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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-05-14 ACE MINUTES• • • I. lfll ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE IN ENGLEWOOD MAY 14, 2009 CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Alliance for Commerce in Englewood (ACE ) was called to ord er at 11 :40 a.m. in the City Council Confer ence Room of the Englewood Civi c Center, Chair Lonborg presiding. Pr esent: Lonborg, McDermott, Guinther, Panetta, Espinoza Absent: Vasilas , Schalk Also present: Joe Jefferson, City Council Liaison Jim Woodward, Mayor Randy Penn, City Councilmemb e r Daryl Kinton Staff present: Alan White, Community Dev elopment Director Darren Hollin gsworth, Economic Development Coordinator APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ap_ril 9, 2009 i~: Chair Lonborg stated that the Minutes of April 9, 2009 were to be considered for approval. It was determined there was a quorum. Chair Lonborg asked if there were any changes or adjustments to the Minutes. There were none . McDermott moved : Espinoza seconded: THE MINUTES OF APRIL 9, 2009 BE APPROVED AS WRITIEN . Th e m o tion ca rri ed unanimousl y. 11. ACE BUSINESS ULI Video l'ij Director White stated in Sept ember 2008 the Urban Land Institute (ULI ) held a conference in Denver and the them e was Placemaking. The participants took field trips to various parts of the metro area to learn what jurisdictions have done in terms of creating special places. One of th e sites visited was Englewood CityCenter. Staff thou g ht this was a marvelous opportunity to document what was happening here at the site. Four nationall y known experts in the areas of transportation, planning, downtown development placemaking and retail development led walk-through tours throughout CityCenter, came back to CityCenter and met in small groups and basically did a critique of CityCenter Englewood (things that were done well and some things that could be improved upon ). After that the four group leaders presented the results in Hampden Hall. What you will see on the video are the reports from those group leaders . A summary of recommendations 1 • • • follows at the end of their presentation. Director White noted the video is lacking an ending, but should be completed soon . The video provides us with a lot of ideas for the evolution of CityCenter. Community Development would like to do a Request for Proposal to hire design professionals to follow up on some of the ideas and hopefully implement them in the next few years. Director Wh ite noted the opinions expressed by the gentl emen in the video are not necessarily those of City Staff or City Council. Mayor Woodward said City Manager Sears and he were on the initial panel and were there when the groups were i ntroduced to the site . This being the first transit oriented development w ithin the metro area we were able to identify certain shortfalls and things that worked . If the City had it to do over again, we would lay out the parking differently. The group only had about 30 minutes on the site . The City felt very fortunate to have a group from the Urban Land Institute come to Englewood and make this area part of their workshop . There are a lot of good points and they provide a lot of information. At this time, Staff presented the video . Discussion items and comments i ncluded: • Placing some type of artwork on the blank wall on the west side of Office Depot • Converting Inca Street to a Boulevard with a median and trees • Touring the Orchard Towne Center and Northfield at Stapleton for ideas • Using Englewood Parkway to the east of the circle as a festival area • Nicer restaurants in the area east of light rail • Using the retail area north of city offices as an extension of city buildings or a schoo l • Visibi lity is a key point • Hampden Avenue is a barrier to development to the south • More green space i n front of City offices and in the area • Buses using the circle for pick-up and drop-off not workable • Play areas for children Chair Lonborg asked who has seen the video. Director White said ACE and City Council. It will be shown to the Planning and Zoning Commission at a future time. Chair Lonborg asked what Counci l's reaction was. Director White said it was "when are you going to get started". Mr. Jefferson said he thought a lot of the ideas were good. Ms. McDermott said how easy it would be to put up signage at every one of the street intersections along H ighway 285 that lead into the CityCenter area. We have the Englewood logo .... it could say "SHOPPING DISTRICT". We'd only need 5 or 6 signs. Chai r Lonborg asked how hard it would be to go back to the ULI experts and ask them to provide the name of a place in the metro area that, in their opinion, has done something pa rticularly we ll that was a key idea i n the Englewood presentation so we would have a visual aid in terms of what we are talking about. ACE could go look at the site . 2 • • • Director White said he could try. Ms. Espinoza suggested Mr. Hollingsworth and Director White take a video camera to Orchard Towne Center at 1441h and 1-25 as that center is very nice. Several members said they would drive up and look at the center. Ms. Lonborg said one of the things she appreciated so much in regards to the Downtown and Medical District Small Area Plan is that Mr. Voboril has a vision and has visual aids to show what it is he is talking about. She believes that is what most people need in order to get their arms around an idea or concept. Mayor Woodward said he believes the Planning and Zoning Commission will be looking next at a Small Area Plan for Highway 285 from Broadway to Santa Fe down to Kenyon and then Inca south to Oxford. Director White said ULI has a program where you can hi re a team of advisors to come out and do a three day or week long stud y and com e up with ideas and plans, but is very expensive . Chair Lonborg asked if we would get any more out of that than we already have . She felt the video was full of more ide as than the City could execute in the next five years . Director White said he felt the City would get better value out of using a consultant and/or designers who can spend time in the City and with the Stakeholders . Chair Lonborg asked if Council gave direction or prioritized things. Director White said Staff talked to the Planning Commission and City Council together regarding priorities . Th e placemaking study for CityCenter Englewood was either number one or two on the list. The other was the Small Area Plan for the West Hampden corridor. Maybe the two could be looked at together as there is a common thread in Highway 285. Mayor Woodward discussed RTD 's parking expansion options for the area. Chair Lonborg asked what the next step would be . Director White said the next step would be for Staff to prepare a Request for Proposal to hire a consultant to define some of the ideas and come up with a plan for transforming the area . Ms. McDermott said, p e rsonall y, she w ould b e very interest ed in helpin g out with som e of the ACE meetings being devoted to the plan aft er it is put together and providing ideas . Director White thanked her for the offer. Chair Lonborg asked if Staff could arrange for Mr. Schalk, who was absent, to view the video . Mr. Kinton suggested another place to view would be the town center adjacent to the Arapahoe Road Light Rail Station in Greenwood Village. There may be some ideas we could incorporate into Englewood. Mayor Woodward said another area being developed as a town center is Lone Tree . Wayfinding Signs :~f ; Director White distributed copies of various sign examples prov ided by the Beauchamp Group. He noted this is a project that was started about a year ago and has grown . Essentially, what Staff is trying to do is create signage along Broadway that directs 3 • • • people to retail outlets in CityCenter. The original idea was to place a sign on the empty lot at Broadway and Englewood Parkway. He stated he engaged the services of a traffi c designer that previously worked on CityCenter to help with the project. His first finding was that if any kind of sign was placed on the lot at Acoma and Broadway it would be reall y difficult to see. The idea was presented to Council along with the drawings you were given today. The signs would be placed in the medians on Broadway directing people going both north and south. That would be followed up with smaller signs on poles on the cross streets. Examples were shown. City Council has given Staff direction to move forward and perhaps look at some different ideas for th e designs of the signs . On e of the problems Staff is having is what business names to place on the signs. One idea is to rotate names yearly. Kiosk signage in the paseo area to advertise businesses on Broadway was review ed . Director White noted Staff has encountered an issue with Xcel Energy. The City needs th eir permission to place a sign on the street light poles and there can be no individual business names included. Chair Lonborg asked if we don 't have a little bit of the cart before the horse. She said this feels to her like the first step toward the branding that was discussed in the video. Are we in agreement that there are different neighborhoods and are we going to brand them differently? If not, is this an overall branding concept? She was concerned about being able to read some of the signs from a car. Mr. Jefferson said the kiosk signs are more of a pedestrian sign while the others are oriented toward vehicle traffic. He said he believes there are two separate areas. Mayor Woodward said , for him, right no w the brand for Englewood is the green grass on the north end of town and the logo. Chair Lonborg asked who the Beauchamp Group is. Director White stated they did the logo and design for the BID, the CityCenter sign package and also have worked with the Catalyst Program . Chair Lonborg asked if they are a sign company or graphics company. Director White said they are a graphics company. Chair Lonborg said we need to decide if it is a cool design or is it going to work. Sometimes people who aren't really in that business can come up with a cool design, but it doesn't really work. She provided an example of a poorly designed banner for the opening of the Whole Foods in Highlands Ranch. Mr. Penn said before we start branding ourselves we have to choose the areas we want to brand. There is still the area between CityCenter and the BID . We need to decide this before we start putting up signs. Ms . Espinoza agreed with Mr. Penn . Chair Lonborg asked Director White what it is he is looking for from ACE. Director White said ACE is touching on some of the issues Staff has discussed. Chair Lonborg said in her personal opinion, we should depart from what we are doing today and move in this direction. The question she has is more "is it one area or two and do we know what our long term vision for branding is " so that we are not wasting money today that we are going to undo in two years. Discussion ensued regarding how many districts/areas are needed . Chair Lonborg asked if there were any other comments. 4 • Mr. Panetta said he felt the video was very informative. He said the comments were great and we have heard about Pearl Street in Boulder, the Orchards Towne Center, and Pearl Street in Denver. He believes there is a question of the demographics and disposable income in the area. What makes those places successful is the demographics and spending power. What is going to make the people coming off light rail want to stay here? We have a residential base in the Alexan Apartments ... has there ever been a survey done with the tenants in terms of what kind of retail they wou ld like to see at CityCenter? If you don't have the right mix of retail people won't use it. Making things look pretty wi ll not bring in people if you don't have the right mix. Whether or not this surrounding community has the willingness or economic spending power to support the type of retail that needs to be successful is to be seen. He personally does not believe just the commuter base is going to be sufficient to make the area successful. Director White said he believes talking with the residents and commuters would benefit Staff more than speaking to the ULI experts again. Chair Lonborg said it's about how you execute the vision . 111. COMMENTS & EVENTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ~ · Mr. Penn stated the Farmer's Market has been held the last two Saturdays and is doing very well. There are currently 15 vendors; as soon as the produce people start • coming in there should be over 20 vendors. • The annual golf tournament is June 12 1h and we still need six more teams. We have over 22 teams already signed up. Last year there was a total of 7 teams. A membership drive was held earlier this week for the retail stores. In July we will do all the commercial businesses . We're not trying to sell memberships, we're just letting them know the Chamber is alive and well and we're here to answer any questions they may have. BID COMMENTS ~ Mr. Vasilas was not present. ACE MEMBERS Ace members had no further comments . STAFF COMMENTS ~ Staff had no further comments . No further business was brought forth for consideration . The meeting was adjourned at 1:14p.m. ext meeting is scheduled for June 11, 2009 . J 5