As soon as Nickels arrived and shook a few neighbors' hands, Martin pounced. She handed him her note, scribbled in orange marker onto a flyer advertising the clean-up day: "Don't let the proposal to redevelop the Greenwood Fred Meyer into a gigantic big box kill our livable, walkable, and sustainable vision for the neighborhood!"
Late last year, Fred Meyer on NW 85th Street, between First and Second Avenues NW, released a preliminary plan to redevelop the existing store, which sits at the back of a vast parking lot. Fred Meyer's lot is part of the Greenwood Shopping Center, a uniquely huge site--approximately six standard city blocks--for an otherwise small-scale neighborhood like Greenwood.
A December 2002 study of the "Greenwood Town Center" called the site a catalyst for future growth in the neighborhood, and suggested the neighborhood could support increasing height limits on the property (the current limit is 40 feet) in exchange for Fred Meyer providing amenities like pedestrian walkways, housing, and clusters of buildings instead of one large warehouse. "A well-designed redevelopment of the [Fred Meyer site] will have a substantial, positive spillover effect on the neighborhood," the study said. In other words, Martin explains, "Greenwood is an empty, clean slate waiting to happen, and we could get it right."
But even though Fred Meyer and Greenwood Shopping Center representatives participated in the December 2002 study with the city and the neighborhood, and are well aware of Greenwood's vision, Fred Meyer's plan fell far short of getting it right, Martin says. The company didn't go for a taller building, which means the neighborhood lost its leverage to demand amenities like housing. Fred Meyer's proposal calls for literally expanding the current one-story warehouse into a larger, 167,000-square-foot one-story warehouse that extends south to 85th Street, where a fenced-off garden center would greet the thoroughfare. To the west of the warehouse, a grocery store would be demolished to make way for additional surface parking. The store's north and east walls--which mostly face homes--would be blank. The project seems more suited to a big-box commercial area like Aurora Avenue North, not a village like Greenwood. The Greenwood Shopping Center's representative, Gary Blunt, and Tom Gibbons, Fred Meyer's director of real estate development, did not return calls about the one-story warehouse proposal. Neither did Ben Exworthy.
The plans disappointed folks like Martin and community council president Michael McGinn, two people who want "smart growth" development in Greenwood--mixed-use projects that raise the neighborhood's height, increase residential density, expand retail offerings, and make Greenwood a more beautiful in-city neighborhood. "I want to see development that complements the neighborhood, that fits in the neighborhood, that's environmentally friendly and pedestrian friendly," says McGinn. The neighbors largely agreed, and when Fred Meyer presented its plan, "The community gave them really negative feedback about the design," McGinn says. And the Northeast Seattle Design Review Board essentially rejected the plan, demanding that Fred Meyer come back with "more, very basic, alternatives at the next meeting," slated for March. McGinn is waiting to see what Fred Meyer's second draft looks like, but he admits that he's "not terribly optimistic that the next design is going to be well received by the neighborhood."
That's where the mayor comes in. Last Saturday morning, Martin discovered that Nickels is squarely on Greenwood's side. "I'm opposed to a big-box store," he said, standing with her on the park's plaza. Martin was thrilled to have the mayor on board. While the neighborhood seems to have lost its bargaining chip--Fred Meyer's one-story design indicates the chain won't need neighborhood sign-off on a height increase-- Martin hopes the mayor can boost Greenwood's leverage. "The mayor needs to be on it right now. Everybody needs to make this front and center just long enough to get back to the table and make sure we don't get a bad deal," she says.
