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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 04-24 Meridian Citv Council Meetina April 24. 2007 The regular meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 7:05 P.M., Tuesday, April 24, 2007, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, David Zaremba, Keith Bird, Charlie Rountree and Joe Borton. Others Present: Bill Nary, Will Berg, Caleb Hood, Len Grady, Bill Musser, Mark Niemeyer, Doug Strong, and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X David Zaremba X Charlie Rountree X X Joe Borton X Keith Bird Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to tonight's City Council meeting. It is Tuesday, April 24th. It's a few minutes after 7:00 o'clock. We appreciate you joining us. I will start tonight's meeting with roll call attendance. Mr. Berg. Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance: De Weerd: Item No.2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight we will be led in the pledge by Chris Blaine with Meridian High School. If you will all rise. (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) Item 3: Community Invocation by Pastor Darrell Taylor with Cherry Lane Christian Church: De Weerd: Chris, I would like to offer you a City of Meridian pin for leading us tonight. Thank you. Okay. Item NO.3 is the community invocation. We will be led tonight by Pastor Darrell Taylor with the Cherry Lane Christian Church. If you will all join us in the community invocation or take this as a moment to reflect and mediation -- or mediation. Meditation. Now I know why I stopped saying mediation. Taylor: Let us pray. Gracious Father, we are just truly thankful for the beautiful day that you have given us and, Father, for the -- for this meeting. We just ask for your guidance and your wisdom here, Father. The Apostle Paul has taught -- written a number of times about praying for our government and for the -- for the government leaders and, Father, I can't think of a better time than at the beginning of this meeting to ask, Lord, that you will just give this group wisdom and the strength needed to make the tough decisions, because their responsibility is to make this a beautiful community to live in, to Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 2 of 61 raise kids, and work and retire in. And so, Father, the responsibility is great. We just ask for your guidance and strength and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda: De Weerd: Thank you so much. We were all up very early this morning for a 6:45 a.m. Mayor's Prayer Breakfast. So, if we start dozing, just hit the mike or something, we will wake up. Okay. I will only speak for myself. Okay. Item No. 4 is adoption of the agenda. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: We don't have any request to change anything. On the Consent Agenda, Items G, H and I are resolutions number 07-554,07-556 and 07-557. And with that I move we approve the agenda. Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I have a question if I may. Bird: Sure. Zaremba: Procedure, I guess. There is one item on the Consent Agenda that I would like to ask a short question about. Does that mean -- De Weerd: You'll have to pull it off. Bird: We'll do that when we do that Consent Agenda. Zaremba: Okay. I will wait. Bird: Okay. De Weerd: Mr. Berg, don't we -- or, Mr. Nary, don't we have to pull something off the Consent Agenda to consider it, to discuss it? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if -- I guess it depends on what Council member Zaremba's question is. If he just needs clarification, he can ask a clarification question and if we can answer it, we can leave it on the Consent Agenda. If he wants to, in addition to that, discuss it, then, he would request to remove it from the Consent Agenda to then -- for further discussion. De Weerd: So, we wouldn't do that at this time? Nary: You don't need to do that at this time. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 3 of 61 De Weerd: Okay. Bird: We have got to approve the agenda first. Nary: Yeah. De Weerd: Okay. Bird: With that I move that we approve the agenda as published. Zaremba: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and second to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 5: Proclamation for Arbor Day: De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba? Oh. Well, I didn't read my agenda. Okay. We have in front of you on Item 5, the Arbor Day Proclamation. We do have an upcoming celebration. I don't -- Mr. Strong, do you want to announce the Arbor Day celebration. Since you're here, I thought I would let you introduce it. Strong: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We will have an Arbor Day celebration this Thursday at 1 :30 at Mary McPherson Elementary School on Amity Road and invite anybody that would like to attend and watch us plant a tree and all of that, please, put it on your calendar. De Weerd: And what kind of tree? Strong: I'm not sure. De Weerd: Oh, geez. Strong: It's a green tree, I guess. De Weerd: And it was provided by-- Strong: I don't recall that either. I was not prepared to do this. De Weerd: Elroy did get an assistance grant to help pay for that and so it will be donated to Mary McPherson. Okay. See, I stumped you. Thanks, Doug. Okay. The Arbor Day Proclamation. Whereas in 1872 J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 4 of 61 a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, and produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas and beautify our community and whereas trees, where ever they are planted, are a source of joy and spiritual renewal, now, therefore, I, Tammy de Weerd, Mayor of the City of Meridian, Idaho, do hereby proclaim Thursday, April 26th, 2007, as Arbor Day in the City of Meridian, Idaho, with the celebration at Mary McPherson and I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. And, further, I urge all citizens to plant trees, to gladden the heart and promote the well being of this and future generations. I sign this the 24th day of April. Item 6: Proclamation for Fair Housing Month: De Weerd: Item No.6 is a proclamation for Fair Housing Month and that proclamation - - I have no one to pick on on that, unless, Len, you want to give a presentation on fair housing. Grady: I will pass if that's okay, Mayor. De Weerd: Okay. Well, then, I will read it. Whereas, April 2007 marks the 39th anniversary of the passage of Title 8 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known as the Federal Fair Housing Act, and whereas the Idaho Human Rights Commission Act has prohibited discrimination in housing since 1969 and whereas the equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial -- what is that word -- what is that? Okay. Status or national origin is a -- see, now you know how early I got up this morning. I'm already rummy. Is a foundational goal of our nation, state, and city and whereas equal access to housing is an important component of this goal, as fundamental as the right to equal education and employment, and whereas housing is a critical component of family and community health and stability, and whereas housing choice impacts our children's access to education, our ability to seek and retain employment options and the cultural benefits we enjoy, the extent of our exposure to crime and drugs and the quality of health care we receive in emergencies and whereas the laws of this nation and our state seek to insure such equality of choice for all transactions involving housing and whereas ongoing education, outreach, and monitoring are key to raising awareness of fair housing principles, practices, rights, and responsibilities, and whereas only through continued cooperation, commitment and support of all Idahoans can barriers to fair housing be removed. Therefore, I, Tammy de Weerd, Mayor of the City of Meridian, do hereby proclaim April 2007 to be fair housing month in the City of Meridian, to promote awareness of equal housing opportunities. Again, signed this 24th day of April 2007. Item 7: Consent Agenda: Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 5 of 61 A. Approve Minutes of March 20, 2007 Pre-Council Meeting: B. Approve Minutes of March 27, 2007 City Council Regular Meeting: C. Approve Minutes of April 3, 2007 City Council Regular Meeting: D. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Order for Denial: AZ 06-059 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 224.26 acres from RR to R-2, R-4 and R-8 zones for Blackrock Castle Greens Subdivision by Providence Development - west of South Eagle Road and south of Amity Road: E. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Order for Denial: PP 06-059 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 644 residential lots and 31 common lots on 224.26 acres in the proposed R-2, R-4 and R-8 zones for Blackrock Castle Greens Subdivision by Providence Development - west of South Eagle Road and south of Amity Road: F. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Order for Approval: RZ 07-004 Request for a Rezone of 7.23 acres from R- 4 to L-O zone for the property located at 1615 W. 2nd Street for LDS Church by Bob Niblett, Niblett & Associates Architects - 1615 West 2nd Street: G. Resolution No. 07-555 : ADProving Tullv Skate Park Rule Chanae to Allow Bicvcles at the Skate Park: H. Resolution No. 07-556 for Used ComDuters: Declaring SurDlus ProDertv I. Resolution No. 07-557 Parks and Recreation Department New Fees and Fee Chanaes for Recreation Programs and Activities: J. Approve FY07 Budaet Amendment for Police Department to account for revenue received from students of $6900.00 for Kaminsky FTO Seminar: K. Water Main Easement Agreement for Meridian First Baptist Church: L. ADDrove Contract for the Tertiary Filter Retrofit with CH2M HILL for $56,370: Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 6 of 61 M. Approve New Beer license (2007-08) for Elsa Mendoza dba Super Polio Mexican Grill at 2031 E. Fairview Avenue, #103: N. Approve Transfer of Owner for Beer and Liauor licenses from Lvnn Killian to Judith A. Sproule for Kahootz Steak and Alehouse at 1603 N. Main Street: O. Public Works Chanae Order No.1. Water and Sewer Improvements in Conjunction with Roadway Project Intersection Linder and McMillan Road with Parametrix Engineering for $1500: Q. Approve Beer. Wine and Liauor License Renewals: Kahootz Steak & Alehouse Carrabba's Italian Grill Chinatown's Quik-Wok Smoky Mountain Pizza & Pasta EI Tenampa Double D Home & Ranch My Caffe Fiesta Guadalajara Sa Wad Dee Johnny Carinos Country Italian Dancing Dog Coffee House Health Nuts Market, Inc. Harvest Buffet JB's Restaurant Lakeview Golf Course Lotus Garden Chinese Restaurant 127 Club Mason's Maverick Store #233 New Frontier Club Ram Restaurant & Brewhouse Rite Aid #5412 San Francisco Sourdough Eatery Sidelines Sports Bar Texas Roadhouse Baja Taco Vina St. Lukes Medical Center R. Tabled from March 27, 2007: Resolution No. : Adoption of Records Retention Schedule: Table to May 22,2007 Meridian City Council April 24. 2007 Page 7 of 61 De Weerd: Council, do I have a motion on the Consent Agenda? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: I would like to know what Councilman Zaremba wanted to-- Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I'm hoping that it will be a short question and a short discussion, but I think it would be appropriate to ask for the item to be moved from Item 7 to Item 8 and I'm referring to Item 7 -E, the Compliance Agreement with Meridian Bowling Lanes, Inc., and if we do move that from the Consent Agenda to Item 8, then, we would also need to move Item 7-Q, the very last item, Meridian Bowling Lanes, to join it in Item 8. Bird: Okay. Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: With that on our Consent Agenda, as I stated, G, H, and I are resolution numbers 07-555,07-556, and 07-557 and Item No. P would be pulled to 8-P and item number Q, I think -- Zaremba: Meridian Bowling. Bird: -- that's 28 and 27, Meridian Bowling Lanes, would be pulled to Item 8-Q, Meridian Bowling Lanes, and with that I move that we approve the adopted Consent Agenda. Zaremba: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda with the changes as noted. Mr. Berg, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 8: Items Moved from Consent Agenda: P. Compliance Aareement with Meridian Bowlina Lanes. Inc.: Q. Approve Beer. Wine and Liauor License Renewals: Meridian Bowling Lanes De Weerd: Okay. Item 8, we removed P and under Q the Meridian Bowling Lanes. will open that for discussion with Mr. Zaremba. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 8 of 61 Zaremba: Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, actually, this is a question that possibly is directed at Mr. Nary. On page three of the compliance agreement, paragraph B, consideration, paragraph one, in consideration for them following the schedule to bring certain things up to code, the city is agreeing that we will not deny the renewal of their liquor license solely on that ground. And my first thought was a rookie question. I'm not sure how often liquor licenses are renewed and we have a lot of them going on. But my thought was whether or not that sentence should read that we would not deny approval of the owner's 2007 application. Do we need to be that particular? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Zaremba, first we renew liquor licenses annually. Secondarily, no, the intent of this agreement was to, basically, give some opportunity to get some -- some compliance work done in regards to the fire code and the intent of the agreement was to allow annually, as long as the work is getting completed as described, then, that wouldn't be the reason we would deny it. Obviously, if there is something else crops up or other issues occur or violations or something else, that would be. But, no, we don't need to be quite that specific and I think that was the intent of the parties. That was what the basis of the agreement was. Zaremba: Thank you very much. In that case, Madam Mayor, I move approval of -- what was Item 7 -P and is now Item 8-P and also 8-0 for Meridian Bowling Lanes and their liquor license renewal. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-P and Q as it relates to Meridian Bowling Lanes. Mr. Berg, will you, please, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 9: Reauest for Reconsideration of Denial for Preliminary Plat for Cold Creek Subdivision by BSC, LLC: De Weerd: Okay. Item 9 is in front of you. It's a request for reconsideration. Council, you do have a letter in front of you. Is there further information needed from the requestor or any discussion? Zaremba: Let's see. Do we discuss the subject or only whether we are interested to reconsider? De Weerd: Only if you're interested in reconsidering. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 9 of 61 Zaremba: The information on which I would base a reconsideration is not included in their letter. De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Nary, do you want to give an overview of what are the considerations? Nary: Madam Mayor, we don't have any specific requirements for the reconsideration, it's within the discretion of the Council as to what they would consider adequate information being provided by the applicant to want to allow, essentially, a new hearing on the proposed Cold Creek Subdivision. If there is an adequate information to any of the Council members, it would have to be one that voted in the affirmative for the denial. If my memory serves me correctly, I think it was unanimous for denial, so any Council Member is eligible to do that. If you don't think there is enough to reconsider the matter, you still do need to take action. You can move to deny the request would be your other option. De Weerd: Any questions on that or any comments? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: If memory serves, on prior requests we have at least given the applicant, if they are present, opportunity not to present the entire project or start from scratch by any means, but if there was something that in the written request -- there was an additional ground that wasn't in the written request, they could present that to us. Again, not to rehash the hearing or all the issues but give them that opportunity. So, if the applicant's here and has something that's not duplicative of the April 13th, 2007, request, I would be at least willing to hear. De Weerd: Mr. Nary, can -- can anything outside of the letter in front of Council be presented? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Borton is correct. We have allowed people to come and only if they have anything that they think they need to clarify in regards to what's in that letter. So, nothing in addition to that. You're correct. De Weerd: Okay. Is the applicant here? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Borton: When I make that comment, the letter is crystal clear to me, the basis for the request. So, I'm not necessarily confused or curious about it. I'll give you the same chance as we give others. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 10 of 61 Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I could get to the crux of my question quickly. De Weerd: As long as it's not new; correct? Zaremba: It, actually, does related to the letter. De Weerd: Okay. Before you ask that, may I ask the applicant to, please, state his name and address for the record. Zaremba: I'm sorry. Yes. Mahaffey: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, my name is Riley Mahaffey. I'm representing the developer. Address 1311 West Jefferson, Boise, Idaho. De Weerd: Thanks. Mahaffey: 83702. Zaremba: The letter correctly identifies one of the issues and that is that the 20-foot common area that is the easement for the sewer line I believe it was, will become an attractive nuisance and there is not an alternative source for running that easement. That is stated in the letter and the question I had -- the answer to that that I was looking for was some way to prevent people from using that easement to get to the canal that's behind it and you have said how you would beautify that easement, but my question was that there is another step in my concern and that was some way to prevent people from using that easement to get access to the canal. De Weerd: Before I ask for a response, Mr. Nary, can we ask for further clarification? Nary: No. De Weerd: Yes. That's new information. Nary: They have asked us what it is. De Weerd: It would need to be in a Public Hearing, so, please, don't answer that. Mahaffey: Okay. De Weerd: It felt good to say that. I don't often get to say that of Council's questions. Zaremba: May I find out that if we did open it up for reconsideration, would he have an answer to that? Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 11 of 61 De Weerd: Well, you could ask any question at that time and he can't tell you whether - - what that answer would be. Zaremba: I don't need to know what the answer is; I'd just like to know -- De Weerd: I don't think he can even say that. Zaremba: -- if we would learn anything more by having reconsideration. De Weerd: You would be better off saying if I reconsider it these are my expectations, but -- is that correct, Mr. Nary? Nary: You are correct. De Weerd: Thank you. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: The only reason we -- excuse me -- brought this forward was the applicant wasn't there last week and we just -- we thought that if he wanted to respond to anything within the letter. We were not going to ask any questions. He was not going to give any answers. And we either approve the denial or we uphold it, one of the two. De Weerd: So, do you have any -- anything you feel you need to clarify in the letter -- that's in the letter? Mahaffey: We'd give you an opportunity to review the CC&Rs for the subdivision prior to the final plat. I guess we could define better, you know, this 20 foot setback and the open fenced area. If you'd like more drawings or -- you know, I'm kind of confused on -- De Weerd: That's all right. I think so are we. Okay. Council, anything for the applicant? Bird: I have none. Rountree: I have nothing. De Weerd: Okay. Within the parameters we set. Zaremba: I was trying to get it in, because the question is asked in the letter, it just isn't answered. Borton: Madam Mayor? Oh, go ahead. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 12 of61 De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Zaremba: I'm sorry. I would comment that strictly going by the letter, I don't have a reason that I would reconsider. De Weerd: Okay. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: I agree with Councilman Zaremba. My remarks at the hearing on this 20-foot strip, fenced or not, landscaped or not, is just -- it doesn't solve the problem that I addressed earlier and understand and appreciate the effort of the applicant, but I would -- I would move that we deny the request for reconsideration for Cold Creek Subdivision. Zaremba: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Mr. Nary, we don't need a motion and a second on this. If we don't want to reconsider, there is no motion needed, they just need to approve the Findings; is that correct? Nary: Madam Mayor, what we have been doing in all of these, since this is an actual formal request to the Council, that if they wish to deny it, then, they would make a motion and second and vote on that and, then, they could go onto the Findings. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to deny the request on Item 9. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 10: Tabled from April 17, 2007: Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Order for Denial: PP 06-064 Request for Preliminary Plat approval for 16 building lots and 4 common lots on 4.0116 acres within the R-4 zone for Cold Creek Subdivision by BSC, LLC - north of Ustick Road and east Ten Mile Road: De Weerd: Okay. Item 10 is the Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law for Cold Creek Subdivision. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 13 of61 Borton: I move we approve Item 10, the Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law, for denial on Cold Creek Subdivision. Zaremba: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Berg, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 11: FP 07-010 Request for Final Plat approval for 6 multi-family building lots, 1 church/office lot and 2 common lots in R-15 and L-O zones for Rushmore Subdivision by SLC Investments, LLC. - 1021 West Pine Street: De Weerd: Okay. Item 11 is FP 07-010. I did note that we did not have correspondence from the applicant. Caleb? Hood: Madam Mayor, that was correct at the time they printed that off. The applicant did catch me at the desk here this evening and did submit an e-mail -- it looks like he tried to send to our office and had the wrong address. So, I do have a letter in hand now from the applicant, Garth Christensen, stating that he is in agreement with the staff report for Rushmore Subdivision. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Council, do I have a motion? Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr, Rountree. Rountree: I move that we approve Item No. 11, FP 07-010 for Rushmore Subdivision. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 11. If there is no discussion, Mr. Berg, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 12: FP 07-009 Request for Final Plat approval for 11 commercial building lots on 9.16 acres in a C-C zone for Cairns Crossina Subdivision by Landmark Engineering & Planning, Inc. - Cherry Lane approximately 1000 feet east of Linder Road: Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 14 of 61 De Weerd: Okay. Item 12 is FP 07-009. I do see that we have received written confirmation that the applicant is in agreement with the conditions. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we approve FP 07-009, Cairns Crossing Subdivision. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 12. If there is no further information needed, Mr. Berg, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 13: Item 14: Item 15: Item 16: Public Hearing: VAC 07-007 Request for a Vacation of 101, 942 square feet of right of way (Montvue Drive) in the Montvue Park Subdivision for Gardner-Ahlauist Gatewav Roads by Ahlquist Development, LLC - Southeast Corner of the intersection of Eagle Road and Franklin Road: Public Hearing (Re-noticed for Modification): AZ 06-065 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 22.30 acres from R1 to a C-G zone for Ahlauist Annexation by Ahlquist Development, LLC - Southeast Corner of the intersection of Eagle Road and Franklin Road: Public Hearing: PP 07-007 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 11 commercial lots on 19.30 acres in the proposed C-G zone for Gardner- Ahlauist Gatewav Subdivision by Ahlquist Development, LLC - Southeast Corner of the intersection of Eagle Road and Franklin Road: Public Hearing: VAR 07-006 Request for a Variance to UDC 11-2H-4 to allow an existing approach to Eagle Road (SH 55) to remain as part of the intensification and change in use proposed for the property for Gardner- Ahlauist Gatewav by Gardner-Ahlquist Development, LLC - Southeast Corner of the intersection of Eagle Road and Franklin Road: De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Nary, procedurally do I need to open 13 separate from 14, 15 and 16? Nary: Madam Mayor. Yes that would be appropriate, since the actual Item 13 doesn't require the actions on the other items to be done. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 15 of 61 De Weerd: Okay. Nary: So, it probably would make more sense to do it separately. De Weerd: Okay. Nary: Is that right? Hood: Madam Mayor, Mr. Nary, I believe we can open them all up. Separate action should be taken on 13 specifically. I did talk to Mr. Baird this afternoon and he wasn't able to get a hold of you and -- Nary: I see his note here that I didn't notice. We certainly can do it that way. Hood: Either way. Nary: It won't hurt anything. That's fine. As long as we do 13 first. De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and open up Items 13,14, 15 and 16 on the VAC 07- 007, AZ 06-065, PP 07-007, VAR 07-006, with staff comments. Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. There are four applications, as you just read off. The vacation -- I'll start just briefly with that, as that is the only application that is outside of the boundaries of the project site, which is in red here. The applicant has applied for a vacation of some right of way that was platted in 1960 with the Montvue Subdivision and that includes all of the right of way that loops around Montvue. So, again, a small portion of the right of way being vacated -- requested for vacation is in a future phase of those project. Everything else that we are going to talk about, the other three applications, are within the boundaries of the northern two-thirds or so of the subject site. And the site is on the southeast corner of Franklin and Eagle and is comprised of several lots within Montvue Subdivision. It's currently zoned R-1 in Ada County. To the east of the subdivision is Touchmark, also known as Meadow Lake Village. To the south, as I mentioned, is the future phase in Gardner-Ahlquist. Currently there are some existing homes in there and, then, further to the south is the hospital. To the north across Eagle Road -- or, excuse me, to the north across Franklin Road, is R.C. Willey and, then, back to the west across Eagle Road is -- are some. R-1 lots in the county and also an office complex right on the corner of Eagle and Franklin. The development -- as I mentioned, there are three development applications and one right of way vacation application. Let me further clarify the vacation application as a portion of that, even if you approve the annexation tonight, will still be in the county. State code does require that a city make a recommendation to the Ada County Highway District on vacations that are within one mile of the city's limits. That's why you're able to make a recommendation on that application this evening. So, I just wanted to clarify that for you or just state that, in fact, you don't have to annex the property before you act on the vacation, you are the -- the recommending body, according to state code. So, back to the development proposal per se. The annexation and zoning is comprised of Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 16of61 22.3 acres in the proposed C~G zone. The preliminary plat includes 11 commercial lots, which also entail office and a retail center. Several office buildings and some smaller commercial structures are proposed. The concept plan -- that's the preliminary plat. Let me get to the concept plan. The concept plan proposes approximately 212,000 square feet of office space, which is distributed among four large office buildings. The largest -- the largest office building is proposed at five stories and 100,000 square feet. And that would be this guy right here. The concept plan also shows approximately 18,000 square feet of retail space split between three separate buildings. Along with their retail space, the applicant anticipates to locate a 30,000 square foot hotel on the site. I also want to talk about access points just briefly, as that's something that's paramount for this subdivision and, basically, the Commission spent a majority of their time at their hearing discussing access points. The applicant is proposing three access points to public streets and, then, an indirect connection to a private driveway that connects into St. Luke's Drive, which is also a private access point to the hospital that is signalized at Eagle Road. Let's see. The right of way vacation, which is the fourth application on your agenda tonight, which I already talked about a little bit, includes the Montvue loop that I showed earlier, and the applicant is proposing to exchange that right of way for the street system that you see here on the concept plan. So, the public street system would be from Eagle Road up and out to Franklin Road and, then, tying to Louise Drive, which is in Meadow Lake Village. You would have those three public street connections and, then, the other internal drives are private drive aisles. The applicant, since the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing, has submitted the -- a variance application for the access to Eagle Road. That was not a part of their original submittal, but they have gotten that in, submitted that to our department. We have analyzed that application and have made a recommendation to the Council on that application. I will get to a little bit more of that here in just a second. Let me just briefly talk about the -- some of the development agreement provisions that we have mentioned in the staff report for this project. Consistent with the concept plan, staff is requiring the applicant to construct between 200 and 300 thousand square feet of office space on the site; between 30 and 50 thousand square feet of retail space, and between 20 and 40 thousand square feet -- or 20 and 40 thousand square foot for a hotel. Staff also thought it was important to have a minimum number of 11 buildings. They can have more than that, but we didn't want to see bigger box stores, retail or office buildings, so we thought a minimum of 11 buildings on the site. And no single building exceeding 125,000 square feet. So, that would be the maximum size. We do have renderings as well. Here is an office rendering. And these are also tied into the development agreement and they need to be substantially consistent in the future when they come through and all of the buildings are -- if approved tonight and the development agreement is not modified, would be required to be reviewed at the staff level through our administrative design review process and staff would verify that, in fact, the buildings proposed are consistent with the renderings submitted with the application. And all the concepts in the DA, for that matter. So, there are the two office renderings. I believe there is one more for the retail. It shows up a little darker, but it kind of gives you an idea of the flavor that the applicant is looking for this site. There are some other things on the concept plan that are tied into the development agreement as well. Some of the pedestrian crossings. Having -- locating some of the buildings between the street Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 17of61 and the parking for some of them. And, then, I guess let's jump back to the access point, which, as I mentioned before, was a pretty major topic of discussion before. Staff is recommending denial of the access to Eagle Road. That's based on the UDC. There is really no leeway in the UDC as far as access points to state highways. It says you're either at the half mile or at a section line road or you don't get one, as far code goes. However, ITD, ACHD, the Planning and Zoning Commission, have all recommended that the access be allowed in this case to Eagle Road. This access point to Eagle Road is where the existing public street Montvue Drive is today. It has a frontage road that kind of comes like this and, then, loops back around. So, the point where it actually intersects Eagle Road is the same. lOT did, in their most recent letter, comment that they will have to -- the applicant will still have to pull a permit and do all their work according to ITD standards and the radius needs to change a little bit, but, essentially, they are okay with allowing that access to remain. I will also mention that we received a letter from -- see if I can see the gentleman's name here -- from St. Luke's Hospital. Matt Bell. Did submit a letter as well, stating that they are supportive of this access, because they believe that a lot of traffic from this development will, then, be pushed out to St. Luke's Drive and they have concerns about emergency vehicles, ambulances and things, being able to maneuver if too much of that traffic gets pushed onto St. Luke's Drive. Let me talk about the Franklin Road access quickly. One of the outstanding issues that are listed in your notes for this evening -- the police and fire departments have both mentioned that they are pretty adamant about seeing a full access public street at the location proposed. They would like to see it limited to right-in, right-out. They have two conditions to that effect. ACHD has approved that access point as a right-in, right-out and left-in. So, the left-out would be prohibited. So, just some clarification. I think that the Council -- just so we don't have different conditions in the staff report that conflict with each other, should specify how that access point should function or your preference would be in that case. As I mentioned, the Planning and Zoning Commission did recommend approval of the project on March 15th, 2007, with the recommendation that the Council -- they think that it's -- let me get it quoted here. The Commission highly recommends a right-in, right-out access on Eagle Road. We feel it's necessary for traffic flow and safety and viability of the project. So, the staff report as written does not allow that access point to Eagle Road, but that was something that the Commission felt strongly about. Testifying at the hearing were the applicant and some of their crew and, then, Matt Bell from St. Luke's also provided written and verbal testimony at the hearing. Let's see. I talked about the variance. One more thing I think on the vacation application. Staff is supportive of the exchange of the right of way as proposed by the applicant. There is one -- and I think I have a better -- the landscape plan shows it pretty well. So, this is Eagle Road. Here is Franklin Road. The landscaping sort of stops and is not proposed, because this property is not under the applicant's control at this time. It is someone's right of way and neither ACHD nor ITD have claimed that right of way as of yet. Staff is concerned that there will be this no-man's land, this weed patch 'and this inconsistent landscape buffer of 35 feet terminating and, then, another 35 feet here. But this no-man's land with no landscaping there. So, there is a condition in the staff report in the development agreement that says the applicant needs to vacate that right of way through a separate application, through whatever transportation authority it may be, but it needs to be cleaned up. That Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 18 of 61 needs to be landscaped consistent with the city's policy of having 35 feet outside of the ultimate right of way. So, there is some excess right of way there that -- I don't know if it's an outstanding issue for the Council, but it is an outstanding issue for the applicant. They do need to clean that up and get one of the two agencies to -- to have a process in place that they can vacate that right of way or have a license agreement through. Either way. Staff's concern, again, is that this get landscaped so it's a consistent look along Eagle Road. I believe -- oh, sorry. I have got one more comment that I just want to read. We did receive -- the Ada County Highway District commission did act on this application on January 18th. The staff report mentioned for the annexation and preliminary plat, that we did not have comments at the time that it went to the Planning and Zoning Commission. So, I did want to send you an update. I touched on the Franklin Road access and they are okay with the applicant vacating the right of way. It does need to go through the public hearing process, so they can approve the vacation. As of yet they need our consent first. But what I want to talk about was they did have a special not in the staff report that I just wanted to read to you and take it for what it's worth. You could probably apply this to many many of the development applications that we see in the city, but I'm going to read it to you real quick. It says all the identified roadways and transportation mitigation proposals in the submitted traffic impact study are either not in any public agency plans to construct or proposed by the applicant to be constructed. Therefore, the impacts of this development cannot be adequately mitigated and surrounding intersections will not operate at an acceptable level of service. So, they are just putting us on notice that there are no roadway improvements proposed by either ACHD, ITD, or the applicant and these roadways are already functioning at an unacceptable level of service. So, just putting us on notice that -- that that's the case out here. And, again, that could -- that's probably true for quite a few of the intersections in the city. But unless the Council has any questions, I think I will stop with those comments and stand for any questions you may have. De Weerd: Council, any questions? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: Caleb, the roadway onto Franklin Road, how close is that to being across from the road there at R.C. Willey's that goes between the buildings there and goes down into it? Hood: Madam Mayor, Council Member Bird. Bird: We don't have anything that really tells us, do we? Hood: I can get a scale and I'll measure it for you. I'm not sure of the exact distance. ACHD staff report probably mentioned something like that as well. But I can find out the exact distance. It, obviously, doesn't allow any -- when you look at that one, there is the proposed street that's in the lighter here and, then, this would be the property line. So, if I go back quickly -- I mean the roadway at the -- just off their property line here, but I Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 19of61 can see what that distance is. I'm not -- I'm not sure. It looks like a couple of few hundred feet, maybe, something like that. Bird: Follow-up, Madam Mayor. Caleb, also -- and I know this isn't -- I have a real problem with a left-in there -- going west and trying to get -- because that's about where the -- where the turn lanes begin to -- and I believe there is two turn lanes -- two left turn lanes at that intersection going west. I can probably understand the right-in and right- out, but I kind of have a little problem with that, but that's something we can ask the applicant when they are up here. De Weerd: Caleb, can I also ask you -- so I don't flip through your staff report, other developments along the Eagle corridor, we have asked them to build to the standards of the Eagle corridor with the extra width on the -- on the sidewalk and the future considerations for the lighting standards and style. Is that included in this? Hood: Madam Mayor, that is not a provision listed in the development agreement. I'm trying to recollect the Eagle Road corridor study and where the boundaries of the -- the walks and things began and that lighting. I can't remember if it's all the way from the interstate or if it starts at Franklin and heads north. The only thing that's a requirement of this applicant is the 35 foot wide landscape buffer with a meandering sidewalk. So, the lighting standards for that corridor study are not in the staff report currently. De Weerd: Okay. How about the width on the sidewalks? Hood: I would have to double-check Justin's conditions to see if he states the width. It would have to be constructed in accordance with the requirements of the UDC and that study. I'll just double-check and see if he lists it. If not, that's a standard condition that the applicant would have to comply with. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any further questions, Council? Bird: Not at this time. Rountree: Not right now. De Weerd: Okay. Is the applicant here? If you will, please, state your name and address for the record. Riley: Thank you, Mayor. I'm Penelope Riley, I'm with Treasure Valley Engineers, 1204 6th Street North, Nampa, Idaho. And I'll try to make sure you can hear me. Sorry. First of all, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening. We are very proud of this project and -- and we feel that it's an important addition to Meridian and we are hopeful that you will feel as proud about it when you drive by in years to come as well. The Gardner-Ahlquist Gateway Subdivision we believe will be a tremendous asset to Meridian, as it will provide employment closer to home. It will provide essential services in Meridian for Meridian residents. Tom and his partners and the consultants, Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 20 of 61 myself being included, have worked diligently to manage this decision, while being mindful of the needs and the requirements that those agencies we are involved with have, and we believe that we have created the best possible development for this site. Staff -- I do want to thank staff. They have been very helpful and they have provided excellent service. Much of the development plan for this site is evidenced in the graphics and supporting materials that have been submitted to you already. These applications we are hearing tonight are for annexation and zoning, preliminary plat, variance, and vacation. We have reviewed the staff report and concur with much -- much of the discussion and conditions that are set forth. However, there are several items we believe require a second look. The first item would be the Franklin Road access. Second of all, we'd like to talk a little bit further about the landscaping on Eagle Road. The right of way exchange with ACHD. The right of way exchange with Idaho Transportation Department. Pressurized irrigation, although it's only a minor consideration. And the development agreement. First of all, I'd like to talk about the transportation planning and access to Eagle Road. Heavy traffic on Eagle Road is not exclusively located in that area where we are located between the interstate and Franklin Road. In reality, if this project was approved today by you, with access to Eagle Road, it would be at least a year before one car would enter the site or exit the site on Eagle Road, given the dramatic expansion of the development that's occurred in the Eagle Road corridor. This same volume of traffic that would be generated by our site could be generated by three or four smaller developments before we even open our doors. I understand the concern that staff has with access to Eagle Road, but we believe that denying access to the site through Eagle Road is not going to improve traffic conditions on Eagle Road. I'd like to read to you at this point the key Commission changes to the staff recommendation. The Planning and Zoning Commission of Meridian strongly supported the proposed access points to Eagle Road with the following language, which was to include -- to be included in the motion. The Commission highly recommends a right-in and right-out access on Eagle Road. We feel that it's necessary for traffic flow and safety and the viability of the project. I would like to point out that one access on Eagle Road is going to be providing access for 11 buildings, which is a good consolidation, we believe, of access and it uses the access to Eagle Road in an efficient and appropriate manner. Compared to many of the accesses that are approved through variance on Eagle Road, we believe that this is combined access points for a maximum benefit with a minimum amount of disruption to traffic flow. The staff report cited traffic accidents along Eagle Road and one of the examples was Ustick and Eagle Road. Now, in 19 -- excuse me. In 2005 our site and the Ustick Road site had the same number of traffic accidents. I would like to point out that in 2006 Ustick and Eagle Road outpaced us. So, the whole site was permitted with three access points to Eagle Road. We just feel that's relevant to our site. The next item I wanted to cover was the development agreement. The development agreement specifically addresses abandonment of access to State Highway 55 and we are hopeful that we will be able to change your mind or get you to agree with us on that item. The vacation of all the excess right of way that's located in the no man's land, as it's referred to by staff, this area in through here, is also addressed in the development agreement. I have had numerous meetings with ITD and there is actually clear path of ownership now. The original access point for Montvue Drive, which is at the very top of the no Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 21 of 61 man's land. That's still retained by ACHD. The remainder of that strip of land south of that original access point is held by lTD. They have a very cumbersome system for the disposal of excess right of way. We have had many meetings with them which explored exchanging right of way, different ways to acquire that area. It's going to take a long time and we don't have any guarantee that we will be successful at doing that. So, with that in mind, staff did discuss continuous landscaping along the Eagle Road frontage and I'm going to assure you that whether we do a license agreement with ACHD or ITD or both of them, outside of the clearly defined 70 foot right of way that lOT requires and is currently happy with on Eagle Road, it will be a seamless landscape buffer. We will make sure that it's taken care of. The applicant has every reason in the world to make sure that that looks good and we will take care of it. We have discussed a license agreement and encroachment permits with lTD. We will continue to do so. In our discussions with staff about the site and the architectural components, staff indicated that there weren't any height limits for this site with regard to structures. I'm getting mixed messages. The UDC has different information in it. With regard to the development agreement, we would like to have a statement in there that allows the applicant to build a structure at the height that he can reasonably and comfortably accommodate on the site and to not be restricted. Tom is here and he can address that further. Let's see. And I guess, finally, I just wanted to talk about the ACHD right of way exchange. We have been in a holding pattern waiting for that and subject to your letter of approval we will begin that process immediately. We have -- most of the paperwork is done within our office and we have documents and exhibits, everything is ready to go. So -- oh. And the phase two application has been submitted. So, I would be happy to answer any questions you have. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Council. Bird: Ma'am? Riley: Yes. Bird: You stated that Eagle Road would not be used for a year, so I take it your development and your construction is a year away? Riley: Well, we have to work with Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District. Of course, we have to have full architectural and construction drawings and a final plat recorded before we can even apply for certificates of zoning. So, we still have some work ahead of us. Bird: What I -- I mean it's being used right now. Riley: That is correct. Those homes were -- Bird: And the roads through there, you're not going to stop people from entering or-- Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 22 of 61 Riley: No. No. Oh, no. Bird: -- and stuff, unless you put some kind of a barrier up there. Riley: The roads that are there existing now, sir, won't be removed until the residents are no longer there. Bird: And do you have any time limit on that? Riley: Well, my understanding is the land is acquired and so the tenants -- they are now tenants, of course, and a lot of it was just subject to what kind of timing we got from your approval this evening. So, we are going to move quickly -- as quick as possible. Bird: Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions? Zaremba: Madam Mayor, yes. As I look at what is being presented, the first thing I worry about is the cut-through traffic. Even if these are only right-ins, right-outs, that's an attractive cut-through for a lot of cars I think and I don't know quite how to solve that. I can understand your need to have an access to Eagle Road and at the moment development along states highways would not permit it. I think I would be more comfortable -- the difficulty I'm having is that this whole corner is not really included, if I'm correct. There is a portion of it that we are not discussing at the moment not being annexed. My thought would be, one, it would be more comfortable if this access to Eagle Road were farther south and I would -- I would see it being possibly the minimum separation from St. Luke's Road and maximum separation from Franklin and, then, some kind of meander that made it less attractive as a cut through. I mean I'm -- at the moment I can see the right-in, right-out on Franklin and somebody else mentioned -- I forget who -- that they are not comfortable with the left in. I -- that's my feeling as well, unfortunately. I could go along with a right-in, right-out on Eagle if it were much closer to the St. Luke's road and much farther from Franklin and if the interior had some meander to it that didn't make it attractive as a cut through. I guess I'm repeating myself, but -- I'm thinking it out while I'm talking, unfortunately. Riley: Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Riley: May I respond? Councilman, one of the benefits of having the right-in, right-out on Eagle Road is that it relieves the St. Luke's Drive from any kind of excess traffic, which becomes a safety issue, as St. Luke's has indicated, If -- and the traffic engineers are here to address it from a technical perspective. Having worked as a transportation planner in the past, I think there is always going to be some of that. I think probably in terms if our neighbors, St. Luke's, we want to make sure that they don't Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 23 of 61 inadvertently get that burden by not having the right-in, right-out on Eagle Road. With regard to the site layout and reconfiguring the roads to meander, Tom's probably the best person to answer that. In terms of short cutting and going through the Touchmark site, I get lost every time I go in there. So, I think, you know, it's going to take years -- people years to be able to pattern that and be able to shave time off their drive, because it's just -- it's pretty convoluted. I understand that he -- the short cutting issue. I just -- I have to laugh, because I get lost every time I go in there. So, your points are well taken. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: When you were making your initial list, you made reference to the Franklin access as well. Riley: Yes. Borton: I didn't hear you comment on it. Riley: I didn't. The traffic engineer is here and he will be able to talk -- I think he's got some interesting things to show you and he's more qualified to address that question. Borton: Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. If there is nothing further -- Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: Caleb, can you respond to the height requirement component of what Penelope said? Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilmember Borton, I can respond to part of that. She made reference that she's gotten mixed answers from the planning department and I don't -- I haven't talked to Penelope about it, but there is, in fact, a maximum height limit in the C- G zone, which is requested. I'll look that up for you. But I don't know where that information would have come from. The maximum height is 65 feet in the proposed C- G zone. So, they would need a variance if they want to do something greater than 65 feet in the C-G zone. Riley: Mayor? Borton: Thanks, Caleb. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 24 of 61 Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Hold on. Riley: Councilmen -- Tom will address that in more detail. He was involved in more of the meetings than I was. Borton: Okay. De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I was just going to comment -- and I'm sure -- I'm not sure that it made it into the final UDC, but in the process improvement group that was putting together what became the new UDC, we had discussions about height and there were certain areas where, in fact, we stuck with the 65 foot height, but it was a consensus that if somebody needed a higher height, we would encourage the variance and the area around the St. Luke's Hospital was one of them that we talked about. It would be appropriate to have buildings there as tall as people wanted to build them, really, as long as you meet the building codes and fire -- satisfy the fire department. So, that's part of the reason there is the ability to do a variance request there, that this is one of the envisioned areas, even though at the time it was residential and the people were maintaining it would always be residential. We felt that some time in the future this was a prime location for as tall a building as anybody wanted to build. So, the variance opportunity is there. De Weerd: Thank you. Riley: If I may, I'd like to bring Tom up now, if that's okay. De Weerd: Okay. Riley: Thank you. Ahlquist: Madam Mayor, City Council. Thank you for letting us present today. On behalf of my partners -- De Weerd: If you will, please, state your name and address first. Ahlquist: Tom Ahlquist. 13901 West Wainwright, Suite B, Boise, Idaho. De Weerd: Thank you. Ahlquist: Thank you. On behalf of my partners Kim and Christian Gardner, who are out of Salt Lake City, just to mention their experience with this type of development -- I don't know if you have been down and seen the Gateway down in Salt Lake City, but that was their development and they have been doing this for about 30 years. So, they do bring quite a bit of quality and experience to this and we are excited to joint venture with Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 25 of 61 them here locally on several projects, this being the most visible and the first project we are doing together. We are very excited about the project and believe that the quality this will bring to the heart of the Treasure Valley is substantial and significant. There are lots of issues that we have going over tonight and we have a great team of traffic engineers who will answer most of the questions you have brought up, so I don't want to go into too many of those details, I'll save that for Ron. But I do want to talk about a couple things. One is the height issue. Right from the get go when we were acquiring this property -- started a year and a half ago, we met with several members of Meridian city planners and discussed exactly what you had said, that although we are not going to go ten and 11 and 12 stories here, we do have intentions -- and full intentions to go seven stories on at least one building, that being the hotel and, then, possibly, the second -- the building on the corner -- in our elevations it showed that five stories. The land acquisition on this corner has been incredibly detailed and the timing on this land acquisition has been very important in our decisions that we have made. So, as you see, we have had to do this in two phases. That was purely based on negotiations on land acquisition. We have acquired the rest of the land and that application for phase two has been submitted and fits in with this road structure. Your question of the location of that right-in, right-out, is very important, but if you notice, not only going -- going north on Eagle Road and not being too close to Franklin, there is the exact same issue if you've ever tried to get into St. Luke's coming south on Eagle Road and the stacking that occurs back. With that in mind, in talking to ACHD, their engineers, on several different meetings, and with our traffic engineer experts, we have discussed the location of that and it turns out that the existing public road actually fits well in the model that Ron will show you. He has some traffic simulations studies that will show that that, actually, is the best location. Cut through will be a problem. We hope to minimize that with some of the things we are able to do within our development. I think Ron will also address that. The only other issue to kind of comment on -- no one wants that no-man's land to be landscaped better than I do. That issue has been very difficult to work through with the different agencies and -- but we finally have a plan in front of us, how we are going to acquire either the licensing of that or the acquisition of that land to make that fit in and, really, will not be an issue as far as the esthetics of our property. So, I guess that the couple of questions that I would like comment on tonight would be the height -- the height issues, that it sounds like we have addressed, and, then, I'll turn the time over to my traffic engineers, unless you have any other specific questions for me this evening. De Weerd: I guess I would have the same question I had of staff. When they designed the Eagle Corridor and, you know, to me it doesn't really matter if it's from Franklin north -- or north of Franklin on, it's all part of the same corridor. But there is a certain width and I think it's ten foot sidewalks, detached, and that we also had adopted a certain lighting standard to make it unique to Meridian and when we discussed the Eagle corridor, it was discussed in terms of there is three cities along that corridor and we want to distinguish what Meridian was through our own type of lighting and we have had -- the developments I believe north of Ustick on both sides, adopt that when it's -- when ITD comes in with their improvements. And so I would ask that of you, would you be willing to put in those lighting standards and certainly the sidewalk width. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 26 of 61 Ahlquist: Absolutely. Madam Mayor, we have -- the name of our project will be the Meridian Gateway. We have worked closely with your staff and with the hospital being there, we would do whatever we needed to do to make that fit in and be part of Meridian and would be happy to comply with that, even if it, by some technicality, was out of the area that was -- I think it probably is, because I know you lost Justin Lucas, but that guy was like on -- on on everything with me, so I can't imagine that if it was there it wouldn't be in our report. So, there may be a technicality why that was left out, but if that's something you'd like to see, we have no problem with complying with that. De Weerd: Okay. Ahlquist: I would want to -- I would want to know a little more about it and make sure that it didn't detract from -- from our gorgeous development we are doing, but it sounds like it won't, so we will take a look -- we'd love to comply with that and make that happen. De Weerd: You, actually, could. They are the same lights that are out here in front of Farmers and Merchants, they are just larger, because these have a different illumination than they would on Eagle Road, so-- Ahlquist: Great. We will take a look at them. De Weerd: If you want to look at style, that's what they look like. Ahlquist: We will look at style. De Weerd: Okay. Council? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: Tom, what kind of heights -- you say 11 stories? Ahlquist: No. What we would be looking for -- and we are far enough along on what we think is going in here -- if you look back at our site plan right now, that corner building, kind of our Marquis building, modeled after some of the buildings down in the Gateway in Salt Lake City, will probably be the nicest building in the Treasure Valley, as far as a class A building. It on the drawing is a five story building. We are attracting some national tenants that are interested in a logo and a campus feel and are interested in going seven stories. The way it's listed here is we would have a five story building there on the corner and, then, another two story, 40,000 square foot building over on the other quadrant. We are entertaining ideas, depending on how the tenants go, with these national tenants coming in, of going seven stories on that corner building and, then, a hotel that we have a letter of intent with, which will be a very nice motel in the Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 27 of 61 Treasure Valley -- they are very interested and would actually require us to have approval for a seven story hotel with condo space. Bird: So, we are looking at under a hundred feet. Ahlquist: Yeah. Probably just under a hundred by the time we had our -- Bird: By the time you get everything on you're going to push a hundred feet. Ahlquist: Yeah. Bird: I have no problem with that. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: Question for Mr. Nary. Procedurally -- I don't necessarily have a problem either, but to give direction on the height issue, is that really a matter that has to come forward at a later date as a variance application as to a particular building? We can't do anything today to agree to allow a building outside the -- or can you without application? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Borton, yeah, I mean, certainly, that -- that application is going to have to be in front of you to make that decision. Certainly it may depend on what's occurring at that particular time when that comes forward, so -- and I'm sure they understand that. De Weerd: Okay. Anything else? Thank you. Ahlquist: Sorry we are late. Mr. Ron Mortimer and Brian Foote from Horrocks Engineers, our traffic engineers on this project and I'd like to turn the time over to them for -- Ron drove all the way up here, because flights were so expensive, so he better be worth it. Mortimer: Nothing like a little pressure. My name is Ron Mortimer. I'm with Horrocks engineers, 1 West Main in American Fork. It is my pleasure to be here. Brian Foote is- De Weerd: American Fork what? Mortimer: Utah. De Weerd: Thank you. Mortimer: I'm sorry. Brian Foote is here. He's based in our Boise office -- or Nampa office I guess technically. We want to kind of take you through a little bit of analysis we Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 28 of 61 have done -- it looks like Brian has that thing -- it looks like that -- can I move over here with the -- is this okay? De Weerd: You bet. Or you can even -- that other microphone is portable. Mortimer: Is that a cordless? De Weerd: It's not cordless. Mortimer: I'm sorry. Portable. Thank you. What I want to do is take you through some analysis that we have done. We have talked a little bit about the accesses. I want to go through and explain a little bit about those in particular. Show you -- this is -- I'll back up, kind of show the entire site that we have analyzed here. This shows the hospital down here. Here is the signal at St. Luke's. This is the location of the right-in, right-out. Franklin's up here. And, then, here is the location of the other access. And when we originally looked at this, we thought, well, you know, it would be nice with the five lanes here to have a full access there and, then, we realized with what's happening here you physically are not going to be able to make a left turn out of here very frequently. We did see a problem with that. We said, okay, what if we looked at both -- and we analyzed both the right-in, right-out here and a left-in associated with that. We took a look at both of those. Let me kind of speed this up, so it's not quite as boring. As you can see, that -- as Eagle Road is truly congested, the corridor through there, some of the improvements that we are looking at making -- and what you're seeing here is this is representing the project built out here. We took the existing traffic volumes and the signal times in here and we looked at those and, then, we grew the background traffic just a little bit to reflect what we call a 20-11 and this is the p.m. peak hour, so this is when traffic going in this direction is its highest amount. One of the things that's interesting is we looked at the counts and stuff there -- the volumes here are close to what is in reality out there, but the thing that can surprise sometimes is when we did our counts the traffic coming into this system is limited by how fast you can get off the freeway and get over there, So, there is some -- one of the reasons we bumped the volumes up is we know that if they make improvements to the interchange, to the interstate, then, the traffic is going to come at even a faster arrival and get to these problem areas even quicker and will move the problem down here. Right now it's being metered coming off of the freeway into a single lane system and, then, coming over. So, what we have done is we have bumped that up to kind of reflect a better free flow type condition. The improvements that we have recommended is that they need to build a right turn pocket here, so that traffic will get out of the way. We think at some point in the future the third lane, which travels along the edge of Eagle Road, which forces you to turn right, will most likely -- and needs to be extended off further to the north here. We think that by doing that we still need to keep this right turn lane separate from that lane there. We also have suggested that step backs be made and accommodated for an additional right turn lane here. Even though that's happening here, we don't see in the future this being a through right lane as a good use, because of the amount of right turns that are occurring here. So, we have set this back far enough to accommodate a right turn. Again, we do have a right turn pocket along Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 29 of 61 Franklin here so traffic can move over and get in. The item to -- as I move over here I'll zoom into this a little bit. As we get near the St. Luke's driveway right here, we have identified that an additional setback needs to be made right here, so that this road, even though it's a private road, needs to accommodate a future right turn lane, so this through traffic right now that's going across and turning right can be separated. So, there is room for an additional lane in here. And we met with the hospital and their traffic control and decided that if we put an additional ten feet on the property here, that it can accommodate that future expansion without having to come back later on and try to acquire the property. And moving on up to the north, the intersection in question, one of the reasons why we saw this left turn here being a value asset -- and you can see the cueing and you will see the various stages here coming from Eagle Road, that we are set back far enough to where this left turn can be made without interfering with this double left that's right here. One of the nice features about that is this left turn will help the traffic on Eagle Road. Otherwise, without this pocket here, you will be required to turn left over here, which is a long ways away from the project and come in and some of the sites over here, a lot of drivers will not make that decision until after this point to try to turn into here. The most negative consequence of that is this traffic will, then, be required to use up this turn lane, which will take time away from the through movement here and, then, they will come down here and be forced to make a left turn here to come into the site. So, you're, actually, going to take green time away from the northbound through movement here to accommodate that movement twice in the system. So, we are saying let's allow that break to occur and we can channelize this in such a way to prevent left turns from coming out. We will physically design channelization so they can't make that maneuver and allow these vehicles and you can see under this -- it's the p.m. peak hour, that these vehicles do come into -- into this and they are able to make that left turn. One of the reasons why is because of the amount of green time that is required for this through movement to go through. As these cars are traveling north, aside from this right turn lane here, all of the traffic here is stopped that would be opposing that left turn. So, as that traffic coming this direction here when this through movement goes, they can make those left turns and get into the site without having to get into the Eagle Road area. We see that as being a huge benefit to the project and we know that if there was a problem you could always come out and restrict that also and not to give the farm away for Tom here, but I think he would be willing to work with the -- with the city and the highway district to assure that if there was ever a need to block this off, that he would pick up the cost to do that, if there was an unforeseen problem. We don't see anything coming that direction that would prevent -- or cause that to be a problem. The cueing back here does back up, but we see it ending back in this direction here and that these lefts would be able to get out of the traffic stream, And that's why we are recommending the left-in are important to the project for site circulation, but also important to help Eagle Road to function as good as it can. With that I will answer any questions you may have. De Weerd: Council, any questions? Rountree: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 30 of 61 De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Certainly, the key to making this work is some infrastructure improvements, not to mention the improvements on your site, but there is off-site improvements that would have to be made in order for it to work. So, I guess my question is is that part of the development application? Mortimer: The ones I mentioned would be included as part of the project. The other one I just failed to mention is the setback along Franklin, too, is to accommodate the future expansion, The timing of that would be up to you guys and the highway district, but I think the project would accommodate whatever the need for that is, whether it's a setback or whether it's frontage improvements that are needed along there. They would be done according to whatever your desires and the highway district's desires are. De Weerd: Does that answer your question? Bird: I wish reality was as good as the computer. Rountree: The computer doesn't have any accidents. Mortimer: No, it doesn't. It's pretty optimistic on its run. Bird: They are all going the same speed. De Weerd: Any other -- Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: Madam Mayor, yes. Neat high tech presentation. I really like that. Can you slide the view a little bit farther to the north or up the page a little bit, so that both the access to Eagle and the access to -- that's good. Thank you. The other depictions show a connection between those two and my question is can you address the cut- through traffic issue. Mortimer: In coming from -- we expect -- Zaremba: What I'm thinking is people northbound on Eagle that wish to go eastbound on Franklin are -- Mortimer: Are going to find a right turn there. Zaremba: Are likely to find that attractive. Mortimer: Yeah. We are hoping that we can build our internal intersection in such a way to discourage that, putting some stop signs, because right now you have -- if you go north, that's an exclusive lane and it's just a quick right turn. I mean there is some opposition with the lefts are going, but if-you go out there and watch, that right turn actually clears pretty quickly. We don't want a lot of cut-through traffic and we are Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 31 of 61 hoping that the way we design our internal street, that it will discourage people from doing that. There will be a few sneakers and go through there. And those are the ones that we are concerned about their speed, too, when they drive on that particular road. But we are hoping to put some streetscape features and I don't have the layout of the internal streets, but with the -- you know, the pedestrian appeal in there, we are talking about various median type treatments and landscaping to calm that traffic and slow it down and make it look like you're in a business kind of area and calm it down, so people don't feel like that they can just jump in there and have an expressway to get in and out. De Weerd: Oh, a roundabout with a beautiful statute in the middle or a fountain or pretty flowers -- Mortimer: You know, I think a roundabout would be fabulous in there. And we can control the entry speeds in roundabouts. Zaremba: That area -- the development to the east of it has a couple of roundabouts, so that it certainly would be -- it would be consistent with us going in that area already. Ahlquist: Madam Mayor, can I make one comment? De Weerd: If you will restate your name you can. Ahlquist: I'm not good at that. Tom Ahlquist. Do you need my address again? De Weerd: No, I don't. Ahlquist: Okay. One of the significant issues on this project is our relationship with St. Luke's and, you know, I guess the comment of what have we done to kind of mitigate traffic issues around there, I wanted to address that, because probably one of the most expensive things we have done is the reason why we are not applying for one preliminary plat is because of that L-shaped piece of property that goes along Eagle Road and, then, along St. Luke's Drive, we pretty much acquired that, because we feel the traffic and access to our site is very important and we wanted to be able to have that ten feet for St. Luke's and we have been meeting with Matt Bell and really Gary Fletcher at St. Luke's all along and although that was the most difficult land acquisition, we will deed that ten feet and have all our setbacks in our plan, so that that road will be there for that St. Luke's Drive. St. Luke's will expand, it will be the center of the valley as far as any medical in the future, and as they expand out, we don't want to kill our site with traffic. So, we acquired that land with that being goal number one, not only to complete out the corner, but also to be able to donate that ten feet and make that negotiation complete. That is done, so that we have purchased that land and we will donate that ten feet for future improvements and participate in the cost of that, so that we mitigate that. Furthermore, Ron, in multiple meetings with ITD and ACHD, we have done everything we can with donation of right -- you know, right-in, right-out accesses, future expansion with our setbacks along Franklin Road and Eagle Road, to really give them everything that they even envisioned down the future that's not planned. Pretty Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 32 of 61 much all we haven't done, which, really, would help more than anything, would do the improvements north of our property down making that right -- that exclusive right turn lane, go through, passed R.C. Willey, which we just have no control over. So, we have spent the majority of the last eight months of our planning for this meeting tonight has been on traffic and on issues of how we could mitigate those things that we have control over. And I think we have done a pretty good job trying to take into consideration, really, every -- every issue with ACHD and ITD as best -- to the best of our ability. De Weerd: Council, any other questions? Zaremba: Just an observation. I can agree with the desire to have that current right turn lane continue on straight ahead and, then, add an additional right turn lane. The constriction that's going to make that difficult is the drop off right at the edge of the roadway -- I mean they have widened Eagle a little bit and Franklin a little bit. It's going to be very expensive to add another lane, because of the -- there is a deep hole there. Ahlquist: Madam Mayor and Councilmen, if you talk to the traffic engineers for ACHD and ITD, it's even -- it's even funnier to listen how they have done it. I mean just the expansion of where the traffic lights are and how they have planned all that, it doesn't make sense to me, but -- or probably to anyone else, because, you're right, there is a lot of work that will need to be done to make that happen. De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions, Council? Bird: I have none, Mayor. Rountree: None right now. De Weerd: Thank you. Hood: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Hood: Before you open it up for any other public testimony, I wanted to clarify a couple of questions that were raised earlier and a couple of clarifications. Councilmember Bird asked the distance between the proposed access on Franklin and the road that goes on the -- the east side of R.C. Willey there. It's approximately 360 feet near edge to near edge. So, from the near edge of that public street to the near edge of their public street proposed is about 360 feet. And they are also talking about this dual stacking lane. So, I calculated that, too, and it looks like about 550 feet or so between Eagle Road and the near edge of there. So, approximately, 900 feet or just a little over 900 feet of frontage. So, that's the separation and kind of where those fall. The sidewalk -- Madam Mayor mentioned the sidewalk and lighting requirements. It is in the UDC. Let me read it for you real quick. It says along state Highway 55 the applicant shall be responsible for constructing a ten foot wide multi-use pathway with a public use easement and installing Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 33 of 61 street lights and landscaping consistent with the Eagle Road corridor study. So, we do- - I don't have a copy of the Eagle Road corridor study to look at what the lighting and landscaping centers are, but by reference they do need to comply with that. It is not a site specific condition now, but that's, again, a condition that we would apply -- it probably should have been called out, just so the applicant's aware, but it is something that's in the UDC and standard -- I guess just that we are talking about it, I would ask that the Council, if you move this on tonight, do include that either as a development agreement provision or as a preliminary plat provision, either way, so it's clear that the applicant does need to comply with that standard requirement of the UDC. And, finally, I wanted to clarify, too -- I misspoke earlier that the height limit is 65 feet. There is some footnotes in there that talk about additional height and depending on how much higher than 65 feet you want to go, the director -- so, Anna in this case, would have an ability to approve up to a 20 percent height addition to that, without going through the public hearing process, but the applicant would, then, be charged with provided some additional open space and patios, some plazas, something to mitigate the additional height. If they go above 20 percent of that 65 feet, which it sounds like they would if they are talking a hundred feet, it would require Conditional Use Permit approval. So, it would go to the Planning and Zoning Commission and not the Council. So, no variance. It would either be a CUP or an alternative compliance. So, I just wanted to clarify that, if they do go above 65 feet. De Weerd: Okay. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: Before we go on, in the development agreement we could set a -- by passing a development agreement we could set a height limit at that time, could we not? Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilmember Bird, you bet. Anything in the development agreement that you want to, you know, restrict further, that's -- that's at the discretion of the Council. You bet. Bird: Okay. Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. Anything further, Council? Okay. This is a Public Hearing. Is there anyone who would like to provide testimony on this application? Okay. Wow, we have always had to call on her. Richardson: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Christy Richardson, representing Ada County Highway District this evening. 3775 Adams Street, Garden City. De Weerd: Thank you. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 34 of 61 Richardson: I just wanted to clarify some of the comments that Caleb read into the record regarding the highway district in that special note to the City of Meridian. And it could probably be said time and time again with a lot of our reports that come before you, but in this particular case tonight it was pointed out specifically, because of the comments from the traffic impact study and specifically there was a comment from the study that reads: The proposed Meridian Gateway is anticipated to impact traffic operating on adjacent roadways. However, the roadway and intersection improvements listed below will substantially mitigate the impact and provide adequate traffic safety and options on both Eagle Road and Franklin Road. And, then, they give some recommendations. The intersection of Eagle and Franklin may be reconstructed with three northbound through lanes. When and if this occurs, an exclusive right turn lane in the northbound direction of travel will be required. They do mention right of way should be preserved. The intersection of Eagle and Franklin should also include an exclusive right turn lane in the westbound direction. They also talk about some improvements to the Eagle Road - St. Luke's Drive. The problem we had and the reason for the comment to the city was that ITD has no plans to construct these lanes. ACHD doesn't have any plans to construct these lanes, and neither of us have any plans to make any improvements to the St. Luke's - Eagle Road intersection. So, that's why that was specifically pointed out to you. But with regard to the access specifically that I wanted to speak on on Franklin Road, ACHD does support the right-in, right-out, left-in, just as the traffic engineer stated. Our particular concern was getting the vehicles out of the intersection of Franklin and Eagle and the intersection of St. Luke's and Eagle. So, if we draw off a little bit of that traffic before it hits Eagle Road, hopefully, that will free up a little bit of the movement along that roadway. So, that was the reasoning for us to make that recommendation. De Weerd: Thank you. Any question, Council? Bird: As long as you have no problems with the left-in, I don't, because -- you're the traffic expert. As long as you guys are okay with the left-in, I have no problem with it. De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to provide testimony on the application? Okay. Does the applicant have any final remarks? Ahlquist: Tom Ahlquist. Mayor and Council Members, just in closing, we are very excited about this project. It's been a bit of a labor to get it to you tonight and we are very excited for what it's going to do to the area and we are excited to bring the quality of my partners to town and we -- we look forward to working with you. I also wanted to comment on just how I am fairly new to this process. My father has developed for 25 years for the Gardners in Salt Lake and he has joined me up here from Salt Lake, but I'm actually an ER doctor at St. Luke's by trade and the patience and the time and the understanding going through all the process with the City of Meridian has been absolutely wonderful and we appreciate the cooperation and the work of everyone there. We have tried -- we have probably done too much due diligence to -- before tonight, just making sure we have all our ducks in a row, because of -- because of my newness to this, but so far the process has been very pleasant and we look forward to Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 35 of 61 making this, really, a hallmark of the Treasure Valley and are pleased that it will be part of Meridian. And thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Questions? Borton: Madam Mayor? Tom? De Weerd: Tom. Borton: Before you sit down. And I appreciate the presentation. I don't think you can go too far in your concern. I mean you are well schooled in our concern with the traffic issue, so I think you knocked it out of the park in focusing on it, at least what we have been expressing our concern on. You got your screen saver on here. I think you might have made a reference -- someone made a comment that I skipped over. The medians on Franklin that you're depicting in this diagram, can you comment on those, the when and the who? Ahlquist: I cannot. We-- Borton: I'm sorry, it might have been remarked on and I -- Mortimer: Sure. Ron Mortimer. Borton: Okay. Mortimer: Horrocks Engineers. Those that are depicted up there are just for simulation and modeling purposes, but we will go in and do a formal design and layout of the actual -- a raised island out there to control the medians and also on our access point, too, we will put what they call a porkchop or a deflection, so it forces them to turn right. You need both of those positive things. If you do just the porkchop, people will ignore it, because the road is so wide, so we will have to do both of those to give a positive reinforcement that they can't make a left turn out of there. Did that help? Borton: I think -- are those some of the off-site improvements that the Council might have been asking about? Mortimer: Yeah, Borton: Okay. De Weerd: Okay. Now, wait, you said you would do the design, but does that mean you will -- Mortimer: Oh. We would construct, too. De Weerd: Okay. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 36 of 61 Mortimer: Yeah. I'm sorry. De Weerd: I just wanted to-- Mortimer: Physically install. De Weerd: Thank you. Borton: And, then, Tom, the other question that -- I didn't want to put you on the hot seat -- was with regard to the roundabout, would be an alternate design to alleviate some of this pass-through traffic concern. Ahlquist: Tom Ahlquist again. Mayor, Councilmen, the roundabout has been part of our preliminary design from the get go. It's come and gone a bit. We have been through quite a rollercoaster ride with ITD and ACHD in trying to get to tonight. I don't think my partners or I would have any problem with putting that in. I think it actually fits nicely with the location of our hotel and our other buildings and, actually, would fit very nicely with the -- with the project. So, putting that back in would not be a problem, if that's something that you would like to see. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: In your development agreement would a hundred foot or under be acceptable? Ahlquist: Mayor and Councilmen, I would want to kind of look at the site plan to -- to give you a quick answer on that, just with what we have planned with the surrounding -- surrounding lots and parking, I would have to -- have to go over that with my engineers, but -- I don't know if that gives you a -- Bird: That gets you to about an eight story, a hundred foot height. Ahlquist: Oh. I'm sorry. I'm back on the roundabout. I thought you meant a hundred foot roundabout. I was thinking, gosh, we would have to piece that out. I don't know how far a hundred foot roundabout -- Bird: I'm talking about vertical height. Ahlquist: I'm sorry. A hundred foot would get us -- yeah. That certainly would. Bird: Okay. Zaremba: My comment would be, imagine the view from one of those upper stories. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 37 of 61 Ahlquist: Mayor and Councilmen, we have already -- we have already had Idaho Airships shoot a view for us and it is spectacular. It will be great. De Weerd: Yeah. You just have to go into Meadow Lake Village and their development to see the view. It's phenomenal. Okay. Anything further, Council? Any other comments? Okay. Okay. Bird: We have got some more testimony back there now. De Weerd: Okay. Floto: Madam Mayor -- Madam Mayor and Councilmen, my name is Bob Floto, 1156 West Colchester, Eagle, Idaho. And I'm going to be involved with the pharmacy -- the retail pharmacy that will be in this project and I'm not here to comment at all on the technicalities of your decisions that have to be made. I would just like to testify of the integrity and the honesty and the character of Mr. Tom Ahlquist. There is not a better man on this earth that you could work with and that's what I have to say. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. I'm sure you have a rebuttal to that, Bob. Okay. Any further comments? Council? Rountree: Madam Mayor, if there is no further comments, I would move that we close the public hearings on Items 13,14,15 and 16. Bird: I would second that. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to close the public hearings on Items 13 through 16. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Rountree: Madam Mayor, I'd just make a comment before we go into motions that for the applicant I don't know that you can ever do enough due diligence, but you have done an excellent job in providing information and I have enjoyed your company and hope, however, that I don't ever have to have a reciprocal with you. Bird: I have. De Weerd: Council, I guess, you know, they have referenced the Gateway Project in Salt Lake City and that was a project that Anna Canning and I had toured during ULI and have pictures on my computer. It was very striking and the quality of the development was outstanding. So, it was just an observation, but when they spoke of the quality of that project, certainly it made a huge impression to take a number of pictures of. And you know I take my camera everywhere I go and do take pictures of what I like, so -- okay. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 38 of 61 Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: I compliment the applicant on their presentation. They did a beautiful job. And if we have no more discussion, I'd move that we approve VAC 07-007. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to approve Item 13. Any discussion? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: Question for maybe Caleb and probably Mr. Nary. The staff had made reference to at least a request on an additional condition on a separate vacation application being required. Is that not necessarily addressed in the -- Item No. 13, if at all, but is it addressed in the -- Hood: Madam Mayor, Mr. Nary, Councilmember Borton, it's not -- I don't think you need to address it as part of 13. It's already covered in the other applications and part of their plat that says you need to clean this up. Borton: Okay. Okay. Hood: So, I think that can be a stand alone motion. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Zaremba: Would we need to include in that motion that -- that that be forwarded to ACHD as a recommendation? De Weerd: Mr. Nary? Berg: That's what it is. Rountree: That's understood. Bird: That's understood as part of the deal. Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Zaremba, that is how we -- that is how we notify them. If that's approved by this Council, then, we send them a notice that it's been done. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 39 of 61 Zaremba: Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. If there is no further comments, Mr. Berg. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Okay. Item 14. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: I move that we approve AZ 06-065, annexation and zoning, from R-1 to C-G for Ahlquist annexation and that we require a development agreement and the change to the -- one change to the development agreement would be we would allow height -- vertical height from ground elevation a hundred feet above ground elevation. And that we would also -- no, that would be the variance. That's the motion to approve it. Rountree: Second. Zaremba: Madam Mayor, discussion? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: Is that -- does that trigger -- what do we call them -- alternate compliance with the amenities and stuff or are we just saying they can have a hundred feet without doing any other -- I'm all for the hundred feet. I'm not quite -- Bird: If it's in the development agreement that kind of allows it. That's why we get development agreements, so they don't have to come back here every time they want to build a building and we don't have to sit here and listen to it. Zaremba: So, they don't have to do alternate amenities and stuff? Bird: Why would you want to do alternate amenities? De Weerd: Mr. Bird, I guess during the discussion they said through the director's authority she can grant up to 20 percent with an additional amenity of outside plaza or something. Bird: But if we put it-- De Weerd: And that's the question. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 40 of 61 Bird: If we put it as a limit in our development agreement of a hundred feet from finished ground elevation, vertical, that goes away. That's the limit. She don't put on another -- which, in her 20 percent, be another 20 feet. She's not allowed to. We have made -- we are getting a signed development agreement that says that this project -- or we are voting on it. This project, from ground elevation, can have up to one hundred feet of vertical height for their buildings. Am I not right? Hood: And just for clarification, that -- they are allowed that and they don't need to provide any amenities. I think that's what the question is. That's just a granted right. Bird: Yeah. That's the stipulation for this one development. Hood: And can I ask one more? I know it's been seconded. But, what, for clarification, does the DA -- also it was talked about at length is the 11 th bullet point talking about the access point to Eagle Road. I don't know if you -- I didn't get a gauge of how you all were going with that access point, but before you take action on the annexation, that development agreement also, as written now, has a provision saying the access to Eagle Road is not approved. So, if you could at least address that, that way I'm clear that we are on the same page. Bird: Caleb, in my motion I am for a right-in, right-out on Eagle Road after the presentation. I believe what they presented is workable and probably is very good. De Weerd: And you want to give clarification on Franklin Road, too? Bird: Franklin Road is right-in, right-out, and left-in. And they will -- they will furnish all exterior amenities to the roads. De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Borton. Borton: I agree with Councilman Bird and I appreciate his remarking that they were going to provide those off-site improvements. Bird: Yeah. De Weerd: Okay. Just one more clarification. I know this is part of discussion and something that the applicant did say he had no issue, but that would have been the landscaping per the UDC and the adopted Eagle corridor landscape plan in regards to the sidewalks and the lighting. Bird: I would take that. And probably in my motion we should state -- take the testimony of the applicant, the public testimony, and incorporate in the DA. That way I don't have to sit here and say everything that he did. De Weerd: That's Anna's favorite saying. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 41 of 61 Bird: Yeah. De Weerd: And whatever that was said. Bird: Whatever the applicant said we can incorporate. Rountree: Second understands and agrees with the original motion and also agrees with the amendments, I guess. De Weerd: Thank you. Any further discussion? Mr. Berg, will you read back the motion. I'm just kidding. Berg: And my favorite term is so moved. De Weerd: Roll call, please. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 15. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we approve PP 07-007 and to include staff comments, applicant comments, for the Gardner-Ahlquist Gateway Subdivision. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 15. Any discussion? Mr. Berg. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Okay. Item 16. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 42 of 61 Bird: I move we approve VAR 07-006 and to include all staff and applicant comments from public testimony. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 16. If there is no discussion, Mr. Berg. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 17: Discussion of Resolution for Adiacent Public Facilitv Policv (Blueprint for Good Growth): De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 17 is discussion of resolution for adjacent public facility policy, Blueprint For Good Growth. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: I think we all raised a number of questions in the presentation last week and Karen indicated that she was going to get information from Michael Lougher back and she did provide -- yeah, she provided them to all Council members. Appreciate Karen's efforts to do that quickly. I know Michael -- he also put a call into me, which I failed to get in contact with him, but that's my fault, not his. So, I appreciate both Karen and Michael and their efforts to try and alleviate some of our concerns on this resolution. De Weerd: Okay. With those responses, Mr. Borton, do you have any further need for clarification or questions? Borton: No. De Weerd: Council, any other concerns? Berg: Madam Mayor, if I could. I know that you said that she had responded to you, but if I can get a copy of that for the record, so that she did address the questions and concerns that you guys had, we could have it on the record, so your decision reflects the information that you received. De Weerd: Okay. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 43 of 61 Zaremba: I would comment that I believe I have read what Councilman Borton is talking about. It was in an e-mail, to which I also received a copy. For me it left a couple of things not resolved in final form, but it did address that the issues were now on the table and I personally would be comfortable with moving forward with the understanding that we have further discussion on many of the items. De Weerd: And, Mr. Zaremba, that's correct, they were -- this is proceeding into the discussion and resolution of a number of those issues, so it is just our agreement that we are supportive of those remaining issues and probably the more complicated ones to be flushed out and appreciate that comment. Zaremba: Thank you. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Procedural question. Can we act on the resolution that was drafted if there are, apparently, no changes or do we need to calendar that for a time certain for action? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's on your agenda tonight. You can approve it tonight if you wish. Rountree: Okay. De Weerd: Okay. Any further comments from Council? Rountree: Madam Mayor, I would move that we approve -- and I don't have a resolution number. Bird: It would be 07-558. Rountree: Resolution 07-558, supporting and participating in the development of adequate public facilities ordinance, specifically including for land use and transportation. Zaremba: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Resolution 07-558. Any discussion? Mr. Berg, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, nay; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE NAY. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 44 of 61 Item 18: Department Reports: A. Public Works Department: 1. Reauest for Budget Amendment to Purchase and Install Tertiary Filters for WWTP: De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Item 18 is Department Reports. We will start with our Public Works Department. Len. Grady: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, in my haste last week to get this project up and going and pushed through I think I might have left out a little bit of information. So, this week I brought a little bit of a presentation. Maybe slow down in my haste and see if can answer some questions, so -- what we are asking for tonight is a budget amendment, approval on a sole source agreement and purchase to install -- or an agreement to purchase tertiary filters. As far as installation of those filters, we are working with the contractors on site to get a quote to get those filters installed. The budget amendment we are asking for is a million dollars. That will cover engineering fees, purchase of the filters, installation of those filters. I mentioned last week we are on sort of a fast track and would like to get those filters operational by the first part of August. That's just prior to our peak season out at the plant where we start processing the -- the large flows that we get at the end of the summer. Sole source approval. We did get a letter from the CH2M Hill and I do see a representative from CH2, Mr. Aires is here, as far as confirmation that these really are the only filters that fit in our footprint in our existing basins and we will utilize those basins and produce what we need to produce out at those filters. We did submit the paperwork to purchasing for that sole source approval. And I thought Mr. Watts was going to be here, but I don't see him. Bill, are you aware of any issues? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we are not. We were in touch with Mr. Watts on the purchasing issues and all of that has been taken care of. So, no issues from legal or purchasing on this. De Weerd: Okay. Grady: So, what are we getting when we purchase those filters? I have brought a few slides that we took from our field trip to Chicago -- just outside of Chicago. This shows up a little dark, but you can see down in this bed there are slots going down through here. Those are actually diamond filters, diamond shaped filters, running parallel. De Weerd: We don't want to know why it's dark. Grady: No. And this here is what's called a sliding bridge. We have one of those at the plant. That's what makes these filters somewhat unique is -- is the sliding bridge and footprint will work. In other words, when we purchased this sliding bridge and the diamond filters, it will fit right in the slot. When those -- when this -- when this bridge Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 45 of 61 moves up and down the filters, you can see it pumps the sludge, I'll call it, out into this trough here. Sorry the photography wasn't great, but I can assure you they are very effective. The water going through those filters is significantly cleaner. This is looking down on the filters. Again, they are diamond shaped filters. This is the filter media. It's actually -~ they call it a carpet and -- I mean if white was your color, I could see this would fit real nice in your living room. It's really a -- really a plush, nice quality carpet. De Weerd: Thank you. That was a nice addition. Grady: We did tour the factory and very high quality workmanship. This would be -- this is one of the bridges that they are manufacturing. Unfortunately, we could not wrestle this bridge away from them, so it's heading to South America, and ours, if we went ahead, would come right after this, so -- and I think this is my last slide. This is, actually, the structure of those diamond filters. The carpet would be laying on the top of those. The water would flow through the diamond filters and, then, out one of the ends of the filters. So, a pretty slick system. As I mentioned, we do have two contractors on site. According to purchasing, it is within the spirit of the rules that we could change order one of those contractors for installation and we figure it will be less than 200,000, but until we get that quote we are asking for the million dollars, which includes the 200,000 dollars installation. So, again, tonight as far as the filters are concerned, this is what we are asking for: The budget amendment. That paperwork went into purchasing last week -- or, sorry, finance. The sole source. And if you have some questions, we do have Dan Hurst here to answer some of those and, then, finally, purchase of those aqua aerobic filters. De Weerd: Thank you, Len. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none, Mayor. Rountree: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. Well, do I have a motion? Borton: Madam Mayor? Who is Daniel? I don't have any questions. I appreciate the letter and the individual information provided and appreciate you being here as well. And, Len, the additional information was helpful as well. With that, I would move that we approve the request for a budget amendment in the amount of one million dollars for the purchase and installation of tertiary filters for the wastewater treatment plant and sole source the aqua aerobics. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Borton, do you want to make any special requests for your living room? Okay. Hearing nothing -- Rountree: No recycle. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 46 of 61 De Weerd: Mr. Berg. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. 2. Discussion of Memorandum of Understanding for Autumn Faire Lift Station: De Weerd: Okay. Item two. Grady: Okay. This is a -- this discussion is with regard to a three-party agreement that we have been working towards. This agreement would be with Autumn Faire homeowners association. Autumn Faire, LLC, which is, really, the developer and the City of Meridian, for, basically, transfer and owning and operation of the Autumn Faire lift station. The Autumn Faire lift station hasn't really been functioning properly. I think that would be an understatement. DEQ contacted us several times to see if we could get involved and -- from a city point of view and see if we can come up with a way of fixing this. So, we set out to do exactly that. I would have to say that Public Works wasn't really interested in taking over another lift station, but as we got further into the discussions, I think we determined it was probably the best for all three parties. Probably the biggest benefit to the city is that is a private lift station now. If the city wishes to have the park restrooms hooked up in the future, the homeowners association was not really interested in owning and operating a facility that was hooked up to somebody else's assets. So, I think they were -- they held firm that if the city park was to hook up, we had to own and operate it. The more we looked into it, the more we realized it really needed some upgrades and the developer had failed to pay a significant amount of what's called seed money to get this lift station up and running. So, we went to the developer, the LLC, and negotiated, basically, a 10,000 dollar seed money and 2,500 dollars for upgrades to that lift station, and we would, then, be the proud owners of another lift station. The HOA is, obviously, very interested, because they want to get out of the lift station business and the LLC was very interested in this transaction, because, really, it -- the HOA was threatening lawsuits, I guess, is the best way of describing what was going on. So, I -- I will continue. I guess that's it. We do have a representative from the homeowners association, Mr. Burke, and I'm not sure whether -- nobody from the LLC bothered to show up, so -- they did sign the agreement. I'm disappointed they didn't show up, but I think we push forward with the agreement as it is. So, if you have questions for the HOA, Mr. Burke is here, but, otherwise, I will stand for questions. De Weerd: Okay. Council, do you have any questions for any of the parties? Any comments? Burke: Charlie Burke, 2621 North Dayside. I'm the HOA president and on behalf of the five hundred and some voting residents of the association, I'd like to thank the city and Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 47 of 61 particularly Mr. Grady for his efforts in resolving this matter and we are looking forward to finally getting Seasons Park finished up and in operation. De Weerd: I think we'd all like to see that. See, Len, you have over 500 people who would vote for you. Good job. Burke: Thank you, Mayor. De Weerd: Oh, gosh, I don't even have a vote, darn it. Okay. Yes, Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I do have a question and I'm -- whoever wants to answer it may answer it. I understand that the end result of this will be that the City of Meridian ends up owning the lift station and the equipment in it. In the memorandum of understanding it identifies the station as -- equipment as located at Lot 6, Block 4. What I'm unclear is are we actually going to own the Lot 6, Block 4? Are we going to own the land under the station or just the station and the pumps? Grady: That's a really good question and those were the types of details which we were having a little bit of trouble finalizing. That's why rather than a final detailed agreement, we chose to go with an MOU and work out those finer details with the final agreement. That's the exact question which we couldn't get answered in time to get this ball rolling, so -- Zaremba: So, the subject is out there. Grady: It is out there and legal is aware of it and is working through those issues. So, we will make sure that whatever we come up with we have adequate access to. Zaremba: Great. Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Mr. Grady alluded to potential legal actions on the part of the LLC. I guess I'd like to have a little more information on that from Mr. Nary. Grady: Sorry. I should have said the HOA was really -- and the homeowners were threatening lawsuits against the developer. Rountree: Okay. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 48 of 61 Grady: So, with this agreement, the HOA has agreed to waive all rights for lawsuits, both with the LLC and -- that the City of Meridian has any issues, but anybody involved in this, so -- Bird: Right. De Weerd: And, Len, some of that was involved in the -- when it wasn't functioning and -- I mean there is -- I won't say there has been a lot of crap going on on this one. Rountree: You wouldn't say that, would you, Mayor? De Weerd: But I mean it's -- it's been a real nightmare out there and -- and I just applaud our Public Works Department for really stepping up and this is truly the best thing we could do in that area, so -- Rountree: I guess my final question for Mr. Grady is the -- we were talking about a 10,000 dollar fund for future repairs and a ten thousand and some dollar improvement or are we talking just 10,000 dollars? Grady: We are talking 10,000 dollars for -- suppose to be for maintenance for the next three years and 2,500 dollars for whatever upgrades to the lift station. Basically, 12,500 dollars would go into a fund that we would use as we see fit. Now, it is my understanding that the plant may have some pumps that can fit in there and, you know, we may be able to use spare supplies to upgrade that lift station, which I think would be great. Rountree: And I guess my final question -- are you reasonably satisfied that that's sufficient to take this online for three years? Not that it's going to come out of your paycheck or anything. Grady: I think it's -- the best I can say is it's conceivable, especially now that we doing the maintenance on that and can use spare supplies. I know the HOA, when they were doing the maintenance on that, it wouldn't have lasted a year, but beings we are taking it as part of our existing infrastructure. I would say it's going to be close. Rountree: And will it at some point in time come offline? Grady: Yes, it will. Rountree: Okay. And that's the three years? Grady: No. Really, the seed money was -- is really a DEQ requirement that the developer should have -- should have passed 10,000 dollars to the HOA and we, basically, asked the HOA to give us that money beings we are now going to take this over. So, does that make sense? The developer should have paid them way back Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 49 of 61 when and we are just now -- beings we are going to take this over, okay, we will take that and we will upgrade the lift station. Burke: Charlie Burke again. Just perhaps a little more clarification. My understanding is that ultimately there is a development that's going to go in place west of there and it will eliminate that lift station and continue out to the feeder on McDermott. And just a little bit more clarification. The home -- the homeowners, particularly the ones that are connected directly to that lift station, are not going to walk away from this scott free, they are going to get a bill for about 300 bucks ahead -- or per lot to payoff the balance they owe the homeowners association. So, there is still some money going to be moving around here. But to them that -- that expenditure -- that one-time expenditure is well worth it to get away from this lift station, because I know more about lift stations than I ever wanted to know. Rountree: Important, aren't they? Burke: Yeah. De Weerd: Yeah. Burke: It gets really ugly really fast if we don't. Anything else? De Weerd: No. Anything further, Council? Rountree: No. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I would only comment that I hope we are making DEQ and perhaps even EPA aware of the fact that we are stepping up to help here and we can earn some good will to cover some other subjects with this I hope. De Weerd: We can certainly get their -- their contact information to the 500 homeowners and would appreciate your advocacy. Yes. Burke: Oh, they know it. They will get their e-mail tomorrow morning. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: Unless there is additional questions, and discussions, I would move that we approve the Memorandum of Understanding for the Autumn Faire lift station. Bird: Second. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 50 of 61 De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve item two in regards to the memorandum of -- the MOU. Any further discussion? Yes, Mr. Berg, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. B. Parks Department: 1. Update of Recreation Plan with City of Meridian and Meridian Middle School on the After School program: De Weerd: Thank you, Len. Thank you. Okay. Item B is our parks department. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Borton: Can I cut you off real quick? Is that the memorandum -- is there going to be a restroom in there, too, or is that -- Strong: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I actually wanted to comment on that -- I wanted to comment on that, because Len and I have been talking about the timing of the restroom and so I really appreciate this going through, because the bids for two restrooms to be constructed this summer have gone out this week and one of them is for Seasons Park. The other one is Kiwanis park, which are important projects to complete in this fiscal year. So, we hope to have those under contract soon and under construction. So, one of the things that was really pending with getting that done was having some resolution of this lift station issue and so this really resolves that -- De Weerd: Just got better, uh? Oh. Strong: Like I said, the bids are out, so it's a matter of getting them under contract and getting them started. Len informed me that I owe him big time, but I don't know what that means yet, so that's to be determined later. De Weerd: I'm sure you will find out. Strong: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I was asked last week to do an update on our after school program and I have a quick update and I sent on e-mail to everyone last week that's, in essence, what's still going on. We got this program underway last Monday and registration was distributed through the school for participants in the program. We currently have 15 students from the school registered for the after school program. We have a program supervisor hired and four rec leadership staff to work in the program and the number of staff that work the program each day is dependent upon Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 51 of 61 the number of students that are actually in the program. So, we are in the very early stages of this after school program. We are still promoting it in the school, registrations are still coming in through the main office. There is a little bit of an education process that seems to be going on, too. Some of the comments from students that have been in the program have been that they thought it was a study session after school. . So, we are concerned that some students may be staying away, because they think it's -- it's homework that they have to do versus coming in and doing structured play activities and other things. So, we are going to be doing some informational sessions or asking to do informational sessions in classrooms to better promote the program. So, by the end of the school year, as we indicated when we asked for this project, we should have a much better idea of where things stand. Obviously, with the recent termination of Leanna Thomas from her rec superintendent position that -- that had some affect on the program, but it has moved ahead and the direct supervision of the staff there has fallen to Collin Moss and he's following up with that. So, there really has been very little interruption as was some concern I think expressed at that time. So, we still feel that the program has the same potential value that was identified when it was brought to you and we are going to continue to market and work toward meeting those goals to provide a safe place for kids to go after school with structured adult modeling and some of the positive things that should have benefit to the community. So, with that I will certainly stand for any questions and would be very happy to bring back an update at some point after that. Certainly when we get to the budget time this is one of the enhancements that we have included in next year's budget enhancement and part of our justification will be how well we have done in this pilot program. So, you will hear more about it. De Weerd: Okay. Any questions, Council? Bird: I have none. Thanks for the report. Rountree: Thanks, Doug. c. Legal and HR Department: 1. Update on Agreement with Meridian Joint School District No.2: De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Under C we have a long list with Mr. Nary. Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'll try to be as brief as reasonably possible. On item one, the agreement with the Joint School District to follow up on the program that we are currently operating, the after school program, part of the issues, if you recall, that we have had with the school district is over our insurance coverage and how the district is assured that they have coverage for the programs that we operate in the schools. We have tentative good news. I mean I think we have reached some resolution with their counsel as to what we are really trying to cover. Mr. Berg and I have discussed it in his roll as the risk manager. He has been in contact with our insurance and they will respond in writing and, hopefully, will be able to put this to Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 52 of 61 bed here shortly, get an agreement together with the school district that we can bring back in front of you at some point that's more all encompassing to deal with all of the types of programs that we run and assuring that we can continue to operate as we have been. The school district has been very patient and been very supportive of the programs that we have had with the city and so we are hopeful that we will get some conclusion here and, then, we can continue on as we had hoped. 2. Discussion on Ordinance Reaardinc ParkinQ on Streets. Allevs. and Public Propertv: Nary: Item two is an ordinance that you have seen previously and we had some bugs to work out with the traffic safety commission and my staff and I think we have worked them all out and this is a parking ordinance and we have a tremendous amount of issues around the city in regards to parking and so what we tried to do in this ordinance was to basically separated out and as you can see, as you look at the strike out sections and such, it's a little bit confusing currently and our code enforcement is primarily who addresses these types of issues in the neighborhoods, found it's very difficult from an enforcement standpoint. So, we have drafted this change. We have tried to enumerate what specifically is allowed for what particular period of time. There are some types of vehicles in parking that is allowed for two hours, there is some types of vehicles and sometimes parking that are allowed for 72 hours. We tried to make that a little clearer in the ordinance. There are exceptions that we think make sense as to how they are being applied and used currently and we have run this through the traffic safety commission. They did recommend approval of this ordinance. If you have questions hopefully I can answer them. If you don't and you find it's satisfactory, we can move it to our agenda next week. It does have probably maybe some interest in the public. You may want to consider having at least one public reading prior to passage and so if you're of the mind set to at least set it up for a reading, schedule for one reading next week, and see if we get some public feedback about it before we simply move it on for approval. You're not required to do that, as you know, but it may, again, have some interest from some folks. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Bird: Before he gets off this subject. I am one that would like to see a public reading and public -- and we probably won't get a single deal until somebody gets a ticket or something and they'll say we didn't know you changed it. But I think -- I think we are changing some -- doing some drastic changing. I also have got a question. Our speed limit in our parks -- we are getting some parks, like Settlers and now that we have redone Storey, where cars can build up speed that I think is -- is probably -- our speed limit should be a five to ten mile in there because of the kids running around and stuff and it's just -- it's just something that -- and I don't know if this would be involved with this ordinance. Probably won't. But it's something I think we need to discuss regarding the speeding. I don't think parks should have the same speed limit as alleys, which I Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 53 of 61 think, basically, that's what we kind of set it at, because there is not a lot of kids, usually, playing around an alley. There is a lot of kids playing around -- and we are getting large enough parks now that there is quite a bit of drive through and driving around in. So, I think that's something at a later late. But I, for one, would like to see this, a public reading, so that if there is any public testimony or anything -- like I said, probably won't have any until somebody gets a ticket, so -- yeah. Zaremba: Madam Mayor, at first I would support Councilman Bird's idea that we should have a public reading and I think there would come a day when we will wish we had. I also had a separate question that I would address to Mr. Nary and that would be that it would seem to me that in this ordinance somewhere we either should define parking or if it's defined elsewhere in our code, that we reference that. It may be as simple as saying parking is leaving a vehicle unattended by a licensed driver. But since we are talking about parking, I think either a definition or a reference would be useful. I guess that's a question. Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Zaremba, basically, the rules of statutory construction that courts follow is that if you don't have a specific definition in your code -- and I'm looking at our code right now and I'm -- I don't think it has a regulation of that -- the court just uses whatever the common meaning would be. So, I don't think you need to define parking specifically, unless there is some particular type of activity outside of what normally people consider parking you wanted to prohibit. So, there isn't a necessity to define a common term like that. Zaremba: Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. Anything further? Bird: Are we going to -- Borton: You'll set it for Public Hearing next week? Bird: I would like to, myself, if that's soon -- is that -- or two weeks or what? That's up to the rest of you guys if you want to do that. Rountree: Yeah. Borton: No harm. Next week. Bird: I think that would definitely help us. Nary: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Okay. Yes, Mr. Nary. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 54 of 61 Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm looking at the city code on parks and unless I'm -- I should be looking in a different spot or Chief Musser knows, I don't think we have established speed limits in the parks. Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we do have a speed limit ordinance -- I believe it should probably be under the traffic section where we adopted the state code and it refers to parks, alleys, or school property on those speed limits and it's 15 miles per hour within the city parks. So, it's a separate ordinance section and that's the one that we added alleys to, we didn't add the parks into alleys, we added alleys into those when we had an issue on that about two and a half years ago with speeds on an alley here in town. Bird: Madam Mayor, may I ask -- chief, while you have got the mike there. With the children around and stuff -- do you see any problem with us going down to a ten or a five mile in the parks? I know it's -- don't get me wrong, I understand it will be hard to -- but if you post it, maybe the majority of the people at least will follow it. Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Bird, it's entirely your discretion on where you want to set those speeds. We will work to enforce them. One of the other things we may want to look at, if we are getting rolling speeds in there, is we may want to increase the availability of some traffic calming devices like speed humps within the parks, too, so that they don't have a chance to roll it up. But we will certainly work with anything that this Council decides that they would like to have for the citizens and we will enforce it. Bird: We have got that one speed bump at Storey going down the -- the south entrance and I'll tell you, it does work. You're right, chief, if we have maybe some of those longer runs like we got at Settlers where you come in and make that circle and come back out, maybe we do a couple of speed bumps in there would -- would solve the problem, instead of the speed limit. Musser: I believe that probably would help us in the long run, Councilman Bird. We may not have the same sentiment from our fire and ambulance folks, but this is a short stretch, it's not an extended roadway area and, you're right, because of the congestion in the parks we do need additional traffic calming. Bird: Thank you. De Weerd: Well, the right fire representative is sitting here, so -- Bird: You're the first. Rountree: He's learning. De Weerd: You know -- Dean, note that on the public record, okay? Will you, please, spell your name, sir. Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 55 of 61 Niemeyer: R-O-N. De Weerd: Mr. Berg, did you have something to add? Okay. Anything further, Council, on this item? Bird: We are going to bring it forward for a public reading next week? De Weerd: Yes. Next week. Uh-huh. 3: Discussion of Appropriate Clothina Attire for Work Purposes and Procurement Policv: 4: Discussion of Electronic Mail Policv: 5. Discussion of On-Call I Call Out Duties and Compensation Policv: De Weerd: Okay. Item three. Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The next item -- we have three different items, all of them are policies. We have established a little different process before it's come to you and so this is just a discussion item. Obviously, we haven't brought it to you before. We have established a director's operational meeting over the last four or five months and part of that process that we have done in that is to discuss different policies of the city and how they work or apply in various departments. These three that are in front of you are ones that we found some problems with, We, as a directors group, all of us, including Mr. Coulter from the Mayor's office, all the different directors, have discussed these various policies and used our collective minds to come up with some alternative language and -- or additional language to put before you for your consideration. Again, it's obviously, simply a discussion item for you, if you have concerns, you want us to revisit it, you don't like it, whatever your pleasure is, that's fine. If you do think it's adequate -- an adequate change, we would bring it back for a resolution approval, so that we have some record that it has been amended to the city employee policy handbook. The first one is clothing attire. What we were finding in some of the departments -- a couple of things that you will see in the policy itself. One of the things that was happening in some of the departments -- it wasn't very clear and it's in the policy statement now, that when employees were wearing city attire outside of their employment, that they are still responsible for their behavior. Predominately because everybody knows where they work. So, the discussion was is that if employees were off the job, but still were wearing employee gear, you know, it was recognizable as City of Meridian attire, that they were still responsible for their behavior and can be disciplined for that, so that they were clear that if they were going to wear a city shirt to the movies, they were certainly going to make sure they behaved appropriately. Secondarily, we were finding in some of the departments a lot of misunderstanding over what was intended when we purchased city clothing for various Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 56 of 61 employees and departments for work purposes. Not for the option to wear to work, but ones that were mandated to wear to work. And in some of the departments what was unclear over the years -- and I think -- again, I wasn't here at the time, but what I think probably happened is we had a standard policy where some types of articles or clothing were being purchased to wear at work, like a work shirt. When the employee didn't need another work shirt, because they felt that had enough, they, I guess in the past, negotiated some other type of clothing for work. So, it wasn't something that was not work related, but it became sort of unwieldy in the department to -- to administer a program like that. Essentially what happened is employees would say, well, I don't need a shirt this year, but could you buy me something else and -- something else for work and what the directors were finding in some of the departments that it was just too cumbersome to try to credit you this 20 dollars we would have bought your shirt with and now, instead, we are going to buy you pants for work. we provide the employees the appropriate attire if necessary for work for a variety of reasons. We didn't feel from the directors' standpoint that it was necessary to buy alternate types of clothing instead. We had a specific purpose, that's what's stated in this policy, basically what we tried to clear up in here was that the city and the directors make the decision on what we purchase and why we purchase it and that's what you get. If you don't want that or you want something in the alternative, that's not an option. We are not going to be negotiating that on an annual basis. There are some departments, like the police department, where they direct everything that you get, there is some departments that may only provide shirts for visibility and identification purposes, but that's the intent of that policy. Any questions? Rountree: Good change. Nary: On the e-mail policy, basically, I think the primary change to this is we wanted to again reestablish the realities of e-mail in today's society is that e-mail is used constantly by people in the workplace and what we wanted to, I guess, reiterate to employees is that there is no privacy rights to their e-mail. What used to be the common policy among governmental entities was a statement usually that said e-mails could not be used for any other purpose than for business. What most businesses found is that wasn't very realistic, couldn't be applied fairly and even handedly across the board, both in the private sector and the public sector. I think our policy recognizes the more realistic reality that if will occasionally be used, but, again, the employee has no privacy to that. If they were to use e-mail for some other purpose, other than business, they have the same rules that apply to them as any other -- any other e-mail that they use for business. Additionally, we were having some problems, because, again, didn't have a policy on this subject, that employees sometime for what they probably thought were very good intentions, would be sending out city-wide e-mails for various issues and subjects. Some maybe not as important as others, but it's fairly a relative thing. We felt that it was important that city-wide e-mails still be used when necessary, but that, again, ultimately, the employee doesn't get to make that decision, the directors of the department have to approve that these e-mails are going to be sent and what the purpose of them are. And, again, that the purpose of these is to be a city- wide purpose or a department-wide purpose and that they would, then -- the director Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 57 of 61 would be the one accountable for that, that that's getting sent out for those reasons. Those were the two changes or additions to this policy. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: Just a comment. I guess it's sort of format. One, I think this is great. Good changes. In paragraph 12 there are two sentences and the second sentence is the only place I find that mentions violation of this policy and if anything can be misread I'll try and do it. It appears that violations of this only applies to paragraph 12. My suggestion would be to take the second sentence and make it its own section and make it a section 14, so that it's clear that violations of this policy, including failure to report inappropriate uses, may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination, that that one sentence is its own major paragraph and I would make it the last one, number 14. Nary: I could do that. Zaremba: Just a comment. Thank you. Nary: Any other questions, Council? Rountree: I have a question on what we have in place in terms of technology. Do we have a screening tool in place and in operation and is that being utilized by the department heads in terms of managing the use of e-mail? Nary: Great question. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Rountree, we have a couple of different tools. One of them, obviously, we have a lot of filtering tools, so that we can filter out the types of access people can have, whether it's to the internet, how they either receive -- how they send things -- or, excuse me, how they access just basic internet type of web pages. We have filtering tools on e-mail that get received into the city. Some if it is not as popular sometimes, because sometimes it does catch things that probably are legitimate city business and there is some filtering tools of how that gets back to the employee, so that they can identify if this -- if it was caught incorrectly. Now, there are certain things -- and most of you probably know a lot of those filtering tools how they are done is they are looking for words, they are looking for phrases, they are looking for collections of words, whether it's in subjects, the headings, the body of e-mail, and certain types of things -- we have different levels of security. Certain types of e-mail doesn't even go to the employee to ask them if it's okay, based on the words and phrases that are found within it. Other types they do have the ability to go to the employee to ask them if this was caught incorrectly. We have spam filters and, again, other means. The other way -- we each -- as employees access the internet, we have a system that does track all of those things and those are, then, reported back to the directors through the IT department to advise them of which employees are using the internet and what -- and it doesn't -- again, it doesn't pass judgment over the use, it just identifies to the director that they are, essentially, higher Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 58 of 61 users or users of the internet of their staff. The director's responsibility is to make that determination of is that employee's function and job consistent with the use that they are having. And, lastly, we have had issues -- and we haven't completely gotten enough information back, but we have had occasions, as you can imagine, where you have had personnel issues in regards to the use of e-mail. We have the ability to go seize e-mail and this, again, doesn't change anything, we have already established in our employee handbook the employees have no privacy right to any of the information that's contained in their e-mail. But the -- it's a little cumbersome currently to retrieve that. We can capture days. We can capture certain periods of time as the backups are done, but if we want to just capture a specific period of time that didn't get backed up or if it didn't get captured within the time frame that we retain these, it's a little more problematic to go reproduce it. We can do it to some degree, but not maybe as much as you like. So, I asked Mr. Paternoster to look into -- there are -- and as you well expect in technology, there are other tools and programs that you can purchase that range from somewhere between 5,000 and five million dollars for this type of stuff and it will allow us to archive and capture e-mail instantaneously.itcan.then.be--itwouldworkinacoupleways.lt can be recaptured for investigative purposes. It also can be archived for any employee's purposes. And one of the reasons we were looking at this is we have employees -- and I'm as guilty of it as anyone -- that keep a lot of e-mail for a variety of reasons and fill up our e-mail boxes and what happens -- and everyone who is an employee here has gotten some message occasionally that says your e-mail box is full and you need to address that. And we have means in which to do that. Zaremba: How do I get that message? Nary: You probably haven't got that yet. But we are looking at the potential of programs that might allow us to capture that in a separate bank of the server that anyone -- that the employees can access, but that we can also, then, would retain all of that and it has a searchable capability that if we needed to we could do that. Again, we are still in the investigatory stage of that. If it's something that we think is either something we can do within the budget that we have or we need to bring an enhancement forward, we will certainly do that, but -- so, I mean it's a long answer to a short question, but there are a couple of means that are already existing and other means we are looking at to address that exact issue. Rountree: One thing I don't see in the policy as it relates to use and that's utilizing techniques, utilizing activities that require a lot of memory and server space that can do just exactly what you're talking about, fill up e-mail boxes, but they can also fill up our server storage, and I think probably -- I mean I don't see anything there, but there may be where certain graphics and those kinds of things on letters or creating your own letterheads or your own interdepartmental memo or whatever, that gobble up memory, not be allowed, because it's expensive for no gain. Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Rountree, I mean that -- and that's a great point. Right now the way the system is currently, if you as an individual user were doing that, there is -- the material that is stored on the server Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 59 of 61 system, that does take up like you're talking about, has a limitation for every employee. Very few employees are allowed to exceed that and, basically, it requires the director's approval and the Mayor's approval to do that. Rountree: Okay. You have got it covered, then. Nary: Yes. Rountree: Okay. Thanks. De Weerd: Okay. Anything else? Bird: I have none. Nary: We will make the changes as recommended and bring that one back. Nary: The last one -- they have been fairly short so far. The last one is a new policy -- De Weerd: Based on whose standards? Bird: Yeah. Nary: It's all relative. It's all relative. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the last one is a new policy. We had a practice that has been ongoing for awhile in departments when they have had employees that were on call, that they have been paid, and the law requires that we pay them. It doesn't give -- unfortunately, it would be nice if it gave us a neat, nifty answer and an easy way to formulate so they come out with some answer as to how much someone should get paid for being on call, but it doesn't. So, we have established a practice in the Public Works Department over the last few years of what employees were getting paid to carry a pager to be required to respond back to work. What decided in this policy was to -- was to, basically, define what that means and that it would apply, then, city wide. Now, we don't have a lot of employees that are on call. Predominately right now the water department is on call, the police department is on call. During the summer the months the parks department has a few employees that are on call and right now I don't believe -- Mr. Grady can correct me -- I don't think we have any wastewater treatment plant employees on call, because we have 24 hour service. Now, there may be a few that are exempt employees that might be on call, but not any non-exempt. Grady: I believe that's correct. Over certain periods we do have an exempt employee that -- that covers -- Nary: So, what we attempted to do in this policy is establish and define what does on call mean, what the requirements are, what does called out mean, because they are two different things and I know it sounds somewhat repetitive and that's maybe the lawyer part of me, but they are two different things and, essentially, the difference between on Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 60 of 61 call is that's a scheduled assignment and it's required as part of your job. Call out may not be. It may not be required as part of your job and you may not be required to come back for a variety of reasons, but if you do have to come back, we are going to pay you appropriately to do that. So, there is a little bit of difference. We tried to define it in this policy to make it clear. We tried to establish, again, with what the departments that are going to apply it, as well as finance department as to the cost, to come up with something that was fair and affordable and within the confines of the budget, that's what the on-call compensation is, or same thing with the call-out, again, it's a fairly minimal amount for the call-out, so we didn't -- finance didn't feel that was a significant amount. For the departments on the call-out, again -- or on the on-call, excuse me -- see, I get them mixed up, too. On the on-call, we have already been paying this, based on a practice in the public works department, so there was no budgetary impact. It was within the confines of the police budget for the police to establish that as well, so they were comfortable with that and so was finance. Again, that's basically it. We felt it was time to really put in a new policy, make it clear what it is, and bring it in front of you. Rountree: I think the key comment you made, Bill, to me is that now we are going to have uniformity, so -- instead of every department having their own interpretation, which is a good thing to have uniformity. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I have a couple of what I would category as proofreading kind of things that I will discuss with Mr. Nary off record. De Weerd: I'm sure Dean appreciates that. Okay. Council, anything further? Rountree: I have nothing. Bird: I have nothing, Madam Mayor. De Weerd: That ends all the items listed on our agenda. Is there anything further from the Council? Rountree: Madam Mayor, I apologize for the phone call. I have a family member who is quite ill and I was waiting for the call, so -- anyway. De Weerd: I would entertain -- yes, Mr. Berg. Berg: I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, this isn't an item on the agenda, but it is a notification that after several e-mails and conversations from -- with Kuna, that they ask that their meeting on April 30th be rescheduled to the end of May. So, if everyone would look at their calendars and see what's going on -- Meridian City Council April 24, 2007 Page 61 of 61 Rountree: Do they have a new mayor yet? Nary: They have a new mayor. De Weerd: Who? Nary: Councilmember Dowdy is the new interim mayor. Bird: That's Scott? Nary: Yes. Rountree: Okay. Berg: And Councilman Dowdy, which is now the new mayor, will not be able to make it April 30th, so that was one of the concerns that was for rescheduling. De Weerd: Okay. Very good. I will go ahead and entertain a motion to adjourn. Rountree: So moved. Bird: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor? MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:46 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: ATTESTED:c::II~P WILLIAM G. 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