Developer Casey Roloff starting home construction in Seabrook

Developer Casey Roloff is getting ready to begin construction of homes in Seabrook, the first full-scale new urban beach development on the West Coast. The project in Pacific Beach, Washington, occupies 88 acres and is planned for 400 housing units centered on a main street. The designer is new urbanist Laurence Qamar, formerly of Lennertz Coyle & Associates (now LCA Town Planning & Architecture), and Duany Plater-Zyberk. Groundbreaking took place in July. More than half of the lots were reserved by the end of September, prior to construction of the first house. “It has the potential to do something similar for the Washington Coast that Seaside did for the Florida Panhandle,” says Qamar. The Washington Coast is economically depressed — like the Panhandle of 20 years ago — and overlooked as an locale for beach towns and second-home resorts, he explains. Qamar would like Seabrook to change the image of the Washington Coast and set an example for a new urban pattern of growth. Roloff was inspired by Seaside. Like the Florida town, Seabrook will be traversed by a coastal highway that passes by the town center. The character of the project will differ greatly from Seaside, however — the layout and the architecture are based on Pacific Northwest vernacular style. Partly based on the success of Roloff’s smaller new urban project Bella Beach — also designed by Qamar when he was with Lennertz Coyle — Seabrook is generating strong presales. As of September 23, there were 201 reservations. The site is spectacular, Qamar says — it sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean and is surrounded by Northwest conifers. Thirty-eight percent of the acreage will remain in permanent open space. Qamar is employing what he calls “green urbanism,” which in this case includes preservation of sensitive environmental areas and reduction of stormwater runoff. One technique is to use “cut through curbs” that allow water to enter swales and infiltrate the soil. The Seabrook plan calls for a public walkway between the beach-front houses and the beach. This idea harkens back to older beach towns with walkways and boardwalks. New urban beach neighborhoods on the East Coast like Seaside, Rosemary Beach, and East Beach include many access points to beaches, but have stopped short of making the entire water frontage public.