2012-07-10_study_session_full - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mr. Breihan stated that each public workshop concluded with a 45-minute small group work session with work boards illustrating work completed to date; attendees were asked to comment and provide ideas and feedback. He showed a series of slides showing the progression and comments on work boards. Mr. Breihan stated that at the First Public Workshop, the parks and open space plan was presented. At this workshop, one group circled the parking lot and indicated that it was a potential major development area in the neighborhood along with other areas. He added that at Public Workshop Two, they presented three options based on the market study completed by Development Strategies which explored ways to distribute a market based development program throughout the neighborhood looking at different housing and retail products and where it made most sense to locate them. Two out of the six boards showed concerns about parking. One board was opposed to development of the lot. One board had questions about where parking would be provided. Mr. Breihan stated that a majority of the boards from that work session identified Option Three, the mixed-use option and most aggressive option as the best plan. Mr. Breihan stated that Public Workshop Three occurred after the first draft of the plan was completed. At this workshop, some of the comments were to increase density, one comment asked for no buildings on the north lot; some suggested a parking deck or underground parking. He stated that the general consensus was that any parking lost would have to be replaced. He stated that at Public Workshop Four there were no negative comments about any new development of the parking lot. Four out of four boards supported the Plan. He added that at this point, there had already been a total of 40 minutes spent of actual presentation time outlining the rationale behind that parking lot and the development recommendations for that site. He stated that at each workshop the attendance ranged from 40 to 60 community members and they tended to break into groups of 10 to work on the boards; generally, about 80 percent supported the Plan, including the recommendations for the north parking lot. Mr. Breihan stated that they met with the planning partners, who served as the steering committee for the process, six times. He stated that at each meeting they presented the work completed to date and asked them to review the work and give notice to proceed; at each meeting they were given permission to proceed. He stated that they met with the Plan Commission twice; on October 5, 2011 they presented the three options and on January 25, 2012 they presented the Draft Plan with the description of the parking recommendations. He stated that the Plan Commission endorsed Option Three on October 5, 2011 and had no objections on January 25, 2012. He added that they also had a City Council study session on February 15, 2012. Mr. Breihan stated that another piece of this was The Loop Retail Study, which occurred largely in conjunction with the Parkview Gardens planning process. He stated that The Loop and East Loop SBDs were included and members of both groups sat on the steering committee. He stated that one of the major recommendations of the study stated that the overall number of parking spaces will need to increase in the study area to support the retail growth and that structured parking should be considered the preferable approach to minimize the use of developable parcels for parking. He stated the final results of the study had been endorsed by both the LSBD and East LSBD. tm; E