A proposal to knock down the popular Elsie’s Tavern dive bar on West De la Guerra Street to make room for a 23-unit apartment project was generally well received by the city’s Planning Commission at a recent design hearing.
The commissioners called the property — sandwiched between Paseo Chapala and One Twenty One, two mixed-use condominium complexes — a prime location for new downtown rental housing, and they said the plans made smart use of the city’s incentive program for high-density development. But they also advised bringing down building heights from four to three stories and tweaking wall and window locations for better light and airflow.
As it’s currently designed, the project includes 13 one-bedroom apartments, 10 two-bedroom units, 1,162 square feet of commercial area, and 26 parking spaces. The façade and roof of the double-archway W.D. Smith Building — a historic “Structure of Merit” next to Elsie’s — would be preserved. Elsie’s itself — a single-family home built sometime in the 1890s that’s housed the mirthful beer and wine bar for the past 24 years — would be demolished.