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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19991123Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 Mayor Richards called the continued meeting to order at 4:10 p.m. with Councilmembers Paulson, Hershey and McCabe present. Asoen Mountain PUD Lot 3 Julie Ann Woods, community development director, showed a site map of lot 3, which is 242,810 square feet and contains easements to be subtracted. Lot 3 has different zone districts within it. The applicant has divided lot 3 into 8 development parcels. Parcel 1 will be 2 free market triplexes; this is currently occupied by Aspen Valley Ski Club building; parcel 2 will be 2 affordable housing duplexes; parcel 3 will be a free market duplex. Parcels 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 are all free market single family dwelling and each will contain accessory dwelling units. There are a total of 17 residential units of 73,100 square feet. Parcels A and B are open space parcels containing 60,260 square feet of open space. The net lot 3 is 130,170 square feet. The access is up Mill street into a cul-de-sac with driveways coming off that cul-de-sac. There are trail easements in two locations, one in between the triplexes and residential lots to give access down the hill and the other a higher easement. Ms. Woods noted that the affordable housing proposal meets the current requirements. There are 4 affordable units plus ADUs for a total of 6200 square feet net livable. Lot 3 has multiple zoning of LTR, R-15 and conservation. Under current zoning code, multiple zoning requires that the most restrictive would apply, which would require the entire parcel be zoned conservation. Ms. Woods reminded Council there is a previous development agreement for these lot and development rights associated with that agreement. The applicant proposes to rezone the property. Staff recommends extending the LTR Zone to the entire parcel except the unbuilt areas, which will be zoned conservation. Ms. Woods said R-15/PUD/Lodge overlay the FAR allowed would be 18,192 square feet for single family. For LTR, the FAR would be 34,300 square feet. The conservation zone, prior to the most recent amendment, has unlimited floor area. Ms. Woods said in order to calculate floor area, it was assumed the property would be rezoned to LTR, which allows a 1:1 FAR. The applicant proposes 105,850 square feet of allowable floor area under the proposed rezoning. Staff looked at the lot sizes, determined the gross lot area, adjusted it for the percentage of slopes in excess of 30 percent to get Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 the net lot area. Staff the credited the open space back to the lots and to get the adjusted lot area to determine a proposed FAR. Ms. Woods illustrated the single family lots with their allowed FAR and proposed FAR: Allowed Proposed Lot 4 4,056 6,200 Lot 5 3,937 5,200 Lot 6 3,981 5,200 Lot 7 4,267 6,500 Lot 8 4,287 6,500 Ms. Woods said the applicants propose to make up the difference in proposed FAR on lots 1 and 2. Parcel 1 is allowed 41,592 and 27,000 square feet is proposed; parcel 2 would be allowed 25,632 and 7500 square feet of floor area is proposed. The difference of unused floor area on parcel 1 and 2 would be split across parcels 4 through 8. The difference between FAR allowed versus the FAR being requested is 19, 100 square feet of unused floor area. Vann reminded Council this site has been zoned 3 separate districts for years. In 1986 when the PUD agreement was adopted, there was a conceptual approval for 33 residential units on Top of Mill under the same zoning as today. The regulations then allowed these residential units withore requiring a rezoning. The PUD agreement aggregated all 47 residential credits being given to SLP. While the PUD agreement was being drafted, the city was re-writing the land use code. In this re-write, the code addressed land with multiple zone districts. This re-write would preclude meeting the terms of the PUD agreement with Savanah. The amendment states when there are two zone districts, the most restrictive applies. Vann said Lot 3 has 3 zone districts; the most restrictive is conservation, which only allows one unit per 10 acres. Vann said the only way to reconcile this with the PUD agreement is to rezone the property. Vann told Council LTR permits residential uses and R-15 does not permit multi-family. The dimensional requirements are based on rezoning the necessary property to LTR. A portion of the single family lots is in the conservation zone and this is also suggested to be rezoned LTR. Vann said the allowable floor area and density under the rezoning exceed that which is being proposed by the applicant. Vann told Council the applicant calculated the floor area on an entire parcel; staff calculated the FAR on a lot by lot basis. The PUD regulations allow floor areas to be 2 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 distributed around the PUD. The floor area from parcels 1 and 2 is being redistributed to the single family lots. Vann noted that the PUD also permits unused FAR from lot 5 to be transferred to lot 3. Vann said the proposed hotel on lot 5 has about 8,000 square feet of FAR that is not being utilized. Vann said the applicant is not taking advantage of the lands zoned conservation to increase the density or FAR on the parcel. Ms. Woods told Council P & Z voted 6 to 0 for approval of the conceptual plan with conditions. The housing board also recommended approval of this site, also with conditions. Staff recommends approval of lot 3. John Sarpa, representing Savanah Limited Partnership, told Council lot 3 is the crux of the economics of the Aspen Mountain PUD, residential properties are one of the higher selling parts of Aspen. The PUD proposal in 1996 was a total of 47 residential development on both lots 3 and 5. At that time, Council indicated they would prefer short term accommodations on lot 5, leaving only lot 3 for residential uses. Sarpa said the first design for lot 3 did not contain any affordable housing as SLP felt they had fully mitigated their housing requirements. Lot 3 now contains 100 percent mitigation for affordable housing. Sarpa said the applicants have a number of computer imaging of the proposed build out. Sarpa pointed out the site sits in a bowl, which lessens the visual impacts of the project. Vann said that exemption from growth management for 47 residential units comes from demolition of existing units through the PUD and prior growth management competitions. The city code states one can tear down a structure and rebuild it. At the time when credits were assigned, there were no housing mitigation requirements. However, SLP was required to mitigate the demolition and future reconstruction of units. SLP maintains that the 47 credits were mitigated at the beginning of the PUD. Savanah has agreed to mitigate the units on lot 3 as if the demolition has occurred today. The city has two requirements for mitigation and reconstruction of existing units. Mitigation for single family units is either payment of a housing impact fee or provision of an on-site ADU. Mitigation is only triggered if one reconstructs what was torn down. Multi-family mitigation is different; if multi-family units are torn down, one may replace the same number of flee market units subject to the requirement that one replaces 50 percent of the bedrooms and 50 percent of the square footage that was demolished. 3 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 Vann told Council Savanah has an inventory of every unit that was demolished and whether they were single family or multi-family and of the 47 units that were demolished, the applicant is obligated to mitigate all demolition event though only 6 six multi-family units are being constructed. Vann said this number was determined at 12 bedrooms and 7,000 square feet of FAR. Staff has agreed that under today' s regulation, the demolition of all the multi-family structures in the PUD would require that level of mitigation. The remainder of the credits was single family and the applicants only have to mitigate what is actually being replaced. Each single family dwelling on lot 3 is proposed to pay a housing impact fee or provide an on-site ADU. Mayor Richards opened the public hearing on lot 3. David Booth, Aspen Lodging Company, said the neighbors feel the density is high. They are concerned about easements and trails and hope these will be addressed and preserved. Vann told Council there are no height variances being requested for lot 3. Vann noted the fill on lot 3 would have to be removed. The story poles reflect heights from natural grade, which is how the code requires structures to be measured. Vann said the houses are located on a flat area at the toe of a slope. Booth said a large issue of concern is drainage. The Fifth Avenue condominiums have had water problems. Sarpa reminded Council when SLP purchased this property, they donated $250,000 towards a master plan for drainage, water and mud flow debris plan. This plan is two-phased, data collection and implementation. The data collection has been complete. The city engineering department hired a firm to look at the data and see how to approach the problem and have modeled this site to see what would happen in different flood/debris flow instances. Sarpa said when there are buildings in the way of debris flow, it exacerbates the problem and makes the flows deeper. Phase two has just started and staff will come back to Council with different ways to mitigate the problems. The costs of mitigation depend on to what level of mitigation; mitigating for 100 year problems could cost millions of dollars. Sarpa told Council they are incorporating ideas from this engineering firm. Sarpa said a condition states that any site plan the city would approve and would have to be adjusted to take care of the design criteria for debris flow issues, the applicants are willing to take that risk. 4 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 Sarpa said public hearings on the debris flow mitigation will start early in 2000. Sarpa noted that debris flow on the mountain is a Pitkin County issue rather than a city issue. Sarpa said there are two main areas of concerns, gulleys on each side of Aspen mountain. The city will have to work on the mitigation for areas other than Savanah' s. Vann said the design of this project will not eliminate the problems on Aspen mountain, the issue is making this project safe given the problems on Aspen mountain. Mayor Richards closed the public hearing on lot 3. Ms. Woods pointed om under the land use code, the applicant has the ability to propose how to distribute the FAR throughout the planned unit development. Council decides whether they agree with that distribution or not. Vann reminded Council this is conceptual review and any rezoning happens at final review. The houses within the PUD will be subject to 8040 greenline review as well as the residential design standards. Vann said this plan represents a concept how the houses would be integrated into the site and relate to surrounding development and how the visual impacts will be reduced. Vann said there will be more specific architecture to review at final application. Vann said the applicants would like an indication from Council whether they will be able to allocate unused FAR to the single family homes. Mayor Richards said she can support the FAR allocation suggested by the applicant. Lot 3 came to Council with conditions from a previous agreement. The project is within the height limits and is a reasonable using of the credits from the 1996 Aspen mountain PUD. Mayor Richards said she is concerned about drainage flow through the site. Mayor Richards said she is also concerned about the mass of the two triplexes as they seem to overshadow adjacent buildings. Councilman Paulson said he would like to see the houses smaller, maybe 5,000 square feet. Councilman Paulson encouraged the applicant to use a lot of green building materials. Bill Poss, architect, told Council when they put together the specifics for final approval, they will include an outline of green building materials. Councilman McCabe said he likes the project and feels the way it is designed the houses will not be obtrusive. Councilman McCabe said he is concerned about the drainage issue. Councilman Hershey said he does not 5 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 have a problem with the FAR allocation. Mayor Richards said she is concerned about the trees on parcel 8. Sarpa said they may be able to move the building closer to the cul-de-sac and save more trees. AsOen Mountain Lot 5 Julie Ann Woods, community development director, told Council the issues with lots 5 are the amount of parking, whether SLP may convert any or all of the 34 residential reconstruction credits as part of the growth management formula, and whether SLP may be allowed to use units at the Bavarian Inn as part of the employee mitigation on lot 5. Bill Poss, architect, showed computer generated pictures of the height of the hotel from various locations, from the corner of Galena and Cooper, and from Wagner Park. Poss illustrated that the buildings behind the hotel are still higher than the hotel. Poss said this proposed hotel is only higher than the existing Grand Aspen in the center of the building. The model addresses the hotel and the relationship to the larger buildings around. The design has tried to create a pedestrian walkway east/west through lot 5 to the Little Nell. Councilman Paulson said one of his concerns is that the hotel seems to cm the mountain off from town. Sarpa said the issue is trying to keep the height at a minimum and still have enough square footage to keep this hotel at 150 rooms. Vann reminded Council the PUD regulations allow height to be varied to achieve a better architectural design. Councilman Hershey said the impacts of the hotel need be weighed against the need for moderately priced hotel beds. Mayor Richards said she has not changed her position on the height issue. Mayor Richards said she feels a 10 percent reduction would help the impact of this building. This hotel is 12 to 18 feet above the allowable height in this zone. Mayor Richards said she is also concerned about the length of the spine; the building does not seem very broken up. Sarpa said one of the reasons to consider a height variance for this property is the need for this type of facility for the entire community. Mayor Richards noted some of these hotel rooms are larger than housing units and maybe some of these can be made smaller in order to get more rooms and lower the height. Councilman McCabe said he does not have problems with the scale of the hotel compared to the trade offs like more open space and the ice rink, 6 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 Councilman McCabe said he can live with the height variance bm would prefer to see the height lowered if at all possible. Mayor Richards opened the public hearing. Don Crawford, Tipple Inn, thanked Savanah for changing the entrance to the garage from Galena street to Dean street. Crawford entered into the record wording for the agreement about the garage. Crawford said he hopes the applicant provides enough parking for the project. Steve Fallender said the applicant has done a lot of work trying to make the project work. The open space along Galena street is nice. Fallender said the height noah and south will affect his views and any reduction in height would be helpful. Ann Murchison, Fifth Avenue Condominiums, said these buildings are too tall and too massive. Ms. Murchison suggested eliminating the entire top floor of the proposed hotel. David Booth, Aspen Lodging Company, said this will drastically affect the views from the Alpinblick. Booth said lowering the building, especially on the back, would be helpful. Vann noted this portion of the hotel is 25 feet and is less than the maximum height allowed. Booth said the parking will not be enough during the summer, which typically has more guests driving than in winter. Vann stated that the parking requirements meet the code requirement of .7 spaces/room. Vann said one problem is that there is inadequate parking in this neighborhood but this hotel is meeting its requirement. Ms. Wood agreed that the project meets the standards of the city's code. Mayor Richards asked if under a PUD the Council could requirement more parking. Ms. Woods said the PUD is a negotiated agreement. Mayor Richards closed the public hearing. Councilman Hershey said this proposed hotel is located right across from the transit center. The applicant has stated they will market the hotel as a place tourists do not need cars. Councilman McCabe said this proposal does meet the code requirement for parking and he does not have a problem with the parking as proposed. Mayor Richards said she, too, is comfortable with the parking requirement and with the reconfiguration of the ice rink parking. 7 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 Conversion of residential to lodge. Julie Ann Woods told Council Savanah has 47 residential reconstruction credits and they are using 13 of those on lot 3, leaving a balance of 34 reconstruction credits. The applicants are asking Council to allow then to use a conversion of 2.5 lodge units equal to one free market unit which would determine how many growth management credits they need to apply for. Ms. Woods said using a conversion factor of 2.5 lodge units times 34 reconstruction credits equals 85 tourist accommodations. Savanah is proposing 150 rooms; they already have 50 rooms under the original PUD agreement. This would bring a total of 135 lodge rooms and SLP will have to compete for 15 lodge units in the tourist GMQS. Mayor Richards asked how many units are available in the tourist GMQS. Vann said there has been no lodge allocation in years and the quota has been accruing at 11 units per year. There are 55 units available in the tourist lodge quota. Mayor Richards asked if these reconstruction credits disappear or can they be sold for another project. Vann said as part of this process, Savanah is required to enter into a new PUD agreement and they may negotiate moving or selling these credits. Sarpa noted that using a conversion factor of 2.94 will bring this up to 100 units and then this project would not need to compete in GMQS. Mayor Richards said she feels it is appropriate for this project to use up reconstruction credits. Mayor Richards questioning continuing to roll over growth credits when the community is trying to control growth. Mayor Richards said she would like to see these credits used up. Vann said the concept of using all the credits towards a conversion to lodge units and then not requiring SLP to compete for all 66 lodge units would be a fair compromise. Council agreed. Bavarian Inn Affordable Housin~ John Sarpa, Savanah Limited Partnership, reminded Council they requested Savanah to look at unit N2 to see if it could be redesigned to maintain sight lines for an adjacent property owner and keep it at a two-bedroom. David Brown, architect, showed Council how this could be accomplished. Joyce Ohlson, community development department, said Council requested a comparison of density of the Bavarian project with other local projects: Bavarian Inn 19 units 23 units/acre 8 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 Alpine Acres 10 units 19 units/acre Snyder 15 units 12 units/acre Juan Street 15 units 12 units/acre West Hopkins 37 units/acre 7th &Main 52 units/acre Benedict Commons 80 units/acre Villas 36 units 10 units/acre West Bleeker 26 units 14 units/acre Ms. Ohlson reminded Council the evolution of this plan contained many balancing points like tree preservation, traffic impacts, circulation, neighborhood participation, and density. Ms. Ohlson said there was a comment about the alley usage. Staff has discussed this with police, fire and engineering and is not prepared to limit the alley to one-way traffic. There is a condition for right turn in and right turn out only from 7th street. Herb Klein, adjacent property owner, told Council the project was designed to have the Bleeker street driveway be the primary access and the east end of the alley is the secondary access. Klein requested signage so this is only used for emergency vehicles. Ms. Ohlson told Council the city forester will evaluate the trees and their maintenance issues. Vann said the applicants have committed to performing a face lift on the existing Bavarian Inn. The specific details will be contained in the final application. Mayor Richards said she would like this project to continue to be reviewed by HPC. Mayor Richards opened the public hearing. Paul Murry said if the N-2 building is moved, he wants reassurance that no trees will be killed. Sarpa said they will save all trees. Council entered into the record letter from Craig Liebel and Jerry Monkarsh. Mayor Richards closed the public hearing. Use of Bavarian Inn for Mitigation of Lot 5 Julie Ann Woods, community development director, said Savanah is requesting to use some portion of the affordable housing units at the Bavarian to satisfy their employee housing requirements for lot 5, the hotel 9 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 site. Ms. Woods said the difference between the existing Grand Aspen employees and the new hotel is 41 employees. The applicants will house 12 employees on site of lot 5, and would like to use the Bavarian to satisfy the housing for the other 29 employees. Ms. Woods told Council the housing board finds that the Bavarian project was intended to satisfy housing for the Ritz approved in 1990. The P&Z has not commented on this. John Worcester, city attorney, told Council the first amended PUD agreement was adopted by Council in 1989 by resolution. After Council adopted that resolution, third parties sued the City and Savanah. The Judge found that land use approvals had to be done by ordinance rather than by resolution. Council re-adopted the PUD by Ordinance #69, Series of 1989, and then decided to refer that question to the voters. There were two options in one question presented to the voters, one drafted by Council and one drafted by the developers. The option drafted by the developers "the Hadid Ritz-Carlton Proposal" was approved by the voters. This option reads, "Shall the amended Aspen Mountain PUD subdivision be approved subject to the following, Ordinance #69 is hereby adopted in the same form as Resolution #29 by which the Aspen City Council previously approved the agreement of the Aspen Mountain PUD including the Ritz-Carlton hotel and (2) in addition developer shall in good faith process a land use application for affordable housing suitable for .8/acres on Main street known as the Bavarian Inn property". Worcester said the intent of the question was that the developer should process a land use application. The issue of mitigation was silent. Worcester stated "in addition" means in addition to all approvals of the PUD and all the mitigation, the developer also agreed to a land use application for the Bavarian Inn. Worcester said a court would look at the legislative intent behind the ballot question and the intent of the voters who voted in favor of the question. John Sarpa, Savanah Limited Partnership, stated they feel strongly that at no time did they envision that the Bavarian Inn was to be used for mitigation for the Ritz Carlton. The Bavarian Inn offer was over and above whatever mitigation was required by the Ritz. This property was to be available if the attdit on the Ritz employees showed more housing was needed. Sarpa noted the proposed Bavarian Inn project is 100 percent affordable housing in town, 100 percent paid for by private developers. Sarpa said the 10 Continued Meetin~ AsOen City Council November 23, 1999 city and the developer should try and find a compromise in order to keep this PUD going forward. Sarpa proposed the developer be allowed to use a percentage of the Bavarian Inn units and the rest of these units go back into the general housing pool. Sarpa reminded Council Savanah sold the Ritz property in January 1998 and would have sold the Bavarian with the Ritz if there was a link between the two properties. Sarpa said the community will be getting affordable housing units, built by the developer and controlled by the housing office. Mayor Richards stated she believes that employee housing at the Bavarian Inn was an inducement for people to vote yes on the Ritz. Mayor Richards said she does not favor a compromise. Mayor Richards said this would be a compromise of the public interest and a subsidy of $80,000/unit times 29 employees to be housed for a total of $2.3 million. The public will have to pick up this housing somewhere else. Councilman Paulson said he would be willing to entertain a compromise at something like 70/30; 70 going to the housing office. Councilman Hershey said he would be willing to discuss a compromise. Councilman McCabe said he sides with Mayor Richards at this point and would be willing to look at background from both sides. Mayor Richards said the Bavarian Inn was offered to the community 10 years ago and the developer is asking the Council to compromise housing of employee demand generated in the future against a promise of the Ritz in the past. Councilman Hershey moved to continue Resolutions 93 and 94, Series of 1999, to December 6 at 5 p.m; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. Councilman Paulson moved to adjourn at 7:05 p.m.; seconded by Councilman McCabe. All in favor, motion carried. Kathryn S. Koch, City Clerk 11