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Published February 12th, 2014
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KB Project Makes Concluding Rounds
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| By Cathy Tyson |
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| Rendering of the south elevation, Lafayette Town Center Phase III. Courtesy of Heller Manus |
At a puzzling meeting Feb. 3, the KB Home project slated for the gravel parking lot behind Panda Express went before the Planning Commission to receive comments. Senior planner Christine Sinnette called the situation "unusual" and "very different from anything staff has done in the past." Planning Commissioners were initially confused because the proposed 69-unit building's massing and height had already been decided by the City Council prior to a Dec. 6, 2012 legal deadline and the Design Review Commission had approved the project and will be looking at the finer details of the design as a condition of their approval, leaving the Planning Commissioners scratching their heads over the purely procedural review.
"There is no point in a Planning Commission meeting at this point" said Commissioner Jeanne Ateljevich. "The size and mass were dictated long ago in developer agreements."
Explaining they are "90 percent" done with the design of the project, project manager Steve Buchholz of Heller Manus Architects clarified that is the reason the Design Review Commission was able to approve the project, and that all of the final drawings along with refinements will come back for a final review by the DRC.
A staff report prepared for the Feb. 3 meeting noted the requirement of the Planning Commission to review the plans, and that DRC will continue to work with KB Home on further design details, including lighting fixtures, fencing materials, detailed landscape specifications.
It has taken years to get to this point of having nothing to decide at a meeting, aside from brief commentary. Changes have been made to this multi-family complex on a 1.5 acre parcel in the heart of Lafayette with regard to size and ownership. Originally Lafayette Residential Partners proposed development on the site, but sold their interest to KB Homes about five years ago, now the structure is shorter than when first proposed and the number of units has been scaled back from 81 to 69 units. A Development Agreement was amended in February of 2008, which ratified terms that both the city and the developer agreed upon almost 15 years ago; freezing the city's rules and regulations to the original approval date of April, 1998.
Moving forward, the City Council, on a split vote, approved conceptual architectural plans in late 2012 for a 72-unit, 55-foot tall structure that is the third component of the Town Center development. It has since been revised to a total of 69 one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Conditions of approval required that both the Design Review Commission and Planning Commission respond to six specific directives to make the project approvable. Directives range from incorporating a grand gesture or organizing element to simplify materials to reduce the verticality and beyond.
Because the relevance of comments was in question, none of the commissioners addressed the list of six directives, noting those items are the jurisdiction of the Design Review Commission. Commissioner Karen Maggio expressed concern about sustainability issues, she wanted the living areas to be "more gracious" and commented about the scarcity of green features such as the lack of natural light and ventilation in the interior corner units, "this design is so 20 years ago."
The next step for the project is to go before the City Council on Feb. 24 for their review. Changes or amendments can still be made by the City Council at that time by a majority vote. Then it will circle back to Design Review for further refinement of design details.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA