Quote:
Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown
That's the first time I've heard that term, to be honest. I was just using a ridiculous example of why giving approval without seeing a finished rendering could result in something unexpected and unwanted.
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I guess I know a little about the process.... There are a couple of key things to know about HDRC:
1. There are historic guidelines and downtown design guidelines. Because this project is not in a historic district it needs to follow the downtown design guidelines.
2. There are also RIO overlay districts (that I don't know much about other than that they limit the height and vary based on how close to the SA river the site is). To get final approval to go over the height limit for this site (10 stories) they will have to get a zoning variance.
3. Final approval from HDRC comes from a Certificate of Appropriateness (CoA), conceptual design really means very little. When I got my house approved I went straight for the CoA. Larger or more daring designs will start with the Conceptual Approval which gives them some certainty before going to full design. The CoA requires 80% construction documents, a CoA has no such guidelines.
In all likelihood the project is trying to get financing, some idea of what hotel/office use would be there, and firming up details. They wanted to give themselves some wiggle room as they figure that stuff out. If they added a floor or two (or removed a few floors) before going back for final approval it wouldn't really matter that much to the design. They weren't going to add crazy things, it would just be extend the design they already had. And if they did do something crazy, HDRC could say this doesn't look like what we conceptually approved and tell them to start over.
This is also going to have to go to zoning for the variance which will require it to go to city council as well. I'm sure they were hoping to get HDRC's Conceptual Approval so that they could use that for the zoning board. Without it, they'll likely just go straight to zoning and limit the ability of HDRC to give input on height.