Planning Commission Agenda and Packet 2015 12 10

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes November 12, 2015 Page 10 of 41 usable functional open space which is one of the things in the code that allows you to grant these kinds of waivers. We have a disagreement with Staff about that, but it is clear in our minds that we have provided those amenities and design that would qualify for this one waiver. When we put three floors in 35', we have to artificially squash each level. That is more expensive to do. A developer who wanted to build the cheapest building wouldn't do that because you have to do something with the beams and structural system and the mechanical system to be able to have a decent ceiling height. Ronda really wanted to be able to compress this building and provide for the loft on the third floor. This is the compromise she made in having lower floor to floor heights. At the street, you end up with a two -story facade and you can see the third floor back there, but it is a minor element on the composition. If we were to take the 35', two -story approach, more of a standard storefront kind of building, parapet, flat roof building, then we could end up with something like this that would be compliant with the code. We had some designs that were along these lines initially and Ronda and Nancy didn't take to this style of massing. At the end of the day, we ended up here and we believe this‘ is a very appropriate design for Downtown. Staff has given us the approval as long as we.go to the two -story design as a condition. I think we need to hear from you to understand your concerns and certainly, we will listen to public input. We have read the correspondence that has come in and we understand that there are concerns, but we do believe this is a better solution based on all of our research on this project. Regarding the massing and dimensions, if you think about a 30' gable height, the building at the corner of Pine and Front Street has four 30' gabies'and comes right up to the sidewalk. It doesn't have any real relief from the sidewalk where we are providing some setback from the sidewalk. We have heard terms that this is a massive building and it is huge for Downtown. People must hate the building on Pine and Front Street because it is the same basic size. I have a hard time thinking of this as a huge building. It presents a two -story facade to the primary streets. We do go up to 35' to accommodate the loft. The horizontal dimension is also in our design guidelines and we know with these 25', 40' and 50' lots, we end up with a texture in Downtown that is of these smaller buildings in width. Across the street, we have a 30', a 37', and the length of the museum across the street is probably about 40'. By breaking the building into segments and pushing parts of the facade back, we are able to create that same kind of texture in a single building. We believe this is compliant with the Design Guidelines. I am happy to answer any questions Commission Questions of Apollo' Brauneis asks Grassi about the Main Street frontage and the height. The highest portion of the building is set back. Is there a rendering so I can put some numbers to the rendering. You seem to indicate that the peak is roughly how high? How high roughly is next door? Grassi says the roof line is 25' and the peaks are 35', because the one peak goes to the top of the loft. I think two -story next door to the south is about 27'. Russell says it is on page 8 of our material. The peak of the neighboring building is set back. That is a bit of a difference in comparison. Grassi says that South Street will be going under the railroad tracks. There are apartments going over there and people will have pedestrian and bicycle access straight up South Street. This should be a landmark building that people want to visit, it can make an impression, and it can say "welcome to Downtown ". It is the first one as you come down Main Street that accentuates that this is our Downtown and you are getting into a special area. Years ago across the street, straight to the east of this, Arlin Lehman had a project that took over three or four lots that were three stories tall. We talked to City Council at the time about connecting a big archway or some sort of monument signage that was high in the air. It would make a big impact and let people they just entered a special area. We hope, 50, 60, or 70 years from now, people will consider this a landmark building.