3/18/04 - Castleberry Hill welcomes 'super' development

With five buildings and as many different construction styles, along with a new and improved street, the H.J. Russell Co.’s development at Northside Drive and Larkin Street has come to be known as the “super block” to Castleberry Hill residents.

Monday night residents at the Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association lent their official approval to the project, with one condition, which centered on the height of one of the buildings.

The company has made a distinct impression on the neighborhood through the years with its projects, most recently with the Paschal’s restaurant and adjacent lofts at Northside Drive and Fair Street. The new development consists of five different buildings that each has its own distinct style, including senior citizen mid-rise apartments, townhouses and a loft-style apartment building that mimics the warehouse look of this railroad neighborhood.

Architect George Reese told CHNA members this week that one of the key components of the project would be the improvement of Larkin Place, which runs down the middle of the development from Larkin Street to Trenholm Street. Today, the road stops before reaching Trenholm, and is very narrow. Reese said H.J. Russell would extend the street to meet Trenholm and install streetlights, sidewalks and street trees to make it a friendlier place to walk.

Reese said that the buildings are designed to look as if they evolved over time, instead of like a developer came in and built them all at once to match. To that end, each building is quite different from the next. Building A is the most warehouse-like of the group, with a brick façade and square windows to mimic the feel of the surrounding neighborhood. Building B Reese described as “three levels of stacked flats” and Building C, in the southern portion of the project, would be back-to-back townhouses. Building E, situated in the northwest corner, would be allocated as senior housing and is five stories facing Northside Drive and four stories facing Larkin Place.

Building D in the southeast corner of the project was the only sticking point for residents. The neighborhood is currently trying to give Castleberry Hill a landmark zoning designation, which it hopes will protect the area’s historic character. The guidelines residents have suggested for the zoning include a 40-foot height maximum; according to who you ask, Building D may exceed that.

Of course, the landmark zoning is not in place yet, but residents still do not want a building in the neighborhood that, they said, is out of character with other neighborhood buildings. At least one resident Monday pointed out that the spirit of the 40-foot maximum was to allow for tall ceilings in three-story buildings that are in line with the loft atmosphere of the surrounding warehouses, not to squeeze in an extra story, which is what residents said the Russell project was doing in this particular building.

Reese said that the building met the 40-foot guideline at some points, but not others. From the east side, for example, the building is 38 feet tall from the street, but from the west side it is 44 feet tall.

Residents approved the project, which goes before the Urban Design Commission March 22, with the condition that Building D be redesigned to meet the spirit of the landmark zoning height guideline. Currently, the city reviews development in the neighborhood under C5-C zoning, which is much broader than landmark zoning and allows for such “differences of opinion” when it comes to building heights, as one person put it.

The CHNA land use committee will approve any changes to the plans, since the developer’s hearing with the UDC will happen before the next general meeting—those land use meetings are open to any association member.

The association approved a set of landmark zoning guidelines three years ago, but has yet to see the zoning designation officially happen. Dave Curran, who is one of several residents studying and working on the designation, said this week that landmark zoning would emphasize and protect Castleberry Hill’s historic features and uses. He said that the city only approves one neighborhood each year for landmark zoning, adding that Castleberry Hill was the “farthest along” in the process right now, so residents hope to have to designation in place by the end of the year.

UDC member Karen Huebner said that landmark zoning was a neighborhood initiative, not a city driven process. She said that neighborhoods are “integrally involved” from start to finish; residents are the ones who draft the degree of regulation in the neighborhood and the boundaries of the zoning, for example.

Huebner said that landmark zoning provided a “greater understanding of what can be built” in a neighborhood, lending a certain predictability and certainty to future development. She said the city now has 13 such neighborhoods, including Cabbagetown, Druid Hills, West End and Whitter Mill.

Residents basically “customize” the zoning ordinance to meet their needs, she said, and can revise the ordinance over time.

In response to one resident’s concerns, Huebner said that landmark zoning does not protect a neighborhood from state or federal projects. In other words, the zoning would not keep the Georgia Department of Transportation from demolishing buildings if it wanted to widen a road, for example. That sort of protection comes only from being on the state and/or national historic register, Huebner said.