This corner lot on Beaver Hills’ Colony Road has long remained a quiet yard with old, stately trees. An investor wants to clear the lot and put up a house. Neighbors worry the move would ruin the neighborhood’s historic feel.
Historically, residents of the elegant brick house at 123 Colony Rd. have used the lot next door as an extended yard. The landscape, including a massive, rare copper beech tree, creates a distinctive green space at the corner of Colony Road and Dyer Street. At a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting this week, neighbors came ready to fight for its preservation.
Daniel Stein (pictured below, at left) and his wife, Michelle Scott, bought the double lot for a large sum, nearly $450,000, last summer. The couple, who own at least half a dozen properties across the city, now seek to add to that investment by building a second house. Neighbors fear the move would disturb the fabric of the historic street.
“People remember the children that played there, the mature trees, … All that would be disrupted in the effort of making money,” said Alderwoman Babz Rawls-Ivy, who’s aligned with “at least 100 neighbors,” and State Rep. Toni Walker, in opposition to the proposed house. Rawls-Ivy and others are cautious of Stein’s intentions.
“Mr. Stein has a history of multiple properties in the city that are not taken care of,” charged the Beaver Hills alderwoman. She suspects he sees the property as an “investor holding,” without regard to the look of the street —‚Äù wide, quiet, marked by old tudors with ample yards.
“I don’t see the vision,” she said, “Just to come into the neighborhood, see green space and say, ‘Hmm, I wanna build on it.’ That’s a little tough for the neighborhood.” The one-fifth acre lot already holds a driveway and garage. “Unless you’re putting a trailer house on that lot, or a tent, it just doesn’t make sense.”
No city law would prevent that space from being built on. But the house he’s proposed sits too close to the curb. Since the house would lie on a corner lot, zoning laws require two front yards: The house must be set back from Colony and Dyer each by 25 feet. Stein wants a variance on the Dyer Street side, where the house would lie only 12 feet from the sidewalk.
“It won’t fit in the neighborhood,” said an embittered neighbor found peering at the lot this week. The man, who declined to give his name, said he was “doubtful” that any house would look good crammed onto the corner lot next to the “majestic house” next door. “The lot has always been used this way (as a yard).”
The matter was tabled at Tuesday’s BZA meeting because Stein’s application had been incomplete. With extra forms submitted, the application will come up again in July. Outside the Hall of Records, where the meeting took place, Stein chatted with his attorney, John Lambert (pictured at right).
When approached, Stein said: “No comment, but thank you for your curiosity.” Noting a camera nearby, he put his hand in front of his face, as though to adjust his glasses.