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Jennie and Brad Withers - Linder 7-241 Charlene Way From:Sonya Allen Sent:Monday, July 24, 2017 3:50 PM To:Jennie Cc:Anne Little Roberts; Genesis Milam; Caleb Hood; Joe Borton; Luke Cavener; Bill Parsons; mayortammy; Ty Palmer; Barbara Shiffer; C.Jay Coles; Charlene Way; Machelle Hill Subject:RE: Comments - Amendment H-2017-0088 Linder Village Jennie & Brad, Thank you for your comments on this application. Your email will be entered into the public record as testimony. Sincerely, Sonya Allen | Associate City Planner City of Meridian | Community Development Department 33 E. Broadway Ave., Ste. 102, Meridian, Idaho 83642 Phone: 208-884-5533|Direct: 208-489-0578|Fax: 208-489-0578 Built for Business, Designed for Living All e-mail messages sent to or received by City of Meridian e-mail accounts are subject to the Idaho law, in regards to both release and retention, and may be released upon request, unless exempt from disclosure by law. From: Jennie [mailto:jennie@jenniewithers.com] Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 3:34 PM To: Sonya Allen; Anne Little Roberts; Genesis Milam; Caleb Hood; Joe Borton; Luke Cavener; Bill Parsons; mayortammy; Ty Palmer Subject: Comments - Amendment H-2017-0088 Linder Village Hello, I am writing to you today in strong opposition of amending the current land use map designation at Linder and Chinden. My husband and I are native Idahoans. We have lived in Meridian for nineteen years. My husband works for Micron Crucial Technology, and I am a teacher in the West Ada School District. In short, we love working and living in Meridian and we are invested in this community. We have witnessed a lot of growth, and until now, we have been impressed with how that growth has been handled by city leaders. Until this proposal, we have felt that our quality of life has been protected. If changes to the current land use agreement were to pass, we would certainly change our beliefs about Meridian’s leadership and their level of concern for the people who live here. We moved to Paramount subdivision four years ago. At that time, we were promised a large, but quiet, carefully planned community. On the boundaries of our subdivision there would be shops, cafes, services, and small businesses, many of them locally owned, that would create a real community feel. I love going to The Homestead, having a vet for my dog right in the neighborhood, and having a place like Dutch Bros or Sonic where my teens can go hang out. That was the promise. Now, however, the developer proposes to trash the 2 current mixed use community designation. It’s a move that would destroy our community, and our way of life, not only for the residents of Paramount, but all the neighborhoods in this area. Here are the reasons why: • Huge commercial stores like Costco and Win-Co do not survive on neighborhood traffic alone. There would be thousands of people who would travel to our neighborhoods that would never have come here before. I am a fan of both of these stores, and currently I have to travel to commercial areas in the valley to shop there. I understand that. What I wouldn’t understand, even if it weren’t my neighborhood, is going to a business like this near somebody’s home. If you look at the locations of Win-Co and Costco that are currently in the valley, none of them are plopped in the middle of residential areas. They are next to the freeway in a strictly commercial development where they belong. Their neighbors are other businesses, not residences. • The roads surrounding this area cannot handle the traffic that these businesses would bring. Chinden has been a mess for a really long time. To say that widening it now would solve the future traffic issues that businesses like this would bring is incredibly short-sighted. Linder, Ten Mile, Meridian, Locust Grove, MacMillan are all two lane roads that thousands of people would need to use to get to Costco and Win- Co. There is a reason why the other stores are built near freeways. There has been talk of adding more traffic lights on Chinden to alleviate traffic problems. I have lived in Meridian long enough to have experienced the snarl on Fairview because of traffic lights that were too close together. Luckily, in that situation, there was the option of making Meridian and Main into one way streets. There is not that option here. This increased traffic in a residential area would at least be frustrating, at most, tragic. • Neighborhoods in this area would cease to be quiet and safe. I enjoy the peacefulness of Paramount. I don’t want conglomerates as my neighbors that usher in people, cars, and truck deliveries 24/7. I also really like the feeling my family can walk or bike through my neighborhood safely. Visitors to these large commercial properties would inevitably seek to avoid traffic. They would do this by cutting through our neighborhoods. On the Neighborhood App the other day I saw a resident post that if these stores go in, we would need to become a gated community. This made me sad. Gates are not what we moved to Paramount, or Meridian, for. Please reject this change. Show that you care about your residents and their safety and quality of life. Stay consistent with the promise of Meridian to create a city that is “Designed for living”, not just “Built for Business.” Respectfully, Jennie and Brad Withers N. Mitchum Ave.