Commissioners: Please vote NO on the Residences at Poplar project

We, the undersigned residents of Mt. Lebanon, PA, express our collective concern regarding the appropriateness of the "Residences at Poplar" project to our community within the immediate vicinity and within the larger municipality. On 9/25, the Planning Board voted unanimously not to recommend this project to the Commission. We ask that you heed their recommendation not to approve this development.

Among our concerns are:
• As a 13-contiguous-townhouse HOA, the largest such building in the entire Pittsburgh area, this project does not fit the aesthetic of the community, which is populated with Historic Register single-family and duplex homes
• Zoning Code Section 204 R-3 Low Density-Mixed Residential District 204.1 Purpose indicates: "The district requirements are intended to preserve, promote, and protect quality of urban residential living by unobstructed Front Yards, pedestrian scale streetscapes, and Buildings scaled and designed to be compatible with the neighborhood." This Project does not meet the intent or purpose of Zoning District R-3.

• The overall size of the project is troubling and leads to numerous variances/modifications/waivers needed. These include the reduction of the standard cul-de-sac radius from 55ft to 22ft, hampering access by emergency and refuse vehicles. Driveways are 4-8ft more narrow than set forth in the municipal code, and yet there is no room for the required tree to be planted in front of each house. The project poses a "substantial threat" to the Mt. Lebanon community through safety concerns, disingenuous renderings of the drawings, and general density issues all driving the code to be rewritten to fit the project instead of trying to fit into the code and the surrounding neighborhood.

• There are wetlands in and around this property which will be disturbed or destroyed.

• Builder has not yet provided the lateral site section to the hillside to illustrate scale and impact, list of building materials, or a realistic pictorial rendering of the project. Developer is not communicating the reality of the physical building and the lack of front/back yards with regard to the steep hillside of unstable soil propped up with retaining walls behind the building. Furthermore, the Limit of Disturbance as drawn on the plans provided crosses into neighboring properties, endangering foundations of existing homes and established tree root systems which the builder claims are "safe."
• Financial feasibility of the project, with its price point of $675,000 per unit,  We fear it will become a "dead site," leaving an incomplete, denuded construction project in the area.

• Storm water management: a proposed double retaining wall taking up the entirety of the property behind the townhouses to hold up a hillside already plagued with drainage issues, so-called "permeable" materials as a front yard to help with drainage, and an elaborate storm water management system which does not fit on the property.
• Pedestrian and vehicular safety due to the anticipated increase in traffic (2-4 vehicles per household x 13) for the 7-way intersection of Poplar/Lemoyne/Pennsylvania at the Poplar Stop T-tracks.

We respectfully ask the Commissioners not to approve the "Residences at Poplar" project when it comes up for a vote, as it does not serve the residents of the neighborhood or the larger community in its current iteration. Based on all the concerns, modifications, waivers, and the overall size, we regard this project as threatening the existing neighborhood's design and character. We encourage and request the developer rescale the project to be more suitable and palatable for the neighborhood.