December 2018

Your mid-monthly update – Dec 2018

Land Rover Dealership Rezoning

In 1998, Centennial Ventures IV purchased the property located on Coalton Road (across from Safeway) with plans to build and operate a Land Rover dealership. At that time, the property was zoned as Community Activity Center (“CAC”) which allows for various community service, social, or cultural uses. Because a car dealership would not have been permitted under CAC zoning, the owner applied to rezone the property to Regional Activity Center (“RAC”) zoning, which allows for more intense uses, including car dealerships.

At the time of the 1998 rezoning, there was a considerable amount of opposition to the proposed rezoning. Rock Creek was still being built and residents were concerned about how a car dealership would fit within a planned, residential neighborhood. In order to address these concerns, the owner emphasized the upscale nature of the Land Rover brand and attempted to distinguish the proposed Land Rover dealership from typical car dealerships. The owner also offered to place a “reverter” clause in the applicable agreements that would be triggered if Land Rover ceased operating at the property. That way, the Town was assured that only an upscale and specific user like Land Rover would occupy this site.

Fast-forward 20 years, Land Rover moved out of Superior and the owner re-let the property to the current tenant, a used-car dealership. Because this use violated the agreements put in place in 1998, the Town gave notice to the owner and tenant and took steps to initiate the rezoning process. This past Monday, on December 10, 2018, that process concluded. The Town Board held a public hearing and rezoned the former Land Rover dealership property from RAC to CAC zoning.

This was a lose/lose proposition. While the Board was certainly sympathetic to the business owner who would have to shut down its operations, we heard from a significant number of residents living in the Summit neighborhood and elsewhere, who were upset that the 1998 agreements were not being enforced. From their perspective, living near a Land Rover dealership was considerably different from living next to a used car dealership.

In 1998, our Town Board tried to protect the interests of the public by agreeing on a rezoning, but only if the reverter clause was included as part of the deal. This is a similar situation to what the Town Board decided with the Tesla dealership, which includes a restriction that the property could only be used for electric vehicle sales/service. The Board expressly conditioned that approval on the inclusion of that restriction, so that site cannot become a used car dealership. If a future Town Board in 20 years is faced with the prospect of allowing a used car dealership to occupy the Tesla building, I hope they will respect the conditions we imposed just as we respected the conditions the 1998 Town Board imposed on the Land Rover dealership property.

As the dust settles, it is my hope that we can explore possibilities for a use of the former Land Rover dealership that fits the needs of our community and the CAC zoning. Like many of you, I don’t want to see this property sit vacant and I have a few ideas that I will be discussing with the Board very soon.

Downtown Superior Upcoming Development Applications

This past Monday, the master developer of Downtown Superior (Superior Town Center), provided an overview of the project and highlighted a number of Final Development Plans that it expects will be considered by the Board in 2019.

As part of these plans, all of the residential development in the southernmost area (Planning Area 3), will be submitted for approval. In addition, the developer intends to submit the first commercial portion of the development, including the Main Street commercial core. This is an exciting time for this project and I look forward to seeing the plans.

Some of the anticipated FDPs that we expect to see this year include:

• Remington – Block 25 (19 single family/56 townhomes) – January 14, 2019
• Remington – Blocks 26-27 (27 single family homes) – March 2019
• Thrive – Blocks 26 (19 townhomes) – March 2019
• Toll Brothers – Blocks 16-24 (approx. 305 homes) – July 2019
• Thrive – Blocks 14 & 15 (54 townhomes) – August 2019
• Morgan – Blocks 6-11 (Mixed Use/Retail Town Core) – October 2019

Rogers Farm/2nd Avenue (Original Town)

Boulder Creek Builders is moving forward with plans to develop the Rogers Farm property (West of McCaslin @ the Roundabout near Downtown Superior). This property was platted and zoned for medium-density residential use in 1903. Although the property is zoned for medium-density residential, the developer is planning building single family homes instead. There are plans for homes on 26 platted lots.

Because the developer is not seeking to to build anything that is not permitted by the current zoning and the approved plats, all that is required for the developer to move forward is to pull building permits. There is no requirement that the developer submit a land use application for the Board’s consideration, unless it wants to do something other than a use-by-right pursuant to the applicable zoning/plats.

Boulder Creek Builders will be hosting a community meeting on Monday night, December 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Sports Stable Community Room. This is not a Town-sponsored meeting, but if you are interested in this development, I encourage you to attend.

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I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year! Thank you for the opportunity to serve this great community!

-Mark