HomeMy WebLinkAboutKING SOOPERS #146, MIDTOWN GARDENS MARKETPLACE (FORMERLY KMART REDEVELOPMENT ) - PDP - PDP160043 - CORRESPONDENCE - CITIZEN COMMUNICATIONTed Shepard
Froms LK <Ik@larey.cc>
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2016 3;54 PM
To: Ted Shepard
Subject: King 5oopers redevelopment and the Midtown Plan
Good afternoon,
I enjoyed tal..k.ing with you about the K.ing Soopers - KMart redevelopment project at the neighborhood meeting
Wednesday, 11/02/2016. I sent an email earlier to City Council with some thoughts and I thinkthat probably made'it's
way to you in an email chain from Wanda Winkelmann and/or Sarah Burnett. I've included those earlier comments
down below.
The more I th.ink about the.new King Soopers the more I wonder if a"Mega" g"rocery store is the best f'it for my
neighborhood. I currently shop for groceries at the store it will be replacing and i find its size is just about right for the
customer base it serves. I can see a big need for updating the store but I can't see any need whatsoever for making it as
big as is p�oposed:
Does King Soopers really think people will be driving f�om all ove� town to shop at this new location? There are already
King Soopers Megastores to the North, East, and West of this location and those have far fewer tra�c problems than
the intersection of Drake and College Ave, I don't see any new customers frorrm outside the Midtown neighborhood who
will be driving to the new store.
I would urge the City to work with Ki.ng Soopers to change the site from one massive groce"ry complex to something that
will serve the neighborhood better. Paring down the grocery and pharmaey to a more reasonable size would allow for
additional retail space for retailers that would be happy to locate along the MAX/Mason Corridor and be we.leomed
adclitions to Midtown.
1 sure hope the King Soopers folks think about this project and how it fits in the neighborhood and the Midtown Plan and
we don't end up with another failed big box store in Midtown.
Thank you!
Larey Kerling
b31 E Stuart St
Fort Collins, CO
earlier comments:
Good morning,
I attended the public neighborhood meeting to consider the King Soopers, redevelopment of the FormerK-Mart Parcel,
located at the northwest corner of S. College Avenue and W. Drake Road on Wednesday 11/02/2016 and I would like to
share my thoughts with you.
While the current plan is a big improvement over the original submission, the site is still just a large box sitting at the
back of a large parking lot. It could be any mega-supermarket in any far-flung subdivision anywhere in the country. It
certainly looks nothing like the cityscapes shown in the Fort Collins Midtown Plan.
On the plus side, the new plan includes a promenade running along the MAX line whieh is a major 5tep forward (e�en if
it just includes one small section of the overall area). And the new location of the plaza area to the south side of the
building makes access from the MAX station and the Mason Trail a I.ittle more inviting:
But that being said, the plan still calls for the main building facade to be facing College Ave (across a large parking lot)
and offers little improvement to the Drake facing facade and nothing but a blank warehouse wall to the MAX line, the
Mason Trail, and the new Promenade.
So overall, the development looks to be 99% auto-oriented and doesn't advance the Midtown Plan's goal of transit-
oriented development.
The site needs to be reoriented more towards the Max Station, the Mason Trail, and the fravel corridor between the
building and the Max Line rather than being exclusively oriented towards College Ave and the big parking lot.
This is a bellwether project for Midtown. We either get it right and advance the Midtown Plan or live with the same old
big-box, big parking lot model for the coming decades.
Thank you,
Larey Kerling
531 E Stuart St
Fort Collins, CO