Two mature trees that have been evaluated to be in poor condition will be removed from the site, the parking lot behind the building off Sangamore Road will be reconstructed, and a 5' to 8.5' retaining wall will be added along the parking lot's northern edge. The new parking lot will contain only 13 parking spaces for the 17 units, a plan that may be of concern to nearby residents. Under the existing zoning ordinance, the building should have 24 spaces, but MPDUs have lower parking requirements. MPDUs will almost certainly generate a few more students than currently live in the building for the Walt Whitman cluster.
On the positive side, the existing appropriate height and density of the property will now be preserved, and the naturally-occurring affordability of Brooke Park will be retained. Under the previous plan, there would have been a total net loss of affordable units here. The Planning Board is scheduled to take up the HOC plan at its July 19, 2018 meeting. Planning staff is recommending approval of the plan, with conditions.
14 comments:
Is it currently a rental building? I wonder who owns it and if and how they will be impacted by the shift to all-affordable housing? Curious as to how it works, not making any judgements here...
@ 5:39 AM - Robert Dyer is a pro-lifer who hates children who have actually been born.
Every sentence of Dyer's article raises more questions than it answers.
"Instead of the original plan's proposal to redevelop the property by adding two floors and converting it to a 10-unit condo building, the HOC plans to simply renovate the existing 17 units as affordable MPDUs."
Adding two stories to the existing two-story building, or demolishing and replacing it with a new four-story building? A building that is twice as high but which has 40% fewer apartments?
"Two mature trees that have been evaluated to be in poor condition will be removed from the site"
Where is Dyer's usual outrage about tree murders?
"The new parking lot will contain only 13 parking spaces for the 17 units, a plan that may be of concern to nearby residents. Under the existing zoning ordinance, the building should have 24 spaces, but MPDUs have lower parking requirements.
How many parking spaces are there now? How many were there in the previous proposal for the four-story building?
"MPDUs will almost certainly generate a few more students than currently live in the building for the Walt Whitman cluster."
How many students currently live in that building? How many does Dyer anticipate living in the renovated building?
I cannot figure out why people who evidently dislike Robert Dyer feel compelled to visit his website and make disparaging comments about his posts. Why don't you just go somewhere else and leave the site alone? Nobody wants to hear from you.
Dyer has built the first all digital local news network in MoCo.
Anonymous is toiling away, hasn't sniffed a promotion in years and is taking out his frustrations on Robert Dyer.
"Dyer has built the first all digital local news network in MoCo."
How come the only praise for Robert Dyer comes from anonymous comments on his own blog?
Dyer wrote: "The original plan's proposal to redevelop the property by adding two floors and converting it to a 10-unit condo building""
@ 7:14 AM asked: "Adding two stories to the existing two-story building, or demolishing and replacing it with a new four-story building? A building that is twice as high but which has 40% fewer apartments?"
It's surprising that Dyer can't even be bothered to go to his own archives to explain that proposal more clearly. His article from April 2013 notes that the proposal was for "12 4-story townhomes" which is much more clear than the pile of crap he just wrote above.
9:05 AM Praise? I don't know what you mean by that. He is sourced everywhere, by old and new media.
The only place I've seen Dyer "sourced" is on BB.
11:23 AM Eater, Curbed, Racked, UrbanTurf, WMAL, HuffPost, Yahoo News, Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, WNEW etc....the list goes on
Dyer breaks news and is widely sourced. The first all digital news network covering MoCo.
11:16 AM Thank you for taking time from your intern salary miserable job to post that comment!
11:46 AM Unlike you, I don't need to work. Old money.
2:20pm is my favorite neckbeard.
He is so proud of himself finding old Dyer material.
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