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5 townhomes are being deliberate for the location of the previous Catholic Employee Home on the East Facet.
Father-son builders Paul Vance and Patrick Vance formally requested conceptual approval from the town’s Workplace of Historic Preservation (OHP) to construct the Dorothy Day Townhomes at 622 and 626 Nolan Avenue.
On Wednesday, the Historic and Design Assessment Fee denied the request following the neighborhood affiliation voicing its opposition and questions arising about rezoning and re-platting the 2 tons. Commissioner Jeffrey Fetzer referred to as the request untimely and Commissioner Monica Savino mentioned it was incomplete for such a “delicate endeavor,” inserting a number of particular person houses on the tons in a historic residential district.
The tons are at present zoned R6, which permits for one main construction and an adjunct dwelling unit.
Although Commissioner Anne-Marie Grube recommended the challenge might be accredited with OHP stipulations and transfer ahead to the Zoning Fee, the remaining commissioners in the end voted to disclaim the request because it stood.
The Vances acquired the property in late 2023 after the Catholic Employee Home, a nonprofit supporting unhoused people locally for over 30 years, reopened final 12 months at Towne Twin Village at 4711 Dietrich Highway.
The townhouse challenge is targeted on preserving and enhancing the historic character of the Dignowity Hill Historic District, based on paperwork that will likely be thought of by the Historic and Design Assessment Fee on Wednesday.
It should additionally introduce considerate infill growth that “respects the neighborhood’s scale and architectural heritage,” state the paperwork.
Named a historic district in 1983, the Dignowity Hill neighborhood was San Antonio’s first residential suburb. When the railroad arrived in 1877, industrial growth additionally moved in, altering the character of the neighborhood and its demographic variety. The world has skilled important gentrification lately.
With a construction at 622 Nolan St. already demolished, the developer is planning three new two-story townhomes on the lot, located parallel to at least one one other.
Plans additionally name for restoring the prevailing Catholic Employee “Day Home” at 626 Nolan St. and constructing one other two constructions behind it, each with two ranges.
Metropolis workers is recommending approval for the challenge with quite a few stipulations on materials use and requiring extra critiques because the challenge develops.
Servant Dorothy Day
The unique Day Home on Nolan Avenue was named for Dorothy Day, a journalist and social activist who based the Catholic Employee motion in 1933. Right this moment, there are 250 Catholic Employee homes serving weak individuals in cities throughout the nation.
In 2015, Pope Francis referred to as Day one of many 4 nice Individuals. Six years later, the Catholic Church opened the trigger for Day’s attainable canonization, the primary of 4 steps to being named a saint. The Church refers to her with the title Servant of God.
Open since April 2023, Towne Twin Village is a challenge of the Housing First Neighborhood Coalition, based in 2017 by a number of long-standing volunteers and supporters of Catholic Employee Home.
Volunteer Chris Plauche, who led the event of Towne Twin, San Antonio’s first single-site everlasting supportive housing challenge, mentioned funds from the sale of the Nolan Avenue property have been used to construct the brand new Catholic Employee Home.
The previous home had the allure of a cottage and large timber Plauche appreciated, however the brand new facility is extra spacious, she mentioned, and “it’s sort of good to be in a spot that’s model new.”
Towne Twin will in the end home greater than 200 seniors who’ve been chronically homeless in tiny houses, trailers and residences on the property of a former drive-in movie show on the East Facet.
Catholic Employee Home offers all of the hospitality companies for each residents and non-residents, together with meals, mentioned Edward Gonzalez, govt director of Towne Twin Village. The brand new Dorothy Day Home of Hospitality opened there in Might 2024.
A member of the Invoice Miller Barbeque Enterprises household, Paul Vance now works in actual property growth and started volunteering on the Catholic Employee Home in 2009. Vance at present serves on the board of administrators for Towne Twin.
Plauche mentioned that although she’s not concerned within the Vances’ challenge, she appreciates they’re calling it the Dorothy Day Townhomes after the group’s founder. San Antonio’s Catholic Employee Home turns 40 this 12 months, she mentioned.
In April, native officers joined in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the second part of development at Towne Twin which opened up 41 new tiny homes.
