Big house raises big concerns

By Seth Rosen

Published: May 3, 2008

The typical home in the neighborhood around Second Street Northeast is about 2,000 square feet. So, would a 6,000-square-foot house alter the character of the neighborhood?
Depends on whom you ask.
Charlottesville’s architectural board approved the house last month, drawing the ire of some neighbors who say it is simply too big. Now those neighbors are asking the City Council to overturn that decision and have the architectural board take another look at the proposal.
“This neighborhood has such a tight social fabric and this one building would dwarf all else,” said Bill Antholis, who lives nearby. “The house will be here for a generation and it just doesn’t work.”
Greene County developers Mark and Barbara Fried are seeking to build a two-story house with an accessory apartment and a basement-level garage on their property on Second Street Northeast. The vacant site is currently occupied by the remnants of a garden and stone walls and a stone path, a rare greenspace in a residential neighborhood.
The house will be designed to meet a stringent environmental standard and will have solar panels and geothermal heating pumps, among other “green” amenities.
“One of our goals is to have as close to a carbon-neutral building as we can,” said Allison Ewing, the architect.
It’s unusual to have a new house built in the north downtown neighborhood, one of the city’s historic districts where construction has to be approved by the architectural board, said Mary Joy Scala, Charlottesville’s preservation planner.
The distressed neighbors say they have no problems with infill development on that site.
“We all expected development to happen at some point. The concern is the massive scale” of the proposed house, said neighbor Fred Schneider.
The owners of the site insist that the house fits in with surrounding structures, noting that a four-unit condo building next door is about the same size. They point out that the house will be set back at least 17 feet from the sidewalk.
“Even though it is a large building, it is not out of character for that part of the neighborhood, and that is part of what will be debated at the council,” said David J. Toscano, who will represent the Frieds before the council and serves in the House of Delegates.
Though the architectural board approved the house last month, its members did struggle with the question of whether the house was too big, said William Adams, who sits on the board. After the house’s architect made several changes to the plan, including relocating the garage, the board signed off.
“It’s a big house, but there are certainly some other houses in that neighborhood that have a tremendous mass,” Adams said.
No matter what the council decides Monday, the architectural board still has to endorse design details on the house before construction can begin.
“I think in the end there was a recognition that it is a very difficult project, but progress had been made and the board expects more progress before it comes back here,” said Adams.