This public hearing item involves a Conditional Use request to build a new 2,000 square foot, 60 seat Wendy’s restaurant in conjunction with an adjoining 6,240 square foot retail building on the combined properties at 1308, 1324 and 1350 West Fairbanks Avenue. This is a Conditional Use because of the drive-thru component and per code, the Conditional Use applies to the entire project.
SITE & CONTEXT: These combined properties measure approximately 1.52 acres in size (66,000 square feet), have 250 feet of frontage on Fairbanks Avenue and frontage along the side street of Shoreview Avenue and rear street of Gene Street. The properties are adjacent to office buildings to the north and west. To the east is McDonald’s, and further south is the Publix Hollieanna shopping center.
This property has split zoning in that the north half fronting on Fairbanks Avenue is zoned Commercial (C-3) and the south half fronting on Gene Street is zoned Office (O-1).
APPLICATION HISTORY: A related request was made in September 2017 before P&Z that included a new Wendy’s and free standing retail building on these same properties. In that case, the land use designations in the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Map on the rear portion of the site needed to be amended from office to commercial due to the Wendy’s layout extending over the south portion of the site. That request was recommended for denial by the P&Z Board due to concerns over those land use changes, the increased traffic, site design and non-compliance with the P&Z Board’s desire for a unified building arrangement. The applicant then subsequently withdrew that request.
This current request has been altered in two significant ways. One change is that all of the commercial activities on the site have been relocated to the northern portion of the site with only parking on the southern portion of the site thus negating the need for the southern portion to be re-designated from office to commercial. Coincidentally that was the same zoning layout for the previous Wendy’s location on Orlando Avenue (now Verizon) in that the front half is zoned commercial where the building sits and office zoning is in the rear where only parking was located. As a result, this current application only includes the Conditional Use request and not any land use changes.
The second important change is that the applicant has been able to redesign the building arrangement, eliminating two independent free standing buildings. Now the two buildings (Wendy’s and Retail) are connected, which creates the visual appearance of a one building with a common architectural style having the Wendy’s as an end cap.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The site plan layout depicts the Wendy’s on the east side of the new development with the drive-thru lane and stacking along the rear or south side of the building. The outdoor patio seating area and roof forms the connection to the retail building on the western side. That retail building could have any combination of retail/salon/office tenants.
The 60 seat Wendy’s requires 20 parking spaces per code (one space for each 3 seats). The retail or office parking requires 34 spaces based on one space for each 250 square feet. The parking lot design shows 57 total spaces which is 3 more parking spaces than required by code.
TRAFFIC IMPACT: Fast food restaurants generate significantly more traffic than virtually all retail or office businesses. The standard analysis metric is the Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation estimates. Per ITE, on a per 1,000 square foot basis, the daily trip generation for a fast food restaurant is 471 trips per day. For a typical strip commercial development holding retail stores, offices and salons, it is 38 trips per day. The differential is a twelve-fold increase in traffic generation.
This specific project is expected to generate 1,380 vehicle trips per day. A “trip” is one car entering the site and another “trip” is that car leaving the site. This equates to about 700 cars a day coming to the site. While there are some ‘impulse’ decisions to pull into Wendy’s, most of the traffic is destinational, in that people will purposefully make that trip to Wendy’s.
The applicant has submitted a detailed traffic study including surveys of existing traffic counts and traffic patterns. At the request of the staff, they have surveyed the actual traffic at the McDonalds, including the Noon peak hour in order to get an accurate picture of the traffic volumes and patterns. Traffic flow from the Wendy’s would be expected to follow the same patterns as the existing traffic patterns at the McDonald’s.
For the McDonald’s, about one third of the traffic enters/exits via Fairbanks Avenue directly and the other two-thirds of the traffic accesses the site via Gene Street in the rear, which then allows vehicles to access Orlando Avenue or to provide access to the west via Gene Street. This Wendy’s site plan has the option for traffic to directly use the side street of Shoreview Avenue for access to Fairbanks Avenue. About half of the expected traffic will utilize Fairbanks/Shoreview and the other half will utilize Gene Street. The P&Z board may recall that there were several property owners along Gene Street that were in opposition to this project in February, 2017 due to the inevitable increase in traffic onto Gene Street from the Wendy’s. Nothing in the re-design has changed those impacts.
Due to the heavy traffic volumes and speeds on Fairbanks Avenue, the proposed driveway is right turn in and right turn out to preclude dangerous left turns into or out of the site onto Fairbanks. The OCPA aerial (attached) shows traffic backed up in front of this site, but not all the way back to Shoreview. To avoid the traffic safety issues of left turns, the staff’s condition (and approval from FDOT) is to extend the median divider on Fairbanks Avenue thereby precluding left turns into and out of the site. This forces vehicles to utilize Shoreview where those left turning movements are more clearly defined and safer.
ARCHITECTURAL IMAGE: As with most retail commercial construction today, this project has no discernable architectural style. The glass, metal and stucco fabrication is solely intended to produce a building at the lowest development cost. For the City however, the primary goal is to insure that the appearance, materials and coloration share a commonality between the two components so that it looks like a single building project.
PROPOSED SIGNAGE: The application package shows a new pylon ground sign for the Wendy’s along Fairbanks Avenue that could be the maximum 50 sq. ft. and 25 feet in height permitted by code. An approval condition with the McDonalds project was a smaller 30 sq. ft. pylon sign. For compatibility with the McDonalds approval, and so McDonalds doesn’t come back asking for a larger sign, (if the City approves the Wendy’s), is to limit the Wendy’s new pylon ground sign to the same 30 sq. ft. size as the McDonalds. The applicant has agreed that the retail building sign be a monument sign but any approval also needs the same 30 square foot limitation.
LANDSCAPE PLAN: The application package includes a landscape plan which conforms to code, including perimeter landscape screening of 7-gallon size, per code. There are numerous new trees being planted including japanese blueberry, magnolia and 12 new live oak trees. There also are 7 new cypress trees added within the storm water retention area. The City has also asked for new street oak trees to be added along Gene Street.
STAFF ANALYSIS: This request comes in the context of the City’s significant $20+ million dollar investment in infrastructure improvements along the West Fairbanks Avenue corridor, in order to foster and encourage new development that will improve the image of this gateway corridor into the City of Winter Park. Certain business types have been deemed to be not conducive to upgrading the aesthetic improvement to this gateway corridor are prohibited per the Comprehensive Plan, such as used car lots, etc. There has been previous debate about the desirability of the creation of a fast food row along this stretch of West Fairbanks Avenue.
In 2016, the City removed ‘fast food restaurants’ from the prohibited use list so that they may or may not be permitted through a conditional use process like the rest of the City. This was done with the intent that there would not be isolated single-purpose fast food developments along the south side of Fairbanks Avenue given the larger parcel sizes. The intention of the City is to only permit (via conditional use) a drive-thru component of a fast food business when it is part of a larger building development program such as an end-cap. To that end, the P&Z Board was instrumental in inclusion of Policy 1-L-8 below. This revised building program now does comply with this Comprehensive Plan policy.
Policy 1-L-8: Support Efficient Land Use Development Along the South Side of Fairbanks Avenue. Given the City’s desire for the aggregation and assemblage of properties along the south side of Fairbanks Avenue for more comprehensive redevelopment along that south side of Fairbanks Avenue, as an important gateway corridor into the City, versus isolated single purpose developments, the City shall only permit via conditional use any drive-in component of business when that business is part of a larger building development program such as via an end-cap use on a larger project.
Staff recognizes that the applicant has made significant changes to their plans since the initial project was reviewed in September, 2017. The applicant has re-designed the project layout to eliminate the need to amend the Comprehensive Plan future land use designations and the Zoning Map so that no change is needed. The applicant has also re-designed the building program to create the image of a unified building project with the Wendy’s as the end cap, per the policy direction of the Comprehensive Plan. The applicant also held a community meeting in January regarding this request. The City has heard mixed reactions following this meeting. Attached is a petition signed by the neighborhood.
The remaining concern is the twelve fold increase in traffic that fast food brings versus other permitted retail/office development. The question is whether that added traffic from a fast food restaurant, which is over and above what other retail/office uses would generate creates “a substantial adverse impact on adjacent streets”. On the following page is the application Code section.
The staff recommendation in 2011, was for denial of the adjacent McDonalds based on the added traffic impact. Thus, for consistency with the staff recommendation made for denial of the McDonald’s in 2011 and based on the potential twelve-fold increase in traffic generation likely resultant from this conditional use, the STAFF RECOMMENDATION IS FOR DENIAL. Should the Commission alternatively recommend approval, then staff would suggest the same conditions as recommended by the P&Z Board.
The P&Z Board, at their February 5th meeting, recommended approval with the following conditions:
1. That the approval is granted based upon the construction and extension of the Fairbanks Avenue median divider, so as to preclude the traffic safety hazards of left turning movements.
2. That the landscape plan be modified to include three oak street trees added to the Gene Street frontage.
3. That Wendy’s new pylon ground sign be limited to the same 30 sq. ft. size as the McDonalds. Also that the retail building monument sign be limited to the same 30 sq. ft.
4. That the two building components share a commonality of architectural style, materials and coloration and that the Wendy’s icon wall and the retail tower element both be finished with red glazed brick and that the base materials of the two buildings be the same.
5. That the applicant conduct regular on-site and off-site litter removal operations on a schedule submitted to and approved by the City.
Planning and Zoning Board Minutes – February 5, 2019:
Request of lg WINTER PARK FAIRBANKS LLC foR: CONDITIONAL USE Approval FOR A NEW 2,430 SQUARE FOOT, 60 SEAT, WENDY’S RESTAURANT with a DRIVE-IN COMPONENT AND 8,240 SQUARE FEET OF ADDITIONAL RETAIL/OFFICE BUILDING SPACE AT 1308,1324,1350 WEST FAIRBANKS AVENUE ZONED C-3 AND O-1
Planning Manager Jeff Briggs presented the staff report and explained that the request is for Conditional Use approval to build a new 2,000 square foot, 60 seat Wendy’s restaurant in conjunction with an adjoining 6,240 square foot retail building on the combined properties at 1308, 1324 and 1350 West Fairbanks Avenue. This is a Conditional Use because of the drive-thru component and per code; the Conditional Use applies to the entire project. He explained this property has split zoning in that the north half fronting on Fairbanks Avenue is zoned Commercial (C-3) and the south half fronting on Gene Street is zoned Office (O-1).
Mr. Briggs explained that a related request was made in September 2017 before P&Z that included a new Wendy’s and free standing retail building on these same properties. In that case, the land use designations in the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Map on the rear portion of the site needed to be amended from office to commercial due to the Wendy’s layout extending over the south portion of the site. That request was recommended for denial by the P&Z Board due to concerns over those land use changes, the increased traffic, site design and non-compliance with the P&Z Board’s desire for a unified building arrangement. The applicant then subsequently withdrew that request.
This current request has been altered in two significant ways. One change is that all of the commercial activities on the site have been relocated to the northern portion of the site with only parking on the southern portion of the site thus negating the need for the southern portion to be re-designated from office to commercial. As a result, this current application only includes the Conditional Use request and not any land use changes.
The second important change is that the applicant has been able to redesign the building arrangement, eliminating two independent free standing buildings. Now the two buildings (Wendy’s and Retail) are connected, which creates the visual appearance of a one building with a common architectural style having the Wendy’s as an end cap.
He explained that the site plan layout depicts the Wendy’s on the east side of the new development with the drive-thru lane and stacking along the rear or south side of the building. The outdoor patio seating area and roof forms the connection to the retail building on the western side. That retail building could have any combination of retail/salon/office tenants.
The 60 seat Wendy’s requires 20 parking spaces per code (one space for each 3 seats). The retail or office parking requires 34 spaces based on one space for each 250 square feet. The parking lot design shows 57 total spaces which is 3 more parking spaces than required by code.
Mr. Briggs discussed the traffic impact of the project. He stated that the P&Z board may recall that there were several property owners along Gene Street that were in opposition to this project in February, 2017 due to the inevitable increase in traffic onto Gene Street from the Wendy’s. Nothing in the re-design has changed those impacts. Due to the heavy traffic volumes and speeds on Fairbanks Avenue, the proposed driveway is right turn in and right turn out to preclude dangerous left turns into or out of the site onto Fairbanks.
Mr. Briggs noted that the applicant also held a community meeting in January regarding this request. The City has heard mixed reactions following this meeting, and received a petition signed by the neighborhood.
He concluded by stating that the staff recommendation in 2011, was for denial of the adjacent McDonalds based on the added traffic impact. Thus, for consistency with the staff recommendation made for denial of the McDonald’s in 2011 and based on the potential twelve-fold increase in traffic generation likely resultant from this conditional use, Mr. Briggs stated that the staff recommendation was for denial. He further explained that should the P&Z Board alternatively recommend approval, then staff would suggest the following conditions of approval:
1. That the approval is granted based upon the construction and extension of the Fairbanks Avenue median divider, so as to preclude the traffic safety hazards of left turning movements.
2. That the landscape plan be modified to include three oak street trees added to the Gene Street frontage.
3. That Wendy’s new pylon ground sign be limited to the same 30 sq. ft. size as the McDonalds. Also that the retail building monument sign be limited to the same 30 sq. ft.
4. That the two building components share a commonality of architectural style, materials and coloration and that the Wendy’s icon wall and the retail tower element both be finished with red glazed brick and that the base materials of the two buildings be the same.
Mr. Briggs answered questions from the Board regarding future use of the retail portion of the building, hours of operation of the Wendy’s and traffic generation.
Attorney Tara Tedrow of Lowndes, Drosdcik, Doster, Kantor & Reed, 215 N. Eola Drive, Orlando, Florida, represented the Applicant. She provided a presentation defining the overview of the project explaining that the property is 1.52 acres total with the north half of property fronting on Fairbanks Avenue which is zoned Commercial (C-3) with a Commercial FLU designation. The south half of the property is fronting on Gene Street is zoned Office (O-1) with an Office Professional Future Land Use designation. She stated that the request is a final Conditional Use approval and they applicant has submitted fully engineered site plans and landscape plans which have been approved by the City’s Urban Forestry director.
Ms. Tedrow reiterated that the applicant is requesting to build a new 2,000 square foot, 60 seat Wendy’s restaurant in conjunction with an adjoining 6,240 square foot retail building Restaurant and retail uses are permitted by right, but the drive-thru component requires a Conditional Use Approval. She provided images showing that the location is a heavy commercial corridor and discussed the existing site conditions and access points as they relate to Fairbanks Avenue and Gene Street.
Ms. Tedrow explained that the original request in September of 2017 contained a CUP, rezoning and FLU, but the applicant has made significant changes to the plans since that initial project was reviewed which Staff has recognized in their report.
The project layout was redesigned to eliminate the need to amend the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use designations as well as to eliminate the need to amend the Zoning Map. The building program was redesigned to create the image of a unified building project with the Wendy’s as the end cap, per the policy direction of the Comprehensive Plan and the desire previously expressed by Planning & Zoning.
Ms. Tedrow noted that the applicant held a voluntary community meeting on January 16, 2019 to obtain feedback from the neighbors. She remarked that they applicant did not receive any negative feedback about the design or the architecture. She stated that the concerns were related to traffic and the extension of the median.
Ms. Tedrow remarked that the request is for Conditional Use approval for a drive-thru restaurant and provided slides outlining the concept plan. She noted that along Shoreview, the applicant is adding a new sidewalk connection point, which will be a 6-foot wide sidewalk along Shoreview and an 8-foot sidewalk along Fairbanks Avenue, as well as upgrading the 5-foot wide sidewalk along Gene Street. There are 3 access points which all meet the code.
Ms. Tedrow presented the concept plan that showed the stacking of the cars. She stated that their director of development, who oversees all of their Florida operations, remarked that typically there are not more than 10 cars stacking at a time during peak hours. She provided an image showing 10 cars stacking and stated that while driving along Fairbanks Avenue, the stacked cars at Wendy’s would likely go unnoticed because you cannot see them the way you can see them stacked at the neighboring McDonald’s. She stated that the applicant has provided sufficient room for the cars going through the drive-thru.
Ms. Tedrow provided a code comparison slide showing the required parking space, building height and setback requirements versus what is being proposed by the applicant. She reviewed the landscape plan and landscape buffers as well as a comparison of the McDonald’s drive-thru component versus the Wendy’s drive-thru component. She reviewed the project design and enhancements.
James Taylor of Kimley-Horn Associates, 189 South Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL, presented the traffic review. He reviewed the traffic impact analysis stating that the study was performed per City Land Development Code requirements. He stated that the scope expanded to address unique site conditions:
1. Includes a midday peak hour operational analysis (in addition to required Daily and PM peak hour analyses)
2. Collected data at McDonalds to determine trip generation and distribution and apply to this project
3. Conducted detailed operational analysis along Shoreview Avenue from Fairbanks Avenue to Gene Street to include observations of traffic queue length and intersection delays to verify/calibrate analysis tools results
In addition, Mr. Taylor reviewed the analysis conclusions, safety conditions, responses to petitions from the neighbors, traffic generation clarifications and CUP code requirements on traffic.
Ms. Tedrow closed the applicant presentation by reviewing the criterial for the Conditional Use approval; she reviewed criteria related to Comprehensive Plan policies, Commercial District policies and Conditional Uses. She closed by reviewing conditions of approval suggested by Staff and asked for the opportunity to respond to any concerns expressed by the public.
Ms. Tedrow responded to questions from the Board.
The Board heard public comment in opposition of the project from: Carol Felsing, 1419 Gene Street, Winter Park, FL; Thomas Lamar 1370 Gene Street, Winter Park, FL; Julie Llamar, 1370 Gene Street, Winter Park, FL; Mary Black, 1334 Dallas Avenue, Winter Park, FL and Nord Northam, 120 Broadview Avenue. The residents expressed concerns about the potential increase in traffic backing up onto Gene Street and Shoreview with the proposed project. There was also a concern related to debris and trash in the general areas adjacent to or down the road from the establishment.
No one else wished to speak. The public hearing was closed.
The applicant responded to concerns raised by the P&Z Board and public related to traffic surrounding the site as well as the issue of trash and debris in common areas adjacent to the Wendy’s. In depth discussion ensued with the P&Z Board.
Motion made by Owen Beitsch , seconded by Sheila De Ciccio, for Conditional Use approval for a new 2,000 square foot, 60 seat, Wendy’s restaurant with a drive-in component and 8,240 square feet of additional retail/office building space at 1308, 1324 and 1350 West Fairbanks Avenue zoned (C-3) and (O-1) with the conditions set forth by Staff and the added condition that the applicant conduct regular on-site and off-site litter removal operations on a schedule submitted to and approved by the City.
The motion carried with a 5-1 vote, with Mr. Waugh voting for denial.