PORT ANGELES — Today is the deadline to comment on a height variance application for a structure in downtown Port Angeles that, at seven stories, would be among the tallest in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Bellevue developer Eric Dupar’s conditional use permit application seeks a height variance to the city’s 45-foot limit for the residential-commercial complex, Anian Shores.
He proposes a 70-foot, 109,000-square-foot building with five new stores and a new restaurant where a West Front Street parking lot now sits. Dupar envisions 33 percent of the structure will be a 320-stall parking garage, part of which would be used for parking for the Waterfront Center, under construction on the north side of West Front Street.
“The remaining portion of the site will be dedicated to a mixed-use building with multi-family condominium, apartments, and/or lodging, and street-level retail fronting West Front Street,” according to his conditional use permit application.
“The retail anchor will be a restaurant at the corner of West Front Street and North Oak Street.”
The deadline is today for comments on the environmental aspects of the application under SEPA. Email comments to ced@cityofpa.us.
One comment has been received so far, city Development Manager Emma Bolin said Tuesday in an email.
The SEPA application asks, “What views in the immediate vicinity would be altered or obstructed?”
“Views of the properties due south of the project will be affected (Washington State Social and Health Services Department building and a row of retail structures),” Dupar responded in the application.
No fill would be used, and about 7,000 cubic yards of soil would be excavated for below-grade parking and foundations. The foundations would be above the water table, according to the application.
Dupar did not return calls for comment about the project Tuesday. A determination of nonsignificance is expected to be issued for SEPA permit, according to the public notice at tinyurl.com/PDN-AnianNotice.
A hearing examiner hearing for the conditional-use permit, which will be held virtually, has not been set.
A Department of Community and Economic Development staff report will be issued after a hearing notice is published, Bolin said.
Public comment on the conditional use permit application will be accepted from publication of the hearing notice up to and during the hearing, she said.
Dupar’s conditional use permit application, his SEPA applications, and his consultant’s traffic study for the project, all together comprising 123 pages, are at tinyurl.com/PDN-AnianShores.
The city-owned parking lot would be sold to Dupar as surplus once he completes the permitting process, City Manager Nathan West said Tuesday.
“This project is really important to the city of Port Angeles in that it is implementing housing in our downtown core,” he said. “It adds a sense of balance with other projects we are seeing, including the Waterfront Center.
“We look forward to them getting through the permitting process.”
According Dupar’s conditional use permit application, a building 25 feet higher than the 45-foot limit “allows for vital housing units to help mitigate the city’s Housing Action Plan needs and projections and provide[s] for the necessary economic offset of the costs associated with providing exclusive parking to the city and earmarked parking for the Waterfront Center.”
Anian Shores would include 79 middle- and high-income units and house 83-166 residents, according to the SEPA application.
On the ground floor would be five stores employing a combined 20-25 workers and a restaurant, which would be built at the corner of North Oak and West Front streets, where an existing building would be demolished.
The parking garage, accessible from West Front Street and the alley between West Front and West First streets, would be built west of the residential portion of the structure.
It would be supplemented by 35 additional outdoor parking spaces also accessible from the alley. According to the SEPA application, parking would be made available to 104 residents.
It would be available at specified times to 100 employees of the state Department of Social and Health Services on West First Street, 116 workers in adjacent businesses, and 216 patrons of the Waterfront Center, whose Field Arts & Events Hall is under construction.
According to the traffic study, trip generations were calculated assuming Anian Shores would contain 79 apartments with ground-level retail totaling 3,225 feet and a 2,775-square-foot “high turnover, sit-down restaurant.”
The trip generations were calculated assuming the project will have 79 apartments, with 3,225 square feet of ground level retail space and a 2,775-square-foot restaurant.
The traffic study focused on intersections at West Front and North Oak streets, East Front and Laurel streets and East Front and North Lincoln streets.
State Department of Transportation standards for traffic intersections would not be exceeded by vehicle traffic generated by the development, the consultant concluded.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
