A preliminary concept plan was presented to the City Council at a work meeting today for a mixed-use development between Center Street and 200N from Rocky Vista University to Vista School. Called “City Center at Red Mountain,” the proposed development is just that, a city center or downtown. The developer plans offices, retail, single-family homes, condominiums, and townhomes.
Mixed-use is allowed on this property. The Land Use Plan envisions a Resort Mixed Use (RMU) development for this land. But that comes with a number of requirements. One is to buffer adjoining single-family development with single-family. The developer’s plan does that for the most part and mostly with similar size lots along 200N.
Another requirement is that 35% of the development be open space. Their drawings show open space, but I don’t know how much yet.
Council members had a lot of questions and expressed concerns. One significant concern is the developer’s plan to build three-story buildings right up to Center Street. We’ve had requirements in place for a number of years to set back buildings far enough so they don’t block views of, in this case, Red Mountain.
Another major concern is increased traffic on Center Street. It’s still in the preliminary planning stage, but the developer is looking to build 618,000 square feet of residential housing. I don’t know how many housing units that will be but have asked for that information. If the units average 2,000 square-feet (a mix of single-family on large lots and small lots, townhomes, and condominiums), that would create more than 300 homes.
They are also looking to build about 400,000 square feet of commercial office and retail space. For comparison, I believe the new Canyon Crossing commercial property has 17,000 square feet of commercial space. It’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison though because some of or a lot of the “City Center” commercial space will be on two or three floors.
There are a number of other requirements for RMU developments, but that may not matter. Based on comments at the meeting, the developer is likely going to ask the City to create a special zone for this project so that they can redefine some of the RMU requirements that don’t appear to fit their vision. But since our current requirements were created out of our residents’ vision for the City, it will be interesting to see if they can come up with requirements that work for the community.
I will confess that I have a negative knee-jerk reaction to creating special rules for any one person/developer. However, if the special rules create something that truly adds value for our residents and embraces our community vision, I won’t get bent out of shape about that. But I suspect that’s not going to be easy to accomplish.
I’ll post more information as I learn more and I would like to get your input.
