Parking variance for 45-unit affordable project fails to secure approval after heated debate

A request to waive 33 required parking spaces for a proposed 45-unit affordable housing project on East 3rd Street failed to secure approval at the Royal Oak Zoning Board of Appeals after extended public comment and board debate.

Staff summarized the revised project: the developer reduced an originally approved six-story plan to a lower-height building with 45 units and 35 parking spaces after removing an underground parking level for structural and cost reasons. Under the current ordinance the site would require 1.5 parking spaces per dwelling unit (68 spaces); the petitioner sought a variance for the shortfall.

Steven Doretta of Lockwood Development told the board that soil and water-table conditions made deeper excavation and underground parking prohibitively expensive and that removing the underground parking allowed a lower building height and a financeable project. He said the development would deliver about 40 affordable and five workforce units and that funding partners and MSHDA had conditionally approved the revised plan; he warned federal American Rescue Plan funds committed to the project could be lost if zoning relief was delayed.

Neighborhood speakers and many nearby residents urged denial, citing already-limited street parking, delivery/traffic safety, and concerns that the building would displace parking demand into adjacent blocks. Supporters, including transit riders and housing advocates, said downtown garages and improved transit make lower on-site parking feasible and argued that delaying the project risks losing critical funding.

After lengthy discussion about construction feasibility, parking ratios and neighborhood impacts, a motion to approve the variance failed on a 2'04 vote. Board members then moved to deny; the record and staff statements reflected procedural ambiguity, and staff said both the approval and denial motions failed to result in a definitive zoning order. The net result is that the requested parking relief was not granted at the hearing.