The St. Paul City Council has given the green light to a proposed six-unit row-house at Dale Street and Laurel Avenue, a block south of Selby Avenue.

The six residences would fill an empty lot, vacant since the late 1960s, at 617 Laurel Ave. The lot measures 7,180 square feet. Under city zoning rules, the required lot size is at least 9,000 square feet.

In January 2017, the Board of Zoning Appeals granted Alan Hupp and Hupp Holdings a lot size variance, as well as additional variances for side yard setbacks and off-street parking setbacks.

The decision was supported by the Summit-University Planning Council and the manager of a nearby Mississippi Market, but drew seven letters of opposition from a condominium association and other neighboring property owners.

Hupp later redrew the project, adding three more units he hopes to debut at roughly 60 to 80 percent area median income.

“The footprint … is identical. We divided the space up, and therefore we have more units,” Hupp said Wednesday. “We’re not getting any subsidy from the city or the state or the Met Council, but the plan is to bring those units to market at rents that are comparable” to affordable housing.

The BZA reviewed and approved the updated project in recent weeks. A property owner appealed the BZA decision to the city council, which voted Wednesday to deny the appeal. Related Articles St. Paul City Council approves $600,000 charge for downtown improvement district

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City staff noted that three dwellings and three businesses sat on the lot from the 1920s until 1968, when they were torn down.

The lot has been vacant ever since, and was subdivided in 2002 to allow a single-family home to be built next door.

“If you want to talk about true density and multi-use, back then it was in spades,” Hupp said.