Planning Commission Minutes 2017 08 10

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes August 10, 2017 Page 7 of 19 well as at Dillon and S 104' Street. CDOT did not have any concerns for this application. The City has no concerns with the traffic generated. When a traffic study is done, particularly at this point, we look at initial approval back in the 1990s when this subdivision was done. What were the uses allowed? As commercial, it could generate much higher traffic trip volumes. In our opinion, it did not exceed any expectations. Applicant Presentation: Jim Vasbinder, Etkin Johnson Real Estate, 1512 Larimer Street, Denver, CO Motion to enter handout into record: Brauneis makes motion to enter handout from Etkin Johnson into the record, seconded by O'Connell. Motion passed by voice vote. I will give you a little background of Etkin Johnson's history in the CTC. As it exists today, we have built 13 buildings and are approaching 1,200,000 SF. We have been blessed with a great partnership with Louisville, City staff, and the brokerage community. We are 100% full. I state this because we have done a substantial amount of work in this community since 1998. We were co -developers of CTC north of Cherry with a community development group, Chuck Bellock and John Lee from Boulder starting in 1997. Our first building was built in 1998. We still own and operate 13 buildings. We feel our presence here and the value we have created is an attribute to the City, the community, and the product we have prepared and presented. I have presented over 15 PUDs to the City. I have never come before the PC with a recommendation from Staff for denial. I will focus on two items that seem to be points of disagreement between ourselves and Staff and their analysis of our proposed development for 2035 Taylor with FedEx. I will address the concerns over the access point at the northwest corner to CTC Blvd. If you drive up S 1041" Street, there currently are four access points that cross the eastern conservation easement. The conservation easement was not created by plat, but a separate instrument which is reflected on the plat. The easement is very specific. We granted it as part of our development when we platted this property. As a clarification to the uses permitted as related to the easement, we requested a letter from Paul Wood, prior Louisville Planning Director referenced in Staff's comments, that specifically states that we can install driveways in the conservation easement. We can use the easement for detention ponds, landscaping, and signage with City approval as a condition. This location at the northwest corner is a right -in, right -out driveway, and traffic can only come in if you are driving northbound on CTC Blvd. The exit at SH42 is a right -in, right -out intersection, not a four way. This entrance is material to the operation of this facility for FedEx. At peak AM or PM times, there will be upward of 104 vans assembling packages and delivering packages and then returning in the PM. This location gives them relief without having to go through the public entrance. They try to separate vehicles for safety reasons. Each of the four entrances, except the entrance marked in purple, is fenced with a gate. These entrances are FedEx employee entries with card access. Customers enter in the purple entrance. They feel strongly to not mix customer and employee traffic streams. The statement that we can relocate this particular entrance is difficult because there is a substantial amount of grade elevation difference between where the arrow is pointing and the floorplate of the building. I believe it is 10-12'. There is a retaining wall that follows the parking lot on the north and west side of the customer parking area to help differentiate the grade coming across from CTC Blvd into the site. In the Staff report, there is a comment about the amount of slope that we have designed into this facility to accommodate that slope, both in the parking areas as well as the drives. We redesigned this based on comments that we received from Chris Mestas, Louisville Fire Department, to minimize it as much as possible. If we have to revise this plan to accommodate what we think is an erroneous interpretation of the conservation easement, it will be detrimental to the design we have presented and satisfying the LFD requirements, and it will very detrimental to FedEx. We want you to understand the background of the conservation easements which were created in 1998.