A community meeting on the 13-story, 170-unit apartment building proposed on the 4700 block of Spruce took place yesterday over Zoom. Organized by the Garden Community Association Zoning Committee, the meeting was advisory and included the developers’ (Spruce Street Development) lawyer and building architect. Residents could make non-binding suggestions about the project, which will likely begin construction in the fall.

Here are some key points from the meeting:

• The demolition of the existing one-story commercial structures on the block to make room for the new building is not expected to begin until at least late summer, contingent on the approval by the City’s Civic Design Review Committee. Some neighbors voiced concerns over possible air and soil pollution as a result of the demo work at the adjacent communit garden project.

• The building will include large commercial spaces, including a two-floor space with an escalator. Commercial tenants for the space are not yet known. Some neighbors expressed concerns that the building owners may struggle to find tenants for the commercial spaces because of what they observed at the Garden Court building on 47th and Pine, which still has several commercial vacancies.

• Other concerns included too few proposed parking spaces (the current plan includes 28 vehicular parking spaces, accessed via Spruce street, and 76 bicycle parking spaces) and potential traffic jams on 48th Street. The building proposal includes an off-street loading dock accessed via 48th Street.

• Nearby residents also discussed the height and design of the building, with one neighbor saying that it “does not fit in Garden Court” because it “looks nothing like other buildings in the neighborhood.”

• The lack of affordable housing in the proposed building was another concern. The new apartments, mostly one-bedrooms and studios, will be offered at market rates. The developer chose to pay $1.8 million toward the Housing Trust Fund to receive the mixed income housing bonus of more height and floor space instead of providing affordable housing units.