Will There Be Compromise on France Ave Apartments?

For one, brief moment Tuesday, it looked like the story of the France Avenue Apartments might have a pleasant denouement.

Developer Scott Carlston told the Southwest Journal that while he was "shocked" at the City Planning Commission's his proposed , he was committed to working with neighborhood opponents to come up with a new design which they could support. He even went so far as to ask the Linden Hills Neighborhood Council (LHiNC) to cancel a planned open house on April 29 so his architects could draw up new plans, according to LHiNC board member Constance Pepin.

Then, he dropped a bombshell, accusing the same neighbors of not being willing to sit down with him and discuss the building.

Carlston didn't respond to a request for comment from Patch, but a leader of the Linden Hills residents opposing the development says Carlston's charges are false. 

"We're not against the development, but we want responsible development," Ken Stone told Patch. "There are plenty of ways for them to make money based on the (current) zoning."

At issue, Stone said, was Carlston's request that the city rezone the area his project would sit on in order to permit the kind of building he wanted to build.

"We've told Scott that we're against the rezoning. We're digging in our heels and there's nothing more to say," Ken Stone told Patch. "He's trying to wear us down but we're not going to get worn down."

In the Journal article, Carlston is quoted saying he will be offering to cut off the building's top story, but Stone said the issue goes deeper than that, and included certain aspects of the proposal's design. 

"Even though isn't effecting this project, Linden Hills needs to step back and figure out how they want development to happen," Stone said. 

Carlston wasn't present at Monday's hearing, but his representative James Erickson, gave Patch a document suggesting that Carlston was aiming to bring a new proposal to city officials in late May or early June.