Hearn Building project moves toward construction with pivot

CAMBRIDGE — Green Street Housing is adapting its design plans for the Hearn Building project on Race Street following concerns from Cambridge Planning and Zoning commissioners over ground-floor residential units.

After a June 4 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting where Green Street — an affordable housing developer — presented its concept site plan for review, Cambridge City Attorney Patrick Thomas determined that placing apartment units on the ground floor of the the Hearn Building does not comply with the city’s Unified Development Code.

“So we will be adapting our plans accordingly to prepare for resubmission to the planning commission,” Green Street Director of Development Chase Powell said in an interview.

Green Street hopes to have an updated concept site plan for the commission to review in time for the commission’s August meeting, Powell said.

At the June 4 meeting, Powell presented his company’s plans for 505 and 509 Race Street — a roughly 50,000-square-foot mixed-use development that would include 44 residential units and 4,000 square feet of commercial, office or retail space fronting Race Street.

Powell said Green Street is financing the project using funding through the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program and the department’s loan resources.

“And with that comes a high commitment to designed quality and energy-efficiency,” he said at the meeting.

Currently, there are two buildings on the land that Green Street plans to develop. Powell said they plan to raze 505 Race Street and build a new building in its footprint. For the Hearn Building at 509 Race Street, he said Green Street essentially plans to build a building within it.

“The Hearn Building is a shell, more or less, with a roof,” he said. “So what we are proposing is what I would say, just a phenomenal feat of engineering to put a structure within a structure.”

During the meeting, Commission Vice Chair William Craig brought up Green Street’s plan to put apartment units on the ground level, behind commercial space. He cited a section in the city’s Unified Development Code that states residential uses should be located on the upper floors of buildings in the “core” subdistrict, which the property is in.

Craig also pointed to the permitted uses table, which does not permit commercial apartments on the ground floor of a building located in the core subdistrict.

“That’s what the ordinance says,” he said. “And so I don’t know how you’re going to make it comply with that with this residential on the first floor.”

Thomas said he hadn’t looked into this before the meeting, but agreed with Craig’s interpretation of the code.

NEXT STEPS

In an interview, Powell said since the city’s determination that there cannot be residential units on the ground floor of the property, Green Street’s architect is in the process of reconfiguring the plans to retain as many units as possible.

Although Powell suspects they will not be able to keep all 44 units in the property plans, he thinks the project will still be financially viable.

Cambridge City Planner Holly Baldwin said Green Street will need to to come back to the Planning and Zoning Commission again with the project’s preliminary site plan. Once the commission has approved the plan, Green Street will have to submit its final construction plans for review and approval by city engineering and the city’s zoning official, Baldwin said.

Powell said Green Street has had to do a lot of work to help people understand Green Street’s intentions with this project.

In October, Cambridge Commissioner Brian Roche sent a letter to Maryland Secretary of Housing and Community Development Jake Day requesting a revision to the Hearn Building project plans. Roche said the current plan would further concentrate poverty in an area without an excess of available jobs, would go against Cambridge’s Neighborhood Revitalization Plan and its Comprehensive Plan goals and would be an “excessive” cost to taxpayers, among other things. Roche also brought up a concern for management issues down the line.

At the meeting on June 4, Powell said TM Associates Management, which manages Cambridge apartment New Horizons, will be managing the Hearn Building apartments once the project is complete. He said there shouldn’t be concerns about poor management because Green Street is a local developer.

“So we’re very driven to make sure that everything’s being maintained and it’s orderly,” he said. “Because it’s in my backyard, too.”