FAYETTEVILLE — Developers with Specialized Real Estate Group must rethink a proposed 432-bedroom apartment complex at Center Street and Hill Avenue following City Council approval of new building height and setback requirements.
“If they wanted to move forward with the project as designed, they’d have to get some pretty significant variances,” Andrew Garner, city planning director, said this week.
Initial designs for the project, called Harvey’s Hill, showed a five-level parking deck next to a single-story house at 730 W. Treadwell St. The parking deck and a five-story apartment building also would have abutted the back property lines of several houses along Duncan Avenue.
At A Glance
Harvey’s Hill
The name Harvey’s Hill is a nod to Daniel Harvey Hill, a Confederate general in the Civil War who became president of the University of Arkansas in the 1870s when the institution was still called the Arkansas Industrial University.
Source: University Of Arkansas
The new height and setback regulations approved Dec. 3 require multifamily, commercial, office, parking deck and mixed-use developments taller than 24 feet to be set back at least 15 feet from side and rear property lines in two downtown zoning districts when next to single-family houses, duplexes and triplexes. Buildings can be no taller than 36 feet, or about three stories, in an additional 15-foot setback.
That would mean chopping off a couple of floors on Harvey’s Hill design or sliding buildings farther away from adjacent properties. Both options would be difficult on a compact, 2.1-acre site, Jeremy Hudson, a partner and CEO of Specialized Real Estate Group of Fayetteville, said Friday.
“A redesign is going to cost us some of the project’s units,” Hudson said.
Hudson and Seth Mims, president of Specialized Real Estate Group, said they intend to move forward with the project, but they’re not sure how they’ll proceed.
“We couldn’t afford to just walk away from it at this point,” Hudson said. “We’ve got to find a way to make it work. We just don’t know what that will be.”
The developers could try to rezone the property to another classification. Or they could seek a variance from the Board of Adjustments. Both options would take time. The project — which Specialized representatives hoped to have open by fall 2015 — will be delayed by at least a year, Mims said.
The project as presented would bring hundreds of tenants to an area where another 400-plus-bedroom Specialized apartment complex is being built. Mims said new water and sewer lines, wider sidewalks, streetlights and street improvements were part of project design. He said it will be harder for city officials to justify the off-site improvements if the project is scaled back.
Alderman Mark Kinion, one of five council members to vote for the ordinance, said Friday he didn’t want to comment on the Harvey’s Hill development specifically without being more familiar with the details of the project. Before voting in favor of the height and setback changes earlier this month, Kinion said the changes were an attempt to protect downtown property owners’ access to air and sunlight by preventing tall, obtrusive structures from going in next door.
He said Friday he also sympathizes with developers who might be affected.
“It’s not easy when zoning is changed that would impact your intentions for your property,” Kinion said. “On the other hand, you have to balance that with the integrity of the neighborhood.”
Kinion said he would consider modifying any ordinance if it’s overly restrictive. He also said Specialized Real Estate could seek a variance for Harvey’s Hill.
The project, which was up for review at last week’s Planning Commission meeting, was tabled until Jan. 13 without discussion.
Specialized Real Estate Group opened Eco Modern Flats on Hill Avenue in 2011 and a portion of the Sterling Frisco apartments at West Avenue and Lafayette Street in August.
Company representatives were under contract earlier this year to buy land south of Dickson Street between Block and Church avenues, but terminated a contract with property owners amid early discussion of the height and setback proposal.
The council in June 2012 approved zoning and development plans for a 450-bedroom complex at Cleveland Street and Hall Avenue, north of University of Arkansas dorms, before nearby residents challenged aldermen’s decision in Washington County Circuit Court. Neighbors said the project wouldn’t have been compatible with existing homes and would have added traffic on neighborhood streets. The university bought the site and made it into a parking lot.
Specialized Real Estate Group was the high bidder on the former City Hospital property, south of the Public Library, but backed off after library officials expressed interest in buying the property, which is owned by Washington Regional Medical Center.
Plans for another Specialized project, south of Lafayette Street, also could be affected by the height and setback changes. Planning commissioners approved development plans in January 2012 for a more than 500-bedroom apartment complex where the University Baptist Church activity center is located. The activity center is bordered on both sides by single-family houses. Specialized Real Estate Group had one year to obtain building permits before development approval expired. City planning staff granted a one-year extension Jan. 9, according to Jesse Fulcher, a city planner. Another one-year extension could be granted, but the development would have to meet new height and setback requirements, Fulcher said.
Hudson and Mims declined to comment on how the ordinance changes could affect the Lafayette Street project.