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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/3/2018 Item 2, Cooper Goodwin, Heather From:Allan Cooper <saveourdowntownslo@gmail.com> Sent:Wednesday, To:Leveille, Brian; Bell, Kyle; Advisory Bodies Subject:Item No. 2: 1144 Chorro Street Attachments:111_28_18...lettertoarc.pdf Dear Brian and Kyle - Would you kindly forward the letter attached below to the Architectural Review Commission prior to their December 3, 2018 meeting? Thanks! - Allan Allan Cooper, Secretary - Save Our Downtown, San Luis Obispo, CA Website: www.SaveOurDowntownSLO.com 1 To: Architectural Review Commission, Brian Leveille, Senior Planner and Kyle Bell, Associate Planner Re: Item No. 2: 1144 Chorro Street From: Allan Cooper, Secretary Save Our Downtown Date: November 28, 2018 Honorable Chair Root and Commissioners - Staff has directed you to review this project for consistency with the Community Design Guidelines. With regards to the Community Design Guidelines this multi-story building “should be set back above the second or third level to maintain a street façade that is consistent with the historic pattern of development, maintaining the general similarity of building heights at the sidewalk edge.” The Guidelines further state that new “…buildings that are significantly taller or shorter than adjacent buildings shall provide appropriate visual transitions.” We can see that there is a third floor set back along Higuera Street. However, this project steps up to four floors at the corners thereby amplifying its dissimilarity with the prevailing building height of the adjoining historic Wineman Hotel. Along Marsh Street, the first set back occurs at the fourth floor level, not the third, again providing little if any visual transition to the adjoining one-story buildings. To further compound this inconsistency, the Community Design Guidelines state that for “… new projects adjacent to buildings included on the City’s Inventory of Historic Resources there shall be a heightened sensitivity to the mass and scale of the significant buildings.” The Wineman Hotel is listed on the City’s Inventory of Historic Resources. Staff has pointed out that, per the Guidelines, you should discuss whether the project concept considers the context of best examples of architecture in the vicinity. We are urging you not to consider the Chorro Street parking garage as a “best example” for two reasons: 1) this structure lies outside the Downtown Historic District and 2) at the time it was approved, this City-owned structure was under no obligation to conform to the Community Design Guidelines. In fact both the Palm Street and Chorro Street garages sought exceptions to the City's guidelines after they were implausibly categorized as “landmark buildings”. Staff has also directed you to review the project for consistency with applicable City policies and standards. The recently revised Downtown Concept Plan states the following for “Block 32”: “The en︎titled Discovery SLO project will be located on the corner of Chorro and Marsh Streets. It will reuse the existi︎ng 24,500 sq. ft., 2-story commercial building, and includes a bowling alley, restaurant, outdoor pati︎o, and open banquet area. No other changes are proposed for this block.” This recommendation for maintaining the current building height stands in contrast with recommendations for 3-4 story buildings on other blocks, typically located outside the Downtown Historic District. The City’s Historic Preservation Program Guidelines state that new “…structures in historic districts shall be designed to be architecturally compatible with the district’s prevailing historic character as measured by their consistency with the scale…” and massing and that new “… development should not sharply contrast with, significantly block public views of, or visually detract from, the historic architectural character of historically designated structures located adjacent to the property to be developed, or detract from the prevailing historic architectural character of the historic district.” The Secretary of Interior Standards states: “New construction should be appropriately scaled and located far enough away from the historic building to maintain its character and that of the site and setting.” However, your staff report fails to mention that on November 26, 2018 the Cultural Heritage Committee determined that the top two floors above 53' 6", in white stucco, were too high causing the building to appear out of scale with the other buildings in the Historic District. The CHC also determined that this building looked too institutional and that the first two floors' windows and doors were not compatible with the historic pattern that prevails within this Historic District (e.g., the second story windows should be vertical like the upper floors, not floor-to-ceiling).  Finally, though this is a matter which will ultimately be taken up by the Planning Commission, you should be aware that in order to qualify for a height of 75 feet, the recently updated Zoning Regulations require that this project must include at least three community benefits. These benefits include workforce housing; pedestrian amenities; view access; off-site historic preservation; mode split; off-site open space preservation; zero net energy; common garbage facility for adjacent properties and conformance with other City policies including the General Plan and Downtown Concept Plan. With the exception of providing workforce housing (i.e., “affordable” housing by design), there appear to be no other community benefits associated with this project. We strongly advise you to concur with the Cultural Heritage Committee’s recommendation. However if this building were to be more than 50 feet tall, you should recommend the following major pedestrian amenities: 1) that the project provides a major pedestrian connection between Higuera Street and Marsh Street, and/or 2) that the project provides open space in the form of a significant public plaza, where the minimum area of this public plaza shall be 7,500 square feet. To qualify for the third community benefit, there should be improved view access by providing a publicly accessible viewing deck at some upper level of the building. Thank you!