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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSP201500024 Resubmittal 2015-10-19 (2)Z x / / < f""fir-Yi.__..•..e„-� 'u5 U ��-`"_':-- rl 10 Z l C� 4u�ry14c I C � M I wvoN� Q U .0 0 0 N X -Y ,i nr 0 o CLI, N LU LL LL Lu X -Y 0 0 N W -Min" wt -- ,i nr 0 0 0 N W -Min" wt -- ,i nr 0 0 N W -Min" wt -- • • r PROJECT MANAGEMENT SHIMCIVIL ENGINEERING LAND PLANNING (?ri', ENGINEERINGa The Field School of Charlottesville Special Use Permit Request Project Narrative June 15, 2014 Revised June 19, 2015 Revised October 19, 2015 Written Description of the Proposal: In Accordance with Section 10.2.2(5) of the Albemarle County Zoning Ordinance, The Field School of Charlottesville would like to apply for a Special Use Permit to operate a private school in a rural area district. The property consists of two parcels: TM/P 60/68 is 21.81 acres and TM/P 60/68E consists of 9.28 acres. The SUP request is for a 25 -acre portion of the two existing parcels. The remaining 6 -acre portion will be a separate rural area parcel, not included in this special use permit. Parcel 60/68 is owned by Aguilera LLC and parcel 60/68E is owned by Commonwealth of Virginia-VDOT Right of Way Section. Parcel 60/68E is under contract to be purchased by Aguilera LLC. The parcel 60/68E will be transferred to Aguilera LLC prior to a hearing with the Board of Supervisors. The Owner (Aguilera LLC) would like to create a Boundary Line Adjustment Plat to create a 6 -acre (+/-) parcel with one residential development right and a 25 -acre (+/-) school site (please see attached Application Plan and conceptual layout). Each use is proposed to have its own entrance onto Barracks Road. In addition a gated entrance will remain at the western end of the property to provide for maintenance and repair of the dam and pond. The 31 -acre site includes critical slopes, a 3 -acre pond, a stream buffer, and an area that was used previously as a demolition waste area. The property lies within the watershed of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. There are no existing buildings on the site. The property is zoned Rural Areas and the Comprehensive Plan Land Use is also Rural Areas. The site lies within the Barracks Road entrance corridor and ARB review of the application will be required. The proposed school use will maintain vegetative screening buffers from Barracks Road and from adjoining residential parcels in the Colthurst neighborhood (see attached application plan). Building size and massing will be limited to accommodate the school use. A maximum of 30,000 sf of total building footprint will be constructed and a maximum of 12,000 square feet of will be constructed for an individual building. Outdoor lighting for the school use will be limited to parking and building entrances. No lighting or amplification of noise will be permitted on the athletic fields. Use of the school and school facilities will be limited outside of the hours of the regular school day. The school will enroll boys in grades 5-8 and will be limited to 150 students. The regular hours of operation for the school will be between 9 am and 4 pm for approximately 170 days of the year and some additional summer school options will be made available. Summer school operations will be performed in substantially the same limitations (time of day, number of students, etc.) as those during the regular school year. Approximately 15-20 after school sporting events will occur on the site. These events typically occur directly after school and are over by 5:45 pm. An additional 10-12 evening school events are anticipated throughout the school year. A multipurpose ball field will be graded adjacent to the 100 foot stream buffer and no outdoor lighting is proposed for the ball field. 20 paved parking spaces will be required to accommodate regular daily needs of the students and +/- 10 faculty and staff. An additional 20-30 parking spaces will accommodate overflow parking when needed for events. It is anticipated that overflow parking will be on grass surfaces, approved in conjunction with site plan review at a later date. Consistency with the Comprehensive Plan: The mission of The Field School, similar to Albemarle County Public Schools, includes a substantial outdoor component, requiring a significant campus. It would be convenient and practical to locate a school campus on 20-30 acres within the City of Charlottesville or within a County Development Area. This would provide a convenience for families within the development area and would limit vehicle trips on rural roads. In actuality, school uses do not generate the income necessary to compete with development projects for 20-30 acre sites with the development areas. In addition, private schools require a special use permit in every district except the Downtown Crozet District; and this additional burden further limits the ability for private schools to compete for land within the development area. Over half of Albemarle County public schools, which are funded with tax dollars and do not require any special use permits, are located within the rural areas of Albemarle County. The proposed site for The Field School of Charlottesville is located on a major arterial (Barracks Road) and is less than one mile from the U.S. 29 Bypass. The site is within 800 feet of a Comprehensive Planning Area (Neighborhood 7), within 1,200 feet of a 20 -acre site zoned R-15, and less than 1.5 miles from a major retail center (Barracks Road Shopping Center). It is difficult to imagine a reasonable site in Albemarle County that would require fewer vehicle trips within the rural area of the County and would provide more opportunities to reduce vehicle trips by combining trips for school and shopping. A private school offers a unique opportunity for partnership with Albemarle County, where 54% (or $202 million) of the budget is allocated toward capital and operational costs of schools. It is anticipated that over half of the students at The Field School will live in households in Albemarle County, paying property taxes toward this school budget. The Field School offers an opportunity to increase the inventory of schools within the County and increase the capacity for students within the public school system... at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Impacts on Public Facilities/Infrastructure: Adjoining properties lie within the Albemarle County Jurisdictional Area for water and Fire hydrants are located along the frontage of the site. It is the Applicants intent to apply for this property to be included within the same jurisdictional area to accommodate fire and rescue needs for the school. A field investigation has been performed and adequate drainfield areas have been located for the proposed school use and single family detached use. A copy of the field survey is provided with this application. Fire, Rescue, and Emergency response facilities are located close by along the U.S. 250 Bypass and Ivy -Rodd. • Traffic Impacts: • The Field School currently enrolls 75 students and is located on Crozet Avenue (S.R. 810) just north of Crozet, Virginia. Attachment A is a study prepared in 2013 evaluating traffic counts and parking needs for the Field School over a one week period during the regular school year. During that week-long study, please note the following: attendance ranged from 65-68 students, daily traffic ranged from 58-62 trips, AM Peak Hour trips ranged from 9-24, and PM Peak Hour trips ranged from 4-13, and the maximum utilized parking spaces was 15 car spaces and 2 bus spaces. Attachment B is a map of Albemarle County showing residential areas (trip originations/destinations) for the existing 2014-15 Field School population. It should be noted that the 18% of the current student population is resided in the Crozet area (where the Field School is currently located) and 15% of the current enrollment is resided in the Ivy area (where The Field Camp is located). If The Field School is permitted to relocate to the proposed site on Barracks Road, it is anticipated that the proportion of students enrolled from the Crozet Area will significantly drop and the proportion of students enrolled from the urban ring of Charlottesville will increase respectively Traffic Impacts (continued): Table 1 below provides an analysis based on traffic numbers generated from similar school projects (such as the Regents School in Albemarle County). The 2013 existing ADT on Barracks Road (S.R. 654) between Old Garth Road (S.R. 601) and Georgetown Road (S.R. 656) is 5,900 trips. This number increases to 21,000 between Georgetown Road and the Charlottesville City limits. Using the figures from Table 1, The Field School currently generates 209 trips per day and at full enrollment (150 students) will generate 419 trips per day. Table 1: Field School Trip Generation with 150 Students AssumedValues": Daily traffic multiplier= 2.79 per student AM peak hour traffic = 0.9 per student AM inbound = 55% AM outbound = 45% PM Peak Hour mulitpl ier = 0.61 per student PM inbound = 47% PM outbound= 53% Use Description Size (number of students) Population Basis DailyTrafflc AM Peak Hour PM Peak Hour In Out Total In Out Total Private School Grade 5-8 75 current enrollment 209 37 30 68 22 24 46 Private School Grade 5-8 150 maximum enrollment 419 1 74 61 135 43 48 92 '• These values are estimates compiled from various online traffic reports including: h ttp://ww 2.cityofpasade n a. n et/cou nci I age nd as/ 2009%20age ndas/Mar_23_09/6A%20ATTACHMENT%202%20PA RT%204. pdf h ttp://www.al be m arl e.org/upload/i mages/ Forms_Ce me r/Departments/ Board_of_Supe"i sors/ Forms/Age nda/2014Fi les/0813/09.0a_Rege ntsSch ool AttachA.pdf The 2013 analysis of actual trips provided in Attachment 1 demonstrates that the actual ADT is significantly lower than the design ADT provided in Table 1 above. It is our opinion herein that the discrepancy in these figures is due to the Field School use of bus service and carpooling. Figures provided in Table 1 were originally derived from the ITE Code 534 (private school use (K-8)) which apparently does not consider bus services or carpooling. Additionally, it should be noted that the proposed school location on Barracks Road is 1 % miles west of the Barracks Road Shopping Center. This proximity to a major retail center will significantly reduce the number of trip originations when considering design ADT. Consider the parent of a student, traveling to a regional service at Barracks Road (Harris Teeter, Kroger, Wells Fargo, CVS, USPS, etc...) will be able to stop by and pick up their child from school on the way home. As demonstrated in the 2013 study, the peak hours for the school use are between 8:30-9:30 AM and 3:45-4:45 PM. The AM Peak hours would coincide with peak hours of traffic along Barracks Road and a left turn lane may be required for the school use. The site has adequate frontage and sight distance to provide turn lanes as needed. Barracks Road (S.R. 654) is a major collector road in Albemarle County with a posted speed limit of 50 MPH (45MPH for trucks). Georgetown Road (S.R. 656) is another major collector road in Albemarle County and is located %Z mile from the proposed site. The U.S. 29/250 Bypass is characterized as a "Freeway or Expressway" and is located 1 mile from the proposed site. Environmental Impacts and Features: After meeting with adjoining property owners on June 8th; it was the consensus of neighbors and a science teacher from The Field School that the lake on the property should be preserved along with the stream buffer around the lake and adjoining wooded slopes along the southern border of the property (see attached application plan). In a second meeting with neighbors on August 11th, an additional buffer area was requested between the ball fields and the lake to supplement an area with few screening trees. This additional buffer is provided in the application plan. Additionally, a landscaped buffer is proposed along the frontage of Barracks Road and the intent is to match this frontage with existing characteristics along Barracks Road. The language provided on the application plan is consistent with, and more enforceable than, the ARB guidelines language. Some critical slopes will need to be disturbed in order to create the ball fields and school campus, however the majority of the existing critical slopes will not be disturbed. Concept / Sketch Plan: Please see attached application plan.