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Tons of action this week so let's jump straight into some Quick Hits!
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- Unfortunately, it seems that the Kirkwood Apartments, a 60-unit mixed-use proposal that had been approved for the old Commerce Bank site at the corner of Adams and Kirkwood Rd, is once again dead. The news comes after the permit to begin construction on the project, which had already been extended by more than a year, expired early this spring. The developer had a less-than-stellar reputation, but in the end, I have to assume it was stubbornly high interest rates that did the project in. Still, the proposal was almost entirely by-right, requiring the approval for only a few minor variances from the Council, so hopefully someone else can move in and finish the job (and rename it Pullman Place, in honor of the old school that once occupied the site, while they're at it!)
- In potentially better infill housing news, at their next meeting on May 12, the Board of Adjustment will host a public hearing on a new multifamily development being proposed for the adjacent properties at 111 and 1119 W. Rose Hill. At question is whether BoA will approve three variances to the city's landscaping and buffering requirements that have been requested. The R-5 multifamily-zoned lots, which are currently occupied by two single-family homes, sit just outside the Downtown Master Plan area, so they are restricted to a maximum of 14 homes per-acre, meaning we're probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-6 homes on the ~0.45 acre combined site. The only problem is that Kirkwood's zoning code has an insane provision that requires multifamily developments --even something has harmless as five townhomes-- to be separated by any adjacent single-family-zoned lots by a six-foot-tall sound-mitigating fence and then, in front of that fence, a pine tree every 25ft and a bush every 10ft. When you require people to militarize the border between missing middle housing and single-family housing, it turns out there doesn't end up being all that much room for the homes themselves. I hope BoA does the right thing and approves this.
- The only note I have on tonight's City Council agenda is the notice that the legislation to streamline the architectural review process that I noted ahead of its scheduled vote at the April 17th meeting was actually continued to the Council's May 15th meeting (I had assumed the Council had simply approved it). I went back to review the livestream of the meeting (the discussion begins at the 31 minute-mark), but it's a little confusing to figure out what's going on here. CM Jaksetic makes the motion to continue the item arguing that the text change is written so as to undermine its own goals, but then instead of having City Planner Jonathan Raiche come up and explain whether that is indeed the case or not, as CM Luetzow requested, the rest of council pushes through with the continuation. I think cutting red-tape is a pretty universal goal amongst council members but now even our bills to stop pointless delays are getting (potentially) pointlessly delayed! Just ask the expert that's right there in the room with you!
- Quite a bit of news in last week's edition of the WKT:
- On pg. 4-A, Colin Suchland gives a really nice update of the Plowgate story in which Mayor Gibbons states the city is "in total, absolute compliance". That seems like a fairly callous response. Just because you can get away with spending money that was supposed to go towards opiod prevention on a snowplow doesn't mean you should. Would the Mayor and Council change anything if they had the chance to do it over again? They're certainly not sounding very remorseful
- Lower on 4-A, City Council denied Greenbriar's request to heighten the sound-mitigation fence another five feet. I think I'm with the Mayor on this one though. The Council should have let the try it, they still would've had to pass the sound test so I don't see the harm, and it might have helped insulate us from Greenbriar's pending lawsuit against the city.
- On pg. 7-A, Eye on Kirkwood, there are all kinds of updates and activities for you:
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That's it for this week! Have a great weekend everyone!
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