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Aspen Plannine & Zonine Commission Meetine Minutes - Julv 18. 2006
COMMENTS ............................................................................................................ 2
MINUTES ................................................................................................................. 3
TIMESHARE CONVERSION CODE AMENDMENT (PINES LODGE,LLC).... 3
JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER.......................................................................... 3
8040 GREENLINE/RESIDENTIAL DESIGN STANDARDS VARIANCE -
PARCEL 4, TOP OF MILL...................................................................................... 6
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Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes - Julv 18. 2006
Jasmine Tygre opened the regular meeting of the Aspen Planning & Zoning
Commission in the Sister Cities Meeting Room at 4:30 p.rn. Commissioners John
Rowland, Ruth Kruger, Dylan Johns, Steve Skadron, Brian Speck and Jasmine
Tygre were present. Commissioners Mary Liz Wilson and Brandon Marion were
excused. Staff in attendance were Joyce Allgaier, Ben Gagnon, Chris Bendon,
Community Development; Jackie Lothian, Deputy City Clerk.
COMMENTS
Ruth Kruger asked how and why the view plane review shifted to HPC. Chris
Bendon replied that it has not shifted it has always been eligible for either P&Z or
HPC to review and Community Development considers the request from the
applicant to consolidate reviews from one board. Kruger expressed displeasure
about this decision. Jasmine Tygre said it was frustrating for Staff and the
Commissioners. Bendon said it was important to pay attention to criteria
considering an equally weighed decision and the public input. Dylan Johns noted
there were historically protected view planes; HPC in some sense has more
purview than P&Z does since HPC reviews through architectural design elements.
Tygre said as long it was clear cut.
Steve Skadron extended a compliment to the Aspen Alps property for transporting
their guests through town in an electric vehicle.
Skadron asked what mechanisms were in place to ensure that employees units or
ADDs were being utilized as they were supposed to be used. Bendon replied that
both questions fall to the housing authority; affordable housing units that were
units of density (either mitigation or however they were created) do need to be
occupied. Bendon said an ADD, with the exception of one or two in town, were
not required to be occupied, if they are occupied then a lease needs to be on file
with the housing authority (housing has qualifications to follow with time to time
spot checks).
Jasmine Tygre stated that Mary Liz had to resign from Planning & Zoning because
she was leaving for health reasons; Jasmine expressed appreciation and recognition
for the time Mary Liz did spend with P&Z.
Bendon noted there were 2 Core Beliefs meetings on Wednesday, July 19th in the
Hotel Jerome to gain public feedback that was different from a public notice and to
obtain people's values about growth and development. Bendon urged the
commissioners to attend.
Bendon distributed review surveys for the impact fee and a schedule for the
moratorium meetings; they have tried to make it possible for P&Z to attend. The
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Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes - Julv 18. 2006
first meeting was on July 25th regarding the history of planning Aspen; it was the
50th anniversary for zoning.
Bendon also distributed an update to the lodging report and an analysis of all of the
building permit growth activity from 2000 through last month. The commission
expressed thanks for Jennifer Phelan's work.
Bendon introduced Jessica Garrow, the new planner with a Masters in Planning
from Ohio State University.
MINUTES
The minutes were postponed until the next meeting although Ruth read them.
PUBLIC HEARING:
TIMESHARE CONVERSION CODE AMENDMENT (PINES LODGE.LLC)
Jasmine Tygre opened the public hearing for the timeshare code amendment.
Notice was provided.
MOTION: Steve Skadron moved to continue the public hearing to 8/1 on the
Timeshare Conversion Code Amendment; seconded by Ruth Kruger. All in favor,
approved. .
CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING (07/11/06):
JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER
Jasmine Tygre opened the continued public hearing on the Jewish Center. Ben
Gagnon recapped the reviews from the last meeting. The background with the
Historic Preservation Commission; the growth management; the subdivision
review; the essential public facility; the infrastructure and the off-street parking
requirements.
Alan Richman introduced Jeffrey Ream from Fe1sburg Holt & Ullevig out of
Denver. Ben Gagnon briefly touched on the changes in the city parking
requirements over the last year in the Commercial Core, C-1, SCI, Lodge and
Commercial Lodge Zone Districts. The general philosophy was to require less
parking to push the load off of the public sector onto the private sector to make
sure they figure out how to accommodate people; use the transit system in creative
ways or utilize shuttles and vans.
Alan Richman said the Planning Commission asked for two specific things. Jeff
Ream will walk through the summer and winter parking study to understand how
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Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes - Julv 18. 2006
the conclusions were decided for the availability of on-street parking. The other
issue was traffic management on the site and available parking on site.
Jeff Ream, transportation engineer with Felsburg, Holt and Ullevig; his focus was
traffic engineering; they developed unique characteristics from the individual uses
on site with the number of times the event would occur, the numbers attending,
what kind or carpool and transit and created a table for each particular use on this
site and apply those throughout the day to show the parking demand each hour.
Ream said the preschool would have between 35 and 45 children with parents
dropping kids off taking maybe 5 to 10 minutes with staff to help. There were 9
parking spaces on site with 7 dedicated to the drop-off parking; there may be
staggering of the classes to better manage the drop-off spaces.
Ream said the children's Hebrew school would be about 8 tolO children; the teen
program once a month with 20 to 25 teens; adult education maybe 2 or 3 nights a
week with 15 to 25 people; Religious services would be Friday after sundown and
Saturday morning between 9 and noon with 40 to 50 people attending; special
events, which would occur 8 to 10 times a year ranging from 50 to 200 people.
Ream said the day to day use would be the teen and adult programs and religious
services. Ream said that there would be about 25% for religious services because
observant Jews are not supposed to drive to services and from this number they can
gamer the number of parking spaces for the individual uses. There would be a
demand for about 17 spaces from the adult education program held between 8 and
10 pm; on Fridays the religious services about 27 off-street spaces being used after
sundown; on Saturday morning services about 20 spaces and Special Events that
would occur about once a month during the hours of 6 to 8 pm needing 75 spaces.
Ream said they did hourly counts of traffic in March during spring break and the
Arts Comedy Festival for the wintertime activity and in the summer the 3rd
weekend in June during the Jazz Aspen.
Alan Richman summarized the parking special review. Dylan Johns said the
summary was helpful with clarifications and went a long way to ensure as few
conflicts as possible.
John Rowland endorsed the one-way alley concept beginning on the east so that
children getting out of the car were closer to the building. Rowland asked if any
studies were done that allowed the parking spaces to be a pull-out lane. Ben
Gagnon stated that he spoke to the Community Development Engineer who
preferred to see that those 7 spaces were not used as pull-in pull-out during the
preschool drop off and pick up but to keep cars circulating. Gagnon said the one-
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Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes - Julv 18. 2006
way alley, staggered arrival times for the preschool and special event times would
be included in the resolution.
Public Comments:
John Batey, attorney for Scott Building Condominium, located across the alley said
there were flaws in the parking study and suggested the parking be somewhat
dispersed than trying to get into a parking structure.
Ben Gagnon said the clarifications to the resolution were fairly technical. Alan
Richman said they were minor with the first one on page 3, Section 4 Dimensional
Requirements; they still have to go back to HPC for final review and more than
likely there will be some more tweaks for the final floor area or height. Gagnon
said it would read that "it shall be in compliance with the final approval of the
Historic Preservation Review". Richman said page 4, at the top #3 before Section
8, the requirement to mitigate for additional employees if an audit shows additional
employees to add "mitigation at an identical percentage". Richman said on page 6
in item h "the fence does not impact any tree roots" and "the fence will be a safety
fence and comply with the State of Colorado Daycare standards". Gagnon said
that Section lOin the resolution established off street parking and Section 4
additional commitments.
Ruth Kruger stated concern for the change in use for loss of bed base and asked
how many beds were lost in this redevelopment. Richman replied that they
anticipated this question; there were 16 units. Rabbi Mintz stated the occupancy
was under 30% now annually with no hotel services and there were no cooking
facilities only a microwave. Mintz said there were one bedroom units. Richman
distributed Rabbi Mintz's notes, which should answer a lot of questions. Gagnon
said that staff found this to be a mixed use area. Kruger asked about the lodging
preservation. Richman responded that it was an allowed use and he thought the
city's policy was to encourage the small lodges to remain open but never to force
them to stay lodging ifit's economically unrealistic for them to do so. Richman
said that as much as we might want this property to be desirable, it was not
drawing the kind of interest after it was condominiumized, nothing sold, which
was why the lodge ultimately sold as a whole because there was no interest in that
economic solution of condominiums. Kruger said that she understood the point but
still hated to see the lodge rooms taken away.
Skadron asked if this promoted a development pattern concern for Main Street and
was it in the best interest of the general welfare of the community; his concern was
that Main Street in the future was lined with Religious Institutions and does that in
the long run serve the goals of the community plan in terms of inclusiveness and
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Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes - July 18. 2006
welcoming atmosphere. Skadron said that Aspen was richer with a greater mix of
religions and social classes. Gagnon replied the uses allowed were uses by right.
Allgaier stated the zoning on Main Street was mixed use, which allowed for a
variety of uses from commercial, retail, office and restaurant.
MOTION: Dylan Johns moved to approve Resolution #24, series 2006,
approving a Growth Management review to determine employee generation and a
Special Review to establish off-street parking requirements with conditions and
recommending approval to City Council of a Growth Management Review as an
Essential Public Facility and Subdivision Review with conditions finding that the
review criteria for the application have been met and to include a requirement for
an employee busses, the alley be explored with the City Engineer and
neighborhood to establish a one-way designation, the preschool start times be
staggered and Special Events start times not be scheduled before 6 pm during the
winter and 7 pm during the summer and clarifications as presented by the
applicant. Seconded by John Rowland. Roll call vote: Speck, yes; Skadron, yes;
Kruger, no; Rowland, yes; Johns, yes; Tygre, yes. APPROVED 5-1.
Discussion of motion: Ruth Kruger said that it was a valid point that most of the
churches in town were under parked but she can't support an under parked project.
Kruger said when the reduced parking requirements were created she thought that
the reductions were simply for the downtown core, this was not the downtown
core. Kruger complimented the presentation but did not feel it was not fair to spill
out parking in the neighborhood. Jasmine Tygre felt under parking in the long run
was a bad policy; the circulation, traffic and parking management will be at an
effective level for this project and did not think that it would necessarily be a
problem for this project. Tygre agreed with Alan on having places in town for
children. Steve Skadron was less concerned about the parking and cared about the
opportunity for the community as presented with it being open to the greater
community.
PUBLIC HEARING:
8040 GREENLINE/RESIDENTIAL DESIGN STANDARDS VARIANCE-
PARCEL 4. TOP OF MILL
Jasmine Tygre opened the public hearing for the 8040 Greenline Review
Residential Design Standards. Jessica Garrow provided the proof of notice.
Garrow stated this was a residential design variance and 8040 greenline review for
the vacant parcel #4 in the Top of Mill Aspen Mountain Subdivision PUD.
Garrow introduced Eric Ameson and John Galambos.
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Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes - July 18. 2006
Garrow noted there were 4 Residential Design Standards; building orientation,
build to lines, garage setback and entry door setback. Garrow noted the access on
drawing C2 showed how the lot gets accessed from the private street at the Top of
Mill, which was 25 feet long on the street frontage and 50 feet back into where the
buildable area of the lot was located. Garrow said that staff worked with the
applicant to make sure that the garage was not the prominent feature that was seen
driving up Mill Street and to do that the garage has been reoriented the garage so
that it was side loading; it was rotated 90 degrees. In order to accomplish that it
was placed in front of the main building. Garrow noted the lot area was 12,337
square feet and the code allowed for side loading garages on lots 15,000 square
feet or larger so this was an exception that staff wanted to make with this particular
lot because of the site specific issues. Garrow said because of the front fayade of
the building was that side of the garage it was impossible to have the entry door to
the residence be less than 10 feet back from that front fayade (drawing SD3A).
Garrow said as part of the PUD approval 9 of the 11 standards for 8040 Green1ine
Review were already approved. The original PUD allowed 6200 square feet of
FAR for all structures; this application was at that maximum number. The height
requirements were less than what was allowed.
John Galambos spoke about the entry being visible from the street. Eric Amenson
distributed drawings of the design of the project indicating where the midpoint of
the street frontage to show the tangent. Amenson said there wasn't really any
street frontage.
Galambos said there was a brick wall on the back of these lots required by the City
Engineer and Teratech.
Joyce Allgaier commented that this lot had been reviewed by the planning
commission several years ago. John Galambos stated it was his Dutch client Mr.
Van Lindt with a cruciform design.
Jasmine Tygre said that Criterion B was the guiding factor because this was not the
kind of lot that could accommodate those residential design standards. Ruth
Kruger agreed.
Steve Skadron asked if the variance requests would be necessary if the house was
smaller. Galambos replied that it still could not be orientated towards the street; a
garage could not work on that site with turning radius unless there was more
pavement up front with a 52 foot turning circle, which was more of a detriment
than turning in and backing out.
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Aspen Plannin!! & Zonin!! Commission Meetin!! Minutes - July 18. 2006
Kruger asked who designed the plat. Galambos replied Top of Mill LLC and that
process. Tygre noted that the commission spent years on the Top of Mill lots.
MOTION: Ruth Kruger moved to approve Resolution #25, series 2006,
approving variances to the residential design standards for building orientation,
build-to lines, garage setback and entry door setback; and approving an 8040
Greenline Review. Seconded by Dylan Johns. Roll call vote: Rowland, yes;
Skadron, yes; Johns, yes; Speck, yes; Kruger, yes; Tygre, yes. APPROVED 6-0.
Tygre asked the status of the ski access on the Top of Mill. Galambos said that the
Aspen Trail was staked by Brain from Parks between Parcel 1 and 8 and continue
up towards Lift lA, which was a hiking trail. Allgaier said that she would follow
up on that.
Adjourned at 6:40 pm.
~
eputy City Clerk
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