A site plan to transform the former CB FOX building into a boutique hotel, retail space and a restaurant and bar, was approved during the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting July 22. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com
A site plan to allow for nine food truck spaces and overflow parking for Los Alamos High School at 1377 and 1399 Diamond Drive was approved during the the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting July 22. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Plans to transform the former CB FOX building on Central Avenue into a multi-use enterprise moved one step closer to fruition after the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the site plan during its regular meeting July 22.
This wasn’t the only site plan to receive the commission’s stamp of approval. It also approved, 8-2, with Commissioners Katherine Bruell and Rachel Grimm opposed, a site plan for nine food truck spaces and a permanent overflow parking lot for Los Alamos High School on 1377 and 1399 Diamond Drive.
This site plan approval is subject to nine conditions:
- The overflow parking area will be accessible from the Sandia Drive entrance.
- The driveway on the north side of Diamond Drive that accesses 1399 Diamond Drive will be permanently closed. The applicant is responsible for curb, gutter, and sidewalk improvements.
- The applicant is required to have the County Environmental Services’ approval of a solid-waste service and access plan.
- The Department of Public Utilities needs to approve utility plans.
- There needs to be a minimum separation of 10 feet between food trucks, vehicles, and structures, and a minimum 15-foot clear area around all fire hydrants.
- The proposed shade structure needs the County Building Division’s approval as well as permits.
- Before beginning mobile food vending operations, a sanitation plan will need to be submitted for the Building Division’s approval.
- The mobile food vending court will operate only between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. daily.
- The applicant is asking to be exempted from the requirement of landscaping the buffer areas but if that isn’t approved, a landscape plan will need to be submitted to the Community Development Department.
Bruell and Grimm opposed the site plan, stating they felt it didn’t meet all the necessary criteria for approval.
Commissioners discussed the former CB FOX property first.
Senior Planner Desirae Lujan explained the applicant’s, 735 Central Investments, LLC., objective is to redevelop and renovate the vacant building into a mixed-commercial facility.
Its plans include taking the two-story, 24,000 square foot building and renovating it to expand the second floor and add a third floor, totaling approximately 4,000 square feet of new construction. The building will offer retail space and a variety of dining options on the first floor, a 20-room boutique hotel on the second floor, and a restaurant and bar with an outdoor terrace on the third floor.
As far as parking, Lujan stated that a separate parcel located between Central Avenue and Deacon Street, behind the building, provides 289 parking spaces. It is owned and operated by the Central Parking Lot Corporation and serves multiple adjacent commercial buildings. Lujan stated that staff verified the applicant’s parking analysis and confirmed that with applicable parking reductions, the number of parking spaces exceeds the number required by the Development Code.
Lujan shared a little of the building’s history. She said it was built in 1952 by the Atomic Energy Commission as a movie theater. The building was later converted into a department store and in approximately 1956, the building expanded with a second floor. Its most recent occupant, CB FOX, closed in 2020 and has remained vacant.
While the project meets all the necessary criteria, Lujan said upgrades will be required on the rear sidewalk to meet ADA and building code requirements. Additionally, she said all fire department connections and post indicator valves for a fire suppression sprinkler system need to be shown on the site plan and be in proximity to a fire hydrant for the building permit review.
Representing the applicant, Phil Gursky said, “The best way to characterize this building is it is going to be a hotel-centric one with a food court. In the evenings the food court converts into a live performance venue. That’s an area where we just really lack, this mid-size performance location … we’ll have this situation where it is a very attractive place to go – have live performances and we’ll also have food and drink, which we really don’t have anywhere. So, we’re looking to fill this void in that small- to mid-size performance venue.”
“At the same time, we are also looking to provide a range of somewhere around a dozen retail spaces,” Gursky continued. “A combination of kiosks – they’re actually in the food court area … and a half dozen or so smaller units that face and enter onto the pond at Central. The idea being that even though this is an expensive building to redevelop, we’ll have some small retail spaces where the actual monthly rental will be something people can handle.”
Finally, he said “third floor is really the crown of what we will be doing.”
Gursky said it would offer an indoor/outdoor bar and grill with a 100-person capacity.
“We think this project fits squarely within all the comprehensive code, the strategic plan, the master plan, the vitality and economic redevelopment plans that the County has developed over the last 10-15 years,” he said. “We’re very interested not just fitting in the community… we are committed to the town, and this is a long-term opportunity for us to do something we think will make a catalytic change for the downtown …”
While the site plan for the CB FOX building seeks to radically transform it, the site plan for 1377 and 1399 Diamond Drive just cements what is already there.
According to agenda documents, the proposal is for a commercial parking lot on two adjoining vacant parcels totaling approximately 1.70 acres. The commercial parking lot will provide parking for Los Alamos High School and an area for a mobile food vending court.
Planning Manger Danyelle Valdez said the mobile food court will have nine spaces for food trucks, an open-air shade structure, communal seating and patron parking. There will not be any enclosed structures and no site lighting. Currently, she said, the vacant parcels house two food trucks and provide temporary high school parking. The site plan seeks to make this permanent.
Scott McCloy, who was representing the property owner at the meeting, said that “the goal of this project is to improve these formerly vacant proprieties and serve some community needs.”
He added there are plans to install electric outlets, so each food truck isn’t running off a generator. This will help minimize noise and air pollution, McCloy said. He further stated that there are plans to install a water line that connects to an existing water stub to offer water spickets as well as provide a handwashing station and port-a-potties.
Grimm said she wasn’t certain this site plan fulfilled the County’s objectives.
“County planning documents repeatedly and consistently stressed the importance of reducing surface parking, encouraging multi-mobile transportation, reducing car-orientated use and strengthening commercial corridors through active use rather than passive occupancy,” she said. “I’m struggling to reconcile the substantive content of this proposal, which appears to be primarily parking, with the County’s own stated goals for land use and development.”
“We are not going to tell a private developer how they can or cannot develop their land regardless of our goals,” Valdez said. “Yes, these are our goals, however, it is a permissible use within the private developer’s rights on how they utilize their land. From my understanding this is not the overall goal of this site; however, in order to be utilized officially as parking and for us to be able to register them with a business registration and provide any type of allowance for additional food trucks to happen in this area, we needed them to go through this site plan process.”
Bruell added that she too did not feel the site plan met the criteria, saying she was worried about safety since the section of Diamond Drive near the high school has a lot of traffic crashes.
Valdez noted a requirement is to restrict access to the parking lot; it will only be accessible from Sandia Drive.
Commissioner David Hampton agreed that while this isn’t the ideal use for the property; it is an upgrade from what is there now.
“This is not my preferred use for this area, but it is a permitted use, and it is currently being used as a parking lot for the high school and as a mini food court with generators and if we don’t approve the site plan it will continue being used in those ways,” he said. “With the site plan that has the electrical outlets … adds water lines, and a restroom and a sanitation plan, I think it is still an improvement. It brings us closer to where we want to be than where we are now.”
The meeting recording and documents can be viewed and accessed at https://losalamos.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.
