Committee reviews conditional use for three two-family homes on Excelsior Avenue

Middlebury Housing LLC requested conditional-use approval to build three new two-family dwellings at 733, 737 and 745 Excelsior Avenue, a proposal planning staff said would infill vacant lots and provide “missing middle” housing in the Roselawn-Excelsior neighborhood.

Planning staff described each proposed lot as about 5,378 square feet with 45 feet of street frontage. The proposed dwellings would be two to two-and-a-half stories, each with a first-floor and an upper-floor unit, clad in horizontal vinyl siding with accent board-and-batten. Planning staff noted that 23 of the 74 residential buildings in the surrounding eight-block area are two-family or multifamily structures (about 31 percent), and that similar two-family dwellings already exist nearby. Planning staff and the planning commission recommended approval subject to conditions.

Daniel D’Angelo of the planning department said at least one of the lots previously contained a two-family house and another may have held a three-family building; he said he would provide precise historical parcel information on request. Councilmember Sharon Connor praised Middlebury Housing’s work in renovating housing in the neighborhood and said the organization had “transformed probably close to a hundred homes over the past few years.”

Councilmember Julian (representing another speaker) relayed comments from Zach Cole, executive director of a neighborhood organization, who intended to attend the evening session; Julian said Cole had buyers lined up for the units and emphasized that duplexes can help make homeownership more affordable because rental income from one unit can assist mortgage underwriting. Planning staff explained that administrative approval could be used for minor changes to placement on a lot but that anything that “changed the function of the house” would require return to committee.

The public hearing was opened and closed with no public testimony. Planning staff and the planning commission recommended approval subject to conditions; no final committee vote was taken at this meeting and the matter will return for a committee recommendation to full council at the 5:00 p.m. session.

Clarifying details included lot sizes (about 5,378 sq ft per lot), existing local housing mix (23 of 74 buildings as two-family or multifamily in the eight-block area), and transit access (a three-minute walk to RTA bus lines 6 and 19), which staff said supported the project’s objectives to provide affordable and transit-accessible housing.