6 Seniors Apartments OK’d For Fair Haven

You may think it’s fine to live in a 420 square foot studio shoebox, I would feel claustrophobic.
if you are a young person who is always at work, or attending college or going out, you only need a place to eat, shower and sleep and study. So a studio of this small size would be fine, knowing that you won’t be living there forever.
But if you are retired or disabled, and are mostly staying at home all day long, it would feel like a prison cell, and/or if you are an older adult that has family (including grandchildren) and friends you would like to have visit or stay over, you need a little more space and you don’t want to entertain them in your bedroom-living room combo 420 ft studio.
A 650 square foot one bedroom with an eat in kitchen with room for a small table and chairs, or a larger combo dining and living room, a full bath, and large or several closets, with a stackable or combo washer/dryer or a laundry room for each floor of the building would be perfect for most singles or couples without children at home.
I used to live in one bedroom apartments that were 650 ft with lots of windows with a laundry room in the basement and also one where the laundry room was on each floor of the building, and I could see lots of people happily living in that kind of unit.
We need more housing for low income adults and seniors, but it shouldn’t be in tiny shoebox studios, unless you want to add more anxiety and depression to this already mental health overburdened population. Tiny apartments for more home bound dwellers increase depression, anxiety, the feeling of being isolated or trapped. Did you ever see the big cats in the zoo pacing behind the iron bars?
The exterior style of the proposed development looks like a cheap motel. Surely adding an outdoor garden patio and brightly colored doors and window boxes with plantings would make it more cheerful and more cottage or bungalow like instead of looking like storage units or a cheap motel

I agree the city could change zoning to allow for apartments with no less than 650 Sq Ft one bedroom units, and 450 sq ft studio units for new buildings and rehabs/remodels, with required minimum of windows for natural light and tall ceilings instead of the current larger footage requirements. This would increase the number of units per building, but units would not feel like tiny shoeboxes, which would make it easier for developers to build a good mix of affordable units for diverse levels of incomes in mixed income buildings, and more pleasant for residents to live in.
A good example of preexisting units floor plans at the sizes of 450 and 650 sq ft that should be allowed as of right to be built in the city is in the Traymore building in Dwight St
https://www.cawhite.com/traymore
I used to live there long ago in a one bedroom unit and it has an on site superintendent, laundry room in the basement, secure package boxes in the lobby and secure mailboxes, and an elevator, with lots of windows and high ceilings, no parking, and the floor plans are ideal for comfortable living in small units.
If developers could recreate this type of floor plans in similar buildings all over the city with its attractive exterior and landscaping and with its courtyard, and adding easy access secure bike storage in the basement, and a loading zone with ride service pickup/drop off zone, then that would be great for the city.
If you recreate it in high rise buildings with a green rooftop deck and solar panels and rainwater capture for landscape irrigation, then you could have penthouses or 3-4 bedroom units with high end finishes that could command a higher rent, with mixed income units with builder grade finishes scattered throughout the building at various percentage of AMI and subsidized units.
The Church St South parcel would be an ideal for this type of buildings in a higher rise complex with lots of green spaces around the complex.