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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJEROME STREET STATION - PDP210009 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - PROJECT NARRATIVE (2) MINIMAL RISK. PAINLESS PROCESS. BEAUTIFUL SPACES. o: 970.224.5828 | w: ripleydesigninc.com RIPLEY DESIGN, INC. | 419 Canyon Avenue, Suite 200 | Fort Collins, CO 80521 Jerome Street StationJerome Street StationJerome Street StationJerome Street Station Project Narrative May 25, 2021 Introduction Jerome Street Station is 7.14 acres of undeveloped land on the west side of the existing Old Town North neighborhood, just east of North College Avenue and South of Suniga Road. It consists of three separate parcels, two of which were originally planned as Parcel B in the 2002 Old Town North Overall Development Plan and are zoned Community Commercial North College District. The third parcel is an extension west towards North College Avenue on the south end of the development, which is zoned Service Commercial. The proposed development contains approximately 1,500 square feet of commercial space and 173 dwelling units split between a mixed-use building, a multifamily building and a mix of townhomes. The applicant’s main goal is to develop a Passivhaus certified development, making it one of the largest sustainable development efforts in the nation. Currently all dwelling units are proposed to be for-sale products. Passivhaus The Passive House (Passivhaus) standard is an international, climate-specific, performance-based construction standard that ensures healthy and comfortable indoor environments while meeting stringent energy efficiency requirements. It is more akin to an advanced building code than some of the more familiar “green” certificates and is often used as a pathway to achieve the energy and indoor environmental quality requirements in those. By focusing on conservation over compensation, Passive buildings can typically see an 80% reduction in energy consumption for heating and cooling over 2018 IECC built projects, freeing up investment in renewables to provide supplementary on-site energy for EV charging stations and other energy intensive infrastructure. As climate change is becoming more of an impactful presence in our built environment, the fact that Passive buildings are in themselves durable while also providing resiliency to the occupants through increased time constants in loss of heating during extreme weather events is extremely valuable. In pursuing the Passive House standard with the Jerome Street Station project, Fort Collins should expect to receive national and international attention in the building science sector of the construction industry, as the majority of American multi-family Passive House projects to-date are located on the East and West coasts. This would be the largest Passive project in the Rocky Mountain Region and would establish this location as a pioneer in building for the future. The initial goal of the Jerome Street Station to pursue certification for all buildings in the development represents a milestone for the international Passive House community, only precedent by one similar development in Munich, Germany. The International Passive House Institute (PHI) is engaged in conversation at this time, with the intention to pilot design tools to enable applying Passive House to urban districts of similar size in other locations in the future. MINIMAL RISK. PAINLESS PROCESS. BEAUTIFUL SPACES. o: 970.224.5828 | w: ripleydesigninc.com RIPLEY DESIGN, INC. | 419 Canyon Avenue, Suite 200 | Fort Collins, CO 80521 Site Plan In general, the site plan can be split into three distinct subareas: Building A, Building B and the townhomes. Building A is situated on the northern end of the site, fronting the intersection of Suniga Road and Jerome Street. It is a mixed-use building with seventy multifamily dwellings and roughly 1,500 square feet of commercial space. The northern wing of the building along Suniga is five stories and the eastern wing along Jerome is four stories with a rooftop amenity area. A lobby is located on the corner of Suniga and Jerome. The commercial space anchors the southern end of the building and adjoins a large open space for public gatherings. Parking is located behind the building with tuck-under podium parking on two sides. To the south, a private drive connection to Jerome Street aligns with Cajetan Street and serves as a separation between Buildings A and B. Building B is a four-story structure with eighty-three dwelling units and a rooftop amenity area. Parking is again located behind the building with tuck-under podium parking on two sides. To the south of Building B is a modified public alley which connects to Jerome Street and aligns with Pascal Street. The public alley also serves as the delineator between Building B and the townhome portion of Jerome Street Station. South of the alley sit four single-family attached buildings consisting of a three plex, a five-plex and two six-plex’s. Each townhome is proposed to be three stories and are platted as individual fee-simple lots. They are rear loaded by the public alley and a small private drive along the east, with their main entrances facing either Jerome Street or a major walkway spine (MWS). The southern edge of the MWS is used to define a proposed natural habitat buffer zone (NHBZ) in order to give protection to the environmental features of the Lake Canal ditch which acts as the project’s southern-most boundary. The transition of building heights from north to south is designed to keep neighborhood compatibility in mind while transitioning land use intensity away from the Lake Canal and Natural Habitat Buffer Zone. Prominent off-site views point from the northeast of the project to the southwest. If effort to preserve these views, open space has been provided on either side of the northern access drive and the buildings along the south are the shortest in the development. Connectivity The 2002 Old Town North ODP shows two streets being connected to North College Avenue however, after analyzing intersection separations along College, traffic volumes, future redevelopment patterns and road geometries, it became clear those conceptual alignments are unlikely to happen in the same manner as the ODP proposed. The applicant has met with the Planning, Engineering and Transportation Departments several times through the last nine months to learn what the City’s main goals are and explore creative solutions to provide connectivity. Through that process City Staff determined that the northern connection (Cajetan Street) could be provided as a private drive with the potential for a future private connection west and enhanced pedestrian connections. It was also decided that the southern connection (Pascal Street) would need to be dedicated public right-of-way, however a modified street section could be proposed in order to achieve proper road geometry and better suit the development’s needs. Again, pedestrian and bicycle connectivity were deemed a key element of successful connectivity. MINIMAL RISK. PAINLESS PROCESS. BEAUTIFUL SPACES. o: 970.224.5828 | w: ripleydesigninc.com RIPLEY DESIGN, INC. | 419 Canyon Avenue, Suite 200 | Fort Collins, CO 80521 The plan presented in this PDP follows the direction given by Staff and provides a private drive connection to Cajetan Street and a modified twenty-six-foot-wide right-of-way for Pascal Street (see section to the right). The private drive connection is twenty-four-feet- wide and allows for street trees on either side with a six-foot detached walk. Parking is intentionally not included on the western boundary of this drive-in order to enable a future private drive connection. The public alley includes two, ten-and-a-half-foot travel lanes with a five-foot protected bicycle lane. A four-foot attached walk is provided on the south side of the alley within an eight-foot-wide utility easement. The walk along the south side also acts as short drive apron for the townhome garages. The northern edge of the public alley is proposed to have head-in parking with a four-inch rollover curb to delineate it from the right-of-way. A large ten-foot sidewalk is attached to the parking with intermittent tree grates to create a tree lawn. The vision for the modified alley section is to provide a unique urban environment that fosters east/west connectivity but prioritizes the pedestrian and cyclists over the cars. The combination of a narrower street section, three- and four-story buildings on either side, protected bike lanes and head-in parking will create an environment that encourages slower speeds between College Avenue and Jerome Street. The alley is designed to tie-in to the existing access and emergency access easements that reside on the northern side of the pawn shop, which shares a western boundary with Jerome Street Station. Upon future redevelopment, the pedestrian improvements will be able to be carried through to College Avenue. The alley has been designed to meet all LCUASS horizontal alignment standards. Emergency Access, Circulation and Parking Emergency access is provided internally through two emergency access easements which form loops through the parking lots of Building A and Building B. These are provided to satisfy perimeter treatment requirements and turning diagrams have been provided with this application to show Poudre Fire Authority vehicles maneuvering through the lots. Aerial access will be provided to Building A from Jerome Street and to Building B via Jerome Street and Pascal Street (new right-of-way). Both Jerome and Pascal street sections provide on street parking, however the buildings have been placed as close to the street as possible in order to stay withing the thirty-foot limit for aerial access requirements. Both buildings have articulated the façade in a way to provide a minimum of fifty percent of the footprint within that range. Aerial access is provided to the townhomes via Pascal Street (new right-of-way) and Jerome Street. Perimeter access is provided to the townhomes via the major walkway spines around the buildings. Pedestrian circulation is focused along the perimeter of the site utilizing Jerome and Pascal Streets, as well as a regional trail connection along the Lake Canal. The perimeter walks are designed to feel more urban as the buildings are setback zero to nine feet away from the walk. Internal circulation is MINIMAL RISK. PAINLESS PROCESS. BEAUTIFUL SPACES. o: 970.224.5828 | w: ripleydesigninc.com RIPLEY DESIGN, INC. | 419 Canyon Avenue, Suite 200 | Fort Collins, CO 80521 accomplished through a central north/south spine that connects Buildings A and B via a large median in the parking lot. That spine connects into the MWS system which surrounds the townhomes and eventually connects into the Lake Canal regional trail. There is potential for a pedestrian connection across the Lake Canal to a future CSU project, however that has not yet been included in the plans. Vehicular circulation is designed to provide loops around parking stalls and connections between buildings. The proposed plan provides 368 parking spaces total when combining surface parking, on- street parking (Jerome), tuck-under parking and garage parking (townhomes). Eight of those spaces are designated for the commercial use on the south side of Building A, which would allow a restaurant use to rent the space. Aside from those eight spaces and the accessible parking spaces, all other stalls are proposed to be either long-term or compact stalls. Most long-term stalls provide a two-foot overhang adjacent to them, which allows them to decrease the stall depth from eighteen-feet to sixteen-feet. Compact stalls are not proposed to be decreased and still allow for overhangs. NHBZ / Open Space / Gathering Areas Jerome Street Station provides over 78,000 square feet of open space between two green courts, a central landscaped island and a natural habitat buffer zone. The NHBZ is calculated using the aggregate method which measure a fifty-foot buffer from the top of slope of the ditch and the existing canopy structure of the ditch. There are several areas where buildings or walks encroach into that space, so the project has dedicated additional land as NHBZ to offset the encroachment. Still, all structures are at least fifty feet setback from the top of the slope of the ditch in this area. In addition to the open space, two rooftop amenity areas have been planned between Buildings A and B totaling over 6,800 square feet. Each townhouse unit is also proposed to have either a rooftop deck or elevated patio. North College Corridor Plan This long-range planning document identifies some issues surrounding future development in the corridor, but also offers guidance on how the City and community wants the area to evolve. The overall vision for the corridor was to create a more urban environment akin to Old Town, but with its own sense of place. That sense of place is attempted to be defined as “fix the junky but keep it funky.” The main goals of the plan are to create a more complete street network, make connections to Downtown, provide land uses that support the Downtown core, and establish a distinct, unique character. Jerome Street Station exemplifies the NCCP vision and achieves many of its goals. The mixed-use, multistory project aims to create a more urban environment by facing buildings to streets and pushing the buildings up to walks with parking in the rear. The two “L” shaped buildings are designed to activate street corners, which was identified as a goal in the plan in order to start shaping a new character for each street. The completion of Pascal Street as a modified public alley plays into the hand of “keeping it funky” while still providing ample connectivity to North College for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. The modified street section creates a more “downtown-like” environment for the south side of Building B MINIMAL RISK. PAINLESS PROCESS. BEAUTIFUL SPACES. o: 970.224.5828 | w: ripleydesigninc.com RIPLEY DESIGN, INC. | 419 Canyon Avenue, Suite 200 | Fort Collins, CO 80521 with head-in parking and a wide pedestrian walk with tree grates. The narrow street creates an interesting street-front with facing buildings which leads to a unique character, but also a calmer traffic pattern. The street section is not a Fort Collins standard street, but that is anticipated and encouraged in the North College Corridor Plan stating that new streets should be “sensitively fitted into evolving, funky places that are different than standardized new growth.” The plan identifies that this type of development requires “unparalleled collaboration” between developers, the community and between City departments. The NCCP outlines three Goals for Land Use and Activity: Strengthen market underpinnings and economic activity; support and complement the Downtown core; and maximize multiple story buildings. Jerome Street Station is developing ground that was previously thought undevelopable due to large floodplain impacts. The applicant is proposing to raise the site and submit CLOMR/LOMR applications to reduce those impacts. While the process is arduous, it stimulates economic activity and helps to strengthen the market as a whole. In addition, the 267 new beds developed will generate great support for the businesses along North College and the Downtown core. And the development is clearly creating an efficient use of the land by proposing five, four and three story buildings across the site in a neighborhood-sensitive manner. Drainage, Floodplain and Utilities A separate narrative has been prepared for these items specifically. See attached Civil Narrative for more information. Architecture Jerome Street Station will be a progressive, innovative, unprecedented project not only in the city of Fort Collins, but in the United States as a whole. Combining a Mass Timber structure with a Passivhaus certifications will accelerate this project into a category rarely seen in the country. Through this effort, Black Timber Group is doubling down on what true sustainability should imply for modern construction, far beyond the buzzword. The Passivhaus Standard requires extensive modeling performed by certified designers, specifically trained for the task. These consultants model every component of the structure, from the wall and roof assemblies to the individual connections of all structural components. The thermal envelope, air barrier detailing, thermal bridging, moisture management and building hygiene are all of the utmost importance. Continuous air ventilation and purification is mandatory, creating clean living environments for all habitants. A high standard of energy efficiency that exceeds government regulations and most importantly reduces the buildings ecological footprint. The exterior building form and materiality will be a harmonious solution and balance between engaging the existing local character, respecting history, creating a timeless and innovative design, capturing views, and fully optimizing the sustainable features that the site has to offer. It will utilize the quality materials and design characteristics of the evolving North College Corridor while also paying homage to the site’s history, an industrial sugar manufacturing factory which housed workers in boxcars from the Colorado and Southern Railroad. The building will be composed of durable and beautiful materials including MINIMAL RISK. PAINLESS PROCESS. BEAUTIFUL SPACES. o: 970.224.5828 | w: ripleydesigninc.com RIPLEY DESIGN, INC. | 419 Canyon Avenue, Suite 200 | Fort Collins, CO 80521 brick, wood, metal, and glass. Its form will activate the street, embrace the views to the west and capitalize on solar gains. The façade will be the shell resting on an innovative Mass Timber structural system within. Mass Timber, although popular in Europe is still underutilized in the United States. It challenges conventional inclination by utilizing technology that makes design and construction easier, faster, and better. Utilizing mass timber along with Passivhaus sustainability will push the limits of design to deliver a unique, one-of-a-kind, pioneering building to the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. Black Timber Group believes bold movements must be made, at scale, to truly effect positive change in the building industry. Fort Collins is home for Black Timber, there is no better place to forge the future. For further information on the architectural design theme and compatibility, please see attached supporting documents.