Laurelhurst Blog: Details About Large Home And Accessory Structures Being Built On Surber Drive

Home and additional structures under construction at 3939 NE Surber Drive

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Architects drawing of completed structures

Several Blog readers have sent email about a very large modern home under construction 3939 NE Surber Drive.

One neighbor, after reading the recent Blog post detailing last week's Public Hearing on side yard/backyard houses on undersized lots in SF zone and proposed building code changes in the neighborhood and around the City, wrote about the multiple buildings going up on the property:

How about the enormous modern house being into a lot skinny lot? That is very disturbing.

One Home Per Lot. a city-wide grassroots group monitoring large homes built on side and backyards of existing homes, told us that actually the development, located on the edge of Lake Washington, is not actually a short-plat, a splitting of one lot into two lots, or a backyard / side yard house, it is a huge house being squeezed in between the two other big houses on either side. The lot size is 35,281 square feet, "very big" the group said.

The former owner demolished the original house in 2005 and the new owner iwho bought the house a year later, is building a new house on the existing lot, with three detached accessory structures, a garage, a kayak storage space, a pool and a pool room, One Home Per Lot told us.

DPD (Department of Planning and Development) describes the project, which has been going on for about nine years as:

Establish use as single family dwelling and construct one family dwelling with detached accessory structures (garage, kayak storage, pool and pool room).

Along with the change in owners in 2006 came a change in the plans for the project according to these details provided by One Home Per Lot:

11/14/05 Single family residence demolished by RALPH L SWANSON, who purchased the property in 2005. Demolition included the removal of contaminated soil from underground fuel storage tank.
11/14/05 Permit issued to construct Single Family Residence per plan.
12/12/06 The permit expired; the house was not complete.
RONALD K TANEMURA & TINA M YAMAGIWA took over the project in 2006
6/6/08 Land Use Application to allow a new, two story, 7,003 sq. ft. single family residence in an environmentally critical area. Parking for three vehicles will be provided in a detached garage.
The applicable permits have been renewed ever since.
The contractors/architects changed with the plans. The current architect/contractor is Tyler Engle Architects whose plans of putting a big house on a big lot, squeezed in between two other big houses on big lots can be viewed here.