Wednesday, January 29, 2014
FAYETTEVILLE — City officials want to add row houses along School Avenue as part of a downtown parking deck.
Aldermen on Tuesday said they’ll pursue an agreement with Partners for Better Housing and a yet-to-be-named private developer to build the row houses on the east side of the parking deck.
Partners for Better Housing is a nonprofit organization seeking to provide affordable housing to low- and moderate-income residents.
If the plan goes forward, Partners will be responsible for finding a company to build the houses.
If the plan falls apart, city officials still intend to construct a liner building at School Avenue and Spring Street as part of the project. The building could be filled with Parking Management staff or Police Department offices.
“The aesthetic value (of the deck) is certainly important at this corner,” Jeremy Pate, Development Services director and one of two city managers of the parking deck project, said Tuesday.
Alderman Matthew Petty said the houses would give artists or service industry employees a place to live even if they make minimum wage.
The roughly 250-space parking deck is planned on the south end of the Walton Arts Center property. Plans also include a roughly 1,400-square-foot space for city offices along Spring Street and a new arts center administrative building on the north end of the deck.
A design team led by Garver engineers removed plans for the roughly $330,000 liner building at School Avenue and Spring Street because of cost. Aldermen voiced support for a scaled-back version of the building Tuesday. It would cost about $118,000, Pate said, and would share a wall with the eastern edge of the parking deck. The building will not be constructed, however, if plans for the houses go through.
Rob Sharp, chairman of Partners for Better Housing, said 12 units would be built in a 15-foot strip between the parking deck and School Avenue.
City Council
Fayetteville’s City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Room 219 of the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain St. Agenda items include:
A $790,000 contract with Arco Excavation & Paving for construction of a half-mile section of the Town Branch Trail.
$158,000 in vehicle purchases for the Solid Waste, Water and Sewer, Transportation and Police departments.
Rezoning land at the northwest corner of Wedington and Golf Club drives and the northwest corner of Wedington Drive and Rupple Road to zoning districts allowing a blend of residential and commercial uses.
Source: Staff Report
“These liner buildings can be very skinny, and they still work,” Sharp said. “They’re one room deep, and they go on for an entire city block.”
Sharp, whose Fayetteville architecture firm has designed several downtown projects, including the Three Sisters building and The Dickson (formally called Underwood Plaza), said the row houses would meet the city’s long-range goal of adding infill development in a traditional town form and providing opportunities for attainable housing.
Mayor Lioneld Jordan said he supports the idea but wants to make sure it won’t delay construction on the deck. The city’s latest timeline has construction beginning this summer.
“We do not want to slow down the process,” Sharp said. He said row house developers would be required to finish construction within 12 months of deck completion.
The parking deck is being financed with $6.2 million in bonds. The bonds are being paid with fees and fines from the paid parking program. The deck must be built by December 2015 — three years after bonds were issued — or bondholders’ tax-exempt status could be threatened.
Petty, the alderman who proposed the row house idea, said he would work with Sharp and City Attorney Kit Williams to draft a resolution expressing the council’s support for the idea. Council members will likely consider the resolution at their Feb. 18 meeting.