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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_Planning and Zoning_1/8/2008 MINUTES VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA JOINT WORKSHOP VILLAGE COUNCIL AND PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD Tuesday, January 8, 2008 • Call to Order and Roll Call The meeting was called to order by Mayor Jim Humpage at 3:04 p.m. A roll call was taken by Village Clerk Lori McWilliams. Present were: Mayor Jim Humpage, Vice Mayor Pat Watkins, Council Member Dan Amero, Council Member Tom Paterno, Planning and. Zoning Board Chair Elizabeth Schauer, Vice Chair Steve Okun, Board Member Leslie Cook, Board Member Royce Hood, who arrived at 3:10 p.m., and Alternate James Hackett Also in attendance were: Village Manager Michael R. Couzzo, Jr., and Village Clerk Lori McWilliams. Council Member Calvin Turnquest and Planning and Zoning Board Member Josh Escoto were absent from the meeting. New Business Discussion on the Vision of the Village Following opening remarks by Mayor Humpage, Planning and Zoning Chair Schauer announced she had asked Community Development Director Catherine Harding to present new roofing materials and new products out on the market. When dealing with the U.S. One downtown area, there was one set look. When that was started many years ago, it was before all of the hurricanes and all of the new technology. Chair Schauer advised that the Planning and Zoning Board had not previously heard Ms. Harding's presentation. Mayor Humpage asked if this was primarily for the commercial corridor on U.S. One, which was confirmed. Board Member Cook commented in the past there had been a look to the Village, and she had found a letter regarding an architectural theme for the Village. Ms. Cook commented there were new products, but the new products could be melded into the current theme, and asked if before talking about products if it should be decided whether the Village wanted to continue with the past look, the architectural theme that was decided on April 20, 1988. Ms. Cook quoted from the letter, "right now, we have a mixture of architecture with no theme set; there was no theme set at the inception of Tequesta; however, we feel that a so-called Florida look should be achieved with further building and remodeling." Ms. Cook commented this had been discussed right after the big black glass building had been constructed, and at the time all had agreed the look would be Mediterranean, tropical like Key West, Spanish, Mizner, or Bermuda. If somebody came in with 'a Cape Cod look, that would not work. A harmonious feel to Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 2 the Village made it more attractive, made the property more valuable because you had a good-looking Village. They had sort of followed the plans of Town of Palm Beach because they had a Palm Beach attorney and followed the dictates that Palm Beach had. Mayor Humpage agreed there was an overall theme to the Village, but that could be accomplished whether barrel tile or metal roofs were used. A metal roof had been the catalyst for this whole thing, but you could have a Key West,. Mediterranean, Spanish, Mizner look with any number of materials. It was obvious the Village's general overall appearance was drastically changed by a black Darth Vader building, as opposed to a new bank with a metal roof, which could be red, blue, or green. Ms. Cook responded no it couldn't—that wouldn't go. Mayor Humpage commented yes, it could, if the Village chose that; and also to be considered was if residents were prohibited from doing something when they were making an attempt to improve their property to the point of safeguarding their property, what happened if that barrel tile roof was blown n off the house. Board Member Cook commented in all the years they had been reviewing plans, she had never had any developer not agree to fitting into the Village. Mayor Humpage agreed. Board Member Cook commented even with the last bank building which had tin on the front of the building, that she had gone to'North Palm and saw they had just built the same building with barrel tile on the roof which fit more with the Village's look, and the applicant had been over the top willing to do whatever the Village wanted. Board Member Cook commented it only made his property more valuable. Mayor Humpage commented it also made it possible for him to put the property in--if you said he must have a certain material or else he couldn't have the building. Mayor Humpage wanted to work together with the business community and Planning and Zoning to come up with an applicable solution. Planning and Zoning Board Member Hood arrived at this point in the meeting at 3:10 p.m. Community Development Director Harding began her presentation by reporting she had spoken with the architect who designed the Village's buildings to understand just what the style was. He had maintained this was the Florida Vernacular. Ms. Harding commented the Village did have the Florida Vernacular, which was a South Florida style that extended all the way down to the Keys, and it combined traditional and Mediterranean style. Part of this was that Addison Mizner was an early architect in Florida; although he was not the only influential architect, he was the first that had a real influence on new growth along the coast. He had traveled extensively in Spain, which was where this architecture came from. He combined modernism, or the modern architecture and materials and styles along with memories of his travels in Spain, and that was what generally made this look. From that point it had been changed into more modern and other influences, and now it was not just barrel tile roofs—there were flat tile roofs, all different colors of tile roofs, and from the Key West area raised seam or standing seam roofs were moving up the coast. Part of the reason for that happening-- why Mizner was able to create something new, and why the Village could create something new, and people in the future would create something new:-was that along 2 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 3 the waterfront with hurricanes, the standing seam roofs were the ones that lasted. They withstood 165 mph winds and flying debris, unless directly hit. When tile roofs were hit by flying debris, tiles flew off, and in today's economy they were very expensive to replace. Dye lots changed, and getting tile to match an original roof was very difficult. Some people were able to store extra tile from the original roof, but one could not store enough for a hurricane; causing issues with durability, replacement, and appearance after a hurricane. Ms. Harding commented when she first came to the Village, there were so many damaged roofs that nobody fixed, that Code Enforcement had to be called upon to get the residents to fix their roofs, which took almost two years. To give an example of the cost for a simple house, Ms. Harding reported she had obtained an estimate on her own house of $30,000 for a tile roof; and approximately $24,000 for a metal roof. Ms. Harding advised that Denney's on U.S. One had a damaged tile roof which took forever to get them to replace, and they finally had to be called before the Special Master and forced to replace the tile, and it had looked like a derelict site for all that time; on top of which Denney's had abandoned the building. It took a long time to get people to spend that kind of money. Ms. Harding urged to look forward to the future; the Mizner design was not the end-all, but would be replaced by other interpretative design. The Village architects, CH2MHiII, had just done a metal roof on a fire department roof in Martin County, so the standing seam metal roof coming up from the Keys was coming to this area because it was more durable. It did not conflict, because the whole Florida interpretative design was the metal roofs. Community Development Director Harding advised that she had formerly, been a designer, restoring old homes, successful enough to put her husband through school to attain a Doctor's degree at NYU, and part of what she did was meld the old through restoration into modern use. She came from a background of knowing the result of merging to attain a harmonious result, which a good architect knew how to do, and from her experience felt the steel color of metal roof would not make it in Tequesta, where there were tile roofs with the orange-reddish tones, and the copper raised or standing seam would be a better blend so that when traveling on U.S. One your eye would see a blend of colors in,a continuous concept. , Ms. Harding explained that the other part of this problem was when an architect designed a building in Florida Vernacular, he also designed the roofing to be consistent with his design of that building, and architects should not be limited from creating good, expensive new designs that the Village would want to represent their community. The Village had a lot of very expensive homes and a lot of people with money who wanted it to look great, or they were not even going to be living or shopping here. Ms. Harding cautioned the roof did not dictate the building design, so what should be done was to let the architect dream the best traditional, Mediterranean, modern look and the roof that went with that design. 3 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 4 Ms. Harding advised Commerce Bank had submitted an application with a raised seam copper roof. They had stated their normal design was the raised seam roof, and the North Palm design was a renovation that already had tile, so they had used both. Ms. Harding showed a picture of the architect's design submitted to the Village, along with their palette. The architect had repeated features used in the Village buildings which were also visible throughout the Village. There were a lot of straight lines in the design, and the architect had designed a standing seam copper roof, which made a blend of the line and design of the building. When the Planning and Zoning Board determined they would prefer a tile roof, the Board did not have the opportunity to review that tile roof, so while they had something in front of them to look at, when they changed that one feature they did not have the new version to look at, and they approved it with the change. Ms. Harding showed a picture of the changed version, which showed tile that was almost in ruffles. The architect did not design that—he had straight lines and -features, and now he had ruffles on the roof. The Board did not see the changed version to have the ability to choose between the two, they only saw the original version and made a decision. When the applicant came before the Council for their second plan review, to see what the Council thought, it was decided to have this workshop. Ms. Harding commented this was a great graphic to show what happened and how the building had changed its feeling. Council Member Amero asked why the Board had no opportunity to view both versions before making their decision. Response was that would have delayed the applicant by a month. Ms. Harding advised that in the comprehensive plan and any governmental plan you were supposed to save the applicant money, not cause a hardship or additional.cost. Council Member Amero asked if applicants were given an opportunity to look at the code, to which Ms_ Harding responded there was no code that applied. Ms. Cook stated there was a policy. Ms. Harding clarified there was no written policy. Ms. Cook commented the letter was in writing, and the board had denied buildings because they didn't fit; she had always thought it was too bad they couldn't get to the architects ahead of time, although some did come in and ask if there was a standard look, so as not to waste their money. Council Member Amero asked the board members' feelings on this issue. James Hackett responded he was new to the board and he had been very confused and still the next morning did not understand what happened.- Being new, he had questioned if there were design guidelines. He worked for Gentile Holloway and knew of design guidelines in different towns; he was not the only new person on the board, and he had had no idea what the theme was that was being talked about. If he had known there were guidelines, such as to use these four types of tile, or that this was the theme, then he could have had an idea where this was going, but the Village did not seem to have that. Board Member Cook commented that for so long, literally years, the board had the same people and there was the same staff, so everybody knew the program, and their board wrote the landscape code. There were changes, and the people who knew the program were lost. The letter was written in 1988, and she had other papers, having saved everything. She planned to bring old plans to the Village since she understood 4 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 5 that in the move, plans had been lost. Ms. Harding advised that was not correct, and this was getting off track, and asked to hold landscaping aside to address later. Council Member Paterno commented the Village code was the guideline and it was specific in that you could have tile, you could have certain items that met the code, so unless the code was changed, if you wanted tile you could have it. You could ask them to have tin, but could not require it, and that was his opinion. He personally did not want to see only tin, although he thought it looked great. He had clay tile on his own roof, which was probably even more fragile than the cement, and he loved that look. Council Member Paterno commented it was simple--if someone wanted to build something they needed to meet the code, or the code needed to be changed, and that was his opinion. Vice Mayor Watkins commented she had been here a long time as well, and. appreciated Ms. Cook's long-time service. The Vice Mayor expressed her opinion this became an issue of common sense at this point, the Village had a general look, she wanted to encourage people to live here and do business in the Village, so she wanted an overall consistent look.that was aesthetically pleasing, but not so specific as to say to a developer he could not use something. She wanted to get to a place where the overall look melded—she did not know materials, but thought an applicant could bring a product that first came.to the Board to determine if it were aesthetically pleasing with the U.S. One corridor, and use the lessons learned following the storms when everyone had learned about what worked better. Vice Mayor Watkins commented when she had seen both pictures compared at the Council meeting, her first thought was this was a very- angular building that, looked better with the lined roof, and she thought the color was fine. If there was nothing in the code that said they could not use the metal roof, she could not see saying to the applicant that they could not do it, or the Council needed to re-address the code. She wanted to use common sense and what would be easiest for businesses to work with, without letting go of the overall feel of the Village. Obviously, she did not want a black glass building, or purple and pink paisley—it must aesthetically look pleasing. The Vice Mayor stressed that this building as submitted with the metal roof did not bother her and repeated what she had said at the Council meeting, that with the lines of the building it was more appealing. Board, Member Cook asked Mr. Hackett if design guidelines in other towns specified roof material. Mr. Hackett responded they gave a range of material for texture of buildings, to,rooflines, to glass—it was specific but gave a range, so it did not allow for a Darth Vader building, but absolutely would allow this design; it just gave parameters. Vice Mayor Watkins' asked if Mr. Hood or Mr. Okun had a preference--if the roof mattered to them. Vice Chair Okun responded that evening of the P&Z approval and thereafter, there was confusion being raised stating- aesthetic and talking about material—two distinctively different things. If one were looking for a look, it could be achieved using a lot of different materials, as mentioned previously; In his opinion, although the Village had aspired to have a '.certain look, he did not believe it had succeeded in having a comprehensive look that said, oh, I'm in'Tequesta. There had, 5 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 6 been a commitment towards making things look upscale, but there had been some embarrassments. Vice Chair Okun stated the design met the criteria, because it was a Key West look. Using Florida was a very broad brush—Mizner, Key West, tile, etc., and he understood there were several different types of tile—so he thought the criteria should be specific. Hurricane damages had been a factor in bringing this to the forefront; people close to the community had asked, for example, if the church lost half its roof if it would have to replace the entire roof in order for it not to be an eyesore; or if other businesses wanted to adhere to today's standards would it look like a patchwork quilt. Vice Chair Okun commented he could see where the Village should strive for an image and tighten the requirements, but did not want to make the mistake of requiring a tile roof if the same feel architecturally could be accomplished with other materials. Board Member Cook commented when the nursing home complex was built, the original design had an asphalt roof. At that time the P&Z board had power and she had said no, she didn't want an asphalt roof on that building because she thought that would lower the values throughout the Village, and they changed it. She felt if one asphalt roof were allowed in the commercial area, everyone would want them, and she could look at Tequesta Country Club and when all those houses had tile roofs it had been a more substantial, expensive-looking community. Mayor Humpage expressed his opinion that the Village did have a look; perhaps not as pronounced as Las Olas Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale, but he thought it might be better to focus on what they did not want, such as asphalt. One of the most contentious projects which never took off was Atlantis, which was reviewed over and over, and finally through mutual understanding, changes in elevations, styles, and exposures every one got along. He thought the Village was doing a good job now. The Board, by allowing metal roofs, was not going to turn the Village into the museum of modern art, and could have a Key West look, and he believed the current codes served the Village, and it was a matter of just taking each project, looking at them and talking to the developers, and working with them, rather than dropping a hammer on them. Board Member Cook suggested looking into guidelines of other communities for ideas. Council Member Amero commented he thought the 1988 letter had been an attempt, and he had no problem with the metal roof on this plan because he thought it was in keeping with the overall look of Tequesta. Council Member Amero referred to Jupiter's and other communities overlay districts where you could only have certain roofs in certain districts. Since there were only a few properties involved, perhaps ten, he felt the Village could give developers guidelines for those properties saying what they wanted and did not want there, and giving them a little leeway; that might mean re- writing the code or tightening the code. He would like to be consistent and keep the same thing, but if the Council wanted to allow leeway that was fine. Council Member Amero advised he had been attracted to Tequesta because of the way it looked, and he hoped not to vary too far from that look. Mayor Humpage commented the Darth Vader building was the only building that had. ever been an issue. 6 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 • Page 7 Council Member Paterno commented the codes needed to be tightened, and he did not want ever to put two buildings together again like Baldino's Restaurant. Vice Mayor Watkins suggested Mr. Hackett might provide the Village with something used by another town that would answer this issue—where there could be a little leeway but something really bizarre could not come in. Mr. Hackett responded he could do that, but didn't want to say that was what he was suggesting.. Vice Mayor Watkins clarified it would be an option. Mr. Hackett commented if there were two buildings on either side with barrel tile, perhaps the building in the middle should also have tile, to be consistent. Vice Mayor Watkins advised that was what she had meant by using common sense. Community Development Director Harding commented the comprehensive plan required and used the word, "harmony"; also required by the ordinance; therefore, if the Board saw two buildings surrounding a completely different building, they could just say it lacked harmony. Ms. Harding advised she felt what was now in place was adequate. The only thing she might want to change was not to allow asphalt roofs on the U. S. One corridor. Ms. Harding indicated she did not know if there were any asphalt roofs on the corridor, but there was worry about the future, although she did not think the board would approve asphalt. Vice Mayor Watkins asked if something was needed in writing as a policy or change to the code to state no asphalt roofs. Ms. Harding advised she could highlight applicable areas in the comprehensive plan. Council Member Paterno asked if it could be incorporated into the code rather than just in the comp plan to make it easier to find. Ms. Harding responded that was why she wanted to go through it and match items up. Mayor Humpage commented if you wanted to buy the Chevron station that you would look around and realize you couldn't put up a Darth Vader building. Council Member Paterno's idea was if it was in the code and he could find a way, he would do it. He felt the code should be tightened up because as new people came in they might be more aggressive and not stick to what had previously been done, and so long as it was in the code they could do it. Council Member Amero pointed out a lot of architects did not live here but did a design from Orlando or Ft. Lauderdale without looking at the Village, and he would rather it be in the code what they were not going to get. Council Member Paterno commented the building had not bothered him—the signage bothered him, because on the back of every sign they put advertising on the back, which met the ordinance. Mayor Humpage asked how one would tighten the ordinance; if it had to be encompassing the comprehensive plan. Ms. Harding responded that it did need to encompass the comprehensive plan. That plan was the main concept of the Village, the ordinance followed the comp plan, giving .setbacks, sizes, and dimensions and just - reiterated what the comp plan told you to do. Ms. Harding advised she would put something together showing the flow from one to the other, and there were definite guidelines. She did not see anything that had run amuck around the Village. • 7 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 8 Ms. Harding commented Regions Bank was coming before the Council on Thursday, and they had an architect who worked out of their Texas facility, but they had a Florida Coast design, and all the buildings all looked alike. They went to an area and determined what the regional look was, and designed that look. If the architect was from Missouri, he still had -a Florida plan. Council Member Amero asked if predominately barrel tile could be used with accents like in this particular building to use some kind of different material; he would hate to see a whole metal standing seam roof. Chair Schauer commented you could do barrel tile or a metal roof and have the same kind of continuity—a mixture in an area with a tile roof, a metal roof, and everything would have a flow and be a harmonious look. Ms. Cook commented there was an S tile, and produced an article about a project in Palm Beach where the developer wanted to use S tile and was not allowed to do so. Ms. Harding referred to a sample of barrel tile, and asked if that was what was wanted—for every building to have barrel tile that would look like ruffles. Ms. Harding explained there were quarry tiles of all different shapes and designs, and showed different examples. Ms. Harding explained what had happened on the SteinMart project—the tile approved by the board did not match the tile used on all the rest of the mall. She had asked them to pressure wash all the tile to make it match better. They had saved a lot of money by pressure washing instead of replacing all the other roofs. Ms. Harding indicated there was a point where common sense and economics came into play, and showed an example of the tile. Ms. Cook asked if she had to come back ( to the P&Z board, to which Ms. Harding responded, she didn't because they were in the middle of doing the work. Ms Cook commented she didn't know if that was good, because Ms. Harding had made a decision and it was taken out of the hands of the people. Mayor Humpage commented she was not violating the code; there was no code that required that, and she had tried to bargain the best deal possible for the Village. Ms. Cook felt she Should have come back to the board. Chair Schauer did not agree because the business owner was trying to meet a deadline and a Building Official was trying to accommodate a business owner. Ms. Cook stated there might as well not be a board—why have a Planning and Zoning Board Advisory Board.' Mayor Humpage commented the other members of the board did not seem to be upset—everybody was trying to use a little logic. Vice Chair Okun commented it was so obvious to everybody on the board that SteinMart would have done anything—the board made some reasonable requests, and then left those judgment calls up to staff who dealt with this on an every day basis. Ms. Cook asked why Planning and Zoning needed to be here. Vice Mayor Watkins commented Planning and Zoning provided a good service to the Council by seeing a project first and assuring that it did follow code. Ms. Cook stated they could just listen to staff. Council Member Paterno commented it was within the parameters, and if he were the applicant and it happened like Ms. Cook had just said, he would have been gone, saying it was a nightmare—you had to be reasonable and have give and take—reasonable by having two different tiles or fix and make the problem right. Sometimes the code wouldn't work; in this case it would not look good. Ms. Cook said you could require them to put in all barrel tiles in wherever there was tile. Council Member Paterno commented sometimes it was so minor it was not going to. t =' make a big difference; and that center needed SteinMart or it would have become 8 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 9 condos, and what would her choice be; 500 more people in the Village? Ms. Cook responded condos, to add more people. Mayor Humpage commented everyone was on the same team here; Council Member Amero had suggested to have an overall feel what they wanted the U.S. One Corridor. to look like. At the same time they must be careful what they mandated. If they came up with a feeling they wanted in the corridor and the developers knew that, following the harmony in the comp plan, he thought they were all working well together, and commented in response to why did they need Planning and Zoning that the retention had been done, the on-site water issues had been resolved, and all of these things were implemented because of the Planning and Zoning Board. Waterway Village people had really been hostile, but then they were okay because of Planning and Zoning and staff. Council Member Amero commented the board was an advisory body, very important to the Council to get their feedback. If their approval was a 5-0 vote, the Council did not have to look at much, but if it had been a 3-2 vote they might need to do a little extra looking at what the problems were. They did not expect everything to be unanimous-- the Council members did not all agree all the time, but they worked through it. Vice Mayor Watkins commented the hours spent by the Board saved the Council hours in the meetings, and she would never discount that service. She agreed they did not need a 5-0 vote, but their input helped the Council make a final decision. Mayor Humpage asked Ms. Harding to come up with a summary of the comprehensive plan and what was expected in the U.S. One Corridor. Vice Mayor Watkins asked if the Board was clear on Council's position. Ms. Harding noted Ms. Cook had been correct that the Planning and Zoning Board had created a landscape ordinance.. When she came here there was not much activity, possibly because of the hurricanes. She had the original site plans for all of the U. S. One Corridor buildings, and hired Steve Parker as an outside consultant. All his fees were paid by the applicant. When an applicant came in, Mr. Parker took the plans out to the site and redlined everything that was missing or had died, and handed that to the applicant telling them that was what they needed to do for the landscaping. When SteinMart went in that was what triggered all the landscaping, because the Village could say, you're in violation of our landscape code. They had not only replaced what was missing, they added extensive landscaping throughout the complex and did a great job. Other sites where landscaping had been replaced were the Sunoco Station, County Line Plaza, Fashion Mall, and Mobile Station, and the Village was now working with the mall where Blockbuster was located. Sabal palms were being used to replace Queen palms. This program was working very well to bring the landscaping back to the original plans. Adjournment 9 Minutes of Joint Workshop of Village Council and Planning and Zoning Board on 01/08/08 Page 10 Council Member Paterno moved to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Vice Mayor Watkins. The motion to adjourn carried by unanimous vote; therefore the meeting was adjourned at 4:03 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Lori McWilliams, CMC Village Clerk • 10