02-26-2014 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Windows along the front of the buildings are vertically proportioned, and make up a minimum of 50% of the building facade at base level. At approximately 6 feet wide window panes are larger than recommended; the City encourages panes to be broken up into smaller increments of 4 feet or less. However, the scale of the window panes as portrayed in submitted building elevations appears appropriate in the context of the buildings architecture. Building Height. The retail center is single story and approximately 13 feet high, which falls within Ordinance building height requirements. Parking and Streetscapes. The applicant has not provided site plans for consideration. A brief analysis of aerial imagery of the subject property illustrates that the center is currently providing approximately 170 parking spaces on the site. According to the Ordinance, shopping centers are required to provide 5 % parking stalls per one thousand (1,000) square feet of gross leasable floor area. The floor area of the two buildings total approximately 24,145 square feet, in which case the site is required to provide only 132 parking stalls. Given this rough analysis the site provides approximately 38 more parking stalls than required based on its use. The architectural guidelines provide requirements for streetscape design, including providing standards for off - street parking design, open space and landscaping design, and pedestrian access, movement, & safety. Specifically, the guidelines require sites to devote 20% of all parking areas to open space and to provide pedestrian cross walks or other traffic calming devices for pedestrian safety. The Ordinance also provides standards on off - street parking design. Ordinance requires a minimum 100 square foot landscaped parking island for every 15 parking stalls, and that off street parking areas be fully screened from public right -of -ways to a minimum of 3 IA feet. The Thunder Bay Plaza site is currently non - conforming in regards to all of these requirements, and should provide site plans for review addressing how off - street parking, pedestrian movement and access, and parking screening and landscaping can be improved in the course of the current renovation project. These improvements should be tangible given the overabundance of parking stalls which may be repurposed for use as landscaped parking islands and pedestrian ways. These changes would reduce stormwater and improve aesthetics on the site. Given the site location in the main commercial area, the applicants may also consider make an effort to provide bicycle facilities (i.e. bike racks) to allow for increased non - vehicular use of and access to the shopping center site. Screening and Landscaping. The applicant is proposing new concrete sidewalks to match existing sidewalks, which will run along the exterior of both buildings. The new sidewalk is 1 foot wider than the original sidewalk, which provides space for the proposed architectural columns to be positioned within the sidewalk extent. Exterior floor plans don't provide detail on the design of proposed sidewalks. 2 13