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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCARRIAGE HOUSE APARTMENTS - PDP - PDP120035 - CORRESPONDENCE - CITIZEN COMMUNICATION (24)College of Veterinary Medicine Colorado State University 1619 Campus Delivery Fort Collins, Colorado, 80523 IL 0 between two curves on Springfield, making site lines for emerging traffic difficult and hazardous. The entryway should be moved to the center, between buildings 2 and 3. This would send headlights out across the open space and limit traffic near the homes to a dead end in the parking area. Similarly, the conceptual plan shows very little landscape buffer between the facility and the neighbors to the west and south. The proposed parking should be moved closer to the buildings in order to provide a wider green space between the parking and the neighbors back yards. In addition the plans should provide for an enhanced light and sound barrier. The position of the trash receptacle is unacceptable. It should be placed within the confines of the complex, close to the residents of the facility, not close to the neighbors. Specific issues: smell, noise from deposits, and noise from a trash truck on the back/bedroom side of the adjacent homes. Put it between buildings 3 and 4 or 4 and 5. Finally, the parking is inadequate. While the TOD "has no specific parking requirements", that does not mean that no parking is necessary in the TOD. The TOD is a plan for future developmental processes and is dependent on future public transportation plans. Right now, necessary services like grocery stores are more than a mile away from the development site with only limited bus routes for public transportation. It is unrealistic to believe that any less than 80% of the tenants will have cars on site. The result of inadequate parking will be permanently parked -in streets. This is already a problem on Springfield during the day, and the outcome for Bennett School will be to displace parking for parents dropping off and picking up children every day. Right now the whole street fills with cars two times a day to accommodate the arrival and departure of the grade -school children. When they arrive in the morning and find the street parked in, parents will be forced to double-park to get their kids in to school, creating an absolutely unacceptable hazard to the children. 1. Limit height to two stories to be compatible with all of the adjacent properties to the north, south, east, and west. 2. Provide 24-hour, in-house management. 3. Move the driveway to the center of the property. 4. Provide Additional landscape buffer, sound barrier, and fence to the south and west. 5. Move the trash away from the neighbors. 6. Provide sufficient on -site parking to at least meet the current code provisions applicable to similar developments outside of the TOD. Joel Rovnak, Ph.D. Secretary/Treasurer Rocky Mountain Virology Association, Inc. Assistant Professor Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology 3 IK Below is the lettter I am sending. It highlights the main points that we are stressing. They are listed at the end. Please keep me apprised of the Pasture development process. I will be happy to help in any way I can. Thanks, Joel Dear Ms. Levingston, I have spoken to several individuals about meeting with Mr. Bailey without City Staff being present, and we are in agreement that it would be unlikely that such a meeting would lead to any productive discussions. We met with Mr. Bailey last year and last week and he has offered no details at either meeting. The most important point for our neighborhood is a maximum height of two stories. The NCB code calls for transitions from single-family homes, and the conceptual plan places 3-story buildings right next door to one story and two story single-family homes. It is not just the height that is incompatible, it is the number of people; a successful transition does not place 150 people next door to a retired couple or a family of three. There are no three-story buildings nearby. There are no high -density complexes nearby. The nearest are the western most dorms on campus, which cannot be seen from the site. All the neighbors on Shields and Springfield and Bennett, north and south and east and west, are one and two story homes and businesses. When we met with Mr. Bailey last year, he assured us that the building would be professionally managed. At last week's meeting I was surprised to learn that he intends to have no on -site management. A 24-hour on -site management plan is by no means unheard of in student rental complexes in Fort Collins. To do otherwise is to invite noise and disturbance complaints and to obligate the neighbors to be the complainants for all incidents at the facility. This will generate an adversarial relationship between the residents of the buildings and the neighbors. Many neighbors fear such a position, especially our elderly neighbors. I actually believed that Mr. Bailey would provide professional management and argued against changes in the Land Use Code, brought by City Staff to Council, to require such plans. Now I see that the code does need to be changed to require management plans for such developments, and certainly Mr. Bailey should provide such a plan. In the conceptual plan, the main entryway will the put headlights of every entering vehicle into the backyards and rear windows of the first two houses on Bennett Road, especially when they turn upward coming through the curb cut and gutter. Further, it puts all of the traffic for the facility, moving cars and traffic noise, immediately adjacent to three neighbor's homes. The entryway also lies 2 Courtney Levingston From: colleen hoffman <cohoff@comcast.net> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 2:17 PM To: 'Rovnak,Joel'; 'Per Hogestad' Cc: 'Ann Hunt'; Sarah Burnett; Courtney Levingston Subject: RE: Springfield project Hi Joel, am including Courtney Livingston, Sarah Burnett, and Ann Hunt (co -president of the Wallenberg HOA) on this email. I agree with all your points and wish to have Courtney include my email in the project communications. I recently listed and sold the home at 1208 Westward Dr. This home abuts a condo project to the north. It may be worth viewing this condo development as possible examples of how to buffer, screen and protect single family, one story homes — not that it is perfect. One item of note is the end of the building directly behind (to the north of) 1208 Westward was scaled down to a one story unit to appear similar to the established neighborhood. Also, the condo development moved their 6ft wood panel fence 2 feet inside their property (to the north) giving the single story homes the appearance of bigger back yards, thus creating more buffer. There are already examples of fairly good ways to buffer established homes ... we just need to look for them. Sincerely, Colleen Hoffman The Home Broker 970-484-8723 From: Rovnak,Joel[mailto:Joel.Rovnak@colostate.edu] Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 10:28 AM To: Per Hogestad; colleen hoffman Subject: Springfield project Hi Per and Colleen, Just wanted to thank you for attending the neighborhood meeting and ask one more favor: to write to Courtney Levingston describing your concerns about the project, especially about compatibility, and most especially three stories. Courtney will forward these on to Mr. B., who will be submitting a real plan sometime in the future. All of the communications will be included in the record for the P&Z hearing as well.