Here’s an updated rendering of the Candela apartment complex being planned at 5901 236th St. S.W., adjacent to the new Mountlake Terrace light rail station.
The complex will have two eight-story buildings with 425 units, 5,000 square feet of commercial space and a courtyard. There will be underground parking.
The city has approved the plans, which are now in civil/engineering permit review.
As we reported earlier, the owner is Mill Stream Properties LLC. Mill Stream in 2019 had purchased all eight properties in the 59th Place West cul de sac off 236th Street Southwest and leased them back to Sound Transit as a temporary parking lot during light rail construction.
The project is located in the city’s TC-1 zone, one of three zones the Mountlake Terrace City Council approved as part of an updated Town Center plan in 2019. It allows up to 12-story buildings in areas closest to the light rail station.
My question is who do they think will be living in these projects? My guess is theyll turn into homeless shelters because no one in their right mind would pay thousands of dollars a month to live in a —-hole with 425 other —-heads as their neighbor. I suggest everyone flat out reject living arangements like this. This is what they call rock bottom.
…our money spent on concrete and then torn down. All along that street our money was used to provide high-end fencing for mostly derelict homes of which are all absentee owners.
All the Best
Dean Jackson
Mountlake Terrace
Alternative?
When light rail opens in MLT, those apartments will fill with people who work in Seattle but can,’t afford to live in Seattle. I’m not crazy with these changes, but with more people moving to this area there has to be more homes even if they are apartments that you disapprove of.
People will absolutely live in these apartments. It’s a great location with amazing light rail access. Also, what is your suggestion? There is straight up not enough housing in Washington. People need to live somewhere. Are you offering up your house?
I’m personally very excited about this development. Things inevitably change, get onboard.
Of course, all this building construction will ruin MLT, essentially changing the character of the city from a suburban oasis into an overcrowded hellhole.
It’s time to seriously consider relocating while property values are not undermined.
How many underground parking spaces will be provided for the 425 units plus expected commercial traffic? The current code does not require enough spaces per unit since it’s based on the outmoded concept of 1 family per unit and 1 car per bedroom. In reality, due to high rent costs, there is very likely going to be unit sharing, with each resident owning a car, so 2 cars per bedroom. Leases may prohibit that, but people will do it anyway. Overflow cars will park in the transit lot which will mean even fewer commuter spaces in a facility that reaches capacity every day already. Then there will be street parking leading to increased car thefts and prowls. Not everybody moving in will ride bikes, walk, or take mass transit exclusively – this is an aspirational goal only and unlikely to happen, ever. So is MLT PD gearing up for this on top of the increase in calls overall in MLT (based on police blotter entries)? And what about increased demands on the water utility based on the increased population? How long before the expensive water upgrades are insufficient? The civic plans always have left reality out of the equation, and this project appears to have been outdated and insufficient before development even began.
Absolutely correct comments. Most adults and young adult residents will need their own vehicle and it’s ignorant to ignore this for the foreseeable future. The excessive and unrealistic cost of parking in residential buildings and lack of building parking spaces results in street parking as it does now. Most MLT residents go outside the city for services, shopping and eating because there is little available parking and few suitable businesses in MLT
My opinion is this is just another way to force us to give up our cars.
Keep prices up and we will all be working 2 to 3 jobs and we won’t have time for anything but riding to these jobs on a bus. The courtyard will provide the tenants with fast food and starbucks.
Ya, what a joke. There will not be near enough parking as we see at the other apartments down the street. It will attract crime, there was a shooting at the Atlas apartments just last week. It should be turned into commercial space because we don’t have enough small business in town. We don’t need more people especially if it’s for low income housing. They plan on doing the same thing to 56th, tear up the road for years, drive small businesses out and bring in more low income housing. Born and raised here and im ready to move on.
“Urban Flight”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_flight
Urban flight, sometimes referred to as suburban colonization, is the movement of people from an urban area to its suburbs. The phenomenon is often studied for the effects that it has on the city, especially the reduction of political power and the reduction of tax revenue which occurs as a result of the depopulation.
Yes, that’s Mountlake Terrace’s origin story in a nutshell. Except most folks call it “white flight”
Build it and they will come. Some people resist change, I embrace it. The units will fill and all the tenants will enjoy the proximity to the freeway and the light rail. I applaud the improvements made by the City of Mountlake Terrace to create a new future that allows for the inevitable population density increase. Out with the old, in with the new.
Feel free to “embrace” the ( at least ) couple of hundred more people standing on the MLT LightRail platform.
That’s what it’s built for. For lots and lots of people to use it
I agree. I highly doubt people are going to choose not to live there. When it’s close to the light rail. There are three apart buildings already nearby and they have no problem getting tenants.
The light rail and subsequent improvements are phenomenal. It’s baffling to me how people can still find something to complain about no matter what’s being done. Is it ever good enough. Apparently, no. I’m so glad they did it anyway even though people are going to complain.
Love to see MLT continuing to build increased housing density along 236th, addressing both transportation and housing costs. We’re a long way from eliminating car dependent cities, but building higher density adjacent to public transit centers is a decent step.
Looking forward to this being homes for people instead of an empty parking lot.
And no replacement grocery store…
Oh well…
Ideally, a grocery store at main level with homes above would work. But if this model is replicated with an eye toward reducing car dependency over time, that time off store can be nearby. Making it a requirement for any progress on this lot means zero progress gets made. At the end of the day, we’ve built our towns around cars instead of people, making them harder to get around and far more expensive to live in. I’d love to see this type of development accelerate to solve the concern you’re raising, but I’ll take the baby steps that have made it through the prevalent NIMBYism.
I moved into Mountlake Terrace nearly three decades ago and commuted by car to my job. Now after all these years we finally see apartments and light rail so that people can commute to their jobs downtown without cramming more vehicles on the interstate. This seems like progress to me—especially with house prices so far out of reach for young people.
Living in the city for a while ln nice Spanish type house. Taxes are going up in no direction because property value increases Like mini New York. Leaders have no vision except?
Still waiting for restaurants including seafood restaurants and coffee/sandwich shops. All WITH convenient, close by, usable parking. Be nice to also have a place that actually sells excellent pizza, not thin coverings on cardboard.
Now most existing eating establishments center around drinking which rules out families and quiet dining.
That is a remarkably specific list, Bob. You want fries with that?
What a funny guy…
If the CBD of MLT had these businesses residents wouldn’t be driving to Edmonds and Lynnwood.