PZ - Applicant Response to Staff Letter - David McKinney1
Charlene Way
From:Dave McKinney <ldm@ctcweb.net>
Sent:Wednesday, October 18, 2017 6:21 PM
To:Sonya Allen; Caleb Hood
Cc:Machelle Hill; C.Jay Coles; Charlene Way; Barbara Shiffer; 'Craig Slocum'; 'James Marsh';
'Brian Ballard'; joehuarte@gmail.com
Subject:Linder Village Letter Response to Staff Report
Attachments:201710181810.pdf
Sonya, per your recent email to Craig Slocum, attached is a letter response from applicant regarding Linder Village and
the recent staff report. Please let me know if you have any questions. I have copied the individuals you included in your
email.
Best,
David McKinney
DMG
208-577-8332
October 18, 2017
Ms. Sonya Allen
Associate Planner
Planning Department -City of Meridian
33 E Broadway Ave., Ste. 102
Meridian, Idaho 83642
Re: Linder Village
Dear Sonya:
We are in receipt of the staff report you provided yesterday regarding our proposed Linder Village
project and recommendation for approval of the proposed annexation, zoning and preliminary plat. We
are confused by the recommendation for denial of the variance for access to Chinden Blvd., (Hwy 20/26)
especially since we have obtained approval from ITD of our proposed site accesses and a new traffic
signal in conjunction with a major road widening to improve traffic flow in the desperately needed
Highway 20'26 corridor. While we have not had a lot of time to fully review the staff report, we
wanted to respond with a few key comments to make sure you, the planning department and ultimately
Planning Commission understood our intent and thoughts on the overall plan as proposed.
First, we appreciate the time and work you personally and other staff members have spent on this
project recently and over the last several years. As you know, we have been working on this project for
approximately ten years now that began with Fred Meyer and Home Depot in 2007. Obviously, Fred
Meyer decided that they would be better served by locating across the street in the city of Eagle and
appear to have a successful business location that serves both Eagle and North Meridian, Home Depot
changed their mind and decided to hold off on any new stores for this area when the housing market
and economy slowed in 2008-2010 and have not built a new store in this area since. Obviously, these
were missed opportunities for our project, the community and City of Meridian. More recently, we
think its public knowledge that Costco wanted to locate at Linder Village and worked closely with us, the
city, ITD and ACHD for a couple years to make this a reality but became frustrated and frankly decided to
pursue another location because in their words "time kills deals". Again, a huge economic opportunity
we missed.
Fortunately, Winco (a nationally recognized supermarket industry leader home grown in the Treasure
Valley) continues to show a strong interest in locating at Linder Village. Their executives have also been
very accommodating and compromising in the planning process and have agreed to (i) place their
building away from the existing residential areas, (ii) upgrade their standard building elevations and
materials, (iii) place enhanced screen and sound walls along their receiving areas and (iv) install
generous landscape buffering, berms and walking paths connecting existing and future residential areas
to their store and throughout the project.
While we recognize there are some folks that do not agree with our plan, we also have many supporters
that believe in our project proposal and look forward to the amenities this project will bring to the area.
In fact, we have over 1201 likes on our Yeslindervillage Facebook account and approximately 450 letters
of support for our project. We feel that it is important for this to be on record since it appears you only
mention the opposition to the project in the staff report.
I have provided some bullet points below again for the record.
• Linder Village (as proposed) will be a Mixed Use project that includes, retail, office, residential,
and entertainment consistent with the Mixed Use Community & Medium Density residential
designations shown on the Meridian City Comprehensive Plan
• Linder Village specific planned uses include those listed in MU -C and R-8 areas including a
community grocer, retail shops, bank, drug store, auto service station, restaurants, drive-thru
facilities, coffee/sandwich/ice cream shops, clothing stores, dry cleaners, hair salons/spas,
medical/dental offices & clinics, daycares, professional offices, public use space and open space
areas, live -work spaces, hardware stores, theater, townhomes, single family housing both
detached and attached.
• Linder Village is NOT a strip mall. Linder Village is a Community Center and a Mixed Use
Development with Lifestyle amenities.
The Linder Village site plan places the community grocer on the southwest corner of the site
approximately 208' from the nearest residential area and adjacent (south) to other planned MU -
C designated property. The balance of the Linder Village development is approximately 321'
away from the existing residential with future higher density residential transitioning to the
commercial areas. These distances are farther away than many recently built and existing
centers in the Treasure Valley. In addition, we have planned extensive landscaping, berms and
sound/screen walls to buffer the commercial area from residential.
The uses planned along Chinden (Hwy 20/26) including drive-thru facilities, automotive service
station, restaurants, offices, drug store, coffee, tire sales, car wash, medical clinic, are required
by the users to be located on high traffic, high visibility, convenient access locations and would
not consider locating at the rear of the property away from the heavily travelled streets. Larger
users (like Winco) want visibility to the main roads and convenient access also but because of
their size can position their buildings further from the roads.
• We believe the live -work area shown can be successful and act as a smaller center (within a
larger center) comparable to the newly built Meridian Village, BODO or Bown Crossing in Boise
to provide an additional "village" atmosphere.
• The Linder Village Site Circulation Plan illustrates the pedestrian connectivity to the commercial
area with walking paths, a large esplanade, public space and a community club house or
meeting space tying into existing and future residential.
• Linder Village has completed extensive traffic studies and ITD has approved the Linder Village
access points and traffic signal at Bergman Way. Linder Village will widen Hwy 20/26 to five
lanes and rework key intersections to improve traffic circulation and safety.
• Linder Village has discussed bus stops with Valley Regional Transit and would allow/provide bus
stops when the need exists.
• Linder Village exceeds the public open space requirement by twice the minimum amount.
• Linder Village will bring a huge economic impact to the city of Meridian with new jobs, daily life
services and amenities, affordable housing options and increased property values and tax base.
Respectfully,
David McKinney
DMG Real Estate Partners, LLC
Cc: Caleb Hood
Bruce Freckleton
Meridian City Planning Commission
Meridian City Council