HomeMy WebLinkAboutSTRAUSS CABIN CHURCH - BDR200003 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 2 - DESIGN NARRATIVEDesign Narrative
Strauss Cabin Church
Renovation and Addition to Existing Building – Basic Development Review and Subdivision Plat
Revised April 21, 2020
This application is a request to build a small addition to the existing counseling services located at the
place of worship located at 5236 Strauss Cabin Road (parcel #8603000913). There are two existing
structures, a two-story building with a one-story building immediately to its south. The proposed
addition would connect the two buildings and add a second story to the south building to better
accommodate and expand the existing counseling services provided. Planned changes to the existing
site are limited to those areas immediately adjacent to the planned expansion to accommodate the
reconfigured building entrance, and to address the staff comments from our initial BDR submittal.
Use and Anticipated Traffic Impacts
Prior to the owner’s purchase of the church property at 5236 Strauss Cabin Road, Mountain Life Church
owned the property. They had approximately 150-170 people attend at each of two church services
(maxing out the sanctuary) on Sunday mornings. They sold the property to the current owner in 2017,
because they'd outgrown the location. They have now merged with the church at Drake & Lemay, with
a new name for both congregations - Clearwater Church.
The site's current use is for smaller church gatherings that occur on the weekend, primarily on Sunday.
There are 3 relatively newly formed church congregations renting the space, and they currently have a
range of 10-50 people at each.
The other current use is Light of the Rockies, which is a Christian counseling office. We currently have 8
counseling offices, and most counselors stay for 7-10 hours in their office, 3-4 days per week (primarily
Monday through Thursday). In the 8 counseling offices, counselors are typically seeing one person at a
time. Most counseling sessions last 1 hour, but in some instances (trauma work) the counselors see the
client for a 2-hour session. If the offices were filled every hour, it would typically mean one client vehicle
per office. We estimate approximately 20% of the client sessions might have 2 vehicles (for couple's
counseling, etc. - where the clients are coming from different locations). The clients also tend to stop by
the front desk to check in or out, and so the clients tend to dribble in and out the door slowly. They take
turns at the front desk - either before or after their sessions, meaning that their arrival and departure
from the site is somewhat staggered in time. Our office manager said that the peak hours for volume of
clients usually happens between 11am -3pm. Additionally, we typically have 2-3 office staff at the
counseling center, each one of whom stays for around 6-8hrs.
The current facility is 6,648 square feet (~2500 square feet for the church sanctuary, ~2500 square feet
for the counseling offices, and ~1000 square feet for an auxiliary building). We are planning to build an
addition with 2,414 square feet, that would allow for 4 more counseling offices to be created, and
subsequently 4 more counseling sessions to happen at each hour.
In summary, the expansion may generate up to an additional 4 vehicles per hour, even if every hour was
full in the new proposed counseling offices. We don't expect a large impact on the road and the local
vehicular traffic.
This information was provided to the City’s Traffic Engineering Department following our Conceptual
Review meeting. Given that the current use (counseling and small church services) is typically lower than
what was previously being seen (large church services), and the proposed expansion is nominal, further
traffic review/study has been waived for this Basic Development Review application.
Public Improvements
Subsequent to our Conceptual Review meeting, we also met with the Engineering Department. Since the
current building change is quite small, they have requested dedication of right-of-way along Strauss
Cabin Road with this application, but no roadway improvements or subsequent reconfiguration of the
existing site and parking are being required at this time. A Subdivision Plat has been included with the
BDR submittal to accommodate dedication of the planned road right-of-way. A development agreement
is anticipated outlining the triggers for future roadway and site improvements.
Existing Zoning – Urban Estate (UE)
Conceptual Review meeting date – July 25, 2019
Property Owners:
Fossil Creek Concepts, LLC
c/o Rob and Chris Bassett