Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutPEAK VIEW SUBDIVISION - PDP (RE-SUBMITTAL) - 26-00 - CORRESPONDENCE - RESPONSE TO CITIZENFinally, regarding the concern about additional parking for the neighborhood park, the P.D.P. will not be required to provide additional off-street parking. The existing off- street parking for the park is provided on the southwest side of the park. The amount of off-street parking for Overland Park is consistent with other neighborhood parks. The City's Parks and Recreation Department historically has implemented a policy to allocate parkland funds as efficiently as possible for usable park space versus parking lots. This policy results in parking lots that are adequate for most days, but recognizes that on certain days, given certain events, there will indeed be participants parking on public streets. As mentioned previously, these events are usually limited to one day per week during the warm weather months. While there may be a minor inconvenience to surrounding residents during brief times, all residential dwelling units are required to provide a minimum amount of off-street parking so that reliance on public street parking is not necessary. The policy of not building large parking lots for neighborhood parks and relying on local street parking for brief periods has been consistently supported over the years by both the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the City Council. A copy of the Transportation Impact Study is enclosed. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the appropriate Staff: Ted Shepard, Current Planning, 221-6750 Sheri Wamhoff, Civil Engineer, 221-6605 Ward Standford, Traffic Operations Engineer, 221-6820 Craig Foreman, Parks Planning and Forestry, 221-6618. Sincerely: Ted Shepard Chief Planner Enc. 0 Regarding the concern about the three-way stop at the intersection of Pleasant Valley Road and Andrews Peak Drive, stop signs are installed based on an intersection meeting traffic warrants. If this intersection meets established traffic warrants, then stop signs or other appropriate measures will be put in place. The Traffic Operations Department reserves the right to modify stop sign control at any time in the future. Regarding the concern about alleys, the townhomes feature garages that are accessed by private drives to the rear or side of the units. Alley loaded garages were an element of earlier submittals as well. Regarding the concern for buffering on the east side, please note that there are ten less dwelling units since the first neighborhood meeting in July of 2000. In addition, buildings along the east property line have been pulled away from Sienna by an additional 50 feet since July of 2000. The ditch, path and adjacent landscaping act as a buffer between the multifamily and the single family. All structures are a maximum of two stories which matches Sienna. The northeast corner features an area with a substantial amount of existing trees that are on the west side of the canal but within common area owned by Sienna H.O.A. and cannot be developed. When presented with latest plan, the affected property owners attending the second neighborhood meeting did not raise an objection.. Please note the following building setbacks from the east property line: Building 7 — duplex 25 feet Building 9 — 4-plex 80 feet Building 10 — 3-plex 60 feet Building 14 — 4-plex 85 feet Building 16 — duplex 80 feet. Regarding construction traffic, the City can work with the developer to require that most of the construction traffic access the site off of Elizabeth Street. Some construction traffic may have to use Pleasant Valley particularly, until the ditch crossing is made, but the developer should be able to keep it to a minimum. The routing of construction traffic will be documented in the Development Construction Permit. Any violation is subject to enforcement by the Engineering Inspection Department. Regarding the concern about the posted speed limit, all residential streets are 25 mph unless otherwise posted different. The City Traffic Department will evaluate the need for additional signage based on where current signage is placed. If additional signage is deemed necessary it will be placed. One of the basic covenants of traffic control is the conservative use of signage. It is well documented in traffic research and other non -traffic research (marketing studies for instance) that over use of signage is ignored or over- looked since it has become part of the background and not an attention getting item standing out from the background. E Regarding the concern over the traffic impact on the local and connector streets generated by soccer and baseball traffic to the park, the Traffic Operations Department has consistently determined that these events, normally associated with weekend activity, do not coincide with the peak travel times on the roadways. On a city-wide basis, all neighborhood parks are used heavily for brief periods of time, during certain periods of the year. Such infrequent events, while briefly intense, are not the impacts that require mitigation. Regarding the concern about establishing a baseline for future problems, baselines already exist in the form of speed limits and allowable volumes per classification of street, and level of service. The City's Police department is available to enforce the speed limits and the City also has a Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program to facilitate problem solving when a problem is determined such as assisting with speeding issues and cut -through traffic. The determination of what would constitute a problem is very subjective. For one motorist or pedestrian, something can be good; but to another motorist or pedestrian, that same thing can be detrimental. At this time the City does not have staff or resources to continually monitor streets throughout the City for the possibility future problems. Regarding your concern about additional local street connections every 660 feet to the east and west, there are no opportunities other than Pleasant Valley Road due to the existing platting of lots within Lory Ann Estates and Sienna. These two subdivisions do not provide any right-of-way opportunities between existing platted lots other than Pleasant Valley Road. Nor are these subdivisions considered to be re -developable. Thus no street stubs need to be extended to the east and west property lines of Peak View. Connectivity is being provided to the maximum extent feasible via Pleasant Valley Road. A formal appeal (modification of a standard) is not necessary under our Land Use Code. Regarding the concern about the cross-section of Pleasant Valley Road, the street will be constructed to connector width within Peak View (36-feet flowline to flowline). This matches the road width in Sienna. Pleasant Valley Road to the west of the site is approximately 40-feet flowline to flowline street, therefore at the west property boundary, the street width will transition out to match the existing street width on the west side of the subdivision. As this street will function as a connector, it should be designed and built to a connector width of 36 feet. Regarding the concern over traffic calming measures, none have been requested or identified as necessary by the Traffic Operations Department at this time. One of the best measures the Traffic department has as to whether there are any traffic problems on a street or in a neighborhood is by the amount of complaints the City receives. Currently, there is no history of the area neighborhoods contacting the City with motorist or pedestrian issues. As mentioned, the installation of traffic calming devices is an option available at any time in the future subject to the criteria and procedures adopted by the Traffic Operations Department. 4 Also, per LUC Section 3.6.3(B): "The local street system of any proposed development shall be designed to be safe, efficient, convenient and attractive, considering use by all modes of transportation that will use the system, (including without limitation, cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, pedestrians and emergency vehicles). The local street system shall provide multiple direct connections to and between local destinations such. as parks, schools and shopping. Local streets must provide for both intra- and inter -neighborhood connections to knit developments together, rather than forming barriers between them. The street configuration within each parcel must contribute to the street system of the neighborhood." The layout as submitted meets these standards. The LCUASS also supports the layout as shown per section 7.2.1.which states: "All streets shall have a logical relationship to the existing topography and to the location of existing or platted streets within adjacent properties. Certain streets within the Project may need to be extended to the Project boundary to provide for the future logical extension of the street through adjacent properties." Such connectivity is consistent with the original platting of both Overland Farm and Sienna where the design and construction of Pleasant Valley Road is extended to their property boundaries. The same standard is now being required of Peak View Estates in providing the connection between these two street stubs. This section goes on to state: "To ensure connectivity, enhance general circulation and to provide secondary points for emergency access, the street layout for all subdivisions should be designed so that there is, on average, at least one connecting street to neighboring land for every 1320 feet (660 feet in Fort Collins) of development perimeter." If the connections to Overland Farm and Sienna were not made, these standards and requirements would not be met. The criterion calls for the connections to serve vehicles not just pedestrians. Regarding the concern for a supplemental Neighborhood Transportation Impact Evaluation, the Traffic Operations Department has determined that such a study is not warranted. Based on the trip generation rates for ten single family and 48 multi -family dwelling units, and given the multiple points of trip distribution, the impact of the P.D.P. on the neighborhood is not expected to over -burden the surrounding streets. Since the neighborhood streets will not experience traffic volumes above what is acceptable for local and connector streets, a specific focused analysis is not necessary. 3 Regarding the concern that Pleasant Valley Road would act as a collector roadway, it is the City's finding that Pleasant Valley Road would function as a connector local street and would have the volume typically associated with a connector local street. According to the City Traffic Operations Department, the projected level of traffic volume on Pleasant Valley Road will remain below the threshold for a collector street. The street has much more curvature than Lake Street. Typically most long straight streets are the type of streets that experience poor motorist behavior. Good street design incorporates curves to naturally maintain speed control. Pleasant Valley Road ties into Argento then into Clearview. Each of those are facilitated by a tee intersection or significant corner. There are also several other curves along the remaining roadway between Overland Trail and Taft Hill. Due to these elements, this roadway and Lake Street will have different operating characteristics. Regarding the concern about traffic calming on Pleasant Valley Road, the tee intersection with Argento Drive will act as a traffic calming measure, thus discouraging collector -type speeds. The City's Neigborhood Traffic Safety Program is ongoing and not specifically tied to any one particular development proposal. The Traffic Operations Department is willing to work with neighborhoods on speeding issues at any time. Regarding the concern about the impact on the Taft/Elizabeth intersection, the Transportation Impact Study analyzed the Level of Service and concluded that the intersection functions at a level of service D in the p.m. peak. This is an acceptable Level of Service for a signalized intersection (Table 4-3 of LCUASS). Regarding the concern about cut -through traffic, the proposed street layout does meet the LUC and LCUASS requirements and cut -through traffic will be at a minimum because of the good connectivity this neighborhood has to the adjacent major streets and to the park. Cut -through traffic, at least defined as non -neighborhood traffic, will also be minimized due to the fact that Pleasant Valley will not take a motorist to another location quicker or more easily due to the quantity of curves and intersections in the roadway or the side streets it serves. The City has numerous neighborhoods with streets that could provide alternative routes from busy streets. Many do not experience cut -through traffic due to the inefficiency of winding through the neighborhood streets, stop signs, and corners to make time or bypass a difficult intersection. The streets that have historically proven to be utilized, typically have few acute curves or intersections, typically are easy to pass through unabated, and do not terminate at a roadway that may be as difficult to make a turn onto as the one they were trying to avoid. In terms of Code compliance, please note per the LUC Section 3.6.2(A): "... All streets shall be aligned to join with planned or existing streets. All streets shall be designed to bear a logical relationship to the topography of the land...." PA Commn..,ty Planning and Environmental .1-rvices Current Planning City of Fort Collins November 29, 2001 Ms. Roxann Mackenzie Hayes 2751 Pleasant Valley Road Fort Collins, CO 80521 RE: Peak View Estates Dear Ms. Hayes: The purpose of this letter is to respond to your concerns regarding the development of Sperry -Kelley Property. The application is known as the Peak View Estates and is being processed as a Project Development Plan (P.D.P.) through the City of Fort Collins. Regarding the concern over the lapse and re -submittal of the project under old regulations, please note that this was not the case. As we discussed over the phone and via e-mail, the project was originally submitted on August 17, 2000 under the Land Use Code, adopted by the City Council in March of 1997, and the Design and Construction Criteria and Standards for Streets. During the first round of review, Staff required that the applicant provide an Ecological Characterization Study to address the potential impact on wildlife that uses the ditch corridor. While this study was being conducted, the P.D.P. lapsed under the provisions of the Land Use Code. Upon completion of the Study, the P.D.P. was re -submitted on April 25, 2001. This re -submittal is also under the jurisdiction of the Land Use Code and the recently adopted Larimer County Urban Area Street Standards. The re -submittal did not involve going back to a superceded code. Regarding the concern over Pleasant Valley Road connecting into the abutting subdivisions, please note that Peak View will have three points of traffic distribution, north, east and west. These multiple points of access reduce the funneling and concentrated effect. In fact, the Transportation Impact Study predicts that most trips will be distributed north to Elizabeth Street. Regarding the concern over connectivity between single and multi -family housing, please refer to the following list of newer neighborhoods that have connectivity between these two housing types: Willow Brook, Stanton Creek, Harvest Park, Sage Creek, Rigden Farm, Provincetowne, Ridgewood Hills, Willow Springs, and Timber Creek. These are recent projects. There are numerous older projects as well. 281 North College Avenue • P.O. Box 580 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 • (970) 221-6750 • FAX (970) 416-2020