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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPZ 2010-06-03 MinutesMINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS JUNE 3, 2010 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Bill Schopper at 6:30 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL PRESENT Vice-Chairman Bill Schopper Don Bowen Dianna Madar Mark Haynes ABSENT Chairman Ex-Officio CITY STAFF Chief Planner Assistant Planner Civil Engineer Recording Secretary Randy Shiflet Steven Cooper Mike Benton Kathy Luppy Eric Wilhite Chad VanSteenberg Caroline Waggoner Teresa Koontz 3. General Discussion regarding Amendments to the Town Center Zoning Ordinance Eric Wilhite said that Staff would like to give a broad, general outline of the Town Center Zoning to the Commission for discussion. On May 24, 2010, City Council directed Staff to start looking at making some amendments to the Town Center Zoning District. The ordinance was adopted over ten years ago and was one of the first of its kind in the country. It was also one of the largest areas of Traditional Neighborhood Development to take place at that time. The west side has been developed with mostly single family residential. The original developer, Arcadia, as well as new developer, Realty Capital Corporation wants to develop more in the area. Staff began recognizing the age of the code and learning from experiences in developing the new Transit Oriented Development Codes. Both are similar in nature and intent of trying to create good walkable, livable communities with mixed use development. Town Center Zoning in NRH has the Traditional Neighborhood Development and kind of hybridizes some of the Page 1 of 5 06-03-10 P & Z Minutes standard traditional suburban development code, like the Permitted Land Use Table and Landscape Regulations. On top of that, the developer has an HOA or had additional development standards that you would put on the architecture of the structures and other things they have in private covenants. The commercial center design guidelines that were written are the documents that a developer coming in would operate under. These however are not enforceable by the city at this point in time because they are not within the Town Center Zoning. So we started looking at it and there are a lot great things in here that we felt would be important as we moved forward with the Phase IV and the rest of the development of Hometown, to speak to the developers about giving more legislation or city authority to a lot of the things that they do. City Council felt that Staff has a lot of experience with codes and we have looked at many different projects and are still reviewing ones that have worked or not worked around the country in terms of form-based code, or the way the development can work based on the types of land uses that go in and the structure types, etc. that are permitted in Town Center Zoning. Some of the primary things that we are looking at are density caps, clarifying mixed use building types, and defining minimum building standards. By implementing density caps and having city control on projects then maybe we can removed the SUP requirement on some of those land uses. It is the intent in Traditional Neighborhood Development codes and our TOD code to have everything already in the code so you don't have to get extra zoning, you build it like the guidelines state. To recap, this is the first meeting we want to have with Planning and Zoning Commission and come back on June 17, 2010 with discussion items from tonight to refine and amend the Town Center Zoning. We are having an issue right now with formatting because we have the Muni-code and the old Town Center Ordinance but it is not in an electronic document or soft copy to integrate with the new ordinance. We want consistency throughout when we are merging these different documents together so it can be understood. In addition there will be some stakeholder meeting with the citizens of Hometown sometime in late June. Then we will come back with a refined and complete amendment to the Town Center Zoning ordinance on July 1, 2010 for the Public Hearings and for your recommendations to City Council. Staff will also be discussing these items with the two developers as well because they are stakeholders and are interested in knowing what regulatory controls the City will integrate into this. Mr. Wilhite said there will be an Architectural Review Committee comprised of the three key property owners in Town Center (the City of NRH, Arcadia and Realty Capital). Meaning that, once a development comes in, the City has a seat at the table to see and talk with the development plan at to whether it means the ordinances and architectural guidelines and quality that is expected. There has been a lot of discussion about what we could do to improve the quality and sustainability of what is actually built and not just height, layout, street types, etc. Once the updates and amendments are made to the Town Center Zoning and see the new layouts and plans that the developers want to do, we will most likely change the Regulating Plan, which regulates zoning and what type of uses go in each area. This would be consistent with what the City believed to be the original concept of having single family on the west side and having the mixed use and commercial as well creating a "town center." Page 2 of 5 06-03-10 P & Z Minutes There is a general outline of the proposed changes to Town Center zoning district: • Proposed adoption of the comprehensive architectural design standards for multifamily and mixed use buildings (architectural elements and features, windows and transparency, building materials) • Creating density caps and revised building heights for all sub-zones • Clarifying required open space and civic areas. This is up to the developer now and should be added to the regulatory control as this is integral to the overall development Bill Schopper said he is concerned about the possibility of replatting and then selling of individual buildings out of these projects to compete against each other and steal tenants from each other similarly to what happened in the Woodhaven development. That's my big concern is the further subdividing. Eric Wilhite said that the original conceiver of the project is not leaving anytime soon and there will always be covenants and deed restrictions that will prevent that type of scenario from occurring here. The townhome area that is planned will be individual lots which should create higher quality. The concept plans have gotten better that we've seen. In this type of development, the building relation to the street and the public space is so integral that if someone sold a building it would still be on the same tract. As long as our quality is on the ground built to a high standard they are going to have to charge a certain amount of rent in order to afford it. The market is going to control that. • Requiring ground floor commercial for all buildings in the neighborhood core with allowances for temporary flexible residential units. They will have to build the first floor to commercial standards. They want the flexibility to put residential in there. Bill Schopper and Mark Haynes expressed concerns that residential will never go back to commercial in terms of flex space. Eric Wilhite said that is not necessarily so if it is written into the ordinance that they have to make it go to commercial by a certain time or once the market comes around. Mark Haynes asked what will trigger that change back? Eric Wilhite said we are working on that. They make a lot more money off of commercial. • Encouraging a pedestrian friendly environment (requiring bike racks, shades areas, pedestrian access to civic and public spaces) • Requirements for quality building amenities (elevators, enclosed stairways and corridors, alarm and sprinkler systems, HVAC on rooftops, energy code regulations) • Creating a table of permitted building types for each sub zone Page 3 of 5 06-03-10 P & Z Minutes • Removing the SUP requirement for multifamily buildings and allowing the Development Review Committee to approve final design plans based on updated regulations. Mark Haynes asked how much more, in terms of cost, would it be to the developers for improved requirements and quality building amenities? Eric Wilhite said he had no idea. There was a general discussion about how the higher we make the bar, the longer it will take to achieve development. Mark Haynes asked for verification on why the SUP requirement was being removed. Eric Wilhite explained that the design plans and regulations would be clarified more in the code so you don't have to look at it from the SUP perspective of what its impact is, it would be established and regulated. Dianna Madar asked if this would be one code document with individual subsections or will it be multiple documents? Eric Wilhite said it would all be included in Chapter 118 in the Town Center Zoning District, which right now is in two separate documents. It will be similar to the Smithfield TOD format. There was a general discussion about how the cost of construction has gone up due to governmental regulations and how just because the market is there for multifamily right now, doesn't mean that the concept of the mixed use urban core will stay. Bill Schopper stated concerns with building retail spaces and having them remain empty until the market comes around, rather do not build at this time. Eric Wilhite said hopefully the developers will use common sense and once the master plan is done they will build in phases reacting to the market. Don Bowen is concerned about how flexible residential units that are and if you get multi family in there, it is very difficult to get it removed if not worked properly in the code. Bill Schopper asked if the area was part of the TIF and how it's funded with this project, in addition there are commercial properties and retailers on Mid Cities helping this. Mark Haynes asked what the urgency was for this. Eric Wilhite said the developers want to develop. Realty Capital was been wanting to develop for two years now. In addition there are other elements as well, the ordinance needs to be updated and this is a good time to do it. Arcadia wants to do Phase IV of their project too and it is being reviewed at this time. Bill Schopper asked how high the project can go Page 4 of 5 06-03-10 P & Z Minutes Eric Wilhite said it allowed now to go to 6 stories, but we are restricting it down to 4 stories with a strong transition from the Neighborhood Core to Neighborhood Center to the Neighborhood General, from Boulevard 26 to the lakes there will be a steep transition in height. Bill Schopper asked who else uses a density cap. Eric Wilhite said our TOD, Flower Mound projects, Allen projects and others. 4. ADJOURNMENT There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m. Chairman ~G~ Randy Shiflet Secretary n owen Page 5 of 5 06-03-10 P & Z Minutes