Two-story veterinary hospital moves forward

By Lisa Brody

A proposal for a new two-story building to replace the current one-story Gasow Veterinary Hospital was met with unanimous recommendations for approvals to the city commission at the Birmingham Planning Board on Wednesday, June 8.

The current one-story building housing Gasow Veterinary Hospital, located at 36877 Woodward Avenue south of Quarton Road, has been located there since the 1960s, noted senior planner Brooks Cowan in presenting their request for a special land use permit and final site plan review.

“They are planning to knock it down and build a new two-story commercial building,” Cowan said, noting they had addressed several concerns of planning board members from their preliminary site plan presentation. “They went to the zoning board of appeals, and have received three variances, for modifying the site plan to have 75 percent of the building façade within five feet of the front lot line; to reduce the parking lot frontage to 25 percent or less of the front lot line; and to permit one, not two, doors on Woodward.”

Gasow is located in a TZ3 zoning area, and the property currently sits on four separate parcels. A condition for approval at the city commission, planning board members requested, was for the hospital to get a lot combination approved. They also requested more windows be added to a side elevation.

Five more parking spaces were added to the alley, as well as a requested screening wall and landscaping to provide privacy to the residences in the neighborhood behind the vet hospital.

“This project is tremendous. I applaud the changes,” said board member Bryan Williams.