HomeMy WebLinkAbout317 & 325 CHERRY ST., CHERRY STREET LOFTS - PDP - 29-03B - CORRESPONDENCE - CITY COUNCILManuel and Emma Martinez
October 19, 2004
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Answer: According to the Civic Center Master Plan, Block 33 will be primarily residential
development. Residential development is required to provide a minimum amount of off street
parking. A Request for Proposals was just published on our website for the Block 33 site. The
City intends to develop the block, excluding the Trolley Barn site, with mostly residential mixed -
use buildings. Parking will be accommodated in an underground parking structure.
5. Type I and Type II Hearings --do these reviews require neighborhood meetings? If not,
why not?
Answer: Planning and Zoning Board Reviews (Type II) require neighborhood meetings as part
of the development process. However, the NAI project actually was just a remodel of an existing
building and was done through Building Permit review; this review process does not require a
public hearing.
I hope this letter answers some of your questions about the parking situation in your
neighborhood, other planned projects, and the City's development review processes. In the final
analysis, City staff feels that the current parking problems you are experiencing are temporary
since the Mason Street North project will construct parking to accommodate its own demand as
well as shared parking for the NAI building.
Please contact Tom Vosburg, Assistant City Manager at 221-6224, or Don Bachman, Policy and
Budget Manager at 224-6049, if you have additional questions about parking concerns in your
neighborhood.
j
cerely,
Ray Martinez
Mayor
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cc: City Council Members
Darin A. Atteberry, Interim City Manager
Diane Jones, Deputy City Manager
Tom Vosburg, Assistant City Manager
Ron Phillips, Executive Director of Transportation Services
Don Bachman, Policy and Budget Manager for Transportation Services
Greg Byrne, Director of Community Planning and Environmental Services
Anne Aspen, City Planner
Manuel and Emma Martinez
October 19, 2004
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Mason Street North project), use alternative modes of transportation, or park in the nearby
parking structure.
The City has also re-evaluated the opportunity to provide additional on -street parking adjacent to
the NAI building. If we employ our street standards to this area, permanent on -street parking is
not possible in this section of Cherry due to the bike lanes because the Mason Street North
Project will include the installation of a mid -block pedestrian crossing with a pedestrian refuge
standard for a combination t
between Mason and Howes.
travel lanes, and compromising on the
-ently added about 30 spaces on Cherr
2. Parking Accommodations of Residents in the Neighborhood
Question a: If, in fact, there is no off-street parking for NAI (and none required of the business)
is the City willing to consider some kind of 'parking zone"for residents or some partial
restriction to NAI employees/customers so residents have some parking available in the
neighborhood?
Answer: Some neighborhoods adjacent to activity centers are impacted by spill over parking.
This problem has been very pronounced near CSU. While the City studied the possibility of
setting up a residential parking permit program in such neighborhoods, we have not felt the
problem is bad enough yet to implement such a labor intensive solution to the problem.
Furthermore, a vast majority of the neighborhood must agree before the City can implement a
permit program as it will cause inconveniences for the neighbors as well. For the Cherry Street
neighborhood, we would like to see if additional on street parking will solve the problem. The
additional parking spaces on Cherry along with the spaces available on Howes should
accommodate that additional demand.
3. Cherry Street Lofts/Commercial Space --a development to build commercial units on the
first floor and housing units on the second floor.
Question a: What are/will be the off-street parking requirements for this project? Will the
developer be able to substitute (via a variance) and use on -street parking to fulfill the parking
requirements? If so, how much?
Answer: Under the standard provisions of the Land Use Code, The Cherry Street Lofts project
would have been required to provide 17 parking places for the residential component of the
project. On August 26, 2004, the Planning and Zoning Board approved a modification to the off-
street parking standards for this project. Under this modification, the project will provide 6
spaces off street and the remaining 11 spaces will be supported through on street parking.
4. What are the future plans for the area (Mason -Howes -Cherry); in other words what
types of land uses does City Plan promote and what type of development/redevelopment is
anticipated in this neighborhood?
Arv, Fkspon
Mayor
City of Fort Collins
October 19, 2004
Manuel and Emma Martinez
310 Cherry Street
Fort Collins, CO 80521
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Martinez:
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me to discuss your concerns about parking on Cherry
Street since the opening of the National Association for Interpretation building.
I asked staff to research and answer a series of questions raised by our discussion; answers to
these questions are outlined below.
1. Parking requirements related to the NAI and other businesses in this building
Question: a. What is the "capacity" of NAI in terms of the number of employees and the number
of customers?
Answer: There is a combined total of approximately 32 people employed in the three
organizations that work out of the building. Some of the people ride bicycles to work regularly.
Occasionally, NAI holds meetings and training sessions that bring additional visitors to their
building.
Question: b. What are/were the off-street parking requirements for the NAI?
Answer: The City's Land Use Code does not contain any off-street parking minimums for non-
residential uses; it contains only parking maximums. However, the NAI is participating in the
joint development of a parking lot adjacent to their property as part of the Mason Street North
project; the developer expects completion for this project in about a year. That joint off-street
parking will not be available until the roject is complete.
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Question: c. Are these being accommodated by off-street parking? If so, where. If not, why not
and where are the employees and customers expected to, and in fact are, parking?
Answer: The City's parking strategy as implemented by the Code provisions assumes that
employees will park on -street, park in off-street shared parking (such as that planned in the
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