There’s another new apartment complex in the works in St. Joseph.
City commissioners on Monday were asked to consider a rezoning request from Clark Logistics for property at 2929 Lakeshore Drive, which is immediately north of the Lakecrest Shoreline apartment complex near Hilltop Road. Clark was asking for the property to be rezoned from a commercial district to a multiple family residential district to make way for apartments, although a detailed plan hasn’t yet been developed.
Commissioners were told the city planning commission has recommended the rezoning after hearing a few complaints from nearby residents about traffic and the current condition of the property. Clark’s Tim Monahan told commissioners although everything is still quite preliminary, the company plans to address the concerns it can.
“We do plan on sidewalks and we’re going to try to make our parcel as nice as possible,” Monahan said. “Enclosed trash enclosures. We have issues with the neighboring properties as well. So yeah, we’re going to really conform and make a nice project. We just don’t know how big that’s going to be and what it is yet…There’s so many things we have to figure out first.”
The number of units this development would include has not been determined, although the city commission in 2006 approved a special use permit allowing for a 4-story mixed use commercial and residential space there. That project never happened.
Speaking Monday, Commissioner Michael Fernandez said the city does need housing and this project by Clark would meet that need. Commissioner Michael Sarola agreed.
“It’s an opportunity to have a higher and better use for what’s now a parking lot,” Sarola said. “And to your point, it does check those boxes of things we’re trying to accomplish. So, I think from a zoning ordinance standpoint, it does align with what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Sarola said back when the site was used by Zenith Data Systems, there was a lot more traffic in the vicinity, so he believes it could accommodate some apartments now.
Commissioners then approved a first reading on the rezoning request. There will also have to be a second reading at a future meeting.
