Despite being very close to final approval of this initial site plan, it became clear to us that the plan we had composed was risk-heavy in today’s market due to a large proportion of office/retail space and a relatively small proportion of residential space. This reality, paired with the arrival of a great opportunity to add a significant community benefit in the form of affordable housing, has led us back to the engagement table in order to accommodate these factors with an important revision to the site plan. We started this project by asking the community what they wanted to see on the site, and now we are triangulating that community-led plan with some necessary pragmatic changes to make sure the project is feasible to get built.

For those continuing to stay engaged in our conversation about this project, we thank you once again for your time and constructive feedback. Even though we had already gained your approval at the January NPU-W Land Use and Zoning Committee, and at the January SAND and EACA meetings, we hope you will be available to join us at one of the upcoming SAND, EACA or NPU meetings in March, or better yet at a scheduled community design session on March 23rd, to help us settle on a final design.

Site Plan Revision

The revision we now pursue is an addition of residential square footage to accommodate 17 more residential units on the site. This will bring the total number of units to 42, up from the original 25 proposed. We seek this specific unit count because it is the minimum number needed to become eligible for a financing source which will create homes for working families with annual household incomes between $26,000 and $53,000. This program is one of the nation’s most successful affordability financing sources, with rigorous standards from design through property management. As our local housing market has soared in value, we have an opportunity to support the rare inclusiveness and diversity that exists here by providing housing for working families who want to remain in or join the neighborhood. This would be the first new affordable housing built in the area since Branan Towers in the early 1970’s. Of considerable importance, this addition of residential space will also reduce the risk profile of the project from an investment perspective by better balancing the mix of uses.

Our re-engagement with community stakeholders is focused on exactly how to best accommodate the necessary residential space on the site, while retaining the most important components of the concept that respond to stakeholders and neighbors’ priorities and bring added value to the community. These include the public outdoor plaza, preserving the Masonic Lodge, a walkable approach to site and building design, a shared-parking strategy to minimize parking overload, and a robust and low-density buffer along the western edge next to existing single-family homes.

There was a lot of feedback over the past few months about limiting the vertical height of the new buildings, as well as the horizontal size of them, in favor of a smaller-looking buildings. In response, we created four options which keep the majority of the original concept intact, while proposing different ways to spread the additional space across the Moreland side of the site, away from the single-family neighbors. We can also hide much of the additional space on the interior of the site, so that most of it is unrecognizable from the surrounding street fronts. The views below depict the general massing of the buildings for each option, as viewed from the surrounding streets. The addition of a fourth floor is necessary in a few locations, but we seek to limit or hide them as much as possible. This also prevents having to go to a fifth floor at any location.

Option 1