HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-12-20Meridian City Council December 20, 2016
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 5:32 p.m.,
Tuesday, December 20, 2016, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Keith Bird, Genesis
Milam, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer and Anne Little Roberts.
Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Caleb Hood, Kyle Radek, Josh Beach,
Jaycee Holman, Jeff Lavey, Perry Palmer and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X_ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X_ Keith Bird
__X__ Genesis Milam __X__ Lucas Cavener
__X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Good evening. We have a new sound system, so it's -- it's taking a
little bit of time to get used to it, but thank you all for joining us. This is a special
evening with a number of heroes to recognize tonight, so we appreciate all of you
joining us. For the -- for the record it is Tuesday, December 20th. It is 5:32. We
will start with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will rise and join us in
the pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation
De Weerd: That sounded awesome. Item No. 3 is our community invocation.
Tonight we will be led by Pastor David Duran. He is with Meridian First Baptist.
If you will all join us in the community invocation or take this as an opportunity for
a moment of reflection. Thank you for joining us.
Duran: Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you, Lord, for
the many that have joined together in this evening, some to celebrate some
decisions that need your wisdom . God, we ask that you would bless this
gathering. We thank you for the multiple heroes represented here in our
community and we thank you for the many public servants that a re faithfully
serving to protect and to serve within our community, making this place a better
city for our families, for our friends, for all of those both near and far. I ask that
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you would grant a special blessing with them during this evening, in Jesus' name,
amen.
Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Thank you, Pastor. Item No. 3 -- or 4 is adoption of the agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: On the agenda under Item 6-L, the resolution number is 16-1186. 6-M, the
resolution number is 16-1187. Under Department Reports, Item A is going to be
moved down to -- after Item C. B and C will be first and second. And Item D, the
resolution number is 16-1188. Item E, the resolution number is 16-1189. And
we need to -- item F needs to be amended. The Legal Department updating the
city's newspaper of record. Under 9, Action Items, the resolution number under
9-B is 16-1190. Item 9-G, the resolution number of 16-1191. Under Item 10, the
ordinances, Ordinance No. 16-1717 is Item A. And we need to amend to the
agenda Item B, which is the proposed ordinance 16-1718. With that I move we
approve the amended agenda.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as amended.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Proclamation for Mountain View High School Football State
Champion
De Weerd: This next item I have the privilege to recognize your young heroes
there at Mountain View High School. They are the state football champions
under the direction of Coach Benedict. If you all would join me up in the front I
would appreciate it. So, this is -- this is pretty impressive. These athletes are on
Christmas break and they came to join us here for this recognition and I just
learned from our communications -- communications manager that this was a
teacher that she had. So, coach, you do influence a number of lives both on and
off the field and appreciate that. This is a big win for certainly the City of
Meridian, for Mountain View, but we know that it -- it doesn't just determine
champions what happens on the field. It's equally important what happens off
the field and I have -- I have heard great comments about this team. So, I
appreciate you all being here. So, I'm going to read one of these proclamations
and it will not list all of the names, but I will tell you that on the record if you ever
want to go back and say I had a day named after me, you can pull up this date
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and in the minutes you will see each of your names listed as recipients of this
day. So, just keep that in your back pocket and know that if anyone ever
questions that you had a day named after you, you can prove them wrong. So,
whereas being a Mountain View football player is more than tackles, yardage,
kickoffs and touchdowns, it is training to build leadership, character, confidence,
teamwork and resilience, all traits that are needed to succeed on the fiel d, in the
classroom, and in the real world and whereas the Mountain View football team's
overall record for the 2016 season was 11 wins and two losses and whereas
their hard work and teamwork resulted in recently winning the 2016 state
championship tournament for football, the first in school history. And whereas
the capturing of the state title builds school spirit and allows these student
athletes to walk the halls of Mountain View with a little extra swagger and
whereas the leadership, training and discipline of their coaches helped all team
members to focus their talents and passion to become a winning team , with each
player making valuable contributions to their victory. Therefore, I, Tammy de
Weerd, Mayor or the City of Meridian, do hereby proclaim December 20th, 2016,
as Mountain View High School Football State Champions Day in the City of
Meridian and call upon the community to join me in congratulating the Mavericks
on their remarkable athletic achievement and for representing Meridian --
Meridian so proudly in the state tournament. Please join me in congratulating
these young athletes.
Benedict: Did you guys hear that? She wants each of you to introduce
yourselves and what position you play. So, I'm Coach Benedict. She asked me
to say a couple words and what I would tell you is that these guys put in a lot of
hours and it's now a year around process. They put in time in the weight room
out of season training to make themselves better and what we are trying to do as
staff at Mountain View is turn them into better sons, better brothers, better
husbands and better fathers and we think that the guys that come out of our
program are better -- not just better players, but better people, better
contributors in the future to society and I'm really thankful for them and -- and I
love all these guys. So, I'm going to let them introduce themselves.
Pattwell: My name is Keenan Pattwell and I played receiver.
Rawdan: My name is Trent Rawdan and I played linebacker.
Habenicht: I'm Bobby Habenicht and I play strong safety.
Flores: I'm Andrew Flores and I play defensive tackle.
Hester: I'm Alex Hester and I play defensive tackle.
Ray: I'm Cade Ray. I play defensive end.
Lyons: Bryson Lyons. I play center.
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Hardy: Khalid Hardy. I play linebacker.
Richter: Jace Richter. I play free safety.
Boots: Daniel Boots. I play defensive end.
Murdock: Bryce Murdock. I play defensive end.
Chavez: Braxton Chavez. I play defensive tackle.
Oneida: Chase Oneida. I play guard.
Tilden: I'm Jared Tilden. I play defensive tackle.
Taylor: I'm John Taylor. I coach the O line.
Rous: I'm Scott Rous. I coach the receivers.
Ross: Anthony Ross. I coach D line.
Ware: I'm Chris Ware. I coach -- I'm the head wrestling coach.
Jones: Mike Jones. I coach freshmen O line.
Benedict: As the Mayor said, we are not all here. Christmas break. A lot of
people go out of town. But we are all really excited about this opportunity and
just very thankful to be here. So thank you for your time.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, while you're still handing out pins, if I might take a
second, as the first graduate of Mountain View High School to serve o n City
Council, I wanted to give you guys, first of all, congratulations on your first state
championship to the football team and thank you for bringing another state
championship trophy back to Meridian. Go Mavs.
De Weerd: And I will tell you -- so, I'm the daughter of a football coach, which is
why I never need a microphone, but I know the hard work it takes on -- on behalf
of the coaches. You never get enough recognition for what you do . So, please,
know that we appreciate that and for our student athletes we have always hoped
that our -- our student athletes are going to be those role models on the field and
off the field in making good choices something that is cool and so we are looking
to you to continue to be those state champions and -- and show everyone how it
is to -- to behave both on the field and off the field . So, thank you for being here.
We wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Benedict: Thank you.
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December 20, 2016
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Item 6: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of December 6, 2016 City Council
Regular Meeting
B. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement between
Intermountain Pet Hospital and City of Meridian
C. Final Order for Goldengrove Subdivision (aka Logan
Creek) (H-2016-0124) by Heartland Homes, LLC Located
at 4617 Martinel Lane
D. Final Order for Whiteacre Subdivision No. 2 (H-2016-
0125) by Whiteacre Development Corp., Located West
Side of N. Meridian Road, Between W. Ashton Drive and
W. Lava Falls Drive
E. Final Plat for Roundtree Place Subdivision (H-2016-0130)
by Trilogy Development Located 755 S. Linder Road
F. Final Plat for Oaks South Subdivision No. 5 (H-2016-
0127) by Thomas Coleman, Coleman Homes, LLC
Located South Side of W. McMillan Road, Approximately
¼ Mile East of N. Black Cat Road
G. Final Plat for Knightsbridge Subdivision (H-2016-0126)
by Schultz Development Located 3870 E. Victory Road
H. Bainbridge Subdivision No. 3 Revised Water Main
Easement
I. Bainbridge Subdivision No. 3 Release of Water Main
Easement
J. Saleen Property Sewer and Water Easement for
Woodburn Sub No. 2
K. Approval of Task Order 10628.B to MURRAY SMITH &
ASSOCIATES for the “WATER MASTER PLAN 2017
UPDATE – PHASE 2” project for a Not-ToExceed amount
of $159,912.00.
L. Resolution No. 16-1186: A Resolution Approving an
Extension of the Lease Agreement Between the City of
Meridian (Lessor) and Congressman Raul Labrador
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(Lessee)for a two year Lease Term Extension for
Approximately 1,812 Square Feet of Office Space at the
Meridian City Hall at 33 East Broadway Avenue, Meridian
Idaho to be used for a Local Congressional Staff Office.
M. Resolution No. 16-1187: A Resolution of the Mayor and
the City Council of the City of Meridian, Idaho, Setting
Forth Certain Findings and Purposes to Approve
Retiring Meridian Police Department Police Canine
"Odin"; and to Declare Subject Canine Surplus Property
of Nominal Value; and to Authorize the Mayor of the City
of Meridian To Donate Such Property by Transferring
Ownership of Subject Canine "Odin" to His Handler
Meridian Police Department K-9 Officer Isaiah Wear; and
Providing an Effective Date
De Weerd: Well, thank you. Wasn't that awesome? Great kickoff to Christmas
week. Okay. Our next item on the agenda is Item No. 6, our Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: As stated earlier, 6-L, the resolution number is 16-1186, and 6-M, the
resolution number is 16-1187. With that I move we approve the Consent Agenda
and for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest,
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Mr.
Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 7: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Department Reports
B. Police Department: New Hires & Promotions
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De Weerd: And we are moving Item 8-B ahead of A, so I'm going to turn this
over to Chief Lavey.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, thank you for your time today. Before I get
started I'd just like to say that I actually have kids that go to Mountain View High
School and so they have followed this team avidly and so my congratulations as
well and, hopefully, having their names on the record in a proclamation is the
only government record that they ever have. Hopefully they are back there still
listening.
De Weerd: Leave it to the police chief to come up with that one.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, this is kind of history in the making tonight for us.
We have the opportunity to welcome six new members to our family and
introduce them to the community as they decide to take on law enforcement
duties here for the City of Meridian. But also we have history in the making in
that we have a number of promotions that we want to honor as well. We have
never had this many promotions in our department at any one time and, really,
it's -- it's threefold, it is -- because the new positions we have added, it's because
of some replacements that we have had and it's because of some retirements
that we have upcoming and so it's pretty exciting. Also I have the pleasure of --
of promoting the first female sergeant ever in the City of Meridian, so that is
history in the making as well. So, I guess what I'd like to do is ask Deputy Chief
Basterrchea to come up and join me as we honor our employees and, then, I
would get the message to the parents in that this is going to be semi -formal in
that if you want to get up and take the most perfect awesome picture, do it, and
don't try to hide behind someone's head , come up to the front, stand behind me,
whatever you need to do, or push me out of the way, because this is a very
special moment for -- for them. We have had family members drive all the way
up from California yesterday in the -- in this weather just so they could be here
today. So, get that perfect picture while you can. I will give you plenty of time
and if I could have the six new officers come up here and join us over here to my
left. And so what we would like to do first is introduce you to our six new officers
and, then, we are going to do a swearing in. So, when I say your name raise
your right hand so everybody knows who we are talking about. So, Officer Hall.
So, Dallin Hall brings with him 11 years of experience. While receiving his
certification he served six months as a police officer for the Rupert Police
Department here in Idaho. He, then, worked two years as a police officer for Sun
Valley Police Department in Sun Valley, Idaho. And, then, he worked 3.5 years
for Soda Springs Police Department in Idaho, before he began working his
career in Twin Falls and I'm hoping that he finally decided to stay with the
Meridian Police Department and retired with us, so -- because we are the best.
And, then, Officer Horvath. Mark brings us with 12 and a half years of
experience. He worked as a police officer for one and a half years for Albany
Police Department in Albany, California. He served 11 years as a deputy sheriff
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in Napa County Sheriff's Office in Napa County, California, and it's his parents
that actually had to drive up here in all the weather, so -- Officer Tetreault.
Cameron has worked six months as a deputy sheriff for the Canyon County
Sheriff's Office in Canyon County, Idaho. Cameron is a graduate of the new
College of Western Idaho law enforcement program class number one and he is
the first graduate that we have actually hired from -- from that university. So,
congratulations. Officer Matsu. Mike is a graduate of the Western Oregon
University in Monmouth, Oregon, where he earned a degree in criminal justice.
He has held various law enforcement internships in Oregon for the Monmouth
PD, Hubbard PD, the Central Point PD before he came to the City of Meridian.
Congratulations. Officer Helms. Kyle has a Bachelor's of Science Degree in
criminal justice from Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. The deputy chief
said that's a good thing, because if it was another one he may not have got hired.
They told him that right in the interview. Sorry, Bill. I won't tell them what
university he said he -- he was also police support for 11 months for the Las
Vegas Metro Police Department in Las Vegas, Nevada. While attending BSU
Kyle spent one semester as an intern for the US Marshal Service in Boise, Idaho.
Congratulations, Kyle. And Officer Whitesell. Trevor served 1.5 years as a
police cadet while attending the University of Nevada Reno in Reno, Nevada.
Trevor holds two degrees from the UNR, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in sociology
and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history. He's also received a master's degree
in education with the University of California Santa Cruz. Congratulations,
Trevor. So, if you would all raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state
your name, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the
United States and the constitution and laws of the state of Idaho and the laws
and ordinances of the City of Meridian. That I will abide by the law enforcement
code of ethics and the policies and procedures of the Meridian Police
Department. That I will obey all lawful orders and directives of those appointed
over me and that I will, to the best of my ability, faithfully discharge all the duties
of police officer for the City of Meridian, state of Idaho, so help me God.
(Repeated by the officers.)
Lavey: Congratulations, gentlemen. Did everybody get the pictures that they
wanted? I have only had a couple of weeks to learn their names, so I apologize
if I butchered any. I don't think I did, but if I did I am so sorry.
De Weerd: Chief, I think they are new enough they might not tell you, so --
Lavey: They probably won't. They will tell somebody, though. And, Madam
Mayor, Council, it's kind of weird that I actually have my back to you. I don't
know if that's good or bad, so -- I feel kind of vulnerable. But I guess that's
probably better -- it's probably better than that one time I had my back to that one
crowd at that one council meeting that we all know about.
De Weerd: Oh, yes.
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December 20, 2016
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Lavey: I would like to have our new promotions come forward. That includes
everybody. Every rank. So, if you could come up here and kind of take the
same position. It would be nice if we could do the lieutenants and, then, the
sergeants and, then, the corporals and, then, the nonsworn. We will see how
messed up they make me. We are going to pause just for a minute so family can
take some pictures. If we need to kind of get together a little more we can do
that as well. But come forward and take whatever pictures you need . Madam
Mayor, Council, what I'm going to do is introduce each employee as their current
rank and, then, their name and, then, what their new rank is going to be and their
assignment. So, I'd like to introduce -- the first person is Sergeant Jeff Brown.
Yeah. Sergeant Jeff Brown will be promoted to lieutenant. Go ahead and raise
your name -- or raise your hand. Raise your name. Whatever. He is going to be
the new patrol lieutenant for the police department. Jeff's kind of unique in that I
had the pleasure of hiring him as a police officer and I have seen him grow all the
way from the academy to what he is here today. So, congratulations, Jeff.
Sergeant Brian Caldwell is going to take on -- and these are big shoes to fill -- but
Lieutenant Overton's role. And Lieutenant Caldwell will be the new Office of
Professional Standards and Training, so go ahead and raise our hand, Brian.
Officer McGelvery was a lateral officer from Texas, I believe. Was that -- am I
correct? And I remember working the patrol with him, kind of as a renegade and
some crazy stuff and we decided to save all the citizens and make him a
detective and get him off the road and, then, a few years later we are ending up
promoting him as a -- as a sergeant. So, welcome aboard, Chris, and
congratulations on your promotion. Corporal Terry Hodges came from Hailey,
Idaho, I believe. He came to the Meridian Police Department and, then, started
his career in patrol. He's had numerous assignments. We are promoting him to
a -- to a patrol sergeant. Congratulations, Terry. Corporal Tara Smith has been
in an assignment in detectives for a number of years. She's going to be missed
in detectives, but we are going to promote her as the first female sergeant for the
Meridian Police Department and she's going to go serve in patrol.
Congratulations, Tara. Officer Monty Price has had numerous positions. He's
been in patrol. He has been in the traffic unit and he is going to be the new --
one of the new patrol corporals. Congratulations, Monty. Officer Randy
Goodspeed is probably one of those guys that several people have had the
unfortunate pleasure of meeting out there when he's working as a motor officer in
traffic. If you're one of those people, please, don't take it personally. He didn't.
We are promoting him to a patrol corporal as well. Congratulations, Randy.
Officer Isaiah Wear is currently a K-9 officer for the patrol division and his K-9
partner finally thinking thank God I get a break, because he's going to retire and
we are going to promote Isaiah to corporal. So, congratulations, Isaiah. Officer
Mike Netherton has come from the state of California as well, because he wanted
to work for the best department in the United States. He's had numerous
assignments since he's been here, but he's going to take over as a patrol
corporal. Congratulations, Mike. And Tom Baker has served in the capacity as a
code enforcement officer for the City of Meridian for a number of years and when
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December 20, 2016
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an assignment change for the current supervisor sending him back to patrol, we
had the pleasure of looking for a new code enforcement supervisor and , of
course, we hired within. So, congratulations, Tom. So, Lariee Miller is probably
wondering what I'm going to say. I actually had the pleasure of meeting Lariee
the first time she worked for the police department a number of years ago. Her
and I and a few of us are probably one of the most tenured employees for the
police department. But she decided that she wanted to go try something different
and left us for a while and, of course, she also decided that she wanted to come
back and work for the best police department ever. So, we welcomed her back.
After working several years in records and in crime analysis we have now had
the pleasure of promoting her to the records supervisor. Congratulations, Lariee.
And so at this time we would like to have spouses , partners, parents, whoever
that person chose to come forward and pin their badge on them. And,
Stephanie, you can do blood wings for Brian. Stephanie actually worked for us at
one point in time, too. She will come back. I will step out of the way so anybody
can get pictures if they want. Madam Mayor and Council, that concludes our
presentation. I'd just like to congratulate everybody today. I'd like to thank the
families for showing up. It's an awesome opportunity. It's a once-in-a-lifetime,
usually, thing for -- for employees and I just thank you for coming out.
De Weerd: We would like to congratulate those that were just promoted. We
also will join the chief in sending our appreciation to the families. We do believe
that we have the best police force in the country and we know that a lot of that is
a result of the support they get at home. So, thank you for sharing your loved
ones with us. We do everything we can to make sure they stay safe as they
keep our community safe. So, thank you for joining us. We wish you all a very
Merry Christmas.
C. Police Department: Budget Amendment for K9 School
Donations for a Not-To-Exceed amount of $4,181
De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and get this going. Our next item on the
agenda that we also moved ahead of Item 8-A is Item 8-C, our Police
Department budget amendment for K9 school donations for a not to exceed. I
will turn this over to you, chief.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, the good news is I'm not asking for any money
today. This is net neutral and as you recall we gave a K9 encounters training
back in October, but prior to that we actually had a community member that was
working really, really hard for the community to donate -- community donations to
provide this class, so it would be zero cost to the City of Meridian. This person
put up 2,000 dollars of their own money and I guaranteed them that I would cover
the difference if we were not able to get the -- get the money together, because it
was the right thing to do, and we had the pleasure of -- of training 30 more police
officers in the state of Idaho on how to deal with a non -- or how to deal with
nonlethal encounters with our K9s. The good news is that community donations
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far exceeded what the cost of the class was and we had collected a total of 4,181
dollars and what I'm asking is that we are able to transfer that money back into
the training fund of the Police Department. The Finance Department has already
prepared the documentation and is prepared to do that and all we need today is
-- is your -- your blessing to make that happen. It's a net neutral cost to the city.
And with that I'd stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Well, chief, it didn't hurt at all to have the video go viral on OG in
terms of his -- his -- not even 15 seconds of fame or 15 minutes -- I think it lasted
much longer, but that certainly inspired a lot of people to step up and -- and offer
this training to others. So, maybe they will respond similarly.
Lavey: Madam Mayor and Council -- and I know the Mayor knows this, but I
don't know if everybody else knows this. That video went international. I had
messages from UK, Australia, Netherlands and a whole bunch of other places
and some of the donations came from there as well , so -- it went to international,
not just national. So, that is the sign of the good things that the men and women
of our Police Department do.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve the budget amendment for K9 school donations
for a not to exceed amount of 4,181 dollars.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8 -C. If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Thank you.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
A. Finance Department: Quarterly Update
De Weerd: Item 8-A is under our Finance Department and so I ’m going to turn
this -- the mike over to our CFO.
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Lavoie: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, again, appreciate the time
and opportunity to present to you tonight and we are here to introduce to you the
first of hopefully many quarterly finance reports. So, our agenda today is to
describe to you what the approach of a quarterly financial report is. We are
going to discuss property tax 101. We are going to go over property tax levy rate
histories for you. Then we are going to go into property tax comparisons. Then
we are going to look at property tax burden and look at other levy rate
comparisons between the city and other cities within the state and , then, give you
an update on what we will be presenting to you in next few months and, then,
stand for any questions. And before we get started -- when I got here I saw a
couple hundred people there, I thought, wow, a lot of people are interested in
financial quarterly reports, but I appreciate it. So, I will try to make this as
exciting as possible. It is property tax, but, again, we will do what we can. So,
again, quarterly reports to the Council. This is a new concept that we are trying
to deploy between the Finance Department and the city. So, what are they? Our
goal here is to deliver information to you, the Council, and decision-makers within
the city, smaller bite-size pieces of information, rather than delivering large
amounts of data to you at one time. So, instead of approaching you with one
large report, we are going to divide it up into four reports throughout the fiscal
year. This is a tentative schedule that we are shooting for. In February we are
going to focus on the actual results from the audit report for the previous fiscal
year. In May we are going to look at demographic data working with COMPASS
data and growth data. In August we are going to try to focus on the current fiscal
year actuals to budget. In this case will be fiscal '17's actuals to budget. And it
says November, but today is the November slash December presentation. I was
not able to get the presentation ready for November , so here we are today for
December. So, we will continue to alter the agendas going forward based on
economic growth functions, environmental -- it's a continual work in process. We
are going to change the agenda to meet the needs of the city in our opinion . So,
with that property tax 101. I know. Exciting stuff. Again, this is a recap of what
you saw from us in April during the fiscal year 2017 budget roadshow. That's
why I pointed out the two blue sections. Again, it's just a reminder that the state
gives us the rules and mandates how we calculate property taxes . In this case
there is a part of the property tax calculation that allows us as the city to take up
to three percent property taxes or increase our property tax amount by three
percent annually. There is also another portion of the property tax calculation
that is new construction annexation. Again, we went over this in April. I bring
this up that the state and the county dictate how much we can put on our
property tax roll for new construction and annexation . So, again, property tax
101. This was presented to you in April. Base property taxes. There are four
components within the -- how we calculate property taxes. The first item is base
property taxes. Again base property taxes are determined by the highest
approved certified amounts of taxes levied in the past three years. Fiscal year
2017 is the highest amount of property taxes that we have levied in the past
three years. So, for fiscal 2018 that will be our base property tax amount s.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
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Again, base property taxes. I want to kind of, you know, explain what we believe
these revenue sources are for. Base property taxes are for the level of service
that you have determined at that fiscal year. So, when we just finished
developing fiscal year 2017, we determined the base level of services that we
were going to provide to the citizens for fiscal '17 and we determined the amount
of revenue that we needed to perform those services. So, at that moment in time
we have determined that this amount of revenue is what we need to perform the
level of services at that moment. Now, this would work great if time stood still
and we didn't have any growth, we had no inflation, you know, everything stood
still. We can easily say that the amount of revenue we generate for property
taxes will cover the amount of expenses that we will continue for eons and eons
if nothing ever changed. Unfortunately, I think we all know that this city is one of
the fastest growing cities in the nation, so things are changing. We are adding
more businesses, we are adding more population, we are adding more traffic, we
are adding more schools. There is a lot of mores involved here. So,
unfortunately, we don't live in that simple time-stood-still world, we need to be
able to collect revenues to account for those mores. As more people move here
they have more requests on our services, we need to make sure we deliver those
services, so with that, luckily, the state gave us an avenue to adjust our revenues
to provide those services for the -- for the more population, the more traffic, the
more businesses and that's within our three percent allowable increase. This
function of the property tax calculation we would like to call cost of doing
business. Many of you run -- run your own business, you have been involved
with businesses. Unfortunately, things don't stand still. We have inflation. Fuel
goes up. Utilities go up. Mr. Bird, you have been on the Council long enough
that the employees first concept, the compensation program -- I mean I can ask
you -- the number one asset for the city is?
Bird: Employees.
Lavoie: Employees. So, we need to make sure we compensate our employees.
That's a cost of doing business. We need to make sure we compensate them
correctly. So, with that we can use this allowable property tax to pay for the cost
of doing business to make sure we are paying our employees correctly, paying
for the bills, because the base property tax pays for what was approved last year,
not for anything new and above and beyond what we determine as the base level
of service. The other two components that we have within the property tax
calculation are new construction and annexation. These two items are
determined by Ada county. We don't have any levers or knobs to pull on. This
one -- they tell us how much in property tax we collect for the upcoming year.
These dollars are to be used for growth. The revenue generated is from growth,
so we should use it for growth. When Fire needs another police -- fire station, we
need to be able to use these dollars to pay for that, because the base revenues
are for what was approved previous years. The cost of doing business allowable
is for just paying for the base level cost of doing business. These two
components help the General Fund pay for police officers, new parks, new
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additional vehicles, computer replacements, and so forth. Again, I just kind of
wanted of reiterate how we calculate a proper -- how we calculate property taxes
on an annual basis and what we deem as th e components of those property
taxes and how we believe we should use the property taxes for the future and
today. So, again, you may be asking a question, well, what about all the other
additional revenues, can we use that to pay for growth and cost of doing
business? Certainly. Just know that, you know, as we get more sales tax, more
liquor tax, more franchise tax, that is mostly driven by growth. So, in theory, you
can argue those dollars do help pay for the growth items, not the cost of doing
business items. So, again, I understand we do generate other revenues from
those other sources, but those revenue sources have been determined for the
base level, not accounting for cost of doing business and those growth items we
want to definitely make sure we have for fire stations, police stations, parks, city
staff and so forth. So, that's the property tax 101 calculation. This year shows
your property tax levy rate history. This is the base property taxes that we have
collected since 2005. So, these are those tax dollars that we determined during
the budget process are needed to pay for the level for -- pay for the services that
we deem necessary for that fiscal year. These dollars are not budgeted for
future growth or future cost of goods -- or cost of doing business. This is at that
moment in time. These are the allowable increases that we as a city have taken
for those -- since 2005. We have exercised three percent every year, other than
three years. You can see the two years where we took a zero and , then, fiscal
'17, which we just completed, we took two percent and you can see that's
represented there. Those dollars that we approved with the level tax are used to
help pay for the cost of doing business. Ada county informs us of the new
construction that we get to use for new growth items to help pay for the new fire
trucks, computers, new employees and annexation the same way. These are the
annexation dollars that we have collected from Ada county's records for the City
of Meridian and you combine all those components -- the four components that
we have talked about and this represents the property tax collection for the --
since 2005. We approved fiscal year 2017's budget a few months ago and now
we are requesting 28 million from the county and they approved it . So, that is our
current property tax collection for fiscal '17 and the years before. So, property
tax history. I'm going to get on a little soap box real quick if you don't mind. So,
the question is what percentage of property taxes make up the General Fund?
Here is the slide for you. Right now for fiscal year '17 what we just approved,
again, varies every year a little bit. The property taxes -- 65 percent of the
General Fund revenue sources come from property taxes. Again, we just went
through the 101. One component of the four pieces of the property tax 101 we
get to change. That's our lever. We have one lever in that calculation. Ada
county determines the other two and the base is the base from the previous
highest three. So, we have one lever to change or to pull on that one. Oops.
The second highest revenue source is intergovernmental. That's our sales tax
revenue sharing. That's the -- that's the liquor revenue sharing. That's all
mandated by the state of Idaho. We are at their mercy of what percentage they
give us. They have an algorithm. They let us know how much revenue we get
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on an annual basis. We have zero input on that. The next item is the impact
fees. Impact fees are currently riding at four percent. Those are non-
operational, so we don't get to use that to pay for fires , ongoing personnel costs
or finances, personnel costs. That's a restricted revenue source that we really
don't get to tap into for operational growth needs. Next item is development
services by ordinance. The revenues generated within that division are utilized
to pay for their cost of doing business or operational needs and any excess
revenues go to the capital improvement fund, so we can build City Hall, we can
build park functions, fire stations. So, the excess by ordinance we can't really tap
into that for ongoing fire station, personnel, or ongoing. By ordinance we put that
to a capital need. And, then, the remaining is seven percent -- again, nominal in
the grand scheme of things and what we can leave on for revenue sources. So,
as you can see between intergovernmental 15 percent and property taxes 65,
that's 80 percent of our revenue sources for the General Fund are just those two
revenue sources and only one lever did I mention do we get to pull to determine
-- or manage our revenue sources. Intergovernmental stage three of the four are
-- of property taxes are mandated by state and county. We get one lever to
adjust for our revenue calculation. So, it's a little scary at times. But, again, I'm
just trying to stipulate that we have got one revenue source, property taxes, 65.
We want to make sure we manage it professionally and cautiously. So, another
way to look at it -- you know, that this is, you know, this one major revenue
source of property tax, which, you know, we got the one lever to play -- play with,
we need to make sure the decisions we make today will impact the future council
members, the future businesses and the future decision-makers of the city. So,
again, we are not making decisions for today only, but we are also making
decision for future years down the road. We want to make sure we set ourselves
up and the future councils and city staff members up for success. So, that's --
that's the end of my soap box and I appreciate letting me get on there. I know it
deviates from this a little, but, luckily, I have another box for you. So, this is an
example of cost of doing business. I used this term earlier for you. This is going
to show an example of that the cost of doing business is -- and we lost our
remote, so I will -- oh, there it is. There it is. Cool. We are good. We are good.
Cost of doing business. Here is just a simple example. This is your fiscal year
'17 General Fund personnel cost that we just approved a couple months ago. A
little over 31 million dollars. Good. Bad. Indifferent. That's just the number what
it is. We decided what the property taxes, the revenue sources were that we had
available to cover those services that our staff members can provide to the
citizens at the end of -- for fiscal year '17. Now, there is one simple component,
cost of doing business, that one's simple, but there is many, many components.
We have insurance increases, worker's comp increases, PERSI increases there,
participation value, and also what Mr. Bird and I just talked about, compensation
for employees. If we just applied a simple three percent, which, historically, we
have done for the City of Meridian, go unpack many years, we average about
three percent compensation improvements to the city's staff . If you take just at
three percent on that 31 million, you can see the math is a little over 900,000.
We have not done a thing yet. We have not hired an employee. We have not
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hired a -- bought a new car. We have not -- we have done anything other than
what -- we want to make sure we get our asset compensated correctly. So,
every year the Finance Department, Council, city -- we must generate an
additional 900,000 dollars to make sure we cover that one cost of doing
business. We have not talked about utilities yet. We have not talked about
repairs, replacements, Jeff Lavey's vehicles -- or I mean Chief Lavey's vehicles,
you know, Fire Department's vehicles. We haven't even gotten there yet. This is
just wages. So, unfortunately or fortunate, whichever way you look at it, wages
will continue to grow, because we are a growing city. So, 31 million this year is
going to be 31.9 or 32 million next year , 33 million the year after that. We are
growing. We are growing. Three percent on that number is going to grow as
well. So, what I'm trying to bring to point here is we got two percent last year for
property taxes, which is roughly about 520. I need to find other revenue sources
to cover just that one simple cost of doing business going forward year, after
year, after year, after year. Again, we do have the revenue sources, we made a
decision in '17 to utilize other revenue sources to cover that one proportionate
share of cost of doing business. So, again, I'm just trying to reiterate the growth
that we approve, the plats that we approve, the growth that's coming in -- I
means it's awesome, it's great, it's a vibrant city, but there is only so many growth
items that we can generate within property taxes for General Fund to cover these
additional mores, these additional great things that we are adding. Growth is
going to happen much faster than what we can grow our revenue sources. It's
just -- it's impossible to match -- match one to one. It's a great thing for us, but,
also, it's a -- it's something to be aware of, that the growth is happening faster
than our revenue sources and have just got to be cautious with that. If we want
to continue to ask the fire department, the police department, all the departments
to level that exceptional customer service, you know, we just need to be aware of
what we are approving the growth is, the amount of things happening. Financing
this Council -- we can only generate so much revenue on an annual basis .
Again, are we providing the right level of service? Are we providing the amounts
of service that we want? It's a whole -- that's a great question. That's a great
question for another day. But, again, we need to make sure -- the decisions we
make now affect where we are going to go down in the future and we just want to
make sure we can provide the revenue to the city staff members to provide that
level of service that you expect of them on a daily basis . Now, I lost my -- so,
appreciate it. So, here is your property tax levy rate history. Ada county gives us
this number. We don't have really much input into this. They let us know what
our value is -- top right value is, our current -- per Ada county we are a little over
seven billion. You can see it's gone up. It's gone down. It's fluctuated. But we
are definitely in a growth period. I apologize, I skipped one slide there. That is
your levy rate. That's the levy rate that Ada county has approved to us and what
I'm going to point out here is it's an inverse relation. It's -- it's not intuitive and an
example would be fiscal year '17, we just approved a budget and we were -- we
requested two percent from Ada county and the levy went down. The last three
years the levy has gone down, but we requested property taxes every single
year. Also I want to point out that in years -- fiscal years '11 and '12 I don't know
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if you remember this slide. We took zero property tax for allowable increase, but
you can see the levy rate went up. Not intuitive. You know, we think we are
going to impact our levy rate. I just want to be cautious that the Ada county value
has a much larger impact on what happens with the levy rate at the end of the
day than the decisions that we make here from a budgetary standpoint . We can
say we are not going to take the allowable in years '11 and '12, instead the levy
rate went up. It's not really super intuitive, it's -- it's a little funny, but, again, the
Ada county property tax value has a bigger factor on our ending levy rate than
the project that we propose to them on an annual basis. So, I will bring up some
other slides. I can show you how this game works or how it works. We compare
six houses. We will show you the comparisons for the six houses and the impact
that we -- the decisions that we made how it impacted them on a house-by-house
basis. So, again, more property tax calculation 101. Again, this is a recap from
April. Pretty simple. We take the total property taxes requested. In this case
that's 28 million by us. Seven billion dollars is the value that Ada county informed
us and that gets us to our certified levy rate for that particular fiscal year. So,
again, if we follow the graphs and the data , there is our property tax, 28 million,
levy rate seven billion. You put all that together and you do the math and you will
end up with the current levy rate, which is .38 and that matches were we are at
right there. So, again, that's how the math works. That's how we get the
property tax value. That's how levies are influenced and that's how levies are
created. Again, we have a -- we have a small share in how levies are created,
but the bigger value is what Ada county determines the levy rate -- or the Ada
county city value to be. Again, this is just a snapshot of everything on there.
This is by the state of Idaho. They send us this document. It states everything
submitted is accurate. Here is your levy rate based on the -- the value that Ada
county states and the property taxes that you have requested. This is just a fun
little informational slide for you guys. This shows you the highest 15 taxpayers
for the city. This was obtained from the state of Idaho's Tax Commission and
also Ada county. This is the information they provided us. We will tract this
going forward, just so we can have it historical and just look at how it changes
year over year. So, as we stated, property tax comparisons. These are the six
houses that I informed you about. They are throughout the entire city and these
are the property tax values as I guess ordered by the -- or determined by the
county. This is their document or their information we have put in our slide, but
this is determined by Ada county. We, as a city, don't determine these values.
These are the property taxes paid by each of those houses for the city. Not all
the -- not their total tax role, just the City of Meridian's tax levy. It doesn't quite
follow the exact same Ada county value, but you can see these are the taxes that
have been paid for those particular homes. As well I would point out that during
2007, '8, '9 and '10 we as a city took the three percent allowable property tax
every single year. But you can see '7, '8, '9 and '10 a majority of those homes all
paid less in taxes. Another interesting slide is in 2011 and '12 we did not
maximize our three percent allowable and our property taxes went up and, then,
the very last fiscal -- last three years, '14, '15 and '16, all but one house has paid
more taxes. Even though we have taken the property tax every single year,
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other than last year we took two percent. One house based on the Ada county
value, paid less taxes each year. So, what I'm trying to reinforce here is Ada
county's property tax value of your property has a larger influence than the
decisions that we made at the three percent level and the amount of revenue that
we are collecting, because we can only turn that lever so many times and we can
only pull the lever a little bit.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
Lavoie: Yes.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor and Todd, I think it's important that we understand that
while that's true on a year to year basis, if we take the three percent over and
over and over and over again eventually we will hit a point where the Meridian
section of Ada county stops growing or doesn't grow nearly as fast, so there is
less growth in the pie to be distributed amongst all the properties and so -- but
the property values will continue to increase. So, that's one -- the three percent
that took place over and over and over, it's going to really start kicking in when
the growth stops, but the values continue to increase; right? Does that make
fanatical sense?
Lavoie: It all comes down to taxable value. I mean there is only two components
in that equation. What we request and the taxable value. So, it all depends on
the taxable value. You're saying if it stops growing, but everybody's property
continues to go up. I mean it's all variable. So, I mean I'm not -- I apologize I'm
not following you exactly, I apologize, but the three percent, will it ever get farther
ahead -- are you concerned that the three percent is going to get farther ahead
than the growth value?
Palmer: I don't know. Not -- so, my -- eventually -- I mean with the -- in the
situation we are in, while we can take the three percent, property taxes actually
being levied can go down.
Lavoie: They sure can.
Palmer: But there is definite scenarios where our actions by taking the three
percent are going to cause substantial tax increases --
Lavoie: Again, the slide here shows the ten years of data. We have taken three
percent every year, other than there, and we took a two last year, so call that
good. So, all but two years you can see what's happened to the six houses here.
If you start from left to right, you got -- if you take the golf course home, it's a little
over 600, now it's a little under 900. I mean the question is is that substantial.
One house is actually paying less than it did ten years ago and that's ten years of
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actual data in a high growth environment that we have experienced here in the
city. So, while we have another environment that deviates or is greater than this
environment this last ten years, I don't know what the n ext ten years looks like,
but this shows you the three percent impact on a high growth environment that
we have experienced here at the city for six hours within the city limits. So, I'm
not sure -- I mean could there be equations and probabilities, I'm sure there are.
Definitely.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, maybe restate --
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: -- my question that if say the number of new properties stops, which,
obviously, isn't going to happen for a very long time, but the value of the e xisting
properties continue to increase --
Lavoie: Yes.
Palmer: -- what would happen to the property tax bills? Should we continue to
take three percent every year -- say we go ten years where there is no new
properties, but the value continues to increase?
Lavoie: So, each year we would have to determine do we need additional
revenues to pay for the nongrowth, because if growth stops, which is your -- if I’m
following you -- no new development, no new homes, so we have that perfect
standstill time where not another thing is added, the base revenues that we have
determined should be able to pay for the ongoing cost if expenses stay the same.
Now, if expenses don't stay the same -- which they won't -- you need some
source of doing -- generating revenue for cost of doing business and that's your
three percent.
Palmer: Right.
Lavey: But at some point you always have to most likely take a cost of doing
business increase, unless inflation stops and prices don't change -- which we
know that's not going to happen, so that's -- you always -- in my opinion you
always have to take some kind of cost of doing business adjustment to pay for
the cost of doing business with the City of Meridian, even if you had zero growth,
no new homes, you still have to pay for the merit, the utilities and how do you pay
for that? That's the million dollar question.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, if I can -- and understanding that, but in that scenario
what does the tax bill do?
Lavoie: Each house would be different, obviously, because it's based on a value
of their particular house. If we had more Villages show up here that's going to be
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a much different impact than if you had many more Paramounts show up here.
So, it's a different tax value. So, I mean it all -- each house -- I mean I can't
stand on the record and say this is what's going to happen to every house for the
next ten years if something's going to happen. I just can't do that. It's based on
the value of the property. If we don't increase our property tax request of
revenue, everybody is -- most likely the levy will go down, because -- if that
number stayed static, but your enumerator went higher, your denominator will go
down and no new growth you're still going to ask for the same amount of
resources from the same amount of people that are populating your -- your city.
If we are following a no growth, no additional situation. You're still going to ask
for 28 million dollars on an annual basis from -- from the same 32,000 customers
we have. I apologize that I have -- Councilman Palmer. Okay. So, we are going
to jump into property burden. This is important. This is the data that we collect
from the state -- or from Ada county. Again, it's not going to be a surprise to you
guys. Most of our property taxes come from residential. Again, not surprised.
Here is another way of looking at it. We are averaging about 64 percent of our
income from residential and 30 something from commercial. The other
percentages are, you know, intermingled amongst other categories, but I don't
think it's too much of a surprise for you . I don't know what the magic ratio is, but
for City of Meridian it seems to be a 60-30 split, which is pretty comfortable and
we matched it pretty well for the last ten years. So, again, just information.
That's all this is here to help you with. I mentioned the levy rate in comparison.
This is the levy rate comparison between the City of Meridian and a few cities
that we selected around the state. This information is gathered from the
Association of Idaho Cities. They provide this to every city on an annual basis
and we just put the data into a graph form . As you can see, the City of Meridian
is number four on this graph, which is fantastic. Or not, whichever way you want
to look at it. For a full-service city and the second largest city in the entire state, I
mean that's something to be pretty proud of -- be pretty proud of. Again, so that
-- every single city is not accounted for here, but I tried to grab the biggest cities
that I could find. I see a question over here by Luke.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, question for Todd. How many of these cities that are
identified here are responsible for their own road maintenance?
Lavoie: Good question. We -- I will grab -- there is like two cities here that have
one levy rate for one hundred percent of their services. This graph here is just
for General Fund services and it's not apples to apples, because many cities
have roads, airports, convention centers. This year the General Fund
comparison -- there is some major -- some cities that handle levy rates just for
themselves. Us, Boise, we have one. It's the General Fund levy rate. So, it's
not an apples to apples, but I tried to compare General Fund to General Fund. If
you add all those other levy rates to all these other cities, their bar graph goes
higher. I just tried to do the General Fund to General Fund, so this does not
include cemetery or library districts, roadways, or parks or -- there is even
retirement levy rates out there. There is public safety levy rates. I tried to do
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General Fund to General Fund. So, if anything, we would look even better if you
compared us to the consolidated levy rate comparisons from city to city.
De Weerd: And the Association of Idaho Cities does a breakdown and -- and
that's what -- that is what allows us to do those comparisons , because they will
show the different levies to the special purpose . So, the only thing that isn't
figured into Eagle, Kuna and Garden City is they don't do fire and they have a fire
district and our fire is built into our General Fund. So, yeah, it is -- it's hard to do
apples to apples, but this is as close as you can really get.
Lavoie: And for a full service city I think what you -- or what the staff is doing for
the levy rate that we have, it's pretty phenomenal. They are -- you know, we
have always run a pretty lean city. We are proud of that. We have zero debt.
We are proud of that. But, again, the question comes up to us -- we need to be
open to consider other revenue sources. Bonding. Borrowing. Improvement
districts. And I'm going to bring it up. Levy rate increases. At some point in time
if we continue to grow at this phenomenal pace and you want u s as a staff to
provide those services to our citizens, we are going to have to be open to
considerations. We can't fund, you know, this amount of fire stations that we
believe we need to fund in the next ten years. We cannot fund the amount of
police officers that -- in the police department. Mayor and I and the department
directors have just completed our first draft of the CFP. There are over 20
changes that we had to make to their -- to our directors' requests, because we do
not have the revenue sources to meet their professional judgment and the
resources that they need. So, again, I'm not asking you to make a decision
today, I'm just throwing it out there. We need to be open for discussions of other
revenue sources if it comes to that point where we cannot provide the services
that you're asking us to on a daily basis, be it bonding, borrowing, improvement
districts, levy rate increases. Again, it's just putting a -- I'm planting the seeds.
I'm not asking for a decision. I'm not saying we need it tomorrow. But have an
open mind to those considerations in the future, because the city is growing and
if we want to continue to deliver those services to those houses -- to the -- deliver
those services to the citizens, we just have to be open to those discussions. So,
you know, that -- and I apologize I took a little more time than the 20 minutes that
I asked for and I apologize. But as a recap, we talked about why we are going to
be here every quarter. Property tax 101. Levy rate history. We showed you
that. It's not an intuitive discussion. The tax comparison, you know, the tax
burden. We also talked about the levy rate comparisons. So, you saw what six
homes looks like. We -- you know, we tried to display that for you guys in what --
what would Joe pay for type of scenario. So, there, again, the next quarterly
meeting you will hear from us is February. My goal is to deliver results based on
the audit, the actual financials. I will deliver to you the fund balance. Are we --
how does our fund balance look? Are we doing good? Are we doing bad? We
are going to introduce to you -- I believe it's the first time you will see it from us --
revenue expense ratios. What this does is we track what proportionate share
does medical benefits consume of property tax revenue. Should it be the same
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every year? Should it always be 43 percent or some magic number? We will
show you what that looks like. Should certain expenses be growing faster than
their revenue sources that we are generating. That's what we are going to try to
show you. A different perspective. We will show you the top five revenue
sources and top five expenses for the city. Again -- and with that, again, I
apologize it took a little more time than you wanted -- or we wanted here. Again,
I appreciate the time. Appreciate the questions. I stand for any questions, but,
again, contact me afterwards if you have more detailed questions . Mr. Palmer, I
apologize if you didn't get what you wanted, but you know where we reside. Find
us and we will help you out. Again, Mayor, Members of the Council, appreciate
it.
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Appreciate it. Yeah. Any feedback, please, let
Todd know and -- because he's going to -- to focus quarterly on -- on different
topics and we hope to have these on annual rotation. So, if there are ways we
can improve it, we would love your feedback.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Either for Todd or maybe for you or other directors. One thing that has
always been a challenge for me to wrap my head around is when Todd gets up
he talks about levels of service and I have had three different liaison roles in the
past three different years. I guess five different liaison roles. And each
department director talks about their level of service. One thing that I have
learned is that one director's opinion of level of service is different. You know,
they vary from department to departme nt. So, for me it would be helpful to either
have a presentation from directors about when they talk about this level of
service and what they are talking about, what they are trying to articulate,
because I think it's easy for me to grasp -- we want to continue being great, but
what is that? What is that great thing and how is it different in Police than it is in
Fire. How is it different in Fire than Parks. So, as we continue to use that term --
I know for me it would be more beneficial to have a bett er understanding as to
what we are referring to when we talk level of service.
De Weerd: And I think that's exactly what our fire chief had been pursuing over
the last couple of months and got an answer last week on what that standard is.
So, we can start bringing back comparisons. Steve in the Parks Department has
a level of service that was defined through public participation. We are always
under -- I don't think we are ever over, but it's always a standard we are chasing
on parks per thousand -- acres per thousand and -- and we will get that from the
police chief. Certainly as part of the strategic plan updates that's going to be
discussed on what some of those variances are . Over under. So, those are all
things that you should start seeing in your dashboards. You will start hearing
about in the strategic plan updates and you will start hearing more often from the
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 23 of 73
department directors. So, perfect point. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and
move the rest of the Department Reports after our Action Items. So, I assume
that many of those that are in attendance are here for the Action Items. So,
Council, any issues with that?
Bird: I have none.
Item 9: Action Items
A. Public Hearing for Seyam Subdivision (H-2016-0123) by
Volante Investments LLLP, Located on the North Side of
E. Franklin Road and Approximately 1/2 Mile East of N.
Eagle Road
1. Request to Vacate Plat Note #10 and the Graphic
Depiction on the Seyam Subdivision Plat Which
States Lot 3, Block 1 is a Non-Buildable Lot
De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-A is a public hearing on H-2016-0123. I will turn this
over to Josh.
Beach: Madam Mayor, I believe this is a -- there is memo that was written. I'm
not sure if C.Jay had agreed to read that for us.
De Weerd: Yes, he did.
Coles: Madam Mayor, I will take the lead here. You have in front of you a memo
written by myself. This item was previously heard on November 22nd before the
Council. When we went back -- we put a resolution on Council agenda. When
we get back to verify that we had met all of our statutory requirements for
noticing, we couldn't prove that we had mailed out the vicinity notice for the public
hearing back on the 22nd of November. So, we are bringing it back before
Council to meet the statutory requirement. But Council has previously heard this
item on the 22nd. So, that's why it's before you today was to meet the statutory
requirement for noticing.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Mr. Miller is here from the Van
Auker group to speak to this item if necessary. We did add the resolution, which
is a little more unusual than you would normally see on these, so that we could
expedite this, since it had already been heard and that way we wouldn't delay
this into the new year. The findings have already been completed, everything's
been done, we just wanted to make sure that if there were property owners that
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 24 of 73
had a concern, they had an opportunity under the statute to have notice and
opportunity to be heard in front of you. I don't know that we have any here, other
than the Van Auker group, so --
De Weerd: So, C.Jay, just a question on how many affected property owners,
then -- how -- so, do I understand it that no one received notice?
Coles: That's correct, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Okay. And so how many were affected within that 300 feet?
Coles: There were four properties within the 300 foot radius.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. So, for the public record, a brief introduction?
Josh? Is there anyone here to testify on this item? Just a brief -- oh, yes. Caleb.
Are you hear to testify? You want to turn your mike on.
Hood: Can you hear me now? Okay.
De Weerd: We can.
Hood: So, this is a vacation application, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council,
at the location highlighted on your screen, which is probably why no one really
wants to -- to talk about this application. It is the vacation from when the
preliminary plat was approved. So, I know Brad Miller is here representing the
applicant. We have not received any comment or testimony from anyone else,
but do have testimony from the applicant in agreeance with the staff report, so --
if you have any questions about it -- I'm trying to be as brief as possible on this
application.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Does the applicant have any comments? It's a
nice Christmas gift there, Brad.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Just for the record -- so, this is the project that was the storage units that
they own both properties and so the original vote that was taken, essentially --
because of the noticing issue, essentially, was void and so that's why we would
need to revote on this project tonight.
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 25 of 73
Bird: If we don't have any public hearing or -- I move that we closed the public
hearing on H-2016-0123.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item 9-
A. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
B. Resolution No. 16-1190: Seyam Subdivision (H-2016-
0123) by Volante Investments LLLP, Located on the
North Side of E. Franklin Road and Approximately 1/2
Mile East of N. Eagle Road
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mr. Nary, we don't -- we just pass the resolution, don't we?
Nary: Yes, sir.
Bird: Madam Mayor, I move we approve Resolution No. 16-1190.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 16-1190. Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Public Hearing for 43 North Subdivision (H-2016-0090)
by KGA Development, LLC, Located at 1318 NE 4th
Street
1. Request: Preliminary Plat Consisting of 22 Building
Lots and One (1) Common Lot on 1.81 Acres of Land
in the R-15 Zoning District
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 26 of 73
De Weerd: Item 9-C is a public hearing on H-2016-0090. I will open this public
hearing with staff comments.
Beach: Very good, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This is an
application for a preliminary plat. This site consists of approximately 1.813 acres
of land, zoned R-15, which is located at 1318 Northeast 4th Street, as you can
see on your map. The Comprehensive Plan designation for this property is high-
density residential. The proposed plat consists of 21 building lots and four
common lots on the 1.813 acres of land that, as I said, in the R-15 zoning district.
The gross density for this is 11.29 dwelling units per acre, with an average lot
size of 2,650 square feet. The applicant is proposing two common driveways in
this project. Staff has reviewed the dimensions of the common driveways
depicted on the plat and they are consistent with the standards in the UDC and
the applicant is also seeking approval of an alternative compliance request . The
specific section relates to common driveways and the applicant has made the
following requests: They are -- and, again, this is -- was approved by the
director, but just for your information -- to allow for a five foot sidewalk, instead of
what would normally be required, a five foot landscape buffer to any lots that do
not take access to the common driveway. Staff thought this was a good idea to
provide connectivity through the subdivision, so if you can kind of see here there
is the sidewalk -- follow my arrow. Normally that would be required to be a
landscape buffer for these lots here that don't take access to the common
driveway. Again, staff is supportive of that. There are some -- some existing
structures on the property that will have to be demolished as part of this project.
Regarding block length standards, staff has reviewed those and they are in
compliance. Vehicular access is proposed for this site via one access to East
Badley Avenue and one onto Northeast 4th Street by way of a 22 foot common
lot. As proposed, ten of the lots have direct lot access to Northeast 4th Street.
Proposed Northeast 4th Street depicted on the plat is a public street. A total of
50 feet of right of way is proposed for Northeast 4th Street, which the applicant is
proposing to construct half plus 12. So, that portion of 4th isn't currently
constructed, but it will be as part of this project, as well as curb, gutter and
sidewalk. There is a requirement for an underground pressurized irrigation
system. The applicant is proposing to use city's domestic water for irrigation.
However, as noted in the UDC, the applicant has not provided a waiver -- or a
requirement from the irrigation district as proof that they do not have water rights,
so the city's domestic water at irrigation and shall be a last option in providing
irrigation water to this proposed development. So, the applicant, A, is coming
forward tonight to ask for that and, B, will be required to provide a letter from the
irrigation district indicating that they do not have water rights. The applicant is
proposing attached single family homes. The applicant has submitted
conceptual sample elevations for future homes in the development . The
elevations provided by the applicant appear to meet the standards set forth in the
UDC, as well as the architectural standards manual. A design review application
is required to be submitted prior to the issuance of building permits for the single
family detached homes. The Commission did recommend approval. Summary
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 27 of 73
of the Commission hearing that was held on the 17th of November. The
applicant's representatives Sabrina Durtschi was in favor. Several -- excuse me
-- Lucile Leavell was in opposition. She commented. As well as Tuck Ewing.
We did not receive written testimony. Bill Parsons also commented on the
application. Key issues of discussion by the Commission were the lack of open
space due to the acreage of the site being below the five acre threshold. The
Commission did not make any changes and, as I said, outstanding issues for the
Council are the applicant does not have irrigation water available to their property
and is requesting to use city water for irrigation. And with that I will stand for any
questions you have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Josh. Any questions for staff?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
De Weerd: Is the applicant here? Good evening. If you will, please, state your
name and address for the record.
Durtschi: Absolutely. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, hello and good
evening.
De Weerd: Good evening.
Durtschi: For the record my name is Sabrina Durtschi and I'm here on behalf of
Briggs Engineering and the applicant. My business address is 1800 West
Overland Road, Boise, Idaho. 83705.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Durtschi: Thank you. And I took a cue from you guys rescheduling everything,
but I figured you probably didn't want me to regurgitate everything that your staff
-- planner had already done, so I didn't really prepare a big presentation. We are
requesting a waiver for the irrigation. I do have a letter from the Nampa-Meridian
Irrigation District that basically states that while we have valid water rights
available to the site, it appears that the water users facilities have been
eliminated by the previous development. So, due to this fact water is currently
undeliverable to our property. So, other than that -- I did have a few side notes.
During the Planning and Zoning hearing and I just thought that this is a really
special area within the city. I know it's going to begin to start to be developed.
There is a lot of in-fill projects coming out, but with the proximity to the downtown
corridor and to Cherry Lane-Fairview with all the shops and restaurants, we just
were excited to do this development and provide some density to help support
your downtown core and with that I say happy holidays and respect fully request
approval of our application and I will stand for any questions that you may have .
Thank you.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 28 of 73
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions at this point?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Durtschi: All right. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Clerk, did we have citizens signed up to testify?
Coles: Madam Mayor, we had one. Tuck Ewing. Indicated neutral. But would
like to testify.
De Weerd: Okay. Welcome. If you will, please, state your name and address
for the record.
Ewing: Madam Mayor, Council, Tuck Ewing, representing the Ewing Company.
1500 North El Dorado, Boise. 83704.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Ewing: As indicated by staff, we -- we did testify at the Planning and Zoning and
we are neutral on the project for sure. I think our only concern -- we own the
property just to the west of the applicant's property and we made a comment,
certainly at the Planning and Zoning stage , that the utilities certainly controlled by
the City of Meridian and also, you know, Idaho Power, but certainly water, sewer
-- we have been in discussions with staff on previous projects and -- and certainly
the indication was that the utilities will loop in that section that tie not only water,
but sewer altogether with how those properties combined. I know the applicant
made a comment that they would be willing to -- to get with us and certainly if we
were willing to participate financially, they would stub utilities to us. Our thought,
really, is the to and through and our request is is that part of the development
agreement is that utilities are stubbed to and through to the property, being our
property, to the west to make the connectivity available to us . We certainly don't
want to go in and have to tear up Northeast 4th Street to tie into those utilities
and so our request as the property owner is that those utilities are stubbed to us
to the west to make that connectivity. So, with that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tuck. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Ewing: Thanks.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 29 of 73
De Weerd: Is there anyone else who would like to provide testimony on this
application? Okay. Seeing none, Sabrina, can you respond to the testimony? If
you will just restate your name.
Durtschi: Absolutely. Madam Mayor and Council, Sabrina Durtschi. 1800 West
Overland Road, Boise, Idaho. 83705. We were aware of the neighbor's concern
about the stub and I talked to our staff engineer. They said that they would be
more than happy to coordinate with the City of Meridian, make sure that there is
coordination during construction. Obviously, our developer only wants to pay the
infrastructure for his cost concerning the subject site and not another person's
subject site. So, obviously, if the -- the neighbor would like to pay for the stub, I
don't see how we could -- there would be any issue of coordinating that. I think
those are our comments on it. Yes.
De Weerd: And I guess the question for staff -- I thought we had an ordinance
that did require developments to have a to and through.
Bird: That's right.
De Weerd: I guess at our level we have never -- the financial aspect has never
been brought up, but I thought it was the responsibility of the developing
property. Can you address that?
Radek: Madam Mayor, Council Members, I believe -- and, Josh, correct me if I’m
wrong. I believe in this case the development is going to and through, because
in our minds the street in front of your property is though. What -- what Mr.
Ewing is asking for is for a stub from the street into the property. So, in our
minds the facility is at their property and they are asking for a stub to be placed
into their property, you know, to the extent the right of way and that's something
that is I think beyond the to and through requirement.
De Weerd: Okay. So, you have looked at it to -- how it fits our ordinance and
comfortable with the requirements as stated?
Radek: Madam Mayor, that's correct.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Durtschi: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 30 of 73
Borton: And I don't know if Mr. Ewing wants to comment on it. I don't know if --
was that characterization of what's being requested consistent with what your
concerns were?
De Weerd: If Council would like Mr. Ewing to come forward we will ask him.
Borton: Please. Thank you.
De Weerd: If you will just restate your name.
Ewing: Tuck Ewing.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Ewing: Madam Mayor, Mr. Borton, our comment really is is that, obviously, has
the right of way for Northeast 4th Street. Our concern is is that the applicant is
proposing to improve Northeast 4th Street certainly within this development , but
in the future our property -- our subject property being to the west of that will
require us to go and if -- if there is no stub available that goes west of the
proposed improvement, we will be required, then, to go in and tap or -- or cut into
that new road section and I guess our perspective is is that the to and through
certainly with the right of way that ACHD now controls, that we have dedicated
quite some time ago, our feeling is that the to and through should -- we are not
asking for a stub necessarily -- well, I guess we are to our property, but just to
our property line, so that we don't have to go cut into the new ACHD road to
make some type of a tap while they are running that new service through
Northeast 4th. So, our understanding was is that if ACHD right of way is by staff
definition to and through, we need to understand how we facilitate that, then,
because we won't have potentially access to that without getting into the ACHD
right of way to tap into the city's sewer and water. So, I don't know if that
answers your question, but our definition was the to and through being -- I know
they are not direct property lines, obviously, because there is an ACHD right of
way through there, but with that new improvement going in the ACHD right of
way being in the sewer and the water, we feel that a stub should be provided, so
that we can tie onto that without having to go back into that right of way.
De Weerd: Well -- and I guess that's what I heard the applicant offer is if you
want to coordinate that, what they are doing is what the city has required through
our ordinance. Anything over and above that, so you don't have to tap into the
new road, you can coordinate now, so you wouldn't have to. But that's at your
convenience.
Ewing: And at our cost. So, if that -- and I guess that's what I need to
understand, Madam Mayor, is if an ACHD roadway separates a property, then,
the only requirement for the development is that you put it in the ACHD right of
way and you do not have to provide that service to the neighboring property and
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 31 of 73
it sounds like that's what I'm hearing and certainly if that's the requirement, that's
fine, then, we will take that as for what it is.
De Weerd: And it sounds like that is the requirement.
Ewing: Okay. We will certainly take that under consideration.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Ewing?
Borton: Thank you.
Ewing: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Council, any other information needed from the
applicant, staff, or Mr. Ewing? Okay. If there is -- does the applicant have any
further comment? Council, if there is nothing further, I would entertain a motion
to close the public hearing.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we close the public hearing on H-2016-0090.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we approve H-2016-0090 and include all staff, applicant, and
public testimony and to include as stated in our ordinance that the water and
sewer will be brought through and -- through and to and that's it.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9 -C. Any
discussion?
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 32 of 73
Beach: Madam Mayor? Sorry, this is staff down here. Quick -- just to make
sure we are clear on the record what to and through means in this case. It's just
that the utilities be available within that right of way --
Bird: Yes.
Beach: -- and not to the adjacent property.
Bird: I don't think there is a location to -- that exists to the next property, so
where -- where are you going to put it? There is no way you can.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: That was explained as being consistent with how the to and through rule
has always been applied with regards to right of way.
De Weerd: Okay. If there are no further questions, Mr. Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. Public Hearing for Black Cat and Chinden Annexation
(H-2016-0120) by Pine Street LLC, Located at 6280 N.
Black Cat Road
1. Request for Annexation and Zoning of 3.51 Acres of
Land with an L-O Zoning District
De Weerd: Item 9-D is a public hearing for H-2016-0120. Open this public
hearing with staff comments.
Beach: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is a Black Cat and Chinden
annexation. The subject property consists of approximately 3.51 acres of land,
which is currently zoned RUT, located at 6280 North Black Cat Road, which is
the northeast corner of Black Cat and Chinden. That plan was submitted that
depicts two 12,000 square foot office buildings. The design of the site should
comply within the design review standards listed in UDC and the guidelines in the
architectural standards manual. The applicant is going to be required to come
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December 20, 2016
Page 33 of 73
forward and submit for a certificate of zoning compliance and design review,
which requires a number of things, including pedestrian connectivity, bike racks,
striping and will be required to meet all those standards, as well as the applicant
is required to provide the 35 foot landscape buffer along with the Chinden
Boulevard frontage and a 25 foot along the Black Cat Road and I believe it's a 20
along the Ramblin Court. Go back to the aerial here. Ramblin Court being this
county subdivision here. So, there is an existing home and associated
outbuildings on the site that will be removed as part of the development and I
believe the applicant has some additional questions and comments about that
requirement and Chinden Boulevard, as I said, is a state highway. The UDC
prohibits access to state highways at locations other than at section line roads.
The applicant is not proposing to connect directly to the Chinden Boulevard as
you see here in their site plan. They are proposing to connect to a future road,
which in this case is called Exeter, which will be part of the Trilogy Subdivision
that was approved earlier last year, as well as to the Ramblin Court to the south.
So, as I said, a public street is proposed as the sole access to serve the
commercial development. In addition, the applicant will be required to construct
a landscape buffer and sidewalk along the east side of the property along future
North Exeter Avenue. So, if this property were to develop now, this road is not
currently constructed, so their sole access would be on Ramblin Court, with a
future access out to the Exeter Road. Chinden Boulevard adjacent to the
property is classified as an entryway corridor and so, as I said, they are required
to do a 35 foot landscape buffer. There are large tree s on the site, which the
applicant is proposing to remove and to relocate any tree over four inches in
caliper that is removed from the property shall be replaced and mitigated. The
applicant will be required to coordinate with the -- Elroy Huff of the Parks
Department. As I said, the site currently contains multiple buildings and shall
either be removed or relocated upon development. A ten foot wide multi-use
pathway is required to be constructed on the site along Chinden Boulevard within
a public use easement. Elevations -- excuse me -- were submitted. I neglected
to make a slide of those, but they do generally comply with the architectural
standards manual and the UDC requirements. The Commission did recommend
approval at their November 17th hearing. The applicant's representative, Jerrod
Wallgren, was in favor. There was none in opposition. Mr. Wallgren also
commented. I did not receive any written testimony. Mr. Parsons did -- for staff
also made some comments. Key issues of discussion by the Commission were
when to remove the house and whether to require the home to connect to city
utilities for a short period of time or to let them stay on septic or well until the
property develops and the timing of that . Key Commission changes to the staff
recommendations were they modified 1.1 .1K to read as follows: The single-
family home shall be removed prior to issuance of the first certificate of zoning
compliance for the site. There are no outstanding issues for City Council and we
did not receive any written testimony since the Planning and Zoning Commission.
With that I will stand for any questions you have.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 34 of 73
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: So, Josh, the discussion from the Commission was to remove the
home prior to issuance, but they will allow them to stay on well and septic until
then?
Beach: Until that time.
De Weerd: Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. Does the applicant wish to make
any comment? Good evening. If you will, please, state your name and address
for the record.
Wallgren: Madam Mayor, Council, my name is Jarrod Wallgren. I’m with JGT
Architecture, located at 1212 12th Avenue South in Nampa. 83651.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Wallgren: I am representing the applicant for this project and it's located at Black
Cat and Chinden, which is becoming an increasingly major arterial intersection
and the future land use of the surrounding area there across the street on the
other three corners are pretty heavy use -- regional commercial. It looks very
similar to the pattern down at Chinden and Linder, so -- with the Fred Meyer, all
the development down there I think is kind of the intended pattern of
development for this corner and so this light commercial use to buffer the
residential to the east I think is a very adequate , acceptable, appropriate use for
that site. The owner of this property is a doctor. He's in the medical field and
feels like he has connections within that field that this would be a good site for
medical office use, either for himself or potential other tenants. Right now our
plans that we have shown are the kind of first step vision. You know, this
annexation is the first part of the process and so once we have this accomplished
he can, then, go market to people to occupy these buildings and so we agree
with all of the requirements in the staff report regarding setbacks and landscape
and all the requirements that we will address in detail at the design review and
CZC stage. We have issued a couple of site concepts just to have a little bit of
flexibility, given that it is something that will be in a development agreement. The
owner wanted a couple options there, depending on how the site developed. Our
elevations -- we are attempting to do a nice modern, contemporary, professional
building that's also complementary to the residential next door and at the P&Z
hearing it did come up that their -- that the existing house on the site -- he does
own the property and has tenants there. He intends to continue that use until
time of development and I think the P&Z Commission was agreeable to that
concept. Don't have exact timing on that, but, hopefully, it's soon. And our one
possible concern with the language of that revision to the motion was that the
house be removed upon issuance of the certificate of zoning compliance . That
poses a little bit of construction sequencing issues, because normally we submit
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 35 of 73
for design review and CZC as the first part of the process. Once we have
approval on that, the design team takes, you know, a couple months to design
the construction document package and, then, has to do four to six weeks for
permitting. So, there could be several months in between that CZC process and
the time of construction. So, for a contractor to demolish the building, wait
around and, then, come back -- that's the only thing we have a little bit of a
question about. If there is a way that could be modified to the house to be
removed as part of the first building permit or prior to certificate of occupancy,
that's the only thing that we would ask you to maybe consider. Other than that
we agree with all the -- the staff report and I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Wallgren: Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk, did we have anyone signed up to weigh in?
Coles: Madam Mayor, the only individual on the form is the applicant 's
representative Jerrod Wallgren.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone who wishes to provide testimony
on this item? Okay. Council, any questions for staff or the applicant?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Any concern from staff with editing that condition so the home removal
has to occur prior to the first -- the issuance of the first building permit?
Beach: So, discussions at Planning and Zoning and internally, we have
concerns with nonconforming changing and allowing nonconforming uses.
Again, it's up to your discretion to do whatever you would like with it, but I think
staff's perspective is that if this is annexed into the city and we don't connect it to
utilities, it could be -- it could 20 years before they decide they want to develop
the property and, then, we have got a situation where we didn't get the utilities
connected right away, because we allowed this nonconforming use to stay in or
allowing it as an L-O zone. Residences typically aren't allowed in an L -O zone.
So, that's staff's really only concern. There is several ways you could change
this language here and it doesn't have to be with the first certificate of zoning
compliance, it can be with certificate of occupancy -- we want some condition in
there that requires them to remove the home and typically we don't like them to
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 36 of 73
just stay on septic and well if they are being annexed into the city. Typical policy
is I believe within 60 days of annexation that that happen, so --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Josh, I realize that it's not normal for -- but we are talking about one
house and we don't want it to stay there for 20 years, which, hopefully, isn't the
case. Could we change it to something like until the issuance of the first building
permit or two years, whichever is sooner? Something like that?
Beach: You very well could do that. That comes back to who is tracking it to
make sure that it happens in two years.
Milam: You are.
Beach: Thank you. Big responsibility now. It becomes difficult to manage, you
know, with lots of things that we are doing and putting these time frames on
things, there is not a way for me to get an automatic response two years from
now saying, hey, go check on this to make sure that it has taken place.
Milam: Right.
Beach: So, that becomes a little difficult.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Josh, it would be -- it's kind of rough for them to run in the -- our city water
and sewer without a preliminary plat. Why would we not -- and this would kind of
track it by -- why not the house has to be out when the preliminary plat is
approved? I mean --
Beach: In this case I'm not sure that they are even going to do a preliminary plat.
There is no requirement for that here. They can just --
Bird: How about a final plat?
Beach: Again, there is no indication that they are going to do a plat. They have
a lot, they can build --
Bird: That was a good idea, because I can gua rantee you if we are going to look
at it in two years from now we will all have forgot it. But it's -- but in the same
token, without -- without them knowing how they are going to set the building and
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 37 of 73
stuff, they don't know how their water and sewer and i s going to go across their
property I don't think. Maybe they do. But, in the same token, I'm like everybody
else, I don't want to see that house sitting out there 20 years from now on septic
and -- and well water. We -- we get ourselves in too much hot water doing that.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Forgive the pun; right? Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. A question for staff. Given that this property is right
there on an arterial road, does it present less of a potential problem as one th at
may be similar in the middle of a square mile somewhere when it comes to -- if it
is, five, six, ten years?
Beach: Are you asking if the location of it causes a larger problem?
Palmer: Or if the location of it makes it less of a problem than it would be --
Beach: I don't think so.
Palmer: Okay.
Beach: I don't think the location of it necessarily matters. I would say the
planners don't typically like nonconforming situations. If we have the opportunity
to make something meet code, it's easier to deal with it now than it is potentially
two years from now when we have all forgotten about it.
Palmer: Madam Mayor -- and follow up. To solve that problem I think we need a
big white board somewhere where we can list all of these things that we do with
billboards and whatnot to solve that problem for the future.
Milam: A computer?
Hood: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Aren't you the tech guy and you're suggesting a white board?
Milam: Right.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: It seems to me, if I may, Madam Mayor, if the Council is inclined to leave
the home, Josh mentioned that's the main issue that -- that at least planning had
is creating a nonconforming use. Just to kind of help you wordsmith this
condition, but one of my concerns is, essentially, what Josh mentioned, but we at
planning aren't involved in the building permit issuance process, so there is no
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December 20, 2016
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way -- we would have to make another site check out there to go verify and, then,
tell building it's okay to issue a building permit, which isn't our typical process.
So, again, we are tracking something or making a note somewhere to say, hey,
building, before you issue a permit come see us, because we got to go do a site
check to see if the home comes down. So, really, the way we avo id some of this
is just say take the home down before -- there is some incentive for them to do
that, so we can get them building permits and it's easy for us to track, because
we are doing something. The other -- the other issue that I see with the two-year
thing is, well, what if they don't? What's the penalty? What if it is 20 years?
There is no penalty. There is no revocation clause, there is no -- nothing built
into that. So, then, what? Okay. It's two years. We tracked it. Josh comes
back in two years and it's still there. What do we do?
Milam: De-annex.
Hood: Well, if that's what you want to do, then, we need to write that into the
condition I guess is my point. There needs to be -- if you are going to allow it
there probably should be something. If not, then, the city is going to remove it at
our cost and we are going to bill you to do it. Or for something along those lines.
So, just -- that's why for us certificate of issuance of -- with the CZC made sense,
is because that's when we are involved in the next step and we don't have to
track something additional and do all that. So, that's why from our perspective it
made sense to have it written that way. It doesn't require any additional steps on
our part, so -- it's selfish. But it's easier for us to track it that way.
Beach: I would also say, Madam Mayor, that we -- we didn't know -- we
assumed that -- that -- at the time the house was going to be removed, so it was
probably naive on staff's part. So, typically it's -- we are in a situation now where
there is not really much incentive for the city to annex the property at the current
stage if the property is not going to be developed for hypothetically 20 years and ,
right, if they have a plan in mind, this is what we are going to do, these are the
buildings we are going to build, we have got some tenants -- potential tenants for
the property already, they have already made a purchase option, I think that may
make more sense. But, again, it is up to you to decide what you want to do, but if
they are not going to develop it for a while and we are not going to get utility
connections, which is what we typically get with these, maybe it's premature. I'm
not sure. So, I just wanted to throw that out.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I'm comfortable with us as Council, you know, kind of
looking at a map and saying if -- if the majority of the six of us feel that we are
confident enough that they are going to move forward, that this property is going
to get developed because of its location, that we take that risk to move forward
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
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and simplify things for the developer and welcome them into Meridian bringing
some more essential medical service to us. I'm not sure how the rest of the
Council feels, but I'm comfortable rolling the dice on this particular situation .
Milam: I am in this particular situation as well and I think having a time -- maybe
a time frame added in there, a little extra protection, whatever it does for us,
without some -- I mean somebody that's going to police that, but it does bring to
issue something else that obviously isn't going to help us with this, but maybe we
should talk to IT and have some kind of system where planning can put a flag on
a parcel that is going to be seen when they go to get building permits. I mean
there should be -- we are a city, we should be working together -- our
departments work together in that manner and be able to see what's gone on.
We should be able to approve this -- something like this and let this applicant
have a tenant on the property and not -- and not allow it, because it causes a
hardship for our employees and -- and I understand everything you were just
saying and this isn't to you, but I'm saying the system is flawed and we need it --
and we should improve the system.
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, can I just respond to that? Because I do -- I do think it
was -- like I said, it was selfish. We can do it. We have the system in place to do
it. It's just not the typical process to flag a property -- we do, we flag them in
Accella is our system, but it does require us to go out there and verify -- site
check that. It's a half hour away from the office. And we are talking about level
of service again. Right now that's a half hour Josh could be -- we have the
software to do it. We can track it. If that's what you want to do, we will do it. We
wrote it this way, because it's built into our process this way.
De Weerd: But, Caleb, why don't you contact the applicant and put that burden
of proving on them?
Hood: I mean ultimately that is -- the burden is on them. We would still have to
verify that, though. Which isn't typical in the process. Once we issue a certificate
of zoning compliance, we have given our go ahead that everything -- basically we
are good for construction. That's what our certificate of zoning compliance and
design review does. We are, then, out of the process until occupancy. You
could do it from -- from my standpoint occupancy would be easier, because we
are going back out there again at occupancy to verify the landscaping is in, bike
racks, and all that. Parking stalls are all striped and that.
De Weerd: Occupancy is not the best either, because what if it's still there?
Then you're -- you're in a real conundrum. So, Council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
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December 20, 2016
Page 40 of 73
Bird: We can sit here and talk all night on it. Let's -- let's get a yes or no. I move
we close the public hearing on H-2016-0120.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item 9-
D. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Okay.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we approve H-2016-0120 and to include all staff, applicant,
public testimony and to let the house stay on the existing utilities until certificate
of zoning and design review application is submitted or one year from this date.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9 -D with requirements
as stated. Any discussion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Question for Mr. Nary. What -- what -- or staff. What are the
consequences if a year passes, annexation is approved, completed and the
house isn’t removed?
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I was thinking of that. I mean
we -- at that juncture it's not common for us to put findings to de-annex
properties, so we would need a development agreement as a contractual
commitment from the property owner to remove it within the year or suffer the
consequence of de-annexation. I think the reason staff was using the C ZC is it's
typical in a majority of development -- that's when you have made a decision to
develop your property. It's step one of a number of steps that are required and
although there is some lag time, as the applicant testified to, between CZC
approval and actual turning dirt and building a building, that window usually is
fairly small and so that's why that was the -- the trigger that Planning used. But
we could certainly create a development agreement that requires they
contractually agree to that one year. I would anticipate either, one, a problem
with them signing it or them coming back in front of you in a year and asking for
an extension. But that's your call. We can do that, but that adds a different
wrinkle -- trying to enforce findings as a means to de-annex is more problematic
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
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to me than having a contract. I'd rather have a development agreement that
states that that's what they are agreeing to. But that's how we would do it.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: And I plan -- and we do plan on having a development agreement; right?
Beach: Letter's A through K here are the development --
Bird: Yeah. And as Mr. Nary says, that can be shoved right there and, hopefully,
we won't have to deal with it, but if we do we do.
De Weerd: Any further discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call role.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
E. Public Hearing For Movado Estates Subdivision (H-2016-
012) by DevCo, LLC, Located at the South Side of E.
Overland Road Between S. Topaz Way and S. Cloverdale
Road
1. Request: Annexation and Zoning of Approximately
102.69 Acres from RUT in Ada County to the R-8
Zoning District (58.64 Acres) and R-15 Zoning District
(44.05 Acres)
2. Request: Preliminary Plat Consisting of 430 Single
Family Residential Lots, 39 Common Lots, and Nine
(9) Other Lots on Approximately 102.69 Acres in the
Proposed R-8 and R-15 Zoning District
De Weerd: Item 9-E is a public hearing for H-2016-012. Open the public hearing
with staff comments.
Beach: This is an annexation -- excuse me -- an application for annexation and
zoning and for preliminary plat. The site consists of approximately 102.69 acres
of land, which is currently zoned RUT within Ada county. It's located on the
south side of East Overland Road, between South Topaz Way and South
Cloverdale Road. As I said, this is an annexation, so there is no current history
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December 20, 2016
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in the City of Meridian for this property. The Comprehensive Plan future land use
map designation is medium density residential. The applicant has applied for
annexation and zoning of 102.69 acres of land with both R-8 and R-15 zoning
districts. Staff believes the proposed zoning designation are generally consistent
with the policies in the Comprehensive Plan. The applicant proposes to develop
430 new single family residential homes, both attached and detached. Le gal
description submitted with the applicant shows the boundary of the property
proposed to be annexed. The property is contiguous to land that has been
annexed into the city and the area of city impact. Additionally staff had a
requirement in the staff report that ten days prior to the City Council hearing the
applicant provide a revised legal description that includes the 11.56 acres of land
not shown in the original application. I will let the applicant address that when
they come up. A preliminary plat consisting of 430 building lots and 39 common
lots, as well as nine other lots in the R-8 and R-15 zoning districts is proposed for
that acreage. There is an existing single family home on the site. Go back here
to the aerial. You can -- it's a very large site. You can kind of see the existing
home. Most of us have driving past this home on a drive on Overland Road
there. Development of this site is required to comply with the dimensions listed
in UDC. A minimum 35 foot wide street buffer is required along East Overland
Road. A 25 foot wide landscape buffer is required along South Cloverdale Road
and a 20 foot wide street buffer is required along South Movado Way. Going
back to the plat here, it is a collector road. So, as you see here on the plat
Overland Road is here on the top. This is their South Movado Way here. It is
designated as a collector. And, then, Cloverdale Road touches the property here
on the -- on the east side. The plat is required to comply with block length
standards and staff has reviewed the proposed plat and with the exception of the
southeast corner of the property has found it to be in compliance with the
aforementioned standards. The southeast corner of the property is encumbered
by -- on three sides by significant irrigation facilities. The Eight Mile Creek and --
the Eight Mile Creek and the Ridenbaugh Canal. These facilities fairly limit the
ability to break up the block length. The applicant has provided two pathway
common lots to help in alleviating that problem. So, southeast corner, if you
have found my cursor, is here. Staff did what we could. We have got some turns
there, obviously, with the cul-de-sac and some other ways to potentially break up
that block length and as you can see there is some significant irrigation facilities
that wrap around that area, so it's harder to get compliance. I will mention that
the previous public hearing that we had at Planning and Zoning there were some
concerns by the neighbors -- I believe mostly to the south that there was not a
direct lot access -- or direct access to Cloverdale Road. My understanding is
there was a hearing at the highway district where they agreed to not have a
vehicular connection to Cloverdale Road. So, it would be just up to Overland, out
to Pewter Way here that is part of the Silverstone project and then -- and, then, to
the south as you can kind of see here on this map here, there is a connection to
the Muir Wood Subdivision that's directly to the south. Two of the common
driveways included in the plat are proposed as emergency access for the fire
department. I will indicate those here. So, common driveways would be right
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
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here serving several lots and the fire department has indicated that those are
designated as no parking and no parking signs being -- no parking signs being
installed, they would be okay with that being an emergency access. The majority
of the proposed streets depicted on the plat are public, with the exception of the
streets through the -- what the applicant is calling the Village Cottages, which is
this -- this area here and so they would be providing several gates -- two gates
as part of that development and these are single family attached homes and with
a private road and if you recall I have a slide further down that shows the
connection to what we approved earlier this year as the Silverstone Apartments
as indicated here. The applicant is providing a common driveway that will
provide access both to the apartments and the secondary access to the -- the
Village Cottages portion that will connect to this public road here on Pewter Falls.
As I said, these cottages will feature private streets with multiple common
driveways. The homes are designed with shared common walls and abutting
garages with 105 residential homes in the Village Cottages. The applicant has
provided two gated entries for the residents. Private streets will be owned and
operated by the Village homeowners association, which repairs and maintenance
will be afforded by their association fees. T he applicant is requesting alternative
compliance to allow for 105 homes on the private street and also for a common
driveway off of a private street, if that makes sense. City Code allows for up to
50 dwelling units within a gated community. Staff has interpreted that to allow 50
dwelling units per gate, which brings it to a hundred. The applicant is requesting
105, which is five over what staff had interpreted and was approved by the
director. As part of this -- is mentioned as part of the Silverstone application, the
application provided a secondary access off of Pewter Falls. The three public
street accesses are proposed. One via east Overland Road and two on the west
side of the development, which is East Copper Point Way on the south and east
Pewter Falls Street. Both are local streets. In an effort to improve safety, the
UDC limits access points to arterial streets by combining and/or limiting access
points in accord with this requirement and as proposed by the applicant, staff
recommends there not be a direct connection to South Cloverdale Road. There
are some significant challenges with providing a direct access and, as I said, the
highway district did not require it and there are two existing streets to the site, as
Pewter Falls Drive on the south, which is going into the Silverstone Business
Park and one via Copper Point Way. Excuse me. Which is in the Sutherland
Farm Subdivision, not Muir Woods. The pathways master plan depicts a regional
pathway and there is a nice pathways plan provided by the applicant. It depicts a
regional pathway on the site along the south side of Eight Mile Creek. The
applicant provides -- proposes to provide the extension of the regional pathway
as an amenity for the proposed subdivision. A ten foot wide multi-use path
should be paved and landscaped in accord with UDC. There is an existing multi-
use pathway that was created with the Sutherland Farm Subdivision. This
pathway currently dead-ends on the eastern portion -- the eastern property line of
that subdivision. So, you see here a little bit further to the east here, that halfway
dead-ends. The applicant has proposed to route this pathway up through their
subdivision and connect to what will be their regional pathway along the south
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 44 of 73
side of the Eight Mile Creek, which I think is a win for the city to get the pathway
to extend. City Council is the decision maker in allowing for water amenities to
remain open. City -- the applicant requests a waiver from Council to allow the
Eight Mile and Ridenbaugh to remain open due to their large capacities. The
applicant proposes to provide a bridge over the Eight Mile Creek for vehicular
and pedestrian crossing. The applicant also proposes to construct a pedestrian
bridge over the Ridenbaugh Canal to facilitate pedestrian connection with the
proposed sidewalk along South Cloverdale Road. As mentioned above, the
pedestrian connection should happen. Staff is -- has a condition in the staff
report that the applicant provide that with the third phase and I believe the
applicant will address that when they come up. Landscape proposed a variety of
fence types and materials. All of the proposed fencing shall comply with the
requirements of the UDC. The applicant, again, is required to mitigate any trees
that are larger than four inches in caliper and will be required to coordinate with
the Parks Department. The attached sidewalk exists along East Overland Road.
However, there is existing gravel in between the existing curb and the sidewalk
and must be removed and the area vegetated with the first phase of
development. A detached sidewalk shall be constructed along the entire
frontage of South Cloverdale Road with the applicable phase. The applicant is
proposing 15.41 acres, which is approximately 15 percent open space for the
development. The applicant is also proposing eight amenities for the subdivision
that include a clubhouse, a pool, two separate play structures, a water feature,
an outdoor fitness facility, picnic area and two sections of a multi-use pathway.
The applicant is also proposing pedestrian pathways throughout the development
and several playfield and other non-qualified amenities are being proposed. The
proposed amenities appear to meet the requirements of the common open space
and site amenities as set forth in the UDC. I will mention the Village Cottage
portion of the development is age restricted and will be for residents 55 years of
age and older. The clubhouse and open space provided for that portion of the
project will be for the sole use of the -- of the residents within the gated portion.
The residents who live within the gated portion of the development will, however,
be able to use the open space and amenities in the overall development . Street
lighting is required to be installed with the development. The applicant has
submitted some conceptual sample building elevations for future homes in the
development. Building materials appear to meet the requirements of the
architectural standards manual and because homes on lots that back up to South
Cloverdale Road will be highly visible, staff recommends the rear or sides of
those structures meet some additional architectural standards, CZC and design
application -- design review application, rather, are required to be submitted prior
to the issuance of building permits for any single family attached homes and for
the clubhouse structure. Commission did recommend approval. Summary of the
Commission hearing. Mr. -- Mr. Conger, the applicant, is in favor and opposition
were Lee Coulson, Mark Taylor, Dale Eldridge, Guy Beedle, Elvira Vansickel and
Ross Boyack were in opposition. Those folks also commented. There was no
written testimony received. I was the staff that presented the application . Mr.
Parsons also made comment. Key issues of public testimony were the increased
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December 20, 2016
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traffic through the Muir Woods and Sutherland Farms Subdivisions as a result of
this proposed subdivision. To go back, those are the two to the south -- you can
kind of see the break. Up here your Muir Woods and this is the Sutherland Farm
Subdivision. Another concern was the number of lots against the existing
homes. The potential for a continued pathway along the Ridenbaugh Canal. I
will address that quickly. The -- the -- some of the residents were hoping that the
pathway could continue on the north side of the Ridenbaugh Canal. We did
reach out to the irrigation district, as well as the Parks Department to see if that
was something we could do. The irrigation district said absolutely not. That's
where their access road is on the north side and they do not want a pathway
there. Lack of direct subdivision access to Cloverdale Road, which, again, was
not required by the highway district. Key issues of discussion by the Commission
were potential for continued pathway along the Ridenbaugh Canal, which was
addressed. Timing of the pedestrian bridge over the Ridenbaugh Canal.
Potential for a direct access to Cloverdale, which, again, we have addressed.
The 105 units in a gated portion versus -- versus the one hundred that is allowed
per code. Several Commission changes to staff recommendations are they
modified condition 1.1.2C and, pardon me, let me bring this over, so you can
follow along as I go through this. So, 1.1.2C to read as follows: The applicant
shall be allowed to have 105 units within the , quote, Village Cottages portion of
the subdivision, rather than the one hundred that would otherwise be allowed by
code. And Condition 1.1.1C to read as follows: The applicant shall construct the
pedestrian crossing over the Ridenbaugh Canal with phase 5-A as shown on the
phasing plan. Remove Condition 1.1.E and 1.1.2D. Modify Condition 1.1.1F to
read as follows: The applicant shall construct an additional portion of a ten foot
multi-use pathway starting from the southwest corner of the property where
Copper Point Way connects to the property and travels west adjacent to Lots 89,
87, 84 of Lot 2, and traveling north along Rolling Hills Avenue, where it will, then,
cross East Pewter Falls Drive and continuing north adjacent to Lot 20 of Block 1,
where it will connect with the regional pathway on the south side of Eight Mile
Creek. I will let you know that we had some incorrect lot and block numbers
there, so we will need to address that condition to -- to clarify. We had a
landscape plan and a preliminary plat that had different lots and blocks and so
will need to clarify that a little bit. Remove Condition 1.1.2 C. Modify Condition
1.1.3A to read as follows: Ridenbaugh Canal is required to be fenced with an
open vision fence at least six feet in height and having an 11 gauge, two inch
mesh or other construction equal in ability to deter access to the waterway in
accord with UDC. Modify Condition 1.1.5 to read as follows: A minimum five foot
wide detached sidewalk shall be constructed along Cloverdale Road where none
exists with Phase 5-A of the development and to coordinate with Nampa-
Meridian Irrigation District and the Ada County Highway District relocation of the
Ridenbaugh Canal and Cloverdale Road improvements. The outstanding issues
for City Council. The applicant requests to leave the Eight Mile Creek open and
which requires Council approval. There is none -- there was no additional written
testimony received after the Planning and Zoning Commission. With that staff
will stand for any questions you have.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 46 of 73
De Weerd: If everyone followed you, was there questions you have if everyone
followed you -- Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none, Mayor, at this time.
De Weerd: This is a pretty extensive application. Welcome, Jim. If you will,
please, state your name and address for the record.
Conger: Yeah. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Jim
Conger. 4824 West Fairview Avenue. Madam Mayor, you are correct. It -- on
the surface and in paper it looks to be a pretty extensive project , because it is
big. it's -- it's one of -- one of your last big portions, you know, adjacent to
Overland and in that kind of quadrant of Meridian . So, with that we are extremely
happy to be here to present the Movado Community to you tonight. It's actually
14 months of planning, designing, meetings and -- and work to bring you this
actual in-fill development that has a spectacular use of -- of uses here in the
south Meridian area. I will share to -- share with you tonight our residential
development component, which is what's in front of you with the preliminary plat
shown in the tan, orange, and yellow areas. Again, a wonderful mix of housing
products to include our suburban, our urban, and our Village Cottage collections.
Jumping into our Movado south area, which is our suburban collection and it has
the Ridenbaugh Canal as the buffer between our new homes and the existing --
not only Meridian, but Boise neighbors to the south. These are traditional lots,
which will vary in sizes and range up to a third acre. This housing type is
typically little larger lots with anticipated homes starting in the 400,000 dollar
range. Next we move into our Movado north area, which is our urban collection.
It's kind of the orange -- I call that orange -- I'm not certain now it is orange --
area. This urban is situated at the Eight Mile Creek and it is really our residential
buffer in transition to the future commercial and the heavier uses on Overland
Road. This collection consists of single level and two-story homes, while
providing houses that range -- that start in the 200,000 dollar range. Our third
area and kind of our third product might actually be our most -- most exciting for
us is -- it's the Village Cottage collection. Josh had indicated that earlier. This
section of Movado is the gated Village area that is designed for the more mature
buyer. We have had extensive experience with similar neighborhood s and
understand the needs of this particular homeowner. They place a large value on
a -- large livability value on a simple and secure lifestyle. Our homeowners will
be attracted to the neighborhood because of the secured gate area , the secure
gated environment, and the all-inclusive maintenance program. Our thoughtfully
designed clubhouse provides a much desired gathering spot for social
interaction, which is much needed, and the extensive pathway system provides a
much needed and ample walkability to the adjacent services that Silverstone has
to offer and it's growing every day. These homes will be smaller in square
footage, from 1,500 to 1,900. Single levels. Very well appointed. And their price
point starting in the 300,000 dollars and up. That's the fun product part of the
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
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project. Actually, what -- what is so great about a 430 lot project is -- is the
budget we get and the magnitude of providing the amazing amenity package that
gets to come with this. First starting with over 15 acres of open space when we
are completed with this project and we have purposely designed the amenities
that would best fit the actual homeowners that would be in the three different
segments of our community. The Movado community parks that will consist of
open fields, walking, running and youth sports, as well as picnic areas,
playground areas designed with climbing domes, swing set, play structures, park
benches and big wheel pathways. We will have the community center that Josh
alluded to in the center of the project , which is open to all of our three
neighborhood areas, which will have adult and children pools, changing room,
sundeck lounging areas, shaded trellis seating areas, to name a little bit of the
excitement that will go in that facility. We will also have -- in the corners you can
see in the bottom right-hand of your screen -- we have done one of these in
Boise and we are super excited to do the first one in -- in Meridian. It's a natural
athletic park. It will have climbing boulders, a natural park, log balance beam, as
well as kind of berms and sand play pits. What we see is little kids getting away
from the Game Boy and, actually, getting a little bit dirty is what our intention was
when we put our first ones in Boise and it's going to be spectacular . But
possibly, with all that excitement, the best amenity we think we are possibly
bringing is the completion of the regional pathway that will go from the
Silverstone in red on your screen -- will go from the Silverstone commercial park
and connect to Cloverdale Road. This is the easternmost area and the final
section of your regional pathway. With this pathway we have also, at our
expense, will be putting in the pedestrian bridge that will cross the Ridenbaugh
Canal at its eventual location and will really be a nice -- nice cap. Upon
completion, obviously, it's going to be a great accomplishment for the City of
Meridian to tie to its eastern boundary and I personally look forward , as we did a
little while back, standing on this regional pathway when we get the bridge
completed, with Council and Mayor and have a definitely celebratory ribbon-
cutting, because it will be worthy of that. We are certainly pleased to be the
developer to the project and the funds that will be able to make this final part of
the pathway a reality. We have, basically, worked with passion for the last -- this
has been over 18 months of dealing closely with your Fire Department -- Perry,
who is here, is absolutely spectacular and always has his door open . Your
Public Works Department. Your Parks Department. Your Planning Department.
Ada County Highway District. Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District. All of this to
fully understand the agency requirements, so we could bring you a project that
meets code and is approvable tonight. In closing, Movado will be amazing. It's
large enough to provide some wonderful housing options for the city and a great
amenity package that will allow these neighborhoods to live -- live perfectly with
-- with the open space and the amenity packages. Again, we have worked
continuously with your staff and appreciate their time and insight and we
respectfully request approval of the Movado development in accordance with the
staff report, which are the conditions of approval that were updated for the
Planning and Zoning Commission hearing that were approved. So, everything
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December 20, 2016
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Josh went through I am not going to go through that, unless you would like me to,
but what that was was the conditions that were approved by the Planning and
Zoning Commission that were sent to you as recommendations, of course. So,
thank you and we look forward to your approval tonight.
De Weerd: Thank you, Jim. Any questions from Council?
Bird: Not at this time.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk.
Coles: Madam Mayor, we had a few individuals sign up to provide testimony.
The first is Lee Coulson, who indicated against the project. Also indicated
neutral, but wishes to testify.
De Weerd: Thank you for joining us. If you will, please, state your name and
address for the record.
Coulson: Lee Coulson. I live on 2509 South Goshen Way. I have a
presentation. I wasn't sure how to -- if I could e-mail it or if I could just give you a
copy?
De Weerd: Yes. If you will give it to our c lerk, he will pass those out. Is there a
chance that we can show that up on the screen so people --
Beach: Do you have the ability to e-mail that?
De Weerd: Tomorrow we can.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Can I ask a quick question of the applicant while we are doing that? On
one item? The fencing along the Ridenbaugh Canal -- I know the UDC speaks to
the two inch mesh requirement. Has that been decided what type of fencing
specifically is going to go adjacent to that?
Conger: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, Jim Conger, again, for
the record. Yeah. Right now it would be back of our home sites and it would be
a wrought iron would be our preference.
Borton: Okay. Thank you.
Beach: Bear with me here.
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Coulson: Sorry for the delay.
De Weerd: That's fine. You have a lot of information to cover in three minutes,
so if you will state your name and address we will get going.
Coulson: All right. My name is Lee Coulson. I live at 2509 South Goshen Way.
And that's in Muir Woods. The reason for this -- I did this survey because I was
at the Meridian Planning and Zon ing meeting and also the ACHD meeting and
the feeling of those meetings was there was little purpose for people to go south
on Cloverdale or east on Victory Road. And so my first question of the survey --
this -- so this -- I developed the survey and I asked the Muir Wood HOA and also
Sutherland Farms HOA to send it out to their homeowners and just to get a feel
for how much access is needed, a direction. And so the first pie chart was a
question: How often do you travel that direction and so 43 percent -- so, seven
percent said none. Thirty-three percent is five trips and, then, ten trips and 15 --
you can kind of see the percentages there. This is a -- there were 104 responses
and you can kind of see how the responses are divided up between Muir Woods
and Sutherland Farm. I'm still getting some responses from Sutherland Farm,
because that was sent just recently. And, then, another question I had is
traveling southeastern out of the subdivision, which route would you prefer. So,
the spot in the Movado Subdivision is a location where every homeowner in that
subdivision will have to start from. The -- and, then, if you're going to go south to
-- either South Cloverdale or east onto Victory. Then I proposed on the next
page -- well, what if we had a third route, what would you prefer and
overwhelmingly 88 percent of the homeowners were for route three, which is a
connection onto Cloverdale. Not too surprising. But, then, there is a -- going
onto the next page. There is a -- the elementary school nearby, which most of
the kids will have to go to and they will have to get there some way, either using
route two or route one. Route one goes to Overland Road and, then, down on
Cloverdale and, then, route two was through Sutherland Farms and Muir Woods.
So, 87 percent felt that they would go that direction. Then I -- then I asked, well,
what if there was a route three connection onto Cloverdale and that's hard to
read, but it's 94 percent of the homeowners said they would take route three. I
asked them -- I did ask the developer at the ACHD meeting that -- at the end of it,
well, why not put a bridge -- if the Ridenbaugh Canal has to be built, why not put
a bridge over it and he stated he would like to spend his funds elsewhere , you
know, which is understandable, but, you know, we are -- we are heavily
impacted. When Sutherland Farm was built they were asked to build a bridge
across the Ridenbaugh Canal, which is that north connection there. But we
would really feel that there is a need for a connection onto Muir Woods and I did
-- I asked the Meridian -- Nampa-Meridian Irrigation Company and currently as of
December 12th they haven't seen -- received any plans for the actual removal of
the Ridenbaugh. Then on that last page there is a pathway along the
Ridenbaugh -- so, this is the pathway stated -- sorry, I'm jumping topics. This is a
question regarding for the proposed pathway. There is a pathway from Mountain
View High School that follows the Ridenbaugh to Eagle Road and, then, the
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north of Sutherland Farm -- it's on the south side of the Ridenbaugh and it kind of
ends near where this development is at the end of Sutherland Farm and I back
up to the Ridenbaugh Canal and there are -- it's being used right now. There is
people on it every day. They are using the canal maintenance road as a
pathway right now and so I asked, well, what if -- so, the proposal is to hook up to
Eight Mile Creek and what's involved is crossing a couple of roads to get to Eight
Mile Creek. Or if a path could be continued and since 74 percent of the people
like the idea of it going along the Ridenbaugh -- ten percent didn't care, 16
percent were in favor of the current developer's plan. I do -- there was talk -- so,
this is the last page -- of -- well, the Meridian Irrigation Company -- it doesn't
allow for a pathway to be on the north side of the canal , which is true, but as you
can see in this picture, this is from Eagle Road to Mountain View High School,
the -- you can see the canal maintenance road and, then, highlighted is the
pathway. That pathway is not on the canal easement. So, they don't care that
it's there and the same can be done to make a pathway along the Ridenbaugh.
They can't -- they can't replace the maintenance road, but just outside of that
they can, because the canal
easement --
De Weerd: Lee, your time is up. I would ask if you can summarize your
testimony.
Coulson: Okay. So, that was my last statement. Then I asked for several
comments and, basically, the tone of the neighborhoods are is that they would
like access to Cloverdale and -- and preferably if they -- they would also like a
pathway to continue on the Ridenbaugh. That's all I have.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Coulson: Sorry if I --
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Yes, Madam Mayor, a quick question for you. What was your sample
size for your survey?
Coulson: I -- I know there were -- so, there were 104 that responded. The -- so,
that's -- so, 60 percent were Muir Woods, so that would be like 60 homeowners
versus, you know, 40 from Sutherland Farm.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Thank you.
Coulson: Thanks.
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De Weerd: Oh. I guess I do have a question. As you -- what was the discussion
from Ada County Highway District Commissioners that they did not require the
connection out to Cloverdale?
Coulson: Well, they felt the roadways through Muir Woods -- right now they
support 2,000 trips a day and right now they are only receiving about 1,000 trips
per day. So, they felt there is enough capacity on the roads. I think it's unfair,
though, that we should be burdened with tha t capacity was my thought. Just to
save on a bridge.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Coulson: Thanks.
Coles: All right. The second individual we have is Vern Williams signed up
against, but would like to testify.
De Weerd: Good evening. Thanks for hanging in with us. If you will, please,
state your name and address for the record.
Williams: My name is Vern Williams. I live at 2540 South Tristram Way in
Meridian.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Williams: So, Madam Mayor and Council Members, thank you for -- for this time.
First I -- I want to take a moment to thank you. We were here about a year ago,
you may recall, with some apartment complexes that were proposed on EasyJet
and Eagle Road and that -- that particular project was not opposed by ACHD and
it was not opposed by Planning and Zoning, other than they wanted to limit the
levels to two stories. So, even though that those two entities approve the project,
the Council members still listened to the homeowners and sided with them and
made a change and now that area is now being developed as single family
dwellings. So, we want to appreciate and we want to thank you for that. First of
all, when I heard that -- I just heard this yesterday that there was not going to be
an access to Cloverdale here and I was -- I was just really surprised that -- that
with all the engineering thought and all of the -- the money and the -- and the
energy that has been put into this, that they would not want to have that access.
After looking at the -- the plans and so on -- it's a beautiful project. It's a great
place -- you know, I would -- I would want to live there. But I would also want to
have access to Cloverdale. One think you have to ask yourself I think is how
many children are going to be in this area that are all going to need to go to
Pepperhills Elementary and how are they going to get there? Their parents are
going to have to take -- as Mr. Coulson showed, they are going to have to take a
route out through Sutherland Farm and Muir Woods and drive traffic that way.
They are not going to go north onto Overland and over to Cloverdale. So, I just
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December 20, 2016
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really urge you to consider this and I'm not sure why -- why we wouldn't want to
have a -- a connection to Cloverdale. It just doesn't make sense to me why we
wouldn't. I would even think the developer would want that for access to -- to the
homes in there. Unless it's a cost thing. You know, if it's the cost of building a
bridge and maybe moving a few lots, maybe it's a money thing, but I don't think
that should be considered. I think the developer has a responsibility to provide
an access to Cloverdale for all of these houses and not expect that traffic to be
dumped out through existing homeowners and their roads. So, I spent some
time reading the comments that Mr. Coulson had in there and I would urge you to
read some of those. There is -- there is some very good comments and I'm sure
those are comments for people that probably couldn't be here tonight and still
want to have their voice heard. So, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Williams. Appreciate it.
Coles: Our next individual is Terrell Williams. Signed up against and would like
to testify.
De Weerd: Thank you for joining us. If you will, please, state your name and
address for the record.
T.Williams: Terrell Williams. 4267 East Easy Jet Drive. Meridian.
De Weerd: Thank you.
T.Williams: Madam Mayor and Council, appreciate what he was -- to talk about
this. And it did come as quite a surprise to us to find that that access to
Cloverdale had disappeared, because we assumed it would be there. This is a
beautiful development and we certainly welcome it. But as noted it's a very large
development. It's 550 homes and the entire brunt, almost, of that traffic is thrust
upon Sutherland Farm and Muir Wood, because very few people, if they are
accessing the school or other areas, are going to go out clear to Overland and try
to deal with Overland traffic when they can come through our subdivisions and it
really is not reasonable to expect that kind of in flow of traffic to people -- to go
into the existing areas simply to save money for a developer, which to me can be
the only possible motivation for this. And if you look at the routes, inside that
area there are tortious routes if you do not have access to Cloverdale. So, not
only is this a benefit -- or a relief of a problem for Muir Wood and Sutherland
Farm, but also it's in the interest of the people who live in that development to
have better access to the places that they are going, rather than have to travel
through all of that residential area to get out of there. From a fire standpoint I
can't imagine you wouldn't be better off to have better fire access through
Cloverdale. So, the -- to me the impact on Muir Wood and Sutherland Farm
overrides any other kind of considerations. I realize we don't have very many
people here. The last time we were here we were here with pitch forks and
torches. But this time there are only a few of us, we have ba d roads, we have
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December 20, 2016
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Christmas, and it was -- I was surprised -- I'm sort of surprised to many of us that
this happened, because we were not notified, because we are a distance from
this development. It doesn't look like we would be impacted, but the impacts will
be huge. The only reasons I can see that we wouldn't do this is -- is the cost of
the access to Cloverdale and the additional entry onto Cloverdale, because
Cloverdale is becoming a much more traveled road. Something needs to be
done about that, but that's not our issue here. The other one would be simply to
say that the -- it would wipe out a few lots and the developer would be able to do
fewer things. Well, this size -- ultimately 550 homes in there and the only kind of
access you're going to have -- and to do this later you're going to have to remove
some houses to get access to Cloverdale. The time to do this is now, not when
there would be a huge impact in the future. So, I would ask you to -- whatever.
To table this, to go back and reconsider it, give a chance for more people from
the area to give input, because we were not notified ahead of time, because we
are outside the range of people who were notified, but we are the ones who will
be impacted. I appreciate your time. I hope you will give this very strong
consideration and I do appreciate what you did last time for us . It was wonderful.
Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, if we -- it does, obviously, make a lot of sense for there to be a
Cloverdale access. It puts a lot of pressure on these subdivisions. Is it -- I don't
know if I missed something. Was it the applicant's decision or the ACHD's
decision to not have access to Cloverdale?
Beach: Are you asking staff or the applicant?
Milam: I'm asking staff.
De Weerd: I think it's staff for now.
Beach: Very good. My understanding from the applicant is that ACHD did not
require the connection, so it's the applicant's preference based on logistics of
constructing it to not provide that. Again, the applicant can -- I think could further
clarify.
De Weerd: Yeah. We will ask him when he comes up.
Milam: And Justin maybe.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
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December 20, 2016
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De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Josh, put up the site deal. I -- I don't know if there is --
Beach: Is this what you're looking for, Mr. Bird?
Bird: Yeah. I -- it's going to be pretty hard on their property to go out to
Cloverdale. You got to go over the canal --
Beach: And so the Ridenbaugh --
Bird: You already got a bridge sitting right there, so --
Beach: There is actually two bridges there.
Bird: Yeah.
Beach: The Ridenbaugh crosses there and, then, it comes back --
Bird: Right there. But -- well, Cloverdale has got one bridge. Oh, it is two
bridges. That is two bridges. So, I guess -- I guess they could put one in
between it if they go through, but -- is that white -- is that a right of way -- ACHD
right of way, the white in there? Right there.
Beach: No. That would be the future location of the irrigation canal would go
through there. Right now the proposal -- just to clarify, they are going to realign
the Ridenbaugh Canal --
Bird: Oh, they are going to --
Beach: -- and take out the two bridges and it will go here. So, they are hoping to
eliminate bridges altogether here. And I guess you can, again, I guess address
that with the applicant. Their thought is that that eliminate s two bridges.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Clerk.
Coles: Next we have John Bugsy. Signed up against and would like to testify.
De Weerd: Okay. So -- thank you. So, the -- the sentiment is the same as
previous testifiers with the -- with the traffic and the amount it does on the
surrounding neighborhoods.
Coles: Okay. Next we have Jason -- I want to say Adiker? Attinger. Signed up
as neutral.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
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De Weerd: Good evening.
Attinger: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council. Jason Attinger. 2626 South
Tristram Way in Sutherland Farm. Before you hack the clock, could I have staff
put up the gentleman from Muir Woods presentation? I just want to reference a
map in there, before you hack my three minute clock. Because -- I'm just going
to restate -- just to point out some facts that you may have -- you know, it's kind
of hard to see -- if you may have overlooked it, as much as you have looked at a
-- kind of an overview map, because the map that they are showing is kind of a
detailed in -- in maps. Scroll towards the top. Right -- one more. I think -- right
there. That will work. I apologize for not being at the P&Z meeting. I was
unavailable. But Isis didn't have fun. I just got back from seven months
deployment. So, it was a good time.
De Weerd: Thank you for your service.
Attinger: Thank you. Anyway, I live -- if staff can put a mouse over that. Where
it says route two and just -- just a little bit to the west of that where it comes down
a little -- further west. Further west. Where it meets. Right there. So, that is the
corner of Tristram in Hollandale and Hollandale being the single point kind of
funnel to the west -- or to the east. So, all the traffic that -- I'm sure the Muir
Wood already appreciates from Sutherland Farm already goes through there and
I live on the corner house, so my stuff -- I just got hit this week by a teenager
sliding through trying to get back from lunch and I know a little girl was hit across
the street a few years ago there. There is a stop sign -- I know I have talked to
you guys plenty of times. We also had an officer out there for a week and people
failed to stop there. My seven-year-old son and his friends come over we were
having to watch them very much because of the traffic, which I guess is
estimated at a thousand cars a day right now. I take the route -- I work at the
base -- through Goshen down to Victory, as I'm sure many of the people who
work out at Micron and southeast traffic do flow that way, they take Victory over
Overland and the highway because of the traffic flow and I'm sure Pepper Ridge
where my son attends to that, he went -- and my daughter, we went out through
Muir Woods as well. So, as you can see the traffic gets flowed through that
single road. If you're going to the west, you have got multiple options. Copper
Point. They can go through Sutherland Farm out Easy Jet. They can go to the
south out there as well to get to Eagle. I forget the name of the road, but as you
go east there is one road which comes down around the corner there through
Knapp, Pine Bluff through Hollandale and, then, out through Muir Wood and,
then, they have two options there, either to the north or south to Cloverdale
access. So, that's -- I'm worried about the traffic flow through there. Increased --
specifically around the a.m. traffic and the p.m. traffic between 3:00 and 5:00
o'clock when people are coming off work they are -- they want to avoid Overland.
You know, realistically, nobody is going to want to go through multiple traffic
lights to the north when they can easily cut through a subdivision where they
really can go through rolling stops at stop signs and that's realistically what
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December 20, 2016
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happens right now. I typically pull in my -- my driveway -- I know I'm coming up
on my time here, so I will summarize -- and I get out of my car and, then, I jump
back into the road -- I'm sorry. I was being very animated. I usually jump out in
the road and -- you know, you would probably advise against this, but I do some
civic policing of my own and I tell people to slow down as they go through the
neighborhood and roll through the stop sign and I point out the fact that the stop
sign was recently -- recently replaced by ACHD after it's been hit this week and
the guy in Muir Wood behind, his pine tree was hit because of somebody rolling,
instead of stopping, and, of course, we all know it's a sheet of ice in there right
now. But -- so, I'd like you to reconsider and look -- at least look at this from a
realistic standpoint. Look at the survey they have done in front of you. I will tell
you that as a Sutherland Farm homeowner we just received the survey, like in
the last couple of days. My wife e-mailed it to me today at work, so I'm sure my
vote is not reflected into his pie chart there and you would have a larger sample
had we received it sooner and just look at yourself as a person that travels this
area, which route would you take. Thank you. Stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Well, I do have one question for you. So, just trying to get an idea of
the route two. Do the houses -- do the driveways adjoin the roads. Are they
directly onto the roads?
Attinger: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Coles: All right. Next we have Dale Eldridge. Signed up as neutral, but would
like to testify.
De Weerd: Good evening. If you will, please, state your name and address for
the record.
Eldridge: Okay. It's Dale Eldridge. 12276 Muir Ridge Drive, Boise, Idaho.
Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I attended the Planning and Zoning
meeting, as well as the ACHD meeting, so just a couple things I'd like to mention
on that. At Planning and Zoning meeting it was mentioned that we have a lot of
growth. We have more traffic. I agree with that. That's sometimes a good thing,
but I think it's inappropriate that traffic is being forced through the route that was
previously mentioned. Our homes are all front facing, so we have to back out try
and get on a driveway that was never designed for the volumes of traffic that this
is going to only add to. ACHD's comment was traffic calming. That was their
response on that that's something we should look at. I think it's inappropriate
that we should have to look at speed bumps to degrade our subdivision to
accommodate another development when there are alternatives that are really
just about cost and the amount of money that a developer can make. So, you
know, in summary I would ask that you reevaluate the requirement for an access
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December 20, 2016
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to Cloverdale, so that it does not impact the existing residents unduly in this area.
Thank you for your time.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Eldridge: I would also add that I represent the homeowners association as a
board member. Many of them couldn't be here because of the holidays and the
timing. As well they wanted to try and keep it brief and funnel it through myself
and Mr. Coulson, who -- who has done a lot of work to try and funnel this. So,
again, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you very much.
Coles: Next we have Kim Rackham signed up against, but does not wish to
testify. Is that still accurate? Yes. Excuse me.
De Weerd: Good evening.
Rackham: Good evening. Kim Rackham. 3700 East Girdner Drive in Meridian.
I just wanted to raise one additional point that if the numbers that the -- that the
county highway district says the roads can support up to 2,000 trips per day and
they are only currently doing a thousand, that with 450 homes would easily
exceed that 2,000 trips per day and so I just think that it's important to kind of
look at those numbers and say, you know, we need to -- I would be in support of
the entrance onto Cloverdale as well. That's -- so, I kind of echo all of the
comments from my fellow neighbors about that.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Rackham: Thank you.
Coles: There were no others indicated on the list.
De Weerd: Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to provide testimony?
Okay. Mr. Conger.
Conger: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Jim Conger again. I will start
out -- really, the only item I think I need to address, besides any of your
questions, is going to be the connection to Cloverdale Road and what I would like
to do on this slide -- 17 for now. Perfect. Thanks, Josh. So, what was started 18
months ago -- because this was one of the first items in our planning process
was meetings with the Ada County Highway District and the -- and the Nampa-
Meridian Irrigation District, even before our meetings with your staff. Josh, do
you think that's Slide 17?
Beach: You know, I don't have numbers on here, so --
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December 20, 2016
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Conger: Oh, you don't have numbers. So, let's -- let me play -- I'm going to take
this one step further. So, as you can see from this slide, Cloverdale Road has
the two bridges. So, our first meeting is with the highway district. They have got
issues. Cloverdale is above a level of service that -- that anybody's too proud of
and ACHD isn't planning on doing any Cloverdale improvements until 2021 to
2025. They say it's not bad enough capacity that's hitting their threshold prior to
that. Now, the two Cloverdale bridges are an ACHD item that's going to be
millions of dollars to taxpayer's dollars. So, no -- no connection to Cloverdale is
not only driven by our traffic study, that we spent tens of thousands of dollars on,
it's actually driven by ACHD, who -- who had from a transportation standpoint the
public hearing and what we are hoping is kind of the final say as far as how
Cloverdale is going to be treated. They have the bridge responsibility, which
when I say they, it's all of us as taxpayer dollars. We have donated -- so, what
we went to -- and it seems to lock me out. Josh, do you think it -- yeah. We
came in and in the white area came up with the plan to the highway district after I
went and had several meetings with Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District, hey, we
will donate the land and we will relocate the canal, you can save the taxpayers
several millions of dollars of not only bridge repairs when that time comes, but
the decades after decades of bridge maintenance that -- that is also another
taxpayer burden. So, the canal is going to get relocated, the Ridenbaugh, onto
our property. The Eight Mile Canal, it still has to be adjusted between the -- the
roadway and the new canal and, then, Cloverdale Road is ultimately going to get
widened out and, then, most important by what we have already committed to,
Phase 5-A, we will be providing the sidewalk. So, what's going to happen is we
are not all going to wait until 2021 to 2025 to get pedestrian access on
Cloverdale. With our relocation, which will take years of approving -- approvals.
Nothing happens fast with Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District, but that's one of the
first tasks we will start working on is the -- ACHD is committed to removing the
two bridges once the relocation of the Ridenbaugh is done. That way we are
able to widen the road slightly per the ACHD requirements and, then, of course,
we have the requirement with ACHD and the City of Meridian to put in the
sidewalk. Our requirement by Phase 5-A, which we are fine with. So, the whole
process of us -- I'm not saving a penny on a bridge. If a bridge were required by
ACHD to go to Cloverdale, they actually would have paid for the bridge , because
they are -- we are donating the land to get rid of the two bridges. So, it's not a
function of I'm saving a penny. We are actually not saving a penny, we are
providing a better system by our land donation for the taxpayers of Ada county to
delete these bridges and actually have a smoother transition at Cloverdale there
and they already have -- if you were to look at Cloverdale from Overland to
Victory already has -- I believe it's the fifth intersection and they have the
matching number of intersections. So, if I start moving -- can you unfreeze me,
Josh, for a second? Perfect. So, if we start -- one second. If we start looking at
your staff report where your staff indicated UDC 11.3.A is to limit the number of
access points onto arterials -- that's in your staff report. You take our
requirements that we have -- we have a giant investment in this project and
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access to Cloverdale is not a requirement for us. That's why we worked so
heavily with ACHD to eliminate that. It's not a marketing issue for us. ACHD
didn't see it necessary, as I indicated. Meridian, your Planning and Zoning staff
report didn't see it necessary. Our traffic study, obviously, proved that it was not
necessary, which was verified by ACHD. Meridian Fire did not see it as
necessary and, again, ACHD did have their public hearing process and night
meeting, which the neighbors did attend, and I just want to clear up a couple
things. The Boise city neighbors, which are the Muir Wood neighbors that you
heard from a couple, not all, are concerned about traffic. We understand that
and we are always sympathetic. Now, our traffic study and, then, ACHD's stats
and in their report that thousand trips you're hearing -- that roadway is a public
roadway designed for 2,000 vehicle trips. The thousand trips that you keep
hearing repeated -- and you will -- and it's in the staff report and it's in ACHD's
staff report, that is our full build out. It will possibly get -- it actually is -- the way
it's worded and the way it is, it's actually less than a thousand trips. So,
everybody is saying it's a thousand trips today, plus our 430 homes. No. That is
the anticipated trip capture on those roads at build out. So, it is still less than 50
percent of capacity and the road that they all live on, as sympathetic as we all
are, is designed to produce traffic east and west and to flow out. Those -- those
handful of folks are at the throat of an entry road that that -- that is designed to
move 2,000 trips. Lucky for all of us it will only get to 1,000, including -- including
us. I think the last item -- when ACHD -- you heard one neighbor talk about
ACHD to already talk about traffic calming. They weren't talking about that it's
needed, they simply said when your neighborhood gets to a point and you guys
feel like -- and they say this to every neighborhood group that comes and
speaks. You feel like it gets to a point that you need help out of the highway
district, there is a specific form you fill out and if you meet their criteria, then, we
will address it. As we all know, ACHD doesn't do traffic bumps. So, they didn't
indicate that there would be any traffic bumps. That -- that isn't the case. And
the ACHD also said at build out it will be 50 percent of capacity. It would not
meet the threshold of spending any money. But the commission wanted the
neighbors to understand there is a process. With that I respectfully request that
the project be approved per the conditions that were forwarded to you from the
Planning and Zoning Commission as Josh outlined earlier and I'm certainly open
to any further clarifications if needed.
De Weerd: Council, do you have questions for Mr. Conger?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Just -- Jim, just -- I want to make sure that I'm hearing things right.
ACHD didn't require you to bring your road through to Cloverdale. Did you -- and
maybe you said this and I missed it -- inquire about the ability to do that?
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Because I think there is a big difference between being told you can't and asking
if you can.
Conger: Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, no, we definitely worked
through the process of the land donation to eliminate the bridges and not add
anymore. So, we -- I'm certain -- now ACHD's paying the bills, so I'm not going
to say that -- that I can put the bridge there or can't put the bridge there. I think I
would be speaking for them, so -- I was getting ready to answer that and now I'm
back peddling. But, no, the intention was with the collectors that exist east and
west through the Silverstone commercial park and north on our new spine, it
would take you to Cloverdale, which would give you two free rights to Cloverdale.
No one is going to take a left on -- on the backroads. The intention from ACHD
was not to have a connection point on that little sliver of land that we have that
connects to Cloverdale.
Cavener: Thank you.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Josh?
Beach: Sir.
Borton: Can you pull up the ACHD staff report?
Beach: I believe I can. Give me two seconds here.
Conger: Thank you for your time. I will sit down and if you do have question s I
will just pop back up.
De Weerd: Well, Jim, I do.
Conger: No. No. I will wait.
De Weerd: You know, I guess I'm baffled why ACHD -- and certainly not what
you're doing. I see what you're doing in diverting the irrigation as doing
something to -- I don't know -- help out, but I'm baffled by ACHD. Certainly they
get rid of two obstacles, two bridges, and now they need no bridges, but putting
the traffic from this development on -- in another neighborhood that has
driveways that back out onto the roadway that they are going to dump a bunch of
new cars on blows my mind. If that was a collector, you know, and -- and there
were no driveways there, I would understand that they could -- they could say it
could accommodate a much greater traffic, but these are homes backing up to a
roadway. We don't see them do that anymore in new subdivisions and it's an
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existing subdivision, but to say that that is an alternative -- I think they are not --
they are looking at only moving traffic and not at the safety of those that are
traveling the road or live alongside the road.
Conger: Well, Madam Mayor, if I may, Members of the Council, let me help ease
-- ease your mind slightly, that, you know, if -- and you guys see projects go
through all the time. We have a very long and arduous process getting through
the ACC policy manual. So, the policy manual isn't written from ten years ago,
it's updated, so it is, I understand, for moving traffic. Of course that's their
number one charter. But that policy manual has to stand the test whether you're
in the north end of Boise with -- with a hundred attorneys visiting you at your city
council meeting or you're out in south Kuna, that policy manual is based off the
flows that are allowable and the flows that work for certain roadways. ACHD and
their commission had a slight discussion on it. They are not in the business of
approving a project that might put another portion of their transportation network
at jeopardy and, then, have the taxpayers at their nickel have to repair that. So,
our amount of traffic that will go that way is so miniscule that it didn't even get
them to the 50 percent threshold at build out for future roadway, because ACHD
would not put their roadways in jeopardy of having taxpayers fix a developer
problem in five years from now or eight years or ten years from now. So, it is a
very strict process of a traffic study that's done by a professional engineer that
stamps it -- and ACHD has three or four traffic engineers that take their own data,
review the submitted data, and go through a very long process and that process
probably took three and a half months to create their staff report . So, it wasn't
done fly by night and it certainly does -- it's not even close to even getting on the
radar of traffic and --
De Weerd: Well, how many cars is miniscule?
Conger: Well, a roadway that's designed for 2,000 vehicle trips per day and it
won't get to 1,000 when we are done building our 430 homes. So, we won't --
so, you take a roadway and if -- of ACHD set at, you know, acceptable level of
2,000, so -- so -- and if they are only in the business of moving -- you know,
transportation, moving vehicles, and not looking at livability -- I mean we aren't
even getting to the 50 percent threshold of that transportation moving of vehicles.
So, clearly, one could take a wild guess that we are -- I mean we are not even 50
percent --
De Weerd: You know, Jim, I'm not taking you to task. I am taking ACHD, who is
not here, to task and wondering what -- is Justin here? I will take Justin to task,
because -- now that I have been pointed out that he is here, we will ask for his
comment. But I think you have a beautiful proposal. You are providing the -- the
collector infrastructure on your property that you need to . That's not the issue
here. It is the issue that the families that are going to live there are going to take
their kids to school. Unfortunately, people don't walk anymore or bike, they drive
their kids to school, whether it's three blocks or not, and they are going to go
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through that other subdivision and -- and it is concerning to see the number of
driveways that connect to this road that they think can accommodate 2,000 trips
a day, so -- and that's my only question. I am concerned about the safety of the
families in those subdivisions and that -- along that street.
Conger: As are we for sure.
De Weerd: And I understand that and I think what you're doin g to take -- to
remove the bridges and to put it all on the west side of Cloverdale is awesome.
Now, we just need to tell ACHD they need to put a bridge in for you. Instead of
two bridges they only have to do one. I think that's an awesome --
Bird: Amen.
Conger: Well, Madam Mayor, real quick before you brow beat --
De Weerd: And those are my tax dollars, too, by the way.
Conger: Yes. Correct. Yeah. You know, this -- Justin will answer your
questions and do very well, but, you know, it's been an 18-month long process of
ACHD evaluating what -- you know, and looking at the roads, what traffic is going
to Cloverdale, what's going to Overland and I think one of the items that -- that I
think we are overlooking a little bit is the diverse product inside of this
community. You know, we have 105 homes that are -- are mature buyer. We
have, you know -- yes, we have about 140 of the larger lots in the back area.
Then you start looking at our other product, which is our density -- as we
increase the density towards Overland, half of those are single level, two
bedrooms, possibly three, which in themselves become a little more mature
buyer. So, the buyer profile in this 430 homes is much different than what you
are normally seeing. Our proximity to St. Luke's and several other reasons is
why we have taken a different approach of the product that is in this
development. So, I think that, coupled with the -- the level of service of
Cloverdale and the magnificent spines that run out of this project is why ACHD
made this decision over the safety process. But a lot of it has to do with the
buyer profile in this development. It is different than what we all normally see
and what we normally bring in front of you for sure.
De Weerd: Any other questions for Mr. Conger?
Lavey: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes. Chief Lavey.
Lavey: I'm going to remain neutral, but I do need to say that I live across the
street, so -- but this isn't in regard to that. This is already a problem area for us
and it's a problem area for several reasons. One is it involves two municipalities.
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It involves Meridian Police Department and it involves Boise Police Department.
And so when there is traffic issues on that road already, it's who -- who
addresses those problems. So, we have traffic flowing from the City of Meridian
into the city of Boise. Now, I'm not a traffic engineer and I don't know how many
trips a day that this project is going to -- to make, but if you drive that route, it
might make sense if you go to the west that -- that roadway could handle 2,000
cars a day, but if you look at the route that goes to the east, it absolutely makes
no sense to throw more traffic that way, because it's not a straight shot. It's -- it's
down, it's a stop sign, it's a left, it's right and it's down a hill, down Goshen, and,
then, it's out to Cloverdale. That's the route that they are going to take to get
their kids to school and it makes no sense to put more cars on that roadway. I'm
not the traffic engineer, I'm a realist. I see it. I drive it. I understand it. You guys
have got a difficult decision to make.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Can I ask you a couple questions?
De Weerd: Is your microphone on?
De Weerd: It absolutely is.
Beach: To the highway district staff report?
Borton: So, start -- go to page three. There were a couple of comments that I'm
trying to reconcile. Page three, the first bullet under conclusions, it makes
reference to build-out at 4,055 trips per day. Understanding full build-out, but
there is a reference to a 2,000 number -- am I reading something incorrectly?
Beach: So, my understanding is this 4,055 is all of the roads through this
subdivision at build-out. The 2,000 reference, if my understanding is correct,
specifically relating to that road that goes through the Muir Woods Subdivision.
Borton: Okay. It's not a project in its entirety?
Beach: That's my understanding.
Borton: Okay. That's my first question, if the applicant agrees with that.
Conger: Yes. Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, that is correct. That's --
that's not specific to how -- to the Muir Wood Boise area.
Borton: So, as a whole it's 4,000 on full build out, 2,000 of which is anticipated to
run --
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Beach: Again, referencing Jim from earlier, the total build out, roughly a
thousand will be going through that road.
Borton: Okay.
Beach: Through the Muir Wood Subdivision. Is that correct?
Conger: Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, if you -- and, Josh, if you go to
page 14 it's Item D that actually states that. And it continues to say it will stay
below 1,000 vehicle trips per day. Item D. Right there. It's that paragraph under
D.
Borton: Okay. The second question was on page eight.
Conger: And, Madam Mayor, I might -- and also ask -- that 2,000 threshold is a
typical threshold of ACHD when they want to go from a 29 foot road to 33 foot
road. So, it's not a -- I mean 29 is the smallest section you can have and the
2,000 -- less than 2,000 still allows for the 29, which is not what these roads are
built at. But it's the smallest of the ACHD scale period.
Borton: And, Madam Mayor, I think you bring up a great point when we u tilize
these objective measurements to determine road capacities. We -- we do it all
the time and -- and to the extent you're trying to comply with those
measurements in this, I understand what you're doing and it makes sense. The
question I had for you on page eight -- trying to reconcile what I heard earlier
today was the last paragraph right above paragraph five and it speaks to the
Cloverdale Road widening project and is the canal relocation -- it is associated
with the widening of Cloverdale Road, the applicant is to be compensated for the
right of way dedication. So, is it intended to be a donation or is it a
reimbursement to you of impact fees or some other form of compensation?
Conger: Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, as I initially stated and not
changing, the canal portion, which was that white segment, is a donation by us.
That will not be future ACHD right of way. ACHD when they come do their
roadway improvements will have -- we have to set aside a sliver for them that
they will have to purchase. Don't -- don't confuse that with the Ridenbaugh
Canal relocation. That is one hundred percent donation by us of land to get rid of
those bridges. So, that -- those two are not apples to apples.
Borton: Okay. All right.
Conger: And we did mention the 15 acres open space; right?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
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December 20, 2016
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De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I move we close the public hearing on H-2016-012.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Did anybody want to hear from Justin or have any more questions of
ACHD before we close the public hearing? Okay.
Palmer: Any seconds?
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those
in favor say aye. Any opposed say nay.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I move we approve H-2016-012 as presented.
Bird: I will second it.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Discussion?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: While I'm not a traffic engineer or anything like that, but I can't figure out -- I
mean I realize ACHD is going to lose two bridges, but they are not going to get
out there and work on that until 2021 or something. I -- I think that they need to
have an exit and entrance onto Cloverdale and at that location on Cloverdale
where they are at, it's beyond putting lights and Cloverdale to Overland already is
widened. I think the project is great. I just -- I can't believe they didn't -- that
ACHD didn't ask them to put something out -- I mean we are going to shove
everything through a subdivision -- and I realize if you live there, which I have
lived by a school for 51 years -- 50 cars a day going by when you have got kids
out there is a lot of cars and specially when they are not obeying the traffic and
our officers go out and do a great job, but they can't be there 24-7. I -- you know,
we hear this all the time. I don't want you coming through our subdivision. We
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December 20, 2016
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heard it when these two that are saying now was being brought before us, people
around them didn't want them in because of the traffic and I can't -- this is a --
this is a very large place and we are putting a lot of -- and it's a nice subdivision,
Jim. It's very nice. But I can't figure out why we didn't want to have something
out onto Cloverdale Road. And I realize Cloverdale Road is 50 years behind, but
it isn't the only road that's 50 years behind. So, is Eagle Road south of Overland.
So, we are -- we are dumping -- you know, we are saying let's dump it onto other
roads that are already behind, too, without -- and to me that's -- that's a perfect
place to dump it out. That's my say.
De Weerd: Council, I -- I don't know if you're ready to -- to vote on this, but I
would love to see if there would be consideration to continue this to have the
developer work with the Ada County Highway District and see if there is an
opportunity to make a connection to -- to Cloverdale, rather than approve it with
these questions or deny it -- deny a viable and nice subdivision.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I agree with you.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I feel like the applicant didn't show up here tonight
without having had those discussions and vetted all possibilities. I mean when
we asked him, hey, why aren't you doing this, his answer seemed to make
perfect sense to me. The streets that will be connected -- the traffic will -- a
portion of it will go through our public streets. The neighbors moved in there
knowing there was a very large empty property adjacent to theirs and something
had to go there. The project is fantastic and nobody is arguing that and -- and I
feel like this -- while, sure, it may be more convenient if there is another
intersection onto an arterial on paper, we have seen that more intersections on
arterials end up being larger complaints later. It seems like that's kind of the
purpose of collector streets is to reduce the number of connections to arterials,
so that there is less accidents at 50 miles an hour with people pulling out onto
arterials and so when it comes to safety, it seems that that makes sense. To me,
you know, Fire was mentioned -- or the fire station is the other direction, doesn't
appear they would be coming in off of Cloverdale, they would be coming up from
Eagle Road, so -- I mean I -- I understand there is driveways that connect to
these streets, that there is going to, obviously, be more traffic, but either we do
traffic studies or we don't do them and when they tell us that it could handle it,
especially at such low capacity -- or I guess it's higher capacity than the study is
telling us traffic is going to be there, I understand that maybe you're going to
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December 20, 2016
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have more cars on your road, but there is connections to your road to blank
pieces of property that needed to be filled in and, again, I feel the applicant has
gone --
Bird: Call for the question.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer, I'm sorry to cut off, but we have a motion and a second
to approve this and --
Palmer: I could wrap up my comments.
De Weerd: Okay. Will you wrap up, please.
Palmer: It appears that when I made the motion Councilman Cavener might
have felt like I might have left something out important, so I want to see if he had
anything that we need to address on the motion.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Just asking the maker of the motion to clarify the specific element
about leaving the Eight Mile Creek open, because that requires specific Council
action. If that was what you were including in your motion.
Palmer: Absolutely. And I think that was -- that was noted in the --
Cavener: Okay.
Palmer: Yeah. Definitely.
Cavener: Thanks for the clarification.
Beach: I will say that that did need to be addressed, so I'm glad you mentioned
that.
Palmer: And I'm including it in the motion, if the second --
Bird: Agreed.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, nay; Borton, yea; Milam, nay; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion passes.
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December 20, 2016
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MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO NAYS.
F. Amended onto agenda: Legal Department: Updating the
City’s Newspaper of Record
De Weerd: Council, we have a conundrum. We have a restaurant that planned
for seating us and they are closing and they need an answer on if we are going
and a proprietor that is waiting, so -- if we can go to the more immediate
business, which I'm sure is why Matt is here.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I will make this as brief as
possible for the most important one of your evening . There is an item here on
the Department Reports about updating the city's newspaper of record. We were
informed yesterday that the ValleyTimes ceased publication as of yesterday.
The state code requires the city have an official newspaper of reco rd to publish
any public notices. Primarily, obviously, our biggest concern is land use hearings
and making sure they are adequately noticed timely for hearings in front of both
Planning and Zoning Commission and the Council. There are two incredibly
confusing state codes. One is very simple, very direct in relations to cities. It just
says we have to have one --
De Weerd: Mr. Nary, can we do it or not?
Nary: I just want to set the record, because it's not super clear by the code. The
code says we could do it if it's -- it can be either printed in the city or in the
county. The Idaho Press-Tribune has an outlet within the county that does print
a newspaper and they also print the paper in Nampa at the same location as the
Idaho Statesman. So, in our opinion they can be our newspaper of record, so
the ordinance that's in front of you on the end of your agen da, we believe is
eligible to approve. I asked the publisher to be here tonight in case you had a
specific question. I didn't realize it was going to be almost 9 :00 o'clock or after
9:00 when we would get to that. So, if you have a question about it we do
believe it's -- it's adequate to move forward. If there is an objection that is raised
by another entity, we will address it later. But we want to make sure we don't
have a gap in time to getting our notifications public, so -- that was the quick
version. Sorry. Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: While the Press-Tribune -- per the state statute, Bill, the Press-Tribune
does publish for the Statesman and does have the Meridian Press, but do they
have a business location in Ada county?
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December 20, 2016
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Nary: They have a publication that they own in Ada county that they publish in
Ada county.
Bird: Okay. They -- they actually have a place of --
Nary: They own the Kuna-Melba News.
Bird: Okay.
Nary: So, they actually publish that in Kuna. It is one of their subsidiary
businesses, so --
De Weerd: Okay. If there is nothing further --
Cavener: Madam Mayor? I recognize that the hour is coming, but I guess I have
an overall larger conversation about who we are selecting as our newspaper of
record and what process the city -- I mean when we go through any other type of
other purchasing there is an evaluation process, which we make a selection and
while I recognize that this is a somewhat timely decision we have to make, I'm
just curious what evaluation process the city went through in determining that the
Idaho Press-Tribune is the best person to provide this service to the city as a
newspaper of record.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, our concern was the gap in time
and the -- the concern about publication dates getting pushed back. We were
looking to make sure it qualified. Because they have a location within Ada
county and the Idaho Statesman does not, they actually supersede them based
upon that criteria in the code. And, again, the code is very confusing, that's the
only reason I asked to put it on the record to make it clear that was our
reasoning, because under the code as long as they have a location they publish
in the county, that trumps the circulation provision. That's a generalized
provision. The provision about the specific location of publication actually is a
higher priority selection than circulation. The prices are the same, too. If that
was the question. State statute is set by the legislature for public notices on
initial cost. It's an issue of location.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Mr. Nary, I guess clarification on the difference between printing
versus publishing. I guess I was under the impression that the Statesman is
published in Ada county. It may be printed in Canyon county, but the newspaper
is published in Ada county. Has a much larger circulation base is the only reason
why I bring this up.
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December 20, 2016
Page 70 of 73
De Weerd: I'm not sure that that is true in Meridian. Their numbers have been
declining, but I couldn't tell you what those numbers are and certainly if my door
knocking last year was a good proof that Meridian Press is delivered to many of
the subdivisions and more widely distributed, but we -- if we don't do something
tonight we can't do anything, because we won't have any newspaper to publish it .
So, if -- if this is a temporary gap for some larger thing, maybe that helps bridge
-- bridge it, but we need an official paper or -- or we can even meet again.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, so in 2002 the city did select the
Idaho Statesman at one point in time as the official newspaper of record and later
in 2002 they, then, moved to the ValleyTimes. So, we can do further study and
analysis and come back with a different recommendation or the same
recommendation in 30 days, but as the Mayor said, we can't publish anything,
including your meeting schedule, without an official newspaper.
Cavener: And, Madam Mayor, that's the point that I'm trying to get at. If the
Press-Tribune and Meridian Press is the best option, great. But I think that it's
important that we have that information prior to making that decision. So, I have
no problem supporting this as a -- as a temporary solution until we as a Council
have the opportunity to see what that is.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Before I make a motion, the way I look at it is the Press -Tribune has
interest in us. There is very few meetings we have here that they don't have a
reporter here and I can tell you it's had -- it's been at least 12, 14 years since I
have seen an Idaho Statesman reporter here. So, I have -- we can come back
and look at this within 30 days, but right now we have got to -- we have got to
pick somebody and I will make a motion that we go with the Idaho Press-Tribune
as our official paper at this time.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I do have a motion and a second, but I do have an ordinance.
Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read Item 10-B by title.
Coles: Yeah. Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 16 -
1718, an ordinance of the City of Meridian amending Meridian City Code Section
1-5-2 relating to the official newspaper of the City of Meridian and providing an
effective date.
Item 10: Ordinances
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 71 of 73
B. Amended onto agenda: Ordinance No. 16-1718: AN
ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MERIDIAN AMENDING
MERIDIAN CITY CODE SECTION 1-5-2, RELATING TO
THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF
MERIDIAN; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
De Weerd: Does anyone want to hear it read in its entirety? Okay. Do I have a
motion?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we pass Ordinance No. 16-1718 with suspension of rules.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10 -B. Mr. Clerk, will
you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
F. Public Hearing for PY2015 CDBG Consolidated Annual
Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER)
G. Resolution No. 16-1191: A Resolution Approving the
Submission of the PY2015 CDBG Consolidated Annual
Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER) to U.S. HUD for
Review
De Weerd: We have a proprietor who is waiting on us. Do we have pressing
business that has to be done?
Hood: Madam Mayor, we have to get our CAPER to HUD by the 30th of
December or we will be in violation of our entitlement. So, unfortunately, yes.
Unless you want to have a special meeting next week, which even then I don't
want to have to overnight it to HUD. That was -- I can do it in three minutes.
Really quick. So, I'm here for Sean. This is the Consolidated Annual
Performance and Evaluation Report card -- essentially, it's our report back to
HUD on how we spent funds this past year. This past year being defined as
funds spent by September 30th. So, here are some highlights. We completed --
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 72 of 73
we -- the gym construction was completed for the Meridian Boys and Girls Club.
We used HUD funds, CDBG funds back in 2008 to do design. There was a
section of Idaho Avenue, sidewalks between West 1st and West 4th. And Storey
Park began design, which will be constructed here the first -- start construction
the first of the year and be completed shortly thereafter. CATCH. We assisted
three homeless -- emergency homeless families. All three homes -- all three
families were stably housed at a cost of about 3,000 dollars from their homeless
episode. The Meridian Food Bank provided food to over 52,000 people. We
have talked about this before. That doesn't mean 52 separate individuals. It
could be repeat folks. On an average they -- about 4,000 patrons a month. Ada
County Housing Authority and Neighborworks assisted seven low to moderate-
income families with the purchase of their homes. So, ACHA aided five families
and Neighborworks did two families. Here are the expenditures. I'm going to just
quickly focus on what we didn't spend , because we didn't spend, as you can see
in the slide, enough, just to be frank and quick. This does reflect the substantial
amendment that you all passed previously this year. The admin dollars will be
reallocated to slum and blight plan, which is going to be getting under way here
shortly. The Five Mile pathway project was cancelled with a substitute for
number two. Let's see. Any other highlights there? Housing -- Housing
Authority is spending down their money, but they are spending down previous
year's monies and into '15 and '16. '15 expenditures from the previous program
year. You can see on the slide -- again, we have some funds remaining. This is
what we budgeted and we will move forward those funds that came in under
budget for some of those items and, again, there is the Storey Park project.
Streetlights was one that was also moved forward. There was a substantial
amendment from just recently. Again, you won't see that in the CAPER, because
that money wasn't spent by the 30th. So, the city's Finance Department has
reviewed the financial reports. The comment period was published in the official
newspaper of record on December 5th. We haven't received any comments,
although this is a public hearing. So, if someone here wants to provide
testimony, I would hope that you would give them a couple of minutes. I'm
asking you to hold that public hearing and, then, approve the resolution that
follows on your agenda and unless there is any questions that is the CAPER.
De Weerd: Is there anyone here that would like to provide testimony?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Seeing nobody does, I move we close the public hearing on PY -2015,
CDBG Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report. CAPER.
Milam: Second.
Borton: Second.
Meridian City Council
December 20, 2016
Page 73 of 73
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we pass Resolution 16-1191.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-G. Mr. Clerk, will
you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 11: Future Meeting Topics
Bird: Who said this was going to be a short meeting?
De Weerd: Yeah. Our attorney and our clerk did.
Bird: I move we adjourn.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:16 P.M.
(AUD REOOR FNG-QWEILE 7SE PROCEEDINGS)
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MAYOR
MAYOR T M de WEERD DATE APPROVED
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