Officials approve plans for vacant lot

Project will include six new apartments and a restaurant in downtown arts district

The Annapolis Planning Commission approved a local developer’s plans for a vacant lot at the corner of West Street and Colonial Avenue on Thursday, clearing the way for six new apartments and a restaurant to be built in the downtown arts district.

Although the total size of 161 West Street is less than 8,000 square feet, it’s a development of note for several reasons, including the speed at which it went through the planning process, the rare waiver of on-site parking requirements it received and the developer: West Village LLC, a limited liability corporation co-founded by Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley.

Tom Smith, Buckley’s recent appointment to serve as the city’s acting director of Planning and Zoning, led off Thursday’s meeting with praise for the mixeduse building. “Frankly, this is the epitome of an urban infill project,” Smith said. “It really checks all the boxes.”

He did not name-check the mayor but praised the West Village LLC team for its development of other businesses on the block, including Hudson & Fouquet Salon, Lemongrass restaurant and Metropolitan Kitchen & Lounge.

“They created a corridor that’s become a bit of an ‘it place’ in Annapolis, very successful,” Smith said. “They deserve some kudos for what they helped create on Inner West Street.”

In an interview, Buckley stated that while he is still an owner of West Village LLC and 167 West Street LLC, the property owner, he is not involved in “day-to-day operations” of the businesses. “I stepped away from that about a year before I was elected,” Buckley said.

At a 2017 debate, Buckley pledged to put his assets in a blind trust, as new Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says he’s in the process of doing. Buckley did not follow through on that debate pledge. Instead, he says they’ve been managed by his business partner, Jody Danek. To that end, Buckley said he was unaware that 161 West Street had been approved until he was informed by Elly Tierney, the Ward 1 alderwoman who attended the meeting.

Around 15 years ago, Danek and Buckley purchased from the city the remainder of the property used to build the Knighton Parking garage. The West Village team made several previous attempts to develop the corner lot, most recently in 2013. The current application was submitted in October 2022 and quickly moved forward, at a time when many other projects in the city, from a pizza parlor on Main Street to an income-restricted apartment community, have been delayed.

The March 16 Planning Commission meeting came two weeks after an initial hearing on 161 West Street, where planning commissioners posed some tough questions to Danek and his design team. Among their concerns: Where tenants would park, where the trash would be stored and why the architect failed to incorporate more environmentally friendly features.

Smith took the lead on addressing those issues at the follow-up meeting. Since the building was granted a waiver to on-site parking requirements, commissioners wanted assurances that the tenants would not leave their vehicles in Murray Hill, the crowded neighborhood south of West Street. Smith said the new building’s tenants would not be eligible for a street parking permit, but they can park in a city garage.

“Knighton Garage is right behind it,” Smith said.

That controversial parking waiver had complicated Danek and Buckley’s previous plans; neighbors had protested attempts to develop the site without parking in 2013, but updated District 3 parking restrictions now prevent residences built since 2016 from receiving permits.

The developers also added a trash room, architect Dan Douglas told the commissioners, responding to concerns that trash and recycling receptacles for six apartments and a restaurant would create an unsightly situation in the alley between the new building and the Knighton Garage.

On several other points, however, the developers held firm. Commissioner Diane Butler was disappointed that Danek had not pursued LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — certification or any “green roof ” features such as solar panels.

“We have a really environmentally friendly mayor at this point,” Butler noted at the March 2 meeting. Danek took her suggestion seriously and returned to say they would consider adding solar panels to the roof.

Commissioner David Iams also bemoaned the lack of a bike storage room on the site. “We are telling people they can’t have a car or a bicycle right now, which doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Douglas followed up and confirmed there are two bike racks available in Knighton Garage.

Chairman Alex Pline, an avid biker, agreed that an enclosure would be safer, but noted that the building has an elevator, so tenants worried about valuable bikes would have to take them upstairs.

Pline missed the first meeting, so Thursday, he asked Danek if they had considered building two studio apartments on each floor rather than two one-bedrooms and a two-bedroom on each level. “There is a lot of Gucci housing around the city with multiple bedrooms,” Pline said.

Housing advocates, including Ward 5 Alderman Brooks Schandelmeier, have pointed out that there are very few one-bedroom apartments on the Annapolis market for less than $2,000. Although Danek had previously used the phrase “workforce housing” to describe the project, Thursday he said the target market for 161 West Street includes retired snowbirds looking for a second home.

“It could be somebody who only spends a couple of months a year in Annapolis and goes back and forth to Florida or Arizona,” Danek said.

Despite voicing some concerns, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve 161 West, without attaching any conditions, although Pline said the written opinion would “strongly suggest” that the landlord inform potential residents that they would not be eligible for parking permits.

“It’s really imperative that this gets spelled out,” Pline said.