Future of Norfolk apartment project uncertain
Plan to build on former DePaul hospital site draws split panel vote
NORFOLK — The fate of a proposed apartment development on the site of the former Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center is in limbo after a split vote Thursday by the city’s planning commission.
Members of the panel were divided on a recommendation to allow a zoning change for DePaul Villages, which wants to build nearly 500 multi-family units where the hospital once operated.
The development would include 488 units. Of those, 165 are slated to be studio apartments, 170 are one-bedroom units, 112 have two bedrooms and 41 are three-bedroom units. Eight will be project-based vouchers. Nine townhouse-style apartments are included, along with a four-story parking garage.
“The main hospital building will have 381 rental units, the building to the south and southwest would be 30 units, the building to the southeast will be 34 units and the building to the east will be 34 units,” planner Robert Brennan said. “The building to the east with that has 34 units, those units will be upstairs.
“Below, there’s about 5,000 square feet of non-residential space that will be only located in that building on Granby Street. The most recent conversations I’ve had with the applicant indicate that it will be a restaurant and a doctor’s office, potentially.”
Before the vote, Brennan said city
staff recommended approval to the commission. But with just under 2% of the units being reserved for affordable housing, some commissioners and members of the public expressed concern.
Brennan said through the conditional-use permit process, the city can add a condition stating that a developer would have to provide a certain number of inclusionary housing units. However, there is no legal obligation to reserve any of the units for affordable housing
or vouchers through the planned development rezoning.
“I think that vouchers — where it’s helpful — isn’t enough,” commissioner Kim Sudderth said. “We are in the middle of a housing crisis. And we’re running out of safe and affordable places for people to live.”
Commissioners also expressed that in the future, a policy should be constructed to require some units to be reserved at more affordable rates to help combat the city’s struggle to provide housing to lower-income
residents.
“This development is a high end project and that the rents are excessive —they’re not excessive — they’re high,” Vincent Mastracco, who represented the project before the commission, said. “Basically, it’s a situation where (vouchers) may create already some financial loss to the developer, and that’s not really the purpose of the city trying to have us make these apartments available.”
The hospital was constructed in 1944 and delivered health care services to Norfolk neighborhoods such as Wards Corner and Ocean View for decades. But demand for its services slowed in recent years with only 20 to 30 patients seen daily during the height of the pandemic, the health system had reported. Last summer, the hospital went under contract to Marathon Development Group, a Norfolk developer that specializes in turning historic buildings into upscale apartments.
Amenities for residents will include a courtyard and pool with water and fire features, a large fitness center with a playroom, a Peloton and yoga room, clubroom, lounge, business center, bulk item laundry facility, dog wash station, movie room, bike storage, game rooms and electric car charging stations. Brennan said more could be added, but these amenities will be ready for the first residents.
“We believe that this is an opportunity for Norfolk to retain this iconic building and basically return it to the stream of commerce,” Mastracco said.
During the vote, commissioners Scott Bateman and Jeremy McGee voted yes, and commissioners Larry Pendleton and Sudderth voted against the project due to the amount of affordable units being under 10%. Commissioners Kevin Murphy, Kathryn Shelton and Ramona Austin were absent. A tied vote at the City Planning Commission is neither a recommendation for approval nor a denial of the rezoning to the City Council, which has the final say.