HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006 01-24
M!!:!Qjan Citv Counc~ina
Januarv 24. 2006
The regular meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 7:03 P.M.,
Tuesday, January 24,2006, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Shaun Wardle, Keith Bird, Charlie
Rountree and Joe Borton.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Will Berg, Anna Canning, Len Grady, Bill Musser, Ron
Anderson, Brad Watson, Doug Strong and Dean Willis.
Item 1:
Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X Shaun Wardle
X Charlie Rountree
X
X Joe Borton
X Keith Bird
Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: I will go ahead and call the meeting to order. It is Tuesday, January 24th,
just a little bit after 7:00. I'd like to welcome you here this morning. This morning. This
evening. Whenever it is. Tonight. We will begin with roll call attendance. Mr. Berg.
Item 2:
Pledge of Allegiance:
De Weerd: Item No.2 is the pledge of allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge.
(Pledge of allegiance recited.)
Item 3:
Community Invocation by Pastor Steve Moore, with Cherry Lane
Christian Church:
De Weerd: Thank you. Item No.3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be
lead by Pastor Steve Moore with Cherry Lane Christian Church. If you will all join us in
the community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a moment of silence.
Moore: Our Father God in Heaven, we thank you that you are our creator, that there is
a power greater than ourselves, because, God, there is some things that we just can't
fix and some things we can't do and we acknowledge that the most valuable things
about life we can't buy and we can't earn. They are your gifts to us and we
acknowledge that as a community. We acknowledge the gift of living in Meridian, Idaho,
where there are no land mines as far as we know in our back yards or in the middle of
our streets and though we have crowded streets, they are still, for the most part, filled
with civil and neighborly people. We thank you for the heritage of our national leaders
and our state leaders and our county leaders and most especially, since this is
Meridian, the heritage of our Meridian leaders. I thank you for these present Meridian
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 2 of 55
leaders and on behalf of all of the citizenry tonight, God, it has fallen my place to thank
you for that. I pray that you will bless their lives. I thank you for the hours that they give
way beyond what they are fairly paid from our tax dollars for their service, for many that
are volunteers here tonight, God, are affected. It looks to me like, God, from the turnout
tonight that there isn't that many controversial things on the agenda or there would
probably be more people in these chambers. So, I kind of pray tonight that maybe the
meeting will go swiftly and they can get home to their families and you can bless them in
the way. I thank you for people that are willing to step up to the plate and be wiling to
make decisions that knowing in coming to these meetings week after week and know
that a lot of folks are going to be mad at them when the meeting's over with and we give
them that, that they are making decisions out of a good conscience. I pray that you will
bless them with wisdom, because there are people, I suppose, that come to this
meeting with high hopes that a decision will be made that makes their life better and
how it aids them. I pray for just good judicial judgment in this meeting tonight. Father,
again, thank you for the privilege of living in this place. We pray that you would bless
our future. We are a rapidly growing community, more so than just about anyplace in
this nation, and that brings us both blessings and problems. So, give these folks an
extra measure of wisdom tonight to sort that out just a little bit more for your glory and
for your kingdom's sake, in Jesus' name, amen.
Item 4:
Adoption of the Agenda:
De Weerd: Thank you, Pastor Moore. Item No.4 is the Consent Agenda -- I mean
adoption of the agenda. Mr. Bird.
Bird: Thank you, Madam Mayor. We do have an addition, which I will also go through
when I go through the Consent Agenda. We do have an Item X, which is a request for
license for Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District for the Waltman Lane sewer extension,
which has been okayed by the city attorney. And we have two resolutions in our
Consent Agenda, 06-501 and 06-502. In our regular agenda, Item No. 14, an
ordinance, has been asked to be continued to February 6, 2006. And Item 13 is a
resolution, which is No. 06-503. With that I move we -- I'm sorry. Yeah. Item A in the
Consent Agenda would also be tabled to February 6, 2006. And with that I move that
we approve the revised agenda.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. We have a motion to approve the agenda as amended. Is there any
discussion? All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5:
Consent Agenda:
A.
Tabled from January 17, 2006: Development Agreement: AZ
05-017 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 137.96 acres from
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 3 of 55
C.
RUT to R.8 zone for Messina Meadows Subdivision by Tuscany
Development, Inc. - on South Eagle Road between East Victory
Road and East Amity Road:
B.
Approve Minutes of January 10,2006 City Council Regular Meeting:
Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law for Approval: VAR
05-025 Request for a Variance to UDC 11-3E.4.C.1 to exceed
maximum structure size for a temporary sales trailer in the R-4
zone for Redfeather Estates No.2 by Packard Estates
Development, LLC - 4132 East Race Street:
D.
Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law for Approval: AZ 05-
046 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 31.72 acres from RUT
to R-4 zone for Estancia Subdivision by Gemstar Development,
LLC - 1990 East Amity Road:
E.
Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 05-
049 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 103 single-family
residential building lots and 7 common lots on 31.72 acres in a
proposed R-4 zone for Estancia Subdivision by Gemstar
Development, LLC - 1990 East Amity Road:
F.
Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law for Approval: AZ 05-
042 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 9.63 acres from RUT to
R-8 zone for Medford Place Subdivision by Dyver Development,
LLC - 3335 South Eagle Road:
G.
Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 05-
043 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 29 single-family
residential building lots and 8 common area lots on 8.57 acres in a
proposed R-8 zone for Medford Place Subdivision by Dyver
Development, LLC - 3335 South Eagle Road:
H.
Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law for Approval: CUP
05-044 Request for approval of a Conditional Use Permit for a
Planned Development for Medford Place Subdivision that
includes reductions to the minimum requirements for lot size and
street frontage by Dyver Development, LLC - 3335 South Eagle
Road:
I.
Water Main Easement Aareement for Seventh Dav Adventist
Church:
J.
Streetliaht Aareement for Redfeather Subdivision No.6 by
Packard Estates, LLC:
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 4 of 55
s.
T.
u.
v.
K.
Streetliaht Aareement for Redfeather Subdivision No.7 by
Packard Estates, LLC:
L.
Public Works Budaet Amendment for South Area Treatment
and Lift Station Project:
M.
Chanae Order No.1 for the Black Cat Lift Station with JC
Constructors, Inc.:
N.
Permanent and Temporarv Easement Contract for the Pine
Interceptor Sewer Project:
O.
Temporarv Construction Easement Aareement for Waltman
Lane Sewer Extension at Ten Mile Creek:
P.
Sanitarv Sewer Aareement for Waltman Lane Sewer Extension
at Ten Mile Creek:
Q.
Water Main Easement Aareement for Newton's Nook by
Pennwood III, LLC:
R.
Contract to Commission Artwork for the Meridian Gatewav
between the City of Meridian and Sculptures by BJH, LLC:
Contract with Dave McClaren Well Drillina for Rehabilitation
and Redevelopment of Well # 17:
Aareement for Professional Services for Wastewater
Pretreatment On-Going Services Pretreatment Services:
Resolution No.
Election Ballots:
06-501
: Destruction of Records - Old
Resolution No. 06-502
Prosecution Records:
: Destruction of Records - Old
De Weerd: Item 5, Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: As I stated, Item A on the Consent Agenda needs to be tabled to February 6,
2006. We also have Resolution 06-501,06-502 and we have an addition, which is Item
X, which is a request for license with Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District for Waltman
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 5 of 55
Lane sewer extension. All these have been properly signed, are waiting for the Mayor
to sign and the Clerk to attest, which is part of my motion.
De Weerd: Do I have a second?
Wardle: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion by Mr. Bird, Second by Mr. Wardle.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Just for clarification, on Item No. R, is that for Main Street and Eagle Road or
one -- or just Main Street? What's the location?
De Weerd: Most immediate would be the Main Street over by KFC.
Rountree: So, we wouldn't be at this point commissioning work that would be on Eagle
Road?
De Weerd: Not untillTD tell us we can.
Rountree: Okay.
De Weerd: And--
Rountree: That helps.
De Weerd: -- gives me a budget.
Rountree: And that helps when you get a budget.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Any other questions? Thank you. Mr. Berg, will you, please, call
roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 6:
Department Reports:
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 6 of 55
A.
Parks Department - Doug Strong
1.
Discussion of Meridian Youth Baseball and Softball
Project Cost Issues:
De Weerd: Okay. Item No.6. Our Department Reports. We will begin with Mr. Strong
from our Parks Department.
Strong: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I appreciate the
opportunity to update where we are on the Meridian Youth Baseball project in Meridian
Settlers Park. There has been quite a lot of change since we last talked about this back
in August when some additional funds were allocated for this project. At that time we
were looking at a total project of about a million two to do a phase one green up and as
you may recall -- excuse me -- recall in the agreement at that time that we had with
Meridian Youth Baseball, they were, essentially, planning to do all of the phase one of
the Meridian Youth Baseball project. It did not include paving the parking lot. When we
talked about it in August we put in additional money to pave the parking lot, so we come
in with ball fields, a paved parking lot and, essentially, everything except the buildings
on the property, so that we could hold ball tournaments and things like that. As we went
out to look at construction costs, the events of late summer with Hurricane Katrina and
other things like unavailability of concrete, we discovered that when we actually were
starting to get some dollar amounts to do the project, that it went over two million
dollars. So, since, then, we have been trying to value engineer some of the things in
the project that we felt that we could change to save some cost and we have value
engineered about 300,000 dollars out of that cost. So, what I handed out to you earlier
-- right now the projected total cost for the phase one green up is $1,690,000 dollars.
The funds that we show that we have available at this point -- there has been some of
the money spent on the project in bringing in underground utilities and common
trenches and the Ustick Road improvements, which are done, except for the seeding of
the grass that will happen this spring after the water gets turned on. And all the
driveways and entries into the project and utilities have been moved and all of that, so
that everything behind the road improvements is, essentially, ready to go. So, some
money has been spent, from what we talked about in August. It leaves a million -- just a
little over a million dollars available funds. So, there is -- as you can see, there is about
a 600,000 dollar difference -- 606,000 dollar difference in just projected costs of the
project. So, I wanted to get that in front of you for some discussion tonight to see what
your pleasure would be for how to proceed with the project. There is certainly some
work that we have money to make some progress toward completing phase one, but we
couldn't complete it if all the costs stay as they are. One other thing that I think was in
your packet was the agreement that we need to amend to show the changes in what the
city is now committed to pay for from the August decision and what Meridian Youth
Baseball will pay for and we need to change some of the terms of the agreement. So,
you have a draft in front of you. I mention that, because as we started sorting through
these figures, I think you will find that it was -- it's showing that Meridian Youth Baseball
would pay for the irrigation system in the park of the early estimates for the irrigation
system, 313,000 dollars, and they don't have that much money currently available to
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January 24, 2006
Page 7 of 55
them. So, that would be moved to city responsibility in the contract for funding. What I
would recommend is that I bring back a final draft of the agreement, with MYB's
signatures on it, to you like at our February 14th Commission meeting -- or Council
meeting for your action. The changes in that one change with moving the irrigation
system to the city. With that, I would be happy to answer questions.
Bird: Doug--
De Weerd: Council, questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor? I'm sorry.
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Mr. Bird.
Bird: Doug, you said this 1.6 is -- well, it's basically 1.7, but you said that is just
greening it up? That isn't putting ball fields in or --
Strong: That's putting fields and fencing and dugouts and, essentially, ready to play.
The things that won't -- the features that won't be in the park at that time would be the
restroom buildings, concession buildings, the hard-scape structures that Meridian Youth
Baseball plans to build.
Bird: And does this include the parking lot, then?
Strong: Yes.
Bird: It will be --
Strong: The parking lot. What we engineered differently was -- the engineering was
drainage vaults under the parking lot and out into the fields and we changed that to
larger drainage fields, where you don't have to put concrete structures in. We changed
the concrete drainage structures around the backstops to just route water around the
backstops and such, so that we can save some of the piping and concrete costs in both
the drain system and around the backstops. So, like I say, we have engineered out
about over 300,000 dollars in just costs for materials, for concrete, but it's still very
expensive, so --
Bird: Yeah, they are. Thank you very much.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Doug, tell me a little bit about what Meridian Youth Baseball has done
fundraising wise. I see the 315,000, if that's applied towards greening it up? Are they at
zero, then, to start fundraising again for construction of restrooms and --
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 8 of 55
Strong: That's my understanding, that their fundraising is ongoing. Of course, they
have registration fees and such that they draw some of their revenue from. They had a
fairly large grant that fell through that was -- they were anticipating using for the phase
one development that didn't happen, partly because of events in the world where
volunteer contributions seemed to dry up, as with many other volunteer organizations.
They started with 350,000 dollars. They are paying for all the engineering and
architectural documents, construction management and other items that would take up
the 315 that's remaining. So, we are having to -- some engineering costs in just
reengineering the documents from the original set, costs another I think 8,000 dollars for
that.
Borton: What I was wondering is when this was first proposed -- I just signed my boys
up last week and there wasn't any big clamoring or concern that we need to raise a lot
more money, because our fields are in jeopardy or anything like that. Was there initially
some big promise by Meridian Youth Baseball that they are going to raise this money
and do their best efforts to share these expenses? The reason I ask is they are in a
situation now where they are saying, oops, we don't have any funds and the city is
going to amend the contract and just pick up all the tab and do it for them. Is there any
heat that could be put on them to step up their efforts?
Strong: I think, certainly, we could do that. As I mentioned in the original agreement, all
of phase one was to be paid for by Meridian Youth Baseball, other than some city
money that we had to bring underground utilities into the site and we, of course, had
money to do the Ustick Road improvements, which we -- which were going to be
included in the entire project. We elected late in the summer to parcel that out and
complete the work, so that we could use the city funds, because they have, actually,
been sitting there for several years and it's been set aside in the phase one of the park
that was never completed. So, we wanted to get the road improvements done. So,
since, then, what they had anticipated in funds certainly has fallen through and it's
certainly an option to put pressure on them to raise more money. The 315,000 that I
show here is what -- what I learned today is actually available in funds right now and
that's as much as I know about their fund -- funding efforts or source at this point.
De Weerd: So, is cash, it doesn't include any in-kind?
Strong: No. That's my understanding. This is money in the bank.
De Weerd: Okay. But they do have in-kind contributions as well, don't they?
Strong: Actually, there has already been some in-kind contributions to the project that
will be donated. Light poles and lights for the parking lot and things like that. That
amounts to close to 10,000 just for the light poles. They have the ability as a nonprofit
organization to certainly solicit donations and do fundraising, which they will be
encouraged to continue to do.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 9 of 55
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: And just to clarify for Councilman Borton, during the budget process this
Council looked at our parks inventory and the partnerships that we had and found that
there were between 60 and 70 acres that were partnered with the City of Meridian that
had been for sometime -- sometimes as long as four years. At that time the Council felt
that some of the surplus monies that we had in park impact fees could go towards
actually seeing those parks come online. And so at that time a budget amendment was
-- or a budget for this year was made at what we thought was our best estimate to
completely finish the park. I guess what I'm hearing is we are roughly 600,000 dollars
short. Is that correct, Mr. Strong?
Strong: That's correct. And, actually, it would be to finish phase one. It did not include
any of the buildings on the site.
Wardle: Madam Mayor, a follow-up question?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Wardle: Doug, how much do we have available within the impact fee fund and would
this be eligible for that additional amount?
Strong: It is certainly eligible for impact fee money and I just got an update today from
our finance department. If I can find that. What I will recall off the top of my head is that
-- here we go. Projected revenue for ending this fiscal year September 30th of 2006,
the expected fund balance in the park impact fees will be 1,561,892. That's projected.
And that's not committed to any other capital project or anything like that. That's based
on anticipated revenue.
Wardle: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Strong? Okay. I guess I would ask,
when you bring back the agreement, that you also include in-kind donations and if they
have some kind of fundraising plan that you would bring that back to Council as well.
Okay. If there is nothing further, do I have any direction from Council to staff?
Bird: I think you just stated what I want to hear. I want to -- when you revise it and get
with them and see if they are fundraising and I -- because I think you got another project
coming right up that's going to be identical to this, going to want a lot of city money in it
up there at Lochsa Falls. I don't know how much. We'll get into that when we get to
there. But coming from two groups that have built facilities on Boise parks and on
Meridian parks and never getting a penny from the city, I guess I'm kind of funny about
this stuff.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 10 of 55
Strong: Madam Mayor, since you mentioned the PAL project at Lochsa Falls, I could
also bring that revised agreement back on the 14th as well. There is very little change
in it. What we added, essentially, in that agreement was the paved parking lot that the
city is paying for. That was in -- in their phased agreement they were going to put in a
temporary service in phase one. And we had money to put in the irrigation lake and
underground utilities. They are putting in the irrigation system and planting the grass.
So, to get that particular park playable for soccer, the only difference that was funded
was the paved parking lot, which you approved the funds back in August. So, the only
thing we need to change with PAL is the agreement and what they are paying for and
what we are paying for as a city. So, that's a relatively simple agreement amendment.
But at this point it doesn't look like we need any additional funds for the project. So,
that's maybe a good news side of things.
Bird: Yeah.
De Weerd: I guess one last thing about the Meridian Youth Baseball fields. The value
engineering or the funds that you're able to reduce down in scope, it will not
compromise the drainage, would it?
Strong: That's a question that we brought up with The Land Group and their engineers
and we have looked at it and -- and they think not. They think that -- because we didn't
want to compromise the construction of the park if the field would not drain or the
parking lot wouldn't drain and it looks like there is enough room to put these larger
drainage beds in and take care of the water. So, their engineers have looked it over
and think that that will work.
De Weerd: Okay. Because I don't want to see long-term problems because of value
engineering.
Strong: Well -- and we don't want to inherit anything that would be difficult to maintain
either, so --
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: Madam Mayor, my thoughts on the specific Meridian Youth Baseball park is
that we made a decision at the budget process to utilize some city funds to bring this
online for community use, as well as for the organization. So, I still think that's a viable
plan. One of the things that I would like to see from the Meridian Youth Baseball --
because they are not going to be placing restrooms and concession facilities in there, is
a time line and a plan for that to happen. I know that they have been allotted a -- the
regional tournament, if I'm correct, which will come with some, as I understand, profit
sharing from the youth baseball organization. Maybe if we can earmark or at least help
them begin to determine how they are going to get those facilities in place -- I can tell
you from a lifetime of little league that one thing that we definitely need in that is
restroom and concession facilities, so --
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 11 of 55
Strong: Yeah. The trees that we plant initially will be very small, so --
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I agree with Councilman Wardle on that deal and I have no problem helping them,
because it is something -- and it's tough to raise money anymore. Everybody and their
dog is out raising money. Bring it back, let's see what we can do. I think -- I think we
need to look at some -- sometimes who we are using for engineers and stuff like that. I
think we need to take a hard look at that, too.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. So, do we need a motion on the additional funds or what
is the process?
Bird: Mayor, I thought you said he was going to bring back the --
De Weerd: With the --
Bird: -- with the deal, so we know exactly what we need.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Isn't that what you told them?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Bird: That's what I understood and that's --
De Weerd: But we need a motion to ask him to do that.
Bird: No.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: I think that's a management tool and you ask.
De Weerd: Okay.
Strong: Madam Mayor, then, when I talk to Meridian Youth Baseball, we will look for
some kind of action on the 14th.
Bird: We should.
De Weerd: Yeah. So, they are up and ready to hit it hard once things dry out and
spring comes.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 12 of 55
Strong: Okay. Thank you.
B.
Legal Department - Bill Nary
1.
Update on RFP for Impact Fees:
2.
Update on U-Turn Ordinance Proposal:
Update on Parking Lot Property Exchange:
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-B. Our legal department. Mr. Nary.
3.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, I will go up there. Madam Mayor, Members of the
Council, there is three items I just wanted to update you on and none of them should
take very long. The first was the RP for impact fees. We took that out a couple of
months ago. We got two responses for that and we were looking at both the impact
fees for parks, as well as some other impact fees that may be feasible under our state
code. We have a committee that's made up of Mr. Baird from my office, both of the
chiefs from the fire and the police department and the planning department as well, and
as they reviewed it, they felt that to be fair to the city to really and truly do this properly,
we really needed a better response. And so the committee has recommended simply
rejecting the two bids. We will have -- we have notified, I'm sorry, the two applicants
and allowed them to rebid with some more specific information as to what we are
seeking, so that, hopefully, we will get better return. We are also going to solicit directly
to some of the firms that have -- or consultants that have been involved in these types
of processes in other communities, so that we again -- hopefully we will get a better
return, especially in regards to public safety impact fees and looking in that direction as
a possibility. So, I wanted to make sure you were informed about that. Secondarily, I
put on your place -- and I think I forgot to give one to Mr. Berg, so -- if you recall, we
discussed last fall a u-turn ordinance for the city. This is a recommendation from the
traffic safety commission and, basically, trying to put a little more specificity into our u-
turn ordinance. Our ordinance mirrors the city of Boise's ordinance. It has some
specifics that are a little bit different than the state code. The state code only has a few
places where u-turns are prohibited and we find in a growing city such as ours, having
that much freedom of people making u-turns in places they are not being expected with
the volume of traffic that we see along our major roadways, that it can be more
dangerous than people imagine. And so I did run this by the police department and our
prosecution. Council member Rountree had asked that before we brought this forward
for final passage that we also get some input from the Idaho Transportation
Department. We have had numerous contacts between us and we haven't finished that
yet, so I'm not ready to put it on for your final approval, but I did want to bring this back
and get it before you to at least start thinking about. We couldn't put it on for at least
another couple of weeks, since your next regular meeting isn't until February 6th. But I
did want to at least give you an opportunity to look at it. Under subsection two there is
one -- there is one error there. What we have recommended by the Traffic Safety
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 13 of 55
Commission was to have a site distance of at least 100 feet to allow for a u-turn. State
law requires you have 500 feet of visible roadway before you can make a u-turn, so we
can't make it less than what the state law requires. So, that one will probably have to
change. But, otherwise, some of these are more specific. The main one that's probably
different than what the state law -- the state law says you cannot make a u-turn in a no
passing zone. What subsection one here says, you can't make a u-turn unless it's
specifically posted in an intersection to allow you to do that. So, that way it's more of an
affirmative requirement that they be posted to allow a u-turn. Most of the intersections
in town we don't want u-turns at anyway. I think the other difference that's probably for
your edification, as you can see with the current city ordinance and the state law doesn't
define what safely means, so we tried to make it clear enough for people to understand
what safely is supposed to be. People making u-turns right at the entrance of
subdivisions is not safe. People making them in the middle of the intersections on
Eagle Road aren't safe, those types of things. If you have any questions about this
particular ordinance -- obviously, it will be a few weeks before you get it back. I do want
to make sure we get confirmation from ITO that it's not going to impact them on the
major highways in the city that are their responsibility. ACHD's counsel has already
reviewed it and hasn't had any -- didn't have any issues with it.
De Weerd: Okay. Council any, questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: One question under B.
Nary: Yes.
Borton: I guess I see this all the time. Is it a violation if you're turning -- the classic
example I have seen is on Fairview turning left or north into the Fred Meyer parking lot.
All the traffic always stops for you to allow you to do that. Is that a partial u-turn?
Nary: No. A partial u-turn would be is if you were to make a complete u-turn on the
street and, then, your car is facing the opposite direction of oncoming traffic.
Borton: Okay.
Nary: So, no, that type of maneuver is fine.
De Weerd: As long as you don't get hit. Now, if you get hit, it's your fault, so -- not that I
have been hit, but --
Nary: In the next couple of weeks, Council, if you have any other questions or concerns
or anything, comments, please, let me know and it will be a couple of weeks and you
should see this back on your agenda. The last item, item three, Council, is the parking
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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lot property exchange. A couple of weeks ago we had our Public Hearing. You did
agree to the transaction and we held off on the actual ordinance completing that
transaction. We are still waiting for some of the other exchanges to occur on this
property. Just to refresh your memory, the parking lot across the street next to the
Buich property on the corner of Broadway and Main Street and the creamery property
and the city parking lot, we are ostensibly exchanging two parcels of the city's lot for a
portion that is immediately adjacent to the creamery. I did speak with Claire Bowman,
the Administrator for the Meridian Development Corporation yesterday. He said Mr.
Buich is still -- hasn't completed his transaction to purchase those two parcels that are
immediately adjacent to the creamery, so when that was completed he would advise us
of that and he was in agreement with me, unless I misunderstood your direction, what
appeared to the city to be a like exchange if the property that Mr. Buich purchased is
next to the creamery is a parking lot, because the city doesn't have to expend a few
additional funds to make it into a parking lot and that's what Mr. Bowman had said he
and Mr. Buich had already discussed that and that was his intent was once he was able
to secure those two parcels, he would clear the ground, there is a big ramp that's there
and the like, he would clear that ground and pave that property and be able to, then,
exchange that with the city at that point, so there won't be any additional cost to the city.
I did want to clarify -- or clear up what I had misunderstood in the earlier discussion.
Councilmember Rountree had raised a question about the drive aisle and if the drive
aisle that would be used for this city parking lot would also be a shared drive aisle with
Mr. Buich's property. I didn't -- I didn't understand. I thought it was not going to be a
shared drive aisle. When I discussed it with Mr. Bowman, it is a shared drive. So, we
would, then, need cross-access agreements, as well as indemnification to make sure
the people that are using the city's lot aren't -- or using Mr. Buich's lot aren't going to be
suing the city for damages or those types of things. So, we will get all of those things
taken care of before we bring this back to you to actually make the transaction. We
may need, Mr. Bowman said, something from the city and before we do this I will bring
that back to you as well -- some assurance from Mr. Buich's financeirs that the city will
go through with this once it's completed, so that they have some assurance that it is
going to happen and that he can get the proper financing to get all these -- the ground
work done prior to us actually transferring him the property and that way we can be
assured it's done. I didn't want to transfer it and, then, we -- for some reason something
happened and we have to transfer it back. That would be more trouble than it's worth.
So, we didn't want to do that. So, we may need to do that. If that's the case I'll make
sure you're aware of that and we will make sure you see that before we transfer the
property.
De Weerd: Okay. Any questions for Mr. Nary? Okay. Thank you.
Item 7:
Items Moved from Consent Agenda:
De Weerd. Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
De Weerd: So Items 8, 9 and 10, Anna, are there any issues with any of these final
plats?
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 15 of 55
Canning: Yes, Ma'am.
De Weerd: Okay. So, we need to go through them one at a time?
Canning: Yes, ma'am.
Item 8:
Tabled from January 3, 2006: FP 05-073 Request for Final Plat
approval for 11 residential building lots and 4 common area lots on 5.36
acres in a R-3 zone for EI Gato Subdivision by Conger Management
Group - 701 Black Cat Road:
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8, tabled from January 3rd is FP 05-073. We will start this item
with staff comments.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this applicant has been waiting to
get on Ada County Highway District agenda for his vacation application. He has gotten
a date for that and the next available Council date following his ACHD hearing date
would be March 7th. So, he's requesting continuance to March 7th.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we continue Item No.8 until March 7th.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion is to move Item No.8 to March 7th. Okay. There is a
motion to continue Item 8 to March 7th. All in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9:
FP 05-080 Request for Final Plat approval of 102 single-family building
lots and 23 common lots on 25.34 acres in an R-8 zone for Crossfield
Subdivision No.1 by Packard Estates Development, LLC - 955 West
Ustick Road:
De Weerd: Item 9, FP 05-080. Anna.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the final plat for Crossfield
Subdivision. This is the preliminary plat. The final plat encompasses this portion of the
preliminary plat. Here is the final plat. We shifted orientation, so this is Ustick now.
There was that entry road that came down and the open space and, then, this is where
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January 24, 2006
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it angles off. There are two issues connected with the final plat at this time. There is
some flood plane issues in this area and I'll let Mr. Grady explain those. And, then,
there is an issue with the -- a secondary means of access. As you can see, there is just
this one means of access from -- into the property right now. They are proposing an
emergency secondary access at this location and Chief Anderson will discuss that
issue.
Grady: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, as far as the flood plane issue, we just
need to add a reference to the plat calling out for a FEMA flood plane map reference
and I believe the applicant is okay with that. So, basically, it would just depict that there
is a flood plane in that area and, then, they can go look up the map reference for that
flood plane.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Len. Chief.
Anderson: Madam Mayor and Council, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the issue
about the secondary access, I guess, and to try to use this as maybe an opportunity to
educate a little bit about the code. We will make code officials out of you guys,
hopefully, tonight.
De Weerd: There is just former council members we just can't get rid of.
Anderson: That Nary guy? Is that -- anyhow, on subdivisions under the International
Building Code, it talks about that when a subdivision gets over 30 lots in size that they
need to provide secondary access to it in case for whatever reason there is -- a tree
falls across the road, an auto accident, whatever that blocks access into the subdivision.
Meridian has been a little bit more lenient than that. We have fudged that 30 lot rule up
to 50 lots, so we allow a little bit more than that. This particular subdivision is 102 lots in
size and so, technically, it needs to have a secondary access point. The only access
point right now is right here off of Ustick Road. What the developer is proposing is to
take this little flag lot down here and put an emergency access, a gravel road - 20-foot
gravel road across there. The fire department's concern, obviously, is that we don't get
into another situation like happened on South Linder Road where it starts out with one
subdivision and next time it's another subdivision and now on South Linder we have got
700 homes down there that have a single access point in and out of that area without a
connection over the Interstate. So, I think it's something to be cognizant of as you're
approving these subdivisions. Part of the reason why there is no access is because
there is a Creason Lateral back behind this subdivision and so we don't typically make
them put bridges across those laterals and those canals to connect to subdivisions and
so this is Venable Lane over here, there is no access. This is undeveloped property,
but it's owned by the same developer that owns this. To put in an emergency access,
the code talks about that you would take a measurement -- a diagonal measurement
across the property, so going from here to this point here is about 1,650 feet and you
divide that by two, leaves you about 825 feet and that's the rule of thumb that they use
for how far apart these access points should be. In this case if we allow a temporary
one here, that's only a little over 400 feet. So, it's not close to what we need by code.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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But we do know that this property right over here is probably going to develop at some
point. So, I guess what the fire department would be willing to do is accept this access
point if we could have on record in some type of guarantee that we are not going to get
cutoff over here and that as this property develops over here, I think it's slated for a
neighborhood center or something that a cross-access agreement is allowed and that
access is, then, taken off Venable Lane and that we do get the secondary access as we
develop this future land over to the east of this property.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: Chief, what is to the east there? We have got an opening through there. Is that--
down here at the bottom where your road comes through?
Anderson: It's my understanding that this is just undeveloped property --
Bird: No. No. Down there -- over here on the east side.
De Weerd: On the west side?
Nary: That's north is that way.
Bird: Oh, Ustick. That comes back. Yeah.
Canning: That will help.
Bird: Yeah. Thank you.
Anderson: That's private property still undeveloped over there.
Bird: That is undeveloped, too. We do have an opening there, though.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we did have a pre-application
conference this week on some properties here, so that may be an opportunity. And,
actually, it will connect into Salisbury, also known as Vallen Court Subdivision, at this
point -- is that right? Yeah. That's Waterbury Subdivision. I'm sorry. So, there will be a
connection into that subdivision at some point as well. Actually, there is -- this
preliminary plat does not have a physical location to Venable Lane as of yet. There is
still some question as to how Venable Lane will occur when this property comes and
develops. So, the next likely connection will be the one into Waterbury.
Bird: Anna -- or Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
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January 24, 2006
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Bird: Anna, you say that the one there has come in for a preliminary? Where are they
going to access? Are they coming -- are they coming off of Ustick, too?
Canning: Yes, sir. They had these two properties combined and they are considering
getting a third one, especially since the pre-app. So, they would bring in a single
connection and, then, connect at this point.
Bird: So, that would be -- that would be an access, too, then --
Canning: Yes, sir.
Bird: -- once it's done? And at that point, Chief, would the temporary go away?
Because, man, you're putting that temporary right between two accesses.
Anderson: Right. We would prefer a permanent access and if we can get it through
one of these other developments -- but sitting in the seats you guys did for a few years,
I know that those developments, when they come in, a lot of times they don't want to
have those access roads. So, I think it's important to be on the record that those need
to be in and, then, there is no surprises when they do happen.
Bird: Okay.
De Weerd: Thank you. And, Council, I would just remind you -- and ask Anna to pass
on our thanks to Steve Siddoway, who -- on your agenda tonight we -- you did approve
temporary access easement agreement connecting Waltman Lane and Ruddy Drive
and that was a great effort. So, appreciate Steve and appreciate, chief, you bringing
that up, because we don't want another one of those situations.
De Weerd: Okay. Any questions for staff, Council? If not, do you need any additional
information or do I have a motion?
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: I move that we approve Item No.9, FP 05-080, including staff comments.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to approve Item 9 with staff comments and that would
include Chief Anderson's comments.
Wardle: All staff, including the fire chief.
De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Any further discussion? Mr. Berg.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 10:
FP 05-079 Request for Final Plat approval of 36 single-family building lots
and 1 common lot on 9.38 acres in an R-8 zone for Burnev Glen
Subdivision No.3 by Properties West, Inc. - south of McMillan Road on
North Meridian Road:
De Weerd: Okay. Item 10, FP 05-079. I will start with the Anna's comments.
Canning: Madam Mayor, this one we do have a letter of agreement from the applicant
stating that they are -- have reviewed the conditions of approval and agree with them,
so this one is ready to go.
De Weerd: Okay. Do I have a motion, Council?
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: I move we approve Item 10, FP 05-079.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion to approve Item 10. If there is no discussion, Mr. Berg, will
you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 11:
Public Hearing: MI 05-018 Miscellaneous request to amend the
previously approved Development Agreement for Cottonwood Lane
Annexation (AZ 04-029) by William Colson, Hugh Colson Revocable Trust
and Meridian Premier, LLC - 985 East Freeway Drive:
De Weerd: Thank you. Item 11, Public Hearing MI 05-018. I will open this Public
Hearing with staff comments.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the Cottonwood Lane project
and it's located on the north side of Freeway Drive, which runs right parallel to the Eagle
Road on ramp going west and, then, at the intersection of Wells Street. I do want to
point out our new vicinity maps, with help from our GIS person Robin Jack. We have
this new capability and my administrative assistant was just tickled pink on how pretty a
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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vicinity map she's able to do for you all. The blue areas indicate that it's a county parcel
at this time and, then, the purple is light office. The red is C-G. The yellow is
residential. So, the property is a very odd shaped boomerang kind of thing in this
location. The application that's before you tonight is a development agreement
modification and the staff report goes through this in great detail. I'm going to try and
summarize those provisions, although they don't lend themselves easily to that. So, if
you have questions, please, feel free to refer to either the staff report or I can look
things up. The first section is just, basically, changes to clarify the recitals. The second
one would be to clarify some of the allowed land uses. Staff is recommending that
consistent with the applicant's request, the DA reflect UDC references and, then, to
state the primary land uses that were approved as part of the original approval. The
third section for section five, it erroneously references conditional use application
approval for this development. So, staff is recommending that, instead, language be
inserted that notes that if a CU is required consistent with the UDC, that they go ahead
and go through that conditional use process prior to construction of buildings or
improvements. The next section is regarding section seven, which was the compliance
period that gave the developer two years to complete all of the requirements listed in
the previous section of the development agreement and those include a multi-use
pathway along Five Mile Creek and you can see the flood plane from Five Mile Creek,
the kind of paler blue coming through. Most of this property is within the flood plane.
And, then, the standard conditions of approval for an annexation application, including
street improvements and other infra-structure improvements. The applicant felt that the
two year period would be amended, because no specific approval was granted with the
annexation request. So, they do still have some entitlement work they need to do
before they can begin subdividing or constructing. The applicant has asked -- he asked
for -- that the compliance be tied to some other provisions. One of those was recording
a final plat. Another one was related to building permits and, then, the third was four
years from the date of the original agreement, instead of two. Staff would recommend
that only two of those -- and that would be that the -- the plat has been recorded or the
four years from the date of the original agreement. And the last section, 17, was regard
to notices and the applicant is proposing to amend those by putting the current owner
and developer names in and addresses. So, just bringing them up to date. So, staff is
recommending approval. There was no Commission recommendations. It's not
required for this application. To our knowledge there is no outstanding issues before
City Council. There are also no Findings. You would direct -- if you choose to approve
this modification, you would direct the city attorney to prepare an amended agreement.
With that I'll end staff's presentation.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Wardle?
Wardle: Madam Mayor. Anna, I'm trying to remember this application when it came
through and I know that we approved -- if not this application, one very near it based on
elevations provided by the applicant for the office park.
Canning: This is -- I don't remember seeing elevations, Councilman Wardle. This was
proposed as a hotel and, then, this -- the back area -- or, I'm sorry, that was already a
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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hotel. Here we go. This is a proposed hotel, and, then, the back area was proposed as
either, yeah, office pads or multi-family and this is kind of the -- that's the flood way and
flood plane coming through.
Wardle: Madam Mayor. Follow-up, Anna. I remember talking about office buildings
behind that. I don't remember specific discussion on multi-family and would this change
require elevations to come forward before multi-family would be approved or would it be
an allowed use and subject to staff level approval?
Canning: All multi-family is conditionally approved. So, it would have conditional use
approval. In the previous annexation request and associated development agreement
had no other entitlements associated with it, so there was no plat, there was no CU
approval, it was just the annexation request. So, they would need to come in with -- for
conditional use approval to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Wardle: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions, Council? Mr. Nary, do you have comment?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just a couple of clarifications. I think
Mrs. Canning has stated all of the staffs recommendations and some of those were
from my office as well. Probably the only one that from -- I guess that has some legal
significance -- most of it is a cleanup of some language in this agreement, but one of
them raises a different issue that we may want -- you may want to think about it in the
future. All of our standard development agreements have a condition of two years.
That sometimes is not long enough, which is what is being proposed here, because the
property has transferred owners and there is a lot of work, especially because of the
challenges of this particular site and that's the reason for the request for a longer period
of time to comply with all of those requirements and that's, again, your decision. But
sometimes two years is way too long to have property sitting without anything
happening on it with that and part of our discussion next week is thinking about that and
talking about that in future development agreements as to how we would frame that, so
that we don't have ground that just sits and sits and doesn't get developed, nothing
happens. The only recommendation I had on that provision on the default was those
two when -- normally when property gets platted they have a year -- you see those time
extensions, they have to come back before you, so that was why we felt that the final
plat is probably adequate as one trigger to take them out of the default and, then, the
four years is -- again, it's your decision, but, again, I think this one is a challenging site
because of where it's located and the floodway issues that they have to address. So,
that might be appropriate, but, again, it's up to you. Mr. Lee is the attorney for the
developer here that has also looked at this agreement. I don't know if he has any
comment for you, but I just wanted to put that on the record as well.
De Weerd: Mr. Lee, do you have comment? I guess I was asking an attorney if he had
a comment. No, you can -- apparently you're not used to attorney jokes. I apologize.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Lee: I must say, I'm a bit rusty on my attorney jokes. I don't think I'd do a very good
stand-up routine. My name is Frank Lee. I am the attorney for the current owner of the
property who acquired it from the original developer. When we -- my client acquired the
property and, then, reviewed the development agreement and reviewed this particular
drawing, they realized that this is a very difficult site and development as contemplated
in that drawing isn't really what we want to do or in discussing it with the city staff, that's
not really the way the city would like it to be developed and there is lots of issues there.
And because it hadn't been platted, there was no Conditional Use Permit applications
pending, we thought two years was far too short of a period of time to deal with those
issues, have it properly platted, and -- planned and platted and done and so we thought
four years was an appropriate time. And that's the basis of that request. And the
remaining changes are as Mr. Nary stated, mostly cleanup. So, I will stand for any
questions you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Lee. Any questions for the applicant?
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Council, any additional questions? This is a Public Hearing.
Is there anyone who would like to share testimony on this application? Okay.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: If there is no further comment, I would move that we close the Public
Hearing for Item No. 11.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to close the Public Hearing on Item 11. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Any discussion or staff comments needed? Okay. Do I have a motion?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve the request to amend the previous development
agreement for Cottonwood Lane. The agreement to include the clarification statements
and recommendations of staff, to trigger the agreement on the recordation of the final
plat or four years from the agreement and to direct the attorney to prepare the amended
agreement.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 23 of 55
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion to approve Item 11 as amended. If there is no further
discussion, Mr. Berg, will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 12:
Public Hearing: Fee Schedule for Reservation to Use Police Station
Conference Room:
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 12 is Public Hearing on fee schedule for
reservation to use the police station conference room. I will go ahead and open this
Public Hearing with the chiefs comments.
Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, what we have done is taken a look
back at the use on the public meeting room at the police department, which has been
rather extensive and heavy. We have also divided the fees into two groups for a half
day and a full day on that. And made just some minor adjustments. Part of that
adjustment in terms of the amount of time it takes for us to schedule the building and
due do to food problems in the public meeting room as well, there is some additional
cleanup costs also incorporated in there and we are looking at the potential down the
road that we are probably going to have to replace carpet out of there. So, what we are
trying to do with the fees is hold to those actual costs that we may be incurring upon
them, not try to make it too unreasonable or anything, but also try to adjust it to cover a
full day usage, in addition to just having the half day usage as well.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Any questions for the chief? Okay. Is there anyone from
the public who would like to offer testimony on this item? Seeing none, Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, I just wanted to put on the record the reason it was listed in your
packets and in the advertisement as a new fee and not an amended fee is because we
couldn't find that we actually ever did it before. I think we talked about it, but we didn't
actually do a Public Hearing and do it, so that's why it's listed as a new fee.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Rountree: Oops.
Nary: Chief Worley was the chief.
Bird: Blame him.
De Weerd: It certainly wasn't Chief Musser.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 24 of 55
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: Chief, is there a need for a deposit on these room rentals to take care of spills
and problems that might happen?
Musser: At this point, Councilman, what we have done is -- is we have made the
agreements structured such that we can bill that party for additional cleanup costs if we
-- if we run into those. It's part of the agreement when they sign on it, that they could
have to put out additional costs on it. We don't require deposit at this point. We have
kept the fees really pretty reasonable in the long run for what the public's using it for and
for private organizations as well. So, we have tried not to be too hard nosed about it.
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: Chief, just a quick question. Is there -- in the ordinance or in the resolution is
there a mechanism for waiver of the fee?
Musser: Councilman Wardle, I'm not aware of one that we have at this time.
Traditionally we have an imposed fee for city functions within the city building or those
types of functions which we are a part of. Say, for instance, a board meeting with Drug
Free Idaho, Pay/Ada, that type of thing. If the city is directly affiliated, there is an
expectation that they can use the city facility without having to pay for it, if that answers
your question.
Wardle: Madam Mayor. It does answer my question. I'm just wondering if we need --
Mr. Nary, if we need further clarification of -- since we will be charging other outside
organizations, which are outside of the city, and there are volunteer organizations which
are internal to the city. Do we need to clarify that there wouldn't be a fee for those?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council member Wardle, that's a policy
decision of the city is that when the fees are imposed, but probably to make it clearer in
your motion, if you want to approve the resolution, you can certainly include that. Or if
you would like us to bring a different resolution back with that specific language
contained within it, so that it's clear to folks that that was the intent, that anything that's a
city function there wouldn't be a fee. Or that would be discretionary. We could certainly
do any of those things.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 25 of 55
Wardle: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Berg.
Berg: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I didn't want to bring another little situation, but
sometimes we have had some conflicts with the use of City Hall and this chamber and
needed to use it for a special City Council meeting or P&Z meeting, which we bumped
an organization from this meeting room and the police department has let us use that
one. For instance, Meridian Historical Society or something like that. I just was -- I
don't want to get into it, but that's always been kind of an administrative thing that if it
was available and we couldn't make this room available, that the police department's
always made it available over there. I don't know if that needed to be addressed, but I
don't want people to start pointing fingers that we do this for this or that for them or --
they are part of our community, yes.
De Weerd: Okay.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Nary.
Nary: Maybe in light of that we could bring a different resolution back in a couple of
weeks to at least have those contingencies that since section two says the police
department is authorized to carry out the collection of fees, if the Council wants either
the policy decision in the resolution itself of, you know, city organization or city business,
or at the city's request or that it gives the chief or the department the discretion on city
business or something to that effect -- we can figure out the language, but bring that
back in a couple weeks and having it in a resolution is sometimes easier, we can always
point to it, it's a little clearer to everybody how it's applied and, then, we can put that on
your next meeting.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Is there anything further?
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: Hearing nothing further, I move that we close the Public Hearing on Item 12.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion is to close the Public Hearing on Item 12. All those in favor
say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 26 of 55
Item 13:
Resolution No. : Approving and
Adopting Fees for Public Use of the Meridian Police Department
Conference Room:
De Weerd: Okay. Item 13 is a resolution to approve and adopt the fees as discussed in
Item 12,
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would move that we put this back until February 13th -- 14th. To February 14th
with a new resolution stating the policy that we had for the fees of the rental.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. The motion is to table this resolution to February 14th for additional
work. Any discussion?
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: Just for clarification, I think that we need to clarify that any meetings
associated with the City of Meridian at the discretion of -- and leave the authority with
the police department, using Mr. Berg's example of the historical society has members
which are appointed by the Mayor and so any of those committees -- I don't think we
need to name them, but let's make a general statement and, again, leave the discretion
to the department to collect some fees.
Bird: Agree a hundred percent.
De Weerd: Okay. Chief, any issues?
Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, that sounds like a good functional
project for counsel and I to work on.
De Weerd: Okay. Have I already called for a vote? Okay. Just wanted to make sure.
Nary: You had a move to table --
Bird: We were going to vote.
De Weerd: Exactly.
Nary: Oh. Okay. I'm sorry.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 27 of 55
De Weerd: No. We were tabling with instruction of how to prepare it for our attorney.
Okay. All those in favor say aye. Okay. I hope you know what you just said aye to.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Item--
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: I heard him.
Item 14:
Tabled from January 17, 2006: Ordinance No. : AZ
05-017 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 137.96 acres from RUT to
R-8 zone for Messina Meadows Subdivision by Tuscany Development,
Inc. - on South Eagle Road between East Victory Road and East Amity
Road:
De Weerd: Okay. Item 14. Do I have a motion on that?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we table Ordinance AZ 05-017, Annexation and Zoning of Messina
Meadows Subdivision to February 6, 2006.
De Weerd: Is that February 7th, maybe?
Bird: You're probably right. I think you're right.
Rountree: It is.
Bird: It's right. I'm a day off.
Rountree: I'll second that.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 14 has been moved to table to February 7th. All those in favor
say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 15:
Discussion of Expansion of Area of City Impact - South Area
Boundary:
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 28 of 55
De Weerd: Okay. Item 15 is discussion of expansion of area of city impact south area
boundary. I don't know who's going to kick off this discussion. Mr. Grady.
Grady: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, after much discussion and more or
less a slowed start on several of these issues, what you see here in front of you tonight
is a -- sort of a collation of the latest information that we have in the negotiations with
United Water and with the City of Kuna. So, I will walk through three separate
scenarios, one to do with United Water and two options that we are looking for some
guidance with as far as Kuna. To start off with, United Water, you will notice a gray
band along the west side of our boundary. Sorry. The west side of their boundary.
East side of our boundary. Thank you, Anna. Basically, this boundary is what we are
calling a gray zone and subdivisions in that zone which ultimately end up with Meridian
addresses, will be served by Meridian water. If those end up going over to Boise, then,
they will be served by United Water. Anything to the north of Chinden, because United
Water is already there, is -- will be served by United Water. Anything to the south of the
line that we are negotiating with -- with Kuna will also either get served by Kuna or
United Water. But, basically, they won't cross north of that boundary. Along this line
there will be an agreement, which we started working on, we are -- we have our -- our
water lawyer, in conjunction with the city attorney's office, drafting up an agreement that
will start here over the next week and, hopefully, finish up by roughly end of February.
By the way, anybody who is lacking a map or needs better clarification, there is about
20 maps or so on the back desk there, if people are interested. As far as the options we
are evaluating with Kuna, we met with them several times over the last month and we
came up with an option -- if you follow along here, Lake Hazel, following the blue line,
drops all the way down, and, then, eventually, hits Kuna Road and, then, follows up
along the Boise boundary. That was -- that was a negotiated -- a joint meeting between
our mayor, Kuna's mayor, and both engineering staffs. Since, then, they contacted me
with regard to this area down here to the very south and, apparently, they have some
residents there that really would prefer, according to Kuna, would prefer to be within
Kuna's area of impact and I guess because they opened the door, I know that we have -
- we have a landowner who's interested in becoming part of Meridian. So, what we
have done here in conjunction with the blue line, which was originally negotiated, is we
have added this yellow line, which is sort of an option. So, basically, we would carve off
the bottom tip of that south area and trade it. That's not exactly a fair trade, there is,
you know, three square miles here and two there, but I think -- I think it sort of makes a
little more sense if both sets of those landowners do want to sort of trade places with
each other, that -- I guess that -- to me that makes sense. The red areas that you see
there are United Water certificated areas that they are applying for. The red area right
here is LOS church and we would be protesting that and allowing this one here to go
through. Again, as part of this gray line we would -- they would back off this LOS
church, we would let this area go through, and we would agree with some conditions on
how to resolve that gray line once development occurs. So, I'm sort of throwing three
different scenarios in there. At this point I'm not asking for anything as far as United
Water, other than if you see any serious concerns, then, we probably ought to stop
working on that agreement. As far as the Kuna area, I'm looking for some guidance on
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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whether you think the yellow option is a better option than the blue option. One other
thing that you might note on your -- at least on your printouts, the light blue area there
represents all of the parcels with Kuna -- or, sorry, with Meridian addresses and they do
basically go all the way down to Hubbard, just for interest. Now, I know Anna's got quite
a few comments in addition. Okay. I think you have all received a page worth of
comments there, but do you have any questions for me at this time?
De Weerd: Council, do you have any questions for Len at this time?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. None?
Grady: I do know that one of the developers would like to speak to this also.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Len. And, again, there is a couple of different items of
this discussion and a couple of -- I guess there is a sewer service area and there is an
area of impact area. So, as Anna talks about some of the activities in partnership with
Ada County and Kuna to look at land use, there is a separation of some of the
discussions that we have had in terms of service area for sewer.
Grady: And that's a very good point. I have made it clear and -- as best I can with
Kuna, that this line, should we sort of choose to adopt it, it does need to be tied in with a
sewer concept plan and that sewer concept plan, the city engineer will start working with
that here in the next day or two and that will lay down ground rules, like we don't want
another -- we don't want a Kuna plant in Mason Creek. I mean we are putting one
there. If they decide to put one in there, we are going to be in a fist fight here to try to
figure out how this is going to get sewered. So, over the next month or so we will work
out those types of details, where the plant goes, can we run sewer lines through the
corners of Kuna to make it easier on our sewerability, that type of stuff. So, this is,
really, step one of two and you could argue this is even the easiest of the two steps, so -
De Weerd: Well, I don't know if they'd agree with you necessarily on that and just to
clarify any fist fight type of definition, we have applied for the permit for discharge into
Mason Creek and there will be only one. So, I don't think there will be a fight in that
regard. It's just to get some clarity to this. The lines were drawn -- and I do want to give
some clarity to that as well. The lines were drawn in attempt to make sure that as we
look at servicing the Mason Creek area, it was a good business decision for Meridian
and that our rate payers would not be unduly burdened with planning for this area,
should we, then, plan for the appropriate sizes of our sewer lines and that sort of thing.
So, in trying to reach some consensus with Kuna, it was with that in mind. Then, both of
us needed to go back to our councils and give this information for your feedback and
that's what we are doing right now. So, Anna, with that I will turn this over to you.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I raise a fourth issue and that's once
this line is drawn what am I doing with it and I want to -- I do have some things I want to
discuss now. You usually don't get this much out of me. We have talked about going
forward with a Comprehensive Plan amendment for this area. The first thought when I
discussed this at budget hearings last summer was that it would be a joint public
participation effort between Kuna, between Ada County, and not trying to decide any
land uses at that time, just public participation. For various reasons the pace picked up,
the need to clarify those land uses became kind of the most important aspect of that in
some ways -- or more important aspect of that in some ways, so we were just going to
move forward with a reduced public participation study and go ahead and include the
land use issues. On the first study I had begun working with Ada County and with Kuna
and we had a consultant selected, we had a scope, I retained the same consultant, I
had him revise the scope, I was still working with Ada County, because I was -- wanted
to keep that relationship going working with them to do this Comprehensive Plan, so
that when the area of city impact process or amendment process started that we were
on the same page and we could coordinate. Well, they started getting excited about the
idea of maybe yet a third option and that's what I'm bringing forward to you and it would
be -- again, going back to this idea of a joint public participation and land use planning
and the county has committed to working on this, they have taken it up to the county
commissioners, they have expressed an interest in it, and what they would like to do is
they are in the middle of a comp plan process and they would like to make it a sub area
plan. So, it would be a -- what this project would be, this joint effort, it would be,
essentially, doing three comp plans at the same time. I mean we were the only ones
that know it's three of them. To the general public it will seem like one. But it would
serve as the Meridian Comprehensive Plan, it would serve as the Kuna -- or a portion of
it would serve as that,' a portion would serve as the Kuna Comprehensive Plan and,
then, it would be also a sub area plan for the county. Now, this might sound like a new
term, one that you have never heard before and would it be, this would be -- they are
starting work on one north of Eagle and this would be one here that -- the first one to
really deal with the city to city issues, rather than the rural issues. It would still have a --
by doing it jointly, it would be an enhanced public participation. I really fear that one of
the things that will become a problem if we decide to go ahead and just move forward
on our own would be that -- this same group of folks are going to start getting inquiries
about the Kuna Comprehensive Plan, the Ada County Comprehensive Plan, and the
Meridian Comprehensive Plan and, you know, if you're on the south side of Lake Hazel
and you show up for the Meridian one and we are going to tell you, well, you're welcome
to stay, but this doesn't affect you and vice-versa, if you're on the north side and you
show up at the Kuna meeting, then, they are -- you know, nice that you're here, but this
isn't going to affect you at all. So, at least we have everybody coming to one set of
public participation meetings, rather than trying to divide them up and get them to the
right place and will be overlapping --
De Weerd: Well, Anna, I might add that when Council approved this budget item, this is
kind of what we had anticipated it to be.
Anna: Yes, ma'am.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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De Weerd: We thought that -- we had already talked to the county, the county was
wanting to enter into a public process with us, and we thought Kuna was, then, Kuna
pulled out and it didn't make as much sense anymore, so we went more the direction of
the Comprehensive Plan. Now, with, I think, Ada County's help, they have helped us
pull Kuna back into it and maybe because we have resolved or we have come closer on
some of the sewer issues that they are back in the picture again. So, it's kind of come
full circle.
Canning: Yes, ma'am. The other advantage of the joint plan is that it's really looking
beyond our borders. We could do a coordinated transportation and land use planning.
It really puts the principles of good blueprint for good growth into action. It would be -- a
lot of the issues we have talked about as far as working with the county as far as inter-
city governmental coordination, this would just be, really, a prime example -- or we
could set a prime example of how to do this. It also brings some additional tools to the
hearing process, in particular, Ada County has committed to maybe -- or not committed
to maybe -- has committed to one of their staff members doing some visual simulations
that we hadn't originally counted on and it's an infrastructure analysis. It's just a kind of
gross look at the comparisons of different land use patterns. It's not an actual
infrastructural analysis, such as the Public Works Department would do. It also brings
additional tools to the area of city impact process and that's the ability to really integrate
these implementation strategies into the sub area plan, so that they could easily be
folded into the area of city impact agreement. And, presumably, it would shorten that
negotiation process. It also has the potential to reduce the conflict or if there is conflict
between the city of Kuna and the city of Meridian. I think the county's real interest that
they have stated numerous times is they just don't want another Star and Eagle
debacle, if that's not too strong a word to use. So, they are looking at this as a process
to maybe alleviate some of those conflicts. I have to admit that it's going to be a much
greater challenge for staff to figure out a scope of work on how this is going to work, to
work with two other jurisdictions to get this done, but I really do feel it's the right thing to
do. So, the question is if we do this joint effort, how does this affect the need to move
forward with the development opportunities available in the area. It would mean a delay
in the Comprehensive Plan by six months and I would structure that scope of work, so
that we would be targeting for a December submittal. Right now we are targeting for a
June submittal and I have to admit I'm anxious about what kind of product we could get
submitted by June at this point, because it is getting late, so -- but we would target for a
December submittal. I'm limited to submitting Comprehensive Plan amendments now to
June and December, so that's why I use those two dates. So, there would be a
corresponding delay in the ability of the city to annex properties by six months. Now, I
recognize that this is probably not acceptable, so I'm proposing also kind of a
concurrent text amendment to the Unified Development Code and what that would be is
to establish a new zoning district and it would be clear in the purpose statements that
this was a holding zone or a holding district. It wouldn't grant any additional
development rights to the property owners, they would be vested with what they were
annexed with, and, then, the developer could rezone that property once the
Comprehensive Plan amendment is submitted on the property. So, you would get some
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 32 of 55
X zone when you were annexed, you could be annexed, you could say you were
annexed -- you would have to wait for the Comp Plan still to rezone, because the
problem with annexing outside an area that we have a Comprehensive Plan for is that
that is one of your findings is that that annexation and zoning is consistent with the
Comprehensive Plan. So, this holding zone would give you a way to annex those
properties in one that kind of -- a zone kind of insists that you wait for a Comprehensive
Plan plan amendment and so the Comp Plan -- again, they could submit -- they being --
an applicant could submit for annexation current with when I turned in the
Comprehensive Plan amendment. They may have to wait as it goes through perhaps a
lengthier Public Hearing process than a regular application would, but they can submit
concurrent with that and that would be December of 2006. So, that should meet the
time line set we have heard expressed by those folks wanting to annex. So, staff is kind
of recommending this joint effort at this point, but there is still -- the Meridian only effort
is still a viable option. Certainly, easier for staff in your -- the Comprehensive Plan will
likely get done sooner and the city would be able to react sooner to development
concerns and, again, that is June versus December of 2006. So, that's -- any questions
regarding that topic?
De Weerd: Council, any questions for Anna?
Bird: I have none, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: All right. You might note that Pete is here.
Canning: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Sorry. I had it on my notes. We have
representatives from both the City of Kuna and Ada County here. I'd like to -- Pete
Friedman, can you stand up? Pete is the Comprehensive Plan division chief -- I don't
know his exact title. But, you know, he's from Ada County Development Services and I
have been working with him quite a bit on this project, as well as the Ada County
comprehensive plan. I'm on their steering committee. So, we have been doing a lot of
work together lately. And, then, we have Lisa Bachman from the City of Kuna and she
is an assistant planner? Planner II. Sorry. The equivalent to our associate planners.
For the City of Kuna.
De Weerd: Well, thank you both for joining us. Do you have anything you would like to
add? If you do, please, come forward. If you will just state your name for the record.
Friedman: Sure. Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council. For the record, my name is Pete
Friedman and I'm a planner with Ada County Development Services. And this was kind
of a unique concept that I sort of threw out to Anna. Originally, she had asked both
myself and the City of Kuna to participate back with her first thought RFP and started
going through that and, then, she called me after receiving my comments and said, well,
I'm sort of changing direction. We might be moving towards a Comprehensive Plan
Amendment and I started thinking, well, we are in the process of updating our
Comprehensive Plan now and as Anna had indicated, we are trying out a new approach
in that we are developing sort of an overall umbrella policy document for the county, but
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 33 of 55
we are also working on a more specific area plan and those two tracks occur in a
parallel fashion. In looking at the consultant team that Anna put together, I thought,
well, you know, there is some efficiencies that could be achieved here, because we
have an area we are working in right now that's pretty wide open and pretty rural. We
are also now looking at an area that's going to be experiencing some significant growth
challenges over the next couple of years and it didn't really seem to make sense to me
to have these two or three efforts going on by themselves. So, I kind of -- we have kind
of discussed this. She sat down with my director Gerry Armstrong the other day, we
have talked about some of the in-kind services we can provide through staffing and
some of the new tools that we are bringing on board in our department and, then, we
agreed that if the two councils were favorable to this idea, then, we could start looking
at, you know, what our possible commitments to this would be also. I ran this by the
board of commissioners the other day, saying we were entering into these discussions,
and without making any commitments, they did encourage us to go ahead and continue
the conversation and the dialogue. So, I think where we are at right now is, you know,
waiting to see where the two councils go and if it's affirmative, then, start sitting down
with Anna and Diana in Kuna looking at some numbers and our staffing and proceeding
from there. We are, actually, pretty excited about this -- the possibilities, so that we are
not getting hit also with one or two area of impact exercises of having to evaluate two or
three different Comprehensive Plans or having a situation occur where we have, you
know, a void in our plan and, you know, just having something we can pick up that all
three jurisdictions have agreed to and, then, it can be, then, folded into your individual
cities. So, that's where we are at right now.
De Weerd: And I think it's also worth noting, Pete, that you're here on your day off and
so that is how committed he is to this process and I really appreciate that. I think it's
important, as Anna has noted, that the residents -- I think that that would be an
expectation that we all work together and it's certainly a goal that we had when we first
proposed this, that there is a lot of -- Kuna is going to be dealing with the same thing we
are. There is a lot of county clusters already built that are anticipated to develop urban
around them, that as we learn from Kingsbridge, that it doesn't always work in the
fashion that when some of these ideas came up with, that it's not as smooth as it once
was thought to be.
Friedman: I think, Mayor, that's one of challenges that we are going to be looking at
overall with our comprehensive planning process and looking at what's been done in the
past and how do we maybe come up with some new approaches, so --
De Weerd: Appreciate that. Thanks for joining us. Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Charlie.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Rountree: Pete, I just want to make sure I heard you right and it seems that -- I think
you have the same kind of feeling I do about the opportunities here, if we can work
together.
Friedman: Uh-huh.
Rountree: And I know you can't speak for your board of commissioners, but it sounded
like if there is a willingness on all the parties, there is probably a willingness of the
county commissioners to participate financially.
Friedman: Yeah. I think, councilmember, I think the devils will be in the details and
that's something we would have to work out with Anna and Kuna and, then, I'd have to
go back and we take a look at our budget. As Anna had indicated, there is -- we have a
new staff member -- the board has been really interested -- there is a software program
out there called Community Viz and it does any number of things. It does visualization,
it does alternative analysis, it can do anything from lot sizes to -- but it also does
financial analysis in terms of sewer pipe sizing and road sizing and, you know, the
different alternatives and we have brought a staff member on board and one of her
primary responsibilities is to be a modeler utilizing Community Viz. She has a very
strong background in GIS. We have to do some training over the next month or two for
her, but we thought this would be a good opportunity to fold her into this process and
maybe start utilizing that tool also. So, you know, obviously, it would -- I'd have to go
back and look at the budget, we'd have to take that to the board.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: It sounds like with that software you can eliminate most of your staff.
Friedman: Well, not entirely. I think some of them have been working hard enough
they wouldn't mind a little assistance if they could just push the buttons, but--
De Weerd: Any other questions, Council? Okay. Thank you, Pete.
Friedman: Thank you.
De Weerd: Do you have any comments? Okay. If you will state your name for the
record.
Bachman: My name is Lisa Bachman. I work for the City of Kuna. Madam Mayor and
Council, I, actually, wasn't prepared to speak or do any presentations. I was under the
impression there was just going to be a discussion --
De Weerd: We are -- we are informal.
Bachman: -- and not -- right. And not necessarily a decision tonight on the Southern
Meridian proposed area of impact boundary. I guess if I may ask a question, I was just
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 35 of 55
wondering if that was going to be decided tonight and if that's going to be official or if
there is going to be a Public Hearing that we could partake in.
De Weerd: This is an item just for the discussion to get feedback from Council and give
staff an idea of direction, as well to give an idea to Kuna what -- what the general ideas
were.
Bachman: Okay.
De Weerd: Certainly, the reason -- I guess for you and for Council at this point, when --
we have had discussions between the sewer side of things and the discussions I have
had with Mayor Obray is he wanted a permanent line and certainly a permanent line for
us was needed almost in terms of do we agree to sewer an area that wouldn't be
Meridian's and would it at least be 50 percent for us to make it a good business choice
for our city and for rate payers. And so when we last got together Mayor Obray had
come with lines and it was slightly modified to what you see in the blue line. This
compromise I think is what feedback your city engineer gave our Public Works
Department and wanting those two southern square miles and this is their idea. If you --
at that point we were at a 50-50 in the sewer-ability, so I think as Len said, it was kind of
his attempt to -- to balance the sewer area, so that it still was a good business choice,
as well as what has been requested by property owners in that area, too. So, I don't
think that Council is being asked to draw a firm line in the sand, I still think that that is
going to be an exercise in the public participation, but as you go to the public, you do
want to come with a plan that they can comment on.
Bachman: Okay.
De Weerd: I know that didn't answer your question directly.
Bachman: Basically, are you going -- I guess what I was wondering is if you will be
deciding if you're going to go ahead with the blue line or the yellow line, to go forward
with your Comp Plan study.
De Weerd: I just talk. They have the vote. Council, anyone want to attempt an
answer?
Wardle: Madam Mayor, I think we are certainly going to get to that after we hear from a
couple other people and some of the staff members, we should probably be able to give
you at least a preference to go home with this evening.
Bachman: Okay. Just the concern there, if I may, Madam Mayor and Council. The
Mayor and Diana Sanders, the Planning Director, came to me today -- they are,
actually, at the town hall meeting tonight for Kuna. Otherwise, they would have been
here. They quickly briefed me kind of on the history, which you verified, on the
boundaries that have been discussed and they were under the impression that we had
kind of an agreement on the blue line and they were sort of surprised to learn today
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 36 of 55
about the yellow line. And I guess we just wanted to be able, as Anna was stating and
Pete, through agreeing on the new area of impact southern boundary for you, northern
boundary for Kuna, we would like to come to an agreement prior to going forward with
an integrated study that they talked about. So, we want to do the integrated study, we
want to work together with Ada County, Meridian, Kuna, and together we think that
would be in the best interest for the community, but we feel that this boundary should be
agreed upon and established prior to going forward with integrating.
De Weerd: I appreciate that and that's the first time I have seen it, too.
Bachman: Okay. Yeah. We were just -- like I said, I didn't have anything formally
prepared.
De Weerd: But I do believe that -- Len, their City Engineer came back to you and said
that they -- you needed to move the most southern line up a mile.
Grady: Madam Mayor, Bill Nary and myself attended a -- sort of a workshop at Kuna
last week and during that workshop they actually approached us with the concept of
carving some of Meridian's area of impact off and I thought, well, beings we are
considering that, we also need to consider adding some back. So, they opened the
door and we sort of took that opportunity to make an adjustment. And I did -- it
shouldn't have been a surprise. I did let Keven Shreeves, the City Engineer, know
yesterday that we finally had the yellow line at least in concept and so that there
wouldn't be a surprise, so --
De Weerd: Okay. Well, if we -- if Council would like you to -- if you have additional
comment after we have heard from everyone, certainly we will invite you to come
forward again.
Bachman: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Thanks, Lisa. Okay. We have additional comment. If you will,
please, state your name for the record.
Johnson: I'm Greg Johnson. I reside at 1280 East Pienza in Meridian.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Johnson: Thanks. First of all, I would like to get -- I didn't understand fully what Anna
was talking about on timing. Anna, the dates of June and December that you're
discussing, is that for an additional comp plan to the sub area plan that is being -- would
be worked out with the county?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we are only proposing one plan.
Meridian would adopt an Ada -- a Meridian -- south Meridian Comprehensive Plan. We
wouldn't adopt an Ada County sub area plan, Ada County will do that. So, it's just -- it
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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would just be our Comprehensive Plan amendment to the line -- whatever, blue, yellow,
fuchsia, magenta line that may be.
Johnson: But the land use would be the process that we are going through if we go
through this with the county, that -- that would all be discussed and decided in that
process, wouldn't it?
Canning: Yes, sir. Along with a collector road system, things like that.
Johnson: So, once that's in place, couldn't that simply be adopted by the City of
Meridian?
Canning: That's the idea. Yeah.
Johnson: Okay. I guess I'm confused at the time frame, then.
Canning: I have to package it in a Comprehensive Plan amendment. We are all
working on Comprehensive Plan amendments at the same time that need to meet the
requirements of our various jurisdictions.
Johnson: Okay. So, for land in this area, then, what would be the soonest that we
could apply for annexation, zoning, and a preliminary plat?
Canning: The annexation and the zoning with the Unified Development Code text
amendment could occur as soon as I can get that text amendment done, which if I
submit it by the 15th, it would get up to Council four to five months later. The actual
approvals, the soonest you could submit for development approvals would be
December of 2006.
Johnson: But it could be annexed prior to that?
Canning: Yes, sir.
Johnson: But you wouldn't review a preliminary plat or a specific zoning?
Canning: No. But we would -- as a major landholder in the area, you would certainly be
included with any of the planning discussions.
Johnson: So, if it was -- if that proposal for annexation that was in compliance with what
was being discussed at the county, we could proceed immediately after December, if
that's the date when it --
Canning: You could submit it December 15th concurrent with my Comprehensive Plan
amendment and they would travel together to Planning and Zoning Commission and
City Council.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 38 of 55
Johnson: Okay.
Canning: And I apologize, Madam Mayor, Members of Council, this all came up starting
yesterday. I figured this whole thing out at 5:00 and I didn't have an opportunity to notify
some of the interested parties, Mr. Johnson being one of them, so --
Johnson: That's okay, Anna. I probably wouldn't have understood anyway. Just to
give you a little history on this. To the -- is there a pointer here?
Bird: It's on a little chain right there, Greg.
Johnson: Okay. This area in brown is currently by the designation of blue designated
to go into the Kuna area. I also -- it's approximately 600 acres. There is -- plus or
minus. In this section and this section and in this section here we have another total of
approximately 800 acres there. When Len and Anna and others began discussing the
idea that possibly the City of Meridian was willing to put a pump station over here along
Mason Creek and pump this back to your sewage system and, then, later build a
treatment plant there -- I acquired this ground between 1998 and 2003 and some of it is
still under contract and hasn't been closed, but the majority of it's closed. We have
been -- in fact, Anna Canning in her previous employment worked three years with me
on a good portion of this site, with the idea of doing a planned community in the county
with this parcel. Part of it has since been preliminary platted for non-farm subdivisions
in the county, which we prefer not to do. They are inactive plats that we have extended,
but we are not planning on developing. We have tried a number of times to annex to
Kuna and even offered to build a treatment system for them. We have been denied on
all those accounts. It has been a long and expensive process. When the opportunity
came that Meridian was willing and able to come to this area with sewer and wanted to,
I was more than happy to cooperate. The one thing that I did ask both Len and Anna is
if you decide to put this in your impact area, please, take all of it. Don't put me in the
middle of the two cities. And Mason Creek drainage -- basically the -- I believe the lift
station is approximately there. Is that correct, Len?
Grady: That's correct.
Johnson: Mason Creek drainage comes right through here, splits my property, flows all
the way through. It really is where the main trunk line to drain the Mason Creek
drainage should be built. It drains that entire area between the Kuna lateral and the
ridge -- the ridge that runs down through this property. There is a canal that runs along
there. It's the center of the drainage and if you're going to sewer it, it logically is where
the trunk line should be built. A few weeks ago when this blue line was drawn, I met
with the Mayor of Kuna and the city -- part of the city council people, we discussed
sewer. If Meridian was going to provide the sewer I wanted to build Meridian sewer.
They were very adamant that if it's in Kuna that Kuna will own the trunk lines and will
own the distribution lines and they mayor may not sell sewage to Meridian. So, I would
just ask that which ever way you decide, draw the line and -- but don't put me in the
middle of the conflict between the two cities. I need to deal with one or the other or do a
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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planned community in the county and build my own sewer treatment plant. But I need
to know which direction it's going to go here pretty soon and I would really like to work
with the City of Meridian. You have been good to work with in the past. Sometimes you
have asked me to wait a little bit. We might not have done so patiently, but we waited
and --
De Weerd: Talk about understatements.
Johnson: You know, I think we have had a good working relationship with the city and
we want to continue to. We would love to have this property served by you, but it -- and
I think it's fairly critical if Meridian is going to serve the Mason Creek area, that you run
your trunk lines through here so that you can.
De Weerd: Now, Len, I guess I -- since you were at the meeting last week, what did the
statement mean that Greg thought he heard from Kuna, that if they do Mason Creek
they mayor may not do sewer to Meridian. What does that mean?
Grady: I'd just be speculating. Until we get this --
De Weerd: That's not what they said at the meeting?
Grady: No. Their indications were -- they were concerned that we were going to force
our sewer services on them and I said, no, that's not the case, we -- I don't see why we
would force our services on anybody. If they choose to take advantage of a regional lift
station, we need to know up front and we need to work out that agreement. If they
choose to go their own way with lift stations and ponds, we need to know that up front
also, so we can size our lines. I'm not sure --
De Weerd: So, Len, they are still -- they will have not made a decision, then, on -- that
we would service that Mason Creek area and that they would -- they would have an
agreement with us similar to the Eagle-Boise agreement or Boise-Garden City
agreement that they would -- that we would treat their sewer.
Grady: When Bill and myself met with them, they had four options on the board
showing various ways of financing their sewer options. When asked about what we
could provide, I said, you know, obviously, if it makes sense to our taxpayers and your
taxpayers, we are going to be virtually doubling our plant capacity here in the next year
or, you know, maybe it makes sense that we could work out an agreement to take your
sewer until you get some other facilities online, we get cash flow, it saves them -- it
saves them cash flow. If it makes sense, we should do that. There was what I would
consider some interest in that option -- and this is just pure speculation on my point, but
definitely the crux of their discussion seemed to be focused around going their own way.
Johnson: Maybe I didn't explain it clearly. If they annex it and approve a plat, they want
to own all of the infrastructure within the subdivision. Sewer. Water. Pressurize
irrigation. All of those facilities. At this point they are still proposing to treat it with their
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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own treatment system. The issue I have with that is they would like us as developers to
fund the treatment plant. My portion of the treatment plant would be about eight million
dollars. The interest on eight million dollars in a year at current rates is about 800,000.
They are willing to issue me over the next three years 100 permits a year. That only
allows me to debt service half of that interest, let alone no principal. And so, you know,
I have told them that that's not a reasonable proposal. They have got to let me develop
at market rates, so that if the market will bear it I could develop 500 or 600 lots to repay
that eight million dollars fairly quickly, so that we can get that debt off of our books. If
we were to develop in the county and had control of our own, then, we could payoff that
sewer treatment plant rapidly. Or if we developed in the county and could sell sewer to
Meridian, that wouldn't be an issue, we would pay for those as we issue building
permits, similar to what we do now. So, Kuna has two options. They can have their
voters approve a bond issue that would build a sewer treatment plant, which they don't
feel will be approved and/or they can go to an LID. The reason I would prefer to be in
the City of Meridian is even with that LID, I'm not confident that a sewer treatment plant
will get approved by DEQ in that area in less than five or six years, because there are
no streams there that are live streams. So, it's not a normal discharge permit into a
Boise River or a canal or a drain ditch that flows year around. It's a dry stream. Both
Indian Creek dry up -- and Indian Creek also is complicated, because it is operated by
Boise Project and, therefore, water dumped into there where they eventually get into
Lake Lowell, so that I'm not really confident that if I had money right now we would have
sewer there for six or seven years and I would really prefer to go this route.
De Weerd: I guess for Councilman Borton, one of our goals -- and talking about sewer
in this area -- and we were working towards a regional concept. We feel that set aside
any areas of impact, this is a region -- and probably one entity could best serve it, in
particular in that Mason Creek area. There is going to be future challenges for some of
the county subs that will most likely need city services and so we wanted to look at it as
a -- as a region and that is why we approached them. We knew their time frame, we
knew they were almost out of sewer capacity, and they needed to do something. We
wanted to make sure there was enough time for all the affected entities to look at it as a
region. So, we even offered the lift station idea to come and get them out of the
urgency of doing something hastily that might affect the long-term health of that region.
We did go ahead and proceed to look at the Mason Creek drainage, that it would be an
area we would serve, since we did have service needs even in our reference area that
we would need to serve as well. So, there was a service need and a sewer need. So,
we needed to look at what our -- our options were. I guess that's what's got us to this
point. Still, I guess I didn't realize they were not looking at just that one option. As we
left that room with Mayor Obray, that was what I walked away with, is we were looking
at the Mason Creek area as an area that only one person served and that would be
Meridian.
Grady: Just along those same lines, Madam Mayor, is I did have a follow-up
conversation with Keven Shreeve and he did inform me that a Mason Creek plant was
still on the books and that's why we went over to their workshop to find out, first of all, if
it truly did seem like it was still on the books and how exactly were they going to fund it.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Prior to that -- or during that workshop I did emphasize that this line that we have drawn
is contingent on only one regional lift station plant in that area and Mayor Obray did
confirm that -- and I think his exact words were that we did beat him to the punch. We
have already applied for a discharge permit and he would probably end up backing off
and going to Indian Creek with his plant. But, again, I didn't get a real good feeling that
they were interested in taking advantage of our regional solution.
De Weerd: Oh. Okay.
Johnson: I believe with the Indian Creek proposal they would still put in lift stations that
would, then, pump that sewage over to that treatment plant.
De Weerd: Okay.
Johnson: That's my understanding anyway. Approximately at Ten Mile and Lake
Hazel.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions for Mr. Johnson?
Bird: I have none, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further?
Rountree: Thanks for the input and the kind words.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other comments? Lisa, any follow up?
Bachman: Again, for the record, my name is Lisa Bachman. I guess -- I don't know if I
can really request this, but I am requesting that a decision not be made tonight on the
southern line and that we coordinate some sort of workshop with the City of Kuna or
some sort of meeting where it could all be discussed and agreed upon, so that we don't
have a situation that Pete referenced to like an Eagle and Star. I'm just being kind of
blunt about it. I think it would be beneficial to both cities to be in agreement and not
have any -- basically, we want to be given a chance to discuss this and not have just --
a decision made tonight where there has just been these little -- these meetings that
weren't really official, because this is outside of what was talked about in the meeting, is
what I understand. So, I don't know if you were going to make a decision tonight or if
you could possibly postpone and maybe schedule a workshop of some sort with the city
of Kuna.
De Weerd: Well, that would be at the direction of Council, but since you want to be a
little blunt, I will be a little blunt, too. We have offered time and time again to meet with
Kuna and we have had very little response. And so it has been a very frustrating
exercise. I can tell you the information I get has been extremely moving target and we
have been accused of stonewalling, we have reached out and have contacted -- I won't
tell you what -- my staff has had nothing but integrity and has met with stonewalls from
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Kuna that have been very frustrating. So, I would like to say, you know, I appreciate
what position you're in tonight as well and I don't think that in light of our public noticing
we are going to make a decision. But Council needs to give our staff direction on their
preferences and how they want us to move forward. That's not a line firmly drawn, but
at least it gives us something to go back and talk with your city about and I think it's very
fair to offer a joint meeting. We have been at the table numerous times for Kuna.
Bachman: Right. And, you know, that was the whole point in me coming tonight,
basically, was that they felt that they had discussed the blue line, but the yellow line
they hadn't had a chance to discuss with anybody from the city. So, they just wanted
me to see if we could talk about that again before you make a decision. That's all.
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Kind of líke it moved last time when we happened over there and
they didn't tell us. So, we all need to get better at this communication thing.
Bachman: I completely agree with you.
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: Madam Mayor, just for clarification, talking about official meetings. This is the
second of meetings that I know that the entire Council has been involved in. The first
was our joint meeting which we noticed and met with DEQ and a number of Kuna
representatives, including the mayor and council members. So, certainly, this -- in
October and certainly this is a follow up to that meeting, just to clarify for the record.
Bachman: Okay. Thank you.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council -- and not -- if I'm not mistaken -- and
maybe Mr. Nary can help me out, but I don't think the line becomes, quote, unquote,
official until you adopt a Comprehensive Plan amendment that sets it as the boundary.
So, that is a ways down the road.
De Weerd: And I think it is -- has been fairly stated that it still would go through a public
process and that wouldn't necessarily mean that that wouldn't move either. I know it
would be the preference of all staff to kind of have a line that they could take to the
public and to discuss specifically and I know that's kind of what the county has
indicated, too. It would be nice if the cities could come up with a line and I think for the
public we would be doing them a good service to come up with a line. But it's -- I don't
know if it's always that easy. But we will find out, because we have a reasonable
Council.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Rountree: I agree with what Anna said. I think at this point to draw a line in the sand is
premature. It is a public process that needs to be done. We have heard from Mr.
Johnson that he didn't necessarily participate in drawing the blue line, yet he's on the
side of the blue line that he -- if he had his druthers he would be on the other side of the
blue line. So, it does take the communities getting together and listening to the public.
Certainly there is going to be people that want to be in Meridian, there is going to be
people that want to be in Kuna, and there is going to be people that don't want to be
either/or. And I think we need to hear that and I would hope that we can come together
as civilized communities and work through this process for the betterment of everybody
that lives in this area. The reality is it is going to develop at some point in time. How
best can we look at that and how best can we have that happen and occur at the most
reasonable expenditure of public funds? That, in my mind, requires the public process
and it requires a public process that does include all the entities, as well as all the
citizenry. I think we do both the communities a disservice if we take out on our own and
I think we need the county in there to participate as well, because they are going to be --
they balance this in the end anyway by statute. No matter how you want to slice it, they
are going to make the final call. So, I don't think at this point that the dialogue ought to
be about a line, we ought to have some general agreement that maybe there is a gray
swatch through there right now, because I have heard that we had a blue line and, then,
we have had some dialogue and now we have got a yellow line and it's a balancing
process. Let's go through the public involvement process, let's go through the planning
process, let's find where that line best ought to be. It might, more than likely, become a
green line.
De Weerd: What's a green line?
Rountree: Blue and yellow make green.
De Weerd: Yes. Thank you for that clarification.
Rountree: Your physics lesson.
De Weerd: Primary colors.
Rountree: Yes.
Grady: Madam Mayor, that exact concept was what I threw out to Keven Shreeve
initially, was that we throw a gray area around that and get public input. Unfortunately, I
believe Kuna has several annexation paths which they have been very aggressively
pushing forward and, basically, I think until we find out -- until we can sort of -- I mean if
we spend 12 months with a comp plan and they are annexing north with several
different paths, that's -- we are going to be left behind. I think the whole process -- the
whole reason we sort of pushed so hard was because of their aggressive push north. If
we could put an end to that, I would fully agree that some sort of logical decision could
be made.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: Just to follow up on staff's comments and one of the things that I have
understood to be a policy of the City of Meridian, which I believe staff, in drawing a new
yellow line, has put into place and that is, as I understand it, the City of Meridian -- its
growth patterns has tried to submit to the requests of property owners which are
affected and so when I -- it didn't surprise me when Len said property owners in a
portion of the area wanted to go to Kuna and, then, another portion of people wanted to
come to Meridian. The staff would just make that change, because I think it's been
something the City of Meridian has done in the past when people ask to be annexed or
to bring their properties into the city, it has become commonplace for us to do that. I
agree with Councilman Rountree that we certainly need much more public involvement,
but in regard to staff drawing that yellow line, I think we just took it right out of a play
book that we have been doing for years as a city, so certainly something to be
considered.
De Weerd: I guess I just offer one more thought and in the need for a line at some point
and it's in planning our sewer. If Kuna doesn't need -- if they want to discharge into
Indian Creek and they are going to pump something somewhere, we need to size our
pipes accordingly to serve the land that is being desired to be brought into our city and
we need to be planning for that, even as the county and the two cities move forward
with the land use side of it, if the commitment is to serve a certain area, we have to start
planning for that.
Watson: I have been listening to this and Len and Anna have done a good job and I
have really enjoyed the dialogue in getting some direction. It really helps to have this
out in the open for us. Len and I have spent so many hours discussing this over the last
several months that it's almost like, oh, man, let's take a day off of that subject.
De Weerd: We did have a moratorium on that subject for a couple days.
Watson: I did impose a moratorium for three days one time on Kuna issues and south
area issues. The one thing that I just want to make sure everyone's aware of as far as
public works and the sewer issues are concerned is we have multiple contracts out
there right now. The term I used earlier today in our meeting was we are going to blow
and go on this and what makes that difficult without a line is we don't know how big of a
blow and go we need to have, because we can't get a commitment from the city to the
south. All I'm saying is there may be a little bit of wasted effort here in the next few
months, because we are going to plan big, with the understanding that eventually they
will want to buy some capacity from us. The only other thing I want to point out and
make it very clear that if we do have a joint meeting and we are asked questions during
that joint meeting, those should be given to us in advance, because to date we have
shown up at meetings and been asked questions cold, very technical questions that we
can't answer. And I think that may be where that phrase stonewalling may have come
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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from in past correspondence. I had ask repeatedly for written questions, detailed
questions, so that I can put some thought to them and answer them. So, if we do
schedule something, those need to be addressed to you, I think, and passed on down to
staff.
De Weerd: Brad, I think you need to give Council an idea of what kind of time frame
you need to make the appropriate plans for sizing of pipe and, then, you just set a
deadline to Kuna, because we need to move forward with our own planning and I think
we have gone on long enough that we are at that point where we have to paint or get off
the ladder. I just heard that last week.
Watson: That's much better for a public hearing.
De Weerd: I kind of like that one.
Nary: That's not the way I heard it.
Bird: That's not the way I used to say it.
De Weerd: But I guess, you know -- and I think their council's also at that point where
they have to make a decision for their citizens on how they are going to move forward.
So, you need to look at it internally as far as when decisions need to be made and set a
deadline, so that we can move forward with the planning that we have committed to -- to
all these other properties in south Meridian, not just the properties that are not in
agreement with right now, so -- and if Council feels comfortable with that, I guess, then,
staff can come back with some time frames and give you a clear indication of what they
will likely plan for based on what they hear back from Kuna.
Watson: We can do that.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I agree with just what you said, let the staff do that, but I also think we need to
make one more attempt to get with Kuna, like Councilman Wardle said, we met with
them once down there and, then, it's kind of been stonewalled from then on. We was
supposed to have another meeting and it's been -- it was canceled and canceled and
canceled. So, like Councilman Rountree, I'm not ready to draw a permanent line. I
think there is a lot of -- we need a lot of public input. I'm sure there is a lot of
landowners that own a lot of land that would like to be flat truthful and blunt, they want
to go to the place that's going to get sewer to them first. And, then, I'm sure there is
some out there that could care less. So, I think we need a lot more input before we
come up with a deal, but I believe we still need to drudge forward like public works has.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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De Weerd: Council, we have two new council members in Kuna and so if you would
like us to try and set up a workshop and -- I know we have a workshop next month for
our annual workshop. We have the county that we have committed to giving a tour of.
We can maybe ask Kuna to come up before one of your Tuesday meetings and one of
their off nights. What would be your preference? Certainly I think it needs to be in the
next several weeks.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: I'm wholeheartedly bringing it on one -- I don't know, do they meet twice a month?
So, they have some free Tuesdays that they could come in early. I don't think you can
delay this. I think we need to get it done.
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: We can certainly expedite this, get it on a schedule, but I'm going to tell you
right now that if we schedule a lunch meeting and it gets canceled the morning of, it's
very difficult for our Council and the people in their professions and jobs just to cancel
those meetings when we know that we would be here. So, I will work with the city
clerk's office to schedule a meeting that the expectation will be full attendance and I
know that we can make that happen.
Bird: Good.
De Weerd: Okay. Can we like shoot for -- do you meet on the first and third Tuesdays?
Do you think we can schedule something for the 14th before our Council meeting?
Bird: That's Valentine's Day and we will all be sweet, go along --
Nary: It's Anna's birthday.
Rountree: She can bring the --
Bird: She's four days older than I am.
Canning: I wanted to take the night off for my birthday, but no.
De Weerd: It's a sweetheart of a deal, Anna.
Bird: We will see that the clerk gets you some flowers for that -- for your birthday.
Johnson: I will volunteer to pay for them.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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Bird: There we go. Did you hear that, Will?
De Weerd: It has to be -- there is dollar --
Bird: I know you're only 29, but 29 red roses would be nice.
Canning: That would be nice.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: In light of the comments of Mr. Johnson and Len and Anna, for a meeting like
this is it necessary for the Council to have some preliminary position if -- not drawing a
line in the sand today, but if the new position in preparation for this meeting would be
the yellow dotted line as we go forward, so we are not going to meet and they think we
are going to talk about the blue, we think we are talking about the yellow line, it seems
to make sense to me that the yellow dotted line, for discussion purposes, would be a
good place for Meridian to propose that boundary to be and for Kuna to be aware of that
now and be prepared to show up at that meeting to discuss that boundary.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: I'd have no problem with that and I'd also -- you know, we are -- we took -- our
yellow took three miles and we are only giving back basically two. I would have no
problem going up to Hubbard with our line. I don't know why we need to go down. It
makes sense to me, because -- I mean we are only three-quarters of a mile from Kuna's
City limits down there and it would be easy -- and I think, if I remember right, that -- from
one of those road it sewers back to the west and the other one, then, does sewer into
Mason Creek, am I not right, Brad? Okay.
De Weerd: Again, it was -- the blue line was just to give more of a 50-50 and certainly
we can move that yellow line up north to go straight across on Hubbard from Linder on
over.
Bird: That would be my preference at this point.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: I was just going to -- Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I was just going to
follow up on Council member Borton's statement. I think just to clarify kind of where the
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January 24, 2006
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staff has been on this particular issue and what's really before you tonight, because the
Mayor had mentioned -- noticed this as one of the discussion points as well -- I think the
staff was simply seeking some direction on some consultants and the joint effort versus
doing it simply for Meridian -- Meridian's use only and, then, coordinating that effort both
with the county and Kuna. I think the person from Kuna indicated that there may be an
interest to Kuna on whether a joint effort is in their interest, depending on the line. I
don't know if that's the same as this Council's position or not. You don't have to make
that decision today. I think as Councilmember Borton and all of you have stated in
various ways, you don't have to decide today where the lines belong; you certainly want
to hear the public's testimony, as you stated. I think all the staffs wanting is some
direction towards setting a joint meeting trying to proceed with a joint effort, unless that
is not practical or that isn't desired by the other city, if that is dependent to them on
where the line is to be drawn up front and Council's decision is that lines are really
dependent upon the public testimony and input and sewer-ability and some other issues
that have to be part of this study and southern boundary area evaluation by some other
parties, then, you can certainly proceed that way. I think that's all you're really being
asked to do tonight. So, I don't know that maybe the folks from Kuna understood that all
you were really looking at was some direction on some studies and that these were
proposed and these are simply just, again, not lines in the sand, but simply some talking
points to have. But if it's not in their interest to want to make a joint effort just because
the lines aren't drawn up front, then, I guess this Council would have to decide whether,
then, we proceed in another fashion and still go through the public process and the
other things you have already discussed. So, I just wanted to follow up just to clarify I
think that's where we started was trying to make sure that we stayed on that track and I
think because we have had a lot more information, that we may have kind of digressed
from that a little.
De Weerd: Well, I think, too, Councilman Bird was trying to be sensitive to maybe what
the perspective was on Kuna's council side, so --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
Grady: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton. If you will wait for just a minute. If you will wait for just a
minute. Mr. Borton.
Borton: No. My only remark was if you're moving the yellow line or discussing moving
the yellow line up to Hubbard as an option, that you have that discussion and just make
sure that Kuna doesn't hear about it. It seems like a little bit of horse trading there, so I
thought that was an interesting remark to throw out. That's all.
De Weerd: Okay. Len.
Grady: Both Anna and I would appreciate at least some sort of indication, so that -- we
realize that the line is -- it's going to be moved, it's -- you know, there will be some input
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
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and it may adjust, but we would at least appreciate some guidance on what the
indications are, whether it's the yellow or the blue or something in between.
De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Perspective on something.
Johnson: I would just like to comment that--
Nary: State your name again, Greg.
Johnson: Greg Johnson. At this same meeting it would be very helpful for the
landowners in this area to also not only resolve where the gray line is or the green line --
I like green. Green usually indicates go. So, green is a very good --
De Weerd: Oh, my gosh.
Johnson: -- color to use. Can we also get determined, though, who is serving this
drainage for sewer? That both cities agree who is serving this drainage for sewer,
because that's more critical to me than who I'm annexing to or --
De Weerd: And let me help you for--
Johnson: Okay.
De Weerd: The Council gave direction to staff to plan a sewer system to drain into
Mason Creek. That is what our staff is doing and that is what our intent is.
Johnson: That's fine, as long as both cities agree. But if I annex into Kuna and they tell
me I can't do that, that's a problem. Then, I get caught between the two cities.
De Weerd: Well, I guess if Kuna doesn't want--
Johnson: But why couldn't we work that out?
De Weerd: -- to work with Meridian for a more of a regional sewer system to where we
serve an area and they serve an area within their city and buy sewer from us, then, we
sewer the area if they don't want that kind of an agreement.
Johnson: But I think we could at this same meeting, as long as we are all here together,
we could work out that line for annexation and impact areas and also come to a final
agreement, so that you're not oversizing things.
De Weerd: That would be the -- that would be the hope. And the expectation, I think,
then, after staff is -- we have to draw a permanent line for our sewer at some point and
we would hope it would be after that meeting and that's what we asked Brad to put
together is what time frame does he need that information by, so we can move forward
with sizing our pipes and planning our system.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 50 of 55
Johnson: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Are we all on the same page?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, should I then -- I just need a little more
direction on if I should wait or go forward with a joint or go forward with a Meridian effort
or just wait for two weeks.
De Weerd: I think you need to move forward.
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Wardle.
Wardle: My preference, Anna, would be to move forward with joint effort --
Canning: Okay.
Wardle: -- as opposed to Meridian going it alone.
Canning: I will try to have a scope of work figured out -- that's going to be tricky -- to be
able to hand out. I don't know if I will be able to get it in advance of that meeting for you
to study it, but I will try and have one available for that meeting.
De Weerd: And, Lisa, you will bring back to your mayor the request for February 14th
joint meeting at 5:00 o'clock here at City Hall?
Bachman: Yes, I will.
De Weerd: Okay. And I will send him a letter inviting him and we will feed them as well.
I always heard fed them and they will come, but -- and --
Johnson: Am I invited?
De Weerd: Not for dinner.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: If it's a workshop type of discussion, do you want -- sometimes the forum here is
a little harder to have that. Do you want to have it at the police department?
De Weerd: We will have it at the police department if the chief could check the
availability.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 51 of 55
Nary: And waive the fee.
De Weerd: And waive the fee. And, certainly, the public -- I mean any joint meeting --
we post all of our meetings. They are all public. So, you're certainly invited. Yes, Lisa,
you will have to come up to the mike.
Bachman: For the record, again, my name is Lisa Bachman. I would want to check
their schedules, of course, before we set this date in stone, just to make sure.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bachman: So, if a different date may need to be discussed, would that be all right?
De Weerd: Well--
Bachman: Give me a choice or--
De Weerd: We don't have anything available before then is the thing. Before our
regular meeting. But you could get back with the clerk.
Bachman: Okay. We'll contact the clerk.
Wardle: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Thank you. Yes.
Wardle: The clerk and I can certainly work that out. We have got an audit which will be
coming forward in a presentation and some other things, but we will get them worked
out.
Bird: That was supposed to come forward tonight.
De Weerd: It's coming forward next week is what--
Bird: The audit is coming forward on a workshop? I don't think so.
That's a public --
De Weerd: Okay. Well, workshops are regular agenda, so we can work together on
that. Okay. If there is no -- Council, tomorrow night is the Meth in Meridian
presentation and I would love it if we had a good showing of our elected officials at that
public presentation and so that is tomorrow. Doors open at 6:30. Presentation starts at
7:00 and I would love to have you join us at the middle school.
Bird: And, Madam Mayor, can I add to that?
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 52 of 55
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: Tell all your friends, especially the ones that's got kids ten years old -- and older to
come and bring their children with them. It's something that everybody -- we don't need
to have bunch of old grandparents out there. We need parents and children and we
need everybody there. This is an opportunity that the Mayor and her Council put
together that we need to have a very very strong turnout.
De Weerd: I agree. And, unfortunately, people judge the severity of a problem based
on attendance and if it's not well attended people will walk away wondering if there
really is a problem and there really is a problem, so --
Rountree: Has this been highlighted and advertised in the schools?
De Weerd: It has. It's on every door we could put it on and they should have come
home with fliers yesterday and I know my junior high student did -- or my middle
schooler did.
Rountree: Well, I don't have a student anymore, so that's why I asked.
De Weerd: It's has been in the media --
Bird: We have printed out invitations back there, Charlie, that --
Rountree: I got my invitation, but I just --
Bird: We need to fill that auditorium with parents and young people. They need to hear
this message.
De Weerd: Yes, they do. So, thank you. Is there any other business in front of Council
tonight?
Item 14:
Tabled from January 17, 2006: Ordinance No. : AZ
05-017 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 137.96 acres from RUT to
R-8 zone for Messina Meadows Subdivision by Tuscany Development,
Inc. - on South Eagle Road between East Victory Road and East Amity
Road:
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the applicants on Item No. 14 that
was requested for continuance is asking that Council reconsider that decision. His
engineer made that decision for him and he's asking that it be reconsidered.
Bird: Do you want to do it tonight?
Canning: The issue was the development agreement was missing a formal
commitment on the part of the developer to construct a small portion of off-site roadway.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 53 of 55
They have committed through their construction plans to bringing sewer and water
through that portion of roadway and they fully intended to build that portion of roadway
off site, it's just not in the development agreement. He's indicated that the two week
delay or three week delay is -- I think he said killing him, but it's -- so, it can't happen
unless that gets done. He suggested that perhaps we make it approved contingent on
him getting the development agreement -- or maybe the city attorney can help me out
on this, but --
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: One of them is an ordinance. We can't pass an ordinance on a contingency, can
we? But we -- I mean the ordinance -- I mean the other -- there is no reason to pass it if
we can't pass the ordinance. And we can't pass that on contingency.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's been a standard practice of Meridian
for quite awhile to not pass those annexation ordinances until the development
agreements are completed. There is an issue here that, again, probably this is not
going to be a problem, but we have seen many times that what seemed like not a
problem became a problem later because of some other circumstance that we had no
idea. This agreement -- this development agreement was sent to developers in
September. So, it's not like this is something that the city has sat on for four months,
the developer has sat on this for four months for other reasons and that's fine, but this is
an issue that did come up regarding this and this is something that they have agreed to
make sure to include. If you want to pass your ordinance you can and you can do the
development agreement later. It is the only mechanism, really, in which to enforce
these types of conditions. I will have the development agreement amended and
prepared by next week. If you want to add that as part of your workshop, you can.
Your workshop is no different than any other meeting. So, you could have a consent
agenda, you can take items up and, then, you can have a workshop. So, you can do it
if you want to do it, you don't have to. But that's your option. But I just would be
hesitant setting that practice of passing your annexation ordinance prior to having
completed development agreements, because it is your only tool, sometimes, to enforce
that later and if something were to occur that would be -- we would be the ones kicking
ourselves.
De Weerd: Okay. Council?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 54 of 55
Rountree: My preference -- I agree with what Bill said, because we oftentimes put
ourselves in a corner. I see no reason why we couldn't take this up for a few minutes on
a workshop and get it done, assuming we can get the development agreement
modified.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: So, do we need a new motion to change the date certain?
Berg: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. So, that was --
Rountree: Do we have to have a motion to bring it off the table --
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Rountree, technically,
what you should do is move to reconsider your prior action on 5-A and Item 14. If that is
affirmative, then, you can, then -- to reconsider that, then, you can move to set it over to
one week.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I move that we reconsider our previous action on this
evening's agenda 5-A and 14.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion to reconsider 5-A and 14. All in favor say aye. Okay. All
ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, move that we -- did we table them before?
Bird: Yeah, we did.
Rountree: -- Table Items 5-A and Item 14 until our next regularly schedule meeting,
which will be --
De Weerd: 31. Our special meeting.
Rountree: -- January 31, our special meeting workshop at 6:00 o'clock.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Motion is to table Items 5-A and 14 to January 31,2006. All those
in favor say aye. Okay. All ayes. Motion carries.
Meridian City Council
January 24, 2006
Page 55 of 55
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: I will entertain a motion to adjourn.
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. All those in favor?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:44 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
.2- / 7 / ¿Jb
DATE APPROVED