Plans advance for Sandstone Marketplace in Longmont

LONGMONT — A 24-acre mixed-use development on Longmont’s eastern edge received initial approval Wednesday night from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

On a 6-1 vote, with commission chairman Michael Polan dissenting, the panel approved a preliminary plat for Sandstone Marketplace, a proposed development southeast of Ken Pratt Boulevard and County Line Road. The project would include food and beverage purveyors as well as other commercial uses, medical office space, daycare and senior housing.

UCHealth’s Longs Peak Hospital is on the northwest corner of that intersection, and a Walmart Supercenter is just to the east of the proposed Sandstone Marketplace development.

The panel’s approval came with two staff-recommended conditions related to traffic-control signage and turn lanes, as well as a sidewalk on the south side of Brien Avenue recommended by commission members and reluctantly agreed to by the applicants, Longmont-based Actis LLC acting as SSP & SCP Investors, LLC.

Most of the panel’s conversation centered on the development’s impacts on traffic and pedestrians as detailed in a study conducted by Fort Collins-based planning and design-engineering consultants Kimley-Horn.

The preliminary plat consists of 11 lots and two out lots on currently vacant land that was zoned MU-R (mixed use regional center) in 2010 as part of the “Sandstone Marketplace Filing No. 1 subdivision.”  The property was annexed into the city in 1998 as part of the Mayeda Annexation.

The developers’ plan calls for construction of an east-west public road through the property, with access onto County Line Road to the west and Common Drive to the east.

The development plan next will go through the city’s review, consideration and acceptance process. Each individual lot will be subject to site plan review upon individual development.

According to the developers’ plan submitted to the commission, “a commercial Homeowner’s Association will be formed at the time of the final subdivision of this property. This is a vital component of the process to ensure responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of the right-of-way landscaping and infrastructure are appropriately understood and accommodated for going forward with the development of this property.”