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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20060801 ._~'-~-".I ,~_ Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes Au!!ust 01, 2006 DECLARATION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST ................................................. 2 TIMESHARE CONVERSION CODE AMENDMENT (PINES LODGE LLC) - WITHDRAWN - .......................................................................................................2 JEROME PROFESSIONAL BUILDING SUBDIVISION & GROWTH MANAGEMENT REVIEW .....................................................................................2 1 Aspen Planninl! & Zoninl! Commission Meetinl! Minutes AUl!ust 01, 2006 Jasmine Tygre opened the regular meeting of the Aspen Planning & Zoning Commission in the Sister Cities Meeting Room at 4:55 p.m. Commissioners Ruth Kruger, Steve Skadron, Dylan Johns and Jasmine Tygre were present. Excused commissioners were Brian Speck, John Rowland and Brandon Marion. Staffin attendance were Joyce Allgaier, Jennifer Phelan, Community Development; Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk. DECLARATION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST None stated. PUBLIC HEARING: TIMESHARE CONVERSION CODE AMENDMENT (PINES LODGE LLC) - WITHDRAWN - PUBLIC HEARING JEROME PROFESSIONAL BUILDING SUBDIVISION & GROWTH MANAGEMENT REVIEW Jasmine Tygre opened the hearing for the Jerome Professional Building. Jennifer Phelan provided the notice. Phelan explained that the applicant was the Jerome Professional Building Condominium Association represented by Mitch Haas. The property was a 12,000 square foot lot located at 201 North Mill Street in the mixes use district. Currently the existing building contains offices uses; the proposal contains demolition of the existing building and replaced with a mixed use building containing 6 free market units, 3 affordable housing units, and 10,750 square feet of net 1easeab1e commercial office space. Phelan said as proposed this application meets the dimensional requirements of the underlying mixed use zone district with regards to setbacks and maximum height at 32 feet. This property has a fair amount of grade differential and the floor area allowance in the zone district was 2 to 1, which is 24,000 square feet. The individual uses within the building have individual caps; the proposal requests an increase in the commercial and free market housing to be reviewed under special review. Proposed were 20 underground parking spaces in a parking garage accessed from the alley, which is unimproved at this time; Council approved an application for the alley from the property adjacent to this property to improve and open the alley. 2 of the 20 spaces were in a tandem configuration so it only counts as 18 spaces. Phelan said there were growth management reviews for a new mixed use building, free-market residential units and affordable housing units. The mitigation for 2 Aspen Planninl! & Zoninl! Commission Meetinl! Minutes AUl!ust 01, 2006 employee generation was 6.09 full time employee equivalents; as proposed there were 3 two bedroom affordable housing units, which allows for mitigation for 6.75 employees. The proposed net livable square footage was 9,000 square feet for the free-market units and 3,099 square feet for the affordable housing mitigation. The affordable housing has to meet certain design standards that being a minimum of 50% of the net livable floor area has to be above the natural or finished grade, which ever was higher; 100% of these units were above or at natural grade. Housing Guidelines require affordable housing units to be a minimum size of 950 square feet for 2 bedroom units; 2 of these proposed units were in excess of that and 1 unit was 6 square feet shy of that minimum; the housing board can recommend up to a 20% reduction in the net livable square footage, which was reflected in the housing referral. The applicant preferred rental units and staff recommended these be "for sale" units, which was a recent change to the land use code. Phelan said the commercial design review was a final decision at P&Z level; there were a number of basic standards that were designed to foster proper commercial scale and character. The review standards deal with the primary relationship to the street even on this difficult site. Phelan said that Special Review was a final decision for the Planning Commission and the applicant requested special review for the commercial and free-market uses on the property; the applicant can ask for up to a 1 to 1 ratio. The applicant is asking for a .88 to 1 for the commercial use, which is just over 1500 square feet in floor area and for the free-market multi-family use the applicant requested .87 to 1 at 1,142 square feet in floor area. Phelan said the standards for Special Review talk about compatibility with regard to mass, height, density, configuration, open space, landscaping, setbacks and insure that the design is compatible with the character of the surrounding land uses. Staff feels that the current massing and configuration could be reworked and should be resolved a little bit more particularly along the Mill Street pedestrian portion and some reworking of the massing of the building, which could better handle the additional square footage. Staff recommended changes to the design of the building that could accommodate the requested additional floor area and create a more compatible building with the downtown. Phelan said the Planning Commission makes a recommendation to Council on the Subdivision review. Staff believes that this application meets the applicable subdivision review standards in the land use code. 3 Aspen Planninl! & Zoninl! Commission Meetinl! Minutes AUl!ust 01, 2006 Ruth Kruger asked if the "for sale" units were subject to 30% or 33% rule and requested this affordable housing rule be researched and brought back to the Commission. Kruger asked the rear height of the building. Phelan replied that the architects would clarify that. Steve Skadron asked if the wording on page 6 of the memo was correct. Phelan explained that the applicant may be allowed to pick the first purchasers of the affordable housing units by approval of the housing board. Jasmine Tygre asked if the affordable housing units mitigated for the commercial and free-market residential uses. Phelan said that the mitigation was not counted in a cumulative manner; you don't have to mitigate for the commercial and then mitigate for the free-market. Phelan said the code reads "when affordable housing units are provided on site the individual mitigation requirements are not required to be added together for a combined sum as long as the largest amount of required mitigation for anyone Growth Management request is met." Tygre asked if the 3 affordable units were the mitigation for the entire project. Phelan replied that was correct. Tygre asked how different these dimensional requirements were from the previous underlying zone district. Tygre requested a table showing the proportions of the spaces being dedicated to each use. Herb Klein stated that Joe Krabacher, Carl Larsen and he were owners of the condominium units in the Jerome Professional Building and the architects were Lipkin Warner. Klein introduced Michael Lipkin, David Warner, JeffOrsu1ak and Mitch Haas. Klein provided the history of the building beginning with it being 26 years old, which was the old Aspen Dairy property. They were the first or second condominimized office building in Aspen; Joe Krabacher and Herb Klein own their office spaces on the second floor and Carl Larsen owns the first floor and leases the spaces out. Klein said they looked at a renovation and to add-on to the office building and it just did not work; the only thing that made sense was to scrape and replace. Klein said they wanted the office space for their own use and the affordable housing for their employees. Klein said the Housing Authority approved these units as rentals. 4 ~---._--,.,--,~-,.~-..,I--., Aspen Planninl! & Zoninl! Commission Meetinl! Minutes AUl!ust 01, 2006 Klein said that there were 20 parking spaces and only 18 would count so they will pay cash-in-lieu and may come back for a special review to show those tandem spaces do work. Klein noted they were hiring a parking consultant to see about the possibility of adding more parking maybe another sub-grade level. JeffOrsu1ak set up a slide show that included rotation of the building and Michael Lipkin presented a town site depicting the Jerome, Obermeyer, this site and the surrounding areas. Lipkin said there were many opportunities along Mill Street for this building with the likelihood of redevelopment down Mill Street for a more desirable pedestrian experience from Puppy Smith Street up to Main Street. Lipkin spoke about the new building design being only 7 feet taller than the existing building. Lipkin stated that there were really no expansion possibilities but with the new mixed use change in the code there were possibilities for the redevelopment of this building. Lipkin said the street frontage on Mill Street became quite active and a change in the walking experience down to the Post Office or C1arks Market. Dave Warner spoke about the way the building looks in detail from the slides; the view from Main Street down to Puppy Smith. Warner said that all the floors can be accessed from the corner; the base of the building greets the pedestrian; the alley contains the trash area and opening to the garage; the west side has open space. Warner said an important part of the massing was breaking the building up into different masses and layers. Warner went though the floors of the building pointing out the residential and commercial uses with the building stepping back from Mill Street. Allgaier asked for the height dimensions. Warner stated the current site had a planter on the Mill Street side but it wasn't user friendly along the sidewalk. Tygre asked if the bottom of the staircase to the top of the building was 32 feet. Warner responded the top of the staircase was at grade. Klein explained that the existing sidewalk on Bleeker was lower than the natural pre-existing grade of the property. Allgaier restated that the steps follow the finished grade; the measurements were taken from the existing grade or preexisting or finished grade, whichever is lower. Ruth Kruger asked if the alley has been vacated. Warner replied that it was platted but not active. Herb Klein said that the alley was not vacated. Tygre asked how far from the western property line the building was located. Warner said it was 15 feet setback to create the green space. Tygre asked how high the staircase was. Warner replied about 6 feet at the highest point. Warner said that changes were made to the Mill Street side after meeting with staff including storefront windows and canopies to create continuity for the places. 5 Aspen Planninl! & Zoninl! Commission Meetinl! Minutes AUl!ust 01, 2006 Mitch Haas said that the only changes were the special review requests were for the affordable housing units to be rental units; the condition on rental units were if they were out of compliance for a year then it becomes a for sale unit in the housing lottery or if the owners choose to make the units for sale then the units go to the housing lottery. Haas said the housing board recommended the units be rental units and the growth management review stays with the housing authority at its sole discretion. Haas said the commercial special review was modest at 1455 square feet of additional commercial floor area and netted out it was only 293 square feet of actual commercial space because of the pro rata shares attributed to circulation and they asked for an additional 1442 square feet for the free market, 1018 of that number was in circulation and common areas so it was only 424 square feet of actual free market space. Haas said they suggested parking passes for the parking garage across the street for the affordable units during the week so that parking spaces could be used during the day for the office and commercial spaces. Haas said that they were a live work situation with rental units and have a lot less need to use their cars. Haas said there were items in the resolution that needed to be cleaned up with staff. Dylan Johns asked ifthere would be a cars shuttling back and forth to the municipal parking garage. Haas replied potentially yes. Allgaier said this parking issue needed more thought. Klein said there was sufficient parking by code for this building but they would prefer to have more parking available for short term clients; they felt it was a more efficient use of the area. Joe Krabacher said the current parking for the building included 13 or 14 spaces and people angle park. Haas noted that residential units in the building will be entitled to residential street parking permits. Johns asked about the alley being opened. Phelan said that the alley would be a dead end alley and the first person to want to use the alley would be required to make those improvements with the Blue Vic application. Steve Skadron asked in feet was a significant increase in height. Lipkin replied that there was a drawing showing the change in height. Tygre asked how much commercial space the existing building has. Klein replied that it was all office with a gross area at 9275 square feet and net leasable was at 7550. 6 ~~_._~---~~...-.._- -..... -.I~..',- Aspen Planninl! & Zoninl! Commission Meetinl! Minutes AUl!ust 01. 2006 Public Comments: Bert Myrin said that he lives in the neighborhood; the cars have to go into the crosswalk to see around the current planter. Myrin said the parking was tight in the neighborhood and there was a municipal garage across the street. Myrin said for someone to have to move their car into the Rio Grande garage and walk back to work in that building and then at night move their car again seemed rather silly. Myrin asked ifthere was room in the code to vary the parking for the affordable units. Jennifer Phelan submitted letters into the record from Don Dixon and Wy1ey Hodgson. Kruger said that she asked for clarification of the rules but she did not think that it would change her position or vote; she asked if the commission could vote on this tonight. Johns said that he had a couple of unanswered questions. Skadron asked if there were sufficient answers on the parking matter. Kruger said they were within their rights to present the parking as it was and were not outside of the rules although you may have questions as to whether or not you like it or not. Allgaier said that she wasn't clear on the parking for the employee housing as recommended by Housing and staff would like to review this aspect along with the Parking Department. Kruger said that she was considering a condition for assigned parking and did not know whether the applicants were interested in or not. Tygre said that rather than give any of the items a short shrift that she would like to see the parking ironed out prior voting on the project; the rest of the commission agreed. Klein said that if it troubles the commission about the movable spaces, it was not a do or die situation; if the commission was not comfortable with that then the assigned spaces would work. Tygre said that it would be helpful to get the opinion from staff on the use of the public garage; she noted that in other municipalities there were vouchers given by businesses for their patrons to use in a municipal garage, this might be a better option to consider that might be beneficial to the businesses and staff might have other ideas. Allgaier agreed that staff would like to do that as well. Johns said that as Ruth said they do comply with the parking requirements but it was a very congested area for parking. Allgaier said that staff would like to work on clarification for the percentage mix of uses in a mixed use development and to work with the applicant regarding fixing the resolution to bring it back to P&Z. 7 Aspen Planninl! & Zoninl! Commission Meetinl! Minutes AUl!ust 01. 2006 Kruger requested clarification on the employee housing at 30% or the first round and there was a balance to remembering the new rules and making sUre that the commission applies the law properly. Haas stated that the 30% doesn't apply any more and it was under the Growth Management Rules on Affordable Housing. Allgaier said staff would clarify in the next staff report. Johns said the project was designed within the parameters and the special request for more floor area, which was not a great deal and had the incentives for on-site affordable housing. Johns said that the rental units make a lot of sense especially in a commercial building. Skadron complimented the applicant and appreciated the pedestrian friendly character of the building and liked the way it broke into different masses and stepped back. Tygre said that her concern was the mix of uses and the building was more than doubling in size; the free-market residential use was troubling in terms of the proportion of the mix. Tygre said that this did not seem to get to what she felt the mixed use should be and instead free-market residential was being subsidized. Tygre said there were a lot of good things about this project and liked the employee housing on site and agreed that the rental made sense. Tygre voiced concern for the mass of the building and the fayade ofthe staircase because looking at the building upward from the bottom of the steps to the roof the building it looked gigantic even though she knew that it was measured within the height limit at grade. Tygre showed concern for the regulations and the way this project was proposed that the request for additional FAR does not fulfill the criteria in the review section of special review. Kruger agreed that the staircase was troubling but the site constraints were very difficult beginning at the westerly south corner and dropping down in every direction. MOTION: Ruth Kruger moved to continue the Jerome Professional Building Subdivision & Growth Management public hearing to August 15th; seconded by Steve Skadron. Roll call vote: Johns, yes; Skadron, yes; Kruger, yes; Tygre, yes. All infavor, APPROVED. Meeting adjourned at 6:55 p.rn. , ! Ja 'Ie Lothian, 8