Vision Hospitality is planning to build 84 apartments next to Renaissance Park on the North Shore.
The five-story North Shore Apartments are set to rise at the corner of Cherokee Boulevard and Manufacturers Road.
At a meeting on Monday night, nearby residents expressed concern about the effect on parking and traffic.
Andrew Hibbard of Vision Hospitality said it would be too expensive to build a parking deck. He said the plan is for 26 parking spaces at grade by the apartments, and he said the group is in negotiations with CARTA on leasing 75 spaces at its lot nearby.
Residents of the adjacent Bridgeview and One North Shore said there is already a shortage of parking for Renaissance Park.
Garnet Chapin, president of the Northside/Riverfront Community Association, said, "This plan would result in a very constricted parking situation. The developers say they will encourage residents to have only one car and to use bicycles, but a majority of those who visit Renaissance Park have to drive. The lease of this many public spaces would leave very little public parking."
He also said it would exacerbate traffic issues that he said were made more constricted by adding bicycle lanes on Cherokee Boulevard and Frazier Avenue.
The plan would be to have no direct access from the apartments to Manufacturers Road. Access would be onto Cherokee Boulevard, but there may be a requirement of no left turn. It was stated that apartment residents wanting to go left onto Manufacturers Road would likely enter the public parking lot from the apartments and get onto Manufacturers from it.
The developer said it would mainly be one-bedroom units with some two-bedrooms and studios.
The firm is considering rental ranges of from $1,200 to $1,500.
The group was told that the zoning on the property was changed in 2007 to C-3, which includes apartments. So the project would not to go through any review process.
However, the developers agreed to hold the community session and to hold a second one on July 13 at the Theatre Centre. The exact time has not been set.
The project is expected to get underway within a year, it was stated.
An earlier developer had planned a boutique hotel next to the Walnut Street Bridge. When there were strong objections to that idea, the city traded property with the developer so he wound up with the site at Cherokee Boulevard and Manufacturers Road. However, the project never got underway.