Multifamily housing plans in the works for Lowell

LOWELL — Plans for a multifamily residential development with room for offices and a warehouse at the corner of Honeysuckle and Pleasant Grove are one step closer to fruition.

The Planning Commission accepted Tuesday a resubmitted preliminary plat review from HGJ Properties for residences that will include six single-story townhomes or 30 total units at 8,700 square feet with three bedrooms each. The commissioners asked for more details about the project and told the project engineer a decision would be reached at the first meeting in May.

City engineer Larry Gregory told the commission the project would first have to go through either a preliminary plat or a planned unit development to properly split the land before it can be approved and developed.

“Right now we’re at a point where it’s confusing to consider development on lots that don’t exist,” Gregory said. A planned unit development would make sense for the project, Gregory said, because it includes multiple zones and more than one type of development planned for the space. He recommended the city approve creating more lots, since the project is by a single owner and unlikely for the resulting smaller lots to be sold separately.

Engineering Services Inc. Project Engineer Jason Appel, who represented the project, said the land is six residential lots and five industrial lots. If approved, the residential side would be built as six five-plexes and the industrial side would house Sunbelt Rentals, which rents out construction equipment.

Gregory noted the city could approve the development while knowing the plat approval has yet to go through, but Commissioner Lloyd Showalter said the body had difficulty with such decisions in the past.

Appel said the resubmitted plans included some of the same features, such as private roads in the development, and offered to answer questions about the revisions.

Commissioner Showalter requested the next set of plans include elevation and images of the development from both Honeysuckle and Pleasant Grove roads. Commissioner Lloyd Caldwell said he had concerns about an industrial zone being close to a residential neighborhood and wondered what Sunbelt’s noise level might be.

Appel agreed to including elevation and images from the street level. He said noise would result from loading equipment, but it wouldn’t rise to significant levels.

Commissioner James Milner requested more details about fencing that surrounds the property, to which Appel said the company hadn’t decided whether it would be a shadowbox fence or something more secure.

Milner said he’d like to see those details before making a decision on whether to approve the project.

“I recognize moving from industrial to medium residential and residential, that each deserves a transition zone, but I would like to see what that looks like,” Milner said. He pointed out a large project could also use more landscaping than the plans before them had.

Appel said the project requested one waiver that had to do with stormwater drainage. Gregory said the change was in the number of feet for the drop off of water into gutters and that the number listed as a requirement by the city was arbitrary. The change requested would in worst cases only affect the parking lot, Appel said. Gregory agreed the waiver would not pose harm to the public.

City engineer Larry Gregory told the commission the project would first have to go through either a preliminary plat or a planned unit development to properly split the land before it can be approved and developed.