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HomeMy WebLinkAboutUNIVERSITY CENTER PUD (UNIVERSITY MALL REDEVELOPMENT) - PRELIMINARY - 2-96 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - PLANNING OBJECTIVESPage 4 The owners of the center intend to redevelop and own the entire PUD. We estimate that there will be 204 peak shift employees and 497 total employees. University Towne Center is a redevelopment project and as such has mitigated the majority of the land use conflicts over time. We would note that we intend to add intensified landscape designs to the College Avenue frontage with the introduction of a screening wall to remove the visual impact of the automobile parking areas to the public space as well as the residential/office space to the east. The project will be phased allowing for initial development and construction of the area between King Soopers and Montgomery Wards in 1996 and completion of the addition to King Soopers, one tenant and the new building to the south in 1997. The rear service areas and storage facilities would be completed concurrent with 1996 construction. We have entered into the redevelopment of this project in a careful, considered manner, acknowledging both the public and the private needs. Parking and visibility requirements of the new tenants must be balanced with the public need for access, and increased visual interest in the sequence of development must recognize seasonal shopping patterns while acknowledging the city's need for adequate review. We believe University Towne Center can accommodate both public and private concerns and replace a tarnished asset with a new, vital energy vortex in Central Fort Collins. Page 3 25. Based on fiscal evaluation and an analysis of effects on the capital improvement program the city could provide incentives and infrastructure improvements, streets, power, etc., in order to direct growth in desired directions or area 26. Availability of existing services shall be used as a criteria in determining the location of higher intensity areas in the city. 28. City provided services and facilities should be located in the city or in conformance with the phasing plan for the urban growth area. 29. City provided services and facilities shall be utilized as a tool to direct or discourage development in desired directions. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 46. Conservation of resources and energy shall be addressed by land use, site planning and design criteria. 49. The city's Land Use Policies Plan shall be directed toward minimizing the use of private automobiles and toward alleviating and mitigating the air quality impacts of concentrated use of automobiles. 50. Mass transit should be used as a tool which leads development patterns, rather than following growth. LOCAL POLICIES FOR SPECIFIC LAND USE 69. Regional/Community shopping centers should locate in areas which are easily accessible to existing or planned residential areas. 70. Regional/Community shopping centers should locate near transportation facilities that offer the required access to the center but will not be allowed to create demands which exceed the capacity of the existing and future transportation network of the City. 71. New Regional/Community shopping center locating within the proximity of existing Regional/Community shopping centers shall be designed to work together as a single commercial district. All centers will be designed to encourage pedestrian circulation, and discourage multi -stop trips with private automobiles, or force traffic onto streets whose primary function is to carry through traffic. 72. Regional/Community shopping centers should locate where they can be served by public transportation. 73. Regional/Community shopping centers shall locate in areas served by existing water and sewer facilities. Page 2 The PUD plan approved for University Mall in 1981 showed a center containing 312,608 sq. ft. of usable area with 1057 parking spaces, for an overall ratio of 3.38 cars per 1000 sq. ft. These ratios are inadequate for the primary retail users projected for this center with the tenants desiring ratios of 5.0 spaces per 1000 sq.ft. The fact that this project is on a major transit route, is located central to the City, provides parking for a variety of uses, and has the physical constraints of its present location, permits us to provide a parking ratio of 3.92 cars per 1000 sq. ft., lower than would normally be anticipated. While the project does not provide for the desired 6% additional landscaping requirement, we feel the intensity of the landscape solutions adjacent to both the buildings East Facade and College Avenue along with the introduction of additional landscaped islands more than offset this requirement. The project currently receives its primary access from a Private Street that aligns with Columbia Street at a light -controlled access point. While this does not meet the letter of the rule prohibiting primary access to College, we think it meets the intent of receiving its primary access from a collector street even though it is a Private Street on the west side of College Avenue. University Towne Center is consistent with the City of Fort Collins Land Use Policies & Plans, August 14, 1979 in several key ways: General Policy 3. The City Shall promote a. Maximum utilization of Land within the city b. Alternative transportation modes c. the development of an efficient mass transit system to serve all the city residents d. The location of residential development which is close to employment, recreation, and shopping facilities Growth Management 20. Land use, site planning, and urban design criteria shall be developed to promote pleasant, functional, and understandable inter -relationships through and between land uses. 22. Preferential consideration shall be given to urban development proposals which are contiguous to existing development within the city limits or consistent with the phasing plan for the city's urban growth area. STATEMENT OF PLANNING OBJECTIVES University Towne Center - - Preliminary PUD Submission January 22, 1996 University Mall is a Community/Regional Shopping Center that has existed since 1964 and is located at 2211 South College Avenue. The project was designed as one of the first fully enclosed Malls in the country and was anchored by Eakers and Montgomery Wards department stores, and King Soopers grocery store. Connecting Eakers and Wards was a fully air conditioned interior space which provided several small tenants with their primary access. The opening of Foothills Fashion Mall in 1972 heralded the beginning of the decline of University Mall as a major retail center and other uses (primarily entertainment and recreational) began to occupy the center. The interior Mall became obsolete as the tenancy changed, and the advent of larger scale merchandisers created significant vacancies within the Center. The new tenants wanted larger floor plans for retail purposes and stores with greater depths than were previously required. The tenants of the nineties were much like the anchor tenants of the sixties and seventies with the exception that they normally concentrated in one category of merchandise in which they could dominate a market. The redesign of University Mall into University Towne Center envisions an enlarged King Soopers to better serve Central and North Fort Collins, four (4) major new tenants ranging in size from 17,000 to 30,000 square feet, and six (6) small tenants that would provide for convenience items. The revised internal traffic flow was designed to reduce traffic directly in front of retailers, and improve pedestrian safety. Intensified landscape and pedestrian walkways to the east of the retail outlets will add opportunities for pedestrian activities as well as providing a frontis piece for the totally new facade. The parking areas have been redesigned to provide for ninety-seven (97) additional cars while increasing landscaping and buffering to the surrounding neighborhoods and streets. The west side of the center, while continuing to function as a service area, has been buffered by a storage facility designed with similar materials as the center, and positioned to screen the services from the Center of Advanced Technology property to the west as well as screening the existing railroad track from the Center. South of existing buildings, and west of McDonalds Restaurant is proposed a new retail outlet that will be designed to be in harmony with the new exterior facades. The parking for this facility will be both to the east and west of the building, connecting to the existing parking and circulation systems further to the south.