HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20121030 Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting— Minutes October 30 2012
Comments 2
Conflicts of Interest 2
AVH Aspen Valley Hospital 2
616 E Hyman — Conceptual Commercial Design Review 9
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting— Minutes October 30 2012
LJ Erspamer opened the special meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission
in Sister Cities Meeting Room at 4:30. Commissioners present were, Keith Goode,
Cliff Weiss, Bert Myrin, Jim DeFrancia, Jasmine Tygre, Stan Gibbs, and LJ
Erspamer. Commissioner not present was Ryan Walterscheid. Staff in attendance
were Debbie Quinn, Assistant City Attorney; Jennifer Phelan, Deputy City
Community Development Director; Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk.
Comments
Cliff noted the letter from Suzie Harman delivered to each commissioner. Jennifer
has a meeting with her.
Bert Myrin requested a Tuesday to meet on priorities for the Council list to work
on changes to parking, stream margin and different applications. Cliff asked Bert
for the email to be re-sent to the commissioners. Bert suggested November 13th for
a special meeting. Jackie checked and both Rio and the Library are booked for that
day.
Declaration of Conflicts of Interest
None stated.
Public Hearing:
Aspen Valley Hospital (AVH) Phases III & IV
LJ Erspamer opened the public hearing on Aspen Valley Hospital Phases III & IV.
Jennifer Phelan stated this was one of three meetings scheduled for the Hospital the
next one would be on November 20th and then December 4th. Jennifer said tonight
P&Z and the public will have an overview of development opportunities and
comments. Debbie Quinn reviewed the public notice, which was in order and
entered as Exhibit B.
Jennifer said this application was for Phases 3 & 4 and there was a site visit with a
number of P&Z and staff members attending. Jennifer explained that this PUD
was a 4 step review process with 1 Conceptual at P&Z and 1 Conceptual at
Council then back to P&Z for Final and then to Council for Final. Phase 1 was the
Obstetrics and Phase 2 was completed now with the parking garage; 2°a story
medical offices, cardiac rehab; partial construction of the loop service road;
development of affordable housing; access improvements to the site; drainage and
utility improvements.
Jennifer said the Phase III included a 2 story addition and a basement with the
greatest amount of expansion on the ground floor (approximately 33,000 square
feet) abutting the west side of the existing building. The upper story addition
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes October 30 2012
includes medical office space and circulation (approximately 18,000 square feet), a
basement of about 19,000 square feet, completion of the loop service road, 3 bay
ambulance garage, new entry and parking. Jennifer said there would be
remodeling of the existing building also. Phase IV proposes an addition to the
ground floor (approximately 6,500 square feet) and basement (approximately 1,800
square feet) as well as a renovation of the existing building.
Leslie Lamont introduced Dave Ressler, CEO and Russ Sedmak, project architect.
Dave showed a power point from the work beginning on the project to bring in
high technology for the faculty with a lot of thought and flexibility put into it.
Dave said they were sensitive to the neighbors and met with them. Dave said
Hazleton has been active in the LEED Certification for the project providing
natural light and reducing the footprint of the office space sized for the Orthopedic
Physicians now located in the building and accomplished decompressing the
Physical Therapy. Dave said in the hospital they have moved out of the formerly
semiprivate rooms for privacy and dignity of patients and their families.
Dave said the Emergency Department showed what it looked like today and they
will have essentially the same number of beds but with walls between the beds to
maintain that privacy; there were break away doors that separate the patient to be
private. Dave said the plans have been refined and some plans that will carry this
hospital into the future.
Russ explained an exhibit from the Master Plan needs assessment that they went
through several years ago and they have been updating ever since on power point.
Russ said they compared what the hospital is working in the terms of their interior
environment to contemporary standards; there are national guidelines that dictate
how much square footage is needed for specific functions at a hospital and
circulation, corridors, exiting and the ADA, American Disabilities Act, dictate how
much square footage is required for a hospital that are National Standards that they
work with and is required for any community hospital. The chart Russ showed
was not in the packet but will be made available to the commission which showed
the proposed square footages based upon what the code says we need and the
deficiency. The National Standards dictate the number of beds needed, the privacy
factor, support spaces, storage facilities and very little of this was provided in the
old facility. The modern standard for operating rooms is 600 net square feet the
existing operating rooms at AVH are from 390 to 440 so they are not at the
standard and everybody knows that AVH does a lot of orthopedic surgery and it is
equipment intensive and the rooms are very crowded and don't meet contemporary
standards. Russ said they are a big part of the Phase III application in terms of the
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes October 30 2012
PUD. Russ reiterated the Phase I and Phase II along with the food service moved
to the front of the building. Russ with power point showed what was completed
today and what will be completed with the inpatient lobby to the building and the
parking structure connected to the right connected to the hospital on a basement
level and a level below that which also serves receiving and food service for the
new kitchen. Phase III is a combination of expansion and renovation just as Phase
II but a bit smaller is scope of the project. From the power point Russ showed the
new construction and renovated areas.
Russ spoke about the current emergency accesses and how important it was to be
able to have walk in patients separated from Ambulance delivery patients. The
helipad was originally on the roof of this second story is being moved down to the
first floor to keep it out of the view of the neighbors and reduce the some of the
massing of the building.
Russ said Phase IV is really the extension of the new outpatient and there is a small
portion added onto the building and the cafeteria but it is mostly renovation. Russ
said they are trying to reorganize the hospital so all of the inpatient functions stay
in the back of the facility accessed by a separate entrance and all of the outpatient
functions are now along the front.
Russ said the current update to the facility are in the booklet that show the cleaned
up facility and overall facility ground meaning the 1 st and 2nd floor are basically the
same but have added more square footage to the basement level. Russ said they
have reduced square footage on the second floor to balance the amount of square
footage above ground. They have decided to take the bulk of the mechanical off
the roof of the building and locate it in the basement to reduce the visual impacts
and potential noise impacts to the neighbors. Russ said also by putting the
equipment in the basement it gets it out of the elements and increases the life span
and saves energy by putting them inside. Russ said this gives you a sense of how
much less construction is involved in Phase III as compared to Phase II.
Russ said there was natural landscaping in the rendering and a sense of what the
Phase III and Phase IV will look like.
Dave said through the construction of Phase II we have been having discussions
with the neighbors as much as we can and Frank Goldsmith has a monthly meeting
at the hospital to have neighbors look at the progress of Phase II and any problems
they might have; Frank also has an HOA meeting and meets with the Whitcomb
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting— Minutes October 30 2012
Terrace residents. Dave said there were a lot of people here tonight and he was
anxious to hear the feedback.
Bert Myrin said he wanted to know what P&Z was supposed to be looking at; the
site review today was internal. Bert asked about the 3 bullets on page 2 of the staff
memo; how does the internal layout relate to those 3 bullets on page 2. Jennifer
said with the scale of this project she didn't think that the details were at the lst
meeting of land use reviews. Jennifer said that you can start to talk about the
Growth Management Review of Commercial Development which is the medical
office space so we will be talking about that and the allotment for that and the
mitigation for that because they are proposing additional medical office space.
Jennifer said the Essential Public Facility is the Hospital and you may go with a
recommendation to City Council on that for that Growth Management. Bert asked
from the 3 things if this should be the size it is being proposed, twice the size or
half the size. Jennifer answered Russ said what their space needs were so that was
what their space needs are; what does the hospital have now for space, what are
their needs and how does that translate into square footage and also understand that
in the conceptual approval was granted on this project. Bert asked if the internal
layout is important for us to consider. Jennifer said the design standards of today
are driving the request before you and you might want to talk about understanding
those needs. Leslie said that this property was publically zoned and any
development in public zoned district requires a review by Planned Unit
Development. Leslie said appendix H in the application would help because it
talks about the entire site which is roughly 18 acres and defines your dimensional
requirements based upon the entire site.
LJ said usually you put exhibits in the memo and I know this is just a presentation.
Jennifer stated you will have more exhibits in the next hearing. Leslie stated the
applicant presented this in the application from the applicant's perspective.
Cliff Weiss asked staff about Phase II and the outcome of Phase II; is he allowed to
ask questions or request information regarding Phase II. Cliff said the outcome of
Phase II has some influence on his thinking about III and IV. Debbie Quinn said
the purpose of the hearing is to review III and IV or not to do an action on Phase II
unless somehow it relates what is going on in III and IV. LJ said that he would
agree that there is a link.
Stan Gibbs asked about demolition recycling walking through today seeing the old
PCU being torn apart and there is a huge amount of materials and he wanted to
know what you think is going to happen because III and IV will be a lot of the
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes October 30 2012
same recycling. Steve Selby, service manager at the hospital, stated there was
roughly about 70% recycling of all of the stuff and at the end of that gets presented
at the end of project everything is weighed at the recycle center. Stan asked if the
mechanical that is being screened will be moved to the basement as part of Phase
III and IV or is that still going to stay outside. Russ replied that is remaining
outside with the large screen and needs to be outside because it requires a certain
amount of air ventilation. Leslie said that they did a noise level analysis prior to
conceptual and we just completed another noise analysis in the neighborhood and
put a new one today and the results will be provided to you on the noise with Tom
Dunlop scheduled before P&Z on the December 4th hearing.
LJ asked Leslie about the helicopter having about 70 or 80 decibels and since you
moved the helicopter pad do you have to review this study again. Leslie said
according to Howard McGreggor and Tom Dunlop the relocation of the helipad
from the second floor to the 1St floor does not change that reading that they got. LJ
asked if it was closer to the nearest house. Leslie replied that it is further away
from the nearest house from its current location and she will ask Tom to answer
that question in his report. Russ said from relocating it down to the ED it is much
further away for anyone in the neighborhood and virtually invisible to them.
LJ asked if they had data on what the current grade is and what the grade will be
when you are done with this. Leslie replied they submitted a rooftop plan that has
spot elevations to identify height because the grade changes so much on the
footprint of the building. Russ said they were basically digging out a portion of the
site to erect this building. Cliff asked if this should be ready for the second
meeting.
Public Comments:
1. King Woodward, public, asked about the existing things on the top of the
roof, are those big things going to moved to the basement. Stan said that his
question was about the chiller on the northwest corner of the building with a
screen around it. Russ replied that one of the units that serves the existing
surgery department will be moved but the other ones are not; they are being
replaced with new units that are actually smaller in physical footprints and
they will be behind the high wall of the lobby so from the ground you won't
even see them. Russ said with the new technology we are adding 3 new air
handlers in the basement and replacing the other 3 on the roof.
2. John Keleher, public, asked for a count of the number of air handlers on the
roof and tell us how many are going to remain on the roof and there is a new
large air handler unit on top of the physical therapy area, unless you want to
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes October 30 2012
put that in the parking garage and get rid of the lights. John said that you
just completed a noise study and asked where they put the monitors for that.
Leslie said some were put on somebody's decks. John also said that the
light were an issue.
3. Jack Silverman, public, said that he seconded John. LJ asked where the
lights were located.
4. Bob Raphelson, public, said that he lives on Castle Creek Road and
appreciate the services at the hospital. Bob said the hospital has become
gargantuan for a town of 6,000 people and a little bit of an attitude that if
you build it they will come but more than that the county has issued a
guideline that this is a scenic road and shall not be distressed by certain kind
of building. Bob said that he was in favor of cutting off anything new; there
were 2 speed bumps and the sign for them was about 2 1/2 feet before them.
5. Hal Fore, public, said he lived in Meadowood and too look at the new phase
we have to look at phase I1; there is an incredible lighting problem,
especially at night. Hal said it was light up at night like 42nd and Broadway.
Hal said before voting on Phase III and IV we have to clean up I and II
especially the lighting aspects.
6. Dorothy Fore, public, said that most architects are not lighting experts; there
are lighting designers and experts and she wondered if the hospital consulted
lighting people. Dorothy said after being away and coming home at night
from the highway you could see the hospital lights like the X-Games.
7. Junee Kirk, public, said she looks at this hospital directly, the traffic and the
lights and costs efficiency. Junee stated when this hospital was built it had
60 rooms and then the hospital reduced the rooms to about 25 and we are
now an outpatient hospital. Junee said everyone before me stated she agreed
with but it follows the National Guidelines for square footage but we are a
hospital in a small community. Junee asked if we were providing more
services and she answered no,just subsidizing orthopedic surgeons offices.
8. Gram Means, public, said he was a neighbor of the hospital and he wanted to
talk about the lighting because it was a major issue. Gram said in the City of
Aspen there is no other building that has this level of lighting. Gram said
the parking garage is hung with tarps because the lighting is so
objectionable; it casts an aura. The loop road was lit with 12 foot lights and
they are lowering them. Gram said that Planning & Zoning needs to back up
and take a look at the existing lighting and question the need for a lot of it
and the design of it and in the future III and IV needs to limit it.
9. Dr. Balko stated that he was a physician in the hospital emergency room and
he asked for Phases III and IV because of safety issues, the way the patient
rooms are designed we could have a bad outcome and need a secure room
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting— Minutes October 30 2012
where patients can be monitored. Dr. Balko said there currently are curtains
dividing the patients from one another and we are constantly bumping into
one another and there are privacy issues.
10. Nancy Hall, public, said she has the same concerns that other people have
expressed. Nancy said the hospital used to be below the tree level and now
it is next to Meadowood Drive and looks like a big mechanical building.
11.Peggy Carlson, public, said she lives in Meadowood and the loop road was
supposed to be for fire emergency only and there is a bay for ambulances on
the loop road and it presents more traffic and 5 physicians parking spaces.
The lights and traffic need to be addressed.
12. Becky Ayers, public, said she has been a volunteer at the hospital for the
last 24 years and thought the improvements that they were making were for
the good. Becky said that she lived in Meadowood and she wasn't bothered
by the construction and once it is landscaped it will be something that we are
very proud of
13. Crystal Logan, public, stated that she worked at the Aspen Institute and
applauds you for your leadership and foresight for approving this project and
some of the phases. Crystal said that she has toured the hospital and the
construction company and Dave's team have done a great job. Crystal said
that she was in favor of the project and when she worked there 15 years ago
people used closets as their offices and was happy with this upgrade.
14. Steve Wicks, public, stated he was absolutely in favor of phases III and IV
and wanted you to be on the lookout for booboos; the gaping mouth of the
garage from Castle Creek Road he wished that he had foreseen that but
didn't. Steve said there was an L-shaped stairwell and window that was the
large expanse of glass may be need to be lighted in the wintertime.
15.Bart Artzen was a radiologist at the hospital and has been at AVH for 16
years and the beauty of the area drew him here and you people need to keep
in mind is the word quality; what we are doing is really really good as is the
service. Bart said that this is a 30 year footprint and we cannot make those
standards happen with the footprint that we have.
U closed the public comment section of the hearing.
Dave said he got the light and in the garage in particular and make the time to
come back at the next meeting to replace the draping which is very unattractive
and accomplish addressing the light in the next meeting in greater detail.
The commissioners were all concerned about lighting.
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Jasmine asked for a copy of the hospital standards and the square footages of what
we have and what the standards are what the deficiencies are.
Cliff said that we have had 3 site visits and the hospital needs to make more
outreach to the community.
Keith echoed Jasmine and Cliff with examples to the community.
Jim said he understands why the expansion is being done but the hospital needs to
educate the public more.
Bert was reading the April, 2006 minutes and all the same comments were about
light and noise; that seems to be reoccurring. Bert said we heard about the things
that can be fixed. Bert read from the staff memo of April 2010 that the loop road
would only be used for service traffic for the function of the hospital so nothing
was new tonight.
MOTION: Jim DeFrancia moved to continue the hearing on the AVHMaster
Facility Plan for phases III and IV to November 20`h, seconded by Jasmine Tygre.
All in favor.
Continued Public Hearing:
616 E Hyman — Conceptual Commercial Design Review
LJ Erspamer opened the continued public hearing for 616 East Hyman—
Conceptual Commercial Design Review. Jennifer Phelan noted that this was a
continued hearing for 616 East Hyman which was last heard on October 16th and
the application was reviewed for conceptual commercial design. Jennifer said the
one issue that was not resolved was the building height, since that meeting she
asked the applicant to submit sections of the building and a roof plan so the
commission could understand better how the building will be built with floor to
ceiling heights and floor to floor heights. Jennifer said that was exhibit G of the - - - -
packet. The roof plan is included on the first page (page 25) with color coding.
Jennifer said the elevations were on pages 26 and 27 you can see the actual floor to
floor height and the floor to ceiling heights. Staff is still recommending that the
building come down to 36 feet rather than the 38 that is being requested. Staff
feels that the roof parapet which is 18 inches could be removed and it would
reduce the height right there and if you reduced 6'inches floor to ceiling height on
the 3rd floor you would be down to your 36 feet.
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes October 30 2012
Cliff asked what the commercial core was for C-1 on the 1 st floor are we okay.
Jennifer said the floor to ceiling heights are a discussion at final commercial
design. Jennifer said that we saw one code at the time which did not have a floor
to ceiling height but the commercial design standards talk about minimum floor to
ceiling heights.
Mitch Haas of Haas Land Planning introduced Andy Wisnowski and Les
Rosenstein from Poss Architecture and Planning. Mitch said they were at 40 feet
on the building height at the highest points of the building and dropped down a
little bit. Mitch used power point to show the changes except they were in a mirror
image and with Charles Cunniffe's Building next to it and showed the 10 foot
piece and the 9 foot. Mitch said the parapet functional purpose as a drainage
system and from the street perspective looking up from the street you won't see the
parapet; there is a reason that all of the old buildings have parapets because they
are an important feature. There is not a parapet on the second story behind the wall
because you are recessed back.
Mitch reminded the commission that this whole block was going through a
Renaissance if you will; the building on the corner was going through a change
with a 37 foot height limit; between that building and this building, the Charles
Cunniffe Building that was approved by HPC with a 38 foot in the back portion of
the building. The Crandall Building already has portions of 3 8 feet and the other
side of the street has everything bigger the Garfield Hecht Building is 36 to 38 feet;
The Muse building is 38 feet and the Museum is 57 feet. Mitch said if you want to
see over that Museum you need to get as far back as you can which is what we
have tried to do. Mitch said 1.24 they have followed the letter of this one precisely
using one or more of the following; setting back upper floors to vary the building
fagade profiles and the roof forms across the width and depth of the building.
Mitch said they have set back the upper floor and varied the roof form heights and
if we lower the roof to 36 feet it will be a flat roof all the way across the upper 3rd
floor. Les showed the next slides where the building drops from 40 to 38 feet; he
showed aerial views.
Cliff said the 1 st floor is 12 foot from floor to floor, the 2"d floor is 11 foot and the
3rd floor is anywhere from 12 feet. Jennifer said the floor to ceiling heights are
from 9 to 11.6 feet and you add 2 feet extra feet for structure so you are going from
11.6 to 13.6 and an extra 18 inches for the parapet. LJ asked if you didn't have the
parapet you would be within the code. Jennifer replied it would be 6 inches off;
the floor to top of the parapet runs from 12 feet 6 inches to 15 feet depending on
the area of the building because there are different floor to ceiling heights on the
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting — Minutes October 30 2012
3rd floor. Mitch said the qualitative measurement mitigates the quantitative;
looking at it the setback, the architecture elements, variation of the roof height
takes all of that number that we are focusing on. Andy said that you can see from
these images they are not going to be seen.
Jim said the issue is 2 feet. Mitch replied right. Jim said staff wants 36. Jennifer
replied yes. Jim asked why are you expecting 36. Jennifer said if you look at the
design guidelines granting additional range in variation in building they are talking
about the street fagade so you don't want every cornice line at the same height on
the whole block so you want undulation of different buildings. Jennifer said there
doesn't seem the basis for height in granting the additional height variance to meet
the criteria in the commercial design standards.
LJ said the canopy was at 36 feet. Andy said it was below that and it helps to
screen that height to some degree.
Stan asked what drove thQ size of the 3rd floor. Andy replied that floor area
controls the size of the area. Stan asked if there was a lot of mechanical on the
roof. Andy responded there would be a little mechanical shed in the back and we
have mechanical down in the basement. Andy said it was in the roofline section.
No public comments.
Commissioner Comments:
Jim said that he would support this application with the 38 foot height. LJ asked if
the parapet was the just going up or does it have to do with the ceiling. Bill Poss
explained the parapet was like a curb on the roof that helps control drainage, helps
screen things. LJ said and that was 18 inches high. Mitch said that was correct.
Jasmine agreed with Jim because the 38 feet is only going to be for a portion of
that top floor and seems to be a reasonable compromise and when you are faced
with a monster across the street everything is going to look minuscule. Jasmine
said that is not a reason and unlike Jim she really didn't care for the architecture; if
there weren't those big panels in front the top the heaviness of the building would
be greatly improved. Jasmine said the compromise fits well enough into the code.
Stan said we have to look at the intent of these guidelines and look at 1.23 the new
building should reflect variation but more importantly it is about the massing that
this building presents and there is a lot of variation because of the way that this
building is designed.
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Regular City Planning & Zoning Meeting—Minutes October 30 2012
Bert said he was reading the guideline from the 1.23 which was pretty clear when
we can grant height variances is to achieve different levels in heights; primary
function of this building is civic; some portion of the building is affected by height
restriction where it may be appropriate for affordable housing or demonstrate
energy efficiency. Jim said it makes a demonstrable contribution to the building's
energy. LJ asked what section of the code were we talking about. Jennifer said it
was on page 24 of the guidelines. Mitch said the standard was 1.23 everything
below that were guidelines.
MOTION: Keith Goode moved to extend the meeting to 7:16pm, seconded by
Stan Gibbs. All in favor.
MOTION: Jim DeFrancia moved to approve Resolution 20 approving the
conceptual design review for 616 East Hyman shall not exceed 38 feet in height as
represented in the attached exhibits; seconded by Jasmine Tygre. Roll call: Stan
Gibbs, yes; Keith Goode, yes; Cliff Weiss, yes; Bert Myrin, no; Jasmine Tygre, yes;
Jim DeFrancia, yes; LJErspamer, yes. APPROVED 6-1.
n
Jennifer said the applicant asked for a second motion to add all other dimensional
requirements except for the height shall be at final design review and the existing
public amenity space is 420 square feet.
MOTION: Jim DeFrancia moved to accept the motion to add all other
dimensional requirements except for the height at 38 feet shall be at final design
review and the existing public amenity space is 420 square feet; seconded by
Jasmine Tygre. Roll call vote: Bert Myrin, no; Keith Goode, yes; Cliff Weiss, yes;
Stan Gibbs, yes; Jasmine Tygre, yes; Jim DeFrancia, yes; LJErspamer, yes.
APPROVED 6-1.
Adjourned at 7:20 pm.
SA�- Ak-tz)
ckie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk
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