HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-06-20 Jocelyn Singleton
Charlene Way
From:Jocelyn Singleton <singletonjocelyn@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, June 20, 2023 8:07 AM
To:City Clerk
Subject:Say NO to Orchard Park MDA application!
External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments.
My family and I are proud Idaho natives and have lived in the Paramount subdivision for 4 years.
My children can attest to the fact that I regularly say “I love where we live!” This corner of the city
is a great blend of community resources, commerce, beautiful green spaces, and accessibility
through multiple types of transportation.
I recognize growth is inevitable, necessary, and has the potential to enhance the quality of life for
Meridian residents, but I am opposed to the scope of some of the projects presented recently by
the Orchard Park development. My concerns fall in line with those shared by my neighbors, which
I will include below.
“Regarding the Development Agreement Modification request submitted by CSHQA (Linder
Village MDA H-2023-0005).
This application is a laundry list of largely dissimilar modification requests and we hope the City
will consider their merits individually, taking into consideration the impact on the lives of your
constituents and not just the business interests of the applicants.
We have two particular areas of concern.
The Crystal Barn. The developer wants to combine three smaller buildings into one very large
multi-level structure that is much bigger than what was originally approved for this space. But it’s
not just the footprint. It would be an entertainment venue with features expected to draw visitors
from far away, bringing in even more traffic into what was intended to be a community-
level project. This sort of attraction belongs out near the interstate alongside Roaring Springs, Top
Golf, Vertical View, etc.
The apartments. We don’t object to multi-family and otherresidential projects per se. But a
massive 5-story, 500+ unit apartment complex would be totally out of scale for the surrounding
area, dwarfing the adjacent neighborhoods. You have to travel at least a mile to find a building
taller than even two stories (other than the temple). The Prelude apartments on the other end of
this square mile are “only” three stories and they tower above the nearby homes and businesses.
Besides the obtrusive visual anomaly, we are alarmed at the prospect of increased traffic caused
by hundreds of additional vehicles, especially those who use our neighborhood streets as
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shortcuts to avoid the inevitable congestion on Chinden, Linder, and Meridian Road. It would be a
threat to our quality of life, safety, and our property values.
The MDA concedes that multi-family development is not permitted in a C-C district without a
Conditional Use Permit and that their multi-family building is “preliminary and subject to change.”
So why is the CUP even included in this request? We note there is no mention whatsoever of the
building’s size or the type and density of residential housing it would consist of. We know about
their plans for a 5-story, 500+ unit complex because that was what they presented to us at the
neighborhood meeting last November. Whether they are concealing their plans from the Council
or they genuinely don’t know what they want to do, the CUP request should be denied until they
can bring more to the table than a wish list.”
Thank you for hearing our voices, and considering our perspective.
Sincerely,
A concerned Paramount resident,
Jocelyn Singleton
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