HomeMy WebLinkAboutNORTHERN INTEGRATED SUPPLY PROJECT - SPA210001 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - RESPONSE TO STAFF REVIEW COMMENTS
May 14, 2021
Via email (bbethuremharras@fcgov.com)
City of Fort Collins
Community Development & Neighborhood Services
Attn: Brandy Bethurem Harras, Development Review Coordinator
281 N. College Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80524
Dear Brandy:
This letter is in response to your letter of May 7, 2021, which stated that the Northern Integrated
Supply Project Water Activity Enterprise’s Application for site plan advisory review (SPAR) submitted on
May 5, 2021, is incomplete. As stated in your letter, the City concluded that the Application was
incomplete in two ways:
1. Erosion Control: “An Erosion Control Report, Erosion Control Plan, and Erosion Control Escrow
were not provided as requested from the conceptual comments provided by Chandler Arellano,
page 7 of the conceptual review comment letter.”
2. Stormwater Floodplain: “No floodplain design/modeling information submitted.”
With respect to #2 (Stormwater Floodplain), your letter stated that “preliminary information would
need to be provided prior to routing the SPAR [Application].” Accordingly, attached is preliminary
floodplain information, which serves as a supplement to the initial Application. We will submit additional
supporting information regarding “no-rise conditions” at a later date but understand from your letter (as
well as the City’s Land Use Code (LUC) and related documents) that such information is not needed at this
stage for purposes of the Application’s completeness and routing.
Regarding #1 (Erosion Control), we have added additional details about erosion control to a new
version of Technical Memorandum #3, which is attached here and serves as a substitution for the version
initially submitted with the Application.
We recognize that under the City’s Stormwater Criteria Manual, “Erosion Control Materials” (i.e.,
report, plan, and escrow) must be submitted and accepted by the City before “Construction Activities”
commence (unless not required pursuant to Section 6.1.1 of the Manual). (Stormwater Criteria Manual §
6.1.) We will be pleased to submit those materials before commencing construction to the extent they are
required under the Manual. However, we believe that the City’s Land Use Code and related documents do
not require that these materials be submitted at the time of submission of a SPAR application for the
application to be considered complete.
Under LUC § 2.16.2(C), a SPAR application must include the “items or documents required for Site
Plan Advisory Review as described in the development application submittal master list.” Section B of the
Development Application Submittal Requirements document, in turn, states what materials must be
accepted before a hearing is scheduled, including in the SPAR context. (Development Application
Submittal Requirements § B.5.B.) The checklist does not require that all of the Erosion Control Materials
described in the Stormwater Criteria Manual be submitted at the time of the SPAR application. Instead,
the list states that a “Preliminary or Final Drainage and Erosion Control Report” must be submitted. (Id.)
Later, after the public hearing and before “Construction Activities” commence, is when final reports and an
“Erosion Control Cost Estimate” are required. (Id. § B.5.C; see also Stormwater Criteria Manual § 6.1.)
We wish to emphasize that we agree that understanding erosion control impacts is a component
of the City’s review before the project moves forward with construction. And we intend to submit all
materials that may be required under the Stormwater Criteria Manual before commencing construction.
However, for purposes of the SPAR Application’s completeness, we have not found anything in the LUC
and the City’s other related documents that requires final Erosion Control Materials to be submitted for
the Application to be complete, and the City has not pointed us to any such requirement. In the interest
of moving past this issue, however, we have added additional detail on erosion control to Technical
Memorandum #3, as mentioned above. We believe that the memorandum, as so revised, satisfies the
Development Application Submittal Requirements document’s requirement that a “Preliminary or Final
Drainage and Erosion Control Report” be submitted with a SPAR application and request that the City
determine the same. Since the project does not increase impervious area by 1000 square feet or greater, a
drainage report is not included.
In sum, with the additional information included here, we request that the Application be deemed
complete as of the date of this letter (May 14, 2021). Thank you for your attention to this matter and for
your helpful assistance through the SPAR process to date. If you have any questions, please reach out to
me directly by phone (970-622-2231) or email (scecil@northernwater.org).
Sincerely,
Stephanie Cecil, P.E., PMP
Water Resources Project Engineer
Northern Water
scecil@northernwater.org
970-622-2231
Attachments:
Preliminary Floodplain Information
Updated Technical Memorandum #3
A full updated submittal can be found at the following OneDrive link: NISP SPAR Application 20210514