architects study

Thanks for meeting me last week concerning your property at
1725-31 Maryland Avenue. As I mentioned to you in person, the
property is exciting from the perspective of both community development
and your own commercial interests.
In a visit to Baltimore City offices on Friday, I confirmed the following
interpretations of the Zoning Code with respect to your property:
Your property is neither part of Baltimore’s “Historic District” nor part of
the Mt. Vernon Historical Area. It does share, however, Baltimore’s
“Charles-North Revitalization District” designation. In this context,
your property is NOT listed as a “contributing” structure, so that its
improvements are not registered in the Urban Renewal Plan as having
intrinsic merit for preservation. They may be removed.
Under the Charles-North Revitalization Plan, the zoning designation B-5-1
still controls building use and bulk; nevertheless, designs for new
construction will be subject to Baltimore’s Design Review Board process,
which makes its recommendation and approval based upon subjective,
aesthetic criteria in addition to those explicit guidelines listed in the
Revitalization Plan.
In B-5-1 Zoning, no “minimum area” requirements are imposed for
dwellings. That is: Your property CAN maintain as many units as you like,
within the total area defined by the Floor Area Ratio, which is 8.0.
No setbacks are required under B-5-1.
Parking spaces are NOT required for almost all relevant commercial uses.
Parking spaces are required for dwellings, at the ratio one space for every
four dwellings or one space for every eight efficiency units.
W W W . J K A R G O N - A R C H I T E C T . C O M
Dear David and Roy:
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In light of the above clarifications, I believe that many different
development options are feasible for your property. I would like make the
following observations for your consideration and mutual discussion:
As discussed last week, the FAR calculation results in a total gross area for
development to be 46,080 sf, without introducing additional premiums as
described in section § 6-614.
Within that maximum envelope, your development team needs to assess
the following yield factors:
Desired Building Uses (and Proportion Among Uses)
Desired Dwelling Unit Types (and Proportion Among Types)
Desired Dwelling Unit Sizes
The most significant factor on the design of typical unit layouts and unit
counts will be the width of the building frontage and rear exposure. Since
both side property lines are “party” lines, no windows for use by
residential units will be allowed. That means that all units on each floor
need to be “squeezed” along two 64’ long facades, with exposures only to
the west or to the east. Based upon initial plan investigations, which
explored double-height loft units to conserve plan footprint, one can
expect no more than 7 one-bedroom apartments for every two stories.
Two considerations may limit building height, even though zoning does not
impose a statutory limit. The first is the building code, which designates
all buildings with occupied floors 75’ above grade to be “high-rise”
buildings. “High-rise” designation requires much more significant
mechanical system infrastructure, and typically is more expensive.
The second limit is less tangible, and of course relates to the City’s
expectations for building height in the Charles North district. Although it is
harder to anticipate the real constraint of this latter consideration,
building height will always be challenged in any new design above four
stories.
I have attached two pages of sketches, which illustrate initial building
concepts among the many possible approaches. The first building section,
based on the adjacent plan sketch, describes a “maximal” approach,
without regard to overall height. The second building section remains low
enough to avoid the “high-rise” designation, but also provides a fair
number of units given the small footprint of the site. Based on my
understanding of the area’s sensitivities, I believe this latter sketch is both
reasonable and economical, even if it does not entirely fill the
development envelope.
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1725-31 Maryland Avenue
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I was also to verify that the first step in the process towards conceiving a
development project with the city is a “Pre-Development” meeting, in
which your Development Team (ie, the Owners) and your Architect would
meet with a Department of Planning representative for an initial review
of both the process and the project -- even before any design is done.
This meeting must be requested on-line, and should include contact
information for all participants. Please consider all of the above
information, and simply let me know if you’d like to proceed with the
meeting.
I will be in touch to review this matieral with you by telephone; perhaps
we can set up a meeting for later this week, at your convenience. If you
have any questions or comments, please do not hestate to contact me.
Yours,
JEREMY KARGON, ARCHITECT (LEED AP)
3418 Roland Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21211
Phone: +1 (443) 739-2886
Fax: +1 (443) 372-4431
jk@JKargon-Architect.com