HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-08-29 Wade Ramsey
Chris Johnson
From:Wade Ramsey <Ramsey6868@comcast.net>
Sent:Friday, August 29, 2025 2:30 PM
To:City Clerk
Subject:OPPOSED to In-N-Out location
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Meridian City Council
33 E Broadway Ave
Meridian, Idaho
RE: OPPOSITION to In-N-Out location as proposed
I am the elected Board President for the Bainbridge Home Owner’s Association, 572
homes and about 1,200 voters, that will be most impacted by In-N-Out at the corner of
Lost Rapids & Ten Mile.
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While I will be on a long-planned family vacation for the September 9 appeals meeting,
our community will be represented by our Board’s Vice President Steve Elliott and (no
doubt) many concerned residents.
Our Bainbridge neighborhood is bounded by Chinden, Tree Farm, and Lost Rapids all the
way to Ten Mile and over to Black Cat Roads. We wrap the CostCo development on the
south and west sides along with the Cadence 55+ community and Olivia Luxury
Apartments. I won’t deign to speak for the other respective communities, but for
Bainbridge residents, we are almost unanimous in our opposition to THIS location for In-
N-Out.
During the Planning & Zoning part of the process, there were 264 UNIQUE submitted
comments from Meridian residents to the city, and they ran 74-26% AGAINST In-N-Out at
THIS location. Most residents of the area understand how uniquely bad this location is for
the traffic load In-N-Out represents.
For the neighborhoods within a half-mile of this location, they were 96% OPPOSED to this
location. And that opposition is strong enough that they took time to write, call and show
up at City Hall.
It is very important that the Council understand our opposition is about THIS location. We
do NOT oppose In-N-Out in a different location. There are locations available in a mile or
less in EVERY direction. Those locations offer better traffic infrastructure with almost NO
residential impact.
We have no question that In-N-Out can handle the traffic once it is ON their individual site.
We have no question that their food is good and they’ll employ a dozen teenagers. We
don’t doubt that In-N-Out is cleaner than other fast food locations. We don’t doubt that the
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City wants that tax revenue. All of those things will be true someplace else in Northwest
Meridian without the headaches this location presents.
Our opposition centered around several areas:
The Lost Rapids corridor is a residential feeder street, with afternoon bus stops less than 60
and 100 feet away from this site. It is also effectively a one-lane street several evenings a
week during spring, summer and fall as residents park along both sides of Lost Rapids to use
Keith Bird Park.
The small Costco parking lot is already packed all day and most evenings with cars—there is
NO ROOM for a network of zig-zagged cars waiting to get onto an In-N-Out site.
The intersection of Ten Mile & Lost Rapids is the primary entrance and exit for every business
at the Costco site—and it has a turning lane that accommodates 6-8 cars only. Already,
multiple times a day, that intersection is backed up 1,500 feet or more. With the newly
approved Adero Park development, the intersection of Ten Mile and Malta Road (next to
Heroes Park) will become a 4-way intersection only 1,000 feet away. That proximity is a recipe
for a constant stream of accidents and headaches for everyone in that area for decades
ahead.
The access entrances to and from the CostCo development directly east of this plot on Lost
Rapids, and the entrance just a few hundred feet north on Ten Mile, are already choke points
all day for traffic. They are access roads that are narrower than most driveways, and they are
already backed up dozens of cars day and evening all week.
Lest you believe In-N-Out’s skewed “traffic report” that it won’t be that bad, let me point out
a report from Feb 2023 in the Fast-Food trade publication QSR. That’s the leading
publication for the fast-food industry. The industry average for fast-food visits was 121
THOUSAND people per store. For In-N-Out—the fast-food leader—it’s 700 THOUSAND
per store. Almost SIX times the national average. In the Denver market, where it’s also a
new phenomenon, it’s almost a MILLION visits per store.
And there’s an important caveat for that number: that 700,000 visits isn’t EVERY visit—it
excludes “short visits,” which are visits under 10 minutes. That means it’s at least 700,000
visits DURING PEAK HOURS.
That QSR article is at https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/wherever-n-out-goes-cult-
status-follows/.
For reference, CostCo itself reports about 1.5 to 2 million visitors per store per year. That
means we’re considering adding 40-50% more traffic to a location that’s already packed
with people.
In addition, In-N-Out would be the ELEVENTH drive-thru on the CostCo development—8
of them are fast food. By contrast, there’s only TWELVE drive-thru on Ten Mile between I-
84 and McMillian, and 5 of those are in the Sheels area. The City’s vision for the CostCo
development was certainly to create a mixed-use retail space with a few fast food drive
thrus, not to create “drive thru central” in northwest Meridian.
Yes, In-N-Out paid for a “Traffic Study” that compares this residential location with 20
California stores—all on an interstate or in big box shopping mall areas (Home Depot,
Lowes, Costco, Target, Walmart, etc). None of those locations are anywhere close to this
residential density or these traffic choke points. Their own “traffic study” concedes there is
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barely the infrastructure for their anticipated volume once “normal operations” begin—
meaning after the chaos and volume of a new store settle down. That still hasn’t
happened at the Village location almost 2 years later.
In-N-Out’s “traffic study” looked at ONLY the Lost Rapids & Ten Mile intersection over 3
days in EARLY DECEMBER. By conducting a “traffic study” in December, they picked the
LEAST BUSY time of year for the area.
Yes, ACHD issued a letter saying the roads supported a mixed-use application. But in
2017, when ACHD last did a study in this area, no one even conceived of an In-N-Out
anywhere in the State, much less this development. In-N-Out had not even contemplated
an Idaho location. The most popular drive thru in the Treasure Valley was Chick-Fil-A,
which represents roughly HALF the traffic of an In-N-Out.
Our Bainbridge community has worked hard to ensure (with the City’s help) that
semitrucks to Costco and the other businesses at the development can’t run after 11 PM
and before 5 AM. That’s largely to prevent overnight noise and light pollution for the
residencial areas. The late-night noise and light pollution are paramount concerns to your
residents.
All of these issues, and more, are why Planning & Zoning—your designated experts for
the City—voted 4-to-1 to DENY In-N-Out this location. It’s why the City Staff urged a
DENY vote.
In-N-Out made that vote easier by taking a hostile attitude toward the City staff, Planning
& Zoning members and the nearby residents. They made a denial easy by insisting on
being open past midnight with overnight deliveries. They’ve at least decided to drop that
demand—but not the hostile attitude.
Let’s also not kid ourselves—this is NOT a “here-or-nowhere” issue for In-N-Out. We’re
absolutely going to have another In-N-Out in northwest Meridian. The City is not going to
miss out on this tax revenue. We know they’ve already got other locations scouted in the
area, and they’ll just move on to another spot without an afterthought. And there’s plenty
of those locations that will be great without this unique set of problems.
For all these reasons, we ask you to continue to support our neighborhood, your own
Planning & Zoning Commission and your own City Staff. DENY this appeal.
At the minimum, as suggested by the ‘Memo to Council’ prepared by the City staff on 8/29,
return this back to Planning & Zoning and the City staff for rework and reconsideration in
view of these concerns.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and neighborhood support.
Wade Ramsey
4013 W Lost Rapids Dr
Meridian ID 83646
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