Barry McCahill 02-281
Christopher Johnson
From:Morgan Andrus
Sent:Wednesday, February 28, 2018 2:11 PM
To:C.Jay Coles; Charlene Way; Christopher Johnson
Subject:FW: Your Letter to Meridian Residents
From: Barry McCahill [ mailto:bwmccahill@me.com ]
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 11:40 AM
To: pkahn@costco.com
Cc: mayortammy
Subject: Your Letter to Meridian Residents
Mr. Kahn:
With reference to your February 19 letter, I resent your use of my Costco membership to lobby me to support
your effort to overturn local residential zoning to enable you to build a new Costco in my neighborhood. I
bought my home following a lot of due diligence concerning the surrounding neighborhood, including having
my realtor confirm that the location you recently decided to build on was, in fact, zoned and destined for
residential only development, indeed a continuation of the existing Bainbridge Subdivision.
There is no point in community-wide planning, master plans, comprehensive plans and other citizen-
involved planning processes when, in fact, companies are allowed to subsequently overturn them because
it suits their business interest and they dangle road money to encourage it. In fact, your proposal makes
a mockery of such planning.
That you propose to widen and improve the roads should not be a reason for this project to be
approved. Widening the roads, something that will occur with or without Costco, does not reflect the added
impact to our neighborhood because of Costco's presence and other smaller strip stores and noise. Residential
development also brings traffic, but nowhere near the same impact of a major big box store and surrounding
businesses. We knew to expect more homes; not a big box store with surrounding stores.
I like Costco and shop at your Boise store frequently. But your locations (and all big box stores) should be in
commercial areas designated in long-range planning documents. Any changes to long-range plans should be
made only by critical need exception, and before residential building proceeds so potential homebuyers can
know ahead of time. The Boise and Nampa Costcos are in commercial locations near the freeway, not in
residential areas. I supported your proposed location at Linder Rd. and Chinden Blvd. , your original plan just
a mile away, because it made sense.
I will not support your project and will encourage my elected officials to vote it down.