Visions of Lake Forest Park task force members, consultants and residents — combined with ample paper and ink — have resulted in a second report regarding the future redevelopment of Towne Centre.
The report presents draft design guidelines for Towne Centre and was presented to the City Council at the Oct. 13 meeting. The owner of the 16-acre site, GE Properties, intends to sell the property, which was built in the 1960s. Many in the community agree the site is an underutilized area.
“Guidelines expressed in the Phase 1 report have been expanded here,” said planning director Steve Bennett, “and formatted in a way we hope will make for a product that allows a developer to get a quick read on limiting factors and opportunities.”
The report identifies existing conditions at the site and what the community would like to see built, as well as the process for redevelopment, Bennett said.
Lloyd Skinner, chair of the Framework Design Guidelines Task Force, said the draft of design guidelines is a follow-up to a public forum in July. Developing the report has taken about six months, he said. The report was prepared by consultants under the guidance of the task force.
“We took some of the concepts that were presented to the community back in July and refined them a little bit,” Skinner said.
Consultants from two firms, Mithun (the lead firm) and Heartland, addressed a few specific issues in the report, Skinner said, in terms of site design. The report was essentially to provide a summary to the Council on issues such as the treatment of edges, scale, design, environmental stewardship and provisions for public spaces.
The report states that to complete the study, consultants conducted phone interviews with Towne Centre’s current owners and leasing agents, developers of retail and existing tenants, in order to understand the opportunities and challenges.
“The intent is to make sure that not only do we have design guidelines that protect the city,” Skinner said. “But also that are realistic in the development community.”
The report states there are several leases on the site that run for 20 years or more, including Albertons, RiteAid and Third Place Books, likely requiring phased redevelopment. Towne Centre is currently zoned for low-density commercial and residential uses and offers no public amenities, excluding Third Place Commons.
A developer currently has the option of developing just the baseline, Bennett said, which is four stories. Since the current zoning has been in place since 1999, indications are that the zoning is not conducive to developing the site, he said.
Design guidelines recommend that any new buildings proposed along edges of the site should be stepped back from the building edge at two stories, Skinner said. Three to four stories would be stepped back 12-16 feet in order to help maintain a pedestrian scale, he said.
Design guidelines suggest several standards that exceed the environmental stewardship requirements of the code, Skinner said, but would be a net improvement in terms of environmental considerations. Design guidelines also suggest that any new development include minimum standards for both indoor and outdoor public spaces.
According to the report, the task force strongly urges the provision of an interior open space that is demonstrated to be flexible and functional for a range of events. The task force recommends a minimum of 5,000 square feet of interior open space and 10,000 square feet of adjacent exterior open space as a minimum size.
“Bonuses” are included in the design guidelines, Bennett said, which will help protect the city from out of scale development. The bonuses also are intended to encourage the types of additional amenities citizens would like to see, Bennett said.
For example, the guideline concept contains two levels of redevelopment intensity. One is mixed-use baseline, which provides an opportunity to integrate residential units into existing commercial space, with buildings limited to four floors, three of which are above ground, with a baseline of public amenities required and performance standards met. The mixed-use bonus increases residential density by one level, to four floors above ground, in exchange for specific public amenities.
“Essentially what they would have to do to get that is provide more in the way of public amenities, like increased indoor and outdoor public space,” Bennett said.
Other ways to earn the bonus floor would be a more environmentally friendly development or enhancing Lyons Creek as it passes through Towne Centre.
The task force created some flexibility for the future developer, Bennett said, by not specifying the maximum height of a proposed development, where redevelopment could start, or the number of units.
“The developer may come in with some things we didn’t think of,” Bennett said. “We want flexibility to propose something that wasn’t initially thought of.”
An eventual developer’s agreement will help work out the details of an redevelopment in terms of bonuses and how the developer would meet the requirements to justify a bonus, Bennett said. The developer’s agreement will require approval from the city council.
A third task force will soon be created to work with staff on developing a developer’s agreement, Bennett said.
“We are hopeful things might start to happen by the first of the year,” Bennett said. “There has been an indication from GE Capital that they are ready to sell the center.”
Because the city is unable to control the time line, Bennett said they can only ensure they are prepared with a regulatory process when a developer comes along who is interested in purchasing the site.
“We are in very good shape,” Bennett said. “We are close to having this document in a form that the city as a whole can get behind and say represents the visions.”
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