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Home My WebLink AboutPZ - Email by Ken Mutell in Respone to Tamara Thompson's Email - 11.291 Machelle Hill From:Kent Goldthorpe <kgoldthorpe@achdidaho.org> Sent:Tuesday, November 29, 2016 8:49 AM To:Ken Mutell; Tamara Thompson Cc:Warren Cays; Gallagher Kathleen; Bruce Wong; Caleb Hood; Joshua Beach; Mindy Wallace; Machelle Hill; Cays Warren Subject:RE: Firenze Plaza Thanks Ken As you know this will become a part of the record. I for one value the collaboration more than you currently know. Kent Goldthorpe Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device -------- Original message -------- From: Ken Mutell Date:11/29/2016 8:44 AM (GMT-07:00) To: Tamara Thompson Cc: Warren Cays ,Gallagher Kathleen ,Kent Goldthorpe ,Bruce Wong ,chood@meridiancity.org,jbeach@meridiancity.org,Mindy Wallace ,Machelle Hill ,Cays Warren Subject: Re: Firenze Plaza Thank you for your reply. We were very surprised that all you wanted to hold was an open house like you did back in May. We were also extremely surprised that you booked Meridian City Hall, Conference Rooms A & B, after Mr. Cays indicated he would take care of scheduling Sienna school for the meeting. I’m sure you realize that holding the meeting at City Hall makes it more inconvenient for our residents to attend, rather than holding it at Sienna school which is within our development. We have already booked the Sienna school for December 5th @ 6:00pm through 7:00pm. If you have any issues with coming to this location at this time, please let us know. Our residents have largely been brought up to date on the impact the proposed Firenze Development will have on the Tuscany development. We have provided the concerned residents with links to the application, planning and zoning department study, traffic study and numerous other sources of information. What Mr. Cays and the Tuscany residents were hoping you would be open to was a collaborative meeting , similar to what was represented to us by Mr. Bruce Wong in the email I’ve inserted below. To date, no attempt has been made to reach out to the residents to address their concerns - primarily the safety of the children of Tuscany due to the additional vehicle access being added to our neighborhood. If you are not open to having a meeting to discuss alternatives regarding traffic flows from the proposed development into the Tuscany development, and having a collaborative approach with the residents, we see no point in holding another session where residents can view the proposed site plan on an easel. If however you are serious about what Mr. Wong passed on to us, we would be very willing to meet. So far, we have seen a heavy hand from the developer toward our 2 concerns. We would very much welcome an opportunity for an open dialogue. To aid in that, we would again ask that you respect our request that, "we respectfully request that you ask the Ada County Highway District, (ACHD), and the City of Meridian Planning and Zoning to postpone their scheduled hearing dates for this proposed project until 2017". This will allow us the time to inform the concerned residents of any possible modifications that may be made to the plans and gain a consensus as to the acceptability of those modifications. Again, we are not opposed to the commercial development. We are primarily concerned with the traffic routing through our neighborhood and the risk this poses to the children of Tuscany. We do not want to see any child needlessly injured or heaven forbid, killed, when it could have been avoided by working together from the start. I’ve also inserted an email from Mr. Hood, Planning Division Manager at the City of Meridian agreeing that it is not ideal to have to attend public hearings on consecutive nights. It appears it is only within your purview to request an extension. Respectfully, Ken Mutell From: Bruce Wong [ mailto:bwong@achdidaho.org ] Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2016 2:37 PM To: WARRENC@REAGAN.COM Cc: Kent Goldthorpe Subject: Update Warren I spoke with our team earlier this morning and I would like to pass the following: - First, our team did meet with the developer and land owners and I do believe that they are flexible in their approach regarding Etna -- We have suggested alternatives to include moving the proposed road connection further south so that it does not provide a direct path into the proposed commercial center. - Second, we have encouraged the developer to again reach out to the Tuscany neighborhood association to assure a collaborative approach to solving concerns proactively -- I am confident that this is being seriously considered - Third, I must emphasize again that NOTHING has been set in stone. This is a proposed rezone and then a proposed preliminary plat. The ACHD Commissioners are in a recommendation role for the rezone and in a decision role for the preliminary plat. That being said, I would again urge you to continue discussions with the city P and Z and the city staff. Currently, we expect to have ACHD staff’s recommendations and reports to the Commission on or about the 8th of December with it scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday evening on the 14 th beginning at 6 PM at ACHD. - Fourth -- I do believe that the developer does intend, after discussions with our staff, to install sidewalks on the other side of Montague as we discussed - Fifth, we did examine the traffic study ( it is still in the works), and currently the projection, if nothing changes, is that the concept may add a couple hundred cars a day in the residential area, not the 1000 that was raised by one of your team members - Finally, there has been NO pre-determined residential makeup at this point -- I remember the discussion on townhouses but the developer has not gotten that far nor has the city and the developer will be working closely with city staff regarding this and any other land use decisions. I hope this helps Very Respectfully 3 Bruce S. Wong Director Ada County Highway District Caleb Hood RE: Postpone Firenze Plaza Hearing Request To: Mutell Ken Cc: Joshua Beach Warren Cays Mr. Mutell, I understand your concerns with the back-to-back hearings. I agree that it is not ideal to have to attend night meetings on consecutive nights. When December 15 th was chosen for the P&Z Commission hearing, we were under the impression that ACHD would have their hearing on December 7 th , giving all parties sufficient time to “react” to ACHD’s action. It is still unclear to my why ACHD moved their hearing to the 14 th . If significant changes are required by ACHD, then I could envision the applicant asking for continuance to make those revisions. However, it is not within my purview to continue/postpone a hearing without the applicant’s consent. We have asked the applicant if they would be willing to request continuance of the City’s P&Z Commission hearing again, and at this time they wish to continue on with the December 15 th hearing. So at this point, the City of Meridian P&Z Commission hearing for the Firenze project is scheduled for December 15 th . I did just see a string of e-mails (I believe you were included as well) where the applicant is making themselves available next Monday night to talk with you and your neighbors in advance of the hearings. It is my hope that this meeting will be productive and some, if not all, of the concerns you and your neighbors brought up can be addressed by the applicant. If you’d like to discuss further, please feel free to contact me again. Caleb C. Caleb Hood, AICP | Planning Division Manager City of Meridian | Community Development Department 33 E. Broadway Ave., Meridian, Idaho 83642 Phone: 208.884.5533 | Fax: 208.489.0572 | Email: chood@meridiancity.org Built for Business, Designed for Living http://meridiancity.org/community_development.aspx All e-mail messages sent to or received by City of Meridian e-mail accounts are subject to the Idaho law, in regards to both release and retention, and may be released upon request, unless exempt from disclosure by law. On Nov 28, 2016, at 10:51 AM, Tamara Thompson < tamara@thelandgroupinc.com > wrote: Mr. Cays, We held a neighborhood meeting on May 17, 2016 for the property owners within 300 feet of the project boundary. The Tuscany HOA was invited to this meeting. I’ve been contacted by many neighbors in the past few months. As the nearest market is approximately a 7-8-mile roundtrip from the property, many are very much in support of having daily services nearby. 4 We are happy to hold another neighborhood meeting next week. However, as we’ve already been delayed, we cannot delay the public hearings any further. I’m currently working to secure a venue and will notify you of the details as soon as possible. Tamara director of client services tamara tamara tamara tamara thompson thompson thompson thompson TT TTHE HE HE HE LL LLAND AND AND AND GG GGROUP ROUP ROUP ROUP | thelandgroupinc.com | 208.939.4041 From: Warren Cays [ mailto:warrenc@reagan.com ] Sent: Monday, November 28, 2016 6:14 AM To: Tamara Thompson < tamara@thelandgroupinc.com > Cc: 'Ken Mutell' <ken.mutell@icloud.com >; kathleen.c.gallagher@icloud.com ; kgoldthorpe@achdidaho.org ; bwong@ach didaho.org ; chood@meridiancity.org ; jbeach@meridiancity.org ; 'Mindy Wallace' <Mwallace@achdidaho.org >; 'Machelle Hill' < mhill@meridiancity.org >; 'Cays Warren' <WCAYS@AOL.COM > Subject: FW: Firenze Plaza November 28, 2016 Ms. Tamara Thompson Director of Client Services The Land Group Ms. Thompson, We, as very concerned citizens of Tuscany, appreciate you finally reaching out to us. We hope you will explain The Land Group's reasoning for the present design of the proposed Firenze Plaza commercial mixed use development, and the proposed traffic access into Tuscany, and to allow all concerned residents of Tuscany to meet with you to express their worries and fears. Due to your short notice of a suggested meeting date to take place before the scheduled hearing dates of December 14th with ACHD and December 15th with P&Z, and of your availability to meet with us and our strong desire to meet with you, in addition to the fact of the extremely busy and stressful holiday season, we respectfully request that you ask the Ada County Highway District, (ACHD), and the City of Meridian Planning and Zoning to postpone their scheduled hearing dates for this proposed project until 2017. We feel that this request is only fair and reasonable to all Tuscany residents, as all concerned Tuscany residents want the opportunity to meet with you and listen to your rationalization and explanation of the proposed Firenze Plaza development, and then have time to comment at the public hearings. Please get back to us ASAP as time is of the essence. Respectfully, 5 Signed Warren and T.L. Cays Ken Mutell and Kathleen Gallagher Concerned Tuscany Residents Cc: Mr. Kent Goldthorpe District #4 President ACHD Commission Ada County Highway District Mr. Bruce Wong Director Ada County Highway District C. Caleb Hood Planning Division Manager City of Meridian - Planning and Zoning Department Josh Beach Associate City Planner City of Meridian - Planning and Zoning Department Begin forwarded message: From: Tamara Thompson < tamara@thelandgroupinc.com > Date: November 23, 2016 at 11:33:17 AM MST To: "warrenc@reagan.com " < warrenc@reagan.com > Subject: Firenze Plaza Mr. Cays, We are the applicants of the Firenze Plaza project on the northwest corner of Amity and Eagle Roads. I don’t believe we’ve talked directly but I’ve been copied on correspondence between the Tuscany neighbors and ACHD. What are your thoughts on having a neighborhood meeting with us either Monday or Tuesday, December 5 th or 6 th 530-630pm? Would you be able to secure a venue and invite any interested neighbors? We look forward to working with you through this process. Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving, Tamara director of client services tamara tamara tamara tamara thompson thompson thompson thompson TT TTHE HE HE HE LL LLAND AND AND AND GG GGROUP ROUP ROUP ROUP | thelandgroupinc.com | 208.939.4041 6