PLANNING COMMISSION  MEETING

June 26 & 28, 2006

Meeting Minutes - DRAFT

 

PC Minutes 6/26/06  DRAFT

ITEM NO. 2A :          USE PERMITTED UPON REVIEW FOR EXPANSION AT LAWRENCE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL; 325 MAINE STREET (LAP)

 

UPR-04-04-06:  Use Permitted upon Review request for the expansion of Lawrence Memorial Hospital, located at 325 Maine Street.  Submitted by Landplan Engineering, PA, for the City of Lawrence, property owner of record. This item was deferred from the May Planning Commission meeting.

 

PC Minutes 6/26/06  DRAFT

ITEM NO. 2B :          FINAL PLAT FOR LAWRENCE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ADDITION; 325 MAINE STREET (LAP)

 

PF-05-13-06: Final Plat for Lawrence Memorial Hospital Addition. The property includes approximately 23.860 acres and is generally described as being located North of W. 4th Street between Arkansas and Maine Streets, along the West side of Arkansas Street, South of W. 3rd Street, and along the North side of W. 4th Street between Michigan and Arkansas Streets. Submitted by Landplan Engineering, PA, for the City of Lawrence, property owner of record.

 

Items 2A & 2B were discussed simultaneously

 

STAFF PRESENTATION

Ms. Pool introduced the items, a UPR and a Final Plat for expansion and modification of Lawrence Memorial Hospital facilities and parking areas. She noted that the entire hospital property would be zoned H (Hospital) when the City’s new Development Code goes into effect on July 1, 2006, and described surrounding zoning and uses.

 

In Staff’s opinion, further evaluation of several Master Plan elements was needed and, therefore, deferral of the UPR was recommended.  Specific elements Staff would like to review further included:

  • Vehicular circulation in the parking areas;
  • Pedestrian activity through parking area;
  • Anticipated volume of vehicles in the parking areas;
  • Possible improvements to 2nd & 3rd Streets;
  • Possible traffic signals at 4th/Maine and 4th/Michigan;
  • Potential rerouting of public transit service and relocation of transit stops;
  • The project’s impact, if any, on a recently completed nearby drainage project;
  • Loss of greenspace; and
  • The new curb cut off Maine Street.

 

Staff supported the proposed vacation of right-of-way within the 300 block of Arkansas Street and recommended approval of the Final Plat as presented, but asked for additional time with the UPR to study the impact of closing the 300 block of Arkansas Street and interrupting the existing grid street pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPLICANT PRESENTATION

C.L. Mauer, Landplan Engineering, spoke on behalf of the applicant.  He said the applicant had recently met with the Transit Advisory Board.  The Board expressed no opposition to the proposal and indicated that changing the transit route to go through the hospital property would improve transit service in the area.  The applicant was not able to get these comments in writing in time for this meeting.

 

Regarding drainage issues, the applicant was unclear as to what additional information Staff wanted.  Mr. Mauer explained how existing drainage problems would be improved with this proposal.

 

Other points were made:

  • Closing Arkansas Street provides an additional 125 off-street parking spaces for the hospital in an area where on-street parking is challenged.
  • Circulation in the parking areas is addressed by designing access between Maine and Michigan Streets according to the proposed new Access Management policies.
  • A right-out only access was provided from the parking area onto 4th Street per Staff request.

 

Mr. Mauer said the applicant knew that additional work with Staff will be needed, but would like to continue moving forward in the process.  He responded to questioning that deferral of both the UPR and Final Plat could potentially keep the applicant from pulling a building permit in August as needed to complete the proposal before the construction season ended.  It was clarified that the next project phase included internal building renovations.  Mr. Mauer explained that parking changes would need to happen concurrently with the internal changes to consistently provide usable parking areas.

 

Haase pointed out that the “improved” bus routes could be accomplished even without this proposal and asked why the transit service did not make these changes before.  Mr. Mauer was not able to address this specific question, but said the Transit Advisory Board had not recognized this potential for improved services until they looked at this proposal.

 

It was discussed that the hospital grounds are owned by the City of Lawrence, but that the facilities and private drives are maintained by the hospital.

 

Harris asked if the applicant had considered keeping Arkansas Street open as a private road with access.  Mauer said this would result in a private road with parallel on-street parking instead of dedicated parking areas on hospital property.  Staff responded to questioning that this was one of several elements that they had not had enough time to review; they would like to study several design options before making a formal recommendation. 

 

Ms. Stogsdill provided clarification on why Staff was willing to recommend approval of a Final Plat that vacated right-of-way when the street design was in question.  She said vacating the right-of-way changed setback requirements, giving the applicant flexibility to manipulate parking arrangements.  She added that this r-o-w vacation did not give the hospital board full control of the parking lot design– the City maintained the authority to review site plans for all expansions or modifications of the site.  Staff recommendation for deferral of the UPR was based on the evolving Hospital Master Plan – the plan had simply not been stable long enough for proper review by staff and ample time had not been provided for input from the neighborhood.

 

Ms. Stogsdill responded to questioning that Staff could attempt to complete the necessary review in time for the July meeting, but a deferral to August might be more realistic.

 

 

 

PUBLIC HEARING – on UPR only

Kelly Driscoll, area resident, said she was happy to see growth in the area, but noted that residents were overpowered by hospital property in this part of the Pinckney Neighborhood.  Ms. Driscoll said not many people were going to be as directly impacted as she would be by this project, and they had not been given adequate notice (time) to respond to the latest version of the plan.

 

Ms. Driscoll referenced previous comments that but stops were not located on private property, saying there was a bus stop sign directly in front of her house.  She also asked about the possibility of a stop light at 4th & Maine Streets, saying this was completely unnecessary.  She asked if the placement of this stop light would remove mature trees from her yard, which provided her only visual barrier to the hospital.

 

Mehrdad Givechi, traffic engineer for the project, clarified that no new traffic signals were proposed as part of this project.  The Level of Service at these intersections would be improved using other measures (Ex. left-turn lanes).  If traffic volumes required additional measures, a 4-way stop would be considered.  The newest addendum to the application included these elements (this addendum was provided after the Staff Report and Commissioner packets were complete).

 

Burress asked Mr. Givechi to discuss with Ms. Driscoll how the traffic changes would impact her property.

 

Gwen Klingenberg spoke on behalf of the Pinckney Neighborhood Association, agreeing with previous speakers that the plan had changed significantly since the neighborhood had seen it last and that more review time was needed. 

 

APPLICANT CLOSING COMMENTS

Mr. Mauer responded to the previous speaker’s concerns, saying the applicant was willing to work with the City to improve 3rd Street to City standards once the extent of improvements was established.

 

STAFF CLOSING COMMENTS

Staff had no additional comments.

 

COMMISSION DISCUSSION

Burress asked what steps could be taken to improve neighborhood notice.  Staff said the most important step in that process was to provide adequate review time with a static plan.  In this case, changes were happening too frequently to keep the neighborhood up-to-date on each revision.  This was the basis for Staffs’ recommendation for deferral.  Jennings commented that deferral might be the appropriate action, but that delays were paid for in this case out of community tax dollars, not from the pocket of a private developer.

 

Ms. Stogsdill responded to questioning that a one-month deferral would be challenging for Staff, but they would do their best to complete the necessary review on that schedule, provided the applicant could supply the needed information.

 

It was discussed that approving the Final Plat gave the applicant and Staff a footprint to work with.  Burress said he was uncomfortable vacating right-of-way without seeing a development plan.  He was hesitant to change the existing grid street pattern without seeing how the new street design would work.

 

Burress spoke about the value of the grid street pattern as a highly-adaptable system, providing many alternative routes for traffic.  Jennings noted that Arkansas Street would never be a true through-street, and leaving it open provided only an additional three blocks of uninterrupted street.  Burress said it would not significantly hurt the project to defer the plat for one month to see the pieces together.

 

Item 2A

Motioned by Eichhorn, seconded by Harris to defer Item 2A to the July 2006 meeting.

 

Motion carried unanimously, 9-0

 

Item 2B

Motioned by Eichhorn, seconded by Finkeldei to approve the Final Plat for Lawrence Memorial Hospital Addition and forward it to the City Commission with a recommendation for approval, subject to the following conditions:

 

1.      Provision of the following fees and documentation:

a.      A current copy of a paid property tax receipt.

b.      Recording fees made payable to the Douglas County Register of Deeds.

c.      A completed Master Street Tree Plan in accordance with Section 21-708a.3.

d.      A Temporary Utility Agreement.

2.      Pinning of both lots in accordance with Section 21-302.2 of the Subdivision Regulations.

3.      Revision of the plat to include the following:

a.      Notation of vacation of Arkansas Street right-of-way from 3rd to 4th Streets.

b.      Notation of which easements are existing and proposed.

c.      Additional utility easements to accommodate the sanitary sewer and water mains as shown on the City’s Geographic Information Systems map.

d.      Notation of the 80-foot utility easement within the vacated Missouri Street right-of-way.

e.      Additional drainage easements to accommodate the stormwater mains as shown on the City’s Geographic Information Systems map.

f.       Notation of the off-site drainage easements along the northern and eastern sides of Woody Park.

g.      Notation of the Floodplain Overlay District which touches Woody Park.

h.      Notation of the long-term lease with Douglas County for the emergency vehicle storage facility at the northeast portion of the hospital site.    

 

Motion carried 5-4, with Eichhorn, Finkeldei, Haase, Jennings, Lawson and voting in favor.  Burress, Erickson, Harris and Krebs voted in opposition.