The 913 & 915 Duff Avenue Studio Apartments

      Our proposed project uses two full-sized lots in the 900 block of the west side of Duff Avenue and a long, 8 ft. wide  lot at  115 9th St. 

      Each full-sized lot will hold a one-story building containing four studio apartments and a six-space parking area for a site total of eight apartments and 12 parking spaces. Two of the apartments will be designed with roll-in showers, lower kitchen and bathroom counters and other features needed by residents who are confined to wheelchairs full-time. Those units plus four others are zoned to accommodate a single person or a family of two. Two more apartments are zoned to accommodate up to a family of three.

      The two lots will share one driveway off Duff Avenue and a 100 ft. long fenced dog exercising area at the east end of the lots. The long, narrow strip running from 9th Street north to the south lot line of the 913 Duff lot will host a vegetable and butterfly-friendly garden. 

      All lots are zoned residential medium (RM), which includes small scale apartment complexes, meaning we do not need to request rezoning. The 913 & 915 Duff Avenue lots also fall under the Single Family Conservation Overlay District, which sets additional restrictions and requirements. Therefore, we will need site layout approval from the Ames Planning & Zoning Commission and the Ames City Council. We are hoping for a February appearance in front of the commission and a mid-March appearance before the city council,  Our architects, RMH of Ames, are working with the City of Ames staff to see that the property meets all of the RM and overlay rules.