The future Compass Center site at 1753 N.W. 56th Street, which has been a dirt lot since a vacant house was torn down in June, will be planted over with grass in the near future.

"It will look a little more like a meadow," Compass Center Program Director M.J. Kiser said at the Sept. 9 Ballard District Council meeting.

In June, Compass Center Executive Director Rick Friedhoff said grass would be planted at the site as part of the demolition of the vacant structure. The lot was touted as the neighborhood's newest open space.

As of Sept. 10, the lot was still vacant dirt.

Kiser said the grass hasn't been planted yet because they missed the planting season, but now that the rain has returned, grass will be planted.

The Compass Center, a low-income housing provider, is a few years away from building the Ballard development, Kiser said. The Center owns the property, but she said they are in the process of raising funds to build the project.

The site will become a seven-story, 80-unit development to provide permanent housing for homeless men and women, Kiser said.

An architect for the project told the Ballard District Council that they want a neighborhood-feeling to the building, with transparency on the ground floor and pedestrian amenities.

She said her firm designed the Majestic Bay Theater in Ballard and wants to keep things simple in the design for the Compass Center.

In the meantime, members of the community have expressed interest in using the lot as a park or neighborhood garden.

Kiser said the Compass Center is open to ideas but is wary of creating any uses in the lot that neighbors would be devastated to see leave when it is time to start construction.