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HomeMy WebLinkAboutREDTAIL RESIDENTIAL - PDP - 26-01 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - MODIFICATION REQUESTr We respectfully ask for your favorable consideration and approval of our requested modifications. Thank you. Sincerely, o routy esident J P/vd 7 Accordingly, we respectfully request that addressing be allowed as described above for the reasons that a) the granting of the modification would not be detrimental to the public good or impair the intent and purposes of the LUC, b) our proposal as submitted will advance the public interests and the purposes of the standard equally well or better than a plan that complies with the standard, and c) the granting of the modification would result in substantially addressing important community needs. Furthermore with regard to all of the foregoing modification requests, our plan achieves LUC purposes and addresses community needs by: a. Fulfilling a community need for affordable housing. b. Providing housing immediately adjacent to offices within project and nearby to many other workplaces. c. Providing internal pedestrian connectivity and permeability by means of the central park -courtyard designs integrating landscape, hardscape, pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle uses. d. Providing pedestrian connectivity between the residential portion, the office portion and the existing offices to the east by means of Cameron Drive, Frontage Road, private drives, public and private sidewalks, and interconnecting walkways. Furthermore, the project provides easements for future connection of its major walkway spine to the Fossil Creek pedestrian / bike path as well as to the Mason Street Transportation Corridor. Also, it provides connectivity via public transit and public streets to schools, parks, library, retail, office and employers. e. Promoting excellence in design and construction of planned office parks, buildings, outdoor spaces, and streetscapes. f. Incorporating innovative architecture and planning concepts including front and back roof step-down design; central park -courtyards concept merging landscape, hardscape, pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle uses; interesting building elevations; and aesthetic building frontages. g. Providing sense of community and quality of life, which are inherent in and flow from the essential elements of the project i) a small office park community with buildings juxtaposed relative to parking and each other, and ii) a small residential community comprised of eight residential buildings and two carriage house surrounding a central park -courtyard which merges landscape, hardscape, pedestrian and vehicle uses. A property would result in practical difficulty and undue hardship if standard is strictly applied. Modification #3 — Fire Lane Identification and Parking Stall Demarcation It is our strongest wish that the courtyard portions of the residential project be successful as an aesthetic pedestrian -friendly area integrating landscape, hardscape, pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle uses. In addition to other design features, we feel it is imperative to not introduce ugly, white painted parking stall lines into this scored colored concrete courtyard area and the environment we are creating. Zoning has previously approved alternative parking lot demarcation by means of three scored lines for other projects. Also we do not want red fire lane lines to be painted in either the residential courtyards or the office parking lot. They are unsightly and unnecessary. The fire lane route will be just as apparent with signage but without the red curbs. The fact that the fire lane is not for parking is also naturally apparent, because the fire lane -travel lane will be a straight -through route on black asphalt in contrast to scored concrete parking -courtyard areas (in residential portion of project). Accordingly we respectfully request your approval to allow us to use variations in the parking lot scoring as our method for defining these parking stalls and signage to designate fire lanes, as recently has been permitted in our similar mixed -use projects, for the reasons that a) the granting of the modification would not be detrimental to the public good or impair the intent and purposes of the LUC, b) our proposal as submitted will advance the public interests and the purposes of the standard equally well or better than a plan that complies with the standard, and c) the granting of the modification would result in substantially addressing important community needs. Modification #4 — Addressing The residential and office portions of the project will be given street addresses from Cameron Drive and College Avenue respectively as street addresses are given "from the street from which primary access to the property is taken" [Section 3.6.2 (L)(5)]. Furthermore, for clear identification of buildings and to be consistent with recent Fire Department policies, we request your approval, if necessary, to designate residential buildings "campus style" and office buildings with specific address numbers as follows: a) each residential building be assigned a letter from A through J proceeding around the internal private drive loop in a logical fashion, b) each office building be assigned an individual College Avenue address which shall be clearly visible from the private drive roadway which proceeds through office park, and c) in addition, address numbers be placed on residential and office entry features so they are clearly visible from Cameron Drive and College Avenue respectfully. 5 Accordingly we are requesting an administrative decision to allow us to reduce this distance from 35 feet to 28.5 feet as per the staff's authority to grant a distance reduction of up to 20%. If, however, the administrative decision is not favorable, then we hereby request a modification for same. d. Furthermore, the unusual aspects of this difficult infill site make strict compliance with the LUC Connecting Walkway and Major Walkway Spine requirements highly undesirable, infeasible and impossible. The present access drive crosses sensitive wetlands and it is our strongest desire to minimize the impact that this access drive has on these sensitive natural areas by both minimizing the drive profile consistent with safety and configuring it with one detached sidewalk along the south side of same. This avoids the considerably greater impact to the natural areas which would be caused if we design the drive considerably wider to permit detached sidewalks on both the north and south sides. In addition, the necessary crosswalk will be clearly defined with the use of colored concrete / asphalt or paint, and marked with signage "pedestrians crossing." Since the sidewalk will serve only this single residential development, we feel that a single detached sidewalk along the entry drive will be very adequate and also will allow us to achieve the goal of minimizing natural areas impact. Accordingly, we respectively request a modification to allow the project's north walkway spine to cross the entry drive, as shown, with a clearly marked crosswalk, and then proceed east along the detached sidewalk shown to make its connection to the public street sidewalk (Cameron Drive). e. All parts of the major walkway spine are viewable from a public street. The south 270 feet of the south major walkway spine is viewable from College Avenue; and the north 500 feet of the south major walkway spine is viewable from Cameron Drive cul-de-sac. The south 400 feet of the north major walkway spine is viewable from Cameron Drive cul-de-sac; and the 450 feet of the north major walkway spine is and will continue to be viewable from Fossil Boulevard. Accordingly, we respectfully request the foregoing modifications relating to major walkway spines for the reasons that a) the granting of the modification would not be detrimental to the public good or impair the intent and purposes of the LUC, b) our proposal as submitted will advance the public interests and the purposes of the standard equally well or better than a plan that complies with the standard, c) the granting of the modification would result in substantially addressing important community needs, and d) the extraordinary physical conditions and situation unique to ld a. The north walkway spine provides connectivity for four residential buildings to the Cameron Drive sidewalk. Two buildings have connectivity within 350 feet, while the other two have connectivity at 500 feet (and 600 feet respectively). The south walkway spine provides connectivity for six residential buildings to the Cameron Drive sidewalk - three within 350 feet, one at 500 feet, one at 625 feet, and one at 700 feet. If the walkway spines were both reduced to 350 feet each, this would have the effect of eliminating six of the ten residential buildings, which would render the project infeasible. If the roadway in the project was changed from private drives to private streets, this would have the effect of eliminating four or five of the residential buildings because of the standards to which public streets and related right-of-ways must be built. Furthermore, both of these alternatives would a) destroy the project concept of residential buildings surrounding a large open space linked to same with courtyards, b) eviscerate our paramount goal of making this an attractive affordable housing project, c) run counter to City plans' purpose and goal to achieve an attractive, relatively more dense housing in conjunction with the complementary open space, d) convert two to three acres of the proposed natural area / open space and landscaped area into asphalt, concrete, and public right-of-way introducing an aesthetic eyesore and causing the loss of sense of neighborhood and quality of life, and f) impact the remaining natural areas adversely. Accordingly we respectfully request a modification to permit the increased lengths of the project's major walkway spines as described above. b. The residential project has two major walkway spines, one which serves the six residential buildings in the south half of the project and enables them to walk without crossing drives to the Cameron Drive public street sidewalk. The north major walkway spine serves the north four residential buildings and allows pedestrians to walk to the Cameron Drive public sidewalk only crossing one private drive. This crossing occurs about halfway up the private entry drive and has about 135 feet of clear visibility each way. The crosswalk will be clearly defined with colored concrete / asphalt or paint, and marked with signage "pedestrians crossing." Accordingly we respectfully request a modification to permit the north major walkway spine to cross one drive as described. c. The major connecting walkway space south of the Residential Buildings "H" and "I" is 31.5 feet, not the 35 feet required. The reason for this has to do with the constraints of the site, our desire to respect the topography and to provide for spacious courtyard areas linking residential buildings to the central park -plaza -mail kiosk. tl Modification Request #1 — Street -Facing Fagades "Every front facade with a primary entrance to a dwelling unit shall face the adjacent street to the extent reasonably feasible" [Section 3.5.2 (C)(1)], and "every building containing four or more dwelling units shall have at least one building entry or doorway facing an adjacent street ..." [Section 3.5.2 (C)(2)]. These standards are subject to an exception for multi -family buildings with more than one front fagade where one front fagade faces the street sidewalk [Section 3.5.2 (C)(1)(b)]. \ The foregoing LUC provisions are not applicable to the Redtail residential because / there is, in fact, no adjacent street. The roadways within the project are private drives. The closest street is Cameron Drive, which is not adjacent. Furthermore, even if Cameron Drive was found to be adjacent, it certainly would not be "reasonably feasible" to design a primary entrance of each dwelling unit to face Cameron Drive. In addition, it would not be reasonably feasible to extend public streets into this project as a) the right-of-way requirements would eviscerate the project, b) even though it appears with approximately 75% natural area / open space and landscaping in the residential portion of this project that there would be plenty of area to accommodate public right-of-ways, this is not the case because the major portion of the site is comprised of naturalized detention ponds and buffers, and c) this extension of public streets would involve the unnecessary negative impact and destruction of a large amount of natural area. Accordingly, we respectfully request that the residential buildings not be required to have an entrance fagade facing a street, but rather that eight residential buildings be allowed to connect immediately to major walkway spines and two residential buildings be allowed to connect to such major walkway spines by means of internal courtyard crosswalks and walkways, for the reasons that a) the granting of the modification would not be detrimental to the public good or impair the intent and purposes of the LUC, b) our proposal as submitted will advance the public interests and the purposes of the standard equally well or better than a plan that complies with the standard, c) the granting of the modification would result in substantially addressing important community needs, and d) the extraordinary physical conditions and situation unique to the property would result in practical difficulty and undue hardship if the standard is strictly applied. Modification #2 — Major Walkway Spines A primary entrance may be up to 350 feet from a street sidewalk if the primary entrance faces and opens directly onto a connecting walkway that qualifies as a major walkway spine" [Section 3.5.2 (C)(1)(a)] which does not "require pedestrians to walk across ... driveways" [Section 5.1 Definitions, Connecting Walkway] in which is "at least 35 feet in its smallest dimension, with all parts of such outdoor space directly visible from a public street" [Section 5.1 Definitions, Major Walkway Spine]. 2 LAGUNITAS REDTAIL INC. 3944 JFK Parkway, Suite 12 E, Fort Collins, CO 80525 970-226-5000• Fax 970-226-5125 July 17, 2001�? Planning and Zoning Commission City of Fort Collins 281 North College Avenue Fort Collins, CO 80525 Re: Redtail Project / Modification Requests Dear Planning and Zoning Commission Members: Introduction Redtail is a unique mixed -use project comprised of eight small office buildings, eight small eight-plex residential buildings and two carriage houses. The residential units surround a large central park with a plaza and mail kiosk, and all are connected to same with pedestrian -friendly courtyards. All are designed for ownership, and have attached or detached garages. The project is an infill project between offices and retail to the east, warehouse -office to the north, City -owned Redtail Open Space to the south, and two hundred foot wide elevated railroad track embankment to the west. The project has been designed with high sensitivity to the three naturalized detention ponds located between the residential and the office portions, and to the east of the residential portion. G`�fGI�s'C New connectivity is being provided between project residentia , project office and the existing office to the east by means of Cameron Drive, Frontage Road, private drives, public and private sidewalks and interconnecting walkways. Furthermore, the project provides easements for future connection of its major walkway spine to the Fossil Creek pedestrian / bike trail as well as to the Mason Street Transportation Corridor. This new connectivity is in addition to the existing Fairway -College -Cameron public streets.