4901 Gaston Ave.
While the city has yet to sign off on the deal, owner Peter Tsai is marketing his property at 4901 Gaston Avenue by stating “This house also has been approved by city to re-build five town houses” on multiple real estate sites.
Reached by phone, Tsai says he hopes to change the single-family corner lot to five separate plats. That would mean knocking down the five-bedroom, four-bathroom brick home built in 1920, assuming the city agrees to the plat proposal.
“We’re applying for it right now,” he says, with plans to go before the City Plan Commission in the coming weeks.
The land sits in Planning District 99, which has unusually restrictive zoning that states if a single-family home ever sat on the land, only a single-family home can be built there. Earlier this year, another developer attempted to bring an apartment complex to a nearby property on Gaston, which neighbors fiercely opposed, leading Plan Commission to deny the request.
Unlike that project, Tsai is attempting to have his property broken down into individual plats, which could allow for five town homes without violating the single-family clause of PD-99.
While numerous apartment and townhomes have been built or proposed around Munger Place, PD-99 has remained entirely single-family along Gaston, and the neighbors seem to want to keep it that way.
“We don’t want to look like Live Oak,” 30-year neighbor David Bailey said in September during a neighborhood meeting.
