City Council Minutes 1999 12 21 - Laserfiche WebLink

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rationale for the setback has been the desire to minimize the impact of what is generally a not very interesting building. If the 'Public Zone' concept in the Industrial Development Design Standards & Guidelines were applied to the site, it would affect approximately the front 200 feet of the lot and the front 90 feet of the building. The building has loading doors on both the east and west sides. Most of the doors are grade high doors where delivery trucks for local routes will enter and leave the site. The dock high loading doors for semi-trailer deliveries are located at the south end of the west side of the building. This loading area is relatively near the street, and within the public zone. The applicant has partially screened the area with a five-foot screen wall and landscaping in front of that. In an effort to minimize the views of the numerous side grade high doors, the landscaping on both side property lines is heavier than would otherwise be required. Parking is provided in two areas: the front parking lot services the office part of the building and would also provide customer parking for the limited retail use that would be expected and the rear parking lot would be for employees of the distribution facility. The parking ratio is 2.0 spaces per 1,000 square feet of building area. This is low, but meets the recommended minimum in the Industrial Development Design Standards & Guidelines and is typical for a warehouse/distribution use. The minimum landscape coverage requirement for industrial properties is 25 percent. The summary table indicates 32 percent. However, that should be significantly higher because the 32 percent is based on the incorrect building area of 37,000 square feet. The landscape coverage is actually 42 percent. If the Industrial Development Design Standards & Guidelines were to be applied, the plans would meet or exceed plant material quantity requirements, with the exception of the amount of landscaping provided immediately adjacent to the building. The proposed standard would require at least 50 percent of the building perimeter to be planted with a minimum 10-foot wide planting bed. To meet that requirement, additional areas adjacent to the building would need to be identified, and the width of existing landscaped areas would need to be expanded. Crushed granite gravel is proposed as the mulch in most of the shrub planting beds. That is not a permissible material in the proposed Industrial Development Design Standards & Guidelines; therefore, staff recommends using higher quality rock mulch. The rectangular building is composed of tilt-up concrete panels, with the only structural articulation being a four-foot projection along the front elevation. The lack of structural articulation was of primary concern to members of the Planning Commission. The front elevation has been enhanced with significant window glazing and a highlighted entry area. The side and rear walls have no variation in structural footprint. The parapet height has been varied at regular intervals and reveals have been used to break down the mass of wall planes. The variation in the parapet height occurred since the Planning Commission's review. In addition, since the Planning Commission review the applicant 10