Proposed apartments on historic church site still too big, review board says

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A whittled-down version of a proposed six-story apartment complex in the University District is still too big to win the approval of a review board.

Representatives from Chicago-based developer UP Campus Properties on Monday presented their plans for a student apartment complex on East 16th and Waldeck avenues, on the site of Summit United Methodist Church. With a significant cut to square footage, fewer stories and a greater emphasis on matching the architecture of existing residential buildings, members of the University Impact District Review Board acknowledged the compromises UP Campus had made since proposing the project in July.

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What was originally supposed to be a 425-bed complex sitting atop the slight hill the church currently occupies now includes a row of markedly shorter townhomes leading up to a six-story apartment building. Now standing at 325 beds and a little over 100 parking spaces, the plans show more greenspace along the sidewalks, including the preservation of mature sycamore trees, and porches, balconies and terraces sprinkled among the apartment units.

With townhomes along Waldeck Avenue in place of a six-story brick facade, another key change to the plans was the preservation of a neighboring duplex built in the early 20th century. Board members had previously warned that any approval of the duplex’s demolition would only come with a shorter complex.

“We heard loud and clear – more than once, quite honestly – that too much, too big, scale it down, mass, all those buzzwords,” John Eymann, an architect with MA Design working with the developers, said.

Despite their journeys back to the drawing board, developers on Monday did not receive approval from the review board to move forward. The board, tasked with ensuring any development proposals harmonize with the history and character of the neighborhood, remained concerned that allowing a zoning variance for the six-story building would set bad precedent.

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Multiple proposals in the neighborhood are in earlier stages of development, a board member said, and allowing such a tall building to be built among much smaller residential buildings would make it more difficult to deny similar plans down the road.

One board member indicated the board would approve the proposal if the complex were closer in size to the newly-envisioned townhomes. But that would require a significant sacrifice of square footage, Eymann said, something he said isn’t “quite as possible” as earlier requests to cut down the project’s mass.

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