Don’t forget that Seattle City Councilmember Sally J. Clark is holding an information-gathering workshop on creating better townhouses and apartments on Saturday morning at Taproot Theatre. The city is changing the code to make such multi-family housing better fit into neighborhoods.

The meeting is from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Saturday at Taproot Theatre, 204 N. 85th St. Council staff will highlight some of the hot-button issues, such as parking requirements, building heights, density limits, code simplification, and design review requirements. Then the public will have plenty of time to put in their two cents’ worth. Coffee and doughnuts will be provided.

Neighbors in Greenwood and Phinney are exploring the concept of “It Takes a Village” as it relates to elder housing. Drop by the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St., from 7-8 p.m. Wednesday for a discussion on how seniors can remain in their own homes and neighborhoods, getting services they need, without having to move to a nursing home or retirement complex.

The “Village” concept began in a Boston neighborhood in 2001. A group of elders shared a vision for an alternative to the currently available senior living situations and ways to stay in their homes as long as they wished. Today, the Phinney/Greenwood neighborhood is exploring the idea of how to create our own “Village”. We are holding a series of informational meetings to assess the interests in our community.

More meetings will be scheduled in October and November.

That first Village concept was in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. Here’s how their website describes it:

Beacon Hill Village is a membership organization in the heart of Boston. Created by a group of long-time Beacon Hill residents as an alternative to moving from their houses to retirement or assisted living communities, it was founded in 2001.

Beacon Hill Village enables a growing and diverse group of Boston residents to stay in their neighborhoods as they age, by organizing and delivering programs and services that allow them to lead safe, healthy productive lives in their own homes.

While we weren’t able to make the Design Review Board meeting last night about the 6010 Phinney project, the Ballard News Tribune covered the board’s decision to give their go-ahead for the project, over ongoing concerns raised by neighbors. Here’s a link to their story.

The project would demolish the building currently housing Roosters, Chef Liao, Daily Planet Antiques and Phinney Ridge Cleaners, and build a new four-story building with retail on the bottom and apartments above.

Some public notice billboards for new cell phone towers have recently popped up in the neighborhood, all at properties run by the Seattle Housing Authority. In what’s news to me (at least) the housing authority has been renting out roof space for years to cell phone and wireless companies.

One antenna is slated for Lictonwood, at 9009 Greenwood Ave. N., which is for low-income residents. It’s just a few blocks up from Safeway, and has 80 one-unit apartments.

Another antenna is proposed for Phinney Terrace, at 6561 Phinney Ave. N., right across the street from the Phinney Neighborhood Center. It’s senior housing, with 51 one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The third antenna is slated for Fremont Place, 4601 Phinney Ave. N, which has 31 senior housing units.

“We’ve been renting our rooftops for antennas for some time,” says housing authority Communications Director Virginia Felton, who knows of antennas being installed on agency buildings for at least the past 10 years. “We do it as a way we can increase revenue we can put into low-income housing.”

Annual rental rates for each antenna range from $7,600 to $25,000, according to Felton, who says 17 housing authority buildings are graced with anywhere from one to four pieces of cell phone and wireless hardware, each. 

These three proposed cell towers, along with at least another seven others proposed for a range of other buildings across in the city (not all on housing authority units), are all being requested by Cricket Communications.

The Sedges apartments at Piper Village are almost ready for renting. Property Manager Gary Brunt says he expects to begin showing the apartments directly to the east of Fred Meyer by March 15.

Piper Village is a multi-use development that will eventually have townhomes and retail as well. Last week, Mud Bay Granary, currently at 8221 Greenwood Ave. N., announced that it is the first retail tenant, and hopes to open in July.

The 46-unit apartment building has 12,000-square-feet of retail space on the ground floor. Apartments range from 325-square-foot studios to 1,200-square-foot units with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a small den. Rent will range from $800-$2,100.

Seattle’s Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee will hold a public hearing on Monday, September 22, at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers on proposed “megahouse” legislation. The city wants to address those enormous, out-of-scale, out-of-character houses that sometimes get plunked into neighborhoods of smaller houses, looking oh-so-out-of-place. 

Speakers can sign up starting at 5 p.m. outside Council Chambers.  Comments will be limited to two minutes. See the full proposed legislation here.