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Applicant seeks text amendment to permit removal of temporary interior partitions at Jones Road building
Summary
An applicant told the Forest Park Urban Design Review Board the text amendment would allow removal of nonstructural partition walls to reconfigure suites and expand an ADA bathroom for a tenant; staff said interior renovations typically require a building permit and no formal vote was recorded.
An applicant seeking a text amendment to allow removal of temporary interior partitions at a Jones Road commercial building described the proposal to the Forest Park Urban Design Review Board on the evening of the meeting. The applicant said the work involves taking down temporary, nonstructural partition walls and repainting to reconfigure two office suites into a larger space for prospective tenants.
The matter is framed as a text amendment rather than a zoning change, the applicant said, and is intended to accommodate a tenant who requires an expanded ADA-accessible bathroom. "They want to remove the temporary walls. They want to open up the space," the applicant said during the discussion, characterizing the partitions as nonpermanent. A staff member responded that even removing nonstructural partitions and repainting is treated as interior renovation: "usually when someone's putting in walls, they have to submit a building permit and they have to show the floor plan," the staff member said.
The issue matters to the neighborhood because the work affects accessibility and tenant use of the building on Jones Road. The applicant described two prospective tenants: an insurance agency and a nonprofit, Agape, that would use the space for children's performing arts classes. The applicant also said one of the existing bathrooms will need to be expanded to meet ADA needs for a tenant who uses a wheelchair.
Staff and the applicant discussed logistics including whether utilities would be modified (the applicant said no), the need for a temporary dumpster or container to remove construction debris, and minor finish work such as using acetone to clean tile stains. The applicant said the temporary partitions had been in place since about 2012 and that the intent now is to return the interior to a more open floor plan.
No formal motion or vote on the text amendment was recorded in the transcript of the session. Organizers confirmed the meeting would be brief and moved to public comment; meeting procedures and the public-comment schedule were read aloud, and Ms. Hines was asked to begin the public-comment portion.
The board's staff noted the permit requirement and floor-plan submission as the next procedural steps; the transcript does not record a final decision or a formal vote on the text amendment during the session.
