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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-26-06 Minutes CRA ire C.ettter of Good r CO 144 COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CRA) BOARD Workshop Ocoee Commission Chambers 150 North Lakeshore Drive Ocoee, Florida October 26, 2006 MINUTES 6:00 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Vandergrift called the Community Redevelopment Area Board together at 6:00 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of City Hall. City Clerk Eikenberry called roll and declared a quorum present. Roll Call: Board Member Hood, Board Member C. Johnson, Board Member Anderson, Chairman Vandergrift, Board Member Keller, Board Member Corless and Board Member R. Johnson. Also Present: City Manager Frank, City Attorney Rosenthal, City Clerk Eikenberry, Assistant City Manager Croteau 1. Highway 50 Overlay Overlay District, Community Development Director Wagner Community Development Director Wagner, made a PowerPoint presentation on the Highway 50 Overlay District. He said he feels this is a spectacular vision for the City. He explained that the City currently has an Activity Center Overlay District along the State Road 50 Corridor that was created in 1999. Overlay Districts provide special regulations for certain areas of the City where special conditions exist. For the Activity Center Overlay, they had a general framework plan that guided some specific civic uses within the area. The most important aspect of the Activity Center is when they adopted the updated Commercial and Industrial Development Standards; that set the pattern for the development that you have seen today. Mr. Wagner stated the overly pattern that they need to develop today for the CRA is similar, but a bit more complex, This will move them from a more suburban type of development to an urban type of development. This will require an entirely different set of rules and regulations because of expansion of density and intensity of development. An urban pattern development is a vertically integrated mixed use type development; multi story buildings and multiple uses. There would be a combination of uses such as retail and residential all in one building or one complex. Currently we have suburban development which is mostly horizontally integrated separation of uses; urban development is integration of all those uses into one area. The overlay district will also cause us to evaluate traffic, utilities, and land use patterns in the area to handle the increased intensity of development and to look at expansion of current site development standards and architectural standards to accommodate vertical structures in the area. Mr. Wagner continued by saying there will be a two pronged implementation of the Overlay District; the long range vision which will set the framework for everything that happens in the State Road 50 Corridor, and secondly the plan around Lake Bennett that will be presented by Randy June and his team. He said Mr. June's team has done a great job, not just developing their own project, but creating a framework for the entire State Road 50 Corridor. They need the direction from the Board so that they can move ahead and began expending funds in the CRA budget to hire various consultants to assist in developing the Overlay Plan and the Lake Bennett Plan. The primary purpose of the workshop is to get clear direction from the Board so that they feel that they on the right track. Surrounding local governments such as Maitland and Winter Park have been experiencing some controversy regarding the changing urban pattern in these communities. It is important that the Board gives us guidance in moving forward. This plan will change the direction of roadways and traffic in the area and they will be presenting very specific concepts that are very different then what has been done in the past. There will be a lot of changes needed to the Code of Ordinances and Comprehensive Plan. They do not know right now who will be paying for what between the developers and the CRA. Tonight they are just presenting the Vision and the goals they have to move forward. This project will change the character of development in the City. He said he has been striving for many years to get one group of people to develop the properties around Lake Bennett Area; Randy June and Chuck Hawthorne have done a very impressive job in the initial vision of this project. 2. Mainstreet Urban Village Design Team, headed by Randy June Ian Lockwood, of Glading Jackson, said they will be presenting the framework ideas for the street networks, land use components, and traffic impacts to the area. They have been working with the Design Team and City staff trying to develop an area of a walkable, vibrant, and economically successful place where people can live, work, and play. They have created the strategy to get you where they think you want to be. He gave a PowerPoint presentation. He showed other areas such as Boston, Seaside FL, South Beach Miami, and Victoria BC that are all very different, but all very nice places because they have a good street network "bones of the city" and buildings up to the street. He said good cities with great downtown areas have connective networks of streets that have improved the car carrying capacity. Mr. Lockwood explained the street network that needed to be developed to achieve good car and pedestrian traffics, as well as public transportation. He also showed some examples of buildings being set up to the street such as grocery stores, self storage, home improvements, etc. He showed the plan to reorganize roads in Ocoee, and discussed short term and long term improvements to the network of streets. He said the downtown area would be created with connective network of small streets and blocks. He described how Story Road would connect the entire CRA network of roads together from the redeveloped mall, west to Winter Garden. He reminded the Board that they have one historic opportunity to get the street networking correct. It is difficult and costly to make changes if it is not done correctly. He discussed the possibilities as the CRA area continues to evolve: Story Road would connect network of roads Extending west in the future to Ocoee Apopka Road Many alternative routes would be created to avoid State Road 50 Bike Lanes and Trails would be included New Trail network hugging the lakes and wetlands Links to the West Orange Trail CRA Regular Meeting 10 -26 -06 Page 2 Mayor Vandergrift asked if the area is formulated for brick streets. He said the brick street concept acts as traffic calming, aesthetic value, and in the long term is less expensive because it lasts forever. Mr. Lockwood said there are a few streets that are important for civic reasons and they would like to keep them as brick streets, the others could be asphalt. He said they can expand the number of brick streets if the Commission desires. Commissioner Keller said he is not real fond of the bike lanes in the road because it is dangerous for the kids. Is there a possibility to add wide sidewalks instead? Mr. Lockwood said most of what they planned is trails that are off the roadway. There was discussion about different ways of how pedestrian traffic and bicyclists can be accommodated, including a protected bike lane where the sidewalks run parallel. He added that you do not see that much in this area and they would be a leader in that concept if they did it that way. Board Member Corless commended the Board with regards to focusing on the connectivity throughout the CRA and the community. She said many people are recreational bikers and taking the level of sophistication up a level by providing a protected area is something that should be considered. She also applauded the concept of having Story Road become a connecting parkway for east/west traffic helping to relieve traffic off of State Road 50. There was a lengthy discussion about the design concept for rerouting Story Road, including the straightening of new road and repairing the old road as a civic area with Farmer's Markets, etc. to preserve history and purpose of the old road. Michael Morrissey, of Morrissey Residential Design, town architect for the new development in Winter Garden called Oakland Park; he also created the guidelines for Baldwin Park and worked in Celebration. He said Ocoee had viability for mixed use community in the Lake Bennett area. If you build residential units, intermingled with commercial, retail, restaurants, and professional offices you create a very vital community. Then you add the improved street work, buildings exposed at the street, and other things that engage residents. The lake and tree canopy in the area of Lake Bennett also would enhance that community. The Lake Bennett Area is a great opportunity for Ocoee to identify itself by creating a sense of place, with an architectural edge that would be inviting to everyone. It would be a Commercial District, as well as a true downtown district, and will still pay tribute to the historic downtown district near McKey. All of the buildings would have exposure to the Lake and the Park area and they would need a focal point in the middle of the lake such as the fountain at Lake Eola. Mr. Morrissey continued stating that Main Street would have 5 -7 story buildings around the commercial area with all parking being on the inside of the block. The architecture would be in scale and proportion but there would be no "theming" of the buildings; they may have Spanish architecture, next to renaissance, next to classical, etc. in a typical streetscape. Shoal Creek wetland area is another existing phenomenal piece of the environment that those on the north end would get to enjoy. Those to the South get Lake Bennett. People living on north/south streets have use of each of these. He continued with PowerPoint presentation regarding building architecture, park attribute, traffic issues, etc. that will make up the first seed of the future CRA. Mayor Vandergrift asked about the alley theory for parking cars. Mr. Morrissey stated that they would be public roads even though they are rarely used by anyone other than those wishing to park at their homes. CRA Regular Meeting 10 -26 -06 Page 3 Commissioner Anderson asked what effect would the five to seven story buildings have on the open sunlight available to all areas of the property. Mr. Morrissey said one of the great things about the layout of this parcel is that all areas will collect a large amount of light at some part of the day; none of them will be kept in the shade. Commissioner Keller asked if the width of the streets will allow for fire vehicles and garbage vehicles to pass through. Mr. Morrissey said fire access is on the top of their list when designing these projects. The requirement for such vehicles to pass is twenty feet, and these streets have more than twenty even with vehicles parked on both sides. Mayor Vandergrift asked what would separate living facilities from tenements that get run down over the years. Mr. Morrissey advised those are fee simple residential properties without the urban character from being integrated with mixed use. Mayor Vandergrift asked if the concept of having apartments over businesses going to happen here? Mr. Morrissey said yes, they would promote that. Dennis Foltz, Clermont, asked if all blocks have commercial on the first floor and residences above or are some blocks solid commercial or solid residential. Mr. Morrissey said some blocks are all residential, the focus is to have mixed on Main Street and as it moves outward from there it would be all residential blocks. Board Member C. Johnson asked if public transportation has been integrated into this community. Mr. Morrissey said they want to encourage walking and public transit, by adding in -lane bus stops on the A streets and adding bus shelters. Bus pullouts would take out a lot of parking spaces. Brent Lacey, Director of Transportation, Planning and Engineering at Glading Jackson. He said they have been talking a lot about "good bones" and his job is to hang the meat (traffic) on the bones. He discussed the study area and said the total numbers of residential and employments are based on Land Use Plan in the Regional Transportation model used to determine what amount of traffic will be on the roadways system between Maguire and Clarke. With this project, those numbers are modified with the growth in residential (approx. 2,000) and employment population (approx. 1,000). When they add this roadway network, making the Story Road connection, and including the anticipated network in the CRA area where the mall and Auto Auction are, the numbers will surprise you because the volumes drop (trips per day on State Road 50). He stated that buses stopping on the street within the proposed network of streets would only impact four or five cars; it would not create a major problem. He added that even increased population the preliminary reports show that the road networks will provide relief to State Road 50, Clarke Road, Maguire, and other surrounding roads. He said traffic would also drop along Old Winter Garden Road with this project in place. David Townsend, said he is the owner of the property on the north side of the planned development and wants to build a residential rental community. He asked the square footage of total buildable space per block. One of the Team members advised there is a FAR of 3 for this area and that is what they are currently using as a guide. Mr. Townsend said there is approximately 120,000 square feet of buildable space, not including park areas. He said that would mean he would have to park 480 cars in a block. He said that would have to be factored into the rent which would create rentals that are $2 per square foot which in not economically feasible. He asked about a timeline for this project because he would like to start his apartment complex within the year. There was some discussion regarding which road networks would have to be built prior to construction to support the additional traffic. CRA Regular Meeting 10 -26 -06 Page 4 Commissioner Anderson and Mayor Vandergrift asked Mr. June about particular map points in the area of the (new) Story Road and the (new) Bluford. Randy June said there has been a lot going on with this property for five or six years. Every time they thought they had it put together something would happen to delay it. They are in a position to make this happen. All the big box stores such as Costco, Home Depot etc. would love to have this area, but that is not the Vision we would like to see happen here. If they are going to make this happen, they have to do it quick. They have a great team put together, all of whom are easy to work with. They have some problems to resolve, they have some good financing tools such as the CDD and the CRA and they will need help with the City to figure out how to make it all work. They want brick streets, five acre parks, large Oak Trees (where Costco would like to be). Commissioner Johnson said he wants to thank Randy June and his Vision for coming up with a plan that everyone would be proud to have in the City. He said everyone wants to come into Ocoee and build apartments or big buildings, but he said he wants this Board and the Commission to focus on concepts like this one that they can all be proud of and where they can go and spend time around the lake. Commissioner Anderson thanked Randy June for sticking with this project when everyone else has fallen by the wayside. He has been a part of this community for a long time and he has a personal involvement in making this happen. He said he would like to make sure they can help out whenever possible. Mr. Hawthorne said there is an opportunity for the CRA to put some Overlay guidelines that will impact the quality of life for the Lake Bennett area as well as the entire district as it moves forward to other developments. Commissioner Anderson asked if they start looking at overlays for streets, would they need to hire a consultant or can they use what they have? Mr. Lacey advised that he can work simultaneously with the City and private developers. Mayor Vandergrift said this looks like a great concept and now they have to look at the feasibility of making this concept work. Community Development Director Wagner said they have earmarked $150,000 for consultants just for this purpose. They are going to have to figure out the best approach to get this moving, they are not going to be able to go out for RFPs on everything. They will use some money for continuing services, but may need to go out for an RFP for some of the specialized studies such as comprehensive planning aspects and design issues. They will use the help of Randy's team as much as possible. They need to get Randy's team going with the shorter term projects going while they are simultaneously working on the longer range planning, so it will be an intensive effort. Mayor Vandergrift asked how much money they have in the CRA. Assistant City Manager Croteau said there is no money at this time; the projected revenue is around $290,000 in January. Mayor Vandergrift said the money will have to be borrowed from the City. Ms. Croteau said the Interlocal Agreement is set up so that can occur as needed. City Attorney Rosenthal said it will more likely come in the form of an agreement that needs funding, and at that time would ask for authorization for an interfund loan. CRA Regular Meeting 10 -26 -06 Page 5 Tom Kohler, advised he is a CRA Expert, said half of the funds are coming from the City anyway, by law all the funds have to be in the CRA budget by January 1, 2007. Mayor Vandergrift said whatever they have budgeted in the General Budget they should put in the CRA and then the CRA can pay the City back. He asked for that to be placed on a Commission Agenda to get it started. Assistant City Manager Croteau said they are not looking for approval of any money at this time; she just needs for the board to authorize them to move forward with the transportation study. Community Development Director Wagner said the Board and the Commission really need to think about how much they want to support this effort because there will be a lot of Public Hearings and some opposition. Mayor Vandergrift asked if we needed an agenda item to move the budgeted money over to the CRA. City Attorney Rosenthal said Finance Director Horton will advise if there is a need for an agenda item to move funds into the CRA. Consensus of the Commission, without objection, is to move forward with the traffic study and general concepts presented here tonight. The meeting was adjourned at 8:33 p.m.. As other Board members were leaving, Mayor Vandergrift asked if this presentation can be condensed and given to the Planning and Zoning Board. City Attorney Rosenthal said they need to be careful not to "memorialize" this in its conceptual design phase. He added that some of these issues will be coming to the Commission in the calendar year, beginning with DRC, and then Planning and Zoning in November and a Public Hearing in December. He said they are moving forward quickly. Mayor Vandergrift said he would like them to know about the concepts are being considered as long as they are aware that it may or may not happen; but it was just a thought. No other Board members were present to express their opinion on this issue. APPROVED: Attest: :m" i ken •erry, Secretary S. Scott Vandergrift, Chair CRA Regular Meeting 10 -26 -06 Page 6