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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.20120206 Special Meeting Aspen City Council February 6, 2012 Mayor Ireland called the meeting to order at 5:03 PM with Councilmembers Johnson, Torre, Frisch and Skadron present. ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 2012 — Aspen Modern designation 517/521 East Hyman (Aspen Core) Little Annie's /Benton Sara Adams, community development department, told Council this is AspenModern negotiation, which requires completion within 90 days, which expires at the end of February. Staff requested a special meeting in order to meet that deadline. Ms. Adams noted two Council members have had three meetings with the applicant. Ms. Adams said Aspen Modern was adopted in 2011 and is a voluntary preservation program for post WWII heritage properties. Ms. Adams said AspenModern is to try and preserve buildings and the applicants are asked for a list of incentives in exchange for designation of the building. Council and the applicant worked together to mesh designation with incentives for the applicant. Ms. Adams said this application would preserve two buildings, Little Annie's and the Benton Building including a restoration of the Benton building and create an addition of a multi -use building on the vacant parking lot. Ms. Adams told Council HPC reviewed this project in December and after two hearings they recommended the project. In January Council voted to proceed with negotiations and appointed Councilmembers Frisch and Torre as the Council representatives. Ms. Adams noted the affordable housing numbers have changed since January at which time there were 29.3 FTEs. Since then, the applicant has done a more detailed analysis of the net leasable on site, which brought the affordable housing number down. There is a credit for existing net leasable lost in the Benton remodel which also brings the number down. Ms. Adams said staff realized they were only applying one growth management benefit to the project and there are two landmarks on the parcel. Ms. Adams went over proposed formula of how growth management is calculated for historic properties; the first 4 employees are free; the next 4 employees are calculated and mitigated at 30 %; the reminder of employees are mitigated at 60 %, all those numbers are added up to get the number of employees to be mitigated for. For this property, the formula will be applied twice. Ms. Adams said staff compared the housing required for the original proposal, which was a scrape and replace, to a proposal to preserve two buildings and an addition. Ms. Adams said there is less affordable housing mitigation in a scrape and replace proposal than in preserving the building. Ms. Adams went over the credit for the structure which was scraped, new construction, total net leasable on site on what part has to be mitigated. Ms. Adams said proposal is a preservation credit including a credit for the structure that is being preserved. Mayor Ireland said the preservation credit seems to be double dipping; scrape and replace has rationale. Councilman Torre asked if one were preserving Little Annie's and adding 2,000 square feet what the mitigation would be. Ms. Adams said one would have to mitigate for what is being added at 60% if it is all commercial. Mayor Ireland asked about the free market units. Ms. Adams said they are exempt from mitigation; part of the benefit for AspenModern, one free market unit without mitigation is allowed. Ms. Adams noted the code allows for concurrent calculation with a mixed use building so one is not mitigating for both but is mitigating for the portion that is greater. Mayor Ireland 1 Special Meeting Aspen City Council February 6, 2012 asked what the mitigation would be if the vacant lot were developed separately. Ms. Adams said it would depend on the development proposal and she will work up some scenarios for second reading. Amy Guthrie, community development department, noted the original scrape and replace generated 11 employees to be mitigated for. The preservation scenario generates 20 employees. Ms. Guthrie said staff felt it is important to reward people for preserving structures rather than rewarding them for demolishing. Mayor Ireland said he would like to know what is being waived, what is not being waived and what counts as net leasable before voting on the project. Ms. Adams noted part of AspenModem is that it is a negotiation and an evolving process. Councilman Johnson said this started at mitigating with 29 FTEs and through examining the code and negotiating, this is now 9 FTEs. Ms. Adams said the memorandum and Section 8 of the ordinance details how this number was arrived at. Ms. Adams went through employee generation mitigation; the first calculation takes into account the existing commercial net leasable calculation, different FTEs are generated depending on the floor of the building, 1 s ` floor 4.1 FTEs /1000 square feet, upper floors and basement 3.075 FTEs /1000 square feet. The commercial net leasable for Benton on the main level equals 9.7 FTEs; the upper floors equal 8.2 FTEs, total 17.9 FTEs. Little Annie's would equal 10.086 FTEs; using the method which would incentivize preservation rather than encourage scrape and replace, add up the two credits of 17.9 and 10.086 equals 28 FTEs. The new commercial net leasable on the main level would require 25 FTEs, the other floors would require 30 FTEs for a total of 55 FTEs for the new building, then subtract the credits from Benton and Little Annie equals 26.9 FTEs. Using the formula and recognizing there are two landmarks, the first 8 employees requires zero mitigation; the next 8 at 30% equals 2.4 and the remainder at 60% equals 6.5 for a total of 8.988 FTEs for mitigation. This formula is part of a policy direction for Council's consideration. Ms. Adams said the one large free market unit has been broken up into two units for a total of 8950 square feet. The code allows .5:1 for free market residential which could be increased to .75:1 with 100% affordable housing on site. The residential component for this project is .59:1 over the allowable free market component. There is also a cap of net livable of 2000 square feet; one of the proposed units is 1542 square feet, the other unit is 6063 net livable. Under the rule of .5:1 for a 15,000 square foot lot, the project could have 7500 square feet of residential. Ms. Adams told Council the proposal contains 3 on -site parking spaces and the applicant proposes to pay the remainder by cash -in -lieu, which is allowed by right in the commercial core. The cash -in -lieu is $30,000 /space. The applicant is meeting the code requirement for parking. Ms. Adams noted the code requires 10% or 1500 square feet of the parcel for public amenity. The applicant originally requested a waiver and now proposes a combination of onsite public amenity in front of the Benton building and off -site pedestrian enhancement plan. This is allowed in the code. Ms. Adams noted the new construction will tie into the Benton building and as an addition to a landmark, one is exempt from parks dedication, air quality impact fees; this is in the existing code. Ms. Adams said the two areas that are part of the negotiations are the free market residential component and the affordable housing methodology calculation. Ms. Adams said staff feels the Benton building is important for its connection with a local architect Tom Benton; 2 Special Meeting Aspen City Council February 6, 2012 it is representative of the organic style in Aspen, it is indicative of Aspen in the 1970's. The Little Annie's building is important to trends in the 1970's and representative of the rustic image of the 1970's. Ms. Guthrie told Council there are only about two dozen modern historic buildings that are commercially public, which is about 1% of the parcels in town. Ms. Adams reminded Council HPC deals with the commercial design and major development review and through AspenModern all reviews are consolidated In front of Council as a package. HPC voted 4 to 1 in favor of the mass and scale and height of this proposed project. HPC will have final review if this project does get approved. Ms. Adams said for the new portion, basement will have commercial and storage; the 1 floor will be commercial; 2' floor will have office and residential and the 3 floor is residential and a roof top deck is proposed. The applicant proposes a $2 million rehabilitation to the facade of the Benton building, which is in the ordinance and is required to start that portion of the project first. The code allows a height increase from 38' to 42' as part of commercial design review. The applicant requests 41' and HPC recommends that through commercial design review. Ms. Adams stated the project meets at the commercial core zone district requirements except for the free market components. Ms. Adams pointed out the code allows mechanicals to go up another 10' if it is set back 15' from the edge of the building. Clauson pointed out the outdoor fireplace on drawing A -6 in the balcony recess. Clauson noted the mechanicals will be 8' above the roofline rather than the 10' allowed by code. Ms. Adams told Council these two properties meet the criteria for designation. Ms. Adams said the negotiation deadline is February 28` Clauson reiterated there will be significant renovation to the Benton building; Little Annie's will remain essentially unchanged expect for investigating access. Clauson said the 9000 square foot vacant parking lot has been identified in the last two AACP as a desirable site for redevelopment. Peter Fornell said the calculations and AspenModern are complex. Fornell said the cash -in -lieu mitigation of $1 million for 7.5 FTEs will not pay for affordable housing for that many employees. Fornell said approving this cash -in -lieu appears to allow developers only come up with 50% or less of their obligation to the community. Fornell said this is a negotiation and everything is on the table, like parking. Fornell said it seems irresponsible to accept cash -in -lieu until the cash -in -lieu study has been complete. Junee Kirk said this project has not followed any commercial design guidelines regarding height and mass and a 3 story building should have the third floor setback so it does not destroy the historic block. Ms. Kirk said people are upset at the possibility of destroying the historic district in an attempt to preserve buildings that should be preserved anyway. Ms. Kirk presented a drawing of the proposed project which was entered into the record. Councilman Skadron said the broad policy question before Council is whether to amend the code to allow a preservation credit that incentivizes preservation over demolition. Councilman Torre said the negotiating team is asking Council to consider that without making a code change. Ms. Adams said that is part of the flexibility of the AspenModern program and the issue is whether to apply this to all AspenModern properties not just this project. 3 Special Meeting Aspen City Council February 6, 2012 Councilman Johnson said he would like more information on the proposed $2 million for the Benton building rehabilitation; this is one of the community benefits and Council should make sure the money is adequate for the project. Councilman Johnson noted HPC voted that Little Annie could be demolished and this negotiation preserves this building. Councilman Johnson said he feels it is the use more than the architecture that the community wants to see preserved. Councilman Johnson requested staff see if there is a way to affect this. Councilman Frisch said the applicant originally wanted a waiver of public amenity space and the negotiating team worked out some amenity space on site and some cash -in -lieu. The applicant will pay the parking requirement. Councilman Frisch said he feels the affordable housing mitigation formula explained by Sara is the way he would like to see all AspenModern negotiations going forward. Councilman Frisch agreed the cash -in -lieu figure is too low and will only house 3 or 4 employees. Councilman Frisch said the free market residential is specific to this application. Councilman Frisch noted the two buildings in question were not set aside to be landmarked, and Council is the one that requested the demolition of Little Annie's be called up. Councilman Frisch said a way he feels the community can see if this process has been successful is if the Benton building is there in a rehabilitated state. Councilman Frisch said he would like to see if something can be worked out to preserve the business at Little Annie's. Mayor Ireland said this process is indicative of deficiencies in the land use code and problems created inadvertently by infill. Mayor Ireland said he would like Council to resolve to act on the downtown zoning rather than wait for the AACP. Mayor Ireland noted current zoning allows luxury penthouses which supplants the alternatives and also adds to the price of land. Mayor Ireland pointed out an example of this is the lots to the west of the Wheeler which used to have two restaurants and is now empty penthouses. The downtown commercial area should not be used for luxury penthouses. Mayor Ireland said this proposal treats the property both as historic and not as historic with two sets of calculations. Mayor Ireland said the city should decide whether these properties are historic or not and let that guide the process. Mayor Ireland said if this is not historic, why preserve it and if it is historic, why spend money to preserve it. Councilman Johnson moved to read Ordinance #5, Series of 2012; seconded by All in favor with the exception of Mayor Ireland, motion carried. Councilman Torre agreed there is not clarity on that question and the HPC approved demolition of Little Annie's but not the Benton building. Councilman Torre noted he asked to call up that decision because he is concerned about the historic district and the streetscape. Councilman Torre reminded Council they denied involuntary designations for AspenModern and created a negotiation process. This is the process set up by Council. Councilman Torre said he would prefer to negotiate than litigate. Councilman Torre said this is a question of priorities. Councilman Torre said he would like to know more about the preservation credit program and the intention towards retaining Little Annie's business. Councilman Torre said this has opened up a community conversation, balancing priorities, and going with the process Council set up. Councilman Torre reiterated this is preserving two properties. Mayor Ireland noted the Little Annie's building did not receive much discussion at HPC. Mayor Ireland said AspenModern did not create a list of properties that would be designated historic. ORDINANCE #5 4 Special Meeting Aspen City Council February 6, 2012 (Series of 2012) AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ASPEN, COLORADO, APPROVING HISTORIC LANDMARK DESIGNATION, SUBDIVISION, GROWTH MANAGEMENT REVIEW, CONCEPTUAL COMMERCIAL DESIGN REVIEW, BENEFITS THROUGH THE ASPENMODERN PROGRAM, AND A SITE SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE PROPERTIES LOCATED AT 517 EAST HYMAN AVENUE, 521 EAST HYMAN AVENUE, AND THE PARKING LOT ON THE CORNER OF HUNTER AND HYMAN STREETS, LEGALLY DESCRIBED AS LOTS E - I, BLOCK 95, INCLUDING UNITS 1, 2 AND THE COMMON AREA OF THE BENTON BUILDING CONDOMIUMUMS, CITY AND TOWNSITE OF ASPEN, COLORADO Councilman Torre moved to adopt ordinance #5, Series of 2012, on first reading; seconded by Councilman Frisch. Roll call vote; Skadron, yes; Johnson; Torre, yes; Frisch, yes; Mayor Ireland, no. Motion carried. Council scheduled a work session February 21 to talk about land use code amendments. Councilman Johnson moved to adjourn at 7:05; seconded by Councilman Torre. All in favor, motion carried. V I r Koch • �.. City Clerk • 5