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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 20, 2005 P&Z Minutes Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 29 of 37 Moe: I move that we move the public hearings on -- Borup: Why not just say so moved. Mae: Pardon me? Zaremba: Just say so moved. Borup: Why don't you just say so moved of what he said. Moe: Oh. So moved. Borup: Second. Zaremba: We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Anyopposed? That motion carries. Thank you. MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. Zaremba: We will take about a ten-minute break and, then, we will reconvene on the last item. (Recess.) Item 12: Item 13: Item 14: Public Hearing: AZ 05-045 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 91.085 acres from RUT to R-4 zone for Reflection Ridge Subdivision by M & H Development, LLC - 4275 South Locust Grove Road: Public Hearing: PP 05-048 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 255 building lots and 25 other lots on 91.085 acres in a proposed R-4 zone for Reflection Ridge Subdivision by M & H Development, LLC - 4275 South Locust Grove Road: Public Hearing: CUP 05-046 Request for a Conditional Use Permit for a Planned Development for 255 single-family residential dwelling units with reductions to minimum lot sizes, frontage and setbacks. Also, the applicant is requesting a waiver for the standard block length in a proposed R-4 zone for Reflection Ridge Subdivision by M & H Development, LLC - 4275 South Locust Grove Road: Zaremba: Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, we will reconvene and let the record show that all the Commissioners that were here before the break are again present and I will open the public hearings for AZ 05-042, PP 05-048, and CUP 05-046, all of which relate to Reflection Ridge Subdivision and we will begin with the staff report. Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 30 of 37 Hood: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. Reflection Ridge Subdivision includes just over 91 acres, request to R-4, which is a low-density residential zoning district. The site is located on the west side of Locust Grove Road. It's approximately a quarter mile north of Amity. There are currently three single-family homes on this site and some other outbuildings. The property is designated -- there are two different designations on the development property on the Comprehensive Plan future land use map. Going from Locust Grove Road, this approximately 50 acres is designated for low density residential. This triangle area up here, as well as this other piece of property over here, are both called out for medium density residential? It's about 40 acres medium density, so there are those two designations on the property. To the north is recently approved Sicily Subdivision, just this year, so that you don't -- you don't even see any preliminary plat -- for final platted lots like you see in Roseleaf or Chatsworth Subdivision, that are also in this section. There have been no city subdivisions south of this, so this would be the first south in this section. The city limits would go, if approved -- it is still rural in nature. There is a rural subdivision to the south of the subject site as well. Here is a picture of the preliminary plat and I apologize, it is a pretty large subdivision, very wide, and the lots don't come across very clearly. I do have a breakdown with the landscape plan. We will go through that and touch on a couple different things within different sections. Just to give you some more of the numbers, there are 255 single-family building lots proposed. They are requesting to reduce the lot sizes, particularly for some of the lots that are alley loaded and there are some other smaller lots kind of internal to the subdivision here. They also do not have - - some of the lots don't have the minimum street frontage requirement of the R-4 zone. They have requested a reduced front building setback for those alley-loaded lots, as well they'd like to go down to ten feet in the front for those alley-loaded lots. And there are a few blocks that exceed our maximum block length. Here is a copy of the landscape plan. There is 17.7 -- or 17 percent open space proposed within the development. Some of the other amenities include a basketball court, volleyball court, there is tot lots shown in a couple of the different common areas. A swimming pool in this general location here. Clubhouse. And, then, they are doing the detached sidewalks, the boulevard style entryway, with a -- there is a roundabout here into the development. I think I'm just going to touch on a couple of changes to the submitted site plan that staff has. I will briefly give you the recommendation right now that staff is requesting that you hold off on any recommendation to the City Council at this time, in order to give ACHD a chance to send those comments. We have not received official approval or action from the highway district yet on this project. I did speak with their staff last week and they said about two weeks they should have a staff report -- have completed their traffic impact study and, then, be able to do a staff report and get it up to their commission for action. So, that -- I think it was November 17th, I believe, is the date that we think we can probably get it on for that hearing. A couple of the things that we would also like the applicant to work on in the meantime, some questions that we had -- and maybe this is where I'll go to some more of the blow ups of the area. This is the entrance street. We did have a request for a stub street in approximately this location. We have a five acre parcel south that has not been platted previously that's adjacent to that residential subdivision that I pointed out earlier -- a county subdivision that I pointed out earlier with approximately one acre lots here and for future Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 31 of 37 development purposes and interconnectivity purposes, staff would like to see a little stub street here. It wouldn't be very much of a stub street. Maybe 20 or 30 feet in length. But it would get them started in access, really, to this main entrance roadway. Some of the amenities here. And on the back sides of some of the alley-loaded lots -- some of the last projects staff is requesting that these alleys be 24-foot wide private streets for the reasons you discussed earlier, primarily for addressing purposes and also gets them a little wider for the garbage trucks and fire trucks should they need to use them. Or moving a little further to the west here, I don't know that there is much to talk about here. They are stubbing a street down to -- I think it's 17 or 20 acres -- go back real quick to the -- to the overall -- that stub street we were just looking at is in approximately this location here. This is currently being filled back in. There is a pretty significant grade. It's a bowl right now. The parks department is interested in possibly reclaiming this area for a park in this section. A little bit different than the standard parks you normally see. There are some challenges with that site, however. There is a lack of visibility and just due to the steep slope surrounding, there is going to be limited access into it, if it does become a park. So, the parks department is kind of trying to think through some of those constraints and make that work as a park, but I think that will happen, but just to kind of point that out. There is a stub street shown down here and probably another access point will come via the existing lane. It will be improved as a public street, but to that park, eventually, in the future, hopefully. I will briefly just -- there is a -- I think it's the Farr Lateral, that's here. They are going to be tiling that. There is a common lot on the southwest corner. Here, getting a little farther to the north. Some of these there isn't much to talk about, but right now there is an existing private lane, as I mentioned, that goes out to Meridian Road and it does service three or four homes -- a couple of the homes, anyways, that are currently on this site, as well as there is another home or two just to the north that all use this private lane out to Meridian Road. This is one of the reasons staff would like to get some comments from ACHD for the Commission to look at whatever requirements the Ada County Highway District is going to have, regarding the improvement of possibly a portion of this roadway for public use. The applicant's proposing a 20-foot wide emergency access easement in the interim until a public street can be constructed at the half mile location. That's where this is is at the half mile. So, it makes pretty good sense to have a collector road come in at that location. I will touch -- this is the very northern point of this subdivision. The Ridenbaugh Canal does traverse the north property line all the way out to Locust Grove Road along the north property line and in the staff report it is called out that the police department met with us three weeks ago or thereabouts and did have some concerns with this common lot at the end of this cul-de-sac and not being able to see -- they are worried about it being hidden, especially if this property owner constructs a fence, there is this kind of no man's land back there. The comments from the police department were they would like to see this whole cul-de-sac area basically opened up and make it kind of a park -- that end a cul-de-sac park. I spoke with the applicant just before this hearing, he's got another rendering that maybe he'd like to propose about making it be a -- adding a build-able lot, rather than just adding the common lot. Going the other way, basically. Staff doesn't have a problem with that, if you can solve the problem, the safety issue that was there before. We would like -- we like the amount of open space they are providing and there is a pathway here, so as Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 32 of 37 long as you can still get to the multi-use pathway, I don't think staff would have, really, any concerns with that. I did scan in an overall of the picture, just to kind of show how all those pieces fall together. I think that's pretty much -- except for the Ridenbaugh, I did want to -- one more thing real quick, I guess, with that. The legal description submitted with the application does show the project boundary line along the north side of the Ridenbaugh for this top triangular piece and, then, in approximately this location it cuts back and goes along the south boundary and in the next couple few weeks we'd like to have a different answer from the applicant, the applicant's surveyor, or some answer on where the property line actually is or any easements that have come to this property. It really is going to have an effect on where Nampa-Meridian is going to allow the pathway to be constructed there and if we need to work with Nampa-Meridian on putting -- if it is within their easement, working through our master pathway agreement we have with them or maybe they even have to move it fully on their site and outside of any easements. But that's kind of an unknown right now that we would also like to get some more -- some more answers to here in the next couple weeks. That's all that I had, save I have a few elevations. I did have a couple of elevations that I can breeze through those while the applicant is coming forward, if you would like. I'll stand for any questions you may have. Zaremba: Commissioners, any questions? Do we know in general throughout the area who owns the Ridenbaugh Canal? Hood: Mr. Chair, Members of the Commission, this section was a little bit odd for me, the first time I had ever been on the Ada County assessor's website and looking at their data and it did not show -- it did not pop up a property owner when you clicked on this parcel. It looked like there is a parcel approximately 40 to 50 feet wide, but it did not show who owned that. So, most of the time it's just going to be an easement, so you're going to have private property with a 40 or 50-foot easement on either side from center line of that lateral. In this case it did look like there was someone that owned that property, but, again, we couldn't find it. There are other instances -- north Meridian there is several instances where Settler's does own their facility outright, they own it in fee simple. Most of the time -- I would say 70 percent of the time they are just going to be easements across people's property, but this one was a little bit of a mystery and that's why we would like to get that cleared up here before we get too far along in the process, so -- Zaremba: Great. Thank you. And would the applicant care to come forward, please. Koga: My name is David Koga with the Land Group at 462 East Shore Drive. First of all, I'm just going to kind of follow up with some of Craig's comments that he had on the project. First of all, before I get into any comments, I want to just mention that we did have a neighborhood meeting after turning the application in. At that time it's not required, but we thought it was very important, particularly with some of the neighbors to the south over there. Craig, could you put that color one in? Particularly right here. There you go. Thanks, Craig. Because of these neighbors right here we are trying to be sensitive and don't have a lot of lots right next to it. So, we did have a neighborhood Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 33 of 37 meeting. We had two gentlemen at this subdivision and one gentleman across the street came to our meeting on site and we had a good meeting and they were very -- basically thanked us for thinking -- or thinking of that area and to have some type of buffer into the development in there. So, that turned out very well. More specifically on some of the comments that Craig had mentioned, regard to the Ridenbaugh Canal, it is true it was kind of unique. If you go and look at the -- the specific information, right along the Ridenbaugh Canal to right here it specifically states that it's coming from the center n-- that this ownership is south of the center of the Ridenbaugh Canal, but when you get to right here it just says south of the Ridenbaugh Canal. So, we are saying does that mean south of the center, south from the bank, south from the easement. So, our surveyor put a lot of time and effort to do a search to find out more information and they went back to 1900 something and could not find out the specific to state exactly what they mean by that. Since then we have had a meeting with John Anderson with Nampa-Meridian Irrigation and he agreed that it is -- it's an unknown source and so they are going to do their own personal search right now to find out exactly who owns that area. The way it appears is that Nampa-Meridian does own that and if that's the case, then, they really don't care for that, they would rather just deed that to the developers, just they always have their easement, their main easement in there. So, that's where we are right now and as of right now Nampa-Meridian is still doing their personal search on that. So, in our next meeting we will have more information on that. Zaremba: If it did turn out that way, then, you would include it in the area that's being annexed? Koga: Yes. Correct. And we'd have to change the survey in there so it looks like the -- Zaremba: I think that's the effect that it has on the city is this little strip here -- Koga: Exactly. Zaremba: -- you know, prevents somebody else from annexing, maybe. Koga: Yeah. Having a little spike in there wouldn't work very well. So, yeah, that's what we all want to obtain. Just want to make sure that nobody else owns that also and I think that's the key thing. Regard to -- Rumple Road is a private road right now. The owners to the north, Cavin, is going through the process right now to be developed through some other developers and we are working -- as a matter of fact, we are going to have another meeting with them next week to have a final decision on the Rumple Road itself. I met with ACHD earlier this week and they -- their biggest concern is that eventually they would like it changed from a private to public, number one. And, number two, that our ownership is more centered with the Rumple Road. So, once again, at our next meeting we should have more information about that. Regard to ACHD, we are waiting for their report, but I met with ACHD -- it was either Monday or Tuesday of this week. Some of the key things that -- I can kind of highlight what they are looking at. At our entrance right here they want to make sure that our entrance is directly aligned with the proposed development to the east. Right now we are about 16 Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 34 of 37 -- well, no, we are about 12 or 13 feet off. So, we just need to move our entrance a little bit to the south. As Craig mentioned, we will have a stub out to the south on these five- acre lots to the south here. We talked a little bit earlier about Rumple. And this area right here where there is plans for a future bridge, they are going to require the developers to pay for half of that bridge. And the other issue has to do with the length about the blocks in here and it's just kind of unique that you had a presentation tonight from ACHD. We did -- when we met with ACHD, they -- what we would realize to do is that at each one of these intersections is -- it should have bulb outs on that area and they really -- they agreed and they liked that idea and so in our next presentation we will have those changes made also to show you that. Zaremba: It also appears that some of those are not exactly a straightaway either. Is that really a slight curve along there? Koga: Uh-huh. Oh, yeah. Zaremba: And the same thing here, it's not an exact straightaway? Koga: I mean -- yeah. Yeah. On this area right here where we have the one open space, we were just kind of hard to -- the police to look at. What we would like to do is do just the opposite. Instead of open -- or taking this lot out and have a larger open space, we'd like to just turn this whole area into a larger lot. We would still have a small open space right here as part of the cul-de-sac, so people do have access to the regional pathway system, but we just think that would be a better option to that situation there. And -- oh, in closing, there is a couple issues -- I don't want to go into the details on this, but we have -- we have met with Public Works in regard to both sewer and water. There are a couple of issues on that and we will directly work with them in regard to the sewer and water on that. Other than that, do you have any questions? Zaremba: Thank you. Commissioners, any questions? I guess not at this point. Koga: Thank you. Zaremba: We will go on to public testimony and signed up we have Paul Walsh. Okay. He has nothing to add. Marked as being in favor. He was the only one that signed up, but if anybody else would care to add any testimony, anything you feel we would miss? Seeing no action, Mr. Koga, if you care to wrap up? There is nothing to rebut, but -- it's all been said. All right. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. As suggested by staff, there are some things that need to be adjusted and I think it's the right thing to do to continue this to our second meeting in November, get the ACHD report. ACHD will have the ideas incorporated that have already been talked about. Moe: Mr. Chairman? Zaremba: I guess the question is does any Commissioner have anything that they feel they would add as a condition that's not already there? Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 35 of 37 Borup: Commissioner Moe. Moe: No. I'm fine with it the way it is. What's been discussed. The only question I would have of the applicant would be as far as Nampa-Meridian Irrigation, the situation with the Ridenbaugh, are you going to be able to have that resolved and information will be, then, by the 17th? Okay. Zaremba: I see a head nod and a yes from the audience. All right. On the whole of it it looks like an attractive project to me, so I see no reason to add any other -- the issues that have been talked about I'm satisfied that they will be resolved. Borup: A couple of the designs that they were talking about was the bulb outs, the curb extensions, and the entrance. I'm assuming that the entrance moving was at Locust Grove, not the whole length; isn't that correct? Moe: Okay. Zaremba: With such an odd-shaped piece of property, an excellent job of coming up with something. It appears to be pretty attractive. Oh, I -- my one other question was on the -- the same thing on the alleyways that will be private streets, they will be in their own common lot? Yes. Okay. The answer to that is yes. So, they are maintained by the homeowners association. Borup: Right. Was the testimony on Rumple Lane that the hope is that would eventually be a public road and the access would be a public road access from here? It's still not going to be -- Zaremba: Over to Meridian. Borup: -- just an emergency access, it will eventually be a public? Maybe-- Zaremba: If you would care to comment on that, sir. Come on back. Koga: One thing I should mention. We did meet with Joe Silva about in the case it is a private road for emergency he didn't have any problem with that. Just so that -- that he has the right to have that access to it through an easement in there. Borup: You said ACHD would like to see it go public and, then, I assume that would be a full right of way -- Koga: Well, not only them, but you look on the City of Meridian on your Comp Plan for your streets in the future, that you'd like to have -- it states there as a collector also. So, we are working with -- like I say, with the developers to the north, so we have a joint use on that. Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 36 of 37 Borup: Well, the reason I brought it up is at this point you don't show a wide enough right of way to there, do you? Koga: What we are showing right now -- I know it's hard to see on this, but we are showing a right of way for a half street. Borup: Okay. Koga: And I think that's why I say we will work with the developers to show you how that road will be brought in there. It's wide enough that a half -- it's a right of way for emergency access for 20 feet and, then, also if it is the case that it turns from private to public, that it's wide enough for taking up half of that. Borup: Okay. Zaremba: And you're talking -- Borup: You've got 31 feet there. It looks like 31 feet. Koga: I think so. Zaremba: Your discussion with the fire department, they are satisfied that even before it becomes a public road it's still usable as an emergency access, which means that you're not limited to 50 housing units, because there is a second -- Koga: Because the radius and half mile radius he has. Right. We had talked to him about that. Zaremba: Okay. Thank you. Well, I think the issues are known and we are interested in ACHD's response. Anybody care to continue? Hood: Mr. Chair? I'm sorry, I just wanted to add one more thing. Zaremba: Mr. Hood. Hood: We did talk to the applicant before and I just think it made it into the site specific conditions that I will be adding for next time, is to have them relinquish any interest they may have in that private road, just so there is not difficulty getting that public collector that we are looking for in the future. So, I'll make note here to add that as a condition, that any interest they may have when they plat, it goes away for that private lane. They can sure use it as a public street, but just so we don't have that -- a Wingate Lane or some of the other lane problems that we get with someone trying to cross that. So, sorry, I forgot -- I did not include that as a condition, but we will include that for the next time, so -- thank you. Zaremba: Okay. That makes sense to me. Commissioner Moe. Meridian Planning & Zoning October 20, 2005 Page 37 of 37 Moe: Mr. Chairman, I move to continue file numbers AZ 05-045, PP 05-048, and CUP 05-046 as presented in the staff report, for the hearing date of October 20th, 2005, to the November 17th, 2005, regularly scheduled meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission and would direct the applicant to make all changes as discussed this evening. Borup: Second. Zaremba: We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Anyopposed? That motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. Zaremba: Thank you all very much. Moe: Mr. Chairman? Zaremba: Commissioner Moe. Moe: I move we adjourn. Borup: Second. Zaremba: We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. Zaremba: We are adjourned. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:10 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS.) APPROVED: I I DATE APPROVED DAVID ZAREMBA - CHAIRMAN ATTESTED: WILLIAM G. BERG JR., CITY CLERK