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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/30/2005 Study Session Minutes MINUTES OF MARANA JOINT STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN COUNCIL and PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX AUGUST 30, 2005 PLACE AND DATE Marana Municipal Complex, August 30, 2005 A. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Called to order by Mayor Honea at 7:00 p.m. COUNCIL Ed Honea Herb Kai Bob Allen Jim Blake Patti Comerford Tim Escobedo Carol McGorray Mayor Vice Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Present Present Present Present Present Present Present COMMISSIONERS Russell Clanagan John Dailey Tom Hestwood Jack Noble Jon Post Billy Schisler Dave W ostenberg Vice Chair Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Excused Present Present Present Present Present Present STAFF Mike Reuwsaat Gilbert Davidson Jim DeGrood Jim Mazzocco Jane Fairall Jocelyn Bronson Town Manager Assistant Town Manager Assistant Town Manager Asst. to the Town Manager Town Prosecutor Town Clerk Present Present Present Present Present Present Mike Reuwsaat, Town Manager, introduced Regina Fleming, the new Human Resources Director. B. PRESENTATIONS 1. Presentation: Town Center Plan, Northwest Transportation Plan and Northwest Area Land Use Plan (Jim Mazzocco) Jim Mazzocco addressed the Council and Commission and gave a background to the Town Center Plan, noting that the Council and staff had visited developments in the Phoenix area with strong Town Center elements, and had directed staff to pursue a Town Center plan. 1 MINUTES OF MARANA JOINT STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN COUNCIL and PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX AUGUST 30, 2005 The planning process involved an amendment to the Rancho Marana Specific Plan, as well as the land use plan and the circulation plan, which would revise the 2000 Northwest Area Plan and the 2003 General Plan. Staff is working with Swaback Partners, LLC to develop the site plan for the Town Center, as well as the land use and circulation for the northwest area. Mr. Mazzocco hoped that the presentation at the meeting would begin the public review of the three planning documents. Mr. Mazzocco then said that staff had scheduled a series of public meetings to gather public input on the draft plans. September 8,2005, there is a meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the Conference Center at Town Hall; September 14, 2005, there is a meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the Heritage Room at Heritage Highlands; September 15,2005, there is a meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the Fiesta Room at the Sunflower Village Center at Continental Ranch; finally, there is a meeting on September 29,2005 at 7:00 p.m. at the Conference Center at Town Hall. There will be an ad in the Northwest Explorer on Thursday with the dates; the last date will be published as September 16,2005. Staffwill issue a correction for this. Mr. Mazzocco further said that the goal is to have a public hearing in mid-November to review the amendment to the Rancho Marana Specific Plan, including a Town Center district. He also hoped to have an interim rezoning policy in mid-November that will include a land use and circulation plan maps that will in evaluating any rezoning activity in the northwest area. In January 2006, staff hopes to initiate a major plan amendment in accordance with the Arizona Revised Statutes. The amendment will include a land use plan map, a circulation plan map and accompanying area plan policy revisions. The revised Northwest Area Plan and General Plan Amendment will be in front of the Council by May or June of 2006. The plans will be posted on the website for public viewing. Jeff Denzak, Swaback Partners LLC, addressed the Council and noted that this was a work in progress, and that the hope for the meeting was to begin the process of receiving public input. He gave a PowerPoint presentation to the Council, and showed a picture of the vision for the Town Center. Mr. Denzak spoke first on design standards, to control the quality of residential product in the community. He spoke briefly on the sense of production versus creating unique environments. He gave an overview of the goals for the Town Center. The strategy is to create a development that can complement the Municipal Complex and create a dynamic Town Center for the whole Town. He pointed out that the Northwest Area Plan currently speaks to creating a civic Town Center; as discussed, Council wants to create a vibrant mixed-use Town Center. A critical item about the plan's establishment is the proposed uses. There is not a lot of square footage in the area. They are looking at multi-story office buildings; most of these will be located closest to the Municipal Complex. It is important to include residential components to ensure that it will be mixed use. He listed some special uses, including a hotel, restaurants, a cafe and a small information center. He presented a scenario in which the land is divided into four different parcels. Each parcel is divided into commercial office, housing, specialty use and associated parking. He pointed out that the area will be critically analyzed for parking zoning and will look at 3.5 spaces per thousand square feet. He pointed out that most parking lots in Marana have too many spots. Two-storey buildings will be restricted; they are looking at having the hotel be four-storey. The ground floor level will be a more critical height; floor to floor will be ten to eleven feet; after the first storey the amount could be reduced. No building would be taller than the Municipal Complex. 2 MINUTES OF MARANA JOINT STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN COUNCIL and PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX AUGUST 30, 2005 Mr. Denzak spoke on brand identity in Marana. Key elements will include landscape treatment, the streetscape, pedestrian pathways and the building facades and architecture. The architecture will be similar to a Spanish Renaissance Revival. The style has simplicity but could be a wonderful influence and balance to what will be built over time. The plan suggests a main street corridor. They do not want to create a scenario where there will be a single building mass; they want to propose buildings that have character of the different stores and tenants. It could still be one building, but if the design is done correctly, it will be several different storefronts. He also spoke on covered walkways and shade, which will be important in creating a pedestrian friendly environment. The retail organization will be multi-sided shopping; there will also be a focus on alley-ways and street comers to be more pedestrian-friendly. Alley-ways will provide additional retail and commercial store frontage. He emphasized that they do not want to create the typical strip-mall sameness; they want to create an environment which articulates an architectural style that will be special to the Town Center. This includes spending a lot of time looking at appropriate materials relative to the architectural style. The Urban Land Institute (ULn, founded in 1920, is the leading organization to work with municipalities. ULI puts out a statement each year of key elements that Towns can do to promote the creation of special Town Centers. The list included: think big, emphasize neighborhood scale, power a champion for the project, and take control of planning. He pointed out that the Town has met many of the items on the list, and that with the public meetings the Town will meet the media/publicity requirement. He spoke again on streetscapes, and the emphasis on keeping people comfortable outside. He suggested special events in a Civic Plaza. He suggested a 'Founders Green' near the Municipal Complex, a civic place for special events, and pointed out several possible areas for the plaza. Mr. Denzak presented more slides showing different images of what he had spoken on, and then moved on to speak on the Northwest Area Plan. He said there were four key elements in the plan as a baseline: preserving a sense of community, promoting an agrarian heritage, developing a civic Town Center, and establishing a sense of openness. He said that these elements were being met. He then pointed out that the Northwest Area could accommodate a population of about 200,000. The current Northwest Area Plan does not match the story it tells. The Town needs to think about growth and tie the land plan back to meet those objectives and policies. The strategy is: to accommodate a range of residential uses from low-density to high-density, open space, the organization of different levels of commercial use, school sites and institutional and civic uses, the airport as a key component, and finally a couple of areas that will be zoned in the future based on the airport uses. If they started to project the uses of the General Plan today, it could allow for units of 40,000 to 90,000 units of housing within the northwest area. That would allow about 250,000 residents; if they took the current Northwest Area Plan and did the same analysis, they could be at 35,000 to 75,000, with a population close to 200,000. From a land use planning standpoint, when looking at residential units, they were looking at ranges of density. They were not varying from the current Northwest Area Plan; they were looking at establishing better control of it. 3 MINUTES OF MARANA JOINT STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN COUNCIL and PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX AUGUST 30, 2005 Mr. Denzak said that the most important element of the plan is open space. Open space could be used for preservation, aesthetical and recreational value, as well as technical standpoints such as drainage. They wanted to create the open space framework to serve the Town as well as assist with development. They would have to articulate the importance of open space and protecting the agrarian heritage to the public. He stressed the importance of protecting the agrarian heritage, and said the past could be celebrated in civic centers, as well as in the Marana brand. He spoke on preserving and creating a sense of community. An important aspect will be the integration of appropriate levels and uses of commercial development. There will be different levels of commercial development: neighborhood-oriented commercial services for convenience, the neighborhood core, and the regional mixed-use component near the Marana interchange. The idea is to create a series of hierarchies of commercial development that can serve the neighborhoods, so the different commercial uses can complement each other over time. He stressed that they will work hard on making sure the public will understand the range of uses. He stressed that the plan is very specific in terms of strategic locations for future institutional and civic uses, such as schools, public works, libraries, and community centers. An important aspect is to make sure to create a plan that incorporates an employment center and an employment base. The plan represents an appropriate strategy to incorporate the industrial and office space. The totals match up very close with what currently exists. He again stressed the importance of the airport in future growth and development. He stressed the importance of thinking about rights-of-way now for future growth in terms of circulation. Roads don't have to be built out now, as long as the appropriate rights-of-way are developed. There will actually be two rights-of-way developed for each roadway, and he stressed that they could be used for walkers, joggers and bicyclists, as well as for drainage. Everything done so far had been design; the next step was to create policy and design standards, including a design manual. They are currently working on a rezoning document for the Town Center; currently there was no zoning in place. The next step is to go public. Mayor Honea said that the Town is working very hard to improve northern Marana and build a community to be proud of on the North end. He reiterated the dates, times and locations of the public meetings, as given by Mr. Mazzocco. Mr. Reuwsaat addressed the Council and said that this project had been started September 19, 2004. One of the directions given staff was to go above and beyond. Mr. Reuwsaat felt that because of the vision, sense of urgency and interest of the development community, the project was moving along smoothly. He pointed out that the media exposure had been positive. He thanked staff, the Planning Commission, and Mr. Denzak for their work on the project. C. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Honea declared the meeting adjourned at 7:57 p.m. 4 MINUTES OF MARANA JOINT STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN COUNCIL and PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX AUGUST 30, 2005 CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council joint study session held on August 30,2005. I further certify that a quorum was present. ~\\"'''''''l ~,~\. OF ~~ ~~~\\'''''''''1iA ~ ::12~cop.PORATf' ~ = ~.~ ceo = ~ SEALI S ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ""\~ ~ ~11~~,l~\\~ 5