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Mountainville Academy's request for STEM building exceptions tabled pending independent traffic review and city agreements
Summary
The Planning Commission unanimously tabled Mountainville Academy's request for exceptions to setbacks, bulk/massing and parking for a proposed STEM building. The tabling requires a third-party review of the school's traffic study, presentation of the city's master traffic plan, an MOU for any city parcel/easement use, board commitments on traffic mitigation and parcel consolidation.
The Alpine City Planning Commission on Sept. 2 unanimously voted to table Mountainville Academy's request for exceptions tied to a proposed STEM building, citing outstanding traffic concerns and the need for additional city-level agreements.
Staff (Ryan Robinson) told the commission that state law treats schools as a permitted use in most zones but that municipalities retain authority to regulate aspects such as parking, traffic circulation and project siting for public-safety reasons. Mountainville submitted a traffic study prepared by the applicant's engineer; staff recommended a third-party review before the commission forwards an exception recommendation to City Council.
Applicants Brent Pace (Odyssey Partners) and Dan Jimenez (Mountainville board) presented the schematic: a permanent STEM center situated between existing parcels, additional parking and modifications intended to increase queuing and reduce on-street blockages. Pace said the plan would increase permanent on-site stalls from about 100 today to roughly 159 under the proposal (the staff packet cited a typical bright-line of 165 stalls), and noted the proposal uses some city-owned parcel area in alternative analyses. Jimenez said the project's educational goal is to improve STEM instruction, noting the school's investment and the desire for a cafeteria and dedicated lab space.
Multiple commissioners and residents pressed the applicants on traffic and safety on Main Street, citing near-miss incidents, congested egress points and complicated interactions with adjacent driveways and the roundabout. Chair Alan McDonald told the board the city is "trying to clean up a mess" created by historical development patterns, and commissioners repeatedly recommended exploring near-term mitigations such as no-left-turn restrictions, staging sites or software-enabled pickup systems.
Commissioner Jeff Davis moved to table the exception request. The motion, amended on the floor, requires completion of a third-party review of the submitted transportation study, presentation of the city's master traffic plan to the commission, a memorandum of understanding specifying terms for any potential use of city-owned parcel/easement, a report from the Mountainville board listing additional traffic mitigation measures it will consider, and an agreement from the board that it is willing to consolidate lot lines into a single parcel. Troy Slade seconded the motion; the commission voted unanimously to table.
By tabling, the commission preserved multiple procedural options: it can later make a recommendation to City Council to approve, deny or further condition exception requests once the independent traffic analysis and requested documentation are submitted.
Next steps noted in the meeting record: staff expects the third-party traffic review within approximately two weeks and the commission asked applicants to provide a summary of board-considered mitigation measures before the matter returns.
