There have been a lot of posts and claims flying round social media about this project, and we thought we would take the time here to explain what’s happening and the truth of the issues.
Switchboard has off-street parking.
We have seen some claims flying around claiming Switchboard has 50 off-street spaces. Is that true? The short answer is that 801 still has 0 off-street spaces. The folks making this claim are counting that are already spoken for by the original Switchboard project and 20 spaces at Calvary which is over 750 feet away from 801. Off-street parking, as defined by the ordinance, is legally established parking outside of the public right of way, onsite or within 500 of the subject parcel. There are several reasons why this is not a viable solution:
The parking is 150% further than what is legally allowed by the ordinance. 500 feet is a well established standard for the limit to which users will walk in an open, uncovered environment.
These spaces will not be available to Switchboard during all of their hours of operation. Calvary routinely uses 100% of their parking as well as adjacent street parking during their frequent services. Switchboard has offered no evidence that their parking arrangement makes those parking spaces exclusive to Switchboard, excluding even Calvary.
Switchboard events have already proven that their users will not walk to Calvary for parking. On February 16th, Switchboard held an event with 50+ people. On that night, in violation of State law, people parked in front of fire hydrants, marked “no parking” spaces, accessible spaces and even the accessible access aisle.
Switchboard has refused a compromise to hold their users accountable to park at Calvary using a tag/decal system.
The remaining 30 spaces claimed are likely the off-street parking assigned to the original Switchboard location. There are five off-street spaces at the 735 property. There is a gravel extension of that parking, which is also not compliant, that may hold 2-3 cars. The lot across Hoyt is unstriped and has an indeterminate capacity. Empirical evidence would suggest it may hold up to 14 cars.
Not quite 50, but we likely disagree on the capacity of the Hoyt Lot.
What do you hope to achieve? Why are you trying to kill this project.
We are not trying to kill this project. In fact, we are in support of the project. It is the current variance that is an unprecedented departure from the development standards that we oppose. We hope to encourage the developer to come to the table with neighbors and work out a mutually agreeable solution.
This advocacy is necessary. The Switchboard only added the parking at Calvary, which is irrelevant to 801, after we mounted our opposition.
This is one person serving their own interests.
This is a convenient narrative that developers trot out to minimize opposition when their bottom line is threatened in any way. We are, in fact, a group of concerned neighbors and among us are folks who have been actively advocating, planning, and executing responsible, neighborhood-friendly development for the past decade in Fountain Square and surrounding areas. The Fountain Square Neighborhood Association has also voted to oppose this variance.