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Neighborhood report

Owners to improve center's exterior

After many years, a resolution is reached on the looks of a commercial center at Howard and Mississippi.

By JANET ZINK
Published April 15, 2005

It's taken more than 15 years, but residents who live near a commercial center anchored by Bella's Italian Cafe have finally resolved their conflicts with the center's property owners.

The City Council on April 7 gave preliminary approval to a rezoning request for the site at Howard and Mississippi avenues that addresses many of the neighbors' complaints about the development.

"They really did work with us on a lot of the things that were important to us," said Vicki Pollyea, president of the Bayshore Gardens Neighborhood Association. "They worked with us on a lot of details of a very old problem."

The new site plan requires adding landscaping, improving stormwater drainage, moving and enclosing trash bins and installing a sidewalk on Mississippi. It also calls for reconfiguring a parking lot next door behind Sally O'Neal's Pizza, which the center owns and uses for parking.

The plan won't increase parking for the center, which is still 40 spots short of what's required under current guidelines.

"In an ideal world it would be great for them to build a two-story parking garage with a historic look that blends into the neighborhood, but the reality is this owner is not going to spend the money on that," Pollyea said.

But Pollyea said the neighborhood was glad to compromise on the parking issue in exchange for the other improvements.

"That's what we have to do in this neighborhood," she said. "We have a thriving business district next to a thriving residential district."

Pollyea and other nearby residents say they have been trying to get the property owners to comply with the development's site plan since 1989.

The site plan showed enclosed garbage bins and a paved, 12-space parking lot with retention ponds and a wooden fence behind Sally O'Neal's.

Instead, neighbors faced overflowing garbage bins and a dirt lot crammed with cars.

The issue bounced around the city's code enforcement department until Soho Investments, which bought the property in 1998, applied for a rezoning last year so it could make improvements to the parking lot.

The new site plan addresses code violations and neighborhood concerns.

"It's definitely an improvement over the '89 plan," said Karen Crawford, who lives adjacent to the property.

The parking issue, she said, will never be solved.

"It's a lot of density for that small lot," she said. "That's just the way it is. We can learn by looking backward, but we can only live by going forward."

- Janet Zink can be reached at 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 13, 2005, 16:39:09]