3rd Departure Meeting Scheduled for New Thornton Creek Elementary School, plus the SEPA DNS Issued

3rd Departure Meeting for New Thornton Creek Elementary
Wednesday, July 23rd, 6:30PM
Thornton Creek Elementary Cafeteria

Two previous departure meetings (June 3rd and July 9th) have been held for the new Thornton Creek Elementary School already to discuss 3 requested departures” from the Seattle Land Use Code since there is no zone where schools are allowed.  The 3 requested departures include:

1. Greater than allowed building height: Necessary to accommodate a mechanical penthouse on the roof of the school building and enclose mechanical equipment.
2. Less than required on-site parking: Proposing to provide 63 parking spaces for the on-site parking spaces as required per code.
3. Continuation of on-street bus loading and unloading: Load buses along 40th Ave NE for the new Thornton Creek Elementary while the remaining Decatur building and future school program would load along 43rd Ave NE.

The Departures Committee, which is a group of community and school district representatives compiled by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, will prepare a recommendation to the City of Seattle who will ultimately approve or deny the departures.  Conditions may be imposed on the approval of some of these conditions.

SEPA DNS Issued

Additionally, the Seattle Public School District has issued their State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) for project.  This document states that the project will have no significant environmental impact.  The appeal period, which was supposed to close today, has been extended to Friday, July 25th at 5PM.  A written notice of appeal can be submitted to: