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Planning panel approves 12-unit conversion at 400 River Street with conditioned semicircular planter
Summary
The commission approved a proposal to rehabilitate a vacant building at 400 River Street into 12 market-rate apartments, conditioning the approval on installing a three- to four-foot knee-wall planter in the southern semicircular parking area (subject to city approval of any encroachment).
The planning commission approved a developer’s proposal to convert a vacant building at 400 River Street into 12 market-rate apartments, imposing a condition intended to improve the project’s sidewalk interface and screen a small off-street parking area.
Robert Curo of BBL Construction Services told the commission the project will refresh the façade, replace windows and make utility connections; no immediate commercial tenant was proposed for the first-floor space. Commissioners and staff discussed a semicircular parking/landscaped area on the south face of the building that currently reads as exposed parking and asked the applicant to introduce a knee‑wall planter (three to four feet high) with trees or other plantings to soften the streetscape and reduce the visual prominence of parked vehicles. Staff noted portions of the semicircle may be in a city right-of-way and that any encroachment will require city engineering or barricade/sidewalk permits; the applicants said they will coordinate with staff on easements and permit limits.
A commissioner moved to approve the project with the planter condition, acknowledging that final placement and design would require any necessary city approvals; the commission voted in favor by voice (recorded as unanimous in the meeting). The applicant was advised to return with any changes should a first-floor commercial use be proposed later, at which time additional review will be required.
