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HomeMy WebLinkAbout222 W. LAUREL ST., CLASSROOM ADDITION - SPAR - SPA140002 - MINUTES/NOTES - CORRESPONDENCE-NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGNEIGHBORHOOD INFORMATION MEETING PROJECT: 222 W. Laurel Street CSU Classroom Addition SPAR DATE: August 27, 2014 PROJECT PLANNER: Ryan Mounce APPLICANT: Colorado State University Process Overview: The meeting began with a brief overview of the Site Plan Advisory Review (SPAR) process, and how this is different from the City’s normal development review process for private development proposals. Fort Collins recently codified the Site Plan Advisory Review into the Land Use Code. Public entities complete an advisory review with the Planning & Zoning Board. SPAR proposals are reviewed based on their character, location and extent. If the Planning & Zoning board does not recommend approval, the public entities governing body can overrule with a 2/3 majority vote. There are also time limits on the duration of the SPAR review process, and this project is very likely to be considered by the Planning & Zoning Board at their October meeting. If you received a mailed notice of tonight’s neighborhood meeting, you will also receive a notice two weeks prior to the Planning & Zoning Board hearing in October. Applicant Overview: This is a rear addition to the existing structure. The addition is approximately 1,200 square feet and one-story. There will be a connection between the two buildings as a passageway with restroom facilities. The existing parking lot in the rear is to remain. The university has been operating at this specific location/house since 1939 and the site was purchased by CSU in the 1970’s. Comments, Questions & Responses: Question (Citizen): So if this land was in Boulder you wouldn’t have to do a SPAR? Response (Applicant): The SPAR process is done at the discretion of the municipality. In Boulder they don’t require a SPAR for projects undertaken by CU. In Fort Collins we have codified the SPAR process and CSU has been willing to participate in the SPAR process on its projects. Question (Citizen): Have you heard from anyone else about the project? Response (Applicant): Besides our meeting with you, we have not received any other comments. Comment (Citizen): My main comment was about having a fence or buffer between 222 Laurel and my building to the west. We talked about the landscaping in the back and it is nice to maintain that buffer. Response (Applicant): We believe a buffer would be positive for both parties. Comment (Citizen): The third thing that I think would be a benefit for the neighborhood would be to maintain the lot as an ‘A’ lot as opposed to a student commuter lot. There are a lot of students that park around here anyway that make it tough on the full time people that live here so it would be nice if that parking lot remains an ‘A’ lot. It might be better for the staff of the building as well. Response (Applicant): We agree and the plans are to maintain the parking as an ‘A’ lot. Question (Citizen): So the parking lot isn’t proposed to change to a different class of lot? Response (Applicant): No, we would like to park there as well. Question (Citizen): Is the lot going to stay gravel? Response (Applicant): Yes, we are proposing to leave it as gravel. Question (Citizen): How many spaces is it? Response (Applicant): It’s double-loaded, perhaps between 20 or 30 spaces? Question (Citizen): How much square footage are you adding? Response (Applicant): Approximately 1,200 square feet Question (Citizen): How many classrooms is that? Response (Applicant): Just one. Question (Citizen): When can anyone park in the lot? Response (Applicant): After 4 on weekdays and the weekends. That may change. All lots might be enforced 24/7 in the future. But the Rainbow might want to rent spaces in the lot to prevent that from happening. Question (Citizen): What is CSU’s motivation for 24/7 parking enforcement? Response (Applicant): Parking doesn’t have subsidies from the government so they need a revenue stream to build more structures and spaces. That means more parking enforcement as parking tickets are an important revenue stream for parking services. They may start to enforce more at Foothills and they may go to a tiered system so that a person with a ‘B’ permit can park in every lot but ‘A,’ for example. But you are not guaranteed a space in that case. If you buy a permit in these 3 lots close to campus and close to the core and pay more you will be guaranteed to have a space. As you move further out that won’t necessarily be the case. Question (Citizen): Has parking always been an enterprise? Response (Applicant): Yes. Right now we have .34 parking spaces for every student. Our peers are more like .22-.28. If we were to build out for a 35k+ student population, it would be $160m price tag to build the requisite parking to maintain that ratio. That means parking permits would need to be $1,700 per year in order to afford the additional parking structures needed. Question (Citizen): Peer campuses provide twice the amount of spaces? Response (Applicant): No, they provide about a quarter less. Comment (Citizen): Just speaking for myself I am supportive of what CSU is doing and I know Per (the architect on the project) and he does great work and I hope I mentioned in my letter that I am in support of the project. Question (Citizen): Are there faculty in the building? Response (Applicant): Yes, space for 7 offices. Comment (Applicant): Do you have any building elevations? Response (Applicant): Yes, the way it’s built follows the Department of Interior’s guidelines for historic structures. We are going to use a connector to bring the two buildings together so that way we maintain the integrity of the original building. In the future the connector could be removed along with the new addition and the original building would be more or less intact. Question (Citizen): So the connector is just to keep people from having to go outside, right? Response (Applicant): Yes, but the bathroom is in there as well. Question (Citizen): How do you get in to the building now? Response (Applicant): Tony is working on it so that there is access from the front and the rear so that people don’t have to walk through rocks along the east side of the building. Question (Citizen): Do students come in through the front door now? Response (Applicant): They’re trying to get away from that since the front will be office space. We want students to enter through the back. Comment (Citizen): If you can keep the pine trees that would be great. Response (Applicant): We believe one pine tree will need to go. Question (Citizen): What is the exterior made out of? Response (Applicant): Stucco – a pebble stucco, you don’t see this variety too much anymore. Question (Citizen): Will you match the color? Response (Applicant): Yes, something very similar. Question (Citizen): Is the dormer in the rear still there? What about the roof, is it flat or gabled? Response (Applicant): The dormer in the rear has gone away. Question (Citizen): When students come after hours they will be able to park in the back lot, right? Response (Applicant): Most of the time will be classroom time during normal school hours; it won’t be an open lab or anything like that in the evenings. Question (Citizen): The students would enter on the east then? Response (Applicant): Yes, the teaching wall will be on the west side and there won’t be windows on that side and we did that for lighting reasons. Comment (Citizen): That would mean landscaping would be beneficial to provide relief to the blank wall on that west side. It’s not a big deal but I think it would make the project nicer. I can work on landscaping on my side as well. Question (Citizen): How far back does the building go? Does it go back to our carriage house? Response (Applicant): It goes back to where your carriage house is. Question (Citizen): What’s the setback from the west for the addition? Response (Applicant): Last I checked it was less than 10 feet. It encroaches less towards your property line than the existing building does now. Question (Citizen): When would construction start? Response (Applicant): Probably not until October or November. The construction schedule would be 3 or 4 months long. Question (Citizen): Will this be frame construction? Response (Applicant): Yes. Question (Citizen): When is the P&Z hearing scheduled? Response (City): October. Question (Citizen): Would this be a consent item? Response (City): Our policy is not to put things on the consent if there are comments or known controversy. In this case, I have received your comments and suggestions and was not planning on putting the item on consent agenda. Response (Citizen): Oh I don’t think this need to be on discussion; we are supportive but did have those several suggestions. The board can still pull the item if they want to discuss the item, correct? Response (City): Yes, a member of the board could pull something from the consent agenda to discuss, or a citizen can also pull the item for discussion. I would like to check back with both of you following the City’s internal staff review first and wait to see if other public comments are received before any decision is made to place this on the consent agenda. Comment (Citizen): There’s a lot of foot and bike traffic on the sidewalks and alley way so long term, some improvements to encourage more bikes and pedestrians to use it would be great. Response (City): I’m not aware of any specific plans at this time for the alley, but there were the recent alley improvements on the alley one block to the east, between College and Mason. Response (Citizen): The Mason improvements are great but I just wanted to say that some improvements on this alley would be great long term.