PLK Communities previews 48 rental townhomes south of Robertson; traffic, soils and access are central concerns

PLK Communities representatives outlined plans for 48 rental townhomes on a parcel south of Robertson and discussed traffic, stormwater and soil-remediation needs at an informational meeting of Norwood’s Infrastructure, Parks and Public Spaces Committee. The meeting was an informal question-and-answer session rather than a formal vote or planning hearing.

The developer said the project will include staggered, two- and three-bedroom townhomes with two-car garages, on-site guest parking, a north-side detention area and a small dog park. “There are 48 town home units here,” Nick Lingenfelter, PLK Communities, said as he described the schematic. He told the committee the parcel sits on legacy GBD zoning from a larger rezoning in the 1970s and that the soil on parts of the site is unstable from past highway fill: “the soil is not overly stable. We'll have to do a lot of different remediation techniques, curing things like that in order to achieve a foundation that'll work,” Lingenfelter said.

Why it matters: nearby residents and the committee focused on how vehicles for the new units will move in and out of the site, whether access will worsen cut-through traffic in neighborhood streets and how the development will affect drainage and emergency access for a nearby Buddhist temple. The project is part of a larger Factory 52 area build-out that PLK said will eventually total roughly 800–850 units across phases; the townhome parcel is positioned on the south edge of that larger site.

Traffic…