Arsenal Hill project to bridge income gap

A development planned for Arsenal Hill aims to provide lower-priced housing than the luxury condominiums and town houses being built in Columbia's Vista.

The Battery at Arsenal Hill is an attempt to renew the Arsenal Hill neighborhood, bridging the gap between luxury homes at nearby Governors Hill, overlooking Finlay Park, and the adjacent Columbia Housing Authority town houses.

The project, to be built on open land, is one way of revitalizing a decaying neighborhood without pricing out its original residents. "The goal was to help preserve a neighborhood that was rapidly going away by building something that was compatible with it," said Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp., a publicly funded agency charged with boosting downtown development.

"It's not condos," Delk said. "It's a real family neighborhood of sidewalks, streets, kids and dogs."

The Battery will feature 44 single-family homes, bungalows and town houses, ranging in price from $130,000 to $280,000.

Ninety-five percent of the homes would be considered "affordable" for a family of four meeting the requirements for the city's Columbia Housing and Loan program.

Also, special zoning requested by the Development Corp. would allow buyers of some homes to build small "carriage houses" - sometimes called "mother-in-law flats" or "mews" - on the rear of their properties. These could be rented, but not sold, because the zoning would not allow the lots to be further subdivided.

The architecture of the homes will be mixed, influenced by such styles as Craftsman, Federal and Colonial, but designed to be compatible with the existing homes in predominantly black Arsenal Hill, one of Columbia's oldest neighborhoods.

Despite its traditional architecture, the layout of the neighborhood will be distinctively new to downtown Columbia.

The special "smart code" zoning for the development, already approved by the Columbia Planning Commission and under consideration by City Council, possibly as early as May 10, is a glimpse of the more dense New Urbanist plans for the old State Hospital property on Bull Street.

New Urbanism stresses pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods with a dense mix of units interspersed with communal green space and hidden parking.

The mix of styles and price ranges "will give Columbia a taste of what Bull Street will be one day," said developer Brian Boyer of Columbia's Tomlin & Co., which will develop the housing.

The Development Corp. has spent eight years piecing together the 2.87 acres. It sought proposals from developers, and a committee of community members picked the Tomlin & Co. bid from four entries.

"Everybody wanted to get new, affordably priced, single-family homes in the area," said Cliff Spann, president of the Arsenal Hill Neighborhood Association. "We were ecstatic."

The project has 20 town houses, 16 traditional single-family homes and eight bungalow-style cottages. Seven optional carriage houses would bring the total to 51 units.

The development's design features new streets in the interior of the two blocks straddling Pulaski Street, north of Laurel Street.

All parking will be close to the rear of the homes or underneath town houses.

Delk said other "affordable" projects are on the horizon.

"What makes the character of downtown great is having a real mix of people - all incomes and races - and different kinds of creative character," he said. "That's what makes it an interesting place to live."

Reach Wilkinson at (803) 771-8495.