Land Development Immediately North of Baseline Crossing

New information added 29 June 2006 is included in red

Background

The farm land immediately north of Baseline Crossing is being developed. It is a total of 80 acres, which has been separated into two 40-acre parcels. The parcel just north of Baseline Crossing is identified as Parcel #9 in the city's Comprehensive Plan. Immediately to the east of Parcel #9 lies Nuoci East.

The city's Comprehensive Plan specifies Parcel #9 as a mixed-use parcel that is required to contain 15%-25% medium-density residential housing. Medium-density housing is defined by the city to be less than six dwelling units per acre. The table in the upper-left corner of the Comprehensive Plan makes this clear. The table also makes it clear that Parcel #9 will contain no high-density housing.

The sketch plan submitted by Markel Homes to develop Parcel #9 and Nuoci East includes 12 acres of high-density housing in Parcel #9 immediately to our north. It had 7.76 dwelling units per acre, according to city senior planner Karen Westover's 24 March 2006 Memo to the Lafayette Planning Commission. The updated sketch plan, mailed to neighboring residents with a 9 June 2006 letter by Karen Westover, had a reduced housing density; now it is 6.81 dwelling units per acre. Both of these numbers (7.76 and 6.81) violate the city's Comprehensive Plan. They are inconsistent with the existing surrounding neighborhoods, and I think they change the character of these neighborhoods. The updated figure represents a 13% increase (the old number was a 29% increase) over the maximum allowable dwelling-unit density specified in the Comprehensive Plan and at least a 40% increase (the old number was a 60% increase) in the dwelling-unit density of Baseline Crossing.


We need your signatures

If you have not already done so, please sign the petition urging the city Planning Commission to honor the Comprehensive Plan and not allow the builder to substitute high-density housing for the medium-density housing specified for Parcel #9 in Lafayette's Comprehensive Plan. You can do this by contacting Joe Werne at 518 Arbor Drive, either via telephone (303-661-0891), email (werne@cora.nwra.com), or by stopping by his house (518 Arbor Drive). Please also educate your spouses and neighbors (both renters and owners) by pointing them to this website, and please urge them to also sign the petition.

So far we have collected 80 signatures, but we'd like to get as many more as we can. Our goal is to have a signature from every resident and owner in Baseline Crossing. Click here for a signature map of the addresses for which I currently have signatures (highlighted in yellow) and the addresses for which I've not yet been able to contact the owners and/or residents. We have not yet been able to contact residents or owners of the following addresses:

412, 427, 553, 557, 561, 700, 704, 705, 708, 716, 740, 764, 768, 776, 780

If you know the residents and/or owners of these addresses, please educate them about this effort and encourage them to sign the petition.


Make the city and the builder hear your concerns

If you don't take the time to let the Planning Commission, the City Council, and Markel Homes know your concerns, they cannot act in your best interest.

You can send a letter to Senior City Planner Karen Westover via email at karenw@cityoflafayette.com. Karen is very responsive and will get a copy of your letter to the Planning Commission if you request it.

Alternately, you can send a letter directly to the Planning Commission via planning@cityoflafayette.com.

You can also express your concerns to the City Council via council@cityoflafayette.com.

Finally, you can contact the developer Michael Markel at michael@markelhomes.com.

You can see the letters I have sent to the City via the following links: 3 April Letter and 30 April Letter.

You can also check out the email I sent to the developer: 4 May Email (to which I received no reply).

Lynn Wilson also sent a letter to senior city planner Karen Westover regarding high-density housing and its impact on traffic. Feel free to use it as well for ideas to write a letter of your own. Thanks Lynn!

Your HOA representatives have also sent letters to the Planning Commission. You can see them here: Baseline Crossing HOA Letter and Gateway Circle HOA Letter.

After the 28 June Planning Commission meeting, Debra Southard sent a letter to the Planning Commission experssing continued concerns about the housing density, the detention pond, and traffic on Crossing Drive. Thanks Debra!

Also, I sent a letter to Michael Markel requesting landscaping to conceal the row of parked cars that will undoubtedly continually line Street C, and I made a plea for sensitivity to the density of the homes immediately to the north of Baseline Crossing.

 It is not important for your letters to be long and detailed or for you to take a lot of time composing them. But it is important for you to at least briefly express your concerns. Otherwise the Planning Commission will have the false impression that only a few residents of Baseline Crossing are concerned about the high-density housing proposed by the builder for Parcel #9.


Important meeting dates

Markel Homes is holding a Neighborhood Meeting at 7:00pm in the Library 10 May 2006. Please attend the meeting and provide feedback to the builder so he can understand how he should modify his sketch plan to satisfy your concerns. Let him know you want the housing density in Parcel #9 to satisfy the Comprehensive Plan, i.e., medium-density housing, which is less than six dwelling units per acre.

Here's how to tell if the new sketch plan Markel Homes brings to the meeting has less than six dwelling units per acre. First, from his drawing, identify Parcel #9. It will be the left half of his drawing. Next count the number of units in that left square. If a property straddles the line that separates Parcel #9 from Nuoci East, count it as half a unit. If the total you get for Parcel #9 is less than or equal to 84 units, then his plan is in compliance with the city's Comprehensive Plan. If he has 85 units or more, he is over. Since this parcel contains only 14 acres that he is planning for residential, at 6 dwelling units per acre, his total can't be more than 14 x 6 = 84 units.

If he is over 84 units, we should politely let him know his plan is not acceptable because it has high-density housing in Parcel #9 and therefore violates the Comp Plan.

I think we should not tell him that we have a petition for the Planning Commission. That is between us and the city. We need not show our hand to him this early. It is more important that we offer him some useful feedback regarding our concerns so he can integrate it into a new sketch plan.

Unfortunately I will be out of town and unable to attend this meeting. I'm counting on my neighbors to speak for me in my absence.

Planning Commission Meetings are held at 7:00pm on the 4th Tuesday and Wednesday of each month at City Hall, 1290 S. Public Road. Agendas for these meetings are posted at Planning Commission Agendas, usually several days before the scheduled meetings. Archives of past meetings are also available at this site.

The upcoming 28 June 2006 Planning Commission meeting will have the approvel of the revised Markel Homes Sketch Plan as part of its agenda. Please show up and voice your concerns regarding Markel Homes planned high-density housing immediately to your north and give the Planning Commission a clear and united message that they need to honor the Comprehensive Plan. The meeting will begin at 7:00pm.

City Council Meetings are held at 6:30pm on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month. Agendas for these meetings are posted at City Council Agendas.

The HOA meetings held Tuesday 2 May 2006 were productive, and the Markel Homes Sketch Plan was discussed. It was decided that each HOA entity (Baseline Crossing, Gateway, and the Master HOA) would individually write letters to the city expressing its concerns regarding high-density housing proposed for Parcel #9.

These letters can be found at the following links:

Baseline Crossing HOA Letter to Planning Commission
Gateway Circle HOA Letter to Planning Commission

This should not discourage individual home owners or residents from writing letters of their own.


Markel Homes is not our enemy

Markel Homes builds excellent homes, and the quality of their homes will most likely elevate our property values. However, the reality is that the builder will make more money if he can convince the city to allow him to pack as many homes as possible into Parcel #9. If he succeeds, the overcrowding will adversely affect your quality of life and your property values. His current plan will cram about 800 residents and about 500-600 cars in Parcel #9 and Nuoci East to our north and north-east. Please do your part to make sure this does not happen.


Arguments the city has made to allow high-density housing in Parcel #9

At the 25 April Planning Commission meeting, senior city planner Karen Westover attempted to justify allowing Markel Homes to include high-density housing in Parcel #9 by arguing that if one averages the housing density over the entire 54 acres in both Parcel #9 and Nuoci East put together, then a density below 6 dwelling units per acre can be achieved. There is a name for this. It is called fudging the numbers. The Comprehensive Plan does not state that high-density housing is permitted in Parcel #9 if lower density housing is included in an adjacent Parcel. Be prepared to address this argument from the city and remind Ms. Westover and the Planning Commission that the comprehensive plan requires medium-density housing in Parcel #9.

Also, on the telephone with me Karen Westover has echoed the builder's suggestion that the Walmart Detention Pond shown in the southern-most portion of Parcel #9 in the Markel Homes sketch plan is sufficient to buffer Baseline Crossing residents from the high-density housing proposed by the builder. I have addressed this in my 30 April Letter to the city. I argued that, for the buffer to be sufficient according to guidance from the Comprehensive Plan, it would have to be 418 feet wide and not just the 200 feet it is currently specified to be. See my 30 April Letter for more arguments I use to dispute the buffer concept for the Walmart Detention Pond.


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