AMHERST — An Amherst developer proposing a mixed-use building at the northern end of downtown has filed preliminary subdivision plans for the properties at 11-13 East Pleasant St. so that potential zoning changes won’t affect the project.
The filing by Archipelago Investments LLC, earlier in July, means that the building proposed, to be known as 11 East Pleasant, would be exempt from several zoning amendments the Town Council is considering, including ones centered on parking and how space on the ground and first floors are used.
“He’s essentially proposing to freeze the zoning on that property as of July 12,” Planning Director Christine Brestrup told the Planning Board at a recent meeting.
But Archipelago, whose principals are Kyle Wilson and David Williams and which has developed three other mixed-use buildings in downtown, intends to provide affordable apartments for the first time, following the Town Council’s adoption of inclusionary zoning that mandates any project with more than nine units to have both market-rate and affordable housing. At least 12% of units must be affordable in projects with 21 or more units.
In late winter, when Archipelago unveiled plans for the project, it was a 55-apartment building with 1,300 square feet of retail space.
To accommodate the affordable units, the plans have since been changed so 11 East Pleasant will feature 90 apartments, of which 11 would be affordable.
The Planning Board on Wednesday voted 5-1 to approve site plans for the 75,166-square-foot building, with a 15,773-square-foot footprint, and a series of conditions for the project that would be constructed where the Summerlin and Piper buildings and a parking lot have been located, immediately south of the former The Pub restaurant and north of the One East Pleasant building.
The series of zoning changes are being reviewed this month by the Planning Board and Community Resources Committee of the Town Council.
Apartment buildings are the focus of some of the amendments, including removing the limit on the maximum number of dwelling units per building, and changing the permitting requirement for apartments from special permit to site plan review in the residential village center zone, and from site plan review to special permit in the general business zone.
Another set of changes would limit the amount of residential use and enclosed parking allowed on the first or ground floor of mixed-use buildings, and to require any dwelling units or enclosed parking on the first or ground floor to be located toward the rear of the building.
Zoning changes for accessory dwelling units would be to increase the maximum square footage allowed per unit to 1,000 square feet, to create a more streamlined permitting pathway and to add design guidelines.
Finally, there could be changes to parking regulations for some residential uses, such as one- and two-family detached dwellings and townhouses being required to have two parking spaces per dwelling unit, and mandating adequate parking for apartments, mixed-use buildings and accessory dwelling units, with the permit granting authority reviewing criteria to determine if this adequacy has been met.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
