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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTIMBERLINE VILLAGE - HARMONY SCHOOL SHOPS, 4TH FILING - PDP - 10-03 - MINUTES/NOTES - CORRESPONDENCE-NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGSite Specific Design This convenience store/gas station, placed near the historically significant Harmony School, was designed with special matching masonry to fit in and focus attention on the school. The smashingly successful result of a long debate in the review process. The corporate developer insisted on razing this building to install a standard prototype called #M-90. The City insisted on saving the historically valuable building, which ironically has Spanish -style characteristics. Negotiations finally resulted in this comfortable addition to the city and a peak -performing outlet for the company. � [s�011lR„O I.tlYIV11bIN[R � tc a. -b. Building originally submitted to look like a box painted in black and white cow spots. As p,f built, it reinforces a larger place. For years, corporate users have proposed an assortment of unrelated, attention -grabbing visual statements. And for years, most have been toned down and integrated through local review. Without standards, some buildings would tend to look more like billboards than parts of comfortable places. This is one standard that simply codifies long standing development review practice In Fort Collins. 26 / Mixed Use, Institutional, and Commercial Buildings 3.5.3 a. 29. Will Albertsons own their own building? A. Yes, but there will be a common business -owners association for maintenance. 30. There should be a north -south sidewalk on the west side of the retail building and east side of the bank that will provide a strong connection between the neighborhood and the school. A. Yes, we can provide this sidewalk. 31. The phasing of the project should not result in gaps in the sidewalk, especially for neighborhood kids going to the Harmony School. 32. Will the decorative masonry "tulip" block be carried over into the center? A. Yes, we plan on continuing the tulip block just as we did on Harmony School Shops Second Filing and the Diamond Shamrock. 33. The overall architectural theme should respect the design and form of the Harmony School. A. We agree. IM 7 22. What are the next steps? A. Our next step is to prepare for a submittal. We need to perform a Transportation Impact Study, Drainage and Grading Plan, Landscape Plan, Architectural Elevations, Lighting Plan, and other documents required for a complete submittal to the City. After submittal, we will receive first round comments from City staff and outside utility providers. Then, after receiving these comments, we are prepared to hold a second neighborhood meeting to bring the residents up to speed. 23. Before we conclude the meeting, I must emphasize how important it is for the City to understand that we need a northbound left turn lane on Timberline so we can safely turn left into Harmony Half Acres without fear of being rear -ended. 24. I would appreciate anything the City can do to facilitate the development of the vacant parcel in front of the mobile home park so this shopping center can gain access to the future Harmony/Snow Mesa intersection. This would complete the circulation system and provide an alternative to the Harmony/Timberline intersection. 25. How would you phase the project? A. First phase would be Albertsons, the multi -tenant in -line retail buildings, and all of the main parking lot and landscaping. Future phases would be for the pad sites on an individual -pad basis as users come into the center. This is standard phasing for a center and similar to the Safeway center.to the west. 26. Don't forget that the landscaping designed to buffer Sunstone should go in with Phase One. A. We agree. 27. I'm.concerned about the quality of the architecture. The back sides should not be sub -standard since this elevation will face the neighborhood. A. We are aware that the north elevations of the buildings need to feature quality materials and design. 28. Also, when designing the buildings, please use proper proportions with sensible relationships between building entrances and roof forms. At Home Depot, for example, there is a disproportionate relationship between the roof form and the entrance which is out of scale with the pedestrian and size of the building. A. Good comment. R 14. I still anticipate cut -through traffic into the Sunstone neighborhood. How can we discourage this? A. Back when Sunstone was being planned, Milestone was purposely designed to feature a collector cross-section at Timberline Road but then taper down to a local street at the neighborhood. This was supposed to indicate to drivers that you are leaving a commercial area and entering a residential neighborhood. I still don't think that you will get much cut -through traffic other than the folks who live in Sunstone. 15. I support the shopping center. It's better than the two large retail stores that were approved several years ago. I look forward to the convenience of having a supermarket so close. 16. Be sure to provide lots of trees on the north side to buffer the neighborhood. A. We intend to pay close attention to buffering the neighborhood. One idea we are considering is since we have to re -grade the detention pond, why not move all the trees that would be impacted over to the north side of the pond, closer to the backyards, thereby providing additional screening. 17. This sounds like a good idea. 18. I like the Safeway solution where the loading dock faces south and cannot be seen by the neighborhood to the north. Also, the landscaping behind Safeway appears generous and creates an attractive street. A. The delivery dock for Albertsons will be on the east side of the building. The ramp is located, however, so that the truck will face south. Step vans and beverage trucks will use the east side as well. We are confidant that we can screen this area from the neighborhood. 19. What are the hours of operation? A. Albertsons typically will be open from 5:00 a.m. until 1:00 a.m. 20. I am concerned about nighttime deliveries. The hours of operation for the deliveries should be restricted. A. We will look into restricting delivery times. 21. Speaking of nighttime activities, what about lighting? A. A Lighting Plan will be part of our submittal. We are required by the Land Use Code not to exceed 0.1 foot-candle as measured 20 feet away from the property line. F1 8. I own a commercial property on the west side of Timberline and its important that we maintain as much access to our properties as possible. 9. Has the developer worked with the owner of the mobile home park to provide access to the east, across the front of the mobile home park, in order to make a connection to Harmony? I was under the impression that this is a potentially signalized intersection already approved by CDOT. A. You are correct. This potential signal would provide access to the PVH Harmony Campus as well as the Stetson Creek and Timber Creek neighborhood to the south. This intersection would be an extension of the existing street called Snow Mesa. According to the Harmony Road Access Control Plan, this intersection is eligible for a traffic signal. We have been in contact with the property owner to our east, the mobile home park owner, regarding development and access to the future Harmony/Snow Mesa intersection. Unfortunately, in our opinion, the present zoning on the property does not allow retail. Waiting for the market to bring either office or employment development may take a long time. It is difficult for us to connect a street over to the future Harmony/Snow Mesa intersection without a viable development plan for the parcel. 10. Could the curb cut on Harmony be upgraded from three-quarter turn movements to full -turning movements? In other words, allow eastbound left -in turns? This might help alleviate traffic volume on Timberline. A. According to CDOT, allowing left -out turns would be very unlikely as there would be conflicts with the westbound left turn stack lane. 11. Will the right -out turn onto westbound Harmony feature an acceleration lane? A. Probably not as this lane would conflict with the westbound right -turn lane for going north on Timberline. The city is generally opposed to acceleration lanes preferring, rather, that drivers wait for gap in traffic. 12. I like the center's internal circulation drive from Milestone to the west boundary of the vacant parcel in front of the mobile home park and ultimately to the future signal at Harmony/Snow Mesa. This will provide an alternative access for Sunstone to go east on Harmony instead of being forced to use the Harmony/Timberline intersection. 13. We need a stop sign on the private drive on the east side of Diamond Shamrock where it intersects with Milestone. Drivers just fly out of there onto a public street without ever stopping. A. Response from City: There should definitely be a stop sign there. I will forward this request to the traffic operations engineer. 4 A. The size of the center is roughly comparable to the Safeway center further west on Harmony. The Safeway is just under 49,000 square feet and the proposed Albertsons is 52,443 square feet, a difference of only 3,443 square feet. In both cases, there is an established neighborhood located immediately to the north. 7. We live on the west side of Timberline Road and have lived there for 26 years. It is extremely difficult and dangerous to enter Timberline Road to go in either direction. There are no gaps in the traffic either from Caribou or Harmony even when those signals are red for Timberline due to so many cars turning right onto Timberline. It is even more dangerous when we are northbound on Timberline and want to turn left into our drive. Since there is no left turn lane for us, we have to block the inside through lane. Drivers northbound on Timberline are traveling at an excessive rate of speed and do not expect to see a car with a left turn signal blocking there through lane. I'm concerned that one of these days, a driver is going to plow into the rear of my car. Further, the Harmony/Timberline intersection has one of the highest traffic accident rates in the City. Traffic is simply too congested on both Harmony and Timberline. There are no internal circulation streets (on the west side of Timberline) like in other neighborhoods so we have no choice but to use these busy arterials. The City has made a big mistake in loading up these streets. Quite simply, the population growth rate has exceeded the street capacity and we are put at risk as a result. In addition, we do need another shopping center with a grocery store. We've got a Safeway and King Soopers just down the road and Toddy's is near by as well. There are plenty of existing banks and restaurants in the area so we don't need more of those either. It used to take about 15 minutes to get to my mother's house on the north side of town. Now it takes 30 minutes, 15 minutes of which is spent at the Timberline/Prospect intersection waiting through four cycles to go west on Prospect. Finally, I would like to see the City put some traffic counters out here to measure the night traffic. In my opinion, there is excessive traffic on Timberline and it continues up to midnight. A. For a long time, the City has designated both Harmony and Timberline as major arterial streets. There are only four major arterials in the City with South College Avenue and East Mulberry, both state highways, being the other two. As major arterials, these streets are designed to carry large volumes of traffic and individual access to abutting properties is controlled. It is unfortunate that Harmony Half Acres, originally approved in the County, now finds itself along a major arterial in close proximity to a recently widened intersection. Nighttime traffic may be due to shift work at the companies in the Harmony Corridor. 91 very close to Harmony and southbound traffic stacks back to Milestone. In past discussions regarding this center, there was an idea that the Timberline/Milestone signal could be a "slave" signal that was tied in with the Timberline/Harmony signal to ensure proper progression. Our last conversation with the City's traffic engineer is that a signal at this intersection would be unlikely. 2. How can we turn left from Milestone onto southbound Timberline during peak times? A. The center will feature a private circulation drive that will connect Milestone with the proposed curb cut on Harmony Road. (The Harmony curb cut will be restricted to right -in, right -out and left —in turns only. There will be no left -out turns.) This private drive will allow Sunstone traffic to use the center to go west on Harmony Road. Also, by using this curb cut, drivers can get into the Harmony westbound left turn lane in order to go south on Timberline. 3. I'm concerned about shopping center traffic spilling out into our neighborhood since Timberline Road will carry so much traffic. A. The ability to go north on Timberline from Milestone is a right turn and unimpeded which should take care of any northbound traffic. It is doubtful that traffic wanting to go south will go north all the way to Caribou in order to turn left and go south on Timberline. Also, cut -through traffic will be discouraged since Milestone is circuitous and does not provide a direct route to anything but the neighborhood itself. 4. Is it possible for our neighborhood to get speed bumps or other traffic calming devices? A. We would prefer to wait for the traffic study before committing to any neighborhood traffic calming measures. Also, the decision to install any traffic calming devices rests with the City's traffic operations engineer who has a specific program to involve neighborhoods before installing any additional traffic controls on local streets. 5. How is it possible that a traffic signal would not be warranted at Timberline and Milestone? A. The intersection is so close to Harmony that there could be problems with cars stacking so far back from a red light on Harmony that they would block the Milestone intersection. Since Harmony is a state highway, the City must work closely with Colorado Department of Transportation so there are no significant delays on Harmony. 6. I'm concerned about the trip generation rates for a supermarket and shopping center and the impact on the neighborhood. iA NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING MINUTES PROJECT: Harmony School Shops DATE: July 25, 2002 APPLICANT: Mr. Rob Beery, Miller - Weingarten CONSULTANTS: Eldon Ward, Cityscape Urban Design Joe Carter, Cityscape Urban Design Bob Almirall, JR Engineering Matt Rankin, Vaught -Frye Architects CITY PLANNER: Ted Shepard The meeting began with a description of the proposed project. As proposed, the project would be anchored by a 52,443 square foot supermarket (Albertsons). Other uses in the center include a bank with drive -through facilities, standard restaurant, gasoline fueling facility and retail shops. The retail would be divided among free-standing buildings and multi -tenant in -line shops. Total estimated square footage is 107,000 square feet. For background information, there is an existing approval to develop the northeast corner of Timberline Road and Milestone Drive. This project consists of an 8,580 square foot child-care facility (Children's World) and two office buildings with a combined square footage of 16,000 square feet. This project is known as Harmony School Shops Third Filing and was approved on July 20, 2001. Also, there are two requests for Modification of a Standard. First, the size of the supermarket is 3,443 square feet over the maximum allowable size of 49,000 square feet for a Neighborhood Center in the Harmony Corridor. Second, the size of the parking stalls are 10 x 19.5 feet versus the standard of 9 x 19 feet. QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, COMMENTS 1. We live in Sunstone and are concerned about the increase in traffic. It is difficult to turn left to go south from Milestone onto Timberline. Will the Timberline/Milestone intersection be signalized. A. We have not completed the traffic study at this time. We will meet with the City's traffic operations engineer to discuss this issue. As you know, Milestone is