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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMULBERRY AND LEMAY CROSSING (FORMERLY LEMAY TOWNE CENTER) - ODP - 36-96 - MINUTES/NOTES - CORRESPONDENCE-NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING52. In reference to the flood plain, if you bring in fill dirt, how does that effect the flood plain? I'm concerned about the homes to the north. A. Actually the Poudre River spills to the east across the golf course, not to the north. 53. Are they going to raise Lemay? A. We are aware of the City's plan to raise Lemay to increase flood protection for the properties to the east. We haven't has time to respond so we don't know yet. 54. What about the impact on Supermarket Liquors? A. At this time, we are planning on extending the frontage to serve our property. Access to the liquor store would stay the same. The access to Mulberry may be modified but would have to be approved by the CDOT. We do not want to use the frontage road as the main truck route. E 44. We don't have a council person for our area. How much of a voice do we have? This is frustrating for us on the north end with County subdivisions next to the City. Does this meet the Big Box "rule" with all the parking in the front of the store? What about access? A. Our proposed site plan will show customer access to Wal-Marton three sides so we will provide multiple entries. There will be a service entrance on the fourth side. We are showing most of the parking in front and may need to seek a variance from the requirement regarding parking distribution. 45. Would it make more sense to have truck service from the east rather than on the north? It seems as if it would be safer and quieter for the multi -family residents to shift the service and truck docks to the east. A. There will be buffering between the truck dock and the residential area. We anticipate the delivery route to be Lincoln Avenue. 46. Where will you go with the sanitary sewer? A. Sanitary sewer is available in Lemay. 47. I'm in favor of this project. I also have a small business at the area of Lincoln and Commerce. This would be a great asset to me. I thinks this area needs it. 48. I have a small business on Lemay. I believe the project it will bring more business to us. I'm concerned, however, for the left turn movements onto Lemay. Left turns will be difficult without the protection of a traffic signal. A. This is a good comment. Full turning access on Lemay will probably be restricted to the signalized intersection with Magnolia. Other intersections may be restricted. These restrictions will be refined as the planning process continues. 49. I am in favor of the project. It is big, but we're fortunate to be able to look at the entire 50 acres at one time and have it all laid out for us rather than a piecemeal approach. 50. Does the traffic study include delivery trucks? A. Only in a generic sense. The numbers come from a national survey for large retail. 51.. You hope delivery trucks use Lincoln? Wouldn't they use Lemay? A. The truck routes have not been refined at this stage. We expect to work out a defined truck route that will be used rather than each trucker deciding his own route. .9 39. Will this project contribute to the bypass over Vine? A. Response from City: The Lemay overpass will likely be built as capital project and funded through taxes, not through impact fees on developers. This is because it is seen as a community - wide improvement and not an improvement tied to any one project. We can still require developers to improve their frontage and dedicate their "local street" share of the public right-of-way as we would any other development. But, any right-of-way needed that is beyond the normal scope of development would have to be purchased. Keep in mind the Lemay Overpass is not part of the Building Community Choices capital program. 40. Are you anticipating any significant traffic from Wyoming? A. As you know, Fort Collins does serve as a retail hub for the region. We hope to benefit from that, yes. 41. I live 2 miles north, and I enjoy the quality of life I have and don't want to see that lost. The fact is, land is approved for development in areas in the north part of town. I don't like having to spend a'/2 day of shopping by going to the south part of town. Ldon't think this will harm Old Town. This area needs this development. If we don't provide this on the north side everyone will have to go south. We could use a Wal-Mart or a Target on this side of town. The project would be improved by creating a community center with pedestrians and bike access. Also, a theater would be good. Right now if we want to see a movie, it's a day trip! 42. Since the Lemay Overpass did not make the cut on Building Community Choices, is there a way to speed the funding process up? A. Response from City: I'm afraid at this point that it would be a long shot to find funding but I also do not want to discourage you from trying. Funding capital projects is done through a competitive process with other projects. Keep in mind that the Lemay Overpass is competing with a new branch library and second sheet of ice at Epic as well as other road widening projects. Funding a project that is not on Building Community Choices would essentially become a political process and you are encouraged to contact members of City Council. Response from Citizen: Realistically, funding the bypass is not going to happen until the next round of capital projects after Building Community Choices. The only possibility is if Council can find money from another account or if there is savings left over from another expenditure. So, do not expect a bypass to be funded for at least seven to eight years. After that, it needs to be designed and built. 43. We did have a need for retail on the north end as can be seen by the success of Albertson's on North College. I have a problem with size of the proposed project. A neighborhood sized shopping center would be nice here. II 32. I keep coming back to the fact that, as much as you are willing to do, the project is still too much for this site. I think that all impacts of development such as street improvements, turn lanes, signals, and storm drainage improvements should be paid for by the developer. Not one external impact should be borne by the taxpayers. Unfortunately, the City has not done a very good job of making developers pay for these impacts and the taxpayers end up footing part of bill. This is especially irritating since, in my opinion, the community does not need another retail shopping center. If you need to generate $300 to $350 in sales per square foot of store, then you are looking at 60 to 70 million dollars in annual gross sales. This is staggering. Our market region cannot generate these figures. The market is simply not there. Since we don't need it, we should not have to pay for any of its impacts. I would be happier if the project were smaller in size with smaller ystores. The size is inappropriate for the property. 33. Will the Magnolia extension go all the way to Link? Who pays for the unimproved portion between Link and shopping center's eastern property line? A. Magnolia will be extended to 12th Street. Response from City: This is a good question. The unimproved -portion of.Magnolia provides a convenient connection over to Link Lane which is already dedicated as public right-of-way. This improvement will have to be analyzed to see who participates in the cost and to what share. 34. This area of town is not used to large parking lots. Are you going to add lots of landscaping and break up the parking lot? A. Yes, the parking lot will be setback from Lemay by landscaping. This area will feature a berm to help screen the cars. We hope to break up the parking lot with landscape islands. There will be crosswalks featuring textured concrete. There will be areas with benches. 35. What are the plans for the existing Wal-Mart? A. It will remain the Wal-Mart it is today. 36. That's a different answer than from a year ago. 37. The intersection of Lincoln and Lemay is near three projects under different stages in the planning process. Does the city coordinate the work and required improvements with all of these projects? A. Yes, the City requires each traffic study to include the anticipated impacts of all the projects that are currently under review. 38. Keep in mind that the Summitview /Timberline extension will take some of the traffic from Lemay. 25. I'm concerned about stormwater run-off pre-treatment. The large parking lot will create a water quality problem and potential pollution problems for the Poudre River. Are you willing to do stormwater run-off pre-treatment? A. Yes, we will investigate treating the stormwater runoff before it leaves the site. 26. What about impacts on wildlife? The riparian area by the Poudre River is a valuable wildlife corridor. A. We do not think development of this site will interfere with the riparian area which is located on the other side of Mulberry. The storm drainage outlet pipe will have to be constructed in the riparian area but that will be a temporary disturbance. The site itself has been in agriculture as a cornfield for many years. 27. Where is the stormwater outfall? A. The stormwater detention pond is located in the southwest corner of the site. From there, storm flows will be directed into a pipe that goes south under Mulberry, where the ultimate outfall is the Poudre River. 28. The City has a planned but unfunded capital project to raise Lemay Avenue to protect the properties to the east from the Poudre River floodplain. Are you going to participate in this project? A. We have become aware of this project only within the last week and we'll have to analyze the costs before we can respond. 29. With a project of this size, how much water will be dumped into the Poudre River? A. The City requires that the volume of stormflows released from the site do not exceed the historic runoff. These released flows, however, will be longer in duration at a greater rate of speed than historic flows so the runoff discharged will be of a different character. 30. What kind of a grade elevation will there be when the project is done? A. We need to raise the grade 3 to 4 feet approximately to the elevation of Lincoln at the Lemay intersection. 31. Who are the other tenants besides Wal-Mart? A. Keep in mind that Wal-Mart has not signed up for the deal yet. We are talking to other retailers now, in such categories as fashion and home improvement. We will start marketing more aggressively at such time as land use approvals are obtained. 5 17. Have you done any study on what improvements would be required for Lincoln? A. I will need to wait and talk with Eric Bracke (City Traffic Engineer) about this Until we get a chance to sit and talk, I won't have a definite answer. 18. What about the existing frontage road to Mulberry? A. Access on Mulberry is governed by the Colorado Department of Transportation. An access permit will be required. 19. Isn't the intersection of Mulberry/Lemay close to level of service "D" now? A. Response from City: Yes, the intersection needs westbound double left turn lanes to keep it at level of service"D". 20. You talked about access to the Poudre Trail. How will that be done safely? A. The trail has a segment that comes up to this intersection of Mulberry/Lemay. Trail users will have to use the signalized crossing in order to cross safely. 21. From the trail, then what? A. We are providing an eight foot wide detached sidewalk along Lemay and a connection into the center. We would hope the people on the trail use our project. We are providing trail head parking in the southwest corner of our project. We also hope to attract a bike shops and provide an outdoor bike rest area with drinking fountain and perhaps an air station. 22. Are you making accommodations to support the city transit system? A. We will provide whatever is necessary to accommodate Transfort. 23. Are ice cream stores classified as "auto related"? A. Response from City: A Regional/Community shopping center is expected to have a variety of retail and services. An ice cream store would obviously fit into a shopping center like this. 24. Wily there be a gas station? A. Response from City: While gas stations are generally an acceptable use in shopping center, they are not allowed in a floodplain. Since a portion of this project lies within a floodplain, a portion of the site could not feature a gas station. 4 9. How will you deal with the railroad traffic? A. The at -grade railroad crossing at Lemay will continue to be a problem for north -south traffic. We have no mitigation plan for the railroad crossing. 10. Are you looking at the impact on Lincoln? A. Yes, the traffic study does include Lincoln. 11. Do you take air quality into consideration with the traffic study? A. Air quality is not included with a basic traffic study. 12. Without downtown Fort Collins, Fort Collins doesn't have much identity. What will happen to the stores downtown with this shopping center? Will downtown merchants suffer? A. In our opinion, we think Old Town will benefit from.our project and ours from theirs. 13. In reference to the multi -housing, what are the trips generated from that? A. There would be about 1,100 trips per day generated from the 170 apartments. Keep in mind that the trip generation rate for multi -family is less than for single family. 14. If the apartments are targeted as affordable housing, then there will be lots of single parents with kids. Are we in the Fort Collins High School boundaries? Will this project cause overcrowding at the schools? A. I'm not sure if they'd go to FCHS. The new high school was built for 1800 students and they are not at that capacity now so there may not be an overcrowding issue. I do have traffic numbers for low income housing. 15. Are the trip generation rates for affordable housing different from market -rate apartments? A. There are different rates for different kinds of apartment projects. I could look up in the ITE Manual but I don't have those numbers at hand. 16. Within a 2 mile radius, there are plans for about 550 (plus or minus) homes, 241 mobile homes, 320 trailers at Summitview, and now affordable housing? How much more is this area expected to accept. I think this area is getting over -saturated. Is our area being "targeted." A. Response from City: There is no target area. No area of the City is exempt from an affordable housing project. For example, one affordable housing project was recently approved on West Swallow Road and one approved on J.F.K. Parkway south of Troutman. 3 3. I would like for Mr. Goldberg to clarify "community" versus "regional" retail. A. Regional retail is usually 300,00 to 500,000 square feet or more whereas community retail would be about 150,000 square feet or so. 4. Do the developers contribute to the cost of the widening of Lemay? A. Response from City: Yes, as well as Mulberry and Lincoln. 5. How much do they contribute? What percent? A. Response from City: Street improvements are typically built with the development in accordance with the standards and classification of the Master Street Plan. At minimum, all development must improve their frontage along all public streets to the "local' street standard. Other improvements may include right -turn lanes and medians necessitated by the project. In addition, all development is assessed a Street Oversizing Fee based on type of land use (commercial versus residential) and based on the amount of land area being developed. This fee is payable to the City at the time of building permit issuance. This fee goes into the Street Oversizing Fund which pays to widen the streets beyond the "local' street standard to the "arterial' standard. 6. I'm assuming that the heart of this project is Wal-Mart. What will the size be? And the traffic generated? A. Your assumption is correct. Although we have not signed anything yet, we are negotiating with Wal-Mart as the anchor tenant. They are interested in building a 200,000 square feet superstore that would combine a grocery store with general merchandise. We anticipate that the other large tenant will be a home improvement store. According to our traffic study, a 200,000 square foot store would generate approximately 9,400 vehicle trips per day. This number assumes that not all of these trips are new trips but are captured trips that are already using the roadways. 7. What is the traffic on Lemay now? A. It's about 13,000 to 14,000 vehicles per day now. 8. There is a fundamental problem with this proposal. It is too large. No amount of street widening or other traffic mitigation will alter the fact that there will be more traffic congestion in this area. Just look at all the congestion on South College where there are a total of six lanes, and, in some cases; double left -turn lanes. A retail development of this size cannot be mitigated. A. To balance that perspective, there are presently a number of trips being made from the north end of Fort Collins to the South College/Harmony Road area that could be captured by a shopping center at this location. This center will help reduce trips made south. 2 NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING MINUTES PROJECT: Mulberry and Lemay Crossings. O.D.P. DATE: January 23, 1997 APPLICANT: Mark Goldberg, Goldberg Properties CONSULTANT: Kurt Prinslow, CLC Kathleen Krager, Kragerand Associates STAFF: Ted Shepard, Senior Planner The meeting began with a review of the project including adding 8.5 acres of multi -family on the northern portion along Lincoln Avenue. The site is 50 acres in size and would feature two large retail establishments and other support retail and restaurants. There is a pad available for a parks and recreation user. The project has been submitted for an Overall Development Plan and will be considered by the P & Z Board on March 1 Oth. The apartment project would be developed separately from the commercial project. The apartment developer is W. Brisben Company and the project would be called `Buffalo Run" and include 170 dwelling units in a mix of two and three-story buildings. The project would include an onsite manager, clubhouse, pool and tot lot. The exterior would be a combination of brick and wood. The street layout would allow for a connection over to Link Lane via Magnolia Street. (Unless otherwise noted, all responses are from the developer and consulting team.) QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, COMMENTS 1. How many traffic lanes will there be on Lemay? A. We have done some preliminary traffic analysis in conjunction with the O.D.P. Lemay will be an arterial and have five lanes. There will be 2 lanes each way with left turn lanes at the intersections. 2. How far will 12th Street be extended? A. At this stage, we are showing 12th Street to connect to Lincoln but it does not go all the way south to Mulberry. 1