Country Club Historic Neighborhood

Columbine St. Project Presentation Notes Feb 16th

Columbine Street Project Presentation

February 16, 2012 – JW Marriott

Last night there was a crowd of approximately 150 composed of Cherry Creek North, Country Club, and Cherry Creek East residents, City Council members, business leaders, news media representatives, and Columbine Project staff. 

The presentation consisted of introductory comments by David Steel of Western Development, design drawings by the architectural firm, preliminary traffic results from the traffic engineering consulting firm, and a question and answer period. 

The presentations and Q & A discussion was very informative and many important questions and comments were raised by residents and others attending. There was overall agreement that Columbine Street, especially the old Post Office site, should be redeveloped and improved. Differences in opinion dealt with out of scale and unbalanced development.

In summary, the key topics of discussion and comment were:

(1) Project Relationship to Cherry Creek Area Plan – Since a draft of the Cherry Creek Area Plan (CCAP) is nearing completion, why did this major project not wait on the completion and context of the CCAP?  The critical concern was: that the cumulative proposed BID development effects on the entire community needed to be studied rather than just projecting the effect of one individual project, especially since this project could possibly establish a size and scale precedent affecting cumulative increased traffic and traffic flow of all future development. 

 The developer's response was that the planning period has taken too long and there is a window of opportunity to be addressed.  When asked what this window was, the response was simply that the project needed to proceed and should not wait any longer.

(2) Building Height and Scale – The Columbine Street project is now proposed to be zoned to allow 8 stories in height for approximately 75% of the block and 5 stories for the remainder of the block, stepping down to 3 stories only for a short distanceto 3^rd Avenue.  An 8 story office building would be built on the corner of 2^nd and Columbine with a 7 story condo building in the middle of the block and 3 and 5 story condo building close to 3^rd Avenue.  The entire first floor level would be retail. Parking access and exit would be primarily on Columbine Street.  Even though the building drawings were attractive, the overall mass and scale of the project and change of BID character were startling to many and of great concern as a precedent of all BID future development.

(3) Traffic Study Results – The traffic engineering study has not been completed and will evaluate 14 key intersections, but some preliminary results on the 2^nd Avenue and Columbine traffic impact were shown.  Traffic was predicted to increase by 405 trips (in and out) during the peak evening hour and 265 trips during the peak morning hour. Approximately 80% of those trips would result from the 80 condominium units and the 60,000 square feet of office space.  The present high volume noon traffic time period was not included in the study.

 According to the consulting firm, this increase in traffic for the project would be considered within acceptable traffic ratings.  Since the consultant study focused only on this one project and not on any cumulative traffic to be generated by multiple development projects in that area, it could not be predicted how the rating would change.  The consultant related that traffic data is based upon national professional standards. Increased traffic on other potential sites, such as the proposed 7 story office building at the old post office location across the street on Columbine and other adjacent development, could not be included in this study. Based on those national standards, a similar development on the west side of Columbine Street would produce similar increased traffic that would add to this study's results. 

 The important issues of where traffic will flow in order to access major streets and the current University and York Street intersection / traffic flow impediments were not shown.  In addition, the study has not provided any traffic mitigation recommendations.

 (4) Parking – This topic was thoroughly discussed with a deficiency in parking viewed as a significant problem. The project would have approximately 200 underground parking spaces to accommodate the needs of office tenants, retail customers, visitors, service, and condo residents.  This parking number was determined overall by using a 1 parking space per 1250 square feet of building space.  The present parking requirement of CCN Zoning is 1 parking space for every 300 square feet for office building space. The developer acknowledged that some parking beyond the limits of the project would be required.   

(5)  CCNNA General Resident Meeting – Since (a) many CCN residents could not attend last night's meeting, (b) the traffic engineering study was not complete, and (c) the meeting raised many issues needing further discussion, David Steel agreed to present and discuss the project at the March 27^th General Resident Meeting.  This meeting will be co-hosted by CCNNA and CHUN for CCN residents and CHUN members.