Planning Commission Minutes 2015 04 09

Home Browse Search

Planning Commission Meeting Minutes April 9, 2015 Page 26 of 27 an Opportunity to bring in more hotels? There are so many businesses in that area that attract people from out of the area as well as a major hospital present. Pritchard states their location along US 36 does not hurt. The view corridor from the highway is highly valued. That was the original thought when they began clustering and building over 18 years ago. Pritchard does not know if any hotels are coming into Superior. O'Connell states this is an Opportunity because this is the only place to stay in Louisville. Rice does not think that the citizens are a Constraint. The Constraint is the inability to drive consensus. This process is about trying to develop consensus on how this corridor will be developed. The citizens are an important resource to that whole discussion. He has attended the meetings and has been amazed at the amount of participation that occurs. It is impressive. Pritchard says he looks at their comments and they say "I want open space". Moline says the Constraint could be along the lines of perception that vacant land is open space. Russell says referring back to South Boulder Road, there was talk about lack of community consensus as a Constraint. It was much more about the intent of that corridor, walkability versus traffic, and getting cars from one end to the other. It is a linear corridor. There is no question about the traffic intent of McCaslin and what is happening in the "fatter" area around it. How do we create a more vibrant community? Lack of common agreement on the purpose of the corridor on South Boulder Road is a different issue than what we are encountering on McCaslin. Russell discusses the design of the parking lots and internal circulation on McCaslin. Curbs and pavement and street are difficult to change. He says that ULI reports are always controversial. He agrees that introducing a stronger grid in this area would be great, but it is an incredible challenge. We are suggesting scraping significant public infrastructure. Perhaps this is captured in "outdated site and building designs" as a Constraint. Pritchard says the history of Centennial Valley was that it was supposed to be the location of the mall. There is a "ring" design there. The problem with the Valley is it has always been an after- thought. It was supposed to be something and then something else. They were trying to find uses for it in this community. This is why there is a traffic issue. Trying to put in new streets would be very expensive. Moline says there have been comments about signage and does this fall into the "outdated site and building designs"? Pritchard says that signage has been updated and it has been an ongoing problem. Staff has been making an effort to change and give exceptions. There are some new monument signs. Much of the landscape installed in the past is now mature. Some vegetation has been removed because buildings were not visible from the street. Pritchard agrees that signage is a Constraint. Robinson says that Staff can add signage specifically to the Constraints. O'Connell says that a Constraint could be that the entire west side of the corridor is bordered by open space. Development is hemmed in by McCaslin on the east and Open Space on the west. Robinson says they tried to capture that in Constraint "Market capture area limited by street, network, regional competition, and open space".