Smaller Spanish Town complex offered

• By CHAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Jul 10, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Capitol Lofts, the Spanish Town apartment complex that drew fire last month from the neighborhood and preservationists over its size and design, now will be 67 units and four stories.

Developer David Slaughter released a rendering of the smaller design Thursday and said plans call for a ground level of parking and three stories above it for the low end of the property on State Capitol Drive, which looks over Arsenal Park.

It also includes a parking structure in the center of the property, which would be shielded from view.

The development, on 1.8 acres owned by Richard Preis and Chuck Cline, will include 18 one-bedroom units, 40 two-bedroom units and nine three-bedroom units, all with balconies.

The development will be U-shaped, also fronting on North Sixth and North Seventh streets.

Slaughter said he changed the look of the development considerably and is more in keeping with what exists in Spanish Town.

Response to the changes, however, was muted at best, with critics pointing out the development is still a large apartment complex.

Carolyn Bennett, of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, and a board member of the city-parish’s historic Preservation Commission, said the boards need more time to look at the plans but that the most compatible option for a neighborhood that is 60 percent one-story homes and 30 percent two-story homes remains single-family units.

She also said the potential loss of seven houses on the site is troublesome.

John Sykes, who represents Spanish Town on the Historic Preservation Commission, agreed that despite the changes, the project is still problematic.

He said the purpose of the design guidelines established for the neighborhood is to make sure that new development fits the look and scale of the neighborhood.

“Any way you look at this thing — it’s huge,” he said. “It’s less huge than it was, but it’s still a big elephant.”

And like Bennett, Sykes said there is always the issue of what will happen to the homes, the loss of which Sykes said was “troublesome.”