Planning Commission Minutes 2015 12 10

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes December 10, 2015 Page 13 of 29 lot of impact fiscally and economically. We have made a plan and then over time, we have slowly changed the plan to end up with a lot of residential. McCartney says if you look back at the 1989 GDP which was the north Louisville plan, they actually do call for commercial mixed -use in this area. I remember nine years ago when we looked at one of the original amendments to create the Takoda area. We had a different lay -out for the commercial, extending further into this development, and then we turned it more linear. This is a request from the applicant to provide more residential. It does comply with the 2013 Comp Plan as far as overall uses and the request for different types of housing mix. Russ says planning documents are not exact documents. This is an important note for the community to understand. The Comp Plan is deliberately vague and is supposed to convey a character and a core set of principles for the public to determine what that means. CC and PC determine what this conceptual document means. It is not a zoning document because the State doesn't allow it to be. It is meant to be a character and a "feel" and CC's and PC's ultimate comfort. It gives PC some room to determine that deliberately. Staff simply evaluates it based on the principals and framework. An applicant can submit a very exact PUD and Staff uses every tool at the time to say, is it consistent with the Comp Plan. This new request, when compared to the character vision document, it meets the principals of that document. PC has the discretion to determine if that is the case or not. Brauneis asks about evaluating different sites throughout the City that have proposed to move out of commercial use. We have identified areas that appear to be suboptimal locations for retail. This location seems to be perhaps the only undeveloped spot left within Louisville that has retail potential. From a planning perspective, wouldn't it make sense to push it further towards commercial -retail than residential? Russ says in looking at the uses and total square footage allowed, half of the allowed commercial square footage would be retail. We are not trading, in my opinion, retail for residential. You are trading office for residential because the second floor will never perform as retail. Looking at the total square footage that is allowed in the market place, we are getting retail on the ground floor. We are getting flex office space that is somewhat gray. We certainly don't have, or anyone has, the true market potential to determine if that retail will be leased. We know with this condition that a built building has a better chance of being leased than a vacant lot. I don't look at this as residential for retail; I look at it as residential for office. The retail component is essentially the same size as the retail component of what was originally approved. O'Connell says, in looking at page 3 in the packet and how the Indian Peaks filing in Lafayette is directly to the north of this, there are two spaces that are labeled commercial in yellow in Indian Peaks. Along the lines of retail in general, is the City aware of any moves to put in commercial in those areas? McCartney says Lafayette just recently received a pre -submittal from WW Reynolds for 11 acres commercial that had a 59,000 sf box, and some associated uses. There was a neighborhood meeting that was listed in the paper. No Staff attended the meeting. The reception to the plan, from my reading of the article, was not positive. What they referenced was that the City of Lafayette immediate residents would like what is being proposed on the Foundry, perhaps primarily for the architectural design. They were not specific but they said they would like to see more of what is proposed at the Foundry in the WW Reynolds submittal. Since then, the City of Lafayette has requested a copy of the Foundry submittal and so has WW Reynolds. They both have copies of this submittal. O'Connell asks if this development will be further along on a time frame? Russell asks how long has this property been zoned commercial and available for the market? McCartney says at least nine years. Russell asks how much commercial square footage is on that lot today? McCartney says none. Russell asks how much, if approved tonight, would there be? McCartney says 38,000 sf.