Second meeting on future of bus barn tonight, parking remains contentious issue
More apartments for your apartmenting fun.
Update #1 — October 22, 2015; 8:53 AM
The following letter has been distributed to houses in the neighborhood.
As you can see the meeting is scheduled for tonight, Thursday, October 22nd, 6 PM at John B. Cary Elementary. In the previous article, cited below, it’s noted that the developer has gone beyond the city requirements for parking. Does a developer in an urban environment need to go above and beyond on parking requirements?
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Original — October 09, 2015
Plans for a historic bus and trolley depot include 280 luxury apartments and a new block of retail space fronting West Cary Street, the project’s developers said at a public meeting Thursday.
“The thought is, if there’s a way to extend Carytown east of the Boulevard, get some foot traffic – this is a natural meeting point for that,” said Chris Johnson, a principal of DKJ Richmond LLC.
In all, DKJ said it’s planning nearly $35 million in improvements to the L-shaped property, which is often referred to as the “bus barn” and is located on Cary Street between Robinson Street and Stafford Avenue.
What is their idea of a luxury apartment?
The structures will all be repurposed into apartments. Johnson said they will mostly be one-bedroom units and rent for a little more than $1,300 a month, including parking and utilities. The complex will likely include a dog park, a playground and a pool.
File this under “news that surprises nobody”. All this was revealed in a community meeting last night. A second meeting is October 22nd, 6 PM at John B. Cary Elementary School. Also revealed at this initial meeting was that neighbors are concerned that the 320 spaces of parking won’t be enough parking for 280 apartments.
Image: RTD
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Richard Hayes
When Richard isn’t rounding up neighborhood news, he’s likely watching soccer or chasing down the latest and greatest craft beer.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
All the whining about parking in the Fan is reaching pathetic absurdity. Move to the burbs folks. We are often over-parked in this city because we insist on having a ton of surface parking. Dense cities have less parking (in terms of ratios). People want something at this location, but then want a crap-load of parking. Get real.
As for the people whining, a bunch are Fan residents that have multiple cars that require more (FREE) on-street parking than the frontage of their property supports. And parking permits are the same low fee, no matter how many a household has. Fan homes should have a limit of one permit. If they have multiple cars then they fend for themselves in finding parking. A bunch of Fan residents have off-street parking but don’t use it because it is less convenient, they “don’t feel safe” using alley parking, or various other excuses. They complain about the businesses that attract patrons that compete for parking, yet those businesses provide far more in taxes than they consume in services, unlike most residences which is generally a tax net loss.
I agree with this comment totally. This sums up the situation completely. The fda has been trying to turn the fan into a suburb for 50 years. If you live in the city you can walk, bike or use the bus. This project is already proposing too much parking.
yup. Parking rules are preposterous, the less parking we have in this neighborhood, the better.
I’m less concerned by the parking here than I am your the fact that this property is bring turned into 280 luxury apartments. Does anyone think we need more of that? I know of several great proposals for interesting uses of that space.
I just don’t understand how people live in the city, but somehow want it to be like the suburbs. If this development meets the requirements for parking in the city’s zoning ordinance then that’s all it needs to do. If people have a problem, their protest should be directed at the zoning ordinance, not this development. The expectation that there should be multiple designated spaces per apartment is preposterous. I live nearby and the houses on my street have approximately 1.25 spaces per property on the street and space for one or two on the alley if they utilize their back yard that way. That is more than enough, but many households have 3 friggin’ cars! That’s the problem, not the number of spaces.
I think this development seems like a great use of that property and I look forward to their hopes of extending the great shops and restaurants of Carytown past the Boulevard. This also brings more people back in to the city, and more businesses, and more TAX REVENUE!! Maybe, just maybe, this can help improve things like our schools and streets that everyone likes to complain about. Enough about your damn parking spaces!!