What happens when an unpopular development meets a slumping housing market? Mix with vigilant neighbors well versed in local government, and you get a happy ending. At least that’s the case of the 850 Estes Street project in Fifeville.
Back at the height of the real estate bubble, developers had a huge incentive to cram as much housing anywhere they could. So in Fifeville, that prime hunk of real estate between UVA and the Downtown Mall, a development group, led by Southland Homes’ Rick and Rich Carter, cobbled together a few adjacent lots on Estes Street, and applied to build a four-story, 27-unit condo project. That was in 2005.
Several neighbors disapproved. The opposition was led by Catarina Krizancic and Jason Pearson, a married couple who live nearby on Nalle Street. It seemed like 850 Estes would be Walker Square Lite, another towering, high-density project walling off the neighborhood and dwarfing the scale of the two-story, single-family homes of Nalle Street.
The city listened to Krizancic and balked at a special-use permit, but a year later, the developers concocted a by-right proposal. It was essentially the same plan, but they called it “mixed-use” by making 2 percent of the project commercial use. The plan took advantage of a loophole in that area’s zoning code, which allowed greater density for mixed-use but failed to properly define “mixed-use”—in the rest of the city, “mixed-use” typically meant at least a 25 percent-75 percent balance.
In the spirit of the law, rather than its letter, the Planning Commission rejected the by-right application, to the satisfaction of the neighborhood and the chagrin of the developers. In court, however, the letter of the law has a clear advantage over its spirit. The developers sued and the city settled, approving the project and sending a letter of apology.
But who needs man’s law when you have the market’s law? By 2010, the developers reconceived the plan, morphing the four-story monolith into 18 townhomes (Pearson, meanwhile, joined the Planning Commission, and is now chairman). Krizancic still wasn’t wild about the layout—the orientation was inward, its back to the street—but this time when she approached the developers with ideas for improvements, they were receptive.
“Rick Carter was really great,” says Krizancic. “I know for him, time is money, and this has already been a kind of nightmare project for him.”
An unlikely partnership was born. Carter and company changed the plan to fit the neighborhood, while Krizancic helped go to bat for the zoning changes required. On September 14, the city Planning Commission voiced its approval of a special-use permit (Pearson recused himself), and City Council is expected to do the same in October. If approved, Carter will still get 17 townhomes.
“What we were looking at five years ago—it was going to be this great big hulking thing,” says Krizancic. “It’s fantastic that is not happening here. This is a 180-degree shift in the right direction.”
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
