You've probably never set foot on the 1400 block of Montrose Street. It's a skinny block that we're pretty sure can only be accessed from 15th Street but is one-way toward 15th Street. The north side of the block is dominated by a row of Universal Court homes, affordable rental units built by Universal some time back. The south side of the block is a bit more of a hodgepodge, with two and three-story buildings mixed together.
On the right side of the photo above, you can see 1434-38 Montrose St., the vacant lot on the block. This parcel has been vacant for at least a decade, and has been overgrown at times and functioned as a community garden at other times. Way back when, it seems there were small homes in the front of the property and small homes in the back of the property and a courtyard in the middle. It reminds us a little of a Bella Vista nook we profiled a few months ago. But, you know, vacant.
Last week, developer Vitaly Paluchenko, the guy finishing up three triplexes on 18th Street, presented development plans to SOSNA for this lot. He intends to build a four-unit condo building with a bi-level unit on the first floor and basement levels, a single unit on the second floor, and two more bi-level units on the third and fourth floors. The design for the four story building is by Harman Deutsch, and it's fair to say that the building does not fit in with its neighbors.
Not that we think that's such a bad thing, necessarily. We generally prefer when new buildings stick out from the older homes that surround them rather than trying to blend in. Whether you like or dislike the design is certainly up to you, but it's definitely a matter of opinion. A few neighbors got up at the meeting and were upset about the look of the building, the fact that it's four stories high, the density, and the loss of light for neighboring buildings. The only refusal here is for open area. 30% is required and a little over 25% is proposed. It's one of those situations that the developer could indeed chop two feet off the back of the building and the neighbors could get an additional stich of light as a result. The cost to the developer in terms of layout and design, however, would probably be significant, while the return to the near neighbors would probably be quite minimal.
It will be interesting to see whether the project goes through any more changes before the developer presents to the ZBA. Hopefully, something close to this plan will get approved and another vacant lot in this neighborhood will go the way of the dinosaur.