This is the incomplete story of one particular house in Ballard. It's a house that was built in 1926, located on a cul-de-sac near 24th Northwest at one end and a park at another. It's a two-story home that owners described as having a "huge amount of room." Room enough for a ping-pong table in the laundry room when their children were teenagers, a two-car garage, a basement workshop. "More house than you ever suspected from the outside," is how an owner described it.

A couple raised three children in this house, replacing the windows and the roof, taking good care of the garden and their neighbors. But when their children left home, the house was too big. After 27 years the couple carefully prepared the house for sale, painted every room and put it on the market. Just the husband was present for the signing of final papers; his wife was grocery shopping. It was October 2006 and the five-bedroom house had sold for $545,000. What the couple didn't realize their 1926 home was never going to be home to another family.

The orange-yellow Notice of Proposed Land Use Action sign appeared in front of the house on April 26th, stating:

"Land Use Application to subdivide one parcel into two unit lots. The construction of townhouses has been approved under Project #6115265. This subdivision of property is only for the purpose of allowing sale or lease of the unit lots. Development standards will be applied to the original parcel and not to each of the new unit lots. Public comments may be submitted thru May 9, 2007."

The house on the cul-de-sac was about to lose its own story and become part of the bigger story of a neighborhood. On-line there were records of the house's past - the side sewer permit and dates of sales. Also on-line were clues to the house's future; three applications on file, one for demolition, one for short subdivision to create two lots, and the application for construction of two single-family residences (one front, one back). Beyond the Proposed Land Use sign the house is as solid as ever, a decent roof, neatly painted, detached garage; a house that could last at least another 80 years.

The area is zoned for Low-Rise, Duplex, Triplex (LDT) and has been since the 1970's. According to a city planner, any lot on this cul-de-sac could have been replaced with multi-family units for years - it just wasn't "economically viable until now." The city planner volunteered that including a public comment period "looks kind of strange in this case." The public is not being asked to comment on demolition, nor on the proposed town houses, those are essentially approved already. Under state law it's the proposed land subdivision for legal purposes that needs to be communicated, by sign and mailings to neighbors within three hundred feet. There is no public comment that could actually change the future of this house.

The former owners moved east of the mountains to be closer to family. They check on their former home every other month or so and had noticed that it looked "kind of quiet." I called them to ask about their memories of living in the house, the nicest looking house scheduled for demolition that I have ever seen. They didn't know that it was going to be demolished, had no idea that they had sold their home to a developer. The woman wondered if her former neighbors know about it. She had lived in Ballard all of her life and she still misses everyone from that block. From the other room her husband wondered aloud what would happen to the sink that was perfect for cleaning fish. What would happen to their plants, the newly replaced windows? Would parts of the house be salvaged? There was shock, acceptance, second-guessing and then indignation.

"When you sell it, you sell it," the former owner said, "and you move on with your life, but...well, I didn't see the family that bought the house." The man they called the buyer is known as the developer to the architect listed on the project board. He signed the papers using his name; the permit application lists a construction company comprised of his initials.

There are houses in Ballard that weren't built to last, lack a foundation, are no longer up to code, with valid reasons to be sold "as is." Dwellings not homes, that filled a housing need during various local boom times in timber and fishing. The boom in Ballard right now is for land. Wherever there is at least 2,000 square feet of land, another "unit" can be built. No matter that this particular house was built to accommodate a large family; that's not its value anymore. The $545,000 was an investment based on an anticipated percentage return, for profit.

The former owner tries and tries to remember the buyer, but she was out that day. "He didn't require an inspection," she recalls. "Which made it easy for us." In hindsight it seems to her like the only clue.

As I stroll through the neighborhoods, I look at houses differently now and wonder about their stories. "Walk through Ballard and you'll see a thousand of these signs," the city planner told me. Forget the children who played in the yards or the ping-pong table that fit into the laundry room. The Notice of Proposed Land Use Action signs are the future; appearing in front of houses that were never meant to last, and ones that were. It's the final chapter in the story of this particular house, but just the latest one in the story of Ballard.

Peggy's e-mail is atlargeinballard@yahoo.com. She writes additional pieces for the PI's Neighborhood Webtown at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/ballard/.