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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19890206Continued Meeting. Ashen City Council Februarv 6, 1989 Mayor Stirling called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m. with Councilmembers Isaac, Tuite, Gassman and Fallin present. FINAL SPA - Rio Grande Tom Baker, planning office, told Council P & Z feels comfortable with the design that evolved through final SPA for the library. Baker said P & Z felt strongly that the open space piece on the southwest corner where the library sits was very important. Staff did not agree with this and felt since the city is looking at a plan f or the Rio Grande, that the 11 acres of open space that constitute the playing field and along the river was significant enough that the southwest corner should be dedicated to the building to reduce some of the mass of the library. Baker said staff would have like to see some alternatives to see the change in the north facade. P & Z felt that open space opened up Mill street in an area adjacent to the Jerome and mitigated a potential canyon effect. Baker said the architects reworked the design, and the result was very satisfactory to P & Z . Gary Ross, architect for the library, said they were locked into the entrance coming in off the alley/Mill street intersection rather than of f the face of Mil l street , because of the req ui rement to tie the main level of the library into that elevation and the roof plaza of the parking structure. Ross said this entrance will also be visible from the Mill and Main intersection and be in an accessible location. Ross said the library is within the height limitations of the other buildings in this area. Ross said the detailing and material s wil l be compatibl e with the other st ruc- tures. Ross said the library elevator will serve all the floors of the parking structure as well as the library. There is handicap access from both sides of the building. Baker said an issue is cost sharing between the library and the city on improvements around the site. Baker said the library was under the assumption that the city would pay for the work all the way through the alley. Ross said if the library tears up the curb and gutter on the Mill street side, they should be responsible for fixing it. Ross said the upgrade of the alley was not necessary for the library functioning. Ross said it was necessary to fix the grade at the west end of the alley because of the transit system. Baker told Council P & Z req uested Council consider that the pedestrian travel ways be snowmelted, if possible. P & Z felt it essential that the stairs be snowmelted. Baker said the big cost item in snow melting is the boiler capacity. The library is looking at doing some snow melting of their own and perhaps oversizing the boiler capacity so this could be a cooperative venture. Ross said the library will be heated with hot water and they will have a lot of boiler capacity. Making a small upgrade 1 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council - February 6. 1989 to the boiler will not cost the library a lot of money. Ross told Council the area to be snowmelted for the parking garage is as far away as it can be. Ross said the cost of extending the piping and the heat losses running through an unheated parking garage will offset other alternative means of providing snowmelt. Ross said the library will offer the capacity in the boiler. Council said they will talk to RNL and put this one off. There is cooperation on both the elevator and snowmelt. The library is expecting the city to deal with the alley. Ross said the big costs with the alley are relocating the utilities. Councilwoman Fallin said the alley needs to be fixed regardless whether anything happens on the Rio Grande. Baker said the library has agreed to service the parking structure with an elevator in lieu of the library's parking req uirements. Baker said to get an exemption from the growth management q uota system, the impacts have to be mitigated. One of the impacts was parking. Because of the uniq ueness of this situation and parking adjacent, P & Z felt it would be redundant to have the library pay for parking and requested the interior library service the parking facility. Ross said the library had hoped to be on the same construction schedule as the library. Ross told Council the library's lowest level is about 30 feet below the library. The library cannot backfill against that wall until they get the floors in place. Ross said it will be August before the parking structure gets to that point. Ross said it will take about a year to complete the library. They are looking at a summer 1990 completion date. Fred Gannett, city attorney's office, reminded Council one issue is whether the Council is going to give or to sell the land to the library. Gannett said he is working on the assumption Council will give the land to the library. Gannett has drafted some deeds between the city and county eliminating the reverter clauses and some deeds between the city and library. Gannett said this will cause a subdivision. Gannett said the city will need to get a survey of the ground that either the county or library will be getting. Gannett told Council Dr. Oden said he would facilitate a gift to either the city or the library and forgive the city the outstanding liability for this property. Oden would like to negotiate for the building the library currently owns. Gannett said a survey is needed and the issue is who pays for the survey. Chuck Vidal, library board, told Council the Oden proposal is very preliminary. Vidal said the library will pay for the survey. Vidal requested Council sponsor rezoning the existing library site, which is currently zoned public. The rest of the block is zoned office. Vidal said it would enhance the marketability of the property if it were z oned office . 2 Continued MeetinQ~ Aspen Citv Counc~~. Februarv 6, 1989 Councilman Isaac moved to direct P & Z to begin the process of rezoning the library site from public to office zone; seconded by Councilman Tuite. All in favor, with the exception of Mayor Stirling. Motion carried. Councilman Tuite asked if there will be a way to pull up to the library for drop offs or waiting. Ross said he will need to meet with the city engineer about a drop off. Ross said they will install a remote book drop outside. Councilman Tuite asked about the space underneath the open space pl az a and if there wil l be rooms under there. Ross said there will be nothing there. Councilman Tuite said he hates to see space go to waste. Vidal told Council he has talked to the county about this space. Vidal said this does not fit in the library's budget and they do not need the space. The county is considering adding and paying for the space for additional storage. Jon Busch, CCLC, said their concern is the pull out on Mill street and the elimination of the parking. Busch said the library project is removing a lot of existing surface parking. Phoebe Ryerson said there was a proposal to put public radio and television adjacent to the library. This underneath space might be used as a downtown studio. Vidal said it is a difficult space to make habitable. Tom Martin said this is the last chance to use 8 city blocks to their fullest. Martin said the city should be looking at parking 2500 cars. Martin said the city should stop everything and look at what is happening on the property. Martin said since the Rio Grande SPA has started, Council has also stated that all cars should be taken out of the downtown area. Martin said he would like an opportunity to show his conceptual plan to Council Baker said condition #7 about how the elevator for the library can function f or the parking structure can be eliminated. Baker suggested the sentence on the cost sharing for the alley can also be deleted. Vidal said he would like Council to consider closing and landscaping the alley driveway, if at some point RFTA does not use it for a transportation loop. Council suggested this be done through an SPA amendment. Ross said this alley is not in the SPA. Councilman Isaac said he feels the alley is very necessary for circulation. Lennie Oates, representing First National Bank, said they would have a problem with the alley being closed. Mayor Stirling said he is not enthusiastic about replacing the parallel parking with a drop off. Councilman Tuite said something i s needed to get people of f the street f or a drop off . Busch said there are pull offs either on the alley or the roof entrance. Councilman Tuite moved to create a drop off for the library; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. All in favor, with the exception of Councilman Gassman and Mayor Stirling. Motion carried. 3 Continued-Meeting- - Aspen City Eouncil F~~ruary 6.-1989 Baker presented site plans for the parking garage. The original plan does not effect the playing field. P & Z has recommended a change which would effect the playing field. Baker said an issue that has not been ironed out is the fee structure for the parking facility. Another issue is whether the parking facility can support an ice rink. Baker told Council the parking facility can handle either a landscape plaza, an office or residential building. P & Z felt a landscape plaza could work. P & Z wanted to make sure the options are kept open for the future. Roger Hunt, P & Z, told Council they wanted to make this space as people oriented as possible and keep the flexibility for this space in the future. Steve Newman, RNL, told Council structurally the parking structure can accommodate an ice rink. Newman said from a water proofing standpoint, a surge of water or leak could be a problem for the water proof membrane below. Newman reminded Council this is a roof of the building as opposed to ground. Newman said the columns and foundation of the parking structure are designed to take an additional load of a building on top. Baker said staff did research on fees for the parking structure trying to balance the desire to attract as many people to the parking facility as possible and paying for the structure. Baker said the 1/4 penny sales tax will not allow the structure to be free and service the debt. Baker said a $1 flat rate will encourage people to leave their car in the facility all day and will handle the debt service. Newman said Council needs to decide in the next 2 months what type of fare collection devices will be used. Newman said some other cities that have parking garages use the fare collector as an information person also. Newman said there could be an automated booth at the Mill street entrance and a person at the Spring street entrance. Council agreed unanimously on a flat fee for the garage and req uested specific recommendations from staff on how it would work best . Councilman Isaac req uested staff look into long term passes for the garage. Councilman Tuite asked the height of the garage entrance. Newman said it will be 7' 6", sufficient for a tall vehicle with a ski rack on top. Mitchell asked if the current budget will allow for changing the grade on the alley. Newman said their plans are only to upgrade the alley to the wall of the library. The elevation change is further west. Newman said there is not money for alley regrading in the budget for the parking structure. Mayor Stirling moved to direct staff to investigate these costs and add them as alternative to the bid documents; seconded by Council- man T uite. All in favor, motion carried. Council asked if the garage has made an allowance for snow melt on the entrance off Mill street. Newman said the only things they 4 Co tin Me t-' - - - - - A en Cit Co c' Fe u r 6 1989 have planned for snow melt are the stairways. The driveway is not snow melted. Newman told Council in an effort to lower the mass of the library, the service drive entry of the library has begun to sink down. The elevation from Mill street to the entry of the fourth level of the garage is only a 2 percent slope. With a 2 percent slope, it does not need to be snow melted. Newman said if the parking garage is working with the library to accommodate their lower level elevation, there will be an 8 percent slope. Newman said he will have to work with the library on this. Newman said snow melting is an additional expense to the project for which they do not have the budget. Lennie Oates, representing Cap's, told Council he is concerned about staff's concerns over the land trade. Staff has suggested there be some alternative to a land trade; Cap's would get easements of an exclusive nature or land that could not be used for values of condemnation. Oates said Cap's has worked with the city all along, has cooperated in the promotion of the election. Oates said Cap's wanted to wind up with a viable piece of property in order to continue it's operation. Oates requested Council to direct staff to proceed with a di rect land exchange . Mitchell told Council once the site was surveyed, it was determined that the land trade was 1 to 8 instead of 1 to 4; the city is giving up twice as - much property as originally thought. This will be increasing the value of the property. Mayor Stirling moved to direct the city manager to work with Cap's and bring a report back to Council no later than February 27; seconded by Councilman Isaac. All in favor, motion carried. Tom Martin made a presentation to Council on uses for the Rio Grande property. Martin said the property could house 2500 cars, an athletic field, ice rink, conference center, city/county buildings and employee housing. Jeffrey Evans suggested Council have a study session with RNL and go through the entire budget line by line. Evans asked if, after going through the budget, there was sufficient money to put Spring street where P & Z would prefer to see it, is Council open to that alignment or against that align- ment. Mitchell told Council there are 6 people who will be bidding on this project . RNL will be finalizing the construction documents. What is going out to bidders is the plan Council approved. If Council changes that alignment, RNL will have to come up with different construction documents. Mitchell said changing the alignment has generated about $18,000 additional costs. Mayor Stirling agreed Council should review the budget. Newman told Council March 6th is the bid opening. RNL will then have a low bidder with whom they can go through the cost breakdowns. Mayor Stirling suggested the parking structure budget be scheduled for the March 27 meeting. Busch said P & Z 's alternative is twice as many surface parking spaces. RNL has said it will cost $200,000 5