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Commission rejects proposed infill at 1220 Rosa Parks, citing inappropriate house form and massing
Summary
Staff recommended disapproval of a proposed mixed house/industrial infill at 1220 Rosa Parks in Germantown; the commission voted to adopt that recommendation after staff and commissioners criticized the house form, roof complexity and scale relative to neighboring contributing structures.
The Metro Historic Zoning Commission voted to disapprove a proposed infill project at 1220 Rosa Parks Boulevard after staff said the proposal did not meet multiple Germantown overlay design guidelines.
Staff told commissioners the lot falls in a development zone intended for larger, non-historic building types and that the proposed house form and a complex roof failed to meet sections addressing building type, massing, setbacks and roof form. "Staff recommends disapproval of the proposed infill," the staff presenter said in the commission's staff report.
Why it matters: Germantown's historic preservation overlay tailors guidelines to subzones; staff said a low-rise detached house form is not appropriate on a 53-foot-wide commercial-zoned lot facing a major thoroughfare and that replication of historic house forms where context does not support them would conflict with the Department of the Interior standards the city follows.
Applicant Ethan Warren of Remic Architecture defended aspects of the design, saying the project's proposed width was within the existing context and that the roof and covered tent element were intended to separate the proposed house-like portion from an industrial component. "One of the reasons that we had so many variations in the roof form was to separate the house form from the industrial form to kind of show it as two separate pieces of architecture," Warren said. He said the team could simplify the roof and adjust the tented porch if the commission found them out of scale.
Commissioners echoed staff concerns that the residential house form was inappropriate facing Rosa Parks. Commissioner Cashin and others said the industrial component alone might be appropriate but that pairing it with a residential form created a massing and design conflict that did not meet overlay standards.
The commission approved staff's recommendation of disapproval; the vote was recorded with no opposing votes. The commission encouraged the applicant to work with staff and to return with revised drawings that respond to the cited guideline sections.
Ending: The applicant was directed to consult with staff on revisions; no certificate of appropriateness was issued and the project must be redesigned to meet the Germantown overlay guidelines before it can be approved.
