A proposal to build two seven-unit buildings on adjacent Dix Street lots was deferred Tuesday at a Zoning Board of Appeals session after the developer asked for additional time to talk to community residents in search of what his lawyer called “a consensus.”

Speaking briefly before the board, James Rudser, who represents William Higgins, the developer and landowner of 73 and 77 Dix Street, requested a deferral on both projects. “We’ve had a lot of conversations with the neighborhood about this,” he said. “We’ve made substantial concessions on the overall scope of the project, on the size of the project, and I just think that one more brief deferral might result in a consensus.”

Those neighborhood concerns center on the size of the planned development. The initial proposal was for a pair of four-story, eight-unit buildings sharing a common access route to parking lots behind the buildings. The amended proposals show lots that differ very little in scope from the original plan.

In the initial design, the top floor of each building displayed two two-bedroom units spanning just over 44 feet wide in total; in the latest design, the two-bedroom units have been replaced on each building by a single penthouse spanning some 32 feet in width.
Each building’s general height remains the same – about 43 feet – but technically reduced by the removal of 8.5 feet tall roof accesses to two square roof decks in the later version.

St. Mark’s Area Civic Association president Doug Hurley questioned whether those concessions were indeed significant. “I think that the neighbors and the abutters really want to see six units or under for each [building],” he said after the hearing.

In general, said Hurley, “I look at the deferral as a positive step in for the developers to go back to the table to hear the community concerns with the height of the development and the number of total units.”

The next hearing on the matter will be held on Jan. 26 at 11:30 a.m.