Federal Realty and Town still not ready to agree on design

Old Town design issues remain as openings near

Just don't call it 'the back'

By Jeff Kearns

Old Town developers and town officials have worked out a compromise on most of the issues surrounding plan changes at Old Town, but access from the parking lot behind the shopping center remains the major sticking point.

That and a few other leftover issues will be revisited at the April 19 council meeting, when the town will have its final say on the developers' final proposal.

Jack Heinemann, director of development for Federal Realty Investment Trust, says he's working with each tenant to find out if it will be possible to have doors facing Lot 6, between Old Town and N. Santa Cruz Avenue. But he says it's not likely he'll be able to do it before some tenants open their stores--as early as May 1.

One of the main points the town pushed when it approved the Old Town remodel and expansion in 1997 was that the new buildings, on the west side of University Avenue, would have "360-degree architecture," instead of a blank wall in back.

Planners and other town officials don't even like to call it the "back," but rather call the side of the building that faces Lot 6 the "western elevation."

But the town is still haggling with the developers over architectural elements because the plans that were originally approved didn't match what was built. Councilmembers and developers sat down at a March 29 study session and went down a list of inconsistencies with the approved plan, and settled most of the issues without a fight.

Stacy Stewart, the Edelen Avenue resident who put the issue in front of the Town Council last month by filing an appeal of a Planning Commission decision, says she's satisfied with what's been worked out so far.

One of the main reasons she filed the appeal was that The Gap and GapKids spaces didn't have doors that opened to Lot 6. At the April 5 council meeting, Heinemann said his tenants had already signed a lease, and that it wouldn't be possible to get them to agree to having another door opening to the rear parking lot.

"Dual access would be nice, but I realize there are other issues," says Stewart. "It would make a difference if you could have access there because it makes that part a more public area."

But Heinemann still faces an uphill battle convincing the town that the leases he's signed should trump the approvals from the town that called for the parking lot side of the building to be as functional as the University side.

Councilmembers, eager to avoid a repeat of the fake windows and closed doors facing the street at Hollywood Video and Crown Books on Blossom Hill Road, appeared split on whether the council had the authority to mandate that the doors should be functional.

"This is the one area where I've got strong opposition to what's proposed," Heinemann told the council. "No condition said I need more than one entrance."

Federal's attorney, Andy Faber, told the council: "Three-hundred-and-sixty degree architecture certainly didn't mean to them that there has to be access from 360 degrees."

But with councilmembers Linda Lubeck, Jan Hutchins and Joe Pirzynski leaning toward requiring Federal to build the doors, there may be enough votes to hold Federal to the vision of the project approved before Federal was a part of the project.

In memos forwarded to the council, some planning commissioners called the material and workmanship of the project "poor" and urged councilmembers to stick to their guns on the original designs.

"This valiant attempt to replicate our last historical enclave appears to have failed," wrote Commissioner Sandy Decker, "Knowing that we've left this to future generations as a historical reminder makes one welcome senility."

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