Presentation
Mayor Hart referred to a large parcel of land that is under common ownership. The area east of Rocky Vista University has been on Ivins maps for a long time, outlined as a City Center with no idea how that was ever going to happen or what it would be. He requested that the City Council listen to the presentation and thoughtfully consider what they see and hear and give it some careful thought. Attorney Tim Anderson representing the property owner, Mr. Tien and Architect Greg Turner provided a presentation. A copy of the presentation is available as an attachment to this agenda. Tim Anderson indicated that this is extremely preliminary, with a lot of details to be worked out. Mr. Tien as the developer and property owner, he wanted some thoughtful discussion and direction from the City and the City Council as to what variations to a common theme may be acceptable to establish an identifiable downtown and if any exceptions were feasible. Tim Anderson stated he is a Lawyer with the firm of Kirton McConkie that work all over the United States and in 114 foreign countries. They get involved in a lot of interesting things and one of the more interesting experiences he has had in his professional life was when he was contacted by Mr. Tien's Lawyers in Florida. When those Lawyers first called, they indicated that they wanted to establish a Medical School in Utah and was told that the Medical School that they wanted to establish was a different kind of Medical School than what was already in Utah. At the time, it was going to be located in Cedar City but through the course of discussions and things that happened, Rocky Vista University Medical School ended up in Ivins, Utah. Mr. Tien had a great vision and is now contemplating what to do with the rest of the land. He bought more land than was needed for the Medical School. The additional land area has become a large dust bowl, that blows getting into the windows and buildings. They have been watering it down as much as they can, but it is difficult to control. The developers have been in discussions that they need to do something different and that is unique. Initially looking at the Ivins Center Street roundabout, that appears to be the center of Ivins. There is area for commercial development along Center Street and there is already a great deal of residential development in place throughout to the north and east of his client's property. Where the Medical School is currently located, that was originally being looked at for more of a grocery store or some type of commercial center. The developers came up with an idea to present to the City Council to give some thoughts about what might be able to be done and they are calling it City Center at Red Mountain on 400 East and Center Street. The idea would be to develop a multi-use community, including single family residential on the north side of the property, acting as a buffer to existing residential, and then filtering down to mixed use and multi-family down to Center Street with commercial. The north community would have regular full sized residential lots, similar to what is across the street from the project. Further into the project and towards the middle, there would be smaller lots and then south of that would be an array of townhomes and apartments that would be incorporated into a recreational community. Further to the south would be a setting of mixed-use commercial, retail stores and restaurants on the ground floor, with offices on the upper floors and then even some residential intermixed with the office space areas. The idea would be to turn 400 East into the Main Street of a City Center for the community and creating a downtown environment for Ivins. Ivins has some commercial areas but not a specific downtown. For the purpose of setting up what could be a very effective Main Street downtown center focus, the restaurant and gathering area would be unlike anywhere throughout Washington County. This concept is hard to do because normally they are working with a situation where the circumstances are already all in place but this is a unique situation where they basically have a bare road in a downtown area, in a City in southern Utah, to some degree be creative and do what might be a very beneficial opportunity for the community. The result from a development standpoint, is the unique opportunity but there are a lot of challenges. In the process they would likely start building the infrastructure and build from the north to the south so that the residential areas would be going in in the early stages. The developers need to gain a better understanding of what the market allows, to determine the extent to which the commercial retail would take place, which would either be along Center Street and up along 400 East but they do not want to go all the way up 400 East for commercial. Commercial would likely be limited to areas fairly near the intersection, between Center Street and 400 East. There have been offers for the developer to build things like car washes and similar things that they have turned down. The developers want something much cooler, much better and something unique that people would come to. When people come to Tuacahn and the other events on this side of the County, this place would likely be a destination and a place for festivals and events. Ivins would have the Main Street that a lot of towns wish they could have but do not have the ability to coordinate and develop it from the ground up. The extent to which the demand will be created for commercial is unknown and that is why the area would be looked at developing towards the south as being somewhat optional in terms of how intense the commercial development would be. Ivins is on the edge of the sprawl and not in the middle of the sprawl. Washington County is made of approximately five (5) streets when it comes to commercial and where normal businesses are located. This location is further away and would require a certain amount of patience and planning to determine the extent to which there could be a significant commercial retail infrastructure going into place. The plan would be to develop this out overtime and would require some zone changes. Some of the land is already zoned for commercial use and would not require much rezoning but the rest of the project property would need to be changed to allow greater mixed use and higher density housing. This project would be Downtown Ivins and would be a new place that is different and unique. He would like the City Council and the Ivins community to have an input so that what is developed, is the best result.
Mayor Hart indicated there has been an area on the Ivins map that is its own unique zone called "Town Center". That has been part of a discussion that took place when going through a review of the General Plan, Land Use Plan and Zoning but could be handled in the form of its own zone like a "Town Center" or "City Center" zone. The things that have been mentioned could be addressed through that zone and the Council could decide on how things would get applied to the unique area. He was happy to see that there are some buffered single-family lots, which the current and former City Councils have insisted on to protect nearby property owners. Tim Anderson indicated that there is approximately 618,000 sq ft of residential, 200,000 sq ft of commercial retail and 200,000 sq ft of commercial office space anticipated. He referred to buildout and commented that given the current economy, there have been some recent changes so that is hard to know exactly but they will likely build in the residential area right away, or reasonably soon. The developers would like to get started this year if they are able to. The question really is about the demand for two other things, one is more multiple use housing and commercial. There is a strong demand for multiple use housing and there is very little commercial space in Washington County right now but location is also extremely important. If they can handpick some key commercial tenants like a Whole Foods type of store or some restaurants that is key but chain restaurants will not locate any distance away from the freeway. The Mayor and City Council agreed that was a good thing. Tim Anderson stated that the developers want real quality so that the development will be one of the most desirable in Washington County. Their property is some of the nicest so it could really be unique and different. If a commercial tenant is interested soon, like Whole Food or something like that, they could build around that. Having the commercial area going will help move the rest of the project along more quickly but he did not know how soon they could draw on that opportunity and are anticipating a build time of three (3) to five (5) years but possibly sooner. Currently in the County, projects are moving fast but they are generic projects , which is why they sell well. What they are proposing is not that, they are proposing something unique that is original and creative. Council Member Scott indicated that the layout on the site plan fits well with the concept behind Resort Mixed Use, which is what the land use is on the developers property. One of the requirements for Resort Mixed Use is a fairly significant amount of open space. He saw that on the rendering but did not see it on the site plan. On the rendering it looked like to him that the commercial or the mixed-use buildings would be right on Center Street as three-story buildings and that is something that the City Council has not wanted. He referred to Rocky Vista University and commented that it is set further back so there is a protection of the view because it has parking and landscaping in front of it. Tim Anderson referred to the project and stated that the developers have been talking about underground parking throughout the commercial area and then regular garage parking in the residential areas. The biggest parking demand would be underground parking in the commercial area and then there are large park areas throughout the project. Because of the heat environment, having effective underground parking for this area makes it just that much more of a credible area that people will want to come to. Regarding how the buildings might be configured, they are up on the street. Having a real downtown, the buildings have to be close enough that if traffic comes down Center Street, they are downtown. If the buildings are offset too far and downtown is 100 feet to the north, it looks like a regular strip mall and the developers want to avoid parking in front so it doesn't look like that. It could be a different issue at what elevations the buildings might be and there may be a possibility that they would violate the Ivins view ordinance, but this might be a unique circumstance in which Ivins would want those in the downtown area, to overlook and attract right into town where it draws people in.
Mayor Hart inquired if the concept of downtown is walking by the office or retail space with a cafe there on the street? Greg Turner indicated that is right. It would be pedestrian friendly so one could walk and have an experience, as opposed to a box store with a bunch of parking out front. The intent would be that it would be a very pedestrian friendly walkable space where you could walk along the street and encounter restaurants with outdoor patios, retail spaces, ice cream shops, live music and similar things like that. Tim Anderson stated that the thing that is unique about this side of the County, is that it is entertainment oriented, as well as education. This project could be a unique and different place for the whole County and not just for Ivins. Mayor Hart commented that the concept is to bring the downtown to the street and the City Council needs to determine if they are willing to forego that sort of direct view of the mountain for what the length of buildings may be. The logic in the design is that you have higher density residential areas, apartments and townhomes where people support what is occurring on the main level. Greg Turner indicated that was exactly right. He referred to downtown in the City of St. George and commented that until recently, that Main Street consisted of mortgage brokers and pawn shops. The issue is that the City of St. George has not had the walkable density to support things like a little restaurant. There is a little bakery on the corner of Jewel Plaza that you can go get brunch and because there are apartments directly above it, they can stay open. That is the piece of the density that makes a downtown walkable and more likely to happen, which is why they are asking for more density and three (3) stories right on Center Street. Mayor Hart stated that it made sense that this area would be its own independent zone and not replicated anywhere else in the City. Dale Coulam clarified that a separate zoning district could be created or an overlay on that property because there are different ways to do that. In his conversations with Mr. Anderson, he has said Ivins does have a PD (Planned Development) overlay but no one has ever used it because it's with large residential zoning districts and can only be residential, but it gives flexibility as to the size of the lots. There are ways that the developer could use the existing zoning, but there are some areas where zone changes would be required. If the City had a defined knowledge of what's going there, it could create specific guidelines for that zone. Otherwise, a PD or a mixed use overlay requires a project plan.
Council Member Anderson referred to the presentation showing apartment on 400 East but in his mind, commercial should be along 400 East instead of the apartments because that would help with the viewsheds. Once the area is known, they don't need to be visible for people to come visit. For him, the view shed is a big criteria and he was one that helped put that into place. They need to figure out what will be put out front so that Ivins can maintain that integrity, but as they get to the middle of the property, that invites people in. The other thing that came to mind is Vista School. The developers have talked about underground parking and tunnels and he would like to incorporate Vista School into the entrance so that everything works together there. There are three (3) accesses out of Ivins going to the east, and two (2) of them have schools on those accesses. He was thinking that with doing this type of density, it needs to be figured out how to get people in and out of Ivins, instead of making it hard for the people living in Ivins to get in and out. The other issue is how to get pedestrians across the road. The City does not want to slow the traffic down because Center Street is the main corridor to get from the West to the East in Ivins. Tim Anderson commented that those are great points. Some of the things that the developers are thinking about along 400 east is that much of the commercial is planned to go up 400 East, but not to go any farther than the turn off that goes into the student housing because they do not want to move any commercial up close to the existing residential to the north and there is a lot of room and space to do that. Along Center Street, one reason for being forward on the street is because of the underground parking. The developers don't want parking in front or along the road of those buildings so that it is a thruway, without the interference of parking. Regarding how the developers position the buildings crossways or running north to south so that it minimizes the viewshed issue, that as well as other access issues with regard to Vista School, are all things to be looked at. Council Member Murphy agreed with Council Member Anderson regarding traffic because that is a concern. Traffic patterns will need to be looked at. She thought it was a great concept to have some commercial downtown and that area is what was envisioned City Center to be, but she did not want to see all of the buildings in front on Center Street. It could look better if those are more in the middle. She understood that parking underground is a great idea and she was not against having commercial. She liked the developer’s idea of trying to get some commercial established, before moving forward with the rest of the project. They need to look at who would be coming in so they can get the kind of business that the community wants because Ivins does not need any more chain stores. It would be nice to have something different but that is going to take time to get people to want to come here and to get businesses to buy into that. She liked the vision and idea to get a good anchor store in the project to start, otherwise there will likely be empty store fronts. Tim Anderson indicated that underground parking is expensive and they are looking at the cost base to make sure they meet that with the leasable square footage throughout the project on the commercial side. That is part of why it is designed the way it is, but in terms of building configuration and how it might all work, this presentation s just a first shot to get the discussion going. Mayor Hart inquired of Architect Greg Turner, if they are establishing a unique area in the City, if the concept of that was to provide a gateway of a very clear definition of "here is the downtown" but that is diluted if those buildings are pushed back? Greg Turner stated that was exactly right. The developers are aware of the current ordinance regarding viewsheds. He and the developers feel strongly that the buildings being located up front, adds to the downtown pedestrian feel, with most of the traffic coming down Center Street and that's where they would see the downtown. Council Member Anderson inquired if 400 East will eventually have a roundabout on it? Mayor Hart stated yes, it is on the Master Plan. Council Member Anderson commented with that roundabout and the buildings being set back off the roundabout, they will grab people's attention just the same. Tim Anderson clarified that the rendering did not take that roundabout into account. That roundabout could be the iconic statement for the community and could be a fun thing to have in place there. Council Member Murphy indicated that there are a lot of visitors that come to Ivins, but she would like to be able to attract the residents as well. There needs to be more commercial in Ivins for the tax base because a lot of the taxes are on the backs of the Ivins residents. Tim Anderson stated that the idea is that this would be a place where people can walk down from the north area, go to a coffee shop or a yoga studio and have a lot of activity going on. Mayor Hart indicated that Mr. Tien is a businessman and commented that if Ivins City does not seize the opportunity to have a downtown created on this piece of land, ultimately Mr. Tien would be compelled to sell off different pieces of it, for different commercial or residential uses and Ivins will have lost the opportunity to have a cohesive kind of downtown area. Tim Anderson commented that the property is currently under one owner, which is difficult to find anywhere, making this a unique situation.
Council Member Mehr thanked the developers for the presentation and commented that they have a lot to think about. Council Member Anderson requested that the developers think about the traffic and people being able to cross from the south side to make it walkable, and how to incorporate Vista School. Mayor Hart indicated that he was getting the sense that the reason for the developers meeting with the City Council, was to work with Ivins City, to try and develop this concept, before moving aggressively forward on any type of design work. Tim Anderson stated that was correct. Regarding traffic, that could ruin the project. The developers will do studies and they think it is a feasible project. They are open to input and suggestions from everybody. Mayor Hart inquired how Mr. Anderson and the developers saw collaboration working going forward. Tim Anderson indicated that at this point, they will be looking at zoning issues to determine exactly how the overlay is going to apply and decide what is going to be there. To the north of the property, that is easy because it's residential but moving further south, the demand on the commercial will be based on demand. They do not know exactly what the challenges will be there yet but those are things that will need to be looked at overtime, as the right zoning overlay is in place. The developers would like to build the project as quickly possible but know it is not something that just happens in a year or two and that it will take time. Mayor Hart inquired about moving forward Tim Anderson stated that they would like to get started by meeting with the Technical Review Committee (TRC) and there is a Development Agreement in place for the Medical School that will need to modified.