The city of Ridgefield is looking to implement its mixed-use zoning overlays for the first time with a development agreement featuring an apartment complex and commercial buildings along Pioneer Street.
The Ridgefield City Council heard the first reading of an agreement between the city and two developers during their Jan. 25 meeting, with a final vote planned for their regular meeting Thursday.
The total project area is on about 40 acres on the southwest corner of Pioneer Street and 45th Avenue, according to design documents, and features a planned apartment complex on the western half of the land. The east half would feature commercial and mixed-use designated buildings along 45th Avenue with a green space buffer to the west, providing open space between the apartments and the more commercial side of the development.
Though development agreements are commonplace for the growing city, this one was of interest as it will implement a zoning overlay allowing for the type of mixed-use projects to be found at what the city calls the “Pioneer and 45th Avenue” sub-area. That plan was adopted in October of 2016 with a mixed-use overlay to allow for novel development within its boundaries.
Ridgefield City Manager Steve Stuart said the idea was to have a “neighborhood-scale service area” for the Pioneer and 45th area designed specifically for Ridgefield citizens’ needs, not as some sort of regional hub. He said getting to the development agreement process involved a lot of coordination and partnership in order to realize the first steps toward that vision.
According to preliminary plan documents the mixed-use portion of the development will feature 13 buildings — about half designated as commercial or restaurants and the other half just as “mixed use.” Design documents also showed the apartment complex aiming at a 270-300 unit target.
Initially Stuart said the apartment developers had looked into utilizing all of the 40 acres in both parcels for their own mixed-use concept, though eventually they stuck with their 20 acres to press on with an apartment complex, seeing a real need for such housing in the city.
Stuart said that apart from a small complex downtown, Ridgefield doesn’t have much in terms of apartment housing. Much of the multi-family development has been townhomes, with much of that happening in the area of the Pioneer and 45th sub-area.
Though the apartment developer moved on with the project, the city was still looking at putting mixed use on the parcel they passed up. About a year ago Stuart came into contact with Ron Edwards, a local developer of Felida Village, a mixed-use development to the south of Ridgefield.
That project piqued the city’s interest into having something similar placed in the city.
In between the developments will be open space set aside featuring parks and trails. Stuart said the open space and greenways would help to tie together the whole sub-area.
Part of the agreement allowed for the apartments do be developed at a higher density than base zoning allowed, which Stuart said was because there were services in place to support such densities.
Another part of the agreement would have the apartment developer funding about one-third of the planned mixed-use parcel, as the purchase of the East parcel was still pending as of press time.
The city’s part of the equation was helping steer the developer’s master plan projects to make best use of Ridgefield’s resources and maximize connectivity, Stuart said.
In both developers’ cases Stuart said they were committing to the community, mentioning that the apartment complex developer would be managing the property, not just building and selling.
With the first true implementation of mixed-use development in Ridgefield Stuart was optimistic it was a sign of growth in the right direction for the city.
“It’s exciting to see the beginning of bringing the services that our community needs,” Stuart said, “and doing it in a high-quality way. Our residents have made it clear that we need services to support the people that are coming. … It’s just the beginning.”
