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PUBLIC HEARING
MINUTES
November 17, 2004
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT
Tom Quinn, Chair
John Plotkin
Rich Urbanowski
Bill Marino
Bunny Malm
Charles Choi
STAFF PRESENT
Vince Harris, Planning Manager, South Side Kara Mueller, Planner II
Roger Wadnal, Planning Manager, North Side Jennifer Eby, Planner Planner II
Jay Hutchison, City Engineer John Padon, Traffic Engineer Technician
Anne Heine, Lead Development Review Engineer Ben Mehmen, Civil Engineer I
Kate Cooke, Senior Planner Karl Buchholz, Principal Traffic Engineer
Chad Minor, Senior Planner Ross Williams, Facilities Planner
Vicki Kaufman, Planning Commission Secretary
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The following are the minutes of the November 17, 2004 Lakewood Planning Commission
Public hearing. A permanent set of these minutes is retained in the office of
the City Clerk and a tape recording is located in the department of Community
Planning and Development, City of Lakewood.
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INDEX
RZ-04-001 Request of Jeffrey C. Bailey for Hendry Investments, Inc. to rezone the property located at 7605 West Arizona Avenue from 5-R (High Density Residential) to a PD (Planned Development) for the use of mini-storage.
The roll having been called, a quorum was declared and the following business was conducted:
CHAIRMAN QUINN explained guidelines to be adhered to.
ITEM 1: CASE NO. RZ-04-001
CHAIRMAN QUINN voiced the concern of COMMISSIONERS CHOI and MALM who visited the site and did not see the signs properly posted. Chairman Quinn said he noted that the sign on South Wadsworth was in front of the car wash.
KARA MUELLER, PLANNER II, the Planner for this case, explained there were two signs posted. One was along Arizona and the other was on South Wadsworth. Part of the property being rezoned is on Wadsworth. The wind did blow the signs down several times and Kara saw that they were reposted.
COMMISSIONER CHOI wanted to go on record with his concern that the proper notice may not have been given because when he went out twice the signs were not there. He said it is incumbent upon the applicant to be sure the signs are properly posted at all times.
CHAIRMAN QUINN asked Kara if, as part of her staff report tonight, there would be slides showing the signs and where they were posted. Kara said yes. This satisfied the Chairman and the meeting continued.
JEFF BAILEY of 402 East Ramsey Road, San Antonio, Texas, 78216, spoke on behalf
of Hendry Investments. He introduced the owner of Hendry Investments, Stuart
C. Hendry, who was in attendance at this meeting. He said their investment company
has been in business since 1967 and built twenty-three self-storage facilities
in six states, three in the Denver area and one at 1576 Kipling Street in Lakewood.
Their philosophy is to build these facilities to own and manage over the long
term. They place a lot of emphasis on good location, quality construction, attractive
landscaping, and superior management. They have won awards such as "Best
Overall New Facility In the United States" by the Self Service Storage
Association and strive for good quality facilities. This is a low impact development,
low profile, clean, with low-level lighting below the roofing. They want to
heavily landscape along the street and they build their facilities in a courtyard
shape. The principal at the high school is in support of this facility as well
as the Neighborhood Associations in the area. Jeff requested the blue book about
Hendry Investments, brought to the meeting tonight, be admitted into the record
for this case.
KARA MUELLER, PLANNER II, gave the staff report, entering into the record the Zoning Ordinance and the Lakewood Comprehensive Plan. Kara then showed slides that not only showed the area, but also reiterated the fact that the signs were put up and visible at the time Kara took the pictures. Staff suggests the Planning Commission recommend City Council approve this rezoning.
DAVID YOUNG, of 8145 West Mississippi Avenue, Lakewood, Colorado 80226 wanted to speak. He is President of the BelMar Civic Association where this project was discussed. He is also President of the Saulsbury Lateral Ditch Company where this project was discussed again with Hendry Investments and they were given requirements as far as the agricultural ditch is concerned and Mr. Young said he expects them to comply with these requirements. He is a nearby resident of the area as well. He thinks, from looking at information shown him by Hendry Investments, that this project would be an improvement for this particular area. He said he likes to look at the bigger picture and this area has been an eyesore for a long time. He is very happy that such a good example of a positive development is coming in around West Mississippi Avenue.
Seeing no one else who wanted to comment on this case, the Chairman closed the public comment portion of the meeting.
COMMISSIONER MALM discussed the letter received by the Commissioners at this meeting tonight and received by Staff just this afternoon. The letter is from an attorney representing the owners of the car wash and refers to the proposed closer of the curb cut shared between the car wash and the mini-storage in order to open a new curb cut on the proposed mini-storage property.
JEFF BAILEY said he has been working with Mr. Mangieri, owner of the car wash, regarding this access. Currently the western curb cut for the car wash encroaches upon the property they are buying. Jeff was under the impression the situation was resolved however, he did get a call from Mr. Mangieri on Monday saying Mr. Mangieri wanted to restudy the shared curb cut issue. Jeff feels this issue can be resolved between the two of them and they can come up with a plan that works for both of them.
COMMISSIONER MALM wanted to be sure of what curb cut is proposed to be closed.
COMMISSIONER URBANOWSKI asked to " jump in" with a question about these curb cuts. He said he understands there are two curb cuts for the car wash right now and then there is a third one proposed - which is going to be the main access for the mini-storage. So when they close one does that leave one for the car wash and one for the new project?
JEFF BAILEY said they are not trying to cut off access to the car wash but rather just trying to separate their traffic from the car wash traffic. Jeff said they don't want their customers to have to drive across the car wash to get to the mini-storage.
JOHN PADON, Traffic Engineer Technician, said that the car wash access straddles the property line. His comments to the applicant were that they needed to share the access or come into compliance with our City standards, which is a spacing of 150 feet from this access and also with Alameda High School access, or align with Alameda High School access. When they resubmitted they said, "We will work with the car wash to create no more than two accesses onto Arizona, one for the car wash and one for the mini-storage". Therefore not worsening the situation by creating three accesses in a close proximity to Wadsworth Boulevard. Staffs preference was to close the closest access adjacent to Wadsworth Boulevard and have the two accesses closer since they do not create a lot of trip generation. The applicant said they were working with the property owner who agreed to close their western access and maintain their eastern access. The applicant said they would keep their access where it was proposed. However, on Monday John Padon received a call saying that the car wash owner was rethinking the closing of their western access. The applicant does have the ability now to share the access with the car wash and to redesign the mini-storage to facilitate both businesses. Another option would be to take direct access off of Wadsworth Boulevard, where the mini-storage also has frontage. The third option would be the mini storage would have to meet City standards, which would be spacing from this access 150 feet or align with Alameda High School accesses. All of these options would cause the applicant to have to redesign this project unless an agreement on the current configuration can be met. John Padon said they would work with both the applicant and the car wash owner to come up with a way to reduce the accesses on Arizona Avenue to two access points. Also the applicant will have to continue to work with Alameda High School since the school has received bond money that may be used to change their accesses.
COMMISSIONER MARINO asked for clarification of the letter received by Alameda High School regarding alignment with the schools parking lot. The Principal was not in favor of alignment and requested the access be closer to Wadsworth Boulevard.
COMMISSIONER MALM asked if they would need to conform to City Standards as they are written today. And the access issue would then become a private issue between the two property owners.
JOHN PADON said that is a correct statement. The City will not go in and require anything other than abiding by City standards.
COMMISSIONER CHOI asked if the commissioners were required to decide on the rezoning of the property tonight and nothing else. He wanted to be sure they are deciding on whether or not the use is compatible with the Comprehensive Plan as the commissioners have composed it.
KARA MUELLER said the commissioners are looking specifically at the rezoning tonight and if the use is compatible for a Planned Development. Everything should remain similar even with reconfiguration. The architecture, scale and number of units would not change.
COMMISSIONER URBANOWSKI asked how close the applicant is to the tolerances. Are they right at the limit or is there some cushion?
JOHN PADON said he hasn't put his scale to this yet because it wasn't an issue until the attorney's letter was received late this afternoon. However he said the hardest part is not knowing what the curb cuts for the high school will be in the future.
COMMISSIONER MALM wanted to go on record as saying it seems very strange that neither the Mangieri's (who own the car wash) nor their legal counsel are here tonight.
COMMISSIONER MARINO wondered if someone would be allowed to work on site if they kept their supplies at the mini-storage.
JEFF BAILEY said they do not allow that.
COMMISSIONER MARINO asked if students, or anyone, who wanted to walk through the facility might be able to.
JEFF BAILEY said they could not walk through the facility; anyone walking would need to use the sidewalk.
COMMISSIONER URBANOWSKI asked if it was normal to make changes to the neighbors' (the car wash) property as a condition of their proposed project.
KARA MUELLER said they were told this was one of their options and the applicant was working directly with the car wash owner who was agreeable to this curb cut until today. It sounds like the car wash owner took another look at the project and decided it might not benefit him to close this curb cut.
COMMISSIONER URBANOWSKI said that the ditch that runs across the property is technically not the Saulsbury Lateral Ditch but an off-chute of that ditch.
COMMISSIONER PLOTKIN asked the developer who actually owns the property. He wanted to be sure the commission is not going to enter into a private land dispute, the curb cuts are actually owned by a single owner who could choose to put the curb cuts in simultaneously. He also said it is astonishing to him that neither the car wash owner nor his attorney were here tonight.
JEFF BAILEY said Hendry Investments would own the property but the Fieselman family, who own the entire twelve acres that encompass the bowling alley and the car wash currently, own their site now. Jeff said it was a surprise to him after working for six months with the car wash owner and then not hearing from him at all for six months, that they now have made the curb cut an issue.
COMMISSIONER QUINN wanted to be sure the multi-family units immediately to the west of the project were properly notified and had opportunity to be here.
JEFF BAILEY said those owners were notified but he heard no opposition to the project.
COMMISSIONER QUINN asked if the irrigation ditch would be underground at this site.
BEN MEHMEN said the ditch would be piped around the site and then they would fill in the ditch, which should not cause any flood issues at the site.
COMMISSIONER MARINO moved, based on the findings tonight and the Staff report, that Planning Commission recommends City Council approve case RZ-04-001.
COMMISSIONER URBANOWSKI seconded the motion.
The motion carried by a vote of 6-0
ITEM 2: APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM OCTOBER 20, 2004 PUBLIC HEARING
Meeting minutes for October 20, 2004 were approved by a vote of 6-0
ITEM 3: GENERAL BUSINESS
None
ITEM 4: COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
None
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned at 8:05 p.m.
Vicki Kaufman, Secretary to the Lakewood Planning Commission
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