Paul Allen Wins Battle To Remodel His Estate -- Mercer Island Billionaire Gains City Council's OK

MERCER ISLAND - Billionaire Paul G. Allen last night won the third round of a three-month bout with the city over plans for a lavish residence he plans to build on the island's westside waterfront.

The City Council voted 4-3 to grant the variances that Allen's representatives say are required by the project's design.

Allen's wealth yesterday was listed by Forbes magazine at $1.2 billion, ranking him 56th richest in the nation. The 37-year-old co-founder of Microsoft is now president and chief executive officer of Asymetrix, a Bellevue electronics firm which he also founded, and a member of the board of Microsoft.

Since 1983, Allen has owned the mansion at 6451 W. Mercer Way. It was built in 1941 by Horace W. McCurdy, a shipbuilder, heavy-construction magnate and Northwest historian.

Allen added 100 feet of waterfront to McCurdy's original 175 feet, and bought upland property to amass 6 acres.

Besides remodeling the McCurdy home for a second time and adding a waterfront pool and grotto, Allen's plans include an underground garage to house seven vehicles, an auto lift and gasoline pump; a 10,000-square-foot home for his mother, Faye Allen, with space for her 30,000-volume library; a theater/art gallery/star-gazing structure with a small guest house, surrounded by a rose garden; and an indoor sports complex adjacent to West Mercer Way that will include an 8,000-square-foot basketball court and a 12,000-square-foot tennis building with two courts.

The design by Texas architect Charles Moore, who won the project in a worldwide contest, requires that an existing private roadway leading from West Mercer Way to the waterfront home be bridged to connect the two sports buildings, and bridged again to connect Mrs. Allen's house with a den on the north side of the property. Both sky bridges would violate the city's 10-foot setback requirement for streets, contends city planner Anna Rabago.

Allen's attorney, Beth Clark, however, has pointed out that because the roadway serves only Allen's property, it should be considered a driveway and granted a variance.

A second variance request would allow Allen to line the private roadway with rose trellises where it will dive under 77th Avenue Southeast, another private road that serves several other homes and terminates in Shore Lane.

City hearing examiner Ron McConnell in late July denied the variances.

Clark said the variances would, by using the existing driveway, preserve maximum privacy and setbacks from the neighbors, result in minimum disruption of ground cover in the meadow area, and preserve large trees on the eastern edge of the upland lot.

Clark said steep topography would make relocation of the driveway difficult; and since the driveway cuts through the middle of the lot, buildings must be designed around it.

Three council members - Linda Jackman, Judy Clibborn and Al Huhs - voted against the variances. But members Fred Jarrett, Jim Horn and Bob Coe, joined by Mayor Elliot Newman, decided to grant the variances.

The Allen project will come before the council at least once more. Upon Horn's suggestion, the staff will put its majority findings in the form of a motion to be voted on Oct. 22.