Questions remain on Woman's Exchange expansion

When Laurel Park residents met with representatives for the Woman’s Exchange in April, they expressed concerns about how the proposed expansion of the business would affect the adjacent neighborhood.

Tuesday evening, those parties will meet with one another yet again — and, as far as Laurel Park residents are aware, those concerns are still pressing as the consignment store attempts to move forward with its project.

Following the city’s establishment of the Laurel Park Overlay District in 2013, larger developments near the residential area must hold two community workshops before gaining administrative approval. The May meeting regarding the Woman’s Exchange was the first workshop to be held following the creation of the Laurel Park Overlay District, and served as an opportunity for residents to voice a list of potential issues with the project.

Per the proposal, the Woman’s Exchange, located at 539 S. Orange Ave., would construct an addition to its facility at 526 Rawls Ave. That addition is designed to serve as the pick-up, drop-off and storage facility for consigned furniture.

Chief among the concerns from Laurel Park residents was the use of Rawls Avenue as a loading area. At the May meeting, those in attendance said Rawls is too narrow for regular truck traffic, and questioned the impact pick-ups and drop-offs would have on quality of life in the nearby residential units.

At last week’s Laurel Park Neighborhood Association meeting, former president Kate Lowman provided an update in advance of Tuesday’s workshop. From her discussions with Woman’s Exchange representatives, she said the plans the business intends to submit for approval are almost entirely unchanged from the initial proposal.

“This is the first time that I've ever been a part of a project where the developer did absolutely nothing to try to make the neighbors happy — unless they tell us something rather different (Tuesday),” Lowman said.

After the workshop, city staff will decide whether to grant approval to the proposed expansion, and both parties have the opportunity to appeal that decision. Before that, the neighborhood plans to show up in force Tuesday as a final attempt to persuade the Woman’s Exchange that residents' concerns should be addressed.

“These are issues we're going to bring up at the meeting,” Lowman said. “We need to ask all of these questions, try to get the answers and create as good a record of our concerns as possible.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected].