HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-06-16 Regular Meridian City Council June 16, 2020.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:03 p.m., Tuesday, June
16, 2020, by Mayor Robert Simison.
Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Treg Bernt, Jessica
Perreault, Brad Hoaglun and Liz Strader.
Also present: Chris Johnson, Adrienne Weatherly, Bill Nary, Joe Dodson, Jamie Leslie
and Joe Bongiorno.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Liz Strader X Joe Borton
X Brad Hoaglun _X_Treg Bernt
X Jessica Perreault _X Luke Cavener
_X_ Mayor Robert E. Simison
Simison: For the record it is Tuesday, June 16th, 2020, at 6:03. 1 will call this meeting to
order with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
Simison: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation with Mark Bryan of Harvest Church
Simison: Item No. 3 is our community invocation. I do not see Pastor Bryan here.
Item 4: Adoption of Agenda
Simison: So, we will move on to Item 4, adoption of the agenda.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we adopt the agenda as published.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Second the motion.
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Simison: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. Is there any
discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Those opposed
nay. The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Item 5: Future Meeting Topics - Public Forum (Up to 30 Minutes Maximum)
Simison: Item No. 5 is future meeting topics. Do we have anybody signed up for future
meeting topics?
Johnson: Mr. Mayor, there was nobody in advance online, but we did not have the iPads
in the back, so I'm not sure if anyone here is for that topic.
Simison: Okay. Is there anybody here who was wishing to speak during future meeting
topics?
Item 6: Action Items
A. Public Hearing for COMPASS Charter School East Expansion
(H-2020-0042) by Bouma USA, Located at 4540 W. Franklin Rd.
1. Request: Annexation of 5.15 acres of land from RUT in Ada
County to the R-15 zoning district to develop the property with
additional parking and recreational fields for an existing
Education Institution; and,
2. Request: A Modification to the Existing Development
Agreement (Inst. 2018-079763) to incorporate the subject
property and revise the concept plan based on the proposed
expansion of the Education Institution.
Simison: All right. Seeing none, we will move on to Item 6-A, action item, a public hearing
for COMPASS Charter School East Expansion, H-2020-0042. I will open this public
hearing with staff comments and turn this over to Joe.
Dodson: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Appreciate it. Good evening. The application before
you is a request for annexation and zoning, with a zoning designation of R-15. The
proposed use is an education institution because it will be an extension of the COMPASS
Charter School directly to the west of the subject site. An education institution is a
principally permitted use in the R-15 zoning district. A parking lot for an additional 88
spaces -- sorry. A parking lot for additional parking and a sports field for the students are
the only development proposed with this annexation. The parking lot, an additional 88
spaces, is a requirement of the recently approved classroom expansion at the existing
school site. A condition of approval in the approved CZC and design review for that
building expansion hinges on this annexation and the future parking lot. Currently the
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existing DA shows additional parking and a conceptual sports field on the parcel directly
to the north of this site and across West Aviator. Since the original annexation and
development of the COMPASS Charter School the applicant's desired location for the
additional parking and sports field has changed. Citing potential safety issues of children
and staff crossing West Aviator and the cost of installing a signal from that northern parcel
to the main site, the applicant has decided to move these development items to the
subject site. Because this concept plan is not in line with the approved plan within the
existing DA, a modification of the DA is required. Staff believes that this new concept
plan will offer better integration with the sports field into the existing school site and help
eliminate the need of children to cross the street from the parking area to get to school
after parent drop off and pick up. A proposed use of education institution requires a 25
foot land use buffer adjacent to residential uses. The submitted landscape plan shows
compliance with this requirement along its eastern boundary, except for the area directly
abutting the proposed parking lot. In order to fit the required number of spaces in this
area, the dimensions of the parking area push into the 25 foot buffer. Because of this the
applicant is requesting a modification to the buffer by City Council only for this area
abutting the parking lot. Staff supports this request as the submitted landscape plan
shows a landscape buffer of at least 15 feet with landscaping. If this were to be labeled
as only a parking lot, instead of an educational institution, UDC standards only require a
five foot landscape buffer. The applicant's landscape plan shows extensive landscaping
and a six foot vinyl fence along the eastern property boundary of the site, including that
area along the parking lot. Staff finds the proposed landscaping to be greater than or
equal to the required 25 foot buffer. The neighbors to the east have also shown support
of the proposed landscape buffer along their shared property line. In the Planning and
Zoning Commission a month or so ago key issue of discussion was --was the applicant's
request to modify a condition within the staff report-- the DA provision, actually, regarding
the future access to Franklin Road if the subject site were to ever be subdivided and the
other-- the other topic was applicability of a condition of approval to construct a full street
section for the extension of West Aviator. Commission decided to recommend the staff
to change the DA provision to reflect relaxed language regarding that access to Franklin
Road and determine that the city did have the -- or I should say the DA provision of the
--of extending West Aviator was correct and we have the purview to request that, because
they own the property on both sides of the street. And with that I will close for questions.
Simison: Thank you, Joe. Council, any questions? Okay. Appreciate it very much.
Understand that we have the applicant who is remote. Mr. Hadlock, is he unmuted and
ready to provide testimony?
Johnson: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Hadlock and Mr. Bierlein are both here.
Simison: Okay. Chris, just for the -- are you timing or do I need to be timing still?
Johnson: I can time. Thank you, sir.
Simison: Okay. Mr. Hadlock, if you could state your name and address for the record
and you will be recognized for 15 minutes.
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Hadlock: Yeah. My name is Bill Hadlock, I'm the engineer of record for the project. My
address is 14624 South 23rd Street, Phoenix, Arizona, and, gosh, I don't have a whole
lot to say, other than working with Joe on this project and we understand that the -- the
reason that we have to do the full width extension across the Aviator Drive there, which
was one of the changes he had mentioned and the staff has been -- worked with us very
well on the closing of the drive on Franklin, so we don't really have any--anything to bring
forward. But the -- as far as the conditions that are put on the approval and the report
talks about, the only comment I want to bring up is that there is a left -- one thing that
wasn't mentioned -- I believe this will be flushed out during development agreements that
we work with Joe and staff on is that there is currently in that development agreement
when we get the first project we have had about three or four parts of that that we were
annexing in and one of those things is the development agreement talked about was the
need to basically find all those lots, which we did. That provision is still sitting there and,
then, when we actually get approval on this parcel and revise that development
agreement, the provision needs to come out of -- out of the development agreement
because of the -- the R-15 zoning to the existing M-E. So, I know it's just a leftover
formality and I know I have talked with Joe about that it was something that was -- just
happened, but other than that that's the only comment that I have on the -- on the report.
So, if there is any questions I will -- that's pretty much what I had to present.
Simison: Well, thank you, Mr. Hadlock. Council, any questions for the applicant?
Cavener: I have none.
Perreault: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Perreault.
Perreault: Mr. Hadlock, I'm having a bit of a hard time hearing you, so I don't know if you
addressed this or not, but I'm curious if you have had any conversations with ACHD about
whether you could actually get access for that southern piece, because it's -- I think my
understanding is is that that's going to be their decision and not the city's decision.
Hadlock: Yeah. Sorry about that, that you can't hear me. That is correct. We will work
through ACHD on that. We realize the intent of this does not allow access onto the full
parcel, it fullest use. The only reason we had talked about rewording that was just to
block access and didn't want to restrict the potential for future development of that other
piece if we were able to be successful in splitting that off and selling that in the future and
it really came down to a timing issue, that we realized that if everything was developing
at the same time that Franklin access would not be allowed, because the idea is the
drawing that's showing up on -- at least on my screen right now shows to be coming on
the south side the parcel and minimizing the drive cuts on Franklin and we realize that
and that would be the intention of-- of that development agreement when and if that were
to happen. But it -- again, it was just a timing issue that the client did not want to, you
know, risk the development opportunity to be there should the other parcels in between
not allow the cross-access. So, I guess to answer your question long winded, we got --
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we understand that we have to work through that with ACHD. We have been talking to
Mindy there and I think it's more of a thing that we have to deal with down the road if and
when we -- we split off that south parcel, acre, acre and a half, if that makes sense.
Simison: Thank you.
Hadlock: Did you hear me better there? Sorry, I don't know if--
Simison: Council, any further questions at this time? All right. This is a public hearing.
Did we have anyone that signed up to testify on this application?
Johnson: Mr. Mayor, there were no advance sign-ups.
Simison: Okay. If there is anybody that is present that would like to come forward and
testify on this application, please, do so at this time and state your name and address for
the record and you will be recognized for up to three minutes or if you are online remote
and wish to -- wish to testify, you can use the raise your hand feature at the bottom of
your screen and our clerk will bring you in to allow you to testify as well. Just pull it up
closer to your mouth.
Varin: There we go. I can do that. Thanks. My name is Norm Varin. I live at 2818 West
Torana Drive in Meridian. I am the board chair for COMPASS and a parent and I'm just
delighted to be here and support the process and we are excited to be able to get this
into place. It's been a long process of putting a lot of different parcels together, but we
think this is the best plan for the school going forward, so we are very excited about this
and I just wanted to express our support for it. So, thank you.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Perreault: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Perreault.
Perreault: I'm not sure if you can answer this or if I should ask Mr. Hadlock, but it's my
understanding from the narrative that there is going to also be a soccer field in this area
south of the parking lot; is that right?
Varin: Mayor and Council Woman, we are intending to make that a play field of some
sort. We are not sure we can put a legitimate soccer field completely on there, but that's
our intent is to make it a play field for the students that are there.
Perreault: Okay. Thank you.
Simison: Council, any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Is there anyone
online that would also like to testify on the application? Okay. If not, we will turn this back
over to the applicant for any final remarks. Mr. Hadlock.
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Hadlock: I have nothing further. Thank you for your time.
Simison: Okay. Thank you very much.
Dodson: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Yes, Joe.
Dodson: Just to clarify, I -- this is also an application for a development agreement
modification and that's what the applicant was speaking about with modifying the original
DA to remove the condition of -- a DA provision that would require a consolidation of the
lots because you do not want split zoning on one lot, so we want this to be a separate
parcel with R-15 and, then, the existing parcels will have the M-E zoning. So, I just wanted
to clarify that.
Simison: Thank you, Joe.
Borton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Borton.
Borton: It doesn't sound like there is any other information to be gathered, so I move we
close the public hearing on Item 6-A, H-2020-0042.
Cavener: Second.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Is there any
discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay.
The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Borton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Borton.
Borton: I will start off with a motion. If there is any discussion to follow -- it seems pretty
straight forward. The applicant and staff have worked together and the staff report is
pretty clear that this makes sense to go forward as presented. So, I will make a motion
that we approve Item 6-A, H-2020-0042, as presented in the staff report dated June 16th,
2020.
Strader: Second.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to approve the application. Is there any
discussion on the motion?
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Dodson: Mr. Mayor, just to --
Simison: Joe.
Dodson: Sorry. Just to clarify that you guys would have to -- the Council would have to
make a motion with removing that existing provision if you want to. I did not put that in
my staff report.
Borton: Then Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Borton.
Borton: If I can question staff. Share with us your thoughts on that request for it's removal.
Dodson: Of course,
Borton: I thought you were okay with it.
Dodson: No worries, sir. Yes, I am okay with it. I just did not specifically have that in my
staff report originally, so they had come to me with this in the last month or so since the
Commission hearing.
Borton: Okay.
Dodson: But I am completely understandable at the request and agree with it.
Borton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Borton.
Borton: The motion of approval would include that request that amends the DA as set
forth in today's hearing and as confirmed by staff is an acceptable edit.
Simison: Does the second agree?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I guess it was Council Member Strader's birthday, I guess I was going to yield
to her to the second.
Johnson: Mr. Mayor, I put her as the second in my records, if that helps.
Strader: Second agrees. Let's not discuss it's my birthday.
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Simison: I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on the motion or
clarification needed? If not, clerk will call the roll.
Roll call: Bernt, yea; Borton, yea; Cavener, yea; Hoaglun, yea; Strader, yea; Perreault,
yea.
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Item 7: Future Meeting Topics
Simison: Item No. 7 is Future Meeting Topics. Council, anything for future meeting topics,
other than tomorrow we get to have our first budget workshop. Look forward to seeing
everybody here at 1:00 o'clock for that conversation.
Item 8: Executive Session for the specific purpose of deliberating on a
labor contract offer or to formulate a counteroffer as permitted
under Idaho Code Section 74-206A(1)(a)
Simison: And, Mr. Nary, Item 8 is on here, but I don't think we need to do that and we
didn't vacate it off the agenda. Do we have to do it?
Nary: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, we don't. When we get to that we can
vacate it then.
Simison: Okay. Well, we are there to Item 8 on the agenda. Do I have a motion to
vacate our Executive Session?
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we vacate Item 8, our Executive Session.
Hoaglun: Second the motion.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to vacate the Executive Session. Is there any
discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
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Bernt: I move that we adjourn the meeting.
Hoaglun: Second.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. Any discussion on the
motion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. And we are adjourned.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:21 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
6 / 23 / 2020
Mayor, Robert E. Simison DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK
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