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Planning commission unanimously recommends City Council approve Uplands Filing 1 Block 3 official development plan
Summary
The commission recommended council approval of an Official Development Plan for Uplands Filing 1 Block 3 (A3), a 127‑home, alley‑loaded neighborhood with two publicly accessible parks and a detention pond; the vote was unanimous.
The Westminster Planning Commission voted unanimously on Jan. 14 to recommend City Council approve the Official Development Plan (ODP) for Uplands Filing 1, Block 3 (A3), a neighborhood designed to add for‑sale housing types and publicly accessible open space within the larger Uplands master plan.
Jacob Casa, principal planner with the city, introduced the item and said staff finds the ODP meets the 17 review criteria in Westminster Municipal Code § 11-5-15 and recommends that the commission forward a recommendation of approval to City Council subject to the conditions in the staff memo.
Applicant representatives said the A3 neighborhood will provide 127 alley‑loaded homes across four product types — two‑story townhomes, two‑story paired homes, three‑story detached single‑family homes and two‑story tuck‑under detached homes — with nearly one acre of publicly accessible private park space across two parks and a 5.01‑acre detention pond (the pond and most infrastructure are already under construction). Kaylee Gillespie described the two parks: a “library”-themed park north of the detention pond with tree groves, seating and a shade structure for books, and a second park east of the pond with playground and chalk‑walk features.
Marcus Pockner told the commission the plan reduces total unit counts relative to earlier approvals: “we are showing 89 fewer units than was approved in the ODPs overall,” and that Block A3 is 14 units under the site‑specific allowance in the MODP. The applicant also requested a set of exceptions tied to the PUD intent, including reduced lot depths, modest front‑setback adjustments, and alley‑loaded configurations to increase housing diversity and pedestrian orientation.
On parking, applicant materials show 365 required spaces and 444 provided across the neighborhood, plus an additional 30 guest spaces along Lowell Boulevard. The applicant also noted optional 3‑car tandem garage models for some home types.
Commissioners and staff asked technical questions about grading, temporary standing water in the construction‑period sediment basin and water‑line work on Lowell. Ryan Littleton, the civil engineer, explained the temporary basin is functioning as a sediment basin during construction and will be converted to an extended dry detention basin that holds water only during storm events. He also described the water‑line configuration: existing 12‑inch mains remain in Lowell while a 16‑inch line will be run in Irving to increase redundancy and capacity.
One nearby resident, John Palmer, testified in opposition suggesting traffic, elevation changes and stormwater management remained concerns for neighbors. Staff and the applicant described coordination on infrastructure and said many improvements are either completed or under construction.
Commissioner Carpenter moved that the Planning Commission recommend Council approve the ODP subject to the agenda memo conditions; Commissioner Kinnear seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Next steps: the Planning Commission will forward the recommendation to City Council for final action; staff and the applicant will continue engineering and permitting coordination prior to recordation and building permits.
