001is by Zoom or by phone by calling 852 5247 or this information is also available on the published agenda in the public meeting notice is section of the city website and on the broadcast of this meeting on CTN Channel 16 AT&T channel 99 and online at www.a2gov.org CN the volunteer resident design review board appointed by the mayor and confirmed by city council Foster excellence in an Arbor's built environment design and advises applicants on meeting downtown design guidelines first the applicant presents their proposed project for 15 minutes then the board discusses the design after that members of the public can comment for up to 3 minutes each and if you could do the roll call Mariana I will call you all by last name and please indicate if you're here Perkins here Burns here Singleton H
002Le here Mitchell here karski here Ranson here all right we have a quorum thank you for that uh next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda so if I could have a motion in a second no moved think that was Wendy that moved was it I supported Wendy moved and uh Bill supported any discussion about the agenda or the motion all those in favor signify by saying I I I I post same sign and motion carries moving on to approval of the minutes this is the minutes of the December 11 202 for design review board meeting um if I could have a mo a motion in a second I'll move all support mov by dick supported by Bill come on you guys wake up it's a big commitment it is discussion any discussion
003on the minutes uh all those in favor signify by saying I I I I post same sign the motion carries the minutes are approved I noticed that in the packet uh Mariana the minutes said draft um I hope these have been shared with the petitioner prior to our approval today just so they're on board with what we did they have been shared with the petitioner and if you had had any changes um right now then we would update them but what is in the minutes was already shared with them all right good thank you uh on to moving on to Communications there are a couple of items in our packet um we don't usually discuss these but I would like to take a moment to comment on at least one of them uh but if
004anybody has any comment um please feel free to do so um the one in particular that struck me it was actually addressed to me because I'm the chair of this board but it's from Mike Martin at first Mar Corporation and Mike is concerned about he he's not expressing that's concern about the project that we are looking at today except to the extent that they are being treated differently than his um Hotel project downtown was treated several months back and I guess the question for you Mariana is um they as I understand it and as memory serves me they had originally proposed handling their Solid Waste in a certain way on their site and that got shot down in the solid waste department and this project that we're looking at today is handling it in precisely
005the same way that first Martin wanted to do it and um so I guess first concern is um why the change um why not equal treatment for the two and secondly some uh I guess whether it's appropriate I mean it's up to First Martin to request reopening their site plan approval I'm not trying to get into that but my concern is why the uh different treatment for the two projects um I I'll say that this project has not yet been reviewed um by any of the city departments it hasn't been officially submitted it's coming to the design review board first so um it will go through through the same process that everybody else goes through when they submit a new development to the city um and solid waste has not looked at this or officially
006approved anything yet okay well then I then I suppose that makes sense then because what Mike Maron is saying in his letter is not that he has any objections to this project but a warning to these developers um who I guess we'll be hearing from shortly um that uh they're proposing in their site plan may not fly thank you for that and anybody have any other comments about Communications um on the agenda right normally wouldn't we treat those two Communications as a discussion item as we discuss this project or after the discussion I mean one is a a letter of support right the other is a issue of concern right um it's a good point build um and usually I think we just note that we have the communications and let it um uh let
007it let it um sort of speak for itself but so I'm not sure um I I'm not suggesting it I'm just saying that would we're doing a little out of order but it we've acknowledged there are Communications related to this maybe that's all we need to do yeah yeah um do these communications get shared with the petitioner uh Marana they were published in the agenda um and are in the packet and can be found online um and if the pioner would like us to specifically show them where they can find it we're happy to do so okay all right good thanks Bill and now we move on to the first public comment section uh to speak during public comment please use the raise hand feature in Zoom or call 877 5247 or 888 8 78899
008full free and entering meeting ID [Music] 9412 and Alexis uh will promote callers we have no one with their hands raised at this time all right well there will be a second opportunity for that later in the meeting so if uh somebody is is watching and wants to call in I encourage you to do so uh moving on to unfinished business um there is none uh and then moving on to regular business we are looking at Dr 25- [Music] z001 it's 300 West on Street um the the proposed project is located 3 and west hereon on the corner West here on in first um it is Zone D2 downtown interface um 57,8 79t five-story building will be 111 room limited service Hotel um the main lobby entran is at the corner West Chon and First
009Street primary building materials will be brick veneer and fiber cement panels the project will have a single driveway from First Street or solid waste access only and will have no on-site vehicle parking uh Marana um if you would take it from here yes I am promoting the um applicants to panelists and they will be able to do their presentation first hello everyone welcome thanks for having me before you start is there somebody else that um will be joining you or is it just you today um nitt and Patel should be also tell he's with Elevate um Architects um is the architect for the project um I don't know if smear Patel is going to be able to join the call here with Hawkeye tells if he is be great to promote him if not we
010will continue on hey everyone how are you so we will let you um share screen and present um we cap the presentations at 15 minutes but I'll give you a heads up at 10 minutes great fantastic share my screen here all right can everyone see my screen yes fantastic yes yep all right um well good afternoon and and thank you Bard for for having us here today um just quick introduction uh my name is Brandon Cheney I'm the project manager with nateral um I'm also joined by nitt and Patel with Elevate Architects um sadly Samir Patel was unable to join the call um he's the developer of the project with Hawkeye hotels uh and today just going to quickly talk about um our proposed project here at 300 West herum the Fairfield in and Suites
011um so some of you may recall that we have gone before the drb it's been about five years now um since we last presented before you guys um things have changed quite a bit obviously the the economic conditions um have changed since the last time we presented before the drb there also have been some fairly significant zoning changes too um that have prompted us to to re-evaluate um and look at how we want to uh reapo the project itself so let me go to just an overall um plan here just looking at kind of a Google map of where we're at so like I said 300 West hon so we're at the northwest corner of hon and First Street um it is just east of the Delana Center um just for some additional context here
012you also have the the live um nightclub just to the South um we also had the Flag Staff in arburn news and mli building here just the East and then a block over um fairly similar use you also have the residence um in uh the Marriott Hotel um just looking at the site kind of in three dimensions here again so you're kind of looking at Northwest across the site again like I mentioned you have the Delana Center um the Flagstaff building with the residents the live building um and also then the fairly new uh City Club Apartments here to the South it's fairly significant piece of construction just south of our site here um just wanted to provide this slide here to give some context of what some of the surrounding um structures look like
013um and how we've taken that into context then too as how we've apply that to the building and the types of materials have been proposed and two all right and then just an overall quick layout here I'll I'll jump to the other one it provides a bit more detail but just helps you kind of understand in terms of where we're gaining access here off of uh North First Street uh with no curb Cuts here off of West Kiron all right so this slide here is showing U the overall site layout plan um internally you're looking at the first floor orientation of the building um as I mentioned here along the south side is West hon streat um West hon streat that right away um amenities have actually been recently approved within the last handful of
014years um with some nice DD standard um raised planter beds um and bike hoops and Street lighting so the thought is um in terms of what we'd be proposing along here on street is fairly minimal um and keep most of the improvements intact U we would look at extending um the proposed sidewalk all the way up to the building um to create a nice Street wall along here on Street then along First Street um I should also mention too with West hon there was at a time before the demolition had occurred on the site so those of you don't know the old relax station um was located here along with a handful of other Office Buildings I believe there's a law firm um roughly where my cursor was that has since been demolished um and
015so the site kind of sits right now as a green site um there was an existing curb cut along here on Street um that we would look at be um look to be removing um and then First Street um to we'd be reconfiguring the curb Cuts here so the idea and this is what what with the original layout and what we like to do here with the new one like to provide a guess drop off here off of First Street um again try to meet the DDA standards in terms of RightWay so we'd be improving um the Landscaping with some nice raised um landscape beds both north and south of the drop off area um First Street will be where our main entry into the building is going to be so it's right where my
016cursor is here at the southeast corner of the building and then at the North End I did hear that this being this being brought up so um those of you familiar with the previous project um there was a proposed curb cut here where my cursor was um to enter the enter the site and then a proposed curb cut here on the south side to exit the site for both parking and trash service um that has since been reduced to one curb cut along First Street and uh the intentions for this curb cut parking has been removed um and so this would be solely for any sort of delivery services and trash and recycling pickup I do want to note and we can obviously discuss this um in more detail um but we have had some
017initial discuss s with trash service knowing that that would be one of the major changes um and major obstacles as we move forward with the project and so far we've received um some preliminary good feedback from the city obviously we still need to go for um the planning department as well as Planning Commission for site plan approval also here happening at the North End um we are proposing um some covered bike bike parking spaces um you'll note too we in some of the ground mounted equipment um such as the generator then Transformer um out of the sight of anyone walking down First Street um trying to think what else um like I said just overall we're looking at trying to to maximize um maximize the site um improve improve that Street walk condition um the
018the walkability is going to be vastly improved for both here on and First Street for pedestrians walking by the sidewalk will be significantly wider than it currently is um also we'd be providing some additional plantings here that First Street currently does not have too so and with that I'm going to pass it over to nitton to talk through all of the floor plans and elevations sure I thank you Brandon and appreciate the um the rundown on the site um so thank you everyone for joining tonight as well so I I'll walk everyone through the internal guts of the building and then you know go over the elevations and the rendering um you know this this floor plan you see here is it you know it's it's going to be fronting West hon W West hon
019is going to be at the south side of the page um so with because of the grades uh at the intersection of West hon and North First Street you know we we we experienced a pretty significant grade drop which gives us you know real good opportunity to incorporate a basement to sort of house our back of house and support spaces and this really allowed us to maximize all of our public spaces on level one which on the next slide you'll be able to see um yeah level one so this is our main primary floor this is where our guest entrances will be our hotel check-in our breakfast areas so we were able to maximize this as much as possible to be able to create as much transparency uh especially at the corner and along North
020First Street um all of our public amenity spaces are fronting that so we'll have storefronts um you know a lot of natural daylight coming in and then the rest of the spaces are uh our our guest rooms uh we have a fitness area that overlooks a small little Courtyard um and then we have a little bit of back to house space mostly it's going to be food prep and that's mostly you know active uh between the hours of 6:00 and 10 uh that support space has to be there adjacent to the public space primarily just due to uh being able to serve the breakfast and then put everything back off uh once once the uh serving time is finished up and then of course we have the trash room that was noted by Brandon earlier
021to the upper levels so the upper levels are primarily um guest rooms um again we've we've noted um on there where we have the building step back at levels three through five nothing changes except for that on the lower level on level two we have Queen Queens because naturally just they're because they're two bed units uh they're deeper and then we transition to King units uh one-bedroom uh one bedroom hotel rooms directly above it so that way you know all of our bathrooms and everything stacked it's just the change in depth of guest rooms which also provides and meets the requirement from from the D2 Street wall zoning requirement and then this is our North First Street main elevation um I think Brandon mentioned earlier you know the surrounding context has a pretty heavy significant
022use of brick and masonry so here you know we we decided to kind of follow the theme of our surrounding context um so we're utilizing a brick base with uh an accent color at the windows and then we're switching to metal panel um at level three where the step back occurs uh the at the corner of North uh first and West hereon uh we're we're accenting it to sort of signify the uh the hotel entrance and then West hon elevation um pretty much the same language as we turn the corner as you can see that's where we experienced that that the gray drop off where West her on is sloping down which gives us U the opportunity to get that basement in there again those are mostly going to be support spaces um but uh
023we have the you know we're continuing the storefront elevations all throughout level one along both streets I'm just letting you know that it's been about 10 minutes okay great and this is the north uh this sort of the side and rear elevations so you know we're continuing the brick all the way through and then we're wrapping the metal panel uh around the side and then we're transitioning to a fiber cement panel with sort of a fry uh it's sort of a trim system that it's called fry reglet uh so it kind of mimics metal panel we're going to be matching that same color that we utilize for the metal panel to create sort of that seamless transition um between the two materials but on the back side and the and primarily on the back side
024we're going to be using fiber cement panels that matches the the metals in the front and this is the west elevation again this is primarily guest rooms you know with a brick base uh sort of a muted brick base with just one color and then transitioning to the Fiers cement panels um on on levels two through two through five here we have our building section um this kind of gives you a good picture of how things stack up from you know all the way down to Bas level all the way up to our level five and Trust bearing uh we have the five foot step back noted there um and U of course we have the basement back of house as well next slide you'll be able to see our um all the materials we're
025proposing these are primary materials we have the brick veneer uh the accent brick veneer which is going to be an a tan color uh the fiber fiber cement and metal panels which are both in dark gray and gray and then we have metal panel primary that's that's utilized just at the corner uh where the hotel entrance is um we will be utilizing a metal canopy I don't think it made it in the elevations of the rendering but we are going to be utilizing a metal canopy directly above the main entrances um and then uh you know all of our uh storefronts and hotel guest room windows metal coping all that is going to be um dark bronze to Black to sort of kind of go with the theme of the entire hotel and this will
026all be better depicted in the next slide which is the rendering um so as noted before you know we wanted to utilize that brick base and you here you kind of get a good idea of how that's uh all translated into the rendering uh so we utilized a brick base to sort of ground the structure uh to make it nice heavy and bold at the first two levels and then we wanted to lighten the material and the colors at the step back at levels three through five and then you know you you'll note that the corner uh stands stands basically all the way up to the property line and then goes uh stand taller than the rest of the building while still maintaining our building height restriction and that sort of uh you know to
027sort of to signify the predominant corner and then also the entrance to the hotel thank God I think that's all I had um so we can turn it over for any questions comments thank you um I'm going to before we get to questions and comments I'm just going to go through um some of Matt's staff report um I will try my best to answer any questions um but I'm also happy to send things along to Matt if there's something that he knows that I don't um so just a few things um as the applicant mentioned a similar project Was Heard by the design review board in September 2020 um and that was approved by Planning Commission in July 2021 um but the site plan is now expired um so this is a new proposal for
028this five story hotel with 111 rooms um noted is that fiber cement is prohibited by city code to be a primary building material um so Matt may work with you on that to make sure that the materials revisions um are all up to code um in terms of zoning the project as I mentioned has not yet been reviewed by staff um it will need to undergo the usual development review process and it is a site plan for planning commission um but based on a preliminary review it does comply with the D2 zoning regulations um Matt pulled out a few of the design guidelines that are particularly relevant in particular in site context and site planning um and staff found that the design team has assessed the character of the adjacent streetscapes and buildings and is
029in keeping with the recommendations of the design guidelines they have Incorporated some positive characteristics into the proposed project such as providing no on-site parking and service areas that are accessed off of a single drive from First Street to help enhance the streetcape along hereon um for the design guidelines for building staff has found that the building Mass includes some of the suggested design guidelines and strategies to visually visually divide the mass and provide clear definitions and a sense of scale for building elements um staff has found that the design does achieve some of the goals of the design guidelines for building elements um particularly with wall surfaces primary entrances window design and placement um and building operational systems and then um for General comments the massing and design scale are similar to the project that
030was previously reviewed by the design review board and approved by the Planning Commission the most significant change is an improvement for the overall design which is the removal of the ACC of the through access drive and the on-site parking um I already mentioned the fiber cement um that is not permitted as a primary material but is permitted as trim and accent materials so that can um you can go through that during the review process as well to make sure that that is all good and uh yes after the design review board meeting this will go to Planning Commission we staff review and then Planning Commission all right I think that's all for me and we can turn it over to U questions and comments from the board all right thank you to the development team
031and to you Mariana uh so at this time comments from the board uh dick you have your hand up yeah I just to clarification for Mr Patel um the one one of the Elation showed that can levered canopy and it didn't make it into this rendering we're looking at but is it just over the the double door entry or is it that whole glazed store front turn cor yeah we what we would do is we would span it over that entire storefront and wrap the corner so the the two silver the two silver pilasters that go up and frame that entire Corner we would take it from that side to the other side and wrap the corner with it and our thought was uh based um our thought was to put maybe some Channel lettering
032on that as well to have more of a pedestrian signage there for to Mark the entrance uh the upper signage is primarily obviously for the vehicles um driving by that's what I was hoping you would say thank you yep bill um just to alert everyone I own the building to the on this Elation on this this rendering I own the building to the right the Phoenix West building um so I have some interest in uh site Logistics and I would like to ask Mr Patel since this is quite a transformation at the main floor level and and eliminating the driveway that went around and interior parking what was the motivation for that so overall I mean so I'll be honest the the one of the biggest challenges that we've had on this project uh since
033the beginning even the first iteration was was the was the trash uh services and kind of how we dealt with that um as Brandon mentioned earlier you know there's a lot of there's there's been a lot of changes since you know this first project when it first initially got approved there was you know we dealt with all the tariffs for a little while then inflation so that's sort of the biggest reason why things kind of got stalled out uh once we once we had the advantages of um some of the shifts in in the zoning change zoning code we were able to sort of maximize this and have have have it make a little bit more economic sense so we wanted to maximize the potential of the site um while still keeping to the original
034design and the character and the materials um that was the reason we wanted to we we really wanted to try to see if we can do away with the drive-thru um and to be honest with the grading and all that it just it to us it didn't feel like a say because of how you know safe how busy West Heron is it didn't feel safe for us as well for people to be able to driving uh driving through the site and then having blind spots there as well so just from the beginning I don't think we were too happy with the way things were laid out this provides an opportunity for us to be able to maximize a site and then as well as um still you know having a good uh entrance for service
035and deliveries and whatnot so those were the main primary focuses that we that we took upon when we started to reinvent this project sure and my concern as you can imagine is whether when folks coming checking in checking out and so forth don't have a place to go to park other than what looks like maybe two spaces on first um that they'll end up on my property on the parking lot and we would have a a nightmare of of maintaining order there it one question I had and maybe it's just a matter of terminology in the hotel industry but when it's a limited hotel is there is this one of the hotels where I've been stayed in where there's basically no front desk so all the checking in is done electronically and there there really
036is no I I public says public amenity spaces so my question directly is is there a check-in desk there is somebody a person at that desk 24/7 there is a there there will be one to two attendance there at uh at all times 247 so this is not this is not you know I think what you're thinking of is a little bit more Extended Stay in terms of terminology for the hotel industry but this is limited service in terms of the offerings that the hotel gives to guests like for for example there's not a full bar and kitchen um that's that's the bigger difference here other than that you still walk up to a desk there's a full uh there's an attendant at all times behind the desk um and it'd be it would be
037247 have you set up an agreement with the public parking I think the only nearby public parking is the large lot that's Kitty cornered across it's the southeast Corner that large site that is there an agreement you have with so the guests could park there or they just sort of on their own to find a place if they check in um that would uh Brandon do you have a little bit more background on that one yeah yep and there's no agre formal agreement put in place um but what we're trying to do is is put the practices in what the city's really tried to reorientate themselves you know in promoting multimodal Transportation right so we're not trying to promote um just your classic um arriving to to the to the to the use by by
038vehicle but but rather other other modes of transportation like local um the Tria AA but routes that are nearby um also leveraging some of the existing um public parking spaces too and I imagine um Hawkeye hotels um and the loc and the uh and the management staff would provide um some recommendations in terms of where the best fit would be in terms of parking nearby I should also note too that we didn't indicate in these plants here but deed with a property um are um a handful of parking spaces just to the west of the Delana Center um and most likely those would be intended for for employee spaces so I do want to also note that too that those will be um at least available to us um at a at a limited capacity
039yes and just point of clarification I own those spaces too okay all right that's good to know just like to redirect the conversation back to the design and the design guidelines please thank you I was relating as much as I could to the design guidelines and my recollection of what parking situation should be it's not part of the design guidelines but it would affect the overall appearance if they were change from two entrances to just one so I'm done with my comments thank you Bill Wendy sure um in it's great that the building on Hon is up to the property line or one foot way um my question is there are four residential spaces with windows that um if you're a pedestrian walking down and there is that slope there it seems like the views
040into those rooms would um not be the most private uh is there but I understand the interest in having the windows all kind of uniform across that Frontage but I just wonder if that's the best way to approach um windows with those four rooms you speak to that because I I don't have um uh Dimensions here but I imagine you know as you make your way down the hill that eye level is going to be at the bottom of those windows yeah and and one one thing to note is is inside the guest rooms obviously we we we'll we'll have curtains we'll have the blackout uh curtains available for guests to you know close and open but I obviously that you make a great Point uh one thing to know on the uh on on
041the storefronts that are specifically for the guest rooms the bottom two feet um the where right where that cursor is uh the bottom of that bar will be all louvers for the for the for the PTAC unit that's the AC units in these guest rooms so you know that that in itself will increase the amount of um uh height for people to be able to see into the guest rooms and then we'll you know obviously couple that with the uh the Privacy curtains inside there'll be two layers one with the blackout and then the uh Shear cover for that are available for the guest inside of the guest rooms and I know you brought up the elevation change so um moving from east to west along here on we lose almost 9 feet of elevation
042from this corner to to this corner so by the time we get to these last handful of of Windows um it would be above I level right thank you for that explan all right Wendy thank you Tamara got it um and I know this is a a technically a new project but we've reviewed it before and um there was a lot I liked about the project before um and I see a lot of that missing now we made a lot of suggestions and you know quite a few of them were taken um into account um and I think it was an improved design um this design honestly feels like it's dumbed down from what you had before there is a lot less character in the windows in the brick work um you say there's going
043to be another I don't you know I don't know what that's going to look like um but there was there was a lot more character in the old design than there is now I have no issue with expanding the footprint of the building um that's not for me to comment on on the parking and the um trash pickup and all that um uh I I mean it seems Seems like it work would work just fine but um just as a pedestrian walking by this building um you've taken away a lot of the interest of The Pedestrian a lot of the ins and outs and depth of the facade um used to have some uh some interesting detailing in the brick that's gone so I would like to see that you know if there's any you
044can bring any of that back and um do something more interesting with these windows which have now become quite boring um I guess that's uh it seems like all the materials are um similar to what You' provided before at least along the main facades and I know there's an issue about the cement board but um glad to you still see there is Brick at The Pedestrian level I think the I don't know the the corner entry just seems a little awkward it's like you go in you go into it sort of to the side but it's not very well defined um it's just sort of a big gap underneath this heavy piece at the corner um and maybe the awning will help that but anyway I wish you would um it it just it's just
045lacking character and is feels very much dumbed down from the last [Music] design no I appreciate that I I will note um the and it might it's it's on us to maybe better depict it on um on our elevations but I think I think some of the detailing that you're talking about is maybe those linear strips between the windows on the base on the first levels that we had the brick colors and the brick selection are still the same um so that that's uh that has not changed and then the uh in terms of the ins and outs I think we had another low roof that was popping out on on the first floor to have a better you know uh I think it just worked a little bit better with the footprint that we
046had at the time but once we went through our construction documents phases a lot of this is kind of based on Lessons Learned for us as well the more low roofs that had obviously an arbor experiences a lot of snowfall um we in Atlanta don't so we I don't think we were thinking through that as much um and then you know kind of taking all those factors into consideration that's why we were we were wanting to eliminate you know some of the low roofs uh that we had initially in our previous design um but I but I do understand what you're saying and and we will take another look in terms of the brick detailing and seeing how we can enhance it and kind of get it back to its original character thank you thank
047you uh John I'm going to jump in in front of you because I'm going to Echo a lot of what Tamara had to say and then you can go um I a really agree with Tamara and maybe this is the unfortunate situation you find yourselves in because you presented something to us 5 years ago but I wouldn't call this dumb down I'd call it stripped down and a lot of elements that were attractive about your building before um which I believe that you came through in two phases with us and you listened to us before so I hope you will listen to us again but a lot of the elements that you had Incorporated in the design before are just gone um The Marquees around the first story uh public areas are gone those were
048a real enhancement to the facades for both the First Street and the hon Street exposures um the treatment of the five-story corner where you brought the windows right to the corner was a very attractive element and that's just gone um I don't know why you pulled those windows away but it really uh weakens that whole architecture element um Tamara mentioned the fenestration uh the windows that had kind of an attractive uh kind of an asymmetric um molan treatment in them before and this looks to me like they're just huge horizontal sliders which I think is is awful um couple of other design things that I noticed was corridors that run all the way to the end of the building um an opportunity to bring natural light into those corridors and no attempt has been made
049there to to do that um as well as the not sure which if it's the north stairwell another opportunity for bringing natural light into the stairs and no attempt has been made there to do that so um maybe these are pretty rugged comments but I really like the design that you brought to was 5 years ago and it's just gone this is a very um a very plain uh it's just an unappealing building to me and I'd like to see the design team like I said you listened to us once before hopefully you can take some of this commentary back um I think the the idea that the canopy is going to wrap around the corner that I think nitton mentioned i' it'd be nice to have been able to see what you had in
050mind there in this rendering so um at any rate um if you can you you did pick up six I I understand the comment about what's happened with our economy I'm a general contractor uh believe me I I understand that but you picked up six six rental units um that so I think your site work expenses are going to be significantly reduced by the elimination of the drive drive through which that's another element that I'm sad that that's gone um so at any rate that is my feedback and um I don't know that there will be an opportunity for you to bring this back to us but when you finally end up at the Planning Commission um I hope you'll be able to uh take some of this into consideration and then I'll just wrap
051up by saying that um there were some comments about uh the method uh by which you intend to handle your uh Solid Waste um and another developer has brought up the uh notion that they were denied um for that exact um approach to solid waste removal so just kind of a tip off to you that um that that may not work and um so if that's uh of any help to you as you go forward in dealing with the solid waste folks um and take that for what it's worth uh that's it for me Lori no I was going to go to John next that's okay go to Lori and uh I can I can I can come after Lori all right Lori sure I am apologize for my tardiness today um I will concur
052with the other feedback but move on to just talking about um streetscape and landscape around the building I think um I think fortunately your renderings are showing very small trees and hopefully those will be canopy trees that will be many times that size in their growth to help improve the Street Experience um with that I will say this is a very tough living environment and I hope that your design and engineering team is providing um good underground soil conditions for those trees to grow to full maturity um like silver cells or structur soil mix um because we don't have a lot of landscape here as you're showing it and um I need to do everything we can to make sure that those are happy and healthy and with that I would suggest adding an additional
053tree in the 25 foot long planter that you have to reinforce that um that's on the right side of the image you have one plant in there but um those hopefully will all be very durable um irrigated and good soil condition underneath it's a small cost for um the survival of that tree because it won't make it otherwise um secondly I would love to just see additional softening even at the face of the building you know there's not a lot of movement to and from except at the entrance and the um drop off area so if the setback area at the face of the building would allow some level of Greening or planting I really think it would help the experience around the building right now the street Edge is green and it's all getting
054filled in with concrete so um I don't believe you spoke to the storm water requirements and what you might be providing and I know you don't have much surface land to do that but reducing the amount of pavement as much as possible would certainly be beneficial and um would help with the experience of moving around the building and Lori I think you bring up fantastic points I should also note too that this rendering is not directly embla of what the final landscape plan will look like um I actually believe per code we're required to plant Three Trees along First Street so um those will be looked at um and we'll certainly look at opportunities in which we can soften up um some of the streetscape space on both here on and First Street thank you
055all right thank you Lori um John um well first of all I'm the leison from the art commission so my comments are more about the aesthetic and but I would have to Echo what I'm hearing uh from Jeff and Wendy that it seems a a stripped down plain vanilla kind of building not very exciting I don't think uh in particular The Pedestrian experience I think that uh uh that tamaron and Wendy uh uh talked about that if it's going down here on uh and those are guest rooms um uh and and there's windows uh I don't think it's going to be very pleasant um and if what you're saying if what I understand is there there will be air conditioners uh uh sort of at the bottom of that window uh uh it does it
056doesn't look that um appealing from a pedestrian point of view uh so um uh I I I I hope that you take these comments constructively that um you know we're we're proud of Ann Arbor and it's the aesthetic and and so we treat our buildings like public art and uh we would you know we we'd like you to uh if you can um uh use some aesthetic design that I think most of the the board members saw in the in the previous um uh design um and uh let me just ask a couple of direct questions about public art are you going to incorporate a public art into this project and could you describe it a little bit to me I know we've investigated opportunities um on the previous project um I let nitton I
057wish I wish the Meir was here um from the development team I think he'd be the best to be able to speak towards that but maybe nitton might know how something like that would be incorporated yeah John I I'm sorry I again I would Samir unfortunately had a family emergency um and could not make it but uh I I know we were planning on incorporating on the first round we did not have a chance to discuss it on this one to be completely honest so um in regards to the guest rooms along the first floor um you know one of the things one of the things that kind of brought this project back to fruition was was the fact that we were able to add some guest rooms um you know and it's just it's
058one of those things where what what Jeff was kind of alluding to earlier in terms of the hotel industry and right now with financing terorists escalations of the cost of materials I I know obvious that's a secondary thing but it is something that we have to factor in in in terms of be being able to put in as many guest rooms as possible um one thing I do want to note out is that even on the previous one we did have guest rooms facing uh Weston Street so um there's not a huge change in that while you know obviously the amount of guest rooms that we do have facing Weston has changed we did have guest rooms on the first floor yes I'm not talking necessarily about the use of the of the rooms but
059it's The Pedestrian experience that I'm talking about uh let me ask about the the solar and and the wind I know it was brought up from staff uh are you planning to uh uh to do anything with alternative energy on the building no no uh we won't be the only the only thing that we would incorporate um is perhaps an energy recovery wheel uh for the guest rooms depending on and that's kind of something that we would have to dive into with our mechanical engineer during construction documents um but as far as solar or renewable energy we we are not planning to at this time that that's all I have Jeff thank you all right thank you John Lori is your hand still up okay uh dick let me get that uh just to continue
060with uh John's comments that this rendering we're looking at the the five blank uh metal panels below the word uh Fairfield and two three and four would sure be an opportunity to add some interest color liveliness to the facade that any westbound car on Hon's going to be seeing um there might be an opportunity there all right thank you dick uh anybody else have comment speak now or forever hold your peace thank you to the Developers for your presentation um we will have minutes of this meeting published fairly shortly a draft of them um so that you have that going forward and uh thank you for uh bringing this to us yes thank you um we appreciate the constructive um feedback and we will certainly be taking that into consideration um as this project progresses
061excellent thank you all right moving on to the and I sorry before we move on can I just I have a summary um that I'd like to read to the board make sure that I've accurately captured your comments yeah thank you it's not in my narrative and I almost uh went past it but yes please no problem um so comment about considering the ground floor windows for privacy for guest rooms and also for The Pedestrian experience um thinking in general about a more interesting design for The Pedestrian perhaps with more detailing in the brick work Marquees or more interesting Windows um considering bringing natural light into corridors and stairs uh thinking about reducing pavement wherever possible and adding Greenery and making sure to think about the um underground soil conditions for the street trees um
062and then there is an opportunity to add details and elements in the metal panels that are below the Fairfield logo does that sound right or is there anything that you would like to add or take away from those I think I'd like to add just confirm that there'll be a canal lever canopy on both first and here on at the I guess it's the southeast Cor corner of the building M yeah and at the risk of sounding like the building designer which is not my intent but um I'd like it noted that the windows on the second third and fourth floors at the corners being brought out to the corner to meet one another is a much stronger design element than what we're looking at in this rendering right I've noted both of those anything
063else I'm sorry I might have missed it did you mention the um to reconsider the brick detailing to be similar to that okay great I did yes thank you all right Maran I think you captured that pretty well thank you for that um and now we will move on to the manager report I will um also I guess before we do that um I'll just say to our petitioners thank you you are free to stop sharing screen now um and you can stay on if you'd like to hear the rest of the meeting um but yes um planning manager Brett Leonard and Deputy manager Hank Kelly are in budget meetings right now so I will be giving their report um and they would like me to tell you that there will be a proposed amendment
064going before the Planning Commission on Tuesday February 19th um that proposes to eliminate the design review board um this is per the city council resolution that was passed in April of 2024 um I'm W I'm happy to take any comments or questions that you'd like me to pass along to the managers um I'd like to thank you all for your dedication um and for being part of this board um there will be uh you know public hearing and such on the 19th um and then after the motion after there's a recommendation from Planning Commission this will go to city council and in terms of having another meeting um if this proposed amendment stays on track um it will likely go into effect in June um so depending on if there is another project um in
065the downtown that is proposed before then there may be another meeting um there may not be Mariana did you mean to say the Planning Commission meeting is Wednesday the 19th I think you said February 19th um so missed the day of the week but the 19th is the date okay thank you so Mariana I assume that someone is creating a staff report for this do you know which planner is creating the staff report um the staff report will be published um by the end of the week and uh Alexis can answer any questions about that sure um it is my name on the staff report actually um however it's more of a transmittal memo um from items that were previously prepared by planning manager Brett Leonard and taken from John for former deputy City administrator
066John for's transmitted to city council so is there going to be any analysis other than what um uh for's report said uh like you know extra time it takes or any of that uh or is it just the recommendation um it is it is just um the ordinance changes and the following the recommendation in the resolution I believe it's R 24109 well that I have to say that's disappointing uh that uh recommendation has not been followed up with uh data and an analysis by the staff um be that that they may it looks like that's what's going to happen so um could we request that the staff report be transmitted to design review board members uh as it's completed on Friday absolutely I will make sure that um um when our U Ministry of assistant
067Courtney Manor transmits the transmits the agenda with attachments to the planning Commissioners I'm I'm I will make a special request and I'm positive that she will also CC the design review board members okay thank you yeah I I have to say that um it's pretty disappointing to me um this recommendation came from John fornier and he's not here anymore which is so flipping common in government situations nowadays it's it's like being the general contractor on a on a uh a project like a like a church no offense Tamara because we're working on one together but it seems like by the time you get around to the end of the project the building committee has completely turned over it's all new people not the people that were there in the beginning The Architects basically at the
068end of the project uh not fulfilling uh much of a function at that point the only people that are left on the uh on the project um to yell at are the uh are the general contractor and um so we have a recommendation made by John and he's not here to present his rationale for that um honestly I don't think we have any support in the planning department by staff to keep this board um I've had the sense all along that um yeah you were going to keep us in the loop but I didn't feel like that there was anybody really pulling for us and I think the only people that are pulling for us our ourselves and the original Council that wanted to design review board in the first place um I think we
069made our pitch uh dick wrote a very um I think sort of an not a sort of he wrote an impassioned letter um stating why he believed that we should continue and it's a huge disappointment to be um it's been expressed many times by Hank and by Alexis that you appreciate the work that we have done and uh um I'm grateful for those words um but I'm really disappointed to see the city of an arbor go down this path there's still a lot of development that's going to occur in downtown and um I just think this is the wrong way to uh treat this process so that's my sermon I could say something Jeff I will second what Jeff said and um it's it's sad that the city in oner's recommendation is casting aside all
070the professionals me excluded who are in the design World um that are giving of their time and their expertise in critiquing uh buildings an example today The Architects on the in the group here made some very uh considered suggestions which quite possibly will be accepted they were good suggestions they were critical to some of the design that will be there long term and I compare that to the review that was done in house which basically was a glowing Report with no suggestions for changes I think that's what you're going to find in the No No aspersion at at Kowalski whatever his name is that isn't on the uh Zoom but he made no particular suggestions of changes similar or even vaguely parallel to the suggestions were made today which I think were all considered good
071design suggestions that's what you're getting here is better design suggestions for better design whether they're accepted or not it's up to the developer but I think the city is missing a massive opportunity and I'm not sure quite what the effect will be it it isn't like what's happening nationally it isn't like this is going to cause a lot of extra cost by holding this group together with the city because it's it and as far as developers I've talked to aren't particularly concerned about the extra step if that's what was supposed to be inherent to the rationale of closing this down that would slow up the developers I think that's a specious argument upet uh Jeff I'll I'll just add you you being one of the people that went all the way back to when the
072guidelines were written at the request of council by a number of us that Council and that City administrator were expressing a concern about design quality and then that was the purpose of our formation and the Pendulum has swung and the current administrator and current Council have a Keener interest in expediency than they they do design is what I take from this they have not bothered to respond to our letter or talk to us or try to understand what it is we do so and and that's their right the administrator can can try to change the process and uh he has the right to do that but I I think trading designed for expediency is [Music] unfortunate thank you especially when you don't necessarily get any expediency out of it and thank you Bill the the
073the aspect of it that you spoke to that um and no no aspersions cast toward staff whatsoever but the but if you read the report these are the kind of reports that developers are going to get from planning staff going forward and dick you may not be an architect I'm not an architect um but you know good design um your comments have been uh beneficial over the years and um I don't know if I know good design or not it's sort of like the guy that said uh he couldn't Define pornography but he knew it when he saw it and so uh at any rate it's been a real pleasure Tamara invited me to this board um way back in at its Inception and I have enjoyed each and every meeting that we've had so
074and I've enjoyed working with every single one of you and um so don't know uh dick referred to it earlier as our swan song we maybe we'll have one or two more opportunities to get together anybody else have anything to about well think you've covered it all um and I think can't speak for Alexis but I know um she's been a great proponent of us over the years um maybe in a difficult position but um I know we we've done a lot of studies of how much better we've made these designs and I know the memo we sent to Dick put together you know really outlined all that we don't have to go over it again but it's it's not you know doing the design ourselves um it is just making it better and um
075and I think this one like you said Jeff the one we just looked at is a great example that five years ago we had a lot of examples that or sorry suggestions that made it better and and today we had more and um you know a lot of the developers will take some of those suggestions and it makes a better building that's going to be here for the next 50 hundred years and and these buildings keep getting built with absolutely no character and that that's this is a I I'm standing by dumb down it's uh it's going to sit there um with no character yeah I think it's important to acknowledge that the design guidelines are still a baseline they're not demanding the specifics of Excellence they're demanding Baseline guidelines that get you closer to
076that and the additional feedback is about how you're missing the mark you can meet all of the requirements and still have the terrible building and that's the distinction so if we're reviewing it against those strict rules and that's all we're expecting that's all we're going to get and if we feel like that's the only line that we can you know speak up to that's all that we're going to get and I think even over the last couple of meetings no offense staff but the staff comments are let's stick to the design guidelines comments only talk about these things and that's where we miss the opportunity to actually make something better it's the point of this to provide that added expertise and nuance and the you know the recognition of that value has already diminished so
077um you know I think having this be successful has to be a partnership there has to be advocacy and support across all of the aspects that make it work um and when that's lost the value gets lost you know I I think that that's just a reality of some of the situation that we've been into and having sat through the meeting where they discussed this I I would agree that there is wasn't a lot of advocacy within the city about the importance of what this group has accomplished over the years but I too have really valued the time and respect you all immensely and I'm thankful that I've had the opportunity to work with you on behalf of the citizens of an arbor if I can extend this one more comment sorry Jeff but Lori
078made me think of something I forgot there there are two aspects of the of this design review process and the first is the guidelines and the second is this group uh making commentaries based on expertise and it's important to point out that the decision to rely on the guidelines and have uh staff up apply them is fine but it we all believe the guidelines are dated and we ask 15 years ago to update them and and that never came to fruition they need to be updated so just looking at the guidelines as a staff member isn't enough and I I think what we add to it outside the guidelines or On The Fringe of guidelines as our comments during these meetings is what you're losing and I think that really enriches the review process the
079guidelines need work and I wouldn't like to see staff or whoever is reviewing projects be reliant on just those guidelines they're outdated a good point dick um anybody else we do have a public comment uh second uh round of public comment I think did we already do that not yet did we already do the second round of public comment Mariana no okay we need to do the second round um so to speak during public comment please use the raised hand feature or call 877 85252 47 or ID 974 [Music] Alexa uh we have no one we have one guest and we they are not raising their hands um and we can give it one minute for people to join or raise hands but it's looking unlikely okay well let's just stand by for a moment
080and uh see what happens there have been no new updates since then there are no College raising their hands all right thank you Alexis all right um so we are on to adjournment um if I could have a motion in a second so moved second was that was that Lori that made the motion or camera all right moved by tamaron and seconded by Bill any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I hey hi oppose same sign we are adjourned thank you very much everybody and uh maybe we'll see you next month