Agenda - Planning Commission - 07/12/2004 - Special Meeting

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Town Center 3rd A. ddition- Site Plan/Cobums July 8, 20/)4 Page 6 of 7 Development Agreement: As part of the approval by City Council, the applicant will need to enter into a development agreement with City. This agreement, among other things, will incorporate relevant items from the Master Development Agreement with Ramsey Town Center LLC that will be obligations ebr Ramdance LLC. The Development Agreement wilt also enumerate the financial sureties needed by the City to allow construction of the project. Final Site Plan: A final site plan will need to be submitted as part of the final plat approval and approved by the City Council. The final site plan and final plat can be reviewed and approved concurrently. Town Center Development Review Guidelines: The following comments are a review of the site plan in accordance with the Sub-District Guidelines for the TC-2 Commercial area, as found in the Final Draft Town Center Development Guidelines. Public Realm/Streersccqpe: The subject property is located immediately adjacent to Armstrong Blvd., Sunwood Drive and Zeolite Street. No public parks'are identified fbr this sub-district. This sub-district encourages a mix of large and small floor buildings, accommodating auto- oriented uses. Therefore, an attractive streetscape, small sca[e green spaces, pockets of gathering areas are encouraged. Outlot A is being reserved ebr entrance green space; outdoor dining overlooking a pond area is proposed; there are pedestrian sidewalks adjacent to the streets; trees to shade the sidewalks; and pedestrian crosswalks placed internally for connectivity between buildings. Additional options to add interest would be special pavements and street lighting. Site Development: The site plan includes a mix of large scale retail and convenience uses. Generally, the buildings proposed l%r this block are located at the street right-of-way, with the exception of the grocery store. Pla6ement of the grocery store at the street fight-of-way will result in the loading docks being situated in the middle of the public parking lot, which is unacceptable, in addition, the Design Guidelines encourage large scale users in the TC-2 district to locate adjacent to the railroad. Buildings are located at key intersections of ,Armstrong and Sunwood and Zeolite and Sunwood. The site development guidelines specifically state that no more than 25% of street frontage, which is equal to approximately 288 feet in this case, can'be utilized ebr surface parking lots. This preliminary site plan is a result of modifications made to the sketch plan to minimize gaps between buildings and surface .parking adjacent to streets. The nature of the TC-2 sub-district will inevitably inc{ude gaps between buildings, surface parking adjacent to street fight-of-way, and greater building setbacks. The proposal for this block encourages shared parking and the plan has been designed to place a minimum amount of surface parking adjacent to Sunwood. The final site plan should include intbrmation regarding whether or not the recommended 25% restriction can be met. The guidelines recmmnend one access per block on destination streets and the approved sketch plan shows one access omo Sunwood. The second access to Sunwood should be eliminated. Architecturrd Stc~ndards: in accordance w{th stated goals of the Town Center design guidelines, detailed elevations regarding architecture ibr the building have been provided. The architectural features of the grocery store are 4-sided and include diversity in texture, co[0r, shapes, projections, recesses, height, and transparency at street level. The selected materials include 86