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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 9, 2006 C/C Minutes Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 24 of 53 Borton: Is the intent of the motion that the ability to have a fence is at the discretion of the property owner or -- versus ACHD? If -- as an example, if the church elects not to have a fence, then, there is not a fence? Rountree: That was my intent. Borton: Okay. De Weerd: Clarification. Any further discussion? Mr. Berg, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 13: Item 14: Item 15: Public Hearing: AZ 06-003 Annexation and Zoning of 24.03 acres from RUT to R-8 (12.31 acres), R-15 (8.04 acres) and C-C (3.68 acres) for Hiahtower Subdivision by Hightower, LLC - southwest corner of Chinden Boulevard and Jericho Road: Public Hearing: PP 06-003 Preliminary Plat approval of 106 residential lots, 4 commercial lots, 2 private street lots and 25 common lots on 22.94 acres in proposed R-8, R-15 and C-C zones for Hiahtower Subdivision by Hightower, LLC - southwest corner of Chinden Boulevard and Jericho Road: Public Hearing: CUP 06-004 Request for a Conditional Use Permit for a Mixed Use Planned Development that includes single-family detached, townhouse units, commercial uses, private streets, a neighborhood park and a vehicular access to Chinden Boulevard for Hiahtower Subdivision by Hightower, LLC - southwest corner of Chinden Boulevard and Jericho Road: De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Item 13, 14, 15, 16, I will open these public hearings on AZ 06-003, PP 06-003 and CUP 06-004. VAR 06-004. Anna. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the Hightower project. It's located at the south -- De Weerd: Okay. Anna, just for our public record, I will not open Item 16 until after Items 13, 14 and 15 have been decided. Canning: Okay. De Weerd: Thank you. Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 25 of 53 Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the Hightower project. It's located at the southwest corner of Chinden and Jericho. The applications, as noted, include annexation and zoning, preliminary plat, conditional use, private streets. Those are the ones we will talk about right now. Did want to point out that this area is shown as a neighborhood center on the Comprehensive Plan. The highlights of the development include -- this is just the northern portion of it. This is the southern portion it. It is a kind of L-shaped or odd shaped lot. It includes 24 acres of the R-8 zoning. I'm sorry. Yes. Fifteen acres of -- or 12 acres of R-15 zoning. Eight acres of C-C -- I have got these mixed up. Okay. I'm going to start over again. Sorry. The whole site is 24 acres. That's what I did wrong. Sorry about that. It includes 12.31 acres of R-8 and that's primarily the southern portion of the property. It includes eight acres of R-15 and that's over here on the east end of the property. And, then, 3.6 acres of C-C. And that would be immediately adjacent to Chinden on the entrance road. It also includes two private streets. Those private streets are in the R-8 section. They are part of the MEW development, so we have our open space here where the lots actually front onto that developed open space and take access from a private street. The gross residential density for the entire project is 5.5. If you go to the townhouse areas, which are these two areas here, the density is -- the net density, which is closer to 9.3 units per acre -- and this would be considered a transit supportive density consistent with the neighborhood center that's on this property. Normally, we'd be looking at this for a larger area. I think the applicant has tried to work this neighborhood center into this portion here where you have the commercial uses, the retail uses, the high density residential and, then, transitioning to a lower density residential. And I have -- this is how those townhomes work. This is the southern one. Just so you can see how those houses -- townhouses lay on those lots that they have designated. For the commercial area they are proposing approximately 13,750 square feet within three buildings as shown here. I do have some elevations. These are of the commercial vision for the property and, then, this is detached residential, I believe. We do not have any of the front-loaded townhouses. We did let the applicant know that he should bring some of those for you today. The Commission recommended approval on April 6, 2006, and at that hearing Phil Hull from the Land Group spoke in favor. Tom Buck, I believe, spoke in opposition. No one commented. And the key issues of discussion were on limiting the building height for the entire development and this was by the adjacent property owner Mr. Buck. And concessions made by the applicant to the adjacent property owner and the configuration of the townhouse lots at the south terminus for Torrey Way and that was this diagram that I showed you. The key Commission changes to staffs initial recommendation. They did add a restriction to the development agreement, which states the applicant shall place five gallon arborvitae at four feet on center along the shared property line of the adjacent property to the west, owned by Mr. Buck, and they also added a restriction to the development agreement, which states the homes on Lots 2, 3, and 4 and 5 of Block 10 shall be limited to 25 feet in height. They also added a condition which states the applicant shall continue to work with the Idaho Transportation Department on the possibility of acceleration and deceleration lanes on Chinden Road, as referenced in the letter from lTD. And a condition which states the applicant shall add a note to the face of the plat that references the Right To Farm Act. Finally, a condition that the applicant shall work with the planning department staff on the layout and access Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 26 of 53 of Lots 5 through 14, Block 6, in order comply with the Unified Development Code regarding common drives. And that these would be submitted to the planning department no later than ten days prior to the City Council hearing. The lots in question are these same ones here. We are still working on it, but we are confident that -- that Council could condition the project appropriately. Mr. Wilson in his staff report did talk about the common drives and he referenced the portion which states that only four lots can take access from it, so they would need to have a green space between these center lots on both sides. They have one over here currently. They would have to add one on this other side of these -- this couplet here in the middle. Unfortunately, Mr. Wilson forgot to also mention that they needed ten feet of frontage. Currently they have about five. I talked with the applicant about it. I think they are pretty comfortable extending these to the required ten feet of frontage for each of those. They would, essentially, lose these two units in the center, but it will provide a nice open space for those residents and it will mirror a little more closely what's going on on the north end. You can see here they have a similar situation. These flags are too narrow. They are only five foot flags. They will need to widen those out. But they have got a nice open space at the terminus of those, so it will mirror that on the south side. The outstanding issues for City Council. These drives were the outstanding issue and I have noted them below. The other outstanding issue relates to the ITD letter, so I guess I'll save that for the variance discussion. De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: Is the applicant here? If you will, please, state your name and address for the record. Hull: Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council, my name is Phil Hull with the Land Group. I'm representing Hightower, LLC, for the development of approximately 24 acres located at the southwest corner of Jericho and Chinden. De Weerd: And what is your address? Hull: 462 East Shore Drive, Eagle, Idaho. 83616. De Weerd: Thank you Hull: And is that the -- okay. Thanks. Let's see. As staff mentioned, our site is located within a neighborhood commercial designation on the land use plan within the Comp Plan. And we are proposing a mixed use project with commercial and high density residential, feathering out to medium density residential. I'm here tonight requesting annexation, rezone, conditional use, preliminary plat, and a variance. And the next slide basically shows some of the surrounding uses and layout. We have got Chinden here. Castlebury across from us. Here is our site right here. It's kind of tough to see. Got Signature Point Nursery here. Church. Zamzows. Zamzows here. The Catholic church Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 27 of 53 here. And we have Saguaro Canyon to our south and, then, Arcadia Sub here, which is an R-8. And this is R-4 here. And, then, the Westborough, to get you oriented, is here with the commercial lots here and the four-plexes back there. And this slide shows our rezone areas. We have got the C-C here. R-15 wrapping around that. And, then, the R- 8 in the back of the -- that transitions back into Saguaro Canyon. This shows our site master plan a little bit more colorful than the pre-plat. You can see a lot of the green space and whatnot, but we have got the 35 foot required buffers along Chinden and I believe we are showing 25 along Jericho. With pathway. And we have a large berm and a sound barrier wall adjacent to the residential portion along Chinden as well to kind of help separate that. And we have a boulevard entry shown here near the commercial area. A commercial entrance here and one here off of Hightower Drive. And, as staff mentioned, we have three commercial buildings here and we went through quite a design process to get to this point, design process with staff. We had started out with more of a -- they called it a strip mall effect, but with the building located here and all the parking up in front. We have kind of really broke that up and soften that parking lot effect, so that we have two smaller lots now, with most of the parking -- more than 50 percent of the parking off of Chinden located -- located here. We have got the townhome lots here and coming back into the site, feathering back into a little bit lower density. And a couple of different product types back in here, just the traditional style homes around the perimeter, 50 to 60 feet wide and in the center the alley-loaded homes with front porches on the street and, then, on the backside the MEW style housing there with the -- the park site located there. That shows that park site a little bit more clearly. We have got a tot lot, gazebo, nearly an acre, we are at .98, will provide plenty of common open space play area, as well as those amenities. And the townhome slide that you were viewing earlier. In complying with staffs comments and the comments from the Planning and Zoning Commission, we have come to the conclusion that these two units will come out and we will have a small pocket park site here. We think that will make, actually, much nicer units. These people will be looking out onto this park site, instead of onto the sides of buildings. Okay. Next. This is an enlargement of the commercial area also, so you can see how it lays out a little bit better. We have a lot of plaza spaces at the entries, a lot of space here, up here, to provide, basically, a little bit more of a pedestrian friendly for people coming in here. There is -- hopefully, we will see some outdoor tables for dining and whatnot at -- if we do get a restaurant located in there. And this is the conditional use site plan. Just shows a little bit more detail on the adjacent uses and a lot of dimensioning and whatnot that you can't really see on this slide. And the pre-plat, what you saw as well. Just more detail. And here is the landscape plan. One of the main things I wanted to point out here was the addition of eight foot planter strips throughout the entire development along the roadways with street trees planted at the lot lines to help create a boulevard effect down all of our streets. And, then, we get into the home styles. Multiple home styles are shown here. These would be the style with the MEW frontage or park site frontage, as well as this one here. Then we have the commercial typical style. We are showing high quality materials. This building here is located in Eagle River in Eagle right on the corner of Eagle Road and State Street. It, basically, has stone work, stucco, awnings, a lot of architectural bump outs and creating some interest in the facades. Roof detailing pitches, so you don't end up with just a flat -- flat building. And, then, just a little bit more Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 28 of 53 of a detailed view close up showing Saguaro connection right here, traveling through the site up to our future connection here. Next. Thank you. We can skip this one for now. And let's go one more. And, again, just the overall view showing the green space and the street trees and whatnot. And staff did recommend that we bring some townhome views, so that you could get an idea of the quality of the materials and the style of those buildings. Get a comfort level there. I wanted to show a couple more. If -- do you have a machine that I could actually throws these up there? Hopefully, these elevations will provide you with a sense of the style that we are planning for this area. Basically, again, just examples of the -- all two story, different roof pitches, different materials, such as stucco and stone and real lap siding, high quality roof materials, that sort of thing. Just to give you a comfort level there. And with that I will open it up for questions. De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none, Mayor. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: I might have missed it on the earlier -- one of the earlier photos. Is there a pathway or sidewalk along Chinden on the other side of the fence? Hull: Yes, there is. We have got a five foot meandering sidewalk. Borton: Is that the black line? Hull: Yeah. We might be able to go back on the Powerpoint for that. See the pathway here? Borton: Okay. Hull: It wraps around, goes all the way down Jericho as well. And the sidewalks, of course, follow the street throughout the development as well. Borton: Thank you. De Weerd: Anna, doesn't the city recommend eight feet on the highway side? Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I believe that ITD has indicated that they will accommodate the right of way for -- it's a little bit up to ITD as how it works right now on 20-26. But I think -- I thought we had been doing ten foot, actually. De Weerd: Yeah. I know it was more than five, but -- Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 29 of 53 Canning: And sometimes those can be within the 'TO right of way if they have given sufficient -- if they have dedicated sufficient right of way that can be within that easement -- or can be within the easement. I can try and find the ITD letter for this one and see if that is -- De Weerd: I think that is what we required of Irvine; right? Okay. And what is the right of way that you're getting on Chinden? Hull: In working with ITD I believe 70 feet from center line. It would be 140 total in this section. De Weerd: Okay. And, Anna, was that also what they were requesting? Canning: I didn't hear the applicant's response, ma'am. De Weerd: It was 70 feet, 140 from center line. Canning: ITD is requesting 100 feet from center line, ma'am. De Weerd: Okay. So, that could be within the right of way and enlarged or widen pathway? Canning: Typically her 100 foot section does include -- there is sufficient room for a ten foot pathway. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Hull: Madam Mayor, the latest request from ITD in this section is, actually, 70 feet. There is -- there is a neck down portion because of the existing development on Castlebury on the north side -- both Castlebury and Castlebury West. Maybe if we could zoom out to a different slide that shows the aerial, maybe. Yeah. That will work. With Castlebury West here built out and the other commercial developments and whatnot, this section from Meridian Road to Locust Grove, they have determined that the 70 foot per side is what they are okay with. That's with the multiple meetings with Sue Sullivan and Kevin Sublon and I believe that we have got a letter in the file from them to that effect. De Weerd: Okay. Hull: I'll have to work with staff to make sure that they have got the most current letter from lTD. Canning: It's a letter dated yesterday. It states 100 feet still, Phil. Hull: Okay. Well, we will have to work with Sue and see what happened with today's letter, so -- Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 30 of 53 De Weerd: That sounds like a good plan. Hull: Yes. Yes, it does. De Weerd: Okay. Council, any further questions? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Maybe, too, that sounds like that's a big difference. That's a big problem, 100 feet versus 70. Is it? Hull: It would have an effect on our frontage, yes. We are showing a 35 foot landscape buffer and, then, I believe it's a ten foot setback for the building, so we are over 110 to the first building, so -- that's the commercial area. So, we would have to take a look at that to see what effect that would have. Borton: Okay. De Weerd: And, I'm sorry, I didn't catch. Did you address the width of the sidewalk? Hull: I believe we are showing five feet, but we can certainly meet whatever city staff wanted and ITD requested there. Eight feet or ten feet or whatever that needs to be. That's not a problem. De Weerd: That's a pretty high speed road. It would be nice to have a wider path. Hull: You bet. De Weerd: Okay. If there is no further questions, Council, I appreciate your testimony and -- is there any member of the public who would like to testify on this application? None of our high school seniors wish to testify? All of you are here to get extra credit -- I think you get extra credit if you testify. No? Rountree: Don't encourage them. De Weerd: Okay. Council, do you need any further information? Okay. Applicant, last word. Any further word? Okay. Staff? Canning: Madam Mayor, we are looking for any letter from Sue Sullivan that might state 70 feet, but the letter from Mr. Sublon regarding the variance still states ITD recommends the developer provide adequate setback 100 feet to accommodate future highway improvements. So, that's from yesterday. Meridian City Council May 9. 2006 Page 31 of 53 De Weerd: Okay. Council, I guess we have a couple options if you're ready to make a decision on this this evening, we'd entertain a motion to close the Public Hearing. If you'd like to continue it to get clarification from ITD, we can certainly continue that another week. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: I think it's a pretty big issue. I'd like to see clarification from ITD on that. Thirty feet is a big chunk and I know the applicant agrees with that. So, I'd move to continue the Public Hearing, 13, 14 and 15, for a couple weeks? Two weeks? One week? In order to get that clarification. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if -- I don't think it would take much time to get clarification on that, if you're worried about that consideration. It's just a matter of agendas -- full agendas and that's fine, but one week would be sufficient for us. De Weerd: Okay. Do I have a second? Wardle: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to continue Items 13, 14, 15 to May 16th. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 16: Public Hearing: VAR 06-004 Request for a Variance to construct an access to Chinden Boulevard, a State Highway, for Hiahtower Subdivision by Hightower, LLC - southwest corner of Chinden Boulevard and Jericho Road: De Weerd: Okay. Item 16, since it is attached to Items 13 through 15, I will open that Public Hearing, V AR 06-004, and ask for a motion to continue. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: I move we continue Item 16, VAR 06-004, to May 16th. Wardle: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to continue Item 16 to May 16th. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Please note for the record that Mr. Rountree did -- he abstained. Meridian City Council May 9, 2006 Page 32 of 53 MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSTAIN. Item 17: Public Hearing: AZ 06-006 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 10.01 acres from RUT to C-G zone for Kniahthill Center Subdivision by Sea 2 Sea, LLC - southwest corner of Linder Road and Chinden Boulevard: Item 18: Public Hearing: PP 06-005 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 4 commercial lots and 1 common lot on 10.01 acres in a proposed C-G zone for Kniahthill Center Subdivision by Sea 2 Sea, LLC - southwest corner of Linder Road and Chinden Boulevard: De Weerd: Okay. Items 17 and 18 are public hearings on AZ 06-006 and PP 06-005. I will open these two Public Hearings with staff comments. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the next project before you, as I try and multi-task with Mr. Hull -- is the Knighthill project. Excuse me, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I need to switch out of this application. This is the Knighthill Center project. It is located on the southwest corner of Linder and Chinden. It is a request for annexation and zoning and preliminary plat approval. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm pausing, because Mr. Hull does have the letter from Sue. I don't know if you want to reconsider it or -- it does state 70 feet. So, I'd just -- I pause and ask if you want to revisit that issue or just continue. Or if you still want -- De Weerd: So, he has a different letter than you have? Canning: Yes. De Weerd: What's the date on that letter. He will have to tell me. So, he will tell me right now. It's dated March 30th and it is from Sue Sullivan. De Weerd: Okay. Well -- Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: You have one from these. Let's go these and, then, come back to that, if it's okay with the maker of the motion and the second. Get it done with tonight. That was the only thing holding up -- De Weerd: We do have a motion that has passed to continue it. After these two opened public hearings, I would ask for direction from counsel. Canning: Thank you, Madam Mayor.