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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.19990629ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29, 1999 Jasmine Tygre, Vice-Chairperson, opened the Special Aspen Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting at 4:35 p.m. with the following members present: Roger Hunt, Roger Haneman, Ron Erickson, Tim Mooney and Tim Semrau. Steve Buettow and Bob Blaich were excused. Staff in attendance were: David Hoefer, Assistant City Attorney; Mitch Haas, Joyce Ohlson and Julie Ann Woods, Community Development; Nick Adeh, Engineering; Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk. COMMISSIONER AND STAFF COMMENTS Roger Hunt stated that when they voted against an approval it did not give City Council any reason why P&Z denied the project. He suggested that a second motion be made to give the reasons for that denial. David Hoefer, Assistant City Attorney, suggested a second motion with a resolution stating the reasons for denial. Joyce Ohlson, Deputy Community Development Director, noted that would convey a message to Council for the reasoning behind denial. Jasmine Tygre concurred that would be a good approach. Ron Erickson stated that the planners have summarized the commission's reasoning; a formalized format would be beneficial. DISCLOSURE OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST No conflicts were disclosed. CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING (06/15/99): ASPEN MOUNTAIN PUD CONCEPTUAL, LOT 3 and LOT 5 Jasmine Tygre, Vice-Chairperson, opened the continued public hearing on the Aspen Mountain PUD and requested the proof of notice. David Hoefer, Assistant City Attorney, stated this was previously noticed and met the jurisdictional requirements allowing the commission the authority to proceed. Tygre stated that staffdid a good job separating the issues. Lots 3 & 5 were part of the same PUD, but were not contiguous parcels with very different applications. Mitch Haas recommended, for organizational purposes, they begin with Lot 5 tonight and proceed with it until concluded. Lot 3 would be discussed after Lot 5 was concluded. Sunny Vann, applicant's planner, stated this was a completely different proposal for Lot 5. Tygre noted the primary focus was the conceptual review criteria. Haas said there were many review processes to go through and the hotel proposal would go through GMQS exemptions, scoring for growth management allocations, rezoning, special review and final PUD. He noted that the proposal for Lot 5 of the 1 ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 PUD was the Grand Aspen site. Lot 1 was the Ritz Development, Lot 2 was Summit Place Development, Lot 3 was the Top of Mill (part of this PUD), Lot 4 was Galena Place and Lot 6 was the Ice Rink. Roger Hunt stated this was the Aspen Mountain PUD Master Site Plan. Haas summarized the proposal with the lot size at 86,610 square feet, of which 13,540 square feet lie within vacated Dean Street, leaving a net lot area of 73,070 square feet. There were 150 hotel units (132 standard rooms and 18 suites)and on- site housing for 12 employees (4 one-bedroom and 4 studio units); 8,000 square feet of meeting space; 2,750 square feet of restaurant and 800 square feet of bar space; 2,400 square for the kitchen; 500 square feet of accessory commercial space; lobby and support space with a total of 106,780 square feet of FAR; 22,000 square feet of open space on Lot 5. A total of 106 below grade parking spaces were accessed off Galena Street, just north of the Tipple Development. Haas said the hotel was described in the application as a 3 ½'A' moderately priced up-scale hotel with a 4'A' restaurant. The primary mass was located on the Dean Street frontage and the elevation slopes from front to back with the height remaining consistent cutting into the slope. The Main Entrance was in the center on Dean Street where Dean Street was vacated and becomes one-way for passenger drop-off and valet parking area; there was pedestrian entrance on the comer of Dean and Galena Streets. Dean Street and all the front area would be landscaped and planted with trees along the southern property along the trail. Haas noted the standard rooms were about 390 sf each and the average suite about 650 sf. The proposal committed the rooms be maintained as 150 units even though suites could be more than one room. There would be 8 affordable deed restricted employee units on the southern side at the garden level in the building. Along the street frontage on the first level was the restaurant space at Mill and Dean; the lobby occupies the central area and the one shop on the Dean Street frontage as well. The parking was subterranean with 106 spaces accessed off Galena Street. Haas stated the main issues were outlined below: Density and Lodging Growth Haas explained the anticipated or theoretical approach to growth management quota approach was that after the development of the Ritz (St. Regis), there was to be no new lodging growth with the exception of the 50 credit units from the Grand Aspen. Originally the Grand Aspen was to be demolished with no new hotel built in place of it. Haas said these 50 credit units were included in the PUD and would be considered new growth with new impacts. He said that from another perspective, 2 ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 the community has more or less accepted the impacts from the Ritz (St. Regis) while the Grand Aspen continued to operate in different capacities over the years. The Grand Aspen capacities, prior to winter 1995-96, provided 150 unrestricted lodging rooms while the Ritz was in operation beginning December 1992. Since then, 50 rooms have been unrestricted in the winter and 38 were reserved for Savannah employees and 62 rented to groups needing a minimum of 20 rooms. In the summer instead of the groups, there have been 75 rooms reserved for music students. Haas said the proposed density for the new hotel would be considered a wash (150 rooms), with an increase of 8 employee dwelling units, 520 square feet of food and beverage space and 8000 square feet of meeting space. He said the other part of the growth analysis was that the Grand Aspen continued to operate since 1990, while 264 additional lodge rooms have been added (7 L'Auberge & 257 Ritz) and at the same time at least 317 units have been lost (see memo). He said these figures did not include the demolition of the Grand Aspen this fall, which would add 150 rooms to the total loss. Haas stated that staff supported the proposed density on Lot #5 provided that all housing mitigation requirements were met. Ron Erickson stated that the liked it but voiced concern for the project in maintaining the level of approval. He said that the moderate price was needed. Roger Hunt said the density was fine and liked it so much better than the condominium proposal. He said that the moderate price was important. He agreed that the density belonged in this zone. Tygre summarized the commissioners comments on density and number of rooms by stating they were not a problem. She said this was the appropriate place and location. Housing Haas stated there was agreement with Housing and the applicant that there were 40.9 net new employees created by the development. There would be a series of audits in the future. Haas quoted the applicant from the 1990 ballot language that the Bavarian Inn was proposed by the applicant as an additional benefit unrelated to any mitigation of Phase I or Phase II. The Bavarian Inn was additional affordable housing inducement to the voters to pass the amended Aspen Mt. PUD subdivision. The ballot language as approved stated suitable affordable housing project must be built at the Bavarian Inn site regardless whether or not anything was built in Phase II. There was nothing found in the record regarding the use of the Bavarian Inn for 3 ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 future mitigation, therefore the Bavarian Inn site should not be available for use of any employee mitigation; the Housing Board and Staff agreed that the Bavarian Inn was part of a long over due obligation to the electorate and recommends denial of the use of the Bavarian Inn for any kind of mitigation. Haas noted that Savannah had a different opinion of the issue, which would be covered in their summary. In summary, if City Council and City Planning & Zoning should accept the Housing Board recommendation, Savannah would then be required to provide housing for 40.9 employees. If decided that the Bavarian Inn could not be used to house these employees, then Savannah would need to house them either on site or in another off- site location approved by City Council. Haas noted the current proposal would provide housing for 12 employees in the hotel and suggested the additional employee requirement for housing be met at the Bavarian site. Haas said there would be a reduction of hotel units if the employee housing mitigation were required on site and the employee generation would therefore also be reduced. He noted that on-site housing was a goal of the AACP and staff felt the entire employee mitigation for housing could be met on site, by eliminating some hotel rooms and converting the space to a mix of studio and one bedrooms. Haas stated these were included in the conditions of approval. Haas noted that in the recommended conditions P&Z would concur with the Housing Board. There was discussion of the Bavarian Inn as an off-site housing mitigation plan and the appropriateness of that site at all for mitigation. Tim Mooney asked how many employees were being housed at the Grand Aspen now. Haas said there were 7 or 8 now. Vann noted an agreement with the small lodges that restricted rooms rented at certain times of the year to the general public and could only be rented to employees. Mooney said as long as the employee mitigation was met, then he was happy. Roger Haneman stated a preference for on site employee housing. Erickson said he favored housing all employees on site and supported the Housing Office conditions. Hunt stated that it was admirable accommodating the net additional employees and would not want to loose rental rooms to house on-site. Tygre stated they wanted everything, but on-site employees might be better for attaining the requests of the guests and a smooth operation of the hotel. Traffic and Parking Haas stated that RFTA recommended that any off-site employees should be provided bus passes. Staff was provided traffic report from TDA Inc. and after review from Engineering, it was suggested a new traffic study be done using Pitkin County trip generation standards. The traffic analysis only included lodging rooms; 4 ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 the conference and restaurant space did not appear to be called out in the study. There were auto disincentives with fewer amounts of parking spaces than required. Staffwas not sure about that reduction because the code called for .6 spaces per lodge room, calculated at 106 spaces for this proposal. The 9 spaces for the Silver Circle Ice Rink would also have to be replaced as well as the 8 spaces for employees. Haas said the proposal should be augmented for the accessory uses and contractors. Haas noted the proposals for Dean Street were to become a one-way drop off with an enforcement mechanism (which was still needed) and that valet drop off be frequent. Staff recommended that only left turn movements be available. He said that a plan was also needed for delivery vehicles. Tim Semrau said that the traffic/parking has been worked on and with some more tweaking it will work. Mooney said the portico and design of the center of the building was nice but maybe did not function, as it should. Mooney stated the number of parking spaces needed to be met for all of the needs. Haneman said that with his experience, the Snowflake did not have enough parking spaces in the summer. He said there needed to be more than 106 parking spaces. Erickson said that 170 parking spaces seemed to be the number needed, plus a courtesy van to and from the airport was essential. Erickson noted there were short term parking spaces needed for the shops, restaurant or having a drink in the hotel. He said there was a circulation problem but on the whole they have done a great job. Hunt asked how you got from the portico area to the parking. He inquired about cars turning under the building. Sarpa and Vann responded that there were utilities, storm drains and the like underground. Tygre summarized the commissioners comments with additional parking and circulation needed more thought. Design and Height Haas commented that the architecture was victorian type in nature and described the uses of the levels, areas and street frontages. The height remained uniform as the grade climbed the building became shorter. He noted there was a height variance request from the 28' limit on Dean Street frontage to 40.6' at the peak. Haas noted that story poles were suggested to illustrate the proposed height. The 8 employee units would be exempt from GMQS and under the terms of the Savannah PUD agreement, there were 50 unit credits and therefore an additional 100 allocations for the growth management scoring competition needed to be applied for from the growth management scoring procedures. ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 Haas explained the GMQS provides for two types of allotment buckets: ~ the number of allotments available in a given growth management year © the total number of allotments for full build-out in the year 2015. Lodge units have a build- out cap set at 253 units and only 11 have been used to date by Hines Aspen Highlands Development leaving 242. There were 44 available for this year's bucket but there would be another 11 added to this year's bucket bringing the number to 55 for this year. The 45 needed would be applied and taken offthe future year allocations if approved. That would require a multi-year allocation for a project that was found to be an exceptional project as defined in the code; requiring compliance with the community planning criteria by City Council. If granted the proposal would still need to be fully contingent upon Savannah's obtaining necessary GMQS allotments. Haas noted that staff recommended approval with the conditions of approval listed in the memo. He said thos would have to be fulfilled. John Sarpa, applicant, stated that this project was first applied for in 1996 as a condominium which has evolved into a moderately priced hotel ($200-$300 a night), which was what our market needed. He explained that many consultants were utilized in the planning of the hotel keeping it as small as possible (150 rooms). He cited from ARACA that there were 232 pillows lost (beds) with 14% less business. Sarpa stated that they would house 100% of the net new employees to go beyond the requirement for employee housing. Sarpa commented that there would be a big hole in the ground for some time with the Grand Aspen coming down this fall. Sunny Vann stated the conditions were acceptable and explained the history behind the present proposal including the GMQS competition. He said the parking, traffic and access issues would be satisfied. Bill Poss, architect, explained the site design being an inverted "j" which allowed a reduction of mass. He said that Dean Street would be a quasi-mall pedestrian area with a tree-lined arcade including the restaurant, shops and main entrance with access to the gondola. He noted the Alpenblick owners have been contacted regarding the proximity of the windows facing them. ross said the articulated roof provided interest with a victorian feel. He complimented Haas on the presentation. He said the 9 Ice Rink parking would be kept off Dean Street. Ron Erickson asked how the 8,000 square foot conference spaces compared to other rooms in town. ross explained that it was more in line with the Little Nell conference rooms. Sarpa noted there was currently 3,000 square feet of existing meeting room space. Erickson inquired how many people the hotel would house in 6 ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 terms of rental rooms. Haas explained that the tourist accommodation allocations were one room to one unit without specifying size or type. Erickson said that the $200-$300 a day in the winter would be acceptable, but not in the summer. Tim Semrau asked if the employee housing was below grade, ross responded that it was located on the back side, garden level with an opening. Vann replied that if the Bavarian was not allowed for employee housing mitigation, then more units would be added above the garden level units. Roger Hunt asked about the equipment plan; if it would be located on the roof. ross utilized a blueline to indicate the location of the mechanical equipment and air handling units. The elevator shaft would not rise above the roof and were located in the center. Vann said the next meeting would include a roof plan. Tygre asked what the heights of the roofs were at what points, ross explained the 41 feet dropped down to 34-35 feet for the major portions; the building sloped back. Tygre asked specifically on one part what the height was. ross replied that it was 47 feet to the center and then 30 feet. Roger Hanemen inquired about cars returning to the garage, ross responded that they make a left and go around. Semrau stated that the articulation of the roofs was well done; he requested a bulk and mass model including the Ritz, for comparison. Mooney said it was better than the Ritz and the condominiums; he said this was a tough site, which was being handled well. Mooney asked if part of that 8000 square foot conference space was really needed or could it be better utilized as employee housing. Haneman concurred with Semrau on the model. Erickson stated it was a good design and seconded the need for additional parking. Hunt said the architectural design was good with the diminishment of height and the Dean Street faCade was good. Tygre also agreed with having a model. She stated the architecture in general was good with the central spine of the building stepping down was very attractive. Tygre said that 47' and 41' seemed too tall. rublic Comments Jack Crawford, Tipple Inn owner and president of the board, requested the front entrance be moved to over the parking garage so it wouldn't produce the kaleidoscope lights on their windows. He noted the parking in the area was a problem and felt strongly there be enough parking for the restaurant, hotel guests, ice rink and employees. He said if there was more parking than needed, then the extra spaces could be rented. 7 ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 Ron Krajian, Tipple Inn and Aspen Square, stated there was a need for more parking. He said that 150 more hotel rooms were probably more rooms than needed because in that general area there were over 600 rooms. David Booth, Aspen Lodging Company, introduced Doug Nehasil and Breck Overall, also from the Aspen Lodging Company. Booth stated that they represented almost 200 owners. Doug Nehasil, Aspen Lodging Company, asked if story poles could be placed on the site. He said that he agreed with Jack Crawford on the lights from cars. He requested that P&Z do a site visit. Ann Murchinson, 5th Avenue, stated serious concerns about parking and the access. She said that the street was narrow and the streets above were steep without a view plane. She said that more parking for service people, retail shoppers, etc., should be provided. Murchinson requested story poles and felt that the building was too tall. Brian Leisure, 5th Avenue, asked the height of the buildings. He asked if the flow of traffic from the parking garage could go the other way. Vann replied that there were two different levels involved. Ziska Childs, 5th Avenue, said this did not impact her personally as much as the Top of Mill. She said the traffic was horrible now and with the number of accesses from the garage, it would be worse. She asked if there could be only a pedestrian access, above ground, to this hotel. Sarpa stated that those hotels were in urban settings. Childs said there were fewer heads on fewer pillows and asked why more were needed. Tygre suggested that she be given a copy of the memo listing the numbers of rooms. David Booth noted the letter from Steve Fallendar. Tygre stated that letter was part of the public record. He asked for the demolition schedule and a traffic study with pedestrian access to the gondola. MOTION: Ron Erickson moved to extend the meeting until 7:30 so that the commission could finished discussions of Design and Height and the AACP. Roger Hunt second. APPROVED 5-1. (Semrau, no) ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29~ 1999 Consistency with the AACP Semrau stated this was the spirit of Aspen. Mooney stated he could not find fault with it and found compliance with mitigation. Mooney said this proposal was in the spirit of the AACP. Haneman noted it placed tourists downtown, close to transit and the market was a desirable attribute. Erickson said the project probably came closer than anything that he has seen so far in meeting the goals of the AACP. Hunt and Tygre concurred with their fellow commissioners. Vann requested the conditions be addressed to obtain a general feel from the commissioners at the next hearing. Vann said the only problem was the wording for the condition on the Bavarian Inn. Haas suggested that Savannah and staff review the conditions and then return to the commission. MOTION: Roger Hunt moved to continue the Public Hearing on the Aspen Mountain Conceptual PUD, Lot 3 and LotS, to July 13, 1999. Jasmine Tygre second. APPROVED 7-0. Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m. Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk COMMISSIONER AND STAFF COMMENTS ................................................................................................. 1 DISCLOSURE OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST .............................................................................................. 1 ASPEN MOUNTAIN PUD CONCEPTUAL, LOT 3 AND LOT 5 ..................................................................... 1 ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION JUNE 29, 1999 ~.~'~ COMMISSIONER AND STAFF COMMENTS ...................................................................................................... 1 DISCLOSURE OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST .................................................................................................. 1 ASPEN MOUNTAIN PUD CONCEPTUAL, LOT 3 AND LOT 5 ......................................................................... 1 10