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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWILLOW STREET LOFTS - FDP - 24-04A - CORRESPONDENCE - TRANSPORTATION ISSUEAnne Aspen - Re: Willow Street 7713age 2 I think the key benefits of this are: 1. The aesthetics of a roadway at 15 feet less in width by moving the diagonal parking out of the center of the street to one side. 2. The large 15 foot "islands" of landscaping, public amenities, sculptures that are created between the sections of diagonal parking when it is located at the side of the street. 3. The aesthetics of looking down the street and where it meanders seeing landscaping - instead of straight down a "bowling alley" to the next intersection. 4. The expansion of the "plaza" side of the street to a virtual 'outdoor mall' area with lots of room for businesses to have outdoor seating, shaded landscaping, pocket parks, sculpture locations, children areas and a wide walkway for pedestrian travel. Kathleen, if you and one or more of your colleagues visit Grand Junction then you can see for yourself firsthand how successful this concept is, talk with City people there about it and, as you and I discussed, have the opportunity to see what lessons they have learned as they extend their extraordinarily successful meandering roadway - plaza concept to the next block to the east (presently under construction). Thanks again for the opportunity to present my ideas. Best regards. Sincerely, Jon Anne Aspen - Re: Willow Street Page 1 From: Kathleen Bracke To: Anne Aspen; Marc Virata Date: 07/14/2007 11:57:47 AM Subject: Re: Willow Street the way I felt we left things was that Jon's ideas are perhaps interesting to pursue in the long-term future (perhaps on Willow and perhaps not) depending upon how the rest of the area redevelops in the future. We did not agree to revise the Willow Street plans for the River District project at this time, just leave the door open for future discussions if appropriate once the south side of Willow Street starts to redevelop. For now, we are just trying to resolve the short-term needs of coordination between the curb returns for the access point to the new Northside Atzlan center and Jon's development. Given what Jon's project is showing and the Northside project, there seems to be a disconnect that can be worked out through some engineering coordination between the City's development review team, Steve Seefeld for the Northside center, and John Seyer from HDR who is the engineering consultant for the River District project. My understanding is that you all are going to try to organize a meeting on this next week (I've copied Steve on this message so he can be aware of this issue and attend your meeting). The frontage of Jon's property is fine as shown on the plans since he is showing a 20' wide sidewalk which is consistent with the Willow District design plans from the River District project. the only exception is that his street trees need to be moved closer to the curb to allow enough space for the future Mill Race water feature. Hope this helps clarify where we left things as a result of our meeting on Friday. Thanks everyone for your help with this, K >>> Marc Virata 7/13/2007 4:21:12 PM >>> Not being able to stick around for the rest of the meeting, I'm curious to know how this was "resolved"? My personal take is that Jon's idea sounds fine for something to try to implement in the Old Town area where there is an existing alley network behind the main street on both sides. Without the alley network deliveries would need to take place in the front (not enough width), along with trash dumpsters as Sheri noted, and driveway cuts would be numerous. If Jon's option should be implemented, we should try to preserve and implement alley right-of-way corridors and limit development from having driveway access onto Willow. Ironically, Jon's Willow Street Lofts project doesn't accomplish either. >>> "Kaye Vincent" <lagunitas anfrii.com> 7/13/2007 3:27 PM >>> To: Kathleen Bracke From: Jon Prouty Re: Willow Street Meandering Roadway Idea Date: July 13, 2007 Thank you very much for convening the meeting to consider my ideas about designing Willow Street with a meandering roadway.