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HomeMy WebLinkAboutROMERO HOUSE (425 TENTH STREET) - PDP - 43-04 - DECISION - MINUTES/NOTES.f. Planning and Zoning Board Minutes December 2, 2004 Page 16 Planner Aspen replied that the site lighting for this property, since there is not a parking lot on the site will consist primarily of building perimeter lighting, one foot candle per light to cover the area around the building. The applicant stated that they wanted to do that lighting as required in a manner that is very sensitive to the neighboring residential properties and the historic nature of the building. Member Craig thought that in the recommendation that it should state the "owner' instead of "applicant". That would remind everyone that the city is the owner and it is the city s obligation to put this in. Member Gavaldon moved for approval for the Museo de las Tres Colonias, home of John B. and Inez Romero, Romero House, 425 loth Street, #43-04 with the following conditions. The condition should read City of Fort Collins/Owner in the first bullet under conditions of approval, in addition, bullets two and three. Member Schmidt seconded the motion. Member Meyer commented that she realizes that volunteers worked on this. She still has a problem with it showing up and flying through. She asked when the city inherits a museum, there are costs involved, and nobody has mentioned who would maintain and manage the property. She thinks that the $20,000 is just the beginning. She thought that there will be expenses there that we don't know about. Member Carpenter thanked the Poudre Landmark Foundation for all their hard work on this she thought that this was a really good project. Member Gavaldon would be supporting the project but has reservations. He thought that even historical and non-profit needs to follow the rules too. The motion was approved 7-0. Planning and Zoning Board Minutes December 2, 2004 Page 15 Planner Aspen replied that her understanding was that they have been seeking their building permit so they are able to go ahead with the demolition of the additional parts of the building that post date the 1930's time frame that they are going for, so they can begin to do the adobe plaster work, repair the adobe and repair and replace the adobe mud plaster and do it in a manner that they can control the weather conditions for when they expose that. Chris Cosilo, Construction Advisor to the Landmark Foundation stated that he was also the historic structure assessment on this property. If the Board would work from the opening date back, in terms of the abatement, which has already been done and paid for by the grant; the amount of the demolition work, the onsite archeological monitoring, the timing of the adobe work, the necessary interior work, and the museum work ends up being a fairly tight schedule as it is. Member Gavaldon asked what the city's share of contribution to this project was. Planner Aspen replied that the city would be responsible for the design and construction of the sidewalk improvements. The city also accepted the donation of the city property, so they are the official owner of the property. Ms. Aspen replied a ball park figure would be about $20,000. Karen McWilliams, Historic Preservation Department reported to the Board that the Romero House project was brought before the Preservation Commission about three weeks ago. At that time the Commission looked at their plans and supported their interest in doing an attached sidewalk, as small and narrow as possible and as unobtrusive as possible. The idea being that indeed sidewalks are going to be needed for this type of project, where you are going to have the public coming to a public facility. At the same time, sidewalks were not a part of the historic property, so they are going to be a modem improvement and we don't want to try and pretend that they were something that was historic and original to the site. At the same time we don't want to make them massive large landscaped strips. They are just going for as minimal as possible that will still meet the needs of the public and the development process. Member Lingle asked Ms. McWilliams if she was comfortable with the compromises that were made. Ms. McWilliams replied she was. Member Craig asked Planner Aspen to clarify the site lighting, "context sensitive" site lighting. Planning and Zoning Board Minutes December 2, 2004 Page 14 Member Gavaldon felt that this was a very hurry up and get it done project and he asked if this was a typical project like a private developer, or city project are we being consistent with the process in following all the steps before it comes to the Planning and Zoning Board. Planner Aspen replied that if this was a typical development project, we would have had a little more time to review it internally before bringing it to the Board. However, there are enough factors about this project that are not typical, especially the historic property part of it and the public and private collaboration; and the fact that it is not really a "development" it is more of an "un-development" taking this building back to the original adobe structure. The landscape, for example, is being taken back to the 1930's state and context. This building defined the context for the neighborhood, and it was one of the buildings that was originally placed on this subdivision. In a sense, this building does not have a lot of the components of a typical development. The things that are outstanding are going to require a review as is typical during final plan review, but no obstacles are foreseen as far as city requirements. Member Gavaldon asked if an individual wanted to do a private development similar to this museum, would they be given the same expedited review that we are going through today. Director Gloss replied that if it was as straight forward as this application and we had the schedule available to bring the item before the Board, he would say that we could do it in the same time frame. Member Gavaldon asked if we setting any precedent that will come and bite us down the road for any development project. Planner Aspen replied no, in fact the meeting on public improvements focused on just that. We want to make sure that this project — there are a complicated set of issues around the public improvements, namely the sidewalk, curb and gutter. Staff made a difficult decision to go ahead and put the sidewalks in despite some misunderstandings about that from the neighborhood, precisely because we don't want to set an improper precedent for other development or create an image that there is preferential treatment for a city project. This project will have its sidewalks and it will be publicly accessible. Member Gavaldon reported from the neighborhood meeting minutes that the museum would not be opening until 2006. Since that is almost a year away, could they still be doing things and still follow the normal process in getting all the details in that normally a project would have and still meet the 2006 opening time table. Planning and Zoning Board Minutes December 2, 2004 Page 13 There is nothing like this in Fort Collins and they have tremendous support from businesses, from the larger community that this is going to be a worthwhile project. She is very passionate about this project and has given her all to this. She thinks that it is important that we have the opportunity to educate the community at large about Hispanic culture. She thinks that it will be a great asset to the larger community, but she really believes that this will be something that the Hispanic community will be extremely proud of. This is not an ordinary museum and they are putting a lot of work into to it, to make sure that it has a very professional outcome, so it is not an ordinary house. She is on the committee for the oral histories and they have done about six of them already. The stories are amazing and they have pictures to go with it. They are excited for this to become a video and part of the museum and part of the community that will be able to view this. This will be very educational for everyone. She hoped that the Board would approve the project so they can move on. Katherine Woods, 315 South Sherwood Street stated that she has also been on the steering committee for the last three years. She stated that they are volunteers and did not know this was a step in the process. When she was writing the grant request for over $200,000 from the Colorado State Historical Fund, she did not know that she should put in money for Facilities to be helping them and should do something with Planning and Zoning. She thought that this was an amazing project and there are a lot of people that have it as a passion. Raising money has been pretty incredible. The number of businesses and public funding that have been interested in stepping up to the plate have been amazing. She thought there were more resources out there if they were to try and get a community facility in the park next store. She thought that there was money for that, but she also thought that since the city is so tied up with not having funds, that there may be a way, as a non-profit that they can help find and leverage more improvements for the neighborhood. It does not feel good putting the only sidewalk in an older house in the neighborhood. They have raised over $300,000 for this project. She wanted to thank the various city departments and staff for working closely with them and helping them understand the process. Ms. Woods stated that they would not be able to specifically answer questions about landscape because they have to go through the archeological reviews as they tear things off of the house. They don't know at this point, which trees were there before and which weren't. They will provide a set of guidelines for what they will look at for doing the landscaping and it has to also be approved by the State Historical Fund and what they archeologist tells them about it. PUBLIC INPUT None. Planning and Zoning Board Minutes December 2, 2004 Page 12 the public to understand the local Hispanic culture and history. They are hoping to have school children and other public members be able to come visit this site. The P & Z process is required because of the change of use from the house to the house museum. Ms. Aspen reported that there was a problem with the email transmission of the revised staff report so she was going to review the changes that were made. There were three changes; one is on page 5, at the time the Board received the initial staff report, a meeting had not been held yet to discuss the public improvements and who would be responsible for those and what they would be. Since then it has been clarified that the facilities department would pay for the design and construction of an attached 5-foot wide sidewalk with curb and gutter. The exact design would be determined in final plan review. This is still a condition of approval merely to acknowledge the complex public/private collaboration and to establish somewhere in writing what the arrangement would be. Two is site lighting; in the previous staff report it stated that there would be no site lighting, but that is not the case, there will be contact sensitive site lighting which will adhere to Section 3.2.4 Site Lighting of the Land Use Code. Those will be shown on the landscape plan. There is a condition of approval to make sure that happens. The third item is the hours of operation; since the writing of the initial report, the hours of operation have been established. They will be 6 to 10 hours per week, by appointment only during regular business hours, with occasional evening events no later than 10:00 p.m., very similar to the hours of operation of the Avery House. These limitations are spelled out in the existing lease with the city and will be reflected as well in the development agreement for this project. Ms. Aspen reviewed the conditions of approval as outlined in the final staff report. Ms. Aspen also referenced two memos that were attached to the staff report; one which summarizes the notes from the neighborhood meeting that was held on Monday night, November 30t' and one summarizes the outcomes of a coordination meeting with city staff, the applicants and the owner. Betty Aragon, 140 2"d Street stated that she was a member of the Amigos Committee and she has been on that steering committee for three years. She stated that they are also part of the Poudre Landmark Foundation. Ms. Aragon stated that they have been working on this project for three years and it has been a lot of work and a lot of red tape. They have been very careful to make sure they are working in conjunction with the city in making sure that they meet all the requirements. She has personally canvassed the neighborhoods asking how people felt about this project and how they feel about this museum coming into the neighborhood. They have great support for this project. From what she hears from the community, is that this project is one that is long overdue. They will be recognizing the contributions of the early Hispanic pioneers. Planning and Zoning Board Minutes December 2, 2004 Page 11 Chairperson Torgerson was also on the citizen board and he also thought that everyone involved did a good job, in particular he was pleased by the idea of the interface areas and design-s andards for industrial as it interacts with the surrounding neighborhoods. That is a greatidea and encouraged staff to stay on top of that. He remains very opposed to the Lemay and Vine bypasses, he thought not only are they expensive, but they disrupt the grid pattern that the city as a whole has. If we continue to bypass neighborhoods, our city is going to be a loop of spaghetti 100 years from now. He thought that the neighborhood representatives on the citizen group spoke very strongly and said that they disagree and he respects that. He would be supporting the plan. Member Schmidt has a worry, as well as the Via Lopez neighbors do that doing that kind of bypass is going to increase truck traffic there. She is hoping that with things like shorter turn lanes5Df'something like that, we can build in some elements that will discourage truck traffic on that kind of network and keep most of it where it is now. She thought that by the road design it could make it more inviting for trucks, so she would like at the time of the road design to have that looked at. The motion was approved 7- 0. Project: Museo De Las Tres Colonias (Romero House, 425 10"' Street) — Project Development Plan Recommendation: Approval with Conditions Hearina Testimony, Written Comments and Other Evidence: Anne Aspen, City Planner gave the staff presentation. She stated that this property was located to the north of the Romero Park discussed in the last item. It is at the southwest comer of 10t' and Romero Streets. Both the building and the site were designated as local historic landmarks in August of 2001. The city accepted the donation of the house from a private benefactor. This site is in Andersonville and was platted in 1903. In 2003 the project was approved by the Landmark Preservation Commission as a restoration project. The Poudre Landmark Foundation has been working for three years to transform the house and property to a house museum. Planner Aspen reviewed slides of the site. Ms. Aspen stated that the design objectives for this site are to take the building down from its current 1,500 s.f. configuration to its 864 s.f. configuration, which would be a four room adobe house, which was the way it would have appeared in the 1930's which is the target time frame they are going for. The adobe will be restored including the mud plaster. The purpose of this project is to create a house museum which will allow Council Liaison: Karen Chairperson: Mikal Torgerson Vice Chair: Judy Meyer Staff Liaison: Cameron Gloss Phone: (W) 416-7435 Phone: (W) 490-2172 Chairperson Torgerson called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Roll Call: Gavaldon, Meyer, Lingle, Carpenter, Craig, Schmidt and Torgerson. Staff Present: Gloss, Eckman, Wamhoff, Virata, Moore, Wray, Frank, Avrill, Baker, Shepard, Barkeen, Foreman, Buffington, Smith, Aspen and Deines. Director of Current Planning Cameron Gloss reviewed the Consent and Discussion Agendas: Consent Agenda: 1. Minutes of the October 21, 2004 Planning and Zoning Board Hearing. (Continued) 2. Resolution PZ04-34 Easement Dedication. 3. #42-04 Poudre School District Kinard Junior High School - Site Plan Advisory Review. Discussion Agenda: 4. Recommendation to City Council for Adoption of the Northside Neighborhoods Plan 5. #43-04 Museo De Las Tres Colonias (Romero House, 425 10th Street) - Project Development Plan. 6. #20-04A Feather Ridge Reception Center - Project Development Plan. Director Gloss reported that the Board received a minor revision to the staff report and a summary of Monday's site visit on the Feather Ridge Reception Center project. Member Lingle declared a conflict of interest on the Feather Ridge PDP. Member Gavaldon moved for approval of the Consent Agenda items 2 and 3. Member Carpenter seconded the motion. The motion was approved 7-0.