The Board of Zoning Appeals voted unanimously Jan. 2 to approve a variance permitting 20 parking spaces within the Liberty Pike frontage area at the Factory at Franklin, a mixed-use historic campus at 230 Franklin Road, finding the proposal meets variance criteria in the project’s context.

Staff advised the board to deny the request, saying the frontage requirement (chapter 7.5 of the zoning ordinance) directs parking to the side or rear of principal buildings to preserve street-facing design and pedestrian engagement. Staff also said the applicant’s shared-parking study — submitted with a separate development-plan revision — had not yet been fully reviewed and could not be relied upon to justify the requested frontage parking. “Staff recommends that the Board of Zoning Appeals move to deny the variance request … because the criteria for granting a variance have not been met,” the staff presentation said.

Holiday (the property owner) and representative Greg Gamble told the board the site’s historic buildings, historic-overlay guidelines and proposed circulation improvements make the 20 frontage spaces necessary for functional distribution of parking and to replace 46 existing spaces that will be lost after reconfiguring the main entrance and aligning a new drive. Gamble described a 120-room boutique hotel, a proposed 250-space parking structure and pedestrian improvements included in a forthcoming development-plan revision and emphasized that the 20 spaces are a small portion of the overall site design.

Public comment from a nearby resident, Paul Lebovitz, urged preservation of existing landscape frontage and said the project has repeatedly returned for variances; he expressed concern about loss of mature trees and pedestrian buffers. The applicant responded that the design adds required street trees, hedgerows and rain gardens and will increase open space in the frontage area compared with the existing condition.

Board discussion cited the project’s unique historic context, prior variances granted for the campus and proposed pedestrian improvements. One member described personal difficulty accessing the site when handicapped and cited convenience and accessibility as factors. Another member said the factory’s large scale would continue to dominate the streetscape and that the proposed 20 spaces would not undermine the intent of Envision Franklin or the 2019 zoning ordinance update.

A motion to approve the variance carried on a 3-0 roll call. Board members noted staff will continue review of the development-plan revision and the shared-parking study through the planning commission and BOMA process; approval of this narrow variance does not constitute final approval of the overall development plan or the shared-parking study. The board explicitly required compliance with landscaping and frontage buffer standards as set by the ordinance and historic-overlay guidelines.

Ending: With the variance approved, the applicant will proceed with finalizing the development-plan revision and staff will continue review of the shared-parking analysis as part of the separate planning process.