Wright City aldermen have approved a plan to build a new senior apartment complex near Dollar General. Before giving the okay, aldermen had to change city ordinance to allow denser housing …
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Wright City aldermen have approved a plan to build a new senior apartment complex near Dollar General. Before giving the okay, aldermen had to change city ordinance to allow denser housing construction in certain areas.
With a 6-0 vote April 23, aldermen approved special rules for “independent senior living facilities,” which will allow senior housing to be built closer together and on smaller tracts of land.
Under current city ordinance, the absolute minimum lot size for multi-family housing is 4,000 square feet per dwelling unit. Building four apartments would require a lot the size of two baseball diamonds.
However, the new ordinance will allow senior housing to be built on lots that are only 3,100 square feet per dwelling — so a builder could fit a fifth apartment into those two baseball diamonds and have room to spare.
Aldermen also reduced the minimum required size of the overall development area for such projects. City code requires other “planned development areas” to be a minimum of 5 acres large, but aldermen approved a minimum 2-acre size for senior living facilities. That could allow more options and make it easier to build other such facilities in the future.
With those changes in place, Wright City will allow applicant Bayer Real Estate LLC to construct seven apartment buildings behind Dollar General, each with four living units. The apartments will be restricted to residents 55 and older.
The city will also require a final development plan for review before construction can begin.
Other project in limbo
Another plan to add more apartments in Wright City may not come to fruition for some time.
Developer Pollard Properties approached the city in April to discuss expanding the once-troubled apartment complex formerly known as Westwood Village. Representative Adam Pollard said the company took over and renovated the complex last year, renaming it the Broadstone Apartments.
Pollard has proposed building 32 new, one-bedroom apartments on less than an acre adjacent to the existing property. That far exceeds the city’s housing density restrictions.
City officials have said they will discuss possible accommodations for the proposal, but any answer is likely months away.
Still, aldermen were happy to approve one small step for the developer. They voted 6-0 April 23 to change the name of the entry road for the apartments to Broadstone Drive.
