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HomeMy WebLinkAboutS-0960 Staff AnalysisDecember 15, 1992 ITEM 1�0.: 3 FILE NO.: S-960 NAME: Home Center Addition -- Preliminary Plat LOCATION: The southwest corner of State Highway 10 at the west end of Taylor Loop Road DEVELOPER: NATIONAL HOME CENTER Highway 67-167 North Little Rock, AR 72116 945-2800 ENGINEER: WHITE-DATERS AND ASSOCIATES 401 Victory Little Rock, AR 72201 374-1666 AREA: 17.74 acres NUMBER OF LOTS: 1 FT. NEW STREET: 0 ZONING: R-2 Single Family/PCD PROPOSED USES: Home Center PLANNING DISTRICT: No. 19 CENSUS TRACT: 42.06 VARIA110ES REQUESTED: None A. PR0P0SALIREQUEST: This applicant proposes the platting of a single commercial lot for purposes of constructing several large buildings for use as a home center development. B. EXISTING CONDITIONS: The existing site is a semi -rural tract of land with open space to the rear area of the lot, with several homes sited on the property. This site is abutted on the south by residential and a church building, to the east and west by residential properties, some of which have boarding facilities for horses. The area to the north is occupied as residential across State Highway 10. The site currently drains in two directions, a portion to the east across Taylor Loop Road and a portion of the site draining into a pond adjacent to Highway 10 and discharging beneath the state highway. C. ENGINEERING/UTILITY COMMENTS: The Public Works Department reports that a minor arterial standard is required for Taylor Loop Road, both right-of-way and improvements. Sidewalks are required on Cantrell Road frontage and Taylor Loop. Excavation and Detention Ordinances apply. F1 December 15, 1992 ITEM NO.: 3 Cont. FILE NO.: S-960 Little Rock Municipal Water Works reports that an on -site fire protection plan will be required and should be made a part of the site plan. Little Rock Waste Water Utility reports that a sewer main extension will be required with the appropriate easements. The Hinson Road interceptor tie on charges apply for this area. Contact should be made with Waste Water Utility for details. D. ISSUESILEGALITECHNICALIDESIGN: In the staffs review of this preliminary plat, a number of areas were noted which require a follow-up by the architect and engineer on this project. For sake of brevity, the staff will not enumerate all the items which were developed in our review, but will touch on the high points relative only to the preliminary plat. They are as follows: 1. Taylor Loop improvements and dedication 2. Indicate PAGIS information. 3. Indicate state plane coordinates. 4. Complete certificates should be placed on the plat. 5. Adjacent property owners should be indicated. 6. A Bill of Assurance should be provided for staff review. 7. A commitment should be submitted in writing that this developer will in the future participate if needed in the installation cost of the traffic signal for Taylor Loop Intersection up to 50% of the then established cost. S. Sidewalks are required along Highway 10 and Taylor Loop Road. E. ANALYSIS: The staff has performed the usual site visits, plan reviews and distribution for comment. This plat as a freestanding issue meets the expected standards. However, a plat of this nature is entirely out of character for a suburban large lot single family area. There are numerous single family lots along all of the boundary streets some of which front this project site. In the staff view of Highway 10, the plan and overlay standards were geared to shallow development in transition zones. This site is one quarter mile deep. The full effect of this depth is not realized until one drives the east boundary to the church at the south end of the development. 2 December 15, 1992 ITEM NO.: 3 Cont. FILE NO.: S-960 F. STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS: Denial of the plat as being inappropriate for the location. SUBDIVISION COMMITTEE COMMENT: (NOVEMBER 25, 1992) The developer, the architect and engineer were present. The Planning staff offered a brief overview of the number of items included in the staff outline of issues. Most of the items on the list were identified by the developer as items which could be easily remedied or had been. A lengthy discussion involving the design of the buildings, their height and appearance involved both staff and the applicant. The engineer for the project, Mr. White, pointed out several points of resolution such as the residential street along the southern boundary and how that roadway and its improvement might be accomplished. The screening, landscaping and site package dealing with appearance was presented by the design staff for the developer. A brief discussion included the manner in which traffic accesses the State Highway No. 10. The apparent potential for traffic backup or conflict with the manner in which the interior parking is designed. There being no apparent problem with resolving the several issues attendant to the plat, the Subdivision Committee forwarded this item to the full Commission for final resolution. jj,G t/u/A 1j /0 FQ65T LF.✓c (rvT L iU TRS 2N,14W•24 PD CT Ek Preliminary Plat {ten Home Center Addition Nimt S-960 3 12/� December 15, 1992 ITEM NO.: 5 FILE NO.: Z-5646 NAME: Home Center - Planned Commercial District LOCATION: SW corner of State Highway No. 10 and the west intersection of Taylor Loop Road DEVELOPER• ENGINEER• MARVIN ITZKOWITZ WHITE-DATERS AND ASSOCIATES BY NATIONAL HOME CENTER 401 Victory Street Little Rock, AR 72201 374-1666 AREA: 17.74 acres NUMBER OF LOTS: 1 FT. NEW STREET: 0 ZONING: R-2/PCD PROPOSED USES: Home Center and Allied Activity PLANNING DISTRICT: No. 19 CENSUS*TRACT: 42.06 VARIANCES REQUESTED: None STATEMENT OF PROPOSAL: This applicant proposes the construction of a National Home Center store. The exterior of the building front wall along Highway 10 will be of cut concrete stone with the remaining walls around the east, west and south of texture steel. The height of all buildings is 24 feet with the roofing of metal construction at 12/2 pitch. All buildings will be of a light buff color with roofing in a dark brown. There will be two main building entrances and exits located across the front of the main building. Lawn and garden facilities will run down the east side with a contractor's showroom immediately behind. The design of this project is as a closed compound with the materials courtyard completely enclosed, with one controlled entrance. The main building will comprise some 102,000 square feet of customer showroom, 10,000 square feet of contractor's sales and showroom, 57,000 square feet in warehouse and 30,000 square feet of lawn and garden facilities of which 15,000 square feet will be covered. The facility will include a full vehicle maintenance shop. The enclosed compound will also house a fuel station for delivery vehicles. All open areas are to be planted and maintained in addition to the frontage Highway 10 which will be burmed, planted and sprinkled. The facility will employ between 165 and 175 persons. 1 December 15, 1992 ITEM NO.: 5 Cont. FILE NO.: 2-5646 This site was located at the intersection of two arterial streets because it will provide easy accessibility for future construction sites in West Little Rock. This facility is proposed to serve a market radius of approximately 50 miles involving Perry County, Saline County and other counties within this radius. A. PROPOSAL RE UEST: This application was filed as a planned commercial district in order to approach the subject of modification of the Highway 10 land use plan and to incorporate an additional commercial node at two arterial streets. The application is for a major home center with significant building materials sales and delivery. The site is a large tract of land currently residential in nature and surrounded by residential occupancy. B. EXISTING CONDITIONS: The property is residential in nature with several residential structures in place. To the south along a narrow residential street is a church and several homes. To the west are large homes on large residential lots. To the east and north are residential occupancies. The land is rolling terrain with a pond and several highpoints. C. ENGINEERING UTILITY COMENTS: Public Works Department reports that minor arterial right-of-way and improvements are required for Taylor Loop Road. Sidewalks are required on Cantrell Road frontage. The Excavation and Detention Ordinance applies. Little Rock Water Works reports that on -site fire protection will be required reflecting the location of fire hydrants and main sizes. The Waste Water Utility reports that a sewer main extension will be required with appropriate easements. This will tie to the Hinson Interceptor charges apply for this area. Contact should be made with the Waste Water Utility for detail. D. ISSUES LEGAL• TECHNICAL• DESIGN: The staff review of this planned unit development reflects a number of areas of design concern. Many of these have been discussed with the applicant with resolution to be gained prior to the public hearing of the Commission on December 15. At this writing, these items remain for discussion until the site plan has been updated to resolve them. 2 December 15, 1992 ITEM NO.: Cont. FILE NO.: Z-5646 The items are as follows: I. The Highway 10 entrance drive should be redesigned to work better with the existing front parking lot to provide for elimination of potential conflict between cars entering and exiting, especially with respect to the single loaded row of parking spaces in the middle of the parking lot. 2. The design of this project brings truck traffic down a residential street (Taylor Loop Road). This issue should be resolved through provision of information concerning the hours of operation of the trucks and access to the warehouse facility. This should be provided in writing. 3. Identify the purpose or use of the shallow depth of the building along the east boundary of the warehouse. 4. Identify the purpose of the gap in the building lying along the west side of the development by notation on the drawing. 5. Information should be provided on the garden center as to the design and finish of the exterior walls, and whether exterior storage or display along the sidewalk area will be provided. This should be noted on the plan. 6. The boundary buffer on all sides of the project appear to be deficient. This should be resolved through working with Bob Brown of the Landscape Office. 7. A treatment plan should be submitted for the buffer and screening areas. S. A section through the site along the north -south axis should be provided reflecting the treatment on the site with plantings to break up the building mass. This is especially important due to the lack of existing mature timber which will remain and break up the mass of a 24 foot tall structure of this length. 9. A drainage treatment plan should be provided. 10. The location of the fuel tanks to serve the fueling station should be indicated on the drawing. 11. Reflect on the site plan a fire fighting system indicating fixtures, hydrants and line sizes. 12. The building roofline treatment should be indicated by use of insets or typical illustrations on the site plan. 3 December 15, 1992 S ITEM NO.: 5(Cont.)FILE NO.: Z-5646 13. Identify the large paved apron in the front of the building as part of the building closed floor space. 14. A treatment plan for the improvement of Forest Lane should be indicated, if it is to be improved. 15. Remove the concrete access aprons in the curb line along Highway 10, serving existing driveways. 16. A site lighting plan E. ANALYSIS• The staff has performed the usual site visits, plan reviews and distribution for comment. We have held a meeting with the developer and his design professionals for purposes of developing the request to the fullest, in order to gain a base upon which to base our judgment. Staff concentrated its analysis in four areas. These were land use, traffic, site design and building mass. Land Use The current Highway 10 Plan indicates transitional and expansive amounts of residential. Established commercial nodes are centered well away from this corner. The intended commercial use is not compatible with residential. It cannot be made compatible on this site such as Harvest Foods was accomplished at the east end of Taylor Loop. This change would have a major detrimental effect on the plan. It would make the areas adjacent to the west unsuitable as residential. The Highway 10 Plan and overlay standards were written to make nonresidential compatible with residential through certain use types and increased design standards. The other commercial nodes such as Candlewood (Kroger) Center are not this intense. Traffic Circulation: Even though a five lane arterial, Highway 10 is not an interstate. A tremendous amount of truck traffic would have a negative effect on an already heavily traveled arterial. The existing nodes on the plan when fully developed will use the roadway capacity. Site Design and Building Mass The building plan offered cannot utilize the existing landscaping or terrain. The main building will be on about ten feet of fill. The finished floor elevation of 4 December 15, 1992 ITEM NO.: 5 Cont. FILE NO.: 2-5646 the retail sales area (Highway 10 front of building) will be perhaps 15 feet above the curb line of Highway 10. The building facade will be about forty feet in height above that point. The building of 200,000 square feet or more will not be screened by the planting proposed for fifteen or twenty years. The building long axis, north to south of 1,100± feet with one small break will be to big for this neighborhood and present a significant visual blight. The site design, with respect to certain elements, landscaping and setback generally meets the overlay standards. However, development of this magnitude and character was never considered along Highway 10. The changing of the terrain and denuding the site makes the overlay standards useless. F. STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS: Denial of request for the many reasons set forth in our analysis. SUBDIVISION COMMITTEE COMMENT: (NOVEMBER 25, 1992) The applicant was present as well as the architect and engineer for the project. There was a lengthy discussion of this proposal in concert with the preliminary plat proposed for the 17 acres. Planning staff identified the number of issues that remained to be resolved from the total list of some 31 issues. The staff read this list and identified its concerns for those which had not been resolved. The applicant and the design professionals present indicated that these points could be resolved prior to the public hearing of the Planning Commission or they had been resolved already. The Committee raised numerous questions concerning the landscaping, the height of the buildings, the lighting plan for the parking lots, especially along the eastern property boundary. The applicant offered some graphic material which indicated the exterior wall treatment with elevations and landscaping material identified. This issue was identified as being more a land use question than a site design issue, however the two are intertwined and the specific design of this project will have significant baring on the appropriateness of the change in zoning for this corner. Staff identified the site plan process as a means to develop a good end product and that how it develops does not decide land use appropriateness. A brief discussion followed wherein several commissioners and staff discussed the possibility or probability of the extension of Taylor Loop Road to the south and west tying State Highway No. 10 December 15, 1992 ITEM NO.: 5(Cont.)FILE NO.: Z-5545 into the Chenal Valley development. There were several persons present offering comment's concerning the development potential of the existing properties they owned or represented which indicated that the road connection could possibly occur in a short term. They felt extension of that arterial street to Chenal Parkway would support the need for a traffic signal for Highway 10 at Taylor Loop and the possibility of a land use modification of the Highway 10 Plan. Specific resolution was not gained on any of the discussed; however, the applicants reported they resolution of each. The Committee then forwarded the full Commission for final resolution. several subjects would pursue this item to 11 TR8 PD CT 1 T.ecr A �Z S� ti �J � M,. rrri nt s M V 1 � 1�� �{ 1 4 Planned Commercial Development (PCD) 2N,14W,24 Z-5646 Home Center Short Form P.C.D. ITEM No. 12/92 TRS PD CT a LU M m Area Zoning Z-5646 �, ITEM NO. Home Center N Short Form P.C.D. 5 12/92