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Home My WebLink AboutCROWNE AT OLD TOWN NORTH (FORMERLY CROWNE ON SUNIGA - RESIDENTIAL) - PDP - PDP170007 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - PROJECT NARRATIVECrowne at Old Town North Preliminary Development Plan Application and Narrative February 15, 2017 Prepared For: Crowne Partners Prepared By: Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS PROJECT DIRECTORY 3 LIST OF OFFICERS/DIRECTORS INVOLVED IN THE APPLICATION 4 PREVIOUS PROJECT NAMES 4 PLANNING OBJECTIVES 5 PRINCIPALS AND POLICIES 6 Economic Health 6 Environmental Health 6 Community and Neighborhood Livability 7 Transportation 12 Landscape, Open Space and Non-vehicle Circulation Elements 14 Ownership and Maintenance 14 Anticipated Development Schedule 14 Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 2 PROJECT DIRECTORY Land Owners Akbary Ali (.334) Kamandy Fahima (.333)/Moe (.333) 1710 Linden Way Fort Collins, CO 80524 Developer Crowne Partners 505N. 20th Street Suite 1150 Birmingham, AL 35203 Contact: Alan Levow or Andrea Haines Site Planning & Landscape Architect Vignette Studios PO Box 1889 Fort Collins, CO 80522-1889 (970) 472-9125 (866) 902-4163 (fax) Contact: Terence Hoaglund Civil Engineer Aspen Engineering 19 Old Town Square Suite 238 Ft Collins, CO 80524 (970) 420-5345 Contact: John Gooch Trafﬁc Consultant Delich Associates Matt Delich 2272 Glenhaven Dr. Loveland, CO 80538 (970) 669-2061 (970) 669-5034(fax) Contact: Matt Delich Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 3 LIST OF OFFICERS/DIRECTORS INVOLVED IN THE APPLICATION Alan Levow Alan Engel Andrea Haines Oaky Dover PREVIOUS PROJECT NAMES Crowne on Conifer Crowne on Suniga Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 4 PLANNING OBJECTIVES Crowne at Old Town North is a ±15.71 acre multi-family residential development incorporating the Principles and Policies of City Plan as well as the North College Corridor Plan to create a cohesive neighborhood Crowne at Old Town North is an inﬁll site surrounded by a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial uses. To the East is Aspen Heights, a rental multi-family development that is geared towards CSU students. To the south is Old Town North, a mixed use community of single family attached and detached homes, and some planned commercial areas. To the north is mixed industrial and commercial uses. To the West is mixed commercial development along North College Avenue, including Jax, several auto parts stores, auto repair service centers, as well as other uses. As one of the largest pieces of undeveloped land in north Fort Collins that is also close to Old Town, this site is a prime opportunity to advance many of the ideals in the North College Corridor Plan, as well as many of the concepts of urban planning principles for an inﬁll site, of which City Plan also embraces. Crowne at Old Town North was planned with several design objectives: • Work with the city to complete the street network in the area. • Create a pedestrian friendly environment • Provide an extensive pedestrian network throughout the development • Provide pedestrian connectivity to adjacent communities • Provide pedestrian connectivity to commercial areas along College Avenue. • Provide for adjacent neighborhoods to be able to have pedestrian access to the commercial areas along College Avenue as well. • Utilize existing site features to provide recreational and open space opportunities • Create a common green that is central to all residents for recreation purposes. • Create a street network system (both public streets, and street like private drives) to create a vehicular and pedestrian friendly community with buildings oriented towards the streets to provide an attractive streetscape and to screen parking lots from view. We have placed four story multi-family buildings internal to the site and along Suniga Drive (an arterial street). All buildings face onto public streets, with pedestrian connections to all units that front on public streets. Two story townhome style buildings are placed along Conifer Street that are similar to the two multi-family buildings in Aspen Heights immediately to the east of Crowne at Old Town North. Parking has been placed internal to all three blocks, and largely screened from public view by building placement. Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 5 As a result of these design objectives, Crowne at Old Town North is a well designed community adjacent to the vibrant mixes within the redeveloping North College Corridor. PRINCIPALS AND POLICIES Speciﬁc principles and policies of the Fort Collins City Plan that are addressed by the Crowne at Old Town North community are as follows: Economic Health Principle EH 4: The City will encourage the redevelopment of strategic areas within the community as deﬁned in the Community and Neighborhood Livability and Neighborhood Principles and Policies. Policy EH 4.1 –Prioritize Targeted RedevelopmentAreas Create and utilize strategies and plans, as described in the Community and Neighborhood Livability and Neighborhood chapter’s Inﬁll and Redevelopment section, to support redevelopment areas and prevent areas from becoming blighted. The Targeted Inﬁll and Redevelopment Areas (depicted on Figure LIV 1 in the Community and Neighborhood Livability chapter) shall be a priority for future development, capital investment, and public incentives. Crowne at Old Town North is located within a target inﬁll and redevelopment area in the North College Corridor area. Environmental Health Principle ENV 4: The City will pursue new opportunities to provide multi- functional open lands. Policy ENV 4.1 – Improve Connectivity Explore opportunities for land conservation partnerships between Stormwater, Parks and Recreation, Transportation, and Natural Areas departments to provide and enhance trail corridors to connect open lands, to enhance wildlife habitat and corridors, and to improve bicycle and pedestrian access to schools, parks, natural areas, rivers, shopping areas, and neighborhoods. Policy ENV 4.3 – Improve Water Quality and Detention Explore opportunities for Stormwater, Parks and Recreation and Natural Areas departments to partner on acquiring lands to incorporate stormwater systems that improve water quality and contribute to the ecological functioning of urban watersheds. Policy ENV 4.4 – Provide Neighborhood Natural Areas Explore opportunities for Stormwater, Parks and Recreation, and Natural Areas departments to partner on acquiring lands for neighborhood natural areas. Crowne at Old Town North will utilize the existing regional detention facility to the east of our site. Principle ENV 9: The City will reduce total mobile source emissions by focusing on both technology (e.g., tailpipe emissions) and behavior (e.g., driving patterns). Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 6 Policy ENV 9.1 – Promote Alternative and Efﬁcient Transportation Fuels and Vehicles Promote alternative and efﬁcient transportation fuels and vehicles that improve air quality. Invest in infrastructure throughout the City to support alternative fuel vehicles and promote the use of such vehicles through education and incentives. (Also see the Transportation chapter’s Increase Awareness section for information about reducing mobile source emissions by focusing on behavior.) Through thoughtful community design, and the extensive network of pathways, residents will be able to easily access the community amenities without having to rely on vehicles for transportation. Crowne at Old Town North is also located along an existing Transfort route, and has easy pedestrian and bicycle access to downtown commercial areas along North College Avenue Principle ENV 19: The City will pursue opportunities to protect and restore the natural function of the community’s urban watersheds and streams as a key component of minimizing ﬂood risk, reducing urban runoff pollution, and improving the ecological health of urban streams. Policy ENV 19.2 – Pursue Low Impact Development Pursue and implement Low Impact Development (LID) as an effective approach to address stormwater quality and impacts to streams by urbanization. Low Impact Development is a comprehensive land planning and engineering design approach with a goal of minimizing the impact of development on urban watersheds through the use of various techniques aimed at mimicking pre- development hydrology. Crowne at Old Town North will be providing Low Impact Development throughout the community including the use of permeable pavement, water quality enhancements, Utilizing the existing regional detention facility with opportunities to recharge groundwater through the stormwater system integrated into the community. Community and Neighborhood Livability Principle LIV 5: The City will promote redevelopment and inﬁll in areas identiﬁed on the Targeted Inﬁll and Redevelopment Areas Map. Policy LIV 5.1 – Encourage Targeted Redevelopment and Inﬁll Encourage redevelopment and inﬁll in Activity Centers and Targeted Inﬁll and Redevelopment Areas identiﬁed on the Targeted Inﬁll and Redevelopment Areas Map (See Figure LIV 1). The purpose of these areas is to: • Promote the revitalization of existing, underutilized commercial and industrial areas. • Concentrate higher density housing and mixed-use development in locations that are currently or will be served by high frequency transit in the future and that can support higher levels of activity. • Channel development where it will be beneﬁcial and can best improve access to jobs, housing, and services with fewer and shorter auto trips. • Promote reinvestment in areas where infrastructure already exists. • Increase economic activity in the area to beneﬁt existing residents and businesses and, where necessary, provide the stimulus to redevelop Crowne at Old Town North is within the targeted inﬁll/ redevelopment area of the North College Corridor. This community will help with the further revitalization of North Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 7 College, as well as contribute to a completion of the street system. This is also a high density housing community that is located immediately adjacent to a future high frequency transit corridor, and is already served by existing transit corridors. Principle LIV 7: A variety of housing types and densities for all income levels shall be available throughout the Growth Management Area. Policy LIV 7.1 – Encourage Variety in Housing Types and Locations. Encourage a variety of housing types and densities, including mixed-used developments that are well-served by public transportation and close to employment centers, shopping, services, and amenities. Crowne at Old Town North will provide a housing type not currently available in the North College Corridor. These multi-family and townhouse units are designed to appeal to professionals, college professors and others within a highly amenitized community, with higher end ﬁnishes. In addition, all the four story buildings will have elevator access. Unlike other multi-family projects in the area, this community is not designed, nor intended to cater to the CSU student community. Principle LIV 10: The city’s streetscapes will be designed with consideration to the visual character and the experience of users and adjacent properties. Together, the layout of the street network and the streets themselves will contribute to the character, form, and scale of the city. Policy LIV 10.1 – Design Safe, Functional, and Visually Appealing Streets Ensure all new public streets are designed in accordance with the City street standards and design all new streets to be functional, safe, and visually appealing, with ﬂexibility to serve the context and purpose of the street corridor. Provide a layout that is simple, interconnected, and direct, avoiding circuitous routes. Include elements such as shade trees, landscaped medians and parkways, public art, lighting, and other amenities in the streetscape. Approve alternative street designs where they are needed to accommodate unique situations, such as “green” stormwater functions, important landscape features, or distinctive characteristics of a neighborhood or district, provided that they meet necessary safety, accessibility, and maintenance requirements. (Also see the Transportation chapter.) Policy LIV 10.2 – Incorporate Street Trees Utilize street trees to reinforce, deﬁne and connect the spaces and corridors created by buildings and other features along a street. Preserve existing trees to the maximum extent feasible. Use canopy shade trees for the majority of tree plantings, including a mixture of tree types, arranged to establish urban tree canopy cover. Crowne at Old Town North is vital in that it will complete many of the streets within the North College Corridor, most of which have dead end stubs currently to the property. This will complete the street network in the area, including Suniga, that will improve trafﬁc and pedestrian ﬂow in the area. The unique site design will also create aesthetic streets with buildings fronting on the streets, minimal driveways, and extensive street trees and landscaping adjacent to the street, providing a lively streetscape. Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 8 Principle LIV 11: Public spaces, such as civic buildings, plazas, outdoor spaces, and parks will be integrated throughout the community and designed to be functional, accessible, attractive, safe, and comfortable. Policy LIV 11.2 – Incorporate Public Spaces Incorporate public spaces and activities such plazas, pocket parks, patios, children’s play areas, transit facilities, sidewalks, pathways, “street furniture” such as benches and planters, and public art into the urban designs for residential, mixed-use, commercial, and civic development projects. Crowne at Old Town North will provide a pocket park central to the community that is easily accessible for the public. This park will include open play areas, and seating areas. Principle LIV 14: Require quality and ecologically sound landscape design practices for all public and private development projects throughout the community. Policy LIV 14.1 – Encourage Unique Landscape Features In addition to protecting existing natural features, encourage integration of unique landscape features into the design and architecture of development and capital projects. These unique features may range from informal and naturalized to highly structured and maintained features. Some examples include tree groves within a project, stormwater facilities that become naturalized over time, walls with vines, drainageway enhancements, and other small, uniquely landscaped spaces. Policy LIV 14.2 – Promote Functional Landscape Incorporate practical solutions to ensure a landscape design is functional in providing such elements as natural setting, visual appeal, shade, foundation edge to buildings, screening, edible landscapes, buffers, safety, and enhancement of built environment. Consider and address practical details such as sight distance requirements and long-term maintenance in landscape design. Policy LIV 14.3 – Design Low Maintenance Landscapes Design new landscaping projects based on maintainability over the life cycle of the project using proper soil amendment and ground preparation practices, as well as the appropriate use of hardscape elements, trees, mulches, turf grass, other plant materials, and irrigation systems. Low maintenance practices can be achieved in both turf and non-turf planting areas, provided these areas are designed and installed to minimize weeds, erosion and repairs. Crowne at Old Town North is creating a landscape that incorporates a variety of natural and drought tolerant plant material that also includes edible plants, and other features. Irrigated turf grass will be kept to a minimum. PRINCIPLE LIV 21: New neighborhoods will be integral parts of the broader community structure, connected through shared facilities such as streets, schools, parks, transit stops, trails, civic facilities, and a Neighborhood Commercial Center or Community Commercial District. Policy LIV 21.2 – Establish an Interconnected Street and Pedestrian Network Establish an interconnected network of neighborhood streets and sidewalks, including automobile, bicycle and pedestrian routes within a neighborhood and between neighborhoods, knitting neighborhoods together and not forming barriers between them. Provide convenient routes to destinations within the neighborhood: Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 9 Policy LIV 21.2 – Design Walkable Blocks While blocks should generally be rectilinear or otherwise distinctly geometric in shape, they may vary in size and shape to avoid a monotonous repetition of a basic grid pattern or to follow topography. In order to be conducive to walking, determine block size by frequent street connections within a maximum length of about 300 to 700 feet. Policy LIV 21.3 – Calm Trafﬁc Design neighborhood streets so as to discourage excessive speeding and cut-through trafﬁc. Design street widths and corner curb radii to be as narrow as possible, while still providing safe access for emergency and service vehicles. Utilize frequent, controlled intersections, raised and textured crosswalks, and various other specialized measures to slow and channel trafﬁc without unduly hampering convenient, direct access and mobility. Crowne at Old Town North is vital in that it will complete many of the streets within the North College Corridor, most of which have dead end stubs currently to the property. This will complete the street network in the area, Including Suniga, that will improve trafﬁc and pedestrian ﬂow in the area. Principle LIV22: The design of residential neighborhoods should emphasize creativity, diversity, and individuality, be responsive to its context, and contribute to a comfortable, interesting community. Policy LIV 22.1 – Vary Housing Models and Types Provide variation in house models and types in large developments, along with variations in lot and block sizes, to avoid monotonous streetscapes, increase housing options, and eliminate the appearance of a standardized subdivision. Policy LIV 22.2 – Provide Creative Multi-Family Housing Design Design smaller multi-family buildings to reﬂect the characteristics and amenities typically associated with single-family detached houses. These characteristics and amenities include orientation of the front door to a neighborhood sidewalk and street, individual identity, private outdoor space, adequate parking and storage, access to sunlight, privacy, and security. Policy LIV 22.3 – Offer Multi-Family Building Variation Offer variation among individual buildings within multi- building projects, yet stay within a coordinated overall “design theme.” Achieve variation among buildings through a combination of different footprints, facade treatment, roof forms, entrance features, and, in specialized cases, building orientation. Avoid monotonous complexes of identical buildings, although there may be ways to achieve visual interest among substantially identical buildings with a high degree of articulation on each building, combined with variation in massing on the site. Policy LIV 22.4 – Orient Buildings to Public Streets or Spaces Orient residential buildings towards public sidewalks or other public outdoor spaces that connect to streets, the commercial core, and transit stops. Examples of public outdoor spaces include parks, squares, gardens with walkways, and courtyards. Policy LIV 22.5 – Create Visually Interesting Streetscapes All new residential buildings should be designed to emphasize the visually interesting features of the building, as seen from the public street and sidewalk, and to minimize and mitigate the visual impact of garage doors, driveways, and other off-street parking. Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 10 Policy LIV 22.6 – Enhance Street Design and Image Enhance prominent connecting streets in neighborhoods by forming circles, squares, medians, or other special places to recall history, give identity, and calm trafﬁc. Tree- lined streets and boulevards with inviting, landscaped walkways, parkways, and medians, will add to the image of these districts as safe and comfortable places to live. Policy LIV 22.8 – Reduce the Visual Prominence of Garages and Driveways To foster visual interest along a neighborhood street, limit the street frontage devoted to protruding garage doors and driveway curb crossings using one or more of the following techniques: · Recess garages, or tuck them into side or rear yards (if feasible), using variety and creativity to avoid a streetscape dominated by the repetition of garage doors. · Locate garages further from the street to allow narrower driveway frontage at the curb, leaving more room for an attractive streetscape. · Incorporate alleys and various forms of shared driveways to reduce the need for driveway curb cuts and street-facing garage doors. Such alleys and driveways can also serve as locations for ancillary buildings, utilities, service functions, and interior-block parking access. It is recognized that there may be ways a residential property can be custom-designed to mitigate the view of a protruding garage opening. Policy LIV 22.9 – Form Neighborhood Edges Use features shared with adjoining neighborhoods, such as major streets, changes in street patterns, greenways, and other features such as rivers, streams, and major irrigation ditches to form neighborhood edges. Landscaped outdoor spaces and trails may also be used to create an attractive environment at neighborhood edges. Policy LIV 22.10 – Provide Transitions at Community Edges Where a new neighborhood develops next to designated open lands, rural lands, or Urban Estate Neighborhoods near an edge of the city, design the neighborhood and layout to complement the established patterns of open space, buildings, and land forms. Crowne at Old Town North incorporates a variety of housing options into the community including two styles of large multi-family buildings, and lower scale townhomes. This will create variety in the streetscape, provide a variety of housing options, and add to the diversity of the architecture. All of the buildings and garages are accessed internally to the site, and are not visible from public streets. Principle LIV 31: Each commercial District should feature a mix of uses and an attractive and inviting public realm that encourages pedestrian activity, reinforces the unique identify of the District, and complements the scale and character of surrounding neighborhoods. Policy LIV 31.2 – Site Layout and Building Orientation Design Commercial Districts so that the arrangement of buildings and blocks contributes to a cohesive urban fabric and provides attractive pedestrian-scale features and spaces: • Orient primary entrances towards plazas, parks, or pedestrian-oriented streets, not to interior blocks or parking lots. Anchor retail buildings may also have entries from off-street parking lots; however, on- street entries are strongly encouraged. • Minimize building setbacks from public streets. • Place surface parking lots behind or to the side of buildings. • Relate the building placement, massing, and entryways to the street, nearby buildings, and surrounding context. Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 11 Policy LIV 31.4 – Design for Pedestrian Activity Design streets, buildings, and public spaces within Commercial Districts to be functional, and attractive, and enhance pedestrian activity: • Establish an attractive, safe, and pedestrian-oriented street network that includes street trees incorporated into the sidewalk design, street furniture, pedestrian scale lighting, and mid-block planting areas for enhanced pedestrian crossings. • Include generous shade tree planting and walkways that directly connect origins and destinations in parking lots. Policy LIV 31.6 – Relationship to Surrounding Neighborhoods Promote compatibility between higher intensity development desired within Commercial Districts and adjacent neighborhoods using a combination of the following techniques: • Concentrate the tallest buildings along Enhanced Travel Corridors, Transportation Corridors, or primary street frontages. • Provide gradual transitions in building height and mass so that new structures located within Commercial Districts have a scale that is comparable to and/or compatible with the adjacent neighborhood along the shared lot line or street frontage. • Incorporate lower-intensity housing types (e.g., townhomes, duplexes) along street frontages shared with an adjacent neighborhood. Policy LIV 31.7 – Housing Incorporate a variety of housing options in Commercial Districts as inﬁll and redevelopment occur over time: • Residential units may be incorporated on upper ﬂoors of mixed-use buildings at the core of the Commercial District or in freestanding residential buildings along district edges. • Residential housing types along district edges should be compatible with the scale and massing of surrounding neighborhoods. • Incorporate residential amenities such as convenient parking, parks, plazas or other open spaces, gathering places, and recreation facilities to enhance the living experience in the district. • Concentrate high-density residential within one- quarter (1/4) mile of existing and planned transit stops to provide ease of access and to promote increased ridership over time. Crowne at Old Town North is unique in that it will provide a high density residential community within the CCN (Commercial College North) zone district. This community is placing the tallest buildings along the proposed high intensity transit corridor, and also places lower intensity buildings adjacent to existing lower intensity uses. The buildings themselves are designed to incorporate the industrial feel of the area, providing a unique housing option that will help stimulate additional redevelopment in the area. Transportation Principle T 3: Land use planning decisions, management strategies, and incentives will support and be coordinated with the City's transportation vision. Policy T 3.1 – Pedestrian Mobility Promote a mix of land uses and activities that will maximize the potential for pedestrian mobility throughout the community and minimize the distance traveled. Policy T 3.2 – Bicycle Facilities Encourage bicycling for transportation through an urban development pattern that places major activity centers and neighborhood destinations within a comfortable bicycling distance. Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 12 Due to its close proximity to Old Town, North College, and other areas, Crowne at Old Town North will be highly desirable as a community that is easily walkable and bike able to these destinations through the network of streets and connections that are being provided. Principle T 4: Transportation infrastructure will be designed to be sensitive to the surrounding land use context. Policy T 4.3 – Interconnected Neighborhood Streets Neighborhood streets will be interconnected, but designed to protect the neighborhood from excessive cut-through trafﬁc. Policy T 4.4 – Attractive and Safe Neighborhood Streets Neighborhood streets will provide an attractive environment and be safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers as well as having a well-designed streetscape, including detached sidewalks, parkways, and well-deﬁned crosswalks. Policy T 4.5 – Inﬁll and Redevelopment Areas Where the established street pattern and design may not conform to current street standards, allow for alternative contextual design. Crowne at Old Town North continues the street network system created by the Aspen Heights and Old Town communities, extending those streets into the community. There is also an interconnected system of walkways that provide connectivity to adjacent neighborhoods, as well as breaking blocks to improve the walkability of the community and reduce reliance on automobiles. Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 13 Landscape, Open Space and Non-vehicle Circulation Elements Crowne at Old Town North includes open space and non vehicle circulation elements throughout the community, including the following: • A pocket park is provided that is central to the community • A community recreation center with a pool • An interconnected series of walkways that provide additional mobility throughout Ownership and Maintenance Common Open Space elements will be maintained by the property owner that will maintain common elements within the development. Anticipated Development Schedule PDP Approval Summer 2017 Construction Fall 2017 Crowne at Old Town North PDP Application Feb 3, 2017 14