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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20100302City Planning & Zoning Meetine -Minutes -March 02, 2010 Comments Minutes Conflicts of Interest Aspen Valley Hospital -Final 2 2 2 2 City Planning & Zoning Meetins -Minutes -March 02 2010 Stan Gibbs called the regular meeting in Sister Cities Meeting Room to order at 4:30pm. Michael Wampler was excused. Commissioners present were Jasmine Tygre, Cliff Weiss, Bert Myrin, Jim DeFrancia, LJ Erspamer, Brian Speck, and Stan Gibbs. Staff present were Jim True, Special Counsel; Jennifer Phelan, Community Development; Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk. Comments Jim DeFrancia stated that he had to leave at 6:10 pm. Bert Myrin asked if the fire department temporary structure behind the parking department would eventually come down. Jennifer Phelan said that she thought it was a temporary structure until they got their C.O. Conflicts of Interest Jim True stated and he and John Worcester's wives worked for the Aspen Valley Hospital and didn't think that their jobs related to this kind of project. LJ Erspamer disclosed that he was the broker that represented the hospital for the Beaumont purchase many years ago. CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING: Aspen Valley Hospital -Final Stan Gibbs opened the continued Public hearing on AVH Phase II final PUD. Jim True received the notices and all were in order. Jennifer Phelan noted there was a site visit with the Planning & Zoning Commission on January 19`t'. Phelan said that Leslie Lamont would be presenting some of the public outreach the hospital has conducted beyond what the land use requires for this project. Jennifer Phelan said that she would provide a brief overview of the process so far, future steps and then land use reviews. The applicant will provide some additional background on the project and a sketch up for additional detail in the presentation. Phelan said that they would like questions raised by Planning & Zoning Commission on the project so that they can be aware of and address at the next hearing, March 16~'. Phelan said that hearing is to address any issues raised at tonight's meeting as well as review the draft resolution. Phelan said that she would like the applicant to discuss the parking garage and the affordable housing in a little more detail also the screening and massing. Phelan said that Aspen Valley Hospital campus is on about a 19 acre lot that currently contains the hospital, the ambulance barn, Whitcomb Terrace and the CEO residence. In 2009 the hospital was granted conceptual planned unit development approval with conditions to expand the hospital, add medical office 2 City Planning & Zoning Meeting -Minutes -March 02. 2010 space and as a condition of approval the applicant agreed to on site affordable housing and the potential expansion of Whitcomb Terrace. Phelan said the conceptual approval anticipated four phases of development at the hospital because the hospital does have to operate during its expansion and redevelopment. Phase 1 was the remodel expansion of the birth center, which is completed. Prior to any new Phase being constructed final planned unit development and associated land use reviews for that phase need to be granted. Phelan said they were proposing an expansion and remodel of a portion of the hospital, construction of medical office space, construction of affordable housing units on site, memorializing the future expansion of Whitcomb Terrace and some expansive site work. Phelan said there was a Growth Management Review for the development of Affordable Housing; the project is proposing 22 affordable housing units on site, studio and 1 bedroom units and expansion for the commercial net leasable space, which is for the medical office space. The applicant is requesting 27,000 square feet of net leasable space in the 2010 allotment year but the allotments will be memorialized and mitigated for in stages, Phase 2 has 12,000 square feet of medical office space and the balance will be handled in Phase 3. Phelan said Conditional Use was in this public zone district for affordable housing. These were the P&Z final approvals. P&Z recommends to Council, which was the final approving body for the growth management for an essential public facility; subdivision for the multiple dwelling units that are being development on the site, the affordable housing plus certain plat amendments that will occur on the property; final planned unit development approval for a site specific development plan (the hospital expansion) and an amendment to the zone district map. Dan Ressler, CEO, stated that there has been a lot of work on this project and you will be hearing from the architect, Russ Sedmak. Ressler said that they have been working hard to keep all of the community members informed of their progress and allow for input in particular for those who are most impacted. Ressler said that any audience that they can get in front of employees, physicians, volunteers they have copiously reviewed these plans as they have come together and involved at the design level by the users. Ressler said that they have met with the neighbors, Whitcomb Terrace neighbors, Senior Center neighbors and a community forum inviting anybody to come and review the plans. Ressler said they have been working with homeowners association in Meadowood because that meadow is adjacent to the affordable housing. Ressler said that they have been before Rotary, the Chamber and mailed newsletters to everybody in their service area and 3 Citv Plannine & Zoning Meeting -Minutes -March 02 2010 Medicine in the Mountains. Ressler said the expansion plans really started in the early 1990s and have bits and starts over that time but this most current effort was initiated in 2005 when the board directed them to evaluate this campus and they went through an exhaustive process of their needs and paired that to the current campus to determine if it was the appropriate site from which to expand this site and the decision was to use the current site. Ressler stated that this expansion was not about building a facility that exceeds the needs of the community, they are simply trying to bring the facility up to the contemporary standards of a hospital in this day and age; that's what you will be hearing about. There is nothing exorbitant about this and in many respects this is a minimalistic approach; this is what we think that we absolutely have to have to be able to continue functioning over the next several decades; they took a 20 year minimum time horizon to see what health care will look like at that time to build a building to at least accommodate where we want to be in that period of time. Ressler said this building is efficient; we have to be because the costs~are so absorbent in this area that we had to drive every cost that we can, so it's an efficient building, it's an efficient design and allow them to operate efficiently, which we don't know because the deficiencies are in the building. Ressler stated that they provide extraordinary care, that's not because of the facility that's because of the staff and we are still one of the top 5% of the hospitals in the country as related to patient satisfaction. Ressler said they have staff that works so hard and would be well rewarded with a facility that matches their level of commitment to the patient. There has been a lot of time and consideration given to the impacts of this facility not just during construction but when it is completed in terms of noise and light pollution so there were a number of mitigating factors that were incorporating and meeting with the neighbors about. Ressler said they plan to build this building into the slope of the land that is there and has given them some great advantages; this building will be LEED certified; Russ is an architect with experience with it having designed one of only two hospitals in the country to achieve gold standard and that's the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland so they have the right team but that was a greenfill project and they are expanding this existing facility but they will do everything that they possibly can to get as high as they can in LEED certification. Ressler said the incorporation of medical office space on the campus is critical to the strategy of the hospital; it is part of what we think will improve the health care to the community. Any physician that wants to relocate there can and the patients will have improved access to their offices because of parking and access to an elevator and a physician will be on site to respond to a patient in the hospital and make them more efficient. Ressler said the facility was built in the late 1970's with 49 beds and was intended to be an inpatient facility really without .the outpatient technologies that we have today. Ressler said many of the patients 4 City Planning & Zoning Meetine -Minutes -March 02, 2010 are outpatient surgeries and many of the surgeries are less invasive today. Ressler said over time they have invaded those 49 patient beds at the same time they have shrunk to 25 beds because that's really what the need is today. Utilizing power point Ressler showed the hallway that currently serves as a waiting room for nuclear medicine and the physical therapy department, they have all the right equipment it is just jammed together; this will be addressed in the second phase. The emergency room has 15 beds but the beds were separated by curtains. The front entrance now has glass installed between the registration bays but it does keep people waiting in the chairs behind the patients from overhearing the conversation; they will try to do a little more to improve that situation but the physical limitations are burdens. Russ Sedmak, architect, illustrated the magnitude of the problem with the power point graphics; he showed the existing plan of the hospital with the Phase l addition and the corridors in yellow to illustrate the realm of the public passageways through the facility and the existing cafeteria is in the back of the building and is in the completely opposite corner of the front door of the hospital. The blue corridors indicate what needs to be private for patient and staff only circulation; they need to clean up the circulation patterns because of the kind of cross usage of the growth of this building as an outpatient facility over time and the change in medicine and the way health care is delivered over time that the hospital was built as primarily an inpatient facility that happened to have some diagnostics and treatment support from the inpatient beds now we literally have outpatient activities happening all over the facility and an inefficient and non-discrete mixing of traffic. Sedmak said because of the location of the building they need to expand on all four sides and extend the building up to the second level in some of the locations and need to go outside the perimeter of the current building to start the remodel because they can't remodel on top of themselves. Phase 2 is a combination of part addition and part renovation. Sedmak said by moving the cafeteria it provide a better accommodation to the inpatients and frees up the hallways and for outpatient and public usage of the cafeteria. The 1St floor of the building will provide 18 new private patient rooms for the PCU and renovation space for the remainder of the rooms and renovation of the ICU; the rest of the interior work being done is part of the domino effect of moving departments and being able to go back and fix some of the very tight areas that we had inside the building but only after we have added on and decompress the facility. Sedmak said that there was a revision to the configuration of the parking structure; half of the second floor of the project was built over new space and half was built over existing space. The space that will be above the existing PCU is the space 5 City Planning & Zoning Meetine -Minutes -March 02 2010 dedicated for the medical office space and the remainder will be physical therapy, cardiac rehab, lobby and two story entry component. There will be a small basement area as part of the Phase 2 addition to provide a service connection to the rest of the hospital and elevator access for the parking garage and food ways to go back out. Sedmak said they were looking for a modern architectural design of brick and natural stone and aluminum window frames combatable with the existing campus and context of the community. Sedmak said that Phase 3 was an addition to the west side of the building; the emergency department was about 3 times the size of the current emergency department with only one workable door into the ED and wasn't a very secure area and ideally they needed to separate the ambulance entrance and an outpatient entrance. Sedmak said that Phase 4 was largely the backfill project so that after all of the new construction is completed they will be able to come back in and renovate the old emergency, lab and imaging departments for outpatient clinics. Part of Phase 4 is to complete the public lobby and intend to make that portion of the building about a story and a half; the taller portion to the left of the flagpole is the 2 story lobby that provides access up to the second floor Phase 3 project. Sedmak said the Phase 2 final application was changed from conceptual were the employee housing in the existing Whitcomb Terrace hillside of the site, that combined with a placeholder to the left for 10 additional units of Whitcomb Terrace for assisted living and be compatible with the new housing; the parking structure has been shifted back 15 feet which frees up space for the bike path as it meanders back and realigns for a perpendicular crossing at the Whitcomb Terrace Drive, creating better separation from Castle Creek Road then what presently exists there and improving safety by doing so. Sedmak said they would provide screening on both sides of the bike path and in front of the garage area. The bus stop at Doolittle Drive after many meetings with RFTA has made progress. There would be wood color slating placed over the concrete walls of the parking structure that will be held back from the concrete. Sedmak said they were going for a relatively contemporary design for the affordable housing development; they wanted to avoid something that looks like the mountains that it would look so different from the hospital campus. They are using a modular pre-fabricated system of housing units that will be the combination of studio and one bedroom; the end units will be 3 story with a garden level on the bottom floor and the middle units will be 21eve1 coming out on grade 6 City Planning & Zoning Meetine, -Minutes -March 02, 2010 with garages to accommodate 2 cars underneath those two level units. The roof lines on the buildings will be primarily flat with one corner of each of the units themselves tilting up at a 3/12 pitch to give the architecture some interest and met with the neighbors on the heights of the buildings. Sedmak said the materials are primary a composition fiber cement board; the top of the buildings would be a smooth and gridded contemporary look and the bottoms will be more of a vertical with a bat and board with a light contemporary look. Jennifer Phelan said there were a number of conditions in the conceptual approval from Council Resolution 003-09; the parking garage materials needed to be screened and softened and Russ just went over how they have changed the footprint to accommodate additional space between the Castle Creek Trail and the garage. Phelan said the employee generation for Phase 2 is about 19 employees and for Phase 3 an actual audit will be submitted. Leslie Lamont said Council accepted the previously housing for the hospital as credit. Phelan said that with regard to the Nordic Trail they were to work with Parks Department. Phelan said the applicant has been working with Engineering and Parks on the snow storage and drainage and were satisfied with the snow storage and how they would access it. The Castle Creek Road discussion at conceptual that the road needed to be elevated with additional study and refinement that is no longer necessary; they are working on the Transportation Demand Study and getting more detail on that plan. Leslie Lamont noted there were a lot of utilities along Castle Creek Road so at final plat these will be on the final plat. Cliff Weiss asked about the composite materials proposed to be used on the affordable housing; he asked if it hardy plank. Sedmak replied that it was similar to that. Weiss commended the applicant for the treatment of the parking structure. Weiss asked if there would be more articulation on the employee housing. Sedmak asked the level of detail that the Commission was looking for. Weiss asked what the typical unit floor plans looked like and had concerns about the roofline and snow and was trying to determine what more P&Z will see. Weiss asked how far cars parked from the hospital structure. Sedmak said that they were sharing the foundation wall between the parking structure and the patient care unit addition because the parking structure begins 2 feet lower than the first floor of the building and then slopes down at a 5% grade from that point and by the time we get to where the patient room windows are the elevation of the top of the parking deck is several feet below the windowsills. Lamont said that in the application book sheet L 102 shows the construction. Weiss asked if there was a buffer zone. Sedmak answered that the first quarter of the parking deck would be treated as a landscape terrace with potted trees and cars will be parked facing away from the building. 7 Citv Plannine & Zoning Meeting -Minutes -March 02 2010 Weiss asked if there would be access to the building from the parking structure. Sedmak replied there would be two elevator lobby levels below the main floor of the building so there was handicap accessibility from the lowest level of the parking structure. Weiss asked if any square footage has been added from conceptual. Phelan said that they could do that for the next meeting. Jasmine Tygre asked about the medical office space and if there would be accessibility from the doctors to the hospital. Dave Ressler said there would be a number of physicians that would have office space that will have hospital privileges. Tygre asked why the rehab department was on the second floor. Sedmak replied the sheer amount of space that's needed for physical therapy above the patient care unit and the physical therapy views and light will be great for that space in that location. Tygre asked if the employee housing units were rental or for sale units. Leslie Lamont responded that these units have always intended to be rental units and what you were reading was the criteria from the code. Jennifer Phelan said that they can be rental units if APCHA recommends them as rental units. Tygre asked the role by APCHA in these units. Lamont replied that APCHA would have 1 % ownership and APCHA confirms that the net livable square footage meets their guidelines and will insure that the people renting these units meet their guidelines. Tygre asked if there was any contemplation that any of these units would be available to people who are not hospital employees if for whatever reason the hospital employees could not rent these units. Lamont said that was part of APCHA's guidelines if for whatever reason you do not have a qualified renter for a unit then it is open to the public. LJ Erspamer asked if the flat roof will have a valley. Russ Sedmak replied there would probably be a little bit of a valley in that location with some built up insulation and gravel on the edge all the way around just to keep the dripping from working its way back underneath the eve; they haven't really detailed it yet but are not planning on building a parapet to capture the snow it will be more of a sitting on top detail. Erspamer asked how successful that type of roof in this type of climate was. Sedmak replied the roofing itself is the same kind of roofing that they are putting on the hospital, an EPD and rubber roof. Erspamer said a membrane. Erspamer asked what will prevent ice damming. Weiss said or falling down onto sidewalks or doorway entrances. Sedmak replied it will be a relatively sharp edge between the roof and the fascia; and the roof will have a 3 foot overhang. Erspamer asked the pitch of the right side of the flat roof. Sedmak responded that they didn't know yet but it will probably be a''/a inch per foot back into the interior. Erspamer asked which way the water drained. Sedmak said the roofs themselves in the 3 unit buildings actually are attached to one another so it was one large 8 City Planning & Zonine, Meetine -Minutes -March 02, 2010 surface and said that there would be in between two buildings and a drain at the party wall between the buildings. Erspamer asked Jennifer if she was satisfied with the snow disposal and the route they take. Phelan responded that Parks and Engineering have looked at. Erspamer asked how environmental was the glass enclosure in this mountain climate. Sedmak answered there was a balance there between the amount of glazing for day lighting the building to reduce the energy consumption for artificial lights and the glass has a minimal effect on the energy consumption during most times of the year because the building is actually in a cooling mode 9 months out of the year; they are going to use E Glass and are looking into a triple pane option. Erspamer asked if there was anything safer than a tunnel for pedestrian crossing on the road. Phelan said there were some tricky grades in that area and you can separate transportation. Lamont responded there were significant utilities. Erspamer asked if the parking was for every employee housing unit or every bedroom. Sedmak replied every unit has a parking space and there were 4 spaces on the surface and the rest were in the garages. Phelan suggested that parking be discussed at the next meeting. Erspamer asked how they were handling the vested rights. Phelan replied that she did not think that they have asked for an extension. Weiss asked if the P&Z will be able to have comments and questions on the design. Phelan said that P&Z would be making a recommendation to City Council. Brian Speck asked if the hospital still had space at the Aspen Athletic Club for rehab. Ressler replied that they intend to maintain the space at the Aspen Athletic Club and they have space in Snowmass and intermittent space at the Aspen Orthopedic Associates. Stan Gibbs asked about the separation between physical therapy and cardio rehab; it seems like the overall in functionality is large and asked if it would be better to make use of one space. Sedmak replied that they asked the same question when they began the planning process and some of the physical therapy patients were to work on their activity and some of the equipment is similar but they are different types of rehab and they were not over sizing anything in the building but were conscious of the space they were putting in and needs to last at least a couple of decades. Ressler stated that cardio rehab is monitored activity so there was direct observation by clinical staff to make sure that the person is not over exerting. Public Comments: 9 Ci Plannin & Zonin Meetin -Minutes -March 02 2010 1. Toni Kronberg, public, said that she liked what she has seen so far and said that some members of the community thought it was too big for the area and she said that she reminds them that it is a hospital. Kronberg said that not many people use that bike path coming out of health and human services and most of the people walk down towards the roundabout. Kronberg said that the parking for the Senior Center was too far away because the employee housing was now in the parking area. Kronberg asked about the type of therapy pool they were planning; what the design was and who the clientele would be. Stan Gibbs closed the public portion of the hearing. Bert Myrin said the P&Z was looking at final approval for growth management for the affordable housing and commercial and conditional use review. Phelan said those were final approvals at P&Z. Myrin said then P&Z recommends to Council the growth management for the essential public facility, the subdivision and final PUD. Myrin asked if the square footage comes from the PUD portion. Phelan replied that was in the PUD portion. Myrin asked the criteria for the square footage. Phelan answered that it was conceptually. approved at a certain square footage. Myrin said it talked about the public trail system except for the users; has there been public outreach to the users. Jason, Design Workshop, replied that they have worked with Austin and he has represented the Nordic Council and they have walked the site with immediate neighbors in terms of the potential impacts of adjusting the location of the Nordic Trail. Myrin said also users of the bus need to have an outreach to them. Lamont responded that during conceptual review when they invited the various neighborhoods to the hospital for meetings; there were a lot of Twin Ridge bus users and they had the same concerns that were worked on with staff about the cuing of buses and the bus stop being inadequate. Myrin asked the number of space will be used for planters on top of the garage. Sedmak responded there was an area that equates to approximately 6 parking spaces. Myrin asked to see using the parking garage for affordable housing parking instead of the garages underneath the units, which would bring the height down. Sedmak replied that they have talked about utilizing some parking in the structure potentially either for employee tenants or employees from Whitcomb Terrace and they are still in the process of figuring out who is going to park where. Sedmak said there is a limitation on this site as to how much surface parking they can provide so the idea was a way with the 14 tuck under parking spaces to help mitigate that; there is also a limit to how much lower the buildings can be because of the topography there. Sedmak stated placing additional units in the tuck under parking spaces would require more excavating on the site. 10 CitYPlannina & Zonina, Meetine -Minutes -March 02.2010 Myrin asked if it was a normal process to have the growth management allotments all from 2010. Phelan answered yes they can use the balance of the allotment from 2010 in Phase 3. Lamont said that everybody had the opportunity to submit an application for growth management on February 15`x' for an allotment; they were the only submittal and the total for this year which was 32,000 square feet. Myrin said there was a recommendation to rent to non-hospital employees; he asked the duration and how would they get them out if need be and what was the process. Lamont said that she would ask APCHA and the Hospital that question.- Myrin asked if this housing would segregate doctors and other staff. Phelan replied that it was category 3 and 4. Myrin asked for letters from conceptual. Stan Gibbs asked about the 50% rule for above grade employee units. Jennifer Phelan stated she just wrote down to check on the 50% rule for affordable housing. MOTION: LJErspamer moved to continue to March 16`" the hearing for Aspen Valley Hospital Final PUD, seconded by Bert Myrin, all in favor. APPROVED. Adjourned at 7:10 pm. ackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk 11