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
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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