A major townhome, apartment complex is being planned for one of Unum's downtown lots.

According to a rezoning request, the complex will take up the entire block between Cherry and Walnut streets and Fourth and Third Streets.

The request, which goes before the Planning Commission on Oct. 8, would allow structures up to eight stories high. The proposal is for 163 residential units. A current limit is four stories high.

A site plan presented by an engineering group shows townhomes in two buildings along Third Street.

Apartment units front Fourth Street as well as Cherry. There would be 68 apartment units fronting Fourth Street and 67 along Cherry.

The apartments are one-, two- and three-story.

There are an additional 12 residential units in connection with a large parking garage in the center of the project. It is designed to hold 341 vehicles.

Access to the units would be off a new alley running between Cherry and Walnut streets.

Unum wound up with several large downtown surface parking lots that it no longer needed for its employees after constructing a large parking garage.

Those lots have been offered for public parking for a number of years.

The move would eliminate another large downtown parking area used by the public. A nearby public lot at the corner of Aquarium Way (Second Street) and Walnut is set to go off the grid soon as the Walnut Hill Townhomes development constructs its final phase along Walnut.