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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSPRING CREEK PLACE (FORMERLY STATION, 2105 S. COLLEGE AVE.) - PDP - PDP160020 - CORRESPONDENCE - REVISIONSkimley-horn.com 4582 South Ulster Street, Suite 1500, Denver, CO 80237 303 228 2300 October 4, 2016 Ted Shephard City of Fort Collins Community Development and Neighborhood Services 281 North College Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 RE: 096291001 Dear Mr. Shephard: Thank you for the comments on September 10, 2016 for the above-mentioned project. In an effort to address your comments concisely and simplify your review of the utility plans, we have summarized your comments and our responses below. COMMENT RESPONSE LETTER Engineering Development Review (Marc Ragasa 970-221-6603 mragasa@fcgov.com) 1. Why has the 10' multi-use path to the south of the property been reconfigured? The 10' width should be maintained throughout and should try to maintain the direct connection from College Avenue. As proposed, the jog in the path around the tree will not work and could potentially pose a safety issue. Please work with Transportation Planning to determine a suitable sidewalk configuration.  Response: This item was discussed in the meeting with the city. The planning department and city forestry have requested that the tree remain in place and there is not enough space to accommodate the tree sufficiently for survival and include a 10’ wide sidewalk. 2. There needs to be an access easement for the drive connection to the whole foods site along the driveway within the property. The portion of the multi-use path to the south that deviates from the direct path will also need to be included in an access easement. Please verify with Utilities which portions of the water services need to be within a Utility Easement.  Response: There is currently an existing access easement through the site at the location specified (for the drive connection). A proposed easement has been included which surrounds the entirety of the multi-use path south of the building. Water services have been place within the appropriate and necessary easements. 3. Add the private drive notice to the Plat. The following shall be placed on the plat set apart from the other notes in a box labeled as "NOTICE" when private drives are utilized on the property: "ALL RESPONSIBILITIES AND COSTS OF OPERATION, MAINTENANCE AND RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PRIVATE STREETS AND/OR DRIVES LOCATED ON THE PRIVATE PROPERTY THAT IS THE SUBJECT OF THIS PLAT SHALL BE BORNE BY THE OWNERS OF SAID PROPERTY, EITHER INDIVIDUALLY, OR COLLECTIVELY, THROUGH A PROPERTY OWNERS' ASSOCIATION, IF APPLICABLE. THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS Page 2 kimley-horn.com 4582 South Ulster Street, Suite 1500, Denver, CO 80237 303 228 2300 SHALL HAVE NO OBLIGATION OF OPERATION, MAINTENANCE OR RECONSTRUCTION OF SUCH PRIVATE STREETS AND/OR DRIVES NOR SHALL THE CITY HAVE ANY OBLIGATION TO ACCEPT SUCH STREETS AND/OR DRIVES AS PUBLIC STREETS OR DRIVES."  Response: This note was added to the plat before the last submittal and can be found within the 2nd text column from the left which has the heading text of “NOTICE”. 4. Is there a reason the 12' Utility Easement running through the property can't be vacated via the Plat? Is this a private easement or an easement that wasn't originally dedicated to the City?  Response: This utility easement cannot be vacated via the plat as the vacation cannot happen until after the plat has been recorded as existing onsite buildings will require electrical service up until the time that they are to be demolished. 5. Both the 15' access easement and the 20' emergency access easement need to define the starting elevation. Does the easement terminate 18 from finished grade, finished floor grade, etc. Please provide a station or elevation.  Response: Plat has been revised to indicated starting and ending heights of easements. Forestry (Tim Buchanan 970-221-6361 tbuchanan@fcgov.com) 1. Species Selection: The October Glory Red maple is not adapted to the soils in Fort Collins and does not survive or thrive long term. Substitute it with another canopy shade tree. Suggested substitution trees: Bur Oak, Chinkapin oak, Catalpa. This information was also provided to the applicant at the site meeting.  Response: All October Glory Maples have been replaced with Bur Oak. Light and Power (Coy Althoff CAlthoff@fcgov.com) 1. The storage unit and cell tower properties to the north of this project will likely need to be re-fed from a different direction and possibly with their own dedicated transformer. System modification charges will apply and it will likely be necessary that this project dedicates a new utility easement for that effort.  Response: Noted. PFA (Jim Lynxwiler 970-416-2869 jlynxwiler@poudre-fire.org) 1. FIRE LANE SIGNS: The limits of the fire lane shall be fully defined. Fire lane sign locations should be indicated on future plan sets however the applicant should understand that additional signage may be required at time of inspection and final CO. Code language provided below. > IFC D103.6: Where required by the fire code official, fire apparatus access roads shall be marked with permanent NO PARKING FIRE LANE signs complying with Figure D103.6. Signs shall have a minimum dimension of 12 inches wide by 18 inches high and have red letters on a white reflective background. Signs shall be posted on one or both sides of the fire apparatus road as required by Section D103.6.1 or D103.6.2.  Response: Noted. 2. LANDSCAPING: The landscape plan appears to create a tree location conflict with the proposed hydrant location on the building's east side. 3' of clear space is required around any hydrant, now and at time of landscape maturity. Code language provided below. > IFC 507.5.5: CLEAR SPACE AROUND HYDRANTS A 3-foot clear space shall be maintained around the circumference of fire hydrants except as otherwise required or approved. Page 3 kimley-horn.com 4582 South Ulster Street, Suite 1500, Denver, CO 80237 303 228 2300  Response: The landscaping plan has been revised to provide the needed clearances. Planning Services (Ted Shepard 970-221-6343 tshepard@fcgov.com) 3. Referring back to first round comment number 14 regarding no upper floor building step backs, staff remains concerned that the revisions that enhance the south walkway may not be sufficient to address the central issue of mitigating the overall building mass and creating a sensible pedestrian scale. Based on the revised plans, staff is assuming that upper floor building step backs will likely not be considered. As mitigation, therefore, the applicant is encouraged to further consider upgrades and embellishments along this walkway. The length of the walk is 364 feet. South of the walkway will be the Whole Foods parking lot. On the landscaping side of the walkway, to complement the landscaping, please consider adding a combination of raised planters and seat walls to the landscaping in a variety of configurations and heights to avoid repetition and monotony. On the building side, please consider adding more trim and detail to the garage openings and doorways. Recessing the garage openings to the maximum extent would accentuate the sills. Giving the doorways more of an entryway or foyer would add interest. Also, please consider creative lighting that could be combined with doorways, landscaping and garage openings.  Response: In addition to the building façade revisions noted below, the pedestrian walkway itself has also be enhanced. Green screen elements have been added in three places along the south building façade. Screening at garage entries have been recessed up to 9” from the face of the building façade and styled to integrate with the detailing of the balcony railings at the upper levels. The walkway itself has been redesigned as a paver system with a more elaborate design combining multiple paver colors and types. Benches have been added along the length of the walk. All of these elements combine with the building façade revisions to create a series of discrete environments along the length of the building. Work is also being done to provide a more interactive lighting solution that maintains a minimum safe level of lighting and accentuates it with more interesting and interactive lighting elements. 4. Referring back to first round comment number 15 regarding showing the recesses and projections, thank you for the graphic depicting the extent of the modulation along the north and south elevations as well as the roof lines. Staff remains concerned, however, that the modulation consists only of the balcony module, which, by itself adds a measure of articulation. Staff finds that the balcony module is repeated a bit excessively and that these two long facades would benefit from additional wall plane articulation. The repeated horizontal module creates a ribbon effect and perhaps could be could be broken up with a more vertical element that offers a slight contrast to the sole reliance on the balcony modulation. Again, a building step back would accomplish this but lacking that, other techniques to achieve wall plane variety should be explored.  Response: The north and south building facades have been redesigned to better address the pedestrian scale and break-up the “ribbon effect” of the five story massing. The brick used to clad the ground floor has been extended up to the second level in a number of places to better integrate the ground floor with the upper levels of the building. Individual vertical building masses have been treated uniquely along the length of these facades to create a more diverse elevation. Roof (awning) elements have been added to some Page 4 kimley-horn.com 4582 South Ulster Street, Suite 1500, Denver, CO 80237 303 228 2300 vertical masses at the third and fourth floor heights to allow for a material change on the upper levels of these masses. These roof elements also create a look of a lower mass from the point of view of pedestrians along the MAX access walk. Cantilevered pergola elements have been added to portions of the south building façade over the pedestrian walkway to provide a filtered view of the building above and create a series of discrete environments along the pedestrian walk. The stair towers have been reworked to cantilever out from the typical mass of the building (above the easement elevations) and provide more visual interest to the south façade. 5. On the west elevation, the architectural elevations indicate that there are to be screen walls in front of the mesh screens of the parking garage. Please indicate the height of the screen wall. Is the landscaping shown to be planted on top of the screen wall? I’m not seeing how the screen wall and landscaping are integrated. Perhaps a detail would help.  Response: Plans have been revised to show an 8’ architectural screen fence with landscaping in front of it. Landscaping may include climbing vines which would grow on the architectural screen fence and would add additional screening in this location. There is no longer a proposed screen wall and/or mesh screen. Stormwater Engineering (Basil Hamdan 970-224-6035 bhamdan@fcgov.com) 1. Water Quality Requirements – This submittal looks to capture a much larger area of the site into the underground detention vault that also serves as your LID on this site than was previously shown. This is great. However, there is still approximately 15% of the site that isn’t treated by any water quality device at all. I understand your challenges related to tying into existing roadways and adjacent properties but 15% is larger than I anticipated that wouldn’t be captured. That said, I would also like for you to look at putting in an inlet on the east side of the drive aisle that runs north south along the eastern side of the site to capture some of that area that drains off to the east.  Response: An additional inlet has been added as requested. 2. Drainage Report – Please note that for the Stormtech system, the City of Fort Collins requires that the isolator row needs be sized for the WQCV amount. This is different than what Stormtech will tell you is necessary, but we require it because of concerns about long term infiltration rates. Please ensure that this volume is accounted for in the chambers you have shown or provide the additional chambers needed if the volume is not accounted for.  Response: As discussed with Heather McDowell, water quality is already provided for the site by an off-site WQ BMP located near the BRT station. There is only an LID requirement for this site and not a WQCV requirement so sizing of the isolator row for the Stormtech system will not be based on the WQCV. Technical Services (Jeff County 970-221-6588 jcounty@fcgov.com) 1. There is text that needs to be masked. Mask all text in hatched areas. See redlines.  Response: Text masks have been added. 2. Please remove "Bankcenter Square Second Filing" from the sub-title of all sheets. See redlines.  Response: Plans have been updated. 3. There are spelling issues. See redlines.  Response: Spelling has been revised. Page 5 kimley-horn.com 4582 South Ulster Street, Suite 1500, Denver, CO 80237 303 228 2300 4. SHADOW STUDY: Please remove "Bankcenter Square Second Filing" from the sub title of all sheets. See redlines.  Response: Text has been revised as requested. 5. Landscape Plans: Please remove "Bankcenter Square Second Filing" from the sub title of all sheets. See redlines.  Response: Text has been revised as requested. 6. Lighting Plan: Please remove "Bankcenter Square Second Filing" from the sub title of all sheets. See redlines.  Response: Text has been revised as requested. 7. Please label all surrounding properties with "Unplatted" or the subdivision name. This includes properties across right of ways. See redlines.  Response: Labels have been revised. 8. Please label "to whom" the easements are dedicated. See redlines.  Response: Labels have been revised. 9. Please clarify the dimensioning along the east line of the property. See redlines.  Response: Plat dimensions have been updated. 10. The west, south & east lines do not show measured bearings & distances. We think these should be labeled with an M&R. Please explain what is going on with these lines.  Response: Plat has been revised as requested. 11. Please change the legal description to "Lot 1, Spring Creek Place". See redlines.  Response: Legal description has been updated. With Kimley-Horn, you should expect more and will experience better. Please contact me at (303) 228-2318 or dan.skeehan@kimley-horn.com should you have any questions. Sincerely, KIMLEY-HORN AND ASSOCIATES, INC. Dan Skeehan, P.E. LEED AP Project Manager