Land Development Option Community Meeting for Chintimini Senior & Community Center Expansion/Renovation

Location: Chintimini Senior & Community Center Multi-Purpose Room
Contact: Jackie Rochefort, Park Planner (541.766.6468 or email)

Corvallis Parks and Recreation staff and the Project Design Team are hosting this meeting to hear neighbor and community comments regarding a proposed Land Development Option (LDO) for improvements to the Chintimini Senior & Community Center. The current plan is for a phased expansion to the Center building and to construct a parking lot in the southeast corner of Chintimini Park.  Incidental to this project, improvements to Chintimini Park will be completed using grant funds.

The purpose of the LDO is to request two variances from the City of Corvallis Land Development Code.  The two variances requested will be discussed at the meeting and are described as follows:

1. The Land Development Code requires a set-back sidewalk for new development and for redevelopment where set-back sidewalks do not exist.  A set-back sidewalk is described as a profile with a street adjacent to a curb, a 12’ landscape strip, and then a 5’ sidewalk.  The sidewalks around Chintimini Park and the Center do not have a landscape strip separating the sidewalk from the street.  If the City were required to reconstruct the sidewalks, it would necessitate removing several mature trees from Chintimini Park, removing 12’ of parkland around the park perimeter, and replanting with young trees.  Staff is requesting a variance to leave the existing sidewalks in their current location in favor of preserving the mature trees and parkland within Chintimini Park.
2. The Land Development Code requires a parking space for every 200 square feet of building area.  The City is currently not in compliance with this requirement.  The building expansion and park improvement will require the construction of a parking lot.  The building expansion will occur in phases, therefore the parking lot could also be constructed in phases.  Staff is requesting a variance from a phased construction of the parking lot to constructing the full parking lot concurrent with the first phase of the building expansion and park improvement.  This will facilitate parking for users of the building and park, and be less disruptive to park users.