Glaser seeking ordinance for 75-unit DeSales addition

Keith Glaser of Excalibur Development/DeSales Properties LLC has submitted an application for a notwithstanding ordinance that would allow him to build a 75-unit residential component at DeSales Plaza in East Walnut Hills, but he is not likely to get it.

The ordinance would cover the 2.45 acres of properties at 1529 Lincoln Avenue; 2901, 2911, 2913, 2921, 2925, 2927 and 2933 Woodburn Avenue; and 1524, 1528, 1530, 1532 and 1536 Chapel Street.

The proposed development, which is currently in the design stages, would include four buildings - three with 12 units apiece and one with 39 units.

A 98-space surface parking lot would serve the project.

Glaser is seeking the notwithstanding ordinance to allow him to:

* Place surface parking in an RMX Residential-Mixed District
* Add ground-floor residential and remove the required ground-floor transparency in a CC-M Commercial Community Mixed District due to a perceived lack of need for more neighborhood retail
* Remove the requirement for front-lot building placement in a CC-M district to give the residential units more privacy

The East Walnut Hills Assembly provided Department of City Planning Director Charles C. Graves III with a letter of support for the project on March 6.

In a letter accompanying the application, Glaser argues that, because the traditional zoning change process can take as much as six months to accomplish, use of the notwithstanding ordinance would be "a more efficient process".

City staff has recommended that Glaser would be better served by consolidating the lots, changing the zoning to RM 1.2 Multi-Family, and then subdividing the lot for each of the four buildings.