The Mcallister Village concept is to create a neighborhood of small starter homes a short walk from coffee shops, restaurants and the future downtown Crozet, VA. The site is designed to push the parking to the outside, create courtyard entries to all the houses, open up a shared central green with a shared pavilion, and be enhanced with perimeter walking trails. This idea was inspired by The Boiceville Cottages in Brooktondale, NY not far from Ithaca, NY
The houses will be compact one bedrooms with lofts attached to compact lofted two bedroom or three bedroom houses. The one bedroom houses fit somewhere in-between apartments and single family detached houses in the market; a segment largely ignored for decades due to outdated zoning codes. The houses utilize a versatile lofted design to provide more storage and living area for singles, couples and young families. The construction details are simple and elegant; reducing cost, increasing thermal efficiency and maximizing space.
The proposal asks to either fix the blatant mathematical errors in the R-2 zoning code or rezone the property to PRD (Planned Residential Development) from R-2 to allow for our creative redesign. The total amount of families would be the same as by-right, but the by-right attached accessory units (adus) would be expressed as more desirable attached one bedroom cottages that can be bought or rented separately:
• by-right zoning allows up to 11 three+ bedroom houses with 11 attached accessory units (adus), which is at least 33 parking spaces and 44 bedrooms.
• The proposal is to renovate the existing three bedroom house, build 10 two or three bedroom houses and 10 one bedroom houses (adus) attached to the three bedroom houses, which is effectively the same as by-right.
The by-right zoning of this parcel leads to uncreative, embarrassing and expensive site plans, creating an outsized infrastructure liability for the future of the county. The zoning code R-1 and R-2 district’s cluster and bonus cluster minimum lot sizes and minimum lot frontage lead to artificial reductions in the amount of units possible with uncreative site design and should be immediately stricken from the zoning code, just like they are in R-4 and above. This is a mathematical error in the code that has existed for decades stemming from increasing right of way requirements.
This project is currently shelved unless a forward thinking developer wants to take on securing the property and going through the county rezoning process. Contact us for more information
The Housing Lab 