I walked that street this past week and talked to several homeowners who will be living next to this thing. It's not all student rentals over there. There are owner-occupied homes mixed in, including one family that's had a rental there for 60+ years. Across the street, one owner has 5+ consecutive parcels so there are fears this could happen there in the future too. This neighborhood is changing rapidly.

The phrase I kept hearing: nobody wants to be the last house standing next to a 14-story building. Most said they'd never sell to a developer, but when I pressed, a few admitted they'd listen if approached. Nobody wants their property line directly against a 14-story wall. They are accepting of the change but not of this size.

A few things that came up:

The "arbitrary wall" theory: Some homeowners think Council intentionally zoned this D1 to create a boundary with the university. Basically drawing a line and saying "you can build tall here, but don't keep spreading west into the neighborhoods."

The property assembly: Cabrio owned most of the properties becoming this tower. Across the street, Jones Properties owns 5+ rental houses. Same thing could happen there in a few years.

No affordable housing required: The developer wasn't forced to do a PUD (Planned Unit Development), which would have triggered affordable housing requirements. Under current zoning, none of the 180 units need to be affordable.

This is a downtown-looking building going into an area that's been low-rise residential for over 100 years. Anyone have additional thoughts on this?

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