HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-11-26 Jane ByamTuesday, November 26, 2019
Re: 2019 Comprehensive Plan and Proposed FLUM changing El Gato and Pine
Lanes to a General Industrial Land Use.
Please submit this letter for public record.
The following comments are being submitted as a review and in addition to verbal
comments that were presented by me to Mayor de Weerd and Meridian City
Council at the meeting held Tuesday, November 26, 2019.
I wish to thank the Mayor and City Council members for giving me the
opportunity to address you at the meeting last week as I represented the
residents on El Gato, Pine, and Puma Lanes. As you consider your votes in
relation to the Comprehensive Plan and the proposed FLUM I would like to take
the opportunity to review a few of my thoughts.
First, I would like to reiterate that I am in full support and agreement of the
comments previously submitted in writing by Chuck Sundby and Gloria Beattie of
6155 W. El Gato Lane as I mentioned at the meeting last week.
Our family has lived in many places but when I stood on the front steps of our
current home on El Gato Lane Meridian, and viewed the lovely large trees and
pastures in our neighborhood and the beautiful views of the mountains, I knew
we had found home, our own little piece of Heaven. Our youngest daughter had
just graduated from Kuna High School and said, “I would like to have grown up
here.”
The west Meridian area in which our home is located is perfect with easy access
to the highway at the 10 Mile interchange or Garrity Blvd if we need to reach
more urban locations like Boise or Nampa, but we can still enjoy living in the
country surrounded by peaceful farms both large and small.
We were told by many neighbors that we were lucky to have been able to
purchase a home in this neighborhood. Homes here rarely come up for sale. We
feel truly blessed to be here. However, things are changing around us and that
country atmosphere is quickly vanishing. Homes with acreages are getting harder
and harder to find as Meridian consumes the area of city impact and builds
subdivisions and apartments. The few farm, and small acreage developments
that still exist in Meridian need to be preserved before it is too late and we have
completely lost our agricultural heritage.
On pages 10 and 11 of Appendix E of the Comprehensive plan there is a graphic
entitled WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT MERIDIAN. Responses include parks, quality
of life, farm lands, farmland and ranches, farming and small acreages, open space,
low density, small town feel, farmland and pasture, undeveloped, quiet, country
atmosphere, rural roots, old barns and farmland, agriculture, small town
atmosphere, farmland, less dense, open spaces, rural nature, rural, slower pace
and open space to breathe, farm to table, country feel, agriculture, and raising
animals.
In the My Meridian Values Summary found in appendix E of the Comp Plan page 6
(78/346), there is a graph charting the responses of the on-line survey entitled
What Should Be Improved. The most desired improvement is the preservation of
farmland at 60%. This is followed by walkability at 48%, multi-modal
transportation network at 42%, jobs at only 20%, and additional housing options
at only 12%. The What Do I Love About Meridian graphic and the What Should be
Improved graph both confirm that we are not alone in our feelings that the
country feel and agricultural heritage that Meridian has should be preserved
El Gato is a quiet street where residents (including those from neighboring
housing developments) enjoy walking, biking, and occasional horseback riding.
The majority of the residents have been here for 10 or more years, some upwards
of 25-40. The newest residents have purchased within a few years. Three of
them just moved in this summer and one last month. These are young families
that came here expecting a quite, safe place to raise their families and animals.
Our neighborhood is also host to Great Horned Owls, Red Tailed Hawks,
Swainson’s Hawks, Northern Flickers, Barn Owls, Quail, the occasional Chuckar,
wild Turkeys, various song birds, squirrels, foxes, and coyotes, cows, horses, pigs,
chickens, and sheep.
The homes on our street range from brand new custom construction to homes
that have been here since the formation of Sky View Ranchettes I & II. Properties
here are shaded by large established trees, some of which are beautiful
hardwoods. Manicured lawns are dispersed through the pasturelands and hay
fields. Outbuilding and external property features include sheds, barns, shops,
and horseback riding arenas.
Our neighborhood is bordered on the west by high end homes on minimum 5
acre lots on St. James Loop and on the northeast end by high end homes in Crystal
Cove half of which are on ½ acre lots with the newest homes being built on ¼
acre lots. These neighborhoods could also be negatively impacted should the
classification of El Gato Lane be changed to industrial on the FLUM.
The terms “feathering” and “transitioning” were used several times at the
meeting last week in regards to a gradual transition between low density
residential/estate/lots and adjacent areas. I would like to request that our
neighborhood be recognized as one that deserves this consideration as well. We
recognize that growth is happening but current residents deserve the first
consideration. Those who have purchased homes in rural neighborhoods and are
accustomed to wide open spaces around them could greatly benefit from
development bordering them that is only slightly more populated that where they
live. I would respectfully request that zoning adjacent to current low density
residential/estate/lots should be no smaller than one acre residential lots with a
buffer of some sort (ie. green space) between the two zoning designations.
I appreciate the planning and zoning recommendations for moving the proposed
industrial area off of El Gato, however as I stated last week, in my opinion the rail
road tracks would make a more appropriate northern boundary for the industrial
area. This would protect the property rights and quality of life for the residents El
Gato as well as on Pine and Puma Lanes and would make for a more appropriate
access to the industrial area coming in off of Black cat and/or McDermott at the
rail road tracks. Currently Pine Lane is a dirt road off of El Gato and with P&Z’s
recommendation to include Pine Lane in the proposed industrial area, that would
cause industrial traffic to come down El Gato to get access to Pine.
While I recognize there may be a need for more land designated for industrial
development, might I suggest that not all industrial entities require rail use for
transportation of goods. As I mentioned last week, there are other areas
elsewhere within the AOCI away from the railroad tracks that already have an
industrial classification on the current FLUM that could be used or expanded with
little or no additional negative impact to current residents and will still be close to
I-84 access or SH-16 access. Have areas south of I-84 been considered perhaps
along Overland Rd or north near Chinden, or as was mentioned near the
Intermountain Gas Storage facility on Can Ada?
Finally, the Staff has stated that the proposed changes may be “decades from
now”. May I please request that in light of this, that any change to the current
adopted FLUM, especially that of the area including El Gato and Pine Lanes, be
postponed and reconsidered for evaluation when the possibility of the
anticipated industrial development become closer to a reality. I respectfully as
that you please not make decisions that have the real potential of negatively
affecting our property values and quality of life based on the maybes and what ifs
that may be decades from now.
Thank you,
Jane R. Byam
6050 El Gato Lane
Meridian, ID
83642
208-922-5895