TO: Mayor Bien-Willner and Town Council Members
FROM: Jill Keimach, Town Manager
Paul Michaud, Planning Manager
DATE: September 10, 2020
DEPARTMENT: Community Development
Staff Contact Paul Michaud, Planning Manager (480-348-3574)
End
AGENDA TITLE:
Title
Consideration of a Statement of Direction Extension for Major Special Use Permit Amendment (SUP-18-05) - 7101 E Lincoln Drive - Smoke Tree Resort
Body
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Approve the requested modification to the Statement of Direction (SOD) for the Smoke Tree Resort application (SUP-18-05) from September 30, 2020 to December 15, 2020.
Background
SUMMARY STATEMENT:
Request:
Gentree LLC, the property owner of the Smoke Tree Resort, is seeking redevelopment of the property located at 7101 East Lincoln Drive (APN 174-64-003A) via a major amendment to the site’s existing Special Use Permit - Resort zoning. The proposed redevelopment of this property will be a complete demolition of all existing structures and construction of a resort. The Planning Commission at their September 1, 2020 meeting, in a vote of 5 to 0 (with Commissioners Covington and Lewis not in attendance when the vote occurred), requested that the Town Council consider extension of the September 30, 2020 review deadline in the Statement of Direction (SOD) to December 15, 2020. This extension will allow for more time to review SUP-18-05. The Planning Commission goal is to hold special meetings in October 2020 to complete its review, with a public hearing for recommendation to Town Council by the end of October 2020 or early November 2020. The December deadline was selected to avoid having to seek another extension from Town Council should there be unexpected delays.
BACKGROUND:
The applicant filed the major amendment to the site’s Special Use Permit zoning (SUP-18-05) in May 2018, with a SOD first issued in October 2018. After several months of review, the Planning Commission recommended denial of the application request in March 2019. The applicant had a couple meetings with Town Council and subsequently revised the 2018 proposed plan to remove for sale units, reduce the number of guest units, parking and other changes to the current project plan under review by the Planning Commission. With this revised plan, the Town Council then issued an updated SOD in June 2020. The June 2020 SOD gave the Planning Commission until September 30, 2020 to complete their review and recommendation.
Some of the items being worked through include the following points:
• The Planning Commission continues to review the proposed density and 3rd story height elements. Although the traffic study, several parking studies, perimeter landscaping, and other aspects of the application have been discussed; the Planning Commission has not reviewed the Parking Management Plan nor fully reviewed the valet plan. There have been numerous exchanges between the applicant’s consultant, Town staff, and the Town’s 3rd party reviewer on this plan, creating delays in the Planning Commission’s review.
• The applicant submitted an acoustical study in mid-July that Town staff then sought a third-party peer review. The applicant is expected to respond back to the third-party review comments by mid-September.
• The applicant and Town staff are working with a neighbor off Quail Run Road regarding proposed pavement improvements south of the Quail Run Road resort entrance to best deter traffic from passing this entrance.
• Due to other discussion items, the Planning Commission was unable to start reviewing the draft ordinance stipulations at its August 17th work session as planned. The applicant has not returned their comments back to Town staff on these draft stipulations. In part, this is due to the concerns over density and height, along with expected stipulation edits after review of the Parking Management Plan and acoustical study.
ATTACHMENT(S):
A Application
B Statement of Direction (June 2020)
C Proposed Revised Statement of Direction (September 2020)
D Applicant Correspondence