Planners back three-story office on Woodward

By Grace Lovins

The Birmingham Planning Board gave its unanimous support during the Wednesday, October 22, meeting to a proposal for a new three-story office building at 36977 Woodward Avenue, recommending approval of the special land use permit on top of approval of the final site plan and design review.

The site, a vacant lot on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Quarton Road, sits adjacent to the recently completed Gasow Veterinary Hospital, and will serve as the office of Investwise Financial. City planner Summer Aldred-Arens noted that the business had addressed nearly all the feedback the board provided during the building’s preliminary site plan review in September.

Aldred-Arens said the revisions since their last discussion included the addition of a main entrance facing Woodward, improving pedestrian access and landscaping around the site. The architects also showed a curb and gutter separating the building’s parking lot and the existing alley that will run behind it.

During preliminary review, city planners and planning board members noted that the building’s design did not meet the requirements for the street length the building must occupy as well as requirements for the building height. The plans failed to meet these requirements again during Wednesday’s meeting.

According to Aldred-Arens, the building is planned to be 38 ft. but has a pinnacle that reaches 45 ft. both exceeding and falling short of the required 42 ft. for the zoning district.

Likewise, the depicted street frontage falls short of the 75 percent frontage requirement by 13.8 percent. Investwise and their architects, Kreiger Klatt Architecture, explained they planned to obtain variances from the zoning board of appeals for both the building height and street frontage.

Generally, board members stated they were glad to see a new building planned for the corner and shared mixed opinions for the zoning board to reference when discussing variances. Chair Scott Clein and members Bryan Williams, Robin Boyle and Daniel Share stated they were in favor of a variance for the frontage. Williams, Share and Boyle also felt the height variance would be acceptable for this particular location, but Clein disagreed.

Ultimately, the board voted 7-0 to recommend approval of the special land use permit and approved the final site plan and design review for the building. Investwise will now have to see variances from the zoning board of appeals before heading to the city commission for final approval.