Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Planning and Development Services

 

TO:

Tom Markus, City Manager

 

FROM:

Planning Staff

 

Date:

March 24, 2016

 

RE:

FDP-15-00642 - HERE Mixed Use Project

 

 

 

City Manager Markus has requested that Staff provide confirmation of the understanding of the City Commission’s direction of March 22, 2016 pertaining to the HERE mixed use project.  The following reflects Staff’s understanding of the Commission’s expectations of how the project should be revised to garner the Commission’s further consideration of the request to alter the parking number and type to accommodate the project.

 

1.    Access to and from the second level of parking on 11th Street is to be removed from the design.  The applicant will pursue other design options to move vehicles vertically between floors of the garage, including the use of an elevator interior to the garage.

2.    The traffic circulation into and out of the garage should be reviewed to have the least and safest impact on Mississippi Street in the course of operating the valet service. Reversing the planned circulation of the staging area should be reviewed to accomplish this purpose. 

3.    The appropriate number of on-street, metered spaces will be dedicated to the entirety of the planned commercial space of the project, thus making the commercial space eligible for occupancy at the time of the project’s opening for residential use and maintaining the project as a mixed use development from the commencement of its use.

4.    Until and unless additional parking is provided off site, the level of occupancy afforded the residential units will be calculated based upon fully accommodating the commercial space and upon the final design of the two levels of parking garage after revising the design to implement internal vertical circulation (the number of garage spaces is undetermined at this point).

5.    Staff shall provide its assessment on the level of parking enforcement service the city can provide to the project given current staffing levels.

 

 

The City Attorney’s Office recommends leaving the existing Development and License Agreement, proposed Cost Sharing Agreement, and the NRA Performance Agreement as they are and entering into a separate agreement with HERE, to clarify the thresholds for eligibility with the existing NRA Performance Agreement and add requirements that will address other issues including:

 

1.    A provision requiring HERE to staff valet parking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The agreement will require HERE to deposit money in escrow with a liquidated damages provision in the event that the valet parking terminates and HERE does not replace the operator within 72 hours.

2.    An acknowledgement that the proposed valet parking and future approved parking complies with the existing NRA agreement that references robotic parking. 

3.    Substantial completion of construction, for the purposes of the NRA rebates, shall be interpreted to mean that 100% of the parking to accommodate full use of the building would be provided.  If HERE is not compliant with this provision by December 1, 2016, the first year of NRA eligibility will be lost.  A similar annual timeline will determine eligibility for future years.

4.    Assuming that it is feasible to access the second floor of the valet parking garage through the interior of the HERE mixed use development, a provision prohibiting vehicular access to the building from 11th Street.

5.    A provision setting forth the pattern of ingress and egress from Mississippi Street to the valet parking garage.

6.    A provision to the effect that all parking on Mississippi Street and Indiana Street needed to accommodate the planned commercial use will be allocated solely to commercial uses within HERE’s mixed use development and that all commercial space within the building will be available and eligible for occupancy at the time any Certificate of Occupancy is issued. HERE shall agree to endeavor to fill as much of the commercial space as possible.

7.    A provision stating that HERE shall develop and implement a plan to provide the full amount of parking required to bring HERE’s mixed use development to full residential and commercial occupancy.

8.    A provision stating that HERE shall not be eligible for rebate under the NRA Agreement until all of those conditions are met and continue to be met.

 

If the Commission concurs with Staff’s interpretation of the Commission’s direction of March 22, 2016, Staff will work with the applicant to submit the necessary revisions to the plan and the Supplemental Performance Agreement in a timely fashion.

 

Action Requested

Direct Staff as appropriate.