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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPlanning And Zoning Board - Minutes - 06/16/2011HEARING OF THE PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
Held Tuesday, June 16-17, 2011
City Council Chambers
200 West Laporte Street
Fort Collins, Colorado
In the Matter of:
The Grove Overall Development Plan, MJA 110001
The Grove Project Development Plan, 16-10B
Meeting time: 6:10 p.m., June 16, 2011
to 2:45 a.m., June 17, 2011
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:
Butch Stockover, Chair
Jennifer Carpenter
Gino Campana
David Lingle
Brigitte Schmidt
Andy Smith
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CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: So now I'm sure a lot of
people were here, at the last meeting, but I just wanted to
go down real quickly with the steps of what the meeting will
be before we get started. And please keep in mind, we're
having two separate discussions. We have two items we're
discussing this evening, so we'll have two separate
presentations and we'll follow certain steps twice.
First is staff report. Staff will give us a
report, and we'll be able to ask questions of staff.
Next, the applicant will give their presentation.
We're able to ask, as the Board, questions of the applicant.
Staff has time set aside to where they can respond to the
applicant.
And then the fourth step is public testimony. So
we will have time for everybody to speak to the issue. The
applicant is then allowed time to respond to public
testimony. Staff is allowed time to respond to the public
testimony. And then we go into Board discussion. That's
when we deliberate, make our motion, and our final
discussion.
So doing the numbers, looking down at this
tonight, we do have, you know, quite a bit of time allocated
for each one of these steps; and also, we do have a couple
of neighborhood groups that we are going to allocate a block
of time to so that they can give us organized presentation.
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Then our request is that -- we realize this is an emotional
issue. We do listen. But time is going to become an issue
at some point in time, you know, probably around 11:30
tonight, and we'd like to be deliberating while people are
still here and able to talk to us.
So we will ask, if I could have a raise of hands,
who was here to represent a group this evening? I have the
one group over here I recognize that was for the
neighborhood -- would you guys maybe come down and tell me
what groups you're with so we can figure out how much time
we're going to have this evening?
MR. ECKMAN: Mr. Chair, I think there was a
question about whether it was the ODP or PDP you're asking
about right now.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I was thinking both. What
I'm told is that the groups want to speak to each. Is that
correct? I see a show of hands. Okay. Yes, sir, your
name?
MR. WALKER: I'm Lloyd Walker. Do you mean me
to --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Who are you representing this
evening?
MR. WALKER: I'm representing a group called
Neighborhoods and Students United.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Were you wanting to
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speak to both issues or just one?
MR. WALKER: Both issues.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: How much time are you
requesting?
MR. WALKER: We would like an equal amount of time
as the other groups receives.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. And your name
again was what?
MR. WALKER: Lloyd Walker.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Next?
SPEAKER: We're all with the same group.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. That answers that.
Anyone else who is an organized presentation for a group
this evening?
Okay. I saw a sign outside, Students for The
Grove. How many people are with Students for The Grove?
Okay. Do you represent any organization, student
body? Or just individuals here?
MR. EGGERT: I can -- I can explain us a little
bit, maybe. I'm Chase Eggert. I represent ASCSU, which is
the student government.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay.
MR. EGGERT: I believe these are students -- they
are separate from us. If that clarifies that.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Were you asking for any --
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MR. EGGERT: No, I'm with the Neighbors and
Students.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Perfect. Okay. Thank
you. There weren't other groups? Lloyd and the neighbors.
Okay. That helps me decide how long we can give each person
to speak this evening, and we'll make that decision after we
get through step 3. So we're ready for a presentation,
please.
MR. OLT: Thank you. I'm Steve Olt with the City
Current Department Planning, and I'd like to preface the
staff report to follow up on what Mr. Stockover said. We
are very aware that there are, you know, several groups that
want to make group presentations, and there are probably
some individuals. So we know we're looking at a significant
amount of public testimony tonight.
So I'm really going to make my staff report very
short and succinct, because, you know, through the City
staff review, we have prepared the staff report and
recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Board tonight,
based on our evaluation of the project against the Land Use
Code and making recommendations accordingly.
This is all in the staff report. It has been
provided to Planning and Zoning Board, the public, everyone
that has either requested it or has accessed it online. So
in essence, I wouldn't be saying anything other than what's
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in the staff report, so I'm going to make it very, very
short so that we have time for applicant and public input.
So with that, I'm moving on to the amended CSURF,
Centre for Advanced Technology, Overall Development Plan.
That's file number MJA 110 -- 0001. This is a request for
an amended -- pardon me. Let me get that up on the -- the
amended ODP up on the screen.
This is a request for an amended CSURF, Centre for
Advanced Technology, Overall Development Plan. The purpose
of the ODP is to -- the amended ODP is to realign the
proposed future Rollie Moore Drive street connection through
Parcel C, between Centre Avenue and South Shields Street and
to eliminate the proposed future Northerland Drive street
connection from Parcel C north to Gilgalad Way and then went
on to Spring Creek PUD. The properties contained on the ODP
are cumulatively 116.7 acres in size. They are located in
the MMN, medium density mixed use neighborhood, and E,
employment, zoning districts.
The amended CSURF, Centre for Advanced Technology,
ODP complies with applicable review criteria in the Land Use
Code with one exception I'll go to momentarily. The OPD
criteria set forth in the Land Use Code, the E, employment,
and MMN, medium density mixed use neighborhood zoning --
zone district standards and the general development
standards, with one exception, as I will get to, and the
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adopted street master plan.
I'd like to go to Section 2.3.2(h)(3) in the staff
report. That is on Page 4. That's consistent with the
Street Master Plan, and it does reference that in this
section of the Code, the ODP must conform to the City's
adopted Master Street Plan and the street pattern
connectivity standard, both within and adjacent to the
boundaries of the lands required by Section 3.6.1 and
Section 3.6.3(a) through (f) in the Land Use Code.
Section 3.6.3(f), utilization provision of
sub-material street connections to and from adjacent
development and developable parcels. The standard requires
that development plans incorporate, continue all
sub-material streets, stubbed to the boundary of the plan.
The proposed ODP eliminates the connection of Northerland
Drive to Rollie Moore Drive. That would be to the north of
the property. By virtue of doing that, that would take away
a street connection to a developable or redevelopable
property adjacent to this Parcel C; therefore, it wouldn't
satisfy Section 3.6.3(f). They have requested the
elimination of that. They are also not proposing any street
connections to the south of Parcel C, and I will get into
the reasons for why momentarily.
Actually, what I would like to do is go to the
findings, because that's where that -- it states the reasons
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for the alternative compliance. In essence, by virtue of
not satisfying 3.6.3(f) in the Land Use Code, the ODP would
not be in compliance with, unless an alternative compliance
plan were approved by the Planning and Zoning Board. The
criteria set forth in the Land Use Code is -- is within
the -- contained within the staff report. You will have to
make a decision on the alternative compliance request
accordingly.
Staff's findings of facts, conclusions in
evaluating the request for the amended CSURF, Centre for
Advanced Technology, ODP, staff makes the follow findings of
fact:
The amended ODP was submitted on March 30th, 2011,
in the -- and it is in conformance with the plan of Fort
Collins and the structure plan map adopted in February of
2011. The amended ODP satisfies the applicable requirements
of Article 2, administration of Land Use Code. The ODP
complied with the applicable standards as stated in Section
2.3.2(d), 1 through 8, in the Land Use Code.
Another finding. It's infeasible for the
structure of potential blocks 1 and 3, because we're looking
at potentially three blocks within Parcel C that, again,
we'll get further into with The Grove Project Development
Plan. And potential blocks 1 and 3 are to be defined by
features set forth in Section 4.6(e)(1)(a) of the Land Use
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Code. And it's infeasible for them to be able to do that
because of existing development adjacent to the site.
Another finding is the realignment of Rollie Moore
Drive is in compliance with the intent of the Master Street
Plan and enhances reservation of the existing wetlands.
The last finding is the Alternative Development
Plan proposed in this amended ODP does not extend
Northerland Drive to the -- to the south into Parcel C from
Gilgalad Way and does not propose crossing the Larimer
Number 2 -- Larimer Canal Number 2 with streets. However,
the alternative plan accomplishes the purposes of Section
3.6.3(f) equally well or better than a plan that would meet
the standard, and that any reduction in access and
circulation for vehicles, maintains facility for
bicycle/pedestrian transit to the maximum extent feasible
for the following reasons.
The Alternative Development Plan will provide
enhanced bicycle and pedestrian connectivity within the
amended ODP. The pedestrians/bicyclists will be able to
access parks, recreation opportunities, schools, commercial
uses, and employment uses within the mile section. The
streets that are being proposed in the Alternative
Development Plan will distribute traffic without exceeding
level of service standards.
And lastly, the Alternative Development Plan
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eliminates negative impacts to high-quality wetlands, and
that would be to the north, towards Gilgalad Way, avoids
constructing -- constricting an important drainage way,
eliminates impacts to the FEMA floodway, and avoids negative
impacts to the natural habitats and features associated with
the designated wildlife corridor along the Larimer Canal
Number 2 to the south. Hence, they do not want to provide
street connections in that direction.
Staff recommends that the Planning and Zoning
Board approved the amended CSURF, Centre for Advanced
Technology, Overall Development Plan Number MJA110001, based
on the preceding findings of facts and conclusions that I
have just stated. And that ends my presentation.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Do we have questions
of staff at this point? No?
Okay. Would the applicant please step forward?
MS. LILEY: Chairman Stockover -- that's not on,
is it?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I think it's on.
SPECTATOR: All the way down at the base? In the
back? Got it? No?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: There you go.
SPECTATOR: Got it? Better? Okay.
MS. LILEY: Chairman Stockover, members of the
Board, my name is Lucia Liley, 300 South Howes Street, Fort
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Collins. I represent the applicant.
To the greatest extent possible tonight, we'd like
to try to keep this a land use hearing focused on the
planning merits of the ODP and the PDP. Linda Ripley will
be presenting the bulk of the materials on both the ODP and
the PDP, but before she starts that presentation, there are
two brief things we'd like to do. Stuart McMillan is here
tonight, and he's representing Colorado State University
Research Foundation, the owner of the property within the
ODP, and he would like to make a few brief comments abut it
at the outset.
After that, I would like to spend just a couple of
minutes, talking to the Board about a few legal anomalies,
if you will, in how the ODP was submitted and will be
reviewed tonight, and it relates to all those things that
Steve was talking about just a minute ago in the findings
that you need to make.
And then Linda will handle the presentation on the
ODP itself. Thank you. Stuart?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MR. McMILLAN: Good evening. I'm Stu McMillan.
Most of you know me from Everitt McMillan Development, but
also, I'm with CSURF and run the real estate department
there.
In addressing the ODP, as you all know, CSURF is
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the owner of the land where the ODP is. But Campus Crest is
the developer, and they're going to need to develop -- or
address the very specific issues that are part of their
plan.
We are, CSURF, is obviously concerned about the
decision on the proposed ODP amendment, which is the more
general document.
A little background information. For
approximately 25 years, this site has been slated for some
type of multifamily use. A CSURF representative
participated in the development of the west central
neighborhoods plans adopted in 1999, and they did that along
with the City representatives and representatives from the
affected neighborhoods.
The primary amendment to the ODP proposed tonight
is the realignment of Rollie Moore Drive, to be consistent
with the City's Master Street Plan. Any future development
of this site will require this amendment.
The alternative compliance requested in the ODP
will also be required, regardless of the specific
development project, as it will never be desirable to cross
the wetlands with a road. It will always be important to
the site to provide enhanced bike and pedestrian
connections. It's also important to CSURF to have the
proposed amended ODP provide -- approved to preserve the
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long-standing vision of this property in CSURF.
I want to say a couple of other things too. And I
think it's a little later tonight, we're going to talk about
the realignment of Larimer County Ditch Number 2, and I
think most of you know where it is. It sits up at the top
of the hill, and there's a number of trees along it.
It's -- it's really put in a place where I think it's
susceptible to leaking and drainage.
In one of the discussions we've had with -- with
Campus Crest and with Larimer County Number 2 is to move
that. So we're going to grant an easement for -- for them
to move the ditch farther to the south, where it's a lot
more flat, and be able to rebuild it. They'll talk about
how they do that and how they prevent the leaking in that
area.
But what's going to have to happen is that at a
time when water is not flowing, that's when they're going to
have to rebuild that. It'll be rebuilt -- and I'm not sure.
I think Linda will talk about it later, exactly how many
feet to the south. But one of the things that's included in
that -- and it's really key to CSURF -- is the reclamation
of the older ditch.
What would happen is, if we abandon that ditch, a
lot of the older trees along there, it's possible that they
would die. We'd like to come back in, fill in some of that
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area with dirt, keep it as a natural area for -- and keep
those trees there as well. And that won't happen until the
other ditch is built and it's flowing.
The other thing that I want to bring up, and it's
really important to the University, and it's the
responsibility of the CSURF and the University, to provide
student housing that is close to campus. And there's a
number of reasons for this. Obviously, it's -- you know, I
put on my citizen hat and want to have more and more student
housing that is spread throughout Fort Collins and the
neighborhoods. But it's also that we found that when
student housing is close to the university, students usually
perform better, and we have a higher graduation rate.
So at this location, since I've been involved with
Everitt McMillan and we had some involvement in the Centre
for Advanced Technology, I've always seen this as a good
place for student housing, and we are very much for that --
for that project.
MS. LILEY: Thank you, Stu. You will note that
there's a lot of PDP-type material in the record for the
ODP, and I'd like to take a minute just to explain why that
has become necessary.
Otherwise, you would be looking at a very
straightforward ODP amendment, essentially. It would be the
realignment of the road. There would be few or no changes,
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but essentially, that's what it would be. You can see from
the staff agenda that there are a whole bunch of other
things that have been introduced and findings you need to
make; and again, I'd like to explain how that has come
about.
Last fall when you approved the earlier version of
the amended ODP, after that approval, project opponents
appealed that to City Council, and one of the allegations
was that the ODP did not demonstrate compliance with the
block size requirements.
Now, an ODP, as the Land Use Code tells us, is a
pretty general planning document. And you know that the
type of criteria that you have for that and the submittal
documents and level of detail is quite different between an
ODP and PDP. Nevertheless, the City Council ruled that this
Board failed to properly interpret and apply the Code, in
that the ODP did not show compliance with the block size
requirement.
Now, an ODP can't really show compliance with the
block size requirement because you have to have blocks, and
you don't have blocks with ODPs. You have blocks with PDPs.
To make a long story short, that has created a
dilemma for any developer in the MMN zone, because there are
a number of ODP-type criteria which you are required to
comply with; but in order to comply with them, you've got to
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show -- at least based upon the Council's recent decision,
you have to show PDP-type criteria to be able to demonstrate
the compliance.
It used to be addressed, and it was in the earlier
ODP, by a note that said, All future PDPs will comply, and
that gets you to the same place. But that isn't where we've
ended up.
So for tonight, Linda and also Steve in his staff
report have gone through, and they've identified those types
of ODP compliance requirements which relate to things like
block size, like housing product type, which, again, would
typically be PDP, not ODP, and they carry their own findings
with them, and those are going to be presented, and we're
going to ask you to make those findings.
It's going to take a little bit longer, because,
obviously, you've got to address every one of them and
there's going to be a lot duplication because when you get
to the PDP, you're going to have to make exactly the same
finding, have the discussion, and have the same document in
the record to support that.
So we apologize for that kind of cumbersome
process, but if this project is approved, or either way,
not, and it's appealed, we would like it decided on the
planning merits of the project and not on some sort of
interpretation that was never intended to apply to an ODP.
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So I just thought it would be important to have
that explanation as to why we have these additional findings
and additional discussion and additional material in the
record tonight. Thank you. Linda?
MS. RIPLEY: Good evening, Chairman Stockover and
members of the Board. It's good to be here tonight, again.
I'm Linda Ripley with Ripley Design, Inc., and I'm here
tonight representing Campus Crest. Also with us tonight as
part of the ODP team, we have Ted Rollins and Mike Hartnett
who were, I believe, co-chair, chairman of the board of
directors of Campus Crest Development. Nick Haas with
Northern Engineering, our civil engineer is here, and Matt
Delich, our traffic engineer, is also part of the team
representing the ODP tonight. And last but not least, my
employee Grant Cooper is here, who's going to run the
PowerPoint for us, and also, he'll be running the cursor, so
I won't have to stop and point out, and that should take a
little less time. So if something's confusing, just raise
your hand, and we'll try to clarify.
The site location of the ODP is the square mile
bounded by Prospect, College, and Drake and Shields,
arterial streets. The land is owned by CSURF. And this
land is basically a transitional area between commercial
development and institutional land uses, between those and
residential areas. It kind of sits on a diagonal right
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between, and that's very much the purpose it serves.
So land uses to the east and south include CSU,
the Vet Hospital, the Natural Resource Research Center, The
Gardens on Spring Creek, the Hilton Inn, and the Centre for
Advanced Technology mixed use area to the southwest. Then
as you go west and north of the property, that is
represented by residential, and that includes, right next to
the property, of CARE Housing, Windtrail Park Condos,
Sundering Townhomes, Hillpond Condos and then single-family
neighborhoods further to the north and to the west.
We've included a map of the West Central
Neighborhood Plan, because I think it speaks to how this
area really is a transition. You see the lighter colors
towards the west, or larger lots, and then you get into
orange areas where densities increase. And they keep
increasing right up to the edge of our ODP area.
And it's why, when zoning was put on this ODP, a
portion of it was zoned at that end, to continue this very
appropriate land use transition of large lots, smaller
single-family, attached single-family, to multifamily, which
the MMN portion has always been slated for.
So the ODP is consistent all the way through with
this. It has been since the 1980s when master planning for
this area started. Since 1988, we -- I actually researched
all these various master plans that have occurred over the
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long history, and even as far back as 1988, this particular
land that is now Parcel C was identified as multifamily.
So the Overall Development Plan, though, of
record, was approved in 2003. So the plan you see tonight
is the same as the one approved in 2003, except for
basically three changes.
The first is the realignment of Rollie Moore
Drive. The second, the elimination of the proposed
connection to Northerland Drive. And the third -- I kind of
lumped all the note changes as a third item that has
changed. Now, most of those notes were changed as a result
of staff asking us to change the note, to clarify them, to
make them -- to update them so they read and refer to
current regulations and standards that didn't exist in 2003.
LUCAS standards is a good example. Wasn't around in 2003.
So the notes are updated, and then there are a
couple that I'll talk about that were applicant changes as
well. But we're going to start with Rollie Moore Drive.
This slide shows the alignment of Rollie Moore
Drive on the original, the 2003 ODP, and you can see that it
just goes right through wetland. It would require filling
in the wetlands. It would require impacting the floodway.
It would destroy wildlife habitat. It would disrupt
ecologically sensitive national areas. And even beyond
that, it would constrict a drainage way that exists in this
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area that's already problematic. So for all of those
reasons, our design team and staff has agreed that it's not
a good location for Rollie Moore Drive.
We worked with staff to explore other alternatives
for how that street could go through, and looked at several,
including not having a street at all; having a circuitous
connection that could get vehicular traffic through but in a
more circuitous way. None of these ended up being the
winner. They all had issues and problems.
And in the end, the only alignment that we could
come up with that was consistent with the Master Street Plan
and acceptable to staff was the one that we're showing you
tonight. There's really only one place for -- one other
place for Rollie Moore Drive to connect on to Centre Avenue,
and then obviously, it already exists on the west side, and
we don't want to have it too tied up to the ditch either.
So this is the alignment that made the most sense, and
that's how it came to be.
The second item is the elimination of Northerland
Drive, and it's being proposed to eliminate -- Northerland
Drive connects to Gilgalad Way and would have connected to
Rollie Moore right there. However, for all the same
reasons, it would go through the floodway now. It wasn't
floodway in 2003, just for a little bit of background. So
that was one of the major changes that caused an update now.
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So it would go through the floodway, it would
impact wetlands, and it would further constrict the drainage
way. So again, we think it makes total sense to completely
eliminate that connection. At early neighborhood meetings,
neighborhood representatives agreed with that analysis and
didn't particularly want it to be connected anyway.
So that leads me to number 3, the note changes.
Most were requested by City staff, but there are two I want
to talk about just briefly. The first has to do with
secondary land use. Kind of a complicated thing in general,
and my attempt was to change this note to try to draft out a
note that said the same thing in a clearer way.
I have failed in that attempt. I will readily
admit it. I've had several people read it. Nobody thinks
one is clearer than the other. And on top of it, I actually
made a typo in my proposed change, where my proposal says 62
acres are in Parcels D and E. It's actual only 52. 52.3
acres.
The gist of it is, is that CSURF doesn't want to
be -- since Parcel D and Parcel E, which is 52 acres
combined, is all in the floodway, as the Board is aware,
there's not much that can be developed in the floodway. I'm
not talking about the fringe. I'm talking about that very
important area called the floodway that has to be reserved
for flood water.
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So the only kinds of things that occur in there
are recreational kinds of things. Like you could do a golf
course. You could do a baseball field. You could do a
parking lot. But you couldn't do a primary use.
So whatever happens in those areas, it's going to
be a secondary use. CSURF just wants to try to make it
clear that their secondary use will be calculated based on
the developable land, not land that's in the floodway. If
the Board would like us to leave the note the way it was,
we're happy to do that tonight. The original note was --
everything was the same in 2003, so the Board approved it
then. It still should be okay today. The Board can decide
if it should change or go back to the original.
The second note that I want to talk about has to
do with floor area ratio. CSURF, back in 2003, put a note
on -- at their -- just because they wanted to at the time,
put a maximum floor area ratio of .37. It is not a City
requirement. We do not have a requirement for a floor area
ratios in the context of an ODP, or a PDP for that matter,
and so it's not relevant. It could cause confusion in the
future. So they said, Let's just take it off if it's not a
City requirement. So we did.
Just for reference, though, since it is
calculated, the note says a maximum .37 on the parcel. If
we take Parcel C that we're developing and we apply The
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Grove project to it for the whole parcel, so it would
include the open space associated with our project, our FAR
is .25. So we do meet it, but we'd still like to remove the
note from the ODP.
But it doesn't have anything -- neither of these
notes have anything to do with the proposed project tonight,
and these didn't have anything to do with bringing the ODP
forward. It was just sort of considered housekeeping.
Enough on that. In October of last year, we were
here for the ODP. The P and Z approved the Overall
Development Plan back in October. Subsequently, the
neighborhood -- a portion of the neighborhood opposed to the
project appealed it to City Council, and as Lucia explained,
City Council did overturn P and Z approval based on the
block standard, saying that because we knew, because we were
processing a PDP simultaneously, we did know where -- where
local streets were on Parcel C, and we should have shown
them, and if we couldn't meet the block standard, we should
have applied for a modification.
So this time around, we are not making that same
mistake. After it was denied, we resubmitted an ODP. We
held another neighborhood meeting in January and began
processing the new one.
The current PDP does meet the block standard,
however, so we don't have to request a modification for the
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block standard. It not only -- it meets it in terms of
block structure, in terms of block size, in terms of minimum
building frontage, and with building height. All four of
these things are part of the block standard, and our
proposed project on Parcel C meets the criteria for all four
of those.
Going back to the big picture, looking at the
principles and policies of the new City Plan. When we first
started this project, we were under the old, and now we're
under the new, so we went through all the new principles and
policies that are contained in the new City Plan and found
the ODP to be very consistent with policies having to do
with environmental policies about protecting and enhancing
natural areas, wildlife corridors, wetlands and drainages;
livability policies, having to do with infill development;
neighborhood compatibility, providing a variety of housing
types, land use transitions, and accommodating the student
population; and transportation policies having to do with
encouraging alternative travel modes, such as bicycling and
transit. You have a much bigger document in your packet
that goes through all those various policies, but I just
wanted to remind you of those.
The ODP is also consistent with the West Central
Neighborhood Plan, approved in 1999, and achieves several of
the goals that are in that plan. For example, utilizing the
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area more effectively to meet and accommodate the growing
demands of Colorado State University. Ensuring that high
density infill development is sensitive to the existing
neighborhoods, preserves the appropriate open space, and
creates and maintains a desirable character of the
neighborhood; that it sustains or increases the inventory of
affordable rental housing near campus without destroying the
positive residential characteristics of the neighborhood.
That new development, or redevelopment, should be designed
in such a way that it minimizes impact on the areas, natural
areas, wetlands, wildlife habitats, as well as impacts on
historic structures and landscapes.
Sense of community goal. Seek some solutions to
problems associated with short-term tenancy, differing
lifestyles, and overcrowded living conditions in areas
within the west central neighborhood. I think this policy
obviously speaks to student rentals and neighborhoods, and
how much of an issue that can be if it becomes -- if it
comes to a tipping point.
I have student neighbors, and I love having them
in my neighborhood, but I've also seen neighborhoods in this
city where they've reached a tipping point. Landlords don't
care about housing, don't manage the students, and it's a
real problem. And the west central plan obviously wanted to
address that. That was one of the goals.
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Housing goals. A couple of those. Create
development opportunities for multifamily housing in
appropriate locations, including but not limited to vacant
or deteriorated properties close to Colorado State
University.
Another one, encourage and support Colorado State
University in development of student housing on Colorado
State University and Colorado State University Research
Foundation property. So the very neighborhood plan of this
area actually says, We want to encourage and support student
housing on CSURF property.
Lastly, the ODP does comply with all the standards
in the Land Use Code with one exception, that having to do
with transportation connections to adjoining properties. In
order to meet this requirement, Northerland Drive would have
to be extended across the floodway and into the wetlands.
And in addition to that, we would -- the requirement says
that you have to connect two surrounding parcels every 660
feet all around your development.
So we don't connect at all to the north. If we
brought Northerland down, we could comply to the north. On
the south, we would need to put two connections across the
canal in order to meet that requirement.
However, that portion of the Land Use Code allows
you to apply for alternative compliance. And the way you do
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that is you propose an Alternative Development Plan that is
basically equal to or better than.
So first of all, I want to talk about the
extension of Northerland Drive. That would go through
high-quality wetlands. It would disrupt an ecosystem. It
would further disrupt things if you actually brought cars
through. Could we go back to -- yeah, let's stay there for
just a minute. Right there. You can imagine filling them.
We constrict the wetlands. If we manage to be successful in
getting a street through, then you've got headlights, and
just all kinds of disruption that isn't consistent with what
that area is for.
In terms of the Larimer Canal, the same sorts of
thing. It's an official wildlife corridor on the City's
mapping. To put streets across would violate the City's own
regulations that says those are to be protected. Building
streets would disrupt the very flow of wildlife that we're
trying to encourage.
Also, given the elevation of the canal, it sits
up -- as you know, if you've been out there, it sits up high
on the land, so in order to meet city street standards, we'd
have to do quite a lot of filling and grading changes in
order to even accomplish the task. So another reason that
it doesn't make sense to even cross the streets.
And lastly, the ditch company probably would not
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at all support a crossing, especially if an Alternative
Development Plan made more sense.
So our alternative development plan that we're
going to show you tonight is really in three parts. The
first one deals with vehicles. The plans provides vehicular
street connectivity to Centre Avenue at two locations on the
east and connects to Shields Street to the west. This
connection is important to the City. And we've been waiting
a long time for it, and the project that we're proposing
tonight would finally get that accomplished, if approved.
When we extend Rollie Moore Drive to the west, it
allows a connection to Bridgefield Lane, so that people
can -- that may live further to the east can go down Rollie
Moore Drive, and they can get further north, and all those
people that live in that neighborhood just to the north get
access to the rest of the square mile without going out to
an arterial street. And that's one of the things that a
whole connectivity is all about, is trying to give people
alternative ways to get to places without always going to
the arterials.
The second is enhanced bicycle connectivity. And
this is a quite long list of things. There is quite a
bicycle network that we would be tapping into, both
providing with our project -- we're proposing Parcel C --
and then what already exists in that square mile.
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So beginning in Parcel C, we will have bicycle
lanes on Rollie Moore Drive, where we're creating it new,
and we'll also have bicycle lanes on that little connector,
local street -- right there, Brent -- along that connection
to the existing Rollie Moore Drive. And then our Luke
Street, is kind of what we call it, a local street right
there. That has -- bicycles can be on it, but there won't
be striped bike lanes on it. However, we have provided a
detached, 8-foot-wide trail along the outer edge of it, all
the way through there, so student or other members of the
community going through this neighborhood can be off of the
street with their bikes, and felt like that was kind of
going above and beyond what was required for bicycles.
We've emphasized bicycle traffic here a great deal
because we are so close to campus. Students can get right
out onto Centre Avenue and shoot straight north, and the
campus is right there at the top of the screen. They can
also connect with Spring Creek bike trail and go either to
the east or to the west.
If they to go to the east -- I mean -- yeah, if
they go to the east -- let's go to the east, Brent; okay,
there -- it takes you over to the Mason Street bike trail
corridor, which people can connect north and south. It also
will connect students to the bus rapid transit system, which
is in our future for Mason Street, an existing project, and
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students will be able to get there quite easily, and then
they can connect virtually anywhere in Fort Collins. So
we're really proud of that connection and think that it
works really well.
In addition to that, the PDP, which is on Parcel
C, will provide 294 bicycle spaces when only 20 are
required. Again, over and above. Rooms -- in addition to
that, rooms in that project are designed to accommodate
inside bike storage. The PDP will also include a bike pump
station and a fix-it station, as part of their clubhouse.
And lastly, in response to safety concerns that
we've heard, Campus Crest management has requested
assistance from the City of Fort Collins and the CSU Bike
Advisory Committee to help educate their residents in regard
to bike safety, the safe routes, and the rules of the road,
et cetera.
The third part of our Alternative Development Plan
has to do with transit. And it's pretty -- I think I've
pretty much spoke to it already. There is a bus stop right
at the corner of Rollie Moore Drive and Centre. So very
convenient for the students living in the project. And then
again, they can, on bike or by foot, follow Centre Avenue
and then get on the bike trail, get under a tunnel, get to
Mason Street and to the bus rapid transit system.
So in summary, the Alternative Development Plan
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will provide enhanced bicycle and pedestrian connectivity
within the ODP. The pedestrian and bicycles will be able to
access parks, recreation opportunities, schools, commercial
uses, employment uses, all in the section mile and beyond.
The streets that are being proposed in the Alternative
Development Plan will distribute traffic without exceeding
level of service standards.
And lastly, if you approve the Alternative
Development Plan, you're going to eliminate all those
negative impacts to the wetlands, the constricted drainage
way, the wildlife corridor. And those can stay as they were
intended to, as natural areas.
Last October, this Board supported the ODP and
approved it. The only changes since then have been the
addition of information having to do with the block
standard, having to do with this alternative compliance
issue, and the inclusion of buffers along Spring Creek and
along the canals that go through the ODP area. Those are
the substantive changes, so we're hoping that you will vote
in favor of the ODP again this evening.
Lucia, did you have something you wanted to add?
Okay.
With that, I'm going to conclude our presentation
of the OPD, and we're ready for questions.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Who wants to go first?
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David?
MR. LINGLE: First for staff. Linda went through
the note changes, the ODP note changes, and there were a
couple specific ones that she talked about concerning
secondary uses and then also the FAR. Are you, Steve, okay
with those proposed note changes?
MR. OLT: Yes. Yes, we are. And as Linda had
stated, we had expressed a little concern about the revised
note that's on the amended ODP before you tonight, and they
have indicated that the note, as previously stated on the
ODP of record, February 2003, it's satisfactory to them. If
the Board would prefer, we would have that changed prior to
recording of the ODP. If it were approved, we could have
that note changed back to the note of record, since 2003.
So, yes, we are good with that evaluation, and the
floor area ratio, again -- there's really nothing in the
Land Use Code dealing with that. It's an irrelevant note
for an Overall Development Plan. So the elimination of that
certainly is appropriate.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Thank you. And then one other
question for Linda. I understand from your presentation
that there are three significant changes to the ODP, the
first being the relocation of Rollie Moore Drive. Could you
tell us, from your previous ODP amendment, has Rollie Moore
Drive's location in this one changed at all, tweaked in any
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way, that we need to know about?
MS. RIPLEY: I don't believe so. I probably have
that slide in my pack. We could go back and look for it.
I'd like to say that it doesn't, and we'll confirm that if
we find it.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Well, it looks like it didn't,
but I just --
MS. RIPLEY: It's very, very close. Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I just wanted to ask. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Brigitte?
MS. SCHMIDT: Steve, on top of what Dave was
saying, if I understand this correctly, a new note would be
on the ODP that says the future uses in Parcel D and E will
not be counted against secondary use allowance. So that is
not on the ODP, but it will be if we approve it with this
note? Or am I getting that wrong?
MR. OLT: There -- that note that I think you're
referencing is on the current amended ODP that you're
reviewing. The language has changed from the ODP of record,
approved February 2003. They essentially say the same
thing. I think staff essentially would prefer the previous,
the old note. That would be acceptable to us. But either
would work. They're essentially addressing the same thing
in terms of the primary versus secondary uses that split and
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the fact that, you know, those parcels are completely
contained within the floodway. And it was evaluated back in
2003, that we can't hold that against the land uses.
MS. SCHMIDT: But I'm wondering. So when we --
when we go to calculate the 25 percent of employment that
can be in the future, a secondary use, we would not count
that acreage at all, even though it looks like it's E,
employment, on the ODP. Or are we saying we would count it
and say there's 70 acres when we know -- I'm just making up
these numbers -- but that 20 of them cannot be used for
employment, but we're saying there's 70 of employment.
That's kind of what I don't -- I mean, my personal
feeling is if we know already that that land cannot be used
for employment, why are we keeping it zoned employment on
the map?
MR. SHEPARD: We don't unzone floodway property.
Floodway properties are zoned.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. But if we know it's going to
be a secondary use of some kind, can it be rezoned to
something that qualifies for that --
MR. SHEPARD: No, we don't use zoning as a tool
like that. We'll use Article 3, General Development
Standards, to address that issuing. We won't use Article 4
standards. We won't use zoning to govern floodway --
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
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MR. SHEPARD: -- and floodplain.
MS. SCHMIDT: So I -- how would the calculation,
then, on the remaining employment that we have left on this
ODP -- how would the calculation of secondary uses be done?
On just -- on just those lower parcels?
MR. OLT: I think that's correct. Yeah, we'd have
to look at that. We'd have to evaluate on the developable
land, I think as the note says. And obviously, Parcels D
and E --
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
MR. OLT: I can't speak to F at this point in
time, but that could very well be in the floodway at this
point in time. But -- and realize that D is essentially
already developed. Parcel D is the CSU ropes course
facility.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Thank you. And the other
question I had --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Was the applicant wanting to
respond to that in any way, shape, or form?
MS. LILEY: I think, Brigitte, just to clarify.
In 2003, when that note was put on -- and the Land Use Code
for a secondary employment has not changed in that period of
time -- it made sense, and as the staff evaluated it, it was
the only way to do it, because if you included D and E,
which are, again, largely not developable, you wouldn't
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really end up with any residential uses at all, and that
wasn't the intent of this.
The intent of this provision was to keep a 25
percent/75 percent over developed areas, so you always kept
that ratio. But not to use undeveloped areas as basically
getting rid of all the secondary uses that would be
noncompliant --
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, I'm thinking -- I was thinking
the other way, that you could say, Well, it's all
employment, and therefore, my secondary could be a much
higher percentage of the acres, which you know already those
acres are not ever going to be used for employment. So I
was thinking we could end up with all secondary, you know,
uses and not much employment.
MS. LILEY: Absolutely not, and that's not --
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
MS. LILEY: -- our intent, and that's maybe why it
would be better to go back to the original note so that's
very clear. And then there's no change. It's as you
approved it in 2003. And we're fine with that. We're fine
with that, because we don't intend to change that.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MS. SCHMIDT: The other question I had is if --
what exactly is part of the Alternative Development Plan?
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On Page 8 of the staff report, there's heading that says,
The Alternative Development Plan, and then it has all those
bullets before it gets to the summary.
So all the items -- if we say -- and what I
understood was that we would need a vote to approve this
Alternative Development Plan. If we say we agree with that,
are we agreeing to all those particular items? Or is it
only those three road connections? Yeah, Linda, if you
can. . .
MS. RIPLEY: Okay. First of all, the way the
alternative compliance is explained in the Code is that you
need to bring forth an Alternative Development Plan, an
alternative way of solving the process or doing the project,
whatever.
We have three slides. Just because we couldn't
show all that information on one slide, you don't have three
plans. They're all combined together as one alternative
plan.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
MS. RIPLEY: All of those issues and things that I
spoke about are part of our Alternative Development Plan.
And I also wanted to clarify that the Board does
not vote on that as a separate issue. If you find the ODP
to be in compliance, that is automatically approved. It is
not a separate issue, like a modification would be.
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MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. I guess the only reason I'm
really asking is, because it says, The Alternative
Development Plan provides for striped bicycle lanes on
Rollie Moore, and I had some questions about how Rollie
Moore was going to work, but there's more -- I presumed they
were sort of PDP-type questions, but if that's part of the
Alternative Development Plan, then I didn't want to, you
know, possibly have one plan approved, and then later, we
have questions about the bike lanes versus the road width on
Rollie Moore. You know, so my preference is sort of not to,
yeah, include too much detail on this Alternative
Development Plan on -- we're about -- I don't know how this
is --
MR. OLT: And again, you know, that's where we're
kind of getting out of the norm with this ODP, in that the
level of information that they've really gone to in this
Alternative Development Plan far exceeds what we've really
ever really seen on an ODP. So that really is more Project
Development Plan information, that's correct.
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, I guess it doesn't -- it
doesn't give any specifics on road width, or bicycle lane
width, or something, so we could talk about that at the
other, or this talks about that in general. So we're not
approving any particular road design when we're approving
this particular bullet. I don't --
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MR. OLT: That wouldn't -- that wouldn't really be
possible.
MS. SCHMIDT: All right.
MR. OLT: At this level.
MS. SCHMIDT: All right.
MS. LILEY: Yes, and I just wanted to clarify
that, too, that this finding is more to satisfy the
alternative compliance, that this is an adequate plan that
meets the four tests that Linda talked about, and it
certainly doesn't preclude you from going into more detail
on that PDP, if that's appropriate. So, yeah, some of each
of that there.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Any further questions?
MS. SCHMIDT: I have some more later, but we'll
hear. . .
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Looks like we're
through with questions for now.
Would staff like to respond to anything the
applicant has presented to us?
MR. OLT: No, I have no response at this time.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Now we have public
testimony. And I'd like to hear from the two groups first.
If we can start with this group over here, please. Now,
what we've allowed them is 20 minutes this evening. Paul,
do we need to know everybody who's coming, or just the
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speaker's name and address for the record?
MR. ECKMAN: Just the speaker.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Thank you.
MR. ECKMAN: There may be more than one speaker
representing that group, though.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: And then just so everybody
knows, we're going to take a quick break after their
presentation. We're trying to take a quick break about
every hour and a half. And then we'll hear the other group.
MR. FIEMAN: We have some documents that we're
submitting for the record, and also setting up a Power --
our slides.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. If you would state
your name and address for the record. I presume you're
going to be the presenter?
MR. FIEMAN: I am. My name is Jonathan Fieman
(phonetic). I live at 959 Gilgalad.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: And which group to do you
represent? Is it the homeowners?
MR. FIEMAN: Yeah. It's a group of homeowners and
residents from the neighborhoods surrounding the develop --
proposed development area.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Thank you. And is
this a copy of the slides that we're going to have up there?
SPECTATOR: Yes.
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MR. FIEMAN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: So we can either follow along
here or up there?
MR. FIEMAN: And there's also, obviously -- in 20
minutes, I couldn't read the entire contents there, and so
there's more information in there that supports the points
that I'm going to make.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Thank you.
MR. FIEMAN: We will speak tonight about many
points where the proposed ODP and PDP do not comply with the
City of Fort Collins' Land Use Code, along with the
supporting design guide, the City Plan, and the west central
neighborhoods plan. But our focus will be on the Land Use
Code, which provides a framework for this hearing and for
the resident report we are submitting.
Our PDP presentation will cover the following
points:
A, the amended ODP and PDP combine to erode the
employment district through a process of borrowing secondary
use acreage. Note 2 of the ODP lays the groundwork for this
process.
B, the amended ODP deletes the .37 floor area
ratio that already exists inside the 2003 ODP of record.
The FAR is a reasonable and substantive limit controlling
the scale and intensity of development.
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C, the amended ODP removes a prohibition on
residential building on the hundred-year floodplain that
already exists in the 2003 ODP of record.
D, the amended ODP unnecessarily destroys
connectivity to the south, contrary to the Land Use Code
3.6.3(f).
E, the amended ODP proposes an alignment for
Rollie Moore that may not be as safe as alternatives that
modify rather than abandon the alignment shown in the
current 2003 ODP of record.
First, the employment zone being eroded. Over 9
acres of employment district land, comprising 70 percent of
the employment district, is being used for multifamily
housing and its buffers in the PDP. Only 3.8 acres of Tract
A, or 30 percent, is left for future employment uses. This
does not comply with Land Use Code 4.27(d)(2). Only 25
percent of an employment district may be developed for
secondary use.
In 2009, staff and the applicant recognized that
this could require modification or rezoning, but the City
Plan provided an interpretation of the Land Use Code and
Note 2 in the ODP as a way around this problem.
The ODP has 96 acres of employment district, so 25
percent, or 24 acres, could be developed for secondary uses.
The 62 acres of Parcels D and E are zoned for employment but
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are entirely in the floodplain and cannot be developed for
primary uses. Past discussions have suggested using them
for playing fields, which is a secondary use.
Note 2 of the ODP seeks to establish that such
future uses of D and E will not be counted as the secondary
use percentage applied over the entire ODP. This means 25
percent of the 62.3 acres in D and E, which is 15.6 acres,
can be borrowed indefinitely to increase the percentage of
employment district used for secondary nonemployment uses in
the individual PDPs. We believe this note should not be
allowed.
In response to the applicant's concerns, the City
Planner made the following three points in an internal email
to staff on October 30th, 2009: 1, there are no secondary
uses elsewhere in the ODP. 2, therefore, no modification is
required to allow 9 out of 12 acres of the employment
district in the PDP to be developed as secondary use. And
3, this process has been used before at the Centre for
Advanced Technology.
We respectfully disagree with Mr. Olt's
interpretation. First, both the CSU ropes course and the
CSU seasonal overflow parking lot are located in Parcels D
and E, respectively. These community and public facilities
are secondary uses of significant size that have not been
subtracted from the 24-acre limit on secondary use. Note 2
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in the ODP appears to allow these secondary uses to be
ignored.
Second, this process has indeed been used
previously. The same City Planner used it to justify 100
percent secondary use of 18 acres of the employment district
for the Horticulture Center. You will note that the ODP
before you excludes The Gardens at Spring Creek because it
is no longer CSURF property. And now the City Planner is
allowing the applicant to borrow the same secondary use
acreage from Parcels D and E that were averaged over the
entire ODP previously in the case of the Horticulture
Center.
The 18 acres of the Horticulture Center should
have been carried forward as a debit against the credit of
24 acres for secondary use in the Centre for Advanced
Technology. Not doing so is an abuse of Section
2.3.2(h)(7), which requires the mix of uses to be applied
over the entire ODP, not to -- not to individual PDPs.
If the city does snot keep tabs on how much
secondary use is used for each PDP, the secondary use
acreage of those floodway parcels could be borrowed again
and again to erode the area of the employment district,
developed for primary high-paying employment uses. We
estimate that 55 percent of the employment zoned in the ODP
could end up developed for secondary uses. This is contrary
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to the intent of Land Use Code 4-27(d)(2).
We recommend that the Board put a stop to the
repeated use of the language in Note 2 to justify borrowing
secondary use of the floodway parcels. Past uses should be
added up and carried forward. Better yet, the note should
be eliminated from the amended ODP altogether to stop this
process of eroding the employment zone in the Centre for
Advanced Technology.
The next point, the amended ODP eliminates the
maximum floor area ratio 0.37, previously through for the
Centre for Advanced Technology ODP of record 2003. This
floor area ratio was a substantive promise to the community
that future development would not be out of scale in context
with the surrounding residential neighborhoods.
Ms. Ripley has said that the note was included as
a matter of choice by CSURF. We find no documentation to
support this statement. Why would the owner voluntarily
limit its options? It is more likely that the FAR was
offered in consideration for approval of the ODP of record.
The Board should require a strong showing as to why removal
of the FAR is in the best interests of the city.
Land Use Code, Section 5.2, defines floor area
ratio as the gross floor area of all principal buildings on
a lot or block divided by the total area of the lot or
block. The PDP drawings include a table on Sheet 2 of 21
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where the floor area ratios are calculated by the block in
compliance with LUC Section 5.2. This floor area ratios
range from .53 to 0.90, far in excess of the maximum floor
area ratio permitted by the ODP of record.
The applicant asserts that the FAR is being
removed as a housekeeping issue in order to remove, quote,
possible confusion in the future. This is a misleading
understatement. The Grove at Fort Collins PDP cannot
proceed without removing the .37 limit on the floor area
ratio. The applicant tries to explain this away in the ODP
planning guidelines, submitted March 31st, 2011, and shown
tonight by creating an invalid FAR of .25 for the overall
ODP. The parcel dividing the total square footage of all
buildings by the entire parcel acreage, including floodplain
and wetlands. This calculation method does not comply with
Section 5.2.
The City recently implemented FAR limitations on
development in the central neighborhoods as a means of
controlling intensity of use. The City seems to prevent
construction of dwelling units that are too large for the
neighborhood context which otherwise meet current zoning
density requirements.
The .37 FAR limitation in the ODP of record is a
reasonable provision for controlling the intensity of
development next to an existing neighborhood of one- and
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two-story condos, townhomes, houses, and affordable housing.
It was included in the ODP not on a whim but for a reason.
The Planning and Zoning Board should sustain the FAR in the
ODP of record and deny its removal from the amended ODP.
The next point, secondary development in the
hundred-year floodplain is prohibited by the ODP of record
but allowed by the proposed ODP. The PDP includes fill for
two buildings and two streets in the flood fringe, which is
part of the hundred-year FEMA floodplain. Note 3 of the
2003 ODP of record says, quote, Land uses proposed within
the Spring Creek hundred-year floodplain shall not be
considered secondary uses.
City staff determined on November 6th, 2009, that
this note does not allow residential construction in the
floodplain. The amended ODP proposes to allow such
development by the simple expedient of deleting the note.
This is not clear whether City staff requested removal of
this note or why City staff would do so.
Prohibition of residential construction in the
Spring Creek floodplain on Parcel C reduces risk to lives
and property of neighboring landowners, potential tenants,
and first responders. The purpose of the Land Use Code is
to improve and protect the public health, safety, and
welfare, specifically in Section 1.2.2.E by avoiding the
inappropriate development of lands and reduction of flood
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damage. The Board should deny the amended ODP which
proposes to eliminate the existing prohibition on secondary
use in the hundred-year floodplain, thereby allowing
residential development in the flood fringe.
Next point, the alternative compliance request
asks permission to eliminate all connectivity to the south.
The applicant admits that residents who wish to travel to
nearby retail areas to the south, including Starbucks,
Vincent's, Columbine Cafe, Cinema Six, and other businesses
will have to travel by foot, bike, or car by one of two busy
streets, Shields Avenue or Centre Avenue. The Land Use
Code, Section 3.6.3(f) specifically provides that
connectivity shall be subarterial.
The applicant focuses on the disruption that would
be caused by the extensive grading necessary to provide
streets crossing the canal from the proposed Rollie Moore
Drive alignment. The alternative compliance request does
not discuss connectivity using alternative transportation,
another requirement of the Land Use Code 3.6.3.
There are many natural areas in Fort Collins where
bike paths and trails coexist with wildlife corridors and
irrigation canals. What is the true reason for these
extreme grades? The PDP associated with this ODP is simply
too big for the site. The only way to shoehorn Rollie Moore
Drive and 12 large buildings onto the site is to make a
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drastic cut into the hillside below the canal, supported by
a high retaining wall.
The applicant has frequently stated in
neighborhood meetings that the proposed route for Rollie
Moore Drive is the only possible realignment. The fact is,
Rollie Moore Drive has many feasible alignments that could
work with rather than against the existing terrain and make
crossing the canal more feasible.
According to Land Use Code 3.6.3(h)(2), the
decision-maker must find that the proposing alternative plan
accomplishes the purposes of the Code equally well or better
than would a plan or design which complies with the Code for
connectivity. The applicants has not demonstrated that the
proposed alignment is better or safer than other
possibilities. The Board should deny the alternative
compliance requested in the amended ODP because it
unnecessarily makes future connectivity to the development
and services south of the project impossible.
The last counterpoint. The alignment proposed for
Rollie Moore Drive is not the safest route. This was
determined previously in 2003, when City Planner Ted Shepard
testified that the alignment shown in what is currently the
ODP of record was chosen as the safest alternative. He said
that to design a collector roadway that is safe and
workable, the alignment cannot deviate too much between its
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two established points and still be pulled far enough north
away from the hill on Centre Avenue because of traffic
safety.
It is true that the 2003 route has problems. It
runs through jurisdiction wetlands and the FEMA floodplain.
But the solution to these problems is not necessarily to
abandon the original plan entirely. The City thought it
best to end Rollie Moore as far north as possible, and now,
instead, we are looking at an intersection as far south as
possible, right at the crest of the hill. What changed
between 2003 and 2011 to make the better -- this the better
or equal choice?
The Board should respect the original safety first
intent of the 2003 ODP of record and under Land Use Code
3.6.3(h)(2), find against the amended ODP which does not
provide a better or equal condition for Rollie Moore Drive.
To summarize: The reservation of secondary use
called out in Note 2 of the ODP should be denied and -- as
borrowing which is being used to develop more than 25
percent of the PDP employment zone for residential use
without modification or rezoning. Furthermore, the
determination from staff did not account for existing
secondary uses nor did it account for and carry forward
previous borrowings.
The Board should deny the practice of borrowing of
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secondary use from the floodway parcels to increase the
percentage of employment district that is not developed for
primary employment uses, contrary to Land Use Code
4.27(d)(2).
Note 5 of the 2003 ODP sets a .37 floor area ratio
that is a reasonable and substantive method of controlling
the scale and intensity of development. The proposed ODP
deletes the FAR in order to allow ratios of up to .90 in the
associated PDP. The neighborhoods have consistently opposed
such intense development.
The City Council has imposed a similar FAR to
protect other parts of the City from excess development.
The Board should honor and sustain the promises made in the
past and deny the amended ODP that deletes the FAR.
Note 3 on the 2003 ODP of record prohibits
secondary uses in the employment district within the
flood -- within the hundred-year floodplain. The amended
ODP deletes this restriction, allowing the PDP to fill a
portion of the floodplain for residential use. This
increases the risk to lives and property of neighbors,
tenants, and responders contrary to LUC 1.2.2(e). The Board
should support the purpose of the Code to protect lives and
deny the ODP of record that deletes note 3.
The amended ODP contains an alternative compliance
request to omit connectivity from the south. This is
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necessary only because the oversized PDP needs to cut Rollie
Moore deep into the hillside, which blocks connectivity in
compliance with Land Use Code 3.6.3(f).
Connectivity in this square mile is already
compromised by natural barriers. The ODP necessarily makes
the situation worse. Other less disruptive routes for
Rollie Moore are possible and could make sensitive
connectivity to the south feasible. The Board should reject
the amended ODP that blocks connectivity solely to
accomplish too large of a PDP.
Finally, the amended PDP proposes an alignment for
Rollie Moore that may not be as safe as alternatives that
modify rather than abandon the alignment shown on the 2003
ODP of record. That route was selected as the safest
alternative, and the proposed route is not equal or better
as required by the Land Use Code 3.6.3(h)(2). The Board
should reject the amended ODP and proposed alternative route
with less safety and connectivity in the future. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
At this point in time, because it's kind of a
natural break, we're going to give the recorder and anyone
in the audience and ourselves a quick break. I'd like to
reconvene in exactly 7:30 by that clock, which is about
eight minutes from now. Thank you
(Break from 7:24 p.m. to 7:35 p.m.)
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CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: We are ready to reconvene.
We're back.
If you would state your name and address for the
record and what homeowners association you represent, and
we're allowing you 20 minutes.
MR. WALKER: My name is Lloyd Walker. I live in
the Rollie Moore West neighborhood. I'm representing a
group called Neighbors and Students United. There will be
three of us sharing this 20 minutes.
Let me explain this group. I'm a member of this
group, Neighbors and Students United. We formed to provide
support for the development project know as The Grove. Our
group is a coalition of representatives of two
neighborhoods -- of two neighborhoods, of Avery Park and
Rolland Moore West, and a representative of ASCSU on behalf
of CSU students.
All the groups have been addressing the issues of
student housing for a long time. Some of us have served on
the committee formed in 1995 that prepared the West Central
Neighborhoods Plan, which was adopted by City Council in
1999 as an element of City Plan. The West Central
Neighborhood Plan tailors City Plan principles and policies
to neighborhoods west and south of CSU.
We engaged in the debate the beginning of 2003 in
addressing the occupancy ordinance as one method the City
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uses to address student housing, affordable housing, and
preservation of neighborhood character. We represent two
neighborhoods in close proximity to CSU which have firsthand
experience in matters around student housing. We bring the
perspective of students to this discussion through ASCSU,
which has long recognized the need for housing to keep up
with planned enrollment both now and in the future.
Some of the members of our group have participated
in the review of the recent City Plan that was adopted, and
one of our members serve on the housing committee of
University Connection. So we've had a long experience in
addressing these issues.
The vision articulated by the West Central
Neighborhoods Plan is to maintain and enhance the diverse
character of the west central neighborhoods, strengthen the
collaboration between the City, CSU, and the west central
neighborhoods, and continue to provide housing
opportunities, infrastructure and lifestyle options to meet
the needs of a diverse group of neighborhoods, improve
transportation modes, and adapt to meet the needs of dynamic
and ever-changing west central neighborhoods.
We recommend you approve The Grove ODP as meeting
the City goals and visions, as articulated in the West
Central Neighborhood Plan and City Plan which serve the
greater good of Fort Collins in the following ways. I
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should mention that, obviously, because we're talking about
ODP, but there's -- there will be some overlap, perhaps,
with PDP issue.
First of all, The Grove, as proposed, conforms to
the City vision as expressed in the zoning of this site and
the surrounding area. The Grove meets the conditions of the
west central neighborhood recommendations of creating
development opportunities sometimes for higher density
housing on properties close to CSU. And in fact,
specifically, in the West Central Neighborhood Plan, it
states, CSURF land should be used for student housing. It
will maintain a wide range of housing opportunities and
accommodate innovative solutions, as suggested by the plan.
The need for such housing, I think, is evident. I
mean, we've got low apartment vacancy rates, rising rents,
and this suggests that there's an inadequate supply of such
housing, and such housing is needed in the City.
The Grove is in a location that's going to make
the most efficient use of city infrastructure -- roads, bike
paths, utilities -- which is a requirement of the community
and neighborhood livability principles of City Plan. The
site is centrally located within the City's infill area, and
it meets logical criteria for orderly development where
infrastructure exists to serve it.
The proposed plan will complete this long-planned
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street connection to improve traffic flow in the area and is
articulated, again, in the West Central Neighborhood Plan
and the transportation principles of City Plan. Centre
Drive was completed as an action item in the West Central
Neighborhood Plan probably within the memory of most of us
in this room. And augmenting the usefulness of Centre Drive
will be the completion of Rollie Moore Drive to connect
Shields Street and Centre Drive.
The routing proposed by Campus Crest will conform
to the environmental health and community and neighborhood
livability principles of City Plan by locating the street on
the far south of the site, away from neighborhoods, away
from the wetlands, and away from Spring Creek Gardens.
The Grove will conform to the West Central
Neighborhood Plan in stating plan principles regarding
environmental health, community, and neighborhood livability
and transportation, the encouragement of the use of
alternative transportation. It's obviously located within
convenient biking distance of CSU and well connected to the
bike paths and bike lanes.
And students tend to be among the biggest users of
bicycles and bicycle infrastructure in the city. On
average, up to 15,000 bicyclists enter the campus on any
school day. And so the location of The Grove will add more
housing for a population likely to use bicycles and not add
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to the auto traffic and thereby reduce auto emissions.
Campus Crest is further enhancing and encouraging
bicycle use by providing a network of bike lanes on-site, to
facilitate internal circulation and providing connections to
the city bicycle infrastructure. It's providing bicycle
facilities far in excess of City requirements. City
standards for a project this size requires 25 bicycle
parking spaces. They're providing three -- close to 300.
So I think that's an over and above enhancement.
They also mentioned that -- earlier that the air
pump, the fix-it station, the locations for secure bicycles.
So I think they're doing a great job of meeting a City goal
which is, we want to be able to enhance and promote
alternative transportation used, particularly bicycles, and
particularly in this segment of the population.
The Grove is addressing environmental health
policies that the City has followed. It's preserving and
enhancing wetlands, including a buffer zone along the
wetlands in excess of City requirements. It's adding native
plants for a visual buffer and enhancing wildlife habitat.
It's dedicating 12 acres to open space for drainage
easement, and I think it's demonstrating some new concepts
in flood management.
So, you know, in summary, I'd say that Campus
Crest has met and exceeded City requirements, and has
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provided good alternatives in terms of why you should
approve the ODP as it's been presented.
I'm a former member of the Planning and Zoning
Board. I understand that you -- I've sat in your place.
I've made difficult decisions like this. But I think that
you should consider the applicant in this case with the ODP
where it's met or exceeded City requirements, provided
reasonable alternatives, and I would encourage you to vote
in favor of the ODP for The Grove. And I'll -- we'll have
our next speaker come up.
MR. McMASTER: Good evening. I'm Greg McMaster,
and I live at 1409 Skyline Drive. I currently am a member
of the Avery Park Neighborhood Association steering
committee, and I'm also chair of their quality advisory
board.
I have been a member, in the past, of West Central
Neighborhoods Planning Committee, was on the City Plan
Revision Committee that was -- about six years ago, I think
we met, and had been on the bicycle advisory committee.
And the reason -- I also want to say, stress, I'm
speaking only for myself. The reason I'm mentioning these
affiliations is that I've been involved in neighborhood
housing and environmental activities for over 20 years in
our community. And this project, obviously, has been an
interest to me, and it also has been brought and discussed
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at the Air Quality Advisory Board meetings. And this was
done in the context of when we were reviewing the proposed
green building Code that the City has been working on.
When the proposed project first came to my
attention at the Air Quality Advisory Board, I think it was
fair to say that the Board members were very concerned about
the environmental energy requirements of the proposed
heating technologies for such a large project, in terms of
aspects such as the climate action plan and so forth.
Although City staff did point out that the proposed -- the
proposed understanding of it, it was allowable under City
Code.
Since that time, I've been trying to keep track of
the project to the best of my abilities, and one thing I've
noticed is that, clearly, the feedback from the community
and the involvement of the CSU Institute for the Built
Environment has resulted, I think, in a lot of substantial
and very beneficial changes to the original proposal.
At this point, it looks to me like the project is
now looking very positive regarding providing needed student
housing in an environmentally positive manner. And I say
this especially when I compare it to the existing apartment
complexes that I know of that are surrounding CSU and the
rental housing that surrounds it.
Some of these positive environmental impacts, I
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wanted to point out, and I haven't really heard much
discussion about tonight, is that some of these include --
as I understand it, they're working towards LEED
certification and the sustainable practices that they've
dealing with, with the Institute for the Built Environment.
And as Lloyd pointed out, if you look at the location of it,
it's perfectly located for a convenient walking, bicycling,
and the transit routes that would lead to the main activity
center that they'd be involved with, CSU.
And there's also -- I've noticed that they've
added considerably more bicycle parking on it than Code
requires, and I think this also further encourages and
supports bicycling, and helps all these things help reduce
car travel and the impacts of that. And there's been talk
about some of the land adjustment that they've been doing.
And last, it kind of seems to me from a -- that if
you put students in a smaller building environment, that's a
little bit less of an environmental footprint than if you're
putting them in residential housing, the student residential
housing that's typically surrounding CSU, if they're
following the occupancy code.
In conclusion, I think the proposed environment,
or proposed project, rather, sets a much higher bar than
what we've been seeing and community expectations for future
apartment complexes. My dream would be that we could find
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incentives and encouragement to apply these higher standards
that they're now applying to the project towards -- and
community expectations to the renovation of our existing
complexes and the investment properties surrounding CSU. So
I think they set a nice bar, from what I've seen.
So thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MR. ECKERT: Good evening, everyone. Thank you
for your time. My name is Chase Eckert. I've served as the
governmental affairs director for ASCSU. I'm a senior,
communication and political science major over there.
Originally, I am from Fort Collins. I graduated from Poudre
High School in 2007.
So I'm not somebody who's here for four years and
out the door. I mean, I genuinely do care about the
direction that the city is going in, and I genuinely do care
about these kinds of things, because I'm going to raise a
family here one day, and I think it's important that we
decide a good direction for the city.
On another note, this group that we've kind of
formed in response to this whole issue is an interesting
composition in and of itself. I mean, these are people whom
I've been fighting with for years on student-related issues.
You know, we've been at each other's throats. We can't
agree on anything.
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But for some reason, we agree on this. And I
think the reason is because all of us realize that
collectively, it's in the best interests of Fort Collins
to -- excuse me -- to, A, begin addressing the student
housing issue once and for all; and B, this is good for all
the people in all of the different groups that we represent
and that we're a part of.
I would also say that this project has been
uniquely different than some of the other things that I've
had experience in. I mean, one, The Grove and Campus Crest
have shown a tremendous ability to work on a pretty deep and
comprehensive level both with me personally, with CSU, with
different aspects of the university, to make this a viable
concept and to make this something that works for Fort
Collins, and I think that's a good step.
We haven't done that in the past. A lot of times,
developers come in, they set up shop, they're out of town.
But when you talk to students, work with different elements
around the university, you get creative solutions that
probably aren't going to turn up anywhere else, and you get
a design that fits the unique characteristics of Fort
Collins. And that's something that we wouldn't get if we
hadn't had that kind of approach.
I am also drawn to the overall concept that this
project represents. So for those of you who are in any way
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familiar with student housing, you know, kids coming out of
high school -- and I certainly did this. They graduate from
the nice safe, controlled environment of the parents' house,
they go to the dorms, and then, boom, they're off in the
community.
Using myself as a personal example, that step from
the dorms to the community can be problematic, to say the
least. I was a terrible neighbor my first year out of the
dorms. I was rude, loud, inconsiderate, didn't take care of
the yard, all those things, because we were ignorant of what
it took to be a good neighbor.
And I think most people in this room would argue
that going into an apartment complex when you're coming out
of the dorms, particularly one like the concept that this
company is proposing, is a good step, because it's a kind of
a moderately controlled environment rather than just
throwing people off into the neighborhoods.
But here's the reality. It doesn't matter.
Because if we don't build more apartment complexes, we can't
put more people in apartments. It's that simple. But we
can put them in more houses, and we're doing that. In
record numbers. We're artificially constricting the
rental -- the apartment housing complex, and we're forcing
people to live in three-bedroom houses, and they're going
further and further away from campus.
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My junior year of college, I lived on Harmony and
Lemay to find an apartment complex. Now, how green is that?
That's the reality of the market we're living in right now,
and I think, tonight, we have a chance to maybe begin the
process of changing that.
I'm not going to stand up here and tell you the
numbers about student housing or about the rental rates in
Fort Collins. You all know those. You all know that we're
in a precarious situation. This is a precedent-setting
moment for us where we decide where we're going with the
student housing issue. We've been talking about it for a
long time.
And make no mistake, other companies are looking
at this and deciding whether or not they want to set up shop
in Fort Collins. If we pass, we continue the problems. If
we pass, we kick the can down the road, and this community
has historically been better than that. And we all know it.
People come here because we're willing to tackle the most
difficult and divisive issues that are presented to us.
That's why I stayed here.
The Grove is certainly not going to solve all of
our problems, and I think we're all aware of that. But it
lays the framework for how we want the student housing
debate to go from here on out, and I think that's a good
step.
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So I'm asking you tonight, as a student, as a
long-term resident, to not continue to kick the can down the
road. Set a precedent and do what people in Fort Collins do
best. Let's solve the problem. Because after all, that's
why everybody wants to live here in the first place.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much. Okay.
At this point, we're going to open the podium for public
testimony. Could I -- and please keep in mind we have two
separate issues here this evening, and there is a lot of
spill-over, and I understand that it's hard to stick with
just the Overall Development Plan at this point, but could I
have a show of hands for how many people want to talk about
the Overall Development Plan?
All right. I believe -- I wish I could give
everybody all night to talk, because I'd love to hear what
you have to say. I'm going to limit the time to three
minutes, please; and if you do have repetition, we do hear
that, and I would like to hear, Yeah, I agree with that
point, but in the essence of time, so we can hear both items
tonight, I do need to limit it to three. Thank you.
And as you come down, please line up so we don't
have a lot of space between speakers, and state your name
and address for the record, please, and sign in.
MS. ALBERT: Hello. My name is Barbara Albert. I
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live at 603 Gilgalad Way.
Note Number 4 the amended ODP lists student
housing as a type of land use. Number 4 begins, The CSURF
Centre for Advanced Technology, the Overall Development
Plan, is planned to be mixed use development. That may
include stick-built housing, office business parks, and it
goes on.
In fact, student housing is not a Land Use Code
designation. Such a designation contradicts the Fair
Housing Act. It implies that students are a Federally
protected class of citizens, which they are not.
Student housing as a designated land use is wrong
and should not appear on this or any ODP. Since it is not
consistent with our Code. You should vote against the ODP.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
Could you just clue us in to what you handed us?
MS. LUNIN: I'm sorry?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Would you tell us what you've
handed us there?
MS. LUNIN: Yes. This is a copy of statements
that I -- a statement I'm going to read for my husband. He
is living and working out of state right now.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay.
MS. LUNIN: My husband, James Lunin (phonetic), is
a professional engineer, licensed in the state of Colorado,
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and his specialty is land development. He has worked in
this area for about 15 years, and he has been a civil
engineer for 30 years.
As you're aware, the City of Fort Collins Master
Street Plan has Rollie Moore Drive classified as a two-lane
collector. According to figure 75(f) of LUCAS, a minor
collector is used when a collector street is shown on the
master plan or when the traffic volume on the street is
anticipated to be in the range of 2500 to 3500 vehicles per
day.
According to the June 2002 transportation impact
study for CSURF, Parcel C would generate 5,735 daily trips,
thereby causing Rollie Moore Drive to be classified as a
collector. Mr. Delich stated in his March 28th, 2011
memorandum that the student housing development would
generate 2300 vehicles per day.
However, the ODP does not rezone or limit the
development of Parcel C. The ODP must be able to stand on
its own merit for the maximum allowable development. Once
the ODP is approved, Parcel C could be developed in a more
intensive use than the proposed student housing development.
The most intensive use of Parcel C would generate
more than 2500 vehicle trips per day threshold. Given that
Master Street Plan designates Rollie Moore Drive as a
collector and the most intensive use as a parcel would
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generate more than 2500 vehicles per day, Rollie Moore Drive
should meet the standards for a collector street.
The ODP labels Rollie Moore Drive as a minor
collector. However, the proposed alignment of Rollie Moore
Drive does not meet LUCAS standards for a minor collector in
Fort Collins. LUCAS table 7.3 states, the minimum center
line radius for a collector street is 600 feet. All of the
center line curves of the proposed Rollie Moore Drive fail
to meet this standard.
The ODP does not show the center line radius;
however, the plat for The Grove has Rollie Moore Drive, from
my observation, conforming to the layout of the ODP. The
plat has the center line radius of Rollie Moore Drive shown.
A 275-foot radius was used for three of the four curves of
Rollie Moore. The fourth curve has a radius of 450 feet,
all of which does not meet the minimum requirement.
According to LUCAS figure 7.5(f), the designed
speed for a minor collector is 40 miles per hour. Since
motorists drive faster than the posted speed limit, the
designed speed is typically five or ten miles high -- per --
per -- per hour higher than the posted speed limit.
According to Exhibit 316 of the American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials,
AASHTO, the 2004 edition, a policy on geometric design of
highways and streets for a standard crowned street of minus
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2.0 cross-slope, the minimum radius for 40 miles per hour is
762 feet.
If the street is super-elevated, or banked, as to
allow a reduction in the radius, depending on the steepness
of the cross-slope, for a 40-mile-per-hour speed, the
minimum radius that AASHTO recommends is 381 feet, which is
still larger than three of the radii for Rollie Moore Drive.
Furthermore, AASHTO's 381-foot radius requires a
12 percent super-elevated cross-slope. Due to winter
conditions in Northern Colorado, a super-elevated street
could result in a vehicle -- in one -- in a vehicle in one
lane sliding across the street into the path of another.
The vehicle, therefore, with the exception of state
highways' super-elevated streets, are typically not used in
this area -- may I finish real quick, as fast as I can --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yes.
MS. LUNIN: For your information, AASHTO is the
standard-setting body which publishes specifications and
guidelines that are used in highway street design through
the United States.
In addition, according to LUCAS Section
7.4.1(a).4, to reduce the appearance of kinks in the street,
the minimum lengths of curves shall be designed with the
minimum arc lengths as shown in Table 75. According to
Table 75, the minimum arc length for a collector street is
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300 feet. All four curves of Rollie Moore Drive have arc
lengths less than the minimum.
According to LUCAS Section 8.2.4(a), the
horizontal alignment of streets through an intersection
shall be designed in conformance with Tables 73 and 74.
Inspections may be placed on horizontal curves, provided
that the tangent links given in Tables 73 and 74 are
provided on the minor street, and the required site distance
is met.
According to Table 73, the minimum tangent for a
minor collector at the nearest intersection is a hundred
feet. The proposed alignment of Rollie Moore has zero
tangent length at the intersection of Rollie Moore Drive and
Centre Avenue.
LUCAS Section 7.4.1(a).2(a) states, whenever a
minor street intersect the street of higher classification,
the tangent measure from the nearest gutter flow line of the
intersected street to the point of curvature in the
intersecting street shall be provided for safe distances and
safe traffic operation.
The proposed alignment does not conform to this
section of LUCAS. LUCAS Section 7.4.1(a).5 states, the
corner site distance provides for vehicles to enter traffic
and accelerate to the average running speed. Corner site
distance shall be measured as shown in Figure 716.
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According to LUCAS Figure 716, the corner
intersection site distance for a design speed of 40 miles
per hour for a collector street is 650 feet. As shown on
the attached exhibit, the proposed Rollie Moore Drive and
Centre Avenue intersection will require a significant site
distance easement from Parcel B of the ODP. The site
distance triangle would encroach as much as 40 feet into
Parcel B.
There should be a restriction placed on Parcel B,
requiring a site distance easement. In my opinion, the
above-mentioned issues could create a safety problem at that
intersection. The intersection of two collector streets
should meet the LUCAS standards unless it is prevented by
physical restrictions.
I have observed the location on the proposed
intersection, and there are no physical restrictions that
would warrant a less-than-minimum tangent length. The
approval of the ODP as submitted could result in a
substandard intersection, and substandard street would
affect public safety.
Thank you for your considerations. And you have
an example of a tangent intersection compared to what this
developer wants to do.
And finally, I had some comments I wanted to make,
but I'll just give them to you, if you would read them and
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take them into consideration for me.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: You're a fast reader.
Okay. Name and address for the record, and please
sign in.
MR. ANDERSON: Yes. Oh. My name is Paul
Anderson. I live at 2107 Constitution.
I thought I would have -- would give a bit of
perspective to this discussion that we have at hand today.
A couple of years ago, I was on the housing committee of the
university connections project. The joint CSU citizens of
Fort Collins, sort of a think tank, to discuss ideas for
sustainable, positive, affordable future between the City
and CSU.
And our specific task, being the housing
committee, was to address the housing in the city and the
CSU's growing populations of student. The members of the
group were rather diverse. There were CSU administrators.
There were students, developers, members from Housing
Authority, and low income housing people, and also members
from the community such as myself.
The group met almost weekly for quite a long time,
four or five months, maybe six months. I can't quite
remember. And actually came up with a variety of premises
and actually some goals, and I thought I might just give you
a couple of those that we came up with.
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One of the key premises was that the family
neighborhoods that surround CSU are critical to the economic
health of downtown Fort Collins. And that the City cannot
afford to lose its economic base for support of the arts and
cultures. Let me repeat that. That one of its premises was
that family neighborhoods that surround CSU -- so this is a
one- or two-mile radius -- are critical to the economic
health of downtown Fort Collins, and the City cannot afford
to lose its economic base for support for the arts and
culture.
The committee recommended a variety of
recommendations, and the ones that relate to CSU are rather
interesting. One was that CSU would become a world leader
for creating sustainable living housing solutions for
students. Transportation would be a critical element of any
solution and which -- reducing the use of gasoline is an
important part of a renewable energy solution.
Number two, CSU would commit to creating 10,000
living units over the next 10 years in partnership with
private entities. And that existing lands of CSU and the
Mason Street corridor would be primary locations for these
housing units.
And the last would be that CSU would provide
engineering help with designs to help mitigate the cost of
these smaller projects. I'm sort of amazed that these were
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just --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: 30 seconds.
MR. ANDERSON: A minute, it says here. Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Oh.
MR. ANDERSON: I was amazed at how close these
recommendations were followed, even though no one really
transferred the information back and forth to each other.
We should applaud CSU and The Grove project for their joint
effort. We have here a model not only for CSU and future
developments but for college campuses everywhere. The Grove
projects makes sense economically, environmentally, and for
the greater good of the entire city. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
MS. PONCELOW: Good evening. My name is Stacy
Poncelow (phonetic). I live at 620 Gilgalad Way.
As part of the many meetings we have attended on
this proposed ODP, the same picture has been shown outlining
the size of the buildings, and we saw it earlier tonight,
placed on The Grove property, small brown buildings.
I believe this picture is grossly out of
proportion and misleading to the public. As stated earlier
in our neighborhood's presentation, the FAR limitations on
development in central neighborhoods is a means to
controlling the intensity of use. In the West Central
Neighborhood Plan, it also states that the City, quote,
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should ensure that high-density infill development is
sensitive to existing neighborhoods, preserve appropriate
open space, and creates or maintains a desirable character
for neighborhoods.
With the help of my nephew, an architect, I've
created two visuals to show you just how insensitive this
ODP will be to our neighborhood. This small box represents
my neighbor Paul's house, a ranch-style house of 1900 square
feet. There are three ranch-style homes from 1700 to 1900
square feet that will be directly impacted by one of the
largest of the Campus Crest three-story buildings.
At 24,408 square feet, you would be able to fit 12
of Paul's houses in one of these buildings. And you might
note that Paul's house will be only 300 feet from this
building. So you can imagine what that would look like to
their home.
There is no amount of trees that'll going to make
this desirable living for our neighborhood. Our
neighborhood has been asked what we would like different in
this ODP. The answer has always been, reduced intensity.
Multifamily is fine. Just reduced intensity.
To the Rollie Moore neighbors, do you think that
students really will want to live in this? When they could
live in this, in your neighborhood? Where they can have a
driveway, a parking place, a yard? This is not going to
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change your neighborhood. This will only make it worse for
all of us.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MR. FISCHER: Good evening. My name is Gere
Fischer (phonetic). I live at 608 Gilgalad. I come to you
with no prepared statement. Just some thoughts. I could
go.
I'm a little bit conflicted, standing in front of
you tonight. I get what they're all about. I see the
point. And the point is about money. It's always about
money. The City wants tax revenue. They want 619 beds to
charge rent. It's always about money. I get that. And I
make that point specifically to bring up the fact that when
we hear things like, This is the best alignment, what's the
best alignment when you want to cram 11 buildings into the
property that's allowed?
I say that simply because I just have to control
myself, sometimes, because in many cases, I'm -- I'm with
Mike and Ted. I run my own company. I make decisions every
day, financially. I'm not here to say, they should make it
400 units or 200. I have no idea.
What I do know is that when I hear things like
Ms. Ripley saying, We've got through all these, you know,
different alignments, and this is the absolute best one we
can come up with, and it's plenty safe, and the ODP is fine,
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I always wait for the part of, Well, that's if you want to
build this particular project at this density on this land,
because that caveat is kind of critical to the whole
process.
I mean, duh statement, but I have to just bring it
up again, that it's not necessarily always remembered. We
have Land Use Codes that these guys -- that everybody is
fighting for. That's supposed to set the stage for what is
and isn't allowable.
And sometimes in my own business -- I run a
30-person software company. I sometimes take limiters. I
think, well, would 27 acres be good with one building?
Yeah, I think that would fit. How about five? Yeah, maybe.
Ten seems like it's pushing it. 20. You know, whatever
decision you make -- sometimes I take it from the very least
all the way to the highest.
And you know, decision-making through quantitative
analysis, the rental market is hot. These guys want nothing
more than to go back to their investors and show that they
can deliver on projects they've made statements on. They
have a group of people called "the street" that they're
beholden to, and I get that.
But I do have to point out that we are beholden to
more people besides "the street" and the tax dollar. We're
beholden to the neighbors and to this community. And we
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need student housing. I'm not here saying we don't. But I
think the intensity of use is truly in question, and I would
just ask you to consider every time you hear it's the best,
maybe it isn't. Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MR. BACON: Hi. I'm Bob Bacon, and I live at 720
Gilgalad. And I have friends on both sides of this
discussion. And it really is somewhat heartwarming to see
citizen participation with people having strong opinions and
points of view on both sides of this issue. At one time, I
lived in the neighborhood that is an advocate for this Grove
at Campus Crest, The Grove. Now I live in another area.
And I think that Gere said it really succinctly.
It's too many people. None of us really recognize that we
were going to be scot-free and not have a student housing
close by. This has been the plan for a long time. And we
thought that perhaps the married student housing adjacent to
Prospect and Centre might be something similar to what we
might have in the area.
But when Stacy came with her big box and the small
box, what we have here is putting -- is, together, too many
units, too many students, in too small an area. None of us
really object to student housing and all of the issues that
people in the Village West area are saying. And if I were
living there, I would say the same thing.
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And I think that the proposal really is -- and the
objections which many of us have -- is that we don't object
to student housing. We object to cramming so many students
into this one area and really potentially destroying a
quality of life and causing a myriad of other problems.
So I suppose I want to emphasize that none -- much
of what has been said is true on both sides. But it is the
scope of the project that is being proposed that I think
many of us object to.
So for what it's worth, listen to us, and try to
have Campus Crest come back and say, Yes, we'll do it, but
we're going to do it in a much lesser scope in order to be
compatible with the neighborhood.
And so with that, thank you so much for listening
to me.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. Next, please?
MR. STITTER: My name is Richard Stitter
(phonetic). I live at 727 Gilgalad Way.
We realize that the university is looking for
student housing. And on -- about 1010 West Prospect,
there's a project now up for sale that has been approved for
two buildings. One will have 59 units. The other would
have 60 units. Assuming there's a minimum of two per unit,
you've got close to 250 student housing there.
We all know that Woody's Pizza went out of
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business, so that property could be used to develop for
additional student housing.
Also, it's interesting to note that the University
had a plot of ground on Centre between Prospect and Lake,
but -- and it would have been ideal for student housing.
However, they deemed it was a higher priority to put a
parking garage there. So I think their complaining about
needing additional housing falls on deaf ears when they
don't use the properties that they have for that purpose.
The major concern is the density, as Bob Bacon
mentioned. We did not expect the campus to move into our
back yards. The project has a barrier in the wetlands, but
they breached that barrier by running -- running Rollie
Moore Drive through. It seems to me that you ought to
segregate the campus from the residential neighborhood.
The traffic flow in day time will be off Centre.
At night, it will shift over to Shields, up toward East --
or West Elizabeth and Moby Gym. So the density is the real
sticking point. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MS. NASH: Hi. My name is Patti Nash, and I live
on Manchester Drive in the Village Greens development, and
I'm definitely for getting more student housing. I'm in an
unusual attendee tonight, because I've been a full-time
student at CSU for the past two and a half years. I've been
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taking a full load in addition to working part-time.
And living in a neighborhood that when I first
moved, there was -- rife with overcrowded student housing.
We moved into our house in the summer of 2007, and that
first summer was hell, because we had several houses all
around our house, and we don't enjoy the wonderful view at
Gilgalad Way. We live on a quarter of an acre that's
surrounded by houses, and at some point on our property, you
can see eight rental houses. And within a five-mile square
radius of our house are 25 rental homes. And in the summer
of 2007, most of those houses were overcrowded before three
unrelated started really taking effect and being enforced.
So we moved to a wonderful neighborhood street in
Fort Collins, and myself, my husband, and my two teenage
children felt like we were embattled. We felt like we were
in a war zone, because there was too much density for
that -- that type of neighborhood. And it wasn't zoned for
that much density.
So I really got involved in three unrelated. And
I'm one of the people that Chase mentions yelling at,
because last year, I was in a public deliberation class, and
I really wanted to know why there was so much lack of
support for three unrelated. I went to see Wade Troxell,
and I yelled at him, and I went to Chase, and I yelled at
him, and I wrote a big paper.
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And what I found myself doing, surprisingly, was
coming more to the center about three unrelated, because
where I had been a resident on my street who just wanted to
sleep through the night -- and it wasn't parties. It was
the perfunctory lifestyle of students who live in dense
situations that aren't meant for dense situations, who park
too many cars on the street, on streets that are meant for
single families.
So the woman that showed the little box and says
the students want to live there. They can't live in our
neighborhood anymore, because they can't afford to live in
houses where only three people can live. Most of the houses
have like a $2,000 mortgage a month. Students can only
afford to pay between 300 and $500 a month.
So when this gentleman talks about density, what
he's talking about is a development where students couldn't
afford to live, because students, like at Rams Village, pay
at the very outside $500 a month. Well, you can't build a
development and say it's for students and then make it above
the ranges of what students can afford to pay.
And I also heard people laughing about the parking
garage. Well, let me tell you something. I was late to a
lot of classes in the past two and a half years because I
could not find parking with my parking sticker. CSU will
sell you a parking sticker, but then it's up to you to find
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parking that's legal for your sticker, and there wasn't
enough parking before that parking garage. So it was a very
needed item.
Now, I got on board, and I fought to make three
unrelated happen in this city, but you can't turn your eye
away from what the students were doing. I used to applaud
when five and six students would move out of the
neighborhood house on my street, but then I had to ask
myself, where did they go? It's mid-semester. They didn't
have a choice for living. They had to break the law and
hope they wouldn't be found out, but when they were found
out --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay.
MS. NASH: -- where did they go?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: We really do need to try and
adhere to the time limit. But we do hear you. Thank you.
MS. NASH: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Next, please?
MS. POTTER: Hi. My name is Jane Potter. I live
at 627 Gilgalad Way, and I've lived in Fort Collins for
about 30 years. My husband and I built our home about 13
years ago. We've always known and expected something to be
built in the CSURF land adjacent to our home. This is not a
surprise to us.
Tonight, I want to talk a little bit about the
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erosion of the employment potential in the CSURF Centre for
Advanced Technology. The Centre for Advanced Technology
includes much-needed prime employment real estate in the
center of Fort Collins. One of the major issues during the
last mayoral campaign in an election was the need to improve
employment opportunities in the city.
While desirable temporary construction jobs will
be created by the project under review this evening, the
permanent, long-term employment force is only a few people.
Any other project built on this site would most likely
create an equal number of construction jobs and potentially
create many more permanent positions.
Many parcels in this ODP were zoned for employment
as primary development when zoning maps were redrawn in
2001. Since then, Centre Avenue employment zone has been
eroded in the following ways:
The Gardens on Spring Creek is an 18-acre site
developed with all secondary uses.
The residences on Spring Creek is 2.4 acres of
secondary uses taken from an employment zoned parcel.
The re -- excuse me. The remaining employment
zone area will significantly erode further due to the
amended ODP and other development in progress, such as the
Larimer Canal Number 2 relocation, which will take two acres
of secondary use from Parcel B, which is zoned for
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employment.
The amended ODP takes up to 24 additional acres of
employment zoned for secondary uses. If this ODP is
approved, 44 acres of employment development potential will
decrease to just 20 acres.
I ask that the Board deny the amended ODP before
it tonight. Thank you for your time.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. Next, please?
MR. KERNAN: May I do just a few slides? It's
only three minutes.
I hope you can read my writing. Good evening. My
name is Ed Kernan (phonetic). I'm at 632 Gilgalad. I
listened to our arguments tonight, and it sounds like many
of us are on the same side, actually. I've had opportunity
to work as a soldier in the State Department, where we tried
to find things that we agree upon. We all here agree upon
that we need student housing.
First, I want to thank each of you individually
for your work. If you ask many athletes who have achieved
some greatness, they will tell you that it is extremely
difficult to become number one, and it's even more difficult
to stay number one, and that is the type of challenge that
you and this Board face every time you meet, because we have
a number one community.
Tonight, we discuss the ODP, whose ultimate goal
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we all know, and I'm going to talk about the ODP. The ODP
is for an infill area that we've talked about for student
housing. The ODP is primarily considering the realignment
of Rollie Moore Drive for this housing project, and I want
you to consider the impact beyond the immediate area
surrounding the ODP and really look beyond some of the
statistics, and that's what I'm going to be talking to you
about.
So I'd like to introduce you to CSU census tract
11.11. It's a square mile bounded by College, Drake,
Prospect, and Shields. It has residences in this square
mile that only occupy a quarter of that square mile. It's
just up in the northwest corner. The tract's openness is
deceptive, given that many of the areas are condoned off,
and we've talked about that. We've got Federal facilities.
We'll see these things.
The tract does have a significant relief feature,
this hill, which impacts the noise levels in that valley, as
well as the viewsheds. And the tract has at least two major
water features that I think you've talked about.
This is the overhead view that we've talked about,
and it's pretty much the map we showed earlier. And one
more, if you're not absolutely 100 percent sure what I'm
talking about, by gosh, here's 2400. Next, please.
The geography, of course, is beautiful. This is
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the land that we'd be developing, looking from the other
end. That's the way it looks from The Gardens on Spring
Creek.
So this map here gives you an idea of where the
tract is going to be; and of course, we have Centre Avenue
as a commuting. Rollie Moore is going to connect Shields to
Centre Avenue. And of course, you have shopping over to
your right.
The problem with this whole thing is, as you see,
we start building all the barriers that are around this
particular property that inhibits students -- and I don't
want to just leave it at students, because our argument is
not students. It's residents. It's the -- it's the
intensity, as we've talked about.
There -- go back. Can you go back? Previous.
There you go. Of course, we have the one way under the
railway tracks. We're hoping for an elevator, I guess. And
it's very difficult. It's a mile-long trip, at least a
mile, to get to the store from The Grove right there, if
that would go in. It's not the half mile as it looks.
Go ahead. So here's your trip to the store right
now before the Masonville corridor. On the way home, you
have this -- go ahead and hit it, Kevin. You can see that
she's trying to navigate this piece of territory, this
traffic here -- go ahead; hit it again -- and of course,
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this is where this bus is coming through.
We're hoping that the Mason Street corridor
addresses these questions. There's a lot of opposition in
the city, even though it's -- you know, it's been approved,
and there's even some opposition in the City staff, I know.
Go ahead. So this is the problem. We're building
this area in this confined -- building this property in this
specific area that's fairly intensive use that is, by
design -- people are supposed to go one of three directions,
and two of those directions take them into our
neighborhoods, including the CARE Housing and the Sunderling
and Gilgalad.
Go ahead. Now, let's compare that to another
housing unit, Campus Crossings. Equivalent number of
people. We've got Elizabeth Drive. It points directly to
Elizabeth, and it gets them out that way. They're shopping
across the street.
One more. This is the new one that we've just
approved here in the City. 660 -- 76 beds that occur on
College. That's bigger than The Grove, and it's almost as
far away from us as The Grove. It's probably a little bit
further away. We have no problem with that because that
makes sense. It's on that particular path. It makes sense.
Go ahead. So this is the problem that we see.
And the intensity of that building is an issue.
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Go ahead, Kevin. So to get to the university -- I
want to put in my bid -- this is my ride every day. So you
get to navigate this car -- or this traffic all the time.
And this -- I sat there for three minutes before I took this
picture yesterday. This happens all the time, every day.
This is dangerous.
Go ahead. So this makes sense. Next one. This
makes sense. Next one. One more. I question whether that
makes sense.
That's all I have to say. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MS. BURNETTE: Good evening. My name is Sarah
Burnette (phonetic), and I live at 714 Gilgalad Way.
I'd like to talk about predictability and promises
that are made through -- that have been made through prior
land use decisions. My family moved here in '96 and settled
in South College Heights. As a lot of the neighbors who are
here in support of the project, we also experienced quality
of life issues in our neighborhood. And finally when we
were being awakened too many times at night, we decided we
needed to move. We didn't want to. We -- we loved our
neighborhood.
Before -- I want to set the context, because
before we bought our next house, we wanted to be -- to
understand to -- what to expect. I called the City, and I
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was directed to Ted Shepard, who I've met now a number of
years later, and he explained to me what the zoning areas
were and about the connection to Northerland and how that
might occur. We learned about CSURF's plans for the parcel
where neighborhoods were told -- neighbors were told in the
'03 CSURF amendment, CAT amendment, that the MMN portion of
the site might be developed for married and international
students and their families.
With what we felt was a reasonable understanding
of the facts, we went ahead with the purchase of our home.
I can assure you that if we thought for a moment that ever a
project of this scale could go in adjacent to our
neighborhood on Parcel C, we would have never considered
purchasing our home.
We trusted the promises made by the City and by
CSURF. We trusted the City Plan. We trusted the Land Use
Code. This is not what was promised at that time; and not
only that, it's not what can be built with the existing ODP.
The FAR ratio, removal. There is no evidence -- I
provided copies to the applicant and to you of the 2003
review process. There's nothing in there that says, that
was put there at CSURF's option. There was no -- there's no
proof one way or another.
One thing that they certainly didn't emphasize, it
also removes the restriction on building in the floodplain,
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secondary uses in the floodplain. This project puts two
parts of two buildings and two public streets in a
floodplain, directly across from neighbors who are already
in the floodway.
I understand Chapter 10 of the City Code allows
that, the Municipal Code allows that, but take a look at the
purposes of the Land Use Code which were cited earlier, and
you need to seriously consider the changes that are being
made that allow incompatibility and life safety.
I wanted to talk about the West Central
Neighborhoods Plan. We'll be submitting something to you
later. But it -- it does talk about some of the things that
the neighbors have talked about with trying to locate
housing close to CSU. But it also says that it's imperative
that further developments not be permitted in the
floodplains in the west central neighborhoods. We are a
part of the west central neighborhood.
It talks about the importance of -- of the CSURF
parcel and to make sure that the neighborhood south of
Prospect are not adversely impacted by the development that
goes in on the CSURF parcels. And -- and the zoning is not
being complied with. They're looking for ways around the
intent of the zoning. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much. Is
there anyone else who would like to speak to this issue?
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MR. BROCHE: Good evening. My name is Doug Broche
(phonetic). I live at 1625 Independence Road, known as the
Rollie Moore neighborhood.
Been a lot of different points of view expressed
tonight. What it seems to boil down to is that we have a
problem in this town. We have a problem with adequately
housing our students. That problem is only going to get
worse as time goes on, when you look at the projections of
the -- the projected growth of CSU.
And what -- what is really the problem is, that no
one wants to deal with this particular issue where they
live. We would all like to live in a perfect place. We
would all like to live in a neighborhood that is just --
just -- just utopia. But unfortunately, in Fort Collins,
for the foreseeable future, that's not going to happen.
But what we need to do is come together as a
community and work on this problem and try to settle it as
best we can. What is -- what is really unfortunate about
this is that it is pitting neighborhoods against
neighborhoods. I mean, tonight is a perfect example of how
that is happening.
Campus Crest development has gone above and beyond
the call of duty in trying to work with the community and
come up with a complex that is going to work in this
particular area. It's not perfect. It's maybe not the
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perfect site for a development. But we need to be looking
at possibilities of where we can house the students that are
coming to our town. They're a big part of our town, and we
need to welcome them here and provide adequate housing for
us -- for them. Our neighborhoods can no longer take the
burden of the student housing as it is existing now.
Other developers are looking at Fort Collins.
Fort Collins is a -- is one of the most prime markets in
developing, is the student market here. And other
developers are looking at Fort Collins, watching this
process proceed, to see just how it plays out.
We need to make sure we don't send the message to
these developers that we are not friendly, and we are not
receptive, and we do not realize the problem that we face.
We need to face this problem. We need to work together to
solve this problem and provide housing for students. And
The Grove is certainly a step in the right direction for
doing so. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MS. STICKLER: If I may have a few minutes. My
name is Heather Stickler (phonetic). I live in the
neighborhood, and I'm a Fort Collins citizen.
I'd like to talk about employment district erosion
equating to fewer jobs for Fort Collins citizens. The
Centre Avenue corridor has been planned for a long time as a
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high-tech employment district for years. If you go to the
CSURF website and you dig around just a little bit, they say
on their own website that their plans are to use the
remaining developable land in this ODP for, quote, a unique
mixed use development, end quote, with an objective of
creating a, quote, mutually beneficial relationship between
CSU's research programs and private industry.
And I think that Fort Collins lands need some
developable land for businesses to build upon. Fewer
employment zone acres means a reduced ability to retain,
expand, and attract businesses that diversify and grow our
economic base. Fewer employment zone acres is not conducive
to effective partnering with the business community to
underpin a healthy economy.
If this ODP is approved, the door is open to
dramatic reductions in land available for primary jobs,
creating developments. Secondary uses will consume a
majority of remaining developable employment district land.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
MS. STICKLER: You're welcome.
SPECTATOR: Mr. Chair, is it possible (inaudible).
He's on a (inaudible) mission. He did video something, and
I just wanted to know if we could show it tonight.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Does it apply to the ODP?
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SPECTATOR: Yes, it does, to the ODP.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: As a citizen, you can bring
us anything you feel is appropriate as long as it's within
the four-minute time frame.
SPECTATOR: Okay.
SPEAKER: Three minutes.
SPECTATOR: Can I plug it in?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I'm so sorry. How many
people are wanting to speak at this point?
Once we close citizen participation, that'll be
your last chance to talk to this portion of the meeting. So
it looks this will be our last one. Is that microphone on?
MR. OLT: Yes.
SPEAKER: No. Do we have some kind of sound
coming out of this? I guess not.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: No. Not yet.
SPECTATOR: I don't think that works.
SPEAKER: I think you're right.
Would you like to read his -- no. So we don't
have sound for the computer. So --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: You're more than welcome
to -- to recap his thoughts.
SPEAKER: I can barely understand his thoughts.
He's a very bright guy. And he knows this stuff, and I
don't.
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Can we turn in -- just, I think we've got -- or
turn in the video or a two-pager?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: A video at this point would
not facilitate our discussion, because it has to come to a
conclusion tonight, and we have no way of viewing it.
SPEAKER: I understand. Okay. Well, thank you
very much.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you for your --
SPECTATOR: I can recap it like in one minute.
MR. SMITH: We do have testimony from Mr. Podmore
in writing.
SPECTATOR: Oh, it's in there?
MR. SMITH: Uh-huh.
SPECTATOR: Okay. Good.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. All right. Well, the
public testimony portion of the meeting has concluded.
SPECTATOR: Mr. Chair, could we have a couple more
speakers, please?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: No. We've closed it. I
asked. We closed. And it's -- be mindful that we're two
and a half hours into this, and we still have a whole
'nother presentation to go. We probably have another hour
at least on this, and that puts us to 2:00 o'clock if we
stay at the same pace. And we're trying to be mindful
that we do need to hear both issues tonight to make a proper
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decision on both. So I do have to be a little firm in our
time management.
So in the next step of the process is the
applicant response to public testimony. If they choose.
MS. LILEY: Mr. Chair, at the outset, maybe, I
have a question about Mr. Podmore's letter. I don't
remember who asked that question about -- was the letter
from Dr. Podmore?
SPECTATOR: I asked about it.
MS. LILEY: Okay. What letter were you referring
to? Just so we don't have any confusion on the record, to
make sure that --
SPECTATOR: He has written a letter. Is it in the
book?
MS. LILEY: Because I want to make sure that it
really is, if. . .
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, there's a letter, and the one
that we have is part of citizen participation at the City
Council meeting on April 19th. So, I mean, I haven't looked
further. Is that the one you were referring to, Andy?
SPECTATOR: There's another one.
MS. LILEY: Well, I just -- I just wanted to
make -- to be clear about whether there was or wasn't.
Just a -- just a few comments. I've got a few,
and then I think Linda and Nick will address the rest.
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With regard to the secondary uses, again, it's not
a situation where we say, Well, just take that note off. I
mean, this is an approved ODP. It's an approved note. It
was approved in 2003 under the same Land Use Code. And so
it was found to be in compliance with the Land Use Code.
And as we said, we're fine not even changing the wording on
the note.
Having said that, I hear the concern. I heard
Brigitte say it. I heard some of the neighbors say it,
about borrowing from secondary uses or from the employment
and putting them elsewhere. That -- that isn't the intent.
That's not how CSURF has ever interpreted that note. I
don't think the staff has ever interpreted it that way. Nor
would we.
We would be very much amenable to working out a
condition with the staff that could turn that into a
positive statement to say something to the effect of, that
no -- no E, developable E, zone would have less than 75
percent. I mean, something along those lines, so you're
turning it into a positive statement, so Brigitte, your
scenario could never occur, because that isn't what's
intended here.
So we would offer that up. We do want to keep the
same note that was approved in 2003 but have no problem at
all with making it say what we all intend it to say, because
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we don't want to borrow. We don't want to reduce those E
employment percentages.
I think Linda is a going to talk in a minute.
There's also had a little bit of confusion. This project
will not, in fact, eat up 24 acres of E employment. It
will -- it will take up seven. And Linda's got the math on
that, and she can talk about that a little bit more.
With regard to the FAR note. That's an
interesting one, because in 2003, when the FAR note was put
on, there was in Land Use Code requirement. You didn't have
to comply with any FAR. If it was put on, it had to be a
voluntary condition because this Board would have absolutely
no legal authority to put a FAR note on that was not
required by the Land Use Code. It's not required today.
And so I'm wondering, what would be the basis for
not allowing the removal of the voluntary note when it
wasn't required in 2003 and it's not required now?
Even so, this project does meet the FAR note. If
you calculate it by the method that is embedded in the note
itself, it meets it. And that's the way you would have to
do it. If the note was put on and there was no Land Use
Code provision and the note says, Here's how you calculate
it, then we meet it. If you apply a different calculation,
no, probably not, but why would you do that? So, again, I
think there's just a little bit of confusion about -- about
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the FAR note.
Linda's going to talk about alternative
compliance. And I think Matt and Nick want to briefly
address the letter that was read into the record by Mr. --
Mr. Lunin's wife.
The other comment I guess I would make is that a
lot of the comments tonight, although they were -- they were
valuable comments, and I'm sure everybody wants to hear
them, a lot of them related to the PDP and not the ODP,
because they were talking about buildings and, you know,
what's the buffer setback from the neighborhood and
compatibility.
We've not had a chance, of course, to put on all
of our information about how we meet all of those standards.
So I would just ask you to keep that in mind, and we were
fine with letting that into the record, but it really is a
PDP issue, and that can have a full discussion.
Likewise, the density comments, and we'll get into
that more with the PDP, but as you all know, there are
minimum densities, and you have to comply with minimum
densities, and this project is in the lower -- is on the
lower end of the scale. And Linda, again, will be dealing
with that a little bit more on the -- on the PDP
presentation.
I think with that, I'm going to let Linda pick up
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on a couple of comments, and then maybe Nick and Matt.
MS. RIPLEY: Okay. Thank you, Lucia. Quick, on
the crazy secondary land use. I heard all of these
neighbors talk about eroding the E zone, the amount of E
zone, and this is -- this is just terribly confusing.
And Brigitte, you took it the negative way, and
obviously, half the neighborhood did as well. So I think
Lucia's idea of drafting a different note that makes it
clear that we just take the undevelopable out of the
equation, the developable land that is left, which is about
44 acres, that would be 75 percent E and 25 percent
secondary. So that's -- that's all we want, and that can
just be made very clear. Enough on that.
Alternative compliance. There was -- Mr. Feinman
said that it shouldn't be approved, that it didn't meet the
alternative plan criteria. The alternative plan criteria
that you have to consider are that the alternative minimizes
impacts to natural areas.
Obviously, we do that. That's the whole purpose
of asking for it, is to not disturb the wildlife corridor or
the wetlands or the floodway, that it fosters nonvehicular
access. I think we've made a good case that we're fostering
bike and ped access to a very high level, but we do not
exceed the level of service, and our traffic study confirms
that we do not, that he we enhance connectivity. We've done
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that by extra bicycle connectivity.
And then the last point is that you provide
subarterial access. And he assumed that Centre Avenue was
an arterial. He spoke -- and it is not. It's on the Master
Street Plan as a collector street. And that's how his
neighborhood gets to the neighborhood center that is south
of them. I don't think it's a ridiculous out of --
out-of-the-way way to get to a neighborhood center in your
square mile.
Centre Avenue does carry a lot of traffic. I'll
agree with John on that. But normally, the alternative
compliance asks you to look at the square mile, and Centre
Avenue kind of goes diagonally through the middle of it. So
I think we clearly meet the objective of all those criteria
that have been put in place for alternative compliance.
Again, density is not something that you typically
look at in the ODP other than to say that any PDP that comes
through has to meet the minimum densities. The minimum
density in MMN is going to be 12 DU per unit. We barely
meet the minimum. E at seven DU per acre.
I think that's the only ones that I'm going to
cover. I'll let Nick and Matt speak a little bit about the
Lunin letter, and then we'll move on
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MR. DELICH: Matt Delich, Delich Associates,
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traffic transportation engineers.
The -- speak to the last point that Mr. Feinman
made with regard to the location of the Centre Avenue
intersection. The former location or -- well, actually, the
existing location right now, which is at the bottom of the
hill, across from one of the Federal buildings, and the
proposed location which is at the -- the crest of the -- the
hill, just to the north of where the ditches cross Centre
Avenue.
There's really no foundation that the new location
is less safe or less operationally efficient than -- than
the former location. Both are four-legged intersections,
and they're both across from other driveways that access
employment centers. And both of them have adequate sight
distance, meet adequate sight distance criteria by the City
of Fort Collins.
So those issues, in my opinion, are not valid. So
thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Matt, we'd like to ask you
one quick question, please. Sorry to interrupt.
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, Matt, I was just wondering.
You're saying that they do meet the sight distance, and so
are you saying -- what part of his argument is not correct,
then, the definition of the LUCAS standard or -- or -- so
you're saying it doesn't need a 660-foot sight distance,
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that Parcel B issue, or. . .
MR. DELICH: Well, Mr. Feinman that the -- the new
location had to be as good or better than the former
location of the intersection. And my contention is that
it -- as good as. It meets the sight distance criteria.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Are we referring to the same
information?
MS. SCHMIDT: Yes, I'm just -- and you're talking
about Mr. Lunin's letter?
MR. DELICH: I'm talking about Mr. Feinman's last
point.
MS. SCHMIDT: Oh, Mr. -- okay. All right. Sorry.
I must be talking about something else. I'm sorry. I was
confused.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I thought we were --
MS. SCHMIDT: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: -- possibly doing that.
MS. SCHMIDT: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Are we good there, or do we
have more questions?
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, I presume we'll discuss some
of that later, the other -- Mr. Lunin's point, or do you
want to discuss that, or does -- I don't know if Linda
was going to --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Were you given a copy of
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this?
MR. DELICH: No. No, I was not. And it was very
difficult to absorb that as a --
MS. SCHMIDT: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I think it would be -- let me
ask Paul this. Would it be relevant to give Matt this?
MR. ECKMAN: Oh, sure.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: And then refer that question
during Board discussion? And then you can --
SPECTATOR: The applicant has a copy.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. So --
MS. SCHMIDT: Yeah. So it's in there.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. So --
MS. SCHMIDT: So -- he can get one from us.
That's fine. Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: And then we'll refer that --
we'll refer back to that question at a later point during
Board discussion.
MR. HAAS: Nick Haas with Northern Engineering in
Old Town.
I may be able to offer a little clarity to some of
the roadway and traffic, you know, geometry issues. Those
are typically PDP criteria that we don't have anything in
the record at ODP that would either support or deny those
very specific LUCAS criteria that was referenced. We -- if
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it's okay with the Board, we can get into that at PDP. That
would allow staff, who's reviewed the PDP application, to
say whether it does or does not comply with LUCAS. It's not
a requirement of ODP, and there would be nothing within the
ODP itself that would be able to, you know, ascertain
whether the roadway geometry meets certain radii or
tangent --
MS. SCHMIDT: But so what happens, then, if we
approve the road on the ODP that doesn't meet those?
MR. HAAS: The staff can perhaps correct me if I'm
wrong, but the ODP roadway alignments are not intended to be
that -- that specific. So things such as center line radii,
arc lengths, tangents, are not really discernable nor locked
into with an ODP approval.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Do you want to speak to
that --
STAFF MEMBER: We would concur with Nick's
viewpoint. Frankly, an ODP is not an engineer drawing.
It's not required to be signed, stamped, by a civil
engineer. And we don't mean to -- I just think -- it could
certainly be part of the discussion for the PDP, but my -- I
guess my personal thought, and Paul and Ted and others may
have other viewpoints, is that it isn't necessarily relevant
for the ODP discussion. But we can. . .
MS. SCHMIDT: I guess -- would we be somewhat
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hampered by the fact that we want to create an intersection
there, aligning with the other street on the other side, so
although the placement won't be possibly exact, are we -- I
mean, we have to sort of line up with that other road.
STAFF SPEAKER: I think there's certain levels
here. So I think, certainly, a discussion about whether or
not that location in alignment with the forestry building
across the street can certainly be, I think, an ODP type of
discussion. I would just perhaps offer the thought that
tangent lengths and curve radii are frankly not -- you can't
discern what those are --
MS. SCHMIDT: Sure.
STAFF SPEAKER: -- on an ODP.
MR. LINGLE: Could I follow up on that, Brigitte?
I'm assuming, then, that the intersection location, which I
think would be relevant from an ODP standpoint, that
intersection location, since it aligns with the access to
the Federal building across the street, had been evaluated?
STAFF SPEAKER: That's correct.
MR. LINGLE: At that point, so that would
determine the site distance triangles, for instance, would
work?
STAFF SPEAKER: Specific to that intersection, the
City staff looked at that crossing and thought it would be a
suitable location if Rollie Moore were to be realigned, and
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in fact, it's probably the only location, I guess, other
than where it's currently designed in which would feel that
it would meet standards, basically. Anything else shorter,
closer to the existing Rollie Moore would probably require a
variance request due to spacing requirements. And Ward may
want to add to that.
MR. STANFORD: Good evening, Board. Ward Stanford
with the City of Fort Collins Traffic.
The intersection aspect, one, that they have to
meet criteria wherever they go. They either are aligned
with others, or there's a set amount of distance that they
have to be offset. So they would have to still be governed
by that at the PDP stage. That's why in the ODP it's
somewhat generalized.
Have we looked at that location? Yes, I
physically have driven out there, set up there, looked to
see the sight distance problem. I do not see a sight
distance problem. I have gotten out of my vehicle and
walked around the area where the road is supposed to be
as well as the other connection up by the Spring Creek
Gardens, and both of them have fine sight. They meet our
criteria.
MS. SCHMIDT: Ward, can I also ask. What is the
on the Master -- City's Master Street Plan right now? Is
that design -- is there a road there penciled in on the plan
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that it makes the connections to?
MR. STANFORD: There is the -- Rollie Moore is
shown on the Master Street Plan connecting from Shields to
Centre Avenue. And the alignment is shown in a given method
or a given manner, but that is not hard. It's just an
aspect that we want a connector street in there, a
connecting street in that location.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. And what is that connecting
street designated right now? As a collector, or just a
connector?
MR. STANFORD: Collector.
MS. SCHMIDT: Collector. Okay.
MR. ECKMAN: Mr. Chair, I don't know if the
applicants finished their response, but it's starting
like -- starting to sound like --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yeah, I know.
MR. ECKMAN: -- we're getting into the staff part
of it, which comes after the applicant response.
MR. HAAS: I did have one more response, and it
was with respect to the modification of the floodplain note,
and maybe it is getting into staff. Because that was that
specific staff request of the floodplain administrator,
primarily to make it in line with current Chapter 10 of the
Municipal Code for regulating floodplains and not allowing
the ODP to -- they can further expound upon that, but there
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was no intentional attempt to allow or disallow any uses
that would be contradictory to the municipal Code. So
specifically address floodplain comments.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. So we're in the phase
of the applicant response to public testimony. Do we have
anything further?
Okay, no? Next phase is -- okay. We do.
MR. DELICH: If I may. I looked at Mr. Lunin's
letter, and I can speak a little bit to that, and then you
can ask me questions. Is that fair?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yes, sir.
MR. DELICH: In the second paragraph, Jim referred
to the 5,735 trips for Parcel C, which was in the -- the ODP
that was approved or of record in 2003. And then the new
proposal, which is the PDP, The Grove housing project, plus
the parcel of land which is just in front of it, to the east
of it, which was assumed to be office development,
employment development.
That combination of The Grove development and that
office development would generate the 20 -- actually, I
think he marks it down as 23 -- 2300 vehicle trip ends per
day. He refers to that as just the student housing project.
But it's the combination of both the employment use and the
student housing use.
The student housing project would generate on the
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order of about 1,550 trip ends per day. So that's a
correction in Mr. Lunin's letter. In that second paragraph.
I'm not correcting his letter. I'm just pointing out an
error. And I guess, do you have questions on that? Let me
ask that at this point.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Jennifer does.
MS. CARPENTER: I guess I'm a little confused.
The original ODP; what caused the trip generation to go down
by more than half from the original ODP?
MR. DELICH: Because we had the whole site in the
analysis, in the traffic analysis, as office.
MS. CARPENTER: What do you mean by the whole
site?
MR. DELICH: All of Parcel C. We used a higher --
the highest and -- use in that particular site, in the 2003
ODP and traffic analysis. And the fact of the matter is,
the -- the proposal, if you will, the student housing
project and a potential office development in the front,
would generate around 2300. So the point being, this
proposal will reduce the traffic in the ODP. Generated in
the ODP.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay.
MR. DELICH: But by that amount, 5700 down to
2300.
MS. CARPENTER: Because you're using a smaller
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area? Is that why -- I'm still trying to --
MR. DELICH: Because of change of land use.
Because we did not have any -- in that analysis that we did
in 2003, we had no residential in the traffic analysis.
MS. CARPENTER: So that's what made it higher?
MR. DELICH: Correct. We had it all employment.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay.
MS. SCHMIDT: But the MMN was already there,
wasn't it?
MR. DELICH: That is correct. We just -- in our
analysis, we just used a worst case, if you want to call it
that.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay.
MR. DELICH: Other questions on Mr. Lunin's letter
with regard to traffic?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Doesn't look like it.
MR. DELICH: Okay.
MS. CARPENTER: Maybe at the PDP.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yeah. Thank you. Okay.
Just to confirm, does the applicant have anything further at
this point?
Okay. We'll now move to staff response to public
testimony. Does staff have. . .
MR. ECKMAN: Staff can respond not only to public
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testimony but also to any comments that were made by the
applicant in response to public testimony.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay.
MR. OLT: Well, we had a lot of -- as you say, a
lot of comments and concerns, and I don't know if there are
specific ones that the Board would be interested in. But
you know, as I look through, there was discussion about the
traffic, traffic counts, collector versus minor collector
street. I think that's just been addressed, if I'm not
mistaken.
There was discussion about the -- the floor area
ratio, the FAR being important to controlling the intensity
of the use. We have stated on several occasions that, you
know, at the ODP level, the FAR is really irrelevant. It's
not a Land Use Code requirement of the -- of the Overall
Development Plan. Therefore, we have no objection to that
previous comment being taken off of the current amended
Overall Development Plan.
A lot of discussion about the intensity of the
project. Remember, this is MMN, medium density mixed use
neighborhood. It does carry with it a minimum 12 dwelling
unit per acre requirement that we'll be discussing further
in the PDP discussion. And this project is approximately 14
dwelling units per acre, so it's really barely over the
minimum requirement for that property for that location.
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I'm not sure. There was a comparison to other
projects, one on Prospect and I'm not sure where that one
was. Another student housing project. Woody's piece of
property. Again, they're going out of business. Their
belief is there's a proposal there. I'm not really familiar
with that one. However, you know, that aside, I don't know
how many more units are being proposed, if in fact, they're
going to be student housing, but how they relate to a
student housing project in this location, to me, would be
somewhat irrelevant.
Permanent long-term employment of the project,
being short-term. And again, I think that -- first of all,
as we look at the employment portion of this, and I know
there's concern about the dilution of that employment,
recognize the fact that with Parcels D and E being addressed
with that note about being in the floodway and probably
being able to develop only secondary uses, which is really
very true, that still leaves approximately 44 acres of
developable land in the employment district.
As has been said, there's between seven and nine
acres of employment in Parcel C, just -- just seven to nine
acres, so -- and the majority of that is going to develop as
some sort of nonretail, commercial -- or nonresidential
commercial retail use.
There is no other secondary use currently, even on
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Parcel B. I think there was a mention that the current
facility, the ropes facility on Parcel B is a secondary use.
That's not correct. There was lengthy discussion between
Planning and Zoning, and that actually is more addressed in
the Parks Master Plan and is considered to be a parks
recreation and other open space use as a primary use in the
E employment zoning district.
So currently, in this overall -- within the bounds
of this Overall Development Plan within the 96 acres, on the
current Overall Development Plan and this proposed amended
plan, there are no secondary uses. The only secondary use
would be a small portion of the student housing project that
does overlap into the E employment portion of the Overall
Development Plan.
I really think that's all the responses I had at
this time relative to these comments and would certainly
entertain any questions of the Board.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: All right.
MR. LINGLE: Steve, just let me follow up on that
last part of what you're talking about. And I think I heard
Linda say, and then you also said, that the net change in
the E zoned land, Parcel C, is between seven and nine acres;
is that right? Between the currently approved ODP and the
proposed ODP? Did I hear that right?
MR. OLT: I said the seven to nine acres, and I
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believe, you know, Linda had thrown the number seven out
previously. The seven to nine acres, the way we read it, is
the amount of acreage that's in the E employment portion of
Parcel C.
Parcel C is a total of 31 acres in size, if I'm
not mistaken. And seven to nine acres is in the E
employment portion of Parcel C. That line actually dissects
the Parcel C, north and south, but it's only a third, let's
say, of Parcel C.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. I guess that's the same result
of what I was saying, would be that the change in what
was -- what would be remaining developable E zoned land
would be seven acres less with the new ODP than the
previous -- or the current ODP. Is that correct?
MS. CARPENTER: Than the 2003 ODP?
MR. LINGLE: Well, the current one.
MS. SCHMIDT: The ODP essentially stays the same.
It's just the fact that when we -- if the PDP is approved,
that portion of it will be in employment land versus being
in the MMN zone. But I thought the dotted line or whatever
between MMN and E is the same in each ODP, correct?
MR. OLT: That is correct. That has not changed.
MS. SCHMIDT: So it's just the fact that this PDP
is using some of the employment land, but as far as the ODP
is concerned, the amount stays the same in each ODP.
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MR. LINGLE: Right.
MS. CARPENTER: As the previous one note that we
just approved.
MR. LINGLE: All right. And then --
(Board comments off the record.)
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: We're trying to be mindful in
taking a break every hour and a half for the -- are you
okay? We'll keep going just a little bit longer.
MR. LINGLE: Steve, maybe I'm just being dense
about this. Could you restate what you said relative to the
FAR? It's not relevant as the ODP.
MR. OLT: That's correct. It's not a requirement.
It's not a standard that applies to the Overall Development
Plan.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. But one argument that the
neighborhood made was that if it's -- if it would be
applicable as the PDP -- maybe it's -- not, but if it would
be at the PDP and we approve something at the ODP, how does
that jibe?
MR. SHEPARD: Neither are applicable. There is no
floor area ratio standard for a ODP. There is no floor area
ratio standard for the MMN. There is no floor area ratio
standard in E when it comes to multifamily. And since we're
in response, I would like to respond that the reference to
the floor area ratio being decreased in the NCL and NCM
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zones, that was repealed. There was no reduction in the FAR
in the two Old Town neighborhoods. As you know, that
ordinance was repealed.
MS. SCHMIDT: So I'd like to ask, then, here we
have -- let's say we have an ODP with these zones attached,
and the notes say floor air ratio in the zone will be .37.
So are you saying that even if it was in there, that would
be ignored at the PDP because there was no requirement?
Or --
MR. OLT: It can't be applied, and again, as Ted
said, you know, the floor area ratio does not apply to
either the MMN or E zoning districts at the PDP level. So
therefore, it really is irrelevant to either the ODP or the
PDP. Why it was put in that ODP in 2003, we frankly don't
know.
MR. CAMPANA: You know, I've been thinking about
that a little bit. A lot of times, we'll condition ODPs,
and it's conceivable that when the ODP was approved for some
reason, there was horse trading going on so the applicant
agreed to having that note being put on the ODP. I mean, is
that possible?
MR. OLT: I guess possible. I can't speak to
whether that's what happened.
MR. CAMPANA: Right. But it sounds to me like
it's not relevant anyway because the current PDP plan, when
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we get to looking at that, is below that ratio anyways.
MS. SCHMIDT: Depending how you figure it,
MR. CAMPANA: I think that's part of the
confusion, because when we look at net area, gross area, in
both the secondary uses and on the FAR, it changes the math.
And I heard Linda say that it doesn't matter. Leave it on
there, because she's at, I think .29 -- is that .29? .25.
But then when I look, you know, at Page 2 of the plan set or
site plan, I can't find the .25 on there unless I'm missing
it somewhere.
I see you're calculated by block, and that could
be part of the confusion. But when you look at the numbers
that you present with regards to blocks, they're all pretty
high, you know, .53, .69, .49. So can we get some
clarification on that as to how it's calculated and show
that it is below that .37? Because then maybe we can just
get beyond that, and it's irrelevant if the project should
be developed to that standard or not.
(Inaudible.)
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yes, I believe you can.
MS. RIPLEY: Okay. I don't know that any of us
remember how it got on there. I was involved in the
project. In fact, I did it in 2003. I should have some
recollection of it. I think if it had been a negotiated
thing, I probably would remember it. But we just don't.
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The difference between -- it has to do with how
the FAR is calculated. On the note, on the ODP, it says, by
parcel. You know, the note is very clear that you look at
how much square footage, building square footage, you have
to that parcel, and that is where we're under it. That was
obviously the intent of that note.
What the neighborhood brought up was, they looked
up the definition of FAR in the Land Use Code, and there is
a definition of FAR in the Land Use Code in the definition
section, and it will tell you in there that you calculate it
by lot.
If we calculated ours by lot and we took out all
the wetland and we took all the wildlife corridor, of course
we would be above it. But that was not the intent. The
note is very clear that it's .37 on a parcel basis, not a
lot basis. So I hope that helps.
MR. CAMPANA: I think that does help. Because I
think if we're going to hold the project to the standard of
the note that's on the plan, we should calculate it based on
the language of the note on the plans. So I don't know if
we need anything more read into the record. If we had a
graphic that could show that, that would be nice to have.
MR. OLT: We just do need to be mindful that that
note is being proposed to be eliminated.
MR. CAMPANA: But I also heard the applicant say
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that they're fine with leaving it on there, and I hear the
neighborhood saying, it's on the ODP, so you know, why would
we pull it off? So why would we debate it if we meet it
anyways?
MS. SCHMIDT: I guess the way I -- possibly -- I
guess the way I would read it, and it's up for debate, is
maximum -- the way I read it on the notes in the
description, it says, Maximum floor area ratio (building
square footage divided by land area square footage) for all
parcels, not to exceed .37.
At that rate, when you're looking at an ODP when
it says for all parcels, that could mean A, B, C, D, E, F,
all parcels. You know, so it's very hard to decide what it
actually -- what it actually meant. I think that's going to
be the sticking point, and that might be something City
Council will have to decide.
MS. CARPENTER: A point I have to make. Are we
still on FAR? I have one. Do we not have records of the
meetings from 2003 when that was put on? I mean, I don't
understand why we can't go back and find out how it was put
on and what was done with it. Because we take -- we have
minutes and things. Have we looked to see if we can figure
out why that was done?
MR. SHEPARD: I think we could probably resurrect
those. I think we could find those minutes. But I think
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our thinking for this particular ODP was that it's not our
standard. It's not in our Land Use Code.
MS. CARPENTER: But it's in our ODP.
MR. SHEPARD: But how do we govern it? By what
standard? And I'll read this into the record, if I may.
Purpose and effect of an ODP. The purpose of the Overall
Development Plan is to establish general planning and
development control parameters for projects that will be
developed in phases with multiple submittals while allowing
sufficient flexibility to permit detailed planning in
subsequent submittals.
I would say that an FAR issue would be detailed
planning in a subsequent submittal. If it's at all
applicable. And according to our Land Use Code, it's not an
applicable standard.
MS. CARPENTER: I understand that. I just keep
running up to, the thing of it is, it's in the ODP.
MS. SCHMIDT: If we're going to question, we can
discuss it.
MS. CARPENTER: Yes. Okay.
MR. CAMPANA: I've got another question. So let's
say the road wasn't realigned on the ODP. You left it where
it was. As a -- as a designer, could you achieve the same
utilization of the project? Same density?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Are you directing this
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question to Linda?
MR. CAMPANA: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: If you could come up and
respond, please.
MR. CAMPANA: In other words, one of the arguments
that the neighborhood is making is that it's realigned to
get a higher density. If you left it where it was, I think
we all agree there's a better location for it than where it
was, but I just want to have a better understanding.
MS. RIPLEY: Well, the gentleman that spoke about
that; it's true that if you took -- if you took it through
sort of -- actually, you can't. You can't connect where it
exists, because right where it exists, if it went forward at
all, it would be in the floodway. So right away, you have
to pick another point to connect it to along Centre Avenue.
Do you follow me?
MR. CAMPANA: Right. So you didn't do -- I know
usually as a planner, you guys start with the existing ODP
and start kind of bubble planning it to see what kind of
density you can get. You're saying you guys never did this
on it? You knew you had to realign it --
MS. RIPLEY: Oh, we've done a zillion plans on
this property. But the specific question was, could you do
Rollie Moore differently.
And the first problem is that the -- where the
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FEMA floodplain exists today is different than where it was
in 2003. So even though this -- the red alignment in 2003
was possible for a couple of reasons, the floodway wasn't in
the same location; the wetlands were somewhat different,
although similar; but our tendency to protect wetlands has
grown enormously in those intervening years.
Back then, I remember drawing that very alignment
and saying, Well, isn't this going to be a concern, and
staff was saying, Well, we'll deal with that when we get to
it. But by the time we've gotten to it and this parcel is
ready to develop, wetlands are valued so much more. There's
no question that we don't want to plow through it with a
road.
So we can't continue the alignment where it is
without affecting the floodway and without being in the
wetland.
MR. CAMPANA: I understand that, and I think
everyone here does too. I'm questioning whether or not you
could still get 210 dwelling units or 614 beds or whatever
it's up to if we didn't have wetland issue and Rollie Moore
was in the same place as it is in the current ODP, because
you design that density.
MS. RIPLEY: If I left Rollie Moore where it is?
MR. CAMPANA: Right. The neighborhood has made an
argument --
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MS. RIPLEY: Possibly.
MR. CAMPANA: -- you're relocating it to maximize
the density. I'm wondering if you didn't relocate it, could
you still get the same density?
MS. RIPLEY: It's hard to say. It probably could
get close.
MR. CAMPANA: Okay. And then just -- I think this
is going to go to Steve, this last question here. So Steve,
if we're going to go from single-family residential to E
employment, what would be typical of our zoning to
transition from single-family residential to employment?
What do we typically see?
MR. OLT: Well, obviously, you're looking at a
transition, if you're looking at a, you know, concentric
circle, it's going to be, you know, single-family
residential, multifamily residential, then E employment or
nonresidential, something of that nature. I mean, this is
not atypical to have that MMN, medium density mixed use
zoning district, between the single-family residential and
the E employment.
MR. CAMPANA: It's not typical?
MR. OLT: It's not atypical.
MR. CAMPANA: Right. Okay. Thanks.
MS. CARPENTER: I heard somebody mention
floodplain. And Steve, if you can talk to what is in the
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floodplain on this? Or one of the neighbors was talking
about building in the floodplain?
MR. OLT: I think Glen Schlueter will address
that.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay. Great.
MR. SCHLUETER: Okay. So what is your particular
question about the floodplain?
MS. CARPENTER: Well, what exactly do we have
here? We're on the ODP. I'm sorry. Is this a PDP
question?
MR. SCHLUETER: Yes, it is a PDP question.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay. Sorry. I'll do it then.
MR. SCHLUETER: Okay.
MS. SCHMIDT: I have one question, Glen. Kind of
applies to the road. Didn't it -- at the last hearings, did
you mention something about FEMA was coming to relook at all
this floodplain issue, and it might all change in the future
anyhow? Or am I -- has that changed?
MR. SCHLUETER: No, it hasn't changed. In fact,
we hoped to have the mapping approved by FEMA sometime early
next year. And it will remove that floodplain, the floodway
completely, except it'll just be over on Spring Creek and
not on this side of Windtrail at all.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. So it would be conceivable at
that time that Rollie Moore could stay in the alignment that
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it is and it would not be in a floodway.
MR. SCHLUETER: That's true, but you still have
the wetlands to deal with.
MS. SCHMIDT: The wetlands and the drainage.
MR. SCHLUETER: And the drainage, right.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: And if I remember correctly,
there's going to be monitoring to be sure that any
groundwater detention doesn't take away from the wetlands,
that we will continue to produce enough moisture that it
will stay in its present state; is that correct?
MR. OLT: That's correct. There will be a
three-year monitoring plan, whether you want to talk about
that now or at the PDP level -- pardon?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Well, if the floodplain
changes. The wetlands will not.
MR. OLT: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Any more questions of
staff?
MS. SCHMIDT: Is the one, and maybe Linda would
respond to this. How -- people have talked about the store.
What is the closest grocery store to this project? Which
grocery stores are there and how -- how close would you say
they are, driving-wise? I would say that maybe the King
Soopers on College? Or Whole Foods?
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MR. OLT: Yeah, there's Whole Foods and King
Soopers, obviously.
MS. SCHMIDT: Is that the closest?
MR. OLT: East, southeast, you know, of the
project location --
MS. SCHMIDT: We were talking about students going
to campus. But these are apartments that they're living in.
They have to go buy food.
MR. OLT: Correct.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
MR. OLT: And they would go to Shields. Shields
to Drake, to College, or Centre Avenue to Prospect to
College.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. All right. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. I think at this point
in time, we would like to take another break. We will
reconvene at 9:30 by the clock on the wall. Please keep all
these great thoughts in your mind, and we're going to go to
Board discussion next. Thank you.
(Break from 9:25 p.m. to 9:36 p.m.)
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. We're ready to
restart.
Okay. Welcome back. At this point in time, we're
going to move into Board discussion. Who would like to go
first?
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I think David is going to start us off.
MR. LINGLE: Well, I'd like to start with another
question to Steve, if I can. Linda in her presentation
characterized the ODP amendment as basically three basic
things. One was relocation of Rollie Moore Drive, the
elimination of the Northerland Drive extension, and whatever
we decide to do with those note changes on the existing ODP.
Would you agree that that's the gist of what we're doing
with the ODP?
MR. OLT: That's correct, with, I think, one
addition. I mean, they've actually added, you know,
significant natural area buffers, wetland delineation on the
ODP that was not previously shown, which is well in excess
of what would be required.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Thank you.
MR. OLT: But beyond that, we don't see other
changes.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Brigitte?
MS. SCHMIDT: I guess I'll start with discussion
on a couple of things. In my mind, the FAR -- I don't know
what the exact discussion was back in those days, but I
imagine -- I'm just thinking that possibly that FAR was
established to somehow put some sort of handle on the level
of intensity that might happen in that area. You know, as
CSURF was planning and also making commitments to work with
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the neighborhood and everything. So that would be my guess
about it.
Now, whether we want -- my option certainly would
be to leave it on there and let, in the future, people
decide how it should be considered, or if you want to find
some other standard, we would think about -- I mean, how
else can you really work in an ODP as far as making a
commitment to the surrounding areas about a level of
intensity? And I think this might have been an effort on
that part. You know, as the neighbors said, that they were
promised or told by CSURF that this, that, or the other
thing. Maybe this was to be an effort to indicate there
would only be a certain level of intensity on the problem.
So that's one of my feelings I have about the whole FAR
discussion.
I guess the other thing that we haven't talked
about at all, and I have some issues with, and this was why
City Council overturned our decision on the last ODP, and
that was the whole block issue. And I look at the plan and
I see Block 1, 2, and 3, and I understand the Land Use Code
only has acreages as a definition.
But in a candidate's own -- or applicant's own
description, they bring out the Policy 21.2 from City Plan
as designing walkable blocks. And I think if you read that
definition of what blocks should be and you look at the
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description in the Land Use Code, again, it doesn't seem to
mesh for me. I mean, Block 1, and you look at the two
buildings that compose Block 1, to say that they're in a
walkable block, I don't know.
I just -- I'm having some difficulty with this
layout, and I think it was just kind of designed to meet the
requirements of City Council where you said they have to
have blocks, but I don't think, again, we're trying to
achieve what the MMN zone is wanting. And if they're
saying, Okay, the problem is on this piece of parcel, that
we can't achieve that, well, maybe again, it's because the
density is too high. There would be ways to achieve it if
we did something different, plan-wise.
So that's just kind of my thoughts,
discussion-wise, on the issue.
MR. CAMPANA: I think the difficulty here is to
separate PDP with ODP. And as we look at the ODP, we should
be looking at the changes that are being proposed for that
realignment of Rollie Moore Drive. Is it equal to or better
than what is existing irrespective regardless of what the
PDP looks like.
Removing the connection. With regards to the
block structure, it's difficult to make an argument that the
buildings are walkable. Because we're not supposed to be
looking at the buildings at an ODP point. I mean, I'm a
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firm believer that the ODP is a bubble plan. It, you know,
gives us direction on how to design our PDP. When we start
trying to design the PDP while we're doing the ODP, we're
really conflicting the intent of our Land Use Code, and it
makes it really tough on projects.
I think the PDP discussions tonight are going to
be very different than the ODP discussions, and if we stay
focused as a board on the primary issues with regards to the
ODP, we'll have our opportunity to discuss PDP issues here
in a minute. So that's just my suggestion on that.
MR. ECKMAN: Mr. Chair?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yes, sir.
MR. ECKMAN: Hold that thought. Remember that
spot where Mr. Campana made that statement. And I have to
interrupt the meeting, I think now, or I'd like to, anyway,
to go to do something rather unusual, but there was this
videotape that was to be played on the wall. It failed
because of some technical reasons. I don't know if it was a
problem with the disc or problem with the City's equipment
or problem where. But it didn't get shown.
And the neighborhood group that was presenting
that, I think there was some confusion at the time as to
whether you actually had that in writing, that Mr. Podmore
statement or not, but I have been told by the neighborhood
group that it was not given to you, ever. You don't have
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it. And they would like to read it to you. It's a page and
a half long. And only in the interests of fairness, that
the applicant must have a chance, then, to respond to that.
But I think that in order to avoid an allegation
that the Board failed to conduct a fair hearing for failing
to receive all relevant evidence that was offered to the
Board -- it was kind of offered off the wall; we had a
technical problem -- I think we should go back and do that
one thing and let the applicant respond to this document,
which I will also pass out to you, if you're inclined to go
that way with it.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Do we have it so we can hear
audio?
MR. ECKMAN: No. It's -- it's a page and that
much more.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: And they would like to read
it to us, and hand it out as well --
MR. ECKMAN: Hand it out and read it, and then the
applicant certainly has the right to respond just to this
letter.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: If you think that's
advisable, we'll allow it.
MR. ECKMAN: Well, I do, so that we don't have
that fair hearing argument on appeal. Which, if it were a
legitimate argument, would force a remand back to the Board
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again, and we could spend another night like this later on.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I've got all the time in the
world. I don't know about everybody else, but. . .
Who's going to be reading this? Of course, you'll
need to sign in and state your name and address for the
record.
MS. PODMORE: Thank you very much. My name is
Carol Podmore. And it was my husband who made the video
with the understanding that it was going to be shown. He
very much wanted to be here, but he is presently doing an
irrigation and drainage audit of the country of Tajikistan
for the United Nations. So he presented this to Ed with the
hopes that the equipment would work, and it didn't, so I'll
read it very quickly to you.
Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the Board.
My name is Jerry Podmore. I live at 733 Gilgalad Way in
Fort Collins. I am a member of the Windtrail on Spring
Creek Homeowners Association and a professor emeritus in
civil and environmental engineering at Colorado State
University.
My purpose this evening is to address the problem
of the Larimer Number 2 Canal and its potential impact if
the proposed Campus Crest development takes place. The
placements of the buildings close to the canal on the south
side of the site creates the risk of a canal breach from
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increased seepage leading to catastrophic failure.
It has been proposed that the canal be moved to
the south to avoid this danger. However, the canal
relocation does not appear in the ODP, and is only
referenced in the PDP. The City Manager has stated that the
canal relocation is unrelated to the Campus Crest project.
Nick Haas of Northern Engineering has informed me that
Campus Crest development and the canal relocation are two
separate projects, when we spoke at the Campus Crest open
house held at the Hilton Hotel.
Linda Ripley stated that the neighborhood meeting
held on May 23rd -- that there was no guarantee that the
canal location would take place prior to the construction of
the Campus Crest project. Therefore, the impact of the
Campus Crest construction must include consideration of a
possible canal breach.
The canal company has stated it takes 12 hours to
stop the flow of the canal by closing the canal gate at the
Poudre River. The canal length from the Poudre River to
Shield Street is approximately 8.2 miles. With a typical
cross-section of 100 square feet, the canal volume is 4.32
million cubic feet or 32.3 million gallons.
In the case of a canal breach, this water would be
released on the site. This volume of water assumes that the
canal flow can be shut off instantaneously if a breach
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occurs. In the case of any delay, the canal would keep on
flowing and releasing water.
Typical canal flow is given at 150 cubic feet per
second by Joe Mullin, the manager of the canal company.
Consequently, for every hour of delay that the canal gate is
closed, 4.8 million gallons would be released of water. And
there's literally one other paragraph.
Thank you very much for allowing us to incorporate
it.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: You're welcome.
So would the applicant like to respond to this?
MS. LILEY: Yes, Mr. Chairman. We have no problem
having the letter in, and I'm glad there was an opportunity
for him to get it in. But we do have a couple of comments.
It's not a correct statement that the canal
relocation does not appear in the ODP. It's very limited,
because at ODP level, it's only relevant to showing, on the
ODP, the general location of natural features, which
would -- which would include the ditch, and we showed both
the existing ditch and the potentially realigned ditch.
Now, at that point in time, we weren't certain
that the ditch would be realigned, and I see the date on his
letter reseeds the date that the agreement was actually
signed, and that was done this past Friday.
The substantive comments on this, I'm going to
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defer to PDP, because that's a groundwater issue, and that
relates to mitigation measures and everything else. And so
those comments really are more appropriate for PDP than ODP,
and we would reserve our right to talk about this at that
point.
But just to continue for a moment about the ditch.
What has happened since this letter was written -- and you
should have received a copy of a letter from the ditch
company's attorney confirming that as of last Friday, the
agreement had been executed and that the realignment would
occur concurrently with The Grove project, and it included a
full set of plans showing exactly where that realignment
was.
We had also submitted plans of the realignment,
but this, just again, is confirmation that that agreement is
done and that the realignment will occur. So I think that's
all that we would like to say at this point in time; but
again, we'll want to talk about the groundwater issues with
PDP. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. Okay. Gino was
wanting to continue his thoughts.
MR. CAMPANA: Just one more comment. I was going
to suggest that we -- the comment, the general notes remain
the same on the amended ODP as well. Considering we don't
know what the background was on the FAR. I think we should
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leave it on there.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. David?
MR. LINGLE: I guess I'd like to call up on
Brigitte's comment and Gino's as well about the FAR. If --
in the event that that was some sort of a negotiated
agreement with the neighborhood, which would seem reasonable
to me that it might have been, how would that affect -- or
how would that come into play with potential conflict with
the minimum density required in MMN? I mean, which -- if
there was a conflict, which one would govern?
MR. SHEPARD: The Land Use Code would prevail.
MR. LINGLE: Regardless if that was legitimately a
condition of approval of the ODP?
MR. SHEPARD: Well, I would say so, and Paul is
probably going to chime in here, but keep in mind that an
ODP does not grant a vested right. It's a general
high-level look. It's a bubble plan. And once you get to
the metrics, the Land Use Code would prevail over a note.
MR. ECKMAN: Our Land Use Code has a conflict
provision that doesn't really help us with a conflict
between the Land Use Code and an approved ODP. But it does
say that if there's a conflict between the Land Use Code and
any other statute, code, local ordinance, resolution,
regulation, if an ODP can be considered as such, or other
applicable law, the more specific standard will govern and
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prevail to the extent of the conflict, and if neither
standard is more specific, then the more stringent standard
would prevail.
So it's kind of a difficult decision to make as to
which one is the more specific.
MR. CAMPANA: Or stringent. I mean, one's a
minimum; one's a maximum.
MR. ECKMAN: It doesn't answer the question very
much, does it?
MR. CAMPANA: Well, I guess my intent would be
that we don't deliberately set up a conflict, if we know
that we are doing that, and it doesn't sound like we
necessarily are, from Ted's perspective, that the Land Use
Code would prevail.
MR. SHEPARD: I would remind you, Dave, that if
there is something that isn't met in the Land Use Code, then
only the Planning and Zoning Board can grant a modification.
A negotiation between an application and a neighborhood
can't create a modification. Only the Planning and Zoning
Board can grant the modification.
MS. CARPENTER: On the other hand, by approving
the ODP with this note on it, was the Planning and Zoning
Board -- were they granting and approving that?
MR. SHEPARD: No. We used to have a standard note
on ODPs, prior to the adoption of the Land Use Code. Back
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when a land use wasn't granted unless you had a preliminary
PUD approval by the Planning and Zoning Board, that's when
ODPs had a little more viability and a little more meaning.
And at that time, the standard note was -- and it
was a long one -- and it said, these densities shown are
estimates. These densities are not meant to grant a vested
right. And we had all this verbiage on these notes, on
these ODPs, that basically said that, it's an estimate.
It's not hard and fast. It's a high-level view. And that
once you get to the preliminary PUD stage, that's where you
get your land use.
Well, when we went to the Land Use Code, your land
use was granted by Article 4, permitted uses. And so the
ODP took on less meaning. And so we stopped using that note
because densities were done by Article 4.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Well, I mean -- this is
pretty typical of me. I listen, listen, listen, and then I
form an opinion. But before I form that opinion, today,
when I was taking a break, I was just thinking, and I wrote
down two numbers. 180 and 18. I've been doing this for 15
years, which equals 180 of these type of meetings, and I
have 18 more before I get termed out.
I have to say in reading this, this ranks right up
there in the top 5 percent of emotional-type issues. And
whenever we have an emotional-type issue, it is -- it is
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more difficult for us. And as you can see by the hour, we
really do care. We take this to heart. And we try and do
the best we possibly can.
And I think in Fort Collins, we are very blessed
in the fact that when I first started, Paul already had 15
years' experience, so he's pushing 30; and the staff, most
of them have put up with me for 15 years. So do know that
we do listen and we do take everything to heart.
The next thing I always do is, I always look at it
as a citizen first, because we are a citizen board. And I
know we have rules and regulations about site visits and so
on and so forth, but the Poudre Trail is one of my favorite
trails. Just as a side note. I'm 52 years old, and I've
lived in Fort Collins for 52 years. Had friends when they
built Hillpond. The street you guys are talking about, you
know, I looked at that younger in my life before I could
afford that type of house.
You do live in a great spot, and the Poudre River
Trail is one of Fort Collins' greatest assets, and I spent a
lot of time out there repeatedly standing in you guys's
yards, basically, looking and saying, How would I feel as a
property owner. So I do understand that.
I think on the ODP, we're looking at road
realignment. And the first thing is, we are going to allow
a road there. Predictability; would it be better close to
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you or a little bit farther back? And truly in my mind, I
feel that the road alignment as presented is a better
choice. I truly feel that the road alignment in its
proposed location is a better choice.
I drove down the little stub street -- and I don't
know what it is exactly; the one they're not connecting
to -- and I thought, would it be worth -- would it be
advantageous to both sides to have that there, and I feel in
my mind that, no, it wouldn't. I do have questions about
what you do with the end of that street, if it's never going
to connect, but it looked -- you know. It doesn't look all
out of place stopping where it does. It looks like the
neighbors are using it for additional parking and so on and
so forth.
The hard part in my mind is separating the ODP
from the PDP, and I think we can do that because of 180
meetings, this is what we do. We understand. And as you
can see some of these questions that they're asking are very
in-depth. We have a board that understands.
We have been presented with a lot of information
about what the buildings are going to look like. But we
have to separate that out from our decision tonight. We
can't look at buildings. We're looking at street alignment.
Whether we should hook up with that other street and the
notes on the plan.
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And with everything -- I just have to say, with
I'm presented with tonight, as a neighbor, would it be my
number one choice? No. But does -- do property rights mean
something? I believe so. And if you follow the Code, as we
have today, I think -- I think they are meeting the intent
of the Code. So I am going to be in support of this first
portion, and I truly am not going to form an opinion on the
second portion until I hear from each and every one of you
that would like to speak tonight. So there's my two cents
on the whole ODP issue.
And at that point, we can keep talking, or put a
motion on the table, and sometimes that does -- sometimes
putting a motion on the table does help us move forward and
gives us a little bit of clarity as to what we're thinking
and maybe raise additional questions and so on and so forth.
David?
MR. LINGLE: I move to approve the amended CSURF
Centre for Advanced Technology Overall Development Plan
Number MJA 110001, based on the preceding findings of fact
and conclusion, beginning on Page 11 of the staff report,
with the exception of the two ODP notes. Should -- I don't
know how to word this -- that the two ODP notes concerning
secondary uses and FAR remain as on the existing ODP.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Can you just repeat that last
little second -- secondary uses, and what was the other one?
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MR. LINGLE: Well, the two ODP notes that we
discussed, I believe they're concerning -- the first one
concerns secondary uses and the second one concerning the
FAR remain as worded in the original -- or the existing ODP.
MR. CAMPANA: Did you get my second?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: So we have a motion and a
second.
MS. SCHMIDT: I guess I'll point out on the -- at
least this little sheet that we got on the proposed -- this
proposed ODP, on the general notes, it does have the density
for MMN outlined. So if we add that, I don't know if we're
creating -- do you think the .37 can be achieved, the 12
units can be achieved in the .37? Because otherwise, we are
creating a conflict right in the ODP, because that note is
in here, and now we're keeping the other note.
MR. LINGLE: Well, I guess I'm basing my motion,
just to get it on the table, on staff's opinion that the
Land Use Code requirement for MMN density would govern,
regardless of if there's a conflict.
MR. ECKMAN: Do you want to make that a part of
your motion?
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, I guess -- I mean, if you feel
that way, then you don't need to keep that .37 in there,
because the density of 12 is right in here on these little
notes.
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MR. LINGLE: Well, except that we would be -- I
mean, the ODP applies to all parcels.
MS. SCHMIDT: Oh, okay.
MR. LINGLE: I guess I don't know if there might
be another --
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
MR. LINGLE: -- parcel that we don't want to --
MS. SCHMIDT: Sure.
MR. CAMPANA: And that .37 may prevent them from
going to build 18. It's probably somewhere between. . .
that's what it sounds like, anyways.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
MR. LINGLE: Is that enough explanation of the two
notes? Because I'd refer to the numbers, but there -- some
of them are crossed off, and some of them are new, and it's
hard to tell what the real numbers are.
MR. ECKMAN: Sure. I do think, though, that if
you think you're creating, as member Schmidt is worried
about, an internal conflict in the document, then you could
clear that up by saying in your motion that if there is a
conflict internally, that the Land Use Code would trump the
note, if you think that's necessary.
MR. LINGLE: Well, I guess I'd be willing to do
that in regards to any land zoned MMN. I'm a little
uncomfortable saying that about any parcel in any zoning,
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because we haven't talked about the ramifications, so --
MR. ECKMAN: Right. Yes.
MR. CAMPANA: I mean, I think if we go to the more
stringent of the two, that .37 could be more restrictive
than MMN max. I think it's only fair to the neighborhood
that --
MR. ECKMAN: Trouble is, the ODP is not a law.
MR. CAMPANA: Yeah.
MR. ECKMAN: And the first question is, which
one's the more specific. One could argue, well, ODPs are
specific to a certain piece of ground. Then you can say,
well, the Land Use Code is more detailed and has a lot more
specificity. So I can argue that flat or round. And you
get nowhere. It might be better to clarify it with a
motion.
MR. CAMPANA: If you did a friendly amendment of
that sort, I'd support it.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. I would amend my motion to add
that in the event of a conflict between the ODP notes and
the provisions of the Land Use Code, as they pertain to MMN
zoned land within the ODP, that the Land Use Code would
govern.
MR. CAMPANA: I'll second that amendment.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Now I have another question
for you amenders. It says on these notes here, the Larimer
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Canal Number 2 is proposed to be realigned as an independent
project and not as part of this ODP. And is that how we
want to keep it?
MR. LINGLE: Say that again?
MS. SCHMIDT: The last note is, the Larimer Canal
Number 2 is proposed to be realigned as an independent
project and not a part of this ODP. And I think that's what
Mr. Podmore's letter was concerning. The fact if it is an
independent project, not part of the ODP, the ODP could
still move ahead if, for whatever reason, Larimer Canal, or
whatever, decided not to -- to do that project.
Or if they did, I mean, his concern, I think, is
that if they start building and then move the ditch because
they have to wait to move the ditch -- well, I mean, I guess
they're only going to be moving the ditch at the point --
well, no -- his concern, I guess, was if the ditch stays
there because they can't move it until there's no water in
it, which would be wintertime, that if the buildings were
there first, then you could possibly have a seepage issue.
You know, because in other words, they're not
going to do any mitigation, because they're going to presume
the ditch is going to be moved. So in the meantime, if the
buildings were there before the ditch is moved, then you
could have a breach of the ditch that would cause flooding.
MR. CAMPANA: Well, I think if it's a health and
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safety issue, wouldn't that be addressed on the development
agreement?
MR. SHEPARD: Well, I'll just chime in and say
that in terms of timing, the ditches stop running in, say,
October, and I don't see this project getting very far in
their construction, given the scenarios that could happen
between now and then, so that anyone would be occupied in
those buildings, or that there would be any impact due to
groundwater.
I know, just from seeing apartment complexes being
built, it takes nine to twelve months to build apartment
buildings. And yet you'll have the irrigation season
terminating this fall.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Also, it could get pushed off
and not build until next spring or summer as well.
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, there's also -- I guess we
haven't seen the agreement with the ditch company as when
they would relocate the ditch. If that's a hard and fast.
I mean, the ditch company could also change its mind,
because that's what the ODP says, that it's an independent
project. So we have -- with this ODP, we have no control
over the ditch moving.
MR. ECKMAN: I can say, I used to represent some
ditch companies, and they don't relocate ditches during the
irrigation season, in the summertime, so it's got to be
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sometime, October through first of April, something like
that.
MS. CARPENTER: So if we were going to require
that as a part of this project, would that be under the ODP
or the PDP? I mean, if we wanted -- we'd have to take that
note off, I guess is what you're saying, Brigitte.
MS. SCHMIDT: I mean, we could leave it as a -- as
a note, and leave this note on the ODP, and then when you
get to the PDP, make some kind of comment there about it.
MR. CAMPANA: It really is specific to the PDP, I
believe.
MS. SCHMIDT: To the buildings, yeah.
MR. CAMPANA: In my experience, again, it's dealt
with in the development agreement, not the -- certainly not
on ODP.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. So the note, you think, is
okay as it stands.
MS. CARPENTER: But it is being dealt with on the
ODP, because there's note on it, regarding it. So is Glen
still here?
MR. CAMPANA: It's only being dealt with, again,
from a broad standpoint. There's no detail as to the
realignment of it. On the PDP plans, there's going to be
significant detail and engineered drawings supporting that.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay. Well, I guess maybe what
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I'd like to do is hear from Glen about his -- about the
City's response to this. I mean, we just kind of have it,
it came in the record and -- I don't know how to evaluate
that. So if we could get that, that would be great.
MR. SHEPARD: While Glen's getting to the
microphone, I think the intention of putting Note 14 was
for -- to make the project as transparent as possible. It
was done to not hold back anything. Although it's an
off-site, it's not related; here's information. It's
information. An ODP does not grant a vested right. You
can't pull a building permit on the vested right. The note
could be on there. The note doesn't have to be on there.
It's just a piece of information on an ODP that doesn't have
a vested right.
MS. SCHMIDT: So, Ted, in the final drawing of the
approved ODP, would that proposed realignment ditch be shown
on the drawing, or would it just be where it is?
MR. SHEPARD: It doesn't have to be shown on any
ODP document.
MS. SCHMIDT: It doesn't have to be, but what are
we choosing to do? I guess --
MR. SHEPARD: It doesn't really matter, because
it's not a vested right document. You can't build off of
this document.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay.
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MS. CARPENTER: But I would still like to have a
response. Have you seen this one yet from Mr. Podmore
regarding the ditch and the problems with it?
MR. SCHLEUTER: Yes -- well, I haven't seen that
one, but I have heard his -- his premise, what he was
talking about. And actually, the groundwater is something
that's reviewed by the Engineering Department. And they
really don't review it either. There's really no department
in the City that reviews the groundwater. It's left up to
the private sector and their professional engineers.
From what I -- I think the ditch would be stable.
MS. CARPENTER: Can 4 million gallons of water be
groundwater? He's talking about a canal breach. What I'm
getting from this is that he's talking about a flood. Or is
that groundwater? Can 4 million gallons --
MR. SCHLUETER: Well, it would have to seep
through the ditch, through the soil, to cause the
catastrophic failure, is what he's saying. It becomes so
saturated that it would fail, and then the ditch would dump
through there. So you might want to talk to their
geotechnical engineer and his version of that -- the main
reason I understood that the ditch company wanted something
else done is about the trees.
The trees themselves cause roots to grow into the
sides of the ditch, which gives a path -- a place for the
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water to run, which is probably worse than this sub-drain
system that they want to put along the bottom there, which
is a real common way of controlling the groundwater and
seepage from ditches.
He's just saying that removing all -- the cutting
into that bank, so they're removing some of the soil, so the
water will have less of a path to come through the soil,
which could make it come through quicker, because you have a
shorter outlet, a closer outlet, and then it could fail.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay. So that's if they do move
it?
MR. SCHLUETER: That's if they don't move it.
MS. CARPENTER: If they don't --
MR. SCHLUETER: That's what he's saying, yes.
MR. LINGLE: Jennifer, I guess the way I look at
that, is that there's ditches that run for miles through the
city, and it's the ditch company's obligation to maintain
those in a safe manner. And a breach that's described here
could occur anywhere within the city limits, and I guess I
don't see that there's any need to have any extraordinary
review or -- I mean, not review, but any special conditions
that would apply to the ODP that wouldn't apply -- you know,
if there's a safety concern, there were safety concerns to
the neighborhood immediately west and immediately east and
across the ditch to the other side all the way through the
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city.
MS. CARPENTER: Okay. That helps. Thanks.
MR. SCHLUETER: One of the things the ditch
company is concerned about is the trees -- besides the trees
causing seepage, is cutting them down, and when there are
houses there. If they get old and they die, they need to
remove those, because then it does become -- the roots start
to rot, and it really does give a conduit for the water to
seep out.
MS. SCHMIDT: That would be the Warren Lake issue.
They had that issue down at Warren Lake.
MR. LINGLE: I guess I'd like to -- you know, just
in support of my motion, I'd like to say that I think that
since we've kind of taken care of the ODP note issue, in my
mind, that we're really looking at only the two things.
One is the relocation of Rollie Moore Drive and
the elimination of the Northerland Drive extension; and I
see those as both positive things. If we leave it where it
is, it's impactful from a wetlands standpoint, it's
impactful from a floodplain standpoint, and a lot of
different things. So it seems like that that should be
easily supportable, you know, until we get to the PDP, when
we discuss more details.
I think the alternative compliance to the
connectivity standard is valid. I found it a little curious
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that in the neighborhood's presentation, they made a huge
issue of needing connectivity to the south but made no
mention of the connectivity to the north.
And then also, it's good that, at this point in
time, there's no modification of standard required for the
block standard. I know we'll probably discuss that in more
detail, Brigitte, as we get to the PDP; and that the land
uses remain in compliance with the allowed uses for this
parcel. So that's a good reason I'm supporting it.
MS. SCHMIDT: I guess the only -- I mean, I agree
with most of what you said, David, but it's a very hard
decision for me because I feel the old -- I don't like the
old ODP. I don't like where the road is on the old ODP, and
that was why I voted for it last time.
I guess having, you know, gone back and then
seeing what City Council said when they overturned us and
instituting the block standards, I can't -- I can't buy into
the fact in finding number D that it's infeasible for the
potential Blocks 1 and 3 to be defined in the future set
forth because of existing development.
So for that reason, mostly, I think I am going to
vote not in favor of the ODP. But I agree that I think most
of what the ODP -- the realignment of the road portion, I
really think, is a much better -- I think the road needs to
be realigned. I think some of the ideas that the neighbors
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had for possible realignments could also work.
So it's hard, because I don't like the ODP as it
is right now. But I think this new one, as far as what City
Council had wanted with the block standards, I just don't
feel comfortable with those.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay.
MR. SMITH: I guess I -- I'm in support of the
motion. I admit, I've been convinced by the applicant that
they've demonstrated how their Alternative Development Plan
in regards to vehicular street connectivity does -- it's as
good as, or better than, I guess, of what the purpose is
from the Land Use Code for that section.
I'm not sure -- or I haven't been convinced that
the -- there is a need to be able to keep the note in the
ODP regarding the floor area ratios, and I think right now,
that seems to be -- I mean, really, irrelevant. And I
understand that from our discussion about that land in
there, because of some process, but unless it's very clear
and demonstrated as to what that was, I don't see any reason
why we -- right now, we wouldn't be able to say -- to agree
to letting go of that note.
But I think overall, that's the only part of this
proposed ODP that gives me some heartburn, based on the
criteria that we're charged with using. So ultimately, I'll
support the motion as presented.
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MS. CARPENTER: I'll support the motion as well.
I do think that the realignment -- and obviously, we want to
realign and not go through wetlands and impact those, and I
can't see that the connectivity -- I think it's better to
not go through the wetlands than to -- and save those than
to -- than for us to hit the connectivity standard. So I
will support the motion.
MR. CAMPANA: Andy, the reason why Dave and I are
pushing for that to be left on there -- or I'll speak for
myself -- is because MMN has a minimum density, where E
doesn't. So that FAR could be restrictive on the E side, or
on the MMN, it could conflict, because we're saying, on the
one hand, Land Use Code is saying you've got to go minimum
of this. That's saying you can't go any more than that, so
it could conflict. And the E probably wouldn't, so. . .
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Well, I think that we've
sufficiently discussed this, and I would like to move on to
the next item. So I'd like a roll call, please.
THE CLERK: Carpenter?
MS. CARPENTER: Yes.
THE CLERK: Smith?
MR. SMITH: Yes.
THE CLERK: Lingle?
MR. LINGLE: Yes.
THE CLERK: Campana.
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MR. CAMPANA: Yes.
THE CLERK: Schmidt.
MS. SCHMIDT: No.
THE CLERK: Stockover.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yes.
So the ODP has been approved. And now we'll move
on to item 4. The PDP.
So -- I'm sorry. I was pausing here. I was
pausing and just thinking again. First is the staff report.
Then the applicant presentation. And we have heard a lot of
the PDP. We understand that. If there are points that both
staff, the applicant, and the audience need to reaffirm, I
do understand that.
If it has totally been said once, we understand
that -- refer to it again and say, as before, these are my
concerns. Because this is all fresh in our mind. We do
want to, you know, be somewhat fresh when we're making this
decision, because I feel this is probably, in my mind, the
more important of the two.
So I would like to be able to move through this
whole issue tonight. So with that said, if the staff would
give us their presentation on what you feel is pertinent and
for us to make the decision on the PDP. Because we have a
pretty good understanding of the whole project already.
MR. ECKMAN: Mr. Chairman, I do think it's
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important that we do hear both issues tonight if at all
possible, because we don't want separate projects going to
City Council on appeal on different timing tracks. It would
be nice if they would both go at the same time.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Well, I think we owe it both
to the audience and to the applicant to do that tonight.
MR. OLT: Quickly, though, before I make my short
presentation, because we had talked about this. We had
certainly said that there would be, you know, two separate
presentations, which there is, obviously. You have now
discussed and taken a vote on the ODP.
But I think we had also somewhat said, almost
advertised, that there would be some sort of a break -- I
realize the hour, but some sort of a break between the two.
So I'm ready to move forward. I just want to make sure the
public is okay with moving directly into the PDP without a
break that we had essentially talked about.
MR. ECKMAN: No, we had -- we just had our break.
MR. OLT: I understand that. We just finished
with the ODP too.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: If we keep on schedule, we'll
have our next break at about 11:15.
MR. OLT: Okay. With that, I will again get into
a very -- a very short presentation, because again, the PDP,
the staff review, evaluation, and recommendation to the
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Board has all been covered thoroughly in the staff report to
you. It has been provided to you and the public. It's been
available to everyone. So in essence, I'll do a very
truncated version of this so that we can get into the
discussion.
This is The Grove at Fort Collins Project
Development Plan Number 1610B. It's a request for a
multifamily residential student housing project, containing
a total of 218 dwelling units. 210 units would be in 11
peer residential buildings, and 8 units would be in the
clubhouse mixed-use building.
I want to -- at this point in time, I want to say
that out of the 218 dwelling units, there is a mix of two-,
three-, and four-bedroom dwelling units. There are proposed
to be 18 four-bedroom dwelling units, and we'll briefly talk
about that relative to Section 3.8.16 in a minute.
But the site is located at the southwest corner of
Centre Avenue and existing Rollie Moore Drive, directly
south of The Gardens at for Spring Creek in the Centre for
Advanced Technology.
Rollie Moore Drive would be aligned on the
southerly portion of the subject property and extend east
from the existing terminus, approximately 800 feet east of
South Shields Street to connect with Centre Avenue just to
the north of Larimer Canal Number 2.
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There would be 403 parking spaces on site, 96
parallel parking spaces on the proposed public local street,
and 128 parallel parking spaces on the public commercial
street, and Rollie Moore Drive being a public collector
street. Collector or connector. I think engineering will
have to verify that.
The property is 27.5 acres in size, located in the
MMN medium density mixed use neighborhood and E employment
zoning districts.
So to get us into discussion, I will go
immediately to the staff's findings of facts and
conclusions.
The PDP has been determined to be in conformance
with the amended CSURF Centre for Advanced Technology
Overall Development Plan. The proposed land use is
permitted in the MMN medium density mixed use neighborhood
district. The proposed land use is permitted in the E
employment district as a secondary use, the residential use.
The proposed -- proposal complies with the
requirements set forth in Section 3.3.3(a)(4) in that all
measures proposed to eliminate, mitigate, or control water
hazards relating to flooding or drainage have been reviewed
and approved by the water utilities general manager.
The Project Development Plan complies with the
applicable general development standards with the following
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exceptions. Section 3.6.3(f), the utilization provision,
subarterial street connections to and from adjacent
neighborhood developments and developable parcels. The
section requires that the development plans provide for
future street connections to adjacent developable or
redevelopable lands at intervals not to exceed 660 feet.
The applicant submitted an alternative compliance
plan request that does not include street connections to
adjacent properties to the north, which would have been the
Northerland Drive connection to Gilgalad Way, or to the
south due to existing wetlands and the Larimer Canal Number
2 posing obstacles to possible connections.
The request is to be considered by the Planning
and Zoning Board based on the criteria set forth in
3.6.3(h), alternative compliance. Staff finds that the
Alternative Development Plan accomplishes the purposes of
Section 3.6.3(f) equally well or better than a plan that
would meet the standard and that any reduction in access and
circulation for vehicles, maintains facilities for
bicycle-pedestrian transit to the maximum extent feasible
for the following reasons.
The Alternative Development Plan will provide
enhanced bicycle-pedestrian connectivity within the amended
ODP -- and that actually should say PDP -- the pedestrian
and bicyclist will be able to access parks, recreation
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opportunities, schools, commercial uses, and employment uses
within the mile section. The streets that are being
proposed in the Alternative Development Plan will distribute
traffic without exceeding level of service standards.
And lastly, the Alternative Development Plan
eliminates negative impacts to high-quality wetlands, avoids
constricting important drainage way, eliminates impacts to
the FEMA floodway, and avoids negative impacts to natural
habitats and features associated with the designated
wildlife corridor along the Larimer Canal Number 2.
The Project Development Plan satisfies Section
3.8.16(e)(2) -- this is the one dealing with the
four-bedroom units -- in that the applicable criteria of the
Land Use Code has been satisfied that the project provides
adequate open space and recreational opportunities with a
large clubhouse facility, pool complex, basketball court,
volleyball court, parking areas, and public facilities as
necessary to support the proposed 18 four-bedroom units and
protect the occupants of the development and the adjacent
neighborhoods.
The Project Development Plan complies with the
applicable standards of Article 4, Division 4.6, MMN medium
density mixed use neighborhood district of the Land Use
Code. However, there is a discussion in the staff report
dealing with the block structure. And again, this is the
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one where there conceivably could be considered to be three
blocks in this Project Development Plan.
The one true classical block is the one that is
surrounded -- and I probably should get -- the classical
block in here is Block 2, and we'll get to a block diagram
eventually. I'm sure the applicant will be presenting that.
But Block 2 is the one that is completely surrounded by
public streets.
The one in the middle containing buildings 8
through 12 has a public -- Rollie Moore Drive being a public
collector street to the south, a public commercial street
along the east side, and a public local street along the
north and west side.
So that clearly satisfies the size. It's 4.7
acres in size. It is completely surrounded by public
streets. It satisfies the block face requirements and the
maximum height of three stories.
Blocks -- the potential Blocks 1 and 3 -- we'll
get to that diagram in a little bit -- would satisfy the
criteria except for the block structure, in that there are
gaps along the -- basically along the west end of Block 3,
which I believe is the one on the -- potential block on the
south side of Rollie Moore Drive. However, there is
existing development there that would make that -- the
street connection infeasible.
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The other potential Block 1, which is on the north
side of Rollie Moore Drive, it contains, really, land that
is not proposed to be developed. It's pretty much open
space, wetlands, and floodplain/floodway, and that has
existing development to the north and to the west. So that
block, also, it's infeasible to satisfy the feature for a
block that's set forth in Section 4.6(e)(1)(a) of the Land
Use Code.
And then finally, the Project Development Plan
complies with the applicable development standards of
Article 4, Division 4.27(e) and employment zoning district
to the Land Use Code.
Staff is recommending approval of The Grove
Project Development Plan based on the preceding findings of
fact and conclusions that have just been read.
With that, I complete my presentation.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. Questions of
staff?
Not at this point. We're ready for the applicant
presentation, please.
MS. RIPLEY: Thank you, Chairman Stockover,
members of the Board. Linda Ripley, Ripley Design, Inc.
Again, here tonight representing Campus Crest.
A few additional people will be joining our
presentation beyond the ones that joined in the ODP. In
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addition tonight, we have Josie Plaut, with the Institute
for the Built Environment; will speak briefly about the
changes to the building architecture and the process that
they had worked with Campus Crest on. We do have Mike
Phalen with Cedar Creek with us tonight. We've got Kevin
Miller, our groundwater engineer. Tom Hatten, our
geologist. And Mike Coley, our Earth Engineering
Consultants.
So we've got a full boat of people to ask some
very -- that you can ask very technical questions of. But
I'm going to give you an overview of the ODP, and then we'll
be available for questions.
So I want to start with the site. This is Parcel
C as it -- in the context of all the existing land uses
around it, and then the next slide is where we were. I'm
going to walk you through a history of where we've been with
this PDP.
The first time we brought this project to you was
October 21st, last year. And the project -- the plan looked
like this. We had buildings that encroached into wetlands,
requiring wetland mitigation areas to the north. We had
buildings placed in a tight courtyard concept with parking
around the perimeter. The total site area was about 23
acres at that time.
We requested four modifications; one to the block
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standard, one for orientation to connecting walkways,
another one for the parking stall width on Rollie Moore
Drive -- we were asking it to be narrower -- and I think
those -- oh, and the building setback along Rollie Moore
Drive was the fourth modification.
That meeting ran very late, kind of like this one.
The modification for the block standard was ultimately
denied, kind of at the last minute. I believe it was about
1:00 a.m. We requested a continuance to reexamine the block
standard issue. We came back to the Board on November 18th
with this plan.
So there was some changes to it. We came back
with enhanced public ways that sort of guided people through
the community here on detached sidewalks that were
tree-lined and tried to get at what the block standard tries
to -- tries to create. It tries to create walkable blocks
in the neighborhood so you can walk through a neighborhood
and sort of understand the direction that one would go to
get through it and out of it in a pleasant way.
We thought we did that with this plan. We also
addressed some other concerns that the Board had. We
provided some additional parking to the east of the project
to get parking distributed a little bit better. And we
added a trash enclosure on the south side of Rollie Moore
Drive. The same modifications were requested, however. We
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were still requesting those modifications, and that evening,
the plan was denied.
So the team went back to the drawing board. We
took a fresh look at the whole project with our client and
decided to do our best to come up with a project that did
not require any modifications. And we believe we were
successful in doing that. The project that we have before
you tonight doesn't require any modifications. It meets the
Land Use Code as presented.
The differences. I'll try to be pretty quick.
This plan added about four and a half acres of land to the
west, which allowed us to avoid encroachment into the
wetland and to reduce the density. So we're no longer
having buildings in this area. We're completely out of all
the wetlands.
The project has a gross density of 7.93 dwelling
units per acre. Before, that density was higher at 9.78.
Now we have 218 dwelling units; before, we had 224. Now we
have 612 bedrooms. Before, we had 624 bedrooms. So the
number of units and bedrooms has gone down slightly. They
are still presented in a configuration of two-, three-, and
four-bedroom units.
We've got 499 automobile parking spaces and 294
bicycle parking spaces. That's double from what we
presented last time, and as we've mentioned before, only
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about 25 are actually required.
All the buildings are oriented to public streets
with parkways and street trees. So all the streets you see
in this project, they're all public now. None of them are
private. All the buildings are oriented to the street per
Land Use Code design.
All the buildings have foundation plantings, and
xeriscape principles are followed throughout the landscape
plan. The plan includes a central green and the pool
complex, clubhouse, sports courts, where it's located into
the site, and they're moved even further from the
neighborhood to add as little impact as possible to the
neighborhood.
The next few slides are of site shots and
they're -- I've got my car parked at the end of Rollie Moore
Drive, the existing one, off of -- right by The Gardens on
Spring Creek. And the photos are kind of starting from the
west, heading east, and they just show how much existing
plant material there is up against that neighborhood.
That's kind of what we wanted you to see. Those were taken
last fall. This is at the eastern end. So there's quite a
bit of vegetation and buffering that already exists on the
site.
The project provides buffering along that wetland
of -- the Land Use Code asks to provide a hundred-foot
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average buffer along wetlands. We've provided that and
approximately 8,000 square feet above that.
The plan incorporates some open fencing along the
north boundary to keep students and pets out of the natural
area. The fence is lowered to three feet periodically to
allow wildlife movement across the site. The plan includes
solid wood fencing where parking is proposed so that there's
no chance of headlights going out into the wildlife area or
to the neighborhood.
Trash and recycling enclosures are now distributed
throughout the whole site. They are no longer proposing a
centralized trash compactor. So trash locations are
throughout the site, typically as you would see in other
projects.
The plan provides buffering and enhancement
plantings along the Larimer Canal Number 2, which is a
designated wildlife corridor on the City's natural area
mapping, and with the proposed offsite realignment of the
ditch, we're proposing -- we're now proposing 5.8 acres of
natural area buffer comprising the wildlife corridor
associated with the canal.
So now not only do we have the 50 foot plus along
the north side of the existing canal; we have the area
between the old canal alignment and the new canal alignment,
and then there would be a buffer. When Parcel B, in the
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future, were developed, there would be another 50 foot on
the north side. So it'll become, in the future, a very
nice, wide, wildlife corridor with existing trees and new
trees planted in it as well for when the old ones actually
die.
All street lighting is provided by the City, since
we had -- they're all public streets, so the City provides
the streetlights with their standard residential fixtures.
Parking lots within the development are all lit with cutoff
fixtures on 12 foot high standards. So we've made an
attempt to keep the lighting that is controlled by the
developer at the lowest possible level.
The project will connect Rollie Moore Drive to
Centre Avenue. Rollie Moore Drive -- next slide -- Rollie
Moore Drive contains bike lanes, curb bulges, and crosswalks
to maximize the safety of the pedestrians, bicycles, and
motorists.
It also incorporates rain gardens. We haven't
talked about this a lot in previous presentations, but it's
always been something that the applicant has presented, not
at the request of the City, but at the suggestion of the
stormwater department. They really encouraged us to provide
some ways to take the stormwater off the street, clean it in
the rain garden, before it goes on to its eventual outfall.
So we've got several locations along Rollie Moore Drive
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where we are proposing these heavily planted rain gardens,
so it's a place where we've gone above and beyond what is
required by the Land Use Code. And ironically, because
we're doing them, we've had to ask for some engineering
variances to be able to accomplish them.
Pets are allowed in this development. They're
still being proposed. However, the applicant can provide
you with some statistics. Its usually a very small
percentage of the residents that actually have pets.
Partially because that pet pays rent. If you have a pet,
you pay a higher rent. So it costs the students something,
and the management has authority in how to deal with any
problems that come up. They can even go into the apartment
if the student is not there, if there's a barking problem,
et cetera.
In addition, they keep on top of any kind of waste
problem by having these little pet stations distributed
throughout the site, and they expect their students to clean
up after their pets, and apparently they do. And if they
don't, the management does.
The next topic I want to cover is stormwater. I'm
going to hit the highlights of what we as a design team
understand to be facts about stormwater and how we're
handling drainage. But we can certainly provide more
technical information later if you choose to ask us further
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questions.
So we're going to start with this slide that shows
the existing drainage patterns across the site. Right now,
all those flows -- the blue represents all the flows going
across the existing site, and they get to that green line,
which is the Windtrail outfall swale. So right now, the
water does go into that area, and then it eventually goes
into a culvert over there at the end of Rollie Moore Drive
and heads out through the Horticulture Center outfall. So
there's two outfalls that go to Spring Creek, sort of
parallel to the north, northeast.
So the existing issues that you heard about last
time, and I'm sure you'll hear some about again tonight, is
that the neighbors that live north of this proposed project
do experience stormwater backup from the Windtrail outfall
swale. Even though that channel was oversized specifically
to accommodate future developed flows, they do experience
stormwater backup. Neighbors to the north also experience
high ground water. These are facts.
Causes may include the design of the Windfall
(sic) outfall swale. Insufficient maintenance of the swale
is particularly suspect. Overirrigation and sump pump
discharge could also be contributing to the problems that
these neighbors have. The maintenance of that swale is the
homeowners' obligation.
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Now, I want to go to the proposed drainage flows.
All stormwater flows to be direct -- they're going to be
directed to a new completely separate drainage swale that's
going to be installed parallel to the Windtrail outfall
swale. So our water will go to the edge of our project, be
captured in a swale, where it will then be transferred over
to that northeast, where it will then be directed into the
Horticulture Center outfall channel.
So none of the stormwater from this project is
going to go into that drainage area any longer. We're
diverting it all around so that we don't contribute to any
of the flooding or stormwater backup issues that they have.
The stormwater and groundwater flows both will completely
avoid that Windtrail outfall swale to not exacerbate those
existing problematic issues.
The Horticulture Center outfall channel has
sufficient capacity. The emergency spill path in a
catastrophic circumstance avoids our project, the Windfall
(sic) outfall swale and the neighborhood. On-site detention
not required on this site. Offsite stormwater detention is
sufficient. On-site water quality features exceeds City
standards, and that includes our rain gardens that I
mentioned previously.
Development avoids the hundred-year floodway
completely. We do have minimal encroachment into the flood
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fringe, approximately 575 feet of roadway, and the corners
of two buildings up in that area do encroach into the
hundred-year floodplain. However, it does comply with City
regulations. And it is permissible. The project complies
with applicable FEMA and City floodplain regulations.
In terms of the wetlands, the wetlands depicted in
that bright green color, the delineation of the wetlands has
been approved by the Army Corps of Engineers. Development
will not encroach into them. And then the buffer that we
have all along that wetland exceeds City standards and will
be further enhanced by quite a lot of native plantings that
will include grasses, shrubs, trees, evergreen, and
deciduous.
In terms of groundwater. Glen mentioned that
groundwater is something that the City does not regulate.
However, we have taken the groundwater concern quite
seriously, because before groundwater caused by our project
gets to be a neighborhood problem, it's going to be a
problem for this project. So it would be ludicrous for us
not to understand what is going to happen with groundwater
and dealing with it effectively, because this project is the
most at risk.
We do know that we have -- first of all, I want to
explain that there are groundwater monitoring wells that
have been put in place on the site already, so we have been
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monitoring since April what actually happens in terms of
seepage from that ditch right now, so we've been gathering
additional information from what we had initially.
We do know that there is shallow groundwater. The
monitoring wells indicate that we do need to lower
groundwater levels along roadways, as required by LUCAS.
City staff has approved our preliminary under-drain system
as designed, and the under-drain system would be finalized
in the FDP -- we should be on the next slide, Brent. There.
It's kind of hard to see, but Brent, maybe you can
help. We've got under-drains that parallel both sides of
all the public streets. So they are scattered all
throughout the side, both sides of all those streets, and
then in addition to that, right as you come away from the
ditch, right along the back side of our buildings, we have
an under-drain system there as well to intercept that water
before it gets to where it could damage building foundations
or roadways.
The next subject is the impact of that under-drain
system on neighbors and the wetland. The under-drain system
discharges to the Horticulture Center outfall downstream.
There's no increase in groundwater to the neighborhood or
wetland. We wouldn't expect that because we're intercepting
all of that groundwater and routing it away from that
drainage.
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The developer will continue to monitor those wells
to see what's happening; and in particular, since now we're
taking all the stormwater around and we're diverting the
groundwater around, the question was raised, Well, now are
we going to dry up the wetlands, and we don't want to do
that.
So the system is designed so that if we see that
the wetlands are drying up -- and let's go to those -- we've
got monitoring wells at all those different sites, so some
of them are up by the ditch, and then many of them are down
in the wetlands so we can monitor what's happening with that
water down there.
Steve Long with Cedar Creek; he is our wetlands
consultant, and he also has some vegetation plots out there
that he's checking to see -- to look for changes there as
well too. So if he sees changes, I understand that we have
a way that we can divert some of the groundwater back to the
wetlands to help recharge it. So there will be the ability
to do that if we see that the wetlands are starting to
decline.
At this point in the program, I'm going to have
Josie Plaut with the Institute for the Built Environment
talk to you a little bit about the coming together of her
organization and Campus Crest, some of the things they've
done, and then I'm going to come back and just hit the high
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points of how we meet policies and the Land Use Code
specifically.
MS. PLAUT: Thank you, and my name is Josie Plaut.
I'm with the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado
State University. Also a Fort Collins resident at 1006 West
Mulberry.
So IBE is an institute within the university, and
we engage graduate students who are cross-building related
programs in real-world green building projects. We've
worked on over 15 LEED certification -- excuse me, LEED
certified projects in Fort Collins and have another 15 or 18
in the works. And then in addition to that, we facilitate
integrated design process, so we work on engagement of
multiple stakeholders.
And we became involved in this project through the
suggestion of some of the local residents saying, Hey, we
have really great resources here in this community. We
don't feel like you're living up to the standards of our
community. And here's some people to talk to. And so we
were contacted by the developer to engage with their project
and help to understand better the values and the culture of
our community.
So in that, the first thing that we did is we
brought the client out and showed them some of the local
projects, including Aspen Hall, a LEED certified project at
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Colorado State University. And then we showed them the
Rocky Mountain Innosphere, which is another project that
we've worked on and are very proud of. And as part of that,
they became excited about the concepts of green building and
sustainability and also the integrated design process.
And so in late January, we held a workshop with
about 60 participants that included neighbors, students,
faculty, and staff from Colorado State University, City
staff, Utilities, and other interested parties, green
building practitioners, and industry professionals, and we
brought them all together to look at this project in
particular and make recommendations and suggestions about
how it could be improved.
I should also mention that IBE is a very proud
member of this community and that we were reluctant to get
involved with such a controversial project. And so as part
of that, we did have conditions for our involvement. And
those conditions included that they would pursue LEED
certification for at least one of the buildings on this
project; that they would engage a resident life and
education program, focused around green living, so energy,
and water efficiency, trash reduction, and green purchasing
practices; that they would engage in corporate education,
that they needed to take some time to educate their staff,
both in a corporate office and in the field about
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sustainability; and finally, that they would engage us in
doing one project from start to finish to show them perhaps
how this might be done in a way that is more aligned with
the other communities that they work in.
And they've agreed to those conditions, and we've
begun working on all of those fronts. They have agreed to
do LEED certification on one of the buildings in this
development. We have begun a student resident life
education program. We have already conducted corporate
education for many of their staff, including in-depth
education for their construction and development team. And
we have started working on a project with them in Corvallis,
Oregon, with many similar issues to this project.
So specifically related to this project, if you
recall the drawings from the previous PDP, the look and the
feel of the project was very different. This is a response
to the feedback that we got in the design workshop in
January.
As you'll see, there is more variation in the
massing of the buildings. You'll also notice that the roof
is now flat. There are two main reasons for this. One is
it helps to reduce the height and visual impact. And
another is that the client has become very interested in
fairly large-scale solar energy as an investment for their
company, as a long-term investment for the company, and the
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flat roofs are much more conducive to installing PV arrays
than the gabled roofs. Next slide, please.
So these slides are a summary. I'm not going to
go through them in detail, but it's a summary of the
commitments that have been made and things that are under
investigation. So this project is still under design. So
all of these decisions have not been made yet.
I did want to hit on the Fort Collins Green Code.
So we were actually part of the development of the Fort
Collins Green Code, although I was on the commercial track,
not the residential track, but the client has agreed to
follow all of the Green Code guidelines should the project
be approved, even though those guidelines would not go into
effect until January 2012, with the exception of a specific
guideline around insulation and all-electric heat buildings.
So you may be interested in questions on that later. At any
rate, they have voluntarily agreed to meet the new Green
Code should the project be approved, and that is a -- that
is an effort that would not be required of them, as I
understand it.
And then in partnership with that, the LEED
component, which covers many things. It covers energy
efficiency, site and landscaping, water use, indoor water
use, low VOC paints and finishes, so healthy materials for
the people living within the project. It's a fairly
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extensive and rigorous program that helps to provide
accountability related to the green building attributes.
So without the slides, I will conclude my
introduction, and I'm happy to answer questions later.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
MS. RIPLEY: Okay. I can do a little bit without
slides here. The next slide was really just simply a copy
of the City's Land Use Code, because this PDP is -- or the
new City Plan, not the Land Use Code. The PDP is consistent
with City Plan principles and policies that have to do with
protecting and enhancing natural areas, wildlife corridors,
wetlands, drainages and stormwater management; livability
policies having to do with infill development, neighborhood
compatibility, providing a variety of housing types, land
use transitions, accommodating student population.
All those issues are a part of City Plan. This
plan addresses all of those kinds of things. Landscape
policies having to do with visually appealing streets,
street trees, low maintenance, functional landscapes that
are sustainable, unique, and attractive. This project hits
on all of those.
Livability policies having to do with walkable
blocks, traffic calming, access to transit, buildings
oriented to public streets, and integrated natural features.
Again, hit every one of them.
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Transportation policies having to do with
encouraging alternative travel modes, such as bicycling and
transit, interconnected neighborhood streets,
pedestrian-bicycle network, and safe street crossing. Do
all of those things.
I don't want to go way into the West Central
Neighborhood Plan. Again, I covered a lot of those land use
policies and goals in the ODP presentation. But just
suffice it to say that this plan speaks directly to
promoting student housing on CSURF land, on land close to
the university, so that students can live at a place where
they can walk or bike to the university, and it's -- because
it's an environmental goal to reduce vehicle miles traveled,
but it's also a goal to say, keeping track of our
neighborhood and not have them reach a tipping point where
families don't want to live in the neighborhood anymore
because it's been overtaken by students that aren't managed
well.
Most importantly, the PDP that we're showing you
tonight complies with the Land Use Code. The Land Use Code
is a document that takes all these policy plans and develops
standards to ensure that we get these policies and
principles accomplished, our goals accomplished. It's
through the Land Use Code that we do this.
So the PDP complies with the land use and
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performance standards in Division 4. That's the one that
covers the zoning districts themselves that have to do with
permitted uses, density, block standards, et cetera.
So in terms of permitted use. Multifamily
dwellings are permitted uses in the MMN and the E. The
density, MMN requires minimum density of 12 DU per acre. We
have 14.31. E requires a minimum of 7. Ours is 14.3. Just
for your reference, Landmark Apartments near this site is 18
DU per acre. Rams Village is 17 DU per acre. So even
compared to other student housing projects around the
campus, we are significantly below those densities, so it's
not a particularly dense student housing project.
We're required to provide a mix of housing types.
A minimum of two housing types are required. The proposed
two types are multifamily and mixed use. The clubhouse is a
mixed use building with commercial uses on the ground floor
and residential units above.
We're required to have access to a park. 90
percent of the dwellings need to be within a quarter mile of
a park or a central feature or gathering place. We meet
this in two ways. First of all, the pool, clubhouse,
central green qualifies as a privately owned park that's way
bigger than the 10,000 square feet it needs to be. It's
over an acre. And also, Gardens at Spring Creek is very
close, and I believe 90 percent of the residences would be
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within a quarter mile of that facility as well. And in
addition, we're more than a quarter mile from Rollie Moore
Park, but it is just down the way and certainly a wonderful
amenity that these students will be able to take advantage
of.
Block requirements. This is a graphic that shows
how we meet the block standard. Since -- the biggest
stumbling block to us needing a modification last time was
that we didn't have public streets. So it was hard to
convince you that we were meeting the intent of the block
standard.
So now we do have public streets that required us
to create parking lots to the interior. But now that loop
street creates our -- a block. And then so we end up with
three blocks in the project. So the block to the north --
what the Land Use Code says is the block is defined by
either buildings or plazas or functional open space. So --
or a feature like a canal or wetland or something that you
can't build a street across or through.
So in this first block that's to the north, we
have a wetland that creates the northern boundary. We have
streets that create southern boundary all the way along it,
but we have two tiny little gaps at the end where we don't
have an existing natural feature and we don't have a street,
but we do have existing development, and it makes us -- it's
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impossible to do a street there because development already
exists.
So it's -- we did the best we could do. We meet
the standard. It's not feasible to have a street on those
end cap locations. The middle block is obvious. It's
surrounded by streets. And then the other one to the south
is a very, very similar. To the north of that block, we
have Rollie Moore Drive. So there we have a street. To the
south, we have an existing feature, natural feature, that we
can't affect, but we have time -- and then to the east, we
have a street, Centre Avenue, but there's a little gap to
the west side where CARE Housing has developed that
property, and we don't have any ability to put a street
there, and it wouldn't make any sense even if we could.
So that is how we have developed our blocks. All
three blocks are less than seven acres in size. The plan
exceeds the minimum building frontage standard of 40 percent
of each block face or 50 percent of the total block, since
virtually all of our building frontage -- all of our
buildings front onto buildings. So pretty much all along
our streets, we either have a building or plaza or a
functional open space.
A maximum building height in the Code says we need
to be three stories. We are three stories.
And Jennifer, I think it was you last time that
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struggled with the block standard thing and whether or not
we have done a good job, you were looking at the Land Use
Code and you were saying, Well, it doesn't look like the
picture. And so I put the picture in tonight because I
think we very much do look like the picture now. All our
buildings are oriented to streets, just as is depicted in
this Land Use Code figure, and the parking is to the
interior.
The plan meets or surpasses the buffer zone
standards in the Land Use Code as well in regard to the
wetlands and the canal. The general standard is that
development should be directed away from those sensitive
resources. We've done that. We've minimized the impact by
use of buffer zones. We've done that. We enhance existing
conditions if possible. We've certainly done that. And if
you do encroach or disturb these areas, then you restore or
replace the resource that was lost. Luckily, we are no
longer encroaching into the wetland, and we've got a good
buffer along the canal, so we don't have to mitigate in that
way.
We believe we meet all the performance standards
in this section of the Code, which include preserving and
enhancing the character and function of the open space.
We've mitigated all impacts. We've preserved wildlife
movement corridors. We've preserved significant trees. We
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protect any species that we've been asked to protect in
their habitat. We minimize the degradation of the habitat
by the way we keep people out of it. We avoid lighting and
noise that would impact the area. We preserve the
topographic features. We've replaced inappropriate existing
landscape with native where possible.
So anywhere that we've disturbed the edges of any
of these areas and the buffer zones particularly, when we
replant or reseed, it'll all be native, and that's not true
of the areas now.
Human access is restricted to the wetlands. We've
got a fence all along there to keep students and pets out of
that area. And the fencing is compatible, because it's open
where it can be, and it's solid where we do need to screen
parking lots.
And we meet all the general development standards
in Division 3 of the Land Use Code, with one exception. And
that has to do with street pattern connectivity standards
for which we need to request alternative compliance. Now,
that is exactly the same alternative compliance that you
approved for the ODP. So I'd like it entered into the
record that we have requested it, and that we've made all
the same points we did in our last presentation, but I don't
think I have to go through it all since you've heard it
fairly recently.
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Since this project began in 2009, we've had six
neighborhood meetings, a community workshop, and an open
house. The applicant truly listened to the neighborhood and
made numerous changes to the plans and to the architecture
as a result of their input. The project is much better as a
result of their participation in the process.
These are just some of the things that we've
changed. The site plan was redesigned to avoid
modifications, and many of the variances associated with the
block standard, narrower parking stalls, narrower bike
lanes, increased building setbacks. All those are standard
now.
The clubhouse and intense activity areas were
placed further away from the neighborhood. Additional
property was added to the plan which brought the density
down and allowed us to avoid encroachment into the wetland.
A centralized trash collection system was changed to a
decentralized system and moved away from the natural area.
A fence is provided along the wetland and natural area to
keep pets and people out of it. The fence is lowered, so we
can still have wildlife movement between the wildlife
corridor and the wetland. A screen fence is used where
parking faces the neighborhood. On-site lighting is kept to
a minimum. 12-foot standards, cutoff fixtures. The
landscape buffering along the wetland has been increased
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twice and more evergreen trees have been added. A detached
bike-ped trail was added to increase bike safety.
Items that aren't governed by the Land Use Code
that the applicant has done in response. An intense level
of investigation has gone into studying groundwater and
stormwater issues to educate and help alleviate neighborhood
concerns about the impact of the project. The applicant's
committed to doing a LEED certified building and is
investigating many sustainable green building practices.
The applicant is considering heat sources other
than electricity. We've provided a bike pump and fix-it
station to the clubhouse to encourage bike use. The
applicant has requested assistance from the CSU Bicycle
Advisory Board on how to best educate students in regard to
bicycle safety, and the applicant is also working with CSU
housing representatives to ensure that their management
policies and procedures are comparable and as appropriate as
those as CSU themselves.
So there's -- again, because of neighborhood
suggestions, we've made these introductions. The owners of
Campus Crest have been meeting with CSU people and learning
about how they do business in terms of controlling students
in their housing developments, and that process is going
very well and will continue into the future.
We've heard consistently that the project is too
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close to the neighborhood and that not adequate transition
between existing neighborhood and the project. You've heard
a lot of people say, it's just too intense. There's just
too many students. It impacts us too much.
First of all, I want to point out that now on a
gross density calculation, this project is 7.93 DU per acre.
So when you throw in those open space areas on the north and
the south, that density goes down to 7.93. CARE Housing is
8.7. Windtrail Condos is 11.7. Sundering Townhomes is 7.2.
Hillpond Condos is 5.5. We're not that much more dense than
the neighborhood. We have chosen to purposely put all these
students very close together so that we can leave all this
open space to create a very nice buffer and transition to
the neighborhood.
What we did to help the neighborhood understand
that and be able to visualize it and see it, is we developed
a model of the site, a digital model of the site, where we
put in all of the grading and the buildings and the streets
at actual elevations that they would occur, and then picked
points around the edge of the site so that we could show
neighborhood residents what this project would look like
from their back yard property line.
So I just want to share with you tonight that we
would like to look -- have you look at these as well. So
moving from west to east, this first slide is what the
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project would look like from CARE Housing over on the west
side, where we are quite close to CARE Housing. But there's
a screen fence and landscaping along that fence and a bunch
of evergreen trees.
Then we move around, all the way to the east side,
and I'll just have Brent track through, but what this slide
doesn't show is, it doesn't show all that existing
vegetation that I had on those site shots. That's not
depicted here at all. But that edge of that green, that's
the edge of the back yard, so that long green represents
that open space that will exist between the back yards and
this project.
We are showing the plant material that is going to
be installed, and we're installing some 690 trees on this
project. These are shown at one- to three-year growth rate.
So that's brand-new. They are obviously going to grow --
you know, trees grow between one and three foot per year, so
in, you know, 10 to 15 years time, that picture is going to
look very, very different, and those buildings are going to
be much more buffered because of all the trees that sit
between the neighborhood and the building.
Unfortunately, despite all our efforts, and
despite of all the changes, there's still obviously quite a
lot of opposition to this project. The people that are here
tonight, they live in an absolutely great neighborhood. I
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go over there often myself. I jog along that trail.
They've got ponds. They've got, you know, interesting
historic architecture. I know why they care about their
neighborhood so much.
However, the project before you tonight, it meets
the Land Use Code. It is a good project. It deserves to be
approved. The design team and the City staff has spent a
lot of hours working to make it an exemplary project, not
one that just meets the Code but exceeds it in many ways.
I'm going to conclude with a quote from Clark
Mapes, from the Advanced Planning Department. This was in
our last round of comments from City staff. This is the
comment that we got from Clark Mapes.
This development plan meets the basic overall
intent of the Land Use Code perhaps better than any other
apartment complex submitted under the Code. The simple
pattern of residential buildings facing on to streets with
tree-lined sidewalks and street addresses reflects the key
standards in the Land Use Code for a familiar
pedestrian-oriented neighborhood pattern and residential
development. The plan offers particularly generous
infrastructure with the extent of single-loaded streets long
the extensive open land preservation on the site. And the
shortened pedestrian crossings of streets created by curb
bulges that enclose and define the street parking. The
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project would be a good example to include in the design
manual which provides examples and explanations of the
intent behind Land Use Code standard pertaining to apartment
complex development.
With that, I'm going to conclude, and as I said,
we've got a big team just waiting to fill in the details, if
you'd like.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I think this is a natural
break. I think we should take a quick break and reconvene
at 20 after.
(Break from 11:15 p.m. to 11:25 p.m.)
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Welcome back. At this
point, we are going to have -- if the Board has questions of
the applicant.
MR. ECKMAN: Mr. Chair, there was one other thing
that the applicant wanted to call Mr. Haukus (phonetic) to
the stand and get an answer from him that is needed by the
Land Use Code, and then maybe he can go home.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Nobody gets to go home
early.
MR. HAUKUS: Good evening. My name's John Haukus.
I'm the water engineering and field services manager for
Fort Collins Utilities. And I'm just here to clarify
something that is in the Land Use Code and to state for the
record that the general manager, executive director of Fort
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Collins Utilities, has delegated the authority for review
and approval of stormwater and flood hazard mitigation to
myself and to the facilities development review staff.
You've had Glen Schlueter up here talking about a
lot of those issues, and that this development has met those
requirements of Chapter 26 of the City Code and, therefore,
Section 3.3.3(a)(4) of the Land Use Code. This is to
eliminate, mitigate, or control existing stormwater
conditions on the site. So I just wanted to read that into
the record for this hearing.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Do we have questions on that
at this point?
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. So do we have questions of the applicant?
Not at this point?
Would staff like to make any response or comments
to the applicant's presentation?
MR. OLT: No, I don't think that -- no, I don't
think that we have any comments at this time.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. So we'll move into
public testimony. And again, as before, we have two groups
that we've set aside. We did allow 30 minutes on this one.
Don't have to use all 30, but we definitely hear what you
have to say. We do ask that you do respect that if you are
with a group, we've committed that time to the group, so
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we're not going to allow additional minutes after that, if
you're with that group, as we did before. So we need to
hold it to that 30 minutes. And who would like to go first?
SPECTATOR: We'd like to give the opportunity for
the other group to go first.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Thank you.
MR. WALKER: Good evening. I'm Lloyd Walker.
Again, a member of the Neighbors and Students United Group.
I will be one of several speakers that will address various
issues on this. And in my earlier comments, I made a lot of
statements about that, really, were PDP oriented so I'm not
going to go over those again, except to summarize and add
new information.
Again, you know, the things that -- the way we've
set up the -- you know, the process of setting up a vision
of the future of Fort Collins and for the west central
neighborhoods was through these planning documents and
processes, the West Central Neighborhood Plan and the
recently adopted City Plan. You know, this is the way --
this is one of the things that makes this community a great
community and why everybody wants to be here. We do a lot
of thinking about where we want to go as a community, and
it's reflected in these plans.
And I'd like to say that the -- as was indicated,
several aspects of the West Central Neighborhood Plan and
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the City Plan are being met by this project. We're
addressing a definite need in terms of student housing, in
terms of more diverse housing, in terms of dealing with a
certain -- certain segments of our population. We've got a
mosaic in this area, in this block area, this square mile.
We've got a lot of different uses already. This is sort of
adding to that mosaic.
We're -- we're dealing with, you know, what is the
major economic engine in this community. CSU. I mean,
no -- no other entity in this town generates so much intense
use. We've got 27,000 students. We also have 6,000
employees. And so a lot of people are coming to that place
on a daily basis.
So when we want to become a greener community,
it's important to figure out how we deal with this huge
enterprise that really is very intense. And, you know,
we've focused on the students here and the fact that we need
more student housing, which is accurate. You know, surveys
have shown that communities of our size, and with our
characteristics being a university down, we're very
deficient in multifamily housing. And I think, again, it's
reflected in the rents and so forth.
And by providing this type of student housing,
we're also addressing and freeing up single-family housing
that's being used as a student housing. And you know,
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there's other segments of the population, including CSU
employees. I mean, I have personal experience about the
fact that a lot of CSU employees would like to have a green
aspect to their life where they can bicycle to work; and in
fact, a lot of these communities like Avery Park were
initially set up as affordable housing for, you know, CSU
employees. And I think we should think about the fact that
The Grove is one piece of perhaps reestablishing those
houses as affordable housing so that CSU employees can also
enjoy a greener lifestyle.
Of course, we've talked about the use of
alternative transportation. The importance of biking. The
importance of the fact that students are intense bicycle
users. And this project has gone a long way to helping to
address that.
I think it's -- you know, it's interesting that,
in this sense, The Grove is really raising the bar on our
own policies. I mean -- and I'd suggest that maybe as a
future thing, you might want to suggest to City Council that
they take a look at this. The fact that this project, by
our Code, would only require 25 bicycle parking spaces, and
is -- is kind of ludicrous, when you think about it,
especially when they're offering 30 of them. So I think it
shows that, again, The Grove, as a corporate enterprise is,
you know, raising the bar -- raising the bar on us, if you
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will.
I think we've heard enough about the fact that
what they're doing on the wetlands is in excess of City
requirements. Again, raising the bar. And I would use that
theme throughout this, because what I've seen happen here is
that they came -- and I saw this when I was sitting in your
place there. An outside corporate entity would come in and
say, Well, here's our product. What do you think? And we'd
say, you know, it doesn't meet our community standards. Try
again or go away.
And you know, I give it, the credit, to Campus
Crest that they are -- they said, No, we want to be here,
and what do we have to do? And I think we've heard that
they've gone through a lot of effort. They're changing
their corporate culture. They're looking at LEED.
And by doing this and by passing this project, we
are setting the bar higher for future projects, and I think
that's an important aspect to think about here, is that
another -- the next project that comes in, assuming that we
pass The Grove as they propose it, we're going to say, Do
you meet that standard, because that's the bar we've raised
to -- for these kinds of projects.
So I think that, you know, we need to keep in mind
that the process has worked well in terms of giving us a
better product. That's why we're such a good community to
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live in. That's why we've got all these high ratings.
That's why we're all here and other people want to be here.
Now, I want to talk about compatibility. That's a
big issue. You know, as stated, in any of these plans, this
project is allowed, but it's got to be compatible. Okay.
So compatibility is achieved in certain ways. It has to do
with a buffer distance of 300 feet. It has to do with
managed housing.
There's a difference between managed housing and
unmanaged housing. And I think what neighborhoods like ours
and Avery Park have responded to is what I would call
unmanaged housing, where, you know -- when you have a
managed housing situation where the management is on-site,
it's trained, they're employing similar codes of conduct to
the CSU student code, you know, I think it gives more a
sense of assurance, if you will.
Can I get those slides queued up -- you've got
them ready to go here -- okay. Let's talk about this buffer
distance and see what we're dealing with here. Here's the
distances that we've talked about in The Grove. More or
less 300 feet is the number that we kick around. You can
see where we're at there.
Let's compare this to some other projects in town
just to show you this isn't very -- as intense, as we look
at it. Rams Village. 135 feet to the nearest home. This
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is in the area. Next slide, please. Pavilions at Silver
Sage, Drake and Raintree. 220 feet. Next slide. Landmark.
Anywhere from 78 feet to 260 feet.
So those are all within the area. I mean, let's
face it. This area around CSU has a lot of these projects.
All these projects are working well, and you can see that
they're closer to residences than The Grove is.
Next slide, please. We've got Bighorn Village.
64 feet. Next slide. Rams Point over by Elizabeth and
Taft, 160 feet. We've got Rams Crossing at Elizabeth and
City Park. 92 feet. Next slide. Woodbox. Again, you can
see the numbers there. Next slide, please.
Now, getting a little away from this, down at
Harmony and Wheaton, we see a big project, and you see the
distance there. Next slide. Collindale, again. Southeast
of town, Horsetooth and Lemay. Next slide. This is a new
project that's going in, and again, you see the distance
that was just recently approved for this. Final slide. And
again, another one.
So my point on all this -- and one more -- I think
we're back. Okay. Ridgewood Hills. Again, the separation
there. And next slide? Okay. We're back to The Grove.
Now, again, my point is that we have these
projects in town. You can see that there is -- they're
intense projects. They're close to residential housing.
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And I think you can see that these have all worked well and
they haven't created any problems. I think there's a lot of
fears that have been built up unrealistically.
And so I would encourage you to -- the fact that
the Campus Crest has gone out of its way. It's exceeded our
standards. And they've met all the Land Use Codes. So I
encourage you to approve the project. Turn it over to the
next speaker.
MS. FAIRBANK: I have a long address. My name is
Donna Fairbank (phonetic). I have lived for nearly 36 years
at 1712 Clearview Court. I served for over a dozen years
with the Fort Collins Area Interfaith Council and currently
serve on the steering committee for the Avery Park
Neighborhood Association. I'm also a member of Neighbors
and Students United.
It was during the dozen years that I was serving
with Interfaith Council that I first started watching the P
and Z process, as many CARE Housing projects were
scrutinized, and I began to develop thoughts about what it
meant to make decisions for the greater good of Fort
Collins.
And I thought I had that pretty clearly in my
mind. But those convictions were tested not too long ago,
when Rams Village was proposed to be built on the Bull Farm
and the horse pastures along West Elizabeth. This was my
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back yard, and thing were going to change, and I wasn't sure
how I felt about that.
During the process, there were many fears that
were raised. Lots of talk about the intensity of the
project, the height and size of the buildings, the impact of
the traffic, the lights. Everything you've heard tonight, I
heard in those discussions.
There was one man in particular who constantly
presented his vision of the facts and insisted that West
Elizabeth could never handle the increased traffic. The
traffic engineers said the opposite. I wasn't a traffic
engineer. I didn't know who was right. I was worried. I
didn't know what was going to happen. I just wanted a
peaceful life, and I wanted my critters to stay around. I
liked the deer and red fox that visited my house.
Remembering how I felt then, I have a lot of
sympathy for the opponents of this project. But I want to
tell them what I experienced. Eventually, after making many
changes that addressed the neighborhood's concerns, Rams
Village was approved and built. West Elizabeth has not
proved to be a problem. The deer and the fox still come to
my house. And more importantly, a few hundred more students
are living within biking distance of CSU, with on-site
management. That facility, by the way, is totally booked
for next year already with a waiting list. We need more
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such housing.
Because I'm not able to respond to the technical
aspects of this, and have to leave that for you to judge, I
thought about what I could do to add information. And one
of the things that I heard at neighborhood meetings was that
this company built places that weren't good to live in. And
that the students wouldn't be well served.
And I thought maybe I could add some information
about that. So I called the LDS Institute in Greeley and
asked the director if he knew anyone who had lived in the
similar housing in The Grove at Greeley. And he said, yes,
he knew somebody, and he had him call me, and I asked him if
he would come tonight to tell us about his experience at The
Grove in Greeley for a couple of minutes. You'll have tell
them who you are and sign in.
MR. ROGERS: Okay. My name is Andy Rogers, and I
actually just -- just met Donna Fairbank about five hours
ago. And so I -- I just learned about this -- this planning
meeting that was going on.
And I -- as she said, I lived in The Grove in
Greeley, and I still live in Greeley. But I had a very
positive experience there. It was essentially like living
in a condo, and I had my own room, my own bathroom. There
was a common living area that I shared with some other guys
that I didn't know before I moved to Greeley. I moved
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here -- well, I moved to Greeley without knowing anybody.
And when I was looking for a place to live, I
found The Grove online and started looking at information,
and part of the application process required me to fill out
a questionnaire concerning my study habits and my living
habits. And they used that to find people who had similar
habits.
So that -- because I am a relatively quiet person
and I don't party or make a lot of loud noise, my roommates
also were very quiet and didn't make a lot of noise, and I
began my graduate school experience at the University of
Northern Colorado very positively, because of living at The
Grove.
I've been informed that there are people who speak
badly about this company, but I found that it's a very
well-managed company, and that they do take care of their
residents. Whenever I had a concern, it was addressed that
day. It is sort of like living in dorms, because they do
keep very good control of the residents. We're not allowed
to have our own mail key. We have to go get the mail key
every time we need to check the mail. But it prevents
anyone from losing it.
And also, the facility was well-maintained. The
air filters were changed something like every six weeks, and
it got to be kind of annoying, because I'd say, Oh, they're
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changing the air filters again? And they would come in and
paint and -- you know, they would make sure that everything
was -- was the best that it could be for the residents.
And they are not paying me, and -- you know,
despite what you may think -- but just some concerns that
have been brought up that I've heard.
As I said, it's -- well, I think Chase addressed
this earlier. He said that it was a -- it would be a good
way for someone who's leaving the dorms to transition into
living on their own, and I would agree with that
wholeheartedly, because there were people, employees, who
were assigned to each building. So it was essentially like
having an RA. And while they're not associated directly
with the university, they do cater to students, and so they
try to keep a good handle on everything that's going on.
And so for those of you who are worried about all
those students living so near your homes, you probably won't
hear much from anyone who's living at The Grove, because
it's a pretty self-contained community. They don't venture
out into the neighborhood very much. At least that was my
experience in Greeley. We go to school, we come home, we
talk to each other. That's pretty much how it went.
And so something I thought was kind of funny.
There was usually like 40 empty parking spaces, so there was
more parking than they actually needed. And as I said, it's
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very well supervised. The communal areas between the
buildings; there's large grassy area for you to play and lay
around in. There was the pool. Plenty of amenities for
students to keep themselves involved when they're not doing
their homework, which they should be.
And one thing that I thought was interesting.
When I was moving to Greeley, I almost didn't see the
complex because of the mature trees that were around it.
From the west side, you don't even know that The Grove was
there. So if -- I haven't seen the neighborhood, really,
that it's going into, but if there are mature trees that are
already growing there, you probably won't even see the
complex.
So long story short, I had a very positive
experience living in The Grove, and I wholeheartedly support
this company. They gave me a really good experience, and
made my transition into the next level of -- next stage of
my life, which was graduate school, a very easy one. So I
support The Grove and Campus Crest. Thank you.
MS. FAIRBANK: Just to close, I'll say that
sometimes I miss my horse pasture and Bull Farm. But I
prefer being part of the group that is working towards
keeping our neighborhoods a place for my children and
grandchildren will be able to buy a home and enjoy living in
the neighborhoods where we have been for 36 years, and I
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think Campus Crest is a step in the right direction. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
MR. ECKERT: Okay. I know you're all tired, and I
will try and keep this short. Again, I'm Chase Eckert. I'm
the director of governmental affairs for ASCSU.
Before I kind of get going here, I wanted to say
that I was really, really happy that IBE is a part of this.
Phenomenal program on campus. I think it represents where
we're going as a university and, hopefully, the direction
that we're going ultimately as a country with energy
conservation and being more efficient.
And I mentioned this earlier. I mean, this is why
I consider this a precedent-setting moment for student
housing because we're starting to take energy conservation,
those kinds of things, much more seriously than we ever have
before, and I think that's a good thing.
Also, I visited The Grove in Greeley. It was
great, and I'm not necessarily some kind of expert in
student housing, but I'm kind of on the front lines. I'm
just somebody who rents a lot. And I know what to look for.
And yeah, I would live there. Absolutely. And I think a
lot of students would too. And you know, anybody who
believes that they wouldn't or that students would rather
live in a neighborhood versus a house, whatever -- or
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neighborhood, house, versus this, I mean, these guys
wouldn't be building this thing if they didn't think it was
going to fill up. And it's going to. There's no doubt
about that.
So anyway, the last go-around, I remember this
meeting back in October, and there seemed to be a few major
areas of contention, and I get the overall impression that a
lot of those have been addressed at this point. And that's
to the company's credit. I think that's to the credit of so
many people who've worked hard to make this project what it
is. One of the biggest single areas last time was the
variances. And we've seemed to have gotten around a lot of
that issue.
I know there's this idea -- well, I also remember
the headlights flashing in driveways and windows and stuff,
and we seem to have gotten through that one too. So we're
working through -- they've worked through a lot of major
problems, and I just don't see as areas where we can say,
Oh, no, this is terrible for the neighborhood, because I
don't think it is.
And the idea that this project is too big and too
dense. To put it in the nicest way possible, that's purely
an area of personal opinion. I mean, we have City codes to
determine what's too big and what's too dense. That's why
we have those things. It meets the codes. I mean, that's
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the idea here. And so we can say all we want, that it's too
big or whatever, but we can say the same thing about
anything. We have codes to determine what meets those
regulations.
So anyway, this project, as the developer pointed
out, is a substantially lower density than many others in
Fort Collins. It's clearly set back at a much greater
distance than many comparable installations around Fort
Collins. I mean, I just don't see how we can kill this
thing anymore. This is a good proposal for so many reasons
other than just, that we need student housing.
It fits the Code. It fits the city. It has a
huge setback. I mean, it's a good thing. I think -- I
really encourage you to move this forward tonight. We need
this so bad, and this is the model that we want Fort Collins
to go off of. I mean, this is a good model for us to kick
this discussion about student housing off on. I mean, this
is a good way to start. So I appreciate your time tonight.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MR. ANDERSON: My name is Paul Anderson, at 2107
Constitution. First off, I do want to make -- that I
appreciate the comments of Mr. Bacon and echo him that even
though we may disagree, we're still going to be friends.
And since this was a night for demos, I thought I
would bring my demo. So I'm going to pull out -- pull out 8
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feet here. That's 8 feet. I don't quite reach you over
there. But that distance right there is the distance
between my house, my property line, and the house next door
that's been a student rebuttal for 10 years.
Now, across the street, it's another student
rental, and that's about a hundred feet. And then just
adjacent, next to it, about a hair off, is 20 feet. And
three doors down is 120 -- 150 feet. So when I hear
residents complaining about a 300-foot distance from
students at The Grove, which is a managed student housing --
now, remember, I live in an unmanaged environment -- I do
have a slightly different perspective on that.
According -- I just happened to get one of the
reports from The Group the other day, and according to a
recent report in that Group report, outside investors are
once again entering the Fort Collins market, sweeping up
single-family homes, and turning them into student rental
units. The core city housing for single-family units is now
under stress. And we need alternative student housing.
These developers have bent over backwards, from
all the changes I've seen. I've gone to the meetings and
heard about these changes and seen them, and they've bent
over backwards to accommodate the concerns of nearby
residents.
I've had to adjust -- of course, it will be an
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adjustment to these residents. I've had to adjust to the
students living next to me, across the street, down the
street. We actually get along pretty well. But when one
decides that the value of this project, you just can't look
to the immediate residents. You must consider the bigger
picture. Rollie Moore West is 800 homes, and we will be
looking at this decision. We need alternative student
housing now. Thank you very much.
SPECTATOR: Are you taking his tape measure?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Is anyone else wanting to
speak for this organized group? We're done? Okay. Thank
you very much.
SPEAKER: While we prep for these, Deputy City
Attorney, Mr. Eckman, I have a question for you, please.
That last spiel about how lovely it is to live at The Grove
in Greeley? Are we allowing issues of reputation to be now
within the purview of the Board? I'm not sure what Land Use
Code that applied to.
MR. ECKMAN: All right. Are you objecting to
that? If so, it would have been better to object, I
think during the --
SPEAKER: I'm just inquiring if the process
changed, sir.
MR. ECKMAN: No.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I would like to address that.
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We heard a lot of that at our previous meeting. It is
unfortunate that that comes into play. I think we as a
board understand that. We do listen to everything that's
said, and we filter through to what is pertinent. So trust
us, we do understand.
SPEAKER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: But they are, by far, not the
first to do that, and it's very hard to regulate against
that.
SPEAKER: All right. Thank you for taking my
question.
MR. ECKMAN: I would suggest that if there is
someone who has an objection to anything that anyone says
with regard to the issue of relevancy, please make that
objection while the statement is being made, so that it can
be addressed without the statement already having been
finished and placed in the record. So if there's anyone in
the future that needs to it do that, please raise that issue
during the presentation.
SPEAKER: We will look to the Board for that. In
general, it feels a bit disrespectful to interrupt another
speaker and apply our judgments. So we just have looked to
the Board for that.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. With that said, are we
ready to go?
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MR. BARRIER: Mr. Stockover, and Planning and
Zoning Board. My name is Kevin Barrier (phonetic). I live
at 602 Gilgalad Way. I'm speaking for 15 minutes for people
who are not here. Can you hear the mic okay?
We have a lot of ground to cover in the next 30
minutes. So -- because in our mind, the PDP lacks
compliance with the Land Use Code in so many ways. So I'll
dive right in with that. . .
The PDP is not compatible with adjacent existing
neighborhoods. This is really at the heart of the
opposition to the project. Compatibility -- compatibility
is an issue of context. The existing built environment
determines the character of the neighborhood. The character
is how the neighborhood looks and how it functions. The
issue is whether the proposed project fits in.
The Grove at Fort Collins PDP is not in character
with the context of its neighborhood, which includes modest
townhome development, single-family homes and CARE Housing
and affordable housing development for seniors and families.
All of these neighborhoods consist of one- and two-story
structures quite different in scale and character from the
proposed project.
Land Use Code 3.5.1(b) requires new developments
in, or adjacent to, existing developed areas to be
compatible with the established architectural characters of
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such areas. The principles and policies statements
submitted on June 1st, the applicant states, The Grove PDP
is not set within a residential neighborhood.
This is simply not true. The applicant uses this
fable to support the odd notion that contextual design and
gradual transitions from existing neighborhoods are not
required on this site. If the PDP is not within the
neighborhood, why do the applicant and City staff find it
necessary to install fences and screening and landscape
around much of the project to protect the environment and
the neighborhood from the impact of the project?
We requested and received views of Ripley's Design
3-d computer model taken at eye level along the boundary
with the rest of the neighborhood. The following slides
contrast views of the 3-D computer model with the
photographs of the neighborhood taken from the same boundary
area.
3.5.1(c) requires buildings to be of a similar
size and height or, if larger, articulated and subdivided
into massing that is proportional to the massing scale of
other structures. All the buildings in the PDP are three
stories with no height transition near the adjacent
neighborhood and little proportional relationship to the
existing neighborhood. Eight of the buildings are almost
200 feet long and over 29,000 square feet in area, 8 to 20
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times larger than the neighboring homes.
Land Use Code 3.5.1(b) requires new developments
in, or adjacent to, existing developed areas to be
compatible with established architectural character of such
areas. The architectural character of the area has been
well established as a fairly even mixture between one- and
two-story structures with patios and decks for connection to
the outdoors. The buildings in the PDP definitely lack
these features.
You see 3.5.1(e) requires building materials to be
the same or similar to those used in the neighborhood or, if
they're dissimilar, to have characteristics to ensure that
enough similarity exists for the building to be compatible
despite the differences.
The PDP proposes vinyl siding, brick, glass,
aluminum storefront, and sheet metal canopy, cornices, and
roof fascia. Materials in the existing neighborhood include
wood siding, brick, stone, stucco, and shingle roofing.
3.5.1(f) requires color shades that facilitate
blending into the neighborhood and unifying the development.
Colors in the neighborhood can be revised as styles change
because there are many painted surfaces. The broad expanses
of vinyl and brick in the PDP will be the same color forever
until replaced entirely.
LUC 3.5.1(a) requires transitions with land uses
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when significantly different visual character are proposed
adjacent to each other. The PDP does not blend with the
fine grade and scale of the existing neighborhoods along its
shared margin and does nothing to provide gradual
transitions in scale towards the employment district. The
developer is unwilling or unable to make any substantive
change of scale to the PDP. No matter how green the
developer builds these identical building, they are all far
too large to consider transitional. Far too large.
The City has determined that context compatibility
and transitions are important enough to create specific
requirements in the Code. They are not reflected in the
design of the PDP.
The applicant claims that the development is
somehow not part of its neighborhood. We respectfully
disagree with that assertion. The Board should deny the PDP
on the basis that if fails to meet several compatibility
provisions of the Land Use Code. The PDP does not meet the
LUC requirements for increasing the number of unrelated
occupants per dwelling unit.
The Grove at Fort Collins PDP includes 18
four-bedroom apartments. There had been a consistent
opposition to these units. Mark Holmes, the executive
director of CARE Housing spoke in opposition to these units
at the November 2010 hearing, as have others in email
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communications and neighborhood meetings.
The PDP has 612 bedrooms, but it should be
understood that with the target population, the number of
legal occupants will inevitably exceed this number.
Occupancy under the Land Use Code includes the use of the
dwelling unit for living and sleeping purposes by guests who
stay overnight for 30 or more days in a year. The building
units that already exceed the Code hardly help the
situation.
LUC Section 3.8.16(e)(2) requires the
decision-maker to determine whether the applicant has
provided not just the basics but additional open space,
recreational areas, parking areas, and public facilities
needed to serve the additional occupants of the development
and to protect the adjacent neighborhood.
The staff report states that in the opinion of the
staff, adequate public facilities have already been provided
to comply with LUC 3.8.16(e)(2). However, this is a
subjective standard, and the decision-maker should make
their own finding on this issue.
In our opinion, the public facilities provided in
the PDP are inadequate for the increased occupancy. There's
a considerable amount of undeveloped space in the PDP.
However, the bulk of it is jurisdictional wetlands, wildlife
corridors, and buffers fenced off from tenant impact. There
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are no balconies or patios for residents to enjoy the
private outdoor space.
The single open lawn area is mostly surrounded by
two curved parking lots. The entire amenity area, including
the clubhouse, is 1.12 acres, or 48,621 square feet, which
is less than 80 square feet per tenant. This is not much
space for over 600 tenants to toss a Frisbee or just be
outdoors.
The applicant points to The Gardens at Spring
Creek and the CSU ropes course and Rollie Moore Park and
Spring Creek bike way and other existing commercial
facilities as amenities offsetting the increased occupancy
in the PDP. The developer made no contribution to these
facilities, and they should not be counted as facilities
offsetting the impact of increased occupancy.
The Spring Creek Trail is open for use 24 hours a
day. It never closes. It could become a place for numerous
students to gather at all hours, beyond the supervision
promised by Campus Crest management.
The PDP provides 627 parking spaces, including
along Rollie Moore Drive, in lots of public streets for over
600 young adults and their guests. No parking is allowed on
Centre Drive or in the MRRC complex or overnight at the
Spring Creek Gardens. Where is the overflow parking for the
many overnight guests who will inevitably be occupants of
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this development? The only legal parking available nearby
for excess vehicles is on the streets of the CARE Housing
and the Sundering Townhomes.
The three unrelated rule was included in the Land
Use Code as a provision that could be enforced to protect
quality of life in Fort Collins neighborhoods. By almost
all accounts, it has been successful in decreasing problems
in our central neighborhoods. The Planning and Zoning Board
should find that allowing increased occupancy limits will
have a heavy impact on residents of the adjacent
neighborhoods, and they are not protected by limiting off --
by limited offsetting facilities provided by the PDP
contrary to the LUC 3.8.16(e)(2).
The PDP builds apartment buildings and streets in
a floodplain. It builds apartment buildings and streets in
the floodplain. What's the potential impact of building in
the floodplain? In an email written on January 24th of
2011, the floodplain administrator for the City wrote,
Chapter 10 of the City Code allows any party to develop in
the Spring Creek flood fringe and create up to 6 inches of
rise in the base flood elevation.
The net result of this allowable rise by
development is to force flood water onto adjacent and
upstream properties. City Code does not require any party
developing in the Spring Creek flood fringe to quantify the
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impact on others.
This is not consistent with the best interests of
the city, its residents, and its first responders. In a
low-lying area such as this where scores of homes are
already in the floodplain, even a one- or two-inch rise
above the existing floodplain could have serious
repercussions.
Section 1.2.2(e) of the Land Use Code says the
purpose of the Land Use Code is to improve and protect
public health, safety, and welfare by, (e), avoiding the
inappropriate development of lands and providing for
adequate drainage and the reduction of flood damage.
The applicant proposes apartment buildings and
streets in the floodplain only because the PDP it wants is
simply too large for the site. The proposed fill narrows
the floodplain in the critical location where it could cause
the rise -- could cause a rise threatening low-lying
established neighborhoods against the floodway.
The Land Use Code, LUC 1.2.2(e), the City Plan,
and the West Central Neighborhoods Plan all provide for the
protection of life, property, public health, safety, and
welfare by discouraging inappropriate development in the
100-year floodplain.
The Board should honor the clear intent of these
codes and plans and deny this PDP on the basis of City
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goals, principles, policies, and LUC 1.2.2(e), cited above.
SPEAKER: We have some slides that were hard to
talk to. We'd like to step through them for you.
This is a slide showing City Code 10, allowable
rise concept. And so just to start with, there's a -- the
notion of a floodway, and on the edge is the flood fringe,
and if you'll go a step -- one more. And that constitutes
the 100-year floodplain.
And on the right, you see there's an existing
structure not in the floodplain as the slide stands now.
So one more time. And then some fill material was
added in that flood fringe. A new structure is added to
that fill. And naturally, that causes a small rise. What
is allowable is between 1 and 6 inches.
Go ahead, Ed. And what happens with the small
rise is the existing structure on the right gets flood
water. And in our neighborhood, we have houses that are in
the floodplain, so while 1 to 6 inches is allowed, it just
takes 1 inch to send flood waters into our homes.
One more time. And so that last note just is a
reminder that -- we call it small. It makes the difference
between flooded basements, flooded bedrooms, and that sort
of thing in our neighborhood.
The next slide describes the narrowing of the
floodway. Need to go back a couple. No, you're going the
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wrong direction. Okay. So the same volume of water through
a narrowed channel means the water must rise, and how is it
possible that filling in the floodplain will not increase
the flood level for adjacent neighbors?
And so just kind of repeating what I've already
said. City Code Chapter 10 allows for up to a 6-inch rise,
but Land Use Code Section 1.2.E, City Plan ENV-8.2, and the
West Central Neighborhoods Plan B6 all seem to contradict
that.
And so, you know, one solution is to reduce the
size of the project so you're not filling in the floodplain
and pushing water onto neighbors in a flood event.
Thank you.
MR. BARRIER: Okay. Proceeding on. The PDP
provides no primary use in the employment district. All
secondary uses must be a part of a larger employment
district development plan emphasizing the primary use. LUC
Section 4.27(d)(2) says, all secondary uses shall be
integrated both in function and appearance into a larger
employment district plan that emphasizes the primary uses.
No primary uses are proposed for this employment
district in the PDP. Multifamily housing and residential
clubhouse, both secondary uses in the employment district,
are only uses -- are the only uses being developed. An
undeveloped tract is left along Centre Avenue for some
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unspecified future employment development. This does not
comply with the Land Use Code 4.27(d)(2).
Next, the PDP does not include two housing types
in the MMN district. A casual observer of The Grove of Fort
Collins, will see only one type of housing in buildings of
three sizes, large, 29,000 square feet; clubhouse, 24,700
square feet; small, 16,750 square feet. The elevations and
perspectives show that these buildings appear virtually
identical.
The first floor of Building 12 will be used as a
club space for all the residents. The apartments on the
second and third floor make that building mixed use, which
technically qualifies it as a second housing type.
Section 4.6(d)(2) of the Land Use Code requires a
minimum of two housing types for a development in a medium
density mixed use district on any development exceeding 16
acres but less than 30. The clubhouse is located in the
employment district, not the MMN district. So the whole MMN
side has one housing type. The employment is holding their
secondary housing type.
The MMN district is 22.9 acres, but it has only
one housing type, multifamily housing. Ms. Ripley asserted
in the October 21st, 2011 neighborhood meeting that LUC
4.6(d)(2) does not apply because the net acreage is under 16
acres. This is not correct. Although the density is
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calculated on net acres, Section 4.6(d)(2)(a) specifies that
the standard applies to the development parcel. The PDP
does not comply with LUC 4.6(d)(2). Thank you.
SPEAKER: Okay. The next topic is that the PDP is
at risk if the ditch is not located. I know we've talked
about this, but the point we're trying to make here is that
it should be a condition of approval for the PDP that the
canal be relocated. I think everybody agrees it's the best
choice.
Materials provided by the applicant include
drawings of plans for relocating Larimer Canal Number 2, the
irrigation ditch, and rehabilitating the old alignment.
Changed alignment is not shown on the ODP even though it
changes the area of developable land within the ODP. This
omission is based on the fact that the ditch is not subject
to the city development review process. However, the
realignment of the ditch is critical to the hydrological
stability of the project. If the ditch is not relocated,
The Grove at Fort Collins and adjacent neighborhoods may be
put at risk.
Why don't you go to the next slide. And this is
something we didn't see in the ODP discussion. This is a
cross-section from the drainage report showing the red line
that I point to with an arrow. There it shows the proposed
grading plan, and this grading plan increases risk that the
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canal bank could be breached. So there's a pretty
significant cut being made right near that canal to install
this PDP.
The grading plan involves a deep cut into the
hillside below the ditch to allow large buildings and to
allow Rollie Moore Drive in its new location to be crowded
as far south as possible. This extreme cut is demonstrated
by the water table cross-section I described here.
Go back to that slide, please. Thank you. A high
retaining wall and extensive under-drain system will be
required to stabilize this slope and collect seepage from
the canal and lowered water table. The cuts in the
retaining wall are made necessary only by the applicant's
desire to force the site to carry more project than is
appropriate for the terrain. The stability of this
engineered system will depend on the effectiveness and
long-term maintenance of the under-drain system.
Earlier, Mr. Schlueter referred to the ditch
company as being concerned about the trees, and they are,
because they pose a maintenance issue for that company, but
Mr. Schleuter missed -- lost track of a letter that John
Loren (phonetic), the superintendent of Larimer Canal Number
2, sent to the City, dated January 17th, and it said this.
Expressed other concerns. The Larimer Number 2 would like
to comment to The Grove at Fort Collins PDP Type 2. The
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company is concerned about seepage from the ditch and impact
The Grove in the case of an extreme event that causes a
breach of the ditch. So this isn't Jerry Podmore's concern
alone. The ditch company has the concern.
A superintendent for the Larimer Number 2
Irrigating Company, I've experienced situations where
drains, as in the under-drains, cease to operate. This can
cause property damage and is upsetting to homeowners.
Often, they will direct their complaints to the ditch
company.
In my opinion, there are better solutions to this
problem. For example, the ditch would be lined or
relocated, and I would like to further discuss this issue
with you and the developer. And we know that's happened.
The applicant stated at the May 23rd neighborhood
meeting that it will perform and pay for the relocation of
the ditch, but has yet to demonstrate an iron-clad
commitment to do so, although it sounds like on Friday,
something was signed.
Showing relocation drawings in the PDP is no
commitment, because the City lacks jurisdiction over the
canal. However, it's not necessary for the Board to review
and approve the relocation of the ditch; merely make its
relocation a condition of approval for the PDP.
The Board should not approve the PDP until the
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applicant produces copies of executed contracts between
CSURF, the irrigation company, and the developer to perform
this task with the specific timetable and with any Federal
and/or State reviews required, completed for agricultural or
nonagricultural water uses.
The next topic is about the PDP disrupting
existing connections between wildlife corridors. This slide
shows three wildlife corridors which exist in the area. At
the top of the slide to the north is Spring Creek wildlife
corridor, and in the middle is the wetland wildlife
corridor, and on the bottom is the canal wildlife corridor.
In between, we've represented what we know to be
some common paths of wildlife crossing between these three
corridors. All three corridors are used by many species for
travel, for home, for breeding, nesting, migration, and
feeding.
There are many trails and connections between
these wildlife corridors. They currently flow unimpeded
through the parcel proposed for development by the PDP and
through the residential neighborhoods to the north and the
west.
The PDP cuts off connectivity between the two
bordering wildlife corridors, being the canal and Spring
Creek, with a high retaining wall and a long iron fence.
The fence may have some low sections for deer to jump over,
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but what about other species?
To the maximum extent feasible, Land Use Code
3.4.1.F.2 requires the development to preserve natural
connections, and Land Use Code 3.4.1.C requires the
development plan to be compatible with and to protect
natural habitats and integrate them within the developed
landscape of the community.
The PDP needs the fence between itself and the
natural areas to protect the sensitive environments. No
other residential development in this area requires a fence
like this to protect a natural area from the impact of
intense use by the residents. The existing neighborhoods
allow free flow of wildlife through common properties, lots,
and streets. If a fence is required to protect the natural
areas north of The Grove, so along the wetland wildlife
corridor, why is one not required to protect the wildlife
corridor along the canal?
That's a -- there is a section of a high retaining
wall behind The Grove buildings on the south side of Rollie
Moore. The applicant had suggested it could be a rough wall
that a fox could scramble up to escape. A really tall wall
like this doesn't seem to be a feasible escape route for
many species, and is likely to increase the risk of
residents encountering trapped wildlife.
Unlike surrounding neighborhoods, The Grove at
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Fort Collins does not allow free flow of wildlife, does not
integrate wildlife within its developed landscape, and is
incompatible with the natural area. It does not comply with
the Land Use Code as I stated earlier.
The next problem is the PDP uses noncontextual and
potentially hazardous vinyl siding. The applicant has not
wavered in its intention to use vinyl siding in the project,
even though it is deficient in a neighborhood context,
compatibility, and poses a serious risk to life safety. A
comparison with fiber cement siding by the Institute for the
Built Environment in the applicant's June 1st, 2011
submittal states, quote, It is worth noting that in the
unlikely event of a fire, vinyl siding is extremely toxic to
occupants, emergency workers, and the ambient environment,
end quote.
We question the applicant's assertion that
building fires are an unlikely event. While fire is not
common, it's certainly not unlikely. And it becomes more
likely in denser populations and rental housing where
smoking is permitted and where less experienced individuals
may be living away from home for the first time, away from a
supervised environment, and perhaps responsible for the
first time to use a kitchen and other electrical appliances
safely.
The Board should ask the developer whether fire
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events have occurred at its Grove developments and, if so,
how many and what were the circumstances. Vinyl siding
possess a high risk of contributing to catastrophic fire and
a serious health hazard due to its toxic smoke. The
Planning and Zoning Board should reject the use of vinyl
siding for this multifamily project.
The next topic is, the PDP consists of
all-electric dwelling units. This PDP as submitted still
consists of all-electric dwelling units using air source
heat pumps for space heating and electric water heaters.
These systems are not noted for reducing energy consumption
in Colorado. The developer has stated, in various ways,
alternatives, like gas furnaces, are being, quote,
considered; but as of June 6th, the City Planning Department
did not know how the apartments would be heated. We suggest
that the PDP not be approved until a clear and logical plan
is submitted for reduction of energy consumption and demand.
The developer has taken some laudable measures to
improve insulation of the building envelope. Ripley Designs
incorporated that flat roofs are proposed so that the
electricity demand can be offset by photovoltaic panels.
But the available roof area is not large enough for solar
panels to make a significant dents in the high demand for
electricity proposed by this project. No one is talking
about a solar panel farm in the parking lot, either, and all
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of this depends on the City adopting a feed-in tariff, which
is far from certain.
Review comments show the City staff was concerned
about the impact of electric heat but then failed to follow
up on the issue. Staff stated that the developer continued
to tell them through the review process that electric heat
would not be used. The electric utility development fee
estimate provided by the City to Campus Crest seems to be
based on the assumption that no electric heat will be used.
However, if you look at the PDP plans in front of
you, there are no gas utilities shown; and a poster display
at the May 23rd neighborhood meeting, and included in the
packet we gave to you, specifically states that electric
heat pumps would be used in preference to gas furnaces.
Section 1.2.H of the Land Use Code requires that
projects improve and protect the public health, safety, and
welfare by reducing energy consumption and demand. The
Board should be aware that it's being asked to approve a PDP
with no gas utilities but with an electric utility plan that
was reviewed and recommended for approval on the assumption
that electricity would not be used for heating. The Board
should deny this plan as noncompliant with Section 1.2.2.H
of the Land Use Code.
The next topic is PDP transportation impact study
and traffic safety questions. Traffic analysis is a highly
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specialized field, and the reputation and expertise of the
applicant's consultant is well established. However, the
residents who have studied the PDP have some questions about
the assumptions and scope of the transportation impact
study.
The traffic study trip distribution assumes that
80 percent of trips from The Grove will be two to and from
CSU. This assumes the student with classes on four days a
week would only make one trip during the entire week for
errands, a job, for any other purpose. And the most recent
student market study conducted by CSU found that student are
more likely to use a car for errands and getting to jobs in
Old Town than for traveling to class.
The transportation impact study did not include
all the major intersections in the square mile, either, as
would be expected based on LUCAS standards. These major
intersections must be used for car trips and groceries and
other errands, as we discussed earlier. The travel impact
study studied level of service for bicycles only at Shields
and Rollie Moore Drive which contradicts the trip
distribution assumption that the majority of trips will be
to and from campus.
The most critical and most efficient intersection
for bicycle travel is at Centre and Prospect, but the
travel -- pardon me, the traffic impact study did not study
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it. Citizen concern about traffic safety at Centre and
Prospect for students walking and riding bikes has been
constant throughout the development review process. Up
until now, City staff has consistently said that nothing can
be done. Citizen pressure and the prospect of hundreds more
students and using this intersection daily may finally
result in a more proactive response.
So we talked about a lot of stuff, and I
appreciate the 30 minutes that you gave us. I want to
stress that compatibility is the number one thing. We've
heard a lot tonight about the changes that have been made,
and we acknowledge the changes that have been made; but what
hasn't been changed is the 600 and some-odd residents that
will live at this PDP, and that was the crux of the
compatibility argument, along with the size and scale of the
buildings, the transition. It's too big, and I'll repeat
that. But we've also presented other arguments in other
areas where this development does not align to Land Use
Code. And thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
Can I get a quick show of hands who else would
like to speak to this issue tonight? The one thing I have
to stress is that we allowed group presentations, so I see
people raising their hands that are in those groups. So we
just don't have time to do that tonight. So if you're in a
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group, and you're in a group, I'm not going to allow that.
SPECTATOR: What defines a group, sir?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: It's fairly vague, but you
know, you're all over there talking. We're holding you to
that. It's 12:30. We need to be able to start
deliberating.
SPECTATOR: Well, I have stuff to give you to
read, then.
SPEAKER: I'm representing people who weren't
here.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: We were very generous in the
amount of time we allowed you. We do hear you. We're going
to open it up to other people that would like to speak.
We're going to give three minutes.
MS. ALBERT: I'm Barbara Albert. I live at 603
Gilgalad Way.
I'm concerned about noise from the property,
especially given a lack of sound buffering. The applicant
has shown you photos of vegetation buffering that only exist
in the warm months, not during the school year.
SPECTATOR: Mr. Chair, is she not part of the
group?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I don't believe she was.
MS. ALBERT: And plans --
SPECTATOR: I'm sorry. I don't understand your
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definition of group. Am I part of a group?
SPECTATOR: The chair ruled. Sit down.
SPECTATOR: If she lives on Gilgalad --
Gilgalad --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: We -- we just don't have time
to get into this back and forth, back and forth. You guys
are a group. You guys are a group. I'm allowing ample time
for everybody else to speak.
SPECTATOR: Can we give you things that --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: We won't have time to review
them tonight. I mean, we'd have appreciated them in
advance, but at this late hour, I just don't believe it
would be prudent to take information that we have no time to
review.
So, please, if you would. I'm trying to be as
fair as I possibly can. So I would like you to sit down,
and I would like to reset the timer, and I would like this
person to be able to proceed. Thank you.
MS. ALBERT: The application has -- the applicant
has shown you pictures of vegetation, but they only exist in
the warm months, not during the school year. And plans to
plant little stick trees. The fence is at the bottom of the
hill, so below the sound, so it provides no sound buffering.
City Code requires in Chapter 20, Article 2, Section 20 to
23, that the noise level be 50 to 55 decibels from the edge
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of the development.
For reference, 55 decibels is like a radio on low
volume at one meter's distance. Can 612 people with cars,
radios, and a pool really do that without sound buffering?
It isn't just about the distance. The project is in a big
hill over a basin.
The City has addressed sound buffering with other
applicants. For instance, the planning objectives for our
good neighbor, the Horticulture Center, in 2000 states this:
The noise level of any event, whether people or from music,
is a critical one. We also understand that the nearest
homes are relatively close to the great lawn, and that the
sound travels more readily in this creek basin for
geographic and climatologic reasons.
Unlike The Grove, the Horticulture Center went to
great lengths to address neighborhood concerns about noise
and submitted scientific analysis of noise levels. The
Gardens accepted the burden of proof to demonstrate noise
levels would be tolerable and comply with Code. This issue
was not resolved in the planning process. You'll infringe
on my property rights if you approve a project that by
design will disturb the peace.
We've heard how hard it is to live next to noisy
neighbors. Did you see how hard it was for me to keep my
three little kids quiet for the meeting tonight? Imagine
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pushing 712 college students every Friday night and Saturday
night and Sunday night, for the next 15 years, until the
evergreens grow up. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
I'm thinking. It's under advice of counsel that
we open the doors back up to anybody who would like to
speak. The concern is that we have to hold a fair hearing.
And if it gets challenged and City Council reprimands it
back to us, we'll spend another eight hours, so it would be
time well spent to spend another 15 minutes and let five
more people talk tonight. So we are going to allow anybody
who would like to speak this evening to speak.
MS. FIX: Hi. I'm Carol Fix (phonetic). I live
at 732 Gilgalad Way.
We are a neighborhood in one square mile which is
bound by four busy roads: Prospect, Shields, Drake, and
College Avenue. In our one square mile, there are
single-family homes, condominiums, and apartment buildings.
We already have a fair share of student housing.
Students live in the condominiums to our south, as well as
in the Sheeley neighborhood. Students fill the Landmark
Apartments on the corner of Prospect and Shields, and
married students occupy Aggie Village.
The newest addition to our neighborhood is the
Capstone project behind the Dairy Queen, will bring 676 new
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beds intended to be student housing. If The Grove is
allowed to be built with its 612 beds for students, our
single square mile will have almost 1,300 new students, far
exceeding our fair share of student housing. All of these
things are happening in our one square mile.
But let's get one thing straight. We're actually
talking about only a very small portion of that one square
mile. The future growth that we're talking about here is in
much less than half of that square mile, which means that
the 1,300 new student beds literally happen within a quarter
mile of each other and of us. Such a high concentration of
students will create undue burden on our neighborhood.
Please vote no on The Grove. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. Next, please.
MS. OZELLO: Thank you for letting us speak. My
name is Nancy Ozello (phonetic). I live at 644 Gilgalad.
My topic is other similar developments in the
Spring Creek floodplain and that they're not equivalent.
When asked if residential development has been allowed
recently in the Spring Creek floodplain, elsewhere in the
city, staff referred to two projects, Pinnacle Townhomes and
the Lots at Park Central.
Pinnacle Townhomes is opposite an undeveloped
horse pasture, and the Lots at Park Central is opposite
Spring Creek Village, located at the top of a slope, well
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out of the floodplain. Maps of Spring Creek FEMA floodplain
for all three locations are appended to the resident report.
Unlike The Grove at Fort Collins, these two projects are
located in a small rise, and the flood elevation does not
threaten existing homes that are already in the floodplain.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
MS. TOLCHIEF: Good evening. My name is Jennifer
Tolchief (phonetic), and I live at 1084 Sundering Drive. I
would like to address statements made tonight that touched
upon the impact of student rentals in existing neighborhoods
and how the PDP is a good solution.
We -- my neighbors and I sympathize with the
neighbors of CSU, around other parts of the city. Their
efforts to preserve their neighborhoods' character is a
concern of each neighborhood in the city.
However, a student housing project of this scale
and intensity as proposed by the PDP is not a conducive
solution. It is not conducive to the West Central
Neighborhoods Plan, which was adopted by the City in 1999.
It emphasizes that overconcentration of student housing in
the infill area south of Prospect would have a destabilizing
influence on neighborhood character.
In Appendix A, Page A2, the WCM plan says that
destabilizing forces affecting some neighborhoods have
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generally not yet impacted the half of the planning area
south of Prospect Road, but the possible encroachment of the
same destabilizing elements, as well as poorly situated
commercial facilities, and in excess of high-intensity
infill housing, can become a major factor in the future
character of these presently less impacted neighborhoods.
Preserving and building upon the positive
character of these neighborhoods will be another challenge
of the planning process. It is also important to provide
means of monitoring the appropriateness of new infill
development if the existing neighborhoods are to retain
their identifying character.
The PDP is precisely the source of undesirable
high-intensity infill predicted by the West Central
Neighborhood Plan. The developer is unwilling or unable to
adjust the project to a more appropriate scale and impact.
The Board is the decision-maker charged with
monitoring the appropriateness of new infill and should
reject the PDP. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
We're ready.
SPEAKER: Okay. I'm going to read real fast
again. This is a -- PDP from my husband. I would like to
remind you, though, that because of what was said before, my
husband's comments -- previous comments of the ODP, you
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should now look at in terms of the PDP. This is -- here,
he's talking about the design criteria complying with the
1998 version of the American National Standard for building
a facility providing accessibility and usability for
physically handicapped people.
According to ANSI 117.181998, all of the proposed
building in The Grove development would be required to have
an accessible entrance with an accessible route to the
entrance from the hand- -- doesn't mean handicapped parking
spaces. In addition, the accessible route must be the
shortest route possible. While the design criteria does not
have a maximum length of accessible route, I believe the
intent of the criteria appears to have the new construction
site configured such that there are short distance between
the handicapped parking and the building insti -- entrances.
Building 4 has a 310 feet accessible route.
Building 5, 400. The remainder of the building says
handicapped parking spaces near the entrance. While ANSI
117.181998 does not give a maximum distance to a handicapped
parking space, the intent is to provide accessibility to
physically disabled persons. I believe that requiring
handicapped persons and the elderly to travel 300 feet in
all weather conditions, including rain and snow, is not
reasonable.
And then he talks also again about the corner
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sight distance for vehicles to enter traffic and accelerate
to the average speed. Corner sight distance shall be
measured as shown in Figure 716. According to LUCAS figure
716, the corner intersection sight distance for a design
speed of 40 miles per hour, a collector is 660 feet. As
shown on the attached exhibit, the proposed Rollie Moore
Drive and public local street intersection fails to meet
this requirement. Building Number 6 and the parking lot is
located within the required sight distance. Due to the
on-street parking, the intersection to Rollie Moore Drive
and public local street will have an approximate sight
distance, looking east, of 310 feet. Also, the intersection
of the public commercial street and Rollie Moore Drive will
have an approximate sight distance, looking west, or 310
feet, which is less than the minimum sight distance for a
collector street. This standard -- these substandard sight
distances can create a public safety issue.
And on behalf of myself, I'd like to say real
briefly that because of the retaining walls and the concern
from the seepage and the failure of those retaining walls,
that since it's been decided that the ditch relocation is
separate from the PDP, from the -- the resubmitted PDP, then
the resubmitted PDP for you tonight must stand as if the
ditch will never be relocated or realigned, and therefore to
safeguard public safety, protect lives from injury or death,
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structures from damage from potential failure of the
retaining walls, and prevent the uninterrupted use of
Larimer Canal Number 2, you must deny approval. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. Thanks for
talking fast again.
MR. BENNETT: Good morning. I'm Devon Bennett
(phonetic). I reside at 900 Shire Court.
The proposed development site has wildlife
corridors on the north and south. Dr. Tom Sibert (phonetic)
has stated in front of this group that the entire area of
the project serves as a wildlife corridor, with the wildlife
traveling from the canal to the wetland areas to Spring
Creek. The presence of wildlife is a major component of the
character of this neighborhood.
On November 19, 2011, Planning and Zoning denied
Campus Crest's first PDP. On November 30th, 2011, the
applicant emailed Steve Olt, quote, Campus Crest will be
arranging for someone to fill a fox hole on the CSURF site
this week before the foxes go in for the winter. As you are
aware, we need to get the burrows filled now to be certain
that the foxes with kits are not disturbed if The Grove
project gains approval and can initiate construction in the
spring. End quote.
Within three minutes, Mr. Olt responded, quote,
Outside of the environmental issues, filling the fox holes
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would be considered development, as in preparing the site
for development. There is no approved development plan,
only pending. Therefore, the City cannot allow this site
development preparation. Please cancel the job. End quote.
Campus Crest continued in their quest to fill the
fox den despite the fact that their Project Development
Proposal had been denied and that the Overall Development
Plan had been appealed and was eventually denied by City
Council on December 21st of 2011 (sic). They asked for an
administrative interpretation of Section 5.1.2 of the Land
Use Code on the definition of development.
On December 17th of 2011, Ted Shepard provided an
interpretation of the Land Use Code that affirmed Steve
Olt's position that the filling of fox burrows in abandoned
holes is hereby considered to be part of the act of
development -- of developing and shall not commence until
approval of final plans.
The decision of this Board tonight will almost
certainly be appealed to City Council. I hereby
respectfully request that the applicant, the Planning and
Zoning Board, and City staff assure the community of Fort
Collins that the fox dens are not filled if the PDP is
approved tonight. If approved here, the City Council could
overturn the PDP, and harm will have been unnecessarily
caused to the wildlife in the area.
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And I have a dialogue between these groups. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much. Next,
please.
MR. FISCHER: Gere Fischer. 608 Gilgalad. Thank
you.
A couple points I just want to make out.
Something that hasn't been considered that I know of is, CSU
should consider some on-campus housing, or this development
on campus. They built an enormous football stadium. They
have the room. Places. I haven't heard that option as one.
And we talked about the student housing and how
important it is. There's not a single member of the
Colorado State University executive team here to address the
problem or understand part of it. I think that's somewhat
telling.
A gentleman earlier talked about how he lives near
six students and insinuates that he has problems from the
Rollie Moore neighborhood. We're about to live near 600.
Just pointing that out.
This development is not going to change issues of
students wanting to live in single-family houses. If the
population continues to grow, people will want to live in
single-family houses. They may want to live in apartment
buildings. But this is by no means going to eliminate
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single-family houses with three or, hopefully, not more than
three students per house in a residential neighborhood.
Finally, I just want to end on a couple of Code
points. I believe that the project being built on the hill
slope demands consideration to the applicability of Section
1.2.2(n), ensuring that the development proposals are
sensitive to natural areas and features. Yes, they're
allowed to go 40 feet high, but they should be sensitive to
the natural areas and features. It's on a hill slope
overlooking our neighborhood, and I think there's some
sensitivity that needs to be played there.
And finally, Section 1.2.2(m), ensuring that
development proposals are sensitive to the character of
existing neighborhoods. I think it's really clear from
those slides earlier tonight that that might be an issue for
you to consider.
Thanks for your time. I appreciate it.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MR. SUTHERLAND: Eric Sutherland, of 3520 Golden
Trail, an address that is nowhere near the proposed
development. I just wanted to make that clear, that there
are other people in this community.
To look at this development proposal is a litmus
test as to whether or not Fort Collins is faking itself out
when it aspires to word class standards. I'm here tonight
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to talk about 4.27(d) and (e), a subject that's been
discussed quite a bit this evening, and for good reason.
That particular citation, that particular element
of Land Use Code, was mentioned, brought to you, by a
citizen on the very first evening, the very first time that
this Board heard about this development proposal. And that,
of course, is the fact that you need a primary employment
purpose if you're going to develop in the primary -- in the
employment zone. And of course, this PDP does not in any
way comport with that black-and-white language in the Land
Use Code.
And so, you know, six months or longer transpired
from the very first time the citizen mentioned that element,
that noncompliance of the Land Use Code, until now. And yet
there's never been any response from the applicant or City
staff to look at it.
And I really say that's telling, because of the
fact that this is going to go on eight hours tonight, and
somebody has to represent the fact that City staff is not
enforcing the Land Use Code.
This proposal should never have gotten off the
ground. The answer should have been from the get-go, What
you want to build on this piece of property does not comport
with the Land Use Code. Unless you bring us a plan that
shows us a primary employment purpose, as defined by the
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LUC, you can't take your 25 percent and use it for secondary
uses. That's the way the Code reads. There's no other
interpretation.
And I'd like to expand on that just a little bit
more, because I think it's very important, by introducing a
few means test to that standard. What would it be like if
it were the other way around? Truly, indeed, in any
employment zone, you could go in and cordon off 25 percent
of it and build a secondary use on it, no intent, no plan,
no possibilities for the remainder of the zone. Would that
work in our land use planning system? No, it wouldn't.
There's not a single employment zone in town, very
important pieces of property, very important to the future
of Fort Collins, that wouldn't be jeopardized by that
interpretation of the LUC.
Furthermore, the particular set -- the only
reference I can remember -- I've been plying this case for
six months now -- is when Board Member Schmidt made a
notation of it in her comments. It appeared on Page 118 of
the transcript of that very first hearing when she talked
about the fact that, Well, there's a sliver of land along
Centre Avenue that's going to be orphaned out there. What's
the intent? What's the purpose? What's going to be
developed there? Is it even developable in its current
configuration, et cetera.
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I'll say, harping on that to the exclusion of
other things, I'd like to talk about, because that's just
one area that would have halted needless controversy in this
project, if only the City staff were to be applying the Land
Use Code the way it is written down on the paper.
You can't build an all-electric building there
that's green. Campus Crest has a business policy that
shafts its tenants at other facilities by not charging them
what's on the meter unless they go over $30 a month. That's
illegal according to State law, which is also represented in
our City Code. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MS. CONSULO: I'm Stacy Consulo (phonetic), 620
Gilgalad Way. The 2011 City Plan Appendix B states the
following clearly: The City embraces the philosophy that
new development should pay its own way, pay its share of the
costs of providing needed public facilities and services.
Capital projects needed to support new development are
funded primarily by developers through payment of fees.
You can understand my concern, then, that the City
may not be charging Campus Crest the full cost of
development on this project for some unknown reason. I will
give to you, or I gave to you, a spreadsheet that lists
potential building fees that we see are not being fully paid
by the developer. We understand from the City Manager's
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office that some of the fees may have been miscalculated by
the City, which is understandable, considering the many
iterations these plans have taken.
I've also attached information about another
student housing project, Flats at the Oval, where fees were
definitely reduced by the City. If The Grove project is
allowed to go forward, we want to be guaranteed that every
fee is collected as published in the fee schedule on the
City's website.
Further, we want to be assured that Campus Crest,
Inc., as a purported supporter of students, also fully
supports the fees for students to Poudre School District,
many of who eventually attend CSU. There should be no
request made to cut fees for this housing development,
especially if this development is being sold as multifamily
residential housing that could potentially be home to people
of all ages. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else who would like to speak at
this point? Okay.
MS. BURNETTE: I'll just go really quickly while
Ed's doing that. My name is Sara Burnette, 714 Gilgalad
Way, and I'd just really like to thank the Board for the
opportunity to let everybody speak who had comments
prepared. Thank you.
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CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: You're welcome. And thank
Paul for that one.
MR. KERNAN: All right. Good evening. My name is
Ed Kernan, again, 632 Gilgalad. Thank you for the
opportunity. I'm going to keep it short, and I've got
pictures. It's the end of the night, and I really
appreciate the time.
First of all, this tract, 11.11. We talked a
little bit about this. Go ahead and click -- left-click.
SPECTATOR: How do I move forward?
MR. KERNAN: Just hit the left click.
SPECTATOR: Left click.
MR. KERNAN: She's a Mac user. So that's -- there
we go. This is the census from the year 2000. It's about
1800 people live in our census area.
Next one, please. And this is what this looks
like, age-wise, the census population. As you can see the
18, 24, age range in the year 2000 was probably the largest
population. In 2010, it has grown.
SPECTATOR: Sorry.
MR. KERNAN: Okay. And so now -- just leave it
there -- with the addition of The Grove, this is what this
population trend looks like, with 600 additional. And it
far outnumbers everything in this small quarter of a mile.
One more. And of course, we're talking about
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adding Choice City with that also. And this is, I think,
what we're -- the point that was made earlier. This really
skews the numbers in our very small area.
Hit it again, please. And again, this is back to
the point I made earlier, draws it all together. We've got
population, huge population. And the difference between
this particular development and the other developments that
are going on is really the intentional direction of the way
this traffic is supposed to move out of this place, out on
Elizabeth, the Rams Point, that particular thing. It's
directed away from -- from the residents. Here it is more
or less direct-driven -- directed into it.
That's all I have to say. Thank you very much,
again, for your time.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you. Anyone else
wanting to speak this evening?
I think we've given everybody ample opportunity.
That closes public testimony.
At this point, we have time for the applicant to
respond to public testimony if they choose to.
MS. RIPLEY: Okay. Thank you. There are several
of us that are going to respond, based on our individual
expertise.
I guess the first one I had my name on was one of
the neighborhood -- was contesting that we didn't have
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adequate amenities to justify four-bedroom units. Just a
couple of things to say about that.
The Code does ask you to look carefully to see
that there are adequate amenities. And so the question is,
is there enough additional for that additional number of
students.
First of all, it isn't an additional number of
students. Those four-bedrooms could simply be two-bedroom
apartments, and you'd have exactly the same number of people
living in the complex. So that's one thing to think about,
because that's what would happen if they weren't allowed to
have four-bedroom. They'd simply fall back and have two
two-bedroom units. But it's nice to have the variety they
like to offer that.
However, for a multifamily project, you're only
required to have -- to satisfy your park requirements,
you're required to have a private open space of at least
10,000 square feet. The open space that encompasses that
central green, the clubhouse, the pool, that outdoor area,
the sports complex or the sports courts, is 1.12 acres. So
that's like over 43,000 square feet. Well above the 10,000
that's the minimum requirement.
So I think there's plenty of recreational
opportunity on this site for the amount of students that
live there. It is -- it is concentrated purposely so that
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all that noise and activity is concentrated well away from
the neighborhood.
They were talking about -- one woman talked about
noise. It's a reason why we've put the clubhouse in the
interior of all those buildings, so a lot of that noise will
hit the buildings and bounce back to the clubhouse, rather
than bleeding out through the neighborhood.
So bottom line, there is a noise ordinance. If
students aren't respectful of that, which I think they would
be because of the management, but if they weren't, the
neighborhood has recourse there. But of course, if noise is
loud enough to bother the neighborhood, it's certainly going
to be bothering the students who live next door who might be
the studious type. So they'll call their manager. So
that's how those noise issues, we would anticipate, would be
handled.
Let's see. There's a question about whether
there's adequate parking. We've got 499 parking spaces on
our parking lots. We've got an additional 128 on the
street. That's more than one parking space for every single
student that would live here. We anticipate that there
actually will be students that will choose to live here
because they can get pretty much every place they need on
their bike. So we don't even know that every student will
drive a car, have one here, and they come and go.
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And the neighborhoods repeatedly say, Well, there
will be a lot of overnights. Well, there probably will be
some overnights, but also some students that live here will
be spending the night somewhere else. So I think the best
representative of that was the young man from Greeley who
said there was always adequate parking. It's one of the
primary things they do in their developments, is make sure
there's adequate parking.
I wanted to talk about the issue of this crazy
thing that we have of being in two zone districts, that we
have MMN and E, and we have a dividing line that goes
diagonally through it. It doesn't go at straight angles.
It's a curve. Very unusual for a zone district line.
We were -- they pointed out that we have to have
two housing types and that our clubhouse is our second
housing type, but it actually falls in the E district rather
than in the MMN district. But I would point out that the
clubhouse is a complex. There's actually a building on the
other side of the pool, and the zoning line goes in between
the two. So the clubhouse complex is actually in both zoned
districts. We've always presented the project as a whole.
However, we do believe that we meet the requirements of both
zoned districts.
Let's see. The issue that some of the
neighborhood believed that because the -- part of the
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project is in the E district, that it had to somehow be
partially primary use, simply isn't the case. That's why we
have -- one of the reasons why we have the ODP and why the
ODP is useful, because that document requires that there is
a primary E employment use.
This project will take up approximately seven
acres of that E zone, and therefore they've used up seven
acres of their secondary land use. So I don't -- that's
not -- as far as I know, that's not a Code requirement, that
you have to have a primary use in each phase. That often
happens that you don't -- you can do the secondary land use
first, if you choose to. That's perfectly appropriate. In
the end, though, you're required to show that you meet it.
Let's see. I think I'm going to let somebody else
go. I may come up if I find my name on something else that
I haven't hit on. But -- who wants to go next? I guess
we're going to talk about traffic.
MR. DELICH: Matt Delich, Delich and Associates,
traffic transportation engineering. I took notes on four
items that came up in the 30-minute presentation on traffic.
One with regard to the -- the trip distribution of
80 percent toward -- to and from Colorado State University.
Understand that traffic studies, the analysis periods that
we're doing are the peak hours. And that's not to say that
trips aren't made at other hours. And those trips to
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grocery stores, for example, and the like are often made on
nonpeak hours.
During the peak hours, when students are obviously
the most active, going to and from school, they're going to
be going to and from Colorado State University. And the
true distribution that we use was discussed in the scoping
meeting, the required scoping meeting, with City staff.
There was a contention that we did not include all
the major intersections in the square mile. If you read
further in the -- my eyes are drying out. It's pretty late.
Excuse me. If you read in more detail in the Chapter 4 of
the LUCAS -- excuse me -- the intersections that are
analyzed have to be impacted by 10 percent or greater, so
when we go in and pick the intersections that we're going to
analyze, the -- we look at what the expected traffic will be
in those directions. And if they are impacted by less than
10 percent, then they don't have to be analyzed. So that's
in the guidelines for traffic studies, and again, it was
discussed in the scoping meeting with City staff.
And then the bicycle level of service. We did the
bicycle level of service in accordance with the guidelines
in the transportation studies. We also looked at pedestrian
level of service. And we did that in accordance with the
guidelines in the traffic study guidelines.
And then the Centre/Prospect intersection was the
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last one. We, in fact, did follow-up work on the Centre
Avenue and Prospect intersection later in the process.
There was a memo prepared, and it was part of the public
record, and at the request of City staff, so we did do
follow-up work at that intersection.
I'm available for questions, if you have any,
either now or later. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you.
MS. PLAUT: Josie Plaut, with the Institute for
the Built Environment. I wanted to address a couple of
issues that were brought up by the neighbors in concern.
First, to clarify, on the vinyl siding. These
will be sprinklered buildings, and so the event of a full
building burn-down is indeed highly unlikely. Such an event
has not occurred in Fort Collins, to my recollection, with
sprinklered buildings. I think that that is indeed a very,
very low risk.
I also wanted to address the question about the
all-electric heat. I know that's of concern. For one, I
would say that that is permissible within the Code.
However, the client is committed to using an alternative
source of heat. So the all-electric air source heat pumps
are not a consideration at this time for this project.
These are evolving as the design is evolving, so I
realize that this isn't all reflected in the documents.
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However, they have committed to meeting the Energy Star
Version 3 proscriptive requirements for heating and cooling,
which include a 90 percent efficient gas furnaces and a SEER
13 air conditioning unit. That's the baseline system.
They're still considering three additional systems that
would perform at greater efficiencies from those.
So I just -- it's perhaps new information. As I
said, the design is evolving as we -- well, maybe not as
we're speaking right now, but, you know, figuratively
evolving.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Can I ask one quick question
there?
MS. PLAUT: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: You'd mentioned they're doing
LEED on one building? Is that -- did I hear that correctly?
MS. PLAUT: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Are they doing this heat
commitment on all buildings?
MS. PLAUT: That's correct. So all of the
buildings in the project will be built to the same design.
They do use a prototype model so they have one -- well, you
know, two basic building designs, their larger and their
small building, and all of the buildings on this project
will be made -- built to the same, insulation, paints,
finishes, adhesives, and heating and cooling, water
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efficient fixtures. Those will be throughout the entire
specifications of the project.
However, for financial feasibility reasons, just
one building will be actually certified through the LEED
process. It is a significant expense to certify each
building, and so it is a genuine commitment and a commitment
to build all the rest of the buildings to the same
specifications and standards. So we believe that this is an
acceptable approach to greening the entire project.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Thank you for your
clarification on that.
MS. PLAUT: And that's -- yeah, that's all.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Brigitte has a question.
MS. SCHMIDT: I just have one question. I don't
understand all that much about LEED, but I know a lot of
times, I've heard things associated with like gold or silver
or -- I know there are different levels.
MS. PLAUT: Right.
MS. SCHMIDT: So is this the most basic level,
then, as far as -- because you mentioned -- okay.
MS. PLAUT: I can -- yes, so at this time, we have
reviewed the project, and we know that it can meet all of
the requirements to achieve a basic certification level.
We're in the process of doing an energy model which will
determine the amount of points that are available for energy
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efficiency, which will have a big factor in what level we
achieve. So I believe it's likely that we will be above the
basic certification level. However, that is still under
development at this time.
MS. SCHMIDT: Thanks.
MR. HAAS: Nick Haas with Northern Engineering
again. At this time, I'd like to address some of the
roadway issues that were brought up earlier at ODP and kind
of a -- re-referenced with the PDP.
Collectively, they related to curb radii, arc lane
tangents, sight distance, and I guess we can say we -- I
believe the Board packets did have a list of some
engineering variances that were granted for Rollie Moore
Drive. So I mean, that's an acceptable part of LUCAS.
So through that, both the variances and the basic
LUCAS requirements, all of the roadway geometry with the PDP
meets the standards. It's been reviewed and approved by
City staff. If there's specific questions, I can answer
them further. But we have, indeed, addressed and looked at
all those.
I'll point out a few reasons and justifications,
perhaps, for Rollie Moore, because it wasn't just on a whim,
and because it's necessarily substandard. I mean, Rollie
Moore -- one of the intentions of Rollie Moore Drive is to
slow traffic. We do have a full-width parking and bike
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lanes, but we have some narrower travel lanes, both for
environmental considerations and to help that traffic
calming effect. The curb bulges and rain gardens further
try to slow the traffic through there.
So the lower design speeds along Rollie Moore
Drive then result in different curve criteria and sight
distance, and again, that's all been evaluated by City staff
and deemed acceptable.
We actually have some variances approved for wider
streets on the outer local residential roads to help meet
some concerns of Poudre Fire. That oversized bike path that
we're doing is technically not a City standard, so that's a
variance. The addition of the rain gardens is not in LUCAS.
It's a variance. Again, that's all been provided, but I did
want to briefly address the technical roadway design issues
that were brought up.
The next one that was brought up was basically a
handicapped parking access, and I haven't had a chance to
fully review or assess what was stated, but we have looked
at it ourselves against the Codes that we believe to be
pertinent, and amongst the units on this site, there would
be five fully accessible units that would be required. They
would be spread out throughout the complex and located in
the buildings that are most convenient and have handicapped
parking space directly next to them.
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Additionally, all of the ground floor units would
be the Type B adaptable handicapped units, and it is true
that the two buildings that have the least convenient or the
longest route to handicapped parking space is Building 4 and
5 along Rollie Moore Drive. We actually asked City staff if
it was possible to provide on-street handicapped parking on
Rollie Moore Drive. They deliberated, took it to the
transportation coordination, and on a city street that they
uphold jurisdiction over it, it wasn't something that they
felt was warranted.
Another issue that was brought up was filling in
the floodplain fringe and subsequent effects with the
roadway and corners of the buildings that are in that
floodplain fringe.
And all I can really say to that is that we've met
all the requirements set forth in Chapter 10 of the City of
Fort Collins Municipal Code, all the applicable FEMA
guidelines. It allows filling in the fringe, construction
of the residential buildings, and I -- it would appear that
perhaps some of the concerns were with the Code and
regulations themselves. That's what we're forced to adhere
to, and we've done that. And City floodplain administrative
staff has, again, reviewed it and approved all that
documentation.
There was, I think, brought up a couple of times
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the cutting into the hillside and the slope there. This
section kind of illustrates to a proper scale of what
that -- the development is doing along that hillside with
respect to the existing and proposed topography. That would
be finished grades so that you don't have a 40-foot tall
building and then that exacerbated by the slopes. It does
result in cuts and fills terracing up the hillside on the
orders of, you know, of 10 feet cuts, 10 feet fills, as the
buildings flatten out, climbing up the hillside.
The cut and grading adjacent to the Larimer Canal
was mentioned, and I guess I'll -- I'll reiterate some of
the statements of perhaps the neighbors that this project
needs to stand on its own, and our engineering design team
has done that.
The system of toe drains and under-drains in place
and the slope stability analysis that was performed and the
retaining wall proposed that'll be, you know, further
designed during final design, require a building permit, you
know, engineering, stamp and licensure to ensure that all of
the -- al of those structures and stability and under-drains
indeed are safely stable, not just for neighbors, but for
these buildings that Campus Crest has proposed building in
that location. It would behoove them and all of us that
would be stamping work out here that it's going to indeed be
stable and function.
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The ongoing maintenance and operation of the
under-drains will be covered in the development agreement to
again ensure it's not put in the ground and look the other
way and is never -- you know, never kept to perform. And so
obviously, the ditch relocation, realignment, agreement is
in place and effective. The horizontal separation allows
for the lining of that canal only further addresses some of
those concerns, but the design of The Grove as a standalone
project does not depend on the canal relocation.
MS. LILEY: I think I'm the last speaker, and I'll
try to be very brief, since it is very, very late. I'm
having the same trouble Matt did, keeping my eyes focused on
the words at this point in time.
I wanted to talk just a minute about the ditch
realignment project. It's been suggested that there needs
to be a condition of approval for that. You do have
evidence in the record from the ditch company itself and
from CSURF testifying tonight that the agreement has been
signed and that the ditch realignment will occur
concurrently with The Grove project.
I guess the question of whether or not it should
be a condition of project approval is whether or not the
Land Use Code would require that. I know there has been a
lot of back and forth between Mr. Podmore and the City. He
went to an April -- I think it was 19th Council meeting and
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talked about groundwater and liability, and thereafter --
and this is all in your materials as well -- a SAR was
issued by the City Manager's office coming from Sherry
Langenberger in engineering, project development, review and
engineering.
And the position of the City is that they regulate
very little with regard to groundwater. They basically, on
private property, require -- basically don't permit
basements, and there aren't any basements here. And then
there are certain studies and reports that you need to do
for impacted public rights-of-way, and that's it.
But otherwise, it's up to the individual engineers
to design something that's safe and protects the property
from groundwater. And if there's liability, that's a
private liability issue between the parties.
So I'm not quite sure where to go with that. If
in your view you think this is something, and this can be
tied back to the Land Use Code and that the project would
depend on it, then we can talk about that. But I'm just
curious. We have been advised for many, many months now
that the project is not dependent on the ditch relocation
project.
It's a great thing to have. Don't get me wrong.
That's why we're all doing it. We want to have it. It's
going to happen. But the project is not dependent on that
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in terms of meeting the Land Use Code. So I'm assuming you
have questions for the City staff, and we can drill down a
little bit further, and then if you want to talk after that
about whether you think that's an appropriate condition, we
can do that.
Just one other very quick thing. When Linda was
talking about block compliance, she mentioned -- and I just
want to make sure there's not confusion, because we always
seem to have confusion about block standards. But she
mentioned, Well, you know, there's a few gaps, and we can't
meet it.
I don't want you to get in your mind that that's a
modification or something not permitted, because the Code
specifically addresses that and says that if existing
development prevents it, then that's fine. They recognize
that as an infeasibility, and that's all that requires is
for you to acknowledge that, and she provided that instance
that in those two spaces, the reason it can't be complied
with is because there's existing development.
So I just want to clarify that so we don't get
into an issue about, are you meeting the block standards, or
is this a modification. Yes, we are, and it's specifically
provided for in this section.
And I think I'll stop there for the moment. Thank
you.
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CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Thank you very much. Lucia,
we would like to ask you a follow-up questions.
MR. LINGLE: And maybe it's Linda, but Lucia, both
you and Nick mentioned that in regards to the ditch
relocation that -- I think the word you used was that The
Grove PDP is not dependent on that, being relocated, but I
guess I've got a question about the basic design of the PDP.
Would it be modified in any way if the ditch was not
relocated? Would it be graded differently? Would it be --
would there be any impact at all to what you're showing us
tonight if the ditch wasn't relocated?
MS. LILEY: I don't believe so, but Linda --
well -- I'm hearing no, it would not affect the PDP.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. It's been two hours
since our last break. I think we're going to take a
five-minute break at this point, and then we'll proceed.
(Break from 1:22 a.m. to 1:32 a.m.)
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Welcome back. Just
wanting a quick show of hands, how many people think they're
going to abuse their alarm clock in the morning.
That's a pretty overwhelming response. Okay.
At this point, we have -- we give the staff an
opportunity to respond to public testimony.
MR. OLT: Okay. I will start with that from a
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planning standpoint, and pretty much going from the top.
There were several comments about the
compatibility of the project, size, sale, architectural,
building materials, transition, size, scale -- you know,
what we're looking at is proposed multifamily residential
project with three-story buildings. And obviously, in the
neighborhood, there are single-family homes, one- and
two-story single-family homes, two-story multifamily
dwellings. They transition to a three-story.
Certainly, it would not be out of character, if
you were to look at, you know, anyplace in the city of Fort
Collins, you'll see that kind of transition. Especially
since this is property zoned MMN, medium density mixed use
neighborhood. The residential can go up to three stories.
We actually have a large three-story building just up on the
hill, across the ditch, looming over the valley.
So and then with the -- from a transition
standpoint, with the distance -- transition, I mean -- as
we've seen previously, we're looking at a 250- to 350-foot
separation between, basically, buildings in this project and
the closest buildings in the neighborhoods to the north and
west. So the transitions are more than adequate, really
making the size and scale of the buildings really
compatible.
Architectural character, building materials. I'd
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like to say that that really, to us, has become a product of
the developer working with the Institute for the Built
Environment. Because you've seen that there's been a
dramatic change in the architectural style, and that
occurred, really, not at the suggestion but the insistence
of the neighborhoods early on, that, you know, that kind of
cooperation occur, and it has, and it certainly has changed
the architectural character and, to some degree, the
building materials to work in the sustainability green built
concepts. So that's really what has driven the nature of
the buildings.
I just want to reiterate what Linda Ripley had
said, the four-bedroom units concept. Someone had suggested
that that really, basically, suggests guest occupants there,
with that fourth bedroom, and the amenity package is
inadequate.
We've evaluated this. Certainly, staff concurs
with the applicant's position that the amenity package, the
open space, the public facilities within the area, the --
actually, the amenity package on-site is adequate to justify
the 18 four-bedroom units.
If -- if that were denied, what they would do is
just reconfigure this. I'm not sure that the dwelling units
or bedrooms would go down any. It would just be
reconfigured, and what they're suggesting is, you know, that
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those 18 four-bedroom units really represent a lifestyle for
some of the residents in the proposed development. So we do
concur that the 18 four-bedroom units are justified based on
3.8 -- .16 of the Land Use Code.
The only one building type, again, we have applied
this interpretation on several projects throughout the city
over time in terms of the clubhouse, mixed use building, the
nature of the -- you know, the residential units on the
second and third floors, and the commercial nonresidential
uses as part of that. That is a second building type, and
it's consistent with the way the City has interpreted and
applied that to several projects.
Let's see. Talking about the fox dens. One
gentleman that talked about wildlife corridors, which we'll
get to momentarily, the fox dens, and he actually provided
you with information that both myself and Ted Shepard had --
you know, we had discussed, and an interpretation was
actually made about, you know, whether the filling of those
fox dens was development.
Our position was and still is, yes, it is. That
development cannot occur until there's a final development
plan approved. If you were to approve the PDP tonight, that
is not approval of a final development plan. That kind of
activity will not occur until there is a final development
plan approved. So that position has not changed.
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There was a comment about -- several comments
about new development pays its own way. Why is the City not
charging full development fees. To our knowledge, they are,
and that was actually expressed in one of the questions from
the -- the prepared questions that the neighborhood had
provided to us at the May 23rd neighborhood meeting, that to
our knowledge, they have paid full development fees,
development review fees.
There was reference to the Flats at the Oval
getting some reduced fees. If I'm not mistaken, that might
have been to Poudre School District because the nature of
the development -- it's a college student housing
development, so to speak, but they had to petition the
School District, just as this development would have to do.
It's not a City decision. The School District has to be
petitioned to reduce their fees. To my knowledge, that has
not been done.
So you know, those are basically, I think, the
planning-oriented questions. There were numerous comments
about floodplain regulations, the wildlife corridors,
natural habitat preservation, more traffic-related
questions.
So we have, you know, several staff here, Ward
Stanford, Mark Beratta (phonetic), Lindsey X (phonetic), and
Matt Wempey (phonetic) are all prepared to answer or respond
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to those concerns of the neighborhood, relative to those
issues. So I don't know who wants to go first.
STAFF SPEAKER: Are you asking further questions
or just read through --
MR. OLT: Yeah, are you asking further questions,
or just --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I'm sure we'll have a lot of
questions. We're just -- I think we would like to move into
Board discussion. But if you had anything specifically that
you wanted to respond to the applicant -- or, I mean, public
testimony.
MR. SHEPARD: Mr. Chairman, I'll respond to one
very briefly about the -- again, the mix, the materials.
And I think one of the folks speaking about the mix of uses
in employment.
Again, the standard, 2.3.287, any standard
relating to housing density and mix of uses will be applied
over the entire Overall Development Plan, not on each
individual Project Development Plan review.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Thank you.
MR. SCHLEUTER: I think in my -- you know, you
were talking mainly floodplain and ditch seepage. With the
floodplain, it was a pretty interesting concept that they
brought up, that there's a conflict between the Land Use
Code and the Municipal Code.
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The City Code has been around quite a while.
Floodplain administration has been started late '70s, I
would think. And this concept of fringe and fill and
floodways has always been part of that. It's something that
FEMA had initiated.
So I would think that if you go -- you know, you
definitely know which was the first. And, you know, the
minimal amount of spill that's coming into this area, you
know, and in considering all the improvements that we've
done upstream to lower the floodplain, including -- you
know, we had to do that because we increased our rainfall
criteria after the '97 flood, so it caused a bigger
overtopping of the Burlington Northern, so we've done all
those projects.
And the meeting before this one was the water
board concerning Capstone, and Brian couldn't make it to
this meeting, but he was at that one, and was testifying
about -- it was between 1 and 3,000 CFS less compared to a
total of like 5,000 CFS that we've already mitigated for.
Even saying that, you know, what they're showing
is true. It would be a minimal rise, I would think, less
than an inch, if that. But that's all theoretical, too.
You know, in reality, we don't control how much water comes
down there.
As far as the ditch seepage goes, I really don't
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feel comfortable. I'm not a geotechnical engineer, although
I have quite a few years of experience in these situations
with other developments. Most of the subdrains that have
failed that John Mowen (phonetic) is concerned about were
usually, if not always, residential subdivisions where the
developer put in a sub-drain system along the ditch and then
walks from the site and leaves it up to an HOA that didn't
even know the pipe was there.
So I think in this situation, we're going to
have -- you know, they're going to be motivated. They start
getting high groundwater. If it's plugged up, it's going to
start coming up in their buildings. So I have a feeling
that they're going to be really motivated to do something
about it.
Another thing that comes to mind was, of all the
ditches in town, I would think that Larimer Number 2 is
probably the least-used ditch. It is used primarily in the
spring to fill Warren Lake and then sometimes in the fall,
they get some free water off the river and they can put some
more back into Warren Lake. And then sometimes in the fall,
they get some free water off the river, and they can put
some more back into Warren Lake.
I think you might want to hear from the
geotechnical engineer who understands slope stability and
the design for the site. That might make you feel a little
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more comfortable with their design. So that's all I have to
offer.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. Thank you.
MR. CAMPANA: I've got a follow-up question with
you, Glen. On that discharge out of there, is that outlet
controlled? Or who controls that discharge going back out
to Spring Creek by the Garden -- what, the Gardens at Spring
Creek? Is there a ditch there? Is that where you're
connecting the drainage into?
MR. SCHLEUTER: Yes, it is.
MR. CAMPANA: Is there an outlet structure there,
then? Spillway or something?
MR. SCHLEUTER: Well, what there is, is a crossing
of the Sherwood Lateral, and underneath that Sherwood
Lateral is two culverts that are one and a half foot high by
six foot wide, and we have had them analyze that situation
to make sure that they're discharging, a hundred-year storm
can fit through those culverts.
We had to be real conservative and use back water
as if Spring Creek was -- which already had flood flows in
it. And then if it does plug, or there's a bigger storm
than a hundred-year storm, what it does is it overflows to
the east, across The Gardens at Spring Creek, which is --
you know, it's just gardens. It's not the buildings. It's
the gardens. So we feel fairly comfortable -- we are
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comfortable that it will work and not impact any other
developments.
MR. CAMPANA: Okay. That's where I was going, for
filling that fringe and backing that up for some reason.
You've got a design so it goes to the east as opposed to the
homes to the --
MR. SCHLEUTER: Well, I don't think it will really
back up water. A little bit, maybe, but what it really
would do is just cause a little rise right in that area.
And I would think it would be somewhere under an inch, like
I said.
MR. CAMPANA: Okay. Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay. I think we're ready to
move into Board discussion, which we sort of have. So let's
start -- yes.
MS. SCHMIDT: I've got a few questions that can
probably be answered fairly quickly. And some of these,
I've discussed, like, at work session and stuff. So the
local street around there now, that is not going to have
parking on it, correct?
STAFF SPEAKER: No, the local street will have
parallel parking on it.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Will have parallel parking,
and then there will be a side, and then the bike path
goes -- I was just wondering. In some of these pictures
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that we've been shown by various places, you know, what the
buildings are going to look like from the houses, it's never
shown that there's -- you're basically around the bottom of
the buildings. You're going to be seeing a row of cars
first, right? On the other side of that fence? Or
whatever? So that's why I didn't know how that -- that road
was really going to --
STAFF SPEAKER: Presumably, yes, you would see
cars if people needed to park on that street.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. But then there's -- would
also be the bike -- the bike lane would actually be closer
to the homeowners, right, than the parked cars? Is that
correct?
STAFF SPEAKER: Yes, the bike lane is detached.
It's on the western side and it goes around the --
MS. SCHMIDT: Is that a sidewalk and bike path
together? Or. . .
STAFF SPEAKER: I guess what you would you call it
is probably just an unofficial, like, multi-use. It can be
used for bikes. There's nothing that prohibits bicyclists
from bicycling on the sidewalk.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. And then we talked about the,
you know, City sort of having responsibility for the street
trees along those roads. And who sets up how those trees
get watered? Is that at the time they're installed? Is
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there underground irrigation? Or. . .
STAFF SPEAKER: At the time that they're installed
first, they have to go through a maintenance and warranty
period similar to our roads, so basically, if they fail, I
think it's within the first two years before City Forestry
would take on maintenance. There would be an expectation
that, you know trees that died would be replaced, basically.
So they do have to be established before Forestry takes them
on.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. So for the first two years,
then, it would be the developer's responsibility to replace
any trees that died?
STAFF SPEAKER: That's correct. There's usually
even a performance bond that the Zoning Department collects
that would help ensure that in case the trees were to die,
that sort of thing, if they weren't taken care of, that we
would have those funds available.
MS. SCHMIDT: And so what sort of helps guarantee
that they will not die? I mean, are they just planted, or
is there -- on most of these street trees, is there some
kind of watering system that goes with those?
STAFF SPEAKER: Yes. It's required of all street
trees in the parkway.
MS. SCHMIDT: They're sub-irrigated or they're --
STAFF SPEAKER: That's correct.
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MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. And in the previous plan -- I
don't know how this one is really designed, because we
didn't see the detail cross-section, but remember, they had
that -- the sort of parking that faced out, and the idea was
that the water there would run off, down the hill? Is that
still the same? So, in other words, like, the road, the
local street, probably, has curb and gutter, I'm thinking,
but then that detached sidewalk, that would -- the water
from that would just be designed to run off down the hill?
STAFF SPEAKER: So, yes, there would be curb and
gutter on both sides of the local streets, so it will be
contained, and then through storm piping -- I could pull out
the drawings, I guess, to see where those are situated. And
then within the sidewalk, yeah, I guess whatever falls from
the sky would sheet-flow off the sidewalk, but you would
have, theoretically, parkway on one side and turf and native
grasses on the other.
MS. SCHMIDT: Then I guess the other -- I just had
a couple of questions. Maybe Linda could respond. At one
time, somewhere during the length of the evening, you
mentioned there were going to be some commercial uses in the
clubhouse? And do you have a plan for what these might be?
Are we talking just like a coffee shop or something like
that?
MS. RIPLEY: Actually, they do have coffee, kind
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of a coffee shop, but it's part of their clubhouse. When I
said commercial, I just meant that -- they're charged
commercial fees for the clubhouse, which is the first floor
of the building. So they pay commercial fees for that
portion and residential fees for the two levels of
residential housing above.
MS. SCHMIDT: Oh, okay. But there probably won't
be, like, commercial -- like the Oval Flats kind of
commercial.
MS. RIPLEY: We have discussed that, but there has
been no decision on that.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. And maybe the person from the
Built Environment -- I guess I had a couple of questions.
Did you want to respond to the comment about -- that there's
not enough roof space or something to do solar? I wasn't
sure exactly what they meant about that.
MS. PLAUT: Yes. So regarding the solar, electric
system. There's a couple of issues at hand. So one is that
the current incentive program available through the City of
Fort Collins is under consideration for revision. And the
current system does not provide an economically viable
option for any significant amount of solar. They're fairly
limited, amounts of rebates and refunds. So there's a fee
and tariff program that's under consideration. That would
make a significant solar installation financially viable for
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the client.
The client is currently considering a fairly
significant system for their Greeley property, and they're
looking at a 600 to nearly 1 megawatt -- 600 kilowatt to 1
megawatt system for their Greeley property, and that is
primarily through covering roof space.
In order to get to the full meg, they would need
to provide additional solar off of the roofs, but those are
also the gabled roofs. And so while I'm not a complete
solar expert in this, I have talked with a solar consultant,
and sat through meetings, and basically, there is room for a
significant solar installation on the 12 buildings; and with
the flat roofs, essentially, all of the buildings can be
lined with solar panels, because it's not important which
direction the gable faces. The roofs can be mounted on any
of the roofs that are shown here.
So it's our understanding that the client both
would like to support the fee and tariff program, and should
that tariff program then pass, they're very interested in
participating, and that would be a fairly large-scale solar
installation, probably the largest private solar
installation that we have in Fort Collins, should that come
through. So my understanding is that there is significant
opportunity for solar on this project.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. The other question I had, it
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seems kind of unimportant. I presume all the windows are
designed, although there's air conditioning, that they can
open them, every apartment can?
SPEAKER: Yes.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. I think that's all I've got
right now. Thank you.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Let's see. Can you tell me,
what's the status of the green building code review in the
City right now?
STAFF SPEAKER: I'm sorry. I don't have the
answer for that, and I know everybody is looking at me, but
I don't know. I'm, like, who looks the most tired?
MR. SHEPARD: My understanding is that City
Council had passed it and that the Building Department, Mike
Jebel (phonetic), is working with the light and power
engineers about getting it implemented.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Does anyone know -- maybe you
do, Gino -- about the all-electric heat systems? Is that
going to be addressed or allowed, not allowed?
MR. CAMPANA: Josie was on that.
MS. PLAUT: I can speak to that. So as I
understand it, it has been voted on and approved. Most of
the green codes will go into effect January 2012. There was
a special provision passed, I believe, that may have been
instigated by a project we've all been talking about for a
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while now, and it was to increase the required insulation
value and envelope performance for all-electric heat
buildings.
And that, I believe went into effect April 28th.
So that would affect this project. So it requires higher
insulation values in the walls and the roof and also higher
envelope performance -- I'm sorry, higher U values -- or
lower U values for window, if I can get all my directional
numbers correct. But basically, better performing windows,
better performing walls and roofs for all-electric heat
buildings. But there still is not an exclusion or exception
for electric heat.
However, as I mentioned, the client has given
every indication that the system is completely off the
table, and the new baseline system is a gas-fired furnace
with air conditioning, and that we're looking at improved
systems beyond that, but that the electric heat option has
been taken off the table.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Thank you. Steve, is there
anything in the -- there's been a lot of debate about vinyl
siding. And I guess, you know, my personal opinion is it's
not a sustainable product at all, but I guess from a Land
Use Code standpoint, is there anything that would -- we
could point to and say that vinyl siding is not allowed and
this is why?
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MR. OLT: I don't believe there is, other than if
you could -- if you could construe that, you know, related
to a material compatible with anything else in the
neighborhood, would be the closest thing I think I could
come up with in the Land Use Code. But strictly prohibiting
a material like vinyl? That's not cited in the Land Use
Code.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. And since the drawings of PDP
call up vinyl, if they chose to make a material selection
enhancement at the final plan, some of their material might
be more sustainable, or would that be allowed, or would they
be bound to vinyl siding at that point?
MR. OLT: They can certainly make that change
between a PDP approval and a final plan approval.
MR. LINGLE: Anything that staff would consider an
upgrade.
MR. OLT: That's correct.
MR. LINGLE: Okay.
MR. ECKMAN: It might require an amendment.
MR. LINGLE: Okay.
MS. PLAUT: Mr. Lingle, I'm sorry. May I speak to
that for a moment? So I did submit a report on vinyl siding
compared to fiber cement siding, and I want to share a
little bit of our experience with that.
We referred to the Athena Institute. It's a
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nonprofit organization specializing in life cycle assessment
of building system components. And I have to say that I was
very surprised by the results. I not two months ago was
very much in the very antivinyl camp and had given the
client a significant amount of grief --
MR. LINGLE: Propaganda.
MS. PLAUT: That. Sorry. My communication skills
are starting to break down a little bit. But bear with me.
So instead of me being able to conduct a full life cycle
assessment, because that's a very in-depth, detailed study
that takes into account everything from raw materials
extraction to manufacturing, installation, and eventually
decommissioning of the building product, so it's a very
comprehensive assessment, and I looked across a variety of
metrics, including fossil fuel use, CO2 use, global warming
potential, ozone depleting potential. It's a very
comprehensive analysis.
And what we found was that it's a pretty mixed
bag, and that there weren't any clear preferred winners in
this sort of game of what do we clad our buildings in, and
it was a little bit of an eye-opener for me.
So I would just say that we deferred to a
well-respected nonprofit third-party entity who has done
extensive life cycle analysis, and what we found is that
vinyl performed worse in some categories and it performed
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better in other categories than typical alternatives, such
as fiber cement, and if you look at the report, it also
shows stucco. And so those are the viable options. And
stone and brick are on there as well, but they score
surprisingly poorly, actually.
So it kind of brings up the issue of the
complexity of trying to do sustainable design. And so I
just wanted to clarify the source of information and also
the learning that happened for us in that exploration. So I
don't know that it's exhaustive, but it was the best
resource that we could find to indicate the sustainability
of the product.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Thank you.
Linda, I was wondering about, there were questions
about the transitions from this development to its neighbors
and things. And I didn't know how -- if you had explored
that at all. I see on the site plan that there is -- other
than the clubhouse, there were essentially two different
footprint types. One looks to be about half the size of the
other, and whether or not some of those smaller building up
closer to, like, the CARE Housing might be considered by the
neighborhood more transitional or not. I mean, granted,
they're all three stories, but --
MS. RIPLEY: Yeah. Without dropping down to two
stories, we didn't see much value in putting a smaller
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building at the ends. We did look at it, but this turned
out to be the most efficient arrangement. And continually,
throughout this process, it's been about trying to arrange a
site plan that works functionally and is just as efficient
as it can be so that we can leave as much buffer along the
canal and along the wetland as we possibly can.
Now, I think -- I feel like it's compatible
because of the long distance of separation that we have
between these buildings and the residential buildings to the
north. They're larger, granted. They're a lot larger. But
they're also from 250 to 350 feet away. We rarely see that
kind of distance between multifamily and single-family here
in Fort Collins. Even when it's just multifamily to
single-family. This is actually multifamily to condos and
townhomes and there are some single-family in there, but
it's a mixed -- it's a mixed development.
So the transition -- I look at the transition
really occurs in the -- from a larger framework, from
further out in the West Central Neighborhood Plan where you
do get larger lots and single-family development. It
transitions this way and becomes much denser. Like I said,
one project is even more dense than this project on a gross
basis.
And then we also -- the Code also asks you to be
compatible not just with residential but with other
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buildings. So as soon as you cross Centre Avenue, we've got
the National Resource Center, which has flat roofs and
three-story buildings and modern architecture, and it's
perfectly in keeping with this. So it just feels okay.
And plus, I don't think it's been emphasized quite
enough, but we have a ton of planting on that outside edge
of all kinds of ornamental trees, tall trees, evergreen
trees, shrub thickets, and it's there for structural
diversity, for wildlife, and enhancement in that area, but
it's going to do a lot of screening. And yes, a lot of it
is deciduous, but as I showed that other slide, that was
are' deciduous, but things do hold on to leaves. They serve
a purpose in the wintertime. Anyway, I'll stop.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Thank you.
MS. RIPLEY: Did that answer?
MR. LINGLE: Yes. Just one more question. The
issue about the second housing type. Steve, does the fact
that that clubhouse, the mixed use housing that's part of
that, whether it's all in E or straddling the zoning line,
does that matter at all to staff? Or is there any reason
that that is a concern?
MR. OLT: We actually have looked at that as the
development as a whole.
MR. LINGLE: Okay.
MR. OLT: So the direct answer to your question,
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does it matter, no, it does not. We're looking at, you
know, The Grove project from east to west as, you know, a
unified project. And we have the two housing types within
that project. I don't know. Ted, did you want to elaborate
on that?
MR. SHEPARD: There's a little bit of latitude in
1.4.6 that where -- I'll read it, that where a district
boundary divides a lot of record at the time the boundary
was established and where the division makes an practical or
reasonable use of the lot, the boundary may be adjusted by
the director in either direction, not to exceed 50 feet
beyond the district line into the remaining portion of the
lot.
And we rarely rely on this. It's obscure. But it
does allow for some flexibility when you have a zoned
district boundary line that bisects the site.
MR. LINGLE: Okay. Thank you.
MS. SCHMIDT: Along those lines, Ted, I was
wondering when we were coming up with the new City Plan, did
we fix this? Because we talk about it every time, about the
only two housing types, and I thought we had addressed it
somewhere. It may not apply to this project, but have we
done anything in some of the new City Plan things that we
did and the Land Use Code amendments? So we don't have
anything that works right now that is going to change this.
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MR. SHEPARD: No, we do not. Not at this time.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Thanks.
MR. SMITH: I wanted to get a better understanding
of the parking arrangement. I've heard and read it, and I
apologize if I'm chopping this up, but that there's 403
parking spaces on-site. 430 are required. But I've also
heard that there's 499 on-site. And so I just want to get a
breakdown of what is actually on site, what's on the street.
And then along those lines, if the parking that's being
provided offsite -- so on the street -- if that is a number
that actually is used to make your minimum.
MS. RIPLEY: There are 499 parking spaces on our
site. In addition to that, there are 128 on streets where
people would park and no one else would park there other
than people that lived in this project, in most cases.
That's a total of 627 parking spaces, basically, serving
this development. 430 are required. That was correct.
MR. SMITH: Okay. So it's not -- it's not 403
on-site. It's 499.
MS. RIPLEY: 499.
MR. SMITH: Okay.
MR. OLT: For clarification, Mr. Smith, the 403
parking spaces on-site, per se, are in the parking lots,
off-street parking lots.
MR. SMITH: Okay.
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MR. OLT: You've got 69 -- 403 and 60 -- 66, it
must be. But we have -- the parallel parking spaces on the
public local street do count towards the required minimum
parking for this development, because that local street is
not considered a pass-through street. Therefore, by virtue
of the Land Use Code, section of the Code, you can use those
spaces, and that brings that number of spaces considered
on-site to satisfy the minimum parking requirements to 499.
MR. SMITH: Okay. What was that qualifier?
Because I know we -- I mean, just going through what we
did with --
MR. OLT: It's in the 3.2.2 --
MR. SMITH: So the street -- I mean -- it's
probably pretty quick. Streets do not pass through --
MR. OLT: Right.
MR. SMITH: -- then that new parking can --
MR. OLT: The parallel parking on the street can
be counted towards the minimum parking requirement for the
development. That is correct.
MR. SMITH: Okay.
MR. OLT: The 128 spaces on Rollie Moore Drive and
that public commercial street do not count. They're extra
parking spaces.
MR. SMITH: And they don't need to anyway. Okay.
MR. OLT: So I don't know if you wanted that
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section cited.
MR. SMITH: No, no, I'm okay. I mean, I got it.
I mean, that's -- okay. And then I wanted to just go back
real quick just for a moment, because, again, I probably
don't understand it. Staff uses 1.4.1.6 to give them 50
feet of leeway to be able to move a boundary line between
two zone districts in order to allow that second type of
housing to fulfill the two types in the MMN. Did I hear
that right? That was the section that allows staff to be
able to say, Yeah, you've hit your two housing types?
MR. SHEPARD: Yes, that's correct.
MR. SMITH: Okay.
MR. SHEPARD: Do you want that Code cite again?
MR. SMITH: Please.
MR. SHEPARD: Yeah. 1.4.6.
MR. SMITH: Okay. Thanks. Let's see. I think I
had one more. All right.
I mean, one thing I was going to say is I'm not
sure if this is -- I can never say that word,
editorializing, especially this early in the morning, but
it's an interesting dilemma that we have, such a great
stress on neighborhood connectivity and walkability, and yet
we strive to protect adjacent neighborhoods when we're
talking about increasing the occupancy limit.
In the staff report on page 18, you know, in
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Section 3.8.16, it says, serve the -- paraphrase -- to
adequately serve the occupants of the development and to
protect the adjacent neighborhood. And I'm not sure if I
understand from what.
MR. SHEPARD: Well, I can tell you historically,
while Steve is looking, that that standard preceded the Land
Use Code, and it was inserted into the Land Use Code back
when we adopted the Land Use Code. That was written for
Rams Village, which Donna Fairbank, a veteran of that
project, reminded us of. That was the first project that
came into the city that had more than three unrelated in an
apartment complex, and that was the origin of that standard.
MR. SMITH: Okay. I mean, and I guess I -- why
it's germane to this discussion, it's not real strong, but
that is, you know, these are criteria that we're charged
with finding in order to be able to say that we would allow
increasing the occupancy limit beyond the U plus 2. And so,
you know, we're charged with -- that somehow these
amenities, or they've done other things to be able to
protect the adjacent neighborhood.
And I guess that's so ambiguous for us to be able
to say, how would we -- what are we trying to protect in
order to be able to say that they've actually been able to
demonstrate that they should be able to bump up to a
four-unit apartment. It just seems hard for us to be able
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to even grapple with that. But thanks for answering those
questions for me.
MS. SCHMIDT: A couple other questions I had. On
the comments from CARE Housing, they had talked about a
raised crosswalk. I wasn't sure where they wanted that. Is
that down closer to their property on CARE? And I was
wondering if that is something that's going to happen. Do
you know the comment I'm referring to, Nick?
SPEAKER: I'm familiar with the letter from CARE
Housing. I wasn't clear exactly where they wanted them.
However, we did propose raised crosswalks early, prior to
that comment, to help achieve some of our own design
objectives.
And the City staff was not supportive at that time
of raised crosswalks along Rollie Moore Drive. We. . .
MS. SCHMIDT: So we -- do you know where the
problem is with CARE Housing? They said there was an area,
I think, where there's adults across the road pretty
frequently, or something, and they were concerned with the
traffic? Or was it because their clubhouse for their
community is on the south side of the road, and our senior
residents use the clubhouse on a daily basis?
STAFF SPEAKER: I think -- I guess it must be
interpreted, then, that they are looking actually for a
raised crosswalk within existing Rollie Moore, as opposed to
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within the development plan. And we'll probably chime in on
how that works, but I guess it would -- if that's what
they're looking for, it probably wouldn't be something that
I guess you can necessarily say would be an impact of this
development. It's probably more an existing condition, but
Ward can probably speak to how the City's potential traffic
calming plans might work.
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, I think they're worried, you
know, right now -- it's okay for the seniors to get across
the road, but when you have a lot of increased student
traffic coming down the road, how is that going to impact.
MR. STANFORD: I wasn't part of the conversation,
so I'm just speculating. But typically, we won't put a
raised crosswalk and those types of devices on anything
larger than a residential street. The speeds and the
volumes typically are not conducive to having bumps and
stuff in the roadways.
MS. SCHMIDT: Like I know on -- I think it's
actually on Centre, close to the Worthington, they did some
different kind of crosswalk designs for seniors to get
across there. And I was wondering who was responsible for
that, and if that would be an option or if that would be
something that CARE Housing would have to get permission to
put in if their residents were having trouble crossing the
street.
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MR. STANFORD: I'm not sure which one you're
speaking of, but it could be a colored pavement, non-raised
type of crossing.
MS. SCHMIDT: I think they actually have flashing
lights or something, where people would press a button.
MR. STANFORD: That may be that solar installation
there at Meadowlark and whatever that street is. I think I
know the one you're talking about, where it's got the
flashing lights. That's a possibility, yes
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. So who would initiate that if
they were having trouble getting people to cross?
MR. STANFORD: They would contact us and work with
Steve Gilcrest in our neighborhood traffic management
program to look at solutions.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Would they have to pay for
it, or would City end up paying for it?
MR. STANFORD: Generally, the City will. Yeah,
we'll go through a process of evaluating its value and worth
and whether we'll eventually do it, and then pay for the
installation.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. Another question I had was,
that local street along the side that has the 60 parking
spaces. Although they get credit for it, those are open to
anyone to park on, right? So I mean, other students that
are looking for parking, if they get here early enough or
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whenever, they could park along that street, just like
anyone else, right?
STAFF SPEAKER: That's correct.
MR. OLT: Yeah, it's a public street, and
actually, I need to correct my numbers. 96 parking spaces
on that local street, bringing the total parking that
qualifies within the development as 499. But, yeah, it's a
public street. Those are public parking spaces.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. And the last question I had
was, I appreciate the efforts that they've gone to redesign
the plan. And I think a lot of it looks a lot better to me.
I was -- I think because the redesign, and comment on it,
looks a lot better, I'm wondering if we need as much
fencing. You know, the neighborhoods had said they don't
have fencing on their side for the wildlife flow, and I was
thinking, Well, I agree. I don't know that we need it on
this.
Because my hesitation a little bit was when you
see it in the picture, I don't always like the perception
that we're creating a gated community. And when you look at
it from the outside, it creates that perception a little
bit, and I just don't know that it's necessary. I think the
solid fencing, you know, the parking area is, but maybe of
that whole long section on Block 1 where there aren't any
buildings, would it be appropriate, like, not to have a
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fence along there? I mean, and what's your feeling with the
wildlife corridors?
STAFF SPEAKER: The reason -- you're right. It's
counter-intuitive to have a fence from a wildlife corridor
perspective. That fence on the north side is not for
wildlife. It's for wetlands. It's to protect the wetlands
to keep people from intruding into the wetlands and the
trash blowing into the wetlands. That was be the intent
from my predecessor that was here. Does that answer your --
I'm sorry. I'm failing here.
MS. SCHMIDT: Well, I mean, do you feel -- I'm
guessing -- I'm just asking. Do you feel it's necessary and
that it's an enhancement, or is all the shrubbery going to
stop the trash from blowing? I guess -- I don't know. My
personal feeling is that people really want to get into the
wetlands, a three-foot fence isn't going to stop anyone
from -- you know --
STAFF SPEAKER: Oh, yeah, the fence along the
majority, the metal picket fence -- and I think we have an
image in here, but I don't know where. It's a metal picket
fence. It's typically six feet tall, and then at certain
areas, we reduce the height down to three feet to
accommodate the wildlife movement that we've seen. And I've
talked with the applicant, and they're certainly open to
lowering it in more locations based on what the neighbors
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showed as well.
The issue is the fence is really for the wetlands
here, and with the potential pressure, I -- I'm not the
person -- I'm sorry. The fence is a requirement for
separation from a wetland perspective. That is the ultimate
goal. It's not for wildlife. And so if we want the
protection for the wetlands, then it should be there. If
we're not as concerned about that, then, you know, I think
that the neighbors would be concerned about taking it away
completely.
MR. SHEPARD: There was a lot of input on that
fence, the result of which ultimately is the design that you
see.
MS. SCHMIDT: Yeah, I remember that, and I
remember with the previous design, really wanting a fence.
I don't know that this design requires that much fencing.
STAFF SPEAKER: I'll just add from talking to
folks at the Division of Wildlife, we're dealing with -- and
from, certainly, you'll find this in the ecological
characterizations and talking about the natural areas as
well. We're dealing with urban adapted species on this
site. And the Division of Wildlife feels fairly strongly
that species are going to adapt to this situation, this
development, and they're going to move around it to the
east, and they're going to move around it to the west, and
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so the accommodations of moving down to three feet are
actually going above and beyond from a wildlife perspective.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay, Andy.
MS. SCHMIDT: Sure. I'm done.
STAFF SPEAKER: And you can -- you know, one of
the questions that came up from the neighbors, too -- I
really apologize for my slowness -- but is that, why aren't
we accommodating any more species than just deer. And this
fence redesign is. For every hundred feet, we're moving the
bottom pickets underneath the lower brace, and so they're
going to be flush every hundred feet for one foot wide, and
so a fox would be able to crawl underneath it.
And the Division of Wildlife feels that between
that accommodation and the four-inch-wide picket fence, is
that we're also accommodating fox, and so in that same vein,
we're accommodating the other smaller animals, the raccoons
and other species as well. So we are looking at multiple
species in this design.
And then the Division -- one other comment that
was brought up. Natural Areas really felt that the widening
of the fence would actually be incredibly supportive for the
foxes to move, and that was from a wildlife biologist. So
we have done quite a bit on this site, too, to accommodate
it for urban adapted species.
MS. SCHMIDT: Thank you.
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MR. SMITH: All right. I've got another question.
Back to 1.4.6, Ted, Steve, and where a -- where a district
boundary divides a lot of record at the time the boundary
was established. I think we know that to be true. And
where the division makes impractical the reasonable use of
the lot, the boundary may be adjusted by the director in a
direction not to exceed 50 feet.
So I've got two questions. Please help me better
understand how the division makes it impractical, the
reasonable use of this lot. And then second part of that
is, is the boundary adjustment temporary or is that
permanent?
MR. SHEPARD: Well, the way I interpret the
standard is that the actual zone district line doesn't move.
It doesn't adjust. We're not going to go to City Council
and do an ordinance to change a boundary line. It just
allows the director to use the 50-foot latitude to allow a
development plan to be cohesive.
In a case like this, you're so close to a boundary
line, but one use is on one side of the line, and it should
be on the other side of the line. This standard says that
with a good, unified, cohesive site planning, you get a
little bit of latitude to do good site planning.
MR. SMITH: Okay. So I mean, if you're within 50
feet and you're close and the director deems it that -- I
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mean, and these other two things have happened, then it's
just for that application.
MR. SHEPARD: That's correct.
MR. SMITH: It's not a permanent adjustment. All
right. And so then the second point, I just have to
understand how the division makes it impractical for there
to be reasonable use of this lot.
MR. SHEPARD: Well, we wouldn't have known that
had we not seen the site plan. And so this standard tries
to allow for unforeseen circumstances. So we didn't know it
was impractical until we saw that, the clubhouse location
being where it is, buffered from the neighborhood by the
perimeter buildings, creating the amenity area, is on the
east side of the line.
It makes a lot of sense for it to be where it is
for a lot of reasons, and that's, I guess, a degree of
impracticality for a bad site planning reason to arbitrarily
move it over to cross the line. So good site planning would
say, Well, how about if the line isn't there? What makes
sense? What's a good site planning objective?
MR. SMITH: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: How we doing? Are we getting
our arms around this thing?
I think we're ready to start moving towards a
motion.
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MR. CAMPANA: Let me just share some thoughts on
it here while we're. . . there was a lot of work done on
this by both sides, and even a third side, other
neighborhoods coming in. And the amount of information, the
quality of that information, was really good. Pretty decent
presentations. You guys put a lot of time into it.
The issues I've heard from the neighborhood the
most was density and transitions and compatibility. And
when I look at the density for MMN, they're not high. You
know. 12 is a minimum. They're about 14, the net acreage.
I wouldn't say that's terribly high.
From a transition perspective, that's exactly what
I would do. Transitioning to employment would be going from
single-family townhomes, to multifamily, to employment, and
it happens all over our city. I can name several projects
that have that very same scenario with three-story
buildings. I think what makes it less palatable is that
we've added the student housing aspect to it. And as a
neighborhood, you think of students living in there as
opposed to apartments, but it is what it is.
So I don't necessarily have an issue with the
transition or the compatibility. And I think that the
latest changes that the applicant has made and Ripley and
the engineers have done are actually very good. I was very
hesitant, and I think I even made the comment, that this is
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a great piece of ground that's left in our city, and we
could do better on our design. I think you guys stepped up
to the occasion and did that. So I'm going to support it
tonight.
MR. LINGLE: So you want to make a motion?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Well, real quickly.
MR. CAMPANA: More discussion?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I am concerned about the
ditch. I think we should tie the construction of the
realignment to the approval of this. They say they're going
to do it. They've got the agreement. I think that it's
drawn on the plan. And I would like to see the motion
address that that is completed before -- and I would look to
Paul. Before I see it, a CO, a permanent CO is issued on
that building.
MR. CAMPANA: I don't have an issue with that. It
doesn't sound like the applicant does. Maybe they do.
MS. LILEY: Can you clarify the language of that
motion?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Well, we haven't made it yet.
I was just wanting to be assured that that ditch is
realigned before a permanent certificate of occupancy is
issued on this project.
MS. LILEY: And I think we're fine with that,
because the commitment is to do the ditch. We have a
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binding agreement to do it. The timing -- obviously, we're
a little concerned, because we can only do it when we don't
impact the ditch.
I think tying to the first final CO as opposed to
a TCO would work, and again, so long -- and I'm saying that
based upon the City's already-made determination that no
further development process is required. So if we had that
language and then tying it to the first permanent CO or
final CO, that would be acceptable.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Okay.
MS. SCHMIDT: I guess I have a little concern
about that, just from the idea that if the evidence we
received is correct, what creates the difficulty with the
ditch is actually building those buildings, not whether
people live in them or not. I mean, it's the cutting into
the slope that weakens it that might cause the ditch to
breach, which if that should happen, that's going to affect
more than the people living in those buildings.
So I guess tying it to a certificate of
occupancy -- I don't think that's really the main issue. I
mean, I feel like that before those -- before there's
construction in those buildings, if it happens when there's
water in the ditch -- you know what I'm saying? I mean, I
don't -- I guess I don't feel like the ditch has to be
moved, but those buildings should not be there and have the
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ditch refilled in its present location. That's how I would
describe it.
Because, you know, again, I'm saying that if the
information we received, where the hazard is, is correct,
then that's what causes the chance that the slope would
weaken, is the fact that those buildings are there and the
ditch is full. So if they want to start building on the
buildings and the ditch is going to stay empty for months,
and before the water starts flowing again, they move the
ditch, that's -- that's fine with me.
I mean, I just -- to just tie it to occupancy, I'm
not sure -- you know, if they started building on those
buildings and the ditch was still flrowing, and it wasn't
moved yet, that could still create a problem. And then if
you have all that water breaching down, that's going to ruin
a lot more than just those particular buildings, I think.
So I don't know how you feel about that.
MR. SMITH: I guess I -- you know, I guess I'm not
convinced, necessarily, that -- that, you know, that even --
even to Butch's point that this would have to be tied to the
CO. I mean, from what we've heard from the -- you know, the
experts, the geotechnical and analysis, I guess, and the
engineering, is that this -- you know, the project stands on
its own without even the ditch being moved, and so I'm not
sure that necessarily there's anything to be gained based on
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what our purview is and our knowledge, or the lack thereof,
by requiring the ditch to be completed, necessarily concur
only with construction or in advance of, you know, the CO.
So I mean, I guess I'm agreeable with it being
tied to the CO as, you know, the applicant has said that
they would be willing to do, and a couple members of the
Board would want. You know, I don't feel too passionate
about it. But I'm not sure if -- I think we might be going
too far, Brigitte, if we were to say, let's tie that -- the
relocation somehow to the construction way in advance of,
you know, folks moving into it. I think we might be
expecting a little bit too much unnecessarily.
MS. CARPENTER: Do we even have anything in the
Land Use Code that lets us look at that? Paul?
MS. SCHMIDT: Isn't there something about safety?
I would think, to me, it's a public safety issue. And I
think the concern is, you know, in one letter, the ditch
company said, they wouldn't be liable because they were
there first. And that's always the ditch company's usual
philosophy: Well, it's not our problem. Because we were
here first.
Well, then -- I don't know. I feel like if we
approve it and say the PDP is there and it was okay to build
those buildings there, I just -- I don't know. It's
worrisome. And I don't know. I guess if the best we can do
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is tie it to a certificate of occupancy, I feel like that's
better than --
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I think we've trying to
overanalyze it. I think that they've addressed it. It's
important. I'm just trying to tie it to some assurance that
it doesn't slip through the cracks and not get built. And
tying it to the CO gives them plenty of latitude. They know
they have to do it at that point, and it gives them latitude
to do it in off-peak season.
MR. CAMPANA: Haven't we in the past had
engineering tied in with the development agreement, as
opposed to putting a condition of our approval? I think
we've done that before on other projects. We got a
commitment from Mark saying he'd add it to the development
agreement or something along those lines.
MR. ECKMAN: We do have a provision, 3.3.3(b),
that says if a project includes a water hazard such as an
irrigation canal, necessary design, precaution, shall be
taken to minimize any hazard to life or property, and
additional measures such as fencing, water depth indicators,
and erection of warning signs shall be taken to the extent
reasonably feasible. Any lands that are subject to high
groundwater, meaning groundwater in an elevation such that
basement flooding is reasonably anticipated, shall not be
platted for building lots with basements unless adequate
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provisions to prevent groundwater from entering basements
has been designed and approved by the City Engineer. I
don't know.
MR. SHEPARD: The reason I suggested the CO is
because that's what we can control.
MR. CAMPANA: What's your thoughts, Mark?
STAFF SPEAKER: I guess I would say that --
because Gino, I think you're asking, can we put that in the
development agreement. I guess we can probably put
anything, theoretically, I guess, in the development
agreement, but it -- generally, we do that based upon a Code
criteria. We don't, you know, negotiate special favors or
anything like that. You know, that's not how the
development agreement works. It's based upon Code.
So I would say if you want to make that finding,
then we would then feel compelled to put it in the
development agreement, because that's one of the documents
that get recorded at the County, so it becomes part of the
public record, and --
MR. ECKMAN: We already have in our development
agreement quite a provision about groundwater that was
actually spawned by reason of a complaint against the City
for groundwater problems below an irrigation ditch, over on
the northwest side of town, I think it was, some years ago.
So I drafted some language in our development
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agreement, and it's been in the agreement ever since, that,
in a nutshell, says that if you build below a ditch and the
ditch makes your basement wet, don't come crying to the
City. It's an indemnification against the City -- to
indemnify the City for any harm.
But that's really only on the site that is the
site of the development. So if you think that groundwater
is going to be a problem for neighboring properties, that
language wouldn't solve that problem. It would only solve
the problem that if the groundwater causes problems on this
development property.
STAFF SPEAKER: I'll certainly add to that extent,
too. The plat for the project specifies that no basements
will be allowed on-site. So it addresses Paul's Code
citation, but as he just mentioned, it doesn't address
offsite potential impacts of groundwater.
MR. CAMPANA: I'm all right making it a condition,
if everyone else is, that no final COs will be issued until
the ditch is realigned. You okay with that?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: That's all I'm asking.
MR. CAMPANA: So I'm going to make a motion. So I
make a motion for approval of The Grove at Fort Collins PDP,
Number 16-1010B, based on the facts and findings listed on
the -- finding of facts, included on page 21, 22, and 23 of
our staff report, and condition that all final COs will --
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no final CO will be issued until the ditch is realigned.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: I'll second that motion.
Okay. Any further discussion?
MS. SCHMIDT: I guess I do need to make a few
comments. As I said, I think this redesigned plan is a
large improvement over the first one that we saw. And so I
feel that in a lot of ways, it is more compatible with the
neighborhood because of the way the parking has changed.
I still have some issues with the block size
thing, and I think I -- I'll support the PDP because I feel
like the basic issue we have before was the block in the
middle. I think it's sort of ludicrous to call the other
two blocks, but maybe that's a necessary thing. There is
the portion, the middle, where the clubhouse meets the block
standard design. The others can be argued either way, and
to me, they don't meet the concept of walkable blocks,
defining them the way they are.
But on the whole, I think that the developer has
made some, you know, large efforts, and I really appreciate
all the time the staff has put into this. And I'd just say,
too, that -- because the employment district allows
four-story buildings, and so I think that this is going to
be a buffer if there's going to be employment there.
And I would say, I mean, the whole idea, too, is
that not all students are totally rowdy and obnoxious. I
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mean, I think, you know, that's the whole model, and if you
look at the residence halls, a single residence hall on
campus has 600 students in it. The towers have 1200 apiece,
and so I think when you're just driving by Outward and
Westfall, it's not like a crazy zoo all the time there.
So I think, hopefully, you know, things will
transition, and I really feel that with the City's street
idea and the City having the responsibility for the street
trees and everything, as they start to grow and develop
things, it will look a lot better and there will be a lot of
buffering. So I will support the PDP.
MR. LINGLE: Yeah, I'd also like to thank the
applicant for making a very strong effort to hear what the
neighborhood was saying at the last meetings and working
hard to address that.
I just look at the changes that have been made
from the last proposal, with the block structure, the fact
that there's no wetland mitigation that's necessary any
longer, no modification of standards needed, better -- much
better, in my opinion, architectural design overall.
I think it's going to be a much stronger
transitional architectural style to the potential E
employment offices and further research development that
could occur east and south of the site than what was there
before.
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I appreciate the efforts towards a sustainable
green design, even though, you know, I hope that you could
get it up beyond LEED certification to at least silver, I
think that would be a meaningful thing. I think more people
understand what that means than just LEED certified.
Slight reduction in the project scale, and then
also the enhanced buffering beyond what the Land Use Code
requires. I think all those things add up to a
significantly improved project that I think that everyone
can be proud of.
MS. SCHMIDT: Okay. I just have to say one more
thing. And that's -- I do want to say -- it's sort of a
concern, and I hope these kind of projects don't pit
neighborhood against neighborhood. As much as student
housing is needed, I think it's very important that we just
don't approve anything that comes along because it is
student housing. And I think that we've worked to make this
a better project, and I think that benefits the city in the
long run. I do hope that people understand, I don't think
that this is necessarily going to relieve a lot of pressure
on the neighborhoods. And so if every single time a project
comes, people are going to come and say, oh, we need this,
because it'll takes students out of the neighborhoods.
It may and it may not, and I think the important
thing is to look at the overall benefit to the city, and as
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everyone has said, you know, the City has city high
standards. And so we do need student housing, but we need
to make sure that it's always the best that we can make it.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Any further comments?
Roll call, please.
THE CLERK: Smith.
MR. SMITH: Yes.
THE CLERK: Lingle.
MR. LINGLE: Yes.
THE CLERK: Campana.
MR. CAMPANA: Yes.
THE CLERK: Schmidt.
MS. SCHMIDT: Yes.
THE CLERK: Carpenter.
MS. CARPENTER: Yes.
THE CLERK: Stockover.
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: Yes.
And with that, The Grove at Fort Collins Project
Development Plan Number 16-10B has been approved.
Is there any other business this evening?
With no other business --
MR. SMITH: Morning?
CHAIRMAN STOCKOVER: -- our meeting is adjourned.
(Meeting adjourned 2:45 a.m., June 17, 2011.)
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REPORTER CERTIFICATE
I, JASON T. MEADORS, Registered Professional
Reporter and Certified Realtime Reporter, and Notary Public,
appointed to foregoing proceedings, certify that the
proceedings were taken by me at 200 West Laporte Street,
Fort Collins, Colorado, on June 16 and June 17, 2011.
I certify that the proceedings were reduced to
typewritten form by computer-aided transcription, consisting
of 316 pages herein; that the foregoing is an accurate
transcript of the proceedings.
I certify that I am not related to, employed by, of
counsel to any party or attorney herein, nor interested in
the outcome of this issue.
Attested to by me this 3rd day of August, 2011.
________________________________
Jason T. Meadors, RPR, CRR
Coffman Meadors Reporting & Legal Video
My commission expires January 26, 2013
Cheyenne: 307.432.4061
Denver: 303.893.0202
Fort Collins: 970.482.1506
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