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Plans for a new development of townhouse apartments on South Poplar Street were dealt a blow by the Oxford Planning Commission Tuesday.

The commission voted 6-1 to deny the application amid concerns about whether it satisfied requirements to be a Planned Unit Development and whether it violated the city charter's three-unit per building limit.

"From a conceptual standpoint, it doesn't meet the criteria of a planned development," said Vice Chairman Bill Brewer.

Several residents spoke to the commission in opposition, citing concerns about more student housing within Mile Square and calling the architecture "motel-like."

"You have a problem that you have a glut of housing," said Suzanne Kostic. "We are facing between a 30 and 50 percent vacancy rate. Anything that increases density on our housing structure ... is inappropriate."

The 39-unit complex would have been built on a 7.8 acre vacant site owned by the Paul W. Baer Trust that runs south of Spring Street between Poplar Street and Campus Avenue, behind the Delta Sigma Pi headquarters, Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Campus Courts Apartments.

The preliminary plans called for 39 four-bedroom units, housing 156 residents, as a series of townhouse apartments, one group running along the proposed Rose Avenue extension and another running along extended South Poplar Street.

The commission agreed that one positive aspect of the application was the developer's plans to connect several dead-end streets within the block.

In exchange for the right to build, the developer offered to extend Poplar Street from Spring Street to Rose Avenue. Rose Avenue would connect to Campus Avenue, and dead-end Bern Street would be extended to Poplar, creating three smaller blocks out of one.

"I like the connectivity of it," said Commissioner Marvin Hurston.

Chairman Paul Brady said he believed the plans would violate the charter, which prohibits more than three units per building.

Architect Scott Webb disagreed, saying that each of the apartments would technically be its own building, firewalls in between each and no connecting hallways.

"The charter says triplexes are the maximum allowed in the Mile Square," Brady said. "If these were triplexes, I'd probably be voting for this."

Commissioner Dave Prows was the only vote against denying the permit, arguing for fairness and consistency in that some past applicants with similar situations were approved by the commission.

Webb said he and his clients with the Baehr Trust were in discussions about what the next step would be with the land.