HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-02Meridian City Council April 2, 2019.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:01 p.m., Tuesday, April
2, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer, Genesis
Milam, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt.
Also present: C.Jay Coles, Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Sonya Allen, Warren
Stewart, Brian Caldwell, Joe Bongiorno, Todd Lavoie and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X__ Treg Bernt
__X___Genesis Milam __X___Lucas Cavener
__X__ Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: I would like to welcome everyone to our City Council meeting. It is a minute
after 6:00, so we will get started, if I could get everyone's attention. Okay. For the record
it is Tuesday, April 2nd. It's one minute after 6:00. 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 all rise and join us in the
pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Russell McCrea of Living Grace
Community Fellowship
De Weerd: Item 3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be led by Russell McCrea
with Living Grace Community Fellowship. Thank you for joining us. I would ask all those
in attendance to join us in the community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a
moment of reflection.
McCrea: As I looked at the meeting agenda this evening I saw that as usual you're caring
for the land, so I have a couple of scriptures to offer tonight. John 15:13 tells us that
greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends. Then in Genesis
2:15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend or serve the
land and also to keep it and that word in Hebrew means to guard or protect. With that
may I offer this prayer. Heavenly Father and creator of this lovely world, we come humbly
to you asking for wisdom and strength for these servants of our city to follow your
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guidance to be the best stewards of the land and the people you have placed them in
charge of. Grant them insight and vision for our city, our residents and the land which
they consider in this meeting tonight. Keep our hearts humbled and mindful that any good
we can accomplish is bound in the care we have for those around us. Grant each
councilman and our mayor with your favor as they follow your precepts and strive to serve
this community and it's children, seniors and citizens. We thank you for your listening
ear, in the name of Christ, amen.
Item 4: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Thank you. Item No. 4 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I'm going to make a few changes. Item 6-N, as in Nancy, is going to get pulled
off of the consent and moved to a 7-A. Item 8-C, that's going to be continued when we
get to it, or at least has a request to continue when we get to it, but we are going to add
onto the agenda Item 10-A and that's an Ordinance 19-1820. This was an ordinance --
an amendment to the agenda somewhat late in the game due to circumstances we just
discovered earlier today. Legal will probably give a better description of it, but it wasn't
known to us that there was need for action when the agenda was set. It was made known
to us today. So, it was added today. And, Mr. Nary, if there is more context to that that's
needed --
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, very briefly. This is part of our background
checks that we do for various licensing. Because we are adding a new background check
for the booting, the FBI, then, suspends all of our background checks until we get this
amended and so we don't want to slow down the process of all the other types of the
licensing that are coming in at this particular time, so we want to get this moving quickly,
so we wanted to not delayed it a week, so --
De Weerd: Thank you.
Borton: Madam Mayor, with those amendments I would move that we adopt the agenda.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as stated. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Future Meeting Topics - Public Forum (Up to 30 Minutes Maximum)
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De Weerd: Mr. Clerk, any sign-ups under Item No. 5?
Coles: No sign-ups, Madam Mayor.
Item 6: Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. Approve Minutes of March 19, 2019 City Council Regular
Meeting
B. Approve Minutes of March 26, 2019 City Council Regular
Meeting
C. Final Plat for Westbridge Subdivision (H-2019-0022) by Trilogy
Idaho, Located at 5865 N. Black Cat Rd.
D. Final Order for Fairbourne Subdivision No. 1 (H-2019-0017)
by Fairbourne Development, Located at 6745 N. Black Cat Rd.
E. Final Order for Fairbourne Subdivision No. 2 (H-2019-0015)
by Fairbourne Development, Located at the NW Corner of N.
Black Cat Rd. and W. Chinden Blvd.
F. Final Order for Oaks North No. 1 (H-2019-0014) by Toll
Southwest, LLC, Located on the North side of W. McMillan Rd.,
Midway between N. McDermott Rd. and N. Black Cat Rd.
G. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Razzberry Villas (H-
2018-0130) by Ed Bowman, Located at 1434 and 1492 Star Dr.
H. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Summerwood (H-
2019-0001) by Matt Munger, Located at the North side of W.
McMillan Rd. between N. Black Cat Rd. and N. Ten Mile Rd.
And the SW Corner of W. McMillan Rd. and N. Ten Mile Rd.
I. Resolution No. 19-2136: A Resolution Of The Mayor And
Council Of The City Of Meridian, Idaho Adopting Amendments
To The City Of Meridian Strategic Plan
J. Resolution No. 19-2138: A Resolution Of The Mayor And The
City Council Of The City Of Meridian, Establishing The
Appointment Of Charlie Rountree To Seat 3 Of The Meridian
Board Of Adjustment.
K. Agreement to Allow Landscaping in the Roundabout at the
Intersection of Pine Street and N. Webb Way in Connection
with the Development of Pine 43
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L. 2019 Concert Series Agreement with Plum Unique Events
M. In Accordance with the Previously Approved Interagency
Agreement, Approve the Not-To -Exceed Amount of
$296,748.51 to pay Ada County Highway District (ACHD) for
City Water and Sewer Improvements Constructed on the
Linder Road Widening Project between Ustick Road and
Chinden Boulevard. ACHD Projects 5170241517032 and City of
Meridian Project 10763110764.
O. AP Invoices for Payment 03/22/ 19 - $36,333.87
P. AP Invoices for Payment 03/25/19 - $3,192. 29
Q. AP Invoices for Payment 04/ 03/ 19 - $281,714.71
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Item 6 is our Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: With Item 6-N having been removed, I move that we approve the Consent
Agenda as amended. For the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda as amended.
Mr. Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: One item was moved from the Consent Agenda. Item 7-N is now 7 -- or 6-N
is now 7-A. Mr. Palmer.
Item 7: Items Moved From The Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. FY2019 Fund Balance Transfers
Palmer: Madam Chair, the reason I asked for this one to be taken off before we make
the annual transfer that we do I wanted to -- we didn't know it was going to be on the
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agenda until we get the agendas on Friday, so I wanted some time to maybe have a
discussion as Council on a future council meeting as to ensuring that that's what we want
to do with the funds before we make the transfer and I know there is the argument that
we can all -- we can transfer it and we can always move it back later if we want to do
something else with it. But the reality is that wouldn't happen. So, I would like to just hold
off transferring it. It's not going to break anything. To give us a chance to have that
discussion and move it later or spend it somewhere else.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, I -- I guess if Council feels the same we can move it to an agenda
item on next week, which is a workshop or Council can take action.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Maybe a question for Council Member Palmer if you're open to it. Do you have
some thoughts about I guess a different allocation of funds than what's proposed or are
you just looking at to have more time to contemplate that?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I met with Finance sometime last year to discuss the logistics of potentially using
it for roads. I understand it's a complicated thing, but I think that it could still be done. So ,
I would like to explore that idea and that -- the reason that the funds exist is because we
are overcharging the development community for permits and whatnot. So , it's -- it is
growth that's causing these funds to exist within the city. So , I want to do everything we
possibly can to put it towards the number one thing that the public complains about growth
about and that's roads. So, if there is any possibility of being able to use those funds
legally for that purpose, especially where we have had conversations about wanting to
partner with ACHD to put an overpass at Linder or move up any of our other priority
projects, what better funds to use than these monies if it can be done.
Cavener: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, there is -- this is not an item that we can necessarily discuss,
because it's not published. I guess the question in front of Council is do you want to put
this off for a week as this -- as a specific budget item -- or item of discussion or do you
want to take action this evening?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
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Borton: I'm comfortable taking action on this. It's sort of -- it's consistent with what we
have done annually. It doesn't prevent future changes if there is a desire of the collective
group to allocate some portion of the money elsewhere, but the origin of this annual
process was to ensure that if there are any excess revenues, that they are allocated to a
capital improvement fund that ensures one time expenditures, as opposed to taking an
opportunity to expend it on recurring expenses. So, I think this is consistent with it. Now,
whether or not the items within our consolidated financial plan for public safety and those
capital needs should fall below roads that are funded by another agency, that's a big
discussion definitely for -- for another day. I don't think it necessitates holding up this
transfer that we do annually. So, I would support going forward now and approve the
fund balance transfer and I don't think it eliminates the discussion that Councilman Palmer
is asking us to explore, but I wouldn't wait.
De Weerd: And I do think there has been a commitment from the elected officials to
having the discussion after staff is able to get firmer numbers on -- on what in particular
the Linder overpass and -- and some of the remaining questions were leading into that
and they are still continuing those discussions and will be back in front of Council. So,
any other discussion?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I got a question for either Mr. Lavoie or Mr. Nary. Should the Council take
action tonight there is nothing that would prevent us at a later point in time from using
funds that are in the CIP to fund a road project should that be a decision the Council
would want to make at a future time?
De Weerd: No, it would not prohibit that.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: And, like I said, if we make this transfer it's not going back out. It goes into that
account and it will be spent on something that will have a name plate with all of our names
on it to -- it serves the community and glorify ourselves. My preference would be, again,
to just hold off and put it towards the number one thing people are -- are asking for and
demanding and that we have contemplated doing.
De Weerd: Well, I promise we won't do a nameplate on the overpass.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
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Borton: I move that we approve the recommended fund balance transfer of 3,251,404
dollars to the capital improvement fund as proposed by Finance.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, nay; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes -- oh, I'm sorry. The ayes have it. I apologize, Mr. Palmer.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE NAY.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Mayor's Youth Advisory Council Update and Participatory
Budgeting Proposal and Request
De Weerd: Okay. Action Items. Under 8-A we have the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council
update and also their presentation on participatory budgeting, their proposal and request.
So, Ben, if you can also introduce yourself and who you have with you.
Hutchins: Madam Mayor, City Council, thank you for having us tonight. We are excited
to propose our participatory budgeting project today that we have been working on for a
very long time. We have a MYAC member here with us today who has been spearheading
the project and we have also two more members of our Executive Council who will
introduce themselves. We are going to start off with our proposal for the participatory
budgeting project.
Coursey: Madam Chair and Council Members, I'm Jaelahna Coursey and today we thank
you for the opportunity to present our participatory budgeting proposal for this year. So ,
essentially, what spearheaded our idea was we saw an issue in the community and in the
nation regarding recycling and the lack of people participating in recycling and it being
available for other people. So , we found research showing that it's an obvious and big
problem that actually affects us not only environmentally, but physically as well. Here is
a physical demonstration of the amount of trash that we produce from 25 trash cans with
zero recycling receptacles and so we aim to somehow dent that impact and create a
better more recycling community. So, our asked for today is that we want to create
recycling receptacles that are wrapped with youth made art and put it around downtown
Meridian to kind of revitalize downtown and bring that art and youth participation along
with increasing our recycling.
Moore: Alrighty. Thank you again for this opportunity, Madam Mayor and all the Council
Members here today. My name is Carson Moore. I -- additionally, I am a member of the
Meridian Mayor's Youth Advisory Council. So, we will talk about some of the logistics of
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our plan. We have done a lot of research and we -- we found that Secure offers the best
receptacles if we are to move forward with our plan. One of the main things that I would
like to highlight is the fact that these receptacles shown here have carts that are
removable, which makes the process of collecting the recyclable materials very
streamlined. As far as location earlier in the year, the youth council to ok a walk-in on it
-- of the downtown Meridian area and as was shown earlier, we noticed that there were
25 trash cans in our -- in our city, but there were zero recycling receptacles. So, what we
want to do is analyze the downtown area and pick the optimal -- optimal locations for
where we can place these recycling receptacles. Additionally, we want to ensure that we
place our recycling receptacles next to the already established trash cans in order to
reduce what's known as contamination. That's the mixing of trash and recyclable
materials. And, additionally, this area shown here is called the city core and currently it's
covered by the Meridian city master license agreement with ACHD and so in talking with
ACHD we don't -- we do not foresee any permitting problems as far as placing our trash
cans -- or our recycle receptacles. Excuse me. And, then, lastly -- and in talking with
Republic Services, we found that there would no -- not be an additional expense to the
city for placing these additional recycling receptacles and the process would be pretty
streamlined as far as the new recycle -- recycling receptacles would be geotagged and,
then, Republic Services would pick up the material, so --
Graves: Okay. So, the recycling receptacles are only part of the project --
De Weerd: Amber, you have to introduce yourself.
Graves: Oh. I'm Amber Graves and I'm a member of the Meridian Mayor's Youth Advisory
Council and the artwork is only a part of -- or a part of the piece of the puzzle. We also
have the recycling receptacles to go along with it. So, there is five steps that we would
take for the artwork. So, we do a call to artists. We would determine the winning artwork.
Obtain the artist's permission. Wrap the receptacles with the artwork and, then, present
it to the Arts Commission, which is not necessarily last, but that would be kind of in
conjunction and at the same time as the others. So, for our call to artists we have talked
a little bit with the Arts Commission and what that would need to look like, but our criteria
would be that the artist was a high school student, that the artwork would include the word
recycle or the recycling symbol, that the artwork -- artwork would be two dimensional, that
way we could wrap the receptacles with it, that an artist may submit up to five pieces of
artwork and a picture of the piece may -- may be submitted by e-mail and that's just how
we would collect the artwork and, then, determine what we would use and we would
determine the winning artwork as a council. So, we would need to decide if we want to
do that in a small committee or if we would do it as a -- as a general council, but we will
decide that when the time comes. So, obtaining that artist's permission, we talked a little
bit with the Arts Commission about that and we would just need to sign an agreement
with them, but the Arts Commission is willing to help us with that. And wrapping the
receptacles, we have talked -- we have talked with Art Sign Design and they do a vinyl
wrap around the receptacles and that's what we would be going with and the cost estimate
is about 236 dollars per receptacle and as was mentioned kind of earlier that we would
present to the Arts Commission and this is to ge t on the maintenance rotation. So, the
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Arts Commission has electrical boxes around town that they already service and rewrap,
so by presenting to the Arts Commission we would be asking them to put the receptacles
on their maintenance rotation. So , as far as pricing goes, we were thinking about 1,190
dollars per receptacle before installation and, then, 236 dollars for the wrapping of the
receptacle, which brings the total price of each receptacle to 1,426 dollars. So, within our
budget we think about 13 receptacles.
Graves: So, again, I'm Jaelahna Graves, Madam Chair and Council Members. The
reason why we think that this is important is because , like I stated earlier, recycling is
really an issue, especially in our city core, we don't see a lot of recycling availability for
that foot traffic and those recyclable goods, so will increase the amount of recycling that
occurs, along with creating an aesthetically pleasing city core through this and kind of
voicing the youth through that as well, so that they can show their artwork and our desire
to continue recycling as well. Our bottom line and essentially the main point for all of this
is that we want the youth of Meridian to create a long lasting and tangible representation
of our desire to better the community in this specific case through that recycling.
Moore: And at this point, we would like to answer any questions that you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Carson, Jaelahna and Amber. Council, any questions for our
MYAC students?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: One question. Great presentation and information. Is there a separate cost for
the installation itself?
Moore: Yeah. So, I can take that one. We have talked a lot with the -- the Parks and
Rec Department of the Meridian city and they have said that we might be able to partner
with them to install the receptacles. So , at that point there would be no like additional
expense directly to our project, but that is also why we left some room in our budget for
the installation, but that's -- that's definitely something that we still have to explore.
Borton: Okay.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Great presentation you guys. I have a couple of questions. So, it looks like you
have spoken with Republic Services. Did you specifically speak to them regarding the
style of can to the ease of their job of retrieving the material?
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Moore: Okay. Yeah. Council Woman Milam, so we did talk to Republic Services about
picking up the trash or -- oh, my goodness. And I apologize again. The recyclable
materials and they did not say that the removable cart was actually necessary. So, they
didn't have any real huge concerns about collecting recyclable materials. Bu t as I
mentioned earlier, the receptacle that we have selected does have a removable cart,
which makes it really easy for the truck to use its hydraulic arm.
Milam: So, they didn't have a problem with it. They really -- they understand the type of
can that you're using?
Moore: Yeah.
Milam: It's okay with them?
Moore: Yeah.
Milam: Okay. Madam Mayor, follow up. The other thing that we are experiencing -- and
you mentioned contamination. It's a huge problem, particularly in public spaces. It's a
problem in our own homes and it's even worse when you go out into the public and people
are just putting whatever in and especially with the -- the way that recycling has changed
so dramatically over the last couple of years, there is not a lot of materials that can actually
be recycled through general recycling, through our mixed commingling recycling. So, are
you going to have a label on each can showing just the specific items that can be put in?
Are you going to limit it to just one or two things? How are you going to do that?
Moore: Yes. Well, thank you again, Council Woman Milam. So, we have talked about
that a lot as a group and one of the reasons we liked the secure receptacle was because
it had different sized openings, so we definitely want to look towards an opening that, you
know, says recycling, perhaps round or rectangular and, then, as far as like a symbol on
the receptacle, that's kind of why we made one of the requirements be that has the recycle
symbol, but, then, additionally, we have discussed, you know, making a list of items that
can actually be recycled and we -- we feel that that's something that's very doable, where
we are going to be working with the vinyl, we can customize it to our city's needs and
requirements.
Milam: I think that would be really important -- critical to the success of this -- of this
program that you're presenting, because the general public doesn't necessarily know
what can go in, because the list has changed and it's changed and it has changed. So,
my -- my recommendation would be to keep it limited to four or five things and just make
a list of -- you know, the most -- probably the most popular things that you would hope to
get in there. Soda pop bottles, cans, cardboard, something like that. And so that's
something that you could probably work with Republic Services on, as well as -- as far as
what they want to keep out. You know, plastic water bottles are not recyclable. So, that's
one of the large contaminants that we have in this type of a situation.
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Graves: Just something to add, Madam Mayor and Councilman. I just wanted to point
out, too, that we are talking about putting our receptacles next to trash cans. So , I think
that's another big issue with contamination is speaking from personal experience I -- if
there is a recycling receptacle right next to a trash can I'm not just going to throw my trash
in the recycling receptacle if I know the appropriate places to put it. So , that's what we
are talking about doing. That way we can kind of avoid that contamination problem if it's
putting in a recycling receptacle versus doing nothing with it or -- I don't think we are going
to be having that issue, just because we will be putting them next to trash cans.
Milam: I'm sorry -- Madam Mayor. I'm not being hard on you, but it's -- it's not a matter
of just sheer laziness, it's about understanding. I yesterday witnessed a mayor put in --
De Weerd: It wasn't me.
Milam: It wasn't you, Mayor. It was from a different city. I'm not going to name any
names. But not -- even misunderstand and when we see all this, but with so many
changes -- putting plastic utensils into the recycling bin and they are not -- they are not
accepted in there anymore, where they used to be. So, yeah, I think just a short list would
probably be really beneficial to actually having a list of what can go in there. Even if it's
next to a trash can, just because people just -- you don't think. It seems like it should be
recyclable, so we want it to be, so we put it in there, because we want it to be recyclable,
but all it does is containment recycling and mess up the whole process. Thank you guys
very much.
Moore: Thank you.
De Weerd: Other questions? Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Great presentation. Thank you so much. You guys always do a great job. One
quick question. Now, have you guys looked outside the core of downtown as possible
sites or -- it sounds like all of these are going to be downtown in the downtown core. Have
you looked at other areas outside the core that would make sense to have these
receptacles?
De Weerd: Their focus was on the downtown core --
Bernt: Right.
De Weerd: -- and in that walkable area.
Bernt: Okay. I get that, but --
Moore: Yeah. I mean thank you for your question, Councilman Bernt. We have -- when
we were planning kind of our project we did talk about the possibility of -- of parks in the
Meridian area. But, yeah, in the end we did decide to go with just the Meridian core as
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far as some of the requirements for our project and, then, also the permitting to place the
receptacles as well.
Coursey: Also with our budget, whereas we have only 13 receptacles that we would be
able to put, we think that the density is really important to kind of creating that habit,
especially -- sorry -- for people who walk the area often, so that they can get used to that
system, like Council Woman brought up.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Do you guys have an idea about how long the wraps will last ? In terms of
future funding to rewrap them, how -- how -- what's the lifespan on them?
Graves: Okay. To address that question, the vinyl lasts up to ten years, but, as I
mentioned earlier, we would talk to the Arts Commission about getting on their
maintenance rotation. They replace all their vinyl wraps every five years. So, if we
present to the Arts Commission and get on their maintenance rotation, then , that's not
anything that we would need to worry about anymore. If we were on the -- their
maintenance rotation, then, they would worry about rewrapping the receptacles and that
wouldn't be anything that we would need to worry about anymore.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I guess I'm going to push that back to -- a little bit then. That's something that
we as a Council, though, would have to worry about and -- and 236 dollars times 13 is,
you know, about 2,500 dollars, so while that's something when you are off kicking butt in
college, a future council will have to rationalize the decision about do we continue to
spend money on a vinyl wrap for a project that was proposed five years ago and I guess
my question to you would be with this project what was more of the priority, getting
recycling out in our community in our downtown core or getting art in our downtown core?
Graves: I guess to speak to that question -- for me I think it's more about the artwork,
especially our theme this year was focus on downtown and getting more foot traffic in
downtown and so I think the artwork is a really key part of that. Also youth involvement
is always a big thing when we are talking about participatory budgeting. So, I think being
able to involve the high school students of Meridian in asking them to design artwork for
these receptacles is a big thing and I think that provides a voice for the youth that they
don't currently have. So, I think the artwork is a very important piece of this and we
already have, you know, electrical boxes with vinyl wraps on them that are already been
replaced, so this is not -- it would -- it would add to the expense, but it's not a new expense.
It's already something that's being done . So, it's -- it's adding to it, but it's not anything
new and something the Arts Commission is already doing.
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Cavener: Madam Mayor, one more.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: One of the things I love about participatory budgeting is you as an organization
are kind of wrestling with the pros and cons and so I guess my last question would be is
would you support reduced funding for participatory budgeting in the future to cover the
added cost of wrapping these in the future?
Coursey: So, obviously, we don't advocate for like reducing the funds for participatory
budgeting, because it opens up our opportunity for proposals. But when we talked to the
Arts Commission and we talked about possibly proposing this to them, they constantly
want to increase the amount of electrical boxes being wrapped, so in this case it would
be kind of a surrogate. So, regardless, that growth would be happening.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Outstanding answers. Great question. Even better answers. You guys nailed it
I think. What's going to happen in five years? Who knows. But I'm ready, willing and
able to bet on you guys and the work you have done. You're sending a message not only
of providing that voice for the youth, but you have worked together to try and provide an
opportunity for our downtown to be more walkable, to promote recycling and address
issues that are important to the youth, which is the whole point of participatory budgeting.
If in five years they are not going to be rewrapped, the future council can decide that. It
doesn't negate the value of the recycling opportunity downtown. Quite frankly I think they
will be. I think the art incorporation is brilliant as well. So, I'm fully supportive of what you
have done. Appreciate the work that you did get to this point and the due diligence that's
necessary to make this have a chance to be successful. So Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I will move and do move to approve MYAC's participatory budgeting proposal
and request as presented and I'm sure we will be getting updates as you proceed and
prepare for installation.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: I guess I just would challenge you as a body to partner with our downtown
businesses and maybe there is an opportunity for sponsorship, so that these businesses
that are wanting -- that are seeing the benefit of this art, perhaps maybe sponsor and help
offset the cost of the taxpayers and I think it just continues to provide a value add to the
great work that you're doing.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Awesome idea. I echo the -- the sentiments from Council -- Councilman Borton
and others. I like this idea so much that I think that we should -- we probably should
maybe look at expanding this maybe a little bit, maybe to a couple big parks just to see
how it works. You know. I mean I know that's -- that's not your focus and you're focusing
on the downtown, but maybe talk about that a little bit more to see if that would be a
possibility to put in a couple big parks just to see how it does, because I think -- I think it
would be awesome, you know, both for the recycling aspect of it and also the artwork as
well.
De Weerd: Maybe that's next year's proposal. Any other comments? Mr. Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, ye a; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: You got all ayes. Congratulations.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I know you guys are a little ways away, but, you know, could plant a seed to start
thinking about a city council run. We could use your -- your youth and enthusiasm.
De Weerd: Have to be 18.
Milam: Yeah. I said in a couple years. Just planting a seed. Let it grow. Water it.
De Weerd: Congratulations.
Hutchins: Great. Thank you so much, Madam Mayor and City Council Members, for your
involvement in the participatory budgeting. Next we are going to talk -- next we are going
to talk about the National League of Cities conference and two of our executive council
members' experiences during the trip, how they benefitted from it and their experiences.
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Coursey: Hi. So, again, I'm Jaelahna Coursey. I'm the Teen Activities vice chair for
MYAC. Overall I think that the NLC trip was really beneficial, not only for the youth who
attended, but also to bring back to the city. I think it's a great investment for kind of
building us as leaders, but also bringing the ideas from around the nation. Personally,
one of my main takeaways was looking at what kind of problems we choose to tackle in
discussion with youth delegates and adult delegates from different cities. A lot of them
face very insurmountable issues, but they still try to tackle it. So , personally, I think that
kind of looking at those and looking at more long term things that may outlive our high
school experience and live on through MYAC could be something that we could work
towards, especially as I continue with next year in MYAC. A lot of the issues that they
brought up included theft with cars and also human trafficking and they were all very
aware that they would not solve these problems, but they still took it on -- took it on fully
and were able to kind of not necessarily quantify the impact regarding results, but quantify
it regarding impacts on people and testimonies in that scenario. So , personally, that's
what I got from this National League of Cities and I think that context nationally can be
really beneficial for MYAC and it was very beneficial for me personally.
Graves: Madam Mayor and Council Members, again, I'm Amber Graves and I had the
privilege of attending National League of Cities this year and it was so much fun. I thought
it was a blast. Also it was very educational. Just to kind of add on to what Jaelahna said,
one thing that I personally took away was how the other cities around the nation are
looking to lower the voting age in their cities and their states. That's something that we
kind of looked at a little bit this year with our legislation and although it was successful we
didn't get the outcome that we were looking for and we will continue to pursue that, but it
was extremely valuable for me to be able to hear what other councils are doing and how
they are approaching that problem and I think that's valuable -- valuable perspective that's
hard to gain and it was a very valuable experience for me to go and hear from them and
not only about lowering the voting age, but other things that they are doing in their cities
that we can take back and implement here.
De Weerd: Thank you, Amber.
Hutchins: Great. In our upcoming events we have coming up tomorrow -- MYAC is
partnering American Heart Association and we are having a luncheon with the --
partnering with the American Heart Association. We are going to be talking about our
experiences. We are highlighting at our Dutch Bros CPR day and we are spreading the
word about MYAC and the youth involvement that we have in Meridian to local businesses
and, then, we are also going to be assisting the American Heart Association. Also we
have MYAC elections coming up very soon on Monday, April 22nd, where we are going
to vote in a whole new council and everybody's going to be able to participate and have
their voice heard if it wasn't heard as much as they wanted to in general election -- or
general council and they want a change in the council. All the seniors are going to be
going and people who were in the council this year who are on the executive council will
be running for the positions that they want to be running for. And, then, also in the works
right now we have the suicide prevention run . We -- if you remember from last year it
was a great success and we will bring it back. It's going to be an event that Kleiner Park
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and we are working on more details, which I will bring to you as fast as we have them.
Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Ben. Council, any questions?
Hutchins: And, then, we also have Do The Right stickers for all the Council -- Council
Members.
De Weerd: All right.
Hutchins: If that's all right. Thank you.
De Weerd: So, just -- Ben, if you could give a brief overview, too, of Do The Right and
maybe what some of the activities are that MYAC is -- is doing.
Hutchins: Yes. Do The Right Day is coming up this Thursday on April 4th. It's a
movement of compassion for everybody to do something kind to the -- to the -- the person
on their right and the person on their left and just make sure that everybody feels heard
-- also have flyers for everybody.
De Weerd: You can give them to the clerk, he will make sure they are given out.
Hutchins: But it's a movement -- it's a movement of compassion for everybody to feel
loved and just a general sense of compassion and kindness on this day where -- where
everyone can exercise their care for each other and it's really a moment of reflection for
everybody and realize all the nice things that we do for each other and try to take a
moment to step back and appreciate everything that we have here.
De Weerd: So, how can the Council help with Do The Right?
Hutchins: Well, we have our student ambassadors bring to their schools all the stickers,
all the flyers. We have large posters that we put up in every school with little notes. I
know that I was an at large ambassador last year, so at all the schools that I represented
we had posters with notes and they were tear aways and one thing that you could do right
for the person next to you or the person at school. We even got teachers involved as well
where we were to go up to teachers and tell them -- tell them how much we appreciate
them. All the teachers that were involved were super excited. All the teachers in my
school and the schools that I represented I remember telling me that they still have their
stickers on the laptops and it's spreading every single year.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hutchins: Thank you.
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De Weerd: Thank you for joining us and I love how active and passionate you all are, in
particular about your participatory budgeting project , and we do hope that you will come
back with the locations and the proposed artwork that you want to wrap with .
Hutchins: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, City Council.
De Weerd: Thank you, Ben.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Before that, I see Jodi St. Martin in the audience. Hats off to you and thank you
for your work with MYAC throughout the year and helping shepherd the PBP process
through the fall and up to this point. So, a lot of their success comes with your oversight
and assistance. So, thank you for that. Good job.
De Weerd: And Mr. Dom as well. He helps with government affairs subcommittee. So
thank you.
B. Public Hearing for Proposed Parks Fees
1. Resolution 19- 2134: A Resolution Adopting New Fees Of
The Meridian Parks And Recreation Department; Authorizing
The Meridian Parks And Recreation Department To Collect
Such Fees; And Providing An Effective Date.
De Weerd: Okay. Item B is a public hearing for the proposed parks fees and I will open
this public hearing and turn this over to Colin.
Moss: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, I am here tonight to
present our tri-annual activity guide fees. This one being our summer activity guide that
will be coming out here next Friday and so we have a long list of classes that will be
offered this summer. We also have some fees on the end there related to the opening of
Discovery Park, as well as some updated tournament fees for our sports leagues and a
couple others and so I -- I will just stand for any questions that you might have about any
of the fees that are on the list.
De Weerd: Thank you, Colin. Council, any questions? Don't have any.
Moss: Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to provide
testimony on this item? Okay. Council, seeing none --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve Resolution No. 19-2134.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Resolution 19-2134. Any
discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Public Hearing for Stapleton Subdivision ( H- 2018-0129) by
Stapleton, LLC, Located at the SW corner of S. Meridian Rd./ SH
69 and W. Harris St.
1. Request: Annexation and Zoning of 38. 15 acres of land with
an R15 zoning district; and
2. Request: Preliminary Plat consisting of 223 building lots and
27 common lots on 35. 67 acres of land in the R- 15 zoning
district
De Weerd: Okay. We did have a request to continue Item 8-C to May 7th and I will ask
staff if they want to give the basis of that request.
Allen: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the applicant is here tonight, if you would
like an explanation from the applicant, but from what I understand the -- this hearing date
didn't work for them.
De Weerd: Okay. I guess it would be nice to hear from the applicant. Is there any
member of the public here that is here on this particular agenda item? Okay. Thank you,
sir. Yes. If the applicant could, please, share -- if you will, please, state your name and
address for the record.
Bailey: Madam Mayor, Council Members, my name is Laren Bailey with Devco
Development. Address 4824 West Fairview Avenue, Boise, Idaho.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bailey: And I apologize for requesting a continuance. We had some members of our
team who were tied up with other things tonight. A couple on vacation. And, then, some
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other issues. And so we knew this, you know, when -- when this was scheduled and we
talked to staff, but your code requires us to be heard with a certain amount of days, so
we needed to have this and continue out. So, we -- this didn't just come about, we knew
this when we were scheduled and we let your staff know, but because of your code we
needed to be scheduled to be heard and so that -- that's why we had to ask for the -- to
be deferred to the 7th.
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Borton, did you have a comment? Mr. Clerk, I know we have
talked about this before and there has been discussion on extending that, changing the
ordinance and it is in process. Where are we at with that?
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I know that it is with the UDC
working group and it's part of the overall UDC changes that will be coming before the
Commission and the Council in the next little while. I don't know the exact time frame on
that, but it's a part of the overall changes happening within the UDC.
De Weerd: Is -- is there a process that we can -- or a process that you use when you
have these requests and to share with our citizens so they don't spend their evening in
vain to let them know that although it was set for a particular date, because of our code
the applicant still cannot make that, it would be recommended for a different date, how
can you do that?
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I believe when we found out
that this date wouldn't work we had already started with the noticing process. However,
because of NextDoor there is no cost to -- to making changes in notifications with
NextDoor. I do believe we did use NextDoor to send out an update saying this -- there is
a request to be continued to this date. So, that's generally the tool that we use, because
we can on a -- on a moment's notice use NextDoor to push out a lot of information.
De Weerd: Can it also be noted on the agenda?
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. We have discussed that before. I know that this
Council has brought up that request and I know Mr. Nary has weighed in that while it's
okay to do that -- and he can correct me if I'm wrong -- while they -- if we put that on there
it isn't official until the Council takes action on that.
De Weerd: Right.
Coles: So, we don't want to confuse anyone if they see that and, then, all of a sudden
the Council didn't make that decision and now we have confused other members of the
public.
Borton: Get the UDC changed.
De Weerd: Caleb, is this something that can be considered to bring separate from UDC?
Does it need to be packaged or bundled with the other changes of the UDC?
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Hood: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we are ready to go. Bill Parsons this
week should have the application submitted, so there is no worry at this point to pull it
out. Some things have been piggybacked on that application and it's -- it's flagged and I
apologize for that, but it is moving forward as the clerk mentioned. I don't have a specific
date yet, but that transmittal this week -- we have had some recent communications with
the BCA, so -- but -- but, really, at this point the application is 99 percent ready to be
submitted this week and will be -- it does go to the Planning and Zoning Commission first
here, but eight weeks or so should be back before you for a hearing. So, I don't anticipate
this situation happening again. We will cross our fingers anyways that it doesn't. But,
again, no reason to pull it out and process it separately at this point.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, so, Council, there is that -- I mean there is an expense to the
applicant that they notice it for a date and , then, they have to renotice it or repost it. I
guess it can be at our expense , because it's our ordinance, but -- any comments from
Council? Any questions for the applicant? Thank you.
Bailey: Thank you.
De Weerd: And I apologize to the citizen that joined us to make comment. It is an
inconvenience and we apologize.
Coles: Madam Mayor, if I may just get some clear direction from Council. If it is the will
of the Council to do a full renotice, reposting at the city's expense, including -- I know that
the Council has considered before if the sign needs to be reposted on the site, while that
is generally at the applicant's expense, and we have done it where the Council has
decided to do at our expense as well. So, I just want to make sure that that's clear on the
record, so we know what we are doing moving forward for May 7th.
De Weerd: Council?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: It would be at our expense, since we forced the compressed schedule in this
case, so --
Coles: That's what we will do.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Is the public hearing open? Are we okay to take action?
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De Weerd: It is open and I would entertain a motion to continue.
Borton: Madam Mayor, I move that we continue H-2018-0129 to May 7, 2019, and for the
city to cover costs of the reposting of the property.
Cavener: Second.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and it seems like a very popular second to continue
this to May 7th with the city to bear the cost of full noticing both by mail and changing of
the sign. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. Public Hearing Continued from February 19, 2019 for Villasport
(H-2019-0011) by Sadie Creek Commons, LLC, Located the SW
Corner of E. Ustick Rd. and N. Eagle Rd.
1. Request: Council Review of application H- 2018- 0121 and
the Planning and Zoning Commission' s requirements related
to conditions of approval:
UDC 11- 4- 3-2A. 1, which requires all outdoor recreation
areas and structures that are not fully enclosed to maintain a
minimum setback of 100 feet from any abutting residential
district;
UDC 11-3A-13, which requires outdoor speaker systems
associated with the use to be located a minimum of 100 feet
from all residential districts;
UDC 11-4-3-2A.2, which prohibits outdoor event or activity
centers from being located within 50 feet of any property line
and limits the hours of operation to those between 6: 00 am
and 11:00 pm;
Condition #2. 2, which limits the hours of operation of the
athletic club and spa to the hours between 4:00 am and
midnight (12:00 am) for indoor activities and 6:00 am to 11: 00
pm for outdoor activities, with outdoor music limited to the
hours between 9:00 am and 10: 00 pm;
Condition #2. 10, which requires the Applicant to work with
Planning Staff and ACHD to create a crosswalk for pedestrian
access to the facility from the west parking lot.
E. Public Hearing Continued from February 19, 2019 for Villasport
(H-2018-0121) by Sadie Creek Commons, LLC, Located on the
SW corner of E. Ustick Rd. and N. Eagle Rd.
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1. Request: Modification to an Existing Development Agreement
for the purpose of removing the property from DA Instrument
108008770 and enter into a new development agreement
F. Public Hearing for Villasport (H-2019-0032) by Sadie Creek
Commons, LLC, Located 3055 N. Eagle Rd.
1. Request: Variance to the minimum setback standard listed in
UDC 11 -4-3-2A. 1 for outdoor recreation areas and structures
that are not fully enclosed to maintain a minimum setback of
100 feet from any abutting residential district; and the
minimum setback standard listed in 11 -4-3-2A.2 that restricts
an outdoor event or activity center from being located within
50 feet of any property line
De Weerd: And thank you. Okay. Item 8-D is a public hearing continued from February
19th for H-2019-0011. I will ask our city attorney to -- this -- this was continued and if you
can kind of set the parameters of the discussion for this evening.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the Council. So, what you have before you
are three items for Villasport. One is a request for Council review of some of the CUP
conditions that were granted by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The applicant has
requested some of that to be reviewed by this Council. You also have a request to modify
the existing development agreement for this project to incorporate the -- this project into
a new development agreement for the property. And , third, you have a request for a
variance and that was the main reason that this was continued to this date. There are
some setback standards in the UDC that can only be adjusted by varian ce, not by CUP
and so that -- those items are before you and you will note on the agenda, as well as in
the staff report, they are mentioned a couple of times, so just to help everyone at home
that's keeping score keep track, the items under F -- so, there is two sections of the
Uniform Development Code that are related to City Codes 11 -4-3-2A.1 and 11 -4-3-2A.2
that are specifically va riance requests regarding dimensional standards and locations of
the building in relation to property lines of the adjoining residential properties. Those are
also listed under the CUP, so that was the one where they -- the CUP couldn't be used to
alter those. So, you are being asked to look at some CUP considerations. After further
review part of the previous discussion was regarding the hours of operation and whether
or not this specific standard in one section of our UDC code was superseding the general
standard, which allows you to vary the hours of operation by CUP. It does not. So, you
can consider the request by the applicant for th e change in the hours of operation under
the CUP that was granted by Planning and Zoning, except not for that specific request.
They granted a different request for hours of operation under the CUP and did not grant
this one. You can consider that as the applicant is requesting you to do. So, you have
three separate things all related to the same project. One is the CUP, one is the DA, and
one is the variance and so if you have other questions -- like Sonya will probably answer
the specific project, but as other questions about the framework of what the legal
questions are being asked tonight, I can certainly answer those.
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De Weerd: Council, any questions regarding the framework and -- and what is before
you tonight to make decisions upon? Do you understand what Mr. Nary just said,
basically.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Yes is the quick answer.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Borton: But before we -- before we begin I want to put on the record that I was absent at
the previous meeting, so in preparation for today's meeting I was able to review the
YouTube video of the prior hearing, as well as the complete record of all the written
material that's been presented, staff reports, comments up to and including through the
variance application, all of which is before the Council now. So, I feel like I'm well versed
and up to speed in everything that's transpired up to today, so I feel comfortable
participating in -- in all three of these combined hearings. So, wanted to make that known.
And -- and as part of that, getting my head around these applications it appeared -- and
from Mr. Nary's comments that of the assorted requests of the applicant the Council has
the legal authority to grant tonight each of them based on th e various findings that are
necessary. There is nothing we are precluded from granting.
Nary: That is correct -- Council Member Borton, that is correct. There is nothing that you
cannot consider based upon the material that's in front of you.
De Weerd: Okay. With that -- with that said I will also note for the record as we listened
to the Sadie Creek comments, development and discussion, Items 8-D, E and F are open
in this public hearing and we will accept all comments taken at once. Okay. Sonya.
Allen: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, at the previous hearing, you did hear the
request for City Council review and the development agreement modification. Would you
like me to recap on those tonight or would you like me to move straight to the variance?
De Weerd: Council, I think it would be helpful for a recap. And I will just note to the public
the process for the public hearing, if this is your first time here, staff will open with a
proposal about the applications in front of Council. We will ask for the applicant's
comments. They have 15 minutes. We will , then, open it up for public comment. You
have three minutes to present your -- your comments, your concerns, your questions, and
you have one chance to do that. At the end of the public comment period we will ask the
applicant to respond and give comment and, then, it's in the ball -- it's in the City Council's
court to follow up with any questions for staff , applicant, or any of those that testified
before they make a decision. And please take note as Councilman Borton mentioned,
there is a great deal of record on this that City Council does take into consideration as
they make their decision. So, Sonya, I will turn this over to you.
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Allen: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, I will just start from the
beginning for those that may not have been present at the last hearing. This site consists
of 11.39 acres of land. It's zoned C-G and is located off of the southwest corner of North
Eagle Road and East Ustick Road. A little history. This property was annexed back in
2005 with a development agreement under the name of Sadie Creek Commons. The
previously approved concept plan was for a mixed use development. I think I have that
here. Yeah. Upper left-hand corner there. Mixed use development consisting of
approximately 150,000 square feet of commercial retail, restaurant and office uses on
15.33 acres of land. Three accesses were approved via Ustick Road and one right-in,
right-out access was approved via North Eagle Road. The provisions in the development
agreement pertain to that development plan and is applicable to the subject property, as
well as to the out parcel at the northeast corner of the site. The Comprehensive Plan
mixed -- future land use map designation is mixed use regional. So, I will just go through
the City Council review request of the Commission's decision on the conditional use
permit first and I will only cover those that the variance is not requested for. So, there is
three of them. First, the 2.1A and that is part of the variance request. So, I will skip to
number 2.1C, which requires if an outdoor speaker system is proposed the location of
such shall be depicted on the plans at least one hundred feet from all residential districts
unless waived through approval of a conditional use permit per UDC 11 -3A-13. The
applicant is requesting a waiver from this standard as allowed by the UDC through a
conditional use permit. In the alternative of a waiver, the applicant requests the one
hundred feet is interpreted to be from the adjacent residents -- excuse me -- residential
structures rather than district. Next is number 2.1D and that is the subject of the varian ce
request as well. Moving on to number 2.2, the hours of operation of the athletic club and
spa are limited to the hours between 4:00 a.m. and midnight, 12:00 a.m. for indoor
activities and 6:00 o'clock a.m. to 11:00 p.m. for outdoor activities with outdoor music
limited to the hours between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. as approved with this application.
The applicant is requesting earlier hours of operation for outdoor activities of 5:00 a.m.
instead of 6:00 a.m., Monday through Friday, seasonally, consistent with number 2.1D.
And, finally, number 2.10, the applicant show work with planning staff and ACHD to create
a crosswalk for pedestrian access to the facility from the west parking lot. The applicant
is requesting the following text is added: If permitted by ACHD in the event ACHD will not
allow a crosswalk. Staff is amenable to this change. Next is the development agreement
modification request to remove the subject property from the terms of the existing
agreement for Sadie Creek Commons and enter into a new agreement for the proposed
development. A proposed concept plan is there on the right. The new concept plan and
building elevations depict a 99,000 square foot two story building for an athletic club and
spa and an proximate 15,300 square foot retail building that fronts on Eagle Road.
Associated parking for the proposed uses is also depicted. Lastly, the variance is to UDC
11 -4-3-2A.1. That standard requires all outdoor recreation areas and structures that are
not fully enclosed shall maintain a minimum setback of one hundred feet from any abutting
residential districts. I would just like to note in the staff report the distances noted by staff
are a little wonky. They were based on the original site plan submitted with the application ,
so -- and the applicant submitted another plan to me this afternoon, so they -- they do
vary a little bit, but in your decision, please, just note this site plan that's shown before
you tonight. The adult lap pool, the concrete pool deck --
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Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Sonya, hold on. Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I don't mean to interrupt. I just want to get -- make sure that I'm -- I'm clear on
this. This site plan that is on the screen now is the one you want us referencing ?
Allen: Yes, please.
Cavener: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Allen: So, the -- the pool area here is the green area right here. The pool deck area
where there is seating that surrounds it and, then, this is the outdoor turf area here that
we are referencing. So, the pool, the concrete pool deck and the turf area depicted on
the plan are within one hundred feet of the residential district to the south, which adjoins
the southern property line at six feet to the pool deck area and 11 feet to the turf area.
Staff believes the intent of the standard is to have a minimum one hundred foot separation
between residential and outdoor recreation uses. If the setback were measured from the
nearest residential property line, the setback to the pool deck would be 77 feet and to the
turf area would be 60 feet per the revised plan shown. Other unique factors that exist on
this site is the residential zoning in this area is not typical and that it stretches from the
residential area to the south across the street and includes a common area, which abuts
this site. Typically zoning goes to the center line of adjacent streets. So, this -- this zoning
map here depicts what I was just stating. Typically it would go to the center line right here
and in this case it goes to -- actually to the far edge of the street and includes the -- the
common area and these areas. This irregularity creates a wider area setback that then
is typical in this situation for outdoor recreation uses and, then, additionally, the Milk
Lateral bisects this site and lies to the north of their proposed building, which restricts the
development area of this site and creates a hardship. The second request for variance
is to UDC 11-4-3-2A.2, which requires no outdoor event or activity center shall be located
within 50 feet of any property line and shall operate only between the hours of 6:00 a.m.
and 11:00 p.m. The adult lap pool, concrete pool deck area , and the outdoor turf area
depicted on the site plan are within 50 feet of the southern property line at approximately
11 feet to the turf area and six feet to the pool deck area. The applicant is requesting
reduction in the setback accordingly as shown. The staff believes the intent of this
requirement is to have a 50 foot separation between the adjacent property l ine use and
the outdoor activity center, which in this case is greater than 50 feet. Staff recommends
Council consider the intent of this standard when considering the varian ce request. And
just, again, as a reminder, in order to grant a variance Council must make the following
of findings: The variance shall not grant a right or special privilege that is not otherwise
allowed on the district. The variance relieves an undue hardship because of
characteristics of the site and the variance shall not be detrimental to the public health,
safety and welfare. If Council finds granting the proposed variance is appropriate,
additional buffering measures, such as an eight foot tall fence or wall and/or dense
landscaping consisting of a mix of conifers and deciduous trees and shrubs, should be
considered as mitigation to further buffer the adjacent residential uses. Written testimony
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has been received from Jeff Vrba, vice-president of the Jackson Square Homeowners
Association. He is against the proposed development. David Durfee and Steve Grant
and they are both against the hours of operation earlier than 6:00 a.m. for outdoor uses.
The only outstanding issue for Council is the access proposed via Centrepoint Way along
the project's west boundary from Ustick Road and from Cajun Lane to the south. Another
access is also proposed at the northeast corner of the site via Ustick Road, an arterial
street, which requires Council approval to a waiver to UDC 11-3A.3, which limits access
via arterial streets. Council should include a decision on the waiver in their motion. Staff
is recommending approval of the development agreement modification and denial of the
variance request. Staff will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Sonya. Council, any questions for staff at this time?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: In review of the record I didn't see anything that would indicate any opposition to
the requested waiver as to the access issue. Is that one of the also not in contention
issues?
Allen: Madam Mayor, Councilmen, Councilman Borton, I am not aware of any written
testimony that would, yeah, prohibit that.
Borton: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Anything further? Okay. Is the applicant here? Good
evening. If will, please, state your name and address for the record.
Thompson: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. My name is Tamara
Thompson, 462 East Shore Drive in Eagle. I'm sorry. I'm with The Land Group. We will
go through just real quickly the highlights from -- from last time. Again, we are at the
southwest corner of Eagle and Ustick. It's 11.4 acres. The arrow below is the property in
question and it excludes the hard corner, which is roughly 3.5 acres. The Milk Lateral
does bisect the property, although it's been tiled -- just recently was completed. We had
to have that completed by March 15th, because irrigation water will be entering the ditches
in the next couple weeks. The site is bounded by roads on three sides. On the north is
Ustick, on the east side is -- is Eagle Road and on the south is Picard Street. Centrepoint
Way runs through the center -- or through the -- the western portion of the property.
Currently the site has two direct accesses to Ustick and our proposal -- and you will see
when we get to the site plan -- so, when ACHD did the improvements along Ustick a
decade or so ago they provided the access points that were approved with the previous
development agreement and there is utility stubs here and there is utility stubs in
Centrepoint as well. Our proposals go -- when you see the site plan will be to close both
of these accesses and have one combined access. As Sonya mentioned, the site enjoys
a future land use map designation of medium dense -- or, I'm sorry, of mixed use and it is
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currently zoned general commercial, which is the C-G zone and I just highlighted that for
you here. That is the largest scale and broadest mix of retail, office, service and light
industrial uses and here I clipped out just the dimensional standards, that it has a
maximum height of 65 feet by the UD -- by the -- by your development code. The property
for the current development agreement allows anything within the development code that
is an approved use for the C-G, those are the uses that are approved and as Sonya
showed you, this is the current development agreem ent concept plan and just some
highlights of that. On the site as -- it's approved up to 150,202 square feet of retail and
restaurant. With that you would have loading docks adjacent to the southern property
line, backup buzzers -- there is no limits at all on hours of deliveries in the development
agreement and, again, buildings up to 65 feet tall. So, that's approved. Anything that's
allowed per the current development agreement. And here is our current site plan. So,
we have the Villasport, which today with me -- I didn't mention this -- I have Jeff Bower,
who is our legal counsel. He will be presenting. And Mike Fassler with Villasport is also
here today. Just to give a quick overview of the property, I will show you here. So, this
street right here is called Cajun and, then, Picard Lane runs to the south of the property
and, then, Centrepoint Way. So, this is standing at Cajun looking west along Picard and
one thing I didn't mention last time and I want to make sure it's clear, that all of these trees
are on the southern property for the residential. These are not going to be touched. So,
these remain -- they exist today and they will remain. There was -- I think there was some
confusion with some of the neighbors when we had our -- our additional neighborhood
meeting. And, then, also just a little bit further back looking down Picard -- so, you can
see the existing fence line and the benefit of a decade or so of -- of trees growing. And,
then, this is looking west along Picard again and this is Centrepoint and you can see the
large open space at that corner, which also is a detention basin for the ACHD roads and
down Centrepoint just a little bit looking towards Kohl's and one of the things I want to
point out is the power lines. These have gone in recently. The overhead lines have
always been there, but this big mini substation that I call it is -- is fairly recent. And I'm
going to turn it over to Mike real quick to go over some Villasport highlights for you.
De Weerd: Good evening.
Fassler: Good Evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. My name is Mike Fassler,
I'm here on behalf of Villasport. My address is 150 Pelican Way, San Rafael, California.
Villasport currently is a family oriented and family operated company. We currently have
five clubs operating across the western United States. We are in Beaverton, Oregon. We
are also in Colorado Springs. We have two clubs under construction. One in Roseville,
California, and one in Katy, Texas, Houston metropolitan area. Those aren't your typical
gymnasium or gym or athletic clubs, these are -- these are something of a resort amenity
and really our community amenity in the cities in which they are located. We pride
ourselves on being family -- focusing on the families. About two-thirds of our
memberships are family memberships. People forge relationships at these clubs. It's not
just go workout and go home, it's actually a -- kind of a resort down the street from your
house where you could spend time and we have a huge children's programming part of
our -- of our mission. Over 12,000 square feet dedicated just to children, VillaKids center,
indoor-outdoor space. We also in creating these clubs we create over 250 jobs in the
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local communities, in addition to the construction jobs that are created by the adult sports.
So, let me kind of go through really quickly the club. I know I did this last time, so I will
go pretty quickly through it. These are high end athletic clubs. There are four swimming
pools and an indoor-outdoor whirlpool. It's kind of a signature feature of our clubs.
Offering -- we offer swimming training programs for age group swimmers, as well as swim
classes for the youth and for adults. There is also water aerobics, those kind of things.
The focus, as I said before, is on the children. There is two features -- a lot of water
features in our outdoor recreational pool. There is also an indoor recreational pool that I
showed earlier. And, then, there is an outdoor adult swim area, which features a whirlpool
and there is also an outdoor adult lap swim pool. There is an outdoor bar and there is
also a grill outside. So, it's more than just a normal kind of athletic club. Inside we have
a spa, a couple spas. It's open to the public. Not just members, but public as well and
it's a full feature spa offering facials, massages, pedicures, manicures, those kind of
things. And you also see the -- the locker rooms. There is a family locker room, there is
a men's locker and a woman's locker room. These are all high end kind of materials.
Kind of inviting atmosphere to spend time and relax. While parents -- parents can relax
while their kids are being taken care of in the VillaKids area and, of course, part of an
athletic club is having -- having fitness as part of the focus. Here you will see we have a
spin class, a spin studio. We have five X -- group X studios in each of our clubs. Over
120 cardio machines. We offer more than 180 group X classes each week and a full size
NBA regulation basketball court. There is also a -- there is also a separate gym with
basketball courts dedicated just to the children, the VillaKids, and the basketball court for
adult leagues, as well as kids leagues. And we have more of the group X. You have the
yoga studio, you have got Pilates and other fitness equipment and an area for the kids,
so over 12,000 square feet dedicated just to kids . There is five different stations that
children go through. They spend about 25 minutes in each station. It's highly interactive,
lots of hands-on activities, not just going and putting your child in front of a TV, they are
actually learning. There is a dance studio. There is an art studio. They do lots of
activities. So, the kids actually end up bringing the parents to the club. It's actually a
great thing for us. So, all the kids at play and there is some outdoor space there, they
are playing, they are playing in the basketball gym dedicated just for children. As you see
there is also cafes, as feature of our clubs. This is open to the public as well, so people
can come in and grab a snack, grab a smoothie, grab coffee, and go or they can sit down
and watch the local sports on TV. As part of our programming we also do a lot of public
events to our members primarily. There is a -- there is a great Easter -- great egg hunt.
There is also a daddy-daughter dance. There is rentals for birthday parties, different kind
of holiday activities. Breakfast with Santa. And we also do an open house every year
where we invite all the local schools, both private and public, to kind of present what they
offer to the local parents, so they can figure out where their kids should go to school and
this is open to the public. It's just one -- a one time a year that we do this open forum and
that's the floor plan of a typical Villasport Club. You got the two -- this is the indoor areas
-- so, two indoor swimming pools and, then, you have got the locker rooms on the first
floor and the basketball courts and, then, this is the second floor, all the group X studios
are on the second floor right here and the cardio equipment and fitness part of it. So , I
will turn it over to Tamara.
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Thompson: Tamara Thompson again. This is the exterior elevations of the Villasport --
Villasport facility. I want to point out the top level -- the parapet wall height is 36 feet.
There is an entry element that goes up to 48 feet. So, 36 feet is the majority of the building
and that entry element, which you can see at the very beginning -- at the opening goes
up to 30 -- 48. Sorry. Forty-eight. So, on the site constraints that we have I mentioned
before, we have the Centrepoint Way here. We have all the Idaho power lines and the
easements for -- for those along our Ustick frontage. This is a cross-access. So, we have
worked with this property owner on the corner, so that we don't have two separate access
points that we would combine those into one and with that we have the cross-access and,
then, we also have cross-access to the south that we can get to the Eagle -- Eagle Road
access. So, that's a third-party agreement that was entered into when the development
agreement for this originally went through and, then, for the Milk Lateral -- is this one here.
So, you can see it used to go a little bit more diagonal through there and we have
relocated that to where we have to keep the same invert location , so the -- it's a gravity
line, so it still has to flow, so we were able to move that a little bit to the north, but not a
whole lot, because you have to keep that same elevation were it exits the property. So,
for the south property line adjacent to the neighbors, some areas that we didn't have a lot
of detail on last time is just what that would look like. So, we have talked to our landscape
architects and we were proposing a six foot fence. We are coming back to you with an
eight foot fence. So, what we are looking at here would be this open style metal, but --
but we would put fabric on that, so that fabric would damper the -- the noise and, then,
the two different types of columnar trees -- so, skyrocket juniper -- gets its name because
it grows extremely quickly. They go up to 15 to 20 feet in height, but they are only about
three feet in diameter and, then, the Norway spruce also is at 20 feet in height, but about
five feet and so what we are doing is having -- putting those -- so, kind of a hedgerow, if
you will, along this back -- the southern property line for -- as a mitigation. Again, the
other thing that the site has is these umbrellas all over the -- the pool deck that -- and you
can see this is one of their other facilities where there is houses right adjacent to it and
they haven't had any issues. The noise that comes out of the area is -- it's dampered by
those umbrellas. It hits the bottom of those and doesn't make it to the top. And one thing
we didn't mention is this line right here that you can see, that is a delineated line between
the adults only area, so it was strategic that the adult only area was placed here at the
south. Any kid area and the family areas are on the northern side of that pool deck. And
I made a little summary for you, but we are running out of time, so I'm going to get Jeff
Bower up here to discuss the variance.
De Weerd: And you can -- you have five minutes for the variance and, then, your time
will be up.
Bower: Madam Mayor, thank you. Council Members. Jeff Bower. 601 West Bannock,
legal counsel to the applicant from Givens Pursley and I am here just to talk really
narrowly about the variance application and, then, the CUP modifications that we are
requesting. Mr. Nary went over it in detail at the beginning, maybe a little quickly, so I will,
hopefully, try to follow behind that and provide a little bit more context. At the prior hearing
we were pleased with the Council's comments, generally very positive, but Mr. Nary did
raise valid concerns about the setbacks we are proposing. So, pursuant to Mr. Nary's
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comments and the Council's motion, we did file a variance to address the reduced
setbacks and we are asking for reduced setbacks to two specific -- specific use standards
and those deal with a hundred feet to a residential zone, 50 feet to the property line. So,
we are -- we are, essentially, asking for the same setbacks, but in two different code
provisions. The Local Land Use Planning Act and the UDC, they both give this Council
the authority to approve the setbacks in this case. Variances are designed to specifically
allow reduced setbacks. The Local Land Use Planning Act -- here is a quote from the
variance section. A variance shall not be considered a right or special privilege, but may
be granted to an applicant upon a showing of undue hardship because of characteristics
of the site and the variance is not in conflict with the public interest and I have that
language on the slide in front of you guys as well. The UDC has broken that down into
three separate standards, not a special right, hardship and not detrimental to health,
safety or public welfare. I'm going to go a little bit out of order and start with site
characteristics. I have all of them kind of summarized here for you. First, we have the
Milk Lateral. That's on the right side of your screen. As Tamara mentioned, it does kind
of diagonally bisect the property. We have a bunch of cross-access easements, as well
as access to the arterial streets and, then, the Idaho Power facilities and on top of that is
just the general sort of strange shape of the parcel. So , taking all those together, those
site characteristics do create a reduced building envelope for us and -- and that is a
hardship and it's a hardship that you can vary based on your UDC standards. Staff report
does agree that there are hardships here that can be relieved by the varian ce. Second,
health, safety, public welfare, we -- Tamara has addressed a lot of these. You know, we
don't think that there are health, safety, public welfare issues at play here. The use is
allowed in the zone. It's totally contained in fencing. We are going above and beyond
with landscaping and buffering. There already exists significant landscaping and
buffering, as well as a public street to mitigate any issues and, again, the canopies and
buffers. So, staff, again, did recommend that you could find that the health and safety
would not be affected by this variance request and we agree. And, then, lastly, the kind
of -- the factor here that's at issue, why staff did recommend denial is not a special
privilege. Staff was able -- unable to make that finding, but we believe the Council can
make that finding, because Idaho law provides that a variance is not a special privilege
where site characteristics warrant the variance and that's directly out of LUPA and a large
body of Idaho Supreme Court case law. Mr. Nary and I have discussed this as well. He
agrees with the applicant's interpretation, so -- so, basically, the -- in summary, if you find
that the site characteristics warrant a variance, it's not a special privilege, you're not just
saying, hey, we like your project, it's okay. The actual site characteristics do warrant the
variance and they give you the discretion to grant it. Real quickly, with the last 50
seconds, Council review of the CUP, again, Mr. Nary addressed those. We are asking for
three things there. Extended outdoor operations from 5:00 a.m. -- I'm sorry -- from 6:00
a.m. to 5:00 a.m. on weekday mornings. Again, the code specifically gives you the
authority to do that. We agree with the Planning and Zoning Commission's findings there.
So, all you need to do is, basically, change the hour and the findings work. Second, the
placement of speakers. Again, the code gives you the discretion based on a C UP to place
speakers within one hundred feet of a residential district. We advocate for the speakers,
because we do think it will reduce and mitigate the impacts to neighbors. If we are allowed
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to place speakers in that zone right by our property line, we can aim them away from the
residential district to really mitigate sound otherwise --
De Weerd: If you can just wrap up.
Bower: I think the -- the point here is you have all the tools, as Mr. Nary said, to approve
the application through the variance and the CUP. We meet all the standards and I would
stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Bower. Council, any questions? Okay.
Bower: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. This is the public hearing portion of this -- this application
and so, Mr. Clerk, I will ask you to call out the names of those that have signed up and if
they wish to testify.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. First is Elizabeth Gammon wishing to testify.
De Weerd: Good evening. Thank you for joining us. If you will, please, state your name
and address for the record.
Gammon: Well, thank you. Elizabeth Gammon. 3055 North Centrepoint Way.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Gammon: I have a couple of questions. Just right here, is that a road out to Eagle? This
red line.
De Weerd: No. That -- that is the obstacle of the -- the irrigation district.
Gammon: Okay. Well, we want to tell you right now the traffic there is horrendous, mainly
because of the shopping center there, that they can't pull out left and get to Eagle Road,
so they pull out to the right and they come down Centrepoint and they turn around. I have
stood there and watched in -- in ten -- five minutes I have seen seven or more cars do
that. Also when they put all this in here -- and we are talking about not five days a week,
we are talking about seven days a week and we are almost talking about 24/7 with all of
the hours that they want, traffic is going to be horrible and the people are going to come
down Centrepoint and come out through those streets there. I don't like the idea of the
long hours. I don't like the ideals of the traffic that's going to be there and I'm going to tell
you that I have tried to pull out in the morning to go right on to Ustick from Centrepoint
and with the traffic coming down Ustick they often stop right in the middle of the road and
I have had to sit through a couple of lights just to turn right or I can't get out onto Ustick
to make a left onto Eagle Road. They put all this stuff in there, it's going to make it much
much worse and it's going to be constant. It's not going to be five days a week, it's going
to be seven days a week and it's going to be horrific hours. They are going to be going
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through the subdivision, rather than going out the other way a lot of them. I also don't like
the idea that they want to set things closer. My daughter's house is right up the back here
and she -- her property line is like four feet from the fence that's there now. So, if it's only
50 feet from there, that's not too good. I don't know what else I -- I don't know all the rest
of this stuff. I do know also -- or I have heard that the fence that Jackson Square has put
in along there is actually kind of on the inside the line -- inside the pipes, so I don't know
if they are aware of -- that the pipes are in the -- you know, the irrigation pipes are on the
other side of the fence. I just think that's -- poor Jackson Square is really hemmed in with
all kinds of problems and we have had previous problems with the other building there.
Jackson Square, with the rest of it, pays 50 percent of the cost of the irrigation and they
are only less than a third of the population -- or the use of the water.
De Weerd: Your time is -- is up.
Gammon: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Do you have any concluding remarks that -- you do have the site plan in front
of you and this does not have access to Eagle Road. Is that correct, Sonya?
Allen: Madam Mayor, actually, if you can see where my pointer is, there is a right-in, right-
out right here. No. Wait a minute. No. Oh, excuse me, I'm mistaken. It's actually down
here to the south at Seville Lane.
Gammon: And it just goes up to -- it's going to bring more traffic through that subdivision.
De Weerd: Thank you. We appreciate your comments.
Gammon: Thank you.
Johnson: Madam Mayor, next is Scott and Heidi Baumann.
Baumann: Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Good evening. Thank you for joining us.
Baumann: Yeah. Scott Baumann. 2992 North Villere.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Baumann: I would be located -- I don't know if you can see where I'm pointing -- the large
parcel of empty land there to the south is my home. I'm on record with the Meridian Police
Department multiple times calling because the traffic going through our developmen t is
insane. It's fast and Meridian police have told me they can't enforce the speed limit there.
I have got Jimmy John's going 40 miles an hour through there all hours of the day. This
will absolutely cause a traffic nightmare as well as -- my -- I don't -- I don't know if they
have a variance if they can't prove the volume. I have heard a lot of ambiguity. I would
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like to see a report from any one of these other ones that they have built and how -- if I'm
55 feet away as a resident, how much noise do I hear at 9:00 o'clock at night? How much
noise right here at 6:05 in the morning? I didn't pay 200 and some thousand dollars to
have this thing come land next to my house. I don't -- I have not heard any solid proof
that the volume and the traffic flow are going to be somewhat mitigated by anything in this
proposal. I would just ask Council to think about if you had spent your money on a home
would you want this in your backyard? When I put this house in here I never thought this
was going to be this. I thought it was going to be a small strip mall or possibly some more
housing. I never ever imagined it could have been a 50,000 foot monstrosity like this and
-- and I'm not on the Meridian police. I understand we are limited in scope, but Picard is
a private lane, so Meridian police tell me they cannot write a ticket in there. So, when I
got people flying in and out of here, who do I call? What do I do with that? As I look at
this again, we are getting so much cut through as the prior resident said, I'm going to get
a clog in here. We have a light at Ustick, we have no light at Eagle and this City Council
has already declined to allow to have a light at Eagle on here on the south side of this
parking lot. So, how -- how do we get out? What do we do? I think it's a nice idea that
they don't have -- they have not answered the noise questions. They have not answered
how they are going to deal with the additional traffic and I don't want to hear a semi
backing end up at 3:00 in the morning and loading up stuff, because I am 55 feet from
this back fence.
De Weerd: Thank you, Scott. We appreciate your testimony.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: And -- and I will say that the applicant, when they come back up, will answer
some -- the questions that you have raised. Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I was just curious. I think your -- your concern about Picard is -- is somewhat
valid and it's been a frustration of mine, because I still don't have a good sense as to who
owns that street and so I think that probably makes our -- challenge for our police
department that much more difficult, because it's not a public street, because it is a private
drive, I --
Baumann: For my own edification what does it mean? It's -- it's a private lane, so does
that mean as a resident I can go 60 miles an hour -- I'm being flippant, but can I go 60
miles an hour down that road? Because who is going to control these people?
De Weerd: We -- we do have a representative I think from ACHD here. Do we? Oh. We
do have our amateur traffic guy here, our planning manager. We can, hopefully, address
your --
Baumann: Just a quick comment and I promise I'm done. Again, I have spoken to
Meridian police. They have come out, they have been really nice, there is just nothing
they can do, because it's a blue sign, it's a private lane. So, where in this plan is
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something to mitigate that traffic flow, the speed, and the noise that I'm going to
encounter? Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener, did you have a --
Cavener: Do you know who owns it? I was under -- I guess I was under the impression
that your homeowners association was the one that owned that private drive.
Baumann: And that's what I thought, too. So, then, my question to you folks would, then,
be, then, why can I say, no, I don't want these guys coming in my private lane? I paid for
it. It's mine, not theirs.
Cavener: Sure. So, you're asking me the question. I don't know the jurisdiction of --
Baumann: And I have no clue what the ownership rules are. I mean I -- all I know is when
I'm on a road I figure I'm subject to rules of the road. Well, apparently, if it's a blue lane
you're not subject to the rules of the road, because we had a guy run into our stop sign
and the Meridian police came out and said I can't even write a ticket on that. It's a private
road. So, that leaves me a little flummoxed as to what we are going to do with this thing.
De Weerd: Lieutenant Caldwell, maybe you can shed some light on -- on some of these
questions.
Caldwell: Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Do we have no jurisdiction over private roads?
Caldwell: On certain crimes, yes, we do. On things like DUI, reckless driving, there are
certain driving misdemeanors that we can enforce on private property. However, many
of the codes that the gentleman is referencing, such as speed or stop sign violations, we
can't -- some of those infractions, you know, and that's -- that's just from my experience
as an officer.
Baumann: And I know they are getting tired of hearing from me, because I call them
regularly, to be blunt. They always come out. They talk to me, but there is nothing they
can do. If they are going to be handcuffed without this monstrosity, then, they have to --
we have to do something if you're going to allow this thing to come in here.
De Weerd: Well, one thing I will ask the applicant -- because there is an entitlement on
the property to your north and it was for square footage and -- and so I would imagine --
and I would like to get the applicant to ask that -- is will this be reduced traffic impact than
the original proposed development. I assume that this is less impact than the original
proposal that has already been approved and I believe it was approved before the housing
units were placed in there. So, we will ask the applicant to -- to address that. But thank
you for your concern.
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Baumann: Thank you again. Appreciate it.
Johnson: Next is Jeff Vrba, wishing to testify.
De Weerd: Okay. Yes. You bet.
Johnson: Madam Mayor, next is Carrie G, wishing to testify.
C.Gammon: Hi, Madam Mayor and Council.
De Weerd: Good evening.
C.Gammon: Good evening. My name is Carrie Gammon. I live at 3055 North
Centrepoint Way. I am actually a teacher at Ponderosa, which I think you may be familiar
with as you have been there several times. I actually would like to know, considering the
other facilities that have been built, the -- both sides if -- they are in the middle of a
residential area -- if entrances go through residential areas, I would like to know how the
people around the other facilities have dealt with this, if it's in a neighborhood like is being
proposed for ours. It -- it's a beautiful place, but making it closer isn't better. Working
with children I do know -- and you have been to the school where I work at. I hear through
brick walls and I hear through multiple rooms -- you cannot keep your child's voice down
through mesh and umbrellas. They will hear it. Especially at all times of the night. I'm
at the point where I feel like the public safety and welfare is in question. Being in the first
house there I see all the cars that come and I see exactly how they drive and it is
extremely unsafe. We have called the police many times and I do want to point out on
this map here, which is one exit, which as bad as this traffic is and I have lived this for
nine years -- these people are not going to pull out into the left turn lane to go left, they
are going to continue to come through our neighborhood and pull out there and it is to the
point where I have people running over my rose garden or I have people running pets
possibly over, you know, just standing outside or maybe hitting a child. That is a huge
concern. I feel like at this point I have to close my front living room window, I have to
close my two bedrooms upstairs and the bathroom, because of the advantage point
where someone in an angle could absolutely see at anytime of the day, whether I'm there
or not, to see into the home or maybe to watch me. I'm not sure. But I feel very
uncomfortable with that and I know what traffic is like and the building going to 11:00
o'clock at night, I'm not really sure if there are people -- with the speaker facing that way
outside the window would that not cause any kind of problems if you are in here trying to
work. I think it's too close. I think trying to move it closer is a bad idea and I think that
the hours are very excessive for something that is in a residential area where the cars will
be coming through all times of the night and the noise will be heard at all times of the
night and I still don't feel safe with that, especially with the traffic and on the way out and
how many more people will be there.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council? Okay. Thank you.
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Johnson: Madam Mayor, the last -- the last person indicating they wished to testify. Mr.
Vrba.
De Weerd: Okay.
Vrba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have got a presentation could I drop off over there
with them to put it on PowerPoint?
De Weerd: You bet.
Vrba: Just a couple slides. Thank you. Madam Mayor and Honorable Council Men and
Women, my name is Jeff Vrba. I support the -- I'm here on behalf of -- I'm the vice-
president of the Jackson Square Homeowners Association. Like was mentioned earlier,
we highly disapprove of this facility going at this location. One area that I had a problem
with was that they mentioned that they have a hardship because of the -- the shape of
the land that they are trying to put it in. My job -- I work at designing printed circuit boards.
My job is to lay out the board, so all components are within certain parameters. They
have known the parameters they had there. The Milk Lateral was in the way. The fence
line there, they had to stay a hundred feet away from that. They had to build their building
to go into that area. They were able to avoid the Milk Lateral, because we can't build over
that, but we can shove it against the homeowners association down at the other end,
because we can probably get a variance on that way. If they would have laid out that
building correctly and to size, that hundred feet, they would have been well within where
they need to be at. If they would just move the pool to the opposite side down on Eagle
Road. That will alleviate that issue, too. They don't want to do it. It was mentioned one
time that they didn't want to do it because it was going to cast shadows in the pool and
another time it won't fit. If it doesn't fit it doesn't fit. That building does not need to go in
and they should not be granted their variance. I went through on their website and
downloaded some photos of some of the other facilities that we had in question. This one
is the one in Beaverton, Oregon. The houses that we saw on a swimming pool -- the
swimming pools are all located right over here. The houses are this far away from the
swimming pool. That's more than a hundred feet. I'm sorry. And they are -- they are
building it -- trying to build it right on top of us there. The next one is their Colorado
Springs facility. Here is the pools. While we do have houses really close or apartment
complexes, but they all went in after this facility was built. I've got proof by video on that
here in a minute. The other houses that are close by are all clear across -- these are both
two lane roads, plus there is another median in the middle, so they are well over a hundred
feet away from there. There is so many areas. The Cypress, Texas, location, there is no
homes anyplace in the near area for theirs. Katy, Texas, that they are building, once
again, they are right on major roads, no homes around that area. Their Roseville,
California, area. Once again, no homes up here. They have got a few of the
condominiums going in down here, but no homes. Their San Jose, that's the closest to
any homes that there is. The pool is right there and you got single level homes right there.
I have seen that and that's what concerns me. Do we want our facility to start looking like
California? I love Meridian. We do not need to build stuff right on top of us. So, another
thing I'm concerned with is out of their facility right up here -- you can see it's in Beaverton.
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They have got all the machinery back here that runs the pumps and controls their
swimming pools. All that is going to be right next to Picard and -- I can't even remember
the name of the street. LeBlanc right there. That's going to be right in that corner. We
are going to have to be listening to those running all the time, along with the actual noise
coming in from the pools. If you notice they don't even put a fence up to block the noise
from this facility. On the drawing that they had supplied I was able to see that little spot
there. It's a little spot right down in the corner and that's where it's at. The other thing we
had a question on, right here is their facility in Colorado Springs. If you notice all these
apartment complexes came in after this was built, not before. So, yes, they are closer.
Yes, you got a 25 foot water slide right out here, we have got single family homes that
this is going to be by. They could easily move the pool to the opposite end of their facility
and that would be in the mid point. If they would lay out their facility to fit the lot they are
trying to put in we wouldn't even have to be -- we wouldn't even be having this
conversation here. They are trying to get a hardship because they were trying to build a
facility that is much bigger than the spot they were trying to go into. Other concerns that
are really hurting us really bad as -- as a homeowner's association -- when they were
moving that Milk Lateral that she mentioned -- they showed on there, the construction
workers were lined on both sides of Centrepoint Way, which only left one lane to try to get
through there. When they start building a building this size where is it -- where are the
construction people going to park? Down Centrepoint Way in front of our houses
throughout our whole subdivision. They are complaining about hardship, because they
can't manage the way to build their building? How much hardship is that going to be for
our homeowners there? I have got two parking spots in front of my house for my guests
to show up to visit me. I do have a driveway behind, but that's in a private road and
everything else that way, but two -- two spots. That's going to be filled up by those guys
coming in. They also mentioned that they -- they are having their community events.
Once again they have 500 spots they mentioned before for parking. Where that -- where
is the rest of the community going to go? They are going to be coming into our
subdivision, filling up our roads again where we can't drive through safely, where there
are some kids out in our neighborhood that play in the streets and on the sidewalk ,
because it's a quiet area on LeBlanc there, now they are not going to be able to do that,
because we are going to have traffic there. I can't have guests come over to my house,
because there is going to be traffic there. That's what our -- our hardships coming in.
They are talking about their hardship, that's where my hardship is. That's why we want
to keep the variance -- or the code the way it is. Part of -- if they are going to put their
facility in there, make their pool a hundred feet from the fence like it was originally
designed for by the former councilmen and mayor that was here. When they set up the
original exhibits and -- there is a -- they set up there. That's where we are concerned
with. We are concerned with the noise. I have three grandkids. I teach in Sunday school
three year olds. I'm used to kids. I love kids. But we do not need to be hearing that from
6:00 o'clock in the morning at 10:00 o'clock at night and that's where our main concern is
with -- with them playing the music out there. We are getting all that information coming
in. It's creating a hardship for us. My quality of life, if they build this building right out
there with the 30 -- the 25 foot water slide out there or slide out there, plus the machinery
that's going to be right behind their building, that's really my quality of life. I moved in, just
like the other gentleman mentioned, in that area there because I knew there was going
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to be office buildings or strip malls out in that area. A majority of us did that, because
that's what we built and that's what we looked at. If you keep changing all the
developmental agreements around it's going to hurt not just us homeowners, but
everybody else. If you waive that decree and let them build it closer than the hundred
feet from our fence, because it's a hardship for them because they didn't build -- design
a building to fit that lot, you're going to be doing that from then on. They even mentioned
-- Tamara actually had us come into a meeting across the way, which she was required
to do, but when asked she said she only mailed out the mailers that the city required , the
300 feet or whatever it was from the impact areas. That's all they would do. So, they do
not want to split it up further to let more people know what's going on or explain stuff.
They do not want to build over the Milk Lateral. They do not want to build a smaller
building there. They do not want to move their pool. But they want to build this great big
giant building and put it in the slot -- a lot that it was not designed for and, like I said, for
me designing printed circuit boards, if I did that for a cell phone, I have components sitting
out over here, will that work? I can request all the variances I want, it's not going to work.
We have to design stuff to fit the lot that you're putting in. They have got architects out
there that can design -- put in the lots that they are going to. They do not want to. They
want the biggest facility they can get into that lot. They have got it designed. It's a
beautiful facility from what I have seen on the videos and on their -- online when I was
looking, but my concern is it's too big for that lot. The traffic coming in during their
community events parking in the neighborhoods, it's going to be a nightmare out there
and that's where my main concerns are. Thank you for your time.
De Weerd: Thank you, Jeff. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Could we pull up a -- like a Google map of the -- the area and, Jeff, just -- if you
can show us where your house is.
Vrba: You can leave it right on that there if you had to. We could have done that, too, so
-- my house is located right here. This is where their -- their machinery is that's going in
that we were talking about. When you were also measuring on that drawing where they
had the measuring, they were looking at the 75 feet from the center here up to t he pool,
but, look, this corner down here that they have got the bar and outdoor activities are a lot
closer.
Cavener: Is -- is LeBlanc Way a private drive as well?
Vrba: No, it's not.
Cavener: Public street.
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Vrba: It's a public street. The public streets run in on Centrepoint, all the way down
around here, backside, up LeBlanc Way and this little portion of Picard here is all public
roads. I know we can't do anything about the public coming in on that, but that's where
our concerns are.
Cavener: Picard is the only one that's a private drive. Great. Thank you. Appreciate
your testimony, Jeff.
De Weerd: Thank you, Jeff.
Vrba: Thank you, Madam Mayor and City Council.
De Weerd: Okay. Additional testimony? Good evening. If you will --
LaFever: Good evening.
De Weerd: -- please state your name and address.
LaFever: Denise LaFever. 6706 North Salvia Way, Meridian, Idaho.
De Weerd: Thank you.
LaFever: And I -- one, I think it's a beautiful facility. I will give them that. It kind of breaks
my heart a little bit to see that here you have neighbors and they are concerned about
compatible use and they are concerned about transitions and I really wish the
neighborhood meetings would work better, so they could work together and come up with
a viable solution to be able to do good projects. Given -- saying all that, this is to Sonya.
There was a statement about hardship of the lateral and, then, the applicant came back
and stated that is titled. So, I would like to hear from Sonya why that's a hardship and,
then, the second thing is is this was already zoned commercial and it didn't require a
variance, so to me it seems like just the change in the use is what's requiring the variance.
So, I would also like to hear from Sonya about that as well, if that's okay, Mayor Tammy.
De Weerd: We will have her address that --
LaFever: During the closing up point.
De Weerd: Yeah.
LaFever: So, that's all. Once again it is a beautiful facility. So, I would like to see them
work -- work with the neighbors to be able to produce something nice.
De Weerd: Thank you, Denise. Yes.
Hysmith: Thank you, Mayor Tammy and Members of the Council. My name is Julie
Hysmith. 2903 North Centrepoint Way. My major concern is we are a community of
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young adults in their 20s and single and party time. That's what this facility really is made
for. The pool for the adults is supposed to be open until 11:00 o'clock. You know they
are going to close at 11 :00, they are going to stand around and talk, they are going to be
laughing -- the whole bit. What do we do with our children when they have to go to school
and they are still awake at 11:00 o'clock at night. That's not fair to the people that looked
at these plans prior to buying our properties and building our homes. I don't think this
facility in this location is right for us. You're -- you're not allowing the people that have
been there for some ten to 12 years to live the style that they bought into. Yes, we knew
there was going to be development there, but not something like this. It's not only the
noise, it's the traffic and many of you have been in that area and if you come during the
day there is a school three blocks away. We can hear the kids all day long. Three blocks.
We are only a half a block away from this, so -- and it's going to be going on until 11 :00,
12:00 o'clock at night. So, please, think about that. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any further testimony? Thank you for joining us.
Webb: Hi. I'm Becky Webb and I live at 2880 Centrepoint Way.
De Weerd: Thank you, Becky.
Webb: And I just want to say that on multiple occasions I have spoken to neighbors about
this proposal. There is people that are excited about it. My husband and I are in favor of
it. We are in our 40s. We have a 14 and a 13 year old that still live at home. We see the
benefit of it. We understand that what is already been approved is -- quote, unquote,
could be worse. What could go in there I wouldn't want to see , but I am excited about
this project. It gives us -- all of us neighbors a chance to get to know each other better,
provide a safe place for my kids to come and for us to exercise and I would look forward
to the landscaping that would be provided. We have lived there since 2012. That field --
you know, it's ugly. There is going to be traffic. We live in a busy intersection. We all
knew when we moved in there that it's a busy area, but we -- my husband and I chose to
live there because we wanted to live in an area that's close to shopping and schools and
the ease of being able to get to things like that and this is one more thing that will be easy
to get to and provide a healthier lifestyle. So, I just want to say there are people in this
neighborhood and in our area that are in favor of it and you know how it goes, if you're in
favor of something you're not going to take the time out of your evening to show up and
say you're in favor of it, because you're busy. You're really feeling like you want to be
heard, because you're not in favor of something, that's why you're hearing from more
people than what are in favor of it. But there was a forum discussion on our online e-mail
group, yeah, and there are multiple people that commented in there that they are in favor
of it. So, I just want to let you guys know that.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Webb: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any further testimony at this point -- yes, ma'am.
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Bailey: Good evening. My name is Janet Bailey --
De Weerd: I'm sorry, if you will say your name one more time in --
Bailey: Janet Bailey. 2925 North Centrepoint.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bailey: I do the neighborhood watch there. I have lived there seven years. I have
watched the traffic in the area. It's worse. It is -- and I know we have had discussions
with you many times about Jackson Square and the traffic. We have had bus stops
moved because of the traffic, especially in front of Carrie's house. That -- in the -- the
whole idea -- the whole point with this facility -- the outdoor -- the bar, the pool late at night
-- when I moved in there it was -- it was peaceful. It was a nice little community. I knew
-- well, I was told out front on Ustick it would be a little strip mall with a restaurant in the
corner. Hey, that was great for all of us. I mean there is a lot of retirees in there and it's
quieter, it's peaceful -- it's not peaceful. It's really becoming an anxious neighborhood
because of the traffic -- the constant traffic. They just blow down Centrepoint, you know,
and calling the police -- well, I'm sure they are sick of hearing from Jackson Square, but
it's true, we -- that's all we have. That's our only recourse and with my neighborhood
watch connection they told me that's all you can do, call the police. Well, I'm sure they
have better things to do then chase down these speeders, but it's honestly true, the traffic
is bad. The pool where it's situated with the 25 foot slide, that noise is going to just radiate
into the neighborhood. I'm just a few houses down from their 300 foot, but I can hear it, I
can hear the school, and it's -- that whole area, you know, and as far as being in the
shopping area, that was a part of the reason we thought we would buy there, because we
are too old to drive, we would just walk. Well, you try to cross those streets you're going
to get killed. There is no way. The traffic is insane. Traffic backed up on Ustick, coming
in, and when Jeff said that when there is construction they took up so much of the road
there was barely enough room to get through when they were doing their stuff. But I hope
you don't let them push the boundaries. It seems like they take a little bit and they are
just -- they are -- you know, you give them a little bit, they are going to take more and I
feel like that building is just on top of us. So, it's taken away that little piece that we all
bought into.
De Weerd: Thank you, Janet.
Bailey: Thanks. Thanks for your time.
De Weerd: Any further testimony? Well, I will invite the applicant to, please, come and
make final remarks. You have ten minutes. If you will, please, restate your name for the
record.
Fassler: Sure. Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members. My name is Mike
Fassler. I'm here with Villasport. Just to, you know, kind of address some of the issues
that were brought up today. One is about the -- the intensity of the project. This -- our
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proposed use is much less intense than what could be done on this corner. This is a
commercially -- commercial corner, commercial district, it's one of the busiest
intersections in the whole state. In our experience, like, for example, the height, we are
36 feet high. It could be a 65 foot building. We are not going to have trucks unloading
and loading behind the building. All loading and unloading is done not by big semi trucks,
we don't have -- we are not a big box retailer, we don't have supplies coming in and out.
They are small little delivery trucks that show up in the front of the building and they pull
the things in from the front. So, we don't have loading docks and a lot of unloading and
loading and speakers talked about the fact that Villasport has residential nearby or doesn't
have residential nearby. In San Jose, for example, those residentials were already there.
We built it next to the club. We haven't had any complaints. It's been well received by
the neighborhood. In Colorado Springs we built first and they decided that, yeah, we will
build multi-family right next door overlooking the pool. I mean they are right on top of it.
Much more intense than what will be proposed here. And I want to point out that talking
about density, there are some concerns about parking and public events . When we do a
public event, which is -- which, again, the school forum is one of the ones I can think of,
that's done one time -- it's the time of day when things -- the club is not being used very
much. It's going to be a less intense time and also just to point out the parking, we have
500 spots, roughly, allocated to Villasport. The code only requires about 200 parking
spaces here. So, we are well parked for what we need. It's consistent with our other
clubs and, then, the noise and other concerns about noise, one of the things is the building
itself will actually mitigate some of the noise in the residential area that comes from Ustick
street, if you look at all the residences right across from where the building would be
placed and that's been the experience that we talked about I think at the last City Council
meeting we were at with the Lowe's project down the street with the neighbors there and
I think another issue came up about a bunch of -- a lot of 20 somethings using our club.
That's simply not the case. Two-thirds of our memberships are family memberships. Just
to give you a breakdown of the profile, looking at our Beaverton club, the average member
is a 41 year old female. It's a family membership. There is 2.3 kids on the membership.
The VillaKids really does attract the -- attract the families. The moms and dads can leave
their kids in the VillaKids for up to two and a half hours while they go workout and do
something or go use the pool. We also have day camps that we offer during nonschool
hours. So, a lot of times the kids are actually in school, they are going to be using this
during the daytime, they are not there 10:00 or 11:00 o'clock at night using the swimming
pools. They shut down earlier than that. We need the 5:00 a.m. time because of lap
swimming for master swimmers. That's a very important thing. They work out four -- five
days in the morning -- for four days of the week at 5:00 a.m. And I'm happy to answer
any other questions that you may have regarding this project. Thank you. Oh, one other
thing real quick. This prototype we have been talking about trying to change the building.
This is a prototype we have used three times now and we are currently using the two
clubs under construction. This is something that's a proven model. It works for us and
it's feasible. We can build something smaller. This is the -- this is our brand. This is what
we do. And so that's -- just wanted to address that. Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Thank you.
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Thompson: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Tamara Thompson with
The Land Group again. I took good notes I think, so I will try to address each of the items.
Mike definitely talked about some of the operational issues . As far -- traffic was heard a
few times. Definitely cut through traffic for the existing neighbors. With our development
we had to do a traffic impact study, so we have -- one of the things that we have with --
with these public hearings is fears aren't facts, that, you know, there is a lot of fears out
there. The unknown is a fear. For development we have to backup our projects with
facts. So, we actually have a traffic impact study where we had a professional do a study
and it was vetted by ACHD and ACHD has a report that's in your packet. They have
approved our project with the accesses as proposed and, in fact, the traffic impact study,
things that -- the cut through that's happening on Picard for the other uses that are out
there is actually going to be minimized by this development with -- with those access
points that you can get to Ustick easier through these locations than through the
neighborhood, there would be no reason for cut through for the -- for the Villasport. Let's
see. The one gentleman did mention to you -- so, Picard is public at this location and,
then, it turns to private here. So, that's been clarified. There was mention about semi
trucks. So, again, the -- there is one little -- there is a cafe and all deliveries for the facility
come through bread truck size delivery trucks through -- through the front door. There --
there are not semi trucks that are -- that are going in the back, which is different than what
the current development agreement would allow -- we would have semi trucks along this
property line with the -- with the development agreement. This -- let's see. This is a major
commercial corner. This is -- from the research that I did -- the fifth busiest intersection
in the state of Idaho and I did have the benefit to talk to the neighbors behind the Lowe's
when I did the neighborhood meetings for the Rosauers. If you recall I did the initial
entitlements for this back in 2005 and I did the one for the Rosauers across the street.
So, my neighborhood meeting for the Rosauers center -- I had the benefit to talk to the
neighbors behind the Lowe's and they were very forthcoming in telling me that that
building made a huge difference in the sound s that they heard from the intersection,
because the building creates that buffer. The -- the noise -- the ambient noise level for
the traffic that's currently out here, this building is going to substantially reduce that. Mr.
Fassler talked about parking. We have about twice the number of parking stalls that are
required by code, but those parking stalls are what they -- Villasport has determined with
their other sites that they require. So, we are parked for the use. And, then, I just have
a couple -- I just want to talk about the setbacks real quickly. So, as Sonya mentioned in
her initial comments that these -- most of the -- most of the setbacks that we are talking
about right now are related to the zoning district and typically those zoning districts
change in the center line of a street and in this case it did not. This -- these properties
were originally brought in together. When they were annexed and zoned they came
through together and, then, the development agreements were separated in 2004, which
I believe is why that didn't get put on -- on the street, but the dashed white line that I have
here is the center line of the road. So , that is where the measurements typically would
be taken from, but that's -- that's not where we are here. So, from the edge of the pool to
the nearest residential property we are at 96 feet, with the common area and the road in
between those two. And, again, there is that -- existing large trees, we are not removing
trees. In fact, we will be adding to those with our proposed hedgerow, if you will, from
what will put on that property line. So, we are mitigating for any concerns. The --
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Villasport has projects, properties that are adjacent to residential uses and they have not
had any complaints at those. With the umbrellas it's -- it definitely helps those. And this
is just a summary that I prepared for you. It seemed like -- there is three different
applications that I have highlighted in bold at the top and, then, just a handful of items
there that we are asking for your approval on and we have read the staff report and -- and
these -- and we agree with staff's findings with these changes and with that we gratefully
-- we are grateful to you guys for your -- for your time and we appreciate -- we will
appreciate -- we will look forward to your approval tonight. Thank you .
De Weerd: Council, questions for Tamara or Mike? Or Jeff.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
Cavener: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Tamara, I don't think you necessarily touched on it. There was a concern
brought up from one of the residents about some sound mitigation around your pump
system. The pool pump system. Curious to see if you can -- okay. Perfect.
Fassler: Council Members, the pool pump --
De Weerd: I'm sorry, Mike, if you will just state your name.
Fassler: Yes. It's Mike Fassler with Villasport.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Fassler: Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, the pool pumps are primarily right there and
they are closed -- they are actually in an enclosed area.
Cavener: Okay.
Fassler: There are some mechanical things on the roof, et cetera, in the back, but --
Cavener: Madam Mayor. Then just for clarification, Jeff. The -- I think the resident
testified -- alluded to some type of a pump system near the southern part of your building.
It sounds like that's not the case. Yeah. Right where you are -- I think is where he alluded
to.
Fassler: So, the pump -- the main pumps are right there.
Cavener: Okay. Thank you.
Fassler: And enclosed.
Cavener: In an enclose facility.
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Fassler: Yes.
Cavener: Thanks.
Fassler: Thanks.
De Weerd: Other questions from Council?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. I don't know if this is a question for Mike or Tamara, but
regarding the fencing and the trees and the additional trees, is the fencing going to be
replaced with the new fencing and, then, additional -- you even mentioned two other types
of trees that were going to be added, showed us trees that are going to be remaining -- if
you would clarify all that I would appreciate it.
Thompson: Absolutely. Madam Mayor, Councilman Roberts, the -- so, there is existing
trees in this area, but if I can scroll back to my pictures, there aren't any right up against
the fence at that location. This one shows a little bit better. So , you can see there, there
aren't any against the fence at that location. So, we are not proposing to remove the
fence. There would be, essentially, a double fence in that location, because we wouldn't
-- we wouldn't want to use their fence and, then, if it happened to fall at some point, you
know, we need to make sure the pools are secure. So, we would have our own fence on
our property line. Those -- that one is in from the property line just a little bit and, then,
we have a landscape area of six feet between the fence line and the pool deck and in that
area would be the -- the landscaping that we are proposing. Does that answer --
Little Roberts: That does. Thank you.
Thompson: Thank you.
De Weerd: Tamara, I guess I have a couple of questions. The staff has recommended a
masonry wall. Is -- is that -- certainly I would agree with the -- the neighbors that a see-
through fence with fabric screening doesn't necessarily block any noise. Would -- would
that be acceptable as a -- as a requirement?
Thompson: Madam Mayor, we did some research for acoustical abilities of different
fencing types and the sound batting for the fabric is actually superior to a hard surface.
Hard surfaces sound hits it and reverberates and so the -- the -- the proposal that we
have with the sound batting is -- is actually a superior product acoustic wise because of
that -- because of the sound batting.
De Weerd: That's just counterintuitive to anything that comes to mind , but just additional
questions. There -- with the 5:00 a.m. start -- and it's primarily for the lap swimming, from
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-- I can't imagine a kid being out there at 5:00 a.m. Would the applicant be amenable to
not turning on the music until 6:00 a.m?
Thompson: Madam Mayor, they have agreed to no -- the speaker system outside would
be limited from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
De Weerd: Okay. And on the children's pool would there be an openness to a hard stop
time for pool hours for the children's pool? Would that be the 9:00 p.m. as well?
Thompson: No, the --
De Weerd: Or that's only speakers.
Thompson: The -- the 9:00 p.m. is for speakers. Yeah. Madam Mayor, the -- the time of
-- and I should have brought my notebook here. The time of operation is 5:00 a.m. lap
pool and, then, to 11:00 p.m. is the outdoor hours and that's approved -- just the hours of
operation for the zone, too.
De Weerd: So, I know our -- our noise ordinance is 6:00 to 11:00.
Thompson: Yeah.
De Weerd: So, I understand.
Thompson: So, anything changing the operational hours I would need to ask Mr. Fassler
to come up and address that.
De Weerd: Okay.
Thompson: If you would like to hear from him.
De Weerd: Well, I -- let me just ask -- since you did the entitlements, as I recall, for this
corner piece, I imagine you did a traffic study on that. Is there a reduced impact of traffic
-- this development as opposed to the original application?
Thompson: Madam Mayor, from what the existing development agreement has approved
-- and this development, it is a less intense use and definitely on the traffic side as well.
De Weerd: Is -- now, I guess -- it was really interesting to hear your statement about the
fencing. So, could you work with ACHD on both Centrepoint and Picard and install no
parking signs to eliminate the concern about the parking in the neighborhood? I -- I
certainly understand what the neighbors' overall concerns are. Is that something I -- you
would be open to considering as well with the -- working with ACHD on that and installing
the signs?
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Thompson: Madam Mayor, I don't -- I don't see any issues with installing no parking signs
there. We -- we don't feel that -- we feel we are parked adequately and we are not going
to have overflow parking in the -- in the neighborhood.
De Weerd: There is a concern about the outdoor bar location and that is -- can you show
the site plan and maybe point out where that outdoor bar facility is?
Fassler: One thing I didn't bring up is the swim pools are only seasonal outdoors. So,
they are not open year around. So, they are usually -- they probably -- we haven't set the
hours, but usually it's like end of -- beginning of May to end of October or something like
that.
De Weerd: So, you must have a heated pool?
Fassler: It is. The -- let's see if we have got -- so, outdoor -- this all the adult area and
so there is a -- off to the side of the building there is a bar area right here that serves the
adult area.
De Weerd: Okay.
Fassler: And we -- we would be amenable to saying that the hours of the water slide or
water features would be limited, so they close at 9:00 o'clock at night or something like
that.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mike.
Fassler: Sure.
De Weerd: And I guess other than questions for staff on Picard, it's -- it is a mystery and
maybe we can figure it out tonight. But construction worker parking, certainly the -- the
concern of the neighbors and the impact just for the irrigation ditch work where -- what is
the plan for parking for your construction workers?
Thompson: Madam Mayor, the -- when the site is fully under construction they will have
an area for staging that will be off of the street. This was something that -- to put in -- to
tile the Milk Lateral that it was just a quick couple week project, so they didn't build a
holding yard for their parking and that kind of stuff and that's unfortunate. I did not know
about that until tonight as far as the -- or the issue -- actually, it was the last hearing after
the work was done that we heard about it. But they will have a layout area on site, but
there is going to be some construction on Centrepoint. So, currently there is not curb,
gutter and sidewalk on Centrepoint and that is being installed on both sides with this
project, so -- so, there is -- you know, it's going to be a construction project. There is
definitely going to be some times when lanes are going to be restricted and that type of
thing for the full road section to be constructed, but we will make sure that there is a
specific area off of the roads for construction activities and lay down and parking and that.
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De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any further questions? Thank you, Tamara.
Thompson: Thank you.
De Weerd: Sonya and Caleb, there -- I know Denise had a couple of questions, but can
you maybe talk about that section of private road and how we can help mitigate traffic
impact in that area? And, really, how can a development use a private lane as an access
-- I -- I guess it baffles me how the impact of anything to the north is allowed without some
kind of mitigation.
Hood: Madam Mayor, so a couple things. Remember this was all part of one at one point
in time. I mean it was all -- the concept plan was all master planned together. That's why
you have the cross-access easements and it was always envisioned that these two --
there would be some traffic amongst the subject property that you're considering tonight
and what already exists to itself. I will just point out -- so, the -- the portions of Picard and
Cajun and Seville that are private -- honestly, there is not a lot the city can do for reasons
that have been talked about tonight. Police can't write tickets. We can't do anything.
There is not a public realm there. That is on the HOA and they own and maintain and are
responsible for that. They could potentially look at traffic calming measures, some speed
humps, some circles, some chicanes, some -- some things like that on their -- they are
their roads. They would want to coordinate with the fire department to make sure that
they can still have emergency access, but there is some things that they could do through
their HOA potentially that could help that. I'm not here to say that that's a silver bullet,
you still may get people that still go through there, but you could slow traffic down
potentially or even divert some folks. The portion of Centrepoint Way that's a public street,
ACHD though -- and the city can be involved in some of those things, we could do some
of the same treatments, but that is where the city, if you will, really through ACHD can
work on doing some things that could hopefully address volume as in speed concerns, at
least on the public street sections. I will just point out , though, this is a good example of
why in our code there is two things that aren't -- aren't present here. One, in our code it
talks about the intent of private streets is not intended for single family projects. This is
one of the reasons why. Two, we also require gates on -- on streets for -- that are private
-- again, this is one reason why. We can't police them. We really don't have control on
them and we don't want to gate too many communities off from each other, we do like
that interconnectivity. The third one I will also point out isn't necessarily ours, but more
ACHD's, you typically don't want a private street connecting two public streets, because
you get things like this and, then, you can't do anything about it. So, again, I don't have
-- I don't have a real solid answer. We kind of painted ourselves into the corner a little bit
with some of this, though, and, again, that -- there was a master plan that this all worked
together. I do think there are some things that could help a little bit , but, yeah, I don't
remember and didn't research it before tonight how we exactly got here, but it is certainly
not ideal. Unless you want to address anything else. And I am -- just in conclusion, I'm
willing to -- to help talk with the neighbors about, again, the ACHD roadway segments
and maybe there is some things that can be -- with John Lawson and -- and -- and
petitions that way for what is public right of way and some things that maybe could be
done that way to slow people down, at least on the Centrepoint, you know, stretch, kind
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of through the middle of this campus. I know that on your agenda you have a request for
a waiver of the crosswalk. That was one of the inten ts was to slow people down a little
bit to have at least some visual, hey, people could be crossing here across the street, so
maybe slow down if you're -- instead of speeding through there. But, anyways, I will make
that offer that I can -- I can certainly put them in contact and -- and coordinate on the
public street portions of this.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: In regard to the traffic calming measures along Picard, I don't remember if it's
Picard -- or I guess Picard goes all the way down, but I'm fairly certain there is already
traffic calming measures there that are existing and they are not small, they are big. I
mean, in my opinion, it would be very difficult to go 40 miles per hour down that road.
That's my opinion.
De Weerd: Well, you can see I haven't been the one speeding through there. I didn't
know about all this.
Bernt: I could be wrong. I could be -- I could be thinking of a different road, so I could be
wrong, but I'm fairly certain there is already traffic calming measures on that -- on that
road. Just saying.
De Weerd: I guess we could ask the neighborhood if there are traffic calming measures
there. I can't take testimony from the audience.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I think there is. I think we went through this discussion when the commercial
property up on Eagle Road came through, was trying to create some traffic calming. But
just an overarching observation is -- is back to -- somebody made the comment that the
-- the proposal and what could be done on this property yesterday and , then, if this is
denied, tomorrow, is more intense, more traffic than what's proposed. So, sometimes we
are -- we are dealing with greenfield development where there is no annexation, there is
no entitlement rights to build anything and the question is whether we should go from zero
to allow some type of use, which would create traffic, which would not otherwise exist.
This is different and it's frustrating -- certainly for the public, because, really, the discussion
is either, A, it's traffic of a certain level or with this proposal it's something certainly less.
To what degree we don't know. You know, traffic impact study provides us the greatest
objective matrix of a reduction in traffic, but that's the reality. So, a concern on traffic, for
example, on Picard, it goes down with this application, than it does with the 150,000
square feet of C-G. Now, whether that should have been approved back in '05 or '06 to
ever allow this much traffic, that ship has sailed, which is frustrating -- certainly frustrating.
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So, back to the focus of traffic on Picard, the reality is what's proposed as to the traffic
issue is asking for a reduction on the impact on that private lane, as well as Centrepoint
than what otherwise exists if we don't have this application. So, if that's helpful. At least
I think it frames our -- what we have to consider and what the public will be left with should
this go forward or should it be denied, so -- and Picard does have -- I think it's a -- is it
called a Hummock -- I think that allows the fire truck to get through.
Bongiorno: I was just looking at it, Council Member Borton and Bernt and Madam Mayor.
There is traffic calming devices on Picard. There is two of them. They are traffic cushions.
Borton: And Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Traffic cushions.
Bongiorno: Cushions. Yes.
Borton: Pillows.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk, can you pull the Google Map up or -- or maybe Sonya -- so, we
can see what was just referenced.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Does -- well, we will look at -- they are designed, though, so our -- our public
safety vehicles can get through them quicker.
Bongiorno: Correct. They are -- they are designed so that the axles of the fire engine
can get there --
Borton: Yes.
Bongiorno: -- but not a standard vehicle.
De Weerd: That's why they are a cushion?
Bongiorno: Yes. They are very cushiony.
De Weerd: Or -- oh, you said a pillow.
Bongiorno: Pillow.
De Weerd: We will bring it up just so -- now that we have referenced it we want to make
sure we all know what we are referring to.
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Bongiorno: If you click on satellite --
De Weerd: While we pull that up, Council, any -- any other questions --
Bongiorno: Down in the bottom corner.
De Weerd: -- at this point? Yeah, you're -- you're in the right spot. Yeah. Hit the satellite.
Bongiorno: Yeah. Click satellite. The bottom corner.
De Weerd: Yeah. Where it says satellite. Oh. Of course. It's always nicely placed.
Bongiorno: Sonya, I think if you zoom in a little bit further you can see them.
De Weerd: Oh, there they are. Oh, wow. Thank you for dropping that man right there.
Okay. Perfect. Council, any other information you need from the applicant, from staff or
those that testified?
Cavener: Madam Mayor? I think -- I think there was some questions from -- or from
Denise for Sonya, not from Sonya to Denise -- that I didn't know if Sonya wanted to have
a chance to respond.
Allen: Sure. Councilman, just one moment here, if you guys are done looking at this I
will switch screens. So, the -- the relocated Milk Lateral is shown there, the red line. So,
it fairly -- or fairly constrains the site. Development area. There is also an access
easement to the east for access to the property to the east to Centrepoint Drive. And,
then, of course, you can't shift the building to the north, because you can't build over the
lateral.
De Weerd: And, then, you have setbacks for access points that further constrain that.
Was there one more question?
Allen: Not that I'm aware of.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, I thought the other question that was raised was why does this
need to variance compared to what was already granted and what was granted is a
conceptual plan of buildings and elevate -- or not even elevations -- buildings and building
footprints with drive aisles, connections, driveways, so until the actual development
comes in, then, it's determined is a variance needed, where is the location of the building,
is the height -- that needs to be varied. So, that's why -- where there -- what they are
asking for does require that and part of the hardship -- and it's not simply the lateral, but
also as we talked about it isn't just the dimensions of the site, but it's the dimensions of
the site in relation to the property lines. This one is fairly unique as -- as was stated in
the staff report and by Sonya, that the property lines don't go to the middle of the roadway
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like most common ones do around the city and, again, I think to go back to Caleb, I -- I
think I was here in '05. This was one big concept and this was -- this area here -- this
Picard Lane was supposed to be a drive aisle and the access was supposed to go to the
north and so that was -- what was anticipated and that Picard Lane was merely to serve
that one section of the housing development and the other sections were supposed to be
served by the public streets. So, when it got broken up and changed that's why I think
Council Member Borton stated -- I mean that issue was decided as a whole and, then, it
got separated into bits and pieces and so that's an unfortunate circumstance, but nothing
we can do to change that, so --
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Nary. Okay. Council, anything further?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: It doesn't sound like there is. I'm going to close -- or move that we close the
public hearing on Item 8-D, E, and F. I believe we are doing them all together?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those favor say
aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I shared some of my comments about the scope of what's before us and these
three applications taken together, in light of the existing entitlements on the property and
what could be done here and the intensity of use , the applicant made reference to it and
I think staff did as well through the -- the staff report and the applicant's materials
reference the C-G zone and the intensity of use, both in the scale of the use, the -- the
mass of the buildings, the hours of use and the type of impact this existing entitled right
could have on the existing neighbors, which is quite intense and perhaps extremely
frustrating for those that live nearby. Anybody who shared information that said it might
be just a strip mall and a restaurant is it was not probably accurately depicting what was
zoned and entitled. That doesn't help either. But it might have not given the public a real
clear understanding of -- of the intensity of use that was approved there. So, back to
what's before us, I look at it from -- from that perspective, that you have an extremely
intense C-G usage, which is going to create noise and traffic of a considerable degree,
considering this application and the review of what the applicant's presented, how P&Z
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vetted it -- I thought P&Z did a wonderful job in trying to wrestle with some of these issues,
that some of the finer points that have come to us today, it's something that I'm -- all things
considered I'm supportive of. I think that, in essence, reducing the intensity of usage on
this property, trying to facilitate some of the constraints that exist on this property to allow
for a use consistent with the zoning seems appropriate. I think our staff has made -- and
Planning and Zoning has made some good reference to the intent of these setbacks.
There wasn't necessarily anything magical back when the hundred feet from a zoning
district was set, other than trying to capture an awareness that -- that these sound impacts
have an actual impact on -- on a residential neighborhood. You could have a situation
like this, which truly is really unique, quite frankly, with the -- the R-15 residential zoning
really abutting this -- this property when normally we would see that portion of the -- that
triangle, the southwest corner I guess, you would usually see a project come where that
would be part of this application, which would create the additional setback. So, there is
really some unique factors with this and the history of this project, which -- which makes
me think what is proposed meets the intent of those requirements within our UDC and as
part of that I think the variance findings are also -- I think they can be met in light of the
constraints that have been referenced by the applicant and by our staff and I agree with
-- with -- counsel for the applicant makes reference to our U DC standards on a variance
-- it's kind of weird, we really have -- we have three standards, but it's kind of like we have
two, because if you're going to have -- be able to make a finding that you have unique
site characteristics that create -- cite it correctly --
De Weerd: Hardship.
Borton: Yes. Characteristics of that site create a unique hardship, if you're able to make
that finding, then, you are, in essence, also making the finding that you're not granting a
special privilege, because it's a unique characteristic of the site which warrants the
variance in the first place. So, you either have one and two or you have neither of them.
So, I think those are met here as well. To the extent that our -- our zoning allows the use
-- the time usage to make 11:00 p.m. I -- I wouldn't even restrict usage of the water slide,
quite frankly. I don't necessarily -- I don't think that's -- from where that's located that
that's necessary. So, those are -- those are my thoughts. I'm supportive of the request
of the applicant. I'm sensitive to the concerns of the -- of the neighborhood. Hopefully
this is a less intense use. Clearly it will be than what would otherwise be built, so --
De Weerd: Any other comments or remarks?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: For the record that I tend to agree with Council Member Borton. I have really
wrestled with this project and fortunate that we were able to continue this and allow legal
counsel and the applicant to connect specifically on -- on the variance issue. That was a
piece that I had some real concerns with a month and a half ago. The one exception I
guess I do have -- and maybe slight disagreement with Councilmember Borton pertains
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to the children's use of the pool and the timing. It sounds to me that the applicant was
supportive of reducing those hours to be a good neighbor, doing what I think they have
done through this entire project was really try to be a good neighbor to the surrounding
residences, recognizing when there is a disagreement sometimes that's really, really hard
and I appreciate your willingness to do that. So, I'm supportive of the reduction. I'm
supportive of this project with the reduction of the hours of the water slide and youth pool.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I appreciate the point and the applicant's concession on that. I generally am not
inclined to -- to restrict usage. It's not necessary. But you bring up a great point and --
and I certainly would support a restricted time -- I think he said 9:00 p.m. for the children's
usage of the water slide or water slide and pool area. I'm certainly not opposed to it and
I appreciate bringing it up and appreciate the applicant's concession in that regard. If it
helps mitigate some of the impact on the public, that makes sense.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, if there is --
Bernt: Mr. Bernt?
Bernt: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Mike and Tamara and Mr. Lawyer from
Givens Pursley. I appreciate -- I appreciate your -- your presentation. I think it was very
well thought out and very thorough. I, frankly -- I -- I love this business model. I think it
is absolutely awesome. I -- I understand why you want it at that corner. You know, I -- if
I had a business like yours I would want to plant it right there as well. I mean location,
location, location. Makes sense. I get it. We have code in place to ensure a healthy,
safe neighborhood development. After listening to the applicant and -- and the facts, I
just -- I'm not one hundred percent convinced that the applicant's met that level for me to
approve a variance for this with this area . I almost think to myself, I mean I wish there
was a way that you guys could, you know, redesign or do something with this -- with this
area to make it work. I -- I'm looking at you right now and, man, I -- you're not liking what
I'm saying. I get that. But we can agree to disagree. I just -- I -- this is just in my -- in my
opinion I just -- I just don't think that level has been met and so I -- I love the project, I'm
just not supportive of it in this -- in this particular area.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. I have really wrestled with this. I think it's a great project.
I -- I love the concept and everything. I so wrestled with where it is, but I think that history
kind of dictates what our options are and I think that I can -- I have a lot of empathy for
the neighbors, but I think that having something that is less intense in that a rea will
actually better -- be better than what could be there and I do think it's a wonderful project.
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I think that -- I hope the neighbors, if we proceed, embrace it and enjoy it. I think
somebody even said it's an opportunity to get to know the neighbors. And so I definitely
have my concerns, but I really appreciate the applicant and all the work that has been
done to keep the scope so that it can hopefully be fairly neighbor friend ly and especially
with the demographics that you're aiming for and so should it proceed I hope you do
absolutely everything you can to mitigate issues while construction is happening and
things, because we all know how hard construction nearby can be on neighbors with dust,
parking and things like that and so because our hands are somewhat tied and I think this
does fit as a less intense use, I am in support of the project.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Well, I will wait and see -- never mind. I will wait and see where this goes.
De Weerd: Okay. If there is nothing further, I would entertain a motion.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I'm going to -- I move that we approve Item 8 -- we are taking them together, so
D, E and F -- it's H-2019-0011, H-2018-0121, H-2019-0032, to incorporate the modified
conditions to the CUP and the approval of the variance as reflected by -- in the applicant's
language in their variance application and to incorporate the revised -- the site plan, which
is today's date -- of today's date that has been presented before Council, with one edit to
the conditions to -- to accept the applicant's proposal that the children's pool area have a
closing time of 9:00 p.m., to approve the remainder of the proposed language.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Just for clarification, Councilman Borton, did you mean the entire children -- or
youth pool area or just the above-ground water features? The slide.
Borton: Madam Mayor, I believe the -- the reference was to the water slide.
Palmer: The pool can stay open.
Borton: The water slide was where the -- where the restriction was. Now, if Councilman
Cavener recalls differently -- I believe that's -- so, that would be the motion.
Palmer: Second.
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De Weerd: It is the water features.
Borton: Correct.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Borton, I think the
planning did request the specific reference to the access on the eastern side because of
the -- the joint access -- or the shared access they are going to build off of Ustick, if you
approve that.
Borton: Madam Mayor -- that was the reference to the -- the decision on whether to grant
the waiver.
Nary: Yes?
Borton: And that the waiver would be granted for the access as proposed. There was no
objection raised to that and so that waiver would be granted as well.
Palmer: Still second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. So, discussion?
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Looking like where this may go, just -- just for -- just -- just for -- just a thought, you
know, 9:00 o'clock, it's still light and fairly early in the summertime , you know. If I were a
kiddo I wouldn't want to stop having fun at 9:00 p.m. Just saying.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: One of the comments I was going to make a minute ago, but in a previous
application we had tried to facilitate some work with an applicant and I believe it was with
this neighborhood concerning traffic calming and I think we can help facilitate that as well
on Picard. ACHD was part of that. That's where we got the pillows that were discussed
earlier. So, not necessarily part of a motion, but -- or assistance that can be provided.
De Weerd: And I -- I guess the -- the no parking on Centrepoint and Picard -- or at least
along that northern boundary and southern for that matter. I -- I guess that would be part
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of what our planning team would work with ACHD on to mitigate the traffic impact, as well
as the parking.
Borton: Madam Mayor. The no parking signs weren't part of the motion. I wouldn't
include it. I think the applicant's expressed a willingness to do so. Not to get too much
in the weeds, but if you want to calm traffic on Picard you want cars parked on both sides
of it. You would want the most narrow street possible.
De Weerd: You would never get a car through there.
Borton: It's not -- but that's counterintuitive; right? The wider streets create higher
speeds. So, nonetheless, the no parking signs weren't a condition of the --
De Weerd: Okay.
Borton: -- motion.
Bongiorno: Madam Mayor and City Council, if I may, private lanes are required to be
signed no parking fire lane on both sides and looking at the -- I dropped my little guy in
there. There is no parking signs on that road, because it's required by the UDC.
De Weerd: There you go.
Borton: There you go.
De Weerd: Thank you, Joe. Any other comments? Or anything to be captured? Okay.
Hearing none, the motion is to approve Item 8-D, allowing the -- the reduction of setbacks,
hours of -- of operation with the restrictions on the children's pool. Anything further? Mr.
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, absent; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, nay.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE NAY. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: And I believe that was regarding just Item D, the DA modifications and
certainly the variance -- the variance has to be set separately. Is that correct, Mr. Nary?
Nary: Madam Mayor, I think the motion was related to all three and since you did have
them all together, we -- we can -- we can prepare findings for all of it as -- based on that
motion, if that was the desire of the Council.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, the motion -- the discussion talked about why a variance is -- is
applicable, but it wasn't in the motion.
Nary: Madam Mayor, he made a specific reference --
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De Weerd: Did it?
Nary: -- to the document that's in the -- filed by the applicant.
De Weerd: Okay. Very good. Sorry for not tracking it.
Allen: Madam Mayor, excuse me. May I clarify, please. You made a -- you mentioned
hours of operation restriction on the pool. I understood that earlier to mean just the slide ;
is that correct?
De Weerd: The water --
Allen: The water --
De Weerd: -- the water features.
Allen: Above ground. So, not including the pool area. The pool.
Borton: Correct.
De Weerd: Right.
Allen: Thank you.
De Weerd: That's how I understood it.
Borton: Clarified.
De Weerd: For Caleb and -- if -- in your work with Ada County Highway District in -- in
looking at this area and how to minimize impacts, if you can include the HOA and -- and
the -- the applicant as well in that. And I would like to thank the applicant, too. I know
why you chose that corner. It's -- it's a perfect corner and -- and, frankly, I -- I am kind of
biased on my -- our community. I know why you chose Meridian. We are family oriented.
This is about families. It's about kids and -- and I do think that that is what we are. I -- I
hope that you will work to establish a relationship with the neighborhood and I think that
they will come to see that this will be an asset for their neighborhood as well. But thank
you for -- for being here. Anything further from the Council on this? Okay.
G. Public Works: Budget Amendment Not to Exceed $86, 027 for
Streetlight Maintenance and Locating for Streetlight
Underground Power
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-G is a Public Works Department budget amendment and I will
turn this over to Warren.
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Stewart: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, last year the City
Council approved a budget for 55,000 dollars for Public Works to do -- that was supposed
to cover our streetlight maintenance and also to cover the cost of a new program that we
were developing, which was designed or intended to do utility locates for the power lines
that feed our streetlights. So, I will address that in two pieces. The funding that you see
here, the 86,000 dollars is actually for both of those, but I will take each one of them kind
of a piece at a time. So, our funding for the streetlight maintenance program has been
about 30,000 dollars for several years now. Last year we overspent that a little bit. We
weren't sure if that was an anomaly last year or whether or not that was something that
was going to become a trend. It became fairly apparent to us fairly quickly this year that
that was a new trend. W e have a lot -- we put in eight hundred to a thousand new
streetlights a year. Many of those early streetlights that we put -- streetlights in were high
pressure sodium. They have a lifespan of about five to six years and, consequently, a lot
of those lights are now starting to need regular maintenance and so our maintenance
costs are going up. So, we have done some analysis to figure out what that cost needs
to be ongoing and how to cover that. You will actually see that in the budget presentation
that -- in a few months, but what we need right now is the additional funds necessary to
continue to do maintenance on our street lights. This replaces the bulbs, ballasts that are
-- have gone out. Occasionally a new fixture or even sometimes when lights get damaged
and we have to go out and replace poles and so forth. This covers the cost of that ongoing
maintenance work. The second piece of this really relates to the new program that we
have, which is to go out and mark out our utilities, similar to what we do with water and
sewer. We are required when a contractor calls in and says I need to go dig in an area
to go and mark those utilities. It's part of state code. We didn't realize as a city that we
have these little segments of power line all over the place that run from the -- the Idaho
Power facilities to our streetlights that we should have been marking out. Fortunately, we
haven't had any major or serious issues where those have been hit. We have had a few
and we have had to go out and pay for the repairs on the -- those facilities, because it
wasn't the contractor's fault. But we started a program and hired some contractors to
help us go out and do that work. We used an estimate that was based on, essentially,
what we were spending for water and sewer and approximately -- you know,
approximated the area that we thought we were going to have to watch for power and
came up with the budget for this year and I will be honest with you, we were -- we were
off and that's the bottom line. We were off. The number of Digline tickets that has come
is significantly more than what we had anticipated and so to have the funding to go out
and perform the utility locates for the balance of this year we are going to need some
additional money to fund that work. So , you will see on the back of the memo -- or the
second page of the memo, essentially, the maintenance operations we are asking for
another 20,000 dollars to continue the work throughout this year and for the locating
services another 65,000 dollars and with that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Warren. Council, any questions?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
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Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. If there are no questions, I move that we approve the
budget amendment not to exceed 86,027 dollars for streetlight maintenance and location
for streetlight underground power.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-G. Any discussion? Mr.
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, absent; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Stewart: Thank you.
Item 9: Department Reports
A. Council: City Council Meetings Format
De Weerd: And thanks, Al. Okay. Item 9-A -- I will call on our Council President. Getting
serious now.
Borton: I like to look at you guys when I'm talking to you . Madam Mayor. Joe Borton.
Members of Council -- the topic is City Council meeting agenda meeting improvements.
So, it's not rocket science that our meetings have run long and Warren just gave us the
most recent great example of how we are at times inefficient in what we are doing. Poor
Warren, who has already left, his car is started and he's gone, had to sit around for three
hours of -- of his time waiting to present for ten minutes. So, is there a better way to -- to
do what we do and -- and there is. We have members of the public that we see who get
stuck waiting hours late. We have our staff that gets stuck waiting hours late. We have
-- we don't have a cap on our time and our focus on our non-land use matters. All of this
compiles to inefficiencies for staff, public and us , which brings us to midnight meetings.
So, five, six, seven, eight years ago we started the Tuesday workshops -- maybe a little
longer. Roughly. Tuesday workshops. Taking two hours out of your work day each month
-- assuming an 8:00 to 5:00 work day. Taking two hours using all the non-land use matters
there, community items, presentations and that worked well as we were 40, 50, 60
thousand people. Now, we are over a hundred. It's grown. Our community needs have
grown from proclamations, to awards for state championships, to staff reports and an
annual updates, all of which we need to -- to hear. So, the Tuesday night -- or the Tuesday
workshop is now so compressed with agenda items, to try and pack all of those non-land
use items on one day is creating additional inefficiencies and -- and now screwing up the
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other three City Council meetings. That's a problem. Is there a solution? Of course there
is a solution. Is there a handout? Of course there is a handout. Mr. Clerk. So, you're
not -- Madam Mayor, you're not -- we are not taking action, we are not voting, but you
have got a handout. It's beautiful. It's a single page. It's in color and it highlights on the
top half what our month looks like now, first, third, fourth Tuesday starting at 6:00 o'clock.
It's going to go fast. Man, we are going a long time and, then, it just goes off the rails into
late inefficiencies, late staff, late public, not the best way to do our service and, then, a
Tuesday, which is a workshop, which is intended to be compressed and non-land use,
then, goes off the rails, because we put everything and anything from our staff, which we
have to hear and our community presentations. So, now that's not working. So, is there
a better way to do it? The idea is to take the two hours that exist on our second Tuesday,
divide them up into four one half hours, you start at 4:30. This isn't really fancy or unheard
of, but it's -- I think Boise does this structure. It's a work session. Every Tuesday you
start at 4:30. 4:30 to 6:00 is a work session. All non-land use matters, city staff reports,
community presentations, all occur during the public city work session. That does a lot
of good things. I have listed five of them. City staff, like Warren, could have presented
earlier. Members of the public who are -- who are engaging in -- in proclamations and
awards and acknowledgments can get in and get out. And the members of the public that
want to testify on land use hearings, know that 6:00 o'clock means 6:00 o'clock and they
are not stuck waiting until 7:30, even with -- with good work to be done in front of them
waiting to testify. It provides more certainty for the applicant as well, who is spending
their money and their resources asking to participate in our city's process. So, I listed five
of those. That's what it would be. And I would likely want to chew on this. The idea would
be if people are favorable of moving to a work session, you could use a, for example, July
1 start date. It could go a little sooner, but the idea is soon enough that the four individuals
who are going to run for Mayor or for City Council that we make a change, but they do so
understanding what the new time obligation would be for their work. So , it would afford
enough time for us to try it out and for any person who wants to run, to know the -- the
rules of the road and what the time commitment would be. So, that's it. So, if you want
to chew on it, you can give sort of a general -- I like the ideas. The pros outweigh the
cons. I'm very interested. Let's move forward. Thanks for the handout. That's good
feedback. What would happen -- there is -- I didn't cite it. There is one -- two sentences
in one of our ordinances that talk about City Council meetings. It's a relatively
straightforward change to incorporate this to , edit that paragraph to reflect the new work
session structure. And also, last thing, is executive sessions. We don't like them at 11:30
at night. Sometimes it happens. Utilizing this we have the time, we are all here 4:30 to
6:00, finish at 5:30, We can drop an executive session before our council meetings if and
when they are necessary, avoiding them late at night. It sounds like it's too good to be
true. It sounds like it's almost the perfect proposal. I agree. I just think it's a better way
to do business and the public is going to like it, too. So, any questions?
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Good grief. Brilliant. Mr. Bernt.
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Bernt: You know, I -- I think we should -- I think this new proposal is fantastic. I know
Boise does the same thing and it definitely will help alleviate some late nights -- late
nights, no bueno. So -- I don't know if -- if there is anyone that -- if there is anyone that,
you know, wants to think about this we can wait, but I'm in favor of just getting the ball
rolling now personally.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I knew a council member once that talked a lot about unintended
consequences and so I'm always on the lookout for unintended consequences when great
ideas are presented and -- and I think this proposal does have a potential unintended
consequence. Yes. And I think that is the -- the removal of our workshop meeting. What
I -- I fear happens is that we just spread everything that happens in the workshop meeting
over three other weeks or four other weeks and those meetings are already jam packed
and so now that's eating into our -- our general meeting and how do we develop a hard
stop, so that it gives the Mayor and Council plenty of opportunity to thank the young
people who come that have won another state championship for our great community,
another organization that's got a proclamation request, that we are not -- not getting in
the way of department updates. So, I'm 87.3 percent really supportive of this, but I think
that it's important that we keep our workshop meetings in place and add the work sessions
to our first, third and fourth meeting. That's something that I'm a little more supportive of,
at least for maybe six months to see how that goes. We, as staff and the public can attest,
do a really good job of going really late regardless on -- even on easy items and I don't
want to have this work session get in the way of our regular meeting.
Borton: Madam Mayor. Quick question. I disagree. Here is the challenge I would -- I
would put on -- it very well may be an externality, but it's anticipated -- and I think we could
do it. I think the better approach perhaps would be to -- to adopt this structure and
challenge ourselves to disperse the staff and community presentations week over week ,
we would have to wait a month for reports and see how it goes. I think it takes some
discipline on behalf of the Mayor and Council President to try and efficiently set an agenda
that allows it to be accomplished within 90 minutes or less. I think it can be done. If we
run into trouble we can always have the discussion and expand it. Maybe it starts at 4:00,
but I wouldn't -- I wouldn't skip the opportunity to -- to rise to the occasion with a
compressed schedule. We can do it.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: To that point, Mr. Borton, we -- we maybe could -- we have a fantastic Council
right now and a great Mayor, but six months from now that is all going to change
dramatically and so to say that we are just -- yes, we may do this today, but with -- with
new council and a new mayor, that's going to change. So, isn't -- isn't it beneficial to keep
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things as is, add a little something extra and, then, maybe look for a more substantive
change come next year?
Bernt: No. Just arm wrestle right now.
Borton: Madam Mayor? This is -- this is the example. This is the case that demonstrates
exactly what I'm trying to do. I would say no. I think brevity is rewarded; right? It is the
soul of wit. Two ears, one mouth. And I think we want anybody who wants to serve in
public office to understand there is a great value in being able to get your business done
quickly, efficiently, get in, get out. Public appreciates it. Staff appreciates it. We can rise
to the occasion. This challenges us. And we could have a shot clock perhaps. That's
another idea. That's another discussion. So, we don't have to decide today. If there is
-- we can talk more, Councilman Cavener, or we can draft the language, bring it back as
a draft ordinance change, chew on it a little bit. There might be other unintended
consequences, but I think the -- it's not perfect, but the pros outweigh the cons, which is
really all we want to do.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I'm 76.4 percent there. My -- my major concern is while I think your point is
important that you would want to get it done sooner than later, so the people that would
-- are contemplating running would know what the -- what the requirement is going to be,
I think for that very reason that it may make it far more difficult for somebody who would
be very good in the position to be able to run , especially a younger crowd. I'm a very
strange exception I think in having the blessed opportunity to have the employers that I
do that are very willing to let me really do whatever I need to do to fulfill this responsibility,
but I think generally people my age -- and especially any younger haven't really -- not
many have grown to the position to be able to have that level of flexibility. So, I think it
would really make it more difficult to have younger people involved.
De Weerd: But I guess I would imagine anyone that is younger that -- or anyone in general
that is employed in a structured hourly job has already talked to their employer and -- and
there is an agreement. There is -- that there will be a Tuesday commitment, so it --
Borton: Yeah. It's -- it may be sixes. I don't think it's -- you may be right, you may be
wrong, I don't know. I think it's -- one of the challenges is when -- for the working folks
who that workshop Tuesday, you're basically -- you're done. From lunch on you're done.
You're taking a half day off in a sense, because you really can't get into an intense meeting
or travel at 1:30 knowing you got to be here at 2:00, 2:30. So, it's taking the same time
commitment, dispersing it equally amongst and now you're just leaving at 4:00 instead of
2:00. But you may be right. I don't think it will be --
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
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Borton: -- fatal to --
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I mean that's 3:00 to 5:00. There is two hours there. 4:30 -- I mean that's -- I
guess that's still two hours to 5:00. I was going off until 6:00, because who works until
5:00? That's ridiculous. So -- never mind.
Borton: It's the allocation.
Palmer: I'm talking Ty.
Borton: So, give them a shot clock anyway. Thanks for -- for letting us chew on it.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: And not that it would need to be incorporated in -- in -- I guess maybe two
comments. One, thank you, Council President Borton. C.Jay, I know you have spent
some time on this. You and I have been talking about this as well. I think that -- I think
this is great work. The other piece that doesn't need to be reflected in the ordinance that
I guess would maybe be a request. At the end of our meetings you -- Madam Mayor, you
do a great job of summarizing all of these great community events to seven people that
are in the room. I would love if we reordered our agenda to add those community events
when the public is in the room, because I think ultimately they are the ones that we want
to be sharing that with. So, just -- just a thought. Again, maybe as we -- again, I talk a
lot about us leveling up as a Council, we level up our agenda, to maybe look to incorporate
some type of an announcement within that, so that way the public can be aware of events
that are happening, because, ultimately, we know about it, because we get the e-mails
and we hear from you, but the public could really benefit from knowing some of the other
things that are happening in our community.
Borton: Questions?
De Weerd: So, I -- I guess the next step is to bring a draft back for --
Borton: We can do that.
Bernt: I can make a motion right now if you want.
De Weerd: -- discussion.
Borton: We will bring back -- Madam Mayor? If it's okay we will bring back draft language
relatively straightforward that isn't in color, but captures the intent of this, so -- okay.
Thank you.
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Item 10; Ordinances [Action Items]
A. Amended onto Agenda: Ordinance #19-1820: An Ordinance
Amending Meridian City Code Section 3-1-2( A), Regarding
Authorization Of FBI National Criminal History Records Checks
For Vehicle Immobilization License Applicants; Adopting A
Savings Clause; And Providing An Effective Date
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Ordinance No. 10-A is 19-1820. Mr. Clerk, will you, please,
read this ordinance by title.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 19-1820, an
ordinance amending Meridian City Code Section 3-1-2(a), regarding authorization of FBI
national criminal history records checks for vehicle immobilization license applicants;
adopting a savings clause; and providing an effective date
De Weerd: Is there any discussion on this? Hearing none, do I have a motion?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. I move we approve Ordinance No. 19-1820 with
suspension of rules.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. If there is no discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, absent; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried by the commission. I'm sorry, Chris. It will start to
be a little bit more fluid.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Johnson: It's muscle memory on the Commission.
De Weerd: Exactly.
Johnson: Not toward Council Member Bernt.
Item 11 : Future Meeting Topics
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De Weerd: Item 11 under Future Meeting Topics, as Mr. Cavener pointed out, we do have
some upcoming events. Do The Right is Thursday, April 4th, following the Mayor's Prayer
Breakfast, which starts at 6:30 a.m. at Scentsy Commons. The only time I agree to a
6:30 a.m. meeting. Have every year. Scholarship applications are due on Friday.
Anything else for the good of the order?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Would you, please, clarify where the prayer breakfast is? I understand
that it's at Scentsy Building Two.
De Weerd: Which is their main building.
Little Roberts: Thank you.
De Weerd: I think Building One was more their industrial building that's closest to the
tracks.
Little Roberts: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. If there is nothing further I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Cavener: So moved.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: What? You can't so move. Okay. I have a motion to adjourn. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:21 P.M.
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