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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDepartment Report 05-16-23 7 CARMEL PLAN COMMISSION DEPARTMENT REPORT MAY 16, 2023 1. Docket No. PZ-2022-00238 ADLS: Tru Hotel Carmel. The applicant seeks design approval for a new, five story, 126 room hotel on 1.13 acres. Development plan approval was granted under Docket No. 19060018 DP and Use Variance approval was granted under 18050007 UV. The site is located at 12164 N. Meridian Street, immediately north of the Ritz Charles. It is zoned MC/Meridian Corridor and is not within any overlay district. Filed by Nathan Winslow of American Structurepoint on behalf of the owner, Dora Hotel Group. *Updates to the Report are written in blue Project Overview: The Petitioner proposes to construct a new hotel, whose general location and use was approved previously as noted above. It is directly north of the Ritz Charles, zoned MC. North of the hotel site is the Carmel Medical Arts Pavilion. West across Illinois Street is the Spring Lake Estates neighborhood zoned S-2/Residential, and to the east across Meridian Street is the Wagner Reese office building, also zoned MC. Please view the Petitioner’s informational packet for more detail. Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Standards this project MEETS: MC/Meridian Corridor: • Permitted Uses: Hotel (through UV approval) • Minimum Front Yard setback from US 31 for buildings and parking – 50’ required, about 67’ proposed • Minimum Side Yard (south) – 15’ for principal building required, 24’ proposed • Minimum Rear Yard (west) – 0’ for all buildings and surface parking if cooperative agreement is in place, about 110’ proposed for hotel, 6’ for parking • Maximum Lot Coverage – 80% allowed, about 68% proposed • Minimum Building height –3 stories required, 5 story hotel proposed Previous Variance Approvals on Oct. 29, 2019: • Docket No. 19090015 V: Minimum Side Yard (north) – 20’ for surface parking required, 5’ proposed in one area, 30’ proposed in another • Docket No. 19090016 V: At least 2 primary buildings required for wide lot width covering at least 75% of the lot’s width; 1 hotel and 1 office building proposed at about 45% lot width coverage • Docket No. 19090017 V: Not meeting the Parking lot setbacks/bufferyards along future shared property line between buildings. • Docket No. 18050007 UV: UDO Section 2.39 Hotel Use on upper floors only allowed, hotel use proposed on ground floor. Approved by BZA on June 25, 2018, 4-0 with a Condition* that the site plan was not finalized and including attached residential dwelling units are a possibility. (*Background info – the residential component was desired when there was a parking garage proposed as part of the project. Surface parking is now proposed instead of the parking garage.) UDO Standards NOT MET, therefore adjustments or variance requests are needed: • 5.07.C.2. – Ground floor facades require 60% clear glazing, 18% proposed. • 5.33 – Number of Parking spaces – 123 spaces now provided for the hotel and the office building (84 spaces on the medical office parcel and 39 spaces on the hotel parcel). This is 10 less spaces from original site plan. Shared parking with Ritz Charles site previously approved – can 10 more spaces be added to that agreement, or an agreement reached with the parcel owner to the north? o Hotel requires 1 space per room (126) and 1 per employee per largest shift (25) – 151 required • Variances will be needed for the number of signs and the location of the sign on the north elevation by the door. Site Plan, Parking and Engineering: The Petitioner is seeking design approval for the hotel building. It is still oriented west/east, fronting onto Meridian Street. The vehicular drop off area has moved from the original plan (on the north side of the building) to the west side of the 8 building. The overall development plan (DP) and construction of the 3-story office building provided the stormwater management, utility infrastructure, some parking/sidewalks, and access drives. An access agreement with the Ritz Charles to enter the site from Illinois Street to the west is in place. Staff has been working with the Petitioner to enhance the site circulation, which has improved from initial submittals. The MC district requires 1 parking space per unit plus one space per employee on the largest shift for hotels. 151 (126 rooms and 25 employees) spaces are needed for the hotel. The MC does allow for off-site parking to count towards the total number of spaces for a site. A shared parking agreement was reached with the Ritz Charles at the time of the DP approval. The office and hotel uses proposed for this site have compatible off hour parking needs. Staff concluded that the 133 proposed parking spaces for this site, along with the shared parking agreement of the Ritz, would be sufficient. The new site layout removes 10 spaces from the original plan. Petitioner, are these lost 10 spaces able to be added to the agreement with the Ritz or to an agreement with the property owner to the north? Active Transportation: Sidewalk along the frontage road has been installed with the overall development. Additional sidewalks will be added around the proposed building and will provide connections to the Ritz Charles building to the south. Short-term bicycle parking is now within 50 ft. of the front door, and long-term bike parking has been accommodated within the hotel. Architectural Design: The Petitioner has provided updated elevations for review and consideration and has worked with staff to make some changes to the elevations. There are a few areas around the building that project out from the rest of the façade. These areas now have brick siding as the exterior material, rather than EIFS. This is a step in the right direction of reducing the amount of EIFS. The base is now brick as well and is all one color and matches the color of the brick on the bump outs. The petitioner also toned down the colors on the vertical color bands so they are not so bright. They also removed 2 of the bands from the north and south facades and relocated them on the east and west to help reduce the amount of color bands on those facades and break up the large expanse of plain EIFS on the east and west. Lighting: Site parking lot lights are existing. Building accent lights are proposed around the hotel on all facades. There will be downlights on the exterior of the building, and some up-lighting on the landscaping. No up-lighting will be on the west façade. Landscaping: Landscaping is provided all around the building base. Parking lot islands will have trees in them, as well as the long island separating the drop off area. The Urban Forester has reviewed the landscaping plan and made comments regarding changing the proposed tree species chosen. Trees have been added to the grass area in the parking lot at the west border of the site, to help provide additional buffer for the neighbors. Signage: Large wall signs are now proposed only towards US 31 – on each side of the “wedge” architectural feature. They will be back lit instead of internally lit. The back-lit style is preferred over the previously proposed cabinet style full internal illumination. Directional signs are proposed at 5’ tall, which is over the 3’ height allotment. Modifications are still needed to avoid variances. Variances will also be needed for the number of signs facing Meridian St. and the sign on the north façade. January 17, 2023 Plan Commission meeting recap: The Engineer and Architect presented the project to the Plan Commission. The brand design calls for strong bold, clean lines, and asymmetrical features. It is a simple, economic hotel. They are here to listen to feedback and go back to make revisions. The Plan Commission members had concern about the quality of the hotel, concerns regarding parking, could the number of floors be reduced, use this as an opportunity to create something unique and attractive. Plan Commission members voted to have this item go back to the Full Plan Commission for final approval. February 7, 2023 Commercial Committee meeting recap: Petitioner presented some changes to the plans. The biggest outstanding items are the architecture and the shared parking analysis. The shared parking analysis was presented and the peak time for the hotel is at night when the other parcels don’t have a need for the parking. Petitioner stated lighting adjacent to the neighbors is existing and this use is not adding any more parking lot lights. New lighting will be directed away from residential, more towards Meridian St. Petitioner 9 presented changes made to the architecture to try to address comments from staff and Plan Commission. Petitioner stated Hilton had a few hallmarks they had to include, which were the entry feature, multi color vertical bands, and wedge feature. The Committee discussed the color bands, materials, EIFS, buffering for the neighbors, and branding on the building. The Committee voted to continue the item to the March 7th Committee Meeting. March 7, 2023 Commercial Committee meeting recap: Petitioner tabled the item to the April 10th Committee. April 10, 2023 Commercial Committee meeting recap: Petitioner gave some updates on the project and architecture. They are still working on the long-term bike parking. They have made several architectural changes through meetings with staff. The parking was discussed by the Committee; what was originally approved and why they are short now. Petitioner believes they will have enough parking due to shared parking and different peak parking demands. Committee asked if there is a document for the shared parking with the Ritz and the petitioner said yes and they will submit it to staff. Committee brought up the letter regarding the hotel to the south of the Ritz and their lack of parking. It was suggested that Tru could reduce the number of rooms by 10 to alleviate the parking issue. They could also try to get a parking agreement with the parcel to the north for 10 spaces, which seems to have a large parking lot that is not fully occupied. Committee voted to continue the item to the May Committee meeting. May 4, 2023 Commercial Committee meeting recap: The petitioner provided long term bike parking in the building. They are looking into shared parking with the parcel to the north. The Committee asked: if the canopies were blue and petitioner responded yes; if the wing on the east side was metal and petitioner responded it is a Trespa panel system and they can confirm if this is metal. It was mentioned that there are ample parking spots on the IU parcel that are vacant. Staff was asked to look into code enforcement for the work vehicles that are parked in the Ritz parking lot. The committee voted 3-1 to send this item back to the Plan Commission with a Favorable Recommendation, conditioned on getting the parking agreement worked out. DOCS Remaining Comments/Concerns: Staff has worked with the petitioner on changes to the architecture. Several improvements to the building design have been made including changes to the building materials to include brick and less EIFS, reduction of the number of color bands on the north and south facades, and a coordinated brick base color that ties into the brick on the other areas of the building. A few remaining comments include: 1. Are the 10 lost parking spaces from the approved DP able to be added to the agreement with the Ritz or in an agreement with the property owner to the north? Otherwise, a variance will be needed. 2. Please apply for variances that you will need, including sign variances. Recommendation: If all comments and questions can be addressed, the Department of Community Services recommends the Plan Commission votes to Approve this item, contingent on Variance approvals and final TAC approvals through ProjectDox.