Design plans for a three-story, 36-unit multi-family housing complex on Rainier Street met with general approval recently by the Port Townsend Design Review Advisory Subcommittee.

Bill Gustavson, along with his son Elliott, has proposed having the primary facade of the apartments face Rainier Street with an onsite manager’s building facing toward Ninth Street, to the south.

Under the presented plan, parking would be located in the rear of the complex, behind both of the buildings.

Along Rainier Street, open-style fencing would be installed and integrated with landscaping to provide privacy for residents on the first floor and an open courtyard at the corner of Rainier Street and Ninth Street would feature free-standing barbecue pits and tables. Additional outdoor seating would be located on the north side of the parking lot. 

John McDonagh, senior planner for the city of Port Townsend, said the Gustavsons had done quite a good job responding to the city’s design guidelines. 

“The applicant has gone through and responded ... to the design guidelines,” McDonagh said.

“There’s quite a bit of text in every one of those guidelines to look at and evaluate … I’ll say, by and large, of the 11 guidelines, nine of them are pretty easily met by the project, they’ve done a great job with that,” he added. “They’re either met wholeheartedly, or can be met through the use of some conditions.”

McDonagh said he had already raised the issue of tweaking the landscaping plan with Elliott Gustavson, who he said appeared receptive to the suggestion.

“We do understand that landscaping needs a little bit of work, so we’re going to be working on that,” Gustavson told the committee members shortly before technical difficulties during the video conference interrupted his comments. 

“They have plans to submit a full landscaping plan at a later date with the building permit,” McDonagh noted in lieu of coherent audio coming from the group.

In response to the proposed plan, Ellen Thomas — who lives nearby along Eddy Street — was worried about how the area’s green spaces could be impacted by the new construction.

“I purchased my home because of the wonderful green belt at the end of my street and the quiet privacy that I currently enjoy,” Thomas said in an email to the city. “I must admit that I’m worried about how this new construction will change my lifestyle.”

“While I am in favor of affordable housing in Port Townsend, it’s important to remember that all new construction comes at a cost,” she added. “For me, that cost will be a reduction in privacy, a possible increase in noise, and almost guaranteed rise in the amount of foot traffic that will pass by my house each day.”

Thomas said she’d hoped those in charge of the project would consider keeping as many trees as possible, using best construction practices for noise reduction, minimizing bright lights, and placing any shared spaces closer to the business park and farther away from the neighborhood.

Bob Doyle, a member of the review committee, asked if the building’s plan was in line with guidelines for pedestrian access between the main street fronting of the building to the parking area.

“It’s not a big deal, architecturally, to move the front off of the parking lot and have it facing Rainier Street. The only problem is access to the front,” Doyle said. “You would probably do well to break a couple of the units and put a 5-foot or 6-foot pedestrian path through. I don’t think it would be a big deal to do that, I think that could be done fairly easily.”

“We need to come to some agreement on this, I think, because if we don’t meet the guidelines, I’m afraid it’s going to be a problem,” he added.

McDonagh took the advice in stride.

“I think we’ve been working with them long enough with this, we’ve discussed possibly breaking the building up …I think it’s OK as a single building,” McDonagh said. “You guys are making the recommendation here ... and if you think the building should be broken up to provide that connection, you can make that recommendation.”

In response to a question from committee member Rick Jahnke, Gustavson said his team would work to provide a clearer design showing how grading would be addressed in the project’s final construction for the complex’s connection to Rainier Street.

Ultimately, the committee gave unanimous approval to the group’s submitted design drawings as they were presented, with the caveat that the architect and staff continue to explore better consistency with the city’s guidelines on fencing and orientation.