Another request to build past the allowed development height on Main Street saw the desks of the Carbondale Board of Trustees this week.
Land + Shelter, a Carbondale-
based architecture studio founded in 2005, discussed on Tuesday, Oct. 27, its alternative compliance request to surpass the town’s 35-foot building height limit with a three-story, commercial- and residential-use design at 155 Main Street. The building would sit on the north side of Main, directly west of the Carbondale Clay Center. The proposal, of which the Planning & Zoning Commission recommended approval, is the second time in the past few months the trustees have seen an alternative compliance request to surpass the height limit on Main. They denied the first.
“It’s deja vu all over again,” Trustee Colin Laird said, referencing the earlier proposal submitted by Forum Phi and Smith Mountain Builders.
Land + Shelter Architect Andrea Korber, however, said she had been told that earlier compliance decisions by the trustees wouldn’t serve as precedent for future development-related compliance decisions. Mayor Erica Sparhawk agreed.
“It’s completely different from the last application,” Sparhawk said, “so I don’t want to really even reference that.”
Land + Shelter’s design requests a max building height of nearly 38 feet, with the third floor and roof stepped back from Main Street. The roughly 38-foot max is measured from the base to the mid-span of the sloped roof, as is “pursuant to the definition of building height” for pitched roofs, according to a staff memo. The peak height of the sloped roof hits 40 feet on the north side of the building.
The first two floors would rise straight from the sidewalk, measuring 29 feet 6 inches, providing Main Street onlookers with more of a two-story perception of the building, given the stepped-back third floor.
The design, made of brown and dark-brown materials, includes a driveway passing from Main under the center of the building to provide access to nine internal parking spots. Along with parking, the first floor would include storage and two commercial spaces. The second floor would provide three commercial spaces and one deed-restricted apartment for rent and affordable to those making 100% or less of the area median income, and the third floor would provide four leasable apartments.
Central to the trustees’ deliberation on the design was its community benefit, a requirement for proposals requesting alternative compliance and something part of the board felt the project was lacking.
The benefit, the architecture studio argues, is that the two-story, 29-foot 6-inch height of the design rising from Main Street is a less imposing view than a 35-foot, uninterrupted building rising straight from Main.
“I think the benefit of the perception of the building does impact the community a lot,” said Sparhawk, who said she would pass the design as proposed.
Land + Shelter also argued that the second story’s 12-foot floor-to-floor height, as proposed, would allow the level’s ceiling height to exceed 9 feet, providing better leasable commercial space. And the design would allow the ceilings of the top-floor to exceed 9 feet.
Trustee Chris Hassig was mostly in favor of the proposal, though asked that Land + Shelter work with the town on various landscaping ideas to keep that area of “Main Street green to some degree.”
The other trustees, barring Kade Gianinetti, who was absent, were less convinced, citing height, building color, lack of obvious community benefit and the obtrusiveness of the driveway underpass as reasons they weren’t yet on board.
Carbondale resident Oliver Sweet approachead the mic during the public comment period of the hearing, telling the trustees he spoke on behalf of people trying to enforce the town’s 35-foot height restrictions. He said he gathered 137 signatures in opposition of the design’s alternative compliance request. He, too, questioned the community benefit of the project.
Sweet was followed by Carbondale resident Steve Zlotnick, who also voiced his concerns about the design, specifically the height perception of the proposed building from the Rio Grande Trail.
The trustees did not come to a conclusion regarding the proposal on Tuesday, but moved to continue the public hearing to Nov. 10.