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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcoa.lu.ca.Coffee Shop in SCI.1978M E h 1 O R A N D U f 1 T0: Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission FROM: Karen Smith, Planning Office RE: Code Amendment to Allow Coffee Shop in the SCI District DATE: October 13, 1978 This office has received a request to amend the SCI District to allow as a conditional use a Coffee Shop or food service intended as a non-tourist oriented sit-down facility with limited fare of specialty items to be served as an accompaniment to such activities as reading, playing chess, checkers or other passive activities provided the operation has: 1. No kitchen, 2. No food preparation other than warming on the premises, 3. has no liquor service. You will recall that this category was created some time ago at the request of Irving Biers and was added to the C-1 district as a conditional use, several months ago. The argument was that there was a need for food service that would serve the business population of the community and that could exist as an alternative to the heavy restuarant traffic in the commercial core which at peak tourist times is largely oriented toward the tourist population. It was conditioned on having very limited food service and on its being accessory to the nature of the use as a passive meeting type place. With renard to the code amendment for the C-1 District, the Planning Office did recommend approval, in view of the need for such an alternative meeting place and of the suitability of the C-1 District with its generally lower rents and general location off the beaten track of the most intense commercial core activities. The example of such a use was the former Casa Expresso located on Hyman Street. There now exists no such use in the entire City and the application was not pursued for the Hunter Square Building where the use was originally pro- posed to be located. The argument is similar here although it involves a different type of commercial zone district. The idea results from pressure to provide some type of food service in proximity to new centers of commercial activity, namely the Trueman SPA project. The zoning along this lower portion of Mill Street is a mixture of Neighborhood Commercial and Service Commercial Industrial as well as the specially planned area on the Rio Grande property whose uses are predominately recreational and park at this point in time. The Trueman SPA project itself is a combination of NC and SCI uses with the specially planned overlay to determine those uses and their configuration. While Mr. Andrews would like to apply for Conditional Use Approval of a Coffee Shop (if the Code is amended)on his property located at the base of Mill Street, next to the Roaring Fork River and next to the Rio Grande SPA,that is not the particular consideration that the Planning and Zoning Commission must consider here. Your consideration now is whether the Service Commercial District as a whole is appropriate for such uses. And you should be considering~in that line, the intent of the zone district as well as the list of permitted and conditional uses that now exist. We point out that the application comes to you from a private landowner, but would require the Planning and Zoning Commission or the City Council to initiate the Code amendment. Therefore you are being asked to consider whether you would sponsor this as an appropriate amendment to the Zoning Code. Some rationale for the Code amendment is expressed in the attached letter of application from Mr. Bob Andrews., However, much of the justification is oriented toward locating the Coffee Shop Use at the site of Mr. Andrews' property. lde remind you that this should not necessarily be part of your review, although. it would become justification for your consideration of a conditional use in this location if the Code is amended. While we recognize that there is a certain amount of demand generated by the new commercial uses of the Trueman Project and the Industrial Uses Memo to City P&Z Code Amendment October 13, 1978 Page Two of the lower Mill Street area, we do not believe that the SCI District is appropriate for this type of use. The intent of the SCI District is: to allow the use of land for limited commercial purposes and limited industrial purposes with customary accessory and institutiional uses. The list of allowed uses is very specialized;in fact is unique within the City of Aspen. It is the only place where industrial Vises of any nature are allowed. And in fact the scope of the SCI District in terms of total land area in the entire City is very confined. There is a pocket of Service Commercial Industrial zoning behind the Concept 600 Building and the only other locations are the Andrews property at the base of Mill Street and then across from the Andrews property in the location of the Aspen Metro Sanitation District Plant and the Mill Street Venture. This means that there is not much room in the City of Aspen for vehicle sales, equipment rental, storage and repair, gasoline service stations, auto- mobile washing facilities, electrical and plumbing senvice shops, commercial bakeries, limited industrial uses such as building supply, dry-cleaning, fabrication repair, building materials, lumber yards, manufacture and repair of sporting goods, printing and publishing plant, warehousing- and storage,and shop craft industries. It is important to maintain these areas for such uses because to allow more competitive uses would eventually price the industrial uses out of the City. The only remaining location for them then would be at the Airport Business Center in the County. It is important to preserve areas for these uses in the City and in proximity to the Commercial Core, in order for the City to have a full range of uses allowed within its various zone districts. Another consideration is whether the use would be a traffic generator since the SCI district should be a self-contained operation not drawing uses from the downtown commercial core areas. There are limitations on the traffic generation characteristics of a limited food service use, since it is pre- sumed that this use would serve an immediate neighborhood and be a more passive commercial eating establishment. However, there is potential for a demand which reaches beyond the immediate area itself. The application notes this in terms of the traffic from the residential area north of the river, including Silverking and the new Lone Pine project. Much of this traffic could be pedestrian traffic or accessed by the Silverking bus, but we do not believe that it should be the intent of such a use in this area to serve residential traffic, but rather that within related commercial areas. We note that the NC Zone District does allow food stores and we know from experience with the NC District at .the City Market location that frequently these food stores do offer over the counter service of sandwiches, albiet with no sit-down facilities. Should the Commission wish to consider such additional services as sit-down facilities, the Planning Office recommends that you consider the NC rather than the Service Commercial and Industrial District because of the more limited use scope and area coverage of the latter. We don't think that the Service Commercial and Industrial District generates enough of a need in and of itself for a limited Food Service/ Coffee Shop concept, but the Neighborhood Commercial District may. Again w e urge that you focus your consideration on the nature, intent, and purposes of the SCI Zone District and not necessarily on a Coffee Shop/ Food Service in a particular location. sr ~ '1 properties ~E September 12, 1978 T0: KAREN SMITH FROhf: ROBERT W. ANDREWS (ANDREWS-PiC FARLLti C0.) SUBJECT: A request to amend the SCI district presently govenling the property located at 414 No. 'r1i11 St., to add as a conditional use " a coffee shop or food service intended as anon-tourist oriented sit down facility with limited fare of specialty items to be served as an accompaniment to such activities as reading,, playing cl>ess, checkers, backgammon etc, or other passive activities, provided the operation 1) has no kitchen; 2) has no food preparation other than warming on premises; 3) teas no liquor service," DISCUSSION: With the redevelopment of the Rio Grande property into a shopping center with the attendant increase in employees working in this area, the need for this type of operation is supported by the following reasons; 1) It is compatible with a neighborhood commercial zoning. 2) It will not generate auto traffic in addition to what is already being generated by the center and the post office. People will walk over to the facility after picking up mail, shopping, etc. 3) It will serve t}le Smuggler and Silver King employee complexes, as it fronts on the foot path along Mill St. 4) The Silver King bus stops at the foot of the building. S) It fills a need formerly served by the Cafe Expresso for a relaxed coffee, juices, cookies, donuts, etc. 6) The atmosphere and location by the river is unique and would provide a relaxing non-tourist o i n ed facility. RORER 414 Nonh Mill Streets Box 1133 • Aspen, Colorado 81611.925-3111 CITE 130 s asper PUBLIC NOTICE RE: City Code Amendment - S/C/I District Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held before the Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission on October 17, 1978, at a meeting beginning at 5:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers, City Hall, to consider an amendment to the Service/Commercial/Industrial Zone District. The amendment would add a coffee shop under limited conditions to Section 24-3.2 as a condition use in the S/C/I district. A copy of the language may be examined in the planning office, City Hall, 130 S. Galena, Aspen, CO. /s~' Charles T. Collins, Chairman Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission To be published in the Aspen Times September 28, 1978