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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005 05-24 ~v Councu....Meetina Mav 24. 2005. The regular meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 7:00 P.M., Tuesday, May 24,2005, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Shaun Wardle, and Charlie Rountree. Members Absent: Christine Donnell. Others Present: Ted Baird, Tara Green, Anna Canning, Brad Watson, Bill Musser, Ron Anderson, Len Grady, Doug Strong, and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. x X Shaun Wardle Charlie Rountree X Christine Donnell X Keith Bird Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: I will go ahead and call the regular City Council meeting to order. It is May 24th at 7:00 o'clock. Welcome all. In particular, I'd like to welcome our American Legion, who will be posting our flag. But first we will start with roll call attendance. Mrs. Green. Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance and Posting of Colors by the American Legion: De Weerd: Thank you. Item No.2 is the pledge of allegiance and posting colors. If you will, please, all rise. (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) De Weerd: Thank you. We were also led in the pledge by Boy Scout Daniel Parkinson and he is from the LOS Troop 165. Thank you for joining us tonight. Nice to see you, Eric. Item 3: Community Invocation by Councilman Keith Bird: De Weerd: Okay. Item 3 is our community invocation. We will be led tonight by Joe Anderson. Is Joe here? Well, since it's an executive privilege when I get to run the meeting, I will ask Councilman Bird to lead us in the invocation. Bird: Thank you, Mayor. Father, we come before you tonight, gracious for the community you have bestowed upon us. We appreciate everything you have done for the community. We are so blessed to live in the country that we live in. Watch over all Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 2 of 30 the soldiers that are fighting to keep our freedom for us and watch over this community as we go forward and help us to make the right decisions. This I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda: De Weerd: Thank you, Councilman Bird. You think quick on your feet. Okay. Item 4 is adoption of the agenda. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I would move that we approve the revised agenda that is published. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve the agenda as published. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 5: Consent Agenda: A. Approve Minutes of April 19, 2005 Pre-Council Meeting: B. Approve Minutes of April 26, 2005 City Council Special Meeting: C. Approve Minutes of April 26, 2005 City Council Regular Meeting: D. Approve Minutes of May 3, 2005 City Council Regular Meeting: E. Resolution No. 05-474 Areas & City-Wide Initiatives: : Adoption of Strategic Focus F. Water Main Easement for Mountain View Business Center: G. Sanitary Sewer Easement and Contract for North Siouah Trunk Line Project: De Weerd: Item 5, Consent Agenda. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 3 of 30 Bird: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda, which includes Item E, Resolution No. 05-474 and for the Mayor to sign and the clerk to attest -- the assistant clerk to attest on all proper papers. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve the Consent Agenda with the additional number for Resolution 05-474. Mrs. Clerk, will you, please, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 6: Department Reports: A. Mayor's Office 1. Proclamation: American Legion Poppy Day - May 28, 2005 De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6 under the Mayor's Office. I'm very proud to be able to present the proclamation for our American Legion Poppy Day. If you could, please, join us here in front. I would like to present this to you. I will go ahead and read the proclamation and, then, present it to you. Whereas the members of the American Legion Auxiliary are asking everyone to wear a poppy in observation of Memorial Day and whereas in the battlefields of Belgium during World War I poppies grew wild amid the ravages of war, the overturned soil of battle enabled the poppy seeds to be covered, allowing them to grow and forever serve as a reminder of the bloodshed of war. And whereas the poppy honors the hospitalized and disabled veterans who make these red handicraft flowers, providing financial and therapeutic benefits and whereas the displaying of the poppy honors the millions of Americans who have willingly served and are currently serving our nation, as well as all too many who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Therefore, I, Tammy de Weerd, Mayor of the City of Meridian, do hereby proclaim Saturday, May 28th, 2005, as American Legion Poppy Day, in recognition of the sacrifices of our veterans and those serving our country today by honoring these brave men and women. Veteran: Back during World War lover in France there was a poem written called In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. In Flanders Fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row, that mark our place and in the sky, the larks still bravely singing, fly, scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders Fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe, to you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields. In response to this America answered. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 4 of 30 Veteran: Rest ye in peace, you Flanders dead, the fight that ye bravely led. We've taken up and we will keep the faith with you who lie asleep. With each a cross to mark his dead in Flanders Field. Fear not that ye have died for naught, the torch ye threw to us we caught. Ten million hands will hold it high and freedom's light shall never die. We've learned the lesson that you taught in Flanders Field. De Weerd: Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Our American legion were also our brightest stars and in the organization category. They do a lot in our community. We appreciate you joining us. Thank you. B. Attorney's Office - Bill Nary 1. Boise City Prosecution Presentation: De Weerd: Okay. Item 16-B, the attorney's office. I will have Ted introduce our guests. Baird: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As you're all aware, the prosecution services for misdemeanors in the City of Meridian are handled by the Boise City Attorney's office under contract and they recently set up a letter outlining their fee proposal, should you determine that you want to extend that contract for the next year. And they are here tonight to give some background on services that they provide and maybe some additional detail about some of the increases in the fees that you will be seeing. So, I will introduce the Boise City Attorney Cary Colaianni and I'll let him take it from there. De Weerd: Thank you. Colaianni: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members, for this opportunity to present our proposal for the Meridian city contract. Before we get started I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce some of the staff who work closely on the Meridian contract, beginning with my chief deputy Steve Rutherford. You can wave or stand. That would be great. My public safety division manager Alison Tate. Your Meridian police attorney Jodi Nafzger. The victim witness unit supervisor, Tina Perkins. And my executive assistant Doreen Queen. As you can see, I'm very proud of my office and certainly these people, so -- and when you listen to the presentation tonight, I guess you will get an opportunity to see why I'm so proud. They are a talented bunch of folks. We are very excited about the opportunity to bid again for this contract. We believe it's been a valuable contact for both of our cities. We are able to realize additional resources and the City of Meridian receives high quality legal services and you will see that in detail and also we will be talking about the increases that you have all seen and get some of the details, so you can better understand where we are in terms of handling the contract. And with that I'd like to turn the presentation over to my chief deputy Steve Rutherford. Rutherford: Good evening. It's a pleasure to be before you tonight. Really, what we have tried to do is bring the folks that really are the faces that your police department Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 5 of 30 sees and that your legal staff works with on a regular basis. If we could get the next slide? Thank you. In an overview, we provide -- the city's attorney office in Boise provides you with a number of things. We prosecute at the Ada County Courthouse the misdemeanors generated by your officers, the infractions, speeding tickets and what have you, by your officers, in addition to code enforcement cases by your code enforcement officers. We advise the police department and provide them training. In fact, we just came off of a couple straight days of training. We provide victim witness services. And there is also an option that your officers have available to them in the field, which is, basically, a victim witness call out, should that be necessary. One more. Thanks. What really makes this valuable for the city of Boise, but more for the City of Meridian, are the resources that we provide. And, to tell you the truth, digging back a little ways, one of the reasons that I left White Peterson when I did, when I was acting as the Meridian city prosecutor at the time, is because it was difficult to do a good job of prosecuting cases when I didn't have the resources. And that wasn't the City of Meridian's fault, it wasn't even the firm's fault that I was working with, it's just -- it's just the way a public law office works. We have in Meridian -- or in Boise the ability to have a computer network that has all of our prosecutors, along with our law enforcement officers, along with your law enforcement officers, connected bye-mail. We have access to the computer system that effectively drives the court system, which is an AF 400. It tells us what cases are pending at anyone time, what matters are pending at anyone time, what judge is assigned. And so it's really important to have that particular information as well. Each of our attorneys, of course, has -- and staff, for that matter, has a desktop computer. We upgrade those on a four-year cycle. It's important that we stay up -- up to speed with technology. We provide our on-site attorneys, attorneys who travel -- Alison and Jodi, we provide them with laptops and those laptops are hooked up to the network and in most cases wireless, so that if they need to hook up to the network that I have been talking about in the AF 400, they can do so almost anywhere. We are hooked up by way of computer with all of our support staff. We have got the latest in software by way of Microsoft Office and Word. It allows us to generate using the forms that we have created over the years, the stuff we need when we go into court to handle one of your -- one of your cases. We have got an automated file management system, so that when I need to know what's happening with a Meridian case, when I need to know what a specific defendant has, when I need to pull all the cases for a specific defendant, it's as easy as me getting into that data base and finding out. I could pull every Meridian case up on a computer in a matter of minutes. And so it's important to have that information -- that automation available. It just makes it so much more efficient. Again, the AF 400 -- and in addition to the NCIC data base, which let's us dig more deeply than the county -- just Ada County into a defendant's criminal history. It's important that when we prosecute your cases, your police officer's work is rewarded or followed up on with an appropriate sentence and that sentence is only as good as the information the prosecutor has in the courtroom. We have got access to NCIC, which pulls from all 50 states. So, we can find out a defendant's criminal history at the touch of a button. Again, we got the electronic research tools by way of Westlaw and the internet. All of our attorneys and paralegals are hooked up to that, so that when motion hearings happen, when appeals happen .- and they do -- that we have the appropriate tools, so that an attorney doesn't have to go crawl in the books again. It's Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 6 of 30 an efficiency issue. And a couple things. We are in the process of providing or putting into place an automated case management system, which allows us to better track our cases and so, hopefully, in the new year -- in the next fiscal year that will even be a more efficient system. And, finally, we have got an office at the courthouse that has the computer network, that has phones, and so when you're over there and not in the office, the prosecutors have a base in which to receive faxes, send faxes, type up pleadings if necessary. And those have come in handy during the middle of a trial -- the Ten Commandments trial, where we were prosecuting the protesters. We had a witness stumble in that we said we need that person and it was as easy as going down the hall and generating a subpoena and serving it on him at that time. It's important to have those tools and those resources. If we could get the next slide. I'm going to introduce you, again, to Alison Tate and let her handle these next couple slides. She has served as your Meridian police attorney before Jodi and still serves in that capacity when Jodi needs assistance. Tate: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's always a pleasure to be here. Looking at these statistics, mainly what we want to talk about here is we don't have the percentages listed, but if you look starting in the year 2000 and, then, getting into the year 2005, our overall conviction rate has increased steadily. Obviously, those early years are before we took over the contract. In addition, if you look at the miscellaneous - line, there used to be a lot of cases that we just really don't know what happened to them. We seem to have that under control, where there might be one or two where the judgment was set aside for some reason or something strange happened to them, but we have that under control. It used to be that there were just a lot of cases that something strange happened to. The dismissed number there doesn't mean necessarily that whole cases are dismissed, that's charges. So, it might be that a case has three charges and one of the charges might be dismissed in exchange for guilty pleas to the other two charges or to -- for instance, the more serious changes of a DUI and, then, a driver's license charge. So, that's what those numbers are. But overall our conviction rate increases every year. Looking at the numbers, if you look at fiscal year to date, we project that we will handle over 6,000 cases this year, looking at the numbers we have so far this year. So, the numbers are going up pretty dramatically again. Next slide. Part of the reason that the numbers are going up so dramatically is that the number of Meridian City Officers is increasing every year. I believe that they are requesting an additional eight officers for fiscal year 2006, so that would mean that the number of citations that are issued will be rising. When an officer issues a citation or writes a report that comes to us for review, we review all of their citations. Although they go to the court to get filed, we check everything and it's, actually, my team that does that. Jodi and Denise do that. And I do some as well. We look at the number on there, we make sure the citation is correct to the statute. We check to make sure it has a location. If it needs to be backed up by paperwork, we will do that. If we need to file a formal complaint instead of the citation, we will do that. So, we have people in the office screening those things everyday. Obviously, once it gets to court it is prosecuted. We provide coverage to all of the courtrooms. There are six judges and, then, there is additionally family violence court. So, as they add judges and special courtrooms, it Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 7 of 30 becomes increasingly more difficult to cover all of those judges at the same time, but we have prosecutors, obviously, in every courtroom. We prosecute the contempt's . The probation violations. We do blood alcohol hearings, which are hearings that are held when someone refuses a test or refuses to take an intoxilizer test, jury trials, motion hearings, all of those things. So, we have busy prosecutors in every courtroom every day handling Boise cases and Meridian cases. Again, your year to date, if you look at it, the numbers are up -- well, actually, be back up in just a second, but let me have Jodi Nafzger come up here for the next slide and Jodi is the one who is providing the on-site services in McCall -- or McCall. I don't know where that came from. In Meridian right now and I sometimes will as well. Nafzger: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, in addition to criminal prosecution, we provide on-site attorney services. I'm, actually, out at the police department in the patrol area two days a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. I'm available at that time to answer questions that officers might have. I'm also available at that time and do process public records requests that come through. We want to make sure that we give a timely and legal response to all the requests that come through the department and that's part of my obligation as I'm out there. In addition to on-site services, we have an on-call attorney at all times 24 hours a day. So, if an officer has a question in the middle of the night, Alison very often gets to answer that question, which is a service that is valuable. In addition to public records request, we handle property dispositions for the city. Most of the time those property dispositions that might involve a firearm, for example, if an officer responds to a domestic violence situation and firearms are confiscated, if that particular suspect or defendant is, then, thereafter convicted of domestic battery, he or she is no longer able to possess firearms. We have to make those decisions, do the necessary criminal background -- or necessary criminal background checks and insure that we are complying with the federal firearms laws when we are releasing those -- that property. So, that's another one of the functions that we serve, both out there and at City Hall, whether I'm out there or not, I'm working on Meridian cases and Meridian issues. In addition, we provide training to Meridian police officers. Steve mentioned that we just came off of a block training Friday and Monday. We provided a full day training and part of that was focused on domestic violence issues. We, actually, had some experts in the area who came in to talk, Angie Debeer from Boise police and Jan Bennetts from the Ada County Prosecutor's Office, who spoke directly to domestic violence issues, those are ever increasing concerns most certainly. We also address updates in search and seizure law, Miranda, and more specifically we were able to target those areas that were most important to Meridian. We were able to talk with the chief and the captain to determine what are the issues that we are seeing in reports that we really need to focus on, the legal issues, and we incorporated that into our training. In addition, we provide a quarterly police bulletin and that is an attempt to summarize up-to-date case law, areas that are affecting law enforcement and we -- there are three attorneys in the office, myself, Alison, and Jill Musser, who review those cases and work with the paralegals to summarize and get those out to police and that's distributed to patrol in its entirety. And, then, finally, we do some records training as well. I work very closely with the records department, obviously, in public records requests and they are always very very Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 8 of 30 helpful and valuable to us as we work from City Hall in Boise, but it's very smooth to work with records and we value them and we provide training that, basically, summarizes the way paperwork processes through the Boise city attorney's office, because we are -- there are a number of attorneys and administrative staff that see the tickets that Boise -- or that Meridian police officers write and we would like to let them know how that processes through and we also bring them over and do courthouse tours and City Hall tours, just to give them a better idea and a better picture of the service that we provide and the work that we do on Meridian cases. And I think with that I will turn it back over to Alison to talk about internal affairs, if we could get to the next slide. Thank you. Tate: This is something that we do. We don't do very much of. I do provide legal advice to the office of internal affairs for the Boise police department. Meridian doesn't seem to have as many issues as Boise does these days, which is the good news, but I'm available for command staff if they have any questions in that regard, disciplinary issues, civil litigation issues, and those types of things. Finally, we -- at least Jodi and I just really enjoy all the time that we spend out in Meridian and working with Meridian officers. The training that we did Friday and Monday was just a joy, compared with special dealings sometimes with the Boise city police officers. But the officers were interested, the chief was there for the afternoon yesterday, took -- lots and lots of participation, they asked questions when we give the training bulletins, they come in and ask Jodi questions about all the cases. So, we do really enjoy the interaction that we have with them. Thank you. Perkins: Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, I'm Tina Perkins. I'm the victim witness coordinator with the Boise police department that it has with the unit there. It's a pleasure to be in front of you again today, as I was a couple of years ago. If I could -- oh. Anyway -- I'm sorry. When we initially implemented the contract, we thought a half time victim witness coordinator would be sufficient to handle the domestic violence cases in your jurisdiction. As you can see, those numbers have grown significantly and the numbers have increased by 83 percent and -- over the first year and I don't know, necessarily, that that means that there is that high of an increase in domestic violence in your community, but more so that the cases were being more and more referred to the victim witness unit and we were able to provide those services to all the domestic violence victims and as the numbers have increased, as you can see, and we are expecting at least 180 cases if trends go the way they have been going this year, it is -- it has become increasingly important that we get a full-time victim witness coordinator to provide those services. Some of the services that we provide is we take in all of the domestic violence related cases that -- say protection order violations and no contact order violations as well and stalking cases and we provide services to those victims and we provide services for restitution to make sure that victims don't incur expenses out of their own pocket, but they are able to access the Industrial Commission victim's compensation fund and assist them with medical expenses and counseling expenses. We provide specialized resource packets that give counsel referrals here in Meridian, as well as in Boise city we are very lucky that as far as just the whole state of Idaho goes, that we are a very resource rich community and a lot of our neighboring communities. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 9 of 30 And so we make sure that the Meridian victims have community resources here in Meridian and Boise for themselves and for families. We provide non-traditional case services. We have had some cases that don't fall under the traditional victim witness case where maybe there was a neighbor dispute that's going on between two neighbors and victim witness gets involved and we are kind of a nice neutral party, we are not attorneys, we are not police officers, we are kind of a friendly face and kind of can help out in resolving some of those issues. We also provide services to police officers who are the victims of battery on a law enforcement officer. We don't believe that a part of an officer's job is to be battered by a suspect who he or she is arresting and we make sure that not only is that case tracked, but also that that goes into the system, because people who are aggressive to police officers tend to have a higher lethality list to not just the members of their family, but the members of the community and we provide on-call services for misdemeanor domestic violence cases. The officers do a great job triaging that. There are seven victim witness coordinators that work with the Boise police department that indirectly, then, are able to work here as well in the Meridian jurisdiction, but I have been taking the vast majority of the call outs on those misdemeanor cases and that call out volume has gone from maybe one or two calls a month to four or five calls a month. So thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Rutherford: Doreen and I are now going to talk to you about the nuts and bolts and if you have got questions at any step, along with some next couple of slides, please raise your hand, please let us know. You know, a brief history. We started at 152,000 in fiscal year '03 and, really, through fiscal year '04 and '05 the nominal increases of six and seven percent were really for salaries of a part-time support staff person and the two associated attorneys that we have kind of tied to this -- this stream. And you will notice -. and I'm sure you have -- that the proposal from our office this year is a substantial increase of 28 percent increase. Over the next couple of slides Doreen and I would like to explain to you how we get there or how we got to this point. Again, don't hesitate to ask questions. Hopefully, we will have the answers. But we want to help you before we leave tonight understand that. . Queen: If you take a look at the numbers, you can see that the largest change within those dollar figures is the change to increase the part-time victim witness coordinator to full time. Not only does that mean we are increasing the hours from 20 to 40, but this was an employee who was not receiving benefits, who is now going to receive benefits and so the bulk of this change, that 42,000, is for that particular change. The next greatest portion, the 18,000, is for an indirect adjustment. Basically our Mayor and Council have asked that in looking at our contracts and our grants with other agencies, that we take a look at recovering a portion of the indirect costs for services that other departments within the city provide to us and I'll explain a little bit more about those on the next slide. The 6,500 was simply an increase that we provided in the existing staff and, then, we made a slight increase in our M&O costs. Basically, that is for the mileage to get to and from the Meridian police department, the parking expenses, so that our folks can actually park and we actually have a mail room service with our Meridian City Council May 24. 2005 Page 10 of 30 central services that comes out to the Meridian police department, picks up and drops off mail directly to and from them. And so that's the cost associated with that. Now I'd like to explain a little bit more about indirect, because they are rather nebulous a lot of times. Essentially, indirects are those costs that are incurred by the legal department for other city services. Those include human resources, when we are recruiting for any of our vacancies. Our information technology staff who help make sure that our computers are up and running. Our finance and administration people, who provide budget and payroll support. And, then, for example, government building, just making sure that the lights go on and the heating and cooling works. Typically, these are charges that are attributed to our legal department, but that we are not usually asked to actually pay the other departments. That's why they are called indirect. In order to calculate indirect you have to take a look at our overall expenses and how they are divided. Essentially, the city's finance officer takes a look at all of the costs of providing internal services to the legal department and, then, uses a statistical formula to allocate those indirect costs to our department. For the last year our dollar amount for indirect was 376,000. What we did next was we took a look at our overall expenses, which are about 3.4 million and we said of that 3.4 million we spend about 1.3 providing criminal prosecution services. That's about 38 percent of the overall cost of our entire department. So, we take that 38 percent of the 376 and arrive at 133,912. Then what we did was we took the cost to the Meridian contract for last year, it was 172,430. That represented just under 13 percent of that 1.3 million. So, we took just under 13 percent of the 133,000 and that's how we came up with the 18,000. Rutherford: I know that sounds confusing, but it's an internal reimbursement cost and the Mayor and Council and our budget folks in Boise have said that we are going to fund our human resources and we are going to fund government buildings. Everybody that's a user should cost share. De Weerd: And you do that with your -- your other departments as well from your enterprise fund and -- Rutherford: Absolutely. Our police force folks and our public works folks, they pay for their legal services through indirect and, really, that money goes to the general fund. Queen: And during this year's budget process, as the city was looking at its attributed planning and taking a look at budgeting for the future, they were looking at whatever resources they could to make sure that we are recovering all of the costs of doing business as a city and that's why they have asked us to include this amount in our contract. Rutherford: Okay. One last slide here, hopefully to give you a picture of what the dollar amount means. Really, what we do is we watch -- we justify prosecutors by caseload and we try to keep our case numbers relatively low and we are right now about 400 cases per prosecutor, roughly 14 are dedicated to that mission, 400 cases per month per prosecutor. And so we like to have it down even a little bit lower and in our budget proposal we have asked for additional prosecutors to try to get that number closer to Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 11 of 30 300. We want our prosecutors to have enough time that they can spend with these cases, so that -- so that we get the right result and that the -- the hard work of the police officers out in the field was justified. And so, ultimately, what we do is we've figured with the case load that's coming from handling Meridian cases, we are going to need two full- time prosecutors and that's practically what we have now. We are not upping that. This contract pays for a part-time secretary with benefits and that cost is up there as well. The full-time victim witness coordinator -- and that's loaded. Both the prosecutors and the victim witness coordinator, that's, of course, loaded with the benefits. We have got miscellaneous M&O, as Doreen mentioned, you know, things like mileage, things like parking, things like computers on desks, those kind of things. And, then, the indirects that we just talked about ad nauseam. Again, as I part, the total price for this year would be 240,480. We hope that works for you. I'll tell you from my experience -- and, again, I don't mean to borrow from my experience over here, but one of the things that this contract provides is the ability to really -- to really commit to prosecuting cases and when you have an organization like I have when I worked here for that firm, we, basically, had two prosecutors and to cover six courtrooms and, then, to have to go to trial on a case and not be in the office and have another person covering the five and not -- having that person not be able to be in the office, it's tough. It's tough to give these cases that are serious cases. You know, there are a lot of inattentive driving and speeding tickets, but there are also a lot of really hard cases, domestic violence cases, road rage cases, that deserve attention and they need to go to trial sometimes. And you can't have in the back of your mind as a prosecutor, I got to get back to the office and answer phone calls and return phone calls or I have got a full calendar tomorrow and I need to go back and prep the file. We don't have that. That person is committed to that courtroom that day. We have got enough resources that whatever happens, we have people we can put on those cases and it's -- they are experienced people, people that know -- that know what they are doing and so you get an office full of folks that have experience, not only in prosecution, but in dealing with police officers and with municipal law issues. In fact, I still speak with Bill Nary on probably a weekly basis about -- about the issues, code enforcement issues and code issues and it's a good relationship to have. But we'd encourage you to look hard at this proposal. We think it benefits both. Cary has the last word. Colaianni: Madam Mayor, Council Members, my chief deputy stole part of my closing and I will deal with him later about that, but I would like to talk to you one more time about why this is a win-win contract for both cities and add some -- add some flavor to it, if you will. First, obviously, we believe we are providing Meridian with a high and greater level of service than you were receiving previously and at a lower cost, I might add, even with the additions that we have to this year's contract. Second, because of our size -- and this is what the chief deputy stole from me, but I will put a little finer point on it, we are able to provide coverage for six and a half courtrooms and I can tell you that that's no small task, as Ted knows. Also, not to tell you about what storm clouds are on the horizon, but it's pretty clear to us at this point that the Ada County trial court administrator will be adding even more court settings, making it very difficult for a small or even medium size law firm to handle the caseload. Furthermore, we have the resources available to handle any spike in prosecution caseload or emergencies, with Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 12 of 30 14 attorneys at anyone time available to handle that case load , seven victim witness coordinators, and 11 civil attorney experts, if need be, to help with the issues. In closing, we are -- we are pleased with the relationship. I think it's a very valuable one for both cities and we hope to continue to provide these services to your citizens in the future and thank you for this opportunity, we very much appreciate it. De Weerd: Thank you. Council, do you have any questions? Bird: I have none. Rountree: Very good presentation. De Weerd: We appreciate you coming and introducing us to the faces that serve our city and we appreciate that. Chief, do you have anything you would like to add? Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the only thing I would add at this time and in conjunction with the presentation you have already received, is that the police department does have strong support for this contract and continuing the partnership that we have developed over time, because it has been an effective one and it remains an efficient one for us. In addition to the expansion of the victims witness coordinating position, another facet that we may want to keep in mind -- and I'm not sure if the Council or the Mayor is aware of it at this point -- we just recently received information that the Ada County Prosecutor's Office, whom we also use their services for the victim witness coordination program for felony cases, is significantly reducing the budget cuts, so that they are losing a number of victim witness coordinators that they have had over there in the past, which put a greater load on our representatives that we have had, helping us out half time. So, this would be a bit of a win-win situation to expand out to the full-time position for the victim witness coordinator as well. De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Again, thank you for joining us this evening. We appreciate the information. I'm sorry, Mr. Baird, did you have anything to add? Baird: No, ma'am. c. Park's Department - Doug Strong 1. Namina of Park Located in Champion Subdivision: De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Item 6-C, Park Department. Mr. Strong. Strong: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As you will recall, we have several parks yet to be named in Meridian and in our May Parks and Recreation Commission meeting we continued the process of attempting to name the remaining parks. We discussed a variety of ways to approach this, as we have in the past, with historical names and names that take on themes and so forth and what -- the difference between neighborhood parks should be and maybe larger community parks. So, we Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 13 of 30 are making progress towards naming the remaining parks that we have at least on our list right now. So, the park name proposal that I have before you tonight is our next recommendation that we bringing forward to the Council for Champion Neighborhood Park, which is the six acre park that will be developed in the Champion development. I think it was originally known as Parkstone development. After some discussion on this park name, some of the things that our commission members liked about it, it kind of was a similar theme to the recently named park Hero's Park, in that it kind of took on a sports connotation or a park connotation with the Champion park naming, so -- and, then, also along with our park naming policy, there is a significant contribution from the developer toward the development of this park as well. So, those are a couple of issues that led to this name. So, with that I bring it forward for your consideration and action tonight. De Weerd: Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. I would need a motion to accept the name. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move that we name the park out in Champion Subdivision, Champion Subdivision Park. Rountree: Champion Neighborhood. Bird: What? Rountree: Champion Neighborhood Park. Bird: Champion Neighborhood Park. I'm sorry. Rountree: I will second that. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve the recommendation from our parks department and commission. Any discussion? Hearing none -- do we want roll call? Bird: No. De Weerd: Okay. All those in favor say aye. Anyopposed? All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 7: Items Moved from Consent Agenda: Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 14 of 30 De Weerd: Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. Item 8: Tabled from May 17, 2005: FP 05-031 Request for Final Plat of 98 single-family residential building lots and 26 common area lots on 19 acres for Hacienda Subdivision by Doug Jayo - south of Chinden Boulevard and east of North Meridian Road: De Weerd: So, Item No.8 is FP 05-031. I will open with staff comments. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this final plat is in substantial compliance with the approved preliminary plat and I do have a letter from the applicant stating that they are in agreement with the conditions of approval. De Weerd: Okay. Do I have a motion to approve? Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Wardle. Wardle: I move that we approve Item No.8, FP 05-031. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve Item 8. Mrs. Green, will you, please, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 9: RP 05-002 Request for a parcel boundary adjustment to create one (1) 48.14 acre parcel and one (1) 13.49 acre parcel in an approved C-G zone for Ten Mile Development by Elixir Industries, Inc. - 725 North Eagle Road and 3001 East Commercial Court: De Weerd: Thank you. Item 9 is RP 05-002. I will open with comments from our planning department. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is a request for a reduction in platting requirements. It's on the Ten Mile Development property. It is the southwest corner of Eagle and Pine. The proposal is just to split the parcel for a transfer of ownership. They don't intend to pull a building permit until a final plat has been submitted on the property. So, it's a simple transfer of ownership question and this is the proposed parcel. So, it would just basically go -- this is the new parcel line. Staff is Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 15 of 30 recommending approval. To our knowledge there are no outstanding issues before Council. We were not able to get a letter from all the parties involved. I have an e-mail stating that Kelly at Hanson-Rice does not object to the conditions of approval and -- but I think we need to hear from Glen Walker tonight, I believe, is at this hearing. We have a statement from Doug -- Douglas Bergy saying he's in agreement with the conditions of approval. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Anna. Any questions for staff? Bird: I have none. Rountree: None. De Weerd: Please state your name and address. Walker: Glen Walker, 12490 West Stillwater. Madam Mayor, City Council, I'm representing Ten Mile Development and we have read the staff report and fully agree to the staff's recommendation on this and we have no issues -- Ten Mile Development has no issues and I represent Ten Mile Development. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you very much. Walker: Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. Council? Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I move that we approve Item No.9, subject to staff recommendations. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is approve Item 9. Mrs. Green? Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 10: Public Hearing: RZ 05-004 Request for a Rezone of 2 acres from I-L to C-G zone for Jackson's Food Store by Jacksons Food Store, Inc. - southeast corner of North Eagle Road and East Pine Avenue: Item 11: Public Hearing: CUP 05-012 Request for a Conditional Use Permit to allow the operation of a new carwash and convenience store in a Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 16 of 30 proposed C-G zone for Jackson's Food Store by Jacksons Food Store, Inc. - southeast corner of North Eagle Road and East Pine Avenue: De Weerd: Okay. Item 10 is a Public Hearing for RZ 05-004. I will open this Public Hearing with staff comments. Baird: Madam Mayor, I would also point out that we have Item 11 associated with this. It might be a good opportunity to open both hearings. De Weerd: Well, thank you, Mr. Baird. Baird: That's why I'm here. De Weerd: It looks like our planner has recused herself or excused herself. Watson: Yes. Madam Mayor, Councilmembers, due to a potential conflict in interest, the planning director has asked me to present this tonight. The two applications include a rezone of two acres from I-L to C-G and a conditional use to allow the operation of a new car wash and convenience store on this site. The total square footage on the site - - I guess I could -- on this particular site is 5,900 square feet. There would be two commercial buildings. It's located at the southeast corner of Pine Avenue and Eagle Road. There we go. That shows more than either of those other two. The food store would be 3,500 square feet, with a 2,400 square foot car wash, two fueling station canopies. This site was granted a reduction in platting requirement by Council on January 4th of this year. The notable conditions included both parcel one, which is this site, and the parcel two would be a future subdivision. The Planning and Zoning Department does have that subdivision application in their office now, which includes both properties. The other notable condition was the cross-access easements would be required to the east parcel. I'll back up one. Shown here is the site plan or landscape plan, with north being to the top of the page. The store would be somewhat in the center of the lot, with the car wash on the east side of the lot. And evidently this is the elevations provided. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval with conditions. No one testified in opposition to the project. The key issue of discussion at the Commission meeting was access to Eagle Road and Pine. No access is allowed to or from Eagle Road, which was supported by a letter from lTD. There are no other outstanding issues for Council and I will stand for any questions. De Weerd: Council, do you have any questions? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. Would the applicant like to comment? If you will, please, state your name and address. Benning: I'm Dale Benning, Architect for Jackson's, and my address is 1590 Shenandoah Drive in Boise. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 17 of 30 De Weerd: Thank you. Benning: Madam Mayor and Councilmembers, I would like to answer any questions that you might have about our application. De Weerd: Okay. Just to note for the record, Councilmen Rountree has recused himself on this item. Any questions for the applicant, Council? Bird: I have none, Mayor. De Weerd: Okay. We have no questions. Thank you very much. Also signed up for was Jack Davis. Mr. Davis, do you have any testimony? Okay. Okay. Is there anyone who would like to provide testimony on this application? Okay. Hearing none -- Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: Hearing none and no questions, I move that we close RZ 05-004 and CUP 05- 012. Wardle: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to close the public hearings on Items 10 and 11. All those in favor say aye. Okay. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: TWO AYES. ONE ABSTAIN. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Any discussion or further information needed from staff? Bird: I have none. Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Wardle. Wardle: I move that we approve Item No.1 0, RZ 05-004, rezone for Jackson's Food Stores. Bird: Would that include the Findings also? Wardle: And to include the Findings of Facts. Bird: Second it. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 18 of 30 De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve Item 10. If there is no further discussion, Mrs. Green, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, abstain; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: TWO AYES. ONE ABSTAIN. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Thank you. Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Wardle. Wardle: I move that we approve Item No. 11, CUP 05-012, conditional use for Jackson's Food Store and to include the Findings. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. Item 11, motion to approve. Mrs. Green, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, abstain; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: TWO AYES. ONE ABSTAIN. ONE ABSENT. Item 12: Public Hearing: AZ 05-011 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 6.26 acres from RUT to R-8 zone for Lyndhurst Grove Subdivision by Highland Development, LLC - 2820 West Pine Avenue: Item 13: Public Hearing: PP 05-013 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 36 building lots and 5 common lots on 6.26 acres in a proposed R-8 zone for Lyndhurst Grove Subdivision by Highland Development, LLC - 2820 West Pine Avenue: Item 14: Public Hearing: CUP 05-015 Request for a Conditional Use Permit for a Planned Development for single-family detached residential units and single-family attached residential units in a proposed R-8 zone for Lyndhurst Grove Subdivision by Highland Development, LLC - 2820 West Pine Avenue: De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Items 12,13, and 14 are AZ 05-011, PP 05-013, and CUP 05-015. I will open Items 12,13, and 14 for public hearings with staff comments. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is Lyndhurst Grove project and it's on the north side of Pine Street, approximately 825 feet east of Ten Mile Road. It is an application for annexation and zoning, preliminary plat, and Conditional Use Permit for a planned development. There are 36 building lots and five common lots on 6.26 Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 19 of 30 acres in a proposed R-8 zone. Twelve of the 36 lots will be single-family attached dwellings. The remaining 24 are detached single-family dwellings and the existing home, that will be relocated to Lot 14, Block 2. The PO is requested to allow a 4,500 square foot lot for the detached units. Normally in the R-8 they are -- 6,500 square feet would be required. And, then, the -- to allow 3,600 square foot lots for the attached units and normally 4,000 square feet would be required. Thirty-three of the 36 lots are below the minimum required by the zone, so -- minimum required by the R-8. The PD is also requested to allow 50 feet of street frontage, instead of the 65 required by the R-8 zone. And, then, 18 of the 36 lots are below the 65-foot required by the zone. The planned development amenities include playground equipment and a picnic table, including tables and a barbecue on 2.6 -- or on Lot 21, Block 2, and the open space represents six percent of the gross area. The gross residential density is 5.75 and that is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan land use designation of medium density residential. We do have a few elevations. This is the landscape plan. There are some of the detached units. And, I'm sorry, the quality of this one didn't come through too well, but these are some of the attached units. The P&Z has recommended approval with conditions. At the hearing no one spoke in opposition to the proposal. Barbara Wallace provided comments regarding fencing and dust abatement. The key issues of discussion were Sanitary Sewer Service and, basically, the site would be temporarily sending sewer down to a lift station associated with Ten Mile -- the Courtyards At Ten Mile and, then, as gravity lines are available, they would connect to those gravity lines. The Commission changed one condition of approval from staff's initial recommendation and that was to require the applicant reconstruct the existing foot-bridge across the Eight Mile Lateral. In your summary notes provided with the Findings, staff noted that they had not yet received a revised landscape plan. We did receive that yesterday. It does depict the required micro-path and you can see it here. And although the landscape buffer on Pine still seems to be a couple feet short, but the conditions of approval are clear that it needs to be 25 feet. So, no changes are needed to the Findings. Those are the only outstanding issues that staff is aware of. De Weerd: Okay. Is that all? Council, any questions? Bird: I have none, Mayor. De Weerd: Okay. Would the applicant like to come forward? Amar: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Councilmembers. For the record, Kevin Amar, address 36 East Pine in Meridian. I'll try to make this brief. This is for Lyndhurst Grove Subdivision. This project is -- we are transitioning on one side from four-plexes to the other side, which is an R-4 residential lot subdivision. What we have done with this project is on the west is where the four-plexes are and on the east is where the R-4 subdivision is. So, in this area we have attached units and, then, we have detached units in this area. This will be where the new and existing -- or the existing house will be newly located on that lot. We are going to move it onto that lot. We did hold a neighborhood meeting. One thing that we spoke with -- this neighbor here, his question was the minimum home size and we told him these would be a minimum of 1,400 Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 20 of 30 square feet, just as his subdivision was required, the balance will be as required in the R-8 zone. The pedestrian bridge, we do have that shown now. Because of subdivisions around it, this connection was not required by ACHD and was supported by your staff to not require a road connection, but you do want to provide interconnectivity and we will provide that with this micro-path and, then, the bridge that's there, reconstruct it for -- to be able to have access -- pedestrian access. So, it -- it is going to enhance the overall interconnectivity between the area. We also understand that this needs to be 25 feet and that's certainly something we are in agreement with. All other conditions we agree with and will stand for any questions. De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Amar: Thank you. De Weerd: Is there anyone who would like to provide testimony on this application? Okay. I have a very passive audience tonight. Council? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: Hearing no more-- De Weerd: Please speak into your mike. Bird: I'm sorry. Hearing no more testimony, I move we close Item 12, 13, and 14. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to close the public hearings on 12, 13 and 14. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Discussion? Further information needed? Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Wardle. Wardle: Anna, just a clarification. Since it was a condition in the Findings and we do have a revised landscape plan, we adopt the Findings as well? Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 21 of 30 Canning: Yes. Wardle: Okay. Madam Mayor, with that I move that we approve Item No. 12, AZ 05- 011, annexation and zoning for Lyndhurst Grove Subdivision. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve Item 12. Mrs. Green, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Okay. Item 13. Wardle: Madam Mayor, I move that we approve Item 13, PP 05-013, preliminary plat for Lyndhurst Grove Subdivision and for clarification to approve the Findings as well. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve 13. Mrs. Green, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Wardle: Madam Mayor, I move that we approve Item No. 14, CUP 05-015, Conditional Use Permit for Lyndhurst Grove Subdivision and to approve the Findings as well. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve Item 14. Roll call vote, please. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 15: Public Hearing: MI 05-004 Request for a Miscellaneous application to modify a condition in the Development Agreement for Sommersbv Subdivision by Confluence Management, LLC - NEC of Ten Mile Road and Pine Avenue: De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Item 15 is Public Hearing for MI 05-004. I will open this Public Hearing with staff comments. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 22 of 30 Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is our last planning away on Pine Street here. I don't know if you've noticed the theme for tonight, but this is Sommersby Subdivision. It's the northeast corner of Ten Mile and Pine and this is a miscellaneous application to modify the existing development agreement. As you may recall, this is the second request to modify the development agreement. The first one was approved by Council, but there was a condition in there regarding the number of units that could be constructed that the applicant was not in favor of. So, they are still, presumably, in favor of all but, as I said, one of those conditions that was granted through the first MI application. And that first one did only allow 41 building units and that was nine town homes and eight four-plexes, until the capacity improvements were made to Ten Mile and Pine in 2007. I do have the Sommersby plat here for your reference. The applicant requested mediation sessions and the developer attended that, along with his representative the city attorney and, then, the planning staff was Mr. Brad Hawkins-Clark. The applicant expressed that they felt the limits on the number of units, the 41 dwelling units, would render the project economically unviable. The applicant also believes that that number was adopted with some ambiguity and with minimal input from the developer. What they are proposing is to increase the allowable number of dwelling units to 109, still require some phasing, that's not the whole project, they would be leaving out eight office buildings and 32 dwelling units, which is four eight-plexes. And those units would only be issued certificates of zoning compliance after the improvements are done at Ten Mile and Pine. Staff feels that this is a reasonable compromise. They are recommending approval of the request to amend the development agreement, but replacing the existing condition limiting the number of dwelling units with the condition outlined on page four of the staff report and that reads: The eight office buildings located on Lots 33 through 40 and four eight-plex buildings located on Lots 43 through 50, shall not receive a certificate of zoning compliance until the North Ten Mile Road widening projects and the Ten Mile slash Pine Avenue intersection project are complete and operational. Just to point out if the Council chooses to grant this request, there are no findings or conditions of approval, it was solely a request to amend the existing development agreement. I also wanted to point out that there are three letters that should have or will be making their way to Council. The first is from Irma Atkinson and I believe this one was in your -- your pamphlet. She outlines concerns with traffic on Ten Mile and Pine and specifically references the letter from Mr. Greg Embrey of Spinks, Butler and Clapp. The second letter is from DTE Development. That's Doug Campbell and the developers of Courtyards At Ten Mile and that's in support of the project. And also in support of the project is a letter from Ronald Baker and this is the one that you may not have received, unless it was just very recently. He is the Haven Cove homeowners' association president, although it looks like the letter is written on behalf of himself and not on behalf of the homeowners association. He doesn't indicate that it's a decision of the association. And he was in favor of the project. So, with that I will answer any questions you may have. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Council, any questions? Yes, Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 23 of 30 Bird: We don't have the one from Doug Campbell. Canning: Okay. I'll hand one to the clerk right now. I can read it to you. It's rather short, if you'd like. Bird: I'd go for that. Canning: It says: Dear Mayor and Members of the Meridian City Council: On behalf of DTE Development, we welcome and support an additional project in the area of our Courtyards project on West Pine in Meridian. We have reviewed the proposed plat and the various improvements and offer our support for this project. We understand that the developer is seeking to phase the project, holding back on the commercial office space fronting Ten Mile and we certainly support such measures. Sommersby will be attaching to the irrigation system and sewer lift station and the developer has already agreed to assist with the expenses of these improvements. By allowing controlled growth at this intersection, with the off-site improvements, you will be allowing a quality development to move forward as proposed. Thank you for your consideration and attention to this matter. Sincerely, Doug Campbell. De Weerd: Council, since we don't have a copy of the other letter -- oh, you do. Rountree: We do. Bird: Yes, we do. De Weerd: Do you have any other further questions? Bird: I would like to -- on that letter from Mr. Baker, he stated that since Timberline High School was constructed, I think he meant Mountain View High School. Timberline is in Boise and I don't think it has anything to do with Pine and Ten Mile. De Weerd: Any other questions for staff or comments? Okay. Would the applicant like to comment? Embrey: Thank you, Madam Mayor and City Council. Greg Embrey, 251 East Front Street. Briefly I'd like to go through the procedural background of this matter, how we got here, and, then, the project engineer, Becky McKay, would like to share some more detailed rationale on -- in support of the requested amendment. We are -- in Mrs. Canning's statement with respect to -- we are asking for only a modification of the one provision of the development agreement is exactly right. Everything else in it I think is just fine. The one condition that limited us to occupying nine single family dwelling units and eight multi-family dwelling units originally, that bottom line just makes it impossible financially for us to proceed with this development, in that we can't occupy the majority of the property and the development until the North Ten Mile and the intersection improvements are complete. So, on February 3rd we did request mediation. We met with Bill Nary on one occasion immediately after that and on February 24th mediated Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 24 of 30 with Mr. Nary and the planning staff. The result of that mediation was to propose a modification to the problematic condition and that proposal was to limit us -- to allow us to occupy the project, except for the eight office buildings and four eight-plex buildings in the southeast corner of the property. Staff has since considered that and instead of tying that provision to occupancy, we'd like to tie it to certificates of zoning compliance, which would mean that we could not obtain building permits until that time and we are in support of that provision. So, briefly, that's the history of how we got here and if there aren't any questions, Becky would like to talk about the engineering rationale for the request. De Weerd: Any questions at this point? Bird: I have none, Mayor. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. McKay: Becky McKay, Engineering Solutions, 150 East Aikens, Suite B, Eagle. Appreciate you taking the time to allow us to come before you. When the project was approved -- or prior to the project being approved, when Brad first sent the staff report, he had indicated that -- that he had written a paragraph recommending that there be some type of phasing or restriction on the number of units that would come on line prior to the permanent improvements out here at the Pine and Ten Mile intersection. He said that, you know, I have written kind of food for thought to the Council to discuss and, then, it would, obviously, be up to them to make the determination on the number of units that would be appropriate prior to the ACHD improvements. There was so many -- you know, so many things that we went through at the hearing and with the restricted amount of time for presentation and I think, you know, getting late, the Council made the motion and, then, just adopted staff's recommendations, but, really, it wasn't a recommendation and in my -- my letter for the miscellaneous application that's what I stated. You know, it really wasn't a recommendation, it was stated, you know, there are different options. And so I had submitted a letter asking for clarification and it was like Monday was a holiday and, then, the Council meeting was Tuesday and I don't know if it didn't get in the packet or whatever, but the Findings were adopted and it was too late to, obviously, retrace our steps. So, this was our only option to come before you as a miscellaneous application. We have read the staff's recommendation for our miscellaneous application. We are in total agreement. I stated in my application that, you know, it is our intent -- we agree that this project should be phased, that there should be some restrictions on it as far as the number of units that can come on line until these permanent improvements take place. We just wanted to make sure that the Council was aware that when we phase projects we have got to have it so that it's a viable project. Obviously, with a multi-family project, we have got to have two points of ingress and egress. When it was thrown out for food for thought that the townhomes there at the north end and two four-plexes or eight units could come on line, I mean that's not even practical. You know, I'm going to have to build -- we'd have to build and design the loop to meet the fire department requirements, obviously, get utilities in and my client, in discussions with his bankers, you know, that no one is going to provide him Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 25 of 30 with any financing when it was such a restrictive condition. After the hearing we found out that the Courtyards At Ten Mile are putting in a couple of turn lanes that will be adding some capacity to that intersection. I also found out that the plans are 99 percent complete for the improvements out there at the intersection, that ACHD -- that they had allocated money for this 2005 calendar year, 750,000 dollars, for right of way acquisition. They'll do some additional right of way acquisition in 2006. They will be piping ditches in the fall of 2006 and, then, they will be constructing this in 2007. And they said that their intent is to be finished before school starts, so that this is all done. It is in the five-year plan. It's in the three year front end of that five year plan, but staff felt confident that there is not going to be any jockeying of priorities as far as the improvements out here. One of the things that was real important to us was the fact that we had -- if you recall, we had one person here speaking in opposition to us. We had worked diligently with our neighbors and they had said time and time again, you know, Valerie Heights was too much too soon. That was seven years ago. They were three story. There was no plan for any improvements out here as far as the arterials are concerned and there was no Mountain View High School and they have noticed a very definite change in traffic patterns in this area since Mountain View High School has opened up and I submitted as part of my application -- it should be in your packet -- the new school boundary maps and, as you can see, when everyone had to go to Meridian High School, you had a big dog leg running way south and so there was a lot of Ten Mile traffic that went north on Ten Mile and, then, obviously, East on Pine. Now Meridian High School, their boundary is an east-west type fashion, so you're not seeing the north-south bound traffic on Ten Mile that you had seen in the past and we noticed in the traffic counts, comparing 2000 to 2004 on Pine, that there had been a reduction, which is really -- I mean unusual. I don't know of any of the arterials around Meridian that in the past four years we have seen reductions in traffic. So, therefore, that led us and our traffic engineers to believe and assume that -- that there has been a change in this area in traffic pattern. The neighbors indicated that they are getting the cut-through traffic through their subdivision. As Anna indicated, we have a letter here from the Haven Cove homeowners association president. He states in this: After reviewing this project with members of my subdivision, he does reference: I come to the conclusion, but the neighborhoods have been supportive of this project from day one. They indicate in our letter that they would like to see this go in prior to, you know, the ACHD improvements, so that the construction doesn't go on and on and on. Obviously, it disrupts neighborhoods when we do have considerable construction and when we have got ACHD having construction and, then, we come in right behind them, it just adds to the frustration of the neighbors. One of the other things we wanted to mention was time lines. When we look at time lines to bring these projects to fruition, it takes an immense amount of time. We do not anticipate until probably the end of this year having construction plans that are approved and getting underway. The earliest we could see with probably building permits, maybe probably January, that was one of our guesses, 2006. My client indicated he could only build five of these units at a time. They take approximately five months. And so if he builds five units at a time and, then, allocated two months for occupying each of the units, in March of 2007 we estimated -- and that was best case -- if he were able to rent all of them and five months banging out five per -- five months period, he'd add 608 trips in March of 2007. So, we felt that the added Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 26 of 30 traffic was very incremental and what we have asked the Council is just to allow us to build that loop up there and have the hundred unit come on that would be four-plexes and, then, the neighbors have requested that we put the townhomes in up front in the very beginning, because that would finish off their cul-de-sac. They do not have a turnaround at this time up there on the north and, then, we would build that leg there and put a cul-de-sac there. We have worked so hard on this project to come up with something that was palatable to the neighbors, palatable to the staff, that the Council could support in good conscience and all we are asking this evening is just a minor modification to that development agreement that would allow us to at least move forward to get this thing off the dime and start phasing it in with something that is reasonable. I'm convinced -- I have never had any restrictions that made it so a project wasn't viable until now. This is the first time I have every had that happen. So, I'll answer any questions that the Council may have. De Weerd: Council? Rountree: None. De Weerd: No. McKay: Thank you. De Weerd: Is there any further testimony on this application? Canning: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Canning: Since Mrs. Atkinson was not able to be here tonight, I would like to summarize her letter, if that's okay. De Weerd: Sure. Canning: She was at the first hearing. The first item she points out is the addition of two turn lanes at the Courtyards at the southeast corner of North Ten Mile and West Pine and Brad did call ACHD to verify and those have been approved. Those will be constructed. So, we do anticipate those before any building permits are probably released on this property. The second issue she points out is that those traffic numbers that were referenced earlier, there is a decrease of the traffic on Pine by 165 vehicle trips per day. However, there is an increase on Ten Mile of 2,249 trips per day. So, to say that traffic has decreased at the intersection, she felt was -- was a bit misleading. The third issue takes -- she talks third -- the third item she takes issue with is the -- in the letter by Mr. Embrey on behalf of the management he states that traffic concerns were not discussed during the public hearing on January 4th, except for the comments of neighbors that traffic had improved in this area. She did want to point out that she testified at that meeting and submitted a letter in which she describes ongoing traffic Meridian City Council May 24. 2005 Page 27 of 30 concerns at this corner. The fourth items she note is that traffic in the letter from Mr. Embrey -- again, traffic -- everybody in Sommersby Subdivision, North Ten Mile Road, will travel primarily north and avoid the intersection. She feels that this is not really realistic, that anyone headed to the interstate will go south and anyone headed for Nampa will go south as well. So, then, I'm going to read those items in her conclusion. She says it is in my opinion that the traffic concerns in this neighborhood are no different than they were five months ago when you established the phasing requirements on this project. I do not hear the developers of Sommersby offering to make on-site or off-site improvements to address traffic concerns. I hear, yet again, the developer requesting special treatment to push a project to completion without waiting for the infrastructure to be built and without offering to contribute anything to our community. De Weerd: Thank you. Is there -- since we always allow the applicant to have the last word, was there any further comment? McKay: I will just be brief. I read her comment as far as the traffic going south. The traffic patterns that we see when we are -- when our traffic engineers are doing analysis, show that traffic goes east and north, because everybody is going toward Meridian or toward Boise to work. If someone were going south -- why would you go south? There is no Ten Mile interchange. Ifthere was a Ten Mile interchange there, I could see the traffic patterns changing and going to the south. So that -- De Weerd: I couldn't tell you why. Because I do it all the time. McKay: Do you? De Weerd: I do. And I sit in line for-- McKay: Hours. De Weerd: -- hours at a four way stop sign. I thought I would clarify -- McKay: I'm looking at Bruce's suggestion. He's writing it down. You know, the other thing -- you know, we have worked with the Courtyards At Ten Mile, you know, my client has been working with Doug and his group and he's indicated, you know, we would do what we could to improve this intersection, add some capacity. I did go down and talk to ACHD about what options there were as far as temporary improvements. Their comments to me is, you know, since we are going to be coming in there in such a short period of time, we would be reluctant to approve anything other than these turn lanes, as far as say temporary lights or anything like that. It is always problematic if we sit back and allow a major roadway project to go in and, then, we come behind it. That's probably the worst thing that we can do as far as getting our infrastructure and we typically like to be ahead of any of those projects. We will be building the sidewalk. Obviously, we will detach it on a separate lot and so, you know, we feel we are doing what is within our power to help with the traffic flows out there. We have provided two Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 28 of 30 access points. An internal loop. We have done as much as we possibly can. Also, these impact fee dollars will be going to ACHD. So, hopefully, those dollars can be utilized on some the improvements in this area. I don't know what else to say. But it is a matter of whether the project is viable or is not viable and if we can't get any relief and allow us to bring on at least one reasonable phase, I don't know what else to do. I'm stumped. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Council? Rountree: Madam Mayor, if there is no further comments, I move that we close the Public Hearing for Item 15. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to close the Public Hearing on Item 15. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Any discussion or further information needed from staff? If there is no discussion, do I have a motion? Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Just an intro before my motion, but the way I read the record, that the original point in time it was all the iterations of this development and ACHD has indicated that there is capacity to handle this development. They also have a project on line to improve Ten Mile and Pine. My history goes back some eight years on this project and it was one of the last ones as a City Council person that I think I heard before I left and now it comes back yet again in another iteration. The problems on Ten Mile -- or the problems on Pine are not the result of this or any other single development in that area, but certainly the ongoing development and issues that we face throughout the city. Having said that, I would move that we approve the request for Item No. 15, based on the recommendations of the city staff. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve Item 15. Is there any discussion? Mrs. Green, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Donnell, absent. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 29 of 30 De Weerd: Thank you. Council, real quick, I -- Peggy did register those that had not registered already for AIC conference. We are going to pay the additional cost, so Chief Musser, Chief Anderson, Mr. Watson she had already registered and Councilman Bird. So, we have also registered, I believe, Mr. Berg, Mr. Nary, and Mr. Strong, so they are taken care of. Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Wardle. Wardle: Just a question. Do we need to make our own hotel arrangements for that? De Weerd: No. She has reserved rooms-- Wardle: Thank you. De Weerd: -- as well. And I -- we did have a ribbon cutting at Hargus Buffet on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. that I have a prior commitment. Council, would any of you be able to attend that ribbon cutting? Bird: Mr. Wardle. Wardle: What day was it? De Weerd: Thursday at 10:00. Wardle: This Thursday? De Weerd: Okay. I will give you this, because you can call Mr. Smith and let him know. Wardle: I'm unavailable. De Weerd: Oh, unavailable. Wardle: Sorry. Bird: We have also got -- we have also got tomorrow. De Weerd: The firehouse ribbon cutting is tomorrow. Bird: I can't cover it. I can't cover it Thursday; I got a dentist appointment I think. No. Wait a minute. Thursday-- De Weerd: If you will just call and let us know. Bird: Unless Charlie can't make it. Meridian City Council May 24, 2005 Page 30 of 30 Rountree: Well, I'm looking. I don't think I can. I can't get my calendar to work. De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Bird, if you will let me know, I'd appreciate it. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Rountree: So moved. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. All those in favor say aye. I believe Mr. Bird said aye, too? Bird: I said aye. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:31 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ~ / Z{ / {}~ DATE APPROVED