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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/15/2015 Study Session Minutes9t MARANA 7 STUDY SESSION MINUTES 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, September 15, 2015, at or after 6:00 PM Ed Honea, Mayor Jon Post, Vice Mayor David Bowen, Council Member Patti Comerford, Council Member Herb Kai, Council Member Carol McGorray, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member STUDY SESSION CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. Town Clerk Bronson called roll. Council Member Ziegler was excused. There was a quorum present. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE /INVOCATION /MOMENT OF SILENCE. Postponed until the regular meeting. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve ley Council Meuiher Bojveu, second by Vice Mayor Post. Passed unanimously 6.0. CALL TO THE PUBLIC. No speaker cards were presented. DISCUSSIONIDIRECTIONIPOSSIBLE ACTION DI Relating to Development; presenting and discussing a three-dimensional virtual flyover of future Marana Main Street for possible use as a tool to facilitate downtown Marana development. Presented by Ryan Mahoney, noted that the video is a compilation of three different specific plans. The scoping went from Sandario Road, through Marana Main Street and what is currently the cotton field still in production, Barrios de Marana, then across Grier Road to Rancho Marana west Towne Center. These are all specific plans. Also used was information and exhibits from Swaback & Associates with some interesting imagery. The architect used a lot of the entitlem.cnts, words on the page and two - dimensional images and translated all of that into the 3-D rendering. Ryan anticipates that this is really the start of a conversation for Marana Main Street. when the architect came up with some of the renderings, we ultimately had to choose September 15, 2015 Study Session Minutes color on the buildings, a palette of landscaping, pedestrian amenities and some park areas. These aren' necessarily going to be in those exact locations Ryan did get some reactions and a lot of positive feedback from staff and the department heads when he showed the video. It's about generating a conversation. The first image starts at the entrance which is just south of the new McDonald's, and goes southeast then basically turns ar ound and comes back. After the video, Council comments were varied. Council Member Bowen said it was a very nice presentation and would get people thinking H under stands that how things will look specifically isn't ironed out yet, but he likes that it shows a stylish main street and that we're not just interested in having stores and shops, restaurants and eventually night life; a place where people can walk around comfortably. He doesn't want it to look like a strip mall, and this was brought out clearly in the video. There is a long way to go, but no one is walking in with money at this time. However, his sense is that if someone sees this video they would know not to bring their cheapest ideas to Marana. Council Member Kai asked if the design guidelines from Swaback were cast in stone. He doesn't want businesses trying to locate here who expect to see a Scottsdale, and he doesn't want the town to price itself out of a market. � �e would like to be flexible and stay close to the 3D rendering. Council Member McGorray thought the first half of the video was good, but it seemed to go on and on. This appears to be a long -range plan, and she asked if we shouldn't be more immediate in what we want from the video to show -- say in the next 10 years. She would also like to see the design to be more specific to Marana. The video appears to reflect a look more in keeping with 1:�os Angeles or Phoenix. Council Member Comerford had some difficulty identifying landmarks in the video, and she has concern about architectural content in that once a design is out on the street, people will think it the final d e sign. She would like more discussion about architectural design and m o re Council input; this isn't what she envisioned. She just wants to be cautious about what we put out to future developers so that we maintain our vision. Vice Mayor Post thought the conceptual plan was ver good, and it's a great start. l �e understands that it may or may not look like the video in the future. one thing he especially wants, especially if there is going to be a commercial aspect is to move our planning outward so that people will not only come to this area, but they will know how to get there and how to move around and connect easily. If we do that in advance of the building, he believes it will greatly enhance someone wanting to come in. As the video began, he envisioned an outlet mall on a smaller scale than what is at Twin Peaks, but that won't happen if we don't have everything people are looking for. Mayor Honea thought the video started strong, and you could see clear architectural form. Further along, he felt it got away from that with less specificity on roads. He said originally all the plans for Main Str eet had walkable streets where they easily crisscrossed to shops on either side. Some of the video seemed more like a freeway, especially at night, and more suited to vehicle t He understands the idea that we're looking at a bigger picture. f- le also expressed concerns about the palm trees as did other Council Members. Mr. Mahoney responded to these comments and concer an noted that the arc hite ct tool{ some stylistic license. Some of the parking arrangements along Main Street may be modified, but it's a good place to start a discussion and give folks an idea of what we think Main Street could be. So in that way it's a pretty effective tool. l lis understanding of what Swaback had done didn't actually have anything binding to it it's the specific plans that will govern what is to be done in those areas, and he doesn't believe the architect is overreaching with the requirements. Mr. September 15, 2015 Study Session Minutes Mahoney said that while this is the finished product there is opportunity to make changes over time with more detail. He noted that the total distance covered is about a mile. You can repeat some of the -form that you saw at the beginning to make the whole seem less homogenous. If we're going to be cost - sensitive we can have those discussions with the architect without having to reinvent the wheel. There is a lot of repetition with the plant type which could be very expensive. It's important to think of this as a vision that could be 20 -30 -40 years to build out unless we were able to attract an interested developer who finds the market to be advantageous. If you show what can be built in the next 10 or 20 years, there will probably be a lot of vacant space. One of the reasons there is more specificity at the beginning of the video along Marana Main Street is because we are seeing some activity in there. The Barrios de Marana piece doesn't have action right now. In the area where Town fall is, there may be ways to incentivize development because the town owns the land. The video takes what the specific plans say you can do and translates that into a three dimensional product. with regard to the palm trees or desert landscaping, those are all things that will organically take shape as we develop through there. what we're seeing now on Main Street and with some of the development occurring toward Marana Main Street is a desert landscape palette. As we move down the road and start on the land development code, architectural controls can be put in. Some may be voluntary, but they could be incentivized. There is a good deal of leeway to develop those parcels with a variety of architecture. But at the moment we don't have that much control. It's a matter of developing tools that would allow us to exert more control if we want to and how we work with the development community to be able to do that. Mr. Davidson interjected that most Marana residents don't know where downtown Marana is. He often hears long -time residents from north Marana say "I'm going to go into town." This is the opportunity that we have to create a sense of place so that we know what they mean when they say they're `going into town" such as Ina or Cortaro. This would be the heart where someone from Dove Mountain or Continental Ranch would say, "I'm not going to Tucson. I'm going up to Main Street for shopping." So he thinks the power of this video, apart from the detail, is to plant a seed that Marana is serious about creating a heart and a sense of place that will begin to identify that we have a true downtown, a main street concept. There is a lot of work to do on the image and aesthetics. But the other power to this is that it really begins to get people excited that Marana is going to be its own self - contained community. D2 Relating to Development; discussion and overview of proposed Land Development Code comprehensive revision process and goals. R Mahoney presented this item as the kick-off of a big project for the town and the Planning Department, This document essential governs everything that is done in the Planning department and translates to what they see every day in the built environment. we know that we want to build an incredible community. That is obvious in the Strategic Plan and the general Plan and things like recreation, schools, connectivit and community are all terms that are strung through these documents. One of the things we need to do to build that is that we give developers and builders the tools to come to Marana, get through a process in a realistic time frame and have a menu of choices for different development types that is cost - effective and that is currently not in the code; specifically our zoning districts that don't offer a great incentive for wanting to build a certain way by adding some amenity to a subdivision that would not otherwise be there. That is a section of this effort that we are really going to need to look at. Part of the reason that we don't see a lot of our rezonings that come September 15, 2015 Study Session Minutes before Council in the form of hard zoning is because we have a lot of specific plans. The reason for the proliferation of specific plans is because there aren't a lot of great choices within our zone districts allowing for flexibility. He gave an example of the town having a 55 by 80 foot lot. We see specific plans coming forward so they can get a 50 foot lot. That doesn't make a lot of sense because the Planning Department has to administer custom codes for each subdivision throughout the town. over time it becomes harder to do that. Another aspect to work on is procedures. Right now the rezoning process for a five -acre parcel of land is the same as a 500 - acre piece of land. We believe an easier or a zoning light procedure could make some sense depending on the criteria required. There are communities that are doing this and doing it well. Off-street parking and landscaping are some of the chapters we want to delve into. There are more innovative and contemporary ways to deal with parking instead of putting big swaths of concrete or asphalt in front of the store, you can make it a lot more inviting and even reduce parking requirements :for some of the stores. Using the standards we have had for a long time, a lot of our commercial areas are over - parked. Council has budgeted for a consultant to assist with the process. our next step will be to put out a Request for Qualifications and then solicit for services based on what different vendors can provide to match up with our goals and parameters. The City of Maricopa went through a process to redo their entire zoning code. They carne up with a lot of innovative ways to address .future growth. Similar to Marana, they are growing and have a lot of land to grow into. Maricopa hired a San Francisco firm who had experience from all over the world. While we don't necessarily want to bring California or the northwest to Marana's geography, there are many consultants with a lot of experience who have seen a lot of innovations in planning. That will hopefully allow us to attract the best and the brightest to our effort. The process will also require our staff to see that what happens gets tailored to local conditions, local developers, builders, elected and appointed officials, business leaders and residents in the community. our staff will set up the stakeholder and steering committee groups that will be guiding the development of this document. We want to make sure from the beginning that we are reaching out to all of those people who have an interest in this project, and get as much feedback as we can so it truly is a reflection of what the people in Marana want to see. We have also gone through an effort in the past with Clarion & Associates who did a study on our existing code. Several issues are still relevant today. Some of the goals are to reorganize and reformat the code and make them easier to navigate for both paper and online versions; streamlining the administrative reviews and appeal procedures; reducing the reliance on the specific plans; modernizing and expanding the choices for zone districts; diversifying and protecting our residential and commercial development areas; and revising the development and design standards to improve development duality. We do have some of these in place today. Council input is critical on this because it is a very important document for our built environment. Mayor Honea commented on specific plans having the potential adverse impact on development as well as the old alphabet zones. He asked if there is a way to work some specificity into the code for those as well. Mr. Mahoney responded that Maricopa had a similar problem, and they were able to rake some changes through incentives. He has also had experience with landowner- initiated zoning in a county that was otherwise unzoned. So there was a myriad of land issues occurring and some disagreement as to what uses or rights were on those pieces of land. it's possible to reach out to those folks who have that land use on them and incentivize them and take them through the process so that within the next two years or whatever time period, you come to us and we'll take you through September 15, 2015 Study Session Minutes the process for a discounted fee and hard zone your parcel. If there is the predictability of hard zoning, it makes the property arguably more marketable and perhaps more valuable. There are ways to work through it. Vice Mayor Post he would like to have addressed that there be more private streets or some kind of a maintenance district depending on the size of a development so that there are monies available to maintain. Also, look to increasing lot splits from three to five and incentivizing for more, larger lots instead of having to go through the platting process. D3 Relating to Development; discussion of Land Development Code updates, clean -ups, and reformats to be brought forward for adoption separately from and prior to the comprehensive Land Development Code rewrite. Ryan Mahoney noted that this item is different from the comprehensive changes just discussed. These are clean -up items. He identified too that the Planning staff has discussed and why they are necessary in view of the comprehensive rewrite. The rewrite is a more protracted process so it could be up to two years before it finally gets adopted. First is handicapped or accessible parking. Right now we have a requirement in our code that mandates that a handicapped or accessible parking space is 19 feet in depth. The rest of our parking spaces are required to be 18 feet in depth. This brings up issues when we are doing site planning in that it sends ripples through the development when they have to add that foot. Either they cheat into the access lane behind the parking or they have to increase the size of all of their parking stalls that are adjacent to it. In order to not be contradictory to what the ADA requires, he looked into their requirement which is 18 feet for a parking stall. � Ie is suggesting that we don't put a number on ours but refer to the ADA standards as our standard. Should those standards change over time, we don't have to change our code. It makes it a lot more functional and easier for site planning. The second one is that we are continuing to see requests for rezonings. In the R-C zonings, which are the most common request for rezonings, he would like to change the lot width requirement to 50 feet from 55 feet. Builders still have to be at 6,000 square feet, so they still have to make the lot a little deeper, but in discussions with different builders and planning folks, this allows them to have more flexibility on a site for hard zoning. It also allows us to avoid some specific plans that might come through in the next 18 months. It allows for the builders to have a variety of housing models. � Ie researched what some of the other communities are doing and what our specific plans are showing. And where we have these 6,000 square foot lots, they are allowing for a little narrower lot. Mayor Honea raised some questions on the narrowing of the lot size. Mr. Mahoney reiterated that the building codes still must be adhered to with the same setback requirements which is three feet now but you might have to fire -rate that wall. So many of our specific plans have been approved with that narrower lot as well, so we have that condition existing now. while it could make a difference, he's not convinced that it could change the character of the neighborhood significantly. Council Member Bowen asked for clarification on why go to a narrower lot. Mr. Mahoney replied that he is seeing more and more requests for that slightly narrower lot. when we tell them our preference is to hard zone the property because they are asking only for a residential plan, it doesn't make sense to keep processing the specific plans for what seems to be an accommodation of a five-foot narrower lot. F rom the building community's standpoint, it does gi them more flexibility wi th the models and increases the numb of models. Currently, you can't repeat a model but for every five homes. we often get to the end of a subdivision, and the models that they have approved — they can't meet that requirement. So then they have to do some architectural changes. So this would help to alleviate a little bit of that. Ryan restated that this is a temporary fix. when we get into the Land Development Code rewrite, we'll think a little September 15, 2015 Study Session Minutes more broadl but a lot of the specific plan versus hard zonin discussion comes down to a simple fact of that five feet of lot. Mr. Cassid interjected that the last piece is about the clean-up items. Staff has talked internall and know that thin that don't make sense an need to be cleaned up before we hand the project off to a consultant. That is the reason for his six-pa memorandum showin deletions from mostl the administrative provisions to make it more consistent with how we currentl do business. A g ood example is that ever time someone wants to do a development a we have the discussion of doin it the wa we've historicall done it, which is g oin g strai to Council or the wa it sa in the Land Development Code where y ou g o to the Commission, and the don't know what to do with the development a Historicall the development section was written into the Land Development Code as if a person was g oin g to g et entitlements throu that process, and we never do entitlements throu a development a We alwa do entitlements throu the rezonin process. And that's just one example. So the point of this is to authorize us to g o ahead and so the cleanup of items that should have been deleted before the consultant asks us about them. The chan will look voluminous to y ou when we come back to Council, but it is the least interestin part of the rewrite. Ma Honea asked if all the su deletions or chan will be available to Council. Mr. Cassid responded that the would be. That would appl to both the clean-up and the rewrite. Mr. Mahone said these chan will be brou to Council in the near future absent an consultant work. Ma Honea su that the chan don't have to be brou to a Council meetin The can be emailed to Council. for review. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03, the Town Council ma vote to g o into executive session, which will not be open to the public, to discuss certain matters. El Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03 (A)(3), Council ma ask for discussion or consultation for le advice with the Town Attorne concernin an matter listed on this a FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMEN't'. Motion to adjourn at 7:11 p. m. b Council Memher Bowen, second b Council Memher McGorra Passed unanimousl 6-0. Y. I hereb certif that the fore are the true and correct minutes of the stud session/presentation of the Marana Town Council meetin held on September 15, 2015. 1 further certif that a q uorum was present. N 0 cel C ronson,/Fown Clerk __� MARANA �� o'er September 15, 2015 Stud Session Minutes 6 N J: 71? ��