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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.19930920 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 20. 1993 Diane Moore, planning director, told the Board this is Aspen Highlands general submission application for the county and is comparable to the city's conceptual submission. This meeting is to go over threshold issues and not to get into specifics of the plan. Leslie Lamont, planning department, said it is staff's recommenda- tion to use the Aspen Area Community Plan to review this applica- tion because it gives the most recent guidelines. The Community Plan is metro in scope. Staff looked at the housing, commer- cial/retail and open space recreation sections of the AACP to review the Highlands plan. Ms. Lamont said the Community Plan emphasizes the need for a balanced community between permanent housing and tourist accommodation. The action plan recommends the rate of growth be reduced to 2 percent and recommends the growth management allocation in the metro area be reduced to 7 free market units, 53 affordable housing units and 24 lodge units. The plan also identifies a peak population, tourist and residential, of 30,000 people. The action plan makes a strong recommendation to modify the growth management system and not have such a heavy emphasis on infrastructure but consider balancing the community and the character of the community. The AACP suggests a more permanent community is should be stressed. Ms. Lamont reminded the Board to get to the recommended numbers of free market and affordable housing, an analysis was conducted. Out of this came the peak permanent population. Build out scenarios were identified and neighborhood planning areas were used. Some neighborhood planning areas were from past studies. The Cas- tle/Maroon Creek NPA was used for the Highlands. When the build out was used for each NPA, the existing zoning was taken into consideration. Ms. Lamont pointed out the September 7 memo lists the numbers of the Castle/Maroon NPA as well as the proposal for the Highlands Village application. Ms. Lamont said the Highlands numbers are wi thin the NPA buildout; however, the Highlands application would use all the permanent residential and visitor seasonal numbers for the entire Castle/Maroon NPA. Ms. Lamont told Council the applicant proposes a one to one conversion, the existing lodge unit allocation currently available at the base of Highlands converted to 77 single family homes. The goal of the AACP and the balanced permanent community was to decrease the number of free market units available in the annual quota for growth management. The Aspen Highlands project represents 11 years worth of free market GMP allocations. Ms. Lamont reminded the Board that the GMQS measures the impacts of growth. The growth action plan emphasizes a need to balance the communi ty. Ms. Lamont said the people that worked on the plan felt the seasonal and second home community was already well represent- ed. r'"""""'" .......".-, 1 ,- ,.<'f"."'- - ~ PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 20. 1993 Ms. Lamont said the build out and analysis in the AACP were premised on the existing zoning in the community. Only the housing section of the AACP recommends upzoning for housing. Nowhere else in the plan is rezoning recommended. Highlands is one of the few areas zoned for a highly intense tourist use. This zoning reflects a desire to locate tourist accommodations at the base of a ski area. Ms. Lamont said if ultimate build out at the base of Highlands is shifted and precludes short term tourist accommoda- tions, other areas may be planned to accommodate more of the tourist units. This would further skew the balance between the permanent and tourist accommodations. Staff finds the Aspen Highlands Village is inconsistent with the growth action plan for two reasons; (1) the conversion from lodge to residential units muddles the recommended rate of growth of 7 free market and 53 affordable housing units annually and (2) it skews what could ultimately be the peak population of 30,000 units. The AACP does not recommend rezoning anywhere else to accommodate the desired result of a balanced community. Bruce Kerr asked how the 7 free market units would be split between the city and county. Ms. Moore said the consultants and staff are working on this and it will be brought back to P & Z before the end of the year. Sara Garton asked if the Board agreed to the conversion idea, would there have to be rezoning. Ms. Lamont answered yes. Ms. Garton said she likes the 2 percent growth rate so that the city can watch the plan and adjust numbers if neces- sary. Ms. Garton asked if staff reviews property tax to make sure the impacts of this type of project will be paid for. Gideon Kaufman, representing the applicant, told the Board they did a very complicated analysis and detailed every impact. There was be a positive cash flow for the community from this project in terms of property taxes, RFTA, sales taxes, etc. Glenn Horn said they analyzed every special district, the county and city general funds and there are significant annual positive benefits to all these funds. Tim Malloy, planning department, told the Board the county hired a consultant to analyze this work regarding fiscal impacts. There is agreement with the basic methodology. One outstanding question is whether there will be a significant increase in the mass transit system necessary to accomplish the reduction in traffic, there may be increase in the cost to operate that transit system. Horn agreed the applicants were not able to pinpoint the costs to RFTA. The applicants show a recurring surplus to RFTA of $450,000 annually given the present level of services; however the services will probably change. David Brown asked the size of the houses. Kaufman said 49 are 4,000 square feet and 28 are 6100 square feet. Brown said the AACP says new residential development should be 60 percent affordable housing This application appears to be in the 20 percent range of affordable housing. It is in the right direction; however, it is 2 / 1""'","", '- ~"'1<-, \"'--- t""'""'"' "- PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 20. 1993 not quite in compliance with the AACP in the percentages. The percentage of affordable housing should be higher than this application. Horn pointed out Highlands area has been gathering allotments over the years. They received some credits for tearing down the Maroon Creek lodge, as well as 49 credit from the Lodge at Aspen High- lands. Horn said there is a financial consideration of being able to finance and build a hotel, the type of mix that would be desirable at Highlands as well as on-site affordable housing. The affordable housing had never been part of the 300 room hotel with no on-site housing. Horn pointed out when the original approvals were given in 1986, it was still all right to take care of affordable housing by cash-in-lieu payments. Horn told the Board the project will not work if a change in the mix for the base development is made. Horn said the single family homes are too important to the project to string the approvals over many years. Kaufman said in 1983 there was a mix that worked, the lOdge-hotel. In 1993 this does not work. To accumulate residen- tial units from 1993 to 2003, the economics would change again. Horn said the initial premise was to take the mix assigned to the project which received general submission approval, the two large hotels, and try to define the impacts associated with that mix and keep the impacts for the new mix relatively the same or less. Horn said they looked at employee generation and trip generation as those of most concern to the community and tried to define an equitable trade out to the community if allotments were switched from tourist accommodation to residential units. Horn said in theory with growth management, when allotments are granted by city or county, the staff is to start preparing the budgets to deal with the impacts of the allotments that have been granted. Horn said if the units change from tourist accommodations to residential, it should not affect the way the local government provides services. Horn said this does not address what is the appropriate mix from a community balance. Horn said in the vision scenario of the AACP there was a vast number of rooms in the Castle/Maroon area allotted to this site. The AACP has plugged in the 750 rooms associated with the vision component. Horn pointed out other than Highlands, there are not a lot of areas in the Castle/Maroon NPA that will be developed. Horn said the Highlands plan suggests a conversion of lodge units to single family homes. Horn noted single family homes can be phased much easier than a large hotel which comes on line all at once. Horn said the applicant is willing to agree to a phasing schedule as part of the PUD agreement to guarantee the community when the impacts of this project will come on line. Horn said there is more to the growth rate than how many units come on line 3 ", PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 20. 1993 at a time. Horn said the AACP does not supersede the growth management plan. A major feature of the 1976 growth management policy plan was to determine a growth rate that this community can sustain based on the ability to provide services and the fiscal impact associated with growth. There was a recommendation in the AACP that one year after the adoption of that plan that the city and county would come back with a fiscal assessment of what it would mean to pitkin county to grow under the rates suggested in the AACP. Horn said there are implications for the city and county to grow at the rates suggested in the AACP. By skewing the growth rates to affordable housing, there is a subsidy to affordable housing both when it is built and annually. Horn said the community balance issue is only looked at from one perspective in the AACP, which is the balance between resident and visitors community. Horn said community balance should be broader than that. Horn said there are more tourist beds in Aspen than in Snowmass Village; however there is more ski terrain in Snowmass. This means transporting skiers from Aspen to Snowmass. Increasing the ski terrain available in the Aspen area would help to deal with the balance of beds, ski terrain and transportation. - Horn said the factors used for population projections in the AACP were 3 people per lodge unit and 3.1 persons for each free market unit. This forms the basis for the 30,000 population cap set in the AACP. This figure influenced the applicants in figuring out the conversion rates between a lodge room and single family house. Horn said the average household size in the county in a 3 bedroom house is 3 people, which is the same as was used for projections for a lodge room. Horn said for a 5 bedroom house the county code suggests the population would be 3.5 people, which also equates to a lodge room. Horn said for every bedroom added over 3 bedrooms, there would be an additional .25 lodge rooms associated with the trade out. The conversion factor for a lodge room to a single family house would be 1.5 lodge rooms for a 5 bedroom house and 1 lodge room for a 3 bedroom house. Horn requested P & Z comment on whether or not conversion is a plausible idea. ,......,,;....... Kaufman stated there are approvals of 349 lodge units in place for the base of Highlands. There is growth targeted for this area in the AACP. The applicants tried to look at the impacts and examine how they could deal with these impacts, like transportation. The applicants tried to examine the existing problems and come up with solutions. They came up with a village that worked in terms of mitigating the impacts and tried to tailor the project to what is reality today. Kaufman said converting lodge rooms to "second homes" is still dealing with the same sector of the population. This is not converting housing suitable to long term residents or affordable housing and moving it into another category of popula- tion. '- 4 /"'''''"'- - r'-' - .1""'"' '- PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 20. 1993 Kaufman said the applicants would like P & Z to agree to flexibili- ty, to agree there is a need to accommodate the growth wi thin different structures as long as the impacts are dealt with. The measuring stick should not be nothing versus this proposal but should be the existing approval of 349 units versus this project. Kerr asked what is contemplated for the phasing. Horn said the first year would be the capital improvements, like parking structure, water and sewer. The second season would be the construction of either the hotel or the condominium units, 'Skier services and retail in the village. There is no base lodge anticipated in this project. The second season may also see the beginning of construction of single family houses. Horn said the construction would be an 8 or 10 year process. Brown said this proposal allows transportation services in focused development to occur in the built up community and focuses single family homes around this transportation hub rather than up the Maroon Creek valley. Roger Hunt said his concern about the conversion from lodge to single family is the disbursement from the focal point, out of lodges, into homes which would work adversely to a transportation system. Horn agreed this is a problem for single family residences as it decentralizes. A municipal utility district was added including a dial-a-ride program targeted at the single family houses. This, in conjunction with lack of parking downtown, would make transportation attractive to single family houses. Kaufman pointed out they will control access out of the village for the single family houses. Ms. Moore asked if the applicant plans to compete for lodge units in the future. Horn said they will compete for 20 lodge units this year. The competi- tion has been put off until October 1st. Malloy pointed out the applicants have not submitted a GMQS application for any residential units to augment conversion. Horn said the applicant cannot commit to buying the project without knowing he has an allotment and a project. Competing on a multiple year basis will not work for this applicant. Tim Mooney said the conversion idea does not work for him; it is not an equitable arrangement. Mooney said the applicant needs expensive single family home sites and the community feels it needs a balance between single family home and affordable housing. Mooney said this does not fit the vision of the AACP. The applicants might have fit the conversion formula more closely to the percentages of affordable housing envisioned in the AACP. This project will change the character of the community and the way the community works. Mooney said he has problems with the underlying premise this plan is based on because of the conversion factor. Mooney said the community does not need 77 more second homes. 5 r"""'''''''' .- ,~..."" ~ - i '- PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 20. 1993 Brown asked if the balance were more in keeping with the AACP, would this be acceptable to Mooney. Mooney said yes because ,this growth is planned for the base of skiing, in an area sited for growth. Mooney said if there was a real effort to help the community with employee housing, resident occupied housing, and transportation and more of the needs of the community, he could support it. Mooney said if conversion is the heart of the application, what is the trade off for the city and county. Horn said if affordable housing is increased, there are neighborhood objections to the amount of development in the area. Mooney said the conversion does not work for him without more benefits for the community. Mooney said this project seems to be a project for growth's sake rather than balancing out the needs of the community. Mooney said the number of units has to remain the same but within those numbers the applicant should create a better balance of community needs. Mooney said the employee housing should go in first, then the skiing. Roger Hunt noted the AACP came up with a balance of what makes a viable community. This balance should also be applied to the Highlands Village. The transportation system should be viable year round rather than seasonal. Sara Garton said the AACP did not envision these 77 homes as seasonal homes. Ms. Garton said she does not support converting lodge units to seasonal homes. Ms. Garton agreed she would like to see a better mix of affordable housing. Brown said he does not have a problem with conversion; however he does feel this should be more in balance. Brown said what should be balanced or mitigated is the difference between the previously approved square footage and this request. Horn said the first approved project is a 30-person dorm, 300 lodge rooms and 49 condominiums. There was no community balance in this project at all. Horn said this application is trying to get more balance ~y bringing the employee housing on-site. What P & Z is saying ~s that more balance of mixes of affordable housing is needed in the added units at Highlands. Kerr said if the choice is what is already approved versus this plan with some revisions, he would hope the community would get behind this plan. Ms. Moore presented a memorandum outlining parking, transportation, development of a gondola connection, trails, and the connection with adjacent developments. Ms. Moore said one issue is increased VMT (vehicle miles of travel), which relates to the quality of life as well as air quality considerations. Ms. Moore said including all the mitigation techniques proposed by this applicant, there is still an increase in VMT. Staff feels the net increase has to be mitigated. Ms. Moore said the plan is geared around a high 6 1'- ..........' -- .~ ,r-, \"",-" PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 20. 1993 utilization of transit. Some issues are the point of origin for the transit riders, how to insure the residents ride transit. Ms. Moore said an important aspect of the community plan is the recognition that the community cannot keep building their way out of problems. The traffic demand management program is the way to address the behavior of drivers in the area. There will be a paid parking program at the Highlands. Brown said it would be a good idea to refer this to RFTA and get their comments. Brown said impacts on all transportation, including coordinating school traffic and commercial entities up the Maroon Creek valley, have to be looked at. Ms. Garton complimented the applicant for addressing so many different areas of transportation other than just vehicles. Mooney pointed out the Forest Service has restricted traffic to the Maroon Bells for years. The applicant should do everything they can to keep the VMT to a minimum. Mooney said he favors the inter- mountain connections. xi city Clerk 7