HomeMy WebLinkAboutPlanning And Zoning Board - Minutes - 11/17/2005Council Liaison: Karen Weitkunat
Chairperson: Judy Meyer
Vice Chair: Dave Lingle
Staff Liaison: Cameron Gloss
Phone: (W) 490-2172
Phone: (W) 223-1820
Chairperson Meyer called the meeting to order at 6:07 p.m.
Roll Call: Schmidt, Stockover, Lingle, Carpenter and Meyer. Members Torgerson
and Craig were absent
Staff Present: Gloss, Eckman, Shepard, Olt, Joy, and Defines.
Citizen Participation: None.
Director of Current Planning Cameron Gloss reviewed the Consent and Discussion
Agendas:
Consent Agenda:
1. Minutes of the May 19tn, June 16tn, July 215t and September 15tn
2005 Planning and Zoning Board Hearings. (Continued)
Discussion Agenda:
2. #40-05 Innovation Island Overall Development Plan.
3. #40-05A Innovation Island Project Development Plan.
4. Recommendation to City Council for a Text Amendment to the
Land Use Code.
5. Recommendation to City Council for the Fall 2005 Biannual
Revisions, Clarifications and Additions to the Land Use Code.
There was no Consent Agenda to vote on.
Project: Innovation Island, Overall Development Plan, #40-05
Project Description: Request for approval of a 2-phase Overall
Development Plan for multi -family residential and
commercial land uses permitted in the LMN — Low
Density Mixed -Use Neighborhood District.
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PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
300 LaPorte Avenue
Fort Collins, Colorado
November 17, 2005
Innovation Island Overall Development Plan
and Project Development Plan
Members Present: Judy Meyer, Madam Chair, Jennifer
Carpenter, Bridgette Schmidt,
William Stockover
City Attorney: Paul Eckman
Planning Director: Cameron Gloss
Project Planner:
Traffic Engineer:
Engineering:
Department
Steve Olt
Eric Bracke
Sheri Wamhoff
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1 MS. MEYER: First item is Innovation Island.
2 And do we -- do you want a full-blown from Mr. Olt?
3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can we hear two and
4 three at the same time?
5 MS. MEYER: Steve, can you do sort of a
6 combined two and three, you know, combine PDP with the
7 ODP at the same time?
8 MR. OLT: I could do that. Then that would
9 open it up for discussion for both the Overall
10 Development Plan and Project Plan at the same time; is
11 that correct?
12 MS. MEYER: Yeah. Are you comfortable with
13 that?
14 MR. OLT: Yes.
15 MS. MEYER: Okay. Then we can do that.
16 MR. OLT: Okay. They will require separate
17 votes.
18 MS. MEYER: Yeah. We know that. We've got
19 that one worked out. It's your turn now.
20 MR. OLT: Okay. First we're looking at the
21 Innovation Island, an Overall Development Plan. This is
22 a request for an ODP for a property that's 4.4 acres in
23 size that's located at the southeast corner of West
24 Harmony Road and West Taft Hill Road.
25 The purpose of the Overall Development Plan is
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1 so that a -- probably a developer can actually develop
2 the property into two phases. The intent here is to
3 actually sub -- divide the Overall Development Plan into
4 two parcels. Parcel A is to the left side of the
5 screen. That is intended for 27 multifamily dwelling
6 units. And I will state right up front that both of
7 these projects have been qualified as affordable housing
8 projects. Habitat for Humanity is, in essence, the end
9 user. So Parcel A would then be the 27-family
10 multifamily dwelling unit.
11 Parcel B, to the left, that's a 1.3-acre
12 parcel, and that is being identified for future --
13 either commercial, approximately 20,000 square feet of
14 commercial, theoretically in one or more buildings, with
15 two or more uses as a neighborhood center, or
16 conceivably an additional ten multifamily dwelling
17 units. The Project Development Plan, that ultimately
18 would have to be in conformance with either or both of
19 these parcels.
20 I want to back up to put this site in context.
21 As I said, it's at the southeast corner of West Harmony
22 Road and Taft Hill Road. Surrounding the property is
23 primarily single-family residential to the north,
24 primarily, in the Imperial Estates subdivision, Larimer
25 County. There is a component of that -- there is
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1 several residential buildings that are older
2 cinder -block buildings that are residential buildings.
3 Basically, they would be considered multifamily, and I'm
4 not sure who they belong to or how they're administered.
5 To the north and west is JJ's Corner Store, a
6 little shopping center, and to the north of that, a
7 little mobile home park, an existing mobile home park,
8 and an affordable housing project that was approved in
9 Larimer County.
10 To the west of this site is several larger lot
11 properties with single-family homes, and then
12 surrounding that is -- I believe there's a mobile home
13 park that has been there for several years. And south
14 of that would be Taft Canyon Estates or subdivision,
15 which is single-family residential.
16 To the south and east of this site is Arapahoe
17 Farms, the Overlook at Arapahoe Farms -- well, it is a
18 single-family development with the exception of the
19 Arapahoe Farm townhomes, which are part of the Overall
20 Development Plan and existing development, and then
21 those front on Harmony Road to the south end of Overlook
22 development.
23 Again, I've described what the Overall
24 Development Plan is for -- and I'd like to run through
25 just a few site shots just to give you a context of
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1 this. This is looking at the site from across to the
2 west and looking east across the property. And in the
3 foreground you can see the existing substation, and I
4 believe that's a south or Fort Collins/Loveland water
5 district substation. So that's actually a water
6 district, not the City of Fort Collins. And that
7 obviously is enclosed with a chain -link fence, so that's
8 limited access.
9 In the background you see homes in the
10 Overlook subdivision. This is looking down at Taft Hill
11 to the south, primarily south, southeast. I'm at the
12 southwest corner of the proposed Innovation Island
13 development. This is looking north along Taft Hill
14 Road, which is to the left of the slide, and just beyond
15 the substation is Harmony Road, West Harmony Road, as it
16 comes into the intersection of Harmony and Taft Hill.
17 This is just a general overview of the site.
18 These are the existing single-family homes directly
19 south of the proposed Innovation Island project. And as
20 you can see -- and I just wanted to point out that there
21 are -- along the entire south property line of this
22 proposed development of the backyards of the homes at
23 the south, there are existing cedar fences, 6-foot-high
24 cedar fences.
25 This is looking west across the property
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1 coming around the curve on West Taft Hill Road
2 approaching the intersection at -- or the curve around
3 Harmony Road, West Harmony Road, approaching the
4 intersection with Taft Hill looking due west; obviously,
5 the Foothills in the background.
6 This is looking south around the curve on West
7 Harmony Road. Access into that development to the
8 south -- the closest access would be -- you can see a
9 For Sale sign there, and that's at the intersection of
10 the next street to the south end of the development from
11 West Harmony.
12 This is from the northwest corner of the site,
13 essentially by the substation looking across the JJ's
14 Corner Store development looking north along North -- or
15 South Taft Hill Road. And in the background you can see
16 the affordable housing project. Again, that was
17 approved and developed in Larimer County. That is an
18 affordable housing project.
19 These are the units I referred to directly
20 north across Harmony Road. They are residential units.
21 I'm not sure who owns them and who actually administers
22 those.
23 This is from the next street, Westfield Drive,
24 which is the next street off of Taft Hill Road, looking
25 west to the affordable housing project. And this is at
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1 the southeast corner of that project looking south down
2 Taft Hill, proceeding to the potential development site,
3 which is just beyond that intersection to the south and
4 east.
5 These are just for representation. This is
6 Arapahoe Farm townhomes. They are in the
7 Overlook/Arapahoe Farms project along Harmony Road,
8 south and at the end of this development. So these are
9 the existing townhomes there.
10 Now we get into the first filings. You can
11 see from the location map, the first filing would
12 constitute Parcel A of the Overall Development Plan.
13 This is the first phase of the proposed project. It
14 would be 27 multifamily homes on 3 acres and -- just
15 over 3 acres. In the upper left-hand corner is the
16 existing substation that this property would surround.
17 You have one seven-plex, which is horizontal to the
18 slide facing north directly to West Harmony Road. That
19 is a seven-plex. The other four buildings you see to
20 the left and in the middle of the slide are all
21 five-plex units. So you're looking at 27 units and five
22 buildings.
23 Access to this portion of this first phase of
24 development would be from Harmony Road along the east
25 side of this proposed development. You can see the
A
1 street coming in off West Harmony Road. That would be
2 the only primary point of access for Innovation Island
3 multifamily project. As you can see, there's a private
4 drive coming through the site in a S-curve formation.
5 There is an access out to Taft Hill down in
6 the southwest corner of this project, over here on the
7 left of the slide. That's emergency access only. That
8 would be controlled. The residents would not be able to
9 use that as access out of the development unless at some
10 point in time that would be opened up as a primary
11 access. So it is being provided for secondary emergency
12 access only. Poudre Fire Authority, police department
13 would certainly have access to that site from South Taft
14 Hill Road.
15 This actually represents the landscape plan as
16 well as the site plan for the site. This project has
17 been evaluated against the City's Land Use Code,
18 Article 3, at general development standards dealing with
19 landscaping, parking, and building standards. The
20 landscaping meets the requirements set forth in the Land
21 Use Code relative to streets, trees, foundation
22 plantings -- adequate plantings throughout the site.
23 When it comes to the parking there, the
24 parking requirements for a multifamily project, any
25 multifamily project, are based on the number of bedrooms
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1 per dwelling unit. And this particular development,
2 they are proposing 13 three -bedroom units and 14
3 four -bedroom units. The 13 three -bedroom units require
4 two parking spaces each, so that would be 26 parking
5 spaces. The four -bedroom units would require 2.5
6 parking spaces per unit, and that would be 35 parking
7 spaces. In essence, a minimum of 61 spaces would be
8 required on -site for this development, and there are 61
9 spaces proposed, one each for the dwelling units
10 attached to the building -- that's 27 -- and then
11 another 34 surface parking spaces distributed throughout
12 the site along the private driveway. So they are
13 meeting their parking requirements on -site, because
14 there is no parking either on West Harmony Road or South
15 Taft Hill Road.
16 The buildings are to be two-story buildings;
17 in essence, 26 feet in height. That's what the building
18 elevations reflect. So there would be a standard of
19 two-story height, really no taller than any normal
20 two-story single-family residence in the area.
21 They are using a combination of materials.
22 I'll let the Applicant go into that, but they're using
23 three different sidings as well as composite asphalt
24 shingles, which are long-range, 30- to 35-year asphalt
25 shingles on the project.
we
1 This development request has embedded in it
2 three requests for modifications of standards. There
3 are standards set forth in Article 3.5.2, all dealing
4 with residential development. And I'm going to have to
5 go directly to the staff report for that.
6 The first one that they're requesting a
7 modification to is a standard located in Section
8 3.5.2(C)(1)(B), and that section requires -- the section
9 allows primary entrances to a residential building to be
10 up to 350 feet from the street sidewalk if the primary
11 entrance faces and opens directly onto a connecting
12 walkway, that qualifies as a major walkway. So
13 technically, most primary entrances to buildings should
14 be within 200 feet and face a connecting walkway, open
15 onto a connecting walkway, opening onto a public street
16 sidewalk.
17 In this case, the two buildings in the lower
18 left-hand -- or lower right-hand corner of -- the
19 southeast corner of this site are between 2- and
20 350 feet from the street sidewalks on Harmony or South
21 Taft Hill. They have, however, provided from those
22 primary entries detached sidewalks from the internal
23 private drives with -- in each case.
24 For the westerly building, there is a
25 pedestrian walkway crossing the private driveway, which
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1 is an enhanced walkway that connects to, then, on the
2 west side of that driveway, a walkway directly out to
3 the sidewalk on Taft Hill. Similarly, for the building
4 to the east, there's a sidewalk along the front entry
5 going north, crossing one point on a driveway with an
6 enhanced crosswalk -- an enhanced crosswalk directly to
7 the sidewalk on West Harmony Road.
8 These buildings don't meet the requirements,
9 being just outside of the 200 feet. They're between 200
10 and 250 feet. They don't meet the requirement of being
11 within that distance to -- the requirement for a walkway
12 is fine -- major walkway's fine, which is a walkway
13 within a 35-foot-wide area, landscaped both sides to
14 provide good pedestrian -- connective, safe, comfortable
15 pedestrian activity. However, that can be modified.
16 That's the request they're making here. With the
17 alignment of the sidewalks and the enhanced pedestrian
18 crosswalks, it has been determined that this plan is
19 equal to the plan that would satisfy that requirement.
20 The second section that they're requesting a
21 modification to is Section 3.5(C)(2). This section
22 requires that every residential building containing four
23 or more dwelling units have at least one building entry
24 or doorway facing any adjacent street that's smaller
25 than a full arterial or has on -street parking. In this
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1 particular case, they have buildings B and C, which are
2 the two in the lower right-hand corner, are set back
3 from the street; they're not directly facing a street
4 that's smaller than a full arterial. Both West Harmony
5 and West Taft Road are full arterial streets.
6 There are no internal streets being proposed
7 in this development. They're all private driveways. So
8 technically, they're not really out of compliance with
9 the code, but they've requested a modification. They're
10 based on the similar criteria to the previous one in
11 that they are providing -- and these are five-plex
12 buildings, so because they have four or more units, they
13 need to have an entry facing to those streets. In this
14 particular case, that is not true, but based on the
i5 nature of the development, it has been determined that
16 this is actually equal to. And then I'll get into
17 another justification momentarily.
18 Section 3.5.2(D)(1) requires that every
19 residential building be set off a minimum of 30 feet
20 from the arterial street right-of-way adjacent to it.
21 South Taft Hill Road is an arterial street. These
22 buildings theoretically should be set back 30 feet from
23 the right-of-way along South Taft Hill.
24 If you look at the slide, on the left-hand
25 side of the slide there's a dark -black, dashed line in
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1 that location. That's the right-of-way line that
2 constitutes the eastern right-of-way line for a 90-foot
3 right-of-way for Taft Hill. They're requesting that
4 these buildings be set back just 20 feet from that
5 right-of-way line. We've evaluated that, you know,
6 based on actually the true physical impact of that
7 building setback modification request.
8 A standard arterial street -- four -lane
9 arterial street section would have -- let's see -- with
10 the roadway width, the required 10-foot-wide parkway and
11 a 6-foot-wide sidewalk, that would be 16 feet from the
12 center of the street in total. And then if you set back
13 the buildings 30 feet from the right-of-way line, they
14 can be set back 46 feet from the edge of an arterial
15 street.
16 In this particular case, even with ultimate
17 build -out of South Taft Hill Road, within that
18 right-of-way, if you add on, you would have two
19 left-hand turn lanes, two through lanes, and a right
20 turn lane, the ultimate edge of pavement 50 feet from
21 these buildings.
22 So, in essence, these buildings, even they're
23 going to be set back just 20 feet from the right-of-way
24 instead of the 30 feet. In realty, at build -out they
25 would be 4 feet more from the edge of the roadway than
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1 they would be based on the requirements of the Land Use
2 Code, which staff has determined is really better than
3 what they could be required to do, and therefore is
4 recommending approval of that.
5 The other criteria -- we evaluated the
6 modification requests, and we determined that the
7 development proposal is not detrimental to the public
8 good. That's the first criteria, and that's an
9 absolute. And if the development plan is submitted, it
10 will advance or protect the public interests for the
11 purposes of standards of the width modifications or
12 requested equally well or better. And in some cases, we
13 really believe it's equally well with the walkway. The
14 pedestrian spines and the connectivity from the building
15 entries of B and C to the public sidewalks, and then the
16 building setback from South Taft Hill Road, and then
17 also that the -- and that the development would result
18 in a substantial benefit, by reason of the fact that the
19 proposed project would substantially address an
20 important community need, specifically and expressly
21 defined and described in the City's comprehensive plan.
22 And in this particular case, that really relates to the
23 affordable housing need and the fact that the City Plan
24 has recognized that need and encourages that need.
25 So we have, based on Section 2.8.2, the
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1 justifications for grants modification request. Staff
2 has determined that this is meeting Section 2.8.2(H)(1)
3 and (3), being equal or better than a product that would
4 meet the code, and also addressing a substantial need to
5 the City. And therefore, we are recommending approval
6 of the three modifications in the Project Development
7 Plan portion of this request. And we are recommending
8 to the Planning and Zoning Board approval of the
9 Innovation Island Overall Development Plan and the
10 Innovation Island Project Development Plan.
11 With that, I'll end my presentation and be
12 available for questions.
13 MS. MEYER: Does the advocate want to speak?
14 Sorry about that.
15 MR. TILLER: Yes, please. Good evening. My
16 name is Don Tiller. I'm with Vignette Studios. We've
17 been retained by the Developer Fort Collins Habitat for
18 Humanity to present this application. And a lot of the
19 things that Steve talked about, I also have in my
20 presentation, so I'll try to move quickly through the
21 areas that are redundant.
22 Our purpose for being here tonight is first to
23 request approval for the Overall Development Plan for
24 Innovation Island. Steve mentioned it is a qualified
25 affordable housing project. He's pointed out the
MIE
I location, the southeast corner of Harmony and Taft Hill.
2 It has been zoned low -density mixed -use neighborhood.
3 And the reason for us coming before you tonight is to
4 define two separate parcels so Habitat can proceed with
5 one of those parcels with development.
6 Wanted to just take a minute to talk about
7 Habitat for Humanity, and there will be just a couple
8 slides on this. One is, the Developer is Fort Collins
9 Habitat for Humanity. This project is innovative, which
10 resulted in the name Innovation Island, because of the
11 cost, and availability of affordable lots for affordable
12 housing is becoming scarce in this community.
13 This is the first development for the Fort
14 Collins affiliate, but this has been tried and tested in
15 other parts of the country by other affiliates. And the
16 thing I'm impressed with is the Board has actually
17 enhanced their membership, has experienced -- both to
18 their membership on the board as well as their
19 committees under the board to make this successful. So
20 this is -- they're doing what they need to do to make
21 this a successful development.
22 Habitat for Humanity builds communities. They
23 have a sound process for qualifying their families and
24 then selecting their families. And they don't leave it
25 at that. They go ahead and they train the family. A
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1 lot of these are first-time home buyers, so they train
2 them on how to take care of their home as well as to
3 train them on how to budget their finances, to maintain
4 the home as well as to make their monthly mortgage
5 payment and pay their taxes on the home. There is a
6 family commitment that is beyond what a lot of people go
7 through to purchase a home, and this generates a strong
8 pride of ownership.
9 There is up to 500 equity hours that are
10 required by families in order to purchase a home from
11 Habitat. The home is purchased -- the family has to
12 save a down payment like the rest of us do, and they
13 have a mortgage. It's not a giveaway program; it is
14 something they earn, and it creates pride of ownership.
15 It is -- the construction quality is extremely
16 high. They have retained a professional construction
17 manager to guide and supervise all the build. There are
18 some trades that are used to build, that are in the
19 build, that require licensing, and so they don't rely
20 entirely on volunteers for -- the more technical aspects
21 are taken care of by professionals.
22 The development itself has been designed to
23 minimize long-term maintenance costs. As an example,
24 Steve talked about the private drive that goes through
25 the development. Typically, you'd find that to be
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asphalt. That needs maintenance, fairly expensive
maintenance, on a 10- and 20-year basis. The plan is to
put a concrete drive in there so there won't be a burden
on the neighborhood as they try to design these homes,
so they minimize the operational costs. And one example
of that is in these townhomes, they're using two-by-four
exterior wall construction in order to minimize the
utility costs.
MR. HAND: Two -by -six.
MR. TILLER: Two -by -six. Bob, the
construction manager. So the result, if you look at the
Habitat track record in the City of Fort Collins, one is
they've maintained ongoing participation with the
families. And this is important; the families aren't
left on their own. In fact, if you go to wall-raisings,
dedications, and even family selection, you will see
past homeowners there participating and continuing their
participation.
There have been no foreclosures in the history
of the Habitat -Fort Collins organization, and for an
affordable housing project, I think that's a pretty good
track record.
The other question is, well, how quickly do
these houses turn over? Fort Collins Habitat has built
29 homes starting in 1993, and of those 29 homes, 28
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1 still have the original homeowner.
2 Talking a little bit about the site, Steve's
3 already mentioned it's a 4.4-acre in -fill project. He
4 has talked about the adjacent properties -- this is kind
5 of tough here -- talked about the adjacent properties,
6 particularly on Woodridge on the south. We have Taft
7 Canyon on the west and Imperial Estates to the north and
8 east.
9 To give you a feel for the traffic patterns in
10 that area, there are two major arterials going through:
11 Taft Hill north/south, and then Harmony Road coursing
12 through from the east, generally west. And then Seneca
13 Street is a major collector that is a little further to
14 the south and east of this site. You can see our site
15 right here.
16 We are proposing three access points for the
17 project phase. Parcel A has two access points, a
18 full -movement access point here. At this point it's
19 anticipated that the Taft Hill access point is emergency
20 access only. We'll talk a little more about that during
21 the PDP phase. And then Parcel B has a full access
22 point proposed to the east side of it on Harmony Road.
23 Talked about pedestrian and bike traffic and
24 trails and opportunities, and you can see the network
25 that exists surrounding this area all the way down to
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1 the Cathy Fromme trail system.
2 Parks and schools in the area, you can go from
3 the lower left Cathy Fromme area. We have Westfield
4 Park to the east of the project, and then Johnson
5 Elementary, Webber Junior High to the east of the
6 project.
7 Just briefly, a description of the parcel that
8 Steve has gone through already: 3.2 acres in Parcel A,
9 which is the piece on the west. 27 multifamily units
10 are proposed in this site, which is a gross density of
11 8.5 units per acre, and this is under the maximal
12 allowable 12 units per acre. Parcel B, 1.3 acres.
13 Right now the applicant's asking for one of two options
14 for that, either multifamily -- similar density, ten
15 units at 7.7 units per gross acre -- or potentially a
16 20,000-square-foot retail or commercial building as
17 allowed by the zoning code.
18 Talked a little bit about the neighborhood
19 meeting response, or comments. We did have a
20 neighborhood meeting on September 28; recognize some of
21 the people here. Some of the concerns raised were, one,
22 overall density is high compared to Overlook or
23 Woodridge to the south. And in response to that, the
24 response we had was, well, that neighborhood was
25 developed under a previous system, and the density that
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1 we were asked to follow were well within the density
2 requirements and under the maximum of 12 units per acre
3 there.
4 The Developer is sensitive to the concerns,
5 but within the constraints they have, they've done what
6 they can. And you'll see later on in the site plan that
7 we put landscape buffering around the perimeter of the
6 site to provide some buffering. And also, the buildings
9 have been oriented with rear -load garages so that the
10 front elevations of the homes are facing outwards, so
11 the neighbors don't see a garage -door -dominated
12 landscape when they look into the development.
13 There's concerns about economic impact, and
14 I -- the way I want to respond to that is two ways: One
15 is the buildings are being designed similar to
16 market -rate units. As you look through the community, I
17 think you'll find that the architecture that's being
is selected is very consistent with the multifamily
19 townhomes -
20 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible.)
21 MR. TILLER: I'm sorry? Okay. Thank you.
22 The architecture was designed with this -- with the
23 market rate of buildings in mind. Construction quality,
24 as I mentioned, is going to be high, and that's a track
25 record that Habitat can look back to.
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1 We were also asked what the comparable market
2 value of these would be if they were to sell on the open
3 market. So what we did is we asked a realtor to do a
4 comparable market analysis. This is not an appraisal;
5 this is basically to look at what has sold recently in
6 the same style and configuration. So please don't take
7 it as an appraisal.
8 What he concluded was the value is about
9 $185,000 for the three- and four -bedroom two-story
10 units. So that is very compatible with what you see in
11 other parts of the city. In fact, he had difficulty
12 finding comparables because he found very few townhomes
13 in the city that had more than two bedrooms above grade.
14 Most of those units had some of the bedrooms in the
15 basement.
16 We did -- there was mention of a cost of
17 $130,000 during the neighborhood meeting. That was the
18 construction cost. The difference between the
19 construction cost and the fair market value or the
20 comparable market analysis result is basically the
21 profit and the fact that Habitat puts volunteer labor
22 into their homes.
23 A third area that we had discussion around was
24 traffic congestion and parking. I'll talk about that a
25 little further in the PDP piece of this, but at this
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1 point there is no physical connection between Innovation
2 Island and the neighborhood to the south. So overflow
3 parking and drive -through traffic from this particular
4 development is very difficult. Also, in terms of
5 overflow parking on Taft and Harmony, there really isn't
6 an opportunity for that because parking is not allowed
7 on arterial streets.
8 That's the conclusion of my ODP presentation.
9 If you'd like I can go right into the -- you're okay?
10 MS. SCHMIDT: I just have one question about
11 the ODP. Would -- how were you planning to maintain the
12 one point, the second phase? Is there any anticipation
13 for the length of time before you would build on that
14 phase, or is it just going to be a vacant lot, and will
15 that end up having overflow parking?
16 MR. TILLER: You know, at this point it will
17 be a vacant lot. I have not seen a schedule yet, but
18 Habitat would like to start developing on that soon.
19 But there is no schedule or plans at this point. And we
20 were basically informed by Steve that if overflow
21 parking is a problem, we will need to put barricades or
22 barriers up to prevent that from occurring.
23 Okay. Now, we'll move a little faster through
24 this because you've seen a lot of this already. And
25 what we're presenting now is our request for approval of
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the PDP for Parcel A, or Lot 1 of the ODP. This portion
is a qualified 100 percent affordable housing project.
Site context, it is the 3.2-acre piece. The adjacent
properties we've already discussed. The access
points -- well, I should watch what I'm doing. Okay,
there we go.
The access points on Harmony is full movement,
and as we mentioned earlier, the access to Taft Hill at
this point is emergency access only. When Taft Hill is
expanded, we will have the opportunity to put -- to
convert that into a right-in/right-out, assuming the
median configuration is acceptable to support that, and
that's something that will have to be looked at.
I want to talk a little bit about the design
objectives for this project. One of the design
objectives was to create an attractive streetscape.
That's the reason for the rear -loaded garages, the
outward facing front-end elevations, and the visually
appealing color scheme that we developed. So we want
this to look like a quality development that the
residents in the neighborhood will be proud of.
We do have what we believe is a
pedestrian -friendly environment within the
subdivision -- within the development. I shouldn't say
subdivision. You'll notice we do have detached
25
1 sidewalks that allow for very pedestrian -friendly
2 movement within the sub -- or within the development.
3 And we provided what we feel is pretty adequate
4 recreational open space for a parcel of land this size.
5 As you'll note, we have landscaped areas
6 around the perimeter, and in the center north part, we
7 actually are planning a playground area. Just as a
8 note, the initial plan had additional units there, and
9 Habitat's opinion was they wanted to provide a little
10 more open space, so they gave up a couple units to
11 accomplish that.
12 This is a view of the elevation, artist's
13 rendering of the elevation. You'll see a variety of
14 planes on the elevation, a variety of materials, and a
15 variety of colors. This will be developed further as we
16 get further into the project.
17 Talk a little bit about the sites. These are,
18 as already mentioned, 27 units scattered among five
19 buildings. There are four unit types. There is
20 actually 2 ranch plans and there's 2 two-story plans, so
21 we should have a reasonable mix of units. We will also
22 have the ranches all set up such that they are
23 handicapped -visitable at least. We will have at least
24 one handicap -accessible unit as part of this
25 development.
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The average square footage of the units across
the site are 1350 square foot, and -each has an attached
single -car garage. As we mentioned at NC8.5C, 8.5
developed units per gross acre is under the maximum
allowed 12, and the 9.4 developed units per net acre
does meet the requirement of having at least five units
per net acre.
Steve mentioned the 61 parking spaces. We
have 55 percent open space, so 1.7 acres of this
3.1-acre parcel is open space. And Habitat's intention
is to have an HOA form that will maintain the
landscaping as well as have responsibility for the
exterior maintenance of the buildings.
Need to talk briefly about standards. The
standards have been driven by -- modifications to
standards we're requesting have been driven
substantially by the size, the site shape, and the need
to adhere to the affordability/cost goals that we have
in place. Steve mentioned modifications we believe are
not detrimental to the public good. The plan we have is
equivalent to the plan that complies, or is possibly
better in the case of the setback to the street. And I
will show two alternatives to what we're proposing. And
it substantially addresses an important community need,
that being affordable housing.
27
1 This is a graphic showing you essentially the
2 path that we're allowing for people to have access to
3 the street walks to the north and to the west. And
4 essentially, the sidewalk that we're providing, which
5 should be a major walk spine -- but we can't provide
6 that because the dimensions of the site does allow easy
7 access connection for the units to the street walks.
8 We have identified as well, in the yellow,
9 additional access to the street walks, and so it's not
10 limited just to the spines that we show, but also
11 additional supplementary access. The other thing we've
12 done, too, is the internal drive that goes through the
13 site was designed to resemble a public street, so it is
14 not designed to public -street standards, but it has
15 detached sidewalks, for example, to give that separation
16 of pedestrians in traffic.
17 I'll show you the alternatives in just a
16 minute. Excuse me. The other modification that we're
19 requesting is -- like I referred to it, as a street
20 facing -- facades. At least one of the units has to be
21 facing a public street, and what I will remind you of
22 is -- well, is this drive going through the development
23 does have a lot of the attributes of a public street in
24 terms of separation of pedestrians from the traffic.
25 Two alternatives we've come up with -- and
m
1 these are just sketches -- one, the essential part of
2 this plan is to put a public street in the development,
3 and that is this cul-de-sac that comes in off of
4 Harmony. What this does is it increases our cost and
5 reduces our unit count from 27 to 24. The cost of just
6 converting the private into a public street is $20,000
7 incremental. So the increased unit cost, as you look
8 through all the costs -- and I can provide the evidence
9 of this -- is about just under $6,000 per unit. If you
10 multiply that out by the 27 units, you're looking at
11 about $137,000 incremental cost per unit over the
12 project by doing this.
13 What this does is it eliminates the
14 opportunity for three homes, it increases the
15 fundraising by 3.4 homes. Habitat has to fund their own
16 bills through sponsorships and through fundraisers they
17 do, and they would actually have to provide an
18 additional 3.4 additional houses worth of funding. It
19 increases public cost of street maintenance with no
20 apparent value added by the public street.
21 And then the other thing it does, is it does
22 take space away from the adjacent parcel, both
23 opportunities for parking along this area here, as well
24 as just the physical size. It starts to restrict that
25 piece, that parcel, even more. So we view that the plan
29
1 we have is the better solution than this plan.
2 The second alternative we looked at is
3 essentially a reconfiguration of buildings, where we
4 took 3 of the 5 buildings and turned them into six -unit
5 buildings. This still reduced the number of buildings
6 from 27 to 24 units -- or not buildings, units, from
7 27 -- excuse me.
8 Once again, going down to the cost numbers,
9 this increases the per -unit cost about $4.8 thousand, or
10 $4,800, with a total impact to the site of $116,000.
11 Once again, this eliminates the opportunity for building
12 three homes, it increases the fundraising by just under
13 three homes, and the other thing is the six -unit
14 building requires one more sponsor in order to make it
15 go. And it also requires more funding by Habitat to
16 make it go, because you have to build the entire
17 building; you can't build one unit at a time.
18 The other modification that Steve referred to
19 is the setback from the arterial street. And what I
20 tried to show here is just pictorially what we're doing.
21 The current Taft Hill right-of-way is right at this
22 point here. And we're requesting to only be 20 foot
23 back from that right-of-way, as opposed to the code
24 requirement of 30 foot.
25 If you look at the existing edge of the
931
1 street, we're required -- if you add all the numbers
2 up -- to be 46 feet back from the existing edge of the
3 street of Taft Hill, and we have an additional 29 foot,
4 given where the current existing edge of street is. If,
5 when Taft Hill is expanded, that edge of street is moved
6 to the east proportionately, we would still be 30 foot
7 back from the edge of street, which is essentially 4
8 foot beyond where the requirement would be.
9 So I think we've really met the intent of
10 that, but we felt it was important to go ahead and show
11 the scrapbook to illustrate what we're doing.
12 Also, I guess -- I did not do a graphic
13 showing an alternative site plan for this. It's pretty
14 simple. You take the two end units off, one off of each
15 of the buildings. That eliminates two home
16 opportunities, increases the per -unit cost across the
17 site by $3,000, for a total across the site of about
18 $74,000, which is a fundraising requirement of about 1.9
19 homes. And so once again, there is an impact of losing
20 those two units.
21 Finally, I want to talk about a couple more of
22 the items that came up in the September 28 neighborhood
23 meeting that we had. One, we had to do -- well, first
24 off, we did talk about the density, the economic
25 concerns already. I didn't plan to go back to those.
31
1 Potential traffic congestion, I guess the
2 thing I want to reiterate is: one, there's no physical
3 access to the development on the south, and two, we did
4 have a traffic study completed, a traffic -impact study,
5 and the conclusion was, is this development is feasible,
6 given the study numbers they came up with.
7 Secondly, the overflow parking concern that
8 was raised, the site plan that I just showed you does
9 provide at least the minimum requirement -- meets the
10 minimum requirements of the city parking requirements.
11 There is no physical access for people to park in the
12 neighborhood to the south, to then walk to their homes
13 without going way out of the way. And there is no
14 on -street parking allowed on Harmony or Taft, which you
15 have overflow there.
16 So with that, that's the conclusion of my
17 presentation, and I'd like to hand it back to you. And
18 we're open for questions.
19 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
20 MS. SCHMIDT: Do our questions first and then
21 public comment?
22 MS. MEYER: Wait. I have a question. Do we
23 want to do the -- forge ahead with the ODP first and
24 then do the questions on the PDP, or do we still want to
25 keep them joined at the hip?
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MR. OLT: I guess that's really your pleasure.
The request was to present them both together. I'm not
sure how you want to move forward with the actual
discussion and, obviously, citizen input.
MS. MEYER: Okay. Okay. We'll keep them
joined at the hip and we can have citizen input. Noting
the number of people, limit each person -- if you're a
spokesman for a homeowner's group --
MS. SCHMIDT: We were going to do our
questions first, weren't we, and then --
MS. MEYER: No. I don't like that. I'm in
charge. We ain't doing that.
If there's somebody in charge of a home -- if
there's a homeowner's group out there and somebody's in
charge to speak for all of you, you get ten minutes.
The rest of you get two minutes to let us know your
concerns and what's bothering you. Be aware that there
are two podiums, so you can all line up behind both of
them, and it moves everything a lot faster if everybody
just lines up and moves along.
Also, although I know that many of you are
passionate and you want to be heard, if somebody happens
to take your thunder, sometimes you don't need to tell
us three times. we kind of pick up on what you're
trying to tell us the first two times maybe.
33
1 Anyway, so when you get to the podium, you
2 need to sign in. And be sure that you speak into the
3 microphone, or they'll tell you to speak into the
4 microphone.
5 Okay. So if you want to stand up, forge
6 ahead, it's your time, and to speak to this whole
7 development.
8 MR. ECKMAN: Madam Chair, our typical custom
9 has been to grant individuals three minutes to speak.
10 If you're -- like, now I know how you feel about that,
11 but I'm just suggesting that perhaps since that's been
12 our past custom, we ought to continue it into tonight's
13 hearing.
14 MS. MEYER: Well, okay. You're the legal
15 beagle, and you win. Thank you.
16 Okay. We'll up the ante to three minutes,
17 but, people, you have to stand up and come forward. We
18 can't hear you if you're not at the podium.
19 MR. WALTS: Hi. My name is Patric Walts. I
20 actually live at 1908 Lookout Lane, which is the second
21 unit from the east of the Overlook. My biggest concerns
22 are that the low-income housing is relatively close to
23 services, which there are none of. I think it was
24 pointed out there was a small shopping center. That
25 shopping center basically consists of a 750-square-foot
34
1 convenience store, which is about the size of this open
2 area, a bar, JJ's Bar, and then a liquor store. There's
3 also a small furniture store, used furniture store.
4 I'm also concerned about the impact to local
5 schools. Webber is at its capacity. Johnson Elementary
6 is close to its capacity. So I don't know how it works,
7 but it's my understanding that they still have to go
8 through an approval for the school district. So I'm not
9 sure about that, but that is a concern to me.
10 They also -- we had written a letter to -- let
11 me see if I have her name here; I believe it's Candace
12 Mayo -- when we asked how many children they expected to
13 be in the development, and they based it on what they
14 have right now. In their Habitat homes, they have 28
15 homes still existing. Of those people in those homes,
16 there's 40 adults and 53 children. I would assume the
17 model will be similar in this community.
18 My also -- my other concern is they said that
19 Innovation Island will be -- they'll be looking at
20 providing senior housing. But they also require a sweat
21 equity, and I'm wondering, you know, is that something
22 that seniors are going to be able to do?
23 As far as I know, the last subdivision I lived
24 in also had Habitat there. I actually volunteered for
25 one of the homes, and I still know the lady that lives
35
1 in the home. They -- I don't know if it's still true,
2 but the people have to get, you know, approval before
3 they even start on a home. So this will mean, if they
4 have a six -unit building, they'll have to get enough
5 approvals for enough people to come and build that. I'm
6 worried that this is going to drag on for its full three
7 years once it's approved, you know, and it's going to be
8 a construction site forever, you know, in my eyes. So
9 those are my main concerns there.
10 The other thing is, there is no city busing in
11 the area. I think the nearest city busing is three
12 quarters of a mile to get to that. So that's also a
13 concern.
14 They said that this will not impact local
15 traffic. I have a hard time believing that. The
16 intersection at Taft and Shields is better than it has
17 been in the past, but there's still the problem at
18 Harmony and -- or, no, at Taft and Harmony's better, but
19 that intersection at Harmony and Shields is terrible.
20 We have half a mile of traffic every single day. You
21 also have the backup at this intersection in which
22 people use our neighborhood as a transfer through to
23 avoid that intersection. So that's also a concern, that
24 it's going to add to that traffic. That's all I have to
25 say.
M
1 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Before we go any
2 further, I think the person representing Habitat for
3 Humanity should explain that there's a difference
4 between affordable housing and low-income projects.
5 MS. DURAN: So which way is this --
6 MS. MEYER: Excuse me. I'm asking for the
7 person from Habitat for Humanity to explain the
8 difference.
9 MS. MAYO: My name is Candace Mayo. I'm the
10 executive director for Fort Collins Habitat for
11 Humanity. I think the main difference between a
12 low-income project and this particular project is this
13 is homeownership. These folks have worked very, very
14 hard to save their down payment. They will be living in
15 this home. It is their investment, it is their way of
16 financially moving to the next step in their lives.
17 What we find with Habitat homeowners is it
18 gives them, you know, even between the time what they're
19 selected and when the time their house is built, they
20 have a confidence, they have a sense of community. They
21 are almost always the very first homeowner in their
22 entire family to own a home. The difference between a
23 typical Habitat homeowner and you and me -- and I don't
24 know how many of you are in this situation, but most
25 Habitat homeowners don't have parents to give them money
37
1 to start with their home. And Habitat for Humanity is a
2 way for Habitat homeowners to get into that first home
3 so they can financially establish -- you know, when
4 you're talking about low-income properties, when your
5 income goes up, your rent often goes up. When you're
6 talking about homeownership, the house payment remains
7 stable, just as yours does, and then they can begin to
8 economically rise above their situation. And I think
9 that's important to note.
10 MS. MEYER: Thank you. I'm sorry for stepping
11 in, but --
12 MS. DURAN: It's okay. My name is Cyndee
13 Duran, and I also live on Outlook Lane there. My house
14 is basically right about there. I'm a single mom, three
15 kids, and I too have sweat equity in my home. My
16 parents didn't give me money for my home.
17 My concerns about this -- Habitat is saying
18 that this is going to -- these people are going to have
19 pride in their homeownership there. I have a hard time
20 with that simply because of the area they're putting it.
21 This is not a desirable corner. Nowhere -- well, I must
22 have doinked that off -- but nowhere does anyone say
23 that in order to cross Harmony here, you are crossing
24 four lanes of traffic.
25 I've had an accident at the corner of Taft and
1 Harmony. My daughter, who's a 17-year-old, has had an
2 accident at Taft and Harmony. It is not a good place
3 now. I will say that I was on the board trying to put
4 Westfield Community Pool in, and we tried to get a cut
5 off of Harmony to put our pool in there, and we were
6 told we couldn't get a cut.
7 I will also say that the low-income housing
8 there -- that is Mercy Housing out of Denver -- is
9 34 percent vacant right now. They have one-, two-, and
10 three- and four -bedroom units available, and they said
11 they cannot fill them. They said nobody had advised
12 them of what was being planned on this corner, but that
13 this project will kill them. They can't get people to
14 come to that area because it's too -- what they hear is
15 that it's too far out of town. There's no bus, there's
16 no grocery, there's no services, grocery stores.
17 The other thing is, I mean, there were no
18 pictures of the trailer park there. If you want people
19 to have pride in their home, give them a nice place to
20 live. Integrate their homes in nice neighborhoods. I
21 just -- this is so far different from anything I've seen
22 out of Habitat that I'm disappointed. I don't think
23 you're going to have people lining up to live in these
24 places, and I think it's going to lower the property
25 values around there.
39
1 Having the playground right on Harmony, I
2 wouldn't want my kids playing there, and my 12-year-old
3 son is not, at this time, allowed to play in the street
4 or play basketball because of the -- all the people
5 cutting through the neighborhood, trying to get around
6 that stoplight at Taft and Harmony. It gets too backed
7 up, and they cut through the neighborhood. That's what
8 I have to say.
9 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
10 MR. JONES: Hi. My name's Troy Jones. I'm a
11 resident of Fort Collins, business address 223 North
12 College. I grew up about three-quarters of a mile north
13 of here. My mom bought a house in about 1980, so
14 through junior high and high school, I lived near here.
15 And I have a perspective from a long time ago of this
16 neighborhood, and I think this is a wonderful project
17 for this place, and I think it's absolutely appropriate
18 here.
19 And I don't know if I'm going to be the only
20 one speaking tonight in favor of this project, but a
21 couple of years ago, I spent a Saturday and I
22 volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and I swung a
23 hammer. And I loved it, and I thought, "Gosh, I should
24 do this more often." And I wish I would have more often
25 since then, but I haven't, and I will again.
40
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However, I think this is an appropriate place
for this, and there's a variety of things happening in
the neighborhood. There's -- like some of the other
folks have mentioned, there's a trailer park. One of my
best friends grew up, lived in a trailer park.
Wonderful person. There's single-family attached
housing, there's some variety of sizes of single-family
housing, there's commercial; there's a lot of things
going on here, you know. A mile north of here -- maybe
it's a mile and a half -- there's a Safeway. It's not
that far from things. Albeit there's not a public
transit route here today, but there may be at some
point, especially if there's demand.
But I guess what I'd like to say is Habitat
for Humanity, from what I've seen and read and heard, is
an absolutely wonderful organization, and I'm proud to
be an American, to know that there is an organization
like that in America, to be honest with you. I'm happy
they're in Fort Collins and they're doing this sort of
thing here.
And I guess that's about all I wanted to say,
other than I've seen a lot of development come and go
through Fort Collins, and I think this is a good cause,
and I just wanted to say that. Thanks.
MS. MEYER: Thank you.
41
1 MR. YOUNGER: My name is Wayne Younger. I
2 live at 2026 Lookout Lane; again, directly impacted on
3 the south. But they're -- I guess I shouldn't say
4 impacted. I'm also proud that Habitat is in our
5 community and they're doing things for people that need
6 help in buying houses and purchasing their own homes.
7 Some of the points that I wanted to carry, a
8 couple of the first speakers also spoke. And I have to
9 I apologize; I'm nervous. I don't do this, talk in
10 front of people. And so if you can bear with me, I just
11 have a few points that I would like to carry -- talk
12 about
13 Habitat is a great organization. I've
14 contributed to them in the past. The concerns being
15 that they currently have done 29 units in the city and
16 are basically looking at double the amount of that right
17 now.
18 In the city there are approximately 400 units
19 of low-income housing available right now that are
20 vacant that would meet the same kind of cost
21 requirements here. Within a half a mile of this
22 project -- again, covering something somebody already
23 did -- there's over 600 low-income houses or low-income
24 housing units if you consider there's 585 units in the
25 trailer parks (inaudible) north and south, the housing
42
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directly north of it, which is multifamily.
The impact on traffic is that anybody trying
to go north on Taft from Taft and Harmony. If you've
ever been there, that intersection, I don't understand
how that could not be considered to have any impact on
it. Because right now, the way I read the city
standards, that if an intersection takes more than three
cycles to get through that, that it's considered a
failure. That intersection, most of the day, is a
failure rate on Taft going northbound. It goes from a
four -lane arterial into a two-lane with no turn lanes,
no stops.
The concern about traffic for the people in
the neighborhood to the south is not necessarily
parking, because they don't have access to be able to
park there. The concern is that already people from the
west of there, Taft Canyon, and from the east, bypass
through our neighborhood to not have to go through that
intersection. We see that all the time.
Talk about some of the concerns at the
original neighborhood meeting. The original
neighborhood meeting, we had no idea what was to be
proposed. Plans and stuff were not available at that
time, so there was a few concerns then. But we've since
got more than that.
43
1 To sum up, and I'll go sit down and be good,
2 basically the modifications they're requesting for this
3 are all based on the site size and shape. If the things
4 do not fit on the size and shape, is this the best
5 location for the project?
6 Thanks.
7 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
8 MR. CANUM: My name is Rod Canum, and I live
9 at 1926 Lookout Lane, like a bunch of us in here. I had
10 a couple questions. I had some questions for Habitat.
11 Can you assure us or guarantee -- can they
12 assure us or give us some kind of guarantee that there
13 actually will be a homeowners association? Because if
14 that doesn't happen, this place will go to heck in a
15 real quick time.
16 The other thing I wanted to ask is, are these
17 drawings to scale that we're looking at? And if you
18 look at them, they make those trees look really big and
19 nice that might give us some shield over there when, in
20 fact, they're going to be 1-inch diameter trunks on
21 them. The artist renditions make it look like there's
22 going to be a lot of plant -- planting and different
23 vegetation that might give us some of a buffer zone,
24 which we're not going to get.
25 We'd also like the City to look at the
44
1 possibility of giving us -- look if there's a way to
2 move to give us a little bit more of a buffer zone along
3 that back fence so that we don't have these taller than
4 our two-story houses looking down into our backyards.
5 A lot of people that are here are in that
6 position, and people that don't show don't have that
7 problem. But it is going to affect us; if not property
8 value, it's going affect us just having people look down
9 in while we're trying to have a barbecue or whatever
10 else that we have going on.
11 What happened -- I'd like to know what
12 happened -- originally, we were told in the first
13 meeting that there was going to be a retail center built
14 and that it was going to basically be sold to help with
15 construction costs. I don't see that in the plan now.
16 And I also -- you know, we have had a change
17 in these plans just since the meeting before. Things
18 are different now. What's to say if, after you decide
19 to go -- or no go or go, that they don't decide to make
20 more changes in which we're not able to comment on or
21 show any opposition or any kind of thing for?
22 And I guess my last question, because we
23 really didn't get a definition of affordable housing or
24 low-income housing, what does the City consider low
25 income? Because I really think that you got to look at
45
1 income. And if I remember correctly, that people that
2 are going to buy these cannot have a combined family
3 income of something around 32- or $33,000.
4 So appreciate the time. Thank you.
5 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Anybody else? Now,
6 come on guys. This is why we have two podiums and why
7 you have to stand.
8 MS. STENBERG: Madam Chairman, ladies and
9 gentlemen of the Planning Commission or Planning and
10 Zoning Board. My name is Kimberly Stenberg. I'm a
11 private public -policy and land use consultant in
12 Loveland, and for the last decade I have been working in
13 Larimer County, Weld County advocating for
14 home -builders, homeowners, neighborhood organizations.
15 And I worked for and against each over the years on
16 different things.
17 In 1998 I was the director of government
18 affairs for the Home Builders Association in Northern
19 Colorado when a City Plan was being proposed. And one
20 of the greatest concerns that the community had at that
21 time was this concept of mixed -use developments.
22 And I think tonight we have before us great
23 opportunity for a great project that truly does stand
24 out and scream, Mixed -use development, compact urban
25 development, all of the good buzz words that we know
46
1 that we've been trying to accomplish here in Fort
2 Collins for an awful long time.
3 Habitat is the nation's number one
4 home -builder. I don't know, Candace hasn't had an
5 opportunity to say that yet, but Habitat is the largest
6 home -builder in the nation. There's something to be
7 said for that. They're successful. Next year, in 2006,
8 they will celebrate their 30th anniversary of building
9 homes in the United States and internationally, and
10 they're going to build a thousand homes next year to
11 celebrate that. And we hope to do that here in Fort
12 Collins and Loveland and Weld County and Northern
13 Colorado, and help be a part of that process and that
14 celebration of homeownership.
15 As the City Staff recognized, this project is
16 meeting or exceeding the standards of the City Plan and
17 going equally well or better than what is required.
18 This is a great, great project. Very rarely do we see a
19 project that has 55-percent open space in a multifamily
20 project development. That's huge and that's wonderful,
21 and that shows you the quality and caliber of the
22 development that Habitat wants to do with Innovation
23 Island, is to show that we can do mixed -use development,
24 we can do multifamily housing, and we can preserve and
25 protect open space at the same time.
47
1 One of the comments I want to respond to
2 quickly is that in the last 22 years that I've been
3 doing land use development and consulting, there has
4 never been a community that can show a definitive
5 analysis assessment proving that multifamily projects
6 bring down the property values of single-family
7 developments nearby. Never. And I would challenge
8 anyone in this room tonight that has that concern to
9 bring me proof that that has happened, because it is not
10 a proven ideal.
11 Anyway, obviously I'm here to support the
12 Habitat project. And I hope that everyone in the room
13 tonight will at least agree to or at least think about
14 volunteering for Habitat and learning a little bit more
15 about what the greatest home -builder in the nation has
16 to offer our community. Thank you very much.
17 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
18 MR. ANDRE: Good evening to the panel and city
19 members -- City Staff members. My name is Chuck Andre.
20 I live approximately a block to the east and a little
21 bit south on Greengate Drive. And I'd like to preface
22 my comments tonight with two other quick comments.
23 Number one, I couldn't agree more with the
24 young lady at the podium right now. Habitat is one of
25 the greatest organizations in the United States, and I
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1 think they do a tremendous job in the programs that are
2 ongoing, and I fully support their program.
3 Secondly, I've been in Fort Collins for a
4 little over 40 years, so I feel like I know the
5 community very well. And I totally support the city
6 planning in terms of having mixed -use areas spread out
7 throughout the entire city so we don't have a very
8 expansive neighborhood and then a poverty -driven
9 neighborhood, that we are doing this all over the city.
10 The point that I'd like to make this evening
11 is that I feel like, based upon presentations that have
12 already been made tonight., that we in this particular
13 area have more than our share of mixed -use housing per
14 single -unit housing compared to other parts of the city.
15 And I do really feel strongly that because of that
16 inequity in that ratio, that possibly this housing
17 effort might be better spent somewhere else where it
18 would be closer to other services, city services, and in
19 other locations, to try to spread that out a little bit.
20 It really does create a burden in terms of
21 traffic, as was pointed out here on the drawing. Most
22 of these are going to be entering into Harmony Road
23 right near a traffic median, which is going to create a
24 real issue in terms of trying to get around that. I
25 think we're years away, I'm sure the city people can
1 tell us, from having Harmony Road issues solved to be
2 totally four -lane from Taft Hill to Shields. So we're
3 going to have ongoing traffic projects for a long, long
4 time.
5 Also, as a 27-year career volunteer fireman,
6 I'm wondering if the City has had any contact with
7 Poudre Fire Authority to know if this meets any of their
8 requirements in terms of access, sprinkler availability,
9 fire hydrants, all of those kinds of things; getting the
10 large engines in and out of that high -density area. So
11 those are my comments this evening. Thank you.
12 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
13 MS. LUND: My name's Cathy Lund. I live at
14 4203 Lookout Lane, and I'm over in there in the same
15 neighborhood as everyone else is, apparently.
16 The one thing I do want to bring up here is
17 during that meeting back in September, when Habitat and
18 Vignette came over and talked to all of us homeowners,
19 one of the questions that was asked was, "Why are you
20 building it here?" The response was, again, "This is an
21 in -fill lot," meaning that it's already in the confines
22 of the city but has not been developed. "This is a
23 great area for Habitat homeowners to live."
24 This is the next part that is very questioning
25 in my mind: "It's close to schools and shopping,
50
1 doctors, and it is also on a bus route. It is difficult
2 for lower income families to live in the outskirts
3 because it's difficult to get those important facilities
4 and because gas is becoming more expensive all the time.
5 And if we're planning to sell the commercial pad, this
6 is a great location for businesses."
7 There are very few business lots in the
8 southwest part of this city. And to kind of paraphrase
9 what other people have said, there is no bus route. My
10 understanding from the budget cuts -- because I attend
11 City Council meetings -- is that busing is being cut in
12 part of that budget. Maybe it has not been cut, but
13 that was my understanding a couple weeks ago.
14 It is close to schools. However, the concern
15 is more elementaries possibly shutting down. The influx
16 of those children coming into our schools is going to be
17 pretty vast.
18 Shopping, I don't consider JJ's Market, a
19 liquor store and bar, places to go shopping.
20 Doctors, I don't know of any doctors in that
21 area. I don't even know of any kind of first aid
22 center, to tell you the truth.
23 My understanding is that the City is very,
24 very adamant in making sure that low-income housing is
25 near city services. There are none out there. Now, we
51
1 use "low-income housing" on this because that's what
2 Habitat has framed it as. It says here, "low-income
3 families."
4 Thank you.
5 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
6 MR. WERNING: My name is Steve Werning. I
7 live at 1903 Lookout Lane. Most of the comments I had
8 have already been touched on, so I just have some
9 general questions that I'd ask to the general project
10 manager that are going to build it themselves.
11 How many people are currently eligible for
12 these homes once they are built out to completion? The
13 500 hours that they have to volunteer, will there be
14 volunteers working on this project as well, or do they
15 do that on other projects? Will all of the buildings
16 start at the same time, or are they going to build each
17 unit as they have families eligible for each one,
18 probably looking at a 3 year project? Or is it all
19 going to be built out to completion and then sold as
20 they qualify? I guess that was it.
21 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
22 MR. HEPFER: Hi. I'm Josh Hepfer. I live at
23 2032 Lookout Lane. Couple of my concerns was, initially
24 the architectural design was supposed to blend with our
25 neighborhood, and now they stated that it's going to
52
1 blend with market value. I'm real concerned with that.
2 Also, how are we going to control the access
3 of that emergency accessway? Who's going to control
4 that? And also, standards for parking are at the bare
5 minimum. Any special event, what are we going to do on
6 overflow with that? And finally, we were told the down
7 payment on one of these purchases is going to be roughly
8 a thousand dollars, so now with the cuts and HOA
9 ownership, how are we going to control that? Now we're
10 going to tack on an HOA fee, and we're having trouble
11 making the mortgage payment. So thank you.
12 MR. O'MALLEY: I'm Brien O'Malley. I live at
13 Mesa View Court, which is also south of here. I won't
14 touch on the other points since we'll keep it to three
15 times.
16 Some areas I will point on, though, is the
17 one -car garages. They're talking about parking and how
18 other neighbors won't be affected. However, they got to
19 park somewhere, and we have people that have three -car
20 garages, and they have one car in them. And I can
21 imagine people having two or three cars with the one -car
22 garage. So it will eventually either flow over to our
23 neighborhood or Taft Canyon, since there's no parking on
24 Taft or Harmony.
25 And about the gates that will limit access on
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Taft Street, we've all seen it before, places that have
the gates, the chains. They stay up for a few weeks and
then it's normal traffic in there. And people have
mentioned how traffic does back up all the way to our
neighborhood on Taft at times. So I'll cover.
MS. MEYER: Thank you.
MR. SPIVAK: My name is Howard Spivak. I live
at 1914 Lookout Lane. I have a couple of concerns. The
building on the southeast, the unit -- I guess that's a
six -unit building -- and the road both come very close
to the property line of those of us who live on Lookout;
back up, as I do, on Lookout Lane. I would like to see
more separation.
The other thing I'd like to point out, the
fence that runs back of our property was put up and paid
for by the property owners, not our homeowners
association, and it appears that Habitat is relying on
that to provide a barrier. I'm not sure that's entirely
fair.
The other -- another concern is on the value
of the homes, the units. I'm not most concerned that
they're multifamily units, but Don Tiller mentioned that
the $130,000 figure that was first talked about at the
meeting with homeowners represented a cost when these
units are sold to the occupants. Are they going to be
53
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1 sold with a mortgage that represents the market value,
2 which now Don is telling us is going to be $185,000
3 range, or is it going to reflect the 130,000? It's my
4 feeling that if it reflects the 130,000, that will have
5 a negative impact on those of us in the neighborhood in
6 regards to our property values. Thank you.
7 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
8 MR. CHAD JONES: My name is Chad Jones. I
9 also live in the neighborhood to the south. It's pretty
10 cut and dried. Most folks that don't live in the
11 neighborhood are for this project; most folks that live
12 in the neighborhood are not for the project. So I won't
13 reiterate anything that's been said here. All I'm going
14 to ask of you is please consider what's going on with
15 the folks that live there. Ask yourselves how you would
16 feel if this was moving into your neighborhood, and
17 please vote on that.
18 Another thing to kind of -- there was an error
19 in there. There are actually two locations within a
20 half a mile of this project. Thank you.
21 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
22 MR. FORGERBERG: Madam Chair, members of the
23 Board. My name is Don Forgerberg. I reside at 4221
24 Lookout Lane. And pretty much all of my concerns have
25 been expressed, so I'll be brief in referencing those
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again.
There will absolutely be more traffic than
what exists now, which the traffic factor is quite
abundant and notable. During the rush hour, from
approximately 7:00 to 8:30 in the morning, at that
intersection it is most heavy, no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. Putting a project this size with that many
residents and additional cars, it will definitely show
additional congestion and affect the traffic there.
Number two, I am concerned with the
construction factor here. Habitat is a well known, well
represented, and much admired organization. I feel that
also. But knowing that it's sweat equity and volunteer
people doing this, I really question the construction
start time and the construction conclusion time. To
have this activity going on and in an abundance is going
to be a disturbance, a real negative for the members
that live right to the south of the proposed site.
Also, there has been a mention of the schools,
Webber Junior High, Johnson Elementary, that Webber is
at capacity, and Johnson is close to it. This is
definitely going to have some effect there.
The other concern, in coming to my conclusion,
is the homeowners association. Having come from another
part of the city, residing there and being a chairman of
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that neighborhood association, which was Avery Park, I
know what it has done to a neighborhood. The
neighborhood was taken over by rentals, in essence. I
have spoke before the council before with issues there.
It's a situation here where you're trying to
serve, in essence, two entities. You're trying to serve
people with need. I applaud you for that. I have a
heart for that myself. But we're also homeowners that
have worked hard and diligently to acquire what we've
had. Therefore, as the gentleman that spoke before me
said, you know, look at our side too. In other words,
there's more populace already living there with the
quality homes that we have, and it definitely will have
some effect. No matter what some of these indicated
studies have inferred, these things will have some
negation of our property, our lifestyle, and the
disruptive factors.
So we ask for your consideration that you look
at, you know, what we're speaking of. You've had a few
people speak favorably. That's very admirable, but I
don't think they're living in the area, and I don't
think they'll be impacted.
MR. DICK: Good evening. My name's Rod Dick.
I live at 1921 Lookout Lane. I have just a couple
things I'd like to throw in for consideration.
57
1 The gentleman from Habitat had given us
2 pictures of alternative layouts of the individual
3 property, at that point a few units less. I do realize
4 that the economics of this are a very big part for them
5 and for most developments this way. These alternatives,
6 I think, would be greatly appreciated presented to us,
7 as the surrounding areas. We don't have a whole a lot
8 of input on that type of thing, but our concerns are for
9 the density at that point. Until now none of us knew
10 that there had been consideration for other layouts that
11 way.
12 One of the other things on the set of plans
13 that I was privy to seeing, there was alternative
14 fencing and different fencing layouts for the fencing
15 around the property. One of them was a -- it had 6-foot
16 privacy fence similar to those that we as homeowners in
17 the area were required to put in for any kind of
18 fencing. The other one was a three -rail, and at one
19 time it was mentioned of putting in a wire backing on
20 that for controlling access through that.
21 If these are alternatives, I don't see them as
22 matching into the fencing that completely surrounds all
23 of Harmony, from the very beginning of our development
24 clear to the end. It seems like a very large diversion.
25 And they said they wanted to help work with us and
M
1 maintain some of our own standards that way. I think
2 that would be something that would be greatly
3 appreciated to take a look at.
4 The other thing is, I'll put my two cents in
5 about the traffic. I pull out and drive down that
6 street a quarter to 7:00 five days a week, and heading
7 north on Taft at Taft and Harmony takes me at least two
8 cycles of the light that early in the morning to get
9 through that intersection. I think it's something that
10 has to be gravely looked at if this development goes in
11 that way. Thank you.
12 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
13 MR. BURTEL: Hi there. My name's Ronald
14 Burtel. I live at 1950 Lookout Lane. Getting to be
15 kind of a pattern isn't it? My main concern, I think,
16 is this access into this. You only have one access into
17 this area. And number one, trying to come on Harmony
18 and turn left, I really seriously doubt they're going to
19 have to put an actual left-hand turn lane in there, and
20 that, to me, is going to be kind of awful.
21 And then in the morning, if half these people
22 have to go down Taft Lane, what are they going to do?
23 They're going to turn right on Harmony because there's
24 no way they're going to be able to turn left. They'll
25 come down, they'll go through our neighborhood to get
59
1 back up to Taft Lane. So I think we'd have a very
2 increased amount of traffic going through our
3 neighborhood, because to get to Taft Lane other than
4 that, they would have to go all the way back to Shields
5 and go up to Horsetooth. They'd have to go back down to
6 Trilby, and that's the only other way they're going to
7 get to Taft.
8 I can see no way how these people -- unless
9 they open up that emergency exit, that's the only way
10 they're going to be getting access to Taft. And I kind
11 of find that kind of hard. You only have one access
12 into this much of a community where you got this many
13 people living, and they're only going to have one access
14 into that. That, to me, would be a little hard to try
15 and -- just the logistics, to me, just seem to be a
16 little tough. Thank you.
17 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
18 MS. BITTS: My name is Amy Bitts. I'm new to
19 Colorado, new to Fort Collins. I live on 4227 Lookout
20 Lane, and it is my first home. I just wanted to
21 rephrase some of the concerns that some of my neighbors
22 have had as direct questions that I'd like to hear
23 Habitat be able to answer.
24 The first is, in terms of the cost from the
25 legislature that I read from the first meeting, some of
RN
1 the costs for this construction was going to be covered
2 by sale of the commercial area, but it looks like that's
3 not happening now, so I'm curious how the cost is going
4 to be covered.
5 Considering the vacancy in the affordable
6 housing that's just diagonal across the way, this has
7 also been mentioned. That area is 35-percent vacant.
8 What I'd like to know is, are they going to build all of
9 the units first, or are they going to wait until
10 families are approved for the units? And what will
11 happen if there are vacancies in those homes?
12 And then the last question, again, talking
13 about parking, the representative from the development
14 was saying that there won't be parking in our
15 neighborhood, or overflow parking. But what I'd like to
16 know is, if the tenants in this area only have one
17 parking space per unit and they can't park in our
18 neighborhood and they can't park on Harmony and Taft,
19 and considering that there is no public transportation,
20 where are they going to put their extra vehicles? Thank
21 you..
22 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
23 MS. CANDELLA: Hi. My name is Kristin
24 Candella. I'm a staff person with Habitat for Humanity.
25 And I don't know if it's appropriate for me to talk, but
61
1 I wanted to come up and just speak on behalf of the
2 families. We did talk about the average number of
3 children that our Habitat homeowners have that live in
4 our current homes, and it is 1.8 kids per house. But I
5 also wanted to just speak to the importance of the
6 access to a bus route for Habitat families.
7 Habitat families are 35 to 50 percent of the
8 area median income. And I did do a recent statistical
9 study on how many families in Fort Collins would qualify
10 for that, and there are -- there are over 8,000 families
11 in Fort Collins that would qualify. And the majority of
12 our Habitat homeowners currently are single parents who
13 do have access to a vehicle. And so it is -- I just
14 wanted to speak to that really quickly, that in
15 practice, we have -- a majority of our families do have
16 one vehicle, and I thought that would make -- be
17 important as you think about the issue of the bus
18 routes. So thank you.
19 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Anybody else? Are you
20 sure? Move quickly.
21 MS. EVANS: Good evening. I'm Mary Evans, and
22 I live in the Gates area, fairly close to this planned
23 project. I came to Fort Collins in 1971 to teach school
24 in the public school district. I've seen tons of
25 changes in Fort Collins since that time. I used to live
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1 on the very south end of town, which was approximately
2 Drake Road at that time. So I am very much in favor of
3 the growth that's gone in Fort Collins, and certainly I
4 applaud the efforts for affordable housing in Fort
5 Collins. And I'm actually very proud of that, that Fort
6 Collins is making that effort.
7 I've served on the United Way funds
8 distribution committee in the four years in the past, so
9 I'm very well aware of our needs in the community. But
10 I just want to put in my vote on this traffic thing. It
11 is a serious problem. I still go to work -- I avoid
12 going to that intersection every day, just like we've
13 talked -- everybody else talked about, because of the
14 traffic problems.
15 And then one question that I have, in the
16 Gates area and also in the Lookout area, we have a
17 homeowners association and covenants surrounding what we
18 can do to our properties to keep our property values up.
19 I'm wondering, if this Habitat project goes in, will
20 there be some covenants for the maintenance of the
21 units? And how will those be enforced? So what will be
22 the enforcement body for keeping those covenants in
23 order, things such as old cars that don't run and that
24 sort of thing?
23 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
63
1 MR. JOHNSON: Hi. My name's Frank Johnson,
2 and I live on 4132 Centergate Court, which is actually
3 on the opposite side of Harmony Road. But just to speak
4 to a couple of the concerns here and with respect to the
5 first meeting that we had with the developers and with
6 Habitat. I too have worked for Habitat homes, and I
7 really like Habitat and what they stand for, so please
8 understand where that's coming from.
9 With respect to working with the community as
10 one of the things that was expressed by Habitat and by
11 the Developer here -- and until that meeting, there was
12 no contact with the homeowners association or the
13 homeowners. Some -- I believe they would have gone a
14 lot farther and done a lot better with this whole plan
15 had they actually approached the homeowners to say,
16 "Hey, this is what we would like to do in this area.
17 How can we make this work for everybody?" But there was
18 no attempt to have that done.
19 With respect to traffic, you know, it's
20 beating a dead horse here. Over two years ago, before
21 my oldest daughter went off to college, she was cutting
22 through that neighborhood rather than going down Harmony
23 to Taft to make a left to visit her friend in Taft
24 Canyon because of traffic; it was that bad two years
25 ago. So it's only gotten worse since then. Thank you.
M
1 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Okay. I'll move more
2 quickly.
3 MS. WALTS: Stefanie Waits, 1908 Lookout Lane.
4 True story: On the way here, as I was driving on Taft
5 going past the Harmony intersection, almost hit a guy.
6 And I know this development is being touted as a
7 pedestrian -friendly development. But I got to tell you,
8 currently there are no sidewalks that are visible or
9 used; there are none along this Taft corridor. That
10 intersection, you do take your life into your hands,
11 even to drive through it.
12 But the other intersection I'd like to address
13 is actually the intersection off of Harmony and Shields.
14 And I know that I've asked Steve Olt about the traffic
15 study on that one. Truthfully, if you live in the
16 southwest quadrant of town, which we all do, you drive
17 directly east to go to Target, to go to Wal-Mart, to go
18 to any of the fine established restaurants in the
19 southeast quadrant of town. I can tell you that the
20 light or the intersection on that, you generally sit
21 through four or five, maybe six sessions of the traffic
22 light just to go to the eastern part of town.
23 Again, I -- and if you bring in 27 families
24 with approximately two cars, you are essentially adding
25 50-plus more cars into that traffic pattern on a daily
I basis. Because there is no busing going into our
2 quadrant of the city, you generally have to go that
3 route to secure your shopping services.
4 So I'd really ask that you take that into
5 consideration as well. It's not just the immediate
6 impact to the neighborhood, it's also a mile down the
7 road and what that does to the traffic pattern, to all
8 of our neighbors to the east. Thank you.
9 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Okay. Anybody else?
10 This is your last chance. Okay. All right. Thank you
11 very much. And thanks for using both podiums; it makes
12 it move a little faster. I'm not sure all of us want to
13 be here until 11:00 o'clock. We could be here until
14 11:00, but . . .
15 Now we're going to bring it back to the Board,
16 if the Board doesn't mind having listened here. And the
17 largest thing is traffic. That's one of the first
18 things that we should probably address. What do you
19 think? Eric, do you win? Oh, good.
20 MR. ECKMAN: Maybe before we do that, our code
21 calls for the Applicant to have an opportunity at this
22 point in the meeting to respond, and after that the
23 staff can respond both to the public testimony and the
24 applicant's response all at one time.
25 MR. TILLER: It just -- once again, my name is
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Don Tiller, representing the Developer. I made some
notes of some of the questions that came up, so I'll run
through those quickly, and if time permits, Candace may
need to make a couple comments.
One of the questions I heard was seniors this is a senior community; how will they do sweat
equity? I'd like to directly address that, because they
can participate not only in the actual supporting the
people doing the building, but there's ample opportunity
at the Habitat store in order to earn their sweat equity
hours. So I think that's well covered by the Habitat
organization.
There was some comment about the number of
units being doubled, that Habitat's only built 29, and
this has 27. We're going to be adding -- Habitat
actually has been increasing their build rate. Back in
193 to 196, I think they were building one house per
year. I believe they built six, five -- I'm getting
six -- six this last year. And that rate is increasing
as they've increased their build capacity, so I think
they are ramping up at this point.
Some question about the height of these
buildings relative to single-family buildings. The
heights are comparable to the two -stories. so if
there's a two-story single-family home to the south, it
67
1 will be essentially the same height as these two-story
2 buildings. Ranches will be the same situation.
3 Originally told there would be a retail center
4 that would be sold to help pay the construction costs.
5 That would be a desire. We did not have -- or Habitat
6 does not have a buyer at this point, so it's not
7 appropriate to bring that to the project development
8 level that we brought the retail -- or the residential
9 to, which Habitat is proceeding with.
10 Can plans change because they have changed?
11 Well, they've changed that because of the neighborhood
12 meeting. Bottom line is, as you know, we can't change
13 the plans once you approve them. So we can finish the
14 plans, but we can't make changes to the plans. So the
15 plans that you saw tonight, if they're approved, are the
16 plans we'll be proceeding with.
17 The fire authority has reviewed our plan. We
18 specifically went out of our way to meet with Mike
19 Chavez, who reviews plans. All of our radiuses aren't
20 curbs; the widths of the drives, the requirement for the
21 barricade, for the emergency access to Taft Hill have
22 been reviewed and approved by Mike. He felt that was a
23 very good plan. All of his equipment can go through
24 this division.
25 The number of people eligible for homes once
I they're built out. Well, from what I've seen in the
2 past, Habitat selects the family first, raises the
3 money, and then they build the house. So these homes
4 will not be vacant, like a lot of the builder homes are
5 looking for someone to move in. These will have
6 families waiting for them to move in.
7 Will volunteers work on this project?
8 Absolutely.
9 How will the HOA fees be paid? They will be
10 paid by the Habitat families. Part of the budget that's
11 put together in forming the mortgage includes the cost
12 of the HOA, and so that is part of the financial
13 counseling and planning that's done with the Habitat
14 family.
15 How does the mortgage work; is it for 130,000,
16 or is it 185,000? The mortgage is for 185,000.
17 There was concern that these turn into
18 rentals. Well, one, we have a good track record in the
19 city of the Habitat owners staying where they're at. A
20 Habitat owner is not allowed to rent out the unit they
21 own, so it can only change into a rental if it's sold.
22 There was some concern about density and a
23 request for modifications; you know, there needs to be
24 some type of buffering. We looked for, in land
25 planning, as a transition from high -intensity use to
M
1 lower intensity use. And this does buffer the
2 single-family homes from the traffic on Harmony Road, so
3 it is somewhat of a transition in density.
4 There was a question about fence strategy.
5 You know, we are willing to meet and review their fence
6 strategy. There was an alternative for the fence along
7 the water utility area where it may or may not be
8 installed. It was called an optional fence, but in our
9 plans we do show a split -rail open fence along Harmony.
10 We felt that gave a real open, pleasing look to the
11 subdivision. In fact, some of the nicer subdivisions in
12 town use the split rail.
13 Let's see. Will there be covenants? How will
14 they be enforced? The HOA is an intent of Habitat for
15 Humanity to have because they want this to be something
16 that the community be proud of. So I see an intent to
17 form an HOA, and there are covenants as part of HOAs,
18 because that's part of protecting the value of the
19 community.
20 And finally, there is a sidewalk at least
21 adjacent to this property on Taft. I can't speak to how
22 far south it goes, but there is a sidewalk on Taft
23 relative to this subdivision.
24 Candace, did you have anything?
25 Thank you very much.
1 MS. MEYER: Thank you.
2 MS. MAYO: I just have one comment based on
3 the HOAs. You know, typically when you have a
4 development, those houses are sold, and maybe 27, 28
5 different banks have loans on that house. Habitat for
6 Humanity holds the mortgages on all the homes sold. We
7 provide those mortgages at zero -percent interest rate.
8 But, you know, we have a vested interest in keeping
9 those units up. We have a vested interest because we
10 care about our communities, and our homeowners care.
11 That's part of their training. So, yes, we will have a
12 homeowners association, and the homeowners association
13 fees will pay for exterior maintenance, for
14 grass -mowing, and also for snow removal. So I think
15 you're going to see that community be beautiful at the
16 beginning and stay beautiful for a long time.
17 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Now we can give it to
18 staff. Eric, you need to do traffic.
19 MR. OLT: I'll let Eric go first. That had
20 been requested to Eric. Eric Bracke, your traffic
21 engineer, will respond first.
22 MS. MEYER: Thank you, Eric.
23 MR. BRACKE: I wrote down a number of
24 questions. Most of them had to do with -- I'll start
25 with an easy one -- is the emergency access and how it's
71
1 going to be controlled. It's going to be controlled
2 with knock -down bollards. It's not going to be a
3 standard access for them through the day. Pardon me?
4 MS. MEYER: Define knock -down whatever, and
5 turn on your microphone, Eric.
6 MR. BRACKE: Is that on?
7 MS. MEYER: Is the little white light on down
8 below?
9 MR. BRACKE: There's a red light.
10 MS. MEYER: Okay. Thanks, Eric. Just speak
11 into it better. But define knock -down whatever it is
12 you're going to put up.
13 MR. BRACKE: It's a barrier that can be
14 knocked down by a fire truck to get in if they need to
15 get in.
16 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What about EMS?
17 MR. BRACKE: That also. Anybody can knock it
18 down. It will knock down, but it will stop people.
19 It's obviously not an access. People don't knock them
20 down on a general basis. We don't have a lot of
21 maintenance on the knock -down bollards from people
22 misusing them.
23 Taft, Harmony -- Shields and Harmony, there
24 are two projects in the works right now, one to be
25 scheduled next summer, and that will be the widening of
72
1 Taft Hill from Horsetooth to Harmony Road, actually just
2 south of Harmony Road. And that will include medians,
3 lanes, bike lanes, and auxiliary lanes at that
4 intersection to help improve that situation there and
5 improve the access management of that area. The
6 intersection currently operates well within our levels
7 of standards. It operates at a level of service C, both
8 in the a.m. and in the p.m. The level of service goes
9 from A to F, D, B, and R, what we term acceptable. And
10 this is at C, so it's better than that.
11 Shields and Harmony is a nightmare by
12 anybody's standards, but however, it's -- earlier this
13 month the election showed that the Building on Basics
14 passed. The Shields/Harmony intersection and the
15 Harmony Road project is one of the top priorities in
16 that sales tax initiative. It is likely that during
17 2006, the design of that will take place; construction,
18 near 2007. That project will include four -lane Harmony
19 Road from Seneca, where it currently necks down if
20 you're headed east -- necks down to two lanes all the
21 way to College Avenue, and includes all the auxiliary
22 lane improvements necessary at the intersection of
23 Shields and Harmony. So those two intersections are
24 covered.
25 MS. MEYER: Okay.
73
1 MS. SCHMIDT: Just a quick question, Eric. Is
2 C equivalent to sitting through two traffic lights or --
3 MR. BRACKE: I haven't seen sitting through
4 two traffic lights very often with the exception of the
5 p.m.; southbound left turn is a problem. And actually,
6 the improvements they mentioned earlier will include a
7 double left -turn lane. C is actually an average delay
8 of about 40 seconds or less.
9 MS. SCHMIDT: Thank you.
10 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Any --
11 MS. CARPENTER: Eric, is there going to be a
12 left -- when you go to turn in left, is there going to
13 be a left -turn lane put in there so that when people are
14 turning left into that --
15 MR. BRACKE: There's a left -turn lane in there
16 now that,can be striped, has enough width to do that.
17 MS. CARPENTER: So --
18 MR. BRACKE: The construction project, it will
19 be a painting project.
20 MS. CARPENTER: Okay. So they're not going to
21 be blocking traffic?
22 MR. BRACKE: There's enough to turn into it,
23 right.
24 MS. CARPENTER: Okay. And do you feel that
25 one access is adequate for this development?
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MR. BRACKE: For the residential aspect of it,
yes. And that generates a lot of peak -hour trips. I
believe it was -- if you look to your traffic study --
there's not that many cars being generated by 27
townhomes or condominium -type -- get to it real quick --
generating about two trips in, ten trips out during the
a.m. peak on; nine trips in, five trips out in the p.m.
It's not very much. When the commercial development
also occurs, that -- there will be a joint access, and
that access will also be available to the townhomes.
Two accesses is fine.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay. That's it for now.
Thanks.
MS. MEYER: Thank you. Anybody else have any
questions?
MR. STOCKOVER: Is there any chance there will
ever be a median that would block them from turning to
the west coming out of that?
MR. BRACKE: This will be at the tip of the
median.
MR. STOCKOVER: You'll be able to get around
that median, though, won't you?'
MR. BRACKE: Right. A left turn will be
allowed there.
MR. STOCKOVER
And my question is, is there
75
1 any chance that they would put a median so you could not
2 turn left?
3 MR. BRACKE: If a problem occurred and if
4 accidents occurred there, I could see the City cutting
5 that off. If it still works acceptably, I don't see a
6 median going in. The road is already built, and we're
7 not -- with the City's current budget constraints, I
8 don't see the City going in and putting in a median in
9 Harmony Road. I could be wrong, but I don't see it
10 happening.
11 MS. MEYER: Okay. What else does the staff
12 need to say? Would the staff like to say anything?
13 MR. OLT: Well, one concern I did want to
14 address, obviously deals with the number of school
15 children here. And I'm hearing that we're typically
16 looking at approximately 1.8 children per dwelling unit.
17 As a matter of course, Poudre School District is
18 involved in a development review for all residential
19 development, and they -- historically, if there are
20 concerns about the number of students -- and, of course,
21 they give us -- they give the City, for school
22 projections, a multiplier for whatever type
23 development -- single-family, multifamily development,
24 and we use that multiplier to do school projections.
25 But at the same time, they're also routed along with
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other city departments and reviewing agencies, the plans
for development.
And typically, I've seen -- if there is
concern from the school district about whatever level of
school would be potentially adversely impacted or
exacerbated based on the children in this project, they
will return comments with those concerns and be very
specific.
I have the project comment sheet from Poudre
School District representative of school districts for
both the Innovation Island Overall Development Plan and
Innovation Island Project Development Plan, and they
have checked, in both cases, no problems, and there are
no comments. We rely on the school district to tell us
if there is going to be an impact from this residential
development, and they're telling me on this project, no
problems. So that's what we have to work with. And
that's directly from them.
MS. MEYER: Okay. I don't know if this
belongs to the staff or the Applicant. One guy asked
the question: Are the drawings to scale?
MR. OLT: Well, certainly the drawings -- from
our estimation, the drawings are to scale. You can put
a scale to that. And they're looking at the vegetation.
Vegetation, by the Land Use Code, it's required to be
77
1 shown at a ten-year maturity. However, what we work
2 with from the standpoint of installation of trees and
3 shrubs -- and primarily, you know, here we're looking at
4 the trees, I think are of most concern. The minimum
5 caliber -size requirement for a tree, a shade tree, in
6 any development is a two -inch -caliber tree, and this is
7 certainly meeting that minimum requirement, the minimum
8 caliber number.
9 MS. MEYER: Excuse me. If you want to stay,
10 you have to just be quiet. Go ahead.
11 MR. OLT: The minimum caliber for an
12 ornamental tree is one and a half inches, and that needs
13 to be met. The minimum size for an evergreen tree is 6
14 to 8 feet, and this is at installation. No development
15 can install, you know, smaller than those requirements.
16 Seedlings, obviously, are not permitted. Yes, there
17 will be some time for, obviously, the vegetation to
18 mature. But you're still looking at a substantial size
19 for the evergreen, shade, and ornamental trees that are
20 required of this development and any other.
21 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Okay.
22 MS. SCHMIDT: Just one quick question. I
23 presume the Stormwater has also reviewed, and so all the
24 runoff that's created from the site's just going to be
25 contained right on the site? There's no need for
in
1 detention anywhere?
2 MR. OLT: Stormwater has reviewed this, of
3 course; they're definitely an integral part of our
4 development review. I don't see anyone from Stormwater
5 in the room at the moment.
6 MS. SCHMIDT: Yeah. It looks like there's a
7 lot of green space, but when I notice the empty lot, I
8 notice there was kind of a dark area, and I just
9 wondered if some things are naturally running off now,
10 but . . .
11 MR. OLT: Would you want to address the
12 Stormwater -- the applicant's engineer will be
13 responding.
14 MR. ALMIRALL: I'm Bob Almirall with Interwest
15 Consulting Group, site civil engineers. Storm water
16 detention is provided by a regional facility to the
17 northeast of the project, but this project was required
18 to provide water quality, so there is a small
19 water -quality pond proposed in the eastern edge of the
20 property. It doesn't handle storm -water detention per
21 se; that is handled off site.
22 MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Yeah. Another question I
23 had -- and I don't know if the Habitat representative
24 might want to address this or not -- I'm still a little
25 unclear as to how the construction schedule would go,
VAP
1 since these are multifamily -owned projects. So let's
2 say you have six families together, or five for the
3 five-plexes. Are you -- would you then build 1
4 five-plex, or are you going to -- you know, then the
5 next one might wait for several years before it gets
6 built because of the, you know, families? Or how are
7 you sort of anticipating that schedule?
8 MR. HAND: I'm Bob Hand. I'm the project
9 manager for Habitat for Humanity here in Fort Collins.
10 It would look very much like any other multifamily
11 project. You do one building at a time because you have
12 to go in for a permit for the whole building. That
13 would probably have also kind of a standard build -out of
14 6 to 8 months on the building.
15 A little explanation on our construction is a
16 lot of it is subbed out; excavation, foundations. The
17 framing, roofing, those kind of things are volunteers.
18 But it will -- licensed trades -- we use licensed
19 plumbers, licensed mechanicals, electricians, so we
20 would have a concentration of a larger work force, say,
21 on a Friday and a Saturday, of volunteers doing framing
22 than, say, having a smaller framing crew all week long.
23 In a couple of weeks, the thing gets framed and starts
24 to get roofed. During the week, the subs would come in,
25 do their thing, and then it just keeps progressing;
rn
1 Sheetrcck, on to carpet and finish and things.
2 So we would do a building at a time, similar
3 thing to multifamily -- other developments, kind of
4 market demand. You know, we would love to serve as many
5 people as possible as quick as possible. It takes time
6 to select the families, train the families, get the
7 sponsors here in town, bring them on board, and then to
8 raise the money to -- because Habitat brings money in
9 too, besides the sponsors bringing money in to get it
10 built. But we would be doing it a building at a time.
11 MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Then how would the
12 general landscaping initial cost be covered initially?
13 Would we have to wait for some funds to build up, or
14 would that be through homeowners association fees? In
15 other words, sort of some of the greenery and the trees
16 that we see there now, at what stage would some of that
17 buffering, especially for the neighbors, be occurring?
18 MR. HAND: You know, we haven't got to that
19 detail yet. Part of it is you don't want to put in a
20 whole landscape area, and you're going to build the next
21 building, and the subs and everybody wipes it out.
22 Because you do have to work around that stuff. So it
23 would -- as the buildings are phased in -- actually, as
24 I remember it, when we do each building, you at least
25 have to do the landscape on that building, okay, but
m
1 not -- and then we try to do some of the exterior
2 landscaping that would not get wiped out in future
3 construction.
4 MS. SCHMIDT: But there will also be sort of
5 funds set aside for that, each building? So it's not
6 like you're going to possibly, you know, run out of
7 money or something like that?
8 MR. HAND: Right, because we can get our
9 certificate of occupancy on the building without having
10 landscaping for that particular building.
11 MR. OLT: If I could elaborate on that, as
12 part of the landscape plan, the City does have a
13 requirement for landscape guarantees. Landscaping must
14 be installed in entirety for a project unless an escrow
15 is put forth in some sort of bond, performance bond, or
16 money in lieu of -- for landscaping that won't be
17 installed initially. I mean, plans can be phased from a
18 landscape standpoint. As Mr. Hand indicated, you know,
19 it really doesn't make sense to put landscaping in an
20 area that's still is to be constructed. So the
21 Developer to receive the CO on any particular building
22 will even have to have the landscaping in for that
23 building or the project in its entirety, or put money in
24 escrow to the amount of 125 percent of the cost of the
25 labor and materials for the landscaping so that there's
1 money to do that. Should, for some reason, the
2 Developer could not do it, we would have money
3 available. So that is a requirement.
4 Can I clarify one other thing too? Well,
5 actually a couple things, while I'm at it. From a
6 parking standpoint, there was a comment made by a
7 resident, the concern about the one parking space per
8 unit isn't enough, and where's that overflow parking
9 going to go. And I just want to reiterate the fact that
10 this residential development is required to provide,
11 based on the three- and four -bedroom units, either two
12 or two and a half spaces per unit. And, in fact, the
13 development plan before us for 27 dwelling units has 61
14 parking spaces. I think maybe the confusion about it
15 was one parking space per unit. Yes, that's in the one
16 attached garage. But in total, overall for the
17 development, there will be 2.2 parking spaces per
18 dwelling unit on the entire site for the development.
19 So that should not be a problem.
20 Another comment about no visible sidewalks
21 around the area. I could go back to the site shots, the
22 slides, if you wanted me to, but I think that would
23 clearly show that there are, you know, detached
24 sidewalks along both Taft Hill Road and Harmony Road
25 adjacent to this site, that there are certainly safe
m
1 pedestrianways around the development.
2 MS. MEYER: Thank you. Anybody else?
3 MS. CARPENTER: Steve, does the City have any
4 kind of a limit on how long full build -out on this could
5 take?
6 MR. OLT: The Land Use Code requires that a
7 project, after gaining final approval, must receive or
8 must reach a point of substantial completion of the
9 development within a 3 year period from the final
10 approval. In essence, when we sign off on the plans and
11 record those plans, that starts the 3 year time clock.
12 Within that time frame, they have.to have, for that
13 portion to receive final approval, substantial
14 completion; which constitutes walks, curb gutters,
15 sidewalks, streetlights, drainage -- storm drainage
16 associated with the project, streets, or in this case,
17 the driveways. Now, those all have to be within that 3
18 year time frame; in essence, all the infrastructure, the
19 services to the site, to keep that project alive.
20 MS. CARPENTER: The buildings don't
21 necessarily have to be done within that 3 year period?
22 MR. OLT: That's correct. The buildings would
23 not have to be built within that time frame, but that
24 infrastructure would have to be there so that you could
25 just literally come in and put a building on a pad site.
M.
1 MS. CARPENTER: Thank you.
2 MR. STOCKOVER: Is that true even though
3 they're not a public street, it's a private driveway?
4 Is there going to be phasing of the concrete driveway or
5 not?
6 MR. OLT: I think Sheri Wamhoff will respond
7 to that.
8 MS. WAMHOFF: Sheri Wamhoff with the
9 engineering department. The driveways themselves are
10 probably not considered public infrastructure, but they
11 would need to be in place to provide for the emergency
12 access for the site in the development in order for them
13 to get a building permit. So they would have to have
14 the water and sewer lines for the development run
15 underneath the pavement of the driveway. So they'll
16 have to have those in to serve the buildings, and then
17 they'll have to get the driveway in order to provide the
18 access for the construction and emergency access during
19 the course of the building. So they will have to be in
20 place.
21 MR. STOCKOVER: I guess what I'm getting at is
22 a lot of the buffering is along the farthest south
23 driveway. Would that landscaping be required with the
24 first building along with that access?
25 MS. WAMHOFF: As Steve indicated, the
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landscaping is required prior to the first certificate
of occupancy for the entire site, or they need to put
money up for it. So that would depend on kind of what
it is, as well as the timing. I mean, that's if they
were looking at getting their certificate of occupancy.
Now, in November or December, it would not make sense to
be installing the landscaping now. You'd want to wait
until spring. So those are part of what happens.
MR. STOCKOVER: But it looks like the
opportunity to get some of those trees going early in
the project, even if you're not building the buildings,
on the south side initially. If you're putting a
driveway in, there would be no reason we couldn't get
the first good planting season plants in along that
side. I'm wondering if there's any way to regulate that
specifically.
MR. OLT: We can't require that other than,
you know, what the landscape guarantee would require.
That's -- certainly the Applicant has heard your
concern, and that -- we can work with them. They can
respond accordingly if they so desire.
MS. MEYER: Are there any other questions?
MS. CARPENTER: This is probably for the
Habitat folks. Do you have a phasing plan yet as far as
what buildings you're planning to do first? Oh, boy.
m
1 You got to come up and talk, because I can see your head
2 shaking, but everybody else can't.
3 MR. HAND: We're not that far out yet. I
4 mean, we're trying to get through this gate first. So,
5 no, we don't have a phasing plan at this time, which
6 buildings to start first and everything and how to build
7 it out. We're just not there yet.
8 MS. CARPENTER: Okay. You understand the
9 concern of perhaps getting the landscaping in, for the
10 buffering to get started on that edge?
11 MR. HAND: Yeah, we understand the concern.
12 And we can -- again, we could try to -- if it's feasible
13 to do it, get irrigation systems in place, and we would,
14 you know, make every effort to do that. But again, if
15 we put it in and it gets wiped out because you're going
16 to excavate a building right there, that doesn't make
17 sense. But we'd be very sensitive to that and work
18 towards that end.
19 MS. CARPENTER: Okay. Thank you.
20 MS. MEYER: Any other questions, concerns,
21 thoughts?
22 COMMUNITY MEMBER: Can I ask one, please?
23 MS. MEYER: No. I'm sorry. You can call
24 those people tomorrow and ask them. Okay. Then are we
25 ready for a motion? Our motion guy (inaudible) -- oh, i
N.
1 know. We need to start with the ODP, right?
2 MR. ECKMAN: You have to vote first on the
3 ODP, and then you have three modifications. So they
4 have to take each one of those separately, and, finally,
5 the plan itself.
6 MS. MEYER: Okay. So can we get a motion on
7 the CDP?
8 MS. SCHMIDT: I'll make a motion on the ODP.
9 I'd like to say first, I certainly recognize the
10 concerns of the neighborhood, and there is no doubt that
11 there are going to be some impacts there. I think
12 whenever, though, you're backing up to a vacant lot,
13 sooner or later, someday, something will be built there.
14 And the construction time and the construction noise is
15 going to be probably of equal value -- you know,
16 whatever, equal disruption for a temporary point in
17 time.
18 I think, though, looking at the plan that
19 Habitat has put together, I've really got to say, I
20 think I'm pretty impressed with the amount of buffering
21 that they did try to do. The concern one person said
22 about people looking down into your backyards, well,
23 those are the end of the buildings there, and if you
24 look at the plan, there aren't any real windows that are
25 at the second level that are going to be looking down.
E:%
1 So I think there is a certain amount of sheltering
2 there.
3 The playground is as far away from the
4 neighborhood as possible, so you're not going to have a
5 lot of distraction from there. I mean, I think it's --
6 in some respects, given the site, they've done a very
7 good job in trying to sort of meet the needs of all
8 parties. And therefore, I'd like to move that we
9 approve the Overall Development Plan No. 4050 based on
10 the facts and findings in the staff report.
11 MS. MEYER: Do we have a second?
12 MS. CARPENTER: I'll second.
13 MS. MEYER: Are we ready for a vote?
14 THE CLERK: Schmidt?
15 MS. SCHMIDT: Yes.
16 THE CLERK: Stockover?
17 MR. STOCKOVER: Yes.
18 THE CLERK: Carpenter?
19 MS. CARPENTER: Yes.
20 THE CLERK: Meyer.
21 MS. MEYER: Yes.
22 All right. The motion's passed. Now we need
23 to go to the PDP -- I'm turning it on. Now we need to
24 go to the PDP, and as Paul said, we have three things we
25 have to vote on.
m
1 MR. ECKMAN: Three modifications.
2 MS. MEYER: Three modifications, yeah, that we
3 have to vote on.
4 MS. CARPENTER: Separately?
5 MS. MEYER: Yes.
6 MS. SCHMIDT: what's the very first one? Does
7 it matter which order we take them in?
8 MS. MEYER: Steve, which order do you want
9 them in? How do you want them done?
10 MR. OLT: I'm sure it wouldn't matter, but
11 based on my -- you know, the recommendation, it has them
12 in order. Section 3.5.2 -- it's at the very end of your
13 staff report in terms of the order of -- and it's going
14 just numerically in the Land Use Code, is what it's
15 doing.
16 MS. MEYER: Okay.
17 MR. OLT: That would probably be the best way
18 to do it, before you get to the actual Project
19 Development Plan motion.
20 MS. MEYER: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Do we
21 have a motion on Section 3.5.2(C)(1), which has to do
22 with the primary entrances to be up to 350 feet from the
23 street sidewalk?
24 MS. SCHMIDT: So then, Paul, do we have to
25 list the reasons that we're using to -- if we want to
we
1 approve that modification so it would either be the
2 equal to or better than or the No. 2, or do we have
3 to --
4 MR. ECKMAN: Yes. Well, if you want to
5 diverge from the findings that were included in the
6 staff report on page 21 and 22, in a nutshell, every
7 modification must be supported by your motion that it is
8 not detrimental to the public good. That's for
9 everyone.
10 Then you have, in this case, been presented
11 with two possible arguments, and you must use one or the
12 other or both of them; that it is -- it advances the
13 purpose of the standard for which the modification is
14 requested equally well or better than would a plan which
1s complies with the standard or in the alternate or in
16 addition to that it is -- now I lost my place with that
17 language -- but it advances an important community need,
18 which was the affordable housing component.
19 And then on either one of those, you have to
20 say how come it does, how come it's equal to or better
21 than or how come it advances that important community
22 need. All of that -- Steve has given you kind of a
23 version of it, if you like it, in the staff report. But
24 if you don't, why then you can craft your own findings
25 slightly differently.
.ej
1 approve that modification so it would either be the
2 equal to or better than or the No. 2, or do we have
3 to --
4 MR. ECKMAN: Yes. Well, if you want to
5 diverge from the findings that were included in the
6 staff report on page 21 and 22, in a nutshell, every
7 modification must be supported by your motion that it is
8 not detrimental to the public good. That's for
9 everyone.
10 Then you have, in this case, been presented
11 with two possible arguments, and you must use one or the
12 other or both of them; that it is -- it advances the
13 purpose of the standard for which the modification is
14 requested equally well or better than would a plan which
15 complies with the standard or in the alternate or in
16 addition to that it is -- now I lost my place with that
17 language -- but it advances an important community need,
18 which was the affordable housing component.
19 And then on either one of those, you have to
20 say how come it does, how come it's equal to or better
21 than or how come it advances that important community
22 need. All of that -- Steve has given you kind of a
23 version of it, if you like it, in the staff report. But
24 if you don't, why then you can craft your own findings
25 slightly differently.
W
1 MR. STOCKOVER: (Inaudible.)
2 MR. ECKMAN: Oh, I found the language.
3 It's -- you have to find -- with regard to the
4 affordable housing component, has, say, without
5 impairing the intent and purpose of the Land Use Code,
6 it results in a substantial benefit to the City by
7 reason of the fact that the proposed project would
8 substantially address an important community need.
9 MS. SCHMIDT: It's on page 9, right? Is that
10 where you're reading from, the staff report?
11 MR. ECKMAN: I'm actually reading it on page
12 22 at the top of the page, but it's in both places.
13 MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Okay. So I would move
14 that we recommend the approval of the modification of
15 the standard set forth in Section 3.5.2(C)(1)(B) because
16 it -- where is the language now? -- because it's not
17 detrimental to the public good, and that development
18 plan will advance and protect the public interests and
19 purposes of the standards equally better or than the
20 standard for which -- than a plan which complies with
21 the standard. So does that cover all the reasons that I
22 have to give, they have to give?
23 MR. ECKMAN: Then how come -- how does it
24 happen that it is --
25 MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Because the development
W,
1 plan would, without impairing the intent and purpose of
2 the Land Use Code, result in a substantial benefit to
3 the City by reason of the fact the proposed project
4 would substantially address an important community need
5 specifically and expressly defined and described in the
6 City's comprehensive plan, namely, affordable housing.
7 MR. ECKMAN: Okay. So that goes to the
8 affordable housing question, not the equal-to-or-
9 better -than question. But that's fine.
10 MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Yeah.
11 MR. ECKMAN: If you wanted to support the
2.2 equal -to -or -better -than argument, I think there's some
13 language, at least that the staff report contains at the
14 top of page 22, in the parenthetical phrase up there
15 about the project being accessible for schools and parks
16 and shopping. And if you can see that -- that would --
17 MS. CARPENTER: Well, I guess I don't know
18 that that really speaks necessarily to this specific
19 modification about the sidewalk. You know, it's for the
20 overall -- that's sort of the overall project. But I
21 don't know if that necessarily speaks to just the
22 modification about the sidewalks. So I think --
23 MR. ECKMAN: That language, if you're looking
24 for the language -- and again, this was just staff
25 recommendations, but on page 27.
93
1 MR. OLT: Where -- now we're talking about
2 Section 3.5.2(C)(1)(B), and that's where staff has given
3 the language or justification why we think we can
4 support that modification request. And then as you get
5 into the other two, again, our language for reason
6 supporting is on page 18.
7 MS. SCHMIDT: So do you need me to read all
8 that into the record as far as the buildings?
9 MR. ECKMAN: Not if you're using the
10 affordable housing as your justification, you don't need
11 to.
12 MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Anything else to the
13 affordable housing? I feel that this modification would
14 not diverge from the standards of the Land Use Code and
15 it would advance the purposes of the Land Use Code as it
16 is contained in Section 1.2.2. That's on page 17,
17 No. E.
18 MR. ECKMAN: That, again, addresses the
19 affordable housing component. Steve, help us with the
20 language as to haw come this is equal to or better than.
21 MR. OLT: Okay. Because that's one -- we
22 haven't used that criteria to justify it. That's a
23 totally different one.
24 MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
25 MR. OLT: We have used modification results in
0M
1 the project addressing the purposes of a standard
2 equally well or better than a plan which complies with
3 the standard, and the modification will result in a
4 substantial benefit to the City.
5 And then down on page 17, again, under the
6 justification for Section 3.5.2(C)(1)(B), dealing with
7 the major walkway spine, there are detached sidewalks
8 from the internal drives in front of the primary
9 entrances to buildings C and D that connects and
10 enhances pedestrian crosswalks -- one for each
11 building -- and sidewalks that connect directly to the
12 public sidewalks along both West Harmony Road and South
13 Taft Hill. And, you know, what we're saying is this
14 actually -- the feeling is that it's --
15 MS. SCHMIDT: It enhances the design of the
16 project the way it is. I mean --
17 MR. OLT: Pardon?
18 MS. SCHMIDT: I think this modification allows
19 for the design of the project to function well, if you
20 want to put it that way, and therefore it's --
21 MR. OLT: That's what we're saying.
22 MS. SCHMIDT: So -- yeah. So therefore it's
23 equal to or better.
24 MS. CARPENTER: Can we not just say, "Based on
25 the findings of fact;•and conclusion on page 21 of the
95
1 staff report"?
2 MR. ECKMAN: Well, apparently, the language
3 there is deficient with regard to this particular
4 modification as it relates to whether it's equal to or
5 better than. It's not deficient with regard to the
6 affordable housing component, but it is --
7 MS. CARPENTER: Okay.
8 MR. GLOSS: Alternatively, we may want to
9 adopt the language that's on page 17, the last paragraph
10 for that section, that one modification. And then you
11 go on to page 18, and you'll see the -- I'll call them
12 bulleted items under -- the first two sections deal with
13 the following two modifications. That's the staff
14 rationale that's been proposed to support the
15 modification request. So you might want to reference
16 those pages, 17 and 18, specifically in your motion.
17 MS. SCHMIDT: So do you want me to redo that
18 motion on the first modification? Because, Paul, is it
19 unclear?
20 SPEAKER: (Inaudible.)
21 MS. SCHMIDT: Yeah. Okay. All right. So
22 what we're going to do is submit a motion for approval
23 of the modification to Section 3.5.2(C)(1)(B) based on
24 the rationales listed in the staff report on page 17 and
25 18, and also based on the fact that staff has determined
9M
1 that the development proposal is not detrimental to the
2 public good and the modifications are equal to or better
3 than a plan which would comply with the standard; and
4 the development plan would, without impairing the intent
5 and purpose of this Land Use Code, result in a
6 substantial benefit to the City by reason of the fact
7 that the proposed project would substantially address an
8 important community need specifically and expressly
9 defined in the City's comprehensive plan, namely,
10 affordable housing.
11 MR. ECKMAN: Okay. So the way I understand
12 it, you're using two rationales for this modification:
13 one being that it advances the purposes of the standard
14 equally well or better than would one which complies;
15 and secondly, that it, without diverging from the
16 standards of the Land Use Code, will advance an
17 important community need, affordable housing.
18 MS. SCHMIDT: Uh-huh.
19 MR. ECKMAN: And the reasons for the
20 equal -to -or -better -than justification --
21 MS. SCHMIDT: Are 17.
22 MR. ECKMAN: -- are found on page 17 at the
23 bottom two bullets there, at the very bottom of that
24 page.
25 MS. SCHMIDT: Yes. That's it.
Uri
1
MR.
ECKMAN: That's it. Good.
2
MS.
SCHMIDT: Is there a second?
3
MR.
STOCKOVER: Second.
4
MS.
MEYER: Are we ready for a vote?
5
THE
CLERK: Stockover?
6
MR.
STOCKOVER: Yes.
7
THE
CLERK: Carpenter?
8
MS.
CARPENTER: Ye.s.
9
THE
CLERK: Schmidt?
10
MS.
SCHMIDT: Yes.
11
THE
CLERK: Meyer?
12
MS.
MEYER: Yes.
13
Motion
carries. Now we have to do the second
14
in the list of
-- now we're to "Every residential" --
is
it's Section 3.5.2(C)(2),
one building entry or doorway
16
facing any adjacent
street, and we have to deal with
17
that now.
18 MS. SCHMIDT: I think I'd like to make the
19 same motion. The recommendations are on page 18 of the
20 staff report, the specific ones, and then also that it
21 speaks to the affordable housing component.
22 MR. ECKMAN: So, again, the same concept, that
23 without impairing the intent and purpose of the Land Use
24 Code or results in a substantial benefit to the City by
25 advancing an important community need; that's the one
91
1 thing, affordable housing; is that correct?
2
MS.
SCHMIDT: Uh-huh.
3
MR.
ECKMAN: Plus the equal -to -or- --
4
MS.
SCHMIDT: Or better than.
5
MR.
ECKMAN: -- better -than arm, and the basis
6
for that is the top of page 18, those first two bullets
7
at the top of
page 18 --
8
MS.
SCHMIDT: That's correct.
9
MR.
ECKMAN: -- is that correct? Okay.
10
MR.
STOCKOVER: I'll second that one.
11
THE
CLERK: Carpenter?
12
MS.
CARPENTER: Yes.
13
THE
CLERK: Schmidt?
14
MS.
SCHMIDT: Yes.
15
THE
CLERK: Stockover?
16
MR.
STOCKOVER: Yes.
17
THE
CLERK: Meyer?
18
MS.
MEYER: Yes.
19
Okay. Motion carries. Now we're to the third
20
one, which is
Section 3.5.2(D)(1). This is like doing
21
the tax code.
This section requires that every
22
residential building
be set back a minimum of 30 feet
23
from any arterial
street right-of-way.
24
MS.
SCHMIDT: Okay. I'll make a motion to
25
recommend the
approval of the modifications of the
m
1 standards set forth in Section 3.5.2(D)(1). I'd like to
2 say it's becausethismodification is rather required,
3 but I guess it's -- again, it would be based on the
4 equal -to -or -better standards listed on page 18 of the
5 staff report and the fact that this contributes to the
6 overall comprehensive plan by contributing to affordable
7 housing.
8 MR. ECKMAN: So the same as the other. And do
9 you include in that motion that it's not detrimental to
10 the public good?
11 MS. SCHMIDT: Yes.
112 MR. ECKMAN: Yes. And the findings with
13 regard to the equal -to -or -better -than portion of this
14 motion are at the bottom half of page 18?
15 MS. SCHMIDT: Yes.
16 MR. ECKMAN: Okay. I think we understand that
17 part
18
MR.
STOCKOVER: Second.
19
MS.
MEYER: Are you ready?
20
THE
CLERK: Carpenter?
21
MS.
CARPENTER: Yes.
22
THE
CLERK: Schmidt?
23
MS.
SCHMIDT: Yes.
24
THE
CLERK: Stockover?
25
MR.
STOCKOVER: Yes.
100
1 THE CLERK: Meyer?
2 MS. MEYER: Yes.
3 That carries. Now we need to do the PDP
4 itself, right, the overall PDP? Is it harder or easier?
5 MS. SCHMIDT: That's -- we can just do the
6 motion to approve the overall PDP based on the facts and
7 findings on page 21 of the staff report, because that
8 covers them all.
9 MR. STOCKOVER: Second.
10 MS. MEYER: Okay. We're ready.
11 THE CLERK: Schmidt?
12 MS. SCHMIDT: Yes.
13 THE CLERK: Stockover?
14 MR. STOCKOVER: Yes.
15 THE CLERK: Carpenter?
16 MS. CARPENTER: Yes.
17 THE CLERK: Meyer?
18 MS. MEYER: Yes.
19 Motion carries. Okay. I think that now that
20 it's 8:30, we would -- do you want five minutes or ten?
21 Okay. We'll take five minutes.
22 (End of file.)
23
24
25
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STATE OF COLORADO)
TRANSCRIBER'S CERTIFICATE
COUNTY OF LARIMER)
I, Kirstin O'Malley, a Court Reporter and Notary
Public, State of Colorado, hereby certify that the foregoing
proceedings, taken in the matter of the Innovation Island
Overall Development Plan and Project Development Plan, and
taken on Thursday, November 17, 2005, at 300 West LaPorte
Street, Fort Collins, Colorado, was transcribed by me and
reduced under my supervision to the foregoing 101 pages;
that said transcript is an accurate and complete record of
the proceedings so taken.
I further certify that I am not related to,
employed by, nor of counsel to any of the parties or
attorneys herein nor otherwise interested in the outcome of
the case.
Attested to by me this 8th day of January, 2006.
Kirstin O'Malley
Meadors Court Reporting, LLC
171 North College Avenue
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524
(970)482-1506
My commission expires February 10, 2009.
Planning and Zoning Board Minutes
November 17, 2005
Page 2
Hearing Testimony Written Comments and Other Evidence:
This item has been appealed to City Council and a verbatim transcript is attached.
Project: Innovation Island, Project Development Plan, # 40-
05A
Project Description: Request for 27 dwelling units in five buildings on 3.16
acres. The project is located at the southeast corner
of West Harmony Road and South Taft Hill Road and
zoned LMN, Low Density Mixed Use Neighborhood.
Recommendation: Approval
Hearing Testimony Written Comments and Other Evidence:
This item was appealed to City Council and a verbatim transcript is attached.
Project: J & M Automotive, 425 and 429 North College
Avenue Text Amendment, #37-05
Project Description: Request to amend the text of the Land Use Code so
that three additional auto -related uses would become
permitted in the CCR, Community Commercial
Poudre River zone district. The three uses are
Vehicle Minor Repair, Vehicle Major Repair and
Vehicle Sales and Leasing.
Recommendation: Denial
Hearing Testimony Written Comments and Other Evidence:
Ted Shepard, Chief Planner gave the staff presentation, recommending denial.
Troy Jones, MTA Architects, 223 North College gave the applicant presentation. He
stated that what they have tonight is a request in the CCR District to amend the text of
the Land Use Code. Mr. Jones gave a background of the CCR zone district showing a
Planning and Zoning Board Minutes
November 17, 2005
Page 3
slide of where those zone districts were located. He stated that there were two
properties that comprise the site that is being requested for the Code change. The
whole zone district would have the Code change but the way it is worded it would
specifically apply only to these two properties. The purpose of the CCR zoning district
talks about the ultimate vision of a redevelopment type of scenario which his client and
himself whole-heartedly agree that these properties will be something more than they
are now. They are going to be a better and higher use. In the interim, the question is
when is the appropriate time for that to occur between an automotive type of use and a
mixed use type of scenario.
The change that they are requesting tonight is to allow this interim use to happen until
the market dictates that it is appropriate for redevelopment to happen. Mr. Jones
showed slides of the sites and explained that it is currently an automobile dealership
selling used cars at the 425 North College Avenue building. They have been operating
there for a number of years. A couple of years ago the auto emissions testing center
moved out of the building at 429 North College, which is to the north. The Zoning
Department had determined that the use was a vehicle minor repair and an automotive
school. What they would like to do, since the owners of the auto sales building at 425
have purchased the building at 429, is expand their operations in the interim until it is
right for redevelopment and be able to do an expansion of their existing operations.
Mr. Jones reported that there are four boundary areas of the CCR zone and currently
there is no other automotive repair and automotive sales type of use anywhere in the
CCR zone currently. If the Board would allow this Code change it would specifically
apply no closer than 300 feet to the Poudre River and it would have to be abutting
College Avenue. There is CSU owned property between this site and the river to the
east and city owned property north of the river, so it really would only apply to this site.
Mr. Jones stated that the purpose of the request is not to say that the ultimate and best
use within the CCR zone would be these automotive uses, but currently there is a life
span of the building that was recently purchased by his client that was built as a gas
station originally and it has a certain life span left to it. It works well as is for an
automobile minor repair, major repair and sales and his client is asking to be able to do
those operations there until the time that he wants to sell to a developer for
redevelopment. Mr. Jones stated there did not seem to be any neighborhood
opposition to this request.
Planner Shepard wanted to add that the concern about transitioning and life span of
buildings — the non -conforming use status does not address that. The non -conforming
use status simply says that you're "grandfathered" in. You're grandfathered in as long
as you want to stay there and keep doing what you are doing. There is no heavy hand
of government coming in shooing people away. He just wanted to clarify that.
Planning and Zoning Board Minutes
November 17, 2005
Page 4
Member Lingle stated to him this looks like a request to spot zone for a temporary
period of time for one individual property owner that would leave in its wake what could
be a permanent code change. He asked the applicant how he would ask the Board to
think of that as a community benefit.
Mr. Jones replied that he thought the limitation would be desirable from the Board
standpoint and ultimately Council, in that we would not open the door to every property
in the CCR zone. He suggested that only so that it did not leave the door wide open,
however they would be willing to accept anywhere in the CCR zone district. The only
reason he wrote it this way is so the Board would know what they would get by
approving this.
Member Schmidt asked it there was any other mechanism in the city to allow a use like
this on a special permit basis for a period of time?
Planner Shepard replied no, we do not. He asked the Board to keep in mind that the
three uses that are being asked to be added to the zone district are already occurring at
425 North College and those uses are grandfathered-in. The net affect of approving
this text amendment is that you would be expanding what is happening at 425 onto a
property which does not permit it.
Member Schmidt stated she has not seen the Market Report yet for North College, but
the Northern Colorado Business Association has always felt concern that there is
already an abundance of auto related uses in that area and they don't want to
encourage any additional ones. That would be something to consider because this is
on the pathway to the North College area and the expansion of auto related uses might
not be looked upon favorably by that group.
Member Carpenter moved to deny the request to amend the text of the Land Use
Code based on the findings of fact and conclusions in the staff report.
Member Schmidt seconded the motion.
Member Stockover commented that he would not be supporting the motion. He
struggled with this one and he thought that the single building that used to be the
emissions building sitting there alone is going to be an eyesore forever and he looks at
it, if the Board approves this, it would clean it up and they would have to do some
improvements and bring it up to Code and it would be a better property in the mean
time.
Member Schmidt felt the use was being expanded to the other building and it seems like
when other businesses on North College change business, they never seem to fix up
Planning and Zoning Board Minutes
November 17, 2005
Page 5
the buildings or are required to do sidewalks. The reason the J & M got a lot of the
improvements they did was because they were all city sponsored when that area was
improved. She asked if there would be some requirement by allowing these uses that
they would need to change the building and make some sidewalk improvements.
Planner Shepard replied that if the text amendment is approved and on 429 North
College only, the applicant would then have to apply for a project development plan to
do the major vehicle repair and the vehicle sales and leasing, they would already be
grandfathered-in for vehicle minor repairs. That would be considered a change of use
and that would be then eligible for bringing this site up to standards. Generally
speaking this does not mean doing much to the building. Member Schmidt is right and
her observations are correct and on North College when there are changes of use, you
don't' see a lot of changes to the buildings, but we do have the ability to ask for site
improvement such as screening, landscaping and sidewalks.
Member Stockover felt we were not gaining anything by denying this. There will still be
cars parked there and they will still be doing minor car repair. Who will police it if it is a
minor or major repair or who the car belongs to? He thinks that you could clean the site
up and it would look better in the interim.
Member Schmidt replied that the alternative would be that you would have another used
car lot on North College or a larger one than is already there.
The motion was approved 4-1 with Member Stockover voting in the negative.
Project: Fall 2005 Biannual Revisions, Clarifications and
Additions to the Land Use Code.
Project Description: Request for a Recommendation to City Council
regarding the biannual update to the Land Use Code.
Recommendation: Approval
Hearing Testimony, Written Comments and Other Evidence:
Planner Shepard gave the staff presentation recommending approval. He reported that
a couple of items have been temporarily removed from this ordinance to come back in
the near future. As he recalled from the worksession was that most of these items are
non -controversial.
Planning and Zoning Board Minutes
November 17, 2005
Page 6
Member Schmidt asked that Item 704 to amend Urban Estate Development Standards
which currently exempts projects from having to comply with the Connectivity Standards
of Sec. 3.6.3 be pulled for a separate vote.
Member Schmidt had a concern that approving the code change 704 to the Land Use
Code because it makes overall implications, it is not just for one situation. She thinks
that the Urban Estate Zones are so broad — she understands the Transportation
Departments concerns with where they meet connectivity, she just thinks that right now
we are in the midst of doing the Northwest Sub Area Plan and this is sort of a one size
fits all package for an area that is too broad. Unless we can have some more review of
what it really means in the Urban Estate Areas all through town and if there are any
conditions that we need placed, she does not feel it is ready to go forward. She agrees
with the standard, but does not feel it needs to apply to the whole Urban Estate District.
Kathleen Bracke, Transportation Planning offered clarification on the Northwest Sub
Area Plan or in the context of any Sub Area Plan; and that is where there is so much
public involvement that goes into deciding whether there should be trails in the area, or
should there be streets in the area, all sorts of things are looked at by the community in
a specific Sub Area Plan. Certainly while that is going on, there will be a lot of
opportunity to look at the types of things they would want in that area that would make
sense to connect to in the future and they may decide they don't want anything and it
would not even apply then. What staff is looking at would only apply to new
developments, non -existing areas and certainly there would be a lot of chance for public
involvement either through Sub Area Plans or as individual plans come forward.
Member Schmidt replied that the point is that a lot of times the new developments, in
order for them to go anywhere, they have to go through previous developments or on
County Roads that are not going to be improved for quite some time in order to connect
to anything. Those are the kinds of situations that she feels we are making it too cut
and dried and when it comes time to have the discussion, the answer usually is, "no the
Code says we have to do it this way", You limit the flexibility you have in that
discussion.
Member Lingle commented that with his limited experience on the Board with projects
related to the UE zone, the way it is now where there is no connectivity requirement
seems to be an implied isolation protection that he did not think was in the community's
best interest. He would like to see that opened up for staff discretion as to what is
reasonable. He liked the way the wording is being proposed where the qualifier to the
extent reasonably feasible is used to give staff the discretion of whether it is a road or a
bike or pedestrian path. To give us something on a community wide basis is better than
these isolated pockets of UE that go nowhere.
Planning and Zoning Board Minutes
November 17, 2005
Page 7
bike or pedestrian path. To give us something on a community wide basis is better than
these isolated pockets of UE that go nowhere.
Member Lingle moved to recommend to City Council approval of the Fall 2005
Biannual Revisions, Clarifications and Additions to the Land Use Code as
identified in the staff report for all items except number 704.
Member Schmidt seconded the motion.
The motion was approved 5-0.
Member Lingle moved to approve Item 704 in the staff report for the Fall 2005
Biannual Revisions, Clarifications and Additions to the Land Use Code.
Member Carpenter seconded the motion.
The motion was approved 4-1 with Member Schmidt voting in the negative.
Other Business
Director Gloss reported that he put a few touches to the Board's Draft Work Program for
2006 and he would email them to the Board Members and asked for comments back.
There was no other business.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
These minutes were approved 2/16/06 by the Planning and Zoning Board