St. Andrew Site Concept Design

Kevin Monson presented a site concept drawing at our council meeting last night. He stated that he wanted to get a feeling from council whether this was an avenue to pursue. Here is what he had to show Download PDF.

The major changes as he listed last night:

• The front building will be commercial only, no residential. So essentially a one story building with a taller roof making it look like a two story building. This is shorter than the 3 story building proposed earlier. This eliminates the need for underground residential parking on the first building.
• A community center could be added to the far eastern portion of the front building. This is currently shown as green space. This could be built with the original construction or added later.
• The rear building will contain 6 floors of residential units plus the rooftop meeting space. This is one story taller than the earlier proposed building, but still within zoning limitations.
• The rear building has a smaller East-West length.
• The shape of the front building has been simplified.
• There is no connection between circle parking for rear building and Sunset Street exit. 
• Front building moved 2 feet further back from Melrose.

Council will have a  work session to look further at this concept. This has been scheduled for WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 19TH at 7:00 PM in the IOWA ROOM of the UNIVERSITY CLUB. The public is encouraged to attend and to comment on the concept design.

I would have to say my first impression of the concept design is favorable. I think many of the changes proposed are a result of community feedback from the September focus group meetings, and seem to strike a middle ground that would satisfy many of our citizens.

After thinking about this concept today, here are some questions I sent to Mr. Monson tonight that I would like to see addressed either at the work session or soon after:

• How do the the footprints of each building compare to earlier proposals?
• Can we get a comparison overlay of current concept, the 5+/3 and St. Andrew Church?
• What would be estimated height of first building?

 I'm sure I'll have more questions by Wednesday.