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Commissioner Brown: In terms of the open space and this kind of gets into how space is <br />designed and so forth, I've got similar concerns as Commissioner Nagler in terms of the <br />number of units and the spacing between the units. One of the questions... anyway, I'm <br />digressing off number 3, but it does relate to the public amenities in that I think with less <br />units you have better open space. I do have some skepticism much like Commissioner <br />Nagler around the vision of re- creating the barn and the water tower and so on. I mean, it <br />kind of comes down to what you expect the owners to be, right? So we heard tonight from a <br />lot of people who said this is a really special project because this is the Sunflower Hill <br />component and a lot of them would like to buy these two -story homes so that they can <br />partner their adult children who will survive them from a life perspective and give them an <br />opportunity to thrive and integrate into the community. <br />So, the reason I bring it up, it addresses multiple things. It was mentioned earlier that most <br />of those folks will not be driving. So it touches on the parking. Right now, if my assumption <br />is that other families purchase these then parking is insufficient. If families of special needs <br />individuals are collaborating and buying these homes, then the parking is less of an issue <br />and the open space component —and the reason I bring it up is that if the proponents of <br />buyers of single family homes have children, then they're going to need a play area, right? <br />They will try to climb that barn for recreation and not necessarily play in the greenhouse <br />whereas if it's adult children that are living in that community, they're going to need and <br />expect a different type of open space. So I'm kind of struggling with how you balance that <br />because I'll be looking for quiet reflection type places versus playground spaces. And we <br />can't control it because the 95 homes or whatever it ends up being would be priced at fair <br />market price so you can't control it but it does affect all of those components and that's why <br />I bring it up. From my perspective, once side will have insufficient parking; the other the <br />wrong kind of open space, but what I see in the project is probably the right kind of open <br />space and the right kind of parking depending on what the homes end up being. So those <br />are my comments. <br />Chair Ritter: Thanks. With regard to public amenities, I think it depends on the target market <br />we're going after for this. Workday came in here the other day and said they are looking for <br />their young professionals for a place to live close to the downtown, so this might not be just <br />a kid's area but it might be young professionals moving in there. But as far as getting <br />density, I know the applicant put up a picture of rooftops where we could have single <br />families and it looks less dense or you get townhomes with four in one unit and the rooftop <br />sits denser. I think because the yards are kind of small, I think it's important to have more <br />public areas so I would give up a little bit of density, make it a little more dense to get some <br />more green space in my opinion and I'm going to leave that to the professional to decide, <br />but this is just a workshop so just a general overview and those are my thoughts on <br />amenities. <br />Commissioner O'Connor: I too think for me more open space and how to create that. So <br />would rather not see these go into a clustered or attached type of townhouse or condo. I'd <br />rather see them stay single family and I would leave it up to the developer and the City to <br />work this out, but I'm not necessarily thinking we have to have less units, but maybe the <br />larger units could be smaller so there are two things —we create more space and we create <br />more affordability because if they were all in that 1,600 to 1,800 square feet and we did not <br />move up into the 2,400 square feet, they are going to be more affordable. Maybe in there <br />we could save the space of two or three homes to create more green space. But, you know, <br />we do have a tree park, a central green and a few things like that that I think would appeal <br />to an older set of children and young professionals, but I still think we should have <br />something. If this is more affordable and young families can afford this, I think we need to <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, April 27, 2016 Page 29 of 43 <br />