07-10-2017 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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At the neighborhood meeting we demonstrated, through drone aerial photography, how the height of the building will be screened by existing trees from the few neighbors beyond the wetland in back of the building. The photography showed that the existing trees are taller than the proposed building thus blocking views. We also proposed to add evergreen trees to provide a more year round screening. (See Exhibits C -G) Comparable Height Waivers We have seen similar height waivers relating to the Orono Woods Senior Living and Stone Bay Condominiums. Both developments are similar to ours as they utilized the existing topography to minimize grading impacts and created varied heights. Orono Woods (See Exhibits H1 -H4) has three stories at the main entrance of the building and then drops down to two stories on the east as the topography rises. An exposed underground garage element was also created as part of the project. The front of the building also includes a taller architecture element and pitched gables. Our review of the City's architectural plans found that the front of the building consists of several elevations. At the garage door location, the top of the roofline is 36 feet. The top of the roofline at the front entrance is 48 feet, with an additional 10 feet to the top of the tower for a total height of 58 feet. Stone Bay Condominiums (Exhibits 11-16) are more closely related to Freshwater as the front is three stories and then drops toward the back. The side of the building has three stories with an exposed underground garage element along the base. Stone Bay also abuts up against a wetland with views from neighboring residential properties. We did not find any architectural drawings at the City for Stone Bay but with a 3 -story front with a pitched roof and a 3 -story plus exposed garage on the side, it appears that Stone Bay is even a taller building than Orono Woods. The proposed Freshwater building will have a front of building height of 36 feet and a rear of building height of 58 feet, 8 inches along the penthouse. The penthouse portion of the building will be stepped back from the front building line and located in the northeast corner of the building. The penthouse roofline will be in line with the height of the Freshwater office building with a height of 54 feet. By using a flat roof design we matched the roofline of the office building and minimized the height associated with a pitch roof. Neighboring Resident Visibility Not only are the buildings taller at Orono Woods and Stone Bay but the neighboring residents are closer than our proposed Freshwater building. At Freshwater, our closest neighbor is 383 feet with the other residents at the respective distances of 706 and 557 feet. The homes behind Orono Woods are 175, 182 and 263 feet (see Exhibit H4). The closest home at Stone Bay is 122 feet with minimal screening by trees. (See Exhibit 16). By preserving existing trees and adding evergreen trees the visual impact to neighboring residents will be minimal and comparable to other neighborhoods adjacent to business and multi -family zoning districts.