while this is not strictly an urban design issue, it is important to bring up in this context all the parking on the site chairperson mar: use of 50% of the housing units will be within walking distance of the public transit? supervisor elsbernd: just to be really specific, a five-minute walk within 8 light rail stop still hits the western edge. that is correct. other transit rocking does permeate the neighborhood. all the parking will be underground, except for a couple of small above-ground locations on the eastern part of the site. almost all the residential parking will be underground, which is a major urban design advantage of the project. in terms of how the number of spaces are distributed, it is essentially the reverse of the housing units. to encourage transit usage, but still provide parking for those who want it, the project would be allowed, although not required, to provide one space per unit. most of those parking spaces would be built on the western half of
that is correct. other transit rocking does permeate the neighborhood. all the parking will be underground, except for a couple of small above-ground locations on the eastern part of the site. almost all the residential parking will be underground, which is a major urban design advantage of the project. in terms of how the number of spaces are distributed, it is essentially the reverse of the housing units. to encourage transit usage, but still provide parking for those who want it, the project would be allowed, although not required, to provide one space per unit. most of those parking spaces would be built on the western half of the site. on the eastern half of the site, the overall parking issue would be approximately half a unit. it slowly graduates to the west. so if you live near 19th avenue, you would have access to a parking space, but it might be a few blocks away in an underground structure. this meshes with the density and the transit goals of the project to make
cafes and other small neighborhood retail uses, like you would think of in a corner store. they are about a third of an acre in size and they are distributed around the site so that every unit is within a couple minutes walk of one of these small neighborhood commons, where they could meet their friends or just get a cup of coffee and a paper on a sunday morning if newspapers continue to exist. that is one of the major neighborhood gathering spaces. the other major open space intervention and amenity that is being provided on the site is a whole open space corridor that essentially would permit the site everywhere from the southwest corner to the center of the project, anchored at a redesigned juan batista circle, which would continue to mainly continue to remain at the core of the project. there would be open space amenities, the spine of the new open space system. it is important to note that this major open space system is only possible by the rearrangement of the blocks
in terms of the scale of development specifically, the western half of the site is essentially a four-story model at the base, consistent with what we generally considered in residential neighborhoods around the city, a 45 foot scale. the eastern half is more of a six story scale. that decision was made to concentrate most of the bulk of the units on the eastern half, to ward where the transit infrastructure is. the existing powers, as you know, are going to remain. through the design process, the team decided to concentrate any new additional towers near the existing powers so as not to fundamentally alter the landscape and the view from surrounding hills and from the neighborhood in general. there are a series of slightly taller buildings that sort of rise up above the prevailing four 26 story four to six sto four to six story habitat. this will provide a little variety in the urban fabric. this is a monoculture, but there is a real texture, a sense of a neighborhood that