What Exactly Are the Development Rules on Mercer Island?

I keep coming back to the subject of development, especially when I drive by a new mega mansion looming over its neighbors, all the trees on the lot cut down.

And occasionally old growth trees are coming down via development and windstorms. That’s natural, but few young evergreens are growing up in neighborhoods. I fear in 50 years Mercer Island will be some shadeless, denuded LA-lookalike suburb. I exaggerate, but not by much (see Issaquah).

Not Mercer Island. Not even Issaquah. LA.

The Rate of Change

Let’s look at the data. A Redfin search shows that 195 new homes either are on the market now or were sold in the last three years. I’m defining a new home as one built in 2000 or later. That’s not complete data, and it doesn’t tell us how many megamansions were built and how many of those lots were all but clearcut. But net 200 homes isn’t a bad rate of development.

The Law

So what’s in place to retain the character of the Island?

• The Mercer Island’s Comprehensive Plan provides for between 800-odd to 1,700-odd new homes. It says “Currently, the island is almost fully
  developed, consistent with the long term goals of maintaining a single family residential community within a unique physical setting (pg.3)… The City is committed to implementing policies aimed at preserving and enhancing the Island’s physical characteristics. Regulatory tools such as the Zoning Code, Subdivision Ordinance, Critical Lands Regulations, Shoreline Master Program, Tree Ordinance and Design Standards continue to serve as the underpinning for protection of environmental values.(pg. 7)”
• Mercer Island has surface area restrictions, which means that development can cover a max of 40% of a lot (for flat lots). But you can get a permit for an exemption, and Jason notes in the comments on an earlier blog: “there are ways around square footage restrictions and many, many exceptions to the rules on impervious surfaces — with offsets and exempted uses, etc.” I don’t know how many surface area exemptions have been granted by permit.
• For any major development, the Design Commission must approve the project according a defined process with citizen comment. Major development is typically large buildings (like the new Boys & Girls Club) and new development in the North Island Commercial Center.

Avoid Issaquah

Let’s be clear: I believe in property rights. People who own land should be able to do what they want with it, like build on it, within certain limits set by the community. I’m not against all development, or tearing down old homes to build new ones.

I just don’t want Mercer Island to look like Issaquah (sorry Issaquah):

No trees, no style.

Photo credit: JannK for LA and youngster for Issaquah.

Listen to the Trees

Or at least the Mercer Island Arborist, who can be presumed to speak for the trees. I left her a message a while back after a fierce windstorm. She was very nice when she called me back.

I was asking whether we should be concerned about the tall trees in the neighborhood blowing down. We bought our house from owners who had cut down three tall trees in the last two years, weakening the grove around. That seems to be common around the Island– groves are thinned over time, and there are few young trees.

My understanding of the MI tree situation based on our conversation:

Planting and Cutting Down Trees

If you remove trees from a grove, the grove is weaker than before. Planting new trees is great: the city lets people plant trees wherever they like and whatever they like, although there are some restrictions in certain geologic hazard area like streams, wetlands, or steep slopes.

They also encourage people not to plant big tall trees in the middle of someone’s view. That’s being a good neighbor.

To cut down trees, you need a permit two years before and two years after construction. That’s to avoid clearcuts, although those have happened. The commercial zone needs permit to remove anything because those buildings went through design review.

Also, what many people don’t know is that right of way trees (on roads) are protected. Parks and easements are also protected. And state and federal regulations protect our 6 eagle circles (there’s a map in city hall).

Health of the Island’s Grove

The arborist couldn’t make a statement on this but did note that we have had a lot of construction on the Island, and we still have a lot of great trees. More info from the city is here.

And by the way, Arbor Day is April 11.

How to Get Trees

There are plenty of nice nurseries around: Squak Mountain, Bellevue Nursury, Wells Medina and Molbaks. The Arbor Day Foundation will also send you ten trees with a $10 membership. Most of the choices are short or flowering trees, except the Eastern Red Cedar option which can grow to 40 feet.

40 feet isn’t so tall in the West.

If you plant a tree or two, you’ll need to water it through the summer. Plant tall trees in places where they can support each other, since single tall trees are much weaker than groves. It might help keep the Island semi-wooded after the big construction boom of the last few years.

Bonus Link: Hour of Darkness

In other tree-hugging news, the Reporter notes that Mercer Island had joined the national hour of darkness tonight between 830 and 930 pm. Parks and city facilities are shutting off lights and the city’s asking homes to do so as well.

Photos: Top, caitlinburke on flickr. Bottom: fcps.edu.

The Modern and the Inane

It’s time for more house porn. First, from the blog of House and Home Design, a modern lake house by Hutchison & Maul Architects.


I love how the perspective of the living room draws you to the horizon:

There are more pictures on the architect’s site.

And some ranting on not-so-beautiful McMansions by architect Jerry Gropp on Rain City Guide. He’s a man of few but scathing words: “Mercer Island and a lot of other nice places are being overrun by “Spec Builders” madly producing these oversize boxes with their wide white trim. Other tell-tale touches of their indifferent computer-driven drafting (don’t call it “design”) are the tapered posts with pasted on faux river rock.”

A study in contrasts.

Info Porn: The Evolution of Mercer Island

The site PropertyShark is worth a look. It’s got all kinds of data, like demographics and zoning. Here’s a map (in two pieces) of the age of MI homes.

Notable on North Island is the group of older homes in Mercerdale, the first neighborhood on the Island.

South Island is much newer, with a cluster of pre-1949 and pre-1925 homes on the East side of the Island.

Together, these maps say a lot about the settlement pattern of the Island:

• The oldest homes (dark blue) are primarily on North Island.
• A few other old homes are around the edges of the Island. These must have been built as vacation homes with only boat access.
• The newest homes (magenta) are also around the edge, showing where property values have encouraged owners and developers to tear down and build anew.
• The majority of homes in the inner neighborhoods were built between 1950 and 1969.

Those old houses on the east Island waterfront are intriguing. Does anyone know their story? Who built them, when, and why?

Thanks, PropertyShark.

More Traffic Lights on the Island? And a Roundabout

The Mercer Island Reporter reports that the council is considering two new lights downtown, at 27th and 77th and 78th. Not to overdramatize the situation, but our 4-light island is threatening to turn into a teeming metropolis of tense, sweaty people trapped in cars! Actually, the new lights sound like a good idea. But blinking red at off-hours, please.

The article also contains a review of what was, apparently, a very lengthy debate over the options at Island Crest Way and Merrimount:

1. keep the current four-lane configuration, which would require an expansive expansion;
2. or use three lanes only, with two travel lanes and a center turn lane. The three-lane configuration would extend to 42nd st.

Recap: council leans toward center lane.

As someone who will probably spend up to eight full days of my life trying to take a left on Island Crest Way, I applaud that leaning and hope it will crystallize into a decision.

Even my husband, who drives swiftly and curses at speed-impaired drivers, says Island Crest needs to slow down- it’s frikkin’ crazy. He suggests a roundabout there. Oh, and some trees down the middle so it doesn’t look like a concrete highway.

Any passionate convictions out there? Four-lane option, three-lane option, or roundabout?

Photo credit: Roomman on Flickr.

Eastside Mansions Invade Mercer Island

Granted, it’s a slow invasion and I haven’t been here for most of it. But I have noticed how the Seattle area has changed in in the last few years: there are many more mega-mansions among the normal homes with character.

In fact, several of the new houses on Mercer Island seem to be aesthetic refugees from the excesses of Bellevue. Last week we were driving through a North Mercer Island neighborhood- nice homes, yards, taste. Suddenly: a massive house with columns. Can you pick it out?

It’s the one hulking over its neighbors, clocking in at 4,363 square feet, 4 fireplaces, 3-car garage, with no yard left. Here’s a closer look:

Just around the corner, we were driving down a pretty street

When we saw this guy, also new construction, with two big stone columns around the door. Why do Eastside mansions always have columns around the doors?

Anyway, to each his own and I’m sure some family will enjoy this house. And I know that there will still be development in this area to meet the growing population. But aesthetics, people, aesthetics! It’s a shame to see neighborly neighborhoods invaded like this.

850 Homes Left

Following up on Two Trees Down, Five Houses Up: The Mercer Island Reporter wrote that there are 270 developable acres left on Mercer Island, and the Island can hold 850 more living units before it reaches its maximum. This includes 203 homes on 66 undeveloped acres and 653 homes on 275 redevelopable acres.

Mercer Island’s Comprehensive Plan, last revised in 2004, said that the Island could accommodate 2,271 new houses, which seemed like a lot to me. The Reporter article also states that the total housing capacity for the Island in 2006 was 1,765 units, and only 10 net new homes were added last year if you account for the ones that were knocked down. That leaves 1,755 units in capacity, not the 850 reported in the same article.

I’ll be honest, the figures are a little hard to get through, and I’m a quant-head. But maybe that’s because it’s still early on a Saturday morning. I’d like to know if it’s 850 or 1,765, since that probably affects whether I’ll be able to take a left on Island Crest Way in the morning to get to work.

In any case, Redfin shows 32 new construction homes for sale in Mercer Island right now, with an average price of $2,472,500. To my surprise, only two are condos, despite all the cranes that you can see around the North Shopping Center.

For a look at some of the new construction going up in Mercer Island, see this $2.65 million mansion on 45th, which kind of looks like a church to me, or this $3.75 million home on E. Mercer Way. Notice the bathrobes in the 8th picture on the E. Mercer Way house- if it’s new construction, whose bathrobes are those? The most expensive new home on Mercer Island goes for $31 million, on 3 acres with waterfornt, on the south end. The address is not disclosed. 

 

Two Trees Down, Five Houses Up

The Mercer Island Reporter today wrote about the destruction of two redwood trees at SE 30th St. and Island Crest Way (“Redwood trees removed for new five-home subdivision.” My reaction was, Not more houses. Isn’t building limited on Mercer Island? Like many of us, my fiancé andI moved here in part because we liked the big yards, wild ravines and tall trees.

The Puget Sound area is growing, and people need houses to live in. I live in a house, so I won’t tell others not to live in a house. And like many of us who have seen lovely wooded hillsides disappear under grids of too-close generic homes, I prefer that we better use existing urban space and avoid sprawl.

Back to the subdivision. Here’s the area in question:

Well, this is private property, and the owner has the right to sell it or subdivide it.

But what are the rules for building and subdividing? The authoritative source,

the Mercer Island Comprehensive Plan, says this:

• “Mercer Island is principally a low density, single-family residential community.” Ok, as expected.
• “Interspersed among the older homes are renovated homes and new homes that are often noticeably larger. ” No kidding. Mercer Island has its share of aesthetically-challenged Eastside mansions.
• “Approximately 95% of all residential land on Mercer Island is currently developed.” Ok, the Island’s developed, and not getting any bigger. Then what about subdivisions?
• “The City of Mercer Island has the capacity for 2,271 additional housing units on properties designated for residential uses through new development on vacant lands and/or through redevelopment of underutilized lands.” More than I expected.
• “The City expects an average of roughly six subdivisions a year, the majority of which will be short plats of four or fewer lots.”

So we’ll continue to see subdivisions, which I think is ok as long we honor this, from the same plan: “Many residential areas of Mercer Island are characterized by large mature tree cover. Preservation of this greenery is an important community value.” Yeah, I like the trees too.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.