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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPVH MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING & PARKING STRUCTURE - PDP - 14-07 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - PLANNING OBJECTIVESunderground construction and structural design. An underground structure would require additional fire sprinkler protection, permanent ventilation systems, and emergency power not needed in an above -grade structure. In addition, the hospital has concerns about the less tangible issues of perceived safety of their night -shift employees in an underground facility versus an above -ground structure. 6. Concern: Does the hospital really need this parking? Response: The hospital has experienced a notable shortage of parking for several years. Hospital parking currently spills into on -street and private parking in adjacent properties and neighborhoods causing other neighborhood concerns. The hospital has implemented various measures to mitigate these issues such as incorporating valet and shuttle parking, and providing incentives to employees to park in remote lots. The parking structure will help alleviate current concerns and future planned hospital improvements. We have developed a separate spreadsheet indicating the parking needs for the hospital and current planned improvements (see attachment). 7. Concern: Existing businesses nearby must have access during construction. What roads will be closed? Response: We are not yet at the level of detail to know the extent of road closures but no permanent road closures are proposed. We will prepare strategies along with the City during our project review to minimize impacts on adjacent properties during construction of the project. 8. Concern: How will shadows from these building affect me? Response: We have submitted a shadow analysis for the City's review. 9. Concern: Existing storm sewer system in Garfield has experienced flooding in the past. Will this project add to the problem or fix the problem? Response: We will review capacities of the existing facilities with the City with our project submittals to ensure that no negative impacts are being created, but the project is not adding impervious surfaces to the drainage basin, and they will be including water quality measures as required by the City. to Project name and previous project names. • The project name is Poudre Valley Hospital Medical Office Building and Parking Structure. Previous names for these parcels have been Lot 2 and Tract B of the Lemay Subdivision. Statement of Planning Objectives Page 5 of 5 3. Concern: Visibility of lighting and headlights to neighborhood. Response: Headlights: The parking structure will be designed with exterior parapet walls to conceal headlights within the structure. Pole lights: The roof of the structure will be lighted with pole -mounted lights. This lighting has been designed with the poles in the center of the deck structure rather than around the perimeter to reduce impacts on the adjacent properties. The poles will be located approximately 60' from the edge of the parking structure, and are only 15' tall. With the perimeter parapet of 3-4' in height, lights should not be visible except from an extreme (high) angle. All lights are full cutoff, designed to direct light downward rather than outward. The remainder of our exterior lighting, as developed, will be sensitive to the adjacent neighbors. The lighting design must meet City requirements for light spill onto adjacent properties. 4. Concern: Aren't their better locations for the parking structure? (several suggestions were given including north and east of hospital, Riverside Drive). Response: The hospital has looked at many alternative locations for the parking structure including those suggested at the public meeting. Some reasons for the selected location include: - Opportunity to create a signature medical office building along Lemay Avenue with arterial street frontage appropriate for this use, and opportunity for direct connection via pedestrian bridges from the medical office space to the clinical spaces within the hospital - The south and east sides of the hospital must function as the primary patient/visitor entrances to the hospital. Structured parking is more suitable for daily users such as employees, staff, and some physicians. Surface parking is more appropriate for first-time visitors, patients, families and visiting physicians than is structured parking. The west side of the hospital has better adjacency to clinical 'employee' areas of hospital and opportunity to provide a direct covered connection via pedestrian bridges from employee parking to these areas. Consolidating employee parking on the west side of the hospital also frees up more surface parking for visitors, patients and families near the main entrance. - The hospital is mindful of impacts to adjacent neighborhoods in its master planning efforts. Residential neighborhoods have developed around the hospital property on the east, west, and south sides. The PVH properties west of Lemay are considered most appropriate for the badly needed parking structure and MOB, since the sites are currently used as parking and medical office, and are close to but do not immediately abut residential areas. Areas to the north of the hospital could also be appropriate for a parking structure, but much of this land is not owned by PVH. More distant parking lots (near Riverside) are simply too for away to be feasible for staff and physician parking and are not currently used well by employees. 5. Concern: Why can't parking structure be built underground? Response: There are several barriers to proposing an underground parking structure. Cost is a significant barrier. Costs increase by the depth proposed, and can range from a 1.8 times increase for one-story below grade to 2.8 times the cost for multiple levels below grade. Groundwater currently exists approximately 20' below grade, so underground structures would also need to incorporate costly mitigation measures for Statement of Planning Objectives Page 4 of 5 (v) Description of rationale behind assumptions and choices made by the applicant • This project will comply with all applicable city standards in an effort to create a high - quality addition to the city. (vi) Variances • We are requesting a variance to the standard design for street sidewalks. As an infill project, applying the standard sidewalk offsets would result in the loss of several mature trees along the perimeter of the property. We are proposing sidewalk designs that following the general alignment of existing walks and widening these walks when required in order to save as many existing trees as possible and to tie into the adjacent neighborhood sidewalk pattern. We have developed a separate exhibit illustrating this proposal (see attachment). (vii) How Conflicts Between Land Uses and Disturbances to Wetlands and Natural Areas are Being Avoided • There are no wetlands or natural areas on the site. (viii) Neighborhood meeting • A neighborhood meeting was held on May 8, 2007. The meeting was well -attended with several concerns raised by the nearby landowners and other attendees. The following is a list of key issues raised and how these issues have been addressed: 1. Concern: Visual impact of four-story buildings on neighborhood. Response: Four-story buildings are allowed by code in this zone district. Where immediately adjacent to one-story residential (south), we have tried to mitigate this impact by: - Locating the medical office building in the far northeast corner of the parcel, furthest from the residences. Parking will be located immediately behind these houses, similar to current conditions. - Architectural treatments to break up the apparent mass of the four-story structure. First level is arcaded; top level is recessed on the side facing the residential neighborhood. For the parking structure, we've located the building immediately adjacent to Lemay allowing an area along the west property edge for buffering from the one- and two- story medical office buildings which immediately abut the parcel. 2. Concern: Traffic impacts on already busy Lemay, traffic impacts on residential streets (Garfield) already being used as a cut -through, consider a cul-de-sac to close Garfield. Response: We have prepared a traffic study for the City's review indicating impacts on surrounding streets. We will continue to work with the City through our review process to analyze these impacts although the attached traffic analysis does not present any adverse impacts to existing streets. The neighborhood was offered the opportunity to work with the City on street calming measures in the residential areas to the west. Statement of Planning Objectives Page 3 of 5 The proposed project provides a transition of lower -intensity land uses at the edge of the employment district (ED-1.4). Both the parking structure and the medical office building are less -intensity land uses than the hospital itself. Both buildings have been sited along the east property lines adjoining Lemay Avenue to allow for transition and buffering for nearby residential neighborhoods to the south and west (ED-1.8). Smaller one- and two-story office buildings exist immediately adjacent to the west of both projects providing additional transition to the residential neighborhoods to the west. The project maintains the hospital's direct accessibility to the City's transit system (ED-2). (ii) Open Space, Buffering, Landscaping, Circulation, Transition Areas, Wetlands and Natural Areas Open Space and Buffering: • The existing parcels are fully developed with small office buildings and surface parking lots. The proposed buildings have been sited along the east property lines adjoining Lemay Avenue. A small area of open space will be created along the western edge of the parking structure to allow for buffering of the building with landscape. Surface parking is proposed along the south and west sides of the Medical Office Building to provide a setback and transition in scale to the residential neighborhoods. Landscaping will be installed around parking areas to buffer them from adjacent properties. Landscaping_ • Appropriate landscaping will be installed in the parking areas, around the buildings, and at the building entrances. Circulation: • The entrance to the Medical Office Building parking lot will be from Garfield Street. The entrances to the parking structure will occur in the same locations as the existing entrances to the current surface parking lot. The primary entrance to the parking structure will be at the signalized intersection of Doctor's Lane and Lemay Avenue. A second entrance will be located at Robertson Street. Wetlands and Natural Areas: • There are no wetlands or natural areas on site. (iii) Proposed ownership and maintenance of public and private open space areas. • The owner will be responsible for the maintenance of the site. (iv) Estimate of Number of Employees for Commercial and Industrial Uses • Since the tenant mix for the medical office building has not yet been finalized, an estimate of the number of employees is not available at this time. Statement of Planning Objectives Page 2 of 5 Statement of Planning Objectives Poudre Valley Hospital — Medical Office Building and Parking Structure The proposed project includes a 4-story 60,000 s.f. Medical Office Building west of the existing hospital. The office building will be a multi -tenant facility with the main tenant planned as the Women's Clinic of Northern Colorado. A portion of the building will also house PVH administration uses. A pedestrian bridge will allow direct access from the medical tenants to the hospital over Lemay Avenue. In addition, a 4-story, 737-space parking structure is planned for MOB and hospital employees. A pedestrian bridge will connect the parking structure to the MOB and to the existing hospital providing direct access for employees to the hospital. Both facilities will be constructed on developed land that currently contains surface parking for employees and small medical office buildings. (i) Statement of appropriate City Plan Principals and Policies achieved The proposed project is an expansion of Poudre Valley Hospital, the city's community hospital that has existed since 1925. As an infill project, it promotes a compact development pattern (LU-1.1). Its design will enhance the city's 'hospital district' with a high -quality design emphasizing the special identity of this district (LU-2.1, LU-2.2). The project maintains the multi -modal transportation opportunities within this hospital district. Existing transit stops and multi -modal streets are maintained with the proposed project improvements (T-1 and T-2). The parking structure will incorporate bicycle parking within its walls. This further encourages employees to bike to work by providing covered bike parking and direct covered access into the hospital building (T-4). Pedestrian connections and street crossings will be designed to be safe and effective (T-6). Pedestrian -actuated signals will remain at Doctor's Lane and Robertson intersections with Lemay Avenue. In addition the pedestrian bridges will allow direct access to the hospital for employees, reducing the number of at -grade crossings at these intersections. The buildings and streetscapes will be designed to enhance the pedestrian scale of this environment (T-7) Employment Districts Principle ED-1: Employment Districts will be major employment centers in the community. These districts will also include a variety of complementary uses to meet the needs of employees, such as business services, convenience retail, lodging, child care, recreation, housing and restaurants. By design, they will encourage non -auto travel, car and van pooling, telecommuting and transit use. Their attractive appearance should allow them to locate adjacent to residential neighborhoods and along primary entryways into the community. The proposed project is a complementary use to meet the needs of the hospital. The medical office building allows physicians and hospital service providers to have direct access from their medical office setting to the hospital setting as needed. The parking structure helps to alleviate a long-term need for parking that has been provided in the past by multiple, scattered surface lots throughout the adjacent neighborhoods. The parking structure will contain covered bicycle parking to encourage non -auto travel by its employees. The buildings will be designed to be attractive in appearance to serve as distinctive, attractive additions to this employment district. Statement of Planning Objectives Page 1 of 5