Earlier this week, we attended a BVTW zoning meeting and the buzz in the room was primarily about a proposed 70′ building that was dead on arrival. The other prominent project discussed at this meeting was a proposal from US Construction for twenty-four new homes on the 900 block of S. 8th St. and the 800 blocks of Montrose and Carpenter. A 7-Up bottling plant was apparently located here many moons ago, and we confess we’ve wondered about this location for as long as we can remember.

Corner of 8th and Montrose

Looking down 8th St.

View on Carpenter St.

These homes will be demoed

At the meeting, the applicants explained that they were simply presenting for informational purposes and that they still had to go through a Civic Design Review at the end of May because of the large size of the lot in question. Their plan at this time is for four homes on Montrose St., eight homes on 8th St., eight on Carpenter St., and another five homes located entirely within the site. In the middle of the site would also be parking spots for every home in the development, which they’ve named Mildred Court. These are, by the way, the same developers that built the nineteen home development across the street that went up last year.

Across the street from the proposed development

The homes will range in size from 1900-2200 sqft, and will rise about 34′ high, with the architects attempting to match cornice lines of surrounding homes. The houses, designed by JKR Partners, will have high-end finishes and will be offered as rentals at first, with the idea to sell them off within five years. When they do eventually go on the market, the builders believe that they’ll be listed for around $600K.

The community seemed lukewarm to the project, with several people in the crowd apparently worried about density and parking (even though, by code, the developers are only required to provide 1/3 as much parking as they’re proposing). A few members of the BVTW zoning committee suggested underground parking, with a green space in the middle of the development, but the developer quickly responded that such a plan wasn’t financially feasible. One audience member went on a rant about ineffective building codes making it too easy for fires to spread from new construction homes, and we suspect that many in the crowd were, like us, sad to have several minutes of their lives wasted by this particular individual.

If you ask us, this project, like the one across the street, effectively repurposes several large and underused parcels in a desirable neighborhood. The old loading dock on 8th & Montrose is a terrible eyesore and the building on 8th Street will not be missed. We’ll be bummed to see some of the buildings disappear from Carpenter Street, but the removal of four garages from this block will reintroduce several street parking spots that haven’t been available in decades.

This will sadly disappear

We suspect the plan will change and get refined in the coming months, and we’ll be sure to bring you updates/renderings as they become available. In the meantime, we have a weird hankering for some 7-Up.