May 7, 2025, Planning Board Regular Meeting Minutes

For those who have gone in and out of the driveway that services the hotel, they're following the exact same grading pattern as they did there, and it will result in a driver's eye that's closer to the elevation of Prospect Avenue, which is going to create a safer exiting movement. When you look at the impact as you move slightly north, they also chose to reconfigure this front parking lot. The front parking lot is probably the most important lot in the facility because, on a day- to-day basis, this is the parking that everybody uses. On evenings when the facility is booked for larger events, that's when they'll have valet parking, and the valet will take over this lot. For the ADA parking, they're on the side of a hill, so ADA is important because it needs what's called an accessible route, so you have to be able to get from the cars to the front doors. They've developed half a dozen ADA spaces with a direct accessible route to the path that gets you to the front door of this facility, and they are the closest spaces to it. They've increased the parking on the property by this reconfiguration, but they've simultaneously decreased the impervious coverage on this property by about 5,000 square feet. Not only did they add ADA parking spaces with the defined accessible route, they've added half a dozen EV parking spaces, and they've brought the total parking on site to 471 spaces when you consider the EV credits. A quick look at the grading and how they accomplished this with the driveway is on sheet SP6.1. They've regraded the driveway to provide an area that's relatively flat, less than 5% for the first 25 feet of the driveway. That driveway gets a little steeper going down, but now it's going to be a constant grade. They've added drainage improvements on that driveway and reconfigured the whole parking lot, and incorporated drainage improvements there too. Ultimately, they've connected this storm sewer system through parking lot C to the existing drainage facility that's there. What's important to note about this is that this is an improvement that can only be made while the facility is closed. Therefore, the whole front parking lot can be done now while the facility is closed. It can't be done while this is open because the driveway is going to take weeks to do. They've taken the time to develop new lighting for this front parking lot as well.

while the facility is closed. It can't be done while this is open because the driveway is going to take weeks to do. They've taken the time to develop new lighting for this front parking lot as well. All of the driveways and the parking area will be lit by 15-foot light poles. These are lantern-type fixtures that are dark sky compliant, so they don't have glare that goes up in the air. The walkways, the pedestrian areas, and the plaza area outside of the fountain are lit with 12-foot-high light poles, and that front area is something that's important to the application as well. Mr. Petry shows on his presentation where one comes out of the existing room in the front of the building with the glass that overlooks the fountains, and you walk downstairs to get down to the patio level. Their intention is to fill that area in and to raise that up so that this area outside can be ADA accessible and enjoyed by all patrons, not just those who are physically capable of walking downstairs. That's going to cause them to have to reconstruct the front fountain and raise it up a bit so that it's above the patio area, but that's included in the plans as well.