DEFINITIONS/USES
1. What is the necessity for adding Resort Hotel and Resort Hotel Units definitions? The existing definitions have historically covered resort hotels without a problem. Special definitions especially ones that duplicate existing uses complicate our code and should be avoided.
There are currently no “hotels” within any destination resorts in Deschutes County. Destination resorts have “overnight accommodations” rather than hotels. The Sunriver Resort zoning district allows lodging facilities, as well as hotel and motel units. As a result, it is logical that no issue about the meaning of the term “hotel” has arisen in the zoning districts because overnight uses are not limited to a hotel use.
A “flagged hotel” has the opportunity to raise the market awareness of a resort in the marketplace and to draw upon its loyal user base to attract additional guests to a resort community. However, due to variable occupancy rates at many resorts like Sunriver, hotel companies are typically not building single room, hotel owned facilities that are commonplace in urban communities. Hotels may “build extended-stay suites” or they may rely on renting third party owned suites or condominiums in order to have financially viable facilities in these communities. The current “hotel unit” definition in the county code does not contemplate these conditions so new definitions are needed in order to be able to develop these facilities and make the Town Center District successful.
2. What is the necessity for defining Destination Club? We have many golf clubs so defined in Deschutes County without the need for an additional definition. Special definitions complicate our code and should be avoided.
Destination Clubs, sometimes known as Private Residence Clubs are fractional ownership facilities that have enhanced amenities and different ownership and use patterns than are currently addressed in the county code. This type of facility is currently very popular in resort communities since it allows buyers to own real estate in resort communities at a “fraction” of the price of whole-ownership residences. This use is a critical component of the development plan for the Town Center District and needs to be an allowed use in the zone to prevent future disputes over whether the use is allowed.
3. Live/work zoning needs language for signs, parking, visitors and prohibition of nuisances (noise, smells and so on). How would this be accomplished?
The Town Center District follows the same approach used for live/work units in the LaPine UCC. That zone does not impose special requirements for parking, visitors and nuisances. The definition of “live/work” units in LaPine includes a statement that a sign shall be provided at the street level but no special limits on signs are imposed. All regulations relating to live work residences will be written into private covenants that will control elements such as signs, nuisances, limits on use, etc. Live/work residences will require conditional use permits that will confirm many of these details.
4. What is the reasoning behind allowing 50% of the first floors of mixed-use buildings to be residential? If 50% of mixed-use building first floors are residential, what is the resulting total commercial space?
Mixed use buildings define the retail districts and public spaces of Town Centers. In many cases, such as building H/J on our current site plan, some portions of these buildings are far from these public spaces where people will gather and shop. Thus, some first floor spaces of a mixed-use building are appropriate for retail uses while others are not. First floor spaces that are not convenient for customers will never be leased and will remain “dead zones” within these districts if they are developed as retail space.
The first floor areas of our mixed-use buildings occupy more than 200,000 square feet. Adding this to the approximately 15,000 square feet of commercial space that is projected to remain in the district, we would have far more commercial space than could be supported in the Sunriver Community. Thus, some first floor areas of mixed-use buildings that are far from the streets and plazas of the district will be used for residential uses.
At a minimum, an entrance and hallway with the elevators will be needed so that residents living on upper floors can access their residences. The applicant would also like the ability to provide a security desk, security offices and residential management offices on the first floor.
5. If there is 150,000? square feet of commercial in the mall now, why shouldn’t that number be replaced?
We can confirm that there is approximately 150k sq ft of commercial area currently in the mall today. We also expect to furnish slightly more than 150k sq ft (all commercial uses) when our project is complete, and the community is fully “mature”.
However, the supply and demand of commercial space in any area is dictated by fundamental economic principles such as the size of the community and its use patterns, not an arbitrary number. Currently, approximately 23% of the commercial space in the Sunriver Mall is vacant, indicating that there is more supply of space than there is demand. Furthermore, the excess of space has resulted in pressure on prior owners of the facilities to fill the space with anyone willing to pay rent – rather than protecting the functionality of the village mall as a pedestrian-friendly, vibrant village through careful engineering of the tenant mix. Retail and restaurant spaces have given way to commercial businesses, and the loss of “critical mass” of quality retail/restaurant offerings has been devastating.
We fully intend to provide occupancy opportunities to non-retail commercial, but will do so on a demand-driven basis, and primarily outside of the prime retail areas of the “village core”, which will include only retail and F&B.
The 85,000 square feet of commercial space noted is a minimum amount of commercial space that Silverstar and the SROA Board negotiated as part of their agreement and that this amount would provide a vibrant commercial core to service the Sunriver community in the Village Mall. Both parties expect the final amount of commercial space that will be built will exceed this minimum amount. The final amount of commercial space that will be proposed will be based upon many factors that have not yet been determined.
Our goal is to have our project, and the commercial operators in the village, be extremely successful in the facilities we redevelop. If we can develop more with the confidence that it will succeed, we will do that. At a minimum, we will provide 85,000 sq ft. The current zoning of the property requires zero square feet as a minimum. Without a healthy redevelopment opportunity, we would expect that the village will continue to lose available space as the existing buildings are taken out of use.
6. How would as little as 85,000 square feet of commercial create the vibrant retail core that you describe? What examples do you have?
Based on the careful study by our retail experts of other resort villages, we concluded that the village could be vibrant and provide significant services and offerings to the community with less than 85,000 sq ft. We have included with this submission a letter we provided to the SROA in 2006 from one of North America’s preeminent retail consulting firms, Thomas Consultants, which will provide detail on this question. This letter was utilized by SilverStar and the SROA during negotiations over the minimum square footage of commercial space that would be required in the Town Center District.
85,000 square feet of commercial space is not what we are proposing for the current Village Mall site. This is a minimum figure. However, many resort villages have created a vibrant atmosphere with approximately this amount of commercial space in their mixed-use Village cores.
River Run at Keystone: 89,000 square feet
Tamarack Village Ph.1: 55,000 square feet
The Village at Mammoth: 82,000 square feet
The Village at Squaw: 85,000 square feet
The ultimate amount of commercial space that will be proposed will be based upon many factors such as the ultimate size of the Town Center District, residential densities in the Village, the amount of parking that can fit onto the site and the results of our future proposal for Transportation Demand Management.
7. What would be an appropriate minimum ratio of commercial square footage to residential square footage?
Silverstar is not intending the Village development to serve only the residential owners/users within the Village, but rather, the local and regional trade areas that are and would become attracted to the Village as a local or regional shopping destination. As such, calculating a ratio of on-site residential to on-site commercial does not furnish a usable statistic.
The residential density is purely driven by the economic factors of the land acquisition and the development of a high-quality master planned community – and on that basis, we negotiated the density figures heavily with the SROA prior to agreeing to purchase the property and proceed with investing in the community’s infrastructure. It’s important to understand that this is not a “hindsight” issue – we and the SROA understood the realities of the purchase (and the alternative to the Sunriver community of leaving the ownership fragmented and in the hands of the prior owners), well in advance of the purchase. We agreed – collaboratively – on the standards that the SROA would support to govern a redevelopment.
SilverStar Destinations and the SROA board have agreed to a minimum ratio of 150 square feet of commercial space per unit of residential density that would be built within the Town Center District. This ratio must be maintained in all phases of development in order for residential units to be built.
