When we first noticed a demolition permit issued for the six bedroom house at 7330 Ridge Ave. in Roxborough, we assumed that we’d see a high-end new construction home built in its place. Over an acre in size, the property could certainly fit a larger project, but the parcel’s single family zoning meant that any multi-family project would require zoning variances. That can be difficult enough in any neighborhood, but Roxborough can be particularly hostile to new apartment buildings.

You can see, in the 18 months since we wrote about this property, the old home was indeed demolished. But we have yet to see any new construction rise in its place. It hasn’t been for lack of trying.

Initially, the developers came up with a plan to build 74 apartments. That wasn’t exactly met with enthusiasm from the community. After consultations with the Upper Roxborough Civic and Ridge Park Civic Association the project pivoted to 24 townhouses. Another round of public meetings resulted in another density reduction, down to 20 units.

After even more public meetings, the developers reduced the density of the project once again. This latest (final?) version of the project which has made its way to the ZBA includes 12 detached single family houses, each lowered to two stories tall, with an enlarged buffer area around the new buildings and the surrounding homes. With only 12 homes on a 60K sqft lot, the new project is now largely aligned with the 5,000 sqft required per home in the base RSD-3 zoning, even if L&I is still treating this collection of detached homes as a multi-family project.

While a similarly sized parcel with greater frontage along Ridge Ave could simply be subdivided into individual lots, the usual depth of the property requires the introduction of a shared driveway to ensure each houses has access to public streets.

We have to give kudos to the developers for their creativity and flexibility with this property. We’ve seen the approach of building homes on a deep lot on either side of a drive aisle many times before, but it’s much more common in downtown neighborhoods and not as expected in the northwest. The developers were hoping for 74 units while we were only expecting one unit. Twelve units might be a disappointing outcome for them, but we see it as a terrific upgrade over our expectations, assuming the ZBA gives their approval.

After the extensive public outreach process, support from the Ridge Park Civic Association, and non-opposition from the local councilmember, we suspect the ZBA will grant the variances the developers are seeking. Even if that happens, the project is no slam dunk, unfortunately. After years of inactivity, the Dearnley Park Civic Association was revived over the summer, apparently for the sole purpose of protesting this project, and the group has already hired an attorney. Assuming the ZBA grants the requested variances tomorrow, this project could still languish for years in the courts and as a result, it’s possible it never gets built. So there’s a world in which a single home ends up getting built on this property after all. Much as we love being right, we’ll be rooting for the alternative as hard as we were rooting for the Birds yesterday.