Zoning Recommendation Could Block Breckenridge Development

Student housing planned for the former middle school site on State Avenue may be in jeopardy.

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-0 Wednesday to recommend prohibiting construction of multiple single-and two-family homes on lots greater than one acre, according to a report in the Ames Tribune.

Representatives for the Breckenridge development told the commission that the proposed change would hinder their plans to redevelop the former middle school site, according to the article.

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If the Ames City Council approves the change, lots bigger than one acre would have to be subdivided into individual lots in order to build more than one home on the site. Developers could choose to build one home per lot or an apartment building per lot, according to Planning & Zoning Commission documents.

The subdivision would require that each home or lot have its own frontage on the street, public utilities, yard and off-street parking.

Commissioners told the Tribune that they were not targeting the Breckenridge development specifically, but Kelly Diekmann, the city’s director of planning and housing, said it would probably force the Breckenridge developers to increase the distance between the homes planned for the area.

Breckenridge Land Acquisition/Aspen Heights of Austin, Texas; was the highest bidder at a Dec. 7 auction for the former middle school site, offering $2.3 million.

Breckenridge representatives had told school board members that they hoped to build a 900-bedroom development consisting of Craftsman style town homes, houses and duplexes that management would rent by the room on the three parcels of the former middle school property. Members of the College Creek-Old Middle School Neighborhood Association are against the plan fearing that the number of college students would negatively impact their neighborhood.

Breckenridge had scaled back its initial plan to appease the association and has asked to build about 7.26 homes per acre.