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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDepartment Report 03-29-223 Carmel Plan Commission COMMERCIAL COMMITTEE Tuesday, March 29, 2022 Department Report 3. Docket No. PZ-2021-00205 DP/ADLS: 11335 N. Michigan Rd. Apartments. The applicant seeks site plan and design approval for a new development with 4 future outlots and an apartment complex (244 units). The site is located at 11335 N. Michigan Road. It is zoned B-3/Business & Residential and is located within the US 421 Overlay zone. Filed by Ryan Wells of REI Real Estate Services, LLC. *Updates to the Report are written in blue Project Overview: The Petitioner proposes to develop the former Altum’s Gardens site into a new mixed-use development with commercial and residential uses. To the north (on the western portion of the property) is the ARN Funeral and Cremation Services, zoned B-5/Business. North of ARN and north of the eastern portion of the property is the Woodhaven subdivision, zoned S-1/Residential. East is a large, 32-acre parcel zoned S-1/Residential. South is the Weston Pointe retail shops and outlots, zoned B-2/Business and within the US 421 Overlay Zone. Lastly, to the SE are the Townes at Weston Pointe, zoned R- 4/Residential. Please see the Petitioner’s Information packet for more details. Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Standards this project MEETS: US 421 Overlay Zone: • Permitted uses*: Dwelling, Multiple- family, General Office, General Retail, General Service, among others • Min. building height: 20’ required, 26’2.38” proposed • Architectural Design Theme: complementary to or consistent with the Federal style. • Roof pitch – 5:12 proposed and allowed • Building materials – red brick proposed • 30’ greenbelt along US 421 required and provided • Lighting plan compliance with 0.0 or 0.1 footcandles adjacent to all property lines, 0.1 is max allowed adjacent to residential • Minimum site acreage for DP: 3 acres required; 22.149 acres proposed • Access to adjacent tracts proposed via connection to the south and ROW platted to connect to the east • Minimum gross floor area: 2,500 sq. ft. required; about 10,000 sq. ft. provided on smallest building • Pool and Garage buildings, as well as trash enclosure are designed to match principal buildings • Building materials: Trim details not to exceed 10%, 10% fiber cement proposed • Minimum side yard setback (north and south): 52.4’ required adjacent to residential, 52.5’ proposed B-3/Business: • Minimum Lot width: 100’ required, 650’ provided • Maximum lot coverage: 80% allowed, 66.6% proposed • Bicycle parking – short term: 0.1 spaces per bedroom = 33 spaces required (325 bedrooms), 56 spaces/28 racks provided throughout property *Permitted uses are subject to Plan Commission approval per commitments on the land signed in 1988. See “Declaration of Commitments” document at the end of this report. UDO Standards NOT MET, therefore variances have been requested and/or more info needed: Variances requested to be heard at the April 25, 2022 meeting: • Docket No. PZ-2021-00224 V: UDO Section 5.28 Parking – 506 parking spaces required, 400 requested. • Docket No. PZ-2021-00228 V: UDO Section 2.24 Minimum Lot Area – 5,000 sq. ft. per multiple-family dwelling unit allowed, 2,996 sq. ft. requested (also can be seen as 141 dwelling units allowed, 236 proposed) • Docket No. PZ-2021-00234 V: UDO Section 2.24 Maximum Lot Coverage – 40% maximum lot cover for multi- family dwellings in the B3 zone allowed, 51% requested. • Docket No. PZ-2021-00240 V: UDO Section 3.88(C) Building Height – 20’ maximum height allowed adjacent to residential uses, 26’ 2 3/8” and 37’ 8 1/4” requested. • Docket No. PZ-2021-00241 V: UDO Section 3.88(D) Building Facades – Buildings with continuous facades that are 90’ or greater in width shall be designed with offsets not less than 8’ deep and at intervals of not greater than 60’ required, 1.5’ requested. • Docket No. PZ-2021-00244 V: UDO Section 3.96(B) Minimum Rear Yard Building Setback – 52.4’ required adjacent to residential, 40’ requested. 4 Site Plan, Parking and Engineering: The Petitioner is proposing to align their site with Bennett Parkway across Michigan Road. The site has been designed with a central street through the middle of the property, with three outlots to the north and one outlot to the south of the direct Michigan Road frontage. The proposed apartment buildings are divided into six buildings north of the proposed street and four buildings south of the proposed street. Eight (previously six) individual garage buildings will be provided throughout the site for additional garage options for residents. Five of the ten buildings will have garages on the first floor of the building. The UDO would require 506 parking spaces for the 236 units that are proposed (previously 523 spaces for 244 units). The project will provide 400 (previously 393) spaces through surface parking, detached garages, tuck-under garages, and tandem spaces (behind the tuck-under garages). A variance is required for the shortage of 106 (previously 130) parking spaces. The Petitioner is working with the Engineering Dept. on drainage for the site. There is a large existing pond on the north portion of the site. The Petitioner would like to expand that pond to have one central detention facility for the entire development. Building 4 on the east side of the pond, closest to the north neighbors, is now a two-story building. This caused the side yard setback requirement to be reduced, as two times the building height is required. The side yard setback variance (north and south property lines) is now no longer needed. 52.4’ setback is required and 52.53’ is provided. Building 7 at the SE corner of the site has been turned and is now the adjacent view for south neighbors, rather than parking lot. Building 9 (a three-story building) along the south property line has also been shifted west to be further away from the residents to the south. In general, residential next to residential is an appropriate use. The mix of the proposed three- and two-story buildings are an appropriate height transition to two- and one-story single-family homes. It provides an appropriate buffer to commercial uses and US 421 to the west. The B-3 district and the US 421 Overlay does allow for multi-family; however, it is up to the Plan Commission to decide if these uses will be allowed on this land due to the 1988 commitments. It is important to think about how this development, if approved, could set the stage for future development that may occur east of this site. Note there are planned stub roads at Weston Pointe Drive, Cole Court, and Andretti Drive (see image to the right for reference). Active Transportation: Sidewalks will be provided on both sides of the streets with crosswalk striping to help delineate crossing points for pedestrians. Short term bicycle parking racks are provided adjacent to every building and public area. 28 racks are provided around the site, which allows for 56 bikes to be parked. Long term bicycle parking is encouraged at a rate of 0.5 spaces for each bedroom, minus those units that have private garages. There are 164 bedrooms and 34 garages. This means that 48 interior long-term spaces would be encouraged for this development. Building Type 1 will have room for 20 interior bike parking spaces. Building Type 2 will have room for 14 interior bike parking spaces. Building Type 3A will have room for 12 interior bike parking spaces. Building Type 4 will have room for 18 interior bike parking spaces. Building Type 5 will have room for 20 interior bike parking spaces. Architectural Design: The US 421 Overlay requires buildings to be designed to be complimentary to or consistent with one of four architectural styles: Federal, Georgian, Greek Revival and Italianate. However, these Overlay requirements were not created with residential buildings in mind, it was designed with commercial uses in mind. The buildings originally submitted by the Petitioner included some characteristics of the ordinance requirements but were not actually designed to meet the US 421 Overlay. Thus, quite a few variances are needed for the design of these buildings. They are two and three stories tall, 5 which is appropriate given the townhomes to the south are two stories, as well as the single-family homes to the north are two stories. One additional floor that is still residential in character and nearly meeting the maximum height for a single- family dwelling (35’) is a reasonable transition. At the public hearing, a Plan Commission member had questions about the building height. The US 421 Overlay does state that adajent to residential uses, building height is limited to 20’, but may increase in height by one additional story for a façade step back with a depth of 25’, or the first structural bay, whichever is greater. The proposed two story building is 26’ 2 3/8” to the midpoint of the roof, so a variance is needed. The building designs have been adjusted to now accommodate some of each building’s HVAC equipment in the roof. Lighting: The lighting plan meets photometric requirements (0.1 footcandles) at all property lines. Poles will be installed at 15’ and 12’ tall. The US 421 Overlay requires a maximum pole height of 24’. We will continue to work with the Petitioner on providing updated elevations to show where the lights will be placed on the buildings and how that will enhance the character and design of the buildings. Landscaping: The north portion of the site has been left in a natural state for many years. The pond is mature and there is a significant vegetation buffer around the perimeter of the property. The Urban Forester is working with the Petitioner to preserve and enhance this existing buffer. The minimum side bufferyard width (north and south) required for multi-family adjacent to single family is 15’. The minimum rear bufferyard width (east) required is 25’. The Petitioner has now agreed to maintaining 20-25’ of existing growth along residential property lines. Signage: No information on signage has been presented at this time. December 21, 2021 Public Hearing recap: The Petitioner presented the project, going over the site plan, drainage in the central pond, and explained that REI will construct and Barrett and Stokely will manage the apartments. Individual businesses would return for the commercial outlots at later dates. Variances are needed and will be heard by the BZA in February or March. They addressed the 1988 Commitments – the uses proposed on the outlots and the multi-family would need approval from the Plan Commission. Neighbors spoke against the project, with concerns ranging from property values, if this is the best use of this land, density, not planning with the neighbors in mind, design of the buildings, and needing a larger buffer. A commercial owner to the south was concerned about traffic coming through their property to get to the light on Michigan Road, and not helping to pay for the maintenance of the road. Plan Commission members want to see a pedestrian plan, had concerns about traffic, the architectural design not being acceptable – significant rework needed, building heights – are the correct standards applied – 20 or 38, confusion about the commercial outlots and the significant landscaping buffer around them. It was recommended to go to the Commercial Committee meeting on February 1, 2022 for further review, and to return to the full Plan Commission for a final vote. February 1, 2022 Commercial Committee meeting Recap: The petitioner went over all the changes made to the project, including reducing the height of a 3-story building to a 2- story building adjacent to Woodhaven Subdivision and relocating a building at the SE corner of the site adjacent to the Townes at Weston Pointe to block noise and headlights. They will not be providing a full vehicular connection to the Weston Pointe Commercial development to the south. There will be a traffic light installed at the entrance on US 421. They will commit to preserving 20-25’ of vegetation along the property lines. Regarding architecture, they have increased the amount of brick from 62% to 90%. Staff went over items that still needed work, namely the architectural design and clarification on the roof design. Additional detailing is needed to make the buildings be more complimentary of the Federal style. Staff also reminded PC members that the use is still under consideration. The residential use and proposed uses for the commercial outlots need to be explicitly approved through this petition. Plan Commission members had questions regarding access, stub streets, the proposed traffic light at US 421, proposed uses for the outlots, the design of the buildings, screening of HVAC equipment, recreational opportunities for around the 6 pond, lighting proposal, wanting to see the tree survey, and the size and depth of the expanded pond. It was continued to March 29, 2022 Commercial Committee meeting for further review. Update since Committee meeting: The Petitioner has made significant changes to the building and enhanced the architectural character. The windows have been separated as requested to be more consistent with the Federal style. Brick and stone detailing have been added to separate the floors and provide more visual interest on the façade. The areas where fiber cement siding is used has been reduced and realigned to be symmetrical on the building. Rooflines have been broken up and adjusted to provide more visual relief on the façade. The clubhouse part of Building 2 is now in line stylistically with the rest of the building. While it has different window details such as fewer mullions, it does not detract from the rest of the building or stand out in a negative way. One major change is the location of the HVAC units. Some were moved to the roof to be concealed in the center of the pitched area. Others were moved to the side of the building, so they were not fronting on the central street. Landscaping will be provided as a visual buffer for the ground mounted HVAC units. Many exhibits were provided in the packet to address comments from the Plan Commission members and neighbors. The pond will have a path around the south part of it, with a pier and benches. The path was removed around the north perimeter of the pond to preserve more trees. The overall depth of the pond will be 17’. Lastly, there was a question regarding site access for the Fire Dept. Staff consulted with the Fire Dept. and found that they have no requirements for additional access, however, do firmly believe that more access is always better. Recommendation: The Department of Community Services recommends the Commercial Committee discusses and then forwards it back to the full Plan Commission meeting on April 19, 2022 with a Positive Recommendation.