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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.19940405 A-%' CJ . RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION APRIL 5. 1994 Chairman Bruce Kerr called meeting to order at 4:30 P.M. Answering roll call were Bob Blaich, Tim Mooney, Sara Garton, Roger Hunt, Jasmine Tygre ar;d Bruce Kerr. David Brown was excused. MINUTES Roger made a motion to adopt minutes of March 8, 1994. Jasmine seconded the motion with all in favor. STAFF COMMENTS Leslie: Our April 9th all-day joint meeting has been cancelled. We will now schedule a meeting for April 15. The agenda for the first couple of hours will be the parking issues, how the parking garage fits in with the whole system of what Council is trying to do regarding downtown parking. Then we will get into all of the design issues-- City Market, Kraut Property. ... PUBLIC COMMENTS There were none. 303 EAST MAIN STREET LANDMARK DESIGNATION Bruce opened the public hearing. Amy Amidon, City Historical Preservation: attached in record. Made presentation as Bruce asked if the applicant had a statement. There was no applicant present. Bruce asked if there was any public comment. There was none and he closed the public hearing. MOTION Jasmine: I move to approve Landmark Designation of 303 E. Main Street, Lot A and the west half of Lot B, Block 80, City and Townsite of Aspen, finding that standards B, E and F have been met. Roger seconded the motion with all in favor. , PZM4.5.94 '''-',''',,,...... UTE TRAIL TOWNHOMES SUBSTANTIAL PUD AMENDMENT Leslie, Planning: Made presentation as attached in record. Affidavit of posting and mailing was presented. (attached in record) Bill Lipsey, representative for applicant: Using blue prints described this project to the Commission. Roger: Is the walkway covered? Lipsey: That is covered. The roof goes over the entire thing. Leslie: Is the boiler and trash area included in the space where you set up the story poles? Lipsey: The story poles we put up just represent the garage. So that is about another 6 feet there. And the full width about 19 to 20 feet of the garages. There was a trash enclosure unit that was just about in that same location that was approved right at the end of the parking. In fact just about the same location that we are enclosing in the garages now. Bob: That above the garage--might people use that staircase to go up and use the garage roof as a deck? And what might be done to prevent that? Lipsey: I suppose somebody could go up there and hop out onto the garage roof, yes. Jim Pugh, Epoch properties: One possibility would be to do a gable roof instead of a flat roof. Bob: It happens around town where people use whatever deck there is and store things. I can show you places in the west end where people put their cookers out and lawn chairs sit out all year. Jasmine: With the garage where the doors are located it looks as though you are going to have to relocate the staircase. It crosses in front of a window of the lower unit. Lipsey: The staircase will be closer to the windows of that unit. However, in the previous design that unit would have looked out onto some automobiles. And the wall will only be this high on this side. The staircase is along that wall and this unit has windows that look out onto the courtyard. So they are opening onto open space whereas before these 2 windows would have looked right onto automobiles. Now they look onto a garden wall so it is like a little San Francisco courtyard. Things are very tight but very well done with nice materials.. We are proposing brick on the back side also. l'" '. 2 PZM4.5.94 Discussion followed brick vs shingles on the garage. Bruce then opened the meeting for public comment. Pam Cunningham, General Manager Aspen Alps: Read into the record a letter stating Aspen Alp's concerns regarding increased traffic on Aspen Mountain Road, materials to be used on the garages, emergency vehicle access on Aspen Mountain Road and the responsibility for maintenance of that road. There are other members of the association who wanted to make certain that there is absolutely no use of that fire road on the south end of the project. Visitors might feel that is for public parking. It is not. It is private parking. We don't want to impact access to that road. The Fire Department feels strongly about use of that road. Lipsey: We can certainly handle that in the condominium documentation. We will go on record as incorporating that into this project. She makes a good point. We will address that and come up with something that has got sufficient teeth in it to make sure people don't park there. Cunningham: We are referring to the road that goes on the south end of Ute project. It is a private road and the Fire Dept wishes to keep it open for access. Otherwise we shut it down with rocks and shrubbery. ?: Spoke in favor of the brick for the garage. Nicholas DeVore: Our feeling is that visually and aesthetically brick is going to enhance the front and back design of the entire property. Rick Neiley, representative for Black Swan: We looked at this for some of the owners last week and we think the garage concept is a really good concept. Certainly in terms of the types of visual impacts that you experience in a really dense project you have an opportunity to result in the enclosure of bicycles, snowmobiles, vehicles etc. The east end of the garage structure right now is shingles I think. Neiley: We are not really impacted by the type of material that you use significantly. We don't see those. I think the types of impacts that the surrounding property owners are more likely to be concerned about, the Black Swan is concerned about, is the creation of the deck areas with the new structure. In terms of materials, however, I think that whatever the developer can work out with the other neighbors as far as the Black Swan is concerned will be fine. I think we would be unhappy if all of a sudden there is a lot of new deck space on tops of these units because the impact then, which are being mitigated by the enclosure of the structure, would rear their head again. And certainly from the neighbor's point of view increasing of the FAR on the project by building a lot of decks on top of this 3 PZM4.5.94 would be objectionable. Leslie: If a deck were built on top of this structure--wewould never approve railings or decking or anything like that. Discussion followed for the possibility of sloped roof for the garage. ?: I don't think any of us had ever thought about sunbathing on top of the garage. It wouldn't be a private or pleasant sort of place. It seems to me that would be handled by the condominium covenants that they don't put things up on top of the roof. There were no further public comments and Bruce closed the public portion of the hearing. Dave Myler, Representative for Sister Cities: Sister City Housing, Inc. is a non-profit corporation, the members of which are the City of Aspen and the town of ? ,Japan. The corporation was formed to acquire this property at apoint in time when it appeared as though it could be sold by the then owners, the Nelson DeVore partnership to anyone who might not follow through with the project that would produce affordable housing. So as a way of salvaging this particular project and maintaining the opportunity to produce some affordable units ? and Aspen formed a nonprofit corporation to act as the vehicle-and purchased the property. Sometime later they negotiated a contract with Mr. Pugh and his company to sell him the property and agreed to re-purchase the completed affordable units--all seven of them for a fixed price. That price is comparable to the price we would have paid if we had built the housing ourselves and perhaps even a little less. Right now we are in a status of being the contract purchaser of the 7 affordable units when they are completed. At that point in time we will offer them for sale to qualified buyers. It will be an owner occupied project. There is a priority list of 11 individuals who were prior tenants of this project before it was torn down who have the first priority to purchase completed units from Sister City Housing. I would like to comment on staff's recommendation with regard to the other units. Sister City's mission and our direction from the Council was to find a way to salvage this project and produce affordable housing at the least cost to the taxpayer. I see nothing in the original approvals on this proj ect that would have restricted or required the original developer had it gone forward at that time in 1991 from selling the units to people on the priority list at the maximum price allowed for category 2. We are not asking to do anything different than that. We gave you those prices not because it is something that needs to be approved by you or the City Council for that matter. But for informational purposes. Under the City's code in housing guidelines ...._".,~ 4 PZM4.5.94 the developer of the project which for all intents and purposes on the affordable side the Sister City Housing can sell those for the maximum price in category 2. And we are suggesting that we do that. If the City Council wishes to increase it's subsidy and reduce that price to some lower level to accommodate the economic circumstances of somebody on the priority list then so be it. But I really don't think it is a Planning & Zoning Commission issue at this point in time. It is strictly fiscal. I think it is a noble concept that these people should pay what they can afford to pay. But they didn't have the right to do that in the beginning so we would be giving them a right that they do not now have. And at this point in time I would obj ect to that and suggest that it not be a part of your recommendation. Sara: Dave, there are 7 affordable units. How many and what category at this point. Myler: The original approval called for 1 to be resident occupied and 6 to be category 2. Roger: I have a problem with the first condition. I have a bias towards brick as a more durable facia for the garage than wood shingles. I am not enthralled with wood shingles in that kind of a location from an endurance point of view. Other than that I don't see any problems with the conditions of the Planning Office. Jasmine: I agree with Roger. Robert: I have the same opinion. I would suggest taking #1 out. Leslie: I have an additional condition. On Condition #3 I would add "And indicated on the amended plat". Then the new condition #l--I think it is important that each one of the 7 parking spaces is assigned to each unit--that each unit has their own parking space. So condition #l--"One of each of the 7 parking garage spaces shall be assigned to each affordable unit and shall be indicated on the condominium plat and outlined in the condominium declaration." Bruce: will there be a separation between each of these parking spaces? Lipsey: Yes. The separation as we are looking at it now consists of a chain link fence. That is to maximize the space to each unit and still provide security. Bruce: I would like to have an additional condition. The same condition we put in all of these things that the representations made by the applicant especially as it relates to what we talked about on the road and also the roof although there is no specific condition in here about the roof of the garage. My personal feeling is it ought to stay flat and there ought to be something in the condominium 5 .-.- PZM4.5.94 - declarations prohibiting use of the roof of the garage as a deck or sunbathing area. Pugh: I would like for you to consider the idea of a gabled roof that we could work with Leslie on the possibility of the gable roof. With the story poles out there and the massing of it, it appears to me to be so inconsequential that that ought to be considered. I am not sure that that is the right solution but if we approve it only with the flat roof, that takes that option out. Poll of Commission regarding gabled roof. Jasmine: I would just as soon see the structure stay as a brick structure without a gable or pitched roof. The amount of building coverage on this site really bothers me. And I am willing to take that tradeoff because I think it makes the units more liveable and will give additional storage space to the people who are actually going to be living there. But that one unit directly to the south of it is already terribly impacted. And I think even if it is only a foot or so that you are going to pitch it up I think is going to make it unlivable. I would not be in favor of the pitched roof. Tim: I think the applicant should have the option to put the pitched roof on if he can work it out with Leslie and get the details right. Sara: I prefer a flat roof. ',,-.. Bob: I think if they were going to do a pitched roof we should look at it again with the sticks up and see what the effect is going to be. I prefer the flat roof because I have seen it and I don't think you are going to gain enough space inside if you are going to pitch that roof considering your joists and everything up there. It is difficult to gain storage space up there. Pugh: One thing I have learned is how to count so I withdraw. Roger: I am one who generally prefers pitched roof s . But in this case I would be concerned about the pitched roof as the bulk effect on the current bulk of the area. At least half of the roof would pitch down towards the access to the garages which puts a snow load somewhere that has to be dealt with on the surface. My present disposition is for a flat roof. Sara: I have a question about the flat roof. Are there drains in it? So they don't look down on a lake from the free market. Pugh: They are drained to a central system as are the free market units. MOTION Roger: I move to recommend approval of the substantial PUD amendment 6 PZM4.5.94 for the Ute Trail Townhomes with conditions on Planning Office memo dated April 5, 1994 as modified. (attached in record) Condition #1 to read "One of each parking garage spaces shall be assigned to a specific affordable unit and shall be on the condominium plat and declarations". Condition #2 as in the memo. Condition #3 modified to read "A 5 foot sidewalk area shall be provided along Ute Avenue and indicated on the amended plat prior to issuance of a change order for the garage, the applicant shall sign a sidewalk, curb and gutter agreement". Conditions #4 through #6 as in the memo. Condition #7 "All representations made in this meeting by the applicant and specifically regarding the road and garage roof as regarding the non-usage of the roof are a part of this motion. Jasmine seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Robert, yes, Roger, yes, Sara, yes, Tim, yes, Bruce, yes, Jasmine, yes. GMQS AFFORDABLE HOUSING PORTION Bruce: I feel we ought to make the recommendation to adopt the finding of the Housing Office memo dated March 8, 1994, send it on and Dave, Tom and Leslie work it out before it goes to Council. Jasmine agreed with Bruce. Sara agreed with Bruce. Bruce: We are being asked to make a recommendation to Council as to fiscal implications over which we have no control. So I don't know what our recommendation ought to be other than to say "Take the recommendation of the Housing Authority" . Jasmine: I agree. We don't have any better information on which to make a judgement like that. We don't know what the people can afford. We don't have the kind of information that would make us be able to make a recommendation. Bruce: I know Dave mentioned a fairness issue involving the DeVores. Again, that's an issue for which we can't make that decision. That is one that involves money and Council makes the money decisions. Myler: I couldn't agree with you more. The issues are not of a planning and land use nature. They are strictly fiscal. It is all a matter of money for everybody involved--the people on the wait list, the DeVores and for the taxpayers who will be affected in terms of 7 PZM4.5.94 the total subsidy of the project. Sara: I think that one of the things I would recommend is that you carefully review the proceedings of the original application and approval about what was approved. You have got to honor that. Leslie: Category 2. Tim: What would be the reason to go to category 3? If we are trying to make as much affordable housing available as possible why would you want to jump the category up if it is a non-profit organization? Myler: Two reasons. #1 when the category was set there was no anticipation of any public expenditure whatsoever. This was a completely free market private sector development. A Robin Hood project where the profits off of the 3 townhouses were going to be sufficient to allow these units to be sold in category 2. Now the City is looking at probably a minimum of $25 to $26,000 per bedroom in cost on this project to complete it. We can eat into that a little bit if we increase the category to category 3 after we have exhausted the people on the priority list. That is important to consider. Leslie: The other question is if someone on the priority list qualifies for category 3 they are also requesting that they be-- Myler: And their incomes have gone up--- Tim: That would reduce the subsidy on the City's part. Myler: I think the statistics would bear out that the demand for category 3 housing is just as great as it is for category 2. And somebody who makes a category 3 income is locked out for category 2 housing. They don't qualify. So we are meeting the public needs if this is category 3. MOTION Roger: I move to recommend to Council to amend the GMQS exemption as necessary and support the Housing Authority in whatever those specifics are. Jasmine seconded the motion. Bruce: I think one thing that does need to be clearly stated is that displaced tenant list should still be given primary-- Roger: Then I will add. to the conditionsnCondition#l on the Planning Office memo dated April 5, 1994. In addition to that we add the condition concerning this our primary concern is satisfying those tenants and if changes have happened in the existing tenants that would 8 PZM4.5.94 prevent them from getting into category 2 housing we have no problems with the change to category 3 to support existing tenants. Jasmine agreed to this condition as the seconder. Tim: What about the conditions that are listed here. They pretty much say that. If you look at condition #2 if you just eliminate this specific price part and if you eliminate the specific price part of #3 they read pretty much what you are trying to say. Bruce: Keep conditions #1, #2 and #4 and change #3 to just say that we recommend that Council go with whatever the Housing Authority recommends. Roger: I will restate the motion. I move to recommend proposed amendments to the GMQS exemption for affordable housing with the following conditions. Conditions #1, #2 and #4 as stated on Planning Office memo dated April 5, 1994. #3 to read--Leslie--The Commission supports the Housing Authority in their recommendation to Council with regard to fiscal matters-- Bruce: I like anything regarding the categories 2, 3 and RO to go with the Housing Authority recommendations. Roger: With any change of category. Let's put it that way. Bruce: Let that be negotiated out between the DeVores and the Housing Authority and City Council and Sister Cities. Jasmine agreed with these changes. DeVore: We would like on the record an issue that wasn't addressed here. That is that Sister City Housing would like to amend the deed restriction for the RO which is a little complicated because our preference at this point is to degrade the RO down to category 3. But we also object to the change in the deed restriction to the RO. And we would just like to have that on record that the original deed restriction that was recorded for the RO unit we feel should be honored if indeed that unit stays as an RO. Bruce: That will be in the record. And I am sure Dave will express that to the City Council. Tim: I would like to discuss the fact that we are establishing a price of $85,000 for a studio and $115,000 for a 2 bedroom. Should we do that at this time or should that be whatever the bidding will allow within the category price. 9 PZM4.5.94 Leslie: So, Tim, your original suggestion for #2 was to just say "Remaining units may be sold at the category 3 guidelines". Tim: Right. Roger: I amend my motion to state that for condition #2. Jasmine: And the seconder will go along with it as well. Everyone then voted in favor of the motion. CREEKTREE SUBDIVISION/PUD AMENDMENT Bruce opened the public hearing. MOTION Jasmine: I move we table this hearing and continue the public hearing to date certain of April 19, 1994 at the request of the applicant. Robert seconded the motion with all in favor. EUROPEAN FLOWER MARKET GMQS EXEMPTION Mary Lackner, Planning Dept: Made presentation as attached in record. Glen Rappaport, architect for applicant: They are going to continue the flower market use. It is just going to be scaled down. The building is kind of a marginal structure as it is. And we are working with the zoning dept to establish our guidelines as to how to retain the required amount of perimeter wall area in the redevelopment. We are going to demolish the front wall where the primary change is going to be. The cinder block building will stay the same. The Planning Office questions how qualified that apartment is right now to become a 2-bedroom unit. It is undersized. We would like the option of working with the Housing Office to keep it a 2-bedroom. The amount of mitigation that is required would still work even if it was only a studio apartment. We also have met with the Board of Adjustment and we have the problem of being an undersized parcel. We had to legally go through the hoop of being allowed of doing anything other than a single family residence because it is a 4,500 square foot lot in a 6,000 square foot minimum zone. We have also gone through HPC conceptual. They seem to be OK with the mass and bulk. We don't have any problems with the staff recommendations. We are not changing the footprint other than to undercut the rear portion to get the required amount of parking space in a new project. 10 PZM4.5.94 We have designated a trash area and we will be recycling. fence is going to be removed anyway so that is not an issue the encroachments. The wood as far as Roger: up and unit? The garage in the back right now. That is going to be opened you say be a carport open area under the existing residential Rappaport: Right. to the alley. But So we are going to feet of legal size. We can fit cars back there parked perpendicular it is not a legal distance for the parking space. undercut that building just enough to get the 19 Tim: It seems to me the use of the building is going to generate the need for more parking than that. Mary: The way the GMQS exemption reads it is not a change in use. So we don't go back and ask them to provide parking for that space. Actually if you were to go back and mitigate the space for retail or office it would be at the same factor. Roger: I think it is imperative to have at least one of those spaces designated for the retail portion. Particularly the flower shop which has to deal with deliveries. ~,.,..... Rappaport: There is at this time a parking space on the front side off of Main Street. Part of our requirements through the Engineering Dept is to get rid of that parking space. Roger: I would like to add a condition that there needs to be a space designated for the retail portion of the project. Sara: Leslie, would European Flower Market fall into the residential permit program for parking on the street? Leslie: The way I understand the residential permit program shaping up is if you are on the street you will get so many passes. I don't know if Main Street is part of that. If Main Street is in there they will get 1 or 2 permits to park in front. MOTION Roger: I move to approve the applicant's request for the remodeling of the European Flower Market located at 340 West Main Street with the following conditions: #1 through #6 as on Planning Office memo dated April 5, 1994. (attached in record. Addition of condition #7 to read "One of those parking spaces on the alley shall be designated for the service delivery of the retail space" . ~""~'t"" 11 PZM4.5.94 I assume they need a space for their delivery vehicle and that is what they would use that space for. Now I can't prevent the owner of European Flower Market from parking his vehicle there. Tim seconded the motion with all in favor. WEST END TRAFFIC STUDY Diane Moore, Planning: Back in November this was re-assigned to Bob Gish to take the lead on it with assistance from other departments in the City. Bob Gish, Engineering: Made presentation as attached in record. Tim: This doesn't address special events that happen such as banquets or conferences or weddings when there is a whole entourage of people going in and out of there for specific events. Gish: These events do have a tremendous impact on the new Meadows Road going in--traffic to the west end. A lot of events are short time. They end at one time and a lot of vehicles come out. Our citizens have concerns about just this problem. ,~,,_.... Mac Cunningham: I represent the group that is closest to the Meadows Road. I would like to specifically address the points and responses of the Institute. All of us who were on the public committee working with Bob and the staff and attempting to get things done. We are very disappointed about the lack of attention and respect to this process by these two. Specifically what the original plan addressed was "During the summer months are used almost exclusively by the Consortium utilizing the Meadows system. Whether it is the Physics Institute or the MAA. During the winter season it is anticipated the Lodge may be operated for public use. " I~-"r" The reality of the situation is this Lodge is operated as a hotel which is larger than the Little Nell. It has absolutely no policing of any kind. In fact when I called Cleve specifically about one of the issues here his response was "I can't do anything about it". That is a direct quote. He said "I can't control these people" . The second issue related to this is that the Trustee's Townhouses which traditionally were only used in the summer for the trustees were leased all winter for employees of the Ski Company. We have very maj or problems with speeding, lack of respect, driving through stop signs, drunkenness. I was standing out there one morning and a girl was so drunk she didn't even know I was standing in the road. Literally. When I talked to the Institute about it Cleve's response was "Well, I can't do anything about it. I can't control these people. My point to this is they have taken virtually no responsibility to 12 PZM4.5.94 meet the criteria that were set. That was a promise made to the City and made to the residents of the west end. It is important to note that the traffic generation in this area was proposed to be 3 times that anywhere else recorded in the mitigation in the traffic flows that have been checked by the City recently. Van service: "The Van service will utilize a relatively small vehicle that will have regularly scheduled service. " It operates like a taxi at this juncture. It is nice to say somebody is parking their car. !Jut if you are replacing their car with a van, there is absolutely no mitigation at all. And the vans run non-stop. I know. I use them. I walk out my door at any time, morning or night, and there is a van going by. In fact when I have had guests who want to go downtown, I have called them up and they zip right up there just like a free taxi. It said no parking will be provided. The reality is and I think there was a published number of vehicle percentage of people coming to Aspen in 1993. And it was something like 86% of the people that come up here as guests use their cars. And if you are running a 110 room hotel 86% of those people are coming by car. And they have got to get there. .....". The point is there is very little van use. You are seeing 1 or 2 riders at the most on the vans. They are doing nothing in their promotional material to alert guests that they are going through a residential area. Nothing. The MAA goes out of their way to alert people and encourage them to use other transportation. Employee parking: We have got another major problem and the police are down there. They are working. They leave at 2 or 3 0' clock in the morning and they are screaming up there intoxicated or not. They have absolutely no idea of where they are nor any respect to the area. Delivery trucks: It was very specific in the original plan of when the times were to be. 9:00 to 11:00 and 2:00 to 4:00. Vehicles start at 5:20 A.M. I can guarantee it because I am woken up every morning at 5:20 by either Red Hat or the BFI dump truck every morning. These vehicles run until after dark. There is absolutely no compliance. Tim mentioned special events. I was married down there. It is a delightful facility. But what you have is 2 to 300 people going to special events usually twice a weekend, sometimes more in higher seasons. These people are drinking. They are leaving- -they are hauling their vehicles and it is a parade out of that facility. Additionally they are advertising as a public restaurant. The restaurant was never used as a public facility or at least advertised that way. It was always to the benefit of the Meadows users. It is 13 PZM4.5.94 now advertised as a full-blown restaurant. They are promoting specials on Friday and Saturday nights. What we have here is use way and above of what was projected in this facility with absolutely no mitigation. The MAA has made a very strong effort to make sure there is compliance with what their promises were. The absolute reverse is true with the Institute. I brought this to the attention of the Planning Office quite a while ago. We were told we had to go through this process. A lot of these things that are in here are addressed as "We will do this and we will do that". This facility has been operating for one full year and they have done nothing in that period. I think it is incumbent upon P&Z to put the hammer down on them immediately and force compliance. This was a promise complicit to their approvals. They have been running a construction project down there now for a year and a half. I now find out they are about to start the townhouse construction which we will be looking at for another 8 to 10 months. I will say the Shaw Construction has done an excellent job of making sure their employees are in compliance. But the point is that this is an ongoing process and one of the major factors in this--the Institute has absolutely not participated in any way and has ignored this thing even when they have been requested. I think it is incumbent upon P&Z specific to this part of the mitigation plan that they enforce or shut down the facility in order to wake somebody up. I know that sounds extreme. But the Institute made promises to the neighborhood and to the City that they ~lOuld comply. And these were negotiated over a two year period and they have done zero! And that is very, very serious. Bruce: Who is the management operator over that facility? Cunningham: Well, they keep passing it around. Diane: Well, I know the Ski Company is involved in some capacity of the management and operation of the Lodge down there. The responsibility for this is laid out in the plans of the Institute. And that is their contractual obligation. Bruce: I understand that. But if they have hired a management company to operate it, we need to know who that is. George Vicenzi: We are a little disheartened that we weren't allowed to respond to the mitigation plan item by item as the Institute was and the MAA was. We had concerns on each item. You gave a mandate to start this process on September 7th. The first meeting was in the end of Feb and that was 54 and 1/2 months after it was supposed to get started. We tried to do a job in a month and a half that you had allowed 7 months for. So there was a lot of work to be done. At all of those meetings we the citizens basically everybody at the meetings would like to see the speed limit reduced. Right now it is 14 PZM4.5.94 30 miles an hour in the west end. We would like to see it reduced to 20 miles an hour. Bruce: In regard to the 20 mile an hour speed limit I want to hear from Bob and the Police Dept. Then we will hear from the public. What were your objections if any to the 20 MPH speed limit? Gish: We felt that we had agreement from everybody that we would probably go through the summer and evaluate what these devices would do to the west end before we actually discussed a reduction of the speed limit. Vicenzi: I was at those meetings and we never agreed that we would go through the summer, Bob. Everybody at the meetings was very adamant that we should reduce the speed limit. And in conjunction with all these--reducing the speed and the elements here would be a comprehensive approach to reducing the traffic, the cross east/west traffic. Bruce: I am understanding that you are saying 20 MPH in the whole west end? Is that basically what you are proposing? Vicenzi: And the west Meadows also. Bruce then asked for comment from the members of the public. Maggie DeWulf: I live at 233 West Bleeker Street. I would like to see the speed limit in the entire west end posted at 20 MPH. People not only cut through the Bleeker Street. They cut through the alley. They don't stop at the alleys. They just use the alleys as a place to speed, really. And late at night when the bars close, people cut through the west end because they are less likely to be caught by the police. I would also like to see spot enforcement done. I think with some spot enforcement we have a chance. All the stop signs in the world people will run unless they are enforced. Christie Kienast. I live at 406 Smuggler. I echo everything Maggie said. Children can't be outside between 4:00 and 6:00 in the afternoons because it is too dangerous. These people are hellbent. I am not kidding. They are hellbent through that area and they aren't looking at anything. I have called the police repeatedly in the summer and I have never to this moment had anyone show up. Jan Collins: I live at 531 Gillespie. And I just think we need enforcement out there and it needs to be 20 MPH. I think 30 MPH through a residential neighborhood is entirely too fast. And I think this one in particular because we have east-west traffic and it is causing a problem. It does not make a residential neighborhood very comfortable to live in. 15 PZM4.5.94 Ann Ibbotsen: I live at 505 North Fifth. Last evening I called a number of my neighbors to talk to them about their feelings on the 20 MPH speed limit. And all of them thought that it was a wonderful idea. Several of them made an attempt to get here and comment. She then read a letter from Mike Flynn: "I live at 721 West Francis Street. I have 3 children ages 10, 8 and 5. I have lived on this block for most of my time in Aspen since 1968. I have owned a home at this address since 1977 and I have taught school for 27 years. The traffic situation in and around our block is dangerous for my family. Our children are no lo"-ger permitted to ride their bikes from the hours of 4:00 to 6:00 P.M. in our alley or on our local streets. In the summer they cannot safely play near the streets or ride their bikes during the hours of 4: 00 to 6: 00 or as the traffic from the music tent arrives or departs. The situation has reached a point of danger such that I actively look to move from where we live to either a safer environment locally or to a new community. I feel the problem has developed over the years as threefold. One--hostile drivers racing through the west end to beat the traffic congestion on Main Street. Two- -an influx of drivers from construction as the trade industry is trying to beat the traffic congestion on Main Street. These drivers originate in the west end as the massive construction in the area demands an enormous work force. Three-- Aggressive drivers departing the music tent trying to beat congestion so as not to wait in line at their favorite restaurants in town. No matter the source of traffic in the west end it tends to be hostile, aggressi ve and dangerous. There are a variety of socio-economic reasons for this behavior. But the point here is that the kids are in danger. I have a few suggestions that might alleviate part of the danger for children who live and play in our area. One--Lower the speed limit to a crawl. Two--4-Way stops at every corner. Three--Active police monitoring with no warning or second chance scenarios. In fact there is so much irresponsible driving in the area that fines alone could support an officer's salary. Please do something." I think that pretty well sums it up for my feelings on it too. Caroline McDonald: I live at 109 North Second Street. I have 2 children. Our alley is parallel to Main Street and it has always been an exit out of town. Hopefully with the HOV lane it won't be used as much. But we tried putting in speed bumps and the City was nice enough to install a stop sign at the end of the street. But there is no enforcement in alleys at all unless you post it and the streets too 16 PZM4.5.94 really need to have a 20 MPH limit there to let people know and to stop them. So a 20 MPH enforced speed limit is very much needed here. Margie Musgrave: I live at 629 West North. I have got 2 kids. In our 2 block by 2 block area I just counted about 15 kids and I say a prayer every time they go out into the street between 4:00 and 6:00. Drivers are totally focused on getting out of town. They are oblivious that this is a neighborhood and that there are people living in it and I think spot traffic checks would be good. I know they were effective over on Cemetery Lane in slowing people down. I couldn't believe the speed limit was 30 in the west end. That is really fast. If we could slow the traffic down I think that would be helpful. She then read into the record letter from Marcia Korbin: "I live at 610 West Smuggler Street. There are 6 children through the age of 8 who live on the block. As you know we have no sidewalks in the west end to maintain a rural atmosphere. Because of this the children ride their tricycles and bicycles, push their baby carriages and try their roller blades on the edge of the street. Having never driven cars they are not certain where the edge or the middle of the roads are. The safety of the children as well as the rural ambiance is often threatened by adults speeding down the street and more often than not disregarding the stop signs. Anything the City can do to encourage safety awareness and compliance with the law including educating that the driver on the right has the right of way where there are no stop signs at all would be appreciated by cur neighborhood. II ""'_,_,oY Linda McCarthy: I live at 214 West Bleeker. My experience is the same as everybody else's. My personal experience is if I get stopped or I see a cop in a certain area I don't speed there anymore. I think that having spot enforcement would make an enormous difference around the Meadows. Bleeker Street has a lot of traffic for reasons stated in the letters- -people trying to get out of town and avoid the traffic. If you have to stop at every street and not really worth it. That would make a itself and in the speed of the traffic. a 20 MPH speed limit. if there is enforcement it is big difference in the traffic I would very much like to see I hope you are listening to us. Cunningham: One last comment in relation to the 20 MPH speed limit. We had a lot of discussions within the committee over the effectiveness of stop signs and the relation to 20 MPH. I know that Becky has concerns because of the enforcement requirements. But as Bob Gish has observed in visits he has made in the west end, stop signs are useless of there is no enforcement. And the purpose of the whole plan that Bob is going to present to you is to reduce the incentive for people trying to get out of town and for people who are utilizing services within the west end to use their vehicles. -" 17 PZM4.5.94 Stop signs are very effective if there is enforcement. And I invite any of you to dare stand out at the corner of 7th and North any night. I guarantee you, you will not be standing within an hour when you are there. I guarantee you, you won't be standing there within 5 minutes in the middle of the road because there is no spot enforcement. With all due respect to Becky, there is no spot enforcement. I called last night because there was an event going and everybody was tearing through. No police vehicle came out and the net result was there was not one vehicle in the course of about 3 minutes that stopped. Not one. If you don't have enforcement, people are not going to stop. A 4 point violation will stop people in a hurry. And the word will get out very quickly. So I think you need both. Reduction in the speed and enforcement. Gish: We are going to reserve comment to the speed until we get to that portion of our non-consensus item. Now we will run through the mitigation plan for the MAA facility. Bruce: I seem to hear that there was seeming agreement with the steps MAA had taken. I want to find out of the public is upset with the MAA or whether we can skip through this section. Vicenzi: We do have problems with some of the MAA responses. Basically the bus system as it was laid out in this mitigation plan has not been followed. They do not exit 4th street. Part of the plan called for the circulating vehicles would be Napa gas powered vehicles. They were never used. So that is the basic part of the plan that we don't agree with. It hasn't been done. A lot of these items we don't have a problem with--the promotional material, pedestrian bikeways. The committee has suggested more lighting. The City Council has agreed to funds for that. A lot of the things are being done. Bruce: Are there any of the areas listed areas of general consensus of which the neighbors have problems. I want to cut right to the non- consensus items and start dealing with them. Vicenzi: Actually most of the consensus items basically we would like to clarify a couple of them. One is that west end residents generally have less of a problem with autos and buses. We have a problem with autos. We would try to reduce the amount of buses. And the argument is that you reduce the service that will put people back in their cars. We don't mind a few more cars if we can get rid of a lot of buses. We could live with that. There are currently 16 bus trips per day through the west end. That was what RFTA said. A big one is the passive restraints to be enacted to make the plan work. We are willing to try passive restraints. But we also think that if they don't work then we need all of the active restraints 18 PZM4.5.94 possible. That would be enforcement of speed limits, stop signs, speed bumps- -whatever it takes. Cunningham: I think the process has been very positive. I really do. And I think that the charge that went to the group and what Bob has done, what staff has done, what everybody in voicing their concerns over has done is an enormous step. I personally feel that when this plan is enacted there will be a tremendous--provided there is enforcement--therewill be a tremendous change in use patterns which is critical to the wellbeing of the community. Vicenzi: This is a very big process. It has been broken down into 2 elements. One is the east/west traffic. Two is the bus situation. We have had total consensus on the east/west solutions which Bob has a plan up there. And we went to City Council and they approved it in concept. We wanted to bring it back to the neighbors and they could see exactly how the stop sign configuration affects them. I talked to the Early Learning Center. They have problems with removing the 4-way stops around the ELC because of traffic. There are some confinements to it. At this meeting I was hoping we could deal with what we agreed on. The only non-consensus that we were really concerned with that affected this was the 20 MPH speed limit. We would like to get a feeling from you on that. Basically we agree with the planning concept. We have agreed to the increase of barriers on 4th Street. We encourage the pedestrian path. We agree to that assuming that we would have some type of compromise solution on the bus situation. One of the ideas was to drop people off on Main Street and have them walk on 4th more. We would like to put that on hold until we deal with the bus issue. Basically everything we agreed with on that plan subject to some details working on a smaller level on some of the blocks. That is basically how we feel. Bruce: There are 2 or 3 things we need to try to resolve. One--is there an allegation made that there is non-compliance, in spite of the response that we have related to the west end and west Meadows mitigation plan that the Institute has not done what their response says that they were going to do. So we need to deal with that issue. We need that applicant here to deal with that. Gish: What I am recommending--ifwe go to my recommendation on page 14--"City staff recommends that a committee comprised of members of City staff, MAA, RFTA, Aspen Institute continue to meet on a regular scheduled basis. The purpose of the meeting would be to foster communications and develop expectation levels for evaluating and implementing the approved mi tigation measures. 19 PZM4.5.94 The coordinator's position which will be emphasized by MAA this year is an essential position and we are recommending that a similar position for the Institute be initiated." If you go back to the mitigating measures, there is no form of enforcement. So what I am recommending we do for this summer and until we can have a joint meeting with the City P&Z and City Council is to initiate a smaller more effective committee where we talk about what our expectation levels are and develop some of these things. Because I don't think there is any mechanism for enforcement. And I would like to propose at least this committee look at enforcement throughout the rest of the summer and report back to you next Fall at the same time we report back to City Council. I would be glad to chair that. Diane: Another thing that should be ongoing is if for some reason if the Institute does not respond, we have some abilities within the SPA approval to enforce those violations. And that is something we probably will discuss with our City Attorney how we would deal with those particular violations. Sara: Becky, when I was reading this last night I thought of Cemetery Lane too. The 25 MPH is enforced on Cemetery Lane. It's monitored and, boy, did it change things over there. Why would you have a 30 MPH speed limit through the west end? Becky Blaine, Assistant Police Chief: The State of Colorado through their model traffic code has adopted set speeds unless otherwise posted. The State speeds throughout the entire State for residential neighborhoods are 30 MPH and 25 in residential areas. The Aspen Municipal Code has adopted the State Code in it's entirety. Sara: Now if we designate that a residential area why can't we post it 25 MPH? Blaine: It's not that we can't. Roger: It already is on Hallam. Blaine: The State says you must conduct a warrant study to reduce or increase any speed limits. Sara: Well, let's conduct the study. Blaine: I am all for it. My position is I cannot support reducing a speed limit without a warrant study. Diane: But, Becky, essentially we have all of that in the work we have done in the past 6 weeks. Blaine: We have not studied the west end. My hunch is that the stop 20 PZM4.5.94 signs will mitigate many of the speed problems and complaints that we are hearing. I would like to see us go ahead with this as phase 1 and then see if there is still a problem after the stop signs have been put in place. ?: Stop signs AND enforcement? Blaine: The reality is there is 3 people on a day shift. That's all we have. Between 4 and 6 which is your highest demand time we have 1 that is constantly going to calls downtown of shoplifters and 1 that is monitoring the HOV lane. At least 1 supervisor who is mopping up the entire day. That is all we have. We would love to help. We don't have the people. Bruce: What is involved in this warrant study? Is it a $5,000 item? Blaine: The State is willing to assist. My understanding is it is a very, very nominal fee, if any. The problem is it does no good to do a warrant study today in that area because the traffic in June, July and August is so different from today. A study is not impossible by any means. Bruce: Are we talking about a 2 year study? A 2 week study? Blaine: My understanding is it can be done reasonably in a week. ,.,-.-.,.,..> Roger: I was one of the early advocates of 20 MPH speed limit in the west end. But I was convinced to hold off on that with the thought that if this grid pattern of stop signs gets put in place that may reduce the speed as much if not more than speed limit signs. And if that doesn't limit the speed and there is a problem than we should go to this warrant. But with the stop signs in place that will probably even improve the ability of the warrant to reduce the speed. I would encourage the west end folks to hold off on the 20 MPH speed limit signs at this point and let's see if this stop sign pattern will have some affect. We will certainly know this summer. That is what Gish then using maps explained the traffic control plans for installing stop signs, speed bumps, changes in bus stops, pedestrian walkways, additional lights for the pedestrian walkways and new configuration of the parking lot. Gish: We are going to have this implemented by June. Bruce: Irregardless of whether I am on P&Z or not it seems to me that these are going to be improvements. They may not fully satisfy every member of the public or every resident of the west end. But they are going to be improvements for the safety of everybody in that area. And whether the Institute is in compliance with the mitigation plan it 21 PZM4.5.94 seems to me this plan doesn't say anything about that. We haven't made any kind of finding about the Institute or the MAA. So I don't see anything to prohibit us or preclude us from saying "Let's make a stab at this". And then we still have to deal with whether the applicants are in compliance with the mitigation plan. And we still have to deal with how we structure the committee and how we carryon from this point forward. So we need a motion to get this deal done and then we figure out how we proceed from here as it relates to the whole mitigation plan. McDonald: You have got a real hole there. You don't have anything for the alleys. And if you don't have a speed limit, and I have called the PD and they can't enforce any speed limits in the alleys. And you don't have any stop signs in the alleys. People soon find that out. They do every summer. They really speed down those alleys. And there is nothing we can do to stop them. You have got them wide open wi thout any stop signs or speed limit signs. Gish: We recognize that this may be considered visual pollution. The more signs you put up it could be considered visual pollution and you can't put signs everywhere. ?: But you can also have someone killed. Then it is too late. Visual pollution can go to hell! Roger: Isn't the State speed limit for alleys 15 MPH? Gish: Yes. McCarthy: Especially in the alley Caroline is talking about which is the one between Bleeker and Main Street. They speed through there in order to avoid the Main Street traffic. They really speed down there. Robert Harth, MAA: I was determined not to say anything today. But just one point. We have been working very hard with a lot of people for a long time on traffic mitigation in the west end. I fully endorse working harder in trying to reduce the traffic more. We are supportive of the lower speed limit. I hear very well what Bob and Becky are concerned about. We need to reach some conclusions on that. We are not against that at all. But I do understand where the PD is coming from and where Bob is coming from. My understanding is that we are supposed to review the traffic mitigation to the west end for the Meadows. The Music Festival is what I am concerned about right now for a minute. We are supposed to review that every other year with P&Z. And that is the process we have been going through right now. With all that is being said about speed bumps and about speed limits and about the Institute's non-compliance I am here to tell you that the Music Festival has been in compliance. And we would like to hear from P&Z that we are in compliance. We would like to continue to work with the west end to make things better. 22 PZM4.S.94 There are issues of non-consensus that are very important that we try and resolve. And we are committed to resolve those with our west end neighbors because we live there too. I have heard a lot tonight. But I haven't heard anything about where we are in compliance which is with literally the entire traffic mitigation plan as it was established by City Council and P&Z 2-plus years ago. So to look at everything that has been done not in the context of the mitigation plan, I have a problem with. Diane: I would say to you that the MAA has been an active player in all of this. And they have, in terms of the mitigation plan, certainly put forth the effort and addressed all of those concerns. I look at the Institute as being somewhat separate. They are not here this evening. I think that says something. I wouldn't lump the MAA and Institute in terms of responding to the mitigation plan. Vicenzi: Robert has said that he is in total compliance. We would like to say that he is mostly in compliance. There is one paragraph- -On page 9, ---mumble---That clearly has not been done. Robert: Wait a minute, George, that clearly was tried and it failed miserably because nobody road it. So RFTA stopped running the shuttle because nobody got on it. So we did try it in the first year so please don't say we didn't try it. "'-..' Vicenzi: We did not feel it was given a good enough try. The streets weren't blocked the way they were supposed to be. After the concerts the buses are supposed to exit on 4th Street so that that would encourage people to take the bus because the buses would be going more quickly on 4th and they wouldn't have to be with the traffic on Sth and 3rd. So that also isn't being done. The buses haven't been exiting on 4th Street. Roger: They have been. I can attest to that. I live on 4th Street. Blankenship: In response to the shuttle. We did try it. But the deal was that we were going to transfer if we had a certain number of people on the bus that we felt a certain threshold then we would drop them off at 4th Street and the shuttle would pick them up. But we seldom fell below that threshold. So this shuttle bus was not carrying very many people when it did go and it really created actual additional traffic because it was running sometimes and then the other buses were going down there anyway. The other thing is that that shuttle which was a natch-gas vehicle wasn't really a program on RFTA's part anyhow. It was an experimental technology and it quit running. I mean it doesn't work. So it doesn't run on natural gas. Then we got into a budget crunch and we have $300,000 shortfall and the Board was cutting back services throughout the community. They were looking forward to next year and they said they were evaluating ridership on various aspects of the various routes 23 PZM4.5.94 that we provide. And because this one wasn't hauling anybody they really couldn't justify the expenditure of funds for it. They thought it was superfluous and it was really one of those things that you do if you are going to try to discourage people from using bus service. You get them on one bus and transfer them somewhere else and make them walk. The other thing that George hasn't given us much credit for is that in the plan it talks about enhanced mass transit service. Since this plan has been enacted we have reduced the number of trips the buses we have going through the west end. There used to be some 70 odd trips a day that would go through there and we are down to about 16 now. We feel like we have reached a point where we can't go down much further without really jeopardizing the convenience of the service to the people that use it. George has said on record that really they don't want any bus service. There is no room to compromise. We have reached an impasse there. If the community tells us they want us to drop students off on Main Street, we will do it. That is what we will do. But this is a larger issue than just the west end when it comes to transit service to that area of town. And I think we ought to put it to a vote of the community if that is what it comes to. We should open this up--this whole debate up and say "Do the rest of the people that live in this town want to be dropped off on 4th Street in the rain and walk down there or do you want to ride the bus and have it be convenient". You should not necessarily limit something which is a facility that __?__ this whole community when it comes to mass transit services to the decisions made by these 5 or 6 people who are sitting in this room. McDonald: Just so we don't have to come back here again to request funds for another patrol person which would cut out--we really want something to go to the west end. We are leaving here with nothing that is really going to change because nobody is going to enforce any of those stop signs. Diane: That is a budget issue. You have to go to City Council. Bruce then closed the public portion of the hearing. MOTION Sara: I move to endorse City Council to invoke the west end traffic control devices and installation of the 6 antique lights on Lake Avenue. I STRONGLY move to endorse the continuing committee to evaluate the impacts of the changes to the traffic control devices throughout the summer and to review throughout the summer the Aspen Meadows traffic mitigation plan and report their findings and conclusions to a joint Council and P&Z meeting after the summer music season. Jasmine seconded the motion. 24 PZM4.5.94 Tim: Some of the points that came out of this meeting I think should be put into this motion. I think it is important that we have a leadership group. I think we should notify the Institute that they need to have a representative on this leadership group. I think that the warrant study should be in this motion and that we should move forward on that so that we have that information by the end of the summer when we get this next report back. So whatever it takes. Whatever. Period. I want a warrant study to know whether or not we should reduce the speed limit. I think that we basically should enact this traffic grid. I recommend that we send a certified letter from the City Attorney that informs the Institute that we find that they are in non-compliance wi th uses such as the expansion of the hotel uses, the expansion of the trustee's houses being rented for short term, employees leaving late at night after business luncheons that get out after certain hours- -that they are not participating with the leadership group and that they are required to do that. And that special events that they are holding are in non-compliance with the hours of operation and that deli veries have to be restricted to and garbage pickup has to be restricted to certain hours. -............. I think that we should include in this that this traffic grid should be printed through and publicized through the newspapers, through the ACRA maps that they have to tell people through community information. That this map should be put up during the summer during the music season and during the Institute season on Grass Roots TV so that people are informed that this type of traffic grid and restriction system is in place. -- I think that it is a good idea that if the alley's speed limits are 15 MPH that they should be posted. Sara: As the motion maker I will respond. I agree that I think it is a good idea that the warrant study should be done during the summer because if we decide at the end of the summer the stop signs aren't working and they take the study in September that would be too bad. I think the maps are very well publicized--at least the walking maps are in all the promotional literature but I think it is a great idea that the new traffic signs ought to be publicized in the newspaper. Tim: Not just once. I think they should come in some kind of re- occurring schedule on a weekly basis or even in the Aspen Magazine or as part of the program for the MAA that this traffic pattern is explained to the people. We have to keep telling these people the way it works. Sara: The MAA does a great job with advertising in their program about the walking experience. They are doing it. 25 PZM4.5.94 Diane: Tim, could I ask you to consider and Sara amending the motion- -in your finding that the Institute is in non-compliance are you saying the MAA is in compliance? Sara: I find the MAA in compliance. Bruce: So you are including that as part of your motion? Sara: But I ask that they continue to work as part of the biannual review. Bruce: Tim, I would rather- -rather than sending a letter to the Institute that we find that they are not in compliance. All we have heard is Mac and the neighbors. Tim: that they Well, the City Attorney they should be made aware are not in compliance. is now studying these issues. I think that we are investigating the fact that Diane: I would say that issues have been brought to our attention that you perhaps may not be in compliance. Sara: I am moving for the recommended motion on page 14 with the additions of that the warrant study should be taken during the summer. This plus the findings that the MAA is in substantial compliance and finding that there are reasonable concerns that the Aspen Institute may be in non-compliance, that a warrant study be implemented in the summer and that alleys be posted. Jasmine agreed to these conditions for her seconding of the motion. Roger: I would request that posting of the alleys be kept off the motion at this time. Sara: I think it is part of the mitigation plan because they are trying to get to the tent or the Institute in a hurry and they know they have a lot of stop signs ahead of them and they go through the alleys. Roger: I think there is a more effective way of dealing with the alleys and that is probably with a speed bump in the middle of each problem alley as opposed to a speed sign. I just don't want to put in hard speed limit signs in alleys at this time. Sara: I withdraw this from the motion. that continues to meet to know that it Commission and they should determine the for certain alleys. But I would like the committee is an area of concern for the best speed mitigating solution Jasmine: I will amend my second. Roll call vote: Bob, yes, Timl yes, Sara, yesr Roger, yes, Jasmine, 26 PZM4.5.94 yes, Bruce, yes. Roger: We really don't need another motion specifically to identify the non-consensus items. I feel that the non-consensus items are extremely important to be resolved. And I don't want to give George and the rest of our west end residents the idea that we are giving them a short shrift on the non-compliance items. Bruce: them. Staff has put it on our future agenda so we could deal with Sara: Staff recognized that we could not deal with those non- conforming items in one meeting. Bruce: We need to deal with those items and we also need to deal with possible non-compliance of the Institute. So staff needs to put on a future meeting where we deal with the non-consensus items and the potential non-compliance by the Institute. And we deal with those issues at that time. In the meantime we have tried to take some positive steps. We made a finding that the MAA was in substantial compliance. And then we are going to deal with the non-consensus items and the potential non-compliance by the Institute at a future meeting. Does somebody want to make a motion to direct staff to place it on a future agenda. Robert: I make such a motion. Sara seconded the motion with all in favor. Meeting was then adjourned. Time ty Clerk '''-'..,'.' ~ 27