A land disturbance permit application was filed on Monday for the construction of 16 townhomes at 183 Moreland Ave. in the Reynoldstown neighborhood, according to city records. The developer behind the project is Proxima Development, a rezoning application on file with the city shows.
The roughly half-acre site currently holds a vacant church building and parking lot at the northwestern corner of Moreland Avenue and Arkwright Place. The property was rezoned from MRC-1-C to MRC-2 in September after Proxima Development and project applicant McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture submitted the rezoning application and plans for the project in June.
“The current property is zoned MRC-1-C with a condition that it can only be used as an antique shop,” the application reads. “The current zoning severely limits the economic viability of the site, which is why it is currently vacant and not benefiting the residents or businesses in the neighborhood.”
Named the 183 Moreland Townhomes, units will sale for an expected average price of $400,000, plans show. The buildings will rise to a maximum height of about 40 feet, with plans calling for 34 parking spaces.
Proxima Development is also the developer behind a 60-unit Kirkwood condo project as part of the larger Pratt Pullman District.
3 Responses
Last year I sat through a big presentation from the city planning office about how the move away from single-family zoning was necessary to provide more affordable missing middle housing and I totally bought it…yet every rezoning request I have seen seems to be replacing single-family housing with high-density luxury units listed for millions of dollars. My neighborhood just fought off one of these false pretense rezoning requests. I encourage everyone to take a close look at every rezoning request impacting their neighborhood and fight off these cash grabs. And shame on the city for trying to sell us a false narrative. This is about lining pockets, not helping people. I was supportive of mixed use zoning and integrating missing middle into our SFH neighborhoods, but the reality is there is no intention of providing affordable missing middle housing – these new builds will just ensure property taxes skyrocket and those of us in single-family housing will be priced right out of our neighborhoods.
Looks like a thoughtful project that increases density and preserves some greenspace, so I would say this is a win. 18 units instead of 5 units regardless of cost or level of luxury is a win as increasing the total amount of supply is better than doing nothing.
Some will argue that if the housing is at a higher price point, building it is a bad thing. The number of high-income people in the market to buy housing does not change, so these buyers will simply bid up the cost of other housing more affordable regardless. (See Old Fourth Ward and other neighborhoods). At the end of the day, more housing to meet overall supply creates housing for everyone. The most restrictive cities (to development) end up being the most expensive — see San Fran, New York, Boston, LA… On the flip side places like Houston and Dallas remain more affordable because they build a crazy amount of housing. Whether developers get rich doing it, shouldn’t matter. It’s a job with lots of risks — a lot of projects fail, and developers go bankrupt. They put their personal capital at risk. They are the ones building the housing that all of us are living in. If there was more supply, there would be less opportunity for developers to increase supply based on scarcity.
I’ll be moving to Atlanta this spring and I’m gonna be looking for up and coming new construction that’s affordable for all!!