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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20080923City of Aspen Planning & ZOnInQ Meeting -Minutes -September 23, 2008 LJ Erspamer opened the special meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission in Sister Cities Meeting Room at 4:40 pm. Commissioner Mike Wampler was excused. Commissioners Cliff Weiss, Stan Gibbs, Dina Bloom, Jim DeFrancia and LJ Erspamer were present. Staff in attendance were Jim True, Special Counsel; Chris Bendon, Travis Goggins, Community Development; Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk. COMMENTS LJ Erspamer asked if a public hearing was going to take more than an hour the commission would like to know about it ahead of time. Erspamer said that the Commission was complimented on what good personalities were on the commission and how well the commissioners got along together. Jackie Lothian noted from Ben Gagnon that there was a site visit for the ZG Master Plan on October 14`h at noon. Chris Bendon provided the website for the Aspen Community Plan at aspencommunityvision.com, which tracks the whole process of the community plan. MINUTES MOTION: Jim DeFrancia moved to approved the minutes from September 2"d; seconded by Cliff Weiss. All in favor, APPROVED. DECLARATIONS OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST None stated. CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING: LIFT ONE COWOP MASTER PLAN LJ Erspamer opened the continued public hearing. Chris Bendon stated the task force met last Thursday and reassembled. Travis Coggins and Chris Bendon utilized slides and power point to illustrate the Lift One Master Plan. Bendon said that the group said the site plan looked like it did when they began. The task force looked at escalator systems, trolley systems, electric buses, different technologies such as hybrid, gas, cable cars; the task force did not look in favor of the options available with the people mover to be filled in. Bendon said there was a platter pole or poma lift were discussed and their variance requirements; there was Option A in which the steakhouse moves down on the site and allows for a break in the building. Option B was to leave the steakhouse where City of Aspen Plannine & Zonine Meeting -Minutes -September 23 2008 it is located presently making the site a more condensed footprint. Bendon said the task force preferred Option A believing it was a more conducive to the kind of historic context down on the site. Bendon said that there was excitement around the steakhouse being used as a steakhouse and brew pub and relatively affordable public lockers at the base that creates some repeat skier traffic there and some additional public amenity. Bendon said that HPC would be looking at Willoughby Park in more detail. Bendon spoke about the plan 2 years ago with the Skiers Chalet moved forward on the site, the parking garage entrance and Deep Powder Cabins. Bendon stated the master plan goal was to create an environmentally showcase that responsibly uses energy and other resources. Prescriptive standards are setting minimum standards with pros being simple and cons don't encourage anyone to go beyond what those minimum standards are. Performance standards involve computer modeling and measuring the performance of the building; pro being it's better for complex innovative systems; the con being that it's more difficult and expensive to understand. There were various different points to achieve the minimum standards so it's more flexible and the cons being that it doesn't encourage anything beyond minimums. Stephen Holley, Poss Architecture and Planning, said this was not a typical P&Z process and Council brought in the Commission. Holley said that there was a desire for greater public input, an open transparent process, consensus driven versus adversarial and engagement of entities beyond typical requirements. City Council was seeking the Commissions recommendation on what the COWOP Task Force produces. Holley said the goals, history, accessibility, vitality and sustainability were to be covered from all areas to be good stewards of this area. Holley said within the 8 acres at the base of Aspen Mountain there were City of Aspen parcels, Parks and public rights-of ways; private parcels the Ski Company, Centurion, and Roaring Fork Lodging. There were existing conditions with structures, fences, and a lot of stuff; the site has a lot of opportunity. Holley said that activating the corridor was what the task force was talking about; the streets come up South Aspen, Juan, Dean and Gilbert and they want to respect those streets in some fashion through passageways or alignments or ease of access. Holley said they want to respect the original Lift One in Willoughby Park and some development potential; the green splits the parcel right in half and they build on that to end up with the site plan that they have. Holley said that the Centurion Building steps with grade and in and out to provide areas and pockets of relief to the elevation so there is not one massive long 2 City of Aspen Planning & Zoning Meeting -Minutes -September 23, 2008 elevation along the entirety of the street. Holley said that it provides interest and breaks up the mass and provides a little more human scale as you go up the street. Holley said that they broke the mass up on the other side of the street with the Roaring Fork Lodge, Skiers Chalet and Steakhouse. Holley provided the heights of the different buildings on the site. Holley said that they are going to develop a palette of wood and steel that integrates and more contemporary in feel. Holley described styles within the lodge concept; rustic Colorado Mountain Lodge with heavy stone base, heavy timbers shallow roof pitches; fine timber craftsman style with smooth mortared stone base, heavy smooth timber, shed roof elements shallow pitches and varied sizes and shapes of window patterns; Victorian shingle was a more residential feel; Western Parks Lodge with strong vertical stone elements, wooden glass infill, heavy timber, low to no slope roofing and terracing of massing reflecting the mountain terrain. All of these are built in context within the mountain terrain. Holley said that certain areas of the site would need to be rezoned to accommodate these uses. Portions of Gilbert, Hill and Juan Streets will need to be vacated to accomplish this. Cliff Weiss stated the 2 lodging buildings are connected by a glass bridge that can be skied under. Weiss said that Dean Street would be the connecting street from this side of the mountain to the gondola. Weiss said that the poma lift runs until noon so there is access between the 2 sides of the lodges with 50 feet. Holley said that the community benefits would be affordable lockers for locals at the base, activating the Lift One Ski Corridor, poma access to the new Lift One A, safer year round sidewalks and streets, great summer hiking corridor, hotbeds "lights on", on site affordable housing, a new high speed quad lift, the Steakhouse to be a local destination restaurant, vitality and revitalization of the Lift One side of the mountain, Apres Ski vitality, great transition from mountain to town and appropriate conveyance technology for the site, a better World Cup venue, the Historic Museum and reuse of historic buildings. All the service vehicles would be directed underground. Holley said that South Aspen would be a pedestrian area and vehicular area; they were creating more of a tree lined boulevard 24 feet wide with a pedestrian walk along the side with vegetation. Jim DeFrancia asked if this was the plan that was put forward by the COWOP. Holley replied yes. DeFrancia asked if the landowners are in concert. John Sarpa replied so far. 3 City of Aspen Plannine & Zonin¢ Meetin¢ -Minutes -September 23 2008 Dina Bloom asked if it was going to be an actual poma lift. Holley replied yes; a platter. Bloom said that poma lifts were not meant for small children; she stated that a rope tow would be better. LJ Erspamer asked about the criteria for the creation of the resolution. Chris Bendon responded that once the task force makes their recommendation then staff correlates that into an Ordinance for City Council to implement that recommendation. Bendon said that COWOP reviews don't usually go through P&Z. DeFrancia asked if the Historical Society has been participating in the COWOP. Holley replied yes. Weiss said the consultant from CU that was working on proforma made comments that they are going to move the Skiers Chalet down South Aspen Street by a couple of hundred feet. Stan Gibbs asked the transportation plan for South Aspen Street. Holley replied rubber tire. Gibbs asked if public could drive up there. Holley replied yes. Erspamer asked how Ambulance would access the site. Holley showed on the drawing that South Aspen was large enough for an Ambulance and Fire Truck to turn around at the top. Public Comments: Leon Feld, public, brought option C to the P&Z which was to leave the sand courts because they were a vital part of the Labor Day Event. Feld said the reality is there is no other site in the city that provides this convenience for that major event and keeps it pedestrian. There was a pedestrian corridor between Koch Park and Wagner Park and these courts worked well without a lot cars going back and forth and takes away the complete spectator part of the event. Feld said that the Skiers Chalet Lodge is not historic and the sand courts and the park are historic. Feld said the solution is leaving the courts where they are and integrating them with the pedestrian idea which creates a historic area and an active park at the same time. Weiss suggested where the bleachers for World Cup would be located up the hill from where the current courts are located. Feld stated that it needs to be stipulated if this goes forward and those courts have to be replaced in a timely fashion, meaning that they don't lose use of them on Labor Day Weekend. Mary Janss, public, stated that she was part of the COWOP and spoke about a disabled skier that uses a sit ski and could use a poma. 4 City of Aspen PlanninE & ZOnInQ Meetine -Minutes -September 23, 2008 Toni Kronberg, public, stated that she had high hopes for this project. Kronberg asked the public benefit of the project. ICronberg passed out the goals to the P&Z members and the platter lift created a new corridor. Kronberg suggested that HPC vacate the historic lift and push that 50 feet over to Aspen Street. Kronberg voiced concern for looking up at Aspen Mountain and only seeing buildings with this site plan; she spoke of the idea of moving people through town and to all of the lodges. Kronberg said that the transportation was the most important issue. Bob Daniel, representing Roaring Fork Mountain Lodge, said that the Steakhouse was about a 1354 square foot ground floor footprint and that place was more to catch a beer rather than a full sized restaurant based upon constraints within that building. John Sarpa, Centurion, said that the COWOP process has almost come to an end; he said that they are challenged with the heights now and they still have to go through a public process with City Council. Cliff Weiss said that all the parties came together ready to compromise, which truly gave the community a benefit. Weiss said there was no such thing as perfection because after 6 months of studying this it was the very best thing that they came up with. Jim DeFrancia echoed Cliff on a consensus that means that everyone comes to a point of agreement on a plan; the COWOP process has been extraordinary and involves a very diverse representation of the community. DeFrancia said the fact of the matter is that normally this would not come before P&Z in the COWOP process but has been asked to come through P&Z, which is appropriate for the public's interests. Dina Bloom said that she liked what she was seeing now more than what was presented prior. Bloom said that she will hold firm on the poma lift and asked that staff look at other ski areas to find out what they use that has easier to use; she said a rope system would be better. Bloom said that this would be a visitor's area and more of the general public. Bloom said that the area seems to be a more year round accessible area. Stan Gibbs said that he was attracted to this solution; it was definitely a uniquely Aspen thing having a poma lift going up through that corridor. Gibbs said there were not a lot of beginner skiers on that side of the mountain and the poma would meet all the needs of the public to get up the hill and get to that lift conveniently. 5 City of Aspen Plannine & Zoning Meetin¢ -Minutes -September 23 2008 Weiss said that he likened this to being a conceptual approval; this will be back with more tweaking; this was looking at broad strokes. LJ Erspamer said that he was very excited about this and they were talking about the conservation. Erspamer asked if the poma was above the lift. Holley replied that you would be able to ski laterally across down a slope to the mazing area. Erspamer said that there should be more parking. Erspamer said that he did not want that museum to cling to the street; leave an opening so it doesn't look cavernous. Erspamer said that something has to be done about the sand lots. Daniel responded that they respect Leon's perspective and it was a city park. Bendon said that hopefully all P&Z needs is from transportation and housing and will be presented at the October 7`h meeting so a decision can be made. Erspamer said this was an opportunity to help the parking problems with 40-50 more spaces. Dina Bloom asked what other commercial spaces open to the public would be located on the site apart from the Steakhouse and would any be affordable. Bendon replied that on October 7`h there would be more detail about the commercial spaces. Bendon said that moving the Steakhouse down on the site would come under the Roaring Fork Lodging purview of costs and since the top floor of that building had employee housing in it Bob Daniel would be responsible for the replacement of that affordable housing. Bendon said the top floors of the Brew Pub (old Steakhouse) could possibly be affordable office space, meeting space or non-profit space. Jim DeFrancia said that it would be space dedicated to community benefit in lieu of affordable housing, which is indirectly a community benefit. Gibbs said it was critical to house employee whether it be on site or off site; he did not think that commercial space and employee housing were on any level equitable. Erspamer said that he did not support restricting the prices for a local Brew Pub or a commercial business. Bendon said that they did not have a specific proposal but the general concept is that style of a place; what regulation or agreement backs that up. Erspamer said that he thought that he could support it if the environment was for the locals like the old Little Nell run by Phil Henke. Gibbs wanted to make sure that transportation plans were part of the next hearing with connections to town. Bendon replied that there were different transportation plans for the corridor and connection to other. 6 City of Aspen PlanninE & Zoning MeetinE -Minutes -September 23, 2008 Kronberg said that most people are not going to ski Aspen Mountain but will ski Buttermilk, Highlands and Snowmass; she said to be prepared of how to get people from that development outside of town. Travis Goggins provided the WEB site for the project at as apenpitkin.com Lift One Neighborhood Master Plan. MOTION: Jim DeFrancia moved to continue the public hearing for the Lift One Neighborhood Master Plan to October 7`"; seconded by Dina Bloom. All in favor, APPROVED. MOTION: Cliff Weiss moved to adjourn; seconded by Jim DeFrancia; all in favor, APPROVED. , ~~ , ~ckie Lothiai ,Deputy City Clerk