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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC - Public Testimony by Randy Pipal - 6/15Packard Homeowners’ Association, Inc. c/o Park Pointe Management, 1500 W. Bannock St. Boise, Idaho 83702 (208) 323-4071 www.packardestates.org Meridian City Council City of Meridian, Idaho 33 E. Broadway Ave., Ste. 300 Meridian, ID 83642 June 14, 2016 Mayor de Weerd and Meridian City Council Members, As President of Packard Homeowners’ Association, Inc. I am writing you on behalf of the Board of Directors representing the 300+ homeowners’ in the Packard Estates and Packard Acres Subdivisions. I am requesting that this letter be included as written testimony regarding the development application for the Verado Subdivision (H-2016-0047), which abuts the Packard Subdivisions to the North and West. Initially many concerns were brought to our Board’s attention from our membership regarding the original application for Verado. This resulted in our Board of Directors opposing that application at Planning and Zoning on May 19, 2016, because of the harsh transition between Packard Subdivisions, Zoned R-4, and the proposed Verado Subdivision to the North, Zoned entirely R-15 in the original application. We were unaware, at the time, that the developer had made some changes that did address some of our concerns. Those changes were presented at the P&Z meeting on May19th. Since the Packard Board of Directors had not seen those changes, we were not able provide further comment before Planning and Zoning approved the revised application. We still have some concerns with the application in its current form and will offer suggestions to address them. We have attached three Exhibits. Exhibit “A” is a copy of Preliminary Plat obtained for the City of Meridian’s Community Development Department with our suggested changes marked (not to scale). The other two Exhibits are exploded views of the same Plat showing our proposed changes specifically to Block 6 (Exhibit “B”) and a portion of Block 4 (Exhibit “C”) We have two remaining concerns the first being consistency of transition to and from the Packard Subdivisions especially into the higher density R-15 portion of Verado. The Southwestern “leg” of the Verado Development, specifically Block 7 (N. Chancery Place & E. Kamay Drive) is all zoned R-8 with a minimum lot width of 60 feet. We would like to see the same standard implemented in all of the area adjacent to the Packard Subdivision’s Property, for consistency. In Exhibit “B” you can see Block 6, which already zoned R-8, but we request the lot widths be adjusted to meet the 60 foot minimum(Red). In the Exhibit “C” we are requesting that Lots 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 30 of Block 4 be added to the R-8 Zoning, again we would request a 60 foot width minimum (Purple) to stay consistent throughout the project. It appears all of those lots already meet that request without any modification, except Lots 12 and 13 (Orange) which could be combined to comply. Our final concern regarding the “Finch Lateral” (AKA the “South Slough” on some maps) and the safety of small children in all of the surrounding neighborhoods. Currently Packard maintains a six foot chain link fence installed on the South Side of the Finch Lateral including across the stub street at the corner of Devlin and Kamay to block all access to the water (Pink Highlight in all three Exhibits). While this is not a very large body of water, it does move fairly fast and can be a few feet deep in areas, especially to the East of the proposed bridge on N. Devlin Ave where it is narrow and the banks are fairly steep. We would like to see some sort of fence installed on the North side of the Lateral between the water and the proposed pathway to discourage children from getting in the canal. West Ada School District in their written testimony to P&Z estimated that 98 school age kids will be residing in this new subdivision. While not all 98 will be K-5, this subdivision is in the “walk zone” for River Valley Elementary and the only route to school is via the proposed N. Devlin Way Bridge across the Finch Lateral. We all know how water acts as a magnet for children and we feel that open access to the Lateral, as proposed, especially on their route to and from school creates a very dangerous situation for younger children. We plan on maintaining the current fence on the South Side of the Lateral and hope that something can be done on the north side to mitigate this danger. The Board of Directors and much of our membership understands that this and the other properties located along Ustick Road will eventually be developed and we are not opposed to development that makes good sense and doesn’t not negatively affect the existing neighborhoods. We are willing to work with the Verado developer and the City in addressing these issues. You may reach us via our Subdivision Manager, Sarah Ellis at (208)323-4071 or SarahE@ParkPointe.com. Respectfully submitted, Randy Pipal, President Packard Homeowners’ Association, Inc. Exhibit "A" Exhibit "B" Exhibit "C"