Developers DMHA and design team members presented 3‑D massing and in‑progress details for a proposed 23‑unit residential project at 518–524 North Milpas Street on Dec. 17, showing stepped massing, an entry arch, internal courtyards and three townhomes toward the center of the site.

Ryan Mills and architect Ed Divicini walked commissioners through multiple aerial and pedestrian perspectives to demonstrate how the project steps back from the street and retains a historic frontage. Mills said the purpose of the presentation was to show massing before the team finishes detailed architectural elements: “the purpose of this visit was to show the massing,” he told the commission.

During public comment Robert Murray, pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, asked staff and the applicant to clarify whether a portion of the site had historically been church property. Murray said the congregation has used the adjoining area for decades and requested documentary confirmation so his church’s members could have certainty about potential loss of access or parking. Staff reported they had reviewed title and survey records and that city archival records for the parcels go back several decades; staff and the applicant committed to continue working with Pastor Murray and to provide deed history and follow‑up.

Commissioners offered detailed design guidance: lower and refine rooftop trellises, thicken the sculpted entry buttress to appear more substantial, lower awnings for effective shade, consider wrought‑iron or low wall elements to provide separation between ground‑floor residences and the public sidewalk, and study ways to create a modest vertical offset at residential entries within the constraints of the updated right‑of‑way and pedestrian plan. The commission voted to continue the item (indefinite continuance) so the team can refine details, materials, landscape and responses to neighborhood concerns.