By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Early last year, the18-acre property at 4000 NE 41st St in the Laurelhurst neighborhood was sold to a company owned by Medina residents Bruce and Jolene McCaw.

Bruce McCaw, a founder of McCaw Cellular Communications (the company now known as AT&T Wireless), and his wife have long had an interest in early brain and behavioral development. The couple are backers of Talaris Research Institute, a 1-year-old non-profit company involved in researching early brain and behavioral development. Talaris works closely with the University of Washington's Center for Mind, Brain and Learning.

Talaris is planning a major redevelopment of the 18-acre Laurelhurst property. The first phase of the construction project includes the addition of a 124,000-square-foot,30-foot-tall building that is scheduled to be completed in 2004. A second planned phase of construction calls for the construction of a second building that would also be 30 feet in height and would offer up to163,000 square feet of space. However, according to Talaris' Web site "there are currently no specific plans nor a timeframe for a second phase."

The redevelopment project is being designed by Dorm Anderson of NBBJ Architects in downtown Seattle. Anderson is the architect who, in 1963, designed the Laurelhurst property's current occupant and one-time owner, the Battelle Memorial Institute, a technology research group.

Battelle sold the property several years ago to ERA Care Inc., a group that proposed building a senior housing facility on the property, in the late 1990s, but ultimately chose to sell it instead to the McCaws.

According to Bob Wicklein, project manager for the Talaris construction project, Battelle's lease lasts until 2005. After that, it isn't known whether or not the organization will stay in Laurelhurst. Wicklein said three of the nine buildings currently located on the site will have to be torn down to make way for the Talaris project. The remaining six will continue to house a conference center with lodging and dining areas.

Throughout the property's ownership changes, the Laurelhurst Community Club has been monitoring the various redevelopment proposals for the site. In 1991, the community council entered into a settlement agreement with then-owners Battelle in a response to impacts on the neighborhood from the site including traffic and parking problems. The new owners of the site are also bound by that agreement.

Jeannie Hale, president of the Laurelhurst Community Club, said neighbors of the Talaris property have several concerns regarding the proposed construction project, one of which regards the number of parking spaces that would be added to the site. Wicklein said Talaris is currently planning to add 204 parking spaces to the property's 270 existing spaces.

Hale said neighbors are concerned that the expanded research lab will attract more workers than the on-site parking facilities will be able to accomodate, even with the addition of the extra parking spaces. "We already don't have enough parking the area," Hale said. "We just don't want it to get worse."

The community club has hired two consultants of its own, Robert Bernstein and Carol Eychaner, to evaluate Talaris's plans. In a letter to the City's Department of Design, Construction and Land Use, Eychaner identified several areas of concern including a smaller number of parking spaces than Laurelhurst's settlement agreement calls for and plans for a new access road which may be inconsistent with the agreement on landscaping. The Laurelhurst Community Club is considering hiring a wetlands consultant to review the plans as well.

"We think we're in full compliance with the settlement agreement," said Wicklein. "In our opinion ... the settlement agreement doesn't define parking for this particular use (a research and development lab). He then added, "we do not intend to have any overflow parking into the neighborhood."

The draft environmental impact statement for the Talaris redevelopment is expected to be completed early in 2002.

To contact the Laurelhurst Community Club, call 525-5135. (