HomeMy WebLinkAboutPZ - Public Testimony by Ken Mutell - 10/24R%E ' �/ Ken Mutell
'ED
QC , 2747 E. Mount Etna Drive
CITY Of: Meridian, ID 83642
CITY CLERKS OFFICE
City Clerk's Office
33 E. Broadway Ave.
Meridian, ID 83642
Re: Application H-2016-0102 (Firenze Plaza)
Dear Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission,
Change is one of the greatest drivers of happiness and frustration in each of our
lives. The application H-2016-0102 for the Firenze Plaza located at the NW
corner of E Amity Road and S Eagle Road is causing me both.
It's great that some commercial business is coming to the southern portion of
Meridian, saving further congestion along N Eagle Road and Overland Road. It's
the specific location of that development that concerns me. Because we have
been led to believe that the anchor store will be an Albertsons, I have copied two
of their senior executives on this letter. If that assumption is not correct,
apologize in advance for copying this letter to you.
It's frustrating in that the location chosen ignores the current Future Land Use
Map and will do much to negatively impact the nearby Tuscany/Messina
Meadows Community. I can only assume quite a bit of thought went into
developing the Future Land Use plan and designating the surrounding area as
Residential (Low and Medium Density) along with the designated Mixed Use
Neighborhood area South of E Amity Road and East of S Eagle Road. Only two
miles away (Meridian Road and Amity Road) you have already designated a
large area for Mixed Use development. Perhaps this intended area is a better
place to locate a shopping center?
If it is an Albertsons supermarket, there is one located only 3 miles from us
currently, to our southeast. Again, wouldn't a location at the intersection of
Meridian Road and Amity Road provide better coverage to the area, while
remaining true to the planning designations already determined for the area?
The added benefit to that would be mitigating all of the impacts to the area that I
will be describing.
Changing the Future Land Use Map for the subject property to Mixed Use
Community and Annexing and Zoning the subject property as C-C and R-8 (with
a portion subject to a potential rezoning to R-15 as it is within the Mixed Use
Community designation) and developing it as requested in the application,
significantly changes the anticipated use of the land from its intended low density
residential designation.
As requested, the proposed changes to the subject property would:
Extend Mount Etna Dr. through to S Eagle Road, thereby creating a
"backdoor" to the Tuscany/Messina Meadows community. The
development has done an excellent job in creating a sense of community,
in part by creating limited and well-defined entrances to define the
community.
The extension of Mount Etna Dr. also creates another entry point on S.
Eagle Road. Members of the Tuscany/Messina Meadows community
already have difficulties exiting the community at certain times of the day
due to the volume of traffic on S. Eagle Road. Adding this additional entry
point in addition to the proposed entry point for the shopping center only
compounds this problem, detracting from the desirability of the
subdivision.
Because of the above issue, traffic will funnel through the subdivision on
Montague to avoid exiting on S. Eagle Road and will exit onto Amity Road
and use the traffic circle to head north on S Eagle Road. This change in
traffic is already occurring within the community due to the difficulties
exiting Zaldia Drive at certain times of the day. Adding a shopping center
that will draw additional traffic will only compound the existing situation.
Until such time as S Eagle Road is widened, which I understand is at least
4 years in the future, we can look forward to more cars being pushed
through Tuscany on Montague, which will have a negative impact on the
community.
• Funneling this traffic through the community puts our children at greater
risk due to the additional traffic, increases noise within the community,
and generally makes it a much less desirable place to live.
• Adding the additional entrance to the shopping center onto Amity Road
and adding another road to exit between the shopping center and
Montague places more of a burden on Amity Road, and potentially makes
"cutting through" Tuscany/Messina Meadows more attractive.
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The requested change in the Future Land Use map to allow 26.81 acres to
be designated Mixed Use Community, seems to have been requested for
one purpose only, a potential future request to change the portion not
utilized by the shopping center to be rezoned from R-8 to R-15. When the
potential use of the land was presented to those of us within the 300 foot
notification zone back in May of 2016, a great deal of anxiety was voiced
by the residents over the potential for attached dwellings to be placed on
this portion of the land. The presentation actually displayed townhomes in
that location. The application even states the potential for "attached
dwellings" on this portion of the land. If the developer wishes to develop
this land as townhomes, let them be honest and upfront about it, and not
try to ease their future request by hiding it as part of a Future Land Use
change. I would submit that the Future Land Use designation should not
be changed for the property other than that portion utilized by the
shopping center, and only that portion should be changed if it must reflect
the actual zoning after annexation.
When you have a good community, you hope that as new members join they will
be respectful of the values of the community. I do not have the sense that this is
what is happening from this application, based on the following:
A request is made to drop a commercial center into the heart of a
residential neighborhood, ignoring the Future Land Use map. That
commercial center will have proposed hours from 5 in the morning till 1 in
the morning, twenty hours of operation daily! Cars coming and going at all
hours of the day and night, delivery trucks rumbling in at all hours, a
shopping center lit up all night long, and who knows what potential security
risks the nearby communities will incur.
A potential end run is made to get townhomes into a section of the
property after nearby residents express resistance. The fear in part being
that those townhomes become investor owned properties that are put up
for rental. After all, we don't know whether we should expect high -end
townhomes when the view from many of them will be the back of a
shopping center! If this scenario occurs, nearby property values fall,
safety and security issues increase, and the area becomes more transient
and thus less desirable. I have led a petition, signed by over 50 residents
of the Tuscany/Messina Meadows Community, put forth separately before
the Planning and Zoning Commission specifically to stop the change in the
Future Land Use Designation to Mixed Use Development at this time.
Mount Etna Drive is extended to S Eagle Road creating another entrance
to the Tuscany/Messina Meadows Community with the only real purpose
being to make it easier for the shopping center to funnel customers into
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their stores. Meanwhile, the Community is subjected to increased traffic,
loses some of its sense of community by blurring the distinction of where
Tuscany begins and ends, and our children are placed at greater risk.
Property values fall because of the access granted to potential townhomes
and potential lower cost housing built closer to the shopping center. While
the developer may argue that point, it only stands to reason that when
your view is a shopping center, and the noise you hear all day is cars and
trucks coming and going, you are unlikely to be able to command a
premium for those properties.
Significant traffic is added to S Eagle Road, two additional entrances are
added to that road along with two entrances added to Amity Road. Until
widening of S Eagle Road occurs, we have a traffic nightmare, with
increased volumes, and increased chances for accidents because of
people trying to make turns across S Eagle Road from all other cross
streets along S Eagle Road. Perhaps widening of the road will alleviate
that issue, but that's projected to be at least 4 years away.
Increased traffic on E Amity Road also has the same potential impacts as
above.
When you have a neighbor that displays behaviors that do not fit in with the
neighborhood, you try to encourage behavior more in keeping with the
neighborhood. It that change in behavior occurs, hopefully everyone wins.
I would suggest the following changes in order to better fit in with the
neighborhood:
Do not extend Mount Etna Drive all the way through. Perhaps allow either
the entry from S Eagle Road or the entry from E Amity Road to be the only
entry into the new residential development(s), but do not allow a
connection from the new development into the Tuscany/Messina
Meadows Community. This preserves the existing community and
eliminates many of the complaints outlined earlier in this letter.
• Do not allow the change in the Future Land Use Map to allow for Mixed
Use Community. Leave the areas identified to be zoned R-8 with the
current Low Density Residential Designation.
I would suggest if the above changes are not implemented, the area covered by
this application will find itself viewed by the existing neighborhood, at best as bad
neighbors, or at worst as neighbors you have nothing to do with. When you are
developing a retail shopping center and your neighbors ignore you, nobody wins.
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What's even worse is when the comments from the neighbors are ignored and
the development goes through as proposed and then a tragedy happens. One of
the worst things that could happen would be a child being injured, or worse yet,
killed by a car speeding through the neighborhood, trying to get to a grocery
store. If that happens I won't be going door-to-door with a petition to fight an
application, I'll be going door-to-door to stage a protest against all those involved
in the decision that allowed these changes to occur. Unfortunately, the backdrop
the media will likely choose for that event will be the largest tenant (Albertsons) in
the shopping center, and not the developer or the Planning and Zoning
Commission.
Sincerely,
,/114
Ken Mutell
cc: Mr. Bob Miller
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Albertsons
250 Parkcenter Blvd
Boise, ID 83706
Mr. Wayne Denningham
Chief Operating Officer
Albertsons, LLC
250 Parkcenter Blvd
Boise, ID 83706
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