Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

present. Vice Chair Carpenter here. Chair Boscher here. Commissioner Dunn excused. Commissioner Tomichek here. Commissioner Conir here. Commissioner Peg here. Commissioner Calling here. Thank you. All right, we have a quorum and the first alternate commissioner calling will be voting tonight. And at this time, I would like to get a motion and a second to approve the meeting minutes for January 13, 2026. Commissioner Caner,

I move that we approve the meeting minutes of the January 13, 2026 City of Westminster Planning Commission meeting. Commissioner Tomichek. Second. Thank you. This is a voice vote. So, all in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All opposed, please say nay.

It passes unanimously. At this time, I would like to open the public hearing. We have two items tonight. Item 3A, public hearing and consideration of official development plan for the Nova Commerce Center located at the northeast corner of West 138th Avenue and Hiron Street. In addition, we have item 3B, a public hearing and recommendation of a preliminary development plan amendment for the West Glenn subdivision filing number seven located at 9140 Wadsworth Parkway. I hereby open the hearing for item 3A and I believe we have a presentation from Mr. Berhoff. All right. Good evening. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Carson Byerhoff, planner with the city's planning division. Apologies. As part of bringing this project before you, a staff agenda memo has been created and tonight's public hearing has been properly noticed. The agenda memo, its associated attachments, tonight's PowerPoint presentation, and the public notices as sent with the mail notices, and the the posted sign notices are hereby entered into the public record at this time. The notices of the public hearing were mailed to 345 property owners, tenants, and HOAs within 1,000 ft of the parcel under consideration tonight. Eight public notification signs were posted on the subject property in both English and Spanish languages. The city has also posted the hearing date and time on its website.

The 28 subject property is a current vacant site located on the northeast corner of West 138th Avenue and Hiron Street as identified in the parcel encircled in the red boundary. The site plan is from sheet seven of Noa Commerce Center ODP official development plan. The development consists of three tiltup concrete buildings totaling approximately 380,000 square ft for flexible employment spaces on 28 acres. The developer is also proposing associated improvements such as parking and landscaping. Section 11515 of the Westminster Municipal Code contains 17 criteria that are to be considered when reviewing official development plans. Staff finds that the ODP generally meets these criteria as outlined in the agenda memo. Staff recommends that the planning commission hold a public hearing and approve the noa commerce center commerce center official development plan ODP subject to the conditions set forth in the summary of staff recommendations in the agenda memo. The staff recommended conditions are as follows. One, prior to recordation of the ODP and issuance of a building permit, the applicant shall submit for staff review and approval the technical corrections as outlined in attachment five. And two, irrigation plans shall be submitted concurrent with the technical corrections. Staff finds that a recommendation of approval of the application would meet the city's strategic priority economic vitality by providing development that includes structures and uses not commonly found in Westminster that would diversify the city's overall business

and job opportunities. The applicant is here with us tonight and has a presentation to share with you as well. Thank you for your attention. There are other staff members with us this evening. We would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. Any questions at this time from commissioners? Okay, please applicant go ahead and make your presentation.

Perfect. Good evening, commissioners. Before you um next slide, Kirsten. Um this visual kind of re represents a collaborative project team supporting the NOVA Commerce Center ODP highlighting the key local development team, design, engineering and planning partners that are involved together. This multidisciplinary team brings the experience and coordination necessary to deliver a well-designed projects that aligns with the city's standards and community expectations. Can I stop you for a second and make sure your microphone is on? Um, hello.

There we go. Yeah, now it's on. I thought I was hearing an echo. So, thank you though. Yes,

the participants are Opus as the developer of parcel 2, Chuck Chapman as the master developer, HR Green as our engineer and landscape planner, and then the Passioner Group community outreach along with our architects where Malcolm just a little introduction about Opus. Uh as the developer for NOVA, we bring extensive experience leading complex master plan employment projects through the entitlement process and implementation. Opus has an integrated development approach that ensures coordinated planning, design, and infrastructure decisions that support compliance in the Westminster comprehensive plan, the approved foster farms PDP. and Opus has been a member of many Front Range communities for the past 35 years, not only with projects that we do, but also with uh lasting community service and involvement in the communities. So, we look forward to the opportunity to do that here in Westminster. Now, I'll turn it over to Marcus.

Great. Thanks, Randy. Next slide, please. I just want to address again as Carson did the overall site and maybe just looking at this site in context of the Lexington and Huntington neighbor neighborhoods on the west of the site, the Orchard Mall and the Orchard Retail. Uh acknowledging that Euron Street is a remarkable zone of transition. It's a 180 foot rightway and as you see everything on the east side transitions to either an industrial or commercial or retail use. Um, let me interrupt you for just a second. Um, go ahead and state your name. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Chair. Uh, Marcus Pchner, P A C H N R. I'm a land use and community outreach consultant to the team. Thank you.

You bet. I think one thing I will note is that you will often hear us say that this is part of the property known as the Foster Farms, uh, the underlying PDP, previously known as that. We'll talk about that a number of but we are just on parcel two as part of that but it really does show the context again transitioning across Euron two great neighborhoods across to the west and really making that transition. Next slide. This shows as we always look at the guiding documents what leads us forward in our planning. Here we have two very specific the underlying comp plan for the site uh that was adopted actually during this process as we went through looking at the flex employment use here and then the foster farms recorded preliminary development plan. This was part and parcel of that discussion over the last four years and we'll look at both of these underlying documents. Next slide. This shows uh this very northeast corner of the city. Uh you really see that transition really that transition of the uh parcel along here on kind of anchored there up to 144th. You see uh in the upper right hand that this is solidly in the purple. This is an employment flex comprehensive plan zone district. To the south and a little bit to the north of it, that dark red is commercial. Uh you can think of the Lowe's property. There will be a commercial parcel in this site just to the south of 138th between 138th and 136. And then you see kind of the darker blue or aqua blue is a little bit of an employment flex or an employment campus. So a little more intense to see that. But you see all of that employment, all of that flex really trying to keep jobs in the city on the east side of Huron. Next slide. This shows just that definition. You all looked at it very closely when the comp plan was adopted. But what is employment flex? uh really to keep those flexible employment uses in office research development facilities includes

warehouse distribution. On the right hand side you see that flex office space manufacturing wholesalers. We'll talk a little bit about who we hope to attract at this site but it's really a mix of those types of permitted uses on this site. Next slide. This is the underlying PDP which is our framework for development. So, we're under contract with uh the owner of the site to develop this on this parcel. So, we use this to look at the planned proposed land uses, the density, the circulation patterns, really the internal layout of the entire site and the general design character uh that really has an ethos across the entire uh foster farms PDP. Next slide. This shows there in highlight our area is planning area two. So what is before you tonight is the ODP for planning area 2. I would note that planning areas three and four are also employment flex and then planning area one is commercial. You can see that really aligns down to 136 moving out to I25 and you can see just to the east of that is where the Lowe's parcel is. So it really makes sense tying together the commercial along 136 then transitioning into this employment flex designation. Next slide. This is uh the process we've gone through. We've just tied it back again. The approved underlying PDP and now the separate ODP. We went through a very iterative process. Had a large neighborhood meeting back in August of last year. Have made a number of submitts, work through that process with the city. I will say the neighbors provided uh a lot of feedback past post that August meeting and we actually had a number of submitts based on that to really address their comments from a landscaping from a design and a lot of building articulation. We'll talk about that in just a minute. Next slide please. Thanks Carson for doing this. Uh we use a community outreach uh where we try to do kind of a looking at the

concentric uh engagement really the most impact neighbors to work with them. That's why we worked with all the adjacent neighbors. We actually met with two of their HOA representatives as recent as last week and followed up over the weekend with a number of individual concerns that have come up in the last couple of months. So, we'll continue to learn from all of them and try to incorporate those into the changes. Next slide. This again shows that maybe just to walk you through and we can go through in a lot more detail with any questions, but this is the project scope. So, we are proposing three employment flex buildings on the site A, B, and C. a total of 386,000 gross square footage in these three buildings. And the tenant sizes what we are hoping to attract here are local and regional tenants. We do not believe this is certainly not scaled for an Amazon or anything like that. These are regional business partners that we want to see there. I do want to note we have been very intentional about the way A and C are lined up. A is the top building, B along Hiron and C along Orchard. Uh, and we'll really see why that reflects what's on the west side of Euron and how we've been trying to be intentional about how those buildings are designed as well. Next slide. This shows a little bit of that uh separation. Again, building A there you see the square footage with each of these. The thing I want to note here, our largest building, our longest building on a north south design, building B. You will notice across from Euron is actually there's a very large property across there with a fenced edge all along it and then open space. So we really tried to buffer uh against the neighborhood where that was all buffered against very significant mature landscaping and long green buffer on the west side of Huron. A is actually a little closer to the residential. So we have more of an east west layout of that building. A really narrow building. And you can also see on B that we have a double row of parking on our side of the

rideway to really increase separation as well. So again, very intentional about how to transition from the residential neighborhood. C, one of the reasons you see this layout is the redesign of the Bull Canal, right? A significant realignment there and the shortening of that and then having an access road off of Orchard. I would also note very importantly and very good suggestion from the neighborhood. You see the entrance to our site between A and B over on Orchard. That does not connect over to Euron. If it did, it would go to the west and go to where Lexington enters their neighborhood. We do not want to have any alignment. We do not want to have a residential roadway. So, our roadway is really about at that cross-section of be there. And it's a right in right out to limit any traffic that would go into the neighborhood on the west side. Next slide. You can see this a little better. This shows a few just views. This is actually an aerial if I were above Orchard uh looking to the northwest uh of the site you see the bull canal uh the realignment there very significant buffering because of that and the requirements of the ditch and the things you have to go through and also on the south side of our building that's really on the left of your screen 138 that shows the drainage way that we have to put in there to really accommodate that. So substantial buffering along our southern edge as well to accommodate the drainage wet. Next slide. This shows a couple of cross-sections that we think are really important. Uh we heard from the neighbors again fully respecting that we want to buffer and transition as much as possible from them as well. As you can see on the top, that's about 498 ft. Uh structure to structure, it's about 460 ft between the buildings. On their side, you know, it is some of the most mature landscaping that you could have. Also, so is the median. I will note that on the east side of Hiron the landscaping is not

there today. So in the public right ofway that is not landscaped. So we will do that and our own landscaping right on the outside of the tree lawn. So really are getting two rows of landscaping coming in because that does not exist today. But again really looking at why we were intentional about the design of the building B the north south building. Really a very significant buffer in green space on the west side of Euron. really trying to match that and again not allowing a roadway connection that would have any way of having any of our traffic move west into the residential neighborhood. Next slide. I think this shows a little bit if I were uh northwest you can see the view angle at the top on the right hand side of the screen. So looking south or looking east back at the site again really being cognizant of the two rows of parking there. significant landscaping. The city really pushed at the suggestion of the neighborhood for additional burming along Hiron. We are using very significant burming to really try to screen additionally and provide and protect that transition from the residential neighborhood. Next slide. This is again from Orchard Road. So looking west, uh you can see that this is probably that primary access point as you see up on the right hand off of Orchard Road. Again, that does not connect over. We don't want to have a drive aisle that connects over to Huron Street to uh increase flow there. But you can see very significant uh pedestrian connections throughout the site. Effectively a loop trail that goes all the way around the site as well. Connects down to Bull Canal uh and actually has some amenity zones throughout this. One thing I will note that you are not seeing any truckloading or courtyards. That is interior only between the buildings. We were very intentional that all of the exterior looked like front entrances to the buildings. So that was also meeting the street and that courtyard or truck courts were only internal to the site to

mitigate any impact that that could have on a residential area. Next slide. This shows again looking east or northeast um yes northeast at this site. Again from that corner really at 138. thinking about how to screen that very significant landscaping again on the south the right hand side there a drainage way really trying to honor the existing contours that are there today and very significant greenway on both sides next slide this shows those crosssections uh I won't belabor these other than to show uh over and over again that the existing Euron street is 180 ft right ofway and then you see really remarkable transitions to those existing neighborhoods. There was very thoughtful planning about that transition, knowing Euron was going to transition to kind of the I25 corridor at some point, right? Seeing all of that, thinking of I25 and the intensity of that site, you see those very significant residential setbacks and that really does play into this. We are trying our best to honor that. You see here a 78 70 almost 80 foot setback before we get to our building. Next slide. This shows the B section which is right in the middle of the site again aligning with that very significant green space uh to the west of ours in the Lexington neighborhood. This is almost 550 ft separation of structure to structure. So really trying to honor where the buildings were at and have furthest points away from that. Next slide section C which is just above 138. Uh if you go to the next slide here, the southern this again shows that this is approximately a uh 400 almost 400 feet before you hit the first residential. So again, really honoring that transition. I certainly will acknowledge that we are putting in new landscaping. It will not be fully grown at that point, but really working on screening walls, burming, and

hills to really try to screen that appropriately for the neighborhood. Next slide. I just want to go over this briefly. the traffic flows. Maybe if you were looking at the left hand side of the screen, this is the traffic just volume. The thing I want to point out over and over again here is that underlying PDP that was approved actually was for like an R&D or more of a true office use, an R&D that was planned to have 7,000 daily trips. This use with a combination of uh premium or primary and secondary is actually coming out with just over 2,000 average daily trips. This is almost a reduction in 5,000 daily trips on this site. That means that all across that PDP. Then if you move to the right, you certainly should also think about the type of traffic, right? Uh again, because we think these are local and regional users. We think these are more like box trucks, not large trucks, right? That will be in the scale of these types of buildings. You can see the darker colors, the red and green are really meant to be the primary truck entrances off of Orchard Road and off of 136 coming into the site and up to 144th. The neighbors have made some terrific suggestions of having additional signage. We wholeheartedly support that. Again, we have laid this site out so there would be no traffic that would move westbound at all really into the neighborhood at all. just having a right in right out on Hiron Street and really directing our traffic back to Orchard intentionally keeping our truck loading zones internal to the buildings. Really being intentional about our neighbors to the west. Next slide. This is uh probably where we kind of make our transition to the approval criteria. This is the underlying PDP and then comparing it to our proposed ODP that we're asking requests or support for tonight. As you can see, they are both consistent. they are employment

flex uh across the board. We are actually at 21.9% in the landscaping area. Four stories is the height. We are using the same height and staying within those limitations. And I think at the bottom of that, it just talks about how we're really very significant less uh traffic and reduction in what we're proposing on the site. Next slide. I will note we certainly could go into more detail. We think we have worked very closely with staff and the neighborhood. When we had our neighborhood meeting in August, there were about 40 neighbors there. That led to a number of uh feedback specifically from Lexington and Huntington, but really about the buffering and landscaping. We worked very closely with the city. There's actually a great deal of feedback about the color of the buildings. We chose very muted colors to really blend into the landscape. It is the same palette of the Orchard Mall and the retail that's south of the Orchard Mall. So, we wanted to be intentional about that palette. So we have worked to be very harmonious with the existing structures. We have worked every angle of this to mitigate any impact of the surrounding neighborhoods with our traffic with our walls and the intentionality of where our trucks are loading and leaving the site. Next slide. Finishing up here. Uh again, we believe that we're in full conformance with all the landscaping requirements and utility. Um we have learned a great deal from the community and we've done our best to incorporate all of those changes. Uh we would respectfully request your support for this application. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any questions from commissioners for staff or the applicant? Vice Chair Carpenter.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh just a couple of questions. the u just there were some comments in the packet agenda memo packet about about traffic uh signalization at 138th etc. Uh sounds like you've managed the traffic onsite but uh would like a little more detail on a couple things on 138th. One was the question if they signalize at 138th is that too close to an adjoining intersection for a traffic light and uh secondly it that snippet of the traffic report really didn't show but uh what effect what is here on street operating at now and what does that look like in the future?

Good evening commission Heath Klein assistant city engineer. So appreciate the question. On 138th the during the development of the traffic impact study at the PDP and the comp plan change, we did evaluate the 138th alignment and signalization for here on 138th as well as 138th and Orchard Parkway. So that will be coming in that supports this project as well as the commercial on the south side. As far as the spacing, it does meet our spec. So, uh, along that corridor, we have 136th now potentially or will be at 138th, then 142nd and then 144th, 46th, and 148th as you travel that corridor. So, it it is within our standards and specs and meets that spacing.

Okay, great. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then the traffic on here. So traffic on Hiron currently we are operating uh we are seeing about 22,000 vehicles a day. So for a six lane facility we are operating in most most oftent times it's in the A and the B. There is concern that there's congestion during the uh commuting hours, but that is along a lot of our roadways and is expected. But Hiron has quite a bit more capacity to to take on more traffic before it really gets what we consider congested. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you,

Commissioner Tov.

So, uh, got a couple of questions. Uh this one should be directed toward the city, but the developer may need to jump in. Um, in the planning memo, uh, in the section addressing the, uh, planning requirements, the municipal code analysis, in the answers to items number one and two, it indicates that due to the type of construction, certain architectural requirements aren't met and general design standards aren't met, but those items are not captured on the PUD exceptions on sheet two of the submitted plans. Does that need to be revised?

Commissioner, thank you for your question. So with a lot of the design standards and uh the more detailed review um that is something that we negotiate as part of the official development plan process and the design standards allow a degree of flexibility and we found that gener generally staff supports the the project with the enhanced screening that the applicant has provided and I'll turn it over to the applicant if they have anything additional that they wanted to speak to how those items are captured.

Yes. Uh thanks commissioner for the question. Um I would add to that that I think the city uh throughout this process you have retail design standards as you know or guidelines but those don't uh on they don't just compare perfectly to an employment flex building type. So what the city I think has done uh very correctly is in working with the neighborhood and us is saying here are the things we're seeing. So we want to see different articulation in the building. We want to see a lot more glass. We want to see other products that come in, other screening that comes in so this doesn't feel like a concrete tiltup building. Right. So they have used the um underlying guidelines to really influence that design. So sir, you are right. There's no standard that applies to flex industrial or flex employment buildings in your code, but they have really drawn to that. We think it's greatly improved it. We have spent a significant time actually redesigning and more providing more articulation to that building. So we think that has really influenced the design of that.

Okay. Um this one's directed toward the developers. Um one of the questions that came up from the public is not necessarily that there are going to be trucks and other things coming into the area because those are already expected by places like Target and all the things that are to the north and the south. But to a degree those buildings have set hours and set delivery times and so on. What given the intended tenants that you have in this area would preclude people being woken up at 3:00 in the morning by deliveries or sending out trucks or whatever it happens to be.

Sure. Appreciate the question. Most of the tenants that we are would be looking at are again as Marcus said local or regional companies that are working typical hours that you and I are working you know that 7 to 5 6:30 type time frame. So one of the kind of the examples that we've used throughout this proc process in terms of kind of employment flex and what does that mean? What type of tenant profile is that? Is think of about your your local HVAC company that that has their office there for their bookkeeping and project managers and and office staff and then they've got kind of an assembly area where they're taking their raw sheet metal and bending that into duck work to get assembled on site and then shipping that on site. So in terms of kind of the uh 24-hour operation or early morning early dawn

kind of that is not the tenant profile that that we see fitting into this kind of employment flex based on the the way the buildings are designed. And then also in terms of kind of the the rents that you will do, those type of companies are typically in bigger distribution centers and located in different areas throughout the the Denver metro area. You mean right across the highway? You got I think that's worries I think that's what worries a lot of folks. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, we're we're not really designed for that kind of um uh operation to to function well within the the campus.

Okay. And then I this is sort of a I think some folks are worried that what you've identified on your plans as your primary permitted uses and what is identified as secondary uses might seem like a bit of a bait and switch. only in as much that most of the professional office buildings I'm familiar with don't have 30 foot ceilings in them. They don't have dock doors on the back and so on and so forth. So I I highly recommend maybe revising the plans to show the primary uses of what you actually mean to put in those buildings as opposed to shifting them off to the secondary uses.

Yeah. Well, it the example I gave of the HVAC company is is similar to what we're looking at, but there's a lot of excuse me, a uh aerospace companies

that are the CTC is getting full up towards Boulder area and those companies are coming down uh which is a lot of of office and and research and lab space, right? Oh, yeah. So those are the kind of tenants that we see that we're going after uh in this market uh based on the building. Now um you know we've got uh you know a 28T clear and a 32ft clear building buildings on the site. the the biggest building is 32, which creates some opportunities for some of those uh aerrol space and DoD contractors to have some of the cranes that they need with some of the work that that they do and in terms of their industry. So,

yeah. Okay. And then this is perhaps to the city. Um, it's identified again in the uh planning memo that uh this site is uh how's it how's it worded here? Uh include structures and uses not commonly found in Westminster that would diversify the city's overall business and job opportunities. Can you explain to me how these three buildings are unique to the rest of Westminster because they look rather common to me.

Absolutely. So the the city of Westminster doesn't have many uh buildings that are in this scale for employment flex. Um there is another example that was recently approved uh a little bit to the southwest of of this one. And so with this what that note is getting at is that this scale of building is something that is not typically found within the city limits. Okay. Thank you. Vice Chair Carpenter.

Thank you. Just want to make a a comment. Uh both both my previous I'm a civil engineer. My previous company uh we had greater than 30 foot ceilings uh in the office area as well as a garage door bay. And 10 years ago when I was working for Manhard, we were actually in the industrial flex building at 100 and Wadsworth Parkway. and and we had drop ceilings in the office and we also had a bay door for our surveyors to come in and get their gear. So there where the ceiling was higher. So there are professional help groups that do go into those types of buildings. Uh just for clarification. Thanks Commissioner Caner.

Thank you. Uh the first question I suppose is for the developer and I only have two questions. Uh it might be helpful for everybody to understand what is a tiltup concrete panel construction um and how that differs from other construction and why that matters. Uh yeah, tiltup construction is basically uh the the procedure for that is you basically pour your footings and foundations, pour your slab, and then you're basically uh forming and pouring concrete for your walls and then tilting them up. That's tilt construction. So you're creating walls horizontally and then tilting them up

them up vertically. Correct. So it's a construction designation more than a look and feel thing. Correct. Okay. Yep. Okay. Um well I actually if you go ahead and stay there I'll ask my second question of you and you have one one PUD exception that you're seeking. Um and you explained that you were seeking it. Um but I'm um and that it relates to the landscape buffer. Could you please describe a little bit more about the justification or need for that?

Yeah. So, we've um on the site plan on the south south side along 138th is a open ditch um storm water collection point that is that brings storm water from the west over to the east and then flows down to the southwest corner and then makes it way its way all the way back to Lowe's. um that is open. So we we're not able to kind of landscape in that area and we needed some additional parking on the south side of building B and building C. And so we asked for a variance in terms of landscaping that we could do on the outside of that um so that we could um get the parking stalls along that southern edge. And in connection with that, we added more landscaping interior in the parking lot uh as part of that request for the variance.

So this would not reduce any landscape buffer facing the residential areas. No to the west. It's to the south side which would be facing the retail the back of the retail. The the retail to the south that is right now a field is a field. Yeah. Okay. Correct. Thank you. That's all I have. Any other questions? Okay. At this time, I would like to open the public testimony portion of the hearing. And first, I need to ask the secretary, did we have any emails or voicemails?

Uh, all emails and voicemails received were transcribed and entered in the packet addendum this afternoon. Okay, great. And do we have a sign up for people who would like to speak? Uh we do. We have uh one speaker this evening. Okay. And u if anyone else would like to speak, uh you still have a chance to sign or at least um let the secretary know. I would ask that you keep your comments to less than five minutes. And who is our first speaker? Uh Ryan Bishop. You missed that one. Oh, this is the second. Go ahead and state your name for the record. Yeah. And your address. Thank you.

Yeah. My name is Ryan Bishop. I'm uh in the Quill Crossing subdivision uh uh off the southwest corner of 136th Avenue and Hiron. Uh my address is 1304 West 133rd Circle. Um, so yeah, I just I also wanted to point out too, I noticed on the signup sheet that maybe some folks had signed up on the 3B agenda item. I don't know if that's that's the case, too. But um you know when I when I first saw this the the plan for this um you know I'm kind of out of the loop because I'm outside of the thousand foot um notification zone but I frequent the uh Lowe's sub uh the Lowe's complex frequently uh to to go to uh go do home repairs. And um I like what what was said earlier too was the uh bait and switch. Um I I kind of can connect with that when I was kind of looking at this plan is I'm hearing the term flex uh employment and I think there was even a a speak that said flex industrial which I feel like more aligns with a lot of what this this plan um entails. Um, one of the bigger concerns I see is the the traffic flows of of the the trucks uh whether they be box trucks or large semis uh coming in is as somebody who provides a lot of commerce to Lowe's and the surrounding uh developments, whether it be going up further uh north up Orchard Parkway, it's a primary artery that I utilize to get uh in and out of a lot of the uh areas that uh that are available. So, I'm just kind of concerned seeing the the truck patterns uh going in and out of the uh the the you know, off of 136. I've experienced multiple times where there's uh accidents that can lead to um you know, congestion uh off 136 in addition to frequent road repairs due to

the city's uh sewer replacement project that continues to cause uh ground settling off of Orchard Parkway and 136. Um, and I guess I'm just kind of I wanted to just bring up too is the concerns of I understand that there's a lot of attractive opportunities that this may bring, but I'm also worried that we might be looking at diluting um, you know, there might be some dilution that's going to be occurring. Um, one of the biggest things is um, over west of the Westmore complex uh, way off of Sims, there's a huge development going in for very similar buildings and setups. And so I'm curious to see how this would be more competitive um than you know other other opportunities that other cities have um in addition to the meaty um complex that the neighboring city of Thornton um recently had default on city taxes and was uh you know essentially being being reclaimed. So, I just want to try to get some clarity of is this actually going to be flex um flex employment or is it going to be flex industrial where we have a handful of employees that may come in, grab equipment and leave, which is great having a home base, but actually, you know, what is the actual employment opportunity growth we're going to have versus being more of a warehousing and a large scale storage uh warehouse for for the for these companies, you know, within our city with fairly close proximity to residential and causing impacts to our uh our um commercial outlets that we as residents go and provide money and provide tax revenue to this city. So that's all I have. So thank you. I appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Do we have another speaker? Uh since some folks signed up on the uh second item, I'll just call out names and see if you wanted to speak for this one. Um James Wilkinson. Yes. Perfect.

I'm James Wilkinson. I live in the Huntington Trails subdivision and my address is also 1304 uh West 141st Circle. Um, I just wondered has an environmental assessment been done for this development. Can anyone answer that question? Yes, an environmental assessment is part of the um material that is submitted for an official development plan. And I'll defer again to the applicant if there was anything that they wanted to speak to for that or if you had any follow-up questions.

So, it's already been completed. The environmental um assessment is done in various phases depending on what application type has been submitted with the the city. Um and I believe it it is a uh phase two environmental uh analysis that is done with an ODP and then a phase three is done with the construction documents.

Okay. Thank you. Well, when I look at the potential for noise, f first of all, you're plopping an industrial complex across the street from a residential area. Okay. And you're talking about fabrication, and I know you you were talking about box trucks earlier, but in in some of the renderings, which were beautiful, I saw a bunch of semis there. But I think there going to be a lot of semis. It's going to be an industrial area compressed into this small property. And I just can't believe that this commission is really going to let that happen. I mean, it's not just some Chick-fil-As's and some HomeGoods. We're talking about an industrial area in a residential area right across from it. And I don't think you guys are taking that into account. And that's really all I have to say. Also, well, no, I have one more thing and then I promise to be quiet. When I look at the potential of things that can go in there right across the street, that's just that's horrible. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Uh the next speaker, um Mark Kipa. Hello. Hello.

So, my name is Mark Canipam. I've been a resident of Westminster and of the Lexington subdivision for 19 years. I'm also on the Lexington HOA board of directors. And so, today I'm here to speak for the HOA and a number of the Lexington homeowners, several of which are in the Buffer area. Let's see. Uh, specifically, we have five major concerns. one um is of the of the three proposed buildings. Building B specifically is not is nearly 900 ft long, 40 feet high when you include the buffer for all of the air conditioning equipment and runs the length of Euron. I believe that that length is not consistent with the size of any of the buildings around it or any building within two miles and it is inconsistent with being adjacent to a residential neighborhood. I want to voice my concern and request that building B be divided into two buildings, each half the size with some space in between. Building B, to be specific, but more generally applicable to all three buildings, is that the proposed construction method of tiltup concrete is also not consistent with the general attractiveness of the neighborhood or of the retail shops in the vicinity. I want to voice my concern and request that an appropriate amount of glass, stone, or brick and stuckle be incorporated into the design to improve its general appearance. While the site improvement does create a road at the 138th intersection to allow trucks to enter the site, there will be significant truck passage southbound as well as northbound on Euron. I want to voice my concern uh about the increased traffic and the increased noise that comes with these trucks. I want to request that all southbound traffic at 144th Avenue be routed to the Orchard Parkway east of Huron and all northbound traffic at the 136th Avenue also be

routed to the Orchard Parkway and not on Huron with specific signage put in place to prohibit uh that from happening. A building 40 feet plus high on the edge of Huron is bound to reflect a lot of sound from Huron back into the Lexington subdivision. I want to voice my concern and suggest that an earthen burm be constructed on the west side of the building so as to partially hide such buildings from people traveling Huron and to provide nose abatement and a higher starting point for the trees that will be planted along the eastern side of Huron. To further reduce noise, I would request that the current vinyl privacy fence on the west side of Huron be replaced with a masonry structure similar to the one in place at Underland Trails. And the current 2 and 1/2 ft high burm as the starting point uh seems rather low uh as as a starting point for where the trees get put in place. Specific areas that the proposal does not, in my opinion, meet the comprehensive plan. Chapter 3.2 two land use framework. Per the developer submitted information, this project is over 85% warehouse. Per the chapter warehouse, the use is a secondary use and should not be considered until the focus area has substantially established primary uses which it has not. Chapter 3.2 Two, land use framework for the chapter secondary uses shall not exceed 25% of the area which this proposal violates. Chapter 6.0 gold ER-1, 1.1. This proposed project will provide a minimal number of warehousing jobs which will very likely not be above the county's average annual wage. Chapter six, goal HN-6 building B and C are directly in

conflict with the primary view as prescribed by the map by the plan map 7.2 chapter 9.2 comprehensive plan compliance when answering the requisite questions for plan compliance. The answers are the project does not support the great neighborhoods due to the mass of building B. The project does not provide a mix of use because it's 85% single-use warehousing. The project does not improve development quality of the surrounding area due to its painted concrete facade. Thank you for listening to these concerns. Thank you.

Uh, next speaker, Mike Obermire. Good evening. My name is Michael Overbermire. I live at 876 Lexington Avenue in the Lexington subdivision. I have practiced law in the state of Colorado for 52 years. I'm a retired district judge from 17th Judicial District. I've lived in Lexington for 30 years when it was all mud when we moved in. At that time, Huron was a two-lane northbound north south street and parts of 136 close to the intersection with Huron were actually dirt or gravel. It was a delightful idyllic community when we moved in. Since then, there's been an invasion of large box-like structures here and there. You know who where they are better than I perhaps. We have drag races every Saturday night up and down Euron and across 136. The noise is appalling already. The traffic noise from the existing traffic on Euron is appalling. This structure, as far as I am concerned, is going to be a warehouse. It uh is very comparable in in my view

to the kind of stuff we're seeing. Uh, for instance, just south of 120th on the west side of Huron, tiltup slabs with painted on windows and doors. I am frankly appalled that this kind of construction and project is being considered for the area we live in. Huntington Trails houses there start at $2 million and go up substantially. Houses in Lexington are almost all in the million23 $4,000 range. This construction is not vaguely compatible with the neighborhood and I for one think it's an abomination. I urge the commission to consider rejecting this entire proposal. I know that there has been community outreach by on the part of the developers and I guess I commend them for that. If I were them, I would have expected the sort of torrent of unhappiness that you're getting from me. I just don't see this as being something that should be allowed in that in that quadrant. I know that the strip all the way north and south on that side of Huron is in the master plan for this kind of development. But I don't think the master planners ever considered there's going to be a 900 foot long tilt slab painted windows, painted doors kind

of construction with a bunch of 2-in trees out there. Hopefully 20, 30 years from now, they might provide some shielding from the appearance of this structure and the noise. But I just don't see it, folks. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh the next speakers, Roger and Lynn Cubic.

Uh Brooke Chapman. Brock, my apology. this way. I'll look on my pen, too.

Good evening, members of the commission. My name is Brock Chapman and I'm with Chuck Chapman Companies. Uh, it's good to be here again in front of you. We are not the applicant tonight. However, we are the owner and developer of the overall 85 acre Foster property. We first started working on this project in March of 2020, almost six years ago. This was one of the last large undeveloped commercial parcels in Westminster, and it was important to city council to include and preserve viable employment supporting commercial uses. this location. At that time, the 2040 comprehensive plan update was underway was led by your city's long range planning team and Andrew Spurgeon. Through this process, some key findings were determined for this property. The focus should be on flexible employment related commercial uses and it couldn't include any residential uses due to utility uh constraints in the area. After being reviewed by two different city councils, the 2040 comprehensive plan was adopted in March of 2023 where the flex employment land use was designated for this and established for this property. The 2040 comprehensive plan was updated again in April 2025. I think that was more of a minor cleanup process, but that maintained the same flex employment use at that time. You all were a part of that. I'm sure in June 2022, a business improvement district was unanimously approved by city council to ensure proper infrastructure financing was in place and available to develop this complex project. It was the first special district approved in Westminster in 12 years, further showing strong support for the project to be developed as envisioned. Next, after extensive reviews by city

staff, holding neighborhood meetings, attending concept plan review meetings with city council, the last foster property PDP, preliminary development plan amendment was unanimously approved in May of 2024, uh, assuring that that preliminary development plan fully complied with the recently adopted and updated 2040 comprehensive plan. This ODP is the final planning area 2 approval requiring a public hearing. As staff states in their report, this ODP is in general conformance with the approval requirements and includes additional enhancements. Those include enhanced landscape buffers, burming, hardscape areas, knee walls, color schemes that were requested by staff to be consistent with the rest of the area. setbacks that go far beyond the requirements and lower building heights than what's permitted in the area. I believe the building height is 40 feet as proposed that the PDP allows 50 feet. So, as the owner and developer of the Foster Properties worked diligently through the Westminster project entitlement review and approval process for the past six years, some of it in front of planning commission, much of it in front of city council. We are in full support of this ODP for the same reasons your planning staff recommends approval and therefore respectfully request your your vote to approve this NOVA Commerce Center ODP tonight. Thank you for letting me recap the history of this.

Thank you.

Did we have any other speakers? U that concludes the list. Okay. Um, I will give everyone one last chance. If you would like to speak, please come forward. Okay. Seeing that there are no more, I'm going to close the public testimony portion of the hearing and uh ask if well, first off, I want to give staff and the applicant a chance to respond to some of the questions and uh other items that were mentioned in the public testimony. Would the applicant like to respond?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Uh thanks to the neighbors uh for the feedback. I think a couple things I just wanted to address. Uh first maybe the traffic issue again. Again, we're showing a reduction of over 5,000 daily trips, but to the notion that if there is better signage that can be provided on directing truck traffic, we are being very intentional about that and pointing that to Orchard with the court truck courtyard internal to the building and coming off of Orchard. But if there's other improvements that we can do on signage, we support that wholeheartedly. Um, we don't know that you can restrict traffic flow, right? But we have worked very hard to make sure that anything that goes to Euron is only a right in right out from our site other than 138. And again, that would probably take you to 136 and then out. So, we agree we don't want to have truck traffic. Again, regional and local businesses is what we're trying to attract. That is what's different than across the highway. and the scale is 15,000 to 80,000 square foot. So, we're being very intentional. I I want to be sure and note that this PDP is in place. This is the land use that is designed for this area. It is flex employment. We didn't do that. We are a purchaser coming in to comply with the flex employment. I want to be very sincere and transparent about the bait and switch. It is not a bait and switch. The primary and secondary uses apply across the entire site and those have to be met across the foster farms PDP. Those you need to go through and those will be based on that. So I just want to be sure that there are requirements even on our site. Building C has to be all primary and then the other buildings may be secondary, but we're hoping for primary as well. So we honor that and across all of that PDP as the staff report said appropriately this will be utilizing a good portion of that secondary and then there will be further

limitations across the site. So I just want to honor that. I also will say scalewise and impact to the property values around there. Immediate north of there is retail that is back of buildings like PetSmart and so forth that have a loading zone against residential. I absolutely believe this can complement the value of a neighborhood more than the back of a commercial or retail building. Hiron is that transition. I'm not taking any umbrage with anything that a neighbor said or neighbors are feeling. We understand that. That's why we've been so intentional and the neighbors have been right about BMS, knee walls, and landscaping to really step down into our site, a double parking area to really have that separation. We are doing everything we can to intentionally design our building. I would note uh commissioner asked a very good question about the tiltup concrete buildings. The reason we're doing that is so that we can add more glass right if we get those local businesses that don't want that can do that. We can add more glass to those buildings to really provide more articulation. The city was very clear about breaks in the building. So yes, that is a longer building B, but we are designing it so it doesn't feel like one building at all. And I would just encourage anybody to go on the west side into that Lexington, a remarkable neighborhood with 40ft, 30 foot trees. You do not see into the site through that median. And we are going to further break that up with two new rows of landscaping and then all these enhancements. So folks, I will say uh this is a 28 acre site that we think we've brought a lot of pedestrian scale and landscaping scale and really addressing the edges, pulling people to Orchard, the traffic that way. So we think we're answering all of it. We will absolutely believe we're compliant with the comp plan. Uh this was protected to have employment flex and that's what we're trying to do on this site.

Thank you very question for you. How high are the BMS going to be on the west side? Yeah, it's it's a it's kind of an interesting like they average um three or four feet across that. It's the you understand it very well, the depth of that, right? And then the landscaping comes down. So, I might turn to one of our landscaping uh experts on that, but there's a three-foot burm kind of across that generally and then it's a different widths of that burming as well.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Good evening, commissioners. Jamie Ramos, HR Green, lead landscape architect. Can you repeat the question? Oh, okay. I just want to ask what the average height of the BMS are on the west side of this development running along Hiron.

Yeah, starting at the south, they're going to be below the flow line on Hiron and they're going to average 2 to 3 to 4 feet as you go further north all the way to the extent of the northwest corner. Okay. And um the BMS will be installed at the same time as any other construction might be done. That's correct. Okay. Yes, sir. Okay, that's my question. Thank you. Before you go, I have one more question. Okay, we have another question for you. So, from the parking area on the west side of building B to the um curb line of Huron, what's the width of that landscape area about? It's hard for me to tell on here. I'm sure it's on one of your sections.

I just didn't see that. I'm I'm just trying to get an idea of how wide that landscape area is between Yeah, the burm itself I think is in the range of 30 feet wide and then the additional rightway up front. I don't know, Carson, can you help me with that at all or I'm looking through the uh ODP last submitted right now. Give me one second, please. Could be in the 70 60 to 70 foot range. Okay. Okay. And that's landscaped and there's a sidewalk in there and a burm, correct? Yeah, there's there's generous landscaping in the rightway and then the burm there and very generously landscaped with primarily evergreen trees and there's no fence along there. Correct. Correct. There's no fence.

So, there was a comment about a fence being added along there. Was that ever discussed with the with the um adjacent property owners or the the HOAs? No, I think Commissioner that was a suggestion that on the Lexington neighbor side that we replace their fence. I think that's was the preference. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions for the landscape architect? Okay, I think that's it. Thank you for your time. Other questions from commissioners? Commissioner Peg.

Uh yeah, I have a question for um uh I don't know anyone involved in site design about the uh the location of the loading docks. And the question would be I just want to check that I'm understanding the drawing correctly. So it looks like all your loading docks are in the alley between building C and B as well as in the alley between building A and B. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And there's there's also screen walls that come out from the building to the drive aisle.

Uh building catch that. Is there is there an easy rendering of that somewhere? Sheet seven. Sheet seven. Do you have a PDF page number in the packet? Um 21.

Okay. here and here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you Yeah, Commissioner, if you can see at the foreground, which is the southern part of the building off of 138, you can see screening walls extending out there. So, to really close that in and then on the very north up by um Orchard, there's also one that extends south there. So, just trying to screen the entire loading bay, if you will, or that area.

Cool. Thank you. And then um my next question is for staff. Okay. Do we have noise ordinances that would um protect residents? Thank you for your question. Yeah, there are general noise ordinances that are part of the code that uh give certain hours that um nuisance activities can take place in and that would be a code enforcement issue if there were to be ever any sort of complaint on whether or not that those items were being met. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Calling.

Um, yeah, I have a question um for the applicant and for staff. So, building B is 900 ft long. That's really long. Um, to not have any kind of articulation, you know, even in residential, you're you're stepping it back 10 feet or 15 feet or or something. It's it's a very long building. And even on this perspective, it's gantuous. Is there any reason why I mean I know this came up because I saw this in the comments from the from the neighbors why we wouldn't just encourage the applicant to articulate that building just a little bit just so as you're driving down LOL it's not just that long not so much for the neighbors but just as you're driving down um Hiron you see that long straight building it seems like we would want to create a little articulation was that discussed at all

yeah thank you for your question commissioner so the um articulation of the building was definitely an item that was part of the the staff review and as part of what we were working with with the applicant, we worked on doing enhanced landscaping and setback to to meet some of the overall design criteria items. And again, I'll defer over to the applicant or if there's anybody else from staff that would like to speak to the review considerations for that.

Yeah, the the building is 884t long, so close to 900. But what we've done is in both corners you've got kind of jut outs in terms of articulation on the corners. You've got a twotory element with glass that is wrapped with uh uh a metal wood. We've got halfway down or and then quarter of each way down the building. You also have another two entrances that are um twotory glass. And then we in between those all those points is we articulated the building out a little bit more added some glass on the top line of the building along those fronts. So we did try to break that up so that it it looks as not one continuous building as you're going by especially with the landscaping that will be there that it it looks it gets separated by the entrances and then also by the the jogs in between the entrances.

I hear what you're saying. you're trying to create diversity with different materials and heights. Um, but that doesn't get rid of that flat plane that you have. Um, is there a reason it needs to be one building versus a way to break it into two? From a functional reasoning, is there a reason it needed to be one building? Uh it gives us more opportunities in terms of uh tenants and how we break up that building and and demise it up into space and and also in terms of some of the opportunities for um the size of tenants that that bring this employment into the area. What's the square footage of building B?

It's uh 94. So, it could be two 85,000 foot buildings or Okay. I I still think it should be have some either two buildings or some articulation would help a lot and I think that would go a long way with the neighbors. I don't know if it's too late to do something like that. That's what I would encourage if there's a new way. Thank you. Thanks,

Commissioner Jung. Uh, I just want to echo what Tracy referenced. Um something that just came to my mind because we keep talking about regional um businesses and then uh this is obviously potentially a flex employment site. Uh for the lay person like me and those who are online watching staff, can you define what a flex employment site is per the comp handbook in terms of a specific question or a specific definition? If you could just give me one second while I pull that up, but please continue. If you have any questions for the applicants,

uh, you keep referencing regional businesses. Can you give me some examples?

Thank you. While those are being pulled up, uh, one of the other, uh, similar type uses is another building that is on the southwest corner approximately of Huron and 120th. And another one that was recently uh approved and is currently under construction, if it's not already occupied, is over in the Mandalay Gardens off of I believe it's 108th and Wadssworth area. So on page 148 of the comprehensive plan, it's in our definitions. Uh the definition of flex space is short for flexible space is space that is typically leased in a commercial or industrial building that offers a multi-purpose workspace typically with separate manufacturing warehouse and office areas. Flex space provides the opportunity for a tenant to customize a space to meet their particular business needs.

Thank you. And then for the applicants, any general thoughts or ideas of what kind of business you think you would bring into this area? I I think it's along the lines of kind of what I talked about a little bit in terms of the explanation of kind of the three different components that the planning manager just discussed in in kind of a HVAC company um aerospace DoD. We're dealing with a customer down in another municipality that's looking at our building that does has about 40,000 square ft of office. They have R&D. They've got labs. They do some assembly. Um those are the kind of tenants that we're looking for to come into this area. It's not um as some have talked about just being a warehouse. There's a warehouse component to it, but it's usually for raw materials and finished products. And there's a office component assembly opponent component to to these tenants.

Thank you. Any other questions from commissioners? Vice Chair Carpenter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh just piggybacking on the flex the flex uh question for staff there. There was the question between flex industrial and flex employment. U I believe flex employment is is one of our land use designations and flex industrial is just a specific type of building. Is that because we don't really have necessarily a definition but one the building would fit under that flex employment. Is that am I stating that correctly?

Correct. We don't have an industrial category uh within our comprehensive plan and with the most recent update the idea of employment flex was to provide an certain type of allowance for uh a range of uses that would include this sort of building as long as well as many others. Okay, great. Thank you on that. And I guess the other question is with the tilup buildings and everything obviously we have a they are proposing articulation and different colors and things of that nature. Uh one time we required a certain percentage of brick and block and everything else. Is is that one of the exceptions we're voting on tonight or am I or is there something else?

Uh it's not a specific exception that is included with the official development plan. However, as part of staff's recommendation of approval, it takes into consideration the overall design of the area and as mentioned earlier, that included the the landscaping and uh amenity spaces. Great. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? All right, I will entertain a motion and a second on this application if we've got someone willing to do that. Vice Chair Carpenter, you're going to be brave.

Well, yes, I will. I move that the planning commission. The hearing is closed for the public testimony. Sir, there was new information. I'm sorry. The hearing was closed. You were asked if you wanted to speak and you did not rise. I did not because there was new information provided and I have a question. All right, Greg. A public testimony has been closed. The commission has deliberated. We have a uh we're about to have a motion. Um it's too late for public comment. Okay. I'm sorry.

How is I'm sorry, sir. You will sit down now or I will have you removed. Okay. Go ahead. Remove me. And this is not I have one question that was brought up from new information that they provided. How was I supposed to provide public comment with that without having that information they just provided? You just heard the lawyer speak. The hearing has been closed. How? Okay. 40ft building 3 to 4ft BM is not going to block. Yeah. Okay. You had an opportunity to speak before. Not. Okay. Do we have a motion?

Yes. Uh let me continue. Uh I move the planning commission approve the official development plan for NOVA common center subject to conditions one prior to the recordation of the ODP and issuance of building permit. The applicant shall submit for staff review and approval the technical corrections outlined in attachment six and two irrigation plan shall be submitted concurrent with the technical corrections. This recommendation is based on a finding that the official development plan is supported by the criteria set forth in section 11-5-15 of the Westminster Municipal Code. Okay. Do we have a second? I'll second.

Thank you, Commissioner Peg. Do we have any discussion on this motion? Commissioner Tomek, sorry.

It's okay. Um, uh, chairman, I I feel as if I'm going to vote against the the motion. Um, I don't feel as if the city has demonstrated that this is a unique enough property and a a unique enough use to allow for the large building and the other exceptions that have been taken. I also feel as if the uh identified primary uses based on my own experience as an engineer and building developer um are going to satisfy what the city nominally requires uh a development provide this based on other facilities that are very similar across the Denver metro area. This is going to end up being more production, fabrication, repair, that type of use, which is identified as secondary. I really believe those should be primary. Okay. Any other comments? I would like to say quickly that um this has been envisioned as either commercial or um industrial for more than 20 years. and it was finalized as that in 2020. So, the city has had this development in mind for many years and this applicant has um modified his ODP in several ways to try and please the residential side of this equation. He's lowered his height from 50 to 40. He's put all of his access and loading on the internal portions of this development and added

um setbacks that were not required to try and reduce the noise and impact on the neighborhood. So, I will be supporting this. I'm uh currently conflicted. I share uh similar sentiments as commissioner Tomak and when references from Tracy. Um but at the same time uh this is a opportunity for to be a financial hub for employment. Um and yeah I'm currently conflicted. Any other discussion? Seeing none, I will call the question. Can we get a roll call, please?

Uh, Commissioner Jeang.

No. Vice Chair Carpenter, yes. Chair Boser, yes. Commissioner Tomichek, no. Commissioner Conir, yes. Commissioner Peg, yes. Commissioner calling. Yes.

Okay. If I counted correctly, we have a five to two. So, this motion passes. Thank you for your presentation, staff and applicant. At this time, I would like to have a short recess so that we can all get a bio break at this time. And the restrooms are located in the lobby on the south side.

I love you. Hallelujah. Glory. Hey. Hey. Hey. feel. Hey Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Oh yeah. Wow. Okay, I would like to call the meeting to order again. And at this time we will open the public hearing on item 3B, a recommended recommendation of a preliminary development plan amendment for the West Glenn subdivision filing number seven at 9140 Wsworth Parkway. And I believe we have Mr. Harlo to make a presentation. All right. Good evening, commissioners. Uh, my name is Kurt Harlo and I'm a senior planner with the city's planning division. As part of bringing this project before you, a staff agenda memo has been created. Tonight's public hearing has been properly noticed. The agenda memo, its associated attachments, tonight's PowerPoint presentation, the mailed

notices, and the posted notices are hereby entered into the public record. The notices of the public hearing were mailed to over a thousand property owners, tenants, and HOAs within 1,000 ft of the property under consideration tonight. One public notification sign was posted on the subject property, and the city has also posted the notice with the hearing date and time on its website. All right, to get us acquainted here, uh, this is a map of the subject property located at 9140 Wssworth Parkway. The site is located within the West Flynn subdivision, generally east of Wadssworth Parkway and south of West 92nd. So, got Wadssworth 92nd up here. All right, a little background with and kind of current state for the property here. Uh, this subject property, uh, there's an existing building on site that was last occupied by Body and Soul Day Spa, uh, Day Spa and Salon. Uh, this business has been closed since May of 2020. Uh, we can probably guess why. Uh, while there has been development interest for the property since then, uh, the building has remained vacant. So uh you can see the current state of the building pictured uh right there on the slide goes. All right. Uh here you can see the proposed site plan the applicant has provided for the take five oil change facility that would be that is being proposed on this property. Uh they will cover this future development um including an updated site plan as well in greater detail during their portion of this presentation. So I will leave further explanation uh for them. I wanted to take a moment to also clarify and point out make sure we all understood the request at hand here that

while this uh preliminary development plan or PDP amendment is needed for the development of the take five oil change, the actual development is not being considered uh with this amendment and will re be review during the official development plan or ODP phase. The only element being added to the PDP and therefore being considered uh tonight for recommendation is the proposed addition of the land use being auto service oil change facility to be put on the PDP and to just uh uh impact this subject property. So just wanted to clarify that piece for everyone. All right. Uh moving on. Section 11514 of the Westminster Municipal Code contains 10 criteria that are to be considered when reviewing a preliminary development plan amendment. Staff finds that the preliminary development plan amendment generally meets these criterias um as outlined in the agenda memo. The proposed land use, while not a present use in this overall development or this area, um is compatible with this existing development and its surrounding area. and it's not expected and not anticipated to have significant adverse impacts um on the area. Staff recommends uh the holding of tonight's public hearing and recommending that city council approve the proposed PDP amendment as detailed in the agenda memo. And lastly, approval of this proposed PDP amendment uh meets strategic priority for economic vitality by helping to promote and support a resilient economy that attracts and retains a diversity of businesses, workers, and industries while expanding living wage jobs and diversifying the city's tax base. Uh and with that, this will conclude the staff presentation. I thank you all for your attention. I'd be

happy to answer any questions that you might have um now or following the applicant representative who will give their presentation and then as well be available to answer any questions. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Question Commissioner Calling. I have one question for staff before you start. Sorry. I apologize. Um, how far will this land use this building or this this building be from the residential units that are just south and east of here? I know that we removed that. It used to be like a Home Depot or something and they put in some apartments. What's the distance to those? Because it looks really close.

It um you actually might be able to answer it better than me. I think it would be within the,000 foot. It's within. Yeah. So it would be within 1,000 ft because they did get notified on the mailer. It's within 1,000 ft. Y so Okay, great. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman, members of the commission, my name is Jim Gamble. I'm with Clayton Development and uh we appreciate the opportunity to be here before you tonight. Uh as Trevor said and Mr. McConnell, they've been great to work with through this process and uh be happy to tell you a little bit more about our project. Uh let make sure I'm hitting this the right way. Yeah. First of all, uh I'd like to tell you a little bit more about uh our client Claycon Oil. Uh we uh are developers of high quality oil change, Take Five Oil. Uh owned by Driven Brands. We're a franchisee. uh 2023 uh Claycon won franchisee of the year uh and is considered a top 10 franchisee across 900 uh locations across the country with the parent companydriven brands. Um we've uh uh developed and owned and operate over 24 uh take five oil change locations in South Carolina and Colorado and have a lot uh a lot more to do here in uh in the Denver market. Uh Brook Hill, just backing up just a minute, Brook Hill was originally developed in 1995. I don't want to belver all the history. Uh we've been working closely with the current owner, uh the Bedin organization, Jerry Bedan, uh for over a year now, uh to hopefully bring this project to fruition. Uh we talked about the site plan a bit. I can explain that. Uh it it actually uh uh eliminates some of the impervious area on the site from the existing facility. And working with Mr. veteran. Uh there there have been a couple other proposals for retail type commercial development here, but we found this through our market analysis to be an ideal location for this type use. Uh architecturally with the building, we've been working closely with staff uh to bring the materials and some of the transparency uh to the building. Uh it's it fits in very nicely with the character of the existing shopping

center uh just both through the material usage and and actually the scale of the building. It's a pretty small building actually. It's it's a little more than 1,700 square ft. And then again this is a three bay building. Uh just in terms of the operational aspect of it, our customers never leave the car. I don't know if you're familiar with any of the commercials. U it's actually not a take five. It's an actually 9.2 minute uh oil change and service for your automobile. But again, the customers never leave their car and uh we'll do about 30 to 50 cars per day uh at this location. That's what's anticipated. We and just a little bit more operationally, we we'll employ 12 to 15 people. Uh operating hours are normally between 7 and uh 7 12-h hour shift. And uh again, we appreciate the opportunity to be here. We look forward to being a good corporate citizen uh here in Westminster. And I'm happy to answer any questions I can. Great. Thank you. Any questions from commissioners? Commissioner Conir,

is do I uh get the scale correct that the proposed building, although this is not the ODP, but what you're envisioning for the proposed building would be smaller than the existing uh vacant building? Yes, sir. That is correct. Thank you. I have a question, but I I think it's more for staff. So this is um why why was um this land use not included in the original PDP do you think?

Yeah, absolutely. That's I mean it's a great question. The the PDP is pretty old. Um I mean as uh Jim was just discussing the history there at Brook Hill. So it goes back a few decades there. Um and realistically it's just the idea for an oil change facility or something like that. It was less of a dominant type land use. it wasn't something we saw as much of a lot of those usually, you know, they were more contained to a mechanic shop, an auto service, things like that. Whereas this being a strictly oil change facilities taking off, we there's a lot more of that now. So, at the time, it just wasn't something that was considered. It wasn't as big of a independent land use or something uh to be seen. So it does fit in with a lot of the type of businesses we would see with the similar uses there and and the surrounding area. So it's not that it's a differing use entirely and it's a impact and it's a compatibility. It's just not a specific use that they may have thought of at the time as being, you know, added there and needing to be called out. I I just think of automobile service centers of typically having certain kinds of um um sound or noise or smells associated with them that you might not find um in other kinds of mixeduse developments, especially ones that include residential. And I just measured it is 371 ft from those apartments. Um I don't think when those people that rented those apartments, those are apartments rentals or for sale, do you know? I think they're rentals.

I believe they're rentals. Um I believe that those it just it seems very close to live that close to um some place that's going to be servicing 30 to 50 cars a day. So I just I I I think that there was maybe a reason why that didn't include auto service in previous zoning. So to add that in here um when you have added residential because we went through this whole process to add that residential. I was here when we approved that project. Um it just seems like an odd land use to put right next to that residential uses. That's just my question. If there was any other thought that went into it that you can convince me that makes it why why you would do that. That's all. Yeah. Do you want I mean the applicant may be able to provide you some more. Sure. Yeah. Talk about the noise and

thank thank you. And and that's a really good question and and again this is very limited service for auto service. We change oils. We'll do fluid uh coolant additives and things like that. Wash your windshield and check the air on your tires. And that's that's essent and some filter change. So there no there are no jack wrenches. Uh the no there is very very little noise. I will add too that just uh with the surrounding landscape and our we we are uh right in the center of the shopping center and there's some other uses that might actually have more noise uh than than our use that are a little more adjacent to the uh to the apartments, but uh we we just really don't ever have any any real noise and uh it's not like a like a normal auto service center would be.

Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Thank you, Vice Chair Carpenter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, well, the noise that was uh that was a question I had, so thank you for asking that, Commissioner Colling. But, uh, the other question I have is on the, uh, PDP document. It looks like we're adding the land use item 35, auto service- oil change facility, and then we have an asterisk, and I'm at a loss to what that asterisk is supposed to refer to. Is there a is there something it's that it's supposed to be pointing me to that I can't find?

The only reason that's there is because the lit the only thing that's being added on the PDP is that land use. That's just indicating that that's the new land use being added. It doesn't actually have any other meaning than that. Okay, perfect. That that makes sense. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, thank you for your presentation. Do you have a question? I'm sorry, Commissioner Jeang. This is for the applicant or No, uh this is for both the applicant and city. Um there's um this shop would be similar to like the Goodyear that's just across the street, right? Or No,

no. Again, the Goodyear would be more of a tire uh store with full auto mechanic uh services. And again, our our services are very limited oil and coolant changes. Okay, that was it. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. At this time, I'd like to open the public testimony portion of the hearing, and I will ask if we had any emails or voicemails on this application. Uh, the emails and voicemails were provided in the packet addendum that went out this afternoon. Great. Thank you. And did we get any signups for speaking? Not for this item. No.

Okay. I will since we have no one sign up. I will ask if anyone would like to speak on this application. It doesn't look like there is anyone who wishes to speak. So, I'm going to close the public testimony portion of the hearing and uh ask commissioners if there's any questions or discussion. And if someone's feeling like a motion, we can entertain a motion on this. Um, who was first? I think I think he was first.

Commissioner Jeang. Uh, I will like to make a motion if there's no additional comments from the committee. Um, I move that the planning commission recommend the city council approve the preliminary development plan amendment for the West Glenn self-division lot 3A filling number seven. This recommend this recommendation is based on the finding that the preliminary development plan amendment is supported by the criteria criteria set forth in section 11-5-14 of the Westminister Municipality Code. And do we have a second? I'll second.

Thank you, Commissioner Peg. So, we have a motion. Is there any discussion? All right, I'm going to call the question. Oh, we do have a question. I'm sorry, Commissioner Calling. It's okay. I was slow to push my button. Um I I will be voting no on this. I don't think it's a compatible use um for this area only because we just changed that to residential and they built all those units right there and I think it's awfully close. So, I will be voting no for that reason. Thank you. Okay, we have Vice Chair Carpenter.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh just a couple comments. I I will be voting yes on this. I believe they've met the requirements uh stated. Uh being that it's right next to Wadssworth Parkway where there's going to be a lot more emissions than the 30 to 50 cars that are are scheduled to be serviced here. Uh plus it's next door to or on the other side of the drive aisle from uh was that a drive-thru for that burger place. I think there's good times.

Good times. Thank you. Thank you. I couldn't I could not think of it for good times more idling cars there. Uh and I noticed in some of the testimony of the Kuraba's owner uh testified about their development that when those places close because they have a brakes plus and the Valvalene and Discount Tires and that they don't need and don't want more businesses like that because the area becomes a ghost town. Well, I there they have a Hoffbrow that's uh very very busy and a and uh the trace margaritas and everything else. So, I think we're uh in seems like that's not a a major issue just because it is right next to to a highway there and everything else. So, anyhow, I I believe that this is a good project and I'm voting yes.

Thank you, Commissioner Peg. Um, I just want to point out that the applicant testified that there will be no um I think the phrase used was jackhammer. Uh uh and I I can hear the sound in my head from a tire change shop. So um I don't think there's going to be a noise problem. Uh uh you know I don't think it especially with Wadssworth Parkway right there. Um further you know I do my own oil changes. I know that oil does not smell that much. It does smell if you're like right there, but um so I really don't anticipate that this is going to impact the neighbors. Um so I will be supportive. Thank you. And a quick comment, I did a a quick search of this area after I read the comment from the Kurabas owner. There are 10 restaurants within a quarter mile of this site and there are only five auto service. So, I don't think there's any uh danger of auto service taking over the area and I will be supporting this. Any other discussion? Can we get a roll call, please?

Commissioner Conir, yes. Commissioner Tomichek, yes. Commissioner Collie, no. Chair Boser, yes. Vice Chair Carpenter, yes. Commissioner Jeang, yes. Commissioner Peg, yes. Yes.

Okay, the motion passes 6 to one and we've heard comments from Commissioner Colin as to why she didn't support. So, thank you for that. All right. Is there any old business that we need to attend to? any let's see what other any other business of any kind that we need to address before I adjourn the meeting. Okay, this meeting is hereby adjourned at 8:46 p.m. Thank you staff for your good work.

Thank you. Nice. There we go.