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Home My WebLink About2021-11-15 Paul Prestwich Charlene Way From:Chris Johnson Sent:Monday, November 15, 2021 12:08 PM To:Charlene Way Subject:FW: Centerville Subdivision and How Data is Calculated For Projects Attachments:Meridian Traffic Issues.pdf From: Joe Borton Sent: Monday, November 15, 2021 11:56 AM To: Chris Johnson <cjohnson@meridiancity.org> Subject: Fwd: Centerville Subdivision and How Data is Calculated For Projects Sincerely, Joe Borton | Councilman City of Meridian 33 E. Broadway Ave., Meridian, Idaho 83642 Begin forwarded message: From: P Dubb <pdubb9@yahoo.com> Date: November 15, 2021 at 10:35:24 AM MST To: Luke Cavener <lcavener@meridiancity.org>, Liz Strader <lstrader@meridiancity.org>, Joe Borton <jborton@meridiancity.org>, Brad Hoaglun <bhoaglun@meridiancity.org>, Treg Bernt <tbernt@meridiancity.org>, Jessica Perreault <jperreault@meridiancity.org> Subject: Centerville Subdivision and How Data is Calculated For Projects External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments. In reviewing the Centerville Project plan there seemed to be an omission of some critical data. It would appear that the process is endemic on all projects and not just Centerville. The attached document is just a brief regarding the issue. I don't see where ACHD or the City has aggregated traffic and school data when considering approval of a rezoning project. Please take a few moments to read the document. Paul Prestwich 1 Charlene Way From:Liz Strader Sent:Monday, November 15, 2021 10:39 AM To:City Clerk Subject:Fw: Centerville Subdivision and How Data is Calculated For Projects Attachments:Meridian Traffic Issues.pdf Liz Strader | City Councilwoman City of Meridian | City Council Office 33 E. Broadway Ave., Meridian, Idaho 83642 Phone: | 208-546-9501 Online Meeting Scheduler: Click Here Built for Business, Designed for Living From: P Dubb <pdubb9@yahoo.com> Sent: Monday, November 15, 2021 10:31 AM To: Luke Cavener; Liz Strader; Joe Borton; Brad Hoaglun; Treg Bernt; Jessica Perreault Subject: Centerville Subdivision and How Data is Calculated For Projects External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments. In reviewing the Centerville Project plan there seemed to be an omission of some critical data. It would appear that the process is endemic on all projects and not just Centerville. The attached document is just a brief regarding the issue. I don't see where ACHD or the City has aggregated traffic and school data when considering approval of a rezoning project. Please take a few moments to read the document. Paul Prestwich 1 Over burdened roads and traffic nightmares are the result of improper calculations by the City and ACHD. The Centerville subdivision is one example of the problem that is occurring all over the city with every project. The City spent years working on and completing a comprehensive plan for the growth of the City. This took into account all of the surrounding parcels and the eventual impact these future developments would have on the community. Now that those parcels are being developed,the developers are requesting annexation with higher densities from those put forth in the comprehensive plan. By approving virtually every request,the end result is the severe traffic problems that occur by the completion of the project which adversely impacts public safety. Public safety is impacted in several ways. First, more cars and trips on placed on roads that are not built or designed to carry that amount of traffic. This causes people to become frustrated and drive more aggressively in order to get to their destinations. Secondly,they search for alternate routes to avoid the arterial road ways by cutting through neighborhoods where children are playing and people are trying to enjoy their homes. This was graphically displayed when the Amity and Eagle round about was being built. ALL traffic was routed through the residential neighborhoods and those people had to endure 1000s of cars per day driving past their homes and making it impossible for their children to safely play in the front. Thirdly, pedestrian traffic becomes likely targets of the aggressive driving caused by over crowed roads. Amity road between Eagle and Cloverdale is not going to be built out to a 3 lane road until approximately 2040, but all the current approved and proposed lots will be built out by 2025. There is a serious issue with how the City Planning and Zoning and ACHD perform their final traffic analysis. When a project is proposed and Traffic Impact Study is performed. The data is supposed to be current within a year from the proposal of the project. The data from the Centerville project according to ACHD was from 2019, when much of the current developments were not built out. Calculations are then made by looking at the actual traffic numbers gathered during the study and adding them to the "assumed" new traffic trip numbers provided by the developer. In the case of Centerville,ACHD had indicated that the proposed project would over saturate Amity in it's current state and mitigation measures would be needed. Even with these mitigation measures,Amity's peak hour trips will exceed ACHDs thresholds by 2025. Here is the BIGGER problem. Each project is calculated separately and on its own. In the case of Centerville, based upon those old outdated numbers, it alone would overwhelm Amity by 2025. But nowhere in any of the studies did I see the traffic counts added in for all the additionally approved projects. The City should be taking the actual traffic count from a current study, adding the projects assumed count(which is normally low from actual), and THEN adding in the traffic counts for all of the surrounding approved projects. In this case there is a Century Farm approved project, a Shelburne South approved project, an Albertson's and retail approved project and a proposed school, all putting more traffic on the same over saturated road. Here is the foumula: TIS actual traffic count from within 1 year+ Proposed traffic count from current project+ Proposed traffic count from ALL OTHER approved projects that will use that road = Actual traffic count at build out. When you aggregate all the traffic from all of the approved projects onto the same road,you can easily see why Meridian is having such massive traffic issues. Even though the ACHD study finds the proposed Centerville project will over saturate the road, and it was pointed out to your planning and zoning commissioners, it was still approved by them. One of the Commissioners indicated that they treat these letters of concern by ACHD as "form" letters. We know that as the elected officials of the citizens of Meridian,you rely on your staff to provide you with accurate data in order to do your jobs. The methodology they are using does not provide you with an accurate representation of what is and will happen as a result of your decisions. While we know that property owners have rights to develop their property,they do not have unlimited rights to do whatever they desire. They must take into consideration the surrounding developments and safety. By the City continually approving an increase in zoning, it is creating safety hazards for the current and future residents of the impacted communities. Approve the annexation of Centerville at the density of the Comprehensive plan and not at R-15. SCHOOLS The severe impact being felt on the schools is also the result of utilizing poor assumption data. In the Centerville proposal,they are assuming that each single family house will result in bringing in .7 of a child to be spread over the elementary,Jr High and High schools. This number seems low due to the fact that most homes seem to be being occupied by younger families. I know of 10 houses on my street the number is 1.4 children per house hold and on my sons street,they have 1.8 children per household. You can see how the low"assumption" of.7 child per household can quickly cause the need for multiple new schools, which is where we are right now. Of course, if you want to solve the school problem,you would only build high density housing according to the study. They use a factor of.1 child per unit for their calculations. Once again, probably some national standard, but not realistic in Meridian. Think about it.........you can build 10,000 units, and there will only be 1,000 total children. Based upon their assumptions,this would have the least impact on schools. But we know this formula is not realistic unless you restrict the high density housing to only 1 bedroom units,thus discouraging families from moving in. The City Council needs to KNOW what assumptions are being made when provided with a proposal to determine if those assumptions are realistic for the current times, locations and property types. They also need to aggregate the data from all approved projects with the new proposed project so that you can see what the actual impact is going to be with the new proposal, not just how the one project will impact current data. The schools, roads and emergency agencies will continue to be overburdened, causing real safety issues, if the City does not properly factor in all approved development into the projects currently being reviewed.