The West Bay Yards project took another step closer to realization on February 27 when the Olympia Design Review Board approved, with one dissension, the concept design laid out by Ron Thomas of Thomas Architectural Studios.
West Bay Yards is a proposal for the development of 478 multifamily residential units in 5 buildings atop a single story of structured parking with ground floor commercial space, public trails and street frontage improvements. Since early 2021, City staff from Community Planning and Development have been working with the developer to lay the groundwork for the project
which resulted in a Development Agreement that committed the City to regulations in effect at that time for 15 years. OlyEcosystems unsuccessfully appealed the City’s determination that the Development Agreement would have no significant environmental impact (DNS) to the Hearing Examiner in March 2021, and also appealed the City Council vote to approve it.
Since then the project has gone through 4 reviews by the Site Plan Review Committee and been put on Ecology’s contaminated site list, but an environmental review has yet to be done. The land use review process is in process and the project must also meet building, fire, engineering, urban forestry, stormwater, shoreline, critical area and transportation code requirements.
Now with some minor recommendations to add landscaping, artwork and other features to break up large expanses of concrete wall at the parking garage level and to add some material and color changes to make it more “waterfront” looking, the project is going forward despite widespread community opposition. Mr. Thomas spoke of plans for a waterfront restaurant like Anthony’s, attracting commercial businesses in 10-15 years, and a plaza where people would want to hang out, though there were no plans for any public restrooms.
Only comments relating to design were included in this latest round. Both Black Hill Audubon Society and OlyEcosystems submitted comments, but the only sections taken note of related to improved pedestrian access to the waterfront and the preservation of views.
Ron Thomas estimates the project would take three and a half to 4 years to be built after Hearing Examiner approval.
Green Amendment Update
The Green Amendment is dead in Washington State after Representative Lekanoff decided not to bring it forward. She did not expect it would gain much support in a budget year with a new Governor. However, Green Amendments have made progress in other states. It was proposed in Rhode Island and made progress in the New Mexico legislature.
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