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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRS_Narrative_Urban_Design_Report_241002_v1.pdf 620 Kirkland Way, Suite 202 | Kirkland, WA | 98033 // 425.454.7130 // milbrandtarch.com August 27, 2024 City of Renton Planning Division 1055 South Grady Way Renton, WA 98057 Project Narrative for Solera Townhomes Site Plan Review_V1 The Solera Townhomes are a planned 90-unit townhome condominium development that is located on blocks C and D of the Solera Master Plan. Lot C and D are in the city’s CV zone with a combined site area of approximately 3.87 acres. Neighboring properties include the Solera Appartements complex to the east, Sunset Park to the south, and various multifamily apartments/condominiums to the north and west. As a single use residential townhome development utilizing the unit lot subdivision provisions of the Renton municipal code, our project will be subject to the Residential Design and Open Space Standards found in RMC section 4-2-115. Townhome developments in the CV zone are required to comply with the standards applying to the R14 zone for site design, open space, and residential design. Compliance with these design standards are as follows: 1. Site Design Lot configuration – A variety of lot configurations and housing stock is desired to minimize the perception of monotonous developments. We are a large townhome development with a total of 90 townhome units within 20 separate townhome structures. We are proposing a variety of homes sizes to meet with the desire for a more diverse housing stock. Our development features 4 di;erent unit types with square footages varying from 1,240square feet up to 1,750 square feet. Units are clustered into 4 di;erent building types that are dispersed across the site. As an alley loaded townhome development, our buildings are sited so garages face garages, side yards face side yards, and front yards are oriented either towards a public street or a common courtyard space. Please refer to civil plans for details on how we are conforming with the desired storm water practices, LID construction, and site soils management. Garages – By minimizing the visual impact of garages, communities can be created that are oriented towards people rather than cars. Our development achieves this by locating the garages o; the rear of each unit and locating pedestrian entries facing the public streets or a common courtyard space. Our garage door style matches the architectural style of our buildings. Decks are located above garage spaces to further deemphasize their predominance. Where garage walls are located on a corner lot, windows have been added to the sides to break up the appearance of blank walls. 2. Open Space Landscaping – Landscaping needs to conform to the standards located in RMC 4-4-070. Per those standards, all street frontages need to be provided with landscaping a minimum of 10’ wide along all public street frontages where building setbacks are 10’ or greater. Where building setbacks are less than August 27, 2024 Page 2 of 4 620 Kirkland Way, Suite 202 | Kirkland, WA | 98033 // 425.454.7130 // milbrandtarch.com 10’, 10’ feet of landscaping is required where there are no buildings. Our site design allows for 15’ of landscaping between all public sidewalks and our buildings that face public streets with the exception of building 1 (side yard is 10’ wide which still meets the landscaping width requirement) and building 14 and building 15 (where the side street setbacks were reduced to 5’ per the master plan agreement). Street trees and landscaping are provided within all R.O.W.s within a provided 8’ wide planter strip. These strips will contain the required street tree plantings at the appropriate spacings and the required ground cover plantings. All surrounding properties are in the CV zone with no less intensive uses abutting our project site, so no landscape bu;ers are required for the purpose of screening. All pervious areas will be landscaped, and we are not proposing any parking lot areas. See landscape plans for specifics on conformance with all landscaping requirements. Parks – We are a development of less than 10 net acres, so no park is required. Common Open Spaces – Developments of 4 or more units are required to provide 350 s.f. of common open space per unit. Our development proposes the creation of 90 new townhome dwellings which will require 31,500 s.f. of common open space. Our proposal provides approximately 33,250 s.f. of common open space in the form of common green courtyard spaces. Courtyards are all located in highly visible locations with buildings fronting along them and/or direct connections to R.O.W.s. Our open spaces are contiguous and accessible to units with an average overall width of over 40’. The whole project sight is flat to gently sloped, so no open space will have a slope exceeding 5%. No retaining walls or fences are proposed in any of the common open spaces. Private Yards – Each townhome in our proposed design has a private front yard that is between 11.5’ – 16’ deep and spans the entire width of the unit. All front yards will meet or exceed the requirement for 250 s.f. of private ground floor open space with no dimension less than 8’. Sidewalks, Pathways, and Pedestrian Easements – Sidewalks are included along all roadways of our project. For homes that front along streets, we propose 4’ walkways from each porch stoop to the sidewalk. Where homes front on common courtyard spaces, 4’ wide walkways are proposed to connect to a common 5’ wide pedestrian circulation system that connects to all courtyard spaces on site and back to the public sidewalk system. 3. Residential Design Primary Entries – A goal of the residential design guidelines is to have entries to homes be a focal point of a building’s façade. This is accomplished by having all unit entry ways taking access from and facing either a public street or a common courtyard space. All of our buildings are designed with porch stoops that are 5’ deep and raised 12” above the surround grade (3’ above the sidewalk in the case of building 14, 16, and 17 per the master plan agreement). Façade Modulation – Façade modulation is used to create the appearance of variety and to break up larger building into something closer to the human scale. Our proposed building design incorporates two 2’ deep modulation elements on front elevations of the 3 & 4-plex buildings, three 2’ deep modulation August 27, 2024 Page 3 of 4 620 Kirkland Way, Suite 202 | Kirkland, WA | 98033 // 425.454.7130 // milbrandtarch.com elements on the 5-plex buildings, and four 2' deep modulation elements on the 6-plex buildings. All buildings have a 1’ deep modulation along the side elevations, and buildings on corner lots also have wrap around porch features. Windows and Doors – The residential design guidelines call for all primary windows to be proportioned vertically as opposed to horizontally, which we do on all facades that face out on the pedestrian realm. Where we propose large window areas, individual glass panes are broken up, so the desired vertical character is preserved. Our exterior doors proposed are all solid wood construction and contain clear glazing. All entry doors are oriented to face out on public streets (where available) or common courtyard spaces. No sliding glass patio or deck doors will be used, and all doors and windows will be trimmed with 5.5” wide trim. Scale, Bulk, and Character – Our buildings elevations are designed so that elements like individual porch stoops, canopies, windows, and individual unit roofs don’t dominate the overall building form, but are used as tools to help give definition to individual units within the greater building composition. To further define and give identity to individual units in the same building, we propose the use of alternating accent colors within each unit bay. Porch roof plates are kept to the 1 story to help reinforce the human scale. Roofs – We are proposing the use of gable roofs over each townhome unit to define the individual unit’s extents, and to create regular rhythm across the building façade. To help create variety, each color scheme proposed shall have its own composition roofing color. Eaves – All of our proposed eaves will be 1’ deep or greater and utilize 2x8 fascia board with 5” deep gutters. Gutters and downspouts will be painted the same color as the building trim and incorporated into the overall elevation design. Architectural Detailing – Attention to detailing of the facade is important to create buildings that are attractive, well proportioned, and of quality character. With that in mind, the materials and sidings we are proposing are all durable and of high quality. We have incorporated elements such as 5.5” wood trim around all doors and windows and 3.5” wood trim at all material transitions and building corners. We use elements like our projected metal canopy roofs and metal window planter boxes elements to help relate back to the human scale. Larger window configurations are also broken up into smaller individual panes to relate to a more human, residential scale. Materials and Color – Our designs use material and color variety to create a sense of diversity in the provided housing stock. Our buildings propose the use of three primary building sidings; fiber cement lap siding, vertically oriented fiber cement siding board with a vertical reveal joint, and simulated natural finished wood look sidings. Sidings are all continued to natural breaking points, be they inside corners or vertical trim transitions. Where sidings encounter exterior corners, the siding wraps the corner and continues to a natural transition point not less than 24” from the corner. Two main color schemes are proposed to be used across the site. Each color scheme is split into two sub schemes, with a common wood color and main body, trim, and door paint color used in each sub scheme. Within each color August 27, 2024 Page 4 of 4 620 Kirkland Way, Suite 202 | Kirkland, WA | 98033 // 425.454.7130 // milbrandtarch.com scheme, an alternating accent paint color is being used to help define each unit. The colors we propose using are all muted deeper tones that that you would expect to find in nature. Downspouts and gutters will all be painted to match the trim color of each building. Mail and Newspapers – The mailboxes that will be used in this project will be the standard cluster pedestal mailboxes. They will be located throughout the site in convenient locations for the residents of the development. The exact locations still need to be coordinated with USPS. Utilities – All utility boxes located on site and visible to the public way will be screened with appropriately sized landscaping. Utility meters and panels serving buildings are planned to be place near the 1’ recessed building modulation on side elevations to allow for partial visual screening from one direction. Meters will likewise have appropriate landscaping screen to obscure from view from pedestrian walkways. The townhomes themselves will have their heating and cooling needs met using ductless heat pump systems. Outdoor condensers are planned to be located on unit decks located the second floor and at the rears of buildings where they will be obscure from view from the public realm. Dumpster/Trash/Recycling Collection Areas – Our proposed design does not call for a centralized dumpster storage location. Each townhome unit has its own private garage and space has been allocated within each to serve 3 waste bins (see the unit plan sheets). If you have any questions or comments on how we are meeting any of the discussed guidelines of the Residential Design and Open Space Standards, please feel free to reach out to me so we can discuss. Thanks. Sincerely, Jesse Hadley Project Architect jlh@milbrandtarch.com 425.454.7130