The State-Langdon Neighborhood Association met Wednesday night to discuss a plan to expand the Cliff Dweller apartment complex on Iota Court. The association voted unanimously to oppose the expansion of the building.
Architects from Isthmus Architects, the firm chosen to design the expansion, presented a rough idea of what the expansion would entail.
The current proposal for expanding the building involves adding a four-story edifice to the existing structure, which would add 17 new apartments to the complex. The new structure will be built on a plot of land currently being used as a parking lot.
Opponents of the planned expansion harangued the architects with a variety of complaints concerning the project. One complaint was that the expansion would remove eight parking spaces from Iota Court.
“If you remove the parking spaces, people will be forced to park someplace else,” said Eugene Devitt of the Mansion Hill Neighborhood Association. “There is already a parking problem downtown, and this will make it worse.”
He added the expansion will bring in more people and more cars, which he feared would decrease parking availability in his neighborhood.
However, the plan to expand the complex came about because the city ordered the Cliff Dweller owner to modify the parking lot to meet city codes as it was originally designed to do. The city wants the parking lot to be fenced off, making a clear demarcation of the lot. Should the owner simply modify the lot, there will still be a decrease in parking spaces.
Meeting attendees were also worried about the lack of emergency-vehicle access the expanded building would create.
“This is the only way that a fire truck can get in here,” Devitt said referring to Iota Court. “If they build this, the buildings off the access alley will become virtual fire-traps.”
Other concerns were expressed from the residents of the Nottingham Co-op at the end of Iota Court. Residents felt the addition, which would be built about 45 feet from the front of their building, would produce several problems.
The first problem was there would be no easy way for them to get out of their building.
The door of the co-op faces Iota Court, and if the addition is constructed, residents will be forced to use an access alley off of Langdon Street to get out of their complex. Residents complained that the alley is never plowed in the winter, and that they are forced to use Iota Court as a thorough way to reach Henry Street, which is plowed and navigable during winter.
Residents have an informal agreement with the owner of the Cliff Dweller granting them use of his property as a means of leaving their building. They currently have a lawyer working on formalizing the agreement in an effort to block the expansion of the building.
However, the architects have considered a design allowing passage from the co-op to Iota Court. The design leaves a 10-foot-high walkway through the new building, allowing passage for Nottingham Co-op residents.
Residents also expressed concern over the height of the proposed expansion.
“If you build this then no light will get to the garden and the plants will die,” said one of the co-op residents. “That won’t be cool.”
Co-op residents feared that they would lose any view from their apartment and would be forced instead to look at a large, flat wall without any aesthetic value. They also worried the inhabitants of the new part of the building would have a view directly into their house.
“I was not surprised by the opposition from the neighborhood residents,” said Ald. Mike Verveer, Dist. 4. “When I met with the developer I warned him that this project was something the neighborhood couldn’t support.”
Without the support of Verveer, Cliff Dweller will be unable to go ahead with the plan to expand.
“He needs my support and I won’t do it with such strong opposition from the neighborhood,” Verveer said. “I would be derelict in my duties if I supported this project with the tremendous opposition to it.”
