Olympia to launch search for Boulevard Road housing developer
Three years after buying land in southeast Olympia to stop a proposed subdivision, the city is preparing to select a developer to build multifamily housing on a much smaller footprint on the site.
For the 10-acre parcel at 3900 Boulevard Road, the city wants to see housing for median-income families with two-, three- and four-bedroom units and housing costs less than 30 percent of household income.
Its wish list also includes environmentally sustainable design that reflects the character of the neighborhood and includes commercial space, according to a draft request for qualifications scheduled to go out next month.
The land is zoned for residential multifamily. The draft request for qualifications lists the minimum average density at 8 units per acre and the maximum average at 18 units per acre. This can include town houses, cottages, apartments or a combination.
“It’s going to be a multifamily, mixed-use project that is affordable but also driven by the market. And the sooner that we move forward with this the better,” Keith Stahley, interim assistant city manager, said in a presentation to the City Council on Tuesday.
The city agreed to buy the property more than three years ago, part of a larger purchase of 72 acres known as the Bentridge property for $6.9 million. It also bought an adjacent 74 acres for $5 million.
Both sites border LBA Park and were slated for large housing developments. Residents with the LBA Woods Park Coalition lobbied city officials to buy the undeveloped land to preserve it.
Of the 72 acres on the Bentridge site, the city set aside 59 acres for parkland, 3 acres to extend Log Cabin Road between Boulevard and Wiggins roads and 10 acres for housing. (The road extension is still in the works but several years out.)
Now, the city hopes to sell the 10 acres, which it says was assessed at $2.2 million last year, to a developer and work with that developer to refine plans for the site, with construction starting in 2021.
“We need to have something that’s buildable. And the way to do that is to actually go out and find a development partner and do that work with them in partnership and with the community and move this forward in that manner,” Stahley said.
The request for qualifications is slated to go out in early January with responses due in early February. The City Council will have the final approval on the selection.
The developer would then have 180 days to negotiate terms on a purchase and sales agreement for the property and would get $25,000 in matching grant funds for neighborhood engagement, concept renderings and such.
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
