HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-03-31 Philip Antz
Charlene Way
From:Philip Artz <pjartz@hotmail.com>
Sent:Sunday, March 30, 2025 3:41 PM
To:Charlene Way
Cc:Clerks Comment; Robert Simison; Brian Whitlock; Sonya Allen; brickolive@aol.com
Subject:Re: H-2024-0058 In-n-Out Ten Mile Road-CUP
External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments.
Good afternoon.
Last week I submitted an email (see below) in opposition to the In-n-Out proposed on Ten Mile Road. Today I
reviewed the Public Comments filed as of today and noticed that there were approximately 15-20 comments
submitted on or after 3/21/25 supporting the project for various reasons.
I would ask the City to consider the following with respect to the comments in support of the project:
A. Most of the comments do not appear to have been submitted via email but rather gathered and
submitted in bulk either by US mail or personal delivery. While there's nothing wrong with that, it also
appears that many of the comments were identical or extremely similar in wording. Indeed, entire
paragraphs in several comments are identical. It appears they may have been pre-prepared and then
presented to individuals for signature. Again, there's nothing wrong with that-- basically it's in the
form of a petition to which individuals simply add their names and addresses.
B. More importantly, I would urge the City to carefully consider the addresses of the individuals voicing
support for the project. If you look through the addresses, and then using Mapquest, look at the distance
between the proposed site and the address, you will find that the individuals supporting the project reside
anywhere from 2-6 miles from the project site.
Specifically it shows:
Address Distance from proposed site
E Heritage Park St (2 residents) 4 miles
W Crescent St 3 miles
W Cobblefield Ct 2 miles
W Wausau St 3 miles
N Supai Ave (2 residents) 4 miles
E Kaibab Trail Dr (2 residents) 4 miles
Great Basin Blvd 2 miles
N Petty Way 6 miles
N Stanford Ave 4 miles
N Tipton Place 4 miles
Crosswind Dr 3 miles
N Clooney Ave 2 miles
It appears that all of the above addresses are east of N Linder Ave with 95% of them being east of N Meridian
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Ave. While all residents of Meridian should certainly have the opportunity to comment on the project, I would
submit that
the proposed project will have a far less significant impact on residents who live more than 2 miles
away. They will not have to deal with the traffic/safety issues every time they leave their homes. They will
not see the lights and hear the noise from the site from their homes. They will not hear the noise at 1am or
hear delivery trucks after 2am. Their property values will not be impacted.
Contrast that with the residents living in the neighborhoods bordering the site on Ten Mile, Lost Rapids and
surrounding areas whose homes are directly in view of the site or directly border the street which will see the
increased traffic. The vast majority of those residents oppose the project and I submit their opinions should
be given greater weight.
I suspect the residents of the above listed addresses may feel differently if the proposed site was bordering
their properties.
Please take the above points into consideration and disapprove this project. It simply is too close to
residential neighborhoods and poses an unreasonable burden on the residents closest to the site.
Thank you.
Philip J. Artz
6285 N Bolsena Lane
From: Charlene Way <cway@meridiancity.org>
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2025 9:44 AM
To: Philip Artz <pjartz@hotmail.com>
Cc: Clerks Comment <comment@meridiancity.org>; Robert Simison <rsimison@meridiancity.org>; Brian Whitlock
<bwhitlock@meridiancity.org>; Sonya Allen <sallen@meridiancity.org>
Subject: RE: H-2024-0058 In-n-Out Ten Mile Road-CUP
Philip:
Thank you for your comments. They have been made available in the project folder for review.
Public Hearing Notices can be accessed by following this link: https://apps.meridiancity.org/phnotices/
Public Hearing Process Information can be found at this
link: https://meridiancity.org/government/public-meeting-information/
Have a wonderful day,
Charlene
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Charlene Way, Assistant City Clerk (Remote Fridays)
City Clerk Office| City of Meridian
33 E. Broadway Ave., Meridian, Idaho 83642
Phone: 208.888.4433|Email: cway@meridiancity.org
All e-mail messages sent to or received by City of Meridian e-mail accounts are subject to the Idaho law,
in regards to both release and retention, and may be released upon request, unless exempt from disclosure by law.
From: Philip Artz <pjartz@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2025 9:41 PM
To: Clerks Comment <comment@meridiancity.org>
Cc: Robert Simison <rsimison@meridiancity.org>; Brian Whitlock <bwhitlock@meridiancity.org>; Sonya Allen
<sallen@meridiancity.org>; planninginquiries <planning@meridiancity.org>
Subject: H-2024-0058 In-n-Out Ten Mile Road-CUP
External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments.
Please accept this email in opposition to the proposed In-n-Out Burger (hereinafter "INO") project at the
intersection of Ten Mile Road and Lost Rapids Drive. Please add this email to the public record for the April
17th Planning and Zoning meeting. We urge you not to approve this project which will be a detriment to our
primarily residential community/neighborhood.
My wife and I own and reside at 6285 N. Bolsena Lane in the Cadence at Bainbridge 55 and over
community. As you know our community has entrances on Lost Rapids and on Tree Farm Way (basically an
extension of Lost Rapids).
The Neighborhood
Although the proposed site is part of a commercial plaza with Costco and other retail businesses, INO
proposes to build and operate on the far southeastern corner of the plaza. If one stands at the center of the
proposed INO site and looks directly east, the first thing you see are residences and residential
neighborhoods. If you turn and look directly west, you see the Olivia Apartments, some of which will be
looking directly at INO. Turn and look directly south and you have a church. To the southwest and southeast
are additional residential neighborhoods.
Although there are existing fast food/food businesses in the Costco plaza, and the zoning may allow such
businesses, most (all) of them are basically surrounded by other businesses and none of them directly face
residential neighborhoods on 3 sides.
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I have heard statements to the effect that INO has never built a store in such close proximity to residential
neighborhoods. Meridian certainly should not be the guinea pig to see how it impacts the neighborhood.
This simply is not the site for a business proposing to operate as INO operates given the negative impact it will
have on the surrounding area.
Traffic
Traffic is a major concern. INO recognizes the increased traffic impact its business will generate and
commissioned its own traffic study to tell us there is no basis to be concerned. Some questions:
A. Has Ganddini Group (GG) worked for INO on other projects; if so, how many;
B. Has GG done other traffic studies in the Treasure Valley;
C. Has GG taken into account the tremendous growth in housing and other developments in this section
of the Treasure Valley which will only increase traffic near this sire even without an INO;
D. How much additional traffic will be generated by the imminent opening of the Fast Eddy's gas
station/store at the Ten Mile/Chinden intersection.
E.
Common sense tells us that traffic will obviously be increased on Ten Mile (both directions) and on Lost
Rapids/Tree Farm (both directions). Traffic heading north on Ten Mile and turning left onto Lost
Rapids, at certain times of day and seasons, already backs up. A majority of those cars then turn right
from Lost Rapids into the Costco Plaza (the same entrance to the plaza proposed to be used for
INO). It is inconceivable to believe that the addition of INO will not severely impact and add to this
traffic and congestion.
Similarly the traffic leaving Costco plaza onto Lost Rapids will be significantly increased causing congestion and
accidents.
We also believe the traffic along Lost Rapids/Tree Farm between the INO and Chinden, in both directions will
be negatively impacted as drivers seek to avoid the congestion closer to Ten Mile. Of course if you drive this
route, you will notice that is bounded on both sides by residential housing the entire route, with the exception
of Keith Byrd park. The majority of those houses have yards facing Lost Rapids/Tree Farm, with many having
bedrooms in the back of the house along the road.
It would also be shortsighted to ignore the likely impact future development in this area will have on
traffic. West of Tree Farm has already seen significant development in the past few years in Meridian, Star
and other communities. That development, particularly residential housing, continues with new proposed
developments popping up seemingly monthly.
The traffic from those communities will certainly head to the Ten Mile area for shopping, etc. and will use the
Tree Farm/Lost Rapids "shortcut" to avoid the Ten Mile/ Chinden congestion.
Tree Farm/Lost Rapids was not nor intended to be major thoroughfare with bike lanes on each side. We don't
need INO traffic contributing to the problem.
Safety
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Of course the above traffic concerns also raise safety issues. Accidents will occur with increased traffic in an
area not designed to handle it. School busses load and discharge students near Keith Byrd park. Children play
at the park ( as well as at Heroes Park on Ten Mile). When there are activities at Keith Byrd such as youth
sports and dog training classes, cars park along Lost Rapids Drive. Making if difficult for cars heading in
opposite directions to pass one another, not to mention the danger this creates for bikes in the bike lanes in
each direction.
Noise
The increased traffic will of course result in increased noise particularly in warmer weather when the windows
of the neighboring homes are open as well as car windows down, with radios playing etc. Chinden and Ten
Mile were obviously designed to be the main east/west and north/south thoroughfares. However Lost Rapids,
Tree Farm and other nearby streets were not- they were designed as streets for residential recreational
use. There are no other commercial uses on Lost Rapids/Tree Farm. To allow a commercial use such as INO
on the northwest corner of Lost Rapids just doesn't make sense. It is simply human nature that as traffic
congestion increases on Ten Mile and Chinden drivers will look for shortcuts such as using Lost Rapids/Tree
Farm, even with out the traffic heading to INO.
We also noted that INO's funded traffic study states that since it uses its own delivery trucks it can control
delivery times to avoid heavy traffic, specifically stating its deliveries will be between 2 a.m. and 9
a.m. Seriously? 2 and 3 a.m. deliveries less than 500 feet from sleeping neighbors? Open until 1 a.m on
weekdays and 1:30 a.m. on weekends? No other business in the Costco plaza comes close to these
proposals, much less the one that will closest to the homes surrounding it.
A Good Neighbor
Last summer INO held a hearing session to educate the community as to its plans and allegedly to get
community feedback. The feedback was overwhelmingly against the project citing many concerns about
traffic, noise, safety, garbage, property values and other issues. Over and over the INO representative stated
that INO would take those concerns to review and that INO wanted to be "a good neighbor". Despite those
statements INO has elected to proceed with its project, apparently with no modification.
It seems to me that when a large majority of one's neighbors ask that you not do something, and you proceed
to do it anyway, it hardly qualifies as being a good neighbor.
Conclusion
For all the above reasons and more, it is urged that the City reject the INO project and protect the residential
neighborhood, and the safety and quality of life of its constituents.
Thank you.
Philip & Patricia Artz
6285 N. Bolsena Lane
Meridian, ID 83646
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