HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 11, 2006 C/C Minutes
Meridian City Council
April 11,2006
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community. You have addressed some of our concerns on roads and donating right of
way for the roads in the intersection. You have addressed off-site improvements that
certainly this Council has been interested in the safety of the kids in getting them to our
schools. We appreciate that and thank you.
Item 13:
Public Hearing: AZ 05-067 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 6.9
acres from Ada County RUT to R-15 Medium-High Density Residential
zone for Casa Meridiana by Insight Architects - 1777 Victory Road:
Item 14:
Public Hearing: CUP 05-060 Request for a Conditional Use Permit for a
32-unit multi-family development in a proposed R-15 Medium-High
Density Residential District for Casa Meridiana by Insight Architects -
1777 Victory Road:
De Weerd: Okay. Items 13 and 14 are public hearings on AZ 05-067 and CUP 05-060.
I will open these two public hearings, 13 and 14, with staff comments.
Canning: Okay. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the Casa Meridiana
project -- it's not located at Medford Place. There we go. It's located at the corner -- the
southeast corner of Locust Grove and Victory. And this is a request for annexation and
zoning and conditional use approval. The gross density of the project -- I'm going to go
down to the colored one. You can see the units here, although this is not the current
proposed layout, but it shows a little better in color. But these are a combination of 31
units on one lot. So, it is a multi-family development. You will notice that these units
are in pairs of twos, as in this case, or threes, as in the larger units are threes. So, here
is three, two, two -- so, varying combinations of one, two, and three units standing
alone. This does require -- because it is multi-family it does require a Conditional Use
Permit and you are actually seeing that application before you tonight. The Commission
has -- because these are coupled together with the annexation, the Commission has
just recommended on the Conditional Use Permit, rather than made a final action.
Okay. So, this is our current layout. And I will let the applicant explain more about the
layout. I did want to point out that the overall density is 4.6 units per acre. Normally we
would see that kind of development in an R-8. They are asking for the R-15, because
that's the first district that allows a multi-family development. It is prohibited in an R-8
development -- or R-8 district. We do have elevations. As seen here. The Commission
heard this item on March 16th and they have recommended approval. Russ Phillips,
the applicant's representative, spoke in favor of the application. No one spoke in
opposition. And Eric Oaas, the applicant, did comment on the application. The key
issues of the discussion by the Commission were gates. The original -- it gets a little bit
confusing. The applicant, when they first came to us in pre-application discussions,
indicated that they wanted to do gates. We informed them that the code did not allow
that. So, they withdrew that, but it's still been very much a topic of discussion with this
application. We have talked to them about doing a text amendment. That has not been
submitted, but we do understand that they may be moving that direction. Other issues
of discussion by the Commission included high groundwater, cut-through traffic, private
streets for what is, essentially, a single family residential or attached residential
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development. Some townhouses. Interconnectivity of the private road system.
Currently they are proposing these as private roads. The Planning and Zoning
Commission -- I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry. They are currently proposed as
private streets or private roads. There was discussion of redesign of this development
to provide internal access from adjacent properties, either to the south and/or to the
east. Discussion about access to major road systems or local roads access only, kind
of tied with the previous one. And, then, emergency service drives, instead of stub
streets. And I believe that discussion was for this extension here of the private street.
The key change to staff's initial recommendation was to require that this kind of
generally north-south street that connects to the south be a public street. So, the
outstanding issue before the City Council as presented in the staff report, there is a
couple. One is the site design considerations that each unit needs provide a 20 by 20
parking pad. And, then, some questions about the fencing plan along the common
open space and along the perimeter of the site. And, then, again, the public versus
private streets. That system. This is a -- as shown is a very narrow street and to make
it a public street will require some site redesign. It also would require that the applicant
submit a preliminary plat, because you can't dedicate a roadway, except through
preliminary plat process. So, that is still an outstanding issue for the Council. Those
are the issues as presented in the staff report. This project has been very difficult for
staff and for the applicant and for me in that what they are proposing technically meets
the code and so the staff report focuses on how this project meets or does not meet the
specific code. However, this project takes our code in several directions that I'm very
uncomfortable with and the applicant and I have talked about this. I presented a memo
to the Planning and Zoning Commission. We have had other discussions with them and
their attorney. And I want to let the Council know what those concerns are and where
I'm headed with those. Again, it's -- the major one is this public versus private street
system. And I'm happy to say that the fire marshal and I completely agree on a street
issue and this is the one, so that was cause for celebration, perhaps, but -- when we
were doing the Unified Development Code, the fire marshal was particularly concerned
with having some means of addressing multi-family developments and for commercial
developments where they didn't have a public street that went into the depth of the
project. So, we added the private street provisions -- we had private streets allowed
under the old code and what they basically mimicked was the standards for the reduced
right of way section for Ada County Highway District, because we wanted -- we didn't
want people -- the old code didn't want people using a substandard street and calling it
a private street, just so that they could avoid ACHD standards. So, those private street
standards were, really, based on ACHD standards. Well, no one ever used them. They
just figured if they have got to build a comparable street, then, why not dedicate it to the
highway district and have them maintain it. So, no one was using those. So, the fire
marshal and I saw an opportunity to allow private streets as part of the Unified
Development Code strictly for addressing purposes. It was for multi-family
developments where you come in off a commercial drive aisle, you have 90 degree
parking and, usually, you have a system of interconnected drive aisles that get you
through the apartment complex. It was a way to name those drive aisles, so that the fire
department and the police department could respond to emergencies, rather than just
having, you know, a hundred addresses listed out at the front of the property and this is
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April 11, 2006
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how you get in. And any of you that have ever lived in an apartment complex or tried to
visit someone in one, it is very difficult to find your way through those sometimes. So,
that's why we started the private street provisions. It was not to start an alternative
street standard for residential development. It was just for multi-family for addressing
purposes and for commercial addressing purposes. Well, because this project is
technically multi-family, they are able to ask for the private streets. They do plan on
condominiumizing -- try and say that one fast. They do intend on doing a condominium
plat to make those -- each of those residences an individual ownership. But it will be
done for a condominium process. So, I'm very concerned, one, that we are setting a
precedent by this project regarding the use of private streets for, essentially, single
family homes. The other precedent I'm worried about, along with the fire marshal, is
that this may set a precedent regarding these private streets in order to just have
reduced construction and development standards for a residential development. You
know, this should probably meet the same standards that another attached single family
or townhouse project would have to meet and currently they don't. Moving onto the next
issue. It's the interconnected street system. As it's shown now, they do have a stub
going south, but if they move forward with this whole gate discussion, which has been
discussed quite a bit, because they don't want cut-through traffic, then, we are losing
that interconnected system. And it's very important here. You have a very -- this one
shows it better. You have some severe physical constraints. You have got two
irrigation facilities that are quite large, both in this area. So, you really have one
property that's to the south and one and a half or two properties to the east, along with
this one, that all have to interconnect. I don't know if this is Tuscany Village or Tuscany
Lakes, but this Tuscany project here does not stub into this area. And, then, the rest of
undeveloped land in the section is the DeChambeau property and currently we do show
that as a neighborhood center. So, the idea is to get folks moving toward that
neighborhood center for their services, for their local retail, you know, to go buy coffee,
to go buy ice cream, to have a central gathering place there. This project does have
one going to the south, but it doesn't have one going to the east currently. The gate
issue -- and the interconnected issue and the gate issue are closely tied. As I
mentioned before, the applicant's original solution -- they were rightly concerned that
this would become very much cut-through traffic and so their solution was to have gates
on that and, again, it's not part of this application as it stands, but it -- just the discussion
keeps on coming up. And the gates don't seem to offer any other security or amenity
feature, they just seem to be mostly designed to cut -- to prevent cut-through traffic.
But, again, with the Comprehensive Plan we talk about this interconnected street
system quite a bit. So, I'm concerned about the precedent that this project may set
regarding interconnected streets, one, and gates as it moves forward as the other. If we
are approving a design that needs gates, then, maybe that's the question. Do we
approve it or do we annex it, rather than do we allow gates. Finally, the issue of the
condominium plat is -- concerns me. As I mentioned before, they are requesting R-15
zoning. They are about 4.6 units per acre and the reason they are requesting it is to --
so that they can allow -- as for this multi-family development and, then, in turn, do a
condominium plat. You won't see the condominium plate. It's an administrative
approval under the Unified Development Code. What the UDC says is that a
condominium plat application for property in any district may be processed as a short
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plat where no new development is proposed. Now, this is another one of those ones
where, you know, we were trying to do the right thing and maybe opened up a can of
worms here, because where we were starting to see these condominium questions
come up was not in residential, it was in commercial, and in a commercial you're
allowed to have multiple buildings on a site, so -- and even multiple ownership within a
building was not really a concern. It's, you know, instead of a leased space, it was a
condo space. And we had seen the struggle that these commercial properties were
facing when they came in to do a condominium plat, having to go through a four or six,
nine, 12 month process to get the condominium plat done. So, we said, okay, well, if
the development's already proposed -- or approved, there is no need for City Council to
see a condominium plat, because it's not changing the land use. And that's very much I
think the -- Mr. Watson would say very much in keeping with what the intent of the
state's provision regarding condominium plats are. In this case where we have got a
residential property, it gets very tricky, because so much of our residential standards are
based on ownership. You have single family attached -- a duplex is different from single
family attached and physically they are the same structure almost, it's just you have a
lot line under one. And multi-family is different from a townhouse in that, again, you just
have these lot lines sitting under these houses that the built form looks the same, but
the ownership really plays a very much different role. So, we have got, through the
condominium process we are, again, kind of not developing to the same standards. It's
kind of like the private streets, where we are setting a different standard for this -- this
development could set a precedent for allowing a different set of standards by using the
condominium plat process. You know, when we did the UDC we sat down with all the
development community that we could gather at the table and said, you know, we don't
want to be doing planned developments anymore, we want consistent standards across
the board. We want all -- you know, we want to meet what your standards are, but we
want them all to be the same. And now we are opening up this condominium process to
basically have a whole different set of standards on every project that comes through
again. So, I'm very much concerned about the precedent that this project may set
regarding using condominium plats in residential developments. You do have Findings
for approval before you tonight. Although the staff report does recommend that you
have the applicant submit a site plan that depicts the public streets and the other site
design considerations pointed out in the staff report. And with that I will answer any
questions. I know that was a long presentation by staff and it's a little confusing, but I
am concerned.
De Weerd: I know. I was going to ask you to summarize five minutes ago. I do have a
question. What is -- now, my parents lived in condominiums and, actually, I did a
presentation to an older group of citizens that made the comment, as the baby boomers
begin to age, we need to start paying more attention to the type of housing they desire
and these were probably the first of the baby boomers that are hitting that retirement
age. And they are very interested in condominiums. What is the difference between
this and townhouses, other than you're owning lots, but not the land? Is that -- or you're
owning the house and the land?
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Canning: With a condominium you own airspace and, then, the land is held in a
common association. So, all the land and all the structures are held in the association
and, then, you own an airspace. You own from interior wall to interior wall.
De Weerd: Okay. And that's what my parents owned and they preferred that.
Canning: And I didn't mean to say that I have a problem with the condominium
ownership, I just have a problem with the difference in standards that we are using. If
this were a townhouse development this would have to meet much more rigorous
standards. So, I'm worried about the equity between different forms of ownership.
De Weerd: Okay. So, we are not looking to exclude condominiums, but they have a
different process than, apparently, this one is coming in under?
Canning: Right. They -- I guess optimally I would like to see this development have to
meet the same standards as say a townhouse development would have to. They have
a mix of single family -- single family detached, single family attached, and townhouses,
if they were on lots. And, again, they don't have frontage on a public street. Right now
they don't have the 20-by-20 parking pad. They don't -- they have a 24-foot street,
instead of a 33-foot street. I mean it's just the standards are very different in how this is
being able to develop, because they are going through as a multi-family development
and, then, with the intent of doing a condominium plat in the future.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, do you have any questions?
Bird: Not at this time.
Borton: No.
De Weerd: Okay. Is the applicant's representative here? You got into planning, uh?
Butler: I did. Good evening. Joann Butler, 251 East Front Street, representing the
applicant. And I'm just going to stand here for a moment. We'd like to start our
presentation with an overview by Russ Phillips, the architect, and, then, I'll come back to
the podium, and Eric Oaas will summate -- do a summation. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. You have -- okay. So, you all have a collective 15 minutes.
Phillips: Okay. Madam Mayor, City Council, I'm Russ Phillips, with Insight Architects,
2238 Broadway Avenue, Boise, Idaho.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Phillips: And we do have a CD that is right here. We are proposing a small
development on 6.9 acres that we feel really implements recommendations and
guidelines as set forth in the City of Meridian Comprehensive Plan, by offering social
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and economic diversity and a variety of higher end housing. We are accomplishing this
by providing owners -- owner-occupied residences with high quality materials and
design, a mixture of attached and detached owner-occupied residences. We are
promoting social, economic diversity within the city in a variety of ways, yet within a rural
setting. We are taking some natural features and vegetation type environments that are
there now and trying to make those features and we are looking at exteriors that will be
maintained by one organization, one entity, homeowners association. Next slide,
please. As pointed out, this is our site right here. It's a unique site. It's bound by
Victory Road, which is at the time of our application deemed a collector. And, then,
Locust Grove as another collector. Next slide. As pointed out by Anna, this was our
initial presentation, 32 units. And I'd like to say that Oaas Laney, the developers of this
property, are extremely community-oriented and conscious and thoughtful in their
developments. For example, in this one we have been -- they have been taking a look
at the -- a number of factors for a year now, considering -- meeting with city leaders,
citizens in the community, and conducting several focus groups to ascertain the type of
development that the city is looking for. We are -- the intent is not to try and stretch or
divert from standards that are set and policy. What we are trying to do is create the
diversity that we feel Meridian has been looking for. And to do that it takes thinking
outside the box. And we have to compliment staff. I think staff has been very helpful in
helping us work through these issues. We understand that they -- staff is somewhat
constrained by their assignments and in this case we are -- what made sense to us was
to accomplish this layout with private streets. The main premise is that we have got an
existing -- a seasonal feature, water feature, that runs through this area and we wanted
to site the homes first and look at how people in this environment would want to live in
their homes, what they would want to see, considering noise from these two collectors,
sun orientation on back patios, noise, and so forth. So, we -- if you look, it's not a
standard grid. We have oriented minimal -- these homes so that there is minimal impact
along these streets. Where there is a patio area, we have got a screened wall. But the
idea is, really, for focus inward in a community that provides young professionals or
empty nesters with an alternate housing environment that fits their lifestyles. The idea
is they can work in downtown Meridian, St. Luke's, other areas in Meridian, and not
have to travel from Eagle or Boise or other communities to enjoy this type of lifestyle.
We have -- this is an amenity enhanced area, not only with the water features --
seasonal water features, but abundant open space. Each unit has its own private patio
and yet it shares on common areas as well. We have an activity building, a pool,
hibachi courts. The theme is built around a southern -- a Mediterranean type lifestyle
and so we picked activities that fit within this type of community. These are -- these are
very nice homes as far as -- they are roughly 22, 23 hundred square feet. They have
upstairs and downstairs to each .- each of them. They have three bedrooms,
essentially, but we have a -- several mixtures of rec rooms upstairs, library or master
suites or a guest suite upstairs as far as bedrooms. Downstairs we have got roughly
1,500 square feet in each unit. They are town homes. We need to design them for the
UDC multi-family housing standards. They are townhomes. They are connected. But
in lieu of having walls of homes facing your community, we elected to break those up
and a benefit from that is that the focus group -- some people would like to have a
stand-alone home, others would rather share common walls and we worked with the fire
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April 11, 2006
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department extensively, with Joe Silva, regarding private streets. He is very
comfortable with a 24 foot street width that we propose. The cul-de-sacs meet his
requirements and, then, we have areas between the buildings so that fire truck access
and hoses can reach between each of these buildings as well. Private streets is what
makes this development work. The Commission had various opinions from we need
connectivity regardless of the development, to one Commissioner stated I don't know if
connectivity is really important in this instance. Next slide. What we are proposing
tonight is -- is not a gated community. We have -- it seems that one of the concessions
we made was to eliminate the Locust Grove access to created emergency access
stubbed to the south grass-creet, so that emergency trucks can still come along this
area. We would have bollards. And we would have one point of access off of Victory
and with a private street we are allowed to have some parking at the activity center that
can back into the private streets. The street widths are narrowed down, so that we can
accomplish the 24-by-24 parking pads and we did lose one unit due to the loss of
Locust Grove egress, but the developer is willing to work with that. Connectivity is -- we
do not have vehicular connectivity, except for emergency access to the south, which is
what this was a requirement by the Commission. And we do have pedestrian
connectivity to the south and to the east that if there is a regional shopping area off to
the east or neighbors to the south, there is no reason to jump in a car and drive there,
that with our environment and gas situation and so forth, that we'd rather encourage
people to walk. And this is a small area if you look at the entire area. And so walking
really makes a lot of sense. Next slide. I'd like to just flip through quickly some slides
and, then, let Joann speak. Next slide. These are ideas of -- this is where we got our
images from. Next slide. These are from the type of -- same materials, stucco, clay tile
roof. Next slide. Next slide. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. And each
one will have -- next slide, please -- will have a trellis area. Next. And at this time I'd
like to turn this over to Joann.
Butler: Thank you. Joann Butler. And I'm going to talk a little bit about a planning issue
before I get into a legal issue. Let's see if I can make this out. What this slide
represents is not Casa Meridiana. It represents where I used to live. This -- let's see if I
can do it. I'll have to go up here and see.
Bird: Grab the mike there, Joann.
De Weerd: She's talking to herself.
Butler: I am talking to myself.
Bird: Just us old guys are supposed to do that.
Butler: Okay. I'm not sure if I'm going to do this exactly right. But this particular house
is -- yeah, it is. This is my house or -- we just moved from here. And I just want to
comment on the pathway and the connectivity. You have got an area down here in
Meridian that is fairly secluded because of natural and other borders. What I had in my
house was a neighborhood over here. I was in this neighborhood. There was a creek
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here and another neighborhood over here. Right along my side yard was an
emergency access and a pedestrian pathway that led over to this street. This is how I
met all of my neighbors. In fact, I was so oriented because of this pathway, that this is -
- this became my neighborhood. Not where I drove in, but this. It's a very effective way
to insure that you don't have vehicular traffic going through an area and cutting through
and that is one of the main things that you do ask for in your Comprehensive Plan as a
goal, is to prevent cut-through traffic. And so the only reason this slide is up there to
say I'm just giving you a personal anecdote of where not only did it work, but it worked
well and it brought neighbors together, because they were on their feet, they were
walking through what amounted to your yard, and it's a very good technique for
connectivity. Now I just want to talk a little bit about the legal issues, because this is a
really very important issue and it's so important that by the time I get done with this I'm
going to suggest that we table this matter and we ask your attorney to look at it for a
week until next week and I'll explain why. As Anna said, what we are interested in is
consistent standards. And that's exactly what we are trying to do here is treat things
consistently. Like things alike. And so bear with me as I go through a little bullet point
of what things you already know. First of all, I'm going to talk about some state statutes
and I'm going to talk about the local Land Use Planning Act, which deals with use. Not
ownership of land, but land use. The act enables you to create a comprehensive plan
on 11 components that you have to address. None them are ownership. The act
enables you to draft a zoning ordinance and regulate height, size, setbacks. It
absolutely says nothing about ownership. And that's for a very good legal reason.
Zoning restricts the limit that land can be used and not based on the identify or the
status of users, because if you do that, generally, your ordinances are going to be held
invalid. The proper concern and the focus of zoning has to be on the use of the
property, not the form of the property's ownership. Anything else raises very important
due process and discrimination concerns. The Idaho Condominium Property Act
establishes condominiums as a form of real property ownership, so it becomes a single
family ownership in the condominium format. The condo act also says that zoning
ordinances must -- must treat structures alike, regardless of whether the structure is
zoned as condominiums or is owned as an apartment and leased. So, a multiple --
meaning more than one, family building must be treated like any multiple family building
regardless of the fact that the ownership is in the form of a condominium. Your
Comprehensive Plan talks about transportation. It discourages cut-through traffic. It
encourages pathways along the lines of what I'm talking about here. It calls for diversity
of housing types. The UDC, again, governs land use, not ownership in any way, shape,
or form you do not address the status of folks. The UDC does allow private streets in
multi-family developments and now it's very important here to talk about what your code
defines as multi-family developments versus multi-family dwellings. A multi-family
development is anything with three or more homes. They could be individual detached
single family. They could be multi-family structures with more -- three or more units in
them. But a multi-family development is very different from a multi-family building. The
UDC goes on to explain that private streets are not intended -- they are intended in
multi-family developments, but the UDC -- and I'm looking at 11-3F-1 for later -- is that
private streets are not intended for single family, other than those that create a common
mew and that is a design technique that, obviously, you are championing where you're
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creating private streets and mew comes from an old English term meaning formerly
private stables turned into homes and that's what you're trying to create, more of a
private cul-de-sac type of situation.
Canning: Not cul-de-sac.
Butler: That's what the definition is. I don't know what you were considering. But be
that as it may, I just wanted to say that the UDC says private streets are intended for
multi-family development. I would think that the language of the UDC may be -- may be
in need of tweaking. It appears to me that the private streets are intended for multi-
family developments that include multi-family dwellings, not intended for multi-family
development that are included in detached single family. But that's not what we have
here. This would be in keeping with state law, which requires multi-family dwellings to
be treated consistently no matter what the ownership is. The private street
requirements are met with this application. It meets the design criteria. There is no
detriment to others, especially because it promotes a comprehensive plan for no cut-
through traffic. It may be that you have a real concern about private streets in Meridian
and that may be and I have no idea -- it sounds like it from the fire department's
perspective. As long as you have private streets, you just have to use them consistently
with the same kind of structures. And that's all we are saying here. It's not pressing the
envelope, it's saying just be consistent based on the type of dwellings that are being
involved, not on the ownership, because that's where the slippery slope of
discrimination comes into play. So, if this city wants to look into ending private streets,
then, I think that's certainly within the purview of the city, but for right now with multi-
family dwellings, I think it would be inconsistent to treat it any other way than to allow as
was requested the private streets. I know that's 180 degrees from what Anna is saying,
because she's talking about ownership, and so that's why I do think it really is an
important issue for the city to grapple with and I would suggest that maybe some time,
even just a week, be taken to look at it. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. You probably have 30 seconds, Eric, since your colleagues
here have taken all your time.
Oaas: Eric Oaas.
De Weerd: Okay. Time's up.
Rountree: But good to see you anyway.
Oaas: Oaas Laney, 519 West Front in Boise. Madam Mayor, Council Members, I
appreciate the opportunity to speak. I think the only thing that I would say is that we
have -- what we have tried to do with this development is we have tried to do something
maybe a bit different, maybe like Russ said, thinking out of the box a little bit. But what
we wanted to add to Meridian is to add some diversity in terms of development projects
that maybe attract some people that Meridian is losing. We believe that this project,
because of its -- because of the nature -- because of the dual income, no kids folks, plus
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the empty nesters, this is an amenity rich subdivision that really -- really offers
something that we don't think the City of Meridian currently has and right now we are
afraid are going to Eagle and going elsewhere. Now, the gates on the community would
be nice, but we understand that the city really hasn't looked very favorably at the gates
issue. But having said all that, we truly would like the city to take a good hard look at
this. We have designed it in a way that we think is very accommodating, but at the end
of the day we want to bring some diversity to the city that we don't think it currently has.
Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Oaas: And do you have any questions?
De Weerd: Council, questions?
Bird: I do have some questions, but I think that what Joann brought forward, if we was
to continue it I can ask at that point. There is a couple of clarifications I'd like to get, but
one of them has to come from our fire department, which I will get.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: I don't need it now, no. Not unless we are not going to continue.
De Weerd: Okay. No questions at this time.
Oaas: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Eric. Is there any testimony on this application? Okay. Now is
the time for your questions. Mr. Baird.
Baird: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I do appreciate the approach that
counsel for the applicant is taking here. She's bringing forth some issues that are best
probably not discussed in a Public Hearing and I think I would appreciate the
opportunity to sit down with the planning department. I'm not sure if we are really
talking about ownership or if we are talking about a distinction between single family
attached and condominiums. I think that's kind of what the planning director was getting
at is we have certain standards for single family attached that are vastly different from
multi-family. I'm not sure if this is an unintended consequence of the Unified
Development Code, but those are all things that I think a week or two to look into we
would all benefit from.
De Weerd: Okay. Council?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
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Meridian City Council
April 11,2006
Page 36 of 49
Borton: It makes sense, in light of Mr. Baird's comments and what Ms. Butler had
recommended, that the matter be set over for a couple of weeks for this work to be
done. And with that I would move to continue Public Hearing AZ 05-067 and CUP 05-
060 for two weeks to April 25th.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to continue this to 4/25. All those in favor say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: That's April 25th. Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You didn't give us an opportunity for discussion, but --
De Weerd: After a motion like that you don't have discussion.
Rountree: I'd just like to be on the record that this does create some issues for the city,
obviously, and certainly for the developer. Having been involved in far too many
nightmares on Idaho Street over the past years and with the concern that staff has and I
think the genuine desire on the part of the application to create a real quality community
for the City of Meridian, I would very much like to see us get together and get this
worked out, so we aren't back here at some point in time in the future trying to rectify the
sins that we both created from one another. With respect to private roads, we are now
seeing private roads that have been approved in the past in the City of Meridian coming
back to be vacated in order for ACHD to take them over at the desire of the residents
within those closed communities. So, it is an issue that we are dealing with. And I think
the issues of the various standards -- and I appreciate everybody's comment that we
want uniformity in what we see. I think we can reach resolve. It might take more than a
week, but I would hope that the next time we see this that staff is comfortable, so we
can be comfortable and myself in particular, because, again, I don't want to create
something for a future Council that they have to solve as it relates to a bad line or a bad
plot or a bad piece of planning that went on at this point, when it could have been
corrected and not create a future problem. So, I just had to say that.
De Weerd: I appreciate that. And I think that's, too, what the applicants were trying to
give time to to work through. Personally, this is the kind of development we would like
to encourage. So, if there is a way we can figure out how best to bring these kind of
developments in that meets both goals, the goals of the city and the goals of the
developers in addressing market, this is a product I think the market will accept. So,
this has been continued to April 25th and we appreciate that your time.
Item 15:
Public Hearing: Proposed New Park and Recreation Fees and Fee
Increases to Cover Cost of Recreation Programs and Park Services: