CITY OF COCOA BEACH DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES PLANNING BOARD BRIEFING For Meeting Scheduled for April 1, 2013 Agenda Item C2 TO: FROM: RE: City of Cocoa Beach Planning Board Anthony Caravella, AICP, Director of Development Services 30% Design Documents for the Minutemen Causeway Low Impact Design Stormwater Plan and Streetscape Master Plan DATE: March 27, 2013 Project/Location: Minutemen Causeway Engineering/Downtown Area Request: Request approval of Minutemen Causeway 30 % Streetscape Master Plan and authorize proceeding to 60% design for landscaping and incorporating any changes to the design based on input from Public Works, Fire, and Police. NOTE: This item is presented at the request of the City Manager to review the revised 30% design for the streetscape. A. Project Information On March, 2009, the Planning Board reviewed and recommended a Downtown Streetscape Master Plan and 30% Design for Orlando Avenue Landscaping. This work was part of the September 20, 2007, City Commission authorization of a contract with Miller Legg and Associates for the purpose of providing engineering, design, and landscape architecture services to develop engineering documents and landscape architectural plans for Minutemen Causeway and the downtown area. This plan was reviewed and approved by the City Commission on March 19, 2009. On May 12, 2010, the City approved a modification to the Miller Legg contract, which authorized the development of a CRA Stormwater Management Plan. This plan has been adopted as part of the Downtown Cocoa Beach Community Redevelopment Plan. K:\userdata\SHARED\Building Department\COMPLAN\Sector-Area Plans\downtown sample\minutemen Causeway Engineering\Miller Legg Contract\LID for Minutemen Causeway\PB Staff Stormwater 30% Plans (4-1-2013).docx
On August 17, 2011, the City approved a modification with Miller Legg to prepare 30% plans for a Low Impact Design (LID) Stormwater project for Minutemen Causeway. Stormwater Utility Director Joanie Regan has taken the lead on this project. A public presentation occurred on August 28 th, 2012. As part of the Stormwater improvements, modifications to the 2009 Minutemen Causeway Streetscape Plans have also been made. The increases in the amount of trees and landscaping provide additional vegetative support for the bio-swales proposed in the LID plan. Given the proposed changes to the Streetscape Plan, the Landscape Committee also reviewed these plans at their September 11 th meeting. B. Planning Board Review and Recommendation At your September 10, 2012 meeting, Stormwater Utility Director Joanie Regan, introduced and provided a presentation for this project. At that time, the board received the modified Minutemen Causeway Streetscape plans and the 30% drawings for the Minutemen Causeway LID Stormwater project. Following review of the 30% design documents for the Minutemen Causeway Low Impact Design Stormwater Improvements and modified Streetscape, the Planning Board provided the following recommendation to the City Commission: Motion by Cunningham/Malik Following review of the 30% design documents for the Minutemen Causeway Low Impact Design Stormwater Improvements and modified Streetscape, I move to recommend approval of the preliminary design and recommend proceeding with final design, subject to the following condition: 1. No oak trees shall be installed on Minutemen Causeway between the Ocean and Orlando Avenue. VOICE VOTE ON THE MOTION CARRIED 4:1; CARPENTER, CUNNINGHAM, DAVIS, AND MALIK VOTED AYE; SCHAEFER VOTED NAY. The Board asked to review the plans a second time at their October 1, 2012 meeting. Based on discussion and direction at that meeting, the City Manager asked the Planning Board, at your January 7, 2013 meeting, to review the original streetscape plan and recommend the City proceed to the 60% design based on that original streetscape. The Planning at that meeting took the following action: - 2 -
Motion by Cunningham/Cleveland Move to authorize staff to move forward to the 60% level for the stormwater portion of the Minutemen Causeway project and to exclude any landscape or streetscape provisions in the 60% plan, which will be further addressed at meetings before the Landscape Committee and the Planning Board. VOICE VOTE ON THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 5:0; BYRON, CARPENTER, CLEVELAND, CUNNINGHAM, AND KIRSCHENBAUM VOTED AYE. The City Commission did approve the 30% engineering plans for storm water improvements to Minutemen Causeway at their February 21, 2013 meeting. At the request of the City Manager, a more detailed streetscape/landscaping plan has been prepared. This revised 30% design for the streetscape/landscaping component for this project is the subject of this presentation. Following Planning Board review and recommendation, this revised landscaping plan will be submitted for Landscape Committee review and City Commission final approval. C. Landscape Committee Review and Recommendation Staff presented this request to the Landscape Committee at their September 11, 2012 public meeting. After review and discussion, the Landscape Committee recommends approval subject to the following conditions: 1. No oak trees shall be installed on Minutemen Causeway between the Ocean and Orlando Avenue. 2. Irrigation shall be installed to ensure proper landscaping development and maintenance. However, and based on the Planning Board s action on October 1 st, the Landscape reviewed three conceptual streetscape plans at their January 15, 2013 meeting to discuss which concept should be used to proceed to the 60% design. That review resulted in use of the Original Minutemen streetscape presented as Attachment C Revision 1 3-13-09 with MINUTEMEN&ATLANTIC REVISION 5-16-2011. The Landscape Committee also provided a list of recommendations for use by the Landscape Architect to use in the modified streetscape. D. City Commission Review and Recommendation Staff prepared the Commission briefing for their meeting scheduled for October 4, 2012; however, the City Manager removed the item from the agenda. Staff will proceed with processing this project through the City Commission following the Planning Board s recommendation. - 3 -
The Commission reviewed the Design City of Cocoa Beach Downtown Minutemen Causeway Stormwater and Preliminary Streetscape Plan at the February 7, 2013 meeting, at which time the Commission voted to continue the item until their February 21 st meeting. On February 21, 2013, the City Commission took the following action: I MOVE TO APPROVE THE 30% DESIGN OF THE DOWNTOWN MINUTEMENT CAUSEWAY STORMWATER AND PRELIMINARY STREETSCAPE PLAN WITH CONDITIONS IDENTIFIED IN THE MREMORANDUM AND PLANNING BOARD AND LANDSCAPING REPORT DATED FEBRUARY 12, 2013, AND AUTHORIZE DEVELOPMENT OF 60% DESIGN PLANS FOR STORMWATER. LANDSCAPING/STREETSCAPE TO BE AUTHORIZED AT A LATER DATE FOLLOWING LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE FINAL RECOMMENDATION. VOICE VOTE ON THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. In addition, the City Commission took additional action: MOTION BY WILLIAMS/TUMULTY I MOVE TO REQUEST THAT STAFF WORK WITH THE CONSULTANT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHASED APPROACH AND IMPLEMENTATION. VOICE VOTE ON THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. E. Planning Board Requested Action Tonight, the board is requested to review the design and configuration of the streetscape and authorize proceeding with 60% design of the streetscape component. To that end, attached are City Engineer John Adair comments as well as updates to the estimate of the cost of construction. Exhibit: Downtown Streetscape Master Plan Drawings with December 2011 Streetscape Attachments Copies Robert Majka, City Manager, Robert Torres, Public Works; John Adair, City Engineer; Joanie Regan, Stormwater (via e-mail and less Exhibit) Miller Legg & Associates (JSutton@millerlegg.com & MStehli@millerlegg.com) - 4 -
From: Sent: To: Subject: Dan Connor Thursday, March 21, 2013 1:16 PM Tony Caravella 30% plan2 This appears to be, primarily, a landscape plan I have no comments on the LS. I have one observation otherwise. Are there plans to make Minutemen Cswy, between Brevard and Atlantic, some form Of Restricted Vehicle Zone? it does not appear, at this juncture, that school busses and TTrailers can make the turns, from Orlando to MM Cswy (Or, at least, not without running over some landscaping..) Pls contact me if you have questions. Daniel Connor, AICP, City Planner City of Cocoa Beach, Florida 321.868.3218 * * * From: Sent: To: Cc: Subject: John Adair Thursday, March 28, 2013 12:00 PM Tony Caravella Robert Torres RE: Cocoa Beach 30% Master Plan - Draft Tony please see below my comments, sorry it took so long to respond I was finishing up the Parking Garage report. It appears the majority of my original comments haven t been addressed: The intersection of Orlando Ave still does not have a right turn lane. The plan still shows tabled intersections, I still feel they re inappropriate. And I also believe they will be extremely difficult to permit through the FDOT. Southbound Brevard Ave needs to be exclusive right and thru/left instead of thru/right and exclusive left. Parking spaces still do not meet code (22x8 vs 20x9) The location of the onstreet parking spaces are too close to the intersections/crosswalks in many locations (FL Statute 316.1945(b)) and also might provide a hindrance to the sight triangles at the intersections. It appears the vehicle path at the Minutemen Cswy street end is sending the vehicle into a light pole. Has an autoturn analysis been run? We need to make sure that both emergency and delivery vehicles have access. Medians still show concrete instead of a decorative stamped paver or some other material. The NW corner of Brevard/Minutemen intersection still doesn t show an accurate representation of what could be required to fix this corner. ATTACHMENT A (1 of 2) Staff Comments
As far as the new boardwalk, was this a Commission or Planning Board driven request? I m unaware of this improvement. Have we received buy in from the neighboring residents and businesses? This might have all happened in the past, I m just unaware of it. Still showing a significant amount of improvement on private property. I feel this is unwise to plan on these changes without have the proper easements or agreements in place to construct the improvements. For example, if we were to receive funding from an outside source, the fact we re showing proposed right-ofway conflicts could impact our ability to secure funding. I understand that its still 30% and still a concept, but I think its unwise to show improvements for approval that are not practically feasible/desirable. Thanks, John John Adair, P.E. City Engineer City of Cocoa Beach 1600 Minutemen Causeway Cocoa Beach, FL 32931 Office: 321.868.3278 Fax: 321.868.3385 jadair@cityofcocoabeach.com ATTACHMENT A (2 of 2) Staff Comments