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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHARMONY SCHOOL SHOPS SIXTH - Filed GC-GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE - 2007-11-26February 27, 2007 Mr. Ted Sheppard City of Fort Collins Planning Dept. 281 N. College Ave. Fort Collins, CO 80522 Re: Harmony School Shops Dear Ted, 1 respectfully request that you waive the required traffic report for Harmony School Shops for the Major Amendment Submittal. We have reduced the overall square footage for the property since the Preliminary submittal. We did submit a traffic report at that time. We have also reduced the intensity of the uses on the property as well as the number of individual businesses. These combined reductions indicate less traffic than was previously approved by your office. Thank you, Jeff Hosea Senior Planner 1136 East Stuart Street, Suite 2040 Fort Collins, Co. 80525 ■ Phone: 970472-8954 Fax: 970-472-8955 ■ landimages(d7frii.com ■ www.landimaaesinc.com February 27, 00 City of Fort Collins Review Staff 281 N. College Avenue Fort Collins, CO 80521 Ref; Harmony School Shops Major Amendment Project Description Review Staff, Land Images, inc. is pleased to submit this project for design review. The Harmony School Shops project is located at the north east comer of Harmony Road and Timberline Road, surrounding the existing Harmony School and currently zoned HC. The portion of the property that we are submitting today is currently under development, as the first phase of an approved development plan (Harmony School Shops, 4lh Filing) to construct the future Walgreens along Harmony Road. The Harmony School Shops is an infill project to the west of the Pads at Harmony and southwest of existing Milestone Drive. The project is 11.01 acres and will be going through the Major Amendment process. Access to the site will be a limited right in, right out off of Harmony Road, which is existing, a limited right in, right out onto Timberline south of the existing convenience store and then onto Milestone Drive which accesses Timberline Road. An additional access has been designed with the Pads at Harmony to the east so that the traffic signal at Snow Mesa may be utilized for full movements onto Harmony Road. The new site plan differs from the approved site by combining the majority of the separate buildings into one main building that is centrally located on the site. The new building location pulls the building further away from the residential homes to the north. A service drive is located between the buildings and the existing detention pond further creating a buffer. The main building now totals 77,524 sf and is comprised of approximately 4 tenant spaces at this time. The central location of the building provides for a better sound buffer for the homes to the north from Harmony Road. There are an additional two free standing buildings that flank the main building on the southeast and southwest. A 6,000 sf building is on the east side and a 2,000 sf building is on the west. This new design will reduce the overall square footage of the buildings by over 10,000 sf. • With the reduced square footage and less intense users than the grocery store, the new plan will reduce the amount of traffic generated by the project. 1136 East Stuart Street, Suite 2040 Fort Collins, Co. 80525 ■ Phone: 970-472-8954 Fax: 970-472-8955 ■ landimauescaa�K corn ■ www landimaaesinc corn armor? - �n.,��,arfa This will be a plus for the surrounding residents and have a lesser impact on the surrounding road system than originally approved. The architectural character of the new buildings is derived and influenced from the historic Harmony School building. The buildings have been designed to meet architectural design standards in the Land Code. The buildings will be constructed of masonry and EFTS. The masonry will be a combination of CMU and Brick with colors that will tie into the existing school building. The building architecture will address all four sides of the building. The building will also have three roof plains and entrances on three sides of the building. The roof plane will be broken up with taller tower elements that will be 40' in height and the walls in between will be lower and vary in height. Columns, projections and change in planes have been designed into the fagade of the building creating a more interesting building. Internal vehicular circulation has been designed so that a main drive connects the Pads at Harmony project on the east and extends to Milestone Drive on the northwest, with access points into the parking lots off of this main driveway. The parking lot has-been divided into three different lots. There are a total of 421 parking spaces spread through the three parking lots, which are 4.92 spaces per 1,000 sf of building. There is a parking lot on the west, one on the south and a lot on the east. The west lot is divided from the south lot by the centrally located public plaza and the 2,000 sf building. The east parking lot is divided from the south lot by the 6,000 sf building and a landscape island. The design is successful at breaking up the parking lot into multiple smaller lots, which is visually more pleasing and ordered. Pedestrian connectivity has been designed to be easily accessible from the Harmony Corridor sidewalk system or from the existing walks along Milestone Drive into the neighborhood to the north. Many of the walks will take a person through a series of public spaces that can be enjoyed by the users of the shopping center and neighborhood. The plaza areas all incorporate a circle and square theme as the main heart of the pedestrian experience. The circles may be comprised of turf, or paving with all of the rotated squares being paving and pointing back towards the school. • The sidewalk from the existing Harmony School traverses through a triangular landscape space that will have a small plaza located in the center. In the center of the plaza will be a masonry column that will match the columns used for the signage. This plaza becomes a gateway into the site and the radiating point for all of the other plaza areas in the project. All of the other plazas will point back to this central column. This also means that the plazas all point back to the existing Harmony School and the mountains, which the entire project is related back to. There is an S' walk that leads from the school plaza to the main central public plaza, creating a strong pedestrian linkage. • The pedestrian connection from Milestone and the neighborhood to the north will bring one through a smaller scale plaza and landscape area that consists of an arbor with a bench. This becomes the first designed entry into the project and follows the circular space with a central square in the middle. Once a visitor passes through the arbor, they will cross the drive from Pads at Harman; Pf,jr,r.�,. MajorAmenmr.::nt 9..bmittai Milestone and continue along the urban style walk along the west side of the building. o Due to grading issues on the detention side of the drive it is not feasible to have a walk from Milestone. The slope is landscaped along this stretch to provide a stronger buffer to the residences to the north. This allows one main walk on the south side of the drive so that the arbor and circular plaza area become the gateway into the project. This creates a more dynamic and pleasing sense of arrival for a pedestrian. In front of the building the walk system is designed as an urban style walk. It is over 22' wide on the east and west ends and narrows to 15' in the center. There are planting beds integrated into the walk along with trees in tree grates. There are benches situated along the walk under tress to provide for shade and a space for visitors to relax or simply wait for a companion. The paving pattern is a simple grid with 5 circle and square paving enhancements located at the entries into 4 of the spaces. The circular paving is smaller in diameter in the center and grow to twice the size on each end. The two larger circular areas become secondary public gathering plazas that anchor both ends of the walk and tie the entire space together. All of the central squares and banding are pointing back to the center of the school plaza. The main public plaza area is located between the building on Lot 8 and the main building space. The public space also divides the west and south parking lots creating a large pedestrian refuge connecting the entire site together. The design and orientation of this space also radiates from the school plaza. The central square area and bandings again point back to the center of the school plaza. Also the concrete bands and pergola are based on a concentric ripple radiating from the school plaza and this provides the curved shape of each. This plaza will be comprised of some hard surfaces as well as grass that can become over flow or a picnic / blanket area for an event. There is a connecting walk that comes from the center of the plaza and directs a visitor to the center of the secondary plaza area in front of the southwest corner of the building. There will be seating in the form of a seat wall between two of the columns that will provide a great place to hang out for users of the main building or for the restaurant patrons from lot 8. o The pergola will be comprised of three main masonry columns that will match the column in the school plaza and the monument signage. A seat wall will be located between two of the columns allowing for a physical definition of the space. Again as the central theme, the overhead stringers of the pergola are curved and also point back to the school plaza, further emphasizing the school and views to the mountains. The landscape plan is designed to incorporate xeric principals throughout the site. The parking lot islands incorporate trees, shrubs and ground covers to create an interesting design. Along the edges of the project the design works to create buffers to the existing residents and incorporates the stone water facilities that further create a separation. Along the Northside of the buildings a variety of deciduous and Itnd --- - --- �r_ .r, L'. P=_IE et HarmCn',, ^.=scriDtien Ma nr .mernament SuGrnittai evergreen trees along with a 6' privacy fence to buffer the service area of the building and soften the fagade of the building. Along the planter beds in the walks adjacent to the buildings, a variety of plants have been used to create a visually stimulating experience as a visitor walks from store to store. Tree in tree grates are incorporated into the walk to provide an overhead plane. The trees are ornamentals and are placed to avoid conflicts with building mounted signage. Around all of the plaza areas the plantings are used to further define the spaces and provide visual interest to the users of the space. The plantings at the entry signage provide for a warm and welcoming first impression for the arriving shopper. Overall a general design theme will help guide visitors and shoppers through the shopping center. The site lighting has been designed to provide adequate lighting for the site, but not to overwhelm the site as a glowing beacon. All fixtures chosen integrate sharp cut off, downward directional lighting to minimize any light pollution. The plan incorporates some building mounted fixtures to light the service areas and the pedestrian walks, as well as wall washes of the building. The main parking lot lights are straight forward fixtures that are intended to do a great job while blending into the background and not drawing attention to themselves. A few bollard lights have been incorporated into the design around the plaza areas to provide further pedestrian walk lighting to create a safe and comfortable space for users in the evenings. The required submittal items specified on the submittal check list has been included in the submittal as required by the City. We thank the City staff for all of their meaningful insight during the design process. We look forward to working with the City on the expeditious review of the Harmony School Shops project. Thank You, t Michael Chalona, RLA Principal `7 Page 1 From: Eric Bracke To: Jason Bird; Marc Virata Date: 6/13/2007 4:08 PM Subject: Re: FRV - hardscaping around Corbett Dr. round a bout CC: Anthony Willkomm; Jim Allen -Morley Go with the drawing on page 2 of your transmittal. Keep the landscape as grass - no shrubs or trees Eric >>> 'Bird, Jason" <jason.bird@stantec.com> 6/13/2007 3:59 PM >>> Eric, We have been debating whether or not to put a sidewalk along the back of curb around the round a bout. Our concems with putting it up against the back of curb is that it does not provide any buffer between pedestrians and vehicles and no recovery area for drivers. I have attached a couple of sketches that might help to give you an idea of what we are looking at. Your thoughts on this matter would be very helpful at this time. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions regarding these sketches or our design. Thanks, Jason M. Bird Civil Designer Stantec Ph: (970) 482-5922 Ext. 132 Fx: (970) 482-6368 iason. bird(alstantec.com stantec.com <htto://www stantec com/> The content of this email is the confidential property of Stantec and should not be copied, modified, retransmitted, or used for any purpose except with Stanteds written authorization. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete all copies and notify us immediately.