Laurelon Before & After Photos

While reviewing the conclusions of the Preliminary Draft EIS, you might find it handy to review a few before/after photos too. Many more of these photo pairs are available in the 10 megabyte Powerpoint Deck from the CAC's tour of the Hospital site.

Here's one view of Laurelon today:

Here's Laurelon after construction of the Hospital's preferred Alternative #3:So much for daylight...

How Many Beds?

An independent study on the Hospital's need for beds is now available for download as a 2MB PDF: Field Associates Bed Study. This professional study used the Washington State Department of Health's standard methodology for calculating the Hospital's bed needs. This is the methodology that the Hospital would be required to use to gain Dept. of Health approval for adding beds. The two most surprising findings (emphasis added):

"CHRMC proposes ten times more new capacity than this study finds is warranted through application of the Department [of Health]’s method."

"In Seattle, Swedish Hospital’s inpatient pediatric services now care for more King County children than does CHRMC."

Further excerpts from the study:

"Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center (CHRMC) is proposing ... approximately 350 new inpatient beds. ...

Based on the Department’s published method of distributing hospital beds across the state, this study finds no support for the addition of inpatient beds to CHRMC’s current capacity of 250 beds until after the the year 2015. A small increase in beds – up to 40 – may be warranted by the year 2026 (the very end of CHRMC’s 15- to 20-year master plan planning horizon. ...

CHRMC’s proposal of 350 new beds appears to be approximately ten times the actual number required at CHRMC twenty years from today. ...

In light of such an oversupply... the CHRMC Master Plan can be expected to have unwanted impacts on the financial and program viability of other hospitals and to unnecessarily increase the cost of health care both locally and in the state. Under-used hospital beds put extra costs into the health care system, thus driving up the taxes and health care premiums we all pay to support it. As the Washington legislature stated, when hospitals over-build, “that excess capacity of health services and facilities place considerable economic burden on the public.” [RCW 43.370.030(2)(a)]"

Reminder: CAC Meeting Tuesday, 6:30-9pm

On Tuesday, the Citizen's Advisory Committee will finally speak its mind(s). The members of the Committee will discuss and compile their comments on the Preliminary Draft EIS and the project itself. A public comment period will follow the Committee's discussion.

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2008, 6:30- 9:00 PM
Place: Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st Street, Seattle, WA 98105

Agenda:
6:30 Welcome and Introductions
6:40 Committee Discussion of its Comments to the Preliminary Draft of the Children’s Master Plan.
7:35 Break
7:40 Committee Discussion of its Comments to the Presentation of the Draft of the Environmental Impact Statement
8:35 Public Comment Period
8:50 Discussion of Agenda Items for Next Meeting
9:00 Adjournment

Excerpts from the Preliminary Draft EIS

In case you're hesitant about downloading 25 pages of the Preliminary Draft EIS and you haven't made it to one of the 4 in-person viewing sites for this doc, we've transcribed a few key passages. The sections excerpted below appear on pages 1-23 through 1-25, where the Hospital's consultant summarizes significant adverse impacts. Highlighting and our brief comments (in red) have been added.

Noise

Even with the mitigation measures identified above, construction noise would result in short-term and temporary significant unavoidable adverse impacts.

Hospital administrator Ruth Benfield predicts continuous construction from 2009-2022. Is 13 years really short-term?

Update: Hospital architect Karl Sonnenberg told a neighbor that the Hospital's current buildings will have exceeded their useful lifetimes by the time the new towers are finished. Thus, by 2022, these existing buildings will require replacement. This will add (roughly) another 10 years of continuous construction, for a ballpark total of 23 years.

Housing

Currently there are 649 multi-family units in the Laurelhurst/Sand Point Way CRA. Multi-family or attached housing provides a more affordable hosing option for many of Seattle’s residents. Through the loss of 136 units at Laurelon Terrace, Alternative 4 would reduce the available amount of multi-family housing in the Laurelhurst/Sand Point CRA by approximately 21 percent. This would be a significant loss of moderately priced housing available in the area that would be difficult to replace.

To put this another way, 1 out of 5 multifamily (aka moderately-priced) housing units in the Laurelhurst/Sandpoint area would be eliminated.

Transportation

The build alternatives would accommodate additional amounts of future development at Children’s and the Hartmann site, which would contribute to additional travel demand and congestion along arterial corridors including Sand Point Way, NE 45th Street, and Montlake Boulevard. The additional development also would increase traffic accessing and circulating in the area. This added congestion would contribute to measurably poorer performance of the transportation network, in terms of increased delays along several of the corridors and at some specific intersections. The increase in traffic and pedestrian and bicycle activity due to development would result in more conflict points and increased hazards to safety.

Traffic Volumes
Future (2030) growth in the area would result in increases in regional and local traffic within the study area both without and with the project. In addition, the build alternatives would increase area-wide and local traffic on routes serving the site. Although Children’s would implement strategies to reduce its overall traffic, this impact is considered a significant and unavoidable adverse impact since Children’s would likely not be able to reduce its traffic volume contribution to zero, and therefore, would increase traffic volumes on roadways even with mitigation. While strategies to reduce travel demand and related impacts have been identified, a residual increase in traffic to the street system attributable to Children’s is likely.

Traffic Operations
Vehicle delays and queues along access arterials (i.e., Sand Point Way NE, NE 45th Street, and Montlake Boulevard) would increase due to additional Children’s traffic. Implementation of mitigation measures such as traffic signals and signal timing optimization would reduce Children’s impact at several locations (e.g., Montlake Boulevard/NE 45h Street, 40th Ave NE/NE 55th Street, and 40th Avenue NE/NE 65th Street). However, impacts to the intersections would be significant and unavoidable because mitigation measures would not be feasible, or would be out of the control of Children’s. There are no feasible mitigation measures to implement at the NE 45th Street/Union Bay Place NE intersection; however, reduction of Children’s SOV traffic would reduce impacts at this intersection by decreasing traffic. Mitigation of the Montlake Boulevard/Eastbound SR 520 Ramp intersection would require approval and implementation of the SR 520 Project; the timing and funding of this improvement is unknown at this time.

Congestion would increase along key corridors providing access to Children’s, with or without the expansion of Children’s, including Sand Point Way NE, NE 45h Street, and Montlake Boulevard. Even with the mitigation measures reducing Children’s traffic within these corridors, there would still be some increase in delay and queues due to Children’s. Future regional growth in traffic volumes both with and without the addition of Children’s expansion traffic would result in increased congestion, longer travel times, and reduced speeds along these corridors. In addition, due to congestion along major corridors, it would likely become increasingly difficult for traffic on side-streets at unsignalized intersections to enter the traffic stream.

Traffic Impacts from page 1-13
Children's traffic would increase by approximately 8,400 vehicle trips per day; 850 trips during AM peak hour and 680 trips during PM peak hour.

Get the Preliminary Draft EIS

Get 25 (of 400) Pages in Electronic Form
Kudos to a neighbor who did the leg work of making the first 25 pages of the Preliminary Draft EIS available in electronic form. Our source kindly points out that pages 1-23, 1-24, and 1-25 are likely of greatest interest. These pages summarize the consultant's opinions on the significant unavoidable adverse impacts and the secondary and cumulative impacts.

• 5 Megabyte File: First 25 pages of the Preliminary Draft EIS

Please note that this file is very, very large. If downloads overdraft our bandwidth, we'll have to remove it.

The Full Document
Steve Sheppard has made reference copies of the Preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center Master Plan available at four locations.

1. The Laurelhurst Community Center located at 4554 NE 41st Street
2. The Northeast Branch Library located at 6801 35th Avenue NE
3. The University Neighborhood Service Center located at 4534 University Way NE
4. The front desk at the Department of Neighborhoods in the Seattle Municipal Tower located at 700 5th Avenue, Suite 1700 (17th Floor).

Please note that the Hospital's online Master Plan page itself contains only the plan, not the EIS.

Send Your Comments to the CAC
We've heard that you're encouraged to send your comments on the Draft EIS to the Citizen's Advisory Committee. Your research into the issues at hand and your insights into the EIS will help the CAC do its best in representing public concerns.

Documents from the January 8th Advisory Meeting

The Mystery EIS. Apparently, the City has no way of distributing the Preliminary Draft EIS to the public electronically. Lucky us-- we all get to visit the Department of Neighborhoods or the Laurelhurst Community Center to see so much as the executive summary.

Even the PI complained when "city officials presented the committee with their preliminary draft environmental impact statement... But... gave no details about the study's findings and provided no copies to the media or the public."

Carol Eychaner's Handouts. Apparently, the Hospital's army of snazzy consultants snapped up the majority of the Carol's handouts. Fortunately, she had no difficulty in producing electronic versions:
Carol Eychaner's Cover Letter.doc
Height Comparision Chart.pdf
Major Institution Comparison Table.doc
Map of Properties Purchased.pdf
Property Purchase Info.doc
Bed Need Chart.pdf

Reminder: Citizens Advisory Committee Meeting Tuesday

This meeting will cover the draft EIS, which is not currently available to the public on the Hospital Master Plan site. It looks like the public will once again lose out on the opportunity to review new information before the public comment period at the "Citizens" Advisory meeting.

January 8, 6 p.m. Talaris, Cedar Room 4000 Ne 41st St

Wedgewood Action Group Settles

The team that inspired our site, the Wedgwood Action Group, recently made the tough call to settle. The developer Murray Franklyn will now build a 4-story condo complex on 35th Ave NE, abutting single-family homes. Their group faced poor existing zoning laws (4 story buildings allowed next to single family homes), so they had a real uphill battle. Tough situation. Kudos to the WAG for the improvements they achieved in this project.

We recommend subscribing to the Wedgewood Action Group's sister site: Smarter Neighbors. The Smarter Neighbors blog follows land-use issues throughout our city and provides a sometimes-discouraging window into the ability of developers and money to override community concerns. It provides context for the Hospital's bold proposals.

On a brighter note: one WAG post reported that one of our new City Council members helped form the community group that fought the mega development in Queen Anne (Unpopular Queen Anne development plan scrapped). This is encouraging.

Editorials in the Times

Crosscut correctly predicted that the Hospital's PR department would swing into high gear:

1) Neighbors should embrace Children's growing mission
November 30, 2007 : Editorials & Opinion
"Nothing brings parents greater pain than knowing their children's health is threatened..."
By Phillip Fujii and Steve Ross

Comment: Neither one of these “neighbors” lives genuinely close to the Hospital. Perhaps these well-intentioned folks would feel differently if their family homes were located within Laurelon -- or on a block that will listen to 13 years of heavy-duty construction noise?

2) Children's growing pains
Friday, November 30, 2007 : Editorials & Opinion
"But many do and travel to the 100-year-old institution from throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and beyond..."

Comment: Somehow the Times missed neighbors’ concerns about the loss of 136 units of moderately-priced housing at Laurelon. Not to mention the day/night noise from 13 years of construction. Views? How about day-long shadows-- the people most affected are underneath the Hospital.

For Rent on Craigslist: The Hospital's Purchases

Updated: Additional Laurelon purchases were reported in Ruth Benfield's letter distributed at the January 9th CAC meeting.

The Hospital has started to use Craigslist to rent the residential properties it has purchased. So much for the story that it bought these houses for its doctors. Total known purchases in 2007: 11 14. According to Ruth Benfield (1/09/08), an additional 13 are in the process of closing, giving a grand total of 27.

As we've said before, instead of acting in the spirit of the law (SMC 23.69.032) and working to ensure "livability and vitality of adjacent neighborhoods," the Hospital is simply eliminating its neighbors.

You can keep an eye on the Hospital's ongoing purchases using the King County Assessor's eSales database. Note: For recent sales, the purchaser is only found on the Recorder's Office pdf tax records.

Location	Sold Date	Price	Rental (listed by Dave Poletti & tara@davepoletti.com)
4XXX NE 45th St	6/12/2007	$858,375	"Available Now" -- $2850 (see craigslist ad)
4XXX 44th Ave	9/28/2007	$960,000
4XXX NE 45th St	10/10/2007	$960,000	"Application Pending" -- $2550 (formerly listed on craigslist)
4XXX 45th St	11/19/2007	$617,000	"Available Now" -- $2,275 (see craigslist ad)
4XXX 44th Ave NE	12/17/2007	$727,000
9 Laurelon Condos. An additional 13 are in the process of closing, for a total of 22 condos.	Through 1/09/07	NA	A possible craigslist ad for one of them
4XXX NE 45th St	1/25/2008	$1,012,500

Update: One more sale added. Total through February 1, 2008: 15. According to Ruth Benfield (1/09/08), an additional 12 are in the process of closing, so the grand total is closer to 27.