A look at planned 5-unit townhouses at MLK and Norman

Construction could begin this fall on five new townhouse units at MLK and Norman. The three-story townhouses will be built on the lot of a home that was damaged in a fire and demolished.

The project at 918 MLK Jr Way S has been floating around for several years, often held up by financing issues. But now builder Mark Huber and architects at the Novion Group are ready to move forward. If all goes according to plan, developers hope to get the permits squared way soon and could begin construction as early as September. Construction will likely last six months.

Description from the design review documents:

The proposed project at 918 M.L.K. Jr Way South is to construct one new residential structures, one fiveplex, for a total of 5 new townhouse units with four new parking stalls. Each structure will be less than 40’ tall and will be built on the property, currently vacant except for the vandalized, overgrown and deteriorating partial remains of a fire damaged multifamily structures concrete foundation.

The parcel is bounded by Martin Luther King Jr Way S to the west, a three unit apartment building to the north, a 5 unit multifamily structure to the south and a duplex residential structure to the east. Martin Luther King Jr Way S is classified as a minor arterial street with regular transit service and on-street parking. The topography of the site is sloped, with an 18’ drop in height from the east property line to the west on MLK Jr Way S.

The neighborhood is made up of a mix of old and new single family residences , apartment buildings, condominium buildings, townhouse structures, churches commercial office building and a nursing home w/ mini day care. There are three lots directly across from the subject property that are currently constructing 6 townhouse structures (duplexes and triplexes) for a total of 14 new units. A building permit for a new single family residence was just issued on 3/14/2012 for the lot to the north of the three being developed as townhouses.

Here is a recent design review document with more details:

Dr Proposal 3012977 Agenda Id 3651

21 thoughts on “A look at planned 5-unit townhouses at MLK and Norman

  1. yes, nothing like gentrification to clean up a neighborhood. I for one am glad i can walk through the CD at night now.

  2. Lots of great townhomes and infill houses sprouting up this year. Mostly they seem to be a step up from 10 years ago, but, a bit more compact. I’m for it. Where there was one house now there are 5. That’s alot of people to support the Judkins Cafe, which is a great place for dinner and a beer.

  3. Right around the corner from us. Good to see investment in the neighborhood. And I agree – the Judkins Cafe is a great little spot.

  4. I don’t like your title, it’s offensive to someone like me. I am for a broad based community with multi ethnic background. I happened to be an owner of one of the new stand alone houses in the CD. I am black and yet is able to afford a mortgage. Being white doesn’t mean affluent all the time. Next time you see a young black male in your neighborhood, he might have more cash than you in the bank.

  5. Don’t you think your comment is offensive? I’ll answer for you. Yes it is. Sounds like if you had more cash, you’d be out in a minute. So you’re stuck in a multi ethnic area and you talk trash about it. Good job moron.

  6. the post was meant to deliberately yank chains by saying something so entirely ass-holey it would offend and provoke responses. Don’t give the douchebag the satisfaction of a reply. That’s exactly what he/she is looking for.

  7. Damn, you never build houses for us Jewish Indians?!? I want a Mel Brooks 5 bedroom split level.

  8. yes its great seeing more classless boxes being constructed next to century old craftsman homes. its worse than gentrification, its visually frightening to have to see architectural abominations like these.

    hopefully that earthquake hits soon and only the old houses will be left standing.

  9. It’d be interesting if someone had stats by race,gender, income on who is moving into the new townhomes built over the past decade.

  10. We had 11 townhouses go up in my block where two houses were befor. Stats. 1 Single Woman, 30s, stingy; Two Asian Males, 30s, one gay one strait; 3 Couples, 30s, two conservative one hiptser, one of the conservatives later divorced hipster hubby – so single with revolving boytoys. One Iranian male, 30s with GF on/off; One Black male, 40s, probably gay; One Gay Couple, 30s; One SWM 20s, kind af stupid; One family of Russians crammed in – Granny, Auntie, Two couples and several very young kids. Total of about 8 dogs and 9 cats. 4 of the men and two of the women own guns. All have at least one fairly new car. No junkers. The Iranian, the gay asian, and the stingy woman are pleasant but antisocial. The black guy is inept at yard work but keeps trying. The gay guys are invisible. None of them are exeptionally fat, generally thin. One of the boyfriends is a madman. One of the husbands gets blotto drunk and roams around laughing hysterically on occasion. None of the women is loose, perhaps in another 5 years we could see some change and benefit there as we all know women approaching or over 40 give up on the uptightyness, though the stingess probably cannot change. Please – provide surveys of your block!

  11. WOW Al… glad I’m not your neighbor! do you have a thinner brush or are they all this broad?

    you forgot a judgey review of yourself.

  12. I am one of them as described. I could paint with smaller brush, but, I’m not Tolstoy and only 3% of us have ever finished W&P.

  13. Great color commentary there Al! Any idea of the inhabitants of the two homes that were there before? Seems like you’ve got the social rainbow covered there.

  14. Hey Butch
    None of your f–king business. Their people with expendable income. Who are you to demand an accounting of who moves here? Try asking the same question in Wallingford.

  15. My schizophrenic (actually) tells tha one house had been occupied by native American squatters on and off for many years. The other was a broken down rental with frequent drug activity. I trust what he says to be true.

  16. more money, less blight. more decent people and less animals that fire handguns randomly in a goddamn residential area

  17. Gentrification is a power word that allows you to sound edumacated while being a bigot.

  18. Al’s statistics were the best possible response to Butch’s idiotic request for them.