A couple of readers reached out last week, wondering about the early stages of construction on the 2400 block of E. Dauphin St., next door to three new houses from BMK Homes. Intrigued, we went out to investigate. We were surprised to discover that we'd actually covered this project a little over a year ago. Twice, actually.
We were confused because the address is actually 2412 E. Gordon St. and the property stretches all the way back to Gordon Street. Remember, there was a weird rancher on this large property that totally didn't fit into the surrounding neighborhood.
The rancher is now gone and there's a growing hole in its place.
Back in the summer of 2014, we told you that developers had presented plans for five homes on Gordon Street and three homes on Dauphin Street at an FNA zoning meeting. The community was almost split down the middle on the project, but not because of the minimal refusals for lot size. Instead, near neighbors were upset that the project would not provide parking. Even though the project wasn't refused for parking, the developers altered their plan, adding seven parking spots. Obviously, the look of the project, designed by JKRP Architects, has changed since we shared renderings a year ago. But we'd imagine the project will have a similar look to this:
The part of the story we don't quite understand is how the project changed from a no-parking project to a parking project. Was it purely because of neighbor concerns? Or did the developers see an opportunity to change the project to make it more lucrative while addressing those concerns? Whatever inspired the change, we're just happy to see that the project is moving forward. And while we're tempted to cheekily lament the loss of architectural diversity in the neighborhood, we'll chalk this one up as a win.