6.7. SR 08-17-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Items 6.8 - 6.10 Howard R, Green Company CONSULTING ENGINEERS August 13, 1998J- File: 800111J-0240 CONSlITI~G BIIIN[~IS Honorable Mayor and City Council City of Elk River 13065 Orono Parkway Elk River, MN 55330 RE: TROTT BROOK FARMS Dear Council members: Since the August 3, 1998 City Council meeting, when Trott BrOok Farms was first presented to the City Council, several meetings have been held with the Developer and other staff members to resolve the few remaining issues. This memo will briefly summarize the discussion regarding these various issues. A. Southwest Townhouse Area Density The one major issue at the last City Council presentation was the density of the townhouse development in the southwest corner of the plat. The original presentation by the Developer to the Planning Commission showed 156 townhouse units in this area. Staff had recommended a reduction of 12 units to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission increased that number to 20 units with their recommendation to the City Council. Both staff and the City Council thought that a significant reduction should occur in Block 2, which is the block containing all back-to-back units. The Developer has revised his plan to show a total number of units of 142 in this area. That is a reduction of 14 units, slightly over the staff recommendation, but under the Planning Commission recommendation. Block 2 in the southwest townhouse area originally had 62 units, made up of seven 8- plexes and one 6-plex. The revised plan shows 43 units in this block, a reduction of 19 total units. The Developer has accomplished this by intermixing back-to-back units and row housing units. The total mix is currently four 8-plexes, two row houses consisting of 4 units each, and one row house consisting of 3 units. Since the total reduction in this area is 14 units, and the reduction in Block 2 is 19 units, the number of units around the perimeter has increased by 5 units. Staff believes that this revised plan meets the goals of the Planning Commission and City staff, and would recommend approval. One issue that needs clarification has arisen, based on our discussions with the Developer's engineers. Currently, all townhouse units throughout the development are shown as 2-story buildings. If the Developer were to change any of the row housing units to single-stow units, the mass of the building would increase drastically. In fact, a 4-unit, 2-stow row house, if it were converted to a 4-unit, single-stow row house, would have the same footprint as a back-to-back 8-plex. Obviously, converting any or all row housing to single story from the 2-story plan shown would drastically decrease the O:\PROJ\80011 lj\0240\111-1301 .aug.doc 1326 Energy Park Drive · St. Paul, MN 55108 · 612/644-4389 fax 612/644-9446 toll free 888/368-4389