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Home My WebLink AboutLIVING OAKS - PDP - PDP170009 - DECISION - VARIANCE REQUEST (3)MW LOOKING SOUTHWEST WITH GATE OMN 6 OY1NA Previously a variance was requested for the proposed gate as it did not meet "garage door" separation requirements from the right of way. Upon further consultation, we have determined that the gate should be considered part of the fence and not a garage door. The required fence setback from a local street is 2' from the back of sidewalk, and the proposed fence and gate exceed that distance. We would ask that the previous request for variance for the gate proximity to the right of way be struck from the project files. We do not anticipate that this variance for driveway width will be detrimental to the public health, safety, or welfare. Please call me if you have any questions or require any additional information for the approval of this variance. Sincerely, Michael Oberlander, PE, LEED-AP Colorado Registration No. 34288 1218 W. ASH, STE. A, WINDSOR, COLORADO 80550 TEL. 970.674.3300 - FAX 970.674.3303 VIEW LOOKING NORTHWEST FROM STREET -GATE CLOSED VIEW LOOKING SOUTHWEST FROM STREET GATE CLOSED µ N NY O N Y Q ((f 2 S 06/1N17 T W LV A f f� O i OWIW17 1218 W. ASH, STE. A, WINDSOR, COLORADO 80550 TEL. 970.674.3300 - FAX 970.674.3303 o If there is a bicycle moving at l0mph (this is a 5' wide sidewalk walk with lots of driveways, so that is a conservative estimate) — the bicycle speed would be 15 ft/sec and if the car takes 1.5 seconds to get across half of the walk, the triangle is nearly the same (22.5'). o It should be noted that the closer the car gets to the walk, the further the driver can see. It is Interwest's opinion is that if there is 15' of walk visible on either side of the driveway, adequate sight distance for a cautions backing driver is achieved. Graphics 'V --- V I 0 LAMM OAKS MC10i SM*frMWANCE AVAILABLE ATSU MM XCROSSING Nb17 '— - EV - t� Axo— GR L_ J L — — — — J L--'6M-r-AEW L 1 Mr l taa,a 1 m at -wo,xW I - - r- - - --' ------------------- --------------- 16.75 1 Ir------- -------- -------------r,. II I LI I 3.00 9.42 I I Composite Posawger Vehicle 1218 W. ASH, STE. A, WINDSOR, COLORADO 80550 TEL. 970.674.3300 - FAX 970.674.3303 I �I -t'LN fIi N K � C[l1'LWLWY: IX 'J� d1iK t I n I'. I 1 � i I III I 1'II it I I Mathews is classified as a local street. It exists with travel lanes and parking. Commercial Local Streets have defined bike lanes. Since Mathews does not have bike lanes, we have concluded it is classified as a Local Residential Street. Based on this standard, no variance is required to have a "back out" condition for the driveway. • The developers would propose to put language in both the Development Agreement and the Covenants for the property that the unit owners shall only use the drive area for parking of the single electric vehicle, access to and from the flex space (specifically if it is being used as a garage), and for loading and unloading (with a timeframe of 15 minutes). Blocking the driveway with additional parked cars would not be tolerated. • Staff has raised concerns regarding available sight distance for a car backing out of the driveway over the sidewalk. The concern is that the backing car needs adequate sight distance to see the pedestrian occupying the sidewalk. There isn't a standard for this condition in AASHTO or LCUASS. Interwest prepared the following narrative regarding our approach to the pedestrian safety and sight distance for this situation: Interwest has been researching sight distance for the situation of a car backing across a sidewalk. There are not any formal standards, so we studied at how sight distance is calculated. A vehicle at a stop sign entering a through street has a sight triangle (area of no visual obstruction) so that it can safely enter the roadway with the traffic that is moving. The way that AASHTO calculates the site triangle is multiplying the speed of the traffic on the street by the number of seconds that it takes to enter the road. If traffic is moving at 30mph (45 feet per second), and the entering vehicle needs 10 seconds to get into traffic, then the sight triangle would be from the entering driver's eye to a point 450' along the travel path of the oncoming car. If the approaching car is closer than 450', the entering driver can judge if he can enter the road. If the entering driver can't see an oncoming car (because of a curve or obstruction), he knows it is more than 450' away (it is out of the triangle). With a car crossing a sidewalk, there are several factors in play: o How fast does the car get across the sidewalk? The faster the car goes, the less time there is for "entering" (in this case blocking the walk). o How fast is the pedestrian moving along the sidewalk? The faster the pedestrian is moving, the bigger the sight triangle would need to be for the car to see the pedestrian prior to entering. For the purposes of the variance for Living Oaks, Interwest looked at what sight distance is available at the driveway and then judged if it is reasonable. On the drawing below, the drive has been narrowed from 18' to 12' and placed as far away from the building (south) as possible. A typical car is shown backing in the middle of the drive. The assumption is that the gate would be transparent all the way to the corner of the building (vertical wrought iron with significant gaps). Looking north from the driver's seat with the car bumper at the sidewalk, the driver can see 21.1 feet down the walk. The sight distance to the south is longer, but we just considered the worst case which is the view to the north. Analysis: o If the car backs up at ]mph (1.5 ft/sec) it will block the walk in 3 seconds. Effectively it will block the walk when it is half way across, but we have assumed 3 seconds of "entering ". o A 'fast" walking speed is 5 ft/sec (3.3 mph). o With those two parameters, the driver would need to see the pedestrian 15' from the driveway to be able to know to stop prior to driving over the walk. 1218 W. ASH, STE. A, WINDSOR, COLORADO 80550 TEL. 970.674.3300 - FAX 970.674.3303 INTERIN■•T CON SULTI N G GROUP June 16, 2017 Ms. Sheri Langenberger City of Fort Collins PO Box 580 281 North College Avenue Fort Collins, Colorado 80522-0580 Re: Living Oaks (221 East Oak Street) Request for Variance REVISED — Mathews Street Driveway Width and Back Out Condition Dear Sheri: The Living Oaks PDP at 221 East Oak is a proposed four-plex project that is classified as a multi -family development. Today, the site is vacant, but has two drive cuts, one on Oak Street and one on Mathews Street. The new four-plex will face Oak Street. A 12' driveway on Mathews is proposed to serve the back of the property. New diagonal parking will be available in the Oak Street right of way with the removal of the existing drive cuts. The access point has been designed to be a 12' wide Type I LCUASS driveway with 3' wings. The standard width for multi -family projects with 3 units or more is 24' (LCUASS 9.3.2.C). The first floor of the units will be classified as flex space which may be a single car garage, or may be a different use (without vehicular access). One parallel space on the site is proposed for an Electric Vehicle. Off street parking requirements for the project will be met with a combination of the electric vehicle and leased spaces in the nearby parking structure. A variance is requested from the LCUASS Chapter 9.3.2.0 to allow the 12' wide driveway. Justifications for this variance are as follow: • This driveway is not required for fire access. • LCUASS Standards allow public alleys to be as narrow as 12'. • Mathews is a local street with low speeds. Vehicles using the proposed driveway have a significant refuge between the sidewalk and the Matthews traffic. The on street diagonal parking spaces directly south of this driveway will remain, and the driveway apron is approximately I long. This refuge area will give incoming drivers a place to wait for the gate on the driveway to open. This space will also give cars who are leaving (backing or in forward drive), a place to wait for a gap in traffic prior to entering Mathews. • The site is only 50' wide. A different LCUASS Standard states that commercial drives should not be more than 40% of the site frontage. This is not a commercial drive, but illustrates a LCUASS concept. A 24' drive would literally take half of the frontage and then not meet this other standard. • LCUASS Section 9.4.8 "General Requirements - Access Approaches" states: "Access approaches shall not be approved for parking or loading areas that require backing maneuvers within the right-of-way except on Local Residential streets. All offstreet parking areas on Collector and Arterial streets must include on -site maneuvering areas and aisles to permit user vehicles to enter and exit the site in forward drive. " 1218 W. ASH, STE. A, WINDSOR, COLORADO80550 TEL. 970.674.3300 - FAX 970.674.3303 City o F6rtc' �ollins June 22, 2017 Michael Oberlander, PE Interwest Consulting Group 1218 W. Ash, Suite A Windsor, CO 80550 Planning, Development & Transportation Engineering Department 281 North College Avenue P.O. Box 580 Fort Collins. CO 80522.0580 970.221.6605 970,221.6378 - fax fcgov. corn/engineering Re: Living Oaks (221 East Oak Street) Request for Variance REVISED— Mathews Street Driveway Width and Back Out Condition Mr. Oberlander, This letter is in response to the variance request letter dated June 17, 2017 regarding a variance to Section 9.3.2.0 of the Larimer County Urban Area Street Standards which states that the standard width of a driveway for multi -family projects with three or more units is 24'. The variance request to reduce the driveway width on Mathews Street from 24' to 12' is approved provided that the fence and gate has a solid bottom portion no greater than 30" from grade and vertical pickets at a minimum of 7" on center. Any plantings and the shared electric vehicle shall meet sight distance requirements in areas shown on the sight distance exhibit provided with the variance request. This request does not set precedence or change the application of our design standards in other situations. If you have any questions, please contact me at 221-6573. Sincerely, Sheri L. Langenberger, P.E. Cc: Marc Ragasa, Engineering Martina Wilkinson, Traffic Operations