Resident Stalls Pine and Belmont Development

The Slog has an updated on what is going on, or not going on, with the Pine and Belmont development by Murray Franklyn, How a Crusade to Save the Pike-Pine Neighborhood Is Turning an Active Block Into a Gravel Lot—For at Least a Year. In short a Capitol Hill resident, Dennis Saxman, feels that the current design violates city law and is petitioning the King County Superior Court. Earliest something might be built is a year from now:

So while Saxman, developers, and City duke it out downtown, we’re left with a vacant lot on Capitol Hill. It might step up design standards in the neighborhood in the long haul, however unlikely, but in the interim we’re left with a vacant gravel expanse. The space might be better used if it actually were a parking lot.

I’ve been meaning to catch up with Dennis for a month now after first hearing about this on a Capitol Hill mailing list. Fortunately the Stranger has reporters and wrote a pretty thorough blog post.