During last night’s Zoning Board meeting, the Board got to hear on the 348-unit variance request at 38 Jackson Street. Dennis Shah, whose family owns the property, as well as his attorney and 2 architects, spoke about the project. Members of the Board and public were allowed to question each of these individuals. No decisions were made as the application was carried to September 21st.
At the September meeting, it is expected that the developer’s planner, engineer, and traffic consultant will make presentations. Once again, members of the public and the Board will have the opportunity to question them. There will then be a public portion where members of the public can get up and offer their opinions on the application, and make their case either for or against granting such variances.
The application itself calls for the redevelopment of an entire City block. Some of the details include:
Principal Use – Industrial zone to Residential
Lot Coverage – 60% to 96.5%
Building Height – 2 stories to 13 stories and <40 feet to 135 feet
Floor Ratio – 1.25 ratio to 6.26 ratio
During the meeting, the developer and his team constantly discussed what they considered to be substantial community givebacks. They referred to a specific area of the development as a “pocket-park” that would add much needed open and green space. This drew heavy criticism by some folks, with one person calling it simply a ‘landscaped entrance’ to the building. Another giveback was a community room that would be available to the City or any member of the public. It would be owned by the developer and would be available to rent for a variety of purposes.
All in all, these givebacks equated to approximately 7,000 sqft. However, as one member of the Zoning Board mentioned, if these variances were granted, the allowable square footage would increase from about 100,000 to 600,000. Therefore, by allowing the developer to utilize an additional 500,000 sqft, the community would in return receive about 7,000 sqft worth of givebacks. This specific Zoning Board member didn’t seem too impressed by that tradeoff.
Another topic of high discussion was the unit breakdowns of the proposed development. Currently, the developer has the breakdown being: 19 Studio, 170 1-BRs, 139 2-BRs, and 20 3-BRs. Several members of the public and Board discussed their desire to have a larger amount of 3-bedroom units. The architects’ response was that these are planning details that could be addressed at a later point. Not sure if they were referring to later when the Planner speaks, or later as in after the application process.
Lastly, many members of the public were concerned about the potential traffic problems that a development of this size could produce. Mr. Shah passed on discussing this issue, as did both architects. This should be brought up during September’s meeting when the traffic consultant speaks.
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