HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-08-20 RegularMeridian City Council August 20, 2019.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:07 p.m., Tuesday, August
20, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Genesis Milam, Ty
Palmer, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt.
Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Bill Parsons, Kyle Radek, Sonya Allen, Mark Ford,
Joe Bongiorno 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: Sorry we are starting a few minutes late. Thank you for joining us. It's always
nice to see our athletes in the room. We look forward to honoring you. For the record it
is Tuesday, August 20th. It's seven minutes after 6:00. We will start with roll call
attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is adopt -- is adoption of the agenda. It is, actually, the pledge of
Allegiance. Please rise and join us in the pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Steve Moore of Ten Mile Christian Church
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is the community invocation. Is Pastor Moore here? I didn't think
I saw him.
Item 4: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: So, we will go ahead and move to Item 4, adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: We have some changes to the agenda. On the -- Item 8-C, 8-D, 8-E, those will
be removed from the agenda. Item -- well, we got continuance requests -- Item 8-F we
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will be continuing or request to continue to next week August 27th. We will deal with that
when we get to it. Item 8-G there is a request to continue to September 3rd. We will deal
with that when we get to it. Most likely continuing it to September 10th and we are going
to add on an Executive Session as a new Item 10. It would be an Executive Session
pursuant to Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(d) and (1)(f) and with those changes I move we
adopt the amended agenda.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Announcements
De Weerd: Item 5 under announcements, we have a couple things coming up to remind
you about. MYAC has their kickoff, that's the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, on Monday,
August 26th. It starts at 6:00 and at 7:00. We do it two different times to accommodate
parents and their teens. And we have a candidate for Mayor and City Council openings.
The filing period opens August 26th, runs to September 6th. First day of school on August
26th. The parents celebrate. Kids are not ready to end their summers right? And just a
reminder, if you haven't been out to look at the Tabernacle of Moses at Scentsy, it's
spectacular. I was -- I was on tour there last night and it's open from 4:00 to 8:40 each
night until the 24th. Any other announcements?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I do have a couple announcements from the Parks Department. The parks tour
is Wednesday, September 11th. So, save the date, mark your calendars. It starts at 5:15
at Discovery Park. This coming Friday is the last Movie Night of the summer. Summer
camps and classes are wrapping up and the Fall Activity Guide has just come out. So,
pick yours up. Yeah. And, then, the Discovery Park grand opening on the 27th went
extremely well and the Parks Department just wanted to pass on their gratitude and
appreciation for the Council and Mayor's support. That's it.
Item 6: Proclamation
A. Meridian Youth Baseball All Star Champions Day
De Weerd: Thank you. Well, thank you. If there is nothing further I do have a
proclamation and I will ask the team and the coaches if you will join me at the podium at
the front. If you want to, you can come along and -- and face the crowd. Well, we always
like to recognize great achievements and this team standing in front of you -- I have a lot
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of the information -- pardon? Half the team. Half the team is standing in front of you. But
we always appreciate the opportunity to recognize our young athletes, in particular when
their hard work pays off and they go and represent our community to a much larger venue.
So, congratulations to the team, to their coaches, and I do have two different
proclamations. I'm going to read just one of them. The other one includes all your names
and I will give that to your coach. But the one with the names will be entered into the
public record. So, if you ever want to impress a girl and impress your family, it will be
institutionalized in the minutes of our City Council meeting that you were recognized and
a day was dedicated in your name. So, without -- or with that I will tell you a little bit about
the team in front of you. Whereas the Meridian Cal Ripken Major 12U 70s allstar baseball
team recently won the 2019 Pacific Northwest Regional Championship and whereas this
victory earned them the prestigious privilege of representing the state of Idaho and
competing in the 2019 Cal Ripken Major 70 World Series on August 1st to 10th in
Branson, Missouri, and whereas this team going to the World Series builds team spirit,
community pride and allows these young athletes to walk onto the field with a little extra
swagger and whereas the guidance of the coaches help all team members focus on work
ethic, toughness and desire, which transform them into a winning team with each player
making valuable contributions and whereas participating in youth baseball gives young
people a strong sense of character, teamwork and -- and confidence, traits that remain
with them all through their life, both on the field and off the field. Therefore, I, Mayor
Tammy de Weerd, do proclaim August 20th, 2019, is MYB Allstar Champions Day in the
City of Meridian and call upon the community to join me in congratulating this team on
their remarkable athletic achievement and for representing Meridian so proudly in the
recent World Series. I sign this today and I appreciate the opportunity to honor you and
your achievements and congratulate you. So, please join me in congratulating them.
Okay. So, would you, please, introduce each of your players or maybe they want to
introduce themselves. Talk about your position and, then, I would love the coach to make
a few comments.
Downey: My name is Henry Downey and I play first base.
Scott: My name is Luke Scott. I play right field and pitcher.
Schumacher: My name is Drew Schumacher and I play right field.
Axtell: My name is Cole Axtell and I play left field.
McPherson: Cooper McPherson. Left field.
Shea: Juanmarchos Shea. Third base and pitcher.
Skinner: Lucas Skinner. Catcher.
Walker: All right. So, my name is Travis Walker and the other coaches are Bill Scott and
Kevin Downey and we are missing about four or five players tonight and also the other
coaches Travis Cronk. But let me tell you what kind of fun we had at Branson. It was --
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it was amazing to get to that point. These -- these boys -- the sacrifice that they did the
last four years of their summer was spent on the ball field and they have achieved some
great things and they have got -- it just really helped them we believe as -- as young man,
number one, but, you know, they have learned so much that hard work and dedication
really has paid off for them. We went -- we rolled into Branson and surprised by the
weather. It was really hot and humid. A lot different than here. And the level of
competition was amazing and the sportsmanship was amazing and the boys overall had
a -- had a good turnout and as far as -- as far as the performance, we beat a good
Alabama team in a walk off. Drew Schumacher hit one about 300 feet. We were up eight
to seven in a walk off against a really talented Alabama team. We -- we came close to a
couple national teams. Korea we lost three to one. But you know what, you're supposed
to lose to the -- to the country of Korea when you're coming from Meridian, Idaho. And
these -- these -- the team from Dominican, again, excellent team and their coaches were
-- were great and I used my -- my wife for translation and I speak some Korean as well
as -- as another parent on our team and so we were able to schedule some -- some --
some teams that way. We -- we just -- we love these boys. We love what they have
accomplished and we expect nothing but great things for them in the future. It has been
a pleasure -- our pleasure to be able to coach them these -- these past four years. Thank
you.
De Weerd: I think you can at least introduce yourselves.
K.Downey: My name is Kevin Downey. I'm assistant coach.
B.Scott: My name is Bill Scott and I'm assistant coach. I will say this, the City of Meridian
was awesome. We reached out to them and the City of Meridian immediately -- Tammy
replied right back and -- and offered us to come down and so that's awesome to be
wearing the representative -- being representatives of Meridian and having the community
come right back at us. So, we were also given some pins and if you know anything about
the World Series and what the kids do, they trade pins and so there are Meridian pins that
ended up on kids' lapels from all over the world that said Meridian, Idaho. So, that was
pretty neat. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well -- and thank you for reaching out and letting us know. Oftentimes we
only know about this when the parents reach out and say our kids have achieved this
great thing and we appreciate that. So, I know you probably exchanged your pins. We
do have a pin for you tonight as well. So, now you can keep it. You don't have to trade
it. But we wish you great success. We hope to see you back in this Council chambers
to celebrate your next great achievement and to the coaches, being the daughter of a
coach, I know how much time, dedication and inspiration that you share to the kids. Great
role models and we know that the skills they learn on the field do translate to lifetime
character traits. So, thank you for that. And with that, again, one last round of applause.
Item 7: Future Meeting Topics - Public Forum (Up to 30 Minutes Maximum )
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7 is Future Meeting Topics.
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Johnson: Madam Mayor, there was several sign-ins, but they all indicated they were here
regarding Item 8-G.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Public Hearing for the Fiscal Year 2019 Amended Budget in the
Amount of $120,267,651
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 8 under Action Items. Item 8-A is a public hearing
for our 2019 amended budget. Jenny, thank you for joining us.
Field: Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council Members. Tonight I'm before you
presenting our final fiscal year 2019 amended budget. The agenda for tonight is I'm going
to go over our three major reporting funds, General Fund, Capital Improvement Fund,
Enterprise Fund. Then I will pause for questions. This is a public hearing. And, then, we
will wrap up with your approval of our fiscal year 2019 final budget. With that the total city
budget is -- for fiscal year '19 is 120.2 million dollars. That is up 7.8 percent from the
original budget that was announced around this time last year. So, the next few slides I
will go through the changes. Just know that these amendments and these changes have
been presented to you by our departments in the past ten months. This is more of a
formal process that we use to notify their citizens and the state of Idaho of our final fiscal
year 2019 budget. So, the next few slides is more of a review for you. So, for our fiscal
year '19 total city budget we have a total of 47 total budget amendments. That is down
again 7.82 percent. About 10.1 million dollars. In our General Fund we are up 1.29
percent. Capital Improvement Fund up 1,600 dollars -- or, sorry, down 1,600 dollars. And
Enterprise Fund is down 16.8 percent. In our General Fund our original budget was 62.4
million dollars. Our final amended budget is at 63.2. This is up 1.29 percent overall and
the personnel, capital and carry forward expenditures percentage changes are -- they are
displayed on the graph in front of you. In our General Fund we had a total of 40 total
approved amendments. The -- these amendments include our Fire Station 6. Rural Fire
reimbursement for Fire Station 5. Community Development mechanical program and our
carry forward adjustment of 3.3 million dollars. Now, I'm going to move to our Capital
Improvement Fund. Our Capital Improvement Fund didn't change much. We went down
in our carry forward adjustment of 1,600 dollars and this fund had no amendments
presented. In our Enterprise Fund -- our Enterprise Fund original budget was 65.1 million
dollars. We were down 16.8 percent, arriving at 54.1 million dollars. Personnel, operating
and carry forward expenditures percentage changes are displayed right in front of you.
Within our Enterprise Fund we had seven total budget amendments that was presented
and approved. The headworks upgrade, water meters and our Well 28 water treatment.
Enterprise Fund had a carry forward adjustment of 12.5 million dollars. With that I stand
for any questions for our fiscal year 2019 budget.
De Weerd: Thank you, Jenny. Council, any questions at this point for our staff? Thank
you.
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Field: Okay. So, right now I'm looking for an approval to establish our fiscal year 2019
final budget of 120.2 million dollars. This will allow leave to present an ordinance in the
next couple of weeks for your approval.
De Weerd: Okay. We will take testimony if there is any and, then, we will ask for Council
action. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, is there any signups?
Johnson: Madam Mayor, there were none.
De Weerd: Okay. This is a public hearing on our 2019 budget. Is there anyone who
wishes to provide testimony on this item? Okay. Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Nobody jumping up and down to testify, I move we closed the public hearing
on the fiscal year 2019 amended budget.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve the item in front of you. Any
discussion? Okay. The motion was to close the public hearing. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I move we approve the 2019 amended budget in the amount of 120,267,651
dollars.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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B. Public Hearing for Proposed Fiscal Year 2020 Budget in the
Amount of $120,525,396
De Weerd: And this will come back to Council in ordinance form in a couple weeks. Okay.
Our next item is Item 8-B, which is a public hearing for the 2020 budget.
Field: Hello again.
De Weerd: Hello again.
Field: I am going to present our fiscal year 2020 proposed budget of 120.5 million dollars.
We will go over our General Fund, Enterprises Fund and, then, stand for any questions
and, then, again, look for your approval of our fiscal year 2020 proposed budget. So, the
total city budget is 120 million -- 120.5 million dollars. The graph on the left depicts the
expenditure types broken out by 45 percent personnel expenditures, operating at 18
percent, capital at 15 percent and our carry forward amounts are at 22 percent. Now
carry forwards are projects that were appropriated in fiscal year 2019. That will not be
completed by the end of the year. Therefore, we will be carrying the remaining budget
into fiscal year 2019 -- oh, sorry, 2020. The graph on the right-hand side is allocations by
department. Police Department is 26 percent. Fire Department is up to 15 percent of
total city budget. The Water and Wastewater Department is displayed at 21 percent
wastewater and 11 percent Water Department. Parks at eight percent and the remaining
six percent and admin and five percent in Community Development. Now I'm going to go
through our General Fund in more detail. So, our General Fund proposed budget is at
72.4 million dollars. Here on the graph on your left is a breakout by the type. Personnel
makes up 55 percent of our General Fund total budget. Operating makes up 18 percent
of that. And our Capital is at 12 percent. How this is divided amongst the departments in
General Fund. Our Police Department makes up 42 percent of our General Fund budget.
Fire is at 25. And Parks is at 14 percent. Those are expenditures. Now I'm going to
move to our projected revenue for General Fund. We are projecting our General Fund to
have -- to collect revenue of 62.5 million dollars. The majority of our General Fund
revenue is property taxes. Fifty-eight percent. Intergovernmental revenue is about 16
percent and those are state revenue sharing, liquor, and rural fire revenues. Moving on
to our Enterprise Fund. Enterprise Fund's proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 is 48.1
million dollars. The graph on the left displays the type of expenditures that Enterprise
Fund -- that makes up the Enterprise Fund. Twenty-two percent is personnel. Eighteen
-- sorry. Eighteen percent Capital and 17 percent Operating. A majority of the Enterprise
Fund's budget is allocated to carry forward. Enterprise Fund's carry forward project
examples are our big expansion project, our headworks, Well 28, are the examples of our
carry forward budget. Wastewater Treat -- Water -- sorry. Wastewater makes up 52
percent. Water at 28. Engineering and utility building makes up the remaining 20 percent.
We are going to move through Enterprise revenue. Majority of Enterprise revenue is
made up of utility sales. So, our water and wastewater sales. Utility connection makes
up 32 percent of Enterprise revenue and the remaining nine is our EPA compliance fees,
trash billings and engineer fees and installation of meters. With that I stand for any
questions for fiscal year 2020 proposed budget.
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De Weerd: Thank you, Jenny. Council, any questions for Jenny at this time? Seeing
none. Mr. Clerk, any testimony?
Johnson: Madam Mayor, there are no sign-ins.
De Weerd: Okay. This is a public hearing for our 2020 budget. Is there anyone who
wishes to provide testimony on this item? Okay.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
Borton: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Wish somebody was here to testify, but since nobody is coming forward, I move
we close the hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2020 budget.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item 8-B. All
those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just a brief comment, because we have got a lot of people in the room, so we
will take a brief advantage of that, since there is lots of citizens around and -- and the
process that happened right here is somewhat abbreviated and seems kind of truncated,
but just for a little bit of context, throughout the spring our Finance Department works with
each department and the Mayor and Council liaisons to develop and craft the base budget
and, then, various enhancements that go with it. We, then, meet in June over two days
at workshops where we kind of tear into it a little more in detail, get the questions
answered. These are all at public hearings. We do it again in July. And, then, meeting
here as well. So, this is kind of the tail end of a long, long, long process. So, the -- the
specifics of each subcategory of every subcategory, we vet and pull apart through all of
that process in a public manner, receiving public input throughout that process, e-mail or
at the grocery store, to get citizens' input. So, this is the tail end, which always kind of
catches us odd, because there is never -- rarely if ever a single comment and I think that
is due in large part to a lot of the good work that's done in advance by our Finance
Department and the Mayor crafting this budget with everyone's input and being -- making
it accessible to the public. So, while it -- if you don't know anything about our budget
process, this might look kind of weird and really quick, but for us it is step 27 of a 27 step
process. So, I thought it would help to provide some context to what has culminated in
today's vote.
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De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Borton.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I didn't know if Councilman Borton was going to make a motion. So, if not, I
move that we approve the proposed fiscal year 2020 budget in the amount of 120,525,396
dollars.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve our proposed fiscal year
2020 budget. Any discussion?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Surprise, Councilman Palmer has commentary on the budget. I -- I can't support
the budget. I -- I have 1.2 million reasons why. I won't go through all of them tonight. I
have tried going over them for four years and I think the most I have ever gotten cut out
of a budget has been a couple thousand, only because we had a department head that
didn't know what it was. It was in one item that was in his budget a few years ago. But
just -- just a couple -- a couple of the items that I just can't bring myself to increase your
taxes to keep in the budget are 10,000 dollars for a public art consultant. We have in
code that we spend 50 cents per citizen up until we have 100,000 citizens, which we do
now on art in public spaces. It's in our code that that's what we do. Now that we have
reached that, we would like to spend more on art than that 50,000 dollars a year and so
we have about 91,000 dollars built into -- to this year's budget. That means almost 200
of yours and your neighbor's entire Meridian city portion of your property taxes is going
just to -- to public art. We have about 600 something thousand dollars going to public
transit for buses that people aren't riding. There is -- there is just tens of thousands of
different items and hundreds of thousands in others that we are wasting of your tax dollars
and it is so depressing that nobody looks at it. That we do such a great job of throwing it
in there and making it all confusing with all kinds of other stuff that nobody notices or sees
it and comes to comment about it. So, then, we feel good about ourselves, just go ahead
and vote for it, because nobody came to object to it. So, this is my last year, I'm retiring.
So, I pray that -- that because four of us are being replaced up here that -- that hopefully
we have a future Council and Mayor that takes more of your hard earned dollars to heart
and realizes what it is that we are spending on.
De Weerd: And I would love to just ask for the question, but I will say that I appreciate
our community and supporting the fact that there is more to developing a community than
-- than most people think. Building a premier community to live, work and raise a family
is all about safety, it's about our neighborhoods, it's about taking pride in the place that
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you live and in our citizen surveys we do get comments and people weigh in on where
some of those priorities are. Where public transportation may not mean something to
one of us, it does mean something to maybe your neighbor. Same with community events
or public art or parks or prevention programs -- all kinds of things make up this budget.
We do appreciate -- our community does provide us input in a number of different ways
and -- and it's great that we have a Council that has a differing opinion that adds to the
decision making process. So, with that, Mr. Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
nt,
yea.
De Weerd: The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE NAY.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: And -- and for what it's worth, I hope, either throughout this process or at some
point there is some lessons learned on what I see as professional decorum. So, I take
exception to your comments about not taking a citizen's tax dollars at heart. We went
through all of this in painstaking detail over many, many months and we can have
professional disagreements on what might be appropriate for a particular item, but I do
take exception to -- and can't let your comment stand aside that we don't take the tax
dollars to heart and we don't take this process either seriously or it's made confusing. It's
not made confusing. We went through this together over many months. So, I strongly
disagree with that characterization. Take exception to it. The citizens' tax dollars are
important to me, as they are to you.
De Weerd: And I will thank staff, thank you to the Finance Department, to all of our
departments liaisons that do spend a lot of time going over every line item of this process.
So, it is lengthy, as Councilman Borton pointed out, and there is a lot of painstaking detail
to this.
C. Final Plat for Shelburne East No. 1 (H-2019-0077) by Shelburne
Properties, LLC , Located at 4080, 4115, and 4205 E. Bott Ln.
D. Final Plat for Shelburne East No. 2 (H-2019-0078) by Shelburne
Properties, LLC , Located at 4115 E . Bott Ln.
E. Final Plat for Shelburne East No. 3 (H-2019-0079) by Shelburne
Properties, LLC , Located at 4330 and 4301 E. Bott Ln.
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De Weerd: But with that said I will move on to Item 8-C, which is a final plat for H-2019-
0077. This has been requested to vacate from the agenda, along with Items D and E
and, staff, do you want to just give us a brief overview of the request behind this.
Allen: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The applicant has some
issues to work out with an irrigation easement that runs along the east boundary of the
property adjacent to building lots and there has been some difficulties with that. So, that's
the reason for the request to vacate. It will be back on a future agenda. We just aren't
sure which date.
De Weerd: Thank you. And rather than continuing it every agenda, we appreciate that.
Okay. Council, I do need a motion to vacate these from the agenda.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I move, Madam Mayor, to -- to -- that we vacate Items 8-C, D and E from the
agenda.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to vacate Items 8-C, D and E from the agenda.
All those in favor say aye. I think I had all ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
F. Final Plat for Sky Mesa Subdivision No. 2 (H-2019-0083) by
Engineering Solutions, LLP, Located NW of the intersection of
S. Eagle Rd. and E. Taconic Dr.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Item 8-F is a final plat for H-2019-0083. And this has a
request to continue. Sonya, can you talk to us about this request?
Allen: Yes, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The applicant submitted a final plat
that staff wasn't sure was entirely consistent with the approved preliminary plat, so there
has been some discussions back and forth and some changes being made to that plat.
So, the applicant just needed another week to make those changes.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, if you feel comfortable with that I would entertain a motion.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we continue H-2019-0083 to August 27th, 2019.
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Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue this item to August 27th. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Good job.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
G. Public Hearing for Delano Subdivision (H-2019-0027) by Devco
Development, LLC, Located at 14120 W. Jasmine Ln. and 2800
E. Jasmine Ln.
1. Request: Comprehensive Plan Map Amendment to include
4.10 acres of land currently in Boise's area of City Impact in
Meridian's area of City Impact with a Mixed Use-Regional
future land use
2. Request: Annexation and Zoning of 15.21 acres of land with
R-15 11.57) and R-
3. Request: Preliminary Plat consisting of 85 single-family
residential building lots, 1 building lot for a multi-family
development and 12 common lots
De Weerd: Okay. Item G is a public hearing for H-2019-0027. I will open this public
hearing. There has been a request to continue as well. This was not posted properly, so
it could not be heard tonight regardless. No? Yes, it was?
Allen: Madam Mayor, excuse me. What -- what I understood was the applicant was not
able to attend the hearing this evening and asked --
De Weerd: He wasn't, but he also didn't --
Allen: But he also didn't post the property. Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: So, we had a couple of reasons not to hear it.
Allen: Yes.
De Weerd: I do know there is concern, Council, of the September 3rd date, because it
does follow a holiday weekend and so I would look for your discussion or a motion to
when you want to continue this to.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: For discussion sake, I will not be here on the -- the 10th. So, I just think it's
important that -- I'm not saying that I have to be here, but it just -- for Council and the
public's benefit, that is a meeting that I will not be able to attend.
Allen: Madam Mayor, excuse me, if I may. The applicant has also conveyed to staff that
they also have another hearing to attend on the 10th of September. So, the next available
alternate date, other than the 3rd, would be the 17th.
De Weerd: Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: The intent of posting is to provide notice and give the public an opportunity to
participate. Clearly there is many here who wish to do so. September 17th seems to be
the best date to allow our entire Council and Mayor to participate, as well as the public.
So, with that I move that we continue H-2019-0027 to September 17th.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue Item D to the 20 -- or the 17th of
September.
Cavener: Oh, sorry, Madam Mayor. Just a question before you call for the question.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Cavener: Where we are changing the date with the public hearing, we are going to
renotice it? Is that our -- is that the intention of the motion to also renotice and who will
bear that expense to let the public know of the appropriate date and time?
De Weerd: Well, I don't know if the -- the mailings went out, but it was never posted on
the site, so that would still need to be done. We can put it on NextDoor. Do you know --
did we do --
Johnson: We did, Madam Mayor. We noticed with the Meridian Press and NextDoor, as
well as the postcards. So, if you would like us to renotice those we would just need to
know your direction.
De Weerd: And certainly that can be part of the motion and I would appreciate if -- if that
is part of the motion to state who is to pay for that.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
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Borton: It is part of the motion. It is the intent that it's the applicant cover those costs.
De Weerd: Okay. Second agree? Who was the second? Oh, Anne was the second.
Second agrees. So, the motion was to continue this to the 17th of September with
renoticing in all aspects. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Okay. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: And we apologize for those that came this evening for this. Hopefully you will
share with others the new date for this meeting. So, thank you for joining us tonight.
H. Public Hearing for Silver Springs (H-2019-0058) by Tall Timber
Consulting and Todd Campbell Construction Inc., Located at
1035, 1157, 805 & 905 E. McMillan Rd.
1. Request: Annexation and Zoning of 5.19 Acres of Land with
an R-4
2. Request: Preliminary Plat Consisting of 57 Building Lots and
6 Common Lots on 19.74 Acres of Land in the R-4 Zoning
District
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-H is a public hearing for H-2019-0058. Okay. With clearing the
room I will go ahead and ask for staff comments under Item 8-H.
Allen: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The first application before
you tonight is a request for annexation and zoning and a preliminary plan. This site
consists of 19.74 acres of land. It's primarily zoned R-4 with the east lot, Lot 4, zoned
RUT in Ada county. It is located at 1305, 1157, 805 and 905 East McMillan Road. This
property was previously platted as Lots 1 through 4, Crestwood Subdivision. Lots 1
through 3 were annexed into the city in 2006 with R-4 zoning. The Comprehensive Plan
future land use map designation is low density residential for all of the properties, which
calls for three or fewer units per acre. The applicant is requesting annexation and zoning
of the eastern 5.19 acres, Lot 4, Crestwood Subdivision, of the site with an R-4 zoning
district. A landscape nursery is currently operating on this piece of the property and is
proposed to continue operations in the city until December 31st of 2022 at the latest in
order to sell off their existing inventory. The nursery has been legally operating in the
county and was recently approved to operate for an additional five year period of time. It
is classified as a nursery or urban farm and a contractor's yard in the UDC, which is a
prohibited use in the R-4 district. However, because the business is currently legally
operating in the county, it would be considered a nonconforming use in the city. As such
the use may continue if deemed appropriate by City Council, as long as it remains lawful
and is not expanded or extended per the standards for nonconforming. A preliminary plat
is proposed as shown consisting of 57 single family residential building lots and six
common lots on 19.74 acres of land for the development of single family residential
detached homes at a gross density of 2.89 units per acre, consistent with the low density
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residential future land use designation. This property was previously platted as Lots 1
through 4, Crestwood Subdivision, Lots 1 through 3 were annexed previously into the city,
as I mentioned, with R-4 zoning. There are four existing homes and some accessory
structures on this site that are proposed to remain on lots in the proposed subdivision. All
other accessory structures are proposed to be removed. The subdivision is proposed to
develop in two phases as shown, with the last phase developing once the landscape
business use ends. One public street access is proposed via East McMillan Road. An
existing stub street, North Mooney Falls Way, at the south boundary of the site is proposed
to be extended with development and a stub street is proposed to the east for future
extension. All of the existing homes will take access from local streets within the
development, except for one at 1035 McMillan Road, Lot 12, Block 3, and that is this one
right here where the arrows are, which proposes to retain their two driveway accesses
via McMillan. Council approval of a waiver to UDC 11-3A-3 is requested for these
accesses to remain. ACHD is requiring the west access to be closed. And that's just a
little photo of the existing home and the driveway accesses and the garage there in your
lower right. The cul-de-sac on the west end of the site does exceed the 450 foot maximum
length standard allowed by the UDC and that one is this one right here, if you can see my
pointer, and that is measured from the near edge of the road here to the center of the cul-
de-sac and they do exceed it by approximately 50 feet. The applicant is requesting
Council approval of the length as is. However, there is no provision in the UDC to allow
the Council to grant an exception to this standard. A 25 foot wide landscape street buffer
is required along McMillan Road as proposed, containing a five foot wide detached
sidewalk. A minimum of ten percent qualified open space and one site amenity is required
to be provided with this development. The revised qualified open space exhibit as shown
depicts 1.96 acres of common area and a children's play structure and micro path to the
school site to the south as amenities in accord with UDC standards. Conceptual building
elevations were submitted as shown for the proposed single family residential homes.
Summary of the Commission hearing. The Commission did recommend approval of
these applications to the City Council. Dave Yorgason, the applicant's representative,
testified in favor. No one testified in opposition or commented on the application. Written
testimony was received from Sharon Reynolds. She feels the growth and traffic
congestion is out of control and would like a moratorium placed on building as existing
infrastructure can't support the growth and also written testimony was received from the
applicant's representative Dave Yorgason in response to the staff report and that is part
of the public record. Key issues of discussion by the Commission are as follows: The
applicant's request for Council waiver for the existing driveway access via McMillan Road
to remain for the home at 1035 East McMillan Road until such time as the property
redevelops. The cul-de-sac that exceeds the maximum 450 foot length standard in the
UDC. The existing landscape business continuing to operate on the parcel proposed for
annexation. And, finally, timing phasing for construction of the sidewalk in front of the
property at 1157 East McMillan Road. Basically in phase one all together or phase two.
Commission changes to the staff recommendation. There was an addition of DA provision
that was recommended by staff with a change to the phasing of the sidewalk along
McMillan Road to allow it to be constructed with each phase of development, rather than
all with the first phase. Outstanding issues for City Council. The applicant is requesting
approval of the Council waiver, as I previously mentioned, to UDC 11-3A3 for the existing
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driveway access via McMillan to remain for the property at 1035 East McMillan until such
time as the property redevelops. The Commission was in favor of the applicant's request
on this item. And, second, the applicant's request for the cul-de-sac length that exceeds
the maximum standard to be approved as is. And as I mentioned, there is no provision
in the UDC to allow Council approval of the applicant's request. Staff is recommending
the application is continued to a later hearing date in order for the plat to be revised to
comply with the revision, as the revision may significantly affect the layout of the plat.
Unless the applicant has an alternative to present at the hearing tonight. Written
testimony since the Commission hearing has been received from Dave Yorgason, the
applicant's representative, in response to the Commission recommendation. Staff will
stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions for staff at this time? Okay. Would the applicant come
forward. Good evening. If you will, please, state your name and address for the record.
Yorgason: Good evening. My name is Dave Yorgason for the record. 1425 West
Battenburg Drive, Boise, Idaho. And, Sonya, can you find my little PowerPoint
presentation, please? Sorry, I didn't know it did that. While they are pulling that up, I will
just add one comment, Madam Mayor. Thank you for announcing the Tabernacle. It
sounds like you had a chance to go through it and I, too, have done the same and actually
had a chance to be a tour guide a few days ago and it's -- it's a life changing event for
some of us. So, I appreciate you bringing that up to the public.
De Weerd: Absolutely. It was -- in was incredible.
Yorgason: Thank you. I appreciate your mentioning that. Can I drive now, Sonya? Thank
you. This is the latest layout that we have for you as a result of the conversation that we
had with Planning and Zoning Commission and staff. I will just jump forward. I thank staff
for their presentation and all the details. I won't over repeat anything, but I do want to
touch on some summary highlights. This application is unique in many ways. This is two
developers working together. It is two developers, Tom Campbell and myself. Todd's a
developer-builder. He is also here tonight and available for questions if you have any.
The total site is 57 homes, four of which are existing homes. So, that's part of the
challenge working on infill is working around existing homes. So, there is four existing
homes and 52 -- 53 new home sites. As mentioned, four parcels totaling 20 acres. Three
of them were previously annexed into the city in an R-4 zone. We are not asking to rezone
those, we are asking to annex the eastern parcel and, as mentioned before, it's an existing
landscape business with a legal current functioning and recently extended conditional use
permit in the county. It will be custom and semi-custom homes. It will be a nice addition
to the community that we are adding pedestrian access to the school site, southwest
corner of the property, as well as adding a children's tot lot within the development. This
is infill, which has some challenges, and there is really three primary -- one of which we
think we have worked through all the details and that's the existing landscape business.
There is -- there is a lot of interesting pros and cons to introducing -- or allowing us to
move forward and really feel strongly this is the right thing to do. We are actually limiting
-- instead of being five years it will be three years or less to -- to end the business
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operations. There is actually over -- well, approximately a thousand trees on the property,
many of which are grown on site. You can only remove them either spring or fall,
depending upon the type of tree and so you just can't move them all at one time. It's
based on expected business for the upcoming year and one and probably two years is
inadequate to -- to time that correctly and so that's why we have phased this development
to be a two phase development and so that -- we think we have worked through all the
details. We agree with all the conditions as staff proposed and Planning and Zoning
Commission approved and the business owner also agrees to all these conditions as
submitted. The two items I would like to focus on now are access and the design layout,
which refers to the cul-de-sac that Sonya mentioned briefly. We are also competing with
existing homes and the trees in the area. I failed to mention there is about a hundred --
almost 150 existing trees that we are working around, in addition to the landscape
business trees, many of which we are trying to keep. Some are sick and we will take
those out, but there is quite a bit of -- of challenge maneuvering that. We agree with the
city staff report, except for a couple changes and we agree with the ACHD staff report.
So, the cul-de-sac, which is really our big item for discussion here tonight. The yellow
arrow points to a 50 foot wide easement that is in the Copper Basin common area. It was
recorded on their first phase of their plat and it says on there for ingress-egress to
adjacent parcel. That's all it says. Which everyone assumes 50 foot for a road, that's
adequate for a road to stub through there and it aligns perfectly with the existing street
here to the west. I will use my little pointer over here and over here. So, I went and talked
to the neighbors, as I was asked to do. It took a long time to organize a meeting, because
they weren't real excited to meet I guess. Finally arranged a meeting early this year in
January, February. Met with their annual homeowners meeting actually and met with
them. And, needless to say, it was a very difficult meeting. I will just say it was probably
one of my top two toughest neighborhood meetings I have ever attended in my career.
They were clearly not interested in working with us to have public connection there. So,
I reached out and talked to ACHD and said what can we do? Can you help us there?
And their legal department researched it and concluded they cannot. It is not dedicated
or even stated for a public purpose. So, it's on private property. It's an easement that
cannot be used for a public purpose without permission of the private landowner and the
private landowner will not give that permission. We asked if we could buy it. They said
no. I won't give you all the other discussion points, other than it just cannot happen. And
so because of that this site -- this portion of the site is really constrained. We are working
with the existing home. We are removing the access on the home. It currently has
frontage and access on McMillan. We are taking that away. In fact, there are many
accesses with all four parcels. There is like six or seven total accesses and when we are
all done we will be down to two, someday maybe one. With that in mind we are really site
constrained. This western side cannot go west. It can't go south because of the school
and it can't go north because of the existing home and so because of that, as Sonya
properly mentioned this, the cul-de-sac length is too long. We recognize that's 450 --
more than 450. I have built subdivisions in the city, including one that was about a mile
east of this site called Settlers Bridge and it, too, had some site constraints. I'm thinking
of a canal that we could only get one bridge across the canal, so we ended up having a
cul-de-sac that was much, much longer than 500 feet and in that case the fire department
expressed concern and we ended up putting a -- an emergency access out to McMillan
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in that location. ACHD is fine with this cul-de-sac length. They approved it in their staff
report. City of -- all the other cities in this jurisdiction in the county would be fine with a
500 foot long cul-de-sac, but Meridian planning code says 450. We are asking for your
help tonight to approve this at 500 feet. So, just a quick summary. We are asking the
Commission in A-2-B to allow the western cul-de-sac per of the design. We worked with
-- I think -- we are working with an existing problem, because of the site constraints
coming from all sides, north, west and south. We just can't accomplish something there.
We are reducing the accesses, including one for the existing home, with a lot of alternative
designs and we either lose lots or we lose lots and have more common driveways, which
I don't like, because that means more people want to park out there on the street and
there is no place on the common driveway, so it will be -- probably a parking concern for
our future residents. It's a challenge for us. We recognize that. We are hopeful you will
help us tonight by deleting condition A-2-B and allow that cul-de-sac as we propose.
Lastly -- and I will just touch on this real briefly. The address at 1035 East McMillan --
Boyd Hill has lived at that place he says -- on the site. He built it back in the '70s when
the home was first built. Raised his family there. In fact, I grew up with several of his kids
at that place and Boyd is now in his '80s -- 82 or 83 years old. Wants to stay at that house
until he is no longer able to, but he wants to keep his address and keep the access.
Originally we did ask for two accesses per the existing design with the -- with the
roundabout. I'm sorry with the two accesses as shown. Not a roundabout. It's the drive
through. And ACHD was fine with that, because they even see that as a safe means,
because it's an easy in, drive through, drive out and one of the accesses where the red
arrow shows aligns with Larkwood Street, which is a key point here. But staff has asked
that we remove one of the accesses and we have agreed to that and so we ask that we
be allowed to have one access that aligns with Larkwood Street, which has been allowed
and granted I know by this Council many times. I know it's not preferred, but it would be
for while Boyd lives in his home and that is our request and so in quick summary, ACHD
and the Planning and Zoning Commission both seemed supportive of that concept of only
one access, because it does align with Larkwood Street and so our request would be to
delete condition A-2-D or to just restate it to modify the condition and allow it until the --
the existing access until the property is redeveloped. We would be fine with either of
those if that's the direction the Council wants to go. In quick summary, again, these are
two developers working together. Not always happens, but it is happening here. We are
working together to try to bring infill development together trying to work through and
maneuver all the challenges which this site poses. It will be a quality and compatible
development to the surrounding neighborhood, but we do ask for your approval tonight
with the two changes that I have discussed tonight and delete those two conditions or
modify as you see fit. Thank you for your time and I would like to stand for any questions
and even dialogue, if appropriate, pertaining to that western cul-de-sac. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
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Palmer: Madam Mayor. Staff. So, these situations that we run into on occasion where
it makes perfect sense to grant a waiver or whatever we might need to do, where code
literally doesn't give Council the ability to do it. Council can change code, but Council
can't make modifications or waivers of code sometimes in the moment. How -- won't --
does the staff any have -- have any objection if -- if code were to allow this, is there any
reason why that configuration is concerning or is it simply just because we literally can't
do it in this moment?
Allen: Madam Mayor, Council, obviously, because code prohibits it we can't allow it, but
it -- it's probably more of a question for emergency services. I would direct to the Fire
Department.
De Weerd: Happy anniversary.
Bongiorno: Yes. Thank you, Sonya. So, the cul-de-sac length won't make that much of
a difference for Fire, as long as the cul-de-sac itself is built to the appropriate size, 96 feet
minimum with no parking on it. Getting around the corner is -- is not an issue for Fire.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: The question -- I'm not sure who to direct it to -- is how quickly can we change
that to allow Council to make a decision on things that make sense like this?
De Weerd: I think staff probably is thinking the same thing.
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if you recall we had a project before
you a few months ago that had a prohibition for storage units in that type of development.
So, that -- so that applicant, then, filed a request for a code change. It went through the
Planning and Zoning Commission as required. It came back in front of you for that project
and he basically put that project on hold while he did that. It takes -- I'm going to say two
and a half to three months and he said four. So, somewhere about three months is about
the process it would take to change the code to alter the standards that already exist.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: So, as much as I would love to just say, yeah, obviously, that makes sense and
what else are you going to do relative to the guy's house. We can't. The -- the few months
delay so we can fix this, so that, then, hopefully, in the future Council has the authority to
make decisions -- I don't know what else to do, though.
Yorgason: Madam Mayor, was that a question to me?
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Palmer: Yes.
De Weerd: I don't see anyone else dying to answer it.
Yorgason: Madam Mayor and Council Member Palmer, I don't know the history as to how
other projects got approved specifically. I don't know if the code has changed between
then and now. The 450 foot length. I don't know. I don't track every single -- well, I track
quite a bit of your code changes. I don't recall the timing of when all of them specifically
-- I don't know when it would have changed. The western half of this property is Todd
Campbell's. Just to be wide open with my Council Member friends here. So, he needs
to be part of this discussion. I appreciate your support if that's what I heard from one
member of the Council here for some kind of solution. It's a question of timing is what I
think I just heard.
Palmer: Madam Mayor? Oh, sorry.
Yorgason: I had a thought, but before I go there maybe there is another suggestion.
Madam Mayor, maybe one answer is we could look at breaking this up into three phases
and we could run that as a second phase, while we are trying to get this through the
process, recognizing that we have to meet that condition or modify the code. I don't hear
any jabs or barbs from my right shoulder yet, so I don't know if I'm off base yet. I have to
check with Mr. Campbell. But I don't know if -- recognizing the timing I just heard you say,
I think we could go through the process and -- and I don't know if that's a possibility of
writing the condition in that way where we would work with the city to find a way to give
the Council that flexibility. I know that my two landowners are not excited about waiting
three or four months, unfortunately.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Mr. Nary, I know this might give you heartburn, but can we
approve something against code contingent on it complying with code by the time it's
constructed?
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of Council, Council Member Palmer, no. But we
could -- part of this is an annexation, which isn't contingent upon that. Really, the only
issue in regards to this block length is the preliminary plat that's being proposed for that
section. So, I think that's really the issue. You still -- you still could go forward with most
of this project. The preliminary plat would be problematic today based on the way it's
drawn, because it's not compliant with code. We can't presume the code will be approved.
That's -- that's my concern on approving something contingent on something else
happening in case it weren't to happen. So, that's the reason we couldn't do it that way.
I don't know from the Planning's perspective on how we would at this juncture go forward
with the annexation and zoning and the preliminary plat for the other two phases that
aren't contingent upon the block length issue and, then, an application is going to follow
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from Mr. Yorgason and Mr. Campbell in regards to the code change to allow 500 foot
block lengths. I'm assuming, without knowing from -- from Chief Bongiorno -- there was
some point that it's too long. I don't know what that is. But I think that's the only way I
could see moving forward with this application to keep it on track is to separate that piece
from the preliminary plat, but we could still move forward with the annexation and the
preliminary plat on phases one or two.
Bongiorno: So, Madam Mayor and City Council and Dave and Sonya, I was just pulling
up my comment sheet for roadways and that magic number that you're looking for is 750
feet. Once you get over 750 feet you have to have special approval. So, what it says for
dead end fire apparatus roads that are between 500 and 750 feet in length, the roadways
have to be built to Ada County Highway District cross-section standards and have a clear
driving surface of 26 feet and width available at all times and shall have no parking on
both sides of the street. So, that's when you get in that 500 to 750 range.
Yorgason: Madam Mayor, I'm familiar with that specifically. I don't need to talk about all
other city's codes, but yours is the shortest for whatever reason. I'm not here to debate
why you came to that number, but recognizing that's what we are working with today. I
know the 450 is not a safety issue. It's just -- it was a planning determination at some
point by the city. I heard maybe another question. I don't know if there is more questions.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Similar to what Dave proposed was something I was going to ask and that
piece was somewhat addressed, but if the second piece was for -- for staff, Sonya or Bill,
Dave indicated that, you know, cul-de-sacs over 450 have been approved before. Is that
something you're able to recall? And if so -- again I hate putting you on the spot, but what
-- what were the findings to allow that then that we aren't able to rely on today?
Allen: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, to my knowledge the code has not changed.
It's something that Council may have approved against the code without any finding
supporting it. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Nary. I can't think of any specific projects that
exceeded the cul-de-sac length, but --
Nary: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I don't recall specific detail on that,
so I couldn't tell you one, two or how many projects exist out there like that. I don't know.
Yorgason: Madam Mayor, if I could add one more for your consideration. I read a lot of
your code over the last few days and I don't memorize code very well, it's not my expertise.
Mr. Borton maybe better than me. However, I did notice in some sections of code where
it references if there are site constraints and that's what this site has. Now, specifically
that site constraint language referred to typography. Maybe it's hillside or some other
types of constraints where that was -- was recognized. If I had a code number I would
give it to you, Mr. Nary, but I don't have it with me right now. But there is some references
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to street lengths or access lengths because of that. This site has -- it has those site
constraints and so if you're looking for a finding -- I don't know if that gives you what you
need, but we just -- we can't make that work. I have looked at it so many different ways
to come in, moving the road, coming in just south of the existing house -- second house
and bending the cul-de-sac the other direction and it actually made it worse, not better.
As the fire chief mentioned -- chief I guess is your title for now -- mentioned that we have
a common driveway length, which I think the cul-de-sac is at that length, 150 feet, plus or
maybe minus a foot or two. We are certainly willing to extend those common driveways
all the way through to McMillan if that helps, but I don't know if that really helps at the end
of the day. Settlers Bridge was over 800 feet. If I measured it today it almost would take
a thousand feet. It is a substantially longer cul-de-sac than 450 or even 750 feet, which
is why that emergency access was put in. That subdivision is about a mile east of this --
or less of this location on McMillan. So, we are trying to find an answer and maybe you're
telling me you can't. I understand. I'm just hopeful you can help us and if that means we
try to find a way to accept these conditions, but, then, we have the opportunity to come
back with modified conditions, if we can get that section of the code changed I -- don't
know if that is even an option, but I know that my landowners are not willing to wait any
longer, unfortunately. Oddly enough, the way the stub roads work to the south, the one
that's to the south property, straddles those two properties. So, these get developed
together is how that works. The property on the far west -- well, all three of them they are
already in the city limits, which is another interesting fact to this. It would have been
approved with the current subdivision on it, but due to the downturn it didn't move forward.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Dave, I'm -- I'm only kind of guessing by the temperature up here, that selling us
on the -- on the length isn't -- isn't really the issue that we -- I think if we could vote on that
I would guess that we are probably unanimous, that we all support that in this particular
circumstance. And, again, it just comes down to what we can and cannot do. So, we
have to follow the law unfortunately. So, I'm loving all of the -- the ideas of, you know,
could we do this, could we do this. Personally I feel like we just kind of have to kind of
give this to Mr. Nary to guide us through what -- what really we can do and willing to do
this, it may not be able to work out today for this particular design, but, again, if we can
do -- get part of it done, so you can get going and, then, change the code and bring it
back, unless there is anything else. I just don't want you to feel like you didn't -- like you're
-- you're selling us and -- I'm pretty sold. I get it. It makes sense and I would vote for it,
but not if I can't.
Yorgason: Madam Mayor, Council Member Milam, I appreciate that and I think I
understand where all of you are coming from here. We are not asking for a denial, that's
for sure. Make that really clear. We're just asking for you to --
Milam: We are far away from that.
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Yorgason: Thank you. We are asking for you to approve what you can approve.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just to cut to the chase, right, we are stuck, so my thought when I first got to this
stage is almost an apology, because this should have come up two months ago and you
could have run a parallel application with this. So, why it's -- I don't even know how it got
through P&Z without this being forced to say we have got to solve this. So, we can do a
couple of things. I mean it could, for example, get continued a week to see if there is any
site constraint exception concept. It doesn't sound like there is, but to do it right now it's
kind of tricky, but it's one week. If your crew and our Legal Department and Planning can
find something that gets everyone where they need to be and you uncover that in a week,
quicker than tonight, and if that's not possible and it necessitates a code change
application to run, then, you're stuck and I think the last one we continued -- to get like
three a month continuance and let them all catch up, because if we are stuck we are
stuck. It's not -- we just don't have any choice to do anything else and my risk trying to
come up with something tonight on the dais -- probably not the best way to craft -- and
that's my initial thought of a week to at least let people chew on it. Should have happened
30 days ago.
Allen: Madam Mayor?
Yorgason: Madam -- sorry.
Allen: Excuse me if I may.
De Weerd: Sonya.
Allen: To clarify, Councilman Borton, this is not a new issue. We have met with the
applicant back in February 14th at the earliest and it was written on the pre-application
meeting notes and we did discuss it with the applicant at that time, so -- and it is -- was in
the staff report to the Commission as well. So, it is not a new issue. The applicant's been
fully aware of this issue since the very beginning.
Borton: But I guess -- then we should change our process that somehow so you can't
even get to a public hearing and if you have an application that isn't legal and we are not
lawfully allowed to approve it, what are we doing? And maybe that's a conversation for
another day.
De Weerd: But I think that's also what staff points out, too.
Borton: But, Madam Mayor, to improve our process maybe we add some element that
says if that circumstance ever exists you don't get a hearing. You can't. You're done.
Because it forces the conversation earlier with an applicant and our staff to come up with
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any possible solution and if there is not, then, at least you know earlier and if it's bad news
the earlier you know it the better. So, I'm not saying you didn't raise it, but our process
allows this to get to us and that's very sad, you're working through all these knowing we
are going to get to a dead end here and the applicant knows we are going to get to a dead
end, so --
Yorgason: Madam Mayor, if I could just add, no, I'm not faulting staff at all. I didn't really
think it was an option to run a code change. I didn't think that one through, but the other
thought I have is I know we are in the public hearing and if you want to let the public
comment for maybe a couple of comments here and, then, I will come back and see if we
have an answer at the end, if that's okay.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: On another note, I really like the playground in this. Just to point that out.
Yorgason: Madam Mayor, that's not a surprise comment. Thank you, Council Member
Milam.
De Weerd: I know. I'm shocked. Usually she doesn't.
Milam: I like it.
Yorgason: Thank you. We are trying. Thank you. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Yorgason: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk.
Johnson: Madam Mayor, there is one sign in and I apologize for the name if I get it wrong.
Dr. Rand Spiwak.
De Weerd: Good evening. Thank you for joining us. If you will, please, state your name
and address for the record.
Spiwak: Good evening. My name is Rand Spiwak. I live at 1458 East Loyalty Street in
Meridian, between McMillan and Ustick off of Locust Grove in the Heritage Common
Subdivision. I retired back in 2010. Was a chief financial officer and college president in
Florida. We moved here because this is a wonderful city and I agree with the Mayor
stating that when you put your budget together -- and I had a 290 million dollar operating
budget and you spend as much time, but not more than my staff did at the university, but
I do appreciate what you all do. I serve here in a number of voluntary positions. One of
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them is -- we call them ditch riders. They are also called irrigation managers and I manage
-- volunteer my time managing the Parkins Norse Irrigation Lateral No. 14, which is from
Eagle Road to Meridian right through the middle of those subdivisions between McMillan
-- or Eagle Road to Meridian between McMillan and Ustick. The last four major parcels
on our subdivision are these four that would make up this -- the 20 acres that would make
up this subdivision. These folks came to us to talk about how we would work that out.
They were so easy to work with to try to figure out how to protect all of the 690
homeowners to the north of them upstream and we are still working on some ways to
make it more efficient. In looking at the city agenda and realizing there were two things
on there of question, I thought I would speak to one and now I would like to speak to both.
First Boyd Hill. Boyd is the gentleman -- he is 85 years old, who lives on McMillan. 1035.
Wife passed away I think about four years ago. He will remain on that property probably
until he passes away, giving him access to McMillan and -- and keeping that address is
awful important to a gentleman that is an elderly gentleman. We thought we were going
to lose Boyd last Christmas because of his health, but he's hanging in there. This was
just -- he thought this meeting would go to 9:00 tonight and that's way past his bedtime.
So, I promised Boyd I would come and talk to you. Boyd taught me everything I know
about the irrigation lateral. He managed it when it was open ditches all those years back
50 years ago. I think 1940 -- he's been there 47 years. 1960 -- '73 I think he bought the
land. So, approving that would be really special, at least until he passes on and, then, do
whatever you need to do with the exit onto McMillan. I asked him -- called him today and
asked him was that a paved road when you bought your land or was that still gravel? He
said, well, it was a skinnier paved road, but it did have asphalt. He has a circular driveway
currently. And, then, I have talked with Mr. Yorgason and was curious about the cul-de-
sac issue. I live in Heritage Commons. We have two cul-de-sacs. We have one which
is the -- the northern end of Quenzer and the southern end of Colbourne. Both are over
600 feet long. This Council approved those with Dave Turnbull and Brighton Corporation
back in 2003. If the ordinance existed then the Council took some action to approve it. It
has not been a problem. Chief Bongiorno has been out to our subdivision -- in fact, we
were the first HOA that he inspected our clubhouse and I think we came away with flying
colors and he didn't say anything about our cul-de-sacs being a problem of his trucks
getting through and we have had no problem. I strongly encourage you to take action
and approve that. So, those two items I wish we -- I support and wish you would approve.
Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Spiwak: Any questions?
De Weerd: Thank you.
Spiwak: Okay.
De Weerd: Is there anyone else who would like to provide testimony on this item? Yeah.
Good evening.
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LaFever: Hello. Denice LaFever. 6706 North Salvia Way. Yeah. I could not miss an
opportunity to say something good. Okay? Right, Treg? First of all, Ty, thank you for
looking after the taxpayers. I always appreciate that. You do a great job and I always
appreciate you taking that hard look at that. So, let me say all the things that I think are
really good about this application. One, I think they were very thoughtful on the transition
for the properties down at the bottom, you know, the line them up to transition. The open
space located in a bigger open chunk, opposed to just bits spread throughout the
neighborhood. That's really good. Access to the school with a pathway looking after
safety. That's another great thing. Not asking first a step up. Yea. You know. What can
you say? Great looking -- great that they are looking at keeping mature trees. That's
fantastic. As far as the double driveway, I think you have an avenue to go do conditional
language that says remove the second access upon -- upon redevelopment. Great
option. As far as the cul-de-sac, I personally like the cul-de-sacs over the shared
driveways. Never been a fan of shared driveways. I think they add complexity into a
neighborhood. They -- they cause people to park in front of other people, block lanes,
and I know Ty and I have had differences on that, but I would much rather see a cul-de-
sac. I noticed Bill looked like he was going to pull the mic over to say something about
the cul-de-sac. I would really like to hear if he has more insight into the cul-de-sac issue
and if it's been approved in the past. In addition to that, I think it's much better to have an
alternative compliance or variance in a special case and this is where they come in really
nicely, opposed to going back through and doing code changes. So, you know, this is not
something we really want to do a code change on, so I do want to hear what Bill has to
say. But overall I like the thoughtfulness and I like what they are proposing, so --
De Weerd: Mr. Nary, have we used variances in the past for block lengths?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think we have had variances in regards
to block length in the past and, then, we changed the code. So, we had issues about the
block length, not having it broken up by a street or a pathway or something else and, then,
we did change the code because of that. So, we did grant those while we were in the
midst of changing those and that was about 15 years ago. I have looked -- to be honest
-- and this is just anecdotal and I'm not using this as testimony, you can look yourself, but
I'm looking in the square mile and I can't find any cul-de-sacs that are 600 feet long. I
don't know if we have granted any. I don't -- I'm not aware of it. I'm not saying it didn't
happen and it couldn't have happened, but under our code there is no variance attached
to this particular type of use. Mr. -- Mr. Yorgason is right, you do have provision in your
code talking about hardship. It is in relation to variances or it is in relation to waivers and
you have had some of those, but it is specifically spelled out in your code allowing you to
do that based on those kinds of findings. It isn't in this code. So, you can't simply just
waive all codes, because -- because that's what they are requesting. Again, I'm not trying
to -- Mr. Yorgason, he's indicate -- I mean they would have to lose a lot to make the block
length work. So, that is an alternative that they have considered, but I would agree with
Planning, this is an issue that's not new. This is just an option Mr. Yorgason wished to
present to you as a proposal, knowing that the staff has said there is nothing in the code
that allows that.
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Bongiorno: Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bongiorno: -- City Council -- over here.
De Weerd: Where is --
Bongiorno: Voice out of the -- Mr. Nary, I am familiar with the cul-de-sac that -- that Mr.
Yorgason talked about in Settlers Bridge, because I remember driving down it going who
approved this. It's bad. Because it's actually a double -- it's a double cul-de-sac and they
are not even cul-de-sacs. The road just ends. It's very, very poorly done. Don't -- don't
-- before my time, but I know exactly what he's talking about and it's -- it's not a good
thing. I will -- I will tell you that.
De Weerd: Bill, did you have any comment?
Parsons: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, happy to oblige Denise, but certainly I
was going to chime in and say, yes, we have done it through a variance process and
through the PUD process back in the early 2000s.
De Weerd: Back in the day.
Parsons: Back in the day. And so that's why you will see those circumstances out there
throughout the community. But to my knowledge recently we have not -- we don't have a
waiver process to cul-de-sac lengths at this time in code. We did clean that up on a
previous code change back in 2010 or 2011. We got burned up in Spurwing on one of
the -- I did a final plat up there as part of Spurwing Greens. It's now called Spurwing Rim
and it's -- it's a long cul-de-sac and it's because the way the code was written at that time,
if you had a 90 at the back face, then, it extended the cul-de-sac length, so it was
approved on a technicality, basically, so we went and changed the code after that
occurred.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Any further testimony? Okay. Hearing none, Mr.
Yorgason. State your name for the record.
Yorgason: For the record Dave Yorgason. And for the record I appreciate those that
came in support of the project. Don't always get that. So, thank you. Stream Place is
the name of the street, Joe, and I won't go on the record and say who designed it, other
than it was not me. Off the record I will tell everyone here if you really want to know. It
doesn't matter. It's in place and it was because of site constraints because of the long
narrow property due to the canal that was there. And, yes, it's probably close to a
thousand feet I guess. We are trying to strategize options for the Council's consideration.
Of course our preference is that you approve it. I hear you loud and clear that your hands
are tied. I'm still going to ask. Maybe another option, because if we can't move this
forward we may have to just not buy it. So, I don't know what would happen if -- if we
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have this project approved and, then, we don't bring it forward, it would be excluded and,
then, we would come back at a later date with a new plat. It's not our first choice, but that
would be one of our considerations if it just gets approved as the conditions are written.
One question that I don't know the answer to, so maybe staff or the city attorney can help.
If we have a set of conditions of approval and, then, we come back later with a code
change request -- and I don't even know what I'm asking -- if that -- if it's 500 feet or if it's
just for alternative compliance or a variance or whatever that might be based on
hardships, can we change our conditions of approval with that same application and call
it phase two or phase three? Once the conditions are in place is that an option? I think
it is, but I don't know the answer to that. So, I would look to some guidance there. I don't
know that waiting a week is going to work, because we looked at so many options I don't
-- we have proposed the best option. I think Councilman Borton asked the question if a
week would work and we have looked at seven or eight different options in that narrow
little area and, really, this is by far the best option. Just to me the negative consequences.
So, that is why -- I try to bring solutions whenever I come to meetings and challenging
situations like this and have at worst scenario two or three, what would you think of these.
That doesn't exist for this site unfortunately. So, it probably won't get developed. Possibly.
Unless we can work through some of the solutions through the alternative compliance or
a code change or whatever staff would like us to do in the future. But we will quickly turn
around the application. I appreciate the comments that were made and if I had thought
about it I might have waited. I don't blame anybody but myself. If I thought about it I
would have run another application consistent with this one to find some solution. But we
didn't think of it, so let's say that. So, my ask tonight is you approve the project. I do ask
the easy one I think is to retain the single access to 1045 East McMillan, to Boyd Hill's
place, while he still lives there and whether it's -- until it redevelops is what is the typical
language or just delete the condition. We are fine with either one. And, then, the site
conditions, if it's -- if it's appropriate to approve it as is, great, but if we need to approve it
with a recognition as this would be developed as a third phase, which gives us the time
to come back to have a concurrent development, which would allow us to modify the
conditions for approval and depending upon timing, who knows, it run so fast -- I don't
have that optimism, but we will turn it right around. So, those are my rambling asks as a
conclusion and I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: I think just by that summary by Mr. Yorgason you see why he is here tonight
and it hadn't been resolved before now. He's still asking you to approve it.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: The thoughts -- and I appreciate that. The idea for the week wasn't on any
redesign solution -- was, you know, what you just described, for example, to give people,
you know, some days to think about it, find an exception, see if there is some language
or some out for you right? I agree, it's a great project, but you're stuck. So, that was the
idea of what a week might do.
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Yorgason: So, Madam Mayor and Council Member Borton, if that's what the intent of the
week is, we can play with a week. I can't play with three months, if that makes sense to
you.
Borton: Well -- and Madam Mayor. But that might be the consequence of after a week
you might learn that, in fact, you are boxed in unfortunately. But if that's the case, then,
in a week we would be presented with I'm stuck. The only path, if there is one that I'm
choosing, is the variance application perhaps or a code change and here is what I'm going
to do. Here is how long it's going to take. Or you choose not to. But at least we are not
trying to figure it out up here. And, heck, maybe you find some solution that doesn't
necessitate a second application. So, it seemed to be worth the short delay that,
hopefully, at least you will -- you will know here is my -- if there is a path out it's this, like
it or not. Spend some time now talking about it specifically and whether it's variance,
code change, or door number three -- that's my thought of a week. But, Madam Mayor,
one question on the week. I don't know -- what -- what does redevelopment mean in the
context of the house and the two driveways? Is it a -- the house gets torn down, title
transfers to a new owner? Because it may be another hundred years --
Yorgason: Madam Mayor and Council Member Borton, it could be all the above. I -- it's
not uncommon to put -- I won't speak for you as the attorney, but I know it's not uncommon
to put a condition on a property, so that when it sells it's on the deed or it's recorded
against the property, so that any buyer knows that when they buy it they now have to take
access off the back for example or maybe through the cul-de-sac, if that's what this
direction wants to be. Typically it might be in the form of redevelopments. That would be
-- so, the city could even see it if there is ever a redevelopment being an application that
comes forward to say split that lot into two lots. Then that would be an instant red flag
that pops to the world, including staff and Council here, that you know that, okay, well, it's
now going to become two lots or whatever it becomes then -- now you have to take access
off the cul-de-sac and that's very clear. It's recorded in the property and so that's what
my experience would be, because it's -- that's just a suggestion here.
Borton: And that's the easy one. The trickier one is a grandson inherits it and lives there
with his family for 40 more years. If there was a concern about two driveways, maybe
that's a DA discussion on what kind of language we use to have some teeth to redevelop.
Yorgason: Yeah. Madam Mayor and Council Member Borton, I would say because this
aligns with Larkwood Street that changes the game also.
Borton: Yeah.
Yorgason: If it was offset by whatever distance, a hundred feet or something, that's --
that's not appropriate, which would lead to safety concerns. That's -- but that's different
here. It aligns and so I -- it's your decision, but I personally wouldn't feel like that's a
safety concern. It's just a -- a comfort where the city wants to restrict access.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: For what it's worth, even though it's a minor issue compared to the other issues
we are trying to deal with, my preference would be as long as it's a single property to
maintain both entrances, ensuring that there is never any reason for somebody to try to
back out onto McMillan. Because there is two entrances doesn't mean there is twice as
much traffic coming in and out of there, it's still one residence and as long as that stays
the case I think we want -- would want to make it as easy as possible to avoid somebody
trying to back out onto McMillan. If we can just figure out the other issue.
Allen: Madam Mayor, may I comment?
De Weerd: Yes.
Allen: I have several items I would like to address. The driveways in question ACHD is
not allowing the western driveway. So, that's not something the city can just override.
Second, if the Council ends up allowing a condition for the applicant to comply with a
possible later amendment to the text of the UDC on the block length -- or, excuse me, not
block length, cul-de-sac length standard, if you could, please, specify that in your motion
to amend the condition a little bit to specifically say that and, then, I also did find Settlers
Bridge, how that was approved at the time and that was through a planned unit
development, which did allow variations to the dimensional standards at that time. They
were allowed as a condition of increasing the cul-de-sac length to do so, but they did have
to construct an emergency access and that -- that's another alternative that staff has
discussed with the applicant in this case. Pulling the cul-de-sac back 50 feet here further
to the south and, then, extending -- because that would, in turn, make the length of the
common driveway exceed the maximum length standard there of 150 feet. But if the Fire
Department would approve an emergency access and -- and Council would out to
McMillan Road, that -- that is a possible alternative. It would ensure compliance with the
cul-de-sac length, but that does require special approval from the Fire Department.
De Weerd: I guess all of these comments just I think support continuing this a week and
-- and having the applicant work with the city and -- on some of these various ideas and
bring those back to -- to Council.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Would a scenario such as that, then, work that maybe they come back with an
adjustment that none of us are -- we are okay with, but it's never our preference and,
then, we work on -- he could work on changing code and, then, when the code changed,
before he has ever constructed the thing, to just approve on adjusting the plan back to
this.
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De Weerd: I think they can work through all kinds of different ideas and see what works
best coming forward.
Yorgason: Madam Mayor, we are fine with the one week delay, if that's the direction here.
I appreciate Sonya's direction. That's one of five of my options in my head. There is
negative implications to that, assuming Fire approves it, which I think they would, but I
won't speak for them to the secondary access or the emergency access. There is other
consequences to lots that doesn't work for us. Doesn't matter. We are happy to work
with staff for the week and come back next week, if that's what you want us to do.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, because it seems like a tennis game right now. The ball is in your court.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I move we continue Item 8-H to the 27th of September.
Allen: To August?
Palmer: August. Sorry, I had -- I had September pulled up on my --
De Weerd: Wow.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue this item to the 27th of August. All
those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: One more thing to throw out there to -- and I don't know if it could be considered
a hardship, because of the blocked access from Copper Basin, which would have allowed
you to do this without, you know --
I. Citywide Fee Updates
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-I is a presentation on citywide fee updates by Brad.
Purser: Good evening.
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De Weerd: Good evening.
Purser: I have a wonderful opportunity to talk to you guys about another riveting topic in
the citywide fee schedule, so --
De Weerd: It is riveting.
Purser: Completely. I'm happy to talk about it. I would refer you to the public record.
Councilman Cavener, thank you for bringing up -- and had me change that -- or send that
to you guys. Hopefully you have that and you can refer to that. I'm going to present a
summary of what those changes are. There are 57 changes that exceed the five percent.
That's -- that's either positive or negative. Either way. There is 57 of those. We have five
percent -- or sorry. There are five fees that fall under the five percent threshold, which
don't require the public hearing and, then, we have one -- the name change, with
somebody changing a nonsufficient fee to a returned item fee. On the 57 fee changes
that are greater than five percent, 52 of those fees are related to Public Works. Those
are city water, like hydrants, meters, those things are pass throughs, so it's just basically
what it's charging us. We are passing that through. The five remaining fees are beyond
the fire. Four of those are reductions. Those are part of a joint agreement that we have
with other districts and those are actual reduction in -- in the fee, because of the fee
structure of that agreement. There is one increase on the fire fee that's related to
inspections and that just represents, you know, the cost of inspector's time and staff to
cover that. Those are the fee updates for existing fees. We have some new fees. We
have five false alarm fees. These have been charged typically or historically with the
police department. They have been housed there. Recently some city code has changed
to allow us to have these on the -- and separate these on the city schedule. Fire is wanting
to do that, so we are doing that. That's why we are here today. I have one fee that's a
fence permit fee. Caleb talked about this earlier as part of an innovation as part of our --
our Peak Academy. Those allow us to reduce the fee from 55 dollars down to ten dollars.
So, it's a win for our citizens. We have a hydrant meter. This is a true new fee, something
we haven't seen in the past, and we have an above ground storage tank, which is a fire
fee, that is -- fire is bringing forward. It is also a new fee. So, really, it's -- we have two
technically new fees, the rest are -- have existed in some form or fashion. Next steps.
We need to publish the next two weeks the citywide fee changes and I have gathered
these over the last year, so we will publish these. Have a public hearing on -- hopefully
on the 10th where we can get public input and approval and, you know, if approved these
-- these will be effective October 1st. With that I will take any questions you may have.
And I appreciate the questions that I have received and by all means in the next few
weeks as we are doing the publishing and that, feel free to reach out to me, I'm happy to
-- to answer and do whatever I can to help you guys out, so I will stand for any questions
you have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Brad. And great summary. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Thanks for the quick turnaround getting that to us. I appreciate it.
De Weerd: If you can speak into your mic, so Dean doesn't have to give you the hairy
eyeball.
Cavener: Sorry. I -- I'm just saying thanks and it is sometimes challenging for us on our
tablets or home computers to follow it and so getting it back to us was appreciated.
Purser: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Milam: Thanks, Brad.
De Weerd: Thank you, Brad.
Purser: Thank you.
De Weerd: So, we will put this out to be published.
Purser: Okay. Thank you so much.
J. Republic Services Rate Increase Request
De Weerd: And noticed. Thank you. Okay. Item 8-J is in front of you for a request from
Republic Services for their rates. Rodney, Steve, nice to have you here. Sorry we had
you wait so long.
Remling: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council. Rodney Remling with Republic Services,
the finance manager, at 11101 West Executive in Boise, Idaho. You have in your -- in
your packet there a request to increase rates, which is an annual request. It's based on
the contract. It comes -- it's based on June -- on the change in CPI. The change is limited
to 90 percent of the change in CPI, which this year is 2.47 percent. I would just say that
we work extensively with SWAC with city -- city staff on this, but I will let Steve tell you
about that.
Cory: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you for this opportunity. I really want to
express our thanks as a commission, to Legal, to Finance, to Public Works for doing all
the legwork to make sure that all these requests were vetted very thoroughly and so
talking about them individually as discussed, the consumer price index adjustment, the
SWAC considered that and felt that it was appropriately reflected and went ahead and
recognizing that it is a contractual thing, did recommend that it was ready for your
consideration with a do pass recommendation. We were very happy with the household
hazardous waste collection portion of this, which actually reduces the fees associated
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with that by a slight amount, but we easily came to the recommendation that it was ready
for your consideration and give the do pass recommendation on that also. The -- it was
a request by the Commission in discussing the recycling fee portion of this that the
amendment which you passed last year, which was a one year amendment for recycling
processing fees, be extended for another year. The logic behind that is that we are still
dealing with what effectively is a survey that is 20 years old, that the citizens of Meridian
are supportive of recycling and staff in Public Works is currently conducting a survey of
the citizenry to find out the extent of their support of recycling and recycling fees. We
expect to have those results within a month or two and so going to that particular item,
the fees necessary to continue recycling as they are right now, Republic has requested
that the -- that fee be increased by ten cents with no current information to change where
we were at, which is that the citizenry supports recycling as it currently is. We felt that
we, as a commission could say this was ready for your consideration with a do pass
recommendation. So, I stand for questions if you have any questions on what the
commission did and how it concluded what it did.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, questions?
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I just wanted to add, too, in your packet
you will see an addendum for that portion regarding the recycling. Tom caught it this
morning from Public Works that there were some number -- numerical errors in that. So,
we will make those corrections. This was just for your information at this point, because
we wouldn't need this addendum until these fees get adopted. So, we will keep it on the
agenda and when you have the fee hearing to, then, do this amendment at the same
time, but we will make the corrections as necessary, have Republic re-sign it, and, then,
bring it back.
De Weerd: Any anything further?
Remling: So -- no. I think Steve summarized it very well. I would just say that the
household hazardous waste is not subject to CPI. We do reconcile that. Last year we
remitted some money back to the -- to the city. This year there is about 4,200 coming
back the other way. We are just going to leave that on the books and consider it as we
move forward. So, the increase for the residential households is 41 cents, 33 cents for
CPI, ten cents for the recycling charge, which Steve mentioned, and, then, a two cent
reduction in household hazardous waste, so -- and there are no new fees.
De Weerd: That's great. Steve, thank you to SWAC and -- for vetting this and -- and
working with staff on -- on the various complexities of this constantly evolving recycling
fund, but also in looking at our rate schedules.
Remling: Thank you.
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De Weerd: So, Mr. Nary, any action needed to send this forward for publishing and
hearing?
Nary: No, ma'am. Just like the other, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we will go
ahead and begin the process for the advertisement and bringing it back.
K. Public Hearing for Ordinance No. 19-1840 An Ordinance
Amending Title 4, Chapter 1, Sections 8 (C)(3)(B), Of The
Meridian City Code, Regarding Wheeled Cart Collection
Placement Standards - Location Of Placement
De Weerd: Okay. Very good. Okay. Item 8-K is a public hearing for Ordinance 19-1840.
This ordinance amends the section regarding clarification for the wheeled cart collection
placement standards and it is just a clarification in our current ordinance. Welcome, Tom.
Otte: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, as -- just a little history. Again, last week
we were asked to post out for our public hearing. We got two -- staff got two pieces of
feedback only. We addressed both of those feedback -- both of those questions with the
public. Staff recommend passing this evening with an effective date of September 9.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions for Tom?
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: I could also add -- I guess for the record the one question we received is what was
the clarification that was being made in the ordinance. In the prior ordinance it was
unclear when it -- when it -- when it referenced the curb and the location of the cart, it
could be read to either be the cart edge on the curb or the cart edge in the street. So, the
intent of this ordinance is now to make it clear it is the cart edge in the street where the
cart need to be and so that's the clarification. The September 9th date was requested
both for public outreach fees, as well as -- based on our publishing schedule, if we were
to approve it tonight it would be published in time that it would become effective on Labor
Day. That would be problematic for the pick up and such for that week, so that's why they
asked for the delay for the effective date to be the 9th, so, then, we could both do the
public outreach and they can program in that change.
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor. Constituents reached out with a couple of questions. I worked
to get some of these answered, but there is a couple that I didn't -- wasn't able to. It really
pertains to how we notify about low hanging branches and to me this is kind of timely,
because I got a nice letter in my mailbox this week from the postal service that says the
branches of a tree at my house are too low and it's impeding their ability to deliver mail,
but I also noticed that's the tree where my neighbor also places his trash cans. So, how
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-- how do we educate our citizens if the branches are too low? What -- what's the outreach
process? Who is responsible and who is ultimately responsible for solving that problem?
I know that's kind of a funky question to ask, but a citizen asked, so I said I would get to
the bottom of it.
Otte: Madam Mayor, Mr. Cavener, that's kind of a twofold question. Who is responsible
for the tree would be who owns the tree. So, if it's a public tree it could be ACHD, it could
be any number of -- whoever owns the tree or it could be the actual resident -- the
homeowner themselves. The notification process is relatively straightforward. Initially,
Republic Services would just move the cart out from under the tree to demonstrate to the
resident that this is the safe place to put your cart in the future. If this person continued
to put it under the tree they would put a hard card on it, a tag notifying them. It would say
on it -- you know, it would point out what it is. You know, low overhang, something like
that. Please move your cart to a safe -- safer location. If the resident continued to do so,
Republic would take it to staff, staff would, then, notify saying this is a safety concern
based on damaging the tree, it could damage equipment, and it's just -- it's kind of a
progressive process. They start out with just moving the cart and, then, eventually we
get to the hard card notification.
Cavener: So, Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: I think it just needs to be trimmed above the obstacle.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Above the item.
Cavener: The clarification is it is possible we would have to involve code enforcement,
then, if -- if a branch is too low, is that likely where we are -- Madam Mayor, Mr. Bernt,
that's my intention just to --
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: -- cut it, but we are not just talking about policy related to one, it's about all of
us, so --
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I could probably take that part. So,
yeah --
De Weerd: Thank you.
Nary: -- if there is a code enforcement issue from a nuisance standpoint, if it is a tree in
-- on private property, but it is protruding into the public right of way, then, either ACHD or
our arborist will notify the property owner that they need to trim the tree. If it's diseased
or old they may require they removed the tree. If they don't remove the tree they will --
the city will remove it and charge the homeowner for it.
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Cavener: Great. Madam Mayor, one additional one real quickly. Who ultimately
determines kind of the safety element? Does Republic determine if something can be
safely placed or the homeowner? Who -- who is the ultimate decision maker?
Otte: Madam Mayor, Mr. Cavener, in the code it actually specifically states that it can be
requested by the franchisee to move to a safe location. If the resident is unhappy with
that chosen location they can come to staff and we can work with Republic to determine
a safe location for it.
Nary: Yeah. And, Mr. Cavener, to add onto that, the intent was -- is that the initial
homeowner has some say in that location, but, ultimately, the franchisee has to be able
to safely do it -- remove the carts and be able to move them safely for both their vehicles,
as well as the -- the -- the public. So, that's why ultimately they do get the say and if they
determine it has to be in this specific location, they are supposed to move it, they can
work with staff if there is some other reason that's problematic.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, just for clarification, I heard staff and franchisee. It sounds like
the franchisee has the ultimate deciding --
Nary: Mr. Cavener, Members of the Council, so if you look in the ordinance it does say
the franchisee can designate the specific location. I think what Mr. Otte is saying is that
the city as a service will work with those residences to try to mediate if there is an issue
or a problem where the franchisee would prefer it and the homeowner thinks it needs to
be in a different spot. But, ultimately, the franchisee that operates the vehicles has the
responsibility to pick up the trash, so --
Cavener: Great.
De Weerd: And if all else fails, the Mayor and Council President will go out and measure
it. Any further questions? Thank you, Tom. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone
signed up, Mr. Clerk?
Johnson: Madam Mayor, there is not.
De Weerd: Is there anyone who wishes to provide testimony on this? Any comment on
who should go and measure? I think it should be the Council President myself. Okay.
Seeing there is no comment, Council, would you like to close the public hearing?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I would.
De Weerd: Do I have a motion?
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Borton: You bet. I move we close the public hearing on 19-1840.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item K. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
L. Public Hearing for Ordinance No. 19-1841: An Ordinance
Amending Meridian City Code Section 2-6-3, Regarding
Membership and Qualifications for the Meridian Solid Waste
Advisory Commission
De Weerd: I believe this is further in -- okay. Item 8-L is a public hearing for Ordinance
No. 19-1841. I will open this public hearing. Hi, Tom.
Otte: Hello again, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council. Just some history on this.
This was the -- what was discussed last week was the new language for SWAC
membership. Staff have received no feedback whatsoever on it. We recommend
collapsing the readings approval with an immediate effective date.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions? Okay. Thank you. Is there any public
comment on -- or questions on this item? Okay. Council, do I have a motion to close the
public hearing?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we close the public hearing on 19-1841.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor
say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No.19-1839: An Ordinance (H-2018-0057– Bainbridge
Franklin) For Annexation Of A Parcel Of Land Located In The
NW Of The NE ¼ Of Section 14, Township 3 North, Range 1
West, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, As Described In
Attachment "A” And Annexing Certain Lands And Territory,
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Situated In Ada County, Idaho, And Adjacent And Contiguous
To The Corporate Limits Of The City Of Meridian As Requested
By The City Of
Land Use Zoning Classification Of 3.68 Acres Of Land From R1
To C-G (General Retail And Service Commercial) Zoning
District In The Meridian
This Ordinance Shall Be Filed With The Ada County Assessor,
The Ada County Recorder, And The Idaho State Tax
Providing For A
oviding For A Waiver Of
De Weerd: I have an Ordinance 9-A, Ordinance No. 19-1839. Mr. Clerk, will you, please,
read this by title.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is Ordinance H-2018-0057, Bainbridge
Franklin for annexation of a parcel of land located in the NW 1/4 of the NE 1/4 of Section
14, Township 3 North, Range 1 West, Boise meridian, Ada county, Idaho, as described in
Attachment "A" and annexing certain lands and territory, situated in Ada county, Idaho,
and adjacent and contiguous to the corporate limits of the City of Meridian as requested
3.68 acres of land from R-1 to C-G (General Retail and Service Commercial) Zoning
with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by title. Is there anyone who would like
to hear it read in its entirety? Okay. Council, do I have a motion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor, I move we approve Ordinance No. 19-1839 with suspension of
rules.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve ordinance under 9-A -- 10-A. Sorry.
9-A. If there is no discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Bernt, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
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B: Ordinance No. 19-1840: An Ordinance Amending Title 4,
Chapter 1, Sections 8 (C)(3)(B), Of The Meridian City Code,
Regarding Wheeled Cart Collection Placement Standards-
Location Of Placement Providing For A Waiver Of The Reading
And Providing An Effective Date.
De Weerd: Ordinance 9-B is 19-1840. Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read this by title.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's an ordinance amending Title 4, Chapter 1,
Sections 8(c)(3)(b) of the Meridian City Code, regarding wheeled cart placement --
wheeled cart collection placement standards -- location and placement providing for a
waiver of the reading rules and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance ready by title. Is there anyone who would like
to hear it read in its entirety? Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we approve Ordinance 19-1840 with suspension of rules.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve 9-B. If there is no discussion, Mr.
Clerk, will you call roll.
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
C. Ordinance No. 19-1841: An Ordinance Amending Meridian City
Code Section 2-6-3, Regarding Membership and Qualifications
for
Providing an Effective Date.
De Weerd: Item 9-C is Ordinance 19-1841. Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read this by title.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. An ordinance amending Meridian City Code
Section 2-6-3, regarding membership and qualifications for the Meridian Solid Waste
Advisory Commissioner and providing an effective date.
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De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance by title. I do not see anyone wanting to hear
it read in its entirety.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we approve Ordinance 19-1841 with suspension of rules.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-C. Mr. Clerk, will you call
roll.
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
D. Ordinance No. 19-1842: Amending Meridian City Code Section
9-1-16, Regarding Connection to City Water System Outside
City -4-26,
Regarding Connection to City Sewer System Outside City
Providing an Effective Date.
De Weerd: Item 9-D is Ordinance 19-1842. Mr. Clerk.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance amending Meridian City Code Section
9-1-
City Code Section 9-4-26, regarding connection to city sewer system outside city limits
and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You heard this ordinance read by title. I don't see anyone wanting to hear it
read. Council, do I have a motion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Move we approve Ordinance 19-1842 with suspension of rules.
Cavener: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-D. Mr. Clerk, will you call
roll.
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
E. Ordinance No. 19-1843: An Ordinance (H-2018-0118 Oakmore
Subdivision) For Rezone Of A Parcel Of Land Located In The NE
¼ Of Section 28, Township 4 North, Range 1 West, Boise
Meridian,
The Land Use Zoning Classification From R-15 (Medium-High
Density Residential) Zoning District To R-4 (Medium Low
Density
Providing That Copies Of This Ordinance Shall Be Filed With
The County Assessor, The Ada County Recorder, And The
Idaho State
Providing For A
For A Waiver Of The Reading Rul
Date.
De Weerd: Item 9-E is Ordinance 19-1843. Mr. Clerk.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance H-2018-0118, Oakmore Subdivision, for
rezone of a parcel of land located in the NE ¼ of Section 28, Township 4 North, Range 1
zoning classification from R-15 (Medium-High Density Residential) Zoning District to R-4
(Medium Low Density Residential) Zoning District in the Meridian City
that copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County
an effective date.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. You have heard this ordinance read by title. Is there
any further information needed? Do I have a motion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we approve it, Ordinance No. 19-1843 and let's suspend the rules.
Cavener: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-E. Mr. Clerk, roll call, please.
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 10: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Is there anything for Item 10, Council? Hearing none --
Item 11: [AMENDED ON TO AGENDA] Executive Session per Idaho State
Code 74-206(1)(d) To consider records that are exempt from
disclosure, and (1)(f) To communicate with legal counsel for the
public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options
for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated but
imminently likely to be litigated
De Weerd: -- I would entertain a motion to adjourn into Executive Session.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Borton: I will move -- I do move that we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho
State Code 74-206(1)(d) and (1)(f).
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (8:11 p.m. to 8:36 p.m.)
Bernt: So moved.
De Weerd: Oh. Do I have a motion to come out of Executive Session?
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Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I move we come out of Executive Session.
Little Roberts: Second,
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to come out of Executive Session. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I move we adjourn.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:36 P.M.
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