Apartments planned for Main Street and I-696 in Royal Oak

Royal Oak, MI – The odd-shaped lot at Main Street and I-696 in Royal Oak could soon house a five-story building with apartments, retail and parking, in a development called SoMa. On Tuesday, the Royal Oak Planning Commission approved a special land use and site plan for Singh Development LLC to build the 240-apartment structure.

The description of the project, from the Planning Commission Packet, is ” The petitioner proposes to construct a five- story mixed – used building that would contain 240 multiple- family dwelling units and 10,074 square feet of ground -floor space for retail sales. The dwelling units would form the perimeter of the building and face all adjacent streets and also an interior court yard. The dwelling units would include townhouses and apartments with one and two bedrooms. The ground- floor retail units would face the southwest lot line along Woodward Avenue. A five -level parking deck would be contained within the interior of the building . Surface parking spaces would also be included at the front of the building along Woodward Avenue and South Washington Avenue.”

Residents of SoMa “shall enjoy amenities including a Fitness Area, Yoga studio and Clubroom, which will consist of a business center, internet café and resident lounge. Outdoors, residents will bask in amenities including pool with tanning shelf, outdoor living rooms with flat screen TV’s, fire pit and barbecue grills. SoMa District will also include over 10,000 SF of commercial space fronting Washington Avenue, Woodward and the Detroit Zoo. It is suited to attract a boutique office, restaurant or service amenities for the surrounding residents and visitors of the neighboring Zoo,” the plan states.

In terms of access to the parking deck, the plan states ” The parking deck would be accessed by a two- way, 24 – foot wide driveway to Tiffany Lane. Tiffany Lane is not a public right -of-way and is actually private property that is included within the petitioner’s parcel boundaries. The street is used by the multiple- family residential development to the north for parallel parking even though it is not their property. The development to the north does not have direct vehicular access to Tiffany Lane. The surface parking lots on the west side of the site would be accessed by a pair of two- way driveways, one with a width of 22 feet to Tiffany Lane and another with a width of 30 feet to Woodward Avenue where it intersects South Washington Avenue. No direct access is proposed to either South Main Street or West 10 Mile Road.

…Two off -street parking spaces are required for each dwelling unit according to § 770- 107 of the zoning ordinance, or 480 spaces for the 240 proposed units. One space for every 250 square feet of retail floor area is also required or 41 spaces for 10,074 square feet of retail floor area. In total 521 parking spaces would be required under § 770- 107 for the entire project. According to the site plan (sheet SP1) and garage level plans (sheets PD -001 and PD – 002) there are 540 off -street parking spaces provided throughout the site . The multiple- level parking deck would have 451 spaces while the two surface parking lots would have 61 spaces . Twenty -eight parallel parking spaces are also proposed along Tiffany Lane.”