Send from Lyn Meane on Februry 19, 2008
315 W. Ponce de Leon Development Update
In October, the Downtown Development Authority worked through the Clairemont Great Lakes Neighborhood Association to invite residents to a meeting about a proposed development at 315 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue. About forty people attended the first meeting. We used the opportunity to educate residents about the current zoning and begin discussions to identify issues that concerned them. We asked that a working committee be created to begin initial discussions with the developer to see if we could find a project that residents could support. This Stakeholder Group is not empowered to make decisions. Rather, this group has been helpful in identifying the larger neighborhood issues and will help refine design options in preparation for meetings with the larger neighborhood. We anticipate a public input meeting around mid-April.
After our initial meeting in October, a second meeting was held on December 20th to allow residents to meet the developer. The meeting included about 15 neighborhood representatives, the development team including their architect and representatives from Urban Collage an urban planning team assisting the city in developing design options. The neighborhood representatives used the time to restate their concerns about the project:
The developer outlined an interest in developing a residential project on the surface parking lot to the rear of the property and a centrally located parking structure to serve both the office building and the new residential project.
At a third meeting on January 10th, we asked residents and the developer to bring photographs of mixed use projects that could be critiqued. The developer explained his interest in developing apartments at a quality that could be converted to condominiums. The apartment vs. condominium issue is dictated by the difficulty in financing condominiums in the current market. When asked how many he was considering, he said 220 units. He clarified later that this was only a working number that would be refined once design considerations had been agreed upon. The property is roughly 4.7 acres so under current zoning he could build up to 330 units. The developer was asked to bring several site plan concepts to the next meeting to allow the residents to begin to see what options he was considering. The next meeting has not been scheduled.
Our goal in this effort is to find a workable process that allows us to create an opportunity for area residents and a developer to work through issues before a project gets to the planning commission. To be successful, we need to keep the working committee small enough to allow for productive discussions. This steering committee is made up of property owners most directly impacted by this proposed development. However, we also need to find an effective method to keep the larger community informed. We asked several members of the steering committee to work with us to develop an acceptable communication vehicle and a process for involving the community. Kristin Allin from the Clairemont Great Lakes neighborhood also participated in that meeting. It was agreed that we will post information to the city’s website and provide updates to the neighborhood website that has been created. We will also keep the neighborhood association informed about our progress. This summary of the project represents our first official posting to community websites.
As we work to find a suitable development option for the property located at 315 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue, there have been references made by some neighborhood residents to the Strategic Plan and recommendations in the plan related to protecting neighborhoods. Some residents have suggested that no development should be allowed on this parking lot because the Strategic Plan talks about protecting neighborhoods. On page 31 of the Strategic Plan there is specific reference to the creation of a transition zone in the areas where existing C-2 Commercial zoning adjoins R-60 zoning. The Strategic Plan states “For those cases where C-2 zoning is adjacent to Residential zoning, a graduated maximum allowable height based on a graduated set-back will provide the scale modification necessary to a satisfactory transition between the commercial and residential districts.” The solution shown in illustration “O” in the Strategic Plan document (page 31) recommended a setback requirement from adjacent residential properties, established an initial height limit of 35 feet where the property adjoins residential and then a 60 degree building plane that steps the height up and away from adjacent residential properties to the maximum 80 foot height allowed in commercial districts. This recommendation found in Standard 6 of the Strategic Plan was intended to create the transition zone between the C-2 district and adjacent residential projects. The photograph included on page 31 as an example shows the 315 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue property in the background.
The City Commission incorporated this zoning change as one of the first actions taken after the adoption of the Strategic Plan in December 2000. The City Commission established this transition standard as part of the zoning code at their meeting on October 15, 2001 in direct response to the recommendation in the Strategic Plan. Prior to adopting this recommendation, the 80 foot allowable building height in the C-2 Downtown Commercial District could be constructed up to the set back line between residential and commercial properties with no graduated height requirement. As a reference to what 80 feet looks like, the 335 Condominium is an 80 foot building. Our efforts at this point are to further refine these recommendations and find a workable solution for all parties involved.
We anticipate several more meetings between the steering committee and the development team to refine development options. We hope that this process provides an opportunity to create useful dialog between the neighborhood and the developer. Notes from the meetings have been forwarded to neighborhood contacts for posting on neighborhood websites. As we move into design concepts, we would like to post design options on the city’s website as a follow up to a community meeting and invite resident comments on items they like and dislike about the various options presented. This method offers another way of reaching a broader constituent group and helps us work towards a final design concept. We used this process during the development of the master plan for Glenlake Park recently and received useful feedback from a broad-range of citizens as we moved from general concepts, to specific options and finally a master plan that reflected comments from all groups involved.
We will finalize plans to include the larger neighborhood in once development options have been presented.
The notes below provide a summary of the information shared with area residents to date:
SUMMARY NOTES TO DATE: