A developer’s proposed five-story student housing complex for a vacant Selma Street lot facing the Interstate 16 off-ramp faced the Historic District Board of Review Monday and received another continuation to restudy the overall height and mass of the project.
The complex is the project of CampusWorks, a national developer of student housing communities based in Charlotte, N.C. Forrest Lott, principal architect at local firm Lott and Barber, presented the updated project to the historic board Monday, about a month after the original plans received critical feedback from planning staff and board members.
The project would include underground and first-floor parking, street-level retail units and four stories of residences. The total project size is about 232,600 square feet with a ground floor footprint of 42,400 square feet.
“The site has a long frontage on Selma Street. It is longer than a city block, and the way we’ve approached the project is to not look at this as a building but as a block-long development,” said Lott. “We’ve approached it from that standpoint and tried to use the available tools within the ordinance to address that.”
Overall, the metropolitan planning staff regarded Lott’s changes favorably but still recommended the overall size and mass of the project be reconsidered, as well as the addition of windows to the ground floor where parking would be.
The developer of the Selma Apartments had asked for three variances as part of its construction, namely a bonus fifth floor and 89 percent lot coverage from the standard 75 percent.
Although 100 percent lot coverage is currently OK under the BC zoning, the developers are requesting it be rezoned to RBC-1 to allow residential occupancy, which carries with it the 75 percent lot restriction.
If the property was owned by a school or institution of higher learning, Lott said, 100 percent would be allowed. Board members Stephen Merriman and Marjorie Weibe-Reed agreed and said the rule was unfair toward the developer.
“I thought this was too big the last time we saw it, but the fact that these people are being held hostage is just a word game in the ordinance and … there’s something wrong with that,” said Merriman.
In defense of the bonus fifth story, Lott said similar-sized developments would likely be built after the eventual removal of the I-16 flyover. The Selma apartments are located in an area the city has designated as a downtown expansion zone, with the goal of adding residential density.
Although Lott had responded to the planning staff’s guidelines of breaking up solids to voids, several board members disagreed over whether it was a good idea to do so, sending mixed signals on the project’s overall aesthetics.
Board member Robin Williams said rather than try to break up the mass, the project should focus on highlighting the length of the block, near where old railroad worker’s housing and Union Station used to be.
“For me the height and zoning coverage are less issues,” said Williams. “For me the problem is there’s too much breaking up going on. Ideally there’d be some kind of continuity … to celebrate the industrial railroad heritage.”
The review board typically gets the first look at proposed developments that fall within the historic district. A new construction project’s review is broken into two phases, the first for height and mass and the second for design details.
Board chairman Keith Howington noted that a particularly large, complex development such as Selma Street could take a few months to be fully reviewed.
The westside area, known as the Frogtown, has a history dating to the American Revolution and was settled by freed slaves after the Civil War. However, the neighborhood was decimated after the city installed the I-16 ramp in 1968, and by the 1970s most residents of the predominantly African-American neighborhood had either moved or been forced out.
Few historic structures remain from its heyday. Nearby sits the Enmark Station, the two-decade old Garrison Elementary and Savannah Station, an early 20th century brick building that serves as an event venue.
The continuance will give the developer another chance to revisit the plans and make adjustments before the Historic Board votes on a recommendation.