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2004-01-07 - Appearance Review Team - Minutes Board or Commission: ❑Appearance Review Team Document Type: ❑Agenda 0 Minutes Meeting Date: 01/07/2004 Type of Meeting: ❑ Regular Meeting Appearance Review Team (ART) Meeting 8:30 p.m., 1/7/2004 Proposed Townhomes, East Side of Prairie Road at Chestnut Terrace Petitioner: John Green, Groundwork Limited, for Insignia Homes ART TEAM: Steve Trilling, Trustee Liaison to the Plan Commission Denice Bocek, Plan Commissioner Matthew Cohn, Plan Commissioner Robert Pfeil, Village Planner Greg Summers, Associate Planner ALSO PRESENT: John Green, Groundwork, Limited Alan Scimeca, Insignia Homes CC: Jeff Berman, Trustee Liaison to the Plan Commission Plan Commission SUBJECT SITE East Side of Prairie Road at Chestnut Terrace (immediately north of Mirielle Phase II) PETITIONER REQUEST Petitioner John Green, Groundwork Limited (on behalf of Insignia Homes), is seeking consolidation of four parcels on the east side of Prairie Road at Chestnut Terrace (immediately north of Mirielle Phase II), and approval of an R-8 Planned Unit Development. The plan proposes the removal of the current single family residences and related structures and construction of 41 new townhome units including associated streets, walks, water retention, and recreational features. ART RECOMMENDATION / NOTES Mr. Green provided an overview of the project and noted that the Appearance Review Team (ART) is seeing the same site plan presented at the first Plan Commission workshop on December 3, 2003. He noted that in his most recent submittal for the second Plan Commission workshop certain elements have been modified. Those elements include a fence along Prairie Road, eliminating the street connection to Avalon Drive (making it emergency access only), and rotating Building 11 to be parallel to Chestnut Terrace. The current plan proposes a mix of two basic units ("A" and "B") each available in interior and end unit floor plan. Each of these four different configurations has been designed to achieve a unique exterior elevation. Mr. Green stated that he has received positive feedback on the mix of brick and stone used at the Noah's Landing development. For that reason he is again proposing a mix of brick, and stone. Fireplaces will be optional, but he indicated that when a unit purchaser does elect to have a fireplace the chimney will be clad in stone. On the interior units the fireplace chimneys would always be located at the two story portions of the building where adjacent units meet. On the end units the fireplace and chimney would be available at either the rear corner or on the side, with resulting effect on the elevations. The fireplaces will be interior with an exterior flue that is 2.5 feet wide and will carry down to the foundation of the building. None of the elevations presented to the ART depict any chimneys, so possible appearance issues have not been identified nor discussed. Mr. Scimeca indicated the fireplace upgrade would likely cost approximately$8,000. Mr. Green stated he believes the color tonality of the building exteriors is too close on the Noah's Landing development and he is trying to achieve a broader range of tones for this development. One color palette contains the darker colors whereas the other has more contrast and more whites. Both schemes propose use of a king-size brick for consistency with the size of the square cut stone. The color schemes will alternate from one building to the next as well as across the street from one another. ART members expressed concern that the color schemes were still too close in tone and that the range should be broader. Mr. Green agreed to explore more diverse color schemes for the buildings. The ART members noted that the units are arranged in only two different building layouts and the potential for monotony is problematic. Only"ABAB" and "AAB" buildings are depicted on the plans. The ART asked if other unit configurations ("ABBA," "BARB," "BBA," "ABA," "BAB") are feasible. Mr. Green responded that the units are designed to fit together and it is not always possible to reconfigure the units in a specific building. He did indicate they can flip Buildings 6 and 7 to alleviate the "ABAB" repeat as one drives down Chestnut Terrace. Mr. Scimeca stated that the proposal includes casement windows without muntins although the muntins issue is subject to change. Mr. Green stated that muntins can create long term maintenance issues in which some windows do and some do not have the muntins installed. ART members asked about the different types of garage doors and garage door headers. Mr. Green suggested that the next submittal be modified to include arched headers with no windows in the brick garage entries and flat headers with arched windows in the door on the stone garage entries. Changes have been incorporated into the garage/gable/bedroom portions of the front elevations to provide more articulation on the front fagade . Stone bays have been incorporated into the rear of the buildings to create a more consistent mix of stone, brick, and cementitious siding material on all four elevations of a building. Some team members supported adding brick on the rear elevation while other felt the brick might overwhelm that elevation of the building. ART members inquired what the price point will be for the units in this development. Mr. Scimeca indicated that the marketing sign will probably read "starting from $349,900" but with upgrades the average unit will cost over$400,000. The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.