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Public hearing Wednesday on 180 apartments proposed below Jefferson Park
03/30/2015 9:43 AM by John M
The Board of Zoning Appeals will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, April 1, at 1:00 PM to consider a building permit for a proposed 180-unit apartment building at 1903 East Marshall Street.
PROJECT DETAILS: BZA Case #16-15 (1903 E. Marshall St).pdf
PREVIOUSLY: tagged “1903 East Marshall Street”
who will live in all of these new apartments being built everywhere in and around church hill?
Gordo, Apartment renters will live in them
I love the plans for these apartments. I hope they include some commercial space as well as a green roof though.
I hope if there is parking that it is included in the rent. Otherwise most people won’t pay for it and it will be a mess. And I hope they keep the height appropriate to the surroundings.
As I live right next to this spot, I’m very disappointed to see it go up. It doesn’t fit what we actually need in the area, and is just going to be another apartment building….
Nice old houses and tacky modern apartments. Yeah, that’s a good mix, guaranteed to improve the neighborhood and raise property values.
@6 If you live that close, you should attend the meeting, or at the least write a letter against it and get the letter faxed down to the BZA as soon as possible.
The drawings say 180 units (doesn’t break out by the number of bedrooms) and 125 parking spaces on the 1st floor and 56 spaces on the 2nd. Kinda wish Richmond would make the developer do a traffic study so they can see how this will impact rush hour traffic and the “maybe it’s still viable” ballpark.
Is every square inch of available property in this area going to be developed with these crappy, uninspired, throw-away buildings? It’s really sad and cheapens the area tremendously–a human warehouse. I hope this project meets stiff opposition.
@10 Laura I hope it meets opposition too, but I’m worried about anyone showing up for the hearing, or at least faxing the BZA a letter of opposition. Union Hill Civic Association could probably at least get it postponed so they could organize, but they need to send someone down there to tell BZA that they haven’t been notified (if they haven’t).
Some things needed in that area: a decent hardware/home improvement store. A decent nursery. A decent grocery, for crying out loud. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Nayda, I completely agree Church Hill desperately needs a decent grocery store and a hardware store would be amazing. I really hope that the future of 25th street and Nine Mile rd corridor will bring those things to the community! In my opinion due to the location of this empty plot it only makes sense to build apartments. The things that concern me regarding these plans are parking, congestion on this already awkward stretch of road, and that they want to increase the height.
Parking and traffic on Marshall is a nightmare now, especially around Montessori pickup time. Then we also have the park-and-ride commuters. Getting in and out of Church Hill/SB Valley will be a nosebleed. FWIW, Duke’s dood wants to sell his property this year to an “organic” business. Elwood Thompsons has approached, but asking price is too high.
#14 Oh man I hope they can work that out, I would love an Ellwood’s nearby, then I’d really never have to leave.
It isn’t as if all of the residents will be out driving around at once.
If you want hardware stores and grocery stores, population density needs to increase dramatically.
You will NEVER get there by just building single family homes on all of the vacant lots. Goods and services only come with density. 20th century density doesn’t appeal to 21st century retailers. You can have low density and drive to White Oak (which is insanely close) or high density and walk to Lowes.
cedar-broad apts=204 apts=1.54 ac=132 apts/per/acre
proposed 1903 e marshall apts=180 apts=1.00 ac =
180 apts/per/acre
got enough density yet?
I don’t see how HD/Lowes would EVER come to shockoe or church hill, way too small of an area, plus half of the residents have no need for a hardware store (Live in lofts, apartments, or are renters) Lombardy and White Oak are close enough.
BZA voted to continue the case.
Well done! Elaine, thanks for shouldering the burden of this.
the BZA was set to give the exceptions. Elaine and the civic president got it continued. thank you.
At today’ s BZA hearing, this case was reviewed.
Union Hill Civic Association and Friends of Jefferson Park asked for (1) the building setback on Cedar Street to meet that of the existing historic structures (2) a green roof be added to the structure with the removal and/or better screening of rooftop HVAC mechanical units and (3) garage parking be provided for residents at no additional charge.
Also, we made it clear to the BZA that when discussions with the property owner and the community began in 2007, the landscape and population of Shockoe Valley, Union Hill and Greater Church Hill were vastly different than now in 2015.
In response, a BZA commissioner pointed out that it doesn’t have the authority to support a “go back to the drawing board” for this development. The commissioner went on to explain that the BZA doesn’t have the authority to require additional parking requirements beyond that of the existing zoning for B6. Also, since the form and finish of the structure was approved by CAR requests for a green roof was outside its purview.
We tried.
For me, personally, this was an informative civics lesson about zoning code and why it’s important to attend and speak at CAR hearings when a project is first discussed and again when it goes up for final review.
The BZA voted today to grant the developer’s project as currently drawn and approved by CAR in 2014. No conditions (re above) were added.
thanks for attending, elaine. The Cedar alignment was a big one for me. Now I guess I will have to figure out how to petition to get 2 hour parking 8-5 on surrounding streets. FWIW the city was planting trees on the 1900 block of Marshall today. WTF.
Elaine thank you for trying. And for sharing the lessons learned as I think that is important, too.
Thank you Elaine. And thanks to everyone else who attended the BZA meeting this afternoon.