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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-01-23 PZC MINUTES• • • I. CITY OF ENGLEWOOD PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION Special Meeting January 23, 2007 CALL TO ORDER A special meeting of the City Planning and Zoning Commission was called to order at 7:00 p.m . in the Community Development Conference Room of the Englewood Civic Center, Chair Roth presiding. Present: Roth, Knoth, Welker, Brick, Bleile, Mosteller (entered at 7:05), Diekmeier, Krieger (entered at 7:05), Fish Absent: Staff Present: None Tricia Langon, Senior Planner John Voboril, Planner Brook Bell, Planner Nancy Reid, Assistant City Attorney II . APPROVAL OF MINUTES January 9, 2007 Mr. Diekmeier moved: Mr. Knoth seconded: TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF JANUARY 9, 2007 AYES : NAYS: Brick, Roth, Knoth, Bleile, Diekmeier, Mosteller, Fish, Krieger None ABSTAIN: Welker ABSENT: None Motion carried. 111. ENGLEWOOD DOWNTOWN ANO MEDICAL OISTRCT SMALL AREA PLAN Mr. Voboril and Mr. Bell continued the presentation on the Englewood Downtown and Medical District Small Area Plan . Mr. Voboril stated that he had a conference with Mr. Bob Simpson, Director of Community Development, and due to circumstances such as staff be- ing very busy this year and City Council having a lot on their agenda Staff has made a deci- sion to move ahead with the goals and objectives and go through a formal adoption proc- ess. Originally, Staff was thinking of developing policies and strategies that would imple- ment the goals and objectives in the next few months, but have decided to put that off until later in the year. With that in mind, a public hearing has been tentatively scheduled with 1 • • • Planning Commission on March 6 th. Staff feels the plan will serve best as an incremental process to get it before Council and officially adopted. Mr . Voboril reviewed public comments on several Sub-areas. The Sub-areas discussed were: Medical Sub-Area 1 Goal Encourage medical community to intensify medical facilities within Sub-area 1. This is the hospital district. Public opinion was it is alright for the hospital to build up or additional facilities, but they want to make sure parking is taken care of and does not impact the neighborhoods. Mr. Welker wanted Staff to consider a 100 foot line along Girard for parking, etc. Mr. Voboril stated the area is now zoned MU-R-3-8 and Staff does not foresee in the fu- ture as part of the plan to downzone this area to prevent offices or multi- unit development. Mr. Welker said when we are talking about either pre- venting or discouraging, we are very specific about what we are preventing or discouraging and what we're allowing. He said we are allowing because of the zoning a gradual almost haphazard type of build-out based on what the market demands or allows. What we want to discourage is the hospital per se. If it is an office or small business it is allowed. Mr. Voboril said in terms of today the hospital could go there too. He asked Mr. Welker if he would like to see stronger language so that the hospitals do not expand there, but it is o.k. to continue with offices that are not hospital related. Mr. Welker said that neighborhood can have rental townhouses, units that are not single-family but are not commercial. Mr. Voboril stated this sub- area does encourage townhomes. Mr. Welker said that more than that is al- lowed in MU-R-3-8, so the wording needs to be changed if we are going to try to limit it. Mr. Voboril asked if Mr. Welker could suggest the wording. Mr. Welker said he feels the two blocks north of Girard are the ones that are probably going to see the earliest part of development because it is al- ready being changed. Mr. Welker said he is suggesting we need to either put wording or boundaries in that allow the City to grow the way we really want it to grow. Mr. Voboril stated at this time what Staff wants to do with the Goals and Objectives is to be somewhat more broad and flexible. Even- tually, we will want to become more specific ... are we going to change the line and rezone, do overlays, what kind of uses are going in there, etc. Medical Sub-Area 2 Goal Work to stabilize Sub-area 2 through revitalization strategies. This area is a lot like Sub-area 5. It has a lot of residential. The people living in this area that came to the Stakeholder Meetings were probably the most adamant and most vocal of all the sub-areas. They do not want the residen- tial portions of this area to be affected by development. 2 • • • Mr. Voboril distributed pictures of this area. He said this is an area of sta- bility. There was a suggestion that the boundaries of this area change add- ing more area to the south. Mr. Voboril asked if anyone thought this would be a good area for the hospital to expand into. The Commission's response was no. Mr. Voboril asked about offices not related to the hospital in this area. Mr. Voboril said maybe we could say the B-1 area of Sub-area 2 is an area of change, but the residential area should stay the same. The Commis- sioners agreed. Medical Sub-Area 3 Goal Work to stabilize Sub-area 3 primarily through revitalization strategies, and limited redevelopment strategies . Mr. Bell suggested an objective be added such as "explore buffer or transi- tional uses adjacent to Girard". Mr. Welker stated that was something he would like to see added. Mr. Voboril asked if there were any counter thoughts to that. Mr. Bleile said he wasn't sure he wanted to see a buffer zone added all along Girard. Medical Sub-Area 4 Goal Promote Sub-area 4 as an area of change along the Old Hampden corridor . Public comment centered around wanting change in this sub-area. There are very few single-family homes in this area. It is mostly apartment build- ings. When Staff is ready to revisit the zoning in this area and make some changes, Staff will be debating as to where to draw the line. In any given sub-area there can be multiple zone districts, such as in this Sub-area. Ms. Mosteller said she thought one of the best opportunities to make a dif- ference here is along the Old Hampden corridor. She would like to see Staff encourage mixed-use development along this street, but did not see that in the Goals and Objectives. Mr. Voboril stated he would add it. Also, MS. ~osTeller woula lil<e to add 0 eiplore gateway concepl" in this suE>-- area. Mr. Knoth would like to see nicer, denser multi-family development to the west. Mr. Voboril said the Objective could read "Encourage devel- opment of new medical facilities, offices, multi-unit housing and small scale commercial uses." Mixed uses along the Old Hampden corridor will also be added to the first Objective. The second Objective will have multi- unit housing added to it. Medical Sub-Area 5 Goal Promote Sub-area 5 as an area of change along the Old Hampden corridor . 3 • • This area has more residential. The public would like to see some change along the old Hampden corridor. Ms. Mosteller said she would like to see mixed-use development in this Sub-area also. She also asked about extend- ing the ART Shuttle into this area. She stated she liked Mr. Knoth's idea of making this a gateway into the neighborhood. "Explore gateway concept at Lafayette and Old Hampden" will be added to the Goals and Objectives. She would also like to see a gateway on the east side at Broadway. The people who live in this area want to continue to live there. There is a possibility of a zone change in this area to allow higher density. Commis- sion would like to explore the possibility of multi-family in this area. Medical Sub-area 6 Goal Promote Sub-area 6 as an area of change. This area has very few single-family homes. It is an area that is probably wide open to zoning changes. The boundaries of this area were discussed. Mr. Brick said on the north side of 285 there is a parking problem. If there is any increase in density there needs to be strict guidelines in terms of parking. Mr. Knoth said whatever parking restrictions are put into this area should apply to Sub- area 1, the hospital area, also. Ms. Krieger said she thinks the hospital does not do a good job of letting the public know where all their parking ga- rages are, most people think they can only park in the garage to the south. Mr. Bell stated there is an Objective under Medical Goal which reads "Re- quire hospitals to develop employee and visitor parking and transportation plans that effectively protect surrounding residential neighborhoods." The Commission would like the word "and signage" added after the word plans. Ms. Mosteller suggested a new section of Goals and Objectives that would include all the ideas for just the Old Hampden corridor. Mr. Voboril thought that was doable. She would-lil<e to see that corriaor bemore accessible~ especially to thenandicappect -she asked the other Commissioners what they thought of trying to incorporate some sustain- ability concepts into the plan, such as energy efficient, environmentally friendly type of things. They thought that could be encouraged in the building designs. Ms. Mosteller also asked about something like Ronald McDonald House where people who have rela- tives or friends at the hospitals can stay. Mr. Voboril said there is something like that in the Goals and Objectives about converting some of the older apartments to temporary housing. Mr. Welker suggested making the temporary housing part a little stronger. V. PUBLIC FORUM • No one was present to address the Commission. 4 • • • VI . STAFF'S CHOICE Tricia Langon reviewed the 200 7 Work Plan. Ms . Langon referenced the memo that was included in the Commissioner's meeting packet showing the five service areas of Commu- nity Development: Special Projects: Administration , Art Shuttle Housing: Housing Rehab, Grants, Paint-Up/Fix-Up Staff Support: Boards and Commissions, City Committees, Outside Agencies Economic Development: Business Attraction, Retention, Redevelopment Planning: UDC, Comp Plan, Development Review She stated the area that Planning and Zoning Commission would deal with the most is Plan- ning. Ms. Langon reviewed the 2007 Work Plan chart that was included in the Commis- sioner's meeting packet. Ms . Mosteller asked about the Bates Light rail Station and the Acoma site. Ms. Langon stated Bates is still a viable project. Chair Roth said negotiations with Centex Homes had ceased on the Acoma property. He said Staff was exploring as to whether or not the commercial developer was still interested. Ms . Langon said as far as she knew the Flood Middle School property is for sale, but there is no 'For Sale" sign on the property. Currently the zoning does not allow for retail. Ms. Langon said the school is sell- ing the Duncan Park property also. She said it has a $1 .8 million appraisal, which is based upon residential use. The City is looking at it for a park . Ms . Langon referred to an article that was in the Colorado Biz magazine. The article is enti- tled "Upward Project" and focused on Englewood and is related to the Small Area Plan dis- cussion . The Commissioner's each received a copy in their meeting packet. Ms. Langon welcomed Mr. Ron Fish to the Commission. She also thanked the Commis- sioner's for switching their schedules for the special meeting tonight. Ms. Langon stated there has been a change in the meeting calendar. The Small Area Plan Public Hearing has been moved to March 6 th and the UDC edits, residential uses and policy discussion to February 6 th. February 21 st is a Wednesday night study session . That date is open as of today. ---- Mr. Bell had responses to two questions brought up at the last meeting. The first was re- garding whether or not the new Starbuck's on Broadway had a bike rack. He said they do have a small bike rack on the property. The second question was what is the City's policy on snow removal. Mr. Bell said on the Englewood web site there is a snow removal update and there is a snow removal hotline that goes to the Servicecenter. Basically, the City policy is to plow arterials and collectors, but not residential streets unless there are specific prob- lem areas such as steep grades, intersections and cul-de-sacs. They do not plow alleys as they are narrow and there is no place to put the snow. They do however run front end loaders through the alleys to help with accessibility. To answer the question about plows putting sand down, but the blade not being down, Mr . Bell spoke to the streets manager and he said most of the time that sand is being put down the plow is not even on the truck. 5 • • • The typically do not start plowing until there is three inches of snow on the street and if the plow is on the truck they are typically plowing. Ms. Langon said with the storms coming so frequently lately they probably are not even taking the plows off and that is why a truck that was putting down sand still had the plow on. Also, they will stop plowing when the tem- perature dips extremely low and the ice hardens to prevent damage to the plows and as- phalt. The policy is also on the web for anyone who would like further information. Mr. Welker said he feels the Englewood streets are holding up better because we do have a seal and patch program. Denver and Sheridan streets have potholes and they are getting bigger. He said he feels we have the best streets around right now. VII. ATTORNEY'S CHOICE Ms. Reid had no further comment. IX. COMMISSIONER'S CHOICE Mr. Knoth said DU and ULI are holding a housing conference at Belmar on February 16 1 h if anyone is interested. Mr. Knoth said he is planning on attending and will report back to the Commission. Mr. Welker said he had the opportunity this past week to try to use the City's website and find the zoning regulations. His first disappointment was that there is no Table of Contents page so you cannot easily navigate it. Ms. Langon said to the left there is a list you can click on. Mr. Welker said he did not see that. Secondly, he was looking at the current zoning map and it does not have the website referenced on it. He said it would be nice if it did. Mr. Voboril said he would see that the website is on the map the next time it is printed. Ms . Fenton asked for clarification regarding what Mr. Welker saw when he brought up the pdf of the UDC. She said he should see hyperlinks on the left hand side. He said it doesn't work like the zoning reports when you are trying to find something, you read down through top- ics and go to a certain section ... .it doesn't do that. Staff said they would work on some type of Table of Contents and get back to the Commission. Also, Mr. Welker requested an up- dated UDC book. Chair Roth said he received an advertisement for the Sheridan School District in the mail, including an application. The meeting adjourned at 9:10 . 6