Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutPZ - Public Testimony by Suzanne Steenkolk (Tuscany)1 Machelle Hill From:Suzanne Steenkolk <slsteenkolk@gmail.com> Sent:Wednesday, December 07, 2016 10:47 AM To:mayortammy; citycouncil; Machelle Hill Subject:Firenze Plaza development - ACHD hearing 12/14/16 and P&Z hearing 12/15/16 Attachments:Tuscany ACHD 12-5-16 .docx Hello Mayor Tammy and Council Members, Please see the attached letter and pictures I sent to ACHD and P&Z members regarding the Firenze Plaza development, which numerous residents are opposing in the Tuscany Subdivision. Thank you for your time in considering my comments and supporting us in rejecting extending our side streets into this proposed development. Sincerely, Suzanne Steenkolk ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Suzanne Steenkolk <slsteenkolk@gmail.com > Date: Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 2:42 AM Subject: Firenze Plaza development - ACHD hearing 12/14/16 and P&Z hearing 12/15/16 To: bwong@achdidaho.org , kgoldthorpe@achdidaho.org , chood@meridiancity.org , jbeach@meridiancity.org , tamara@thelandgroupinc.com , mwallace@achdidaho.org , Suzanne Steenkolk < slsteenkolk@gmail.com > Dear Mr. Wong, Mr. Goldthorpe, Ms. Wallace, Mr. Hood, Mr. Beach and Ms. Thompson, Please see the attached letter and pictures (at the end of the letter) outlining my concerns of extending Tuscany subdivision streets into the proposed Firenze Plaza, along with my concerns of not improving roads on S. Eagle Rd and E. Amity for four years. Tamara, could you please forward this to the gentleman representing Albertsons that attended last nights meeting at Siena school as well? I'd also like him to have visibility to my concerns but did not have his contact information. Thank you for reading my comments and for your active response. Sincerely, Suzanne Steenkolk slsteenkolk@gmail.com October 25, 2016 City Clerk’s Office City of Meridian 33 E. Broadway Ave Meridian, ID 83642 RE: Firenze Plaza CPAM AZ PP H-2016-0102 requesting Amendment to the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use map, Annexation and Zoning Dear Planning and Zoning: I am writing in regards to the application H-2016-0102 (Firenze Plaza) planned development being proposed on the corner of S. Eagle Rd and Amity Rd., Meridian, ID for the November 3, 2016 Planning and Zoning meeting. The following are my concerns to amending the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map and allowing for portions of the property to be commercially zoned, along with strong objections in extending Mount Etna into the development. I am a resident of the Tuscany subdivision and homeowner on E. Mount Etna Drive. Our family searched for over a year for the right community to build our next home and raise our children. We moved across town and 20 minutes further away from our jobs in order to reap the benefits of this family-friendly residential community. We were drawn to Tuscany because every time we drove through the subdivision, we noticed SO MANY kids and their families playing in their front yards, families interacting with neighbors along the streets, the beautiful landscape, city park, aesthetics and upscale homes. We understood at that time that development was progressing in the surrounding area but were never expecting, nor find it acceptable to live next to a commercial property. The proposal to change the adjacent property from Low Density Residential to Commercial with a grocery store, bank, gas station, fast food and shopping center will significantly and adversely impact the dynamics the current residential community. Proposing to build a commercial shopping center, which as I understand, hours of operation to be 5am to 1am where vendors, delivery drivers and consumers will frequent the location at minimum 20- 24 hrs/day makes no sense at all in this area. This will attract volumes of traffic, negative noise from delivery trucks, vendors and consumers, and distracting overhead shopping center lighting, where residential homes and neighborhoods 360 surround. Furthermore, research shows that residential housing, along with schools and elderly care homes should not be located next to gas stations for health reasons. Siena Elementary is located in Tuscany, Hillsdale Elementary is located directly across the street on Amity and S. Eagle Rd., an elderly care facility just down Amity Rd and of course residential housing all the way around the planned development. See a few, of many, articles and proven research noted here, reporting that housing near gas stations is known to be linked to cancer and leukemia: “Study co author Marta Doval, said: Some airborne organic compounds - such as benzene, which increases the risk of cancer - have been recorded at petrol stations at levels above the average levels...” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1354430/Petrol-station-Living-100m-garage- bad-health.html#ixzz4ORKPauCi “Benzene is known to cause cancer, based on evidence from studies in both people and lab animals. The link between benzene and cancer has largely focused on leukemia and other cancers of blood cells. “ http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/intheworkplace/benzene “Despite all the modern health and safety guidelines they must follow, gas stations can still pose significant hazards to neighbors, especially children. Some of the perils include ground-level ozone caused in part by gasoline fumes, groundwater hazards from petroleum products leaking into the ground, and exposure hazards from other chemicals that might be used at the station if it’s also a repair shop.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it-safe-to-live-near-gas-station/ “The study, published in the Journal of Environmental Management, shows the air at petrol stations and in their immediate surroundings is especially affected by emissions stemming from evaporated vehicle fuels. This includes unburnt fuel from fuel loading and unloading operations, refueling and liquid spillages.” And that distance “should therefore be maintained between petrol stations and housing, especially vulnerable' facilities such as hospitals, health centres, schools and old people's homes. “ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1354430/Petrol-station-Living-100m-garage- bad-health.html#ixzz4ORKPauCi I frequent the gas station on S. Eagle Rd., ~1.5 miles north from this proposed development, and I can honestly say that every time I am there, there are always plenty of refueling stations available regardless of the day or time. This gas station is also appropriately located in a commercial area. There is absolutely no need to add a gas station next to the Tuscany subdivision for convenience purposes, demand purposes and most especially for health reasons. Regarding the increased traffic congestion this will bring, as I understand it, there is no plan to improve or widen S. Eagle Rd for a minimum of 4 years. These roads are already extremely congested. It takes me up to 15 minutes to exit the Tuscany off Zaldia (main road out of Tuscany to Eagle) to go 2.5 miles to the freeway each day. The round-about on S. Eagle Rd and Amity is always backed up; neighbors complaining they wait trying to get in to the round, yet this development will sit right in the heart of this congestion, with no improvement, but a guarantee for it to become much worse. The developer is pitching town homes behind the adjacent commercial property. Homes for sale in Tuscany are currently listed at $250,000 - $450,000 with the majority of the homes in our neighborhood overall on the higher end. Adjacent neighborhoods are very similar. An appropriate development should keep in alignment with the level of existing neighborhoods, not bring aesthetics and property values down in the community. Furthermore, “potential buyers” are not going to want to neither see nor hear shopping center and fast food landscape and noise, accompanied by bright overhead shopping center lighting and late night/early morning deliveries from their town homes. The trickle effect of this is the dynamics of the residents change, crime increases, safety decreases and existing property values drop. I ask you to reject the commercial proposal, but regarding extending Mount Etna if commercial is indeed approved, brings me grave concern. There are at least 5 existing entrances in/out of Tuscany to main roads - S. Eagle Rd, Amity, Overland, Locust Grove - that were intentionally built to be main entrances. These streets are purposefully wider, straighter and houses do not face on to these streets. Mount Etna was not planned to be a main thoroughfare. It is a side street, is not as wide, and has 2 corners and all houses face towards the street. We currently live on one corner where Da Vinci and E. Mount Etna connect and I now see traffic cutting the corner and increased speeding on a regular basis. Extending will further increase the volume of traffic and will encourage those that who do not want to sit in the amplified traffic congestion to cut through our neighborhood. It greatly concerns me for the safety of the MANY kids and families that presently congregate to play, ride bikes, take walks and let pets roam in their front yards on a daily basis. Furthermore, there were never any signs posted, temporary gates or communication that this street was ever be extended in the future when we purchased our home - as you see on other roads where signs or gates are known to residents - and that should not change for this development. One more point, Mount Etna runs parallel to both Amity and Zaldia (a Tuscany main entrance to S. Eagle Rd.) and sits 2 blocks either side of both. It takes 15 seconds from Mount Etna to reach either Amity or Zaldia, which there again, were both intended to be main roads. There is absolutely no basis for needing to extend Mount Etna into this development AND most especially when there are 2 current main roads within seconds that can be traveled. As of late, our subdivision has experienced minor theft and various other shenanigans. Extending Mount Etna to S. Eagle Rd and next to a commercial development further invites security issues straight into our neighborhood. I respectfully ask for you to reject approving this commercial development and ask you to align with the residents that currently live here that will have to deal with this for the long haul. Commercial and residential property serve disparate purposes for a reason, thus, should be in specific and separated localities. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Suzanne Steenkolk December 5, 2016 Dear Mr. Wong, Mr. Goldthorpe and Ms. Wallace - ACHD, Ms, Tamara Thompson – Civil Engineer for Albertsons Development, Mr. Caleb Hood and Mr. Josh Beach - Planning Commission I am writing in regards to the Firenze Plaza proposed planned development on the corner of S. Eagle Rd and Amity Rd, Meridian, ID planned for a December 14, 2016 ACHD hearing and December 15, 2016 Planning and Zoning meeting. I have serious concerns with the proposal to extend Mount Etna, Burgo Way and/or Taormina – all Tuscany subdivision side roads, not intended to be connector roads - in to the proposed commercial development. Also concerns with the guaranteed future traffic congestion this will cause to S. Eagle Rd and Amity with no improvement plan for four years. We learned tonight, in the 12/5/16 meeting at Siena school between our neighborhood and the development Civil Engineer, Tamara Thompson, Albertsons Rep and Kittelson & Associates representative that they are being required by ACHD, per a rule that ACHD has imposed, to include connector roads from our neighborhood to their development. This seems very counter to what you, Mr. Wong, communicated to us in our meeting when the same group of residents met with you at Siena school a few weeks ago. At that time we communicated to you a very strong message that we did not want any of our streets connecting in and we wanted a barrier put up between our subdivision and the proposed residential homes in the development. We also presented numerous commercial/grocery store properties across the Treasure Valley that do not meet this connector road requirement. Tonight, when the same group of residents voiced the same concerns and barrier solution, the developer seemed to generally be OK with this request, and communicated that ACHD is requiring them to do this in order for this to get approved by your staff to proceed with the hearing. Mr. Wong, you and your staff have the authority to propose to P&Z and both ACHD and P&Z together, to propose to the City Council, not to require connector streets. I felt that in tonight’s meeting, generally speaking, if we can come to a compromise to not connect any subdivision roads in, create a barrier between the development and our subdivision that matches the current aesthetics of our property, and ensure the proposed residential section of the development will be single level homes - not apartments or townhomes - this seems to shut down the majority of our residents’ concerns. I also felt I heard that if there was a walking or bike path neighbors could use to connection in, residents would agree to that as well. Please listen to us, support us and act on our request! CONCERNS THIS TRAFFIC STUDY DOES NOT TAKE IN TO ACCOUNT: I read the traffic study and addendum by Kittelson & Associates Inc. and also had a lengthy conversation with the Kittelson representative at tonight’s meeting. Below are my concerns that the traffic study does not take in to account: 1. Multiple neighbors on Burgo Way and Mount Etna say the traffic tubes that were placed in front of their homes were there for less than a full day. “Hours” does not constitute a “study.” Please confirm through documentation that they met the requirements and please reply to me with what days and times the tubes were in effect. The gentleman that spearheaded the traffic study from Kittelson said the requirement is 24-hours. Statistically, this is also not an acceptable period of time to do any kind of thorough review. 2. A neighborhood pool resides on Burgo Way and most everyone walks to the pool from Taormina, Mount Etna, Santo Stefano, Zaldia, among other streets. This pool is one block from the entry of the proposed development on the north side. This pool probably exceeds acceptable capacity all summer. 3. I asked the Kittelson representative if he monitored the bus stops. There was no consideration for the safety and number of children that walk and scooter to the bus stops. Nor the number of children crossing over the proposed connector roads to get these stops. Furthermore, I mentioned this concern to Tamara Thompson, who seemed surprised to learn about the number of children utilizing the bus stops and I answered questions she had on this topic. I personally do not have kids in school yet, but I care strongly about this important situation so I’ve spent some of my personal time sitting at the bus stops and evaluating the locations. I mainly focused on Montague/Amity and Zaldia/S Eagle Rd. There are 4 main bus stop locations on Montague, Zaldia, Rome and E. Palermo for Tuscany. There are a total of 16 pick-up/drop-offs per day (two per location both AM/PM) depending if children are elementary, middle or high school student and where they are heading. A school bus driver familiar with this route communicated to me that she confidently estimates 400 children in our neighborhood getting on the bus between these four bus stop locations. 4. No consideration was given in the study to the numerous children and families that walk pets, ride bikes and scooters or push strollers and cross these four streets to get to our neighborhood Renaissance Park. Countless families congregate to play in the park, throw the ball to their dogs or attend sports practices. To the sports practices point, Renaissance Park is a city park so it is common to see football, soccer and lacrosse practice occurring here. Anywhere from 5-7 teams practice daily in the spring and fall and utilize the main connector roads to come in/out of our subdivision. Now with Burgo, Montague, Mount Etna and/or Taormina becoming potential collector roads, this further emphasizes the spider effect of drivers winding through our neighborhood where they would not have driven these streets otherwise. They should continue to utilize the connector streets that were designed for frequent traffic. ACHD’s rules are creating the increase in re-routed and new trip ADTs of future traffic throughout our neighborhood. I realize that you may be thinking that you understand the child safety situation, as every subdivision has children. But I am genuinely telling you that unless you actually live in our neighborhood or take the time to come observe our streets, most especially in the warmer months, you truly cannot appreciate why so many of us a expressing grave concern to ACHD and P&Z with real seriousness for the safety of our children and increased traffic in our neighborhood. The child activity outdoors is a real differentiator in our neighborhood as compared to other neighborhoods. It is our culture for kids to be very active in our streets, especially with a neighborhood elementary school, park, multiple pools and families that actively engage outside in their front yards and streets and have built strong relationships with neighboring families. When the weather is warm in the spring and fall, our streets are literally FILLED with kids in large packs riding their bikes together, scootering or walking to school crossing through our neighborhood like spiders. Just as often, I see parents with bike strollers attached to their bike riding with smaller groups of kids to school or the park too. 5. This traffic study also does not take into account the safety of our neighborhood that would line a commercial property with easy access into the neighborhood from a theft and safety standpoint. On November 29, 2016, a woman walking to her car in a shopping center parking lot near Westpark and North Milwaukee in Boise was attacked. That is a well-lit and very public area. We should all be concerned about this same thing occurring in our location, most especially with our high-end neighborhood wide open to a commercial property, and decreased public visibility by comparison to other commercial centers. In the past 6 months alone, our neighborhood has experienced packages being stolen off of homeowner’s front doorsteps, strangers trying to break in to yard gates and theft in cars parked in driveways. I want to live in neighborhood where I can raise my kids in a safe environment and feel comfortable being home alone. We don’t need to further invite unwanted strangers in by giving them easy access through extending our streets in and out of a commercial property. MY OWN TRAFFIC EVALUATION: On Friday, 12/2 from 2:30pm – 3:15pm, 4:00pm-4:45pm and Monday, 12/5 from 7:30am-8:00am, I chose to do my own mini traffic evaluation. I selected these times because this is when the kids on the south end of our subdivision get on/off buses. Between these days, I was able to hit two bus stop times. But as aforementioned, there are actually 8 bus stop times between the 4 Tuscany locations in both the AM, and again in PM. Parked on the corner of Montague and Mount Etna, I observed the following. See pictures below as examples.  On Friday, 12/2, there were a lot of kids getting off of the bus walking to their houses from S. Eagle Rd down Zaldia and also at the corner of Amity and Montague. I believe this might have been the high school drop off time and also a Friday afternoon, so makes sense this was a little less you’d expect in numbers than the elementary and middle school times. I counted 15 kids from the bus. The kids walking from S. Eagle down Zaldia were walking towards Burgo towards the corner where the community pool is ahead. The kids on Montague had to cross through Taormina and Mount Etna coming from the other bus stop. A second set of children came from North Montague walking together and one scootering and also crossed through Santo Stefano and Mount Etna to turn up Mount Etna or Taormina. While I was watching this, I waved to at least 10 separate drivers in about 10 minutes time arriving home from picking their kids up from school and turning on to the south block of Mount Etna. Those children that would likely walk or ride bikes to school in warmer weather.  While waiting, one pick-up truck passed by me on Montague that was excessively speeding and traffic was also surprisingly fairly constant on Montague. I saw several cars turning off of Amity on to Montague and turning in to the oncoming traffic lane of Montague (out of what should be their lane) because the turn is very sharp and Montague is narrow. It was not designed to be a collector road, it is slender and there is absolutely no median space or parking as it exists today.  I was watching the traffic flow on S. Eagle Rd and Amity on Friday, and unexpectedly, I noticed it was backed up and stopped numerous times at the round- about. At rush hour this is very common frustration for those of us that live in this location, but the pictures below are from non-peak hours. Each picture depicts separate situations with a different set of cars stopped each time. Several of the pictures have cars stopped 9-10 deep.  When I left at 3:15pm I drove to Zaldia and S. Eagle Rd to head north on S. Eagle Rd. to drive past Siena school trying to see if the next set of buses were picking up yet. I made several loops past the Siena school through our neighborhood back to S. Eagle Rd. Each time, I sat multiple minutes trying to turn left on to S. Eagle Rd since finding an opening to turn has now become a challenge since traffic has noticeably increased now that Century Farms, the new middle school and the neighboring new subdivision have gone in. Additionally, as I stopped on S. Eagle Rd to wait to turn left onto Rome (2nd main connector road in/out of Tuscany and Siena School) a driver who was by law supposed to stop and wait behind me didn’t slow down and instead veered out of our lane and in to the gravel median to go around me. She barely missed hitting the right side of my car which not only would have caused a wreck between she and I, but would have pushed us into the other lane of ongoing traffic that was passing me, and four cars waiting on Rome. There is no turn lane there, yet drivers do turn. But because of the constant oncoming traffic from Victory, it holds up traffic coming from Amity should someone want to access Rome. People get impatient and I see this happen to other drivers all of the time. It’s a serious traffic issue and needs to be fixed.  Monday morning, 12/5, I stood at the Montague/Amity middle school bus stop with 21 kids waiting there and 4 cars parked with children staying inside their warm vehicles. The kids at that bus stop told me there are double that amount of kids that get on the same bus around the corner at Zaldia and S. Eagle. I’ve already mentioned a bus driver who is familiar with this route estimated Tuscany stops to be 400 kids that frequent the buses. This should be strongly considered when you are evaluating extending our neighborhood streets and re-routing traffic into our neighborhood directly where volumes of children are walking and standing. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON THE TRAFFIC STUDY: The report says that Mount Etna will see <25 new ADT’s predominantly from re-routed trips. Honestly, this is laughable. We have 1100 houses in Tuscany. On the conservative side, if even one-third of the Tuscany residents now choose to take Mount Etna or Taormina as a proposed connector road, that immensely increases the ATDs, and it is not 25. I spoke to the Kittleson rep about this and his comment was not everyone goes to the grocery store every day. But we were told that Albertsons wants to make this a community friendly location and of course they want to make money. So if there were hypothetically to be a bank, gas station, yogurt shop, grocery store, coffee shop, wine bar or anything else that is similar and family friendly, folks are going to visit this location more than 1 time per week, and likely several times per week or several times per day. Otherwise there is no reason for Albertsons to want to invest if people are not going to regularly frequent their establishments. Furthermore, these are residents who would have never driven on Mount Etna otherwise. They would be using our intended connector roads - Zaldia and Rome - to get to S. Eagle Rd., which are wide and purposefully, do not have homes facing in to them. Zaldia and Rome is how all of us in Tuscany currently travel to reach S. Eagle Rd today and it works perfectly as intended. The four proposed streets are narrower and all have houses facing towards the street where our connector streets purposely do not. Mount Etna was never posted to be a “street to be extended in the future” and all of us purchased on Mount Etna with this expectation. We wanted to live on a quiet and safe side street. If we can’t trust the “to be extended” signage when anyone is purchasing a home, then there is a major flaw in the system. To close on this point, on a personal note, when I want to get to Locust Grove, the most direct route from my house would be to exit our subdivision on Montague and Amity. But I always cut through our subdivision and head north to get there, even though it is a slower speed limit, I have to take 6 turns and cross over 4 different streets. This is exactly what is going to happen to Mount Etna or Taormina if it is connected. Moreover, I live on the corner of where Da Vinci and Mount Etna connect and we already have drivers speeding and cutting the corner into the other lane on a regular basis. Finally, the study states there will not be any “new trips” on Mount Etna. This is not reality. FOR SURE drivers are going to cut through our neighborhood. It is human nature to want to “keep moving”, not sit in stopped traffic. Also, surrounding neighborhoods north, east and west of us that currently GO NORTH for groceries, gas, banks etc., will now begin to come to our intersection. Pile that on top of only being able to take right turns out of the commercial property, clearly these cars are going to be taking Montague, Mount Etna or Taormina to turn back and cutting through our neighborhood. There are a million reasons why extending our streets in to this development is a terrible decision. I understand from tonight’s meeting that the developer will be providing $1.3 million to widen S. Eagle and Amity where there are entry/exit points off of these roads along their property and to include the round-about on Amity. Is there no way that ACHD can prioritize the rest of these roads to Victory and Locust Grove and improve them in parallel? Many of us have commented to one another we purchased on S. Eagle Rd because we do not want to live on the disaster that has become N. Eagle Rd. There needs to be a better plan to keep up with the road systems and a solution is not to resolve the lack of funding or planning by funneling traffic back in to our neighborhoods. I respectfully ask for you to PLEASE SUPPORT US; the numerous neighbors that have signed petitions, are writing you and speaking up in strong objection of ACHD and P&Z approving extending our neighborhood streets into this property. We ask you to reject the proposal to extend the streets and require the developer to put up an appropriate barrier that clearly blocks the development from our neighborhood and also matches the landscape and aesthetics of our neighborhood. Please also carefully and realistically assess the congestion this development is going to cause with no improvement to S. Eagle Rd for 4 years. Please either (1) re-prioritize the timing of improving S. Eagle Rd and Amity that ACHD is responsible for and do not make it our neighborhoods problem (2) start taxing and/or requiring developers to help fund total road improvements for entire blocks/miles of access where their developments cause increased traffic, not just in front of their establishments (3) reject or defer the plans until our roads can keep up with the traffic. There are other locations where land is for sale that have much better access for this type of commercial property - Meridian Rd and Amity being one available now. We are the people that live here, know our neighborhood and thoroughly understand the impacts this is going to pose. We will have to deal with this for the long haul, well after the developer has made his profit and moved on. Commercial and residential property serve disparate purposes for a reason, thus, should be in specific and separated localities and it should not be the responsibility of neighborhoods to absorb the traffic impacts. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Suzanne Steenkolk PICTURES: BUS STOP 12/5 7:50AM – 21 KIDS WAITING AND 4 CARS PARKED SIGNIFICANT DIFFERNECE IN TUSCANY DESIGNED CONNECTOR RD TO S. EAGLE RD. vs. SIDE STREET MOUNT ETNA. (Pic 1 - Zaldia, Pic 2 - Mount Etna) CORNER OF MOUNT ETNA AND MONTAGUE FACING AMITY. You can see Amity is just yards away and is the current connector road, so no need to extend Mount Etna or Taormina when people can get to Amity in one block (15 seconds by my own driving.) Also Montague is very narrow and no parking available. BURGO WAY AT NEIGHBORHOOD POOL. Standing on the corner of Burgo Way and Zaldia where neighborhood pool is located. Pool is 1 block from proposed location where motor home parked. TRAFFIC BACKED UP AND STOPPED ON BOTH S. EAGLE RD AND AMITY. Numerous times this occurred. Each picture depicts separate situations with a different set of cars stopped. INTERSECTION ZALDIA AND S. EAGLE RD. Pictures illustrate constant traffic coming from both directions taken both ways within seconds of each other. Trying to turn left out of subdivision on to S. Eagle Rd to head north. (Pic 1 – traffic from Victory to Amity, Pic 2 - Amity towards Victory)