Planning board to consider resolution in October after Wartburg requests another year for 55 Bradley Avenue project

At the Sept. 9 meeting the Planning Board took up case PB‑23‑105 (55 Bradley Avenue), an amended site‑plan approval for an independent living facility on the Wartburg campus. The applicant asked for a further one‑year extension of the site‑plan approval. Wartburg representative David Gettner told the board the organization had reprioritized work over the last year to fast‑track an affordable housing conversion elsewhere on the campus but remained committed to the Bradley Avenue project and requested another year to complete financing and start construction.

Gettner described parallel activity on the campus: Wartburg closed on a project converting an old nursing home into 102 affordable housing units for seniors (30 of those targeted to households at or below 30% AMI, he said) and said the organization had an inducement resolution from the county’s LDC setting bonds aside in 2023. For the Bradley Avenue project he said the design team and financing bankers were engaged and he was confident the team could obtain required permits and start work if given the requested extension. In the meeting record he characterized the Bradley Avenue plan as “same plan, 225 units, 84 parking spaces,” and said the team expects to complete the required design and permitting work.

The board heard no public opposition at the hearing. After discussion the board closed the public hearing and voted unanimously to ask the city council to draft the resolution so the board can vote on the requested extension at its October meeting. The board asked the applicant to provide a chronological list of project events since the last extension to include in the draft resolution.