City of Aurora Planning and Zoning Commission met Aug. 18

By Kristine Gonzales-Abella

Nov 23, 2021

City of Aurora Planning and Zoning Commission met Aug. 18.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Pilmer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL

The following Commission members were present: Chairman Pilmer, Mrs. Anderson,

Mr. Elsbree, Mr. Gonzales and Mrs. Owusu-Safo. Mr. Chambers and Mr. Choudhury called in and excused themselves from the meeting.

OTHERS PRESENT

The following staff members were present: Mr. Sieben, Mrs. Morgan, Mr. Broadwell, and Mrs. Jackson.

Others Present: Kellie McIvor (Redwood); Anthony Falkowski (Redwood); Gale Verdick (1355 Hidden Oaks Drive), Jim Lund (1353 Big Oak Trail); Russ Whitaker (Rosanova and Whitakeer), Ram Chandramouli (1012 Sundew Court), Karmen Tai (4180 Castle Rock Circle), Susan Chan (4190 Castle Rock Circle), Tahir Yahya (4123 Winslow Court), Bob Eggert (1022 Sundew Court), Murali Emani (4135 Winslow Court), Rupak Singore (4141 Winslow Court); Revanth Mothekani (4111 Winslow Court), Norman Lazatin (4210 Castle Rock Circle), Praveen Nimmala (4147 Winslow Court), Debbie Cardinal (1225 Chicory Lane), Sami Daraiseh (4285 Castle Rock Circle), and Nancy Luna (1152 Stonehaven Circle).

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

21-0576 Approval of the Minutes of the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on July 21, 2021.

A motion was made by Mr. Elsbree, seconded by Mrs. Anderson, that the minutes be approved and filed. The motion carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Chairman Pilmer said if you are here for an item that does not appear on the agenda as a public hearing and you wish to speak to the Commission, we can give you 3 minutes to do so.

No one came forward.

AGENDA

21-0468 An Ordinance Establishing a Conditional Use Planned Development, Approving the Redwood of Aurora Plan Description and amending Chapter 49 of the Code of Ordinances, City of Aurora, by modifying the zoning map attached thereto to an underlying zoning of R-4 Two Family Dwelling District for the property located north of W. Indian Trail and east of N. Randall Road (Redwood USA, LLC - 21-0468 / AU08/4-21.177-CU/Ppn/Psd - JM - Ward 6) (PUBLIC HEARING)

A motion was made by Mrs. Owusu-Safo, seconded by Mrs. Anderson, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 8/25/2021. The motion carried.

21-0469 A Resolution Approving a Preliminary Plan and Plat for Lot 1 and 2 of Redwood of Aurora Subdivision on vacant land located north of W. Indian Trail and east of N. Randall Road (Redwood USA, LLC - 21-0469 / AU08/4-21.177-CU/Ppn/Psd - JM - Ward 6)

A motion was made by Mrs. Anderson, seconded by Mrs. Owusu-Safo, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 8/25/2021. The motion carried.

21-0468 An Ordinance establishing a Conditional Use Planned Development, approving the Redwood of Aurora Plan Description and amending Chapter 49 of the Code of Ordinances, City of Aurora, by modifying the zoning map attached thereto to an underlying zoning of R-4 Two Family Dwelling District for the property located north of W. Indian Trail and east of N. Randall Road (Redwood USA, LLC – 21-0468 / AU08/4- 21.177-CU/Ppn/Psd – JM – Ward 6) (PUBLIC HEARING)

Mrs. Morgan said the Petitioner is requesting the establishment of a Conditional Use Planned Development and to change the underlying zoning from R-2(C) One Family Dwelling District with a Conditional Use to R-4A(C) Two Family Dwelling District with a Conditional Use. The request includes approving a Plan Description that outlines the specific requirements and allows for modifications, including setbacks, lot coverage, density, signage, parking and streets to allow for the development of a one story townhome development. A provision in the Plan Description includes the language to prevent the property from being divided and sold off separately to different owners. There is also language that outlines requirements for the private streets and the private open area. Concurrently with this proposal they are requesting a Preliminary Plan and Plat for a rental townhome development of 50 buildings with 190 units ranging in size from 1,294 to 1,620 square feet. Each unit has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a patio, a 2 car driveway and a 2 car garage. The one story buildings will consist of 6 different types with varying layouts and façade elements. Five of the buildings will have rear loaded garages, while the remaining will have front loaded garages. The development is at 5.5 dwelling units per acre and 45% lot coverage. The Preliminary Plan, which is being projected now, features a stormwater detention pond and a detention facility fronting on W. Indian Trail that provides some buffering to the road. A large divided entrance with a central median curves through the middle of the development and ends at a small private park that provides passive recreation for the residents. Adjacent to the park are 2 central stormwater detention lakes that will provide the residents with the use of the lake, as well as paths around the lake. Additional detention facilities are located along the east and north property line. Those will be a, they’re not a lake, it is not completely a dry facility, but there will be somewhat dry with some native plantings is what is being envisioned, which will provide some buffer between the townhomes and the adjacent Golden Oaks Subdivision. The trail circles through the development consisting of sidewalks abutting the private roads, as well as paths that run around the detention facilities and eventually connects to the trail that runs along W. Indian Trail. The internal roads will be private concrete roads with no street parking. In addition to the driveways and garages, there are 73 guest parking spaces that are evenly distributed throughout the site. The property was rezoned, just for some background, from commercial to R-2(C) One Family Dwelling District with a Conditional Use in 2006. Two different developers began obtaining approvals for single family homes in 2006 and 2007. Both were unable to make the projects work and they never proceeded to construction. The property has sat vacant since then. The property is adjacent to commercial to the west and a multi-family apartment complex to the south across Indian Trail. To the north and east is the Golden Oaks Subdivision.

The project maintains a minimum of a 35 foot buffer abutting Golden Oaks along with some detention facilities to provide additional buffering. Additional landscaping will be required at Final Plan. The building elevations that are included in your packet for the Preliminary Plan and Plat are conceptual. They will be approved at final, but staff has already begun working with the developer to get to some varying façade elements. Just like all of our Conditional Uses, there was public notification, mailing, as well as signage. As of this point, we have not received any official feedback, questions, comments or concerns. Just to let you know that prior to them submitting, Redwood Homes met with the Golden Oaks Homeowners Association Board who expressed support of the project. Staff and the developer followed up that discussion with attending a Homeowner’s Association meeting that was open to all members of the Homeowner’s Association. Are there any questions at this time for staff? The developers are here with a presentation as well, but I can answer any questions for staff.

The Petitioners were sworn in.

My name is Kellie McIvor with Redwood Living at 7007 E. Pleasant Valley Drive in Independence, Ohio 44131. Thank you. It is nice to meet you all and to present. I’m really excited to talk with you about the project tonight. We’ve been working with staff for over a year to develop what I think is a really pretty development and a great addition to the neighborhood and hopefully can fill a housing need in Aurora as well. I’m going to tell you a little about who Redwood is, who our residents are, what we build and then we’ll look at the site plan and some of the elevations and some of the streetscape so you can see what we are thinking about building there. Redwood builds one thing and one thing only. It is single story apartment neighborhoods. Each one home has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 2 car attached garage on the front, a 2 car driveway in front of that and a 10 by 10 patio on the back. So if drove through one of our neighborhoods, you might mistake it for a single story ranch condominium neighborhood. It doesn’t really look like what people think apartments look like. We’ve been building since 2003 and we own everything we’ve ever built. That’s because at the heart of what we do, we’re not apartment developers. We have about 450 employees right now. About 50 of us do what I do, which is acquisitions and development. Everyone else is on the property management side. So at the heart of our business, we are property managers and what I do is help build new neighborhoods to grow that property management business. Each neighborhood has a minimum of 1 dedicated leasing professional and 1 dedicated service technician. A neighborhood of this size would probably have 3 full time dedicated staff and in about 60% of our neighborhoods, those staff choose to live on-site. Right now we have over 13,000 homes built and occupied. We have a 99% occupancy rate and we are mostly in the Midwest, also in the Carolinas, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and out in Nebraska. The reason that 13,000 number is important is because in a couple of slides I’m going to get a little granular with who our residents are and it means something to give you statistics when we were, say 2,000 homes strong and when we were 5,000 homes strong and now when we are 13,000 homes strong. So you can still have outliers, but it gets really hard to move the average at the 13,000. At this slide, you can start to get a sense of what our standard homes look like. The ones in Aurora have some upgraded exterior elevations, but you can start to see what they look like with the dormers, the accents over the garages, (inaudible) graded garages with the windows and the carriage details and that stone accent across the front of the home. So across our portfolio, about 70% of our renters are empty nesters. The average is 51 and most of our residents come from within a 3 mile radius of the neighborhood that we are in. They are people that are invested in the neighborhood, they are volunteering at the library, coaching the little league team, but they are done raising their kids, they are done paying property taxes, they are done shoveling their driveways and where do they go.? That’s really what we can offer is the age in place solution to help people stay in Aurora that want to stay. Right now the housing market is great. If you want to sell and you have a place to go, it’s a great windfall for you. But if you don’t have a place to go, all the windfall goes right into your next home. For a lot of people, their main investment is that home and they are counting on that windfall when they retire, so keeping that windfall is important. That’s one of the things we can offer, a place for people to stay when they are ready to move out of their single story home, their children are gone and then they can stay in the neighborhood that they love. We have about 1.65 residents per home, which actually bears out that empty nester. You are not seeing a lot of children. You are seeing people whose kids have moved out. Then we’ve got about 11 children per 100 homes across the portfolio. Whether you are in a grade A school district or maybe a school district that is facing some challenges, it was very consistent, about 11 school children and they tend to be the winner or loser of the house battle in the divorce, depending on how you look at that. Frequently, they are actually already in the school system. 12% of our residents stay more than 10 years and nearly 3½% of residents of neighborhoods that are 10 years or older, have been there since the neighborhood was built. So we really do help generate that long term residence. This just talks a little bit about why people move to Redwood. The number one reason is location, all the reasons you see for empty nesters, so again, it is people looking to stay, people looking to be in Aurora, maintain those connections to their community center, the curves, the life fitness, those sorts of things. Location is the number one reason. It’s about the reason why 20% of our residents stay there. It could be near work, downsizing to live in a maintenance free neighborhood, all those reasons that empty nesters like to stay in the neighborhood where they raised their families after their families are gone. This is just a demographic shot. The middle column is that 3 mile radius. I mentioned most of our residents come from within a 3 mile radius. I grabbed the 45 year plus demo here and within the 3 mile radius of this site at W. Indian Trail and Randall, almost 40% of those residents are in that empty nester range. So there is a need for that type of housing, the sort of rental product, the single story. It’s a great place to age in. One of the other things that is great about our homes is that they are maintenance free and we’re very high maintenance. In the next slide or two I’ll show you what our rents are pro forma are. They are very competitive with what’s in the area and they are very high. When you are at that price point, you really need to deliver a high level of service. If you need somebody to take your trash from the garage to the curb, we’ll do that for you. If you need somebody to take your Amazon package in from your porch to your house, we’ll do that for you. Very high service. Even in the winter we have snowplow contractors plowing the streets, but we hand shovel the walks from the front door into the drives so that people can access all parts of their home at all parts of the year. A little also about who our residents are. I know when you mention the word renters, there can sometimes be a knee jerk reaction about who is a renter. I always think it is a little interesting because I just want to ask in any given room who here has ever rented a home, right, and I would hazard a guess to say most of us have rented a home at some point in our lives. Most people are pretty good people. We don’t rely on the good nature of humanity to vet our residents. Every resident who lives in a Redwood neighborhood has to go through the application process if they are over 18. So if there is someone who is an adult living in our neighborhood, they have to go through this background check and that includes rental checks, rental history checks, so if you’ve been evicted, we don’t rent to you. If you pass bad checks, we don’t rent to you. There is a credit check, a criminal history check. If you’ve had a certain amount of DUI’s in a certain amount of time, we don’t rent to you. A felony assault conviction in a much longer period of time, we don’t rent to you. In that way, we can control who lives in our neighborhoods more closely than single family neighbors whose HOA documents don’t address the individual homeowner renting out their home. We are actually compliant with or stricter than all of Aurora’s rental ordinances. So these are some of the pictures of the exteriors of the homes. Just some of things we talked about, it is all 2 car attached garages. All our homes are ADA compliant on the inside, so there’s zero entry from the garage into the residence, wheelchair turn radii, the light switches are at the wheelchair height, so it is another thing that makes it attractive to people looking to age in place. Here you see the patios on the back. You can see the landscaping.

Our landscaping is the greater of Redwood’s internal standard or the city ordinance standards. We generally have one of the more lesser landscaping plans at the apartment neighborhoods in the municipalities. You can start to see photographs of some of the homes, like the detention pond on the back. In the bottom left hand corner, you can see the shake accent over the garage. We can do a shake or a board and baton, so some of the different ways we can vary the architecture there. We take very good care of our homes, not only because we are charging high rental rates, but also because we manage our assets long term. Our product drives are concrete. It is more expensive up front, but it is going to be easer for us to maintain over the long term. Just a little about some of our maintenance specs. You have to keep your grass that 3 to 4 inches that you can’t cut more than 1/3 inch of the blade when you do it. It is very specific. Then we have what’s called a forever tree program, which is unique in the rental industry. So whoever does the install is generally also our maintenance contractor and a tree is warrantied not just for the 2 or 3 years after planting, but for the life of the project. When that landscaper is on site and he notices a dead tree, he just replaces it, so we don’t even have to tell him to come fix it. It is just done as part of a regular course of maintenance. This is one of our older neighborhoods. I know there was some concern when we were visiting with staff about it all looks great and shiny up front, but what does it look like in 10 or 15 years? This is one of our first neighborhoods. Our CEO actually entitled this back when he was still pushing a broom and filing papers. He has had a vision and helped build it. In 2006, one of our first, it’s in Ohio and in 2017, 11 years after it was built, it won a whole slew of awards for exterior appearance and you can see that the siding is not buckled, the color is true, there is no waving there, the roof looks great and pristine, the landscaping, there’s not like burnt patches of grass. It is all lush and growing, so we really do take care of the exterior. The interior, the bottom pictures show how we take care of the interior. Our lenders require us to maintain capital reserves, so we are always taking care of the exterior. We also, of our own volition, take care of the interior because it is important to remain competitive. The rents here are still between $1,500 and $2,400 a month and is 99% occupied 15 years after it was built. It is really important for us to stay current and we do. What you see at the bottom here is one of the upgrades that we do, of our volition, at apartment turn, so the bottom left corner has carpet and then you shift over to the bottom right corner and you see the plank flooring there. That was one of the upgrades that we did at this apartment turn just to remain competitive in the market. Just some of the insides. All the things you would expect to see, the big vaulted ceiling, lots of air, lots of light, plank flooring, granite countertops, stainless appliances, those sorts of things. What I really like about this site though, is the picture on the right because when you look at the window, you can see what it looks like to live in a Redwood neighborhood. You can see that streetscape. It doesn’t look like an apartment building. It looks like it is a very warm neighborly streetscape, which is what we are always going for there. Again, I just wanted to point out that view out the windows. When I was sliding through, it looks like we skipped the comp page. We are right now at $1.67 a square. You can see that Lakeview Townhomes if $1.30. Metro 59 is between $1.52 and $1.63, 500 Station between $1.94 and $1.79. They are all smaller square feet and they don’t have attached garages. We think this rent is probably a little conservative, but that’s where we’re going to start because of pro forma and the banks like when you’re conservative. What will happen is once we get in there, rent capping will adjust it up, but that’s an average of $2,100 to $2,300 per home to start, so very competitive with what’s in the area. Just some interior pictures just so you can see the plank flooring, lots of light and the granite, pendant lighting in the kitchen. This is the bedroom. You can see the master bathroom over there. Some of our vanities have 2 sinks, depending on what type of home they’re in and the 1 sink, and the kitchen. Last is storage. Even if people have cars in the garage, there is still 2 feet of storage on either side, there are pantries and closets and the square footage of storage shown on this slide does not include storage in the cupboards in the kitchen or above the washer/dryer. We’ve also been in contact with some local businesses to see how we might pair with some of those local storage companies if that became an issue. It is not unusual for us to pair with any number of local businesses. These are a couple of the floor plans. The Haydenwood is the front porch home, which we’ll take a look at from the front in a minute and the Willowood is kind of the wider home that you’ll see in a little bit. That’s one of our larger homes. What I really like about this slide is the quote at the bottom.

Our marketing team pulls quotes every month from our reviews so we know what we are doing great and what we need to work on and this guy says I didn’t know how important it could be to have your own private entrance and garage. With my wife being a post heart transplant recipient, it just made a world of difference in keeping her safe. It is sort a more humane side to your business and how when you are providing a home for people, you really are providing a home for them. So here’s the site. This is the corner of Randall Road and Indian Trail. You can see the Walgreens in the bottom left corner and the water tower next to that, the apartments across the street and then Golden Oaks to our east and north and west. This is the concept plan that we’re proposing. It is 198 homes. We originally came in with 217 and staff worked with us to pull it down. This looks a lot different than when we first presented to staff.

Ed and John and Jill all worked very closely with us to present something that was much more curvilinear and attractive. It could be a real asset to Aurora. Seven acres of the site are detention. That’s about 20% of the site. Then you can see, not only are there sidewalks through the neighborhood on the street, but they also wrap around each of the detention ponds as well, so there is a lot of walkability. The ponds up front will have, all the ponds will have fountains in them. Where there is water, there will be fountains in them, so really nice beautiful amenities along Indian Trail, as well as in the ponds in the middle. There will be only an emergency connection up at Hidden Oaks Drive. That was a request of the residents, so that will be gated and we’re working with the Fire Department on how to provide the appropriate gate there. This is the view when you come in. You can see lots of trees and the green space that curves around to the pond. It is really pretty, not only when you’re coming, but when you are driving down Indian Trail as well. Then coming up the street what it would look like. The nice thing about single story homes is that they’re not blocking anyone’s view next door and you’re not looking at a big building. Keep going down the street, these are the front porch homes. You’ll see them on the right, the east as you are going down and around, that’s the center with the fountain. You can kind of see the overlook in the background. These are what the homes could look like. We’ve got stone on the front.

This has the shake accents over the gables there with a lot of relief. We can vary the rooftops with raised roof trusses and with dormers. This one shows the raised roof truss. Here is what it would look like with dormers, so a lot of tools that we have to help create some variety and some variations on the street while still maintaining a cohesive aesthetic. This is that northeast part of the pond there with the pavilion and some benches there as an overlook or a really nice gathering that still promotes piece and quiet in the neighborhood. A different type of brick we can use besides the board and baton, a different type of louver up on the garage over the eave. It’s sort of a triangle that fits in versus the circle, so again little tricks of architecture that we can do to vary the streetscape. You’ll notice all the garages have windows. That’s really important to us. This is another one of the homes in there. And just another type of brick and stone that we can do. That’s the Haydenwood with the dormer. Then just this last slide, we took a look at Golden Oaks because one of the things we want to do is not only create an attractive neighborhood for our residents and for Aurora, but also for any residents around to make sure that we are compatible. This is an elevation that I pulled just off of Google Earth, so the lighting isn’t great, but this is what the homes kind of next door look like. This is a really nice one. It has some elevation on the front. You can see the gable, the trim around the windows, it’s got the garage there and then you can see what our homes would look like. We share a siding type. We’ve got vinyl siding, the color is compatible, we have like the décor, the louvers over the gables and then we can add some stone, the windows on the garage, some of those things to create some compatibility with the neighbors and also providing a really pretty streetscape for our neighborhood. A nice asset to Aurora.

That is the end of that. Let me go back to the site plan.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said are you considering the homes to be like a gated community?

Is it exclusively to 50 and above?

Ms. McIvor said it is not gated. The only gate would be like that access point to Hidden Oaks, the emergency gate up north and that was at the request of the residents. The boulevard entry we are not anticipating to be gated. We just prefer a more open look there. Honestly, it is one less thing to maintain, to break down or things like that. We are not age restricted. We are FHA compliant in all our rental practices. We don’t have that agreement to be age restricted. The age restricted limit is 55 and up and our resident average age is 51, so that’s a tough cutoff for us. If you meet the rental requirements, we will rent to you.

Mr. Elsbree said I have a question. Is this a private road then or is this a city road?

Ms. McIvor said it is private. We will maintain it and take care of it.

Mr. Elsbree said so is there curb and gutter?

Ms. McIvor said no. There is no curb and gutter. It is 22 feet wide and there’s a 4 foot integral sidewalk on the side.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said so how is water conveyed?

Ms. McIvor said it is sewer and water. Our engineer is here and he can chat about that. I’m not quite as good at the engineering part.

My name is Anthony Falkowski, 2280 White Oak Circle, Aurora with Cemcon. To answer your question, the roads are sloped toward the center of the road and the storm sewer runs down the center of the road. They will be sloped. Instead of like a traditional road where they are sloped to the edge of the pavement where the structures are on the sides of the curb, this is actually where the storm sewer runs down the center of the road and now the drainage will be conveyed to the center of the road.

Chairman Pilmer said similar to what you would see in a parking lot?

Mr. Falkowski said similar to what you see in like an apartment parking lot. All the drainage is conveyed to the center of the drive isle.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said in looking at it, it looks like there is no circulating sidewalks, right? Basically just to the path?

Ms. McIvor said there are sidewalks throughout the neighborhood on one side of the road, so they’ll go throughout the neighborhood and then in addition, there is the bike path across the front of Indian Trail and then paths around all of the ponds.

Mr. Sieben said so if I can just add to that. We worked closely with the developer and our Public Works Department. We’re actually pleased that this would be private streets, no public maintenance of these streets. They will actually be made from concrete from the start. We did work extensively on a pedestrian pathway within there. As Kellie said, there’s going to be a sidewalk on one side of the street, but there’s also a lot of internal walkways and pathways within the open space of the area and the,n like she said, connecting to the public bike path on Indian Trail. So we looked for a lot connectivity. There’s a lot of plus for the city that these will be private streets.

They are made out of concrete from the start for long term. Less maintenance with the concrete and so on.

The public input portion of the public hearing was opened. The witnesses were sworn in.

My name is Gale Verdick. I live at 1355 Hidden Oaks Drive in Aurora. Myself and some of the other people here, we live on Hidden Oaks, right in that area. Our biggest concern is if that road opens because whenever there is a traffic problem on Sullivan or Randall, people come flying through our neighborhood. Hidden Oaks as it is, is a dead-end. I live in the last house. Cars will come all the way to my house before they stop, turn around in our driveway and then take off back at pretty good rates of speed because they are mad about traffic. Our biggest concern is whether or not that road was going to open up to go through because it is just going to be people racing around and then they are going to race into that neighborhood and be racing all around in circles trying to find their way out, which is what happens in Golden Oaks already. People get in there and get lost because they don’t know how to get out. Then also, what if this community fails? What will happen if somebody, they decide they want to start selling it off. I know they are saying that they’ve never done that, but what if? What kind of properties will it become? Will it turn into another Homewood situation where there’s problems? That’s our biggest concern about our neighborhood. Do we really need another rental community? It is zoned for single family, but now it is going to go to multi-family and now we are going to have a whole rental community right next to us when there are apartments right across the street. That’s one of the big concerns coming out of our neighborhood, I think. I know that not many showed for some reason, but everybody is all up in arms about it. Those are my questions.

My name is Jim Lund, 1353 Big Oak Trail. I’m just down the street from the last gentleman. I would echo his concerns. I’d also wonder what the effect on property values for single family homes is just by the nature of having rental properties adjacent to it rather than single family residential homes. I’m sure there is an impact of some sort. I don’t know what that is. Maybe one of you can comment on that. My bigger concern and more immediate concern is in drainage. When you talk about these streets that are slanted in one direction, are they connected into, or are the sewers connected into the city storm sewer system? If they are not, is the only drainage retention ponds there? There have been issues in the past with friends of mine who live along the perimeter bordering that property who have gotten water in their basement because of the way the drainage is very poor on that property. That’s all I have.

Mr. Sieben said maybe I can start by answering the Hidden Oaks question Mr. Chairman. We did work closely with the Fire Marshall. There does need to be 2 means of access. However, Hidden Oaks will be permanently gated. It will have a lockbox that will only be accessible by the Aurora Fire Department, so that will not need to be open. The access in and out of the subdivision will be on Indian Trail.

That will stay as a gated access for emergency access only by the Fire Department.

Chairman Pilmer said and really just the only time that’s open is in the event of an emergency by the Fire Department.

Mr. Sieben said correct.

Chairman Pilmer said can you comment on the drainage and explain that those are, are they connected to city sewer and water?

Mrs. Morgan said I think maybe their engineer would be better to answer that question.

I just also wanted to comment on one of the questions about long term maintenance and selling off. That was also a concern of staff. We worked with Redwood to come up with language with Redwood and our Legal Department that within the Plan Description it outlines that if it is ever sold off, it can’t be part piecemeal sold off. It has to be sold off to like one owner that would be maintaining the entire property. Chairman Pilmer said so just to clarify, it can’t be sold unit at a time. It has to be sold as an entire entity to a different developer. I think the petitioner stated that, but they can clarify they have not yet sold any of their units.

Mr. Sieben said correct. I think the Petitioner should answer the engineering questions. Obviously, it is tied into the city storm sewer. One other thing maybe that the developer would want to touch on that staff was concerned with and the city was concerned with was how they operate their rules and covenants. They are very, very strict. We did contact several of the other midwestern cities. I believe we contacted Lafayette, Indiana, Fort Wayne, Indiana and a few others. Just to be honest with you, the city government, they actually raved about the quality of the development and that they had zero problems with anything with property maintenance. I know the gentleman brought up Hometown in Aurora, which has had a few issues, but that is not what these properties have experienced in other communities. Maybe they would want to just touch on that also.

Ms. McIvor said so Jill and Ed both touched on what would happen if the neighborhood failed or we sold it off, and we did agree, we vetted the language pretty carefully with our attorneys and with our lender attorneys, we are all privately funded, to make sure that could agree to the language that we present to the city, which insures that the property can’t be sold off in pieces and that it has to remain under common control and common ownership. There’s a hope that that will address that concern in the future, but it is true that we have never sold everything we’ve ever built. As I mentioned before, we’re not apartment developers, we’re not flippers, we’re not real estate investors. We are a property management company. We don’t even buy land and hold it because maybe 6 years down the road we’ll want to build it. We find the piece of land we want, we entitle it, we build it out, 6 months from structure, 16-18 months vertical from that and then we go to Prem Loan and we maintain it. That is what we do, administer neighborhoods. That’s our business model. There was a question about the effect on the property value. So we provided staff with studies from MIT, Harvard, and Utah State about the fact that the property values of single family is not affected by apartments being next door to those, regardless of whether they are market rate or Section 8, which feels like it might be counter-intuitive, but that is what the data shows. We also provided staff with a study that was done specifically on Redwood Homes next to single family neighborhoods, and it showed the exact same thing, that being next to a neighborhood and even specifically a Redwood apartment neighborhood, does not affect negatively or positively the value of the adjacent single family homes. It just doesn’t have an effect. What we have noticed, anecdotally, is that when we go in near existing apartment homes, because we are so competitive, there tends to be kind of a glow up effect on the apartment homes in the neighborhood because now there is a shinny neighborhood that they have to compete with. Again, that’s anecdotal and I don’t have any pictures to show you, but that tends to be what happens. Ed also asked about how we operate our rules and regs. We have a very strict lease addendum. We mentioned we have private roads. It is in the body of the lease that if you park on the street, we will tow you. That’s it. That’s your notice. We tell you. You can’t put any holes on the exterior of the home. You have to have proper drapes, things like that. There are peace and quiet covenants. There are smell covenants. There are noise covenants. All those things. Each of our leases is one year long because if you find that over the course of living here that your lifestyle is not a good fit for a Redwood neighborhood then we will just not renew your lease. In that way, we’re able to maintain that peace and quiet and comfort. What I didn’t talk about is that 70% of our renters are empty nesters, but the other 30% tend to be young professionals and we’re very popular with people with odd sleep hours because we are so quiet. Very popular with the hospital personnel, emergency personnel, airport personnel where we are near airports because we’re able to create a quiet environment there. As for drainage, I will let Anthony speak about drainage.

Mr. Falkowski said the site was designed to follow Aurora and the county ordinance for the stormwater management. The stormwater management, we listened to the residents and with the city direction, all the ponds that are adjacent to those residents, we actually converted them into wetland bottom basins instead of a typical normal stormwater basin. With the modeling, the outcome came that we are actually reducing flow to the city sewers and meeting all the release rates, so we are actually reducing

Mr. Elsbree said I have one question. That Randall side then, you’re aware that there is a water issue. There’s historically been some water issues.

Mr. Falkowski said on Randall Road?

Mr. Elsbree said well along the west side there.

Mr. Falkowski said their there is a conveyance ditch that was designed with the Walgreens that conveys that around our site.

Mr. Elsbree said because that doesn’t have any gutters on Randall Road. There’s no gutter system or sewer there, so you (inaudible) to another line. I’m just hoping that someone…

Mr. Falkowski said with the stormwater management, we analyzed all of the tributary area that is offsite that drains to our site and we did take into account all those houses that are along Randall. Those all drain directly into our site and a combination to that ditch.

Chairman Pilmer said and you might clarify, you do not abut Randall Road.

Mr. Falkowski said no, we do not. The property does not actually abut Randall Road.

There is actually the Walgreens lot, if you go straight north, there is about, I think, about 5 or 6 additional lots that are not included in the Redwood property.

Mr. Elsbree said those will stay?

Mr. Falkowski said yes.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said can I ask another question? I’m trying to flip through my slide on the traffic study. Is that intersection going to be stop sign controlled?

Mr. Falkowski said our entrance?

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said yes.

Mr. Falkowski said yes, it will be stop sign controlled.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said so a 4 way stop for everyone?

Mr. Falkowski said for our development. We can’t put a stop sign at Indian Trail.

Mr. Verdick said in reference to the no parking overnight in there, how will it be handled if our neighborhood all of a sudden has overflow parking parked in front of our houses right there at Hidden Oaks and Big Oak? You know how it is on Illinois down there.

There are cars everywhere. Is there going to be any recourse to keep them from parking in front of all our houses in our neighborhood and just walking through the sidewalk at that gate? Are we going to be dealing with their overflow parking? Mr. Lund said so I find it very hard to believe, I haven’t seen these studies that you are citing, but adjacent properties and their types and their upkeep and whatnot, always affect other adjacent properties. To say that one type of housing versus another has no affect on the property values, I don’t understand that. That defies common sense. If a developer were to come in there and put homes that average $500,000 to $600,000 a piece versus somebody who comes in and builds $100,000 homes, those are going to have 2 very different effects on your property values. I don’t understand how or what these studies are that you’re addressing. Could you elaborate on that?

Ms. McIvor said I’m not aware of any instance where we have not, or people have utilized adjacent neighborhoods for parking. But that doesn’t address Mr. Verdick’s question. We have over 800 parking spaces here. We have 2 in the garage and 2 in each driveway, so that’s 4 per home, plus we have 73 or 75 additional parking spaces throughout the neighborhood. There’s a lot of parking available for our residents and for their guests. In addition, each of those homes there along the front, are 28 feet, so it is 210 plus feet just along the frontage plus the buffer and then you’ve got to walk around into the neighborhood and park in Golden Oaks, so that is kind of a long walk. I don’t know if logistically, it doesn’t seem like a practical overflow parking, which is not to say it could never happen. I don’t know logistically it’s that convenient. But in the event something ever happened, we are staffed 24/7, either with people on-site or on call. It is our practice when we move into and become neighbors in a community to become members of the Chamber of Commerce, to introduce ourselves to the neighbor HOA, those sorts of things because we are a long term neighbor. We are becoming a member of the community. If there was an instance for anything where anyone needed to address an issue with our neighborhood, our on-site staff is always available to deal with those sorts of things. As to the property value studies, as I mentioned, one was done by Harvard, one was done by MIT and one was done by, I think, the University of Utah. I won’t comment on the methodology. They are reputable sources. The one that was done on the Redwood neighborhood was they engaged an appraiser in Michigan. It was a township in Michigan and engaged an appraiser in Michigan to do the study because we are coming into their neighborhood. I asked them if I could help. They said no, we don’t want you to touch it. Go no where near it. If we have a question, we’ll ask you. Those conclusions were done by an independent contractor engaged by an independent municipality without any influence from Redwood. The studies show what the studies show. I understand it can feel counter-intuitive, but the data is what the data is.

The public input portion of the public hearing was closed.

Mrs. Morgan said so before we do staff’s recommendations, staff would like to read in some comments regarding the Findings of Fact. The Findings of Facts for Conditional Use Petitions:

1. Will the establishment, maintenance or operation of the conditional use be unreasonably detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, morals, comfort, or general welfare?

Mrs. Morgan said staff’s comment is that they feel no, as it is very low medium density under 6 dwelling units per acre. A residential development adjacent to single family and apartment housing providing the diverse housing types to accommodate the needs of Aurora’s population.

2. Will the conditional use be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity for the purposes already permitted or substantially diminish and impair property values within the neighborhood, factors including but not limited to lighting, signage and outdoor amplification, hours of operation, refuse disposal areas and architectural compatibility and building orientation?

Mrs. Morgan said staff feels no, as the development maintains a minimum of 35 foot setback to single family development and will be buffered by stormwater detention and landscaping. It also allows for a transition from commercial and multi-family use to single family use. Staff notes that the developer, Redwood, has submitted studies showing it will not negatively impact traffic or property values.

3, Will the establishment of the conditional use impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of surrounding property for uses permitted in the district?

Mrs. Morgan said no, as there is substantial setbacks and buffering provided and the traffic study shows it will not have an impact to traffic.

4. Will the proposal provide for adequate utilities, access roads, drainage, and/or other necessary facilities as part of the conditional use?

Mrs. Morgan said yes, the stormwater facilities will contain the proposal’s water onsite and there is currently adequate water and sewer capacity to serve the project.

5. Does the proposal take adequate measures, or will they be taken to provide ingress and egress so designed to minimize traffic congestion in the public streets? Mrs. Morgan said the project does provide adequate ingress/egress. The main access point is a two lane entry off of W. Indian Trail. There is also an emergency access connecting the property to Golden Oaks Subdivision, emergency gated only access. The access drive will be located opposite of the Orchard Village apartment access. The traffic study provided stated that the intersections will operate at acceptable levels of service without additional improvements other than stripping the median for a left turn lane into the development, which Redwood plans on providing.

6. Does the conditional use in all other respects conform to the applicable regulations of the district in which it is located, except as such regulations may in each instance be modified by the City Council pursuant to the recommendations of the Commission?

Mrs. Morgan said the Conditional Use does conform to all other aspects to the applicable regulations of the R-4 zoning district.

Mrs. Morgan said and then the Findings of Fact for a Rezoning petition:

1. Is the proposal in accordance with all applicable official physical development policies and other related official plans and policies of the City of Aurora?

Mrs. Morgan said the proposal meets 10.0, 11.1(5), 11.1(3), 12.1(3), 12.1(6), 20.0, 21.1(2), 22.1(1), 23.1(3) and 23.1(10) of our physical development policies.

2. Does the proposal represent the logical establishment and/or consistent extension of the requested classification in consideration of the existing land uses, existing zoning classifications, and essential character of the general area of the property in question?

Mrs. Morgan said yes, as it is a medium density residential development that is adjacent to both commercial, multi-family housing and single family housing, providing a buffer between the uses.

3. Is the proposal consistent with a desirable trend of development in the general area of the property in question, occurring since the property in question was placed in its present zoning classification, desirability being defined as the trend’s consistency with applicable official physical development policies and other related official plans and policies of the City of Aurora?

Mrs. Morgan said yes, as it provides additional housing options in the area. It brings additional residential development to an area abutting commercial development. It provides new development near existing and it provides buffers to the surrounding area.

4. Will the rezoning permit uses which are more suitable than uses permitted under the existing zoning classification?

Mrs. Morgan said the rezoning will allow for a unique housing option not found in the area.

5. Is the rezoning a consistent extension of the existing land uses, existing zoning classification and essential character of the general area?

Mrs. Morgan said yes, as it brings additional residential housing options to a property that is surrounded by a mix of land uses.

Mrs. Morgan said staff would recommend approval of an Ordinance establishing a Conditional Use Planned Development approving the Redwood of Aurora Plan Description and amending Chapter 49 of the Code of Ordinances, City of Aurora, by modifying the zoning map attached thereto to an underlying zoning of R-4 Two Family Dwelling District for the property located north of W. Indian Trail and east of N. Randall Road.

MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Mrs. Owusu-Safo

MOTION SECONDED BY: Mrs. Anderson

AYES: Chairman Pilmer, Mrs. Anderson, Mr. Elsbree, Mr. Gonzales, Mrs. Owusu-Safo

NAYS: None

FINDINGS OF FACT – CONDITIONAL USE

1. Will the establishment, maintenance or operation of the conditional use be unreasonably detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, morals, comfort, or general welfare?

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said no, as stated in the staff report.

Chairman Pilmer said as stated in the staff report, it will not be detrimental, including the 35 foot setback to the single family development area.

3, Will the establishment of the conditional use impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of surrounding property for uses permitted in the district?

Mr. Elsbree said it will not impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of surrounding properties.

Chairman Pilmer said in addition, due to the setbacks and traffic study that was provided that states there should be no impact to traffic.

4. Will the proposal provide for adequate utilities, access roads, drainage, and/or other necessary facilities as part of the conditional use? Mrs. Anderson said yes, and this is stated in the staff report.

5. Does the proposal take adequate measures, or will they be taken to provide ingress and egress so designed to minimize traffic congestion in the public streets? Mrs. Owusu-Safo said it does take adequate measures and the different measures are stated in the staff report.

Chairman Pilmer said the Conditional Use in all other respects conforms to the applicable regulations of the R-4 zoning district.

FINDINGS OF FACT – REZONING

1. Is the proposal in accordance with all applicable official physical development policies and other related official plans and policies of the City of Aurora?

Mrs. Anderson said yes, it is. It is stated in the staff report as well.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said yes it does and it provides another alternative housing option for the neighborhood.

Chairman Pilmer said and it is listed in the staff report as well.

Chairman Pilmer said again, it is listed in the staff report. It is consistent with the desirable trend of development in the general area.

4. Will the rezoning permit uses which are more suitable than uses permitted under the existing zoning classification?

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said again, this is a very suitable use for this property and also, as stated in the staff report, it provides another housing alternative for the area.

5. Is the rezoning a consistent extension of the existing land uses, existing zoning classification and essential character of the general area?

Mr. Elsbree said yes, it is consistent.

Chairman Pilmer said and as listed in the staff report, it is consistent with the existing area. It brings additional residential housing options to a property that is surrounded by a mix of land uses.

Mrs. Morgan said this will next be heard at the Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee meeting on Wednesday, August 25th at 4:00 on the 5th floor of City Hall, Conference Room B.

21-0469 A Resolution approving a Preliminary Plan and Plat for Lot 1 and 2 of Redwood of Aurora Subdivision on vacant land located north of W. Indian Trail and east of N. Randall Road (Redwood USA, LLC – 21=-469 / AU08/4-21.177-CU/Ppn/Psd – JM – Ward 6)

Mrs. Morgan said staff would recommend conditional approval of a Resolution approving a Preliminary Plan and Plat for Lot 1 and 2 of Redwood of Aurora Subdivision on vacant land located north of W. of Indian Trail and east of N. Randall Road with the following conditions:

1. That the Fire Access Plan be revised to incorporate the staff comments included in the memo dated August 16, 2021 prior to petitioning for Final Plan and Plat approval.

2. That the documents be revised to incorporate the Engineering staff comments included in the memo dated August 10, 2021 prior to petitioning for Final Plan and Plat approval.

3. That the documents be revised so that the west side of the Indian Trail access be widened to a width of 27 feet from back-of-curb to back-of-curb. 4. That the information is provided that demonstrate that the west detention basin along Indian Trail meets the typical Engineering setback requirements from the right-if-way.

5. That information is provided that demonstrates that the proposed storm sewer connection in the Indian Trail right-of-way meets separation requirements from the existing water main, or that Golden Oaks HOA has granted an easement for the storm sewer connection outside the right-of-way.

MOTION OF CONDITIONAL APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Mrs. Anderson

MOTION SECONDED BY: Mrs. Owusu-Safo

AYES: Chairman Pilmer, Mrs. Anderson, Mr. Elsbree, Mr. Gonzales, Mrs. Owusu-Safo

NAYS: None

Mrs. Morgan said this will next be heard at the Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee meeting on Wednesday, August 25th at 4:00 on the 5th floor of City Hall, Conference Room B.

21-0506 An Ordinance Establishing a Conditional Use Planned Development, Approving the Chelsea Manor Plan Description and Amending Chapter 49 of the Code of Ordinances, City of Aurora, by Modifying the Zoning Map Attached Thereto to an Underlying Zoning of R-4A(C) Two Family Dwelling District with a Conditional Use Planned Development, and OS-1(C) Conservation, Open Space, and Drainage District with a Conditional Use Planned Development, for the property located near the Southeast Corner of South Commons Drive and Irving Road (M/I Homes of Chicago, LLC - 21-0506 / NA33/2-21.195-CUPD/Psd/Ppn/R - SB - WARD 8) (PUBLIC HEARING) See Attachment for Items 21-0506 and 21-0507.

A motion was made by Mr. Elsbree, seconded by Mr. Gonzales, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 8/25/2021. The motion carried.

21-0507 A Resolution Approving a Revision to the Preliminary Plat and Plan for the Property Located Near the Southeast Corner of South Commons Drive and Irving Road (M/I Homes of Chicago, LLC - 21-0506 / NA33/2-21.195-CUPD/Psd/Ppn/R - SB - WARD 8) See Attachment for Items 21-0506 and 21-0507.

A motion was made by Mrs. Anderson, seconded by Mr. Elsbree, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee, on the agenda for 8/25/2021. The motion carried. Attachment for Items 21-0506 and 21-0507

PENDING

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mr. Sieben said I believe the next meeting should be the next one on September 8th. We should have two new members at that time. We’re still, I think, going to be down one.

ADJOURNMENT

A motion was made by Mr. Elsbree, seconded by Mrs. Anderson, that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried by voice vote. Chairman Pilmer adjourned the meeting at 10:05 p.m.

City of Aurora Planning and Zoning Commission met Aug. 18.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Pilmer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL a

The following Commission members were present: Chairman Pilmer, Mrs. Anderson,

Mr. Elsbree, Mr. Gonzales and Mrs. Owusu-Safo. Mr. Chambers and Mr. Choudhury called in and excused themselves from the meeting.

OTHERS PRESENT

The following staff members were present: Mr. Sieben, Mrs. Morgan, Mr. Broadwell, and Mrs. Jackson.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

21-0576 Approval of the Minutes of the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on July 21, 2021.

A motion was made by Mr. Elsbree, seconded by Mrs. Anderson, that the minutes be approved and filed. The motion carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Chairman Pilmer said if you are here for an item that does not appear on the agenda as a public hearing and you wish to speak to the Commission, we can give you 3 minutes to do so.

No one came forward.

AGENDA

The Petitioners were sworn in.

That is the end of that. Let me go back to the site plan.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said are you considering the homes to be like a gated community?

Is it exclusively to 50 and above?

Mr. Elsbree said I have a question. Is this a private road then or is this a city road?

Ms. McIvor said it is private. We will maintain it and take care of it.

Mr. Elsbree said so is there curb and gutter?

Ms. McIvor said no. There is no curb and gutter. It is 22 feet wide and there’s a 4 foot integral sidewalk on the side.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said so how is water conveyed?

Ms. McIvor said it is sewer and water. Our engineer is here and he can chat about that. I’m not quite as good at the engineering part.

Chairman Pilmer said similar to what you would see in a parking lot?

Mr. Falkowski said similar to what you see in like an apartment parking lot. All the drainage is conveyed to the center of the drive isle.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said in looking at it, it looks like there is no circulating sidewalks, right? Basically just to the path?

They are made out of concrete from the start for long term. Less maintenance with the concrete and so on.

The public input portion of the public hearing was opened. The witnesses were sworn in.

My name is Gale Verdick. I live at 1355 Hidden Oaks Drive in Aurora. Myself and

some of the other people here, we live on Hidden Oaks, right in that area. Our biggest concern is if that road opens because whenever there is a traffic problem on Sullivan or Randall, people come flying through our neighborhood. Hidden Oaks as it is, is a dead-end. I live in the last house. Cars will come all the way to my house before they stop, turn around in our driveway and then take off back at pretty good rates of speed because they are mad about traffic. Our biggest concern is whether or not that road was going to open up to go through because it is just going to be people racing around and then they are going to race into that neighborhood and be racing all around in circles trying to find their way out, which is what happens in Golden Oaks already. People get in there and get lost because they don’t know how to get out. Then also, what if this community fails? What will happen if somebody, they decide they want to start selling it off. I know they are saying that they’ve never done that, but what if? What kind of properties will it become? Will it turn into another Homewood situation where there’s problems? That’s our biggest concern about our neighborhood. Do we really need another rental community? It is zoned for single family, but now it is going to go to multi-family and now we are going to have a whole rental community right next to us when there are apartments right across the street. That’s one of the big concerns coming out of our neighborhood, I think. I know that not many showed for some reason, but everybody is all up in arms about it. Those are my questions.

That will stay as a gated access for emergency access only by the Fire Department.

Chairman Pilmer said and really just the only time that’s open is in the event of an emergency by the Fire Department.

Mr. Sieben said correct.

Chairman Pilmer said can you comment on the drainage and explain that those are, are they connected to city sewer and water?

Mrs. Morgan said I think maybe their engineer would be better to answer that question.

Mr. Elsbree said I have one question. That Randall side then, you’re aware that there is a water issue. There’s historically been some water issues.

Mr. Falkowski said on Randall Road?

Mr. Elsbree said well along the west side there.

Mr. Falkowski said their there is a conveyance ditch that was designed with the Walgreens that conveys that around our site.

Mr. Elsbree said because that doesn’t have any gutters on Randall Road. There’s no gutter system or sewer there, so you (inaudible) to another line. I’m just hoping that someone…

Chairman Pilmer said and you might clarify, you do not abut Randall Road.

Mr. Falkowski said no, we do not. The property does not actually abut Randall Road.

There is actually the Walgreens lot, if you go straight north, there is about, I think, about 5 or 6 additional lots that are not included in the Redwood property.

Mr. Elsbree said those will stay?

Mr. Falkowski said yes.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said can I ask another question? I’m trying to flip through my slide

on the traffic study. Is that intersection going to be stop sign controlled?

Mr. Falkowski said our entrance?

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said yes.

Mr. Falkowski said yes, it will be stop sign controlled.

Mrs. Owusu-Safo said so a 4 way stop for everyone?

Mr. Falkowski said for our development. We can’t put a stop sign at Indian Trail.

no affect on the property values, I don’t understand that. That defies common sense. If a developer were to come in there and put homes that average $500,000 to $600,000 a piece versus somebody who comes in and builds $100,000 homes, those are going to have 2 very different effects on your property values. I don’t understand how or what these studies are that you’re addressing. Could you elaborate on that?