Description
544 West Alma is a proposed 100% affordable modular housing development serving low-income families with approximately 90 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments in a five-story building. The ground floor will include parking (about 64 spaces), management offices, and resident services, while amenities such as a large community room, outdoor courtyard, and laundry facilities will support residents.
Located on a 1.23-acre site currently occupied by an abandoned restaurant and asphalt lot, the project aims to restore over 7,000 square feet of impervious surface near the Guadalupe River, replacing it with landscaped open space that transitions from a formal courtyard to the natural riparian zone. The development will enhance the site’s ecological and neighborhood value, correcting past planning oversights. The preliminary submittal includes building massing, floor plans, and a zoning entitlement matrix that identifies inconsistencies between current zoning and the General Plan. Utilizing a super density bonus, the project anticipates increased height, no parking minimums, and up to five concessions, using RM zoning as the most appropriate designation for this multifamily development.
Affordable Modular Design Features
- Restore the existing impervious surface to designed open spaces
- Resident courtyard connecting to the river landscape
- River bank access
- Utilize affordable modular dwelling units
- Rain gardens
Sustainable Design
- Provide open spaces for social gathering/interaction
- Provide on-site social services.
- Integrate existing tree as landscape feature.
- Provide resilience to the river flood
- Bike connection to adjacent transit station
- Daylight access for all bedrooms
- On-site stormwater management
- Utilize native plants
Project Information
- Client: Resources for Community Development
- Site Area: 53,589 S.F. / 1.23 acre
- Density: 90 units – 73 DUA
Modular Construction
The benefits of modular construction are less waste, better acoustics, tighter, more energy efficient dwelling units, a safer workplace and shorter construction schedule. VMWP has built modular multi-family buildings in Denver, Colorado and has current housing modular projects in design in California and in Minneapolis.
Significant cost savings can be achieved with VMWP’s Modular Best Practice checklist that includes efficient modular layouts, transportation considerations, timelines for MEP coordination recommendations for modular finishes and systems, early deposits to modular fabricators, special permitting requirements and defining responsibilities and scope coordination between the General Contractor and Fabricator.