City Council is pursing another recommendation from the 2019 master plan re-examination that would encourage mixed-use development with apartments above ground-floor commercial and office uses along West Grand Avenue.

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The governing body introduced an ordinance (O-40-21) during its Sept. 13 meeting to create an overlay zone. A public hearing and final adoption of the ordinance is scheduled for its Oct. 12 meeting. The Planning Board is scheduled to review the ordinance during its meeting tonight at 7 p.m.

It’s the second recommendation from the 2019 master plan re-examination report that City Council has pursued in recent months. In August, the governing body approved ordinance extending the industrial zone to include the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) site at East Hazelwood Avenue, Woodbridge Road and Randolph Avenue.

An effort by City Council to investigate a non-condemnation redevelopment study for West Grand Avenue in 2016 fizzled out after public outcry. West Grand Avenue was among six areas identified for potential redevelopment studies at the time.

The master plan re-examination recommended creating an overlay zone for properties within the R-2 Residential Zone that front West Grand Avenue, from St. Georges Avenue to Irving and Whittier streets. A more in-depth look at the recommendation to create a zoning overlay of West Grand Avenue can be found in this post from 2019.

The city would like to expand the overlay to include six parcels in the B-1 Neighborhood Business Zone, according to the ordinance, and three within the B-2 Regional Business Zone along West Grand Avenue from St. Georges Avenue to Irving Street and Whittier streets. The nine parcels would permit the portion of West Grand Avenue from St. Georges Avenue to Irving and Whittier streets to be under one set of standards, eliminating the potential of a split zoned condition along the corridor.

Planner Leigh Fleming told the Planning Board during its meeting tonight that the overlay aims to bring some non-conforming uses into confirming uses, and generally bring more continuity to the West Grand corridor. The overlay zone starts with the B-1 Zone and there are two sets of standards — one for less than 10,000 square feet and more than 10,000 square feet — to “promote meaningful lot consolidation.”

The West Grand Avenue Overlay Zone (WGO) would encompass 82 properties:

• Block 164, Lots 15-24
• Block 165, Lots 2, 12, 13.01, 13.02, 14-20
• Block 202, Lots 1-11 and 13.01
• Block 203, Lots 7-8
• Block 204 Lots 16-31
• Block 205, Lots 1-13
• Block 215, Lots 1-8
• Block 216, Lots 1-5.

Another section of the ordinance would include standards for the newly created West Grand Avenue Overlay Zone. Permitted principal uses would be convenience retail uses: specialty or comparative retail uses; personal service uses; restaurants, including restaurants with plenary retail consumption licenses, excluding drive-through or drive-in restaurants; eating and drinking establishments; professional offices; medical and dental offices; banks, but not drive-in or drive-through banks; quasi-educational uses; fitness and dance studios; cultural facilities; childcare centers; live-work units, and apartments, above the ground floor only.

Prohibited uses would include hotels or motels; bars or taverns; drive-in or drive-through establishments; automotive uses of any kind; utility installations; manufacturing, wholesale, storage, warehouse or distribution facilities;  liquor stores; cigar bars; hookah lounges, and tobacco and smoke stores.

Apartments on all floors would be allowed only on lots that are larger than 10,000 square feet. Any apartments would have their own entrance to a hallway, staircase or to the exterior, and the ground-floor entrance would be separate from the entrance to the ground-floor use. Apartments on properties of less than 10,000 square feet would be a minimum of 350 square feet for one-room studio or efficiency apartments and 150 square feet for each additional bedroom — but no more than two bedrooms. Apartments on properties of more than 10,000 square feet would be a minimum of 400 square feet for one-room studio or efficiency apartments and 150 square feet for each additional bedroom — but also no more than two bedrooms.

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