Meeting - March 17, 2025

Update on the Maymont Community Garden from Barry O’Keefe(neighborhood resident and coordinator for the community gar-den)Barry sketched out the current location of the community gar-den in Riverview Park and the location for the new garden . The new garden will have 20 garden beds that are bigger thanexisting beds. If you are interested in helping with the garden work days,contact maymontcommunitygarden@gmail.com . There is a waiting list for garden beds right now, but peoplerotate off pretty frequently if you are interested in a bed.neighborhood in the last 14 days –theft from an unlocked car . It is great that there is only onething to report. A neighbor asked about recent gunshots at night . The policeofficer in attendance said you can call the police non-emer-gency phone number or 911, and officers will respond . A neighbor asked about the Belle Isle shooting of a park rangerlast year. The police officer in attendance said that it is an on-going investigation, and there seems to be more to the storythan what was initially reported in the news . A neighbor asked if there were any updates on the suspectsarrested in the Hampton Street murder last summer . The po-lice officer in attendance said there are no updates he knowsof, but the case is likely going through the court process now . Update from the 5th District City Councilmember Liaison Amy Robins Not in attendance Discussion on the Special Use Permit (SUP) Request for 1711 and1715 Georgia Avenue Will Gillette, a land use planner with Baker Development Re-sources, spoke on behalf of the property owner of 1711 and1715 Georgia Avenue . He explained the proposed houses andproposed special use permit. Will can be reached at will@bak-erdevelopmentresources.com if you have any follow-up ques-tions. There is an existing two story house at 1715 Georgia Avenue,and a building permit is under development to build a newhouse by right at 1711 Georgia Avenue . The special use permit is for two new houses to be construct-ed, one between 1711 Georgia Avenue and 1715 Georgia Av-enue and one between 1715 Georgia Avenue and New York Avenue . In theory, the property owner could tear down the existinghouse at 1715 Georgia Avenue and build three new houses byright . However, the property owner wants to keep the originalhouse at 1715 Georgia Avenue. All new houses would be two-story, single-family, detachedhouses with rear parking through the alley . New houses will be between 2100 square feet and 2400square feet. A few different designs are available for the hous-es to be constructed. A neighbor asked the presenter how the proposed houses arenot conforming to the city zoning code. The presenter saidthat a 50’ of lot width and a 5,000 square feet of lot area is re-quired in an R-5 zoning district such as the Maymont neigh-borhood (even though many properties in the neighborhooddo not meet these amounts because the properties were laidout prior to the current zoning code) . The four houses wouldhave a 40’ wide lot, a 50’ wide lot, and two 30’ wide lots. The houses would have the following addresses: 1711, 1713,1715, and 1717 Georgia Avenue. As of now, fences between houses are not proposed in the spe-cial use permit, but that could change in the future . A neighbor expressed concerns that the proposed houses willnot look like houses in the majority of the neighborhood . Next steps: There will be at least four months of behind thescenes paperwork. The neighborhood will vote to support ornot support the special use permit. This vote will be sharedwith the city’s Planning Commission, and the vote is one ofseveral things the Planning Commission will consider whenthey review the proposed special use permit . The neighborhood will get a notice when there is a public hear-ing for the special use permit in front of the Planning Commis-sion . It could be October before the special use permit goes beforethe City Council. The board will send out a survey for supporting/not supportingthe special use permit in the coming weeks . The survey will beopen