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Home My WebLink Aboutminutes.apz.20120403 Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes April 3, 2012 Comments 2 Minutes 2 Conflicts of Interest 2 120 North Mill Street (Pitkin County Library) 2 1 Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes April 3, 2012 LJ Erspamer opened the regular meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission in Sister Cities Meeting Room at 4:30. Commissioners present were Stan Gibbs, Bert Myrin, Keith Goode, Jim DeFrancia, Jasmine Tygre and LJ Erspamer. Cliff Weiss was not in attendance. Staff in attendance were: Jim True, City Attorney; Debbie Quinn, Assistant City Attorney; Jennifer Phelan, Deputy Community Development Director; and Reed Patterson, Municipal Clerk. Minutes MOTION: Bert Myrin moved to approve the minutes with the correction made by Jasmine on pages 2 and 5: seconded by Jasmine Tygre. All in favor APPROVED. Conflicts of Interest None stated Public Hearing: 120 N Mill St (Pitkin County Library) LJ Erspamer opened the public hearing for the Pitkin County Library. Jennifer Phelan provided proof of notice. Jennifer provided an overview of the land use requests for an amendment to the SPA and growth management as P&Z provides a recommendation to City Council for these 2 reviews. P&Z determines the number of employees generated pursuant to land use code 26.470.100.1. Jennifer said the library wants to coordinate this SPA Amendment with the Galena Plaza remodel. The Library conducted a needs assessment with open houses by a library consultant that identified a number of areas that could improve the overall function of the library with the expansion of the young adult area and children's room, improving access to the music and media room, reconfiguring staff desks and work areas for better efficiency, small group meeting spaces, providing modern amenities such as quiet reading areas, exhibition space, as well as outdoor reading areas and improving accessibility to the library collection. Jennifer said the applicant proposed an expansion to the east with a two story addition totaling 7,198 square feet approximately 27 feet tall measured from Galena Plaza. The main level of the addition proposed 5,899 square feet and the mezzanine level 1,299 square feet. There is also a proposed conditional use of the expansion a canopy or porch element would project outside the existing easement. Employee generation review with P&Z pursuant 26.470.1 10 of the code to determine employee generation. The applicant stated that no new employees would be provided or needed. The current staffing at the library is 8 full time and 2 Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes April 3, 2012 • 8 part time employees and in the summer when the library is busier temporary part time employees are added. APCHA recommended an employee mitigation requirement of 2.87 FTEs based upon square footage. The library is unique operation and many areas are not staffed such as the quiet reading areas and more open floor space. APCHA has requested if the employees need not be mitigated for then they suggested an audit of employees after one and three years in operation. Suzanne Jackson and Willis Pember from the Design Workshop were in attendance as well as Kathy Chandler, Director of the Library. The Civic Master Plan supports the library expansion and it will be a benefit to the community. Stan Gibbs asked if there would be a café and this was only a suggestion to make it more of a social atmosphere. LJ Erspamer asked about parking and the traffic engineer study saying there was plenty of parking and no additional parking was needed and Transportation was not worried about any impacts from parking. • Public Comments: 1. Rebecca Weiss said that she uses the library quite a bit and has two children who also use it. Rebecca said the relocation of the children's room will be a plus and she supports the proposal. 2. Joanna Rodden, representing English in Action, works with tutors with immigrants and uses the library for training meetings. Joanna supports the library proposal. 3. Andrew Ernemann said he lived next to the library in Galena Loft and supports the expansion done in tandem with Galena Plaza. Andrew expressed concern with the noise from construction and questioned the size of the extended roof 4. Jack Wheeler said that he was in favor of the library proposal. 5. David Bentley said this was of great importance to the library and supported this proposal. 6. John Wilkinson said that his children were raised in the library and the new access to resources was important and he supported going forward with the expansion. 7. Jim Moran stated that he was a library board member and the meeting rooms come alive with lots of uses and supported the proposal. • 8. Barbara Reed said the study space was needed and she supported the proposal. 3 Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes April 3, 2012 41) 9. There were letters in support of the library planned expansion from Ian Soroka, Susan Atwood, Angel Naivalu, Marshall B. Webb, Rosie Rushing, Parker Samuelson, Anna Steinberg, Lillian Burrows and Coen Needell were included in the packet. Commissioner Comments: Bert Myrin spoke about the SPA Amendment from the memo on page 11, the essential public facility on page 13 and the employee generation on page 14. Bert noted that he supported APCHA's recommendation for the employee generation based on an employee per square foot of building. Stan Gibbs said the roof was too massive; he supports the library's assertion that no new employees are generated based on the unique operationsof the library. It is not an office building . However Stan supports an APCHA audit be required in the future to verify no employees are generated by the expansion. If it is determined that employees are generated, then he supports the code in effect at the time of the audit be followed with regard to employee generation. Jasmine Tygre stated that she was an avid library user and the expansion was • greatly needed. Jasmine was in support of the proposal but did not like the arch at all and it was not a welcoming entrance. Jim DeFrancia liked the arch and supported the proposal. LJ Erspamer said he did not like the arch but supports the proposal. MOTION: Bert Myrin moved to recommend City Council approve Resolution #008-12 for the SPA Amendment with a recommendation to the applicant to study the perceived mass of the roof to make it appear less imposing and to allow the library to construct a proposed addition as an essential public facility. In consideration of the applicant's representation no new employees will be generated P&Z recommends and audit after the first and third years after the Certificate of Occupancy has been issued and shall be subject to any employee mitigation apply to the code at that time. Seconded by Jim DeFrancia. Roll call vote: Keith Goode, yes; Stan Gibbs, yes; Jasmine Tygre, yes; Jim DeFrancia, yes; Bert Myrin, yes; LJErspamer, yes. All in favor, APPPROVED. dj our{led,at 7. 5 pm. Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk 4 /LtASYidJG6Z'/%Ie'/ Alva- trA-C..- ti,m...„