fred Meyer’s expansion plans for its Greenwood store at 100 NW 85th St. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 17, at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St.

Fred Meyer’s plans for the Greenwood store have changed over the years from a proposed mixed use development with residential, to a plan to turn the Greenwood Market building into a garden center, to the current proposal to demolish Greenwood Market and expand the current Fred Meyer by 55,305 square feet, with parking for 449 vehicles.

The project requires a SEPA Environmental Review.

The city will be scheduling a public meeting regarding Fred Meyer’s plans to extensively remodel its Greenwood store at 100 NW 85th St.

Normally, a remodel to an existing building doesn’t warrant a public meeting, while more extensive redevelopment plans must go through the Design Review Board, as Fred Meyer’s previous proposal did.

However, a group of architects and designers, called Greenwood Deserves Better, recently collected about 75 signatures from neighbors of the Fred Meyer site and turned them in to the city, which forces a public meeting about the project. The city should be scheduling that meeting in the next few weeks.

Greenwood Deserves Better is concerned about Fred Meyer’s appeal of the city’s decision regarding environmental impacts of rezoning the site.

The city plans to rezone the 13+-acre portion of the Greenwood/Phinney Ridge Residential Urban Village, which includes the land under Fred Meyer and Greenwood Market, as well as some surrounding properties. The proposed zoning would change the site from C-1 40 (commercial zoning that is oriented more to big-box stores and car traffic, and allows for building heights up to 40 feet), to Neighborhood Commercial, which calls for more density, pedestrian access, and allows taller buildings, to encourage residential. The rezoning proposal breaks down the site and surrounding areas into four subareas with slightly different zoning for each. (See the map here and the city’s full report). The city held a public meeting on the proposal last summer; more than 100 neighbors gave input on the plan.

The Department of Planning & Development conducted a SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) review, and determined that rezoning the site would have no significant environmental impacts (.pdf). But Fred Meyer is appealing that decision.

“They’re asking about transportation and utility impact topics,” Gordon Clowers, DPD Senior Urban Planner, explained. “That refers to our conclusion that there wouldn’t be significant impacts on those systems, and they want more information on how we made those decisions.”

A rezone appeal hearing is set for 12 p.m. Wednesday (tomorrow), at Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5th Avenue, Room 4009. It is open to the public.

Greenwood Deserves Better (formerly called the Greater Greenwood Design Development Advocacy Group), is afraid that Fred Meyer is using the rezoning appeal as a delay tactic, to get their expansion plans approved before a rezone would affect them.

Fred Meyer had previously proposed a massive redevelopment of the site that included housing, a three-story parking garage, and other retail. That plan went through an extensive design and public review process. But the company abandoned that plan last August, saying it was just too expensive in the current economic climate. So, Fred Meyer put forth a new proposal to expand its current store by 55,305 square feet and remodel the Greenwood Market building into Fred Meyer’s home and garden center.

But then Fred Meyer found the Greenwood Market building to be in poor condition, so the plans changed yet again to the current proposal, which would expand the current Fred Meyer by 55,305 square feet. The Greenwood Market building would be demolished, and the Pacific Lock & Key kiosk in the parking lot would be moved to a different part of the site.

“Our group feels (that) is an underuse of the site, and an impact on the entire neighborhood,” Evan Bourquard, an architect and member of Greenwood Deserves Better, explained. “It really feels like they’re sneaking the permit into the city. They want non-significance on their project to increase the size by 55 percent. Even within the context of an addition, there are some areas of improvement. We’re just trying to get the city to force them to do the public meeting.”

Tom Gibbons, Fred Meyer’s Director of Real Estate, was unavailable for comment.

A developer is proposing a four-story building with three live-work units on the ground floor and 54 apartments above, on the corner of Greenwood Avenue North and North 107th Street, where the old 107th St. Car Wash used to be. The lot has been vacant for some time. The development will include spaces for 40 vehicles.

A Design Review Board meeting for the project is set for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26, at Ballard High School, 1418 NW 65th St., in the library. The public is invited to give their comments on the project at 301 N. 107th St.

Here’s a drawing of the Northwest elevation of the proposal. You can see the full proposal here.