Test Two-Story Garden Apartments on a Height-Limited Site
Start from a two-story garden community of breezeway walkups with larger units and more open space, fitted to your parcel. You see what a lower roofline yields before you go to the planning commission.
Will Two-Story Garden Apartments Work on My Site?
TestFit is real estate feasibility software that generates site plans on your parcel and calculates what they yield. For a two-story garden community, the answer comes down to three things that are hard to judge from a parcel map.
Height limits cap the stories
Where zoning or neighbors hold buildings to two stories, unit count comes from building footprint. The site has to carry more building area.
Spacing adds up across buildings
Two-story product spreads across more buildings. Spacing between rows and open space eat into land faster than a three-story plan.
Parking per unit stays
Fewer floors do not mean fewer cars per unit. The parking field still competes with the buildings for the same acres.
From Your Parcel to a Deal You Can Underwrite
Start from the two-story garden community your team would build, tune it to your standards, and finish with one model for the site, plan, tabulation and pro forma.
Your parcel and its constraints
- Site boundary: pick the parcel from built-in parcel data with current owner info, draw it, enter metes and bounds, or import a KML/KMZ file
- Setbacks and frontage: front, side and rear setbacks set to the parcel edges
- Zoning: FAR, building and impervious coverage, height limits and parking ratios, pulled in for your parcel so you don't have to dig through the zoning code
- Easements: areas the layout keeps buildings out of
- Site conditions: flood zones, wetlands and topography from Site Intelligence
Every layout starts inside your site's real constraints.
Your product, fine-tuned on the site
- Product: 2-story breezeway walkups, 10.5 ft floor to floor (21 ft), larger units, balconies
- Site layout: surface parking courts on fire-access drive aisles, open space between buildings
- Your edits: unit mix, unit sizes, buildings, parking and drives
You see the building your team would propose, on your parcel.
A source of truth for the deal
- Site plan geometry: buildings, courts, parking and drives drawn to the parcel
- Tabulation for this product: building sf, dock doors, trailer and car stalls against what's required, site coverage and FAR
- Earthwork: cut and fill for the layout
- Financials: the geometry turned into development costs, revenue and returns
- Shareable results: a link or PDF report for your team, partners and other stakeholders
You know whether the deal works, with numbers to back it.
It’s completely changed the way we think. Instead of parking first, we’re thinking about building first.
Two-Story Garden Walkups Site Planning FAQ
When does a two-story garden community make sense?
On sites with height limits, density caps or neighbors that expect a lower roofline, and in rural or edge markets where land is cheaper than vertical construction.
What is a breezeway walkup?
A garden building with open-air stairs between unit stacks instead of an interior corridor or elevator. Residents walk up from a covered breezeway, which keeps common area and construction cost low.
How tall are the buildings in this layout?
Two stories at 10.5 ft floor to floor, 21 ft tall.
How much land does a two-story garden community need?
More per unit than three-story product, since every unit sits on the ground or one floor up. Load your parcel in TestFit with this layout to see the unit count and density.
Can I change the layout after it generates?
Yes. Start from this layout, then edit the unit mix, buildings, parking and drives in TestFit. The site plan and yield recalculate as you go.
Find it in TestFit
Test This Layout on Your Next Garden Site
Load your parcel and get the site plan, yield, and costs in one place.