Post-its HENC and Mixed Use

Here are the texts from the post-its left on the Mixed Use poster board from our meeting on the Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center (HENC) meeting of April 1, 2015:

Mix Use 
% of housing, office & retail

• Mixed Use – Priority is meeting neighborhood need for goods and services, (undecipherable), retail. Office and residential are ok but secondary.
  
• Residential density can be increased but must be capped (at ? 24 unites/acre).
  
• Design Review for BC zone to prevent lawsuit scale and density.
  
• Need lots of residential. But min parking regulations currently in place would choke neighborhood with traffic. Need housing that will attract car-light/car-free residents.
  
• High density residential. Need enough residents to support increased businesses and make it economically feasible for redevelopment. At least 4 stories.
  
• Somehow find ways to encourage/support retention infill of smaller housing stock & retain green space/breathing space, not stacked up giant boxes.
  
• Should put in density caps for neighborhood center so a potential Potala Village redux is avoided.
  
• Height & setbacks is not enough definition to guide development. Huge difference of impact if a developer puts many tiny housing units v. fewer bigger ones in a given # of acres. Need to look at BC (HENC) as a whole, not as 2 separate pieces.
  
• Mix Use – No low-income housing. It essentially subsidizes big business because it enables those businesses to keep their wages low since there are more available people to work for lower wages.
  
• Support mixed use – retail restaurants, and business.
  
• Access for each category – inc. parking & congestion.
  
• Mixed use – Height limits can go up – a little. HC could be view property from upper stories. 3-4 stories is ok w/me. (If traffic and density issues are solved.)
  
• Limits on heights and density in Neighborhood Center.
  
• Retail low profiles of buildings = keep them no highter than average street trees = human scale.
  
• Restaurants
  
• Would support mixed use? – 
  
• How to back to corridor & front
  
• Parking – adequate.
  
• I would trade off common areas in BC for variances in height and setbacks, possibly.
  
• 4-5 story mixed uses businesses fronting sidewalk. 
  
• No parking lots fronting streets. Parking underground or behind buildings.
  
• Density!
  
• Don’t want 200 square foot apartments.
  
• Need to keep in line w/other similar mixed use to maintain property values.
  
• No office /day use other than commercial in HENC. Possible residential mixed use.
  
• Ensure ample retail/business to support walkable nature of neighborhoods for essential – not another packed in housing center such as the S. K. P&R TOD w/limited retail require (illegible). 
  
• Architectural requirements
  
• I would like to see the city put in some building codes that would encourage more craftsman style homes vs. the ugly square glass and concrete modern-architecture homes.
  
• The BC should be mostly retail, some housing, and almost no office. We have other office space nearby.
  
• Mixed use – Even the city has been surprised by the “unlimited density”. We need definition & limit.
  
• Mixed use - % of housing, office, retail
  
• Don’t add housing. We need the retail options more for the residences that are already here. If density increases a lot (via added height) then we end up with underground parking which isn’t user friendly for quick stops to the grocery.
  
• Limit density in BC zones to prevents excessive density like Potala issue.
  
• If taller buildings are allowed, require public access to rooftop view areas.
  
• Parking for businesses and residences.
  
• The Everest side of the B.C. has many small, separately owned parcels.
  
• How do we discourage a mish-mash of developments on small lots.
  
• One floor of retail with residential above would make sense, especially if transit were to go in on the CKC.
  
• Plan for enough retail height to allow for supermarkets and drugstores.
  
• The Houghton 2011 plan only allowed for 12’ high retail space – this is not enough for grocery stores/drug stores.
  
• We need to do everything we can to preserve grocery & drug stores in business center. – don’t allow conversion to total residential or residential and only low quality retail.