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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-11-12 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session November 12, 2024. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 12, 2024, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Luke Cavener, Liz Strader, John Overton, Doug Taylor, Anne Little Roberts and Brian Whitlock. Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Kris Blume, Brian Caldwell and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE X Liz Strader X Brian Whitlock Anne Little Roberts _X_ John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor _X_Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call the meeting to order. For the record it is November 12th, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: First up is adoption of the agenda. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: No changes this afternoon, so I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. Strader: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as presented. Is there any discussion? If not all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is adopted. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Sage Supply Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2024-0110) 2. Loose Screw Beer Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2024-0158) Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 2 of 21 3. Dutch Bros Ten Mile Water Main Easement (ESMT-2024-0159) 4. Memorandum of Understanding between Ada County, The Ada County Sheriff's Office, The Cities of Boise, Eagle, Garden City, Kuna, Meridian, Star, Eagle Fire Protection District and Valley Regional Transit for Emergency Evacuation and Transportation Support 5. Resolution 24-2490: Adopting an Administrative Policy of the Meridian Police Department Regarding Approved Server Training Programs Simison: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda, for the Mayor to sign and the clerk to attest. Strader: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there a discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? He ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: There were no items removed from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item] 6. Meridian Speedway Recognition Simison: So, we will go into Department/Commission Reports. First up is the Meridian Speedway recognition, Item 6, and I will turn this over to Cassandra and it looks like Blaine. Schiffler: Mr. Mayor and Council Members, thank you very much for letting us be here today. As many of you know we have been working on getting the speedway listed on the National Register of Historic Places for quite a while. So, we are here to present to you, Blaine, which is our chair of the Meridian Historic Preservation Commission and this is Dan Everhart, he is the outreach — forgot the title. State Historic Preservation Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 3 of 21 Office outreach coordinator. Okay. Okay. So, he will talk to us a little bit about the process for getting listed. So, with that I will turn it over to Dan. Everhart: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, my name is Dan and I work for the State Historic Preservation Office. We are a division of the State Historical Society and work across Idaho to promote historic places, the collection of historic artifacts and the preservation of Idaho history and one of our key programs is the National Register of Historic Places programs. It's -- it's really a program operated in partnership with the National Park Service. I can't make this slide change. So, good thing we are not being recorded. Cavener: We can't do it either, so — Everhart: Oh, yeah. Very very touchy. We are on like the fourth slide now, instead of— Johnson: Use the arrows instead of the mouse. Everhart: There we go. Weird. Didn't even have to click. Okay. Got this figured out. We don't. The National Register of Historic Places is -- is the official list of properties considered important to our past and worthy of preservation. It is a program operated by the National Park Service and in Idaho it's administrated by our office, the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office. It recognizes building site structures, objects, districts that are significant for history, for architecture, for their engineering, for their archeology, et cetera. It's critical that when we talk about the National Register program we understand not only what it is, but what it does. The National Register is honorific. It provides no restrictions to private property owners. It provides no true protections to historic places. A key component of that is it also provides no funding for the preservation of historic places. So, when we talk to the public we tell them, as I'm telling you, National Register designation is honorific. We say that over and over again. There is a lot of misconception out there about what the National Register program does and does not, but it is an honorific program that simply acts to -- to provide recognition -- an attaboy, a kudos for a property owner, whether public or private, which owns a place significant in Idaho or American history. Try this again. Maybe. Thank you. There is just a short -- short one and a half to two year time frame to list a property in the National Register. Like all good bureaucracy the bureaucracy of this program includes both local officials, state officials and the federal government. So, we can't leave anybody out. How this works is someone says, gosh, I think I have a place -- let's say a speedway that might be -- that might be -- should be listed in the National Register and we say, well, let's find out. Let's -- let's have you do an early questionnaire. We want to make sure that no one is -- is surprised by the findings of our office. So, we -- we ask for a preliminary questionnaire. Many places end their journey right then. If we say, gosh, for one reason or another you can't be listed in the National Register, that's where their -- that's where their conversation stops. For those who move on, ultimately we have a draft nomination that goes through a whole series of back and forth edits and reviews. Generally these nominations are written by an historic preservation professional, an architectural historian and, then, as the sort of final step in the Idaho Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 4 of 21 portion of the process we take these draft nominations to our statewide historic sites review board, which is appointed by Jan Gallimore, the director of our state agency, and made up of architects, archeologists, historians from around the state. They meet at least once a year, sometimes usually twice a year to review draft nominations and determine whether they meet the criteria for listing or not. If they do they get sent to the National Park Service and we work with an office -- one of the most uniquely titled offices in federal government, which is the Office of the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places and there is, in fact, a person whose official title is the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places. So, the keeper, ultimately, and their staff approves a national register listing after making sure that it meets all the criteria that they require. We hope to never send forward a nomination that is somehow problematic at the keeper's office and, then, I just thought it might be interesting for you to know, this process takes generally at least a year, sometimes it takes a little more than that. It's -- it's a lot of time and energy both by our office, by our local supporters and usually by a preservation professional who writes the nomination. So, I think Cassandra is going to give you a little bit more information about the places here in Meridian that are already listed. Schiffler: Thanks. Yeah. I just wanted to make a slide so that you know about what the other properties are in Meridian. So, as you can see from that list there is actually nine listed, but, to Dan's point earlier, there are two properties that are no longer standing, because this is an honorific title. So, all of the ones that are still here are the ones — they are all in downtown, except for the speedway, and that one's new. So, that's -- those are the properties that we have. I also kind of just want to point out the Toleth House, because that was recently renovated and the Historic Preservation Commission -- we submitted for an Orchid Award through Preservation Idaho and it won an Orchid Award recently. With that I will turn it over to Blaine to give a little bit of history about the speedway. Johnston: So, in 1948 Meridian Dairy and Stock Shows was incorporated to promote the dairy industry. In 1949 the Meridian Dairy and Stock Shows acquired 15 acres of land south of Meridian for a stock show. In '50 -- 1950 the Meridian Athletic Association incorporated to promote athletic recreational programs for Meridian, teamed up with the Dairy Board to develop dairy grounds for year around use and a recreational center. The Meridian Speedway has been in continued use since 1951 . In the early days of the Speedway the dairy board provided equipment for the youth of Meridian for sporting events, up to including uniforms, travel, stuff like that and at the present time the Dairy Board still gets two days in June every year for the Dairy Days. So, with that that's all my history. That's the presentation that we did a couple weeks ago to the speedway when we presented this plaque. Schiffler: And in addition to this plaque the -- Ada county also gave the speedway the Ada County Treasurer award. So, some of the Ada county commissioners were there, along with Councilman Taylor. Thank you very much for coming out to the speedway. And I also want to give a quick thank you to Barbara Bauer from TAG. She was our research consultant on the project. Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 5 of 21 Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions or comments? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I just want to extend the congratulations and thank you for all this hard work that you all have put into this and I'm really proud to have another, you know, place in Meridian that's such an iconic place for us as part of the National Register. I think it's great. Thank you. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: It's great to see the recognition for the speedway. But, you know, you kind of missed one very important event that happened out there at the speedway. Remember it got put on the map by the Clint Eastwood movie Bronco Billy. We can't forget that. You know, some of the old pictures you have to remember, you know, Meridian Speedway was existing long before 1-84 was ever a thing and Highway 30, Franklin Road, was the only way people got through this valley. So, it plays an important role in that history. So, thank you very much. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I remember with great fondness I was a new employee working here at City Hall and folks had moved to Meridian and had called to ask the city if we could turn down the volume at the speedway and I remember reminding them the speedway was here long before all of us and certainly its historical significance hopefully means it will be here a lot longer after we are all gone. So, thanks for your great work on this. know Council Member Taylor is not here, but I appreciate him representing Mayor and Council at the event a couple weeks ago. He did a great job of representing us and just another exciting announcement and win for the City of Meridian. So, thanks, Blaine. Thanks Cassandra, thank you all for bringing it to our attention. Simison: Yes. Thank you very much and probably one of my biggest regrets was didn't stay on ACHP long enough so that I could have been there when this actually came through the process, but I will probably stop in next time I'm in DC and, you know, give them accolades for that work. So, congratulations. 7. Meridian Development Corporation Update on Destination: Downtown Master Plan Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 6 of 21 Simison: All right. With that we will move on to Item 7, which is the Meridian Development Corporation update on Destination Downtown Master Plan. Mr. Hood, are you going to do any introductions or -- no? Okay. Ashley, are you going to do any or -- no? All right. Danley: Microphones are all still on. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Mayor, Council, thank you very much for the opportunity to be here this evening. My name is Chris Danley. I'm the project manager for the Destination Downtown update on behalf of MDC. Going to give you an update of where we are with this plan, all of the things that sort of went into it and, hopefully, get some direction from you as to how your staff and if your staff continues to move forward in terms of any implementation that we all see fit. So, I know it was provided to you in your staff report and, hopefully, had an opportunity to go through it, read through it. There is a lot to it as you would imagine. It's a heavy lift. A lot of effort went into it and tonight I'm not going to go over every single little bit of it as you would imagine, but definitely want to hit some of the high points. So, with that want to get your purpose real quick and, again, just kind of the general reaction that any of you have to it, answer any questions that any of you might have as well, and, then, as I mentioned a second ago just getting the general direction. So, to reset, remind you where we started and where we are. What was our objective? Our objective included numerous numerous components to this. It wasn't even just about the destination document itself, it was also some of the things in the screen in front of you. So, we were looking at the future and the viability of the current urban renewal district. We were looking at the possibility of the auditorium district, what that might look like, where might that be located, some of the sideboards that would be with that. Definitely took a very good hard look at parking. Parking in downtown we know is a hot button issue. Certainly got a lot of feedback about that as I will get into momentarily, but that was definitely a major element of what our deliverables were to include. Also included was design standards specific to the downtown area and I will get into what that looks like in a moment as well and, then, last, but not least, we had an additional component which was an economic analysis provided of what the downtown environment means in terms of a fiscal impact and how that might compare to some of the other areas around the state of Idaho and the Treasure Valley in particular. How did we do this? Well, we got a lot of input and a lot of that input didn't exactly -- wasn't always simpatico, as you might imagine. We started with numerous stakeholder meetings. Some of you may have participated in that. We certainly had stakeholder groups that were organized by sort of different interests, whether it was business owners, employees, nonprofit groups and the like and others, to try to get information from them. The folks who would know downtown really really well, whether it's from the decision makers perspective, from the doers that make the local economy happen, to the visitors who come down and spend time in the downtown environment. We went to Dairy Days and it was hot. Man, was it a hot one. But we stuck it out. We went out and gave away lots of candy as ways to bribe kids to bring their parents, so we can get their thought. But we also tried to engage kids, because, hey, that's the future of Meridian as well, so we wanted to get some of their thoughts on what the downtown ought to provide and what it might be missing and so on. We also took a swipe at going to Oktoberfest and get additional thoughts from folks there, as well as some of the more technical approaches, whether Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 7 of 21 that be online surveys and questionnaires and, then, also I should let you know that there was a parking subgroup that met multiple times throughout the creation of that particular document and I believe -- I think it was two of city council members were on that particular subgroup as it went through. So, you had representation as -- as it material -- as it materialized. So, what ultimately came about. As you would imagine competing interests brought about all kinds of opinions. Specifically we had folks who in some cases said, hey, nothing more than two stories. The other people who said 20 stories. Well, that's an easy one to thread; right? But we had to definitely take all of those perspectives, put them together and hopefully come up with to some degree an agreeable direction and so that agreeable direction was what we called the incremental steps and so through that our job was to optimize some of the existing parcels, looking at the entirety of the corridor, certainly providing a virtual -- or a vertical presence, but where that might -- made sense, how do we transition, how do we honor history and their existing buildings and so forth, all of those things, certainly taking into consideration the rail corridor, which is a very unique element of downtown Meridian and also some other things like walking, biking, transit. We had a very -- another I would say challenge. A major challenge. That challenge is what you are looking at. And what I mean by that is our job and what we were tasked to do was to look at the totality from the freeway to Fairview as we sort of called it as a downtown. But when you ask people in Meridian about where downtown is, what downtown is, as you, again, would imagine, there is lots of different opinions and so at the end of the day our job, however, was to look at this whole stretch from north to south as, again, freeway to Fairview and as you know lots of different land use type, everything from vacant land to industrial uses, historic, civic as we just heard with the speedway in terms of cultural elements. Also neighborhoods and a major concern about, hey, we don't want to gentrify. We don't want things to happen, you know, so quickly or in such a way that it puts a fiscal pressure and economic pressure on people and they have to move out. We want -- that really matters to us and we want to figure out what that can -- what -- how we can keep that from happening. But, ultimately, make it a downtown. That was our challenge. And so I'm going to go through these kind of quickly for the sake of time. As I mentioned I know that these were in your -- your staff report and I'm sure you have had a chance to look at these with greater detail, but I will go just sort of from the north towards the south and give you some of the thoughts that went into their consideration. And, again, a plan -- a guiding document. Not every detail, not every nugget is going to be in it, but it certainly gives us hopefully an agreeable vision. What we coined the Northern Gateway -- as you can see that is from the Fairview-Cherry corridor, a bit north to some of the properties that you are aware of. Certainly it's about getting some degree of density in there. It's a great -- it's about a gateway on the far northern edge. It's about providing some buffers, possibility for some of the shared use pathways that we know ACHD is going towards now, minimizing but allowing some degree of parking in front of buildings that -- that might be up against that corridor as well. And, then, frankly, it's about optimizing the -- we know the very large, but yet to be developed property on the northwest corner. That's a magnificent opportunity for the City of Meridian. But there is also opportunity that could possibly come around on the northeast, which some of that parcel that's there that's been there for quite some time and at some point is likely going to redevelop, whether it's the existing businesses Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 8 of 21 staying put, but a new building or — or ultimately some change that might come along. But what does that look like and how do we make and take total advantage of that in a way that we agree about it. The next one we called the North Main District. I will tell you that this one was an interesting one because it has two major themes to it. It's certainly those properties that are up against Fairview and we know that there has been some unfortunate change with Rite-Aid already and that whole situation, but some of that commercial component that's towards the north, but also a very interesting and unique residential component, right, that has history, that is really the heartbeat of what we know to be the historic downtown and so it's about honoring and that as well. So, some of the thoughts that went into that, some of the high points we certainly suggest and recommended that that Cole Valley Christian campus likely be the subject of its entire -- a whole different plan, because that's a big deal; right? That's going to be a very big deal in the City of Meridian to make sure that property is developed in a way that honors whatever the private interests might be, but also in a way that is agreeable to the existing neighborhood, as well as the decision makers that you all are and intensifying the Fairview element. I kind of mentioned that. Some of the additional connections that are possible. We highlighted some of that, because circulation is major. I would contend that if we don't have good -- good connectivity we end up putting a whole lot of pressure on just a handful of streets and when we do that we end up with a lot more congestion than we might need, a lot less of an inviting environment for folks who are wanting to walk, get around that way. So, connections can be really really good. And, again, as I mentioned a gateway component at that intersection really towards the north as you come in from the north to the south. Hey, welcome to downtown. This is the beginning of that stretch. Okay. This one's going to look a little complicated. I will walk you through it, because this is where people's opinions, your code, what we believe in like your general plan or your Comprehensive Plan, for example, we have lots of language in here that refers to Old Town; right? We have a zoning code that is Old Town. What do people think of when I suggest -- or we had conversations about Old Town? Well, we had to kind of decipher what that means and our best attempt was to do it in the following way. So, here is what my take is going to be on this. This whole section we are generally referring to as Old Town. However, within it, because of what we were asked to do, we have a few different elements to it that I will go over quickly momentarily. The railroad corridor, which is unique and sort of unto itself. The traditional city core, which is called out in your code. Those neighborhood enhancement elements and the neighborhoods that are to the east and the west of what we know to be that city core and, then, what we coined as the additional traditional city core is to the south, sort of an extension of what we know in that railroad area, but north of Franklin and kind of still opportunities, but, again, still people live here and we need to respect that. So, lots of things that go into this. So, the rail corridor. The rail corridor is where people pointed to say, yep, that's where we are good with our tallest of tall and it makes a lot of sense, especially if -- and there I will tell you there is some momentum on this. We will see where it goes. But the possibility of returning rail to Meridian, as well as the region and all of a sudden the notion of transit- oriented development is a reality. So, we are trying to read the tea leaves as much as we can, go with public sentiment as well and, ultimately, again, this is where the highest of high was envisioned to go. A linear green space that might align with that rail corridor Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 9 of 21 and, then, a possibility of connections or walkers and bicyclists in certain locations and where it might make sense to get across that rail corridor and not be too cumbersome. The next section is that traditional city core of one that's to the north and, then, also to the south. This is where there is a slight step down. This is where that transition may occur. So, it's still a little bit tall, but not -- not super tall. It's about five stories, give or take, 75 feet again respecting what folks kind of had to say and that step down between that rail corridor height and our neighborhoods that are surrounding it. So, that's the point of where this kind of comes about. I'm going to get to some of these other things in terms of human experiences momentarily and parking, because as you would imagine, again, as I — and I said at the outset, the city core one is definitely a focal point for a lot more additional efforts that I will get to in a second. But this is where a lot of what we know downtown is to be festival streets, lots of activities, pedestrian rich, et cetera, really are to take place. This is where that's envisioned to go and your code does a great job of calling that out now and so really it's about augmenting some of the existing momentum that we know we already have. One last thing is also again, gateways. And this comes from Pine Street, for example, on the east and to the west saying, hey, you are coming from that direction, again, welcome to downtown and celebrating that sense of place and separating itself. In terms of the neighborhood and enhancement areas, we — and the plan calls for most of it being a preservation attempt at what's there, but also allowing something, for example, like with ADUs, if there is a financial pressure, hey, an ADU can actually help a homeowner or a property owner by augmenting some of the income and allowing them to stay in place. But this is also a housing goal that the City of Meridian has as well and gets people closer to your downtown environment in a very modest way. Eight hundred square feet, for example, or whatever ultimately it's built. That's something that's fitting and historic, by the way. ADUs are certainly not new. But in a way that keeps people there. Other things. We talked about the possibility of some uniqueness with respect to the street system. There is nowhere in Ada county, for example, and even Treasure Valley for that matter that has a system of neighborhood traffic circles, for example, that can be done in a really great way and be a way to celebrate place, make it unique. If you have ever been to Bend, Oregon, for example, they have a system of traffic circles wherever -- they have public art in them. You go to the Chamber of Commerce you actually point out the ones you get to, you get a free T-shirt. That's their thing; right? But it's a unique way, again, of just sort of celebrating place and, hey, why not downtown Meridian. The speedway. We couldn't have picked a better night, right, to be here in front of you with regard to that, but as you might imagine that was a bit of a challenge for us our team and we got lots of different input from folks as we went through, whether it was stakeholders, whether it was the public and, again, as you would imagine, hey, some people were going we love it, we want it, we want it to stay. Others maybe not as much, maybe the folks that called, you know, Council Member Cavener and said turn it down. But lots of thoughts there with respect to the speedway. However, we looked at that and said if nothing else there are some catalyst property opportunities. We don't know what the future is going to hold. However, they are large in terms of space and the proximity to the Old Town area, to the park, right, and along the couplet do provide -- does provide a lot of opportunity for something quite special should that come about and even if it's not the speedway itself, for example, the parking lot at some point we Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 10 of 21 might say, hey, all that asphalt, it's a very valuable piece of real estate, still maintain the speedway, but something happens, maybe with the parking lot as an example. One other piece I wanted to point out with this is that the opportunity to frame that couplet and I mean the Meridian Main couplet itself, pulling things closer together, providing a vertical component. One thing with regard to sort of the land use and transportation fundamental, we pull buildings farther away from our arterials or our roadways, it prompts speed. It's a psychological element of drivers and so when you pull buildings closer in it generally can help get people to comply with the speeds that we want and in this instance we know coming into our Old Town a speed that's a little bit — a little bit slower than, for example, some of our busier mobility arterials. The last one, the southern gateway as we called it. Now, again, as we were in the midst of this you had a land use application, kind of a big one if I understand it right. Lots of decisions went into that. Don't know exactly where that stands, but, nevertheless, we had to forge ahead and part of the elements of that -- this is your southern gateway. This is, again, hey, welcome to downtown, because as I mentioned a second ago our job was, in fact, to go from the freeway to Fairview. So, that was another way of saying -- and you have some of that now, right, at the first intersection there, but, again, sort of -- a little bit more on the gateway treatments. Lots of redevelopment opportunities that could take place there. We certainly suggest some street connectivity. We know that's a very gummy area with regard to vehicular traffic and so certainly eliminating some of the local trips that may have to use that corridor, whereas some of the other streets that might come about in the future could help alleviate some of those trips would certainly help. It's a thousand cuts kind of an approach; right? Also some green space was envisioned towards the west side of it, because we noticed in that part of downtown area there wasn't as much as maybe there could be, so with an opportunity for development could come a modest park space, for example. And I think that was -- that was the gist of it. But, again, lots of opportunities and if that development doesn't come to fruition, well, now we have got maybe something that points in its similar direction and backs it up or changes course a little bit. So, that was our attempt at the southern gateway. Parking. People love talking about parking. Full disclosure. I'm on the city of Boise's P&Z. Last week we had an hour and a half straight of two applications talking about parking. No other issue. All parking; right? And so I understand it. We get it. And here is where will take this conversation, because I think ultimately people were quite pleased in the results of what came about with this parking study and the biggest takeaway -- you got a lot of it and you don't need to do a lot of complicated things, you don't need a parking garage, you don't need to do metering, but what needs to happen in order to maintain what we have got and keep it operational are some fairly low hanging fruit types of things, comparatively speaking anyway, to maintain that parking. So, there is lots of great strategies that can be utilized in order to keep this parking abundant, keep customers coming in and out. The future residents utilizing it as well and so forth. So, ultimately, no, don't need radical actions, but do need a bit more in the way of organization management. There is a lot of different things in that that hopefully you had a chance to look at, but things from just making sure all the signage says the same thing; right? Making sure that the time zones are aligned and it's very clear and so forth. So, I'm not -- I'm -- there are definitely some financial implications. Not going to hide from that. But the good news is it's not budget killer type of things where you are Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 11 of 21 saying, hey, we need a 30 million dollar, 40 million dollar parking garage. So, there is I think one of the really good things there. Design standards was another component and this is the rules of the game; right? And if we want the result of that game to look a certain way, feel a certain way, then, the rules of that game have to sort of help us in that regard and so it's not trying to be so onerous as it takes away from the private sector's desire to build certain things in certain ways and especially as it relates to their parcel and their shape of their parcels and their objectives, but it is trying to do things like continuity with design, maintain a bit of a feel, in particular, again, those -- that section one and section two of our traditional core, but bring about a framework so -- again for that next generation of downtown projects has a feel that we want and we are comfortable with. So, this was another one of the deliverables that is included in the plan. This is my personal favorite. I think it's a fun one. Heaven forbid we actually have fun in the world of planning; right? Human experience. In my -- I get a chance to travel all over the country in the work that I do. In the last couple of years it's been Arizona, California, Texas and on and on and on. North Dakota. I was in the city of Cavalier, North Dakota. Pretty sure none of you know where that is, because it's a town of 1,500 people near the Canadian border. Small town. Maybe two blocks. What do they have in downtown Cavalier? Music playing on speakers and lighting over their state highway; right? So, here was a -- an attempt at making you feel good about -- in being in their downtown. Wasn't a very big robust downtown, but, hey, man, I heard Everly Brothers and felt like this is kind of a cool place; right? So, there is lots of ways to get at this. There is so many fun and unique ways to get at this and -- and I'm a big believer that there is some opportunities in downtown Meridian that can be taken advantage of to set yourself apart from some of the other cities that are not just in Ada county, but the total Treasure Valley. So, lots of different things were included in that. Future urban renewal districts. This is pretty bread and butter, but it was an examination of what the existing district, you know, is doing, has done and what the future might look like for renewing it, changing the boundaries perhaps and that sort of thing. But, ultimately, it's about that commitment and focus downtown and another entity pulling in the same direction as you. The auditorium district. We know, again, some things happened as this process unfolded in terms of what this particular component looked at, but we tried our best to try to find places where, hey, what -- what can an auditorium -- where can it be? What are the opportunities? And I think we were able to definitely take a good look at a couple of them and make a case for where they might go. I really think this is one of those where, again, setting Meridian apart -- I mean you're a town of -- town -- I'm saying that flippantly -- a city of 130,000 people, 140,000 people; right? And so a place for concerts, a place for people to perform and, you know, state of the art. I think you deserve that. And so this is what that's about. The implementation component. Just kind of getting in the last few slides here. We tried to take this as much as we could and break it up into different categories. Those categories aligned with the deliverables of our project. So, whether it's through the city and the development services group, parking and mobility, and on and on and on, we tried to come up with some tables that we thought were useful. We separated them out by, again, topic, specific subject, the action, when might we have a short-term, long-term and this is about -- this is, honestly, a swag; right? This is our best guess that, hey, these are what we think are -- what could be those short-term things that you go after Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 12 of 21 here might be who the lead agency is. None of it is written in stone per se. There is lots of changes that are going to occur and disagreements, agreements that are going to take place naturally in order for who leads, who doesn't lead. But, ultimately, it's hopefully a bit of an opportunity to see what that looks like and as, again, all of it subject to change. Some of the initial action steps that we discussed in the plan had some discussion with staff about. Certainly had staff within -- or some discussions with MDC board as well -- are some of those things of what might go first. How do we start? What are we doing? We know that the private sector is going to continue to come to you, so we were confident in that, but what else can be done along the way? And this was in our attempt at trying to answer that question. You know, again, that human experience, for example, the fun part of things, that can be done relatively quick and set aside yourself, you know, and ask yourself what's missing from the valley; right? Who is getting it right? Who is not getting it right? We know that, obviously, people talk about Indian Creek, especially this time of year; right? And Christmas is coming up. They are doing a great job. Doesn't mean there might not be opportunity for Meridian to do its own version or maybe you go in a different direction. I'm totally biased and I'm going to give you something that I hope you run with. I hope you run with Halloween, because nobody's doing Halloween and you got a trunk or treat that's successful. People love to be outside in early October; right? It's still warm enough and you have got spaces to do it. Nobody's doing that; right? How do you celebrate in this instance an opportunity. That's just my two cents. Some other things, for example, expanding the Old Town zoning. I know that might sound easy. It's not. It's not; right? But here is the deal. If the objective is -- which our objective was -- to go from the freeway to Fairview, as what we envision to be downtown and do you utilize the zoning code, that does right now function as what has been your downtown zone, you extend that out because to the south your zoning is commercial. Fair enough. Do you want it to stay that way or do you want to have more of a mixture of uses? Do you want to invite residential components to it, right, and, then, be more indicative of what we envision in the Old Town. So, our charge was that might not necessarily be a hundred percent of what you are thinking, but in order to achieve that we felt like, hey, this is pretty good code, so run with it and extend it and get a broader swath of area under that, so that we get an area that basically develops sort of like the Old Town area, but from the freeway to Fairview. Memorializing the parking strategies. This is one of those where in that document there are a series of action steps. Doesn't again have to be iron clad. It can be, hey, it's subject to budget, subject to timing, staffing, totally and completely understandable. I will say your staff in the parking realm particularly was -- was pretty positive about what came about and was welcoming a lot of the ideas for what it's worth, but there is some decisions that have to be made in that particular realm. The promotion of ADUs and in- fills, you know, everybody talks about housing; right? It's been the subject du jour for the last ten, 15 years and so how do we accelerate that in any way possible to get -- to get more housing in the places that we want and, then, going back to ACHD, again, it was a coinciding issue. They were doing their neighborhood plan at the same time we were. We did work with them. Had a lot of good feedback, but as you would imagine, hoping to pull back and say, hey, we have some additional things that we hope you would consider. So, that's where we are in that. And, then, as I mentioned the Cole Valley Christian component. So, last step here is we tried to game plan this in terms of, Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 13 of 21 okay, what's the batting order to get this thing across the finish line? The MDC board took their vote and they supported it unanimously, but we need you to feel comfortable with it and, hopefully, agree to it as much as — and there is willing with the very least move forward and say, yeah, this is an agreeable plan. It might not be a hundred percent in line with what everybody's thinking, but it's to a point where it's agreeable and so that's why in part we are not -- we are in front of you today not seeking for you to bless it. We are simply seeking what next steps do you think need to happen. We know there needs to be a conversation likely with Planning and Zoning Commission. We know there needs to be a conversation with ACHD and their staff as well and we are -- we are potentially anticipating that you might want to have more conversation about the parking component and maybe the design review elements and so we are prepared to do that at a later date of your choosing. So, with that I have 30 extra seconds, how about that. But we would love to — I would love to first of all answer any questions that you have. Field as many as we can and if I can't certainly Ashley and maybe Caleb can do so, but get some direction from you and let you carry on your evening. So, thank you very much for your time. Simison: Thank you, Chris. Council, questions? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. Maybe just some feedback --just some initial feedback. I read the plan. It's a tremendous body of work. It's very obvious how many resources went into it. think to do it justice we need to have a series of meetings, because I think it's really important that we share the vision. I'm not sure I'm there on a couple of components and I just kind of wanted to open up the discussion how we could kind of efficiently do that. I think there are a number of different approaches. We could -- we could always take sections of your plan and discuss them. We could do it geographically. We could do it by subject as you mentioned; right? I think parking could be a separate meeting as just one example. But I think -- I think to properly align together we are going to need to divide this into a series of meetings that are more digestible. That's just my -- my initial feedback, you know. And, then, there are also kind of high level I think discussions that we need to have. The downtown URD is sunsetting and we have -- I think to balance the vision for downtown with our budgetary constraints in the near term and medium term and so I think there is just a lot to discuss. So, I kind of just wanted to open up that discussion of how do we want to go about the work, how -- you know, how does Council feel like it should be organized, but that's just -- you know, I could pick any topic and we could spend 45 minutes on that one topic. So, that's kind of what I wanted to start with was just kind of opening that question up for the group. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 14 of 21 Cavener: I tend to agree with Council Member Strader. This -- like a city strategic plan, it's a big elephant, I need to eat some bites at a time. Chris, first, thanks man. And your enthusiasm for the work is just -- it's infectious. I appreciate that you have helped kind of lead some of these efforts. Appreciate you kind of us walking through it tonight. don't know if this question is for you or Ashley. Has the -- has the MDC board formally adopted what is before us tonight? Danley: Mr. Mayor, Council Member, yes, they have. We went to them -- I think it's been -- I want to say six, eight weeks. I don't remember exactly given -- but they did hear it. They have been part of the process and being a sounding board and they did adopt it unanimously. But I will add they also were told expect some changes, expect some things that are still going to need to be massaged out and expect us to come back with a draft that's a bit different than what it is, but, conceptually, big picture they were in agreement and alignment and I wanted to add if I can one thing and I did -- I neglected to say this at the beginning. Through our process as I mentioned you had a couple of council members on the MDC board who were part of this and had regular updates and, then, as we went through draft stages many members of your staff and a few council members I believe also had a chance to provide comments as well and I -- we did our best to try to take all of those comments and address them as we saw fit. Many good ones. Sometimes competing comments as you would imagine. But this draft is result of that as well. So, I just wanted to make sure that you -- Cavener: Mr. Mayor, maybe a follow up? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Maybe you, Mr. Mayor, or Caleb. How much time has the planning department had to sit with this? Are there comments from the planning department as well? Are you still working on formulating those? Help me get kind of caught up as to where the staff is on the process. Hood: Sure. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, Members of Council, yeah, Ashley was nice enough, actually to invite me in particular to be on the selection committee. So, Mr. Danley was part of a team that worked on this project and was ultimately selected. So, we have been involved, engaged even to some degree kind of off and on over the last roughly two years. Yeah. I was given an advanced copy of the draft. We made some pretty substantive changes, some of those, like Mr. Danley mentioned, you know, maybe some of them competed with some of what he heard from the community members, but I will acknowledge and respect that he did make quite a few of those changes where it's like, hey, we have code and policies that speak to this and this conflicts with it. So, I think they did a very good job of considering at least some of the comments. Maybe even just at a higher level we — we have kind of stood back, though, as city staff for the most part, but we have been somewhat available. I know -- I realize that comment is sort of -- a little bit contradictory in and of itself, but that was sort of our approach was let your process play out, bring this to Council, we will see what you latch on to, but we were kind of there as a filter of sorts to say, you know, just a check in to Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 15 of 21 some degree, but to answer your question more directly, again, I did review a draft, changes were made and I have seen and generally familiar with the adopted document. I will just say maybe just one more thing. One of the things we have had some concern about -- and I know that's not why Ashley and Chris are here today -- I really like at least the first two comments we have gotten from council members. We think there is some good stuff in here as staff and I'm not speaking for everybody, but I sort of am; right? There is certainly some pieces we want to latch on to and -- and build on. There is some where I'm kind of questioning lukewarm on, too. So, my -- my thought right now is I don't -- I'm not necessarily a big fan of adopting this by reference and taking the whole thing on as a city. Not totally opposed to that, but until we go through some of this and really understand the implications to code, is this really what is in the best interest of the city, I to some degree question that and don't want to necessarily again have two documents that conflict with each other policy wise. This may be in the best interest of MDC, who is a part of the city certainly as far as their geographical location, but, again, have reviewed this, other staff members are generally, you know, familiar with it. Mr. Miles has been part of it. I can't speak to his -- if he read every word of the plan or not, but he was made -- he was given a copy as well. Councilman Overton was one of the two council members I know that was on the parking subgroup, so he — he has been participating, but as far as staff goes just a very pretty limited amount of city staff thus far. That was sort of -- that was sort of our direction and the way we approach this from the outset. Simison: Councilman Cavener, I think maybe one of the questions would be good I think for everyone involved is is Council wanting to come to an alignment on a document that can be passed by both bodies in agreement or are there pieces in here that you say, thank you, MDC, you have approved it, but we are going to go work on these ones specifically, as compared to having a document that both bodies adopt, because that's -- that's going to be a lot of back and forth I think for Chris and MDC if that's the outcome as compared to having Council identify the areas that they would like to explore further and staff identify the areas they would like to explore further and say thank you to MDC for providing this and, then, moving that forward as compared to trying to get into alignment specifically on certain elements, because, obviously, MDC can always come and present any elements or participate, but I think that's one of the questions -- is like what does the process look like and for the record I -- I wasn't there when this was voted on. I really wasn't part of the process. I kind of came in in that context. So, don't -- this is -- I don't have much personally invested in this work product, so I can't even speak to it in that context. Cavener: Maybe, Mr. Mayor, just maybe talking out loud, I'm hoping maybe we can foster a little bit of a conversation. I think aspirationally, yes, I would hope that we could -- hope to work towards the City Council and the MDC adopting a similar document. It is to me left hand, right hand working together. There are some elements, right, that MDC has flagged for staff that have put -- provided some perspective. I think certainly as we mull through this we likely will have some other concerns or questions, things we may need some clarification on or a differentiation in terms of vision. But I think that we need to figure that piece out. If we could work towards adopting this. I'm supportive of Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 16 of 21 that, but, obviously, that's not something that we would be able to work towards tonight and I don't know if we could even be able to work towards that this year, again kind of talking out loud. I think that for me things that I would want us to maybe think about is, okay, where -- where are the differentiations between planning staff and the adoption of MDC or council differentiate between MDC. Does Council differentiate from staff and maybe take them in, I don't know, section by section or sections by sections over the next few weeks and months with maybe giving Council an ability to kind of prioritize, hey, I really want to talk about Old Town right now or I really want to talk about parking standards right now and that we could build at least a priority list, communicate to MDC this is kind of the bites of the elephant that we want to take in order and, then, calendar that out over the next few weeks and months. But that's at least kind of where I'm sitting, reaction -- reacting to kind of the information tonight. I think that's how we have to take it on. But I -- I do think a more thoughtful segmented approach is probably best for us. Simison: Agreed. And I think the question is, you know, this a one year trying to come together on elements? And, again, what's the real value? Is the value of the plan or is the value of the things that we want to adopt that are in the plan? And that's kind of where I was kind of going to. You know, is it really more about let's just identify the areas, and work on those that we want to work on or is it that we want agreement with words in the document with MDC's board? Because those are two very different components in a lot of ways. Danley: I might interject, Mr. Mayor, and Council, just FYI, because of the nature of — and MDC's desire again to try to get this over the finish line. We are prepared to have those conversations. We didn't necessarily have every single piece of what this game plan might look like moving forward, try to take a bit of a guess, but just to reassure you there are opportunities to come back should you want to, whether it's topical, geographic, whatever the concern is, but to have a bit more of an in-depth conversation on a few things. So, that was anticipated and so if that's the direction that you choose to go, then, MDC and ourselves are prepared to do that, but if you choose a different way, then, that's your prerogative as well of course. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I -- I'm -- I'm a proponent of adopt -- like I would like us to try to adopt the same plan. Like I would like us to try to get alignment on the plan and really dive into it like piece by piece. I think that would provide a better outcome if we had that level of alignment and I also think that there are elements of this plan that are very valuable, that if they were adopted by our City Council it could be leveraged in other areas of the city. I thought there were some really innovative things in here. So, I'm more of a proponent of going like really deep into this piece by piece taking the time that I think is warranted for -- for something as in depth as this is. Like I -- I really think that makes sense. I think we could always prioritize our discussions. There are some components Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 17 of 21 that I think, you know, might be easier to get our arms around than others. So, we could talk about how to kind of prioritize -- again, you know, we could go take the plan section by section and have discussions and sort of see where that goes. We could, then, identify, you know, areas to kind of go into more depth. But I definitely think -- I would love to see the City Council adopt the plan — or try to. I just think -- I like to have a higher level of control and I know that about myself, so I respect others as well. If others have a very different view, but I always like to have a high level of control and I feel like that's the best way to go about it is to try to work together really closely and adopt the plan. That would be my preference. Whitlock: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Whitlock. Whitlock: Chris, just a quick question. Is — and, first, I commend you for the product that you have pulled together to date and extensive public input and focus groups and talking to tons and tons — so, I get that and what I sense from you is at least when you presented this and it was approved by MDC, in a sense you told them the ink is not dry on this. There may be changes coming back once the Council has a chance to do this. But to some degree you have wrapped this up and put a bow on it and said for this point in time here is where we are and now we as a Council have an opportunity to unwrap it and see if we like it. Where does the public play in that process? Do they wait until we rewrap it and put another bow on it? Or is there a public element that is parallel to what we are going to be doing? It sounds like for the next year or so. Danley: Mayor and Council Member, I don't know that I have the perfect answer for that, but I would say that the first part of your question is absolutely correct, the premise of it, which is this is precisely what we told the MDC board, which was here is where we are, I think we have got something pretty good, we had a lot of feedback as you pointed out and for the most part fairly agreeable, but we also know that there is going to be some things that are going to be tweaked, particularly because of how it's implemented and we know that MDC has some authority in terms of how things can be implemented specifically on investing and those types of stuff within their authority. However, you clearly have a lot of the authority in order to give the gasoline to this engine to make it go and so we would be silly to not, obviously, have the City of Meridian adopt this and take it and run with it, because if it's going to actually occur, you are going to be a major player in terms of the implementation component. So, we want the city to be comfortable with it and have its say and hopefully come to an agreeable place. Now, with respect to the public, my answer on that is -- is I think I'm going to tag team -- tag Caleb a little bit on this, because I'm going to guess that there is going to be -- there may be some components or some element where there might be a public hearing opportunity, specifically as it gets closer to the finish line for adoption, but don't hold me to that. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, Caleb. Hood: Yeah. I -- so, again, in my -- my head -- and however directed. I mean we can look at rewrapping the gift and putting a bow on it and adopting it as part of the city Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 18 of 21 owning it; right? Just back to the public involvement piece. I think for some of that to me comes back to -- depends on the element. For example, the design standards downtown, we will have to do some outreach with targeted stakeholders and that level of effort is different than when you are talking about parking changes and the downtown design standards, if we do something like this we are standing up subcommittees and talking about form based code and there is a real effort there with, again, targeted stakeholders first and, then, a broader audience of the public that, then, we will go through our regulated public hearings. Planning and Zoning Commission. You are changing city code. That is going to be a separate standalone public involvement process for that element, whether that ties back into this and we also adopt this, we haven't gotten that far about what that looks like. Same thing, though, if you adopt it as part of your Comprehensive Plan we got to go to our Planning and Zoning Commission, have a noticed public hearing, allow people to comment on it. So, I think it depends on, again, what -- what Council directs and latches on to will sort of say, okay, it's this type of public involvement is appropriate and that will be done in concert with, you know, other folks to determine what that is. But, yes, public involvement, again, kind of depending on what comes first here if we are going to adopt the plan and, then, adopt -- you know, implement pieces of the plan or implement pieces of the plan and, then, adopt. Simison: And I think that's a great way to put it. Like I say, what do you have -- what do you want to have accomplished by when? What's relevant tomorrow versus what's relevant later? And, you know, what gets into code versus what's in the plan? I mean I think those -- those are two big different things, too, because you — we want our code to be reflection of what we expect the development community to do. You know, interpretation of stuff that's in a plan that doesn't have the same impact as code is not as relevant. You know, it has value but it's not code. I think those are the things that we -- would be good to hear for on all these topics and I think, yeah, we can go through and identify which one -- which -- what do people think, et cetera. Which ones do you just want to start working on, as compared to going into alignment on language, then, going back out to the community to try to go through a public process all over again? So, there is a lot of moving pieces and parts compared to we could just adopt the plan and put it on the shelf and say thank you and, then, go start working on things. Yeah. I know, I'm being facetious, Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Okay. Simison: But, you know, how much time do you want to invest in the plan versus the things in the plan and where do you want it to reside for some -- and some elements are a lot more timely than others. The downtown parking -- when MDC sunsets and we have got financial agreements with other people that we are paying for parking and that goes away and we want that money to do other things or do you want parking to remain as part of that long-term outcome of those relationships, those have budget implications here in the next couple years quite heavily potentially. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 19 of 21 Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I guess I'm echoing the comments that have already been made. Kind of sounds like we want to break this up, but I'm wondering whether Chris and Ashley want to decide how we prioritize which parts we see first, which parts are the biggest haul that involve the most work by city staff as well as us. I worked directly on the parking committee. As a matter of fact I worked on your parking committee ten plus years ago. But that doesn't mean that I sat down and shared that information with any other council members at the time, because we were just developing it. So, it's all brand new to you guys when we hear it and I still think that needs to be broken up piece by piece. We have been working on this for so long -- I don't want to feel rushed to do this quickly. We want to make sure what we do is we get it right. Danley: Mr. Mayor and Council Member, I think -- I'm guessing and hopefully we agree, we can certainly have that discussion with city staff, of course, there as well to come up with maybe what that looks like and I don't know, Caleb, if that ends up you sort of running it up the flagpole, those strategies that we come up with are agreeable and, then, start to put timetables to it. I'm probably putting words in Caleb's mouth, so I will just be quiet. Simison: Well, I would also like Council to weigh in. I would like Council to provide to Caleb, you know, what are the issues that are most interesting to you that you would like to -- you know, how would you like to go through this, give me your feedback and the importance of the issues, so that he can help navigate that along with MDC with Chris and Ashley and others just to prioritize what comes back and when and how and put together a plan so we understand are we talking five apples or 20 apples? You know, that way even from a time and work level expectation. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I always have an opinion, so -- I think on this I really would like to go through each section of the plan together as a group and try to divide it -- like I said, it could be divided geographically, it could be divided by section. I could understand prioritizing parking as like the first issue, just because it is a hot button issue. It's very topical. Feels like something we can get our arms around. I will be okay with prioritizing that as like our first subject area if we wanted to dive into that, but I would not — I would not feel comfortable just saying I'm going to just choose five things out of the plan to discuss. I would like to discuss the whole plan, because I rarely found a section of the plan that I did not have some sort of feedback on. I'm just being open of how I'm looking at it. But we could certainly — you know, if it's like we -- you know, if the advice from folks is like we have a lot of timing related concerns around parking, which is part of what I just heard, that seems like it makes sense to be like one of the first areas that we would focus on and, then, maybe after that we could focus on each sub area, we could take some time to talk about the design elements as a whole. I think those could be discussed together. I do have an overarching -- as I already said, I have no overarching Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 20 of 21 budgetary concern around future urban renewal districts and I think it's really important for us to get feedback from our Finance Department around the plan and around how urban renewal is potentially impacting us going forward within our budget. So, that's some work I think that would need to happen as kind of a larger topic area. I just kind of wanted to flag early. We could — yeah. So, I -- and like even within each element, you know, it could be like, hey, we would love to talk about their -- the whole rail corridor element of the plan. For example, we could -- we could have a meeting on that. I mean if we feel like we could collapse certain items together I'm open to that, but I -- again, I -- I really do want to go through the whole plan together. That -- that's just me, but -- Simison: I -- I wasn't suggesting only had to choose five. I'm just saying how would you like to go through the plan, you know, and identify the ones that are most important to you, you know, but you have heard she wants to go chapter by chapter and so -- but everyone should be able to weigh in on what they think is relevant and see how you want to do it. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I think that makes sense. It just -- I think it's going to be a little bit of a lengthy process. I think that we should be thinking probably in a six to seven month range. If we are taking kind of a chunk of this every month, perhaps we discuss -- maybe Mayor and I and counsel can discuss different council members taking on a section and maybe helping to kind of be a liaison. We are kind of vetting some of those things out, maybe interacting with the administrator of MDC, working with staff, some of those things maybe to help accelerate this process up here to make it a little bit smoother. So, I'm open, Mayor, to having a conversation with you as part of an agenda setting, maybe building a plan that we could, then, circulate back to Council and MDC, so that they could be aware and I know that we try to meet with them jointly at least once a year. Perhaps, you know, the conclusion of our process would maybe make for -- good sense for us to do a joint meeting with them to provide our findings and maybe have a good collaboration conversation with them as well. Simison: I'm happy to do that. I still would like Council to provide feedback to -- because it -- Caleb and his team have to be part of the planning process. You know, what -- what works and so I think it would be good for him to get an impression, because I have no idea -- there may be sections of this plan. They say that's from their opinion that's a nonstarter. So, we are going to — are we going to — are we going to -- you know, what's the ROI for that conversation? So, if we can at least provide feedback directly to Caleb on your thoughts on what should be done and what time and we can include Caleb in the conversation about what it can look like moving forward. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts. Meridian City Council Work Session November 12,2024 Page 21 of 21 Little Roberts: I pretty much echo the comments that I have heard already. Chris, thank you very much for your presentation. Appreciate all the work that has gone into it. was honestly surprised with your positive comments about space for parking, because that's not the feedback that I have received from a lot of our neighbors, especially for downtown. So, I would definitely want to put parking number one, because I think that needs some really healthy discussion to make sure we are all on the same page to make it most efficient for our residents and people that are coming to downtown as we have got growing businesses, so -- and I would probably want to prioritize Old Town, because we have had a lot of things going there regarding our discussions, but that's just my take on -- on the order of things at this point. So, thank you. Simison: Okay. So, my request by next Friday try to give something to Caleb and, then, with that information we can have a separate conversation. Cavener: I will get something put together and sent over to staff. Thanks, Mayor. Danley: Thank you so much. Simison: Thank you. Cavener: Chris, nice to you, man. Thank you. Simison: Council, we have reached the end of our meeting. Do I have a motion? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Move we adjourn our workshop. Simison: Motion to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5.40 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON 12-3-2024 ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK 12-3-2024