Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutZMA200700001 Executive Summary Zoning Map Amendment 2007-09-12COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AGENDA TITLE: ZMA 07-0001 Hollymead Town Center Area A-2 with waiver requests SUBJECT/PROPOSAL/REQUEST: Rezone 47 acres from RA to NMD to construct 1,222 dwelling units, 104,000 sq. ft of retail, 179,000 sq. ft. of office, and an 80,000. ft. hotel (363,700 sq. ft of non-residential total). STAFF CONTACT(S): Cilimberg, Echols LEGAL REVIEW: NO AGENDA DATE: September 12, 2007 ACTION: X INFORMATION: CONSENT AGENDA: ACTION: INFORMATION: ATTACHMENTS: YES BACKGROUND: On August 8, 2007, the Board of Supervisors held a worksession to discuss possible phasing of Hollymead Town Center Area A-1 with Hollymead Town Center A-2 and proffers. At the meeting, the majority of the Board of Supervisors concluded that it was not necessary for A-1 and A-2 to be phased together and that the proposed phasing of A-2 was acceptable. The Board also concluded that the value of improvements resulting from proffers for Hollymead Town Center Area B and sewer extensions made in the 1990's could not be credited to create an offset for cash proffers for the impacts of the 1222 residential units. The Board suggested that some credit might be appropriate for the commitment for LEED core and shell for all buildings. DISCUSSION: Since the Board met, the applicant has worked to resolve all outstanding issues identified at the Planning Commission meeting and at the Board worksession. The General Development Plan is provided as Exhibit 1, the Code of Development is Exhibit 2, the proffers are Exhibit 3, and the Waiver requests are Exhibit 4. Resolution has been achieved on modifications to the General Development Plan, the Code of Development, and the waiver requests. A list of changes that were requested by the Planning Commission that have either been made or have been deemed not applicable as a result of Board of Supervisors' input is contained in Exhibit 5. The applicant has proposed to address impacts of the residential units by providing $11,900 for each townhouse or condo unit and $12,400 for each apartment unit at time of building permit starting with the 151" dwelling unit permit request. Their approach is to pay the full per unit proffer amount by taking an offset of $1.8 million as an upfront credit against per unit cash proffers until the entire offset credit is expended. The applicant has calculated the $1.8 million will have been spent by the 150th unit. They have used a blended $12,000 per unit amount because they don't know what the actual combination of unit types will be and they could be mostly apartments. Below is the breakdown of expected expenditures for the $1.8 million. The street construction will take place within the first year after approval of the rezoning. The Greenway dedication is proffered at the time of approval of the first site plan. The recycling center or other community facility is proffered to take place on the request of the County. Because of the proffered timing of this land, both dedications could take place up -front, as well. Greenway dedication 7.6 acres 875,000 Meeting St. - 4 -lane design ROW 2 acres 250,000 Meeting St. - 4 -lane construction cost 210,000 Town Center Dr. - "overbuild" ROW 1 acre 125,000 Town Center Dr. - "overbuild" construction .7 acres 90,000 Recycling Ctr. (or other civic use) 2 acres 250,000 1,800,000 Between the last time the Board saw the proffers and this time, two changes have taken place. First, the applicant has reduced the area for dedication for a recycling center or other civic use. Originally, the applicant proffered "sufficient area" for a 35,000 square foot facility. (The recycling center near the McIntire Street County Office Building is about this size.) Then he estimated that 3 acres would be necessary for that facility and asked for "credit" for the value of 3 acres. In this final version of the proffers, the applicant has settled on 2 acres, which staff believes is acceptable for the following reasons. To begin with, the Community Facilities Plan indicates that a recycling center is needed in all of the Development Areas. However, the trends in recycling have changed such that a recycling center may not be needed in this Development Area. The words, "or other community facility" in the proffers allows the County to use the land for any other need identified in the CIP, should the County not need the recycling center. Staff also believes that two acres should be sufficient area for a recycling facility and would also be sufficient area for other types of facilities the County may need in the future in an "urban" setting such as a county satellite office or urban recreational facility. The second change to the proffers since the Board last saw them relates to erosion and sediment control standards. Hollymead Town Center Area A-1 proffers contained a higher level of control than the state requires because of the amount of disturbance that already exists at the site. The Planning Commission asked that the language from the Area -1 proffers be incorporated into Area A-2 proffers. The applicant provided this language with the proffers that were advertised for the September 12 meeting. In the final review of the proffers, several staff members noted the difference in standards being proffered for Hollymead Town Center and for Biscuit Run. Staff believes that the Biscuit Run proffers provide the higher level of erosion and sediment control and have asked the applicant to provide language similar to Biscuit Run in their signed proffers. The proffers included in Exhibit C contain this language. One issue that has arisen in the completion of this Executive Summary is coordination of the wording between proffers for HTC A-1 and HTC A-2 relating to the completion of Town Center Drive to Dickerson Road and the Willow Glen connection. Changes to the Willow Glen proffer on the final signed proffers for HTC A-2 received on Sept. 5 have not yet been approved by the County Attorney's office. If the County Attorney says that changes to the wording for HTC A-2 are needed, it may affect wording on the HTC A-1 proffers. The proffers on these two rezonings must be coordinated. Staff will report on this issue at the Board Meeting. Waivers — Waiver requests in conjunction with this Neighborhood Model District are Exhibit 4. These waivers were recommended for approval by the Planning Commission with two exceptions. After the Planning Commission meeting, staff noticed two potential problem areas that they had not seen before the Planning Commission meeting. One of the areas had to do with waivers of screening requirements and the other had to do with the size of off-site signs within the development. For the screening requirements, the applicant asked that screening of objectionable features only be required between Hollymead Town Center and adjacent residential districts. Since there are residential uses within Hollymead Town Center Area A-2, staff believes that screening should be required between objectionable features and residential uses, not districts. The applicant concurs and has changed his proffer request. For off-site signs, staff noticed an inconsistency between the Code of Development and the waivers. In the waiver request, the applicant noted a maximum area of signage to be 24 square feet; however, in the Code of Development, it shows a maximum of 30 square feet for off-site signs. Staff believes that signs of less than 24 square feet be allowed within the development without a special use permit, since 24 square feet is the maximum area allowed in the ordinance. The applicant concurs and has changed the Code of Development. RECOMMENDATIONS: If the County Attorney's office approves HTC A-1 and HTC A-2 proffer wording for the Town Center Drive to Dickerson Road, staff recommends approval of the rezoning with the General Development Plan, Code of Development, proffers and waivers all of which are attached to this Executive Summary. EXHIBIT 1-- General Development Plan dated August 31, 2007 EXHIBIT 2 -- Hollymead Town Center Area A-2 Code of Development dated September 12, 2007 (on file) EXHIBIT 3-- Proffers for Hollymead Town Center Area A-2 dated September 4, 2007, signed September 5, 2007 EXHIBIT 4-- Waiver requests EXHIBIT 5-- Changes requested by the Planning Commission at their July 24, 2007 meeting COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AGENDA TITLE: ZMA 05-15 Hollymead Town Center (HTC) Area A-1 SP 2005-027, Drive -up Window for a Bank ZMA 07-01 Hollymead Town Center Area A-2 Worksession SUBJECT/PROPOSAL/REQUEST: Request to rezone 31 acres from RA to allow for 278,000 square feet of office retail. Request for a special use permit for a drive -up window for a bank. Request to rezone approximately 45 acres from RA, 0.5 acres from C-1, 0.07 acres from PD -MC, and 0.4 acres from NMD to NMD to construct 1,222 dwelling units, 104,000 sq. ft of retail, 179,000 sq. ft. of office, and an 80,000. ft. hotel (363,700 sq. ft of non-residential total). STAFF CONTACT Cilimberg, Echols LEGAL REVIEW: NO AGENDA DATE: August 8, 2007 ACTION: INFORMATION: X CONSENT AGENDA: ACTION: INFORMATION: ATTACHMENTS: YES BACKGROUND: On June 13, 2007, the Board of Supervisors reviewed the HTC A-1 requests for rezoning and a special use permit, held a public hearing, and deferred action so that the project could be considered in conjunction with the review of HTC A-2. They scheduled a worksession for August 8 to discuss phasing of HTC A-1 (all commercial) with HTC A-2 mixed residential and commercial). They discussed with the applicant bringing in a phasing plan for A-1 and A-2 together to ensure that residential units as well as commercial square footage is constructed in the overall Area A. On July 24, 2007, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on the request for HTC A-2. At that meeting, staff said the applicant had worked with staff more on some of the issues raised in the staff report. Regarding VDOT's comments on the need to widen Meeting Street, after looking more at the Places 29 recommendations, staff agrees and believes it should be widened to four lanes through a design that provides two lanes divided with a median and bike lanes. The applicant agreed to make this change. Staff told the commission that the applicant said he will commit to complete roads within a year of ZMA approval, rather than only bond their completion. The applicant clarified that they intend to provide 20% affordable housing and do not want the option to "cash out" of this proffer. They said that an agreement with ACSA will be in place before the BOS hearing. The applicant said he would change the general plan of development to provide an area to accommodate the landscaping that will be required by the ARB. They also agreed to make other necessary changes to the Code of Development and proffers. The Commission discussed the proposal and several members were not comfortable voting on the proposal because of a lack of information available before the hearing. However, on a vote of 4:3, the Commission recommended approval subject to the following: 1. Provide cash proffers in an acceptable form as outlined by staff. The cost of the impact is expected to be $11,853,200; 2. Provide credits of $1,575,000, bringing the total cash proffer for impacts to $10, 278,200; 3. Make all other proffer changes identified by staff as having been verbally agreed to by the applicant; 4. Provide phasing in the proffers, to be approved by staff; 5. Include all other proffers that exist in Exhibit F to the staff report; 6. Provide an erosion and sediment control proffer similar to, but not less than the one approved for Area A-1 indicating the amount of area that can be disturbed at any given time; 7. Commit that all mixed use buildings will be LEED certified. The Commission does not support the LEED certification as a credit. 8. Make the following changes: Take out the cash buyout in the affordable housing proffer; Change the proffer for completing Meeting Street and Town Center so that they are not bonded for completion but will be completed within a year of approval of the rezoning; Clarify the proffers regarding the community park; Clarify the amount of land proffered for the recycling center; Amend the Code to reflect changes identified by staff; Change the application plan to show the required cross sections or design for Meeting Street south of Town Center Drive. Thirteen waiver requests for HTC A-2 were also approved or recommended for approval with the conditions outlined in the staff report, by a vote of 4:3. DISCUSSION: Because of the short period of time between the Commission meeting and the Board worksession, the applicant has not had time to resolve the outstanding issues identified by the Planning Commission and staff for Area A-2. The applicant has, however, agreed to make all of the changes requested by the Commission and staff, with the exception of providing phasing between Phase 1 and Phase 2. There also remain questions on the proffer values which will impact the expected amount of cash proffers. These two subjects are the focus of the Board of Supervisors' worksession. Phasing The proffers for Area A-2 provide for phasing within A-2. In the proffers, the applicant commits to apply for building permits for at least 100 dwellings prior to receiving a building permit for any commercial, office, or hotel area in the development. He has also committed to construct at least 600 dwelling units before applying for a building permit for more than 200,000 square feet of commercial, office and hotel area. While the phasing within Area A-2 was acceptable to staff, the staff offered the following phasing concept to the applicant as a starting point for discussing phasing between A-1 and A-2. Phases Residential units Area A-1 Area A-2* Phase 1 410 139,000 sq. ft. 96,000 sq. ft. Phase 2 409 139,000 sq. ft. 96,000 sq. ft. Phase 3 409 96,000 sq. ft. The 80,000 sq. ft. hotel is not included in the A-2 acreage The applicant has explained to staff that areas A-1 and A-2 are such different types of projects that he is reluctant to tie them together. The applicant has not, as of yet, made any offer to phase Area A-1 with Area A-2 and prefers to speak directly with the Board on this issue. Proffer Value The applicant's proffers (see Attachment C of the staff report dated July 24, 2007, revised July 31, 2007) indicate that he would like credit for open space and a greenway, a community park, a recycling center site, Rt. 29 improvements, a sanitary sewer line extension, expansion of Meeting Street, and expansion of Town Center Drive. He said he would like credit for doing a Neighborhood Model, mixed-use development as well as credit for each residential unit that achieves Energy Star or LEED designation. Staff's analysis of the proffer values from the staff report has changed since having discussions with the applicant. Current values are estimated as follows: 1. Open space and greenway — The open space and greenway are shown in the County's Land Use Plan and the Assessor's office has given the land a value of $125,000 per acre, even though it is in stream buffer and steep slopes. The 7.6 acres at this value equals $950,000. 2. Linear park (called "community park" in the proffers) — The County's Land Use Plan contains this element in the Hollymead Town Center section. Although the applicant believes that the 1 acre park should be credited at $125,000, staff does not recommend that it be given credit because it helps to provide for amenity area in the development, which otherwise would have had to be provided. 3. Recycling center site — Although not clearly articulated in the proffers, the applicant plans to provide up to 3 acres for a recycling center which would sit on a 35,000 sq. ft. pad. The applicant would like to be given credit of $125,000 per acre for a value of $375,000. 4. Rt. 29 infrastructure improvements — The applicant believes he should be given credit for his pro -rata share of the improvements which have already been constructed. Staff believes that each rezoning stands on its own and that the proffers were already credited to HTC Area B in a previous rezoning. 5. Sanitary Sewer line extension — The applicant believes he should be credited for his pro -rata share of an extension of a 10' sewer line for Area A and the Airport which occurred in 1992. The ACSA indicates that this sewer project was funded, in large part, through an FAA grant. The owner of the HTC land at that time was the contractor who installed the 10' sewer line. The ACSA says that it was very likely that the cost to extend the line was in excess of the FAA grant; however, ASCA does not have any records of the non -airport cost. The applicant has said that $2,000,000 was spent in this sewer extension project and that his pro -rata share of this expense should be credited as $650,000. Because the extension was made 15 years ago and because staff has not seen any documentation indicating the full cost to extend the line, staff cannot support credit being given for this item. 6. Expansion of Meeting Street and Town Center Drive — Staff has re -reviewed these proffers and now believes they can be credited $250,000, especially with the offer to make Meeting Street 4 -lanes. 7. Mixed use and Neighborhood Model development — Staff notes that the Board of Supervisors have said that these two things are expectations, so no additional credit would be given for meeting these criteria. 8. Green building credit — The applicant requested a reduction of 5% of the per unit value for each unit if he achieved LEED or Energy Star Designation. There was no distinct proffer to achieve LEED or Energy Star on any or all buildings. The applicant told the Commission that each mixed-use building would be LEED certified; however, the Commission did not believe credit should be given for LEED since it was a goal of the County's. Since the Commission meeting, the applicant has clarified that he plans to proffer that the shell of all mixed- use buildings will achieve LEED certification. Using this information, the following credits would be given: 950,000 for 7.6 acres of greenway dedication (at $125,000/acre) 375,000 for 3 acres for a recycling center 250,000 for oversizing a portion of Meeting St. and Town Center Dr. 1,575,000 - total The cash proffer expectation (revised from PC Meeting of 7/24/07) Unit Breakdown Minus 20% Per Unit Total affordable Rate for cash proffer MF 1076 832 (aff. all in MF) x 12,400 10,316,800 TH 146 146 x 11,900 1,737,400 Total: 1222 Total: 978 12,054,200 Cash proffer expectation (revised to account for 20% affordability proffer clarification): $12,054,200 Value of proffers: 1,575,000 Remaining proffer expected: $10,479,200 Although the applicant has indicated that he will pay the per unit cash amount, which equates roughly to $10,715/unit, staff believes the Board of Supervisors should discuss the credits to see if it agrees with staff's analysis. RECOMMENDATIONS: Staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors discuss the credits provided by staff to arrive at a per-unit amount for the applicant to proffer. Staff also recommends that the Board discuss with the applicant its expectations for phasing, in anticipation of the September 12, 2007 Board Hearing.