Proposed new apartments south of Dairy Queen can proceed with fewer parking spots than required by city code, the Board of Zoning Appeals decided Thursday night.
Developer Doug Compton and McClure, a Kansas City-based engineering firm, are building apartments on the northeast corner of K-10 and Church Street. The project proposes 72 units: 54 one-bedrooms and 18 two-bedrooms.
About 20 years ago, Compton built the Greenway apartments, now called Riverbend, adjacent to the proposed new apartments. Although he sold Greenway about 10 years ago, he kept around 3 acres south of Dairy Queen.
The preliminary plan for the new apartment project was previously approved with the condition it must meet the technical requirements of the city’s zoning regulations.
Two issues arose with the project and the code.
City code requires a minimum of three parking spaces for each unit in a structure zoned for multi-family dwelling. For the project’s proposed 72 units, that would mean 216 parking spaces. The applicant offered 108 spots, which would result in about one and a half parking spots per unit.
City code also requires residential multi-family districts to have 2,000 square feet per dwelling unit. The property lot size is 119,587 square feet, which is 1,661 square feet per unit.
McClure asked for two variances on the code to allow the project to continue. Curt Baumann, codes administrator for the city, presented to the board about the two requests.
Board members debated whether the provided parking was enough, but decided it was sufficient and that forcing the project to meet the code, which was designed for single-family and duplex housing, would be an unnecessary hardship for the developer.
The project will still need to go through multiple public votes before final approval, but the project can proceed with the limited parking, City Manager Zack Daniel said Friday.
During the meeting, Joy Rhea, a landscape architect with McClure, said too strictly applying the code would block any type of modern apartment developments because the code needs to be improved and doesn’t account for more dense housing types. The city parking requirements are the same for different types of residential units, but Rhea argued the parking standards for single-family houses should be different for apartments because they usually have fewer residents per unit.
For single-family houses and duplexes, the parking requirement is usually satisfied by driveways and garages. For apartments, though, it leads to lots of excess parking lots, she said, which could hamper the city’s stormwater infrastructure. The extra parking would also lead to loss of green space.
Board members agreed the code wasn’t sufficient for these types of developments.
Rhea said it was a challenge to fit everything in the small parcel of land, which is surrounded by other roads and buildings.
Multiple board members brought up the Paschal’s Landing apartment complex in progress near the elementary school. That project was approved for one and a half parking spots per unit in the same type of zoning, but used a different type of application that allows variance from strict zoning regulations.
Paul Werner, the project architect, said there is no land for more spaces. He said since so many units are only one bedroom, the parking should be sufficient.
Board chair Ed Jankowski said most people in Eudora commute and have a car. That means even a one-bedroom unit could have multiple cars and burden limited parking.
Board member Charlie Watts said he felt two spaces per unit would be the right amount. Watts recused himself from the vote because he had previously had a contract to purchase the land decades ago.
Board vice-chair Kristine Schnebly said she was relieved the complex will be mostly one-bedroom apartments and aimed at workforce housing for individuals. She said three parking spots is an excessive requirement in the code. She also said the apartments may not be 100% filled at all times.
“Living in Lawrence for as many years as I did in college, you figure it out,” Schnebly said. “So I’m on board.”
In other business, Jankowski was voted chair of the board. Schnebly was appointed vice chair. Justin Ahrens and Billy Lown were sworn in to their board seats.
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