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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSusan Karnes 06-10-19Chris Johnson From: Bill Parsons Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2019 5:19 PM To: Chris Johnson Subject: FW: UDC revisions and Impact Fees Chris, This email was forwarded to me for Councilman Cavener but I don't' see it being part of the record for the UDC changes. Would you upload this to laserfiche as public testimony? Thanks, Bill Parsons, AICP I Planning Supervisor City of Meridian I Community Development Dept. 33 E. Broadway Ave., Ste. 102, Meridian, Idaho 83642 Phone: 208-884-5533 1 Fax: 208-489-0571 C,-/(fE II]IrIA�a- Built for Business, Designed for Living ©®00© All e-mail messages sent to or received by City of Meridian e-mail accounts are subject to the Idaho law, in regards to both release and retention, and may be released upon request, unless exempt from disclosure by law. From: Luke Cavener <Icavener@meridiancity.org> Sent: Monday, June 10, 2019 4:03 PM To: Bill Parsons <bparsons@meridiancity.org>; Caleb Hood <chood@meridiancity.org> Cc: Tammy de Weerd <tdeweerd@meridiancity.org> Subject: Fwd: UDC revisions and Impact Fees FYI. Sent from my Whone Begin forwarded message: From: Susan Karnes <susankarnes@gmail.com> Date: June 10, 2019 at 1:49:52 PM MDT To: Mayor Tammy de Weerd <tdeweerd@meridiancity.org>, Joe Borton <jborton@meridiancity.org>, Treg Bernt <tbernt@meridiancity.org>, <alittleroberts@meridiancity.org>, Genesis Milam <gmilam@meridiancity.org>, Luke Cavener <lcavener@meridiancit_y.org>, <typalmer@meridiancity.org> Cc: TheSneakyPug <sneakypug @ gmail.com>, Denise LaFever <dlafever3 @ gmail.com> Subject: UDC revisions and Impact Fees Good afternoon, As Meridian resident members of the City's Comprehensive Plan steering committee, we have been privileged to attend Vision Survey events, to discuss resident input, and to hear suggestions from a wide array of businesses and government entities about the vision for Meridian. We value our primary task to consider, incorporate, and ultimately help decide how stakeholders' feedback will drive the new Comprehensive Plan and shape our community's next 10 to 20 years. We take our responsibility to represent residents' interests as defined by the MyMeridian Vision Survey very seriously. Therefore, we feel compelled to speak in a united voice about two important items under current consideration by the City Council: the proposed UDC revisions and impact fees. UDC Revisions Vision Survey results have been very clear: Stakeholders desire a Meridian where open space is valued, set aside and amplified. They want tranquil settings and generous recreational trails and amenities. They oppose "cookie cutter" neighborhoods and "Anywhere USA" commercial developments with indistinct identities. They crave view sheds, honoring our community's agricultural heritage and preserving a sense of our proud history. Open Space The proposed UDC revisions do not increase open space; in fact, they suggest a trend to deteriorate one of the most highly prized elements among Vision Survey results. We do NOT support arterial pathways as qualified open space; such pathways do NOT offer tranquil recreational value to residents, nor do they enhance neighborhoods --they simply provide a necessary buffer and convenient access along high traffic corridors. We encourage Council, in response to the City's own resident survey, to amplify our open space standards. As representatives of residents, we cannot support any deterioration of the QUALITY or QUANTITY of our open space. We also strongly encourage Council to more clearly and strictly define what qualifies as usable space. Setbacks The proposed UDC revisions propose tighter setbacks. While we can support tighter setbacks in appropriate high density districts, we strongly believe the City's residents and property tax paying stakeholders oppose tighter cites dimensional standards. We further believe the UDC needs slope, grading and drainage ordinances before we aggravate issues we know to exist. Variances, zoning and DA amendments We believe that our residents want to be heard --especially during this period of developing a new Comp Plan. Therefore, we oppose all substantive changes to land use being approved by the Director, and the use of variances, DA amendments and alternative compliance to change land use that might impact the property rights. We ask that these actions be subject to public hearings for two reasons: A) The public deserves a voice in significant changes; and B) Substantive changes should be decided by our elected officials, the City Council. Action Requested We believe several of the proposed UDC revisions are inconsistent with our stakeholder survey results and the vision, intent and spirit of the new Comp Plan. We therefore respectfully request that Council postpone any and all UDC changes that should be driven by our new Comprehensive Plan. Impact Fees We believe there are several troubling aspects related to the proposed impact fees: Trends We do not believe the historic 2014 and 2018 data sets utilized in the proposed ordinance projections accurately represent market trends in the next few years, nor do they anticipate proposed Future Land Use Map (FLUM) changes in the new Comp Plan --which currently proposes a minimum of 162 land use changes. We believe Meridian can expect fewer homes built above 2500 square foot range and believe the trend toward smaller homes will continue given land prices, building cost, house prices and overall affordability, and developer desires to continue to request smaller tighter lots with smaller houses. This is consistent with the BCA representative's comment made at June 4, 2019, City Council meeting in which he stated the forward trend is toward smaller homes. That opinion is further supported by multiple developers in Meridian who have testified before Council that aging, first time and limited income buyers are demanding smaller homes. Timing We are baffled by the Council's anticipated final reading slated for June 11. The City is just now embarking on its budget process, and the new Comp Plan is only in its final draft version. We believe there are important data points to be gleaned from both processes that could significantly impact the impact fee revenue projections. Action Requested We respectfully submit that the proposed impact fees do not reflect stakeholder survey responses and the direction of the new Comp Plan, nor have they been reviewed in the light of our 2019 City budget and hearings. We further believe that Meridian's impact fee structure should intentionally support and incentivize the vision outlined in the new Comp Plan. We therefore respectfully request that City Council delay action until the budget process, new Comp Plan and FLUM have been approved and Council understands all implications of such as they relate to impact fees. Respectfully, Denise LaFever Susan Karnes Sally Reynolds