Planning Commission Minutes 2015 09 10

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes September 10, 2015 Page 15 of 21 and the three standard parking spots. The site plan also shows the reduced curb cut that will allow for this added space. There is confusion on what will happen when the South Street Gateway underpass happens, but we feel either way, we will add the space with future plans in existing streetscape. The access buffer will be brick pavers as well as the new space. Our client's intent is to have as many spaces as available on this site. Given the site constraints, we are limited to adding four spaces. The landmarking is a good gesture and a reason for the waiver to be passed for the four spaces. The four parking spaces will be concrete with transition to the buffer. There is an existing Xcel transformer on the corner that cannot be moved which eliminates any possibility for an additional space. The client will infill the curb cut to match the existing curb. Commission Questions of Applicant: Pritchard asks how many employees does the property owner have? Do they intend to occupy the residential? How many people do you see working there? Costner says the entire building is intended to be commercial use. I don't know how many employees will be there. It is an open-ended development where there will be three separate spaces. I believe we will be below the code occupancy calculation which shows 56. 1 believe there are three employees in the law firm. Russ clarifies that occupancy is not employment. Occupancy is a building code issue on max loads and how the building is evaluated from a life safety perspective. Staff can research the Institute of Transportation Engineers and give you a per/square foot based on land use type for employment. Pritchard says my concern is, do we have a rough idea of whether they need a shared parking arrangement with Koko Plaza. Parking is such a sensitive issue for Downtown people. Moline says it is interesting to hear the discussion. My question is the connection. What is the urge to have the two buildings be connected? Is it something driven by a need or by use, or something that was desired from the historic preservation perspective? Costner says the main driver for the connection is client request. There is a functional aspect to allow for accessible access into the law firm. There is a pseudo -accessible access currently in the existing structure to get into the law firm, but it is not necessarily designed for that. With this new design, we are providing it for the law firm. There is a pass through. The entrance of the lower level new commercial space is also a bridge into the existing historic, hopefully Iandmarked, commercial space, and that is the accessible corridor. Public Comment: None. Additional questions of staff or applicant by commission: Brauneis asks how much the payment -in -lieu fee for the parking space in the event they don't get landmarking? Russ answers $3500 is what is being waived. We allow an exchange of required parking for payment in lieu of. They would be required to put the curb regardless. The City is yielding a parking space and is requesting a waiver. Brauneis says we have discussed South Street becoming bidirectional again at some point. Russ says the South Street Gateway underpass will convert this to a two-way street with diagonal parking. The street is wide enough to accommodate. Brauneis asks do we end up losing spaces? Russ says yes, at the corner. Brauneis says it is a beautification thing. Pritchard says for the record, you are talking about the corner of South and Front Street. Russ shows a slide of the current street condition. The streetscape as part of the South Street project will realign this space, so what we are losing in the future is actually on Front Street. We