By Joe Veyera
As the city’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD) reviews an application to locate an Urban Rest Stop on the ground-floor of the Low Income Housing Institute’s (LIHI) Cheryl Chou Court (2014 NW 57th St.), Ballard residents will have the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns at a public meeting at the Ballard Community Center (6020 28th Avenue NW) next Wednesday evening.
The Urban Rest Stop would have free showers, bathrooms, and laundry facilities for homeless men, women, and children, and currently has locations Downtown and in the University District. The proposal to locate the new rest stop in Ballard has raised concerns because of its location in the neighborhood.
According to the DPD, the project needs the following approvals:
- Administrative Conditional Use to allow community center in a midrise zone within 600 ft. of an existing institution (Ballard Branch of Seattle Public Library).
- Administrative Conditional Use to allow an institution in a midrise zone that does not meeting parking requirements.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m., and attendees may also submit written comments.
A copy of the plans for this project, along with other application materials are available at the DPD Public Resource Center (700 5th Avenue, Ste 2000) The center is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
For those who would like to access some of the materials online, the DPD project number for this URS is 3016841 . The project number for the main senior housing project is 6305188 (that is the project that already received a waiver for its normally-required 10 parking spaces; the URS would normally be required to provide an additional 6 parking spaces).
This is the wrong location to locate one of these facilities!
yep, lets keep attracting homeless people from all around the city to ballard…great. I see I giant a trash heap that this vibrant community has contributed under the ballard bridge so that’s cool. hmm, what else can these folks offer the community?
@guesty Apparently a lot more than you can offer?
In real estate its location, location, location.
This is the wrong location. For lots of reasons.
There is a better location for this rather than next to the Library and skate park.
Lihi is a developer with over 40 apartment complexes and 2 other urban rest stops.
They have the resources and expertise to put it in an appropriate location.
I always love seeing all the “”Not In My Back Yard” comments when stories like this comes up…..
From people who would otherwise pretend to care about the less fortunate in our city , well as long as they are poor and depressing somewhere else.
So I assume that you live next door to the proposed facility Alex?
I’m really tired of folks who are not affected by particular actions calling those who are NIMBYs. Often it’s folks who have no idea what they’re talking about. And it closes down any intelligent conversation about land use decisions.