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HomeMy WebLinkAbout120 CHERRY ST., CHERRY ST. STATION - PDP - 9-05 - CORRESPONDENCE - (16)r and the LUC. I thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter. Sincerely, Mikal Torgerson M. Torgerson Architects CC: Cameron Gloss, Pete Wray, Felix Lee, Mike Gebo Step 8 goes on to explain "an application for a Building Permit shall be reviewed for compliance with the site specific development plan, " or in other words, a Building Permit application will be reviewed for compliance with the PDP approval. We urgently request that you, as your role as the "Director," clarify to the staff planner that the additional submittal requirement of "floor plans" is not requested by the "Director" in this case. To that end, all that that should be required at the PDP level of review (on the issue of mezzanines) is a note on the site plan that the building is a 3 story building. The plans reviewers and the zoning department will ensure during the building permit review that the building qualifies as such (in accordance with both the UBC and LUC), or they won't issue a building permit. It is premature and overkill to get into this level of detail at this point in the review. The Cortina project is a perfect example of this issue. The recorded PDP documents label the building as a 6-story building, specify the quantity of building square footage, and show building elevations. No floor plans were required for the review, even though that project also has mezzanines. The Building and Zoning Department reviewed the building permit application for compliance with the PDP, and the building now complies, mezzanines and all. The reason it is so important to avoid floor plan review at the PDP stage of review is that the design of buildings of this magnitude (as was the case in Cortina too) get refined gradually as a project goes through the various stages of design development. If floor plans become part of the PDP approval, the needed flexibility to refine them is lost. For instance, we need to wait to involve the mechanical engineer, the structural engineer and the HVAC consultants until we know that our building program is approved through the PDP. Any of the input of these consultants might require the need for the floor plans to change somewhat, and we need the flexibility to do so. Also, we need the flexibility to adapt floor plans of any of the units based on preferences of the buyers. The exact configuration of our mezzanines is related to the floor plan design, not the building exterior, and not PDP related issues. There really isn't a reason to make a building permit issue into it a PDP issue. It really seems that our planner just doesn't trust the Building and Zoning Department to ensure that our mezzanines qualify as such, and our building story count is consistent with an approved PDP. Being a local architect, I have worked many times with the Building and Zoning staff, and I can assure you, they are extremely competent and capable of this level of review, and much more equipped, I would argue, to make this determination than the planning staff. So in summary, I request that you give some immediate attention to this issue, and that you give formal direction (prior to our hearing) to our Current Planner that: * no floor plans are needed for the PDP, * a note on the site plan indicating that the building is 3 stories will suffice for the PDP review, and * the Building and Zoning Department will ensure that the building is designed as a 3 story building by ensuring that the mezzanines are designed as true mezzanines in accordance with both the UBC w p, From: Mikal Torgerson <mikal@architex.com> To: <gbyrne@fcgov.com>, ""Cameron Gloss" ; pwray@fcgov.com; flee@fcgov.com; mgebo@fcgov.com" <cgloss@fcgov.com> Date: 09/08/2005 12:45:00 AM Subject: Urgent Cherry Street Station issue Greg Byrne Director of Community Planning & Environmental Services 281 North College Ave. Fort Collins, CO 80524 September 7, 2005 Dear Greg, Significant issues have been raised relative to the Cherry Street Station PDP in the last 32 hours. We were informed at 4:40 p.m. on Tuesday this week that our planner just realized that our PDP doesn't meet LUC requirements with regard to the design of our mezzanines. We are going to hearing on the project at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. We regret the urgency of the need for a response to this issue, but we were only notified of the perceived problem 49.5 hours before the hearing. The bottom line of our problem is that our planner is attempting to prematurely review an element of our project during the PDP stage of review that is clearly an item, clarified in the LUC, to be reviewed at the time of the building permit review. Our planner has required floor plans (which we submitted to her in July) in order to review that the design of our mezzanines are designed appropriately in order for the building to qualify as a 3-story building. We are perplexed because we have never heard of the interior of a building being reviewed for PDP submittals. It is important to look at section 2.4.2(C) Step 3 of the LUC that states that the submittal requirements for a PDP are listed in the "development application submittal master list." This master list doesn't mention floor plans, however it does give the "Director" the authority to request additional information as deemed necessary. We point out that there's no need for the "Director" to request this additional information, because mezzanines are regulated by the Uniform Building Code, not the Land Use Code. The UBC has a definition for mezzanine, and has an entire section devoted to describing the circumstances by which a mezzanine can be counted as a story (1997 UBC Section 507). The only reference the LUC has to mezzanines is in 3.8.17(A)(2) Building Height Measured in Stories, where it states "a balcony or mezzanine shall be counted as a full story when its floor area is in excess of one-third of the total floor area of the nearest full floor directly below it." A note on the site plan should be all that is necessary to ensure that the project will comply with this Land Use Code language. This point is further clarified in section 2.7(C) Step 3(C) of the LUC states that "an application for Building Permit shall include all items, materials and document that are required by the adopted Uniform Building Code." This would include floor plans. Additionally, section 2.7.3(H)