P&Z takes issue with rezoning for downtown apartment building

The Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission voted against a proposal to rezone land at the corner of College Avenue and Walnut so a development company could build a four-story, 100-unit apartment building on the downtown site.
After opponents cited concerns with traffic congestion, lack of parking and lax zoning restrictions, the commission Thursday night voted 4-3 to recommend that the City Council reject the rezoning request.
The Odle family, which owns Trittenbach Development and has built several medical office buildings and apartment complexes in Columbia, is asking the city to rezone the 2.5 acres at the northeast corner of downtown from residential to commercial. The site currently has four houses built on it.
The developers have plans to build an apartment building with space for about 300 renters on the top three floors and commercial tenants on the ground floor. The apartments would be “very similar” to the ones completed by Trittenbach earlier this year at Tenth and Locust streets downtown, according to the company’ attorney, Craig Van Matre.
The commercial zoning the developers want allows a higher density of housing units and has no restrictions on setbacks from adjacent property, nor does it have minimum parking requirements. In addition, the zoning sought by the developers is known as “open zoning,” which means the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission would not have to approve the actual building plans for the site. In recent years, Columbia has leaned towards planned zoning designations in many areas of the city, which requires council approval for both the zoning and the building design plans.
The city planning staff supported the applicants’ request for open commercial zoning, a position it generally takes on downtown development.
“The city has a long-standing policy of supporting greater land-use flexibility within the City Center District by supporting requests for C-2 zoning,” the staff’s report on the proposal said.
Van Matre sought to downplay concerns that his clients would use the open zoning to deviate from the plans presented to P&Z.
“This developer has an established track record in this community of doing exactly what they say they’re going to do,” Van Matre said.
But commissioners who voted against the proposal were uncomfortable with the open zoning request and stressed the desire to make sure the development corresponds to city planning documents like the downtown Charrette. The planning staff’s report noted that both the Charrette Report and the North Central Columbia Neighborhood Plan identified the area as one appropriate for mixed-use, multi-story development. But it also pointed out that the open zoning would allow for “significant departure from this objective.”
P&Z Commissioner Jeff Barrow said he supported the building concept presented by the developers as well as other projects they have completed around town. But he said that because zoning runs with the land, not the owner, he couldn’t support the request.
“People die of heart attacks every night, and whole families are wiped out in plane crashes,” Barrow said. “I think a plan like this would not take very long to get through (the planned-zoning process). Just to give it open zoning is a mistake.”
Van Matre said the extra time planned zoning requires developers to invest in the approval process would cost his clients too much money.
“It’s not necessary and they don’t want to take the time for it,” he said after the meeting.
He added that his clients are “prepared, reluctantly, to build it out under” the existing residential zoning rather than go through the planned zoning process. That would reduce the number of allowed dwellings and require setbacks and minimum parking standards.
Some residents at the meeting said they were concerned that the developers would not put in enough parking, and the approximately 300 residents would pose safety hazards and congest Walnut and Ash streets.
“I’m not opposed to this development for any other reason than parking,” said Kurt Albert, a downtown property owner who spoke at the meeting.
Nathan Odle, one of Trittenbach’s owners, told the commission he would build a parking lot with about 200 spaces on the site. That is an appropriate number based on parking utilization for other apartment buildings he owns, he said. Van Matre said it wouldn’t make economic sense for his clients to build too much or too little parking.
“If there’s not enough parking, then they’re going to suffer in terms of occupancy rates,” Van Matre said. “But I don’t believe they’re that dumb.”
Randy Gray, chairman of the Downtown Leadership Council, which oversaw the development of the downtown Charrette, said at the meeting that his organization did not take a position on the proposal. He said the Charrette calls for a variety of housing options downtown, and that Trittenbach’s proposal would serve primarily the college student market. He said there were concerns about the effect it would have on the Charrette’s recommendation that a median be built on College Avenue.
“It’s very close,” Gray said about the proposal after the meeting. “I think a few tweaks and modifications and it would probably get the support of the DLC and many others.”
P&Z Chairman David Brodsky said the commission should be wary of discouraging development by “forcing developers into a box.” He has long been a supporter of downtown redevelopment, and he said the project was a step in the right direction even if it wasn’t exactly what some of the planning documents may have envisioned.
“Is this project perfect? Does it meet the Charrette 100 percent? Probably not,” Brodsky said. “But in order to really get things going downtown, there’s going to have to be some give and take.”
Commissioners Brodsky, Stephen Reichlin and Bill Tillotson voted to recommend approval for the rezoning. Commissioners Barrow, Helen Anthony, Ann Peters and Doug Wheeler voted to send a recommendation against approval to the council. Commissioner Matt Vander Tuig recused himself from the vote because he works for engineering firm Trabue, Hansen & Hinshaw, Inc., which is a contractor for the project.
The council will have the final say on the rezoning after another public hearing.
Odle would not comment on the commission’s decision after the meeting.