Jonathan Kahnoski - 7.251
C.Jay Coles
From:Luke Cavener
Sent:Tuesday, July 25, 2017 5:29 PM
To:CenturyLink
Subject:Re: Comments in Opposition to the Proposed Changes to Meridian's Comprehensive
Plan for Linder Village
Follow Up Flag:Follow up
Flag Status:Flagged
No need to apologize, I appreciate hearing your comments. Just didn't want you to feel like you were being
ignored if you didn't get a response.
The PZ hearing is a public hearing. Each person gets 3 minutes. If you coordinate as an HOA your HOA rep
will get 10 minutes. The city Clerk can provide more information, if needed. Their number is 208.888.4433.
Thanks!
Luke
Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 25, 2017, at 4:54 PM, CenturyLink < jmkahnoski@q.com > wrote:
Good afternoon, Luke,
I apologize if we shouldn’t have sent our comments to you, on the city council. The deadline for
comment was fast approaching and the group leaders didn’t have the email addresses of the
members of the Planning and Zoning Commission. We didn’t expect you to comment. Rather,
we addressed our comments to all the members of the city council to make our opinions known
and in hopes you would share them with the Planning commissioners.
Yes, our questions were rhetorical, intended to communicate our thought processes in a way that
reads easily and interestingly. And maybe to trigger some thought on the part of the readers.
My wife and I plan to attend the meeting on the 3rd. I would like to speak, if there is time.
Thanks for your kind reply.
Best,
Jonathan Kahnoski
On Jul 25, 2017, at 1:58 PM, Luke Cavener < lcavener@meridiancity.org > wrote:
Jonathan and Betsy,
Thank you for your very thoughtful and articulate email. I appreciate hearing
from our community on the issues that matter most.
2
You have posed a number of fair and thorough questions while they appear to be
rhetorical in nature I still wanted to respond. :) Unfortunately, because this is an
open application, the City Council is prohibited from speaking on this issue while
not on the public record. This frustrating rule ensures that all comments are heard
in a public forum for the betterment of all impacted parties.
That said, I have read your entire email and appreciate you making your feelings
known, I'd also encourage you to attend the public hearing and make your voice
heard.
Best,
Luke
Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 25, 2017, at 1:51 PM, CenturyLink < jmkahnoski@q.com > wrote:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My wife and I offer the following comments concerning the
subject matter to be before the Planning and Zoning Commission
on 3 August. For your convenience, I have included these
comments both below and in an attached MS Word document.
We hope you find our comments both thoughtful and persuasive.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Kahnoski
My wife and I write to ask the Meridian Planning and Zoning
Commission, and the City Council, to reject the changes to the
city’s Meridian Comprehensive Plan and Future Land Use Map as
proposed by the developers of Linder Village. We do so for a
number of reasons as discussed below.
Quality of life in Paramount
My wife and I moved to Paramount going on four years ago from
Central Oregon (Sunriver), where we lived in the peace and quiet
of a national forest. Since moving here, we have commented how
quiet the neighborhood is, especially in the evening and on
weekends. This is one of the qualities of Paramount we
treasure. We have good recreation facilities, wonderful neighbors
who look out for each other, and interesting architecture. In short,
we have a lovely neighborhood, and we wish to protect it.
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On the negative side, we have our suspicions about how many cars
we see on our streets Monday-Friday mornings actually originate
inside Paramount and how many are commuters using our streets
to bypass traffic signals on Chinden at Linder and perhaps even
Meridian. We are concerned traffic is getting worse, and are
concerned that the ACHD is not planning the needed
improvements soon enough to prevent worse congestion.
Beyond Paramount, we like that around us there are smaller retail
services for the local neighborhoods rather than big-box retailers
that attract shoppers from afar. Something went terribly wrong
with development along Eagle (the concentrated retail and services
at the Village at Meridian being an exception) and we would hate
to see the same thing happen to Chinden.
Concerns of Others
My wife and I share the concerns others have discussed and, no
doubt, brought to your attention. These concerns include the
impacts of the proposed Linder Village on:
• Traffic on Linder, Chinden, and in our neighborhood. We
believe permitting a huge shopping district on our doorstep will
create a significant increase in traffic on roads not designed for
such a load. We also believe the proposed traffic signal at
Chinden and Bergman is a particularly bad idea, as it only will
worsen traffic flow on what the ACHD has designated as an
“expressway.” Rather than adding a traffic signal, we would
be willing to give up the traffic signal at Fox Run, even though
that would divert more traffic seeking to egress from
Paramount to Director, near our home.
• The quality of life in Paramount, Foxtail Estates, Lochsa Falls,
and other nearby neighborhoods. The presence of big-box
stores, one of which is adamant it must operate 24/7, can’t help
but increase noise, crowding and congestion. Some may think
close proximity of such desirable shopping will increase our
property values. We believe any advantage of nearby shopping
will be overwhelmed by the negatives of noise, congestion,
litter, etc. As our streets become short cuts to reach Linder
Village from the south and east, they become less safe for the
many children who live in Paramount.
My wife and I want to focus your attention on some other issues,
namely what happens to the City of Meridian if the Planning and
Zoning Commission and the City Council approve the radical
changes being requested by the developers. These include:
• If the changes the developers have requested are approved,
what happens to the credibility of the city’s Comprehensive
Plan and Future Land Use Map? The developer isn’t
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requesting just minor tweaks in the existing plan and
zoning. Essentially, they want to tear up the existing plan and
replace it with their own. We find this arrogant in the
extreme. They seem to believe their project is so desirable the
city will acquiesce to any and all changes to accommodate
it. We find this offensive, and would like to see the Planning
and Zoning Commission and the City Council take a strong
stand by rejecting the entire development as proposed
outright. Perhaps, the developers are making such outrageous
requests to establish a bargaining position. If so, the best way
to demolish that strategy is to reject it completely, advising the
developers to propose something more in line with the current
zoning or take their project elsewhere.
• Certainly, any city acceptance of the radical changes the
developers propose will indicate that whatever plan the city
develops and adopts is vulnerable to radical change or even
being overturned. Failing to deny these developers’
application makes it all the more difficult to deny the next set
of developers when they want to re-write our zoning. Two or
three such surrenders to developers’ wishes and we no longer
have a comprehensive plan; we just have the whims of
developers and acquiescent commissioners and councilors. At
that point, we don’t need a planning department and can
dispense with developing plans.
• As discussed above, failure to defend the city’s Comprehensive
Plan and Future Land Use Map puts the city’s planning process
in jeopardy. It also calls into question the Planning and Zoning
Commissioners’ and City Councilors’ commitment to this plan,
or even any plan. Commercial developers from around the
state, region, even the country may well conclude the City of
Meridian is for sale – offer a development with a huge impact
on property tax revenue and city officials will re-write any plan
to accommodate them. Is that the reputation we want for our
city?
• We have made only a quick review of the city’s comprehensive
plan; but, even that cursory review shows the city wants to
keep dense commercial development closer to the city’s core in
downtown Meridian. The plan shows several small islands of
commercial that can provide localized or neighborhood retail
services, but nothing on the scale of Linder Village. The plan
appears to be a reasonable mix of commercial/retail and
residential land uses, and should be adhered to, with only
minor adjustments.
• What happens to the future quality of life in North Meridian, in
particular? Currently, North Meridian is zoned for residential
and smaller-scale commercial development. This creates a
more tranquil environment that enhances the quality of life of
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the residents. The proposed development will disrupt, if not
destroy, the tranquility we currently enjoy. It will create a
regional shopping center drawing shoppers not only from
north, east and west of the Linder/Chinden intersection, but
also from central Meridian to the south. Where we have been a
quiet, generally residential area on the city’s periphery, we will
become a retail shopping destination more akin to being in
downtown Meridian than on the outskirts.
• What happens to traffic flows in Meridian? As an example of
what not to do, we offer the city of Bend, OR, in Deschutes
County (Central Oregon). This society is not quite as large as
Meridian, by population, and is not part of a major
metropolitan area. Over time, it has allowed major retail
developments scattered around the city: a Fred Meyer complex
on the south end of town, an older indoor shopping mall (Bend
River Promenade - Sears, Macys, Kohl’s) just north of
downtown, a major big box retail (Forum Shopping Center. -
Costco, Safeway, Whole Foods) development on the east side,
another major retail and restaurant development (Cascade
Village – including Home Depot & Lowe’s, Michael’s) at the
north end of town, and a newer, more upscale retail
development (Old Mill District) just south of downtown, all in
addition to a downtown of unique shops, restaurants and
boutique hotels. We urge city-planning officials to review this
situation, how retail is decentralized to a point where any mass
transit system is impossible because there is no central
core. Shoppers go north for one store, east for another, and
south for another. Allowing the Linder Village to go forward
as proposed starts Meridian down the path to becoming
Bend. Please do not allow this to happen.
• What happens to the future quality of life in Meridian, in
general? For a city to have a character, a “there there,” it has to
have a central core of commercial and industrial zoning, with
surrounding residential and smaller retail areas. The city has
started the process of developing such a core with its master
plan for downtown. Unfortunately, less thoughtful growth in
the past has left Meridian with decentralized retail corridors
such as Eagle Road and Fairview/Cherry, etc. I-84 separates
the south side of town from the rest of Meridian, constricting
traffic to those roads that have overpasses over the interstate
highway. What the city does not need is to further decentralize
major shopping by approving the proposed changes to the
city’s Comprehensive Plan and Future Land Use Map to
accommodate the Linder Village development. Such approval
will be bad not only for North Meridian but for all of Meridian.
Conclusion
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We sincerely and strongly urge the Meridian Planning and Zoning
Commissioners and the City Councilors to reject completely the
proposed re-write of the city’s comprehensive plan as it applies to
the property on the southeast corner of Linder and Chinden. We
request city officials inform the developers that the city welcomes
development proposals for the southeast corner of Linder and
Chinden that meet the current planning and zoning restrictions, and
that the city is not interested in major changes to those restrictions.
We thank you for listening.
Jonathan M. Kahnoski
Betsy M. Kahnoski
<Comments re Lindner Village.docx>
City of Meridian
33 E. Broadway Ave., Meridian, Idaho 83642
Phone: 208-888-4433
www.meridiancity.org
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