HomeMy WebLinkAboutREDTAIL RESIDENTIAL - PDP - 26-01 - CORRESPONDENCE - (17)C. Revise mitigation plan accordingly.
D. Add emergency access from Fossil Boulevard to Coronado (through parking
lot).
E. Add explanation of buffers from detention ponds and Redtail hawk nest.
F. Modify elevations so that garage doors are recessed.
G. Put modification requests in final form.
VII. Thank you for your assistance with this challenging project.
JP/hlb
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appropriate easements from the railroad. None of these preconditions
are within our control. Therefore in the alternative, after much
discussion with advisors, we proposed in our third submittal to provide
the City with a three-year letter of credit for a dollar amount which we
agree on as our contribution for the future construction of such bench.
(As an alternative to such contribution we would be willing to install a
hard surface bike / ped trail down the center of our water line access
road which would provide immediate ped / bike connectivity between
the Cameron Mesa part of our project and Fossil Boulevard.)
3. We submitted a modification request to the P&Z Board for cul-de-sac road
in excess of 660'.
4. We submitted a modification request to the P&Z Board for general street
pattern and connectivity.
5. We submitted a modification request to the fire marshal / director of
engineering / P&Z Board for a dead-end drive in excess of 150' (Buildings
B & 1).
6. All buildings now face connecting walkways within 200' of a public street
sidewalk (Buildings A—F and M—Q) or face a major walkway spine within
300' of a public street sidewalk (Building 1).
With respect to Buildings G—Q, access to the connecting walkway or
walkway spine occurs by means of use of the building "courtyard" area in
the same fashion as P&Z approved recently for both our Promontory and
our Landings Bay projects. (We will request a modification for this.)
7. Street sidewalks have been provided around the cul-de-sacs.
8. We submitted a modification request for an exception to garage door
standards. In light of the lack of staff support for same, we will redesign
the buildings to comply. Please make this a condition of approval and / or
we can provide this in advance.
9. We understand that our engineer is still negotiating the CDOT
requirements with both CDOT and the City engineering staff. (If this is not
proceeding expeditiously, please let me know and I will intervene.)
VI. Proposed Final Submittal
A. Make all corrections requested and resolve all issues raised in comments.
B. Move water line north 25' to reduce natural area impact and increase the
percentage of mitigation.
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2. P&Z approval of a modification for general street pattern and connectivity
standard required.
3. Problem with building with entry drive exceeding 150' and no emergency
turnaround. Resolve or alternatively P&Z approval of a modification for
this would be required.
4. Buildings must face a connecting walkway within 200' of sidewalk except
for double frontage buildings where one facade faces and opens directly
onto a street sidewalk. (Or alternatively P&Z approval of a modification for
this would be required.)
5. Garages must be recessed behind the front facade or a covered porch, or
in the alternative a modification would be necessary which staff is not
likely to support.
6. CDOT median requirements for College Avenue and Cameron Drive in
vicinity of Frontage Road must be met.
D. Submittal #3 (7/24/02)
General. In response to prior comments and Troy Jones and Dave
Stringer's roadmap (letter of 3/12/02), our submitted plan changed
roads from private to public, complied with all street -facing facade
rules and included two of three requested emergency accesses
requested (third one not shown in error).
2. In support of our modification request for Cameron Drive exceeding 660':
a. Frontage Road —College Avenue emergency access easement was
provided (as alternative to Frontage Road — Fossil Creek Boulevard
easement).
b. Coronado Court —Cameron Drive emergency access easement through
parking lot was obtained as requested.
c. Fossil Boulevard —Coronado Court emergency access easement
(through parking lot) was intended to be provided but was in error not
shown on plans. Please make this a condition of approval and / or we
will correct it in advance.
d. We cannot construct an earthen bench on the western edge of the
detention pond as requested because this is contingent upon a)
projected future bike / ped trail being built to connect a projected Fossil
Creek bike / ped trail to a projected Mason Street Transportation
Corridor Terminal, b) funding availability, and c) the City obtaining
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2. Affordable Housing in Perpetuity. In order to qualify for HOME or CDBG
federal funds for our affordable -in -perpetuity housing, railroad noise had to
be abated. It was determined after discussing the matter with HUD and
acoustical engineers that it would be exceedingly difficult to abate it
sufficiently with our initial plan. Therefore we converted the office uses to
affordable housing in perpetuity in order to solve the problem by giving
such housing more distance from the railroad.
3. Affordable Housing Maior Walkway Spine. At its new "Mill Nursery"
location we were able to orient the affordable housing very successfully
around a major walkway spine. In our view this resulted in a safer and
more attractive affordable housing project with all housing fronting on
major walkway spine and the parking lot in back.
4. Modification Requests. We substantially expanded our explanation and
rationale for our modification requests relating to street facing facades,
major walkway spines over 350' and dead end private drives over 150' in
an effort to clarify them and respond more fully to objections to same
raised in the comments.
C. Informal comments from Troy Jones and Dave Stringer regarding
Redtail layout issues in their letter to us of 3/12/02. These comments in
conjunction with the change to public streets provided us with a road
map toward solutions for our third submittal.
1. Cameron Drive cul-de-sac exceeds 660', however Engineering could
support a modification for this if:
a. Frontage Road —Fossil Creek Boulevard emergency access is
provided,
b. Fossil Boulevard —Coronado Court emergency access is provided,
c. Coronado Court —Cameron Drive emergency access through parking
lot is provided,
d. Earthen bench is constructed in railroad ROW at western edge of
detention pond for projected bike / ped trail from planned Fossil Creek
bike / ped trail to planned Mason Street Transportation Corridor
terminal.
e. PFA will support engineering in this if all buildings are fire sprinklered.
f. P&Z approval of a modification related to the foregoing required.
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V. History
A. Submittal #1 (7/17/01)
1. General. Submittal plan included affordable housing in perpetuity
(Cameron Mesa), offices (Mills), major walkway spines, and private
drives.
2. Maior Walkway Spines. It is my view that one of the potentially most
exciting opportunities in City Plan for innovative residential planning has
its genesis in the "major walkway spines" provisions. Designing projects
successfully making use of major walkway spines is very difficult but if you
work hard at it can be often be successfully accomplished. And when this
is achieved, it is very attractive from aesthetic, planning and quality of life
standpoints. In our first submittal we were successful in orienting each of
the project's three sub -neighborhoods around major walkway spines, with
some liberal LUC interpretations and / or modifications.
3. Private Drives. Coupled with the use of major walkway spines, the use of
private drives, quite simply, allowed a 15% reduction in asphalt and
concrete for this project compared to that required for public streets. And,
in addition, enlarged the space available for central park — mail kiosk —
gathering area uses by 210%.
4. Second Point of Emergency Access Problem. In this plan a second point
of emergency access would not be provided until the projected public bike
/ ped path is built connecting the planned Fossil Creek bike path to the
planned Mason Street Corridor terminal. Numerous contingencies beyond
our control, railroad easement negotiations, make the use of this possible
emergency access way too uncertain in too many ways to be incorporated
into this current project as a condition which must be met for this project to
proceed.
All buildings will be sprinklered, but this still does not fully solve this
second point of emergency access problem.
B. Submittal #2 (12/19/01)
1. General. Submittal plan changed office uses to affordable housing
in perpetuity, added major walkway spine to such affordable housing
sub -neighborhood, and explained in greater detail our reasoning for
modifications for street facing facades and major walkway spines. A
primary goal of the project still was to create a substantial amount of
affordable housing in perpetuity.
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ponds and open space, and being symbiotically part of the same overall
neighborhood.
B. To offer a range of two, three, and four bedroom condominiums designed with
attractive architectural features and located around central common gathering
areas and projected to sell from $110,000-$170,000. In three submittal
attempts, we applied for HOME and / or CDBG federal money through
the City or the state for building a pilot project to demonstrate the
viability of the private sector building affordable housing for sale which
would remain affordable in perpetuity. Although we were unsuccessful,
nevertheless we are still endeavoring to build some free market
affordable housing as part of this project (Hilltop Farm).
C. To maximize project open space. Initially we planned for 63.5% of the project
to be private parks or open space. Since changing to all public streets this
has been reduced substantially.
D. To minimize any additional impact on the three naturalized detention ponds.
E. To achieve maximum connectivity to adjacent uses, given project constraints.
Vehicular access to elsewhere in town is via a safe, signalized intersection,
College and Cameron Drive, then College Drive north or south, Harmony east
or west, etc. We have negotiated easements to permit convenient ped / bike
connectivity to adjacent office parks. We are also providing a ped / bike path
which meanders north from Cameron Mesa, along the center of water line
easement, to the Fossil Boulevard public sidewalk, and then two blocks north
to the planned Mason Street Transportation Corridor terminal one block to the
north.
And in addition, three connecting walks will be constructed west to our
property line for later connection to a proposed north -south public bike / ped
trail to be built in the future. (We have offered to contribute financially to the
construction of this bike / ped path). Such proposed City bike / ped trail would
connect the planned Fossil Creek bike / ped path to the planned Mason
Street Transportation Corridor southern terminal.
F. To minimize the amount of asphalt and concrete consistent with building a
safe and efficacious project. Our original submittal called for only 95,832 S.F.
of asphalt and pavement, which was accomplished by means of the use of
major walkway spines and private drives. Our subsequent submittal had
113,256 S.F. of asphalt and pavement as a result of the elimination of major
walkway spines and the change from private drives to public streets. This
represented an 18% increase of asphalt and pavement and a commensurate
reduction in green space.
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FAX
Lagunitas Companies
3944 JFK Parkway, Fort Collins, CO 80525
970-226-5000 • fax 970-226-5125
To: Various City People
From: Jon,P_routy _ __
Date: September 9, 2002
Re: Redtail / Open Letter ab ut Where We've Been and Where We're At
Description —The parcel is 11.5 acres of property located west of the intersection
of College Avenue and Cameron Drive / Fossil Boulevard. It is bounded by both
Cameron and Fossil Creek Office Park at the east, Redtail Natural Area to the
south, railroad tracks / easement to the west, and warehouse /.retail uses to the
north.
The major portion of the property is a mesa which overlooks City natural area to
the south and detention ponds to the east and north.
The balance of the property is the "Mills Nursery' property which most
significantly provides the means for the'looping of a major waterline for the
convenience and safety, not just of the proposed development, but also of the
existing office park uses.
II. History — The major portion of the property is presently platted as ten lots and
two open space ponds tracts. It was platted as a part of Cameron Park Second
Filing in 1981. The balance of the property is a single parcel comprised of the
old Mills Nursery office / residence and a warehouse.
Ili. Constraints —This mesa site has severe physic~! constraints, name!,, that it is
bordered on the west by the railroad, the south by Redtail Natural Area, and the
east and north by detention ponds. The Mills portion of the property has access
from two points (Fossil Boulevard and College), however the mesa portion has
only a single point of access from the east (except for emergency access now
being provided by emergency access road in conjunction with water main
maintenance road).
IV. Goals
A. To create three distinct but interrelated attractive residential neighborhoods
(Cameron Mesa, 64 units, Redtail Pond, 20 units, and Hilltop Farm, 48 units),
each having its own subneighborhood identity, but also all surrounding the
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