HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.19900116
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 16. 1990
Chairman Welton Anderson called meeting to order at 4:30pm.
Answering roll call were Graeme Means, Richard Compton, Bruce
Kerr, Michael Herron, Mari Peyton and Welton Anderson. Jasmine
Tygre and Roger Hunt were excused.
COMMISSIONER'S COMMENTS
Mari: I thought we were supposed to get since the code was
redone a kind of hand book for new Planning Commissioners. What
they were talking about was a guide for anyone who is involved in
review processes to de-mystify the jargon.
Leslie: I don't remember it being discussed but I know there is
a book like that. It is a generic book that was put out.
Mari: They were talking about doing one for the City of Aspen.
I think it was for people who come into the Planning Office for
them to be able to look at it.
Leslie: We plan to come up with something just regarding the
housing replacement program and of the various elements that you
have with affordable housing.
STAFF COMMENTS
None
PUBLIC COMMENTS
None
MINUTES
AUGUST 15. 1989
Mari made a motion to approve minutes of August 15, 1989.
Bruce seconded the motion with all in favor.
MINUTES
JANUARY 2. 1990
Bruce made a motion to approve minutes of January 2, 1990.
Michael seconded the motion with all in favor.
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CONSENT AGENDA
Welton:
agenda.
I would entertain a motion to approve the consent
Herron: I so move.
Mari seconded the motion with all in favor.
OBLOCK TOWNHOUSES SUBDIVISION
CONDITIONAL USE. GMOS EXEMPTION
PUBLIC HEARING
Welton opened the public hearing.
Leslie made presentation as attached in record.
Graeme: Why were they excluded? Was it just an oversight?
Leslie: I think there is 2 things going on. No one anticipated,
I mean, when we look at multi-family development we primarily
look at GMP process which through the GMP process we get deed
restricted units.
Welton:
called?
Let's be distinct as--what is employee housing now
Affordable housing?
Leslie: But you have under
accessory dwelling units and
middle or moderate income.
considered mumble
is how we allow them as the
duplex.
the employee housing a grow up--
you have deed restricted to low,
Accessory dwelling units are not
We do not consider the unit---That
GMQS exemption in single family and
Herron: This all came from the user-friendly code?
This application called for an accessory dwelling unit that are
only resident, not income.
Leslie: Accessory dwelling units are only deed restricted to
residents. And those are different from when we have deed
restricted low income or mod. Low income or mod become units of
density and we don't have the ability to approve an accessory
dwelling unit____mumble___according to code.
Graeme: So they could come in and say "We have got these 9
rights and then they have the 1 that they are doing.
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Leslie:
there.
Because they are replacing a building that was already
Graeme: And what would they have to supply for affordable
housing for that 1 unit?
Leslie: Nothing.
Sunny Vann: Just as a point of clarification. The application
does not request exemption from employee housing requirements.
The TDRs that are being used have provided that a housing
previously instead of having free market fees revert in this case
mumble
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Leslie: Staff is recommending that we don't take a vote and make
a recommendation today that we do it February 6th when we will
have the affordable housing issue cleared up.
Vann: We really don't have a lot of problems or issues with most
of the conditions. But we would like to show you some site
plans. (This he did)
This will be a condominiumized project. We are going to do 5
units of free market on each side. The corner units on both
parcels each contain an accessory dwelling unit. The applicants
wanted to include those units as part of those free market units
because we believe they are beneficial to the project. We have
deed restricted to the resident guidelines. I guess I screwed up
when I wrote the application. I just recently did the plat
amendments to the 700 E. Main Project in which we agreed to
provide multiple accessory dwelling units that were recommended
for conditional use approval by the P&Z and subsequently approved
by the City council. The conditional use language and the
language that refers specifically to accessory dwelling units
makes no mention as to their being limited to single family or
duplexes. However when you read the growth management exemption
provision under GMP it does limit it to single family duplex.
Since the applicant is willing to provide them, if we are not
allowed to provide them, we have to remove them it would seem to
be to everyone's best interest to amend the code to allow them so
that the conditional use review would not force us to put them
there but you need to review on a case by case basis.
We cannot convert them simply to affordable housing units--deed
restricted units because they count as a unit density. We would
have to then eliminate free market units or to include them as
deed restricted employee units. So they would be accessory
dwelling units which do not count as density and then the 10 free
market units as well.
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The other issue has to do with encroachment license that City
council will approve. It is up by review by the P&Z but we would
like some support from you to city Council. The parking for the
project is provided sub grade. The parking is only required for
the free market portion of the project. We have proposed however
to provide parking for the accessory dwelling units as well on
site.
In order to keep from having multiple ramps we have one access
ramp which access the below grade parking garage. It is well
back from the west end to eliminate turning movement problems and
it reduces vehicle circulation in the alley itself. In order
then to connect the 2 we have to encroach underneath the alley.
There are some existing utilities in the alley. WE have made
arrangements to design this in such a way that they would not be
adversely impacted and this allows us to reduce the amount of
internal circulation of the garage and to provide additional
parking which otherwise would not be required.
The Council in the past has expressed both support and reluctance
to approve such encroachments. It is not absolutely essential to
this project. It can be done with 2 ramps. It does require
additional garage space below grade for circulation purposes and
it would require us to loose several parking spaces. So we are
looking for some measure of support from P&Z that this, in fact,
is the best solution to solving the parking problem and
circulation for a sub grade garage.
The Planning Office is of that opinion as contained in the memo
prepared for you.
Public improvements: We are in a designated sidewalk curb and
gutter district of the City. We agree to put in sidewalk, curb
and gutter. This area receives a lot of pedestrian movement
because of the parking along Cooper, along Durant access on
Little Nell and there are basically no sidewalks in this area.
We have agreed to work with Parks to install those sidewalks in
such a way that they would not adversely affect the vegetation.
We also propose to improve the alley. Since we are going to be
using it to access the subgrade garage, we want to pave it. We
are going to be landscaping with our own back here because
the units of course will face both south and north. And we
believe it is a public convenience to have that alley improved.
There are presently on the property some large Evergreens right
about where our ramp is. They are right at the edge of the
property. This application envisions removal of those and
transplanting those Evergreens. The Parks Dept however has
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expressed concern based on past experience when trying to move
trees the size of these. What we are prepared to do as part of
the subdivision improvements agreement is to seek professional
expertise in the relocation of those things--to locate them at a
satisfactory location to the satisfaction of the Parks Dept and
to bond the cost of those trees as determined by an independent
3rd party so that in the event the trees do not survive that a
substantial amount of money representing the current value of
those trees would be available for the Parks Dept to use in
replacement vegetation at their discretion. So at the moment
this does envision the removal of these trees.
Graeme: You said that there were 3 lots to the west of these?
Vann: There are 3 here.
the corner here. Because
constitute Parcel A have
Parcel B have merged. But
thing as a unified parcel.
There is a mUlti-family condominium on
of the merger provision the 6 lots that
merged and the 6 lots which constitute
we are proposing to develop the entire
The problem is if you are going to put the parking below grade to
reduce the impact, you pretty much have to excavate the whole
site. So the ability to maintain them in this area where the
ramp goes down is precluded under this design scheme. The idea
of putting the ramp at this end of the property so that there is
some stacking capability in the alley for people coming and going
mumble is not that particularly a highly trafficked street
but it is a-Iot better than having the ramp for example at this
end of the alley.
Welton: Wouldn't residents be just as inclined to come in off of
Original Street as they would off the West End Street?
Vann: It is possible. They can come in from this way as well.
This is based almost mid block at this point.
Compton: Regarding the trees and the design you have, would it
make any difference if the ramp were in to the north parcel
rather than the south.
Vann: In other words flip flop. The trees ar in a cluster so
basically it requires to reduce the size of the subgrade parking
garage. Once again it is a trade off. We would lose the
parking--since we have a mandatory requirement of 1 per bedroom
on the free market, these are 9 threes and 1 two. There is a 2
bedroom over the ramp because of the necessity of going down. We
couldn't eliminate--there is not mechanism to eliminate the free
market. And there is no mandatory requirement for the accessory
as you know people have cars so if we have to give up the parking
so what we are doing--
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Compton: Assuming you have one ramp, why does it have to come in
to the south parcel rather than the north and if that would make
any difference in the saving of those trees?
Vann: If you came in here in order to save the trees we would
have to take this unit off and cut the garage back to here. The
ramp actually has to be in that location.
Welton: I want to know more about those trees and the ramp and
the--there is 3 parking spaces that happen right under where you
generally said that those trees would be. And those 2 that are
right under the ramp would be the least--they are the most
inaccessible of the parking spaces in the whole parking structure
way at the end of a long runway.
I am wondering if--not knowing exactly where those trees are if
that corner right there--if the ramp was moved a little bit to
the east and that corner was left as a high island with the
excavation happening around it, would it be possible to save
those trees.
Vann: We would be happy to take a look at it.
?: The two western most units mumble in order to save those
trees they need enough breathing room and it is really impacting
to those units. They would have to be significantly refigured to
give that tree breathing room to preserve those trees.
Welton: Which on the Durant street elevation having less mass on
that highly pedestrian, highly traveled street, perhaps having a
little bit of relief between the Bergdorf and your project might
not be a bad idea. Maybe a little vest pocket park or something
between the 2 buildings would not be a bad idea.
Vann: The alley is an interesting question. The whole business
about fixing the alleys hadn't come up when we first did this
back in September and instead of having instead of as you walk
down the alleys now where there is multifamily or duplex which is
basically the same thing, because of the height requirement you
have got steep paved ramp that goes down to the ground level
parking instead of separate parking garage. There is no ability
to landscape so each alley is just a blank wall and a series of
parking ramps. So by putting all the parking below grade this
was an opportunity to create instead of just a blank canyon, an
landscaped space with some grass etc. Then when we were going to
do this we decided to just pave it too.
?: I think we all know that there is a significant amount of
mature Evergreens that surround this property both on the
property and in the City ROW. We have done our best to hold this
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facia of the building back far enough so that we are not going to
be undermining those trees by excavating too close to them during
construction.
Vann: The open space requirement in
must be visible from the public ROW.
10ft, 5ft on the side and 10ft on the
the RMF zone is
The front yard
rear.
35% and it
setback is
The face of this building is about 22ft set back. In the rear it
is about 35ft to the fact of the building, and 5ft at the side.
Mari: I think the trees ought to be put in Rubey Park.
MOTION
Herron: I make a motion that we have the Planning Office just
draft a recommendation that we will then approve on February 6th
so that we don't have to go through all of this allover again
and it will be fresh in our minds what conditions we want to
impose and what conditions we want to approve rather than have to
make a whole new presentation and have to go through this all
over again.
Welton: I would feel more comfortable going through the
conditions before making the motion.
Herron: They said they didn't have a problem with the
conditions.
Vann: Only the ones we addressed.
Welton: The conditions you identified were building under the
alley, accessory dwelling units.
Leslie: If you are going for the accessory dwelling units, it is
a conditional use approval.
Bruce: My question is what are you going to recommend to Council
next week as relates to the accessory dwelling units? Are we
going to recommend a code change to allow accessory dwelling
units as a GMQS exemption, single family or what are you doing
with City Council next week?
Leslie: If we--we would ask Council to direct us. To do a code
amendment means a 2 step process. If Council feel comfortable
and staff feel comfortable that Council can just direct us
mumble I think what we will be looking at is accessory
dwelling units in new mUlti-family buildings. What our fear is
and what we don't want to get into is Centennial, Hunter
Longhouse or any of these existing multi-family buildings
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becoming condos and things like that and if what I would be
looking at would be accessory dwelling units in new buildings
where you have the ability to look at the space and build the
space into it as the whole thing is being developed.
Bruce: So you are asking Council to make a code interpretation,
is that it?
Leslie: Right. Either to make a code interpretation and direct
us to clean it up or to direct us to do a code amendment__mumble.
And we are planning to go forward with a package of code
amendments either at the end of the month or the beginning of
February.
Vann: So long as the applicant is concerned it is a one step
conditional use review by the P&Z. I don't have a problem with
approval of those accessory units. In other words conditional
use approval with a condition that the language be cleaned up
prior to us pulling a building permit. Then if Council declines
to amend the code for multi-family, I can either delete them,
convert them to square footage for free market purposes or for
whatever. I prefer to keep them. That way you would not have to
look at it again conditioned on this review.
As far as the accessory dwellings are concerned there is a memo
requiring 300sqft. These are 450sqft. So they are generous.
They all have outdoor patios.
Welton asked for any public comment.
There was none and he closed the pUblic hearing.
Welton: How do we want to address the 5 issues that you bought
up, Sunny?
Vann: If we want to talk about the issues tonight then Leslie
and I will hammer out the specific language and we will see them
again on the 6th. And as far as the ones I brought up I think
Leslie touched on accessory dwelling unit and it is in your memo
(attached in record) as #1 and I would suggest that the P&Z
concur that that be revised to reflect that conditional use
approval for accessory dwelling units in this project is approved
by the P&Z subject to Council's resolution of the language
problem in the current GMP exemption.
Herron: By the time we see this again, it is already going to be
done by city Council.
Vann: The only thing that is going to happen by Council on
January 22nd is to review the City Attorney's response on TDRs.
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Welton: Your condition was taking accessory dwelling units and
putting them into affordable and you are looking for a reading
from City Council as to whether or not the accessory can be
incorporated into this as if they were affordable without the
deed restriction on them.
Leslie:
proviso.
We are also looking for info from you guys on that
How would you like to see this happen?
Bruce: I think on existing multi-family kinds of structures,
affordable or caretaker units added into that density. I think
on new projects where we are addressing affordable housing I
think on new projects there ought to be something that we can
approve as a conditional use.
Mari: I agree with that.
Vann: As far as the other 3, I would attache not so much a
condition but the P&Z' s position regarding public improvements
and the encroachment license. I would put in the WHEREAS on the
P&Z resolution for the 6th meeting your support or your lack of
support for public improvements and the encroachment.
Leslie: #4 we discussed the improvements--ROW improvements--
Vann: All this says though is the City's policy is currently
unresolved and we should be required to join an improvements
agreement in the event one is ever formed. What I am looking for
is something from P&Z that suggests that we handle this with a
unified garage and one access point or not do it that way or they
would prefer that we install sidewalk and gutter or that we
don't.
Graeme: The trees, I think are fine. I think there is plenty of
new trees and I think that those others could be put somewhere.
The encroachment would be fine with me also. It seems to make
the thing work and I think there is a lot of at-grade space that
is created because of the underground parking solution. I don't
some of the problems with those encroachments. There might be
some good reasons that I am not aware of.
Vann: I will tell you of my experience with trying to process
them. The bottom line is a project will be built and if we can
make it work better I think it is in the pUblic's best interest.
I don't think it is a util i ty issue because we are required
pursuant to the conditions to design it to the San Dist and the
utility company's specifications.
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Graeme: My final thing is on the sidewalks and stuff, I am not
in favor of sidewalks in every area of town. I think it would be
a benefit to have them here.
Leslie: Engineering does not
encroachment license application.
from the Eng Dept.
object to proceeding with an
That application has to come
Vann: That application is part of this submittal.
Mari: I agree with all the points that Graeme made.
Compton: I agree with what Graeme said. I am glad to see that
there are plans to put some sidewalk over on Cooper street. I
think that is badly needed. I would be in favor of paving the
alley and that single access providing it satisfies whatever
Engineering forms there are.
Herron: I would like to recommend that we use the trees on the
golf course.
Welton: I don't have a problem with the parking underneath the
alley. I think it is why encroachments were invented. You could
actually get a lot more cars in the area under the alley than
what you have shown. Whether it ends up being just tunnel or
actually just parking it doesn't--I think it helps in a very
congested parking part of town.
I think the accessory dwelling units need to be--the oversight
needs to be corrected. There is so much pedestrian traffic in
that area that any beginning of sidewalks in that area is a help.
I am not in favor of moving the large Evergreen trees and would
like to see the ramp moved to jog slightly one way or the other
or however it can be done and that unit to be re-worked or
eliminated to provide a little bit of green space, a little bit
of relief along what is going to tend to be a very built up whole
solid block between the Bergdorf and the old Hundred. A little
relieve aside from streets and alleys would, to my mind, be a
worthwhile tradeoff.
I think more alleys we can pave, the better to get down dust and
dirt and all the mess of winter. One of your conditions, #5,
Ample clearance into the underground garage for proper trash
collection. I don't think that a BFI truck is going to be able
to ever get down that ramp or will they ever go down that ramp if
they ever try it once.
Vann: That is one that I am going to verify with Engineering.
Basically the way we have it set at the moment, we have a central
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deposi tory in the tunnel. And then we would have management
responsibility to bring that up to a central collection point.
Welton: I know we don't get a change to look at it after we look
at it on the 6th of February. I would like to have a better
indication of what the buildings look like. There is lots of
nice little curves that remind me of another subdivision with a
lot of nice little curves.
Mari: That one that won an award?
Welton: I would like to get an indication of what the
architecture looks like. And in particular something that is one
of my pet peeves and would like to see change being made to and
that is walls along property lines. Is this going to be a walled
enclosure. If not what is it going to be? Is it going to have
gates? Is it going to be a fortressed west end street? What
kind of atmosphere is it going to have for the pedestrians using
Durant. Is it going to be them on one side of the wall and this
on the other? So I would like to feel comfortable with that when
we look at it again.
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Vann: So far as the walls are concerned I believe the
application talks about a low brick wall. The reason being is
the open space regulations have been amended such that the open
space has to be visible from the street. We will be happy to
comment on that when we come back on the 6th.
We will be happy to show you the architecture which is not
germane to subdivision review. This is not a PUD. But we would
be happy to bring work in progress and try to show you some
perspectives or where we are heading with respect to design of
the project.
Welton: It is just to make the commission more familiar and more
comfortable with something that is going to be a very dominant
element on Durant Street for a lot of years to come.
Vann: There seemed to be a consensus on all of the issues with
the exception of Welton's comments regarding the relocation of
the trees. Is that shared?
Herron: I would like to see the Planning Office bring back this
resolution with the conditions just as we have talked about
tonight. I don't have any problem with the trees. I don I t
believe anybody else did other than Welton.
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MOTION
My motion is that we go along with the conditions. We are in
favor of the conditional use. We are in favor of the conditional
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use. We are in favor of paving the alley and the other sidewalk
and curbs and gutters. We are in favor of the encroachment. I
personally think the encroachment can be as wide as the alley is.
And I have no problem with the removal of the trees as long as
they are done on the basis that they are going to be put to some
good use. And I think the golf course is a good use for big
trees.
Vann:
granted
that is
Unlike previous situations where the Parks Dept simply
a permit, we are willing to bond those at a fair price
established by an independent party.
Herron:
That is my motion.
Mari seconded the motion with all in favor.
Welton closed the public hearing.
Meeting was adjourned. Time was 5:45pm.
.
Janice M.I Carney, ci
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