Update From Recent Meeting With Talaris Developers

4000 Property (Talaris) Concept Plan November 2012

as presented at the LCC Board Meeting

Several readers sent us updates after attending the Laurelhurst Community Club's Monthly Board meeting on Monday where the developers (George Thurtle, John L. Scott, Consultant to 4000 Property LLC; Brent Carson, Van Ness Feldman Gordon Derr) who own Talaris Conference Center (4000 NE 41st Street), presented one of their options for development of the 18 acre property.

Here are comments we received from neighbors who attended the meeting:

The developer wants to build 8 larger homes ( around $1M each) on the 41st Street lawn area, a parking garage on the northwest part of the property and build other dwellings where existing buildings are now, keeping the water feature, from what I remember....

Everything is REALLY in the preliminary stages.  I was in a panic going up to that meeting and came out a lot less worried because they aren’t far along at all in the process.

The Talaris representatives are in the very early stages of deciding how best to develop the property.  Whatever they do, the current plan is to retain the water feature and most of the plantings and keep the property as neighborhood friendly/park-like as possible.  They are welcoming input from neighbors and plan to have more meetings in the future.  No permits for construction have been requested or issued at this point.


And one neighbor's comments we received after our post on Monday:

I was unable to attend the meeting but would like to share my thoughts via the Blog if possible. I appreciated hearing about the meeting regard to Talaris but was very disappointed in the short notice. This is a very important impacting issue for this neighborhood.

It literally feels like Laurelhurst is being squeezed out of existence as the peripheral areas continue to be bought up by UW, Children's, and retail and commercial business. It is the slow destruction of a single family neighborhood. High density housing, high traffic volume, noise, air pollution, water contamination from vehicles, destruction of green space and natural habitat all for the sake of growth.

Over the last 10 years Union Bay, University Village and Sand Point Way areas have been inundated with extensive commercial and retail growth along with the student housing condos and high density housing.

I think the Laurelhurst neighborhood presents a buffer in an already over buitl area. It should be preserved for its uniqness as a single family neighborhood not defaced to satisfy the wants of existing retail and business entities.