The Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals on Tuesday postponed taking action on a variety of requests related to parking and a drive-thru facility for a mixed-use project in the South Park neighborhood.
Developers of the Flats at South Park plan to construct four-story building along Warren Street featuring 43 residential units and 10,500 square feet of ground floor retail, office and restaurant space.
But the site plan calls for parking to the north and side of the building, which some neighborhood residents and property owners call excessive and non-compliant with urban design standards and rules.
The most controversial part of the site design is a drive-thru lane for a restaurant or service business that loops back through the parking lot. Drive-thru facilities require conditional-use approval in that zoning district.
Plan board members said tabling a vote will provide developer Greater Dayton Construction with an opportunity to amend its plans to address concerns about the safety and necessity of a drive-thru.
Board member Mary Beth Caudill said the drive-thru as proposed puts residents of the new apartments in danger because they must cross into the path of traffic.
“I don’t mind tabling it, but I think the developer really has to think about whether that drive-thru is necessary,” she said.
Neighbors said they approve of the efforts to develop that area but oppose the drive-thru and the specific parking configuration. Speakers said they wanted more of a buffer between the street and a front portion of the north parking lot, such as green space where people could congregate.
Bill Hibner, director of construction services with Greater Dayton Construction Group, said his team will have evaluate whether the project can still be viable with revisions along the lines of what was discussed.
Karin Manovich, a recent Pittsburgh transplant who owns seven properties in South Park, said she’s waited 20 years to see this area developed and she supported earlier iterations of the plan.
An earlier site plan changed after developers determined they could not construct underground parking because of problems with a culvert.
That section of Warren Street is the northwest gateway into the South Park neighborhood, and it is disappointing to see a design plan with a car-centric focus, said Manovich, who was the president of Historic South Park Inc. for 13 years.
The large mixed-use commercial building is a great use of the land, but there is too much parking and the drive-thru does not belong in that area, she said.
“It belongs in Austin Pike or Beavercreek,” she said. “I can’t believe the drive-thru is the linchpin that will make this a successful project.”
The neighborhood is extremely supportive of developing that land into housing and other uses that make the area more vibrant, walkable and connected to downtown, said Amy Lee, the current president of Historic South Park.
But Lee said hundreds of residents and neighbors communicated serious concerns about details of the plan.
Historic South Park does not support the proposal because it eliminated some important congregating areas that were buffers between the street and the parking lots, and it still clearly violates zoning code regulations that protect the urban character of the area, she said.
She said the best solution would be to scrap the drive-thru.
The Flats at South Park project is planned for an area along Warren Street, just north of the Brown Street business district.
The first building will offer three floors of housing consisting of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments.
The ground floor will have 3,500 square feet of indoor dining space and 7,000 square feet of office and retail space.
