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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSD-22-10 - Supplemental - 0500 Old Farm Road (56) VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL September 29, 2022 South Burlington Development Review Board C/O Ms. Marla Keene, Development Review Planner City of South Burlington 180 Market Street South Burlington, VT 05403 Re: O’Brien Eastview Planned Unit Development Final Plat Dear Board Members: On April 14, 2022, O’Brien Eastview, LLC (“Applicant”), submitted our Application for Final Plat for the O’Brien Eastview project (the “Project”). Since that time, we have held two public hearings, July 19th and September 6th. We appreciate greatly your efforts in reviewing this project. We have made much progress, and we anticipate significantly more progress to come at our October 6th hearing. In advance of this hearing, we wanted to review with the Board one particular requirement of the Preliminary Plat permit issued August 31, 2021 (the Preliminary Plat) Condition 12: “Street tree maximum spacing shall be 30-ft.” While the Applicant has submitted landscape plans that comply with this condition (as it is a clear condition of the board and our Final Plat application would have been incomplete had we not complied), the Applicant does not recall the Board coming to this specific conclusion during the hearing. In fact, our recollection is discussing this issue, and the Board agreeing that the street tree spacing at Hillside was adequate and well done, and that the same spacing could work in Eastview. We are wondering if there was potentially some misunderstanding regarding the spacing of the trees shown on the Preliminary Plat concept plans, and if perhaps it was assumed that what was shown was 30’, when in fact it was 40’. It seems odd to the Applicant that such a finding was issued without discussion particularly considering that this finding was approved in our first phase of development and which seems to be well received, as well as for the fact that landscape plans were not provided or reviewed at the Preliminary Plat level. We are requesting that the Board please consider an amendment to this condition at Final Plat, to allow for street tree spacing to be 40-ft on average across the neighborhood. This would mirror the Hillside development which we feel not only has adequate but also very attractive landscaping, and would enable the Applicant to invest in the site trees, unit plantings and other landscaping that it feels are better areas to focus in order to facilitate the best overall development, resident, and pedestrian experience. In furtherance of this discussion, we have some information and exhibits to provide to the Board. 1. Exhibit 214: L100 Overall Landscape Plan 02 25 22: This is an old version of the landscape plan as originally designed, prior to when we discovered Condition 12 of the Preliminary Plat and the 2 need to amend the spacing. We believe this plan demonstrates that at the 40’ spacing proposed, the streetscape is attractive and adequately landscaped. 2. Exhibit 215: This is a brief PowerPoint presentation providing some comparison images of the 30’ and 40’ plan spacing, as well as some images of the existing Hillside neighborhood as reference. We have also included digital renderings of the Eastview Project, as those renderings have used the 40’ spacing plan. Throughout the presentation, a green frame is placed upon images that use the 40’ spacing, and an orange frame on those of the 30’ spacing. We believe this presentation shows the 30’ spacing to be heavy handed, and more suitable for isolated locations and impacts, than for a standard across all roadways. As outlined in our Project narrative, the Project is proposing to exceed its minimum required landscape budget by 53%. O’Brien Brothers are already proposing to spend $282,000 more than is required for this phase. That is a total expenditure of $816,368. Notably, this does not include the cost of individual unit planting plans, estimated to be another $1000/unit, or $155,000.00 total. With those expenses included, the Applicant is actually spending 80% more than is required by City regulations.1 It is also important to note that we are unaware of a regulatory requirement for 30’ spacing, but rather a goal that a site be well landscaped. We believe we have achieved this with the 40’ spacing and that has been proven out in the original Hillside phase. We are simply looking to continue in a consistent manner with the next phase of this neighborhood. As outlined at Exhibit 042, the estimated cost of street trees (which do not count toward required landscape dollars) is $530,100. The estimated cost of street trees at 40’ on center instead of 30’, would be $358,000. A difference of around $170,000. We believe that this $170,000 is best spent in the over-building of the site landscaping that is currently planned, in the unit flower beds, the site trees, grasses, and other elements that enhance the project and parks. We believe that the 40’ spacing for street trees at Hillside has proven itself attractive, and more than sufficient, and we hope that the board agrees, such that the planned investment in the site landscaping need not suffer, to fund the expanded street trees plantings that in our estimation (and that of our landscape architects), do not have as much impact or importance to the plan. We look forward to your review of the exhibits to discussing this with you in the near term. Thank you. Sincerely, Andrew Gill, Director of Development Enclosures 1 These expenses were not included in the landscape budget, because the Applicant does not wish for these beds to be subject to the perpetual maintenance covenants, or complicated bonding schemes that result. It is simply not fitting for a flower bed near a residential home to be controlled by a planting plan and not the owner. Given this, we have not counted those beds, to simplify the life of our buyers and allow them to plant what they want next to their homes without the need for any City inspections.