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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20150120Regular Meeting Planning & Zoning Commission January 20, 2015 Ryan Walterscheid, Chair, called the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) meeting to order at 4:30 PM with members, Stan Gibbs, Jasmine Tygre, and Keith Goode. Also present from City staff; Debbie Quinn, Jennifer Phelan, and Sara Nadolny. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS There were no comments. STAFF COMMENTS: Ms. Phelan stated there are new appointments to the board to be sworn in on Monday, January 26, 2015. Ms. Phelan will conduct training for the new members. PUBLIC COMMENTS: There were no comments. MINUTES – January 6, 2015 Ms. Tygre moved to approve the January 6th minutes with the requested correction. The motion was seconded by Mr. Gibbs. The change was noted to be made prior to finalizing the minutes. All in favor, motion carried. DECLARATION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST None. Public Hearing – 500 Rio Grande Pl – Skate Park Expansion – Minor Amendment to a Detailed Review Mr. Walterscheid opened the public hearing for 500 Rio Grande Place – Skate Park Expansion. Ms. Quinn has reviewed the submitted affidavits of public notice as Exhibit F and found notice has been appropriately provided. Ms. Sara Nadolny, Planner Technician for the City of Aspen, stated this hearing is for a minor amendment to a detailed review and P&Z is the final reviewing body. The zoning for the location is Zoned Public with a Planned Development Overlay known as the Rio Grande Planned Development. The park provides both passive and active recreational opportunities. The skate park and basketball courts are part of the active opportunities. The applicant is looking to remove the basketball courts and expand the skate park into the same area which requires approval of a minor amendment to the detailed review. The City of Aspen Parks Department has performed observational studies, public outreach and surveys to gauge the desire for an expansion of the skate park. The results of the survey can be found in the 1 Regular Meeting Planning & Zoning Commission January 20, 2015 exhibits to the Staff’s memo. The public was in overwhelmingly in support of the expansion. The basketball court was shown to be underutilized and the skate park is heavily used by skaters of all experience levels which can create safety conflicts. An amendment to a detailed review approval requires the proposed changes to be basically insubstantial in nature or consistent with the allowance and limitation of the original detailed review approval. The detailed review approval in this case is the City of Aspen’s Civic Master Plan included as Exhibit C in the agenda packet. This was adopted by City Council in 2006 as a regulatory document. In regards to the park, the plan focuses primarily on pedestrian movement, borders to the park and urban edges which are already in place and not being changed by this proposal. The plan does encourage quality uses to draw people to this area of the park. Staff has evaluated the proposal and finds the proposed skate park expansion to be a quality use consistent with the requirements of the Civic Master Plan. The expansion is also consistent with maintaining an active use within the same space of the park. Staff has also found the proposal to meet all of the criteria requirements for an amendment to a detailed review approval. Staff is recommending approval of the proposed resolution. Mr. Walterscheid asked the commissioners for any questions of staff. Mr. Goode asked for an example of passive recreation. Ms. Phelan stated one example is the John Denver area. Ms. Nadolny stated the open green field is another example because it is not directed for specific use. Mr. Walterscheid turned the floor over to the applicant. Mr. Scott Chism, Parks Department Planning and Construction Manager, and Mr. Steve Cronin, Parks Department Landscape Designer represent the applicant for the proposal. Mr. Chism and Mr. Cronin provided a PowerPoint presentation of the proposal including demonstrating where the area to be changed is located, the streetscape features to be included in the expanded skate park, elevations of the features, connections between the existing skate park and the expansion, bordering landscape elements separating the adjacent trail and park areas. Mr. Chism added the streetscape features are designed to be at or above ground level instead of bowl type features. Mr. Cronin stated the raised boulder features along the border are designed to mitigate the sound between the skate park and the John Denver Sanctuary and to prevent the skate boarders from going out of the skate park area on to the trail and causing trail conflicts. Mr. Chism stated the resolution in the packet included conditions associated with geotechnical studies. He wanted to point out there has been quite a bit of studies completed for the park and various elements of the parks. The studies basically illustrate the ground water is not going to be a significant concern when it comes to the technicality of draining the space identified for the skate park expansion. 2 Regular Meeting Planning & Zoning Commission January 20, 2015 The soil is glacial till which is poor, but the ground water is very deep and more at the river level and not on the surface. Mr. Cronin showed the proof of the completed reports. Mr. Chism stated there are no ground water problems. Mr. Walterscheid opened for questions of the staff and the applicant. Ms. Tygre asked if Mr. Chism is suggesting they don’t need the conditions one and two as specified in the staff memo. Mr. Chism stated he had met with the City Engineering Department earlier in the day and the conclusion was they had provided sufficient information and an additional geotechnical study would not be necessary. He felt the conditions are not necessary because they will fulfill them with the information they already have available. Mr. Gibbs asked how the survey sample was structured as far as participants. Mr. Cronin stated they conducted two separate open houses two summers ago. The survey was conducted at two separate times during the day during busy and non-busy time periods. They also had a design review meeting in the following winter for the public to comment on the initial conceptual design. With the comments collected they asked the designer, Team Pain, to revise the design with another review following. They had 20 or so locals attend the meeting. Mr. Chism noted the events were publicly noticed. Mr. Gibbs asked if they were able to speak with anyone using the basketball courts or not. Mr. Cronin stated they had a couple of participants. He stated the basketball courts are underutilized and he rarely sees anyone using the courts. Mr. Gibbs asked if there are other basketball courts maintained by the City. Mr. Chism stated there are courts located at the Yellow Brick School, Waite/Robison Park, and the Tot Lot Park. Mr. Gibbs asked if they saw any winter use at the park. Mr. Chism stated they don’t actively remove snow from the skate park during the winter and they don’t plan to change that operation. He did not think it would be feasible to use the park given the amount of snow at the park. If it comes up, they will address it then. The first or second season after the current skate park was completed, there was a competition using snow skates. The event did not take off. Mr. Gibbs asked about the change to the impervious area. Mr. Chism did not know the exact measure but felt it would be similar to the current surface. The new surface will be concrete so it estimated an increase of about one-third. Mr. Gibbs noted the engineering department would follow up on it. Mr. Walterscheid then opened for public comment. Mr. Brady Hurley has been onboard with the skate park since it was built. He is a teacher at the middle school and is the staff advisor for the high school skateboard club which has over 50 members. He feels there is a significant number of people who would enjoy the expansion to the skate park. In regards to winter use, he stated it doesn’t happen often because there is not enough gravity to allow people to pump skis or snowboards to make it up the features. Mr. Josh Ganz has lived in town for seven-eight years. The skate park is the public recreational space he most frequently uses. Skateboarding and rollerblading has changed over the years and the expansion positively represents the changes. There is a rollerblading event that occurs late every summer which travels through the majority of the skate parks in Colorado. This year it came through both Snowmass and Aspen. Only about a third of the rollerbladers participating in the event stopped at the Aspen skate 3 Regular Meeting Planning & Zoning Commission January 20, 2015 park because it was so small. A total of 45-60 people showed that day at the park. He supports the expansion to the park. Mr. Walterscheid then closed the public comment portion of the meeting. Mr. Walterscheid then opened for staff and applicant rebuttal and clarification. Ms. Nadolny did not have further comment. Mr. Chism responded to Mr. Goode’s question regarding the estimated time to build the expansion and any closures to the existing areas of the park. They are proposing to start construction August 3, 2015 to minimize the impacts to the existing skate park as well as other areas of the park. He estimates the construction will be completed at the end of fall. There will be a short closure time of the existing park when they construct the connection between the existing skate park bowls and the new area. There is also a section of the trail that will need to be replaced once the construction has been completed. He anticipates this section to be rebuilt next year. Mr. Walterscheid then closed that portion of the hearing. Mr. Walterscheid opened the discussion between commissioners. Ms. Tygre moved to approve Resolution #4, Series 2015 with the removal of the two conditions listed under Section 1 that approves the request for a minor amendment to the detailed review for Rio Grande Park located at 500 Rio Grande Place. Mr. Goode seconded. Roll call vote; Mr. Goode, yes; Mr. Gibbs, yes; Ms. Tygre, yes; Mr. Walterscheid, yes. All in favor, motion carried. Mr. Walterscheid then adjourned the meeting at 5:03 PM. Cindy Klob City Clerk’s Office, Records Manager 4