Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-037-02/15/1983-ELIMINATING THE PUD BUILDING HEIGHT BENCHMARK DISTRICT MAP AND AMENDING THE BUILDING HEIGHT REVIEW C RESOLUTION 83- 37 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS ELIMINATING THE PUD BUILDING HEIGHT BENCHMARK DISTRICT MAP AND MENDING THE BUILDING HEIGHT REVIEW CRITERIA WHEREAS, in October of 1979, the City Council adopted a height ordi- nance, said ordinance limiting the height of structures in the City of Fort Collins to forty feet (40' ), and WHEREAS, accompanying the adoption of said ordinance were Building Height Review Criteria and the Building Height Benchmark District Map adopted by Council Resolution 79- 92 , and WHEREAS, said review criteria and district map served as administra- tive guidelines to define criteria against which proposed buildings over forty feet (40' ) were to be reviewed, and WHEREAS, in March of 1981, the City Council adopted the Land Develop- ment Guidance System, said System to serve as the City' s new PUD ordinance, and WHEREAS, the existing Building Height Benchmark District Map and the City' s Building Height Review Criteria are inconsistent with the existing Land Development Guidance System, and WHEREAS, as the result of a ,joint work session held on November 9, 1982, the Planning and Zoning Board and the City Council feel it would be appropriate to abolish the PUD Building Height Benchmark District Map and further, to expand the administrative Building Height Review Criteria NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS that the PUD Building Height Benchmark District Map be, and the same hereby is, abolished BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the existing Building Height Review Criteria be, and it hereby is, amended to include the attached expanded administrative Building Height Review Criteria Passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the Council of the City of Fort Collins held this 15th day of F ry 1983 Assistant a or ATTEST City Clerk CITY OF FORT COLLINS PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT BUILDING HEIGHT REVIEW CRITERIA A PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES Section 118-82(C) of the City of Fort Collins Zoning Ordinance precludes buildings of a height greater than 40-feet unless they are located in a unit development plan as defined, processed and approved according to Section 118-83 of the Zoning Ordiance ( i e , the PUD Ordinance) The purpose of these criteria is to establish a framework for the discretionary review of building heights in excess of 40-feet in a PUD proposal The intent is to encourage creativity and diversity of architectural and site design within a context of harmonious neighborhood planning and coherent environmental design These objectives and review criteria are themselves discretionary Depending upon the proposal being reviewed, the criteria may have different importance In other words, some of the criteria may be Freighted heavier over the other criteria For instance, the review of a high-rise proposal in the Central Business District may regard certain of the review criteria as more important than those criteria used in the revvew of a high-rise proposal in an activity center Each situation is different, so discretion is applied to which of the criteria is more important However, one ^rust keep in mind that the various criteria and Point Charts of the Land Development Guidance System must also be observed The prinary objectives of the City of Fort Collins in regulating building heights are the following Objectives 1 To preserve the character and stability of existing residential neigh- borhoods by precluding the development of buildings which by their height are intrusive to the established character of the neighborhood Some of the external costs imposed by intrusive height include visual incompatibility due to differences in building scale, loss of views, loss of sunlight on adjacent property, and loss of privacy in adjacent yards, 2 To define and reinforce the downtown area as the high intensity focal point in the corr unity while preserving the historic character of the Old Town area , 3 To allow for maximum utilization of activity centers planned for high density residential , commercial and industrial use, but without sub- stantially altering the urban form of the City through building heights which conflict with the general scale of development in the district or community as a whole, 4 To generally protect access to air and sunlight for active and passive utilization of solar energy, 5 To provide conscious direction to the development of the urban form of the City through placement of high-rise buildings This direction would generally allow high-rise development in the downtown area as per Objective 2, discourage high-rise development in or adjacent to low- and medium-density neighborhoods as per Objective 1, and expect Objective 3, and 6 To allow for variation of these general expectations where justified through the discretionary review of planned unit development proposals B INFORMATION TO BE SUBMITTED Section G(3)[m] of the Land Development Guidance System requires a PUD preliminary plan submitta o inc u e mpact studies and other studies as the Planning and Zoning Board may require for the full and complete con- sideration of the planned unit development " PUD proposals which include building heights in excess of 40-feet will include the following 1 A shadow analysis which indicates on the preliminary site plan the location of all shadows cast by the building (with associated dates of the year), 2 A visual analysis which identifies existing views to be blocked, from where, of what, and to whom, and which depicts in graphic form views before and after the project utilizing photographs of the area or neutral drawings derived from them with proposed buildings drawn in Depictions should be made from at least two points from which the proposal will be commonly viewed, one of which should be a vista towards the foothills These points of observation should be indicated on an inset map or plan of the area, and 3 The PUD statement of planning objectives should evaluate the shadow and visual analysis, and specifically address the review criteria below C REVIEW CRITERIA 1 Community Scale A building greater than 40-ft should be located in either of two areas The building should be either located in or adjacent to the Central Business District Or, secondarily, a building greater than 40-feet should be located in or adjacent to one of the established or de- veloping activity centers An activity center is defined as a neighbor- hood, community, or regional shopping center, or an employment center which has over 300 employees The intent is to concentrate the inten- sity of uses in these planned centers through the use of mid-to high- rise structures However, the intent is also to follow the established urban design and form of Fort Collins This form, as stated in Objec- tive 5, is a low-rise city with the exception of high-rises in the Central Business District and the mid- to high-rise development within planned activity centers The use of buildings over 40-ft in these centers will maximize land use opportunities and contribute to making Fort Collins a visually diverse city Clustering of larger, taller buildings at these activity centers can visually express the functional importance of these centers The location of buildings over 40-ft in height should also be a discretionary balance with the other review criteria and compatible with the six objectives 2 Views A building, dhether less than or greater than 40-ft, should not sub- stantially alter the opportunity and quality of desirable views within the community Desirable views are widely perceived views by the community of foothills, mountains, significant local landmarks (i e , Longs Peak, Horsetooth Mountain) or features of the Fort Collins skyline Particular emphasis will be attached to preserving views of the foothills from public spaces including City parks, the Poudre River, public streets and similar public spaces View corridors down streets and avenues are important to be maintained Building siting and massing with respect to street pattern influence the quality of views from the street space In assessing the quality of views, the depth and width of a view may be attributes to be considered Also, the level of interest, what the view reveals about the City or the surrounding landscape, is an important factor to be considered Thus, emphasis may be given to the preservation of views from residential neighborhoods and places where people concentrate such as shopping centers, etc Another consideration of view blockage is the reduction of the City' s self-image Fort Collins prides itself as a city being particularly attuned to its natural foothill setting The intent of the Height Criteria is to prevent the erosion of this image from occurring Beneficial effects may derive from screening existing objectionable vistas and creation of new views, particularly from public spaces Views may be preserved (and other criteria may be enhanced) by in- creasing building height while reducing building mass, changing the orientation of long tall buildings, and iicreasing open space setbacks 3 Light and Shadow Any building of greater than 40-ft should not have a substantial negative impact on the distribution of natural and artificial light on adjacent public and private property Negative impacts include casting shadows on adjacent property sufficient to preclude the functional use of solar energy technology, or creating glare such as reflecting sunlight or lighting at night Cast shadows also contribute to the accumulation of snow and ice during the winter on adjacent property, particularly on public right-of-ways Beneficial effects include the PPPV provision of desirable shade with landscaping or arcades and artificial lighting which improves the nightscape, i e , along streets The shadow cast by a building can be reduced by the re-positioning of a structure on the lot, increase in the setbacks, reduction in building mass, or redesign of a structure's shape 4 Privacy A building of greater than 40-ft should be designed so as not to intrude on the privacy of adjacent public and private property Parti- cular emphasis will be given to preservation of the privacy of adjacent residential and public parks Primarily negative impacts occur when windows and balconies directly overlook adjacent residential outdoor living spaces--backyards, patios, and balconies Secondarily, impact occurs when windows and balconies indirectly overlook adjacent outdoor living spaces giving an intrusive feeling to these areas Level of privacy in the neighborhood can be improved by providing landscaping, fencing and open space, and changing building orientation away from adjacent residential neighborhoods 5 Neighborhood Scale A building of greater than 40-ft should be compatible with the scale of its neighborhood Scale implies various relationships such as relative height, height to mass, length to mass, building scale to human scale Neighborhood scale relates new buildings with scale of buildings in the surrounding neighborhood The change in scale may be the most dramatic impact of buildings over 40-feet The following items can be used as a basis to evaluate scale a Relative Height The relationship of building height to the height of its neigRborhood The height should not be intrusive to the established or emerging scale of its surroundings The neighborhood height may be either built height or the height of natural vegeta- tion or both The relationship between areas of low height and areas of high-rise can be made more pleasing if the transition height and other considerations between such areas are gradual b Relative Len th and Mass The relationship between the horizon dimensions o bui ings relative to their vertical dimensions The intent is to achieve a balance between the height and mass to produce buildings in harmony with the scale of the neighborhood and to avoid overwhelming or dominating the appearance of buildings over 40-feet in height c Human Scale Too many high-rise buildings have no detail at ground- level to which human beings can relate People are dwarfed and excluded from them The intent is to provide human scale to all structures over 40-ft in height through appropriate design elements such as plazas, seating areas, and normal-size windows d Scale of Character Buildings over 40-feet in height should be made sympathetic to the character or the emerging character of the neighborhood This is a particularly important consideration when the proposed building is located in or adjacent to an historic area such as Historic Old Town or the Laurel School neighborhood The intent is to provide the unity in scale through the appropriate character with the surrounding area by consistant design elements e Relative Location The relative location of buildings over 40-feet in heig t wit in or adjacent to an activity center is another consideration of 4eighborhood Scale The relative location between structures in an activity center can be important A structure over 40-feet in height located on the edge of a center can have a different impact than a structure located within the middle of a center which is buffered by other structures plus the benefit of additional setback distance The transition between any structure over 40-feet in height and the abutting neighborhood should not be abrupt Adverse effects are derived from buildings which depart from established scale in an area with respect not only to height, but to mass of building, intensity of use with respect to building coverage, density, open space configuration, building setbacks, distance between buildings, proportions of openings (doors and windows) , and facade variety among other elements These elements should be compatible with the comparable elements in the neighborhood Beneficial effects can be derived from buildings which help to visually and functionally integrate a building with its surrounding natural and built environment Such buildings provide variety and diversity of design to an area in a manner which is sympathetic to or reinforces established neighborhood patterns