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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20110614 City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes — June 14, 2011 Comments 2 Conflicts of Interest 3 Lift One Lodge PUD & Timeshare 3 1 City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes — June 14, 2011 Stan Gibbs opened the regular meeting of the Aspen Planning & Zoning Commission in Council Chambers Meeting Room at 4:30. Commissioners present were: Michael Wampler, Cliff Weis, Bert Myrin, Jasmine Tygre, Stan Gibbs and Jim DeFrancia. Excused was LJ Erspamer. Staff in attendance was Chris Bendon and Drew Alexander, Community Development; Reed Patterson, Municipal Court Clerk. Comments Cliff Weiss asked if the Commissioners received his email on Transportation for Thursday and asked for feedback. Bert Myrin stated that he asked that they go back to the draft and it seems like the previous chapters were okay. Cliff Weiss said that he heard from Marcella. Bert agreed with Cliff. Chris Bendon commended P &Z for this last Friday meeting to go through a 61/2 hour meeting and make progress getting through 4 topics in the community plan. Drew Alexander noted on the remodel for 632 East Hopkins from the application it did say not demolition but the city engineering department ran into a crossroads at that point. Drew Alexander said this was one of our first projects that were sticking to the Commercial Design Guidelines and the final review guidelines that mention floor heights and second levels. Drew Alexander said in order to save the building they would have had to invest into structural walls within and according to the applicant that would have used more material than it would have than to tear down the building and rebuild. Drew Alexander said during meetings with the applicant staff explained the consequences of demolition since this had no residential component and as far as landscaping goes the history with the tree was that a chain broke and the tree should be removed by now. Bert Myrin asked the normal process for this without P &Z bringing this up to staff. Drew Alexander answered since the remodel wasn't specifically addressed or the structure to be retained in the entitlements and there is a resolution. Stan Gibbs stated concern for the building being demolished and P &Z was told that they couldn't change the floor height on the first floor because of structure but it would make the pedestrian area an amenity area in front of the building or a more useful area. Stan Gibbs said they gave that up based on the fact that they thought the building was going to be more remodeled than demolished so that is an example of that project come back to P &Z. Stan Gibbs said then they would say they have to demolish the building and he would have said the floor would be at the right level to be more useful to the public so that should perhaps not have been administratively approved because there were concerns at P &Z to look at given the scope of the project was changed. Stan Gibbs asked staff to think about that in the future and if there is any question 2 City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes — June 14, 2011 at all then bring it back to P &Z and at least ask the question. Chris Bendon replied good point and one thing for this commission to think about was to assign like HPC does project monitors. Bert Myrin asked staff to take that monitoring of projects on. Conflicts of Interest None stated. CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING: Lift One Lodge PUD & Timeshare Stan Gibbs opened the continued hearing for Lift One Lodge and Timeshare. Chris Bendon noted this was a continued public hearing from June 7th and at the last meeting they did a basic overview of the history of the project. Chris Bendon said that the Commissioners should have the binder, the appendix, the summary of the project with a table of the project and letters from Eben Clark and Scott Writer. Chris Bendon said there was a presentation of more of the details of the project and the DRC and staff comments were provided; tonight they would like to continue the hearing to next week June 21' and may need to continue past the 21 and the meeting on the 28 looked like a no go. The next meeting after the 21 would be July 5th Bob Daniel stated he represented the Roaring Fork Mountain Lodge Aspen LLC and this was the second of the series of meetings. Last week we focused on the plans for the base and identified goals and objectives related to history, accessibility, vitality and sustainability and talked about a code compliant project in 2007 and then went through a process and changes were made after the COWOP. Bob Daniel said there would be a corridor for site access for the Mountain and what it took to get to those goals of how you get there, what you do there, what are the components of the project and how does it fit there. Bob Daniel said the focus was how to address parking and cars with the Lift One neighborhood and the pedestrian experience with cars. The auto is the dominate one in that area whether it is surface parking or the roads; there is no place to gather other than getting on or off the lift. Bob Daniel said they were looking at the City transit plan and the Dean Street master plan; their plan complements these plans. In the winter people rent cars less if there is some type of shuttle service and none of those work by themselves and that is why it is a transportation plan that includes bicycles, shuttles, buses and other means of transportation. Bob Daniel said their traffic study was accepted by the City and has a peak of 1 vehicle per minute in the morning and 1.2 to 1.3 vehicles in the evening. All of the service vehicles come 3 City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes — June 14, 2011 off of South Aspen into the parking garage; there were 105 parking spaces for the lodge and 50 public parking spaces and also there is a delivery dock, service, storage, mechanical and some of the things that you would see below grade. Bob Daniel said that they were able to internalize the port cochere or guest drop off and delivery into the western portion of the building and has benefits not only from an impact perspective but also from an architectural perspective. It allows a break in the first floor for a covered drop off area that is approximate to the lobby spaces and provides a corridor and a below grad connection tot that eastern wing eliminating the above grade connection which opened up the corridor. Bob Daniel said they explored options for safer driving and to snowmelt South Aspen Street would take 20% of the budget for 120 to 140 days and felt this was not feasible. They met with Environmental Health and Streets to look for a safe alternative there and the result was to come up with a rougher surface and a larger grid of sand and met with Engineering and Environmental Health on this portion for storm water. There will be no left turn onto Dean Street. Bob Daniel said the Museum through Aspen Historical Society has done an outreach program about what could be possible here and they see it as a gathering place. The ability to create a park space stabilizes the assets and how it is preserved and the historical significance of the area. There was the lodge and dormitory that houses 16 employees in the refurbished Skiers Chalet Steakhouse. The dorm rooms were required by the Housing Authority Guidelines at 150 square feet per employee, so it was a 300 square foot room. Bob Daniel stated their hope was flexibility for the owners as well as the public as it relates to the accommodations. There were 176 owners at 1/8 fractional ownership with 21 nights in the summer season and 21 nights in the winter season, whether it is through fixed use or rent the unoccupied keys for public use. Bob Daniel said that staff did not have specific examples of occupancy and Raggets Associates showed 80 to 85% usage by owners and falls out to about and it gives about 1600 unit nights. There was an average of 3.8 keys per unit and if you say there are about 17 '/2 keys on a nightly basis for the public; it won't hold true at Christmas or Presidents day. Bob Daniel said they were making a commitment to Stay Aspen Snowmass so all parties have the financial incentive to have these units rented. There are lock off doors to access each of the unit's bedrooms and living room. The average room size for lock off was 484 square feet included mechanical, closet, circulation space, bathroom space which comes to a 265 square foot bedroom. 4 City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes — June 14, 2011 Bob Daniel said the existence of skiing in this area is historic and they are willing to maintain the funding for that surface lift through easements and dedicated corridors. They are committing to maintaining that corridor with a contract through the Ski Company. Bob Daniel said the existing zoning was Willoughby Park is P with historic overlay; Lift One Park is P with historic overlay; Lodge Zoning on either side and City Conservation upslope. Lot 1 rezoned to Lodge PUD; Lot 2 Skiers Chalet Steakhouse would be AH PUD; Lot 3 is Lift One Park rezoned to Public with a historic overlay; Willoughby Park with a historic overlay and potential for the surface lift and the Aspen Historical Ski Museum. Bob Daniel said there was a right -of -way vacation off a portion of Gilbert Street this accommodates that ski through corridor and pedestrian right -of -way in the summer. There was a portion of Hill Street that is abandoned that is part of this project and a portion of South Aspen Street will be vacated to accommodate the Lodge, Skiers Chalet Steakhouse and Willoughby Park. Bob Daniel said there were concerns about mass and scale of the entire project and the project has been cut down. There were 80 ski lockers, the accessibility for the project from the public round out the project. Stephen Holley stated he was with Poss Architecture and the Mountain dominates in every factor for the construction of this project and the architecture was a bridge from the past to the future. Stephen Holley said this site has a total rise of 75 feet from Dear over to Lift One A. The building is stepped down and follows the slope and diminishes the height and compliments the mountain. Stephen Holley said the buildings were calculated from a base line of floor area of what you see above grade and in this instance is 77,010 square feet; there are supplementary spaces below grade such as mechanical, kitchen, service and they count for 122,280 square feet and over half of which is parking at 67,000 square feet. Bob Daniel and Stephen Holley presented the model and the commissioners gathered around the model while Bob pointed out the neighborhood properties, streets and this project. Stephen Holley said there wasn't a railing around the pool but there were planters that provided separation, safety and privacy. Bob Daniel spoke about the green roofs and how it creates from the mountain something that is more appealing. Bob Daniel said he has learned a lot about the significance of the past and the community; they learned about the Swiss and the future with sustainable design. And provides public access, flexible mix, energy efficiency with storm water and 5 City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes — June 14, 2011 benefits from the roof, reuse of buildings and creates and infill project. There were 4 approaches to sustainability and design: the prescriptive standards, performance standards, point systems and occupancy standards. Bob Daniel said the base line modeling needs to function as design and the LEED program points vary with the project. Stan Gibbs opened the public comment section of the hearing. Public Comments: 1. Eben Clark said he represents Silver Shadow and distributed some photos. Eben Clark said the photo was from the east to the west and asked what the intent from the trellis is. Bob Daniel said it was a deck space from the slide showing the elevation. Eben Clark said that they were looking at a new project with a yellow line showing the present proposal facade and the building has gained height. Eben Clark asked what the areas in heights were from grade on the eastern building and asked that 34 foot height of the building and what the use is. Eben Clark said that there were 2 buildings and did that create more mass. The lift improvement and ticket area have been deleted and how much could this not draw with an antiquated lift in that area. Eben Clark asked what was the existing FAR was. The Silver Shadow principal concerns were sunlight, view and utilities. 2. Robert Shear and owns the Cascades and Eben covered his points on height, blocking sunlight and view; keeping this to a minimum height would be most preferable for all of the owners on Monarch and Gilbert streets. He voiced concern for the north face of the east building of Gilberts Street and Bob has told him that the north face will be pulled back more and the model shows it sticking out quite a bit. MOTION: Cliff Weiss moved to extend the meeting to 7:30 pm, no second. Motion dies for lack of second. Bob Daniel said if the commissioners want to provide written questions they would try to answer them by the next meeting. Commissioner Questions and Concerns: Cliff Weiss said that they were talking about 6 week's occupancy. There were 50 public parking spaces which a lot of came from COWOP and questioned what they were creating here, people driving around the neighborhood looking for parking when the garage is full. Cliff Weiss voiced concern for the location of the lockers walking further up the hill to go down the hill. He asked to snowmelt the bottom 6 City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes — June 14, 2011 of the street and asked the size of the museum. How do the lodge guests get to the old Lift One A because the lodge is substantially below. Cliff Weiss asked about the 59 square feet set aside and was that for each unit. There were 2 different drop off design on Dean Street and were we committed to one. Cliff Weiss said there were units more than 2,000 square feet, how is that being mitigated. Jim DeFrancia asked if they were within code for the height or are you asking for an exemption. Bert Myrin said the packet on page 122 said that Mick Ireland said the snow could be trucked in for the corridor. Who was collecting the sand. The lessons learned from past Council Meetings and what has been done to address those. Does P &Z decide if this is a lodge or run as a hotel and pay sales tax for the community. The mudflow into the Museum's 4,000 square foot vault how that was planned. There was a presentation on the height from the south side and how does the height from the north side step down. How public land was being swapped. MOTION: Cliff Weiss moved to extend the meeting for 5 minutes, seconded by Bert Myrin. Approved. Stan Gibbs asked about the vacated right -of -way on page 34 and a discussion about easement; it was only recommended and wanted to know why the easement wasn't required as part of the text on page 42. The Holland House was a lodge and torn down and asked why this wasn't a lodge conversion into a timeshare. The Crosstown shuttle was mentioned and did you mean the Galena Street shuttle, if there has been any discussion with RFTA about extending it another block, maybe down Dean Street and back in would make it regular and you wouldn't have to run a shuttle all the time. Chris Bendon said there was a physical presentation of the model and some pictures for the record. MOTION: Jasmine Tygre moved to continue to June 21s seconded by Jim DeFrancia. APPROVED. Adjourned at 7:10 pm. r ranscri g bed ithi by Jack ie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk 7