Trending
The Altoona Planning Commission this week approved a land development plan for a 12-unit apartment building near the Altoona Area School District's main campus, waiving a requirement for 21 off-street parking spaces, after the developer argued they would be detrimental to the project.
A Better Address Altoona plans to build the three-story structure on the half-block of 18th Street just east of Sixth Avenue, on a tract where a 10-unit block of row homes was demolished, across from a vacant lot.
The availability of eight on-street spaces -- three next to the new building, three next to the lot across the street and two on the side facing Sixth Avenue, will suffice, along with two off-street accessible spaces, said Adam Long of Keller Engineers, consultant for developer Judy Coutts.
At another rental property Coutts owns near the Railroaders Memorial Museum, the parking lot is often near empty, because of tenants who don't own vehicles and tenants gone for weeks at a time for work, said Long and Coutts.
At the proposed new building, there will be less need for vehicles, because there are amenities and a potential workplace within walking distance, including a Sheetz, several restaurants, the Altoona Area Public Library and the schools; because the site is on a bus route, because ride share services like Uber and Lyft are available, because many people nowadays work at home and because some people work alternate shifts, allowing for vehicle presence at the site to be staggered, according to the development team.
Younger people are more and more open to public transit, ride sharing and biking, the team said.
And there were no obvious problems when the previous homes were on the site, despite a lack of off-street spaces then, according to Long and Coutts.
The city ordinance requirement for 21 spaces is "excessive," Long wrote in his waiver request document.
Moreover, parking lots tend to "destroy the urban fabric," while aggravating storm runoff issues, he wrote.
There was mild pushback from a neighbor couple.
Parking availability is "a concern," said Linda Zahrobsky.
She envisions the potential for parking demand generated by the new development leading to parking pressure oozing beyond the boundaries of the site.
There hasn't been any demand from the lot where Coutts wants to build for 10 years, as the row homes were unoccupied for that long, said Denny Zahrobsky.
Before those homes went vacant, spaces were "tight" in the neighborhood, Linda said.
If the development creates a problem, she can try to obtain the vacant ground across Eighteenth Street and build a parking lot there, Coutts said.
But she hesitates to do it upfront, as it would tend to undermine the financial feasibility of her project, she said.
"It's a difficult construction climate now," she said.
Moreover, the small size of most city lots makes it hard for developers to collect the necessary number to create parking, according to Long.
While the commission accepted Coutts' arguments for her project, its approval shouldn't set a precedent, according to commission Chairman Dave Albright.
On 18th Street, there are special circumstances, with the empty lot across the street, but in other areas of the city, such a project with virtually no off-street parking could cause issues, Albright said.
"There are going to be places and times where parking can be very tight," he said.
The Coutts project is kind of a test case, according to one commissioner.
"We'll see how it goes,'" said Michael Haire.
City Council and Redevelopment Authority officials have been pushing in recent times for development, to increase the tax base, a push recently emphasized in a discussion of the proposed 2023 budget.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.