A developer has proposed turning this building into affordable housing.
An affordable housing project proposed for Uptown Harrisburg has received the thumbs down from the city’s zoning board, mostly due to concerns over parking.
Earlier this week, the city’s Zoning Hearing Board voted 2-0 to deny a variance and special exception for the project, located at the corner of N. 3rd and Maclay streets. Breneman Properties has proposed turning the long-vacant, century-old structure into a 13-unit affordable housing building.
Over the course of the lengthy hearing, board members expressed concerns over the proposed density of the project at 2100 N. 3rd St., which would include two small studio units, 10 one-bedroom units and one support services unit. The city’s zoning code allows only seven units by right for the building.
“If we have less units, the burden to raise funds becomes greater and greater and greater, and the project is no longer feasible (as affordable housing),” said Michael White, who represented Breneman at the meeting.
Even with the greater number of proposed units, the company would still need to raise over $1 million, in addition to a loan, to complete the project, he said. When asked by the board about making the project market-rate, with fewer units, White said that would be even more difficult financially.
It was the lack of on-site, off-street parking, though, that dominated the conversation.
“As the area has evolved, the parking has become the thing that’s been the lynchpin or the fly in the ointment,” said zoning board member Claude Phipps, who ended up voting against the proposed variance and special exception.
According to the city’s zoning code, the project would require six off-street parking spaces, and the building, a former funeral home that’s been vacant for decades, currently has no parking on site. Therefore, Breneman partnered with local developer George Fernandez, who owns two small lots nearby at 327 and 329 Maclay St., which he’s offered for parking for the project.
“George, in partnership with us, acquired these lots so that we could meet the burden that we understand, that we need at least six parking spaces,” White said.
In its case report, the city’s planning bureau expressed concern that the lots were located too far away and that using them for parking might prevent them from being developed in the future. In the end, both zoning board members agreed with this assessment.
“I understand the whole passion behind affordable housing and development; I get that,” said board member James Hobbs, who also voted against the zoning relief. “But there are also certain things that we have to make sure are evaluated properly, and also we’re very careful with those things, because some of the things that we say here set a precedent for what can be done in the future when other applications come in front of us.”
In other action at the meeting, board members voted to approve zoning relief so that local specialty coffee company, Elementary Coffee Co., can relocate its roastery to Midtown Harrisburg.
By a 2-0 vote, the board granted a special exception so that Elementary can move its roasting operations from an Uptown garage to 1210 Green St., an outbuilding that once served as storage for the former Salvation Army Harrisburg headquarters. The small building is available now that the main structure, located across the street, has been converted into an apartment building.
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