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Lots being cleared at Oakwood Heights parcels
10/09/2014 2:41 PM by John M
After hearing rumors earlier this year that the Oakwood Heights project was showing new life, Thea has video today of trees being cleared from the lots in question.
Dating back to at least 2007, Oakwood Heights is a planned 33 unit apartment complex that will connect the dead ends of Marshall and Broad Streets just east of 36th Street.
The project has been bitterly opposed by neighbors for the high density development on what has been a particularly bucolic section of the neighborhood for many years.
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Post by Thea Duskin.
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The 3600 blocks of East Marshall and East Broad Streets
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The city’s Parcel Mapper map.richmondgov.com/Parcel/
I can’t believe they are letting this kind of density be put in place. I used to live a block away from there and have never understood how Maggie Freund was planning on cramming all those apartments into that area? With parking and access for services/garbage pickup/utlity poles/etc?
Is it still Maggie Freund who is doing this, or did she sell to another developer?
Looks like the same property owner has owned these properties since 2004. A building permit was released this year (June) for an 18 unit apartment building on the north side of Broad and a 15 unit building on the south side of Marshall.
Looks like this is moving forward.
@3 Clay Street, I heard she’d sold to another developer, but I have not checked city records. If you do so, please post, I’m curious too.
Thanks for posting this! They were making noise all day and I couldn’t figure out what it was since I’m down here in the valley. I thought it might be Penn Line again. @Erik, Anderson Street is a leftover from the trailer park that was once there. According to the owner of that lot, it is no longer a right of way. As a property owner, I am very excited to see all the development and hope it’s mid to high income rather than lower like Glenwood Townhomes or Woodcroft Village.
@4 Ryan, so who is the owner? Fulton Hill Properties, or something like that? I’m still curious. Thanks.
I don’t understand why they don’t build houses. I hate when you have houses then an apartment building between other houses… it clashes! I find in a lot of cases, developers are evil people.
Also, this neighborhood is a little-known Buckner’s Plan and Anderson Street is possibly (because I have yet to confirm the north side of Government Rd) one of three streets along with Elam and Curtis streets in Anderson’s Addition. I am still looking for the whole plat.
I hate that the new wave of development in our area is so adverse to trees. The solar community in fulton bottom leveled lots of century old trees to cram house on top of each other. ANd this will level a fairly wooded section of our neighborhood. Cant there be a better balance between profit and nature?
We the community and homeowner associations fought this for nearly a year but were overruled by City Council in a vote. If you have concerns about such, you can now contact your present Council rep. but I think to little avail after the fact. This is going to be one of those cases of nobody really realizes how bad this is going to be for 33 apartments mixed in with the surrounding historic homes – until it is built and occupied.
FWIW, I fought tooth and nail with Margaret over the development of the Lava Lofts which is in my backyard and put in 52 apartment units. Cynthia Newbille moderated a “conversation” that Margaret and I had at Buzzy’s.
Lava Lofts has now been open for more than a year and added a restaurant space during that time. Margaret has lived up to every promise she made and through clenched teeth I will admit that I was wrong and it adds to my block rather than detracts.
I can’t promise that Oakwood will be the same but I have a lot more faith in FHP doing good things than I used to.
Just a thought (and I admittedly know little about the previous proposals):
The library of Virginia has countless sets of blueprints – both originals and on microfiche – for most of the multifamily buildings in the fan and museum district. Those buildings range from 4 to maybe 16 units. Could the developer be politely encouraged to build something traditional, attractive, and appropriate to the city and neighborhood by using some of those plans as a starting point?
Lee, here’s a little history of the project:
http://chpn.net/news/tag/oakwood-heights/
Maggie does what Maggie wants to do. That is just the way it is. Anyone who complains will be run over.
@CHPN/previous post:
Well, not what I thought that would look like at all… Interesting, I guess. Meh.
I think @14 pretty much sums it up.
I agree with John Vetrovec above and applaud his willingness to share his views so openly. Maggie builds a high quality project. What the neighbors who oppose this fail to see is that this kind of nicely-finished but dense residential product actually operates like the relatively affordable items at an aspirational brand retail store – meaning it is a project that will feed energetic young people and older downsizing people into our brand, Church Hill. People who want Chimbo Park but can’t afford to buy the Bagley Mansion can afford these apartments. If they want to live here, they are interested in in the things you also like about Church Hill. And you know know what? They will support you in a lot of your neighborhood causes – they will also complain to the City about no trash cans at bus stops, how we need improvements to the parks, how we need pedestrian safety/traffic calming at the dead man’s curve of Government Road, etc.
With this, now the far east end of Church Hill might be able to support a Roosevelt or an Alamo destination restaurant.
Also, it’s going to look awesome from street level Broad and Marshall – it will look like row houses from there. It will not loom, the height is all downhill (contrary to what some of the opposition folks said who produced misleading depictions will tell you).
I second John Vetrovec’s comments regarding Ms. Freund and FHP. I also live in the 300 block of N 32nd Street and my property backs up to the Lava Lofts. Ms. Freund was a good neighbor to us and the LL have brought good changes to our part of Church Hill.
I’ve always loved the way Broad Street dead ends in kudzu and woods – it’s a surreal finale. Change is hard and sometimes sad. If I had my way, the end of Broad Street would stay odd and remote but it’s not my land. Development is going to happen and I think we can trust Ms. Freund to do the right thing with the Oakwood project.
I think this project could do a lot of good for the area. And I think the Lava Lofts was a fantastic project! What a wonderful renovation.
Maggie has done tons of good work in Church Hill as well as all over the city. She builds quality product that people want to live in and they respect the surrounding neighborhood. As usual, there are regular neighborhood busy bodies armed with their wet blankets to suppress any changes that don’t meet their ideas of good development.
Lava Lofts was a win and gave the general area a much needed boost. This development will do the same for the 36th Street/ Broad/ and Marshall areas.
Laura, I don’t know that I would call the folks that are concerned about this project ‘wet blankets’. It’s a huge change for the people that live there. In retrospect, it’s crazy that I ever had concerns about the lava lofts project but I did at the time. As someone who greatly appreciates the surreal ‘end of the world’ characteristics of those blocks of e Marshall and e broad, I know that this developement will change that forever.
Actually Kathleen, the wet blankets live approximately 10 blocks away from this development. The folks who live on the affected streets should be thrilled as this will not only improve the aesthetics of the area but also their property values.
I live three doors down from the project and not one neighbor on Broad, Marshall or 36th street is happy about this project, That’s why we fought it for years. There has been alot of back and forth including J.J. Minor (McQuinn’s son) rounding up his associates and having them attend meetings in favor of the project. When i tried to have conversation with some of the supporters they replied “I don’t know anything about it, JJ asked me to do this.” and during the debate over the project the developer donated money to McQuinn’s campaign.
We sure would rather have had nine houses on the nine lots, not the over 30 apartments that are being built. The building is simply out of proportion to the homes on the blocks around the project. However, It is the city of Richmond and developers rule. I am glad Maggie is doing the work based on her past accomplishments, her actually living nearby and the fact Maggie was very civil with me in discussing the project. I hope the construction goes smoothly and rapidly.
I also agree with the change in development if you cluster properties together it is less energy due to party walls and contributes less of a carbon footprint .
I live on 36th St. I’m not entirely thrilled with this area being developed as apartments in a mostly single family neighborhood, but I am happy to see the area developed. I think this end of the neighborhood is a perfect place for some new high end housing. Hopefully more developers have started to see the opportunities for high quality construction in the neighborhood. It would be good for those of us who live here, and it would make them more money than building the quick cheap crap that made them a few bucks in the past.