Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Salemtown developer bringing zoning change appeal without community consult

A developer has requested a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals for planned duplexes at the corner of Coffee St. and 5th Ave., N. This request will be considered at 1:00 pm on Thurday's BZA meeting at the Howard Office Building:


CASE 2011-072 (Council District – 19)
Josh McLean, appellant and Kenner & Mclean Development Group, Inc., owner of the property located at 1829 5th Avenue, North, requesting a variance in side setback in the R6 District, to construct a new duplex.


A Salemtown leader followed up with the Board of Zoning Appeals for more details:


The BZA person says that there are 2 duplexes (4 residential units) planned for that site, and that because the lot is not geometrically even, they are requesting a setback for the rear unit (at Coffee). Permitted setback is 5' and they are requesting 2.5.' She does not have a drawing on file but says the plan is for single story units, 1400 square feet each, with porches and rear decks



The developer had not bothered to reach out to the community with regard to the variance, but he did respond to community requests for clarification thusly:


the variance requested is not to shorten the setback to the street, but to clarify the distance required between the two duplexes. One duplex will face onto 5th and the other will face onto Coffee. The street setback will be 10'. The design is like that of the new townhouses that face onto 4th Ave. in Germantown ("Germantown Station"), which looks to me pretty much like the duplexes on 1700 block of 6th, and elsewhere in Salemtown, only with (?) expanded porches


The reason that this is before the Board of Zoning Appeals is that Zoning has already denied this request once. It is unfortunate that some developers still do not feel the need to consult our neighborhood before making requests that may or may not be consistent with the North Nashville community plan, which we helped formulate.



UPDATE: The developer emailed me to disagree with a perception, expressed in August on the Salemtown elist, that his group received anything less than full support. He insists they had full, unqualified support of those with whom he met before the re-zoning hearing on August 18.

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