Aliyya Swaby Photo
Space in construction on Crown Street.
The empty space above the parking garage next to BAR restaurant will soon become studio and loft apartments for lease.
The City Plan Commission Wednesday night reviewed and approved Metro 260 LLC’s site plans for the 12-unit, 9,325 square-foot, second-story space, which was originally designed for parking. The apartment complex does not yet have a name and lawyers said they did not know the estimated price range of the apartments.
Tenants would enter the building through the lot on Crown Street, said Michael Pinto, one of the developer’s lawyers. No parking is required for the building’s tenants, he said. Section 16(a)(1)i of the zoning ordinance indicates that residential uses in the BD zone do not need parking if the structure existed before 1964, will have fewer than 24 units, and also contains commercial use.
Residents can buy a commercial space in the garage or use a nearby parking lot, such as the one adjoining Louis’ Lunch across the street, said architect Sam Gardner (pictured left with Pinto). Lawyer James Segaloff said parking was “not as much of a concern” since many who live nearby are Yale graduate students who often walk and bike instead of drive.
The developer Robert Smith is also building apartments at 280 Crown St., at the corner of Crown and High Streets.
They are working on soundproofing the apartments by including “triple pane” windows and insulating the walls, Gardner said. Each apartment will measure about 750 square feet.
The argument that parking is " 'not as much of a concern" since many who live nearby are Yale graduate students who often walk and bike instead of drive" ought to apply equally to all downtown apartments, not just developments that happen to slip in under an old zoning rule about having less than 24 apartments in an existing structure.