By Kristen Himmelberg for Mid-City Messenger

The CVS development slated to replace the former Home Depot site on North Carrollton Avenue will have fewer tenants than originally planned, but more green space and amenities along the Lafitte Greenway, the developers told Mid-City residents Monday evening, while neighbors compiled a list of suggestions about what other businesses should be included and how the project could be improved.

Newly revised plans show only five tenant spaces compared to the nine spaces from the previous plans, said Avery Cootes, an urban planner with Sherman Strategies, which is consulting with the developer, Connecticut-based First Hartford Realty Corp. The Home Depot building will be partially demolished, Cootes said, while part of the building will be reused.

Instead of more retail spaces, the new design incorporates more green space on the side of the property adjacent to the Lafitte Greenway. A small park space with an elevated lawn and benches anchors one end of the site, with passageways with covered pavilions and patios between the remaining tenant spaces, making the Greenway more accessible to the site, Cootes said.

Parking is a big concern, so the new design with less tenants offers more parking per tenant, exceeding the parking requirement of 171 spaces with 188 spaces overall, Cootes said.

Right now, CVS is the only committed tenant, so all of the other tenant spaces are still available, Cootes said, Donny Rouse, who purchased the property originally, said he only wanted to ensure that the site did not become a grocery store, but he is not a part of the process otherwise and the developer is under contract to buy the entire site, Cootes said.

The projection for tenants being selected and construction starting could be as soon as July or August.

“They will start with the CVS construction as soon as they get all the city planning approved, so you could see them starting construction on CVS as soon as July or August and then the rest of the tenants by the end of the year,” Cootes said.

After Cootes left the meeting, the approximately 45 people in attendance participated in a design charette. They sat at round tables and discussed among themselves what things they would like to see, or not see, at the 500 N. Carrollton site. They were given four sets of colored cards, pink for design and architecture suggestions, green for Greenway suggestions, yellow for parking and traffic suggestions and orange for tenant and retailer suggestions.

After a half hour of constant talking and deliberating, former Mid-City Neighborhood Association president Jennifer Farwell read out the top suggestions and the community members voted on their favorite ideas. They ended with 20 top ideas and suggestions which ranged from new tenant suggestions to ideas on how to address the car, truck and pedestrian traffic surrounding the site to a rooftop community garden.

The suggestions included:

Greenway oriented businesses (i.e. bike store, sporting goods store etc.), as well as making the greenway access better – making the businesses equally accessible to greenway customers as well as drivers.

Tenants such as a music store, hardware store, tailor or dry cleaner, local restaurant or bar, local art market, florist/gifts/cards, shared work space/offices, or linens/soft goods/clothing stores. Participants were ardently opposed to national chains, especially Starbucks.

Parking and/or a community garden on rooftops.

Keep space affordable for local businesses, perhaps with smaller tenant spaces (directed at dividing up the two bigger lots at the back of the site)

More pedestrian transit improvements (more sidewalks and safe crossings etc.) make surrounding area safer for pedestrians to reduce car burden.

Design improvements to CVS and to overall development

Work on drainage to make sure it is permeable and sufficient for area and doesn’t put more burden on the surrounding properties.

Address traffic in the area and reduce delivery truck impact ( possibly add another traffic light)

Two architects will draw up a new plan incorporating these ideas as well as bring the entire list of ideas to the developer for consideration.

The group needed to vote only a single time to come to a consensus, and Farwell said she was impressed how quickly attendees reached a resolution.

“I thought we would have to go through it a couple of times, but everyone was in agreement,” Farwell said. “It was really cool to see.”