Developer San Marco Dayton will have to convince the Dayton Plan Board and possibly city leaders that the project will not cause parking problems.
Mixed-use project
San Marco Dayton, a limited liability company, wants to create about 124 new market-rate apartment units spread across two buildings at 800 West Third Street in West Dayton.
The project site includes an empty lot and a vacant, two-story building that was once home to West Side Chevrolet.
San Marco plans to build a new five-story building on the empty lot and convert the car dealership building into a six-story structure. Both buildings would have ground floor commercial spaces.
The project has received the endorsement of Wright Dunbar Inc., the Wright Dunbar Village Neighborhood Association and the West Land Use Board.
But the neighborhood association and the land use board in their letters of support expressed concerns about the amount of parking. The land use board also raised concerns about the height and appearance of the rear part of the building.
Dayton Plan Board members at their recent monthly meeting spent more than an hour discussing San Marco’s planned development and final site plan application and parking was the main focus.
The underlying zoning for the site requires one parking spot for every housing unit, plus one additional space for every 10 dwelling units.
San Marco proposed creating about 66 parking spaces, which equates to about 0.5 spaces for every apartment unit.
City staff said the project site abuts a historic district that has very limited street parking.
“Staff is concerned that if you tell people you can’t park here they’re going to overwhelm the neighborhood and affect the character and quality of life there,” said Jennifer Hanauer, a city planner and secretary of the Plan Board.
Parking questions
Hanauer said city staff want to support this project and believe this is a good location for a mixed-use development.
City staff and multiple Plan Board members said they need to see some evidence that this project will not cause parking problems for the area.
“It’s a leap of faith a little bit to say that so many people (who live in these units) will ride the bus or walk or bike,” said Tony Kroeger, Dayton’s planning division manager.
There are some on-street parking spaces along West Third Street, and there is a public parking lot several blocks west of the site.
John Lumpkin, a representative with San Marco Dayton, said his group talked to neighbors as they developed project and the designs reflect their wishes and input.
“We have the support of all the people who are directly impacted by this, or the majority of them who said, ‘This is what we’d like to see,’” he said.
Lumpkin said Wright Dunbar is very close to downtown, which has no off-street parking requirements for new housing projects in the Central Business District. The urban business district requires 0.5 spaces per unit.
George Berardi, the architect for the project, says there are plenty of apartment buildings in cities around Ohio that have very little or no parking.
Plan Board Chair Greg Scott said he is wary of approving significant variances for parking and building height requirements. He said that could set a precedent and asked what the board would do when another developer comes along who wants the same kinds of things.
“If any project goes through there of any size, the city is going to live with it for a long time,” Scott said. “So we need to get it right here.”
Plan Board member Matt Sauer said the city will never start to change its car-centric planning focus unless projects like this are approved.
Lumpkin, who is chair of the Greater Dayton RTA Board of Trustees, said every resident of the apartment buildings will receive a bus pass with the Greater Dayton RTA. He said the cost of the passes will be built into the rent prices.
He said that should help reduce tenants’ need for cars. Lumpkin said his development group will lease off-street parking from other nearby property owners like Wright State University if it must.
The Dayton Plan Board approved San Marco’s application for a planned development but with the condition that the developer provide 0.75 parking spaces for every housing unit.
San Marco will have to return to the Plan Board for final site approval. The company will need a parking management plan if it is unable to meet the parking standards outlined in the planned development.
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