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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-02-10 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session February 10, 2026. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8, 2026, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Luke Cavener, Liz Strader, John Overton, Doug Taylor and Anne Little Roberts. Members Absent: Brian Whitlock. Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Laurelei McVey, Caleb Hood and Brian McClure. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE X Liz Strader Brian Whitlock _X_Anne Little Roberts _X_ John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor _X—Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call this meeting to order. For the record it is February 10th, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next item up is adoption of the agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: No changes to the agenda. I move we adopt as published. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Motion and second to adopt the agenda. Is there any discussion? If not all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Approve Minutes of the January 27, 2026 City Council Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 2 of 20 2. Approve Minutes of the January 27, 2026 City Council Regular Meeting 3. State Avenue Flex Space Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2026- 0011) 4. Biltmore Company, LLC Bountiful Commons Subdivision Lot 5 Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2026-0012) 5. Biltmore Company, LLC Bountiful Commons Subdivision Lot 6 Water Main Easement No.2 (ESMT-2026-0014) 6. Costco Wholesale Warehouse Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2026-0015) 7. Pura Vida Ridge Ranch Subdivision No. 1 Pedestrian Pathway Easement (ESMT-2026-0019) 8. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law Revised for Hill's Century Farm Townhomes (H-2024-0072), by Brighton Corporation, generally located at the corner of S. Tavistock Ave. and E. Hill Park St. with the inclusion of the following parcels: R3636090060, R3636090040, R3636080240, S1133212576 and R3636080110. 9. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Mogul North (SHP-2025- 0005) by Ardurra, located at 4305 W. Grand Mogul Dr. 10. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Mogul South (SHP-2025- 0006) by Ardurra, generally located 1/4 mile east of S. Black Cat Rd. and 3/4 mile south of W. Franklin Rd. 11. Final Plat for Apex Northwest Subdivision No. 7 (FP-2025-0034) by Brighton Corporation, located at near the northwest corner of S. Locust Grove Rd. and E. Lake Hazel Rd. 12. Development Agreement (Rockwell Greens Neighborhood H-2025- 0002) Between City of Meridian and Gemini LLLP for Property Generally Located at the Northwest Corner of State Highway 16 and McMillan Rd. 13. Agreement Between Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District and the City of Meridian for Pathway Across the Creason Lateral at Baratza Subdivision Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 3 of 20 14. Approval of Construction Contract to JCN Constructors, Inc. for Digester 5 Seal Replacement and authorize the Procurement Manager to sign and to issue the resulting purchase order 15. Approve Procurement Manager to Issue and Sign Fiscal Year 2026 Purchase Order to AXON Enterprises for the Not-to-Exceed amount of $745,803.33 for Fiscal Year 2026 services Simison: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: No changes to the Consent Agenda, I move that we approve the Consent Agenda, for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT REPORTS [Action Item] 16. Approval of Toll Brothers Bid Results for the Public Private Partnership Agreement dated December 2, 2025 Simison: So, we will move on to Department Reports. First item up is Item 16, which is approval of Toll Brothers bid results for public-private partnership agreement, dated December 2nd, 2025. Director McVey. McVey: Thank you, Mayor and Council. So, just as a reminder we, back in December, entered into this agreement with Toll Brothers. Essentially they were -- will pay for a portion of a trunk line that was in our CFP that was -- the city was planning to pay for. They will construct it and, then, we will reimburse them for half of those costs when the costs were planned in our CFP. So, we signed that agreement back in December. In that agreement there were several clauses. One was that we could bring the contract back to Council if the bid was over the engineer's estimate. We did just get the bids back. Four bids. One was deemed noncomplete. They ranged from 7.3 million to 15.6 Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 4 of 20 million. Our engineer's estimate was 6.6 million, so a little bit shy of the low bid, which is not totally uncommon in our current bidding scenario, but we wanted to come forward and Public Works is still recommending that we proceed with this project, primarily because it saves significant cost for the city based on what -- doing it ourselves in the next couple of years. So, just give you that update. I don't think we need a formal vote, but just kind of -- I guess you can correct me, but just kind of acceptance that everybody's okay moving -- continuing with the signed agreement. We don't have to change it. Simison: Thank you. And, ultimately, Council, I would appreciate at least a voice vote on this item, rather than — McVey: Okay. Simison: -- head nods on that. So, any questions from Council? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Does this represent the totality of the project cost or what other costs would be left once this bid is awarded? McVey: Good question. So, there are a couple of ancillary costs. So, 50 percent of the construction cost in the contract we did agree to a cap of five percent of change orders. And, then, we did agree to some project construction manager costs and some soft costs. So, we have a couple hundred thousand dollars more than just the bid costs, but those have all been accounted for. Strader: Thank you. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Laurelei, can you — you might just be reminding me of what I have already heard you say, so I apologize. As we move forward and if there are some big cost overruns as the project moves ahead, what obligation do we have as a City Council? Would you be coming back with budget amendments? Does it have to fit within what they are scoping out here for us? Just kind of walk me through that, because I understand an environment where bidding and inflation and massive construction driving costs here in the Treasure Valley. I can understand why some of the bids would come back where they are. Just want to make sure as we move ahead if things are much higher than anticipated what protections do we have in the contract or the agreement that we have right now? Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 5 of 20 McVey: It protects us. Anything over that five percent cap is the sole responsibility of the contractor. So, Toll Brothers. So, we would not be liable for anything above and beyond. I think that equates to a little over 362,000 dollars. So, any unforeseen circumstance -- if that occurred and it was something well above that I think Toll Brothers would have to come back to you and ask for you to do an amendment to the contract, but we would not be obligated to pay them more than that five percent cap. Simison: Council, any additional questions or comments? Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: If there are no other comments I would like to make a motion to approve the Toll Brothers bid results and proceed with the partnership agreement dated December 2nd, 2025. Overton: Second. Simison: I have motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Council Woman Strader. Strader: Sure. I just want to explain I was not in support of this process just philosophically, because I don't believe that development should be leading our infrastructure build. I believe that we should be leading it and, then, development should follow in a more orderly way, but I respect that this is the direction that the Council is going in and so I will vote in support of this because of that collective action that we have taken. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Can I just make a comment? I think we kind of dug into this quite a bit through the budget setting process and some of the follow-up conversations and we feel like we have -- we explored the -- you know, is the city protected, the private developer is -- seems fully aware of the risk they are on when it comes to this. So, yeah, I think -- I just kind of want to remind ourselves that we kind of vetted this out. I feel like we are still on safe ground and I think this is a — a good thing for the city, so I will be supporting it. Simison: Anything further? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the item is agreed to. Thank you very much. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. 17. Downtown Overlay District and Design Guidelines Discussion Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 6 of 20 Simison: Okay. With that we will move on to Item 17, which is Downtown Overlay District and Design Guidelines discussion. Turn this over to Mr. McClure. McClure: Mayor and City Council, as was just said, we are here to talk about design standards and specifically an overlay approach to those downtown. Staff are here tonight to follow up -- or this afternoon to follow up on discussion between MDC and City Council regarding design standards. As a reminder one of the challenges is that we have boundaries that -- boundaries and designations that are often inconsistent. The challenge is that we end up with different design standards for adjacent properties, sometimes even with a similar use. Existing tools can work, but are case by case and are more subjective, relying on you or MDC for participation. The overlay approach is intended to help with that. Our consistency check for standards that are based on geography and not to zoning, properties retain underlying zoning or entitlements with an overlay. Overlay design such as frontage requirements across underlying zoning. Overlays may help to provide more consistency in development review across properties regardless of base zoning and overlays do not delay or create additional time in the development review process, at least themselves and sort of the disclaimer asterisk there is that if we make design review -- if we make use of the design review committee more often, which is some of the requests, that may increase when -- when applicants don't follow the standards. The alternative process would be a committee rather than staff. The approach for this work is contemplated as three phases. Tool. Identify the geography and develop the standards. The idea here is to start making progress without pre-committing to design outcomes. Start high and work into detail. This preserves Council and allow some flexibility. Not starting with the most complex work first and not making decisions -- and not making any one decision later unwieldy. Some phases can occur simultaneously. In fact, most of these would need to start in some fashion immediately just to get this done in a reasonable time frame. Creating the tool is an amendment to the UDC. This would be to establish and authorize overlay districts. Mechanically the primary purpose is to establish a hierarchy for administrative processes. What does the overlay fit into? Where does the overlay fit into the context of other decision points, administration and hearing decision processes, for example. An overlay, just like a base zone, is usable anywhere in the city, but the purpose is to put sideboards on the intent generally to downtown. What's left after -- after the overlay district tool is created defining the area. The tool doesn't do anything without understanding where the -- where this would apply and, then, of course, equally important would be community standards. The geography phase and concept is simple. Primary effort is just to codify the area and, then, show it on the map, into terms, however, with the boundary drawing it is more complex. We have to be respectful towards the comp plan, be aware of patchwork zoning related to what MDC is proposing and find common ground in these elements. This step is more specific. Stakeholder engagement is contemplated as we are actively -- and we would be inactive -- it would be actively in a listening phase before making your recommendation to City Council. It will take time to work through and I don't think it will be easy. Some consultant outreach may be -- some consultant support may be helpful for -- for outreach. Development of standards comes after this phase. Phase two is adopted before phase three and we don't decide -- and we need to decide -- and we don't need to decide now, but clear Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 7 of 20 process is needed on how redevelopment occurs in the interim. Luckily that's just modifying the Architectural Standards Manual to say business as usual. But we would need to be clear. And we don't have to do phase two and three at different times. It's just -- they are sort of helpful buckets to think about this then. Phase three is more involvement by more departments, more commissions, more agencies. Staff will likely need consultant support for both outreach and technical review. There is budget and paperwork there. We would draft standards for the public to respond to, for the committee to respond to. Stakeholders would -- stakeholders would include residents, businesses and some overview with designers, developers and info experts. Most of this work, at least as currently envisioned, would be complementary to the Architectural Standards Manual, with either modifications or new sections added. It's very possible that we would identify other areas of city code that would also need to be touched up through this work. An example would be Title 8, so not the UDC. There is a section in there on the city core. We have a license agreement with ACHD for an area downtown, that, for example, may need to be modified. It depends on the boundaries. And, if not, previously, we would need to put a finer detail how the design review works. mentioned this at the beginning, but, you know, if staff says no, because you don't meet those standards and you fall outside of those -- those sideboards that these new standards set, what does that look like for -- for appealing. So, does it go to design review committee? If design review committee says no, who does that go to? Other things have to be thought through. Here is a simple timeline that's proposed. This looks linear, but not necessarily. Again, we would contemplate doing most of these at the same time, they just would fall on different timelines to be completed. We would like to have one overlay tool scheduled by the summer. We would like to have one -- some understanding of the geography by the end of the year and, finally, to have the completed bulk of the standards by next year -- summer -- summer next year. As an aside, I do want to stress that this process is not going to be easy. Downtown design review is complex anywhere. It often doesn't work. People don't finish it. People have strong feelings and it is also easy to overcorrect. It's going to take hard work. It's going to require difficult decisions and accountability. To cross the finish line is important. This slide is a summary of the phased approach from the lens of Council decision making. Each phase would require Council approval. Some of that may just be soft approvals with final approval -- an ordinance, for example, later. But the goal is to keep any one decision from getting too large at the end. Additional conversations may also be beneficial or as Council desires and no functional process changes would occur without Council decision. Today we are asking Council to confirm the general approach here. I am also happy to take any questions or pivot as directed. Simison: Thank you, Brian. Council, questions? Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: First let me just say, Brian and Caleb, just really appreciate your work on this. Been with you in a few meetings and just kind of listen to you think through it and talk Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 8 of 20 through it and every time we kind of revisit this I can see a lot of work's been done in the interim. So, I really appreciate that. Thought the memo was really well articulated. I thought -- I had a lot of thoughts that were just sort of flowing in -- random in my mind and you kind of helped crystallize it with the memo. So, I do appreciate that. A couple of questions. Can you walk me through the process of what it would look like for the code changes, sort of the step one, and my question is based in my recollection of thinking of the Ten Mile overlay. I'm trying to understand your -- guessing it's quite a bit of work to sort of update the UDC to kind of move in this direction. I would -- I was working under the assumption that we could already do these kinds of overlays. But just help me understand that a little bit better. I just want to kind of track along with that. I kind of was under the assumption we could already do these overlays fairly easily, but maybe that's not the case. So, could you just speak to that for a minute? McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Taylor, yeah. So, our current code -- it doesn't say we can do overlays. It's just set up to implement it pretty easily. It is definitely the easiest step to make any of this happen. So, I wouldn't say it's complex. It requires a lot of work. I have already talked to legal about some of this -- some ideas. Like I said, think we could start moving it forward really quickly. To your question on Ten Mile -- and I'm not sure which overlay you mean. So, there is a Ten Mile Specific Area Plan. So, that one struggles, because it was a vision -- vision document at the comp plan level. It didn't have any codified rules and a lot of it was, frankly, ahead of its time. This would be using our Architectural Standards Manual that we have now through -- through what code already does, which is to establish administrative design review process and we would be sticking that onto that. So, where the Ten Mile plan is sort of lofty vision, this would just be -- this is actually what the book says and we follow that. Taylor: Okay. Mr. Mayor, follow up? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: That's a great distinction. I appreciate that, because I was -- really I'm envisioning when we get to the end of this process what we have decided on will be a lot more binding and what we do and I do remember a discussion maybe a year and a half ago about the Ten Mile Area Specific Plan and I remember in my mind thinking there is nothing binding here. Like we can make some adjustments without really going against something that's written that we have agreed we want to kind of follow. So, that -- I appreciate that distinction. That -- that helps me understand that. Step two. We have talked about what is downtown and sort of the geography around it and what do we want to include in the overlay. But, then, we also talked about sub areas within that. Can you -- and, again, I could maybe just be forgetting previous things I have said or thought about that. Can you walk me through what -- as you have explored that what does that look like? Because I was sort of musing here is the overlay area, but you are -- in the memo at least it talks about these sub areas to identify. Can you just kind of give me a little -- touch a little bit more on what that might look like? Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 9 of 20 McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Taylor, there is a lot of different boundaries that don't align very well that we currently have. So, we have the city core, for example, mentioned this in Title 8. We have the future land use by designation for Old Town. We have zoning designations which are Swiss cheese. We have the Urban Renewal District boundaries and, then, we have MDC's new Destination Downtown Plan 2.0, which has some of its own boundaries. They don't -- they don't jive very well all those things together and so we have to sort of understand what's the overall area where we want to address and, then, that would be the overlay and, then, the standards themselves could break into -- into greater distinction. For example, we have residential areas on the west and east. MDC's plan calls for some focus on the railroad corridor, the traditional city core where we are here at now, also known as the city core. So, those standards could dive into greater detail. I don't have a preconceived notion for what that looks like right now. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it. Taylor: Okay. Hood: Just maybe add a little bit more color to that. I think the idea, then, is that there would be different standards in those areas; right? So, it's all within the overlay district, but what applies and the standards we are looking for are going to vary geographically within the overlay district. Taylor: Okay. Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: And that -- I appreciate that, because that's kind of what I was thinking was the unique characteristics within a broader overlay may not -- the standards we decide on may not lend themselves well along the rail corridor versus, you know, closer to Fairview or wherever that might be. So, okay, that answered my question. Thank you. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Brian, Caleb, I kind of want to stick with kind of the theme that Council Member Taylor first introduced and as I was going through this I was thinking a lot about the Ten Mile Specific Area Plan and Council Member Taylor flagged about a year and change Council had some different interpretations or different direction about where we should head the Ten Mile specific area plan, as opposed to what had been conceived when the plan was put together and so that's kind of what's framing some of my questions, which is does it make sense as we are kind of flushing overlay area that it comes with either a reauthorization date or a sunset, thinking, okay, we think we know what's best today. Is that going to be the same answer 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 years now? Maybe. Maybe not. How do -- I think we have less flexibility in kind of this overlay that maybe we have or had with the Ten Mile specific area plan. I'm just trying to get a good sense about will there be a provision that will provide Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 10 of 20 flexibility if the Council's direction changes and how do we formalize that, so that is something that we either anticipate, again, either we are going to reauthorize it every 15 years or every ten years or, hey, this is going to run for a predetermined amount of time and, then, sunsets unless there is an action taken by the Council? McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman, part of that question would probably have to be for Mr. Nary. This is a type of zoning. I don't know if you can sort of sunset a zoning -- the overlay portion on properties. In terms of whether Council has different feelings or things don't work out, you know, nothing's perfect and we might want to change. The standards themselves are fairly easy to change. So, we could -- we could have that process whenever we wanted. The -- the boundaries could be refined. The overlay itself could be -- it would be a zoning map amendment, but the zone -- the overlay itself could be amended. But, again, I don't know whether you can just sunset it or not. But the standards themselves -- like I imagine what -- we haven't changed the ASM for 15 years. So, it's actually worked -- okay. Or ten years? Twelve years? We haven't changed it for a long time. So, it's worked okay. I don't imagine this is going to work like that, because downtown is such a -- it's special. It's -- there is so much diversity there. But I don't think it's going to be difficult to modify the standards in the areas as we see -- as you fit? Nary: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, so it's not very clear in the Idaho Code. There is no -- there is no directive on whether you could have a sunset clause or not. But I guess if trying to align it with zoning code, courts would not -- would not be favorable to have a zoning code that dissolved or changed that way. So, because you -- it is similar to a zoning code -- I think Brian said -- I mean you -- obviously, you are always able to change it and you -- there is a process in which to change it, but to have some sort of sunset in there I don't know that would be supportable. So, I wouldn't recommend that. But I think you have -- I think there is certainly enough eyes on it and fluidity that you have concerns or issues come before you over time as it develops that people will bring that to your attention that you can revisit. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Call for either Caleb, Brian or Bill. Would we review this overlay district holistically as part of a conference and plan update? McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman, one of the reasons for the overlay approach is because time is sensitive and we didn't want to wait going through a whole comp plan overview and so the overlay would allow us to be responsive to the current future land use boundaries with some -- fade that a little bit around the edges, you know, adapt it to the existing environment a bit. We are not contemplating a massive comp plan update right now. We could -- or we could follow up later on with one. But right now we are planning on moving forward with this and not doing comp plan until some refresh. Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 11 of 20 Cavener: Mr. Mayor, if I can clarify. Simison: Councilman Taylor. Cavener: Brian, totally tracking with you. I guess I'm looking into the future. So, 15 years from now the City of Meridian is embarking on a comprehensive plan update citywide. Would this overlay district be incorporated as to part of that planning process? I guess what I'm trying to find is is there a formal or informal pit stop along the way where Council can evaluate this -- not in terms of there is an application that is now in front of us, we want to change the standards, but looking at it more objectively, like, okay, we have noticed that maybe this isn't working and we want to make that change and how do we do that in a manner that is consistent with all of our other planning, as opposed to reacting a requests that's in front of us? Hood: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, a good question. I haven't really thought about this, so we will just have a little bit of a conversation here. I think it's something we can do similar, you know, some -- similar to I get a check in -- maybe not a sunset, but something where -- where we are looking at this and bringing it to our community, is this working, get some feedback. Not to just regurgitate what Mr. Nary said, but I think, you know, we tried a little bit and some things maybe won't work even initially and we have got to amend it. I don't think this is something that's just not -- it's going to be forgotten about and we just get so used to using it we aren't saying, hey, how can we tweak this and make it even better? Again, haven't fully thought through that. I think the comp plan as you bring up is a good opportunity to take that out, you know, to the public and say, hey, we have this, if you are familiar with it. How do you think it's working? What can we do to improve it? Those side things. And I think there will be checkpoints along the way over time over the years. You know, we can even set something up where it's a -- you know, once every couple of years come in and check in with Council. Hey, how do you feel it's working? Are you getting feedback? You see do we need to do an amendment or not? I mean that's what we do with the UDC focus group; right? The text changes. Well, we are talking about code of the city. So, I could see it working its way through that UDC focus group, too, and if there is standards that need to be reevaluated and discovered further -- you know, I don't know what that cadence necessarily is, but I certainly envision ways to check in and make sure it's working or not and change it if not. Nary: Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, I mean historically whenever we have had any, you know, larger scale look at the -- a comp plan, we have always -- especially on the full scale we have looked at all of the areas around town -- all the areas that are either other urban renewal districts that we have created, other types of -- or other types of focus areas that we have created. So, I wouldn't imagine you wouldn't be looking at that if you were going to do some larger look at the comp plan in general. You are going to identify what's existing out there anyway. That's a normal beginning process of it as a -- sort of a check in on what's already out there. So, I wouldn't think this would be any different. Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 12 of 20 Hood: Mr. Mayor, if I -- if I may, just one more thing to add to that. I guess I wouldn't even be comfortable bringing this to you now if I didn't think we had enough already within our Comprehensive Plan that supported an effort like this. I think we already have things that -- even in the strategic plan we have some things that talk about making our downtown a destination and I think this effort furthers some of those things that we have done as community outreach and having some of those documents, even though, you know, Destination Downtown 2.0 isn't necessarily the city's, there has been some outreach and, again, our current Comprehensive Plan and some of those things for our downtown I think support what we are talking about this afternoon. But, again, not that we can't keep talking about that, but I think there is enough there where we are focusing efforts downtown is a common thread in our Comprehensive Plan today. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thank you. Yeah, one fear I have that really frustrated me with the Ten Mile Specific Area Plan is like I hate for us to put resources and effort into a plan and, then, get, you know, distance from that plan and, then, the plan is not useful anymore or we are not adhering to it and it just kind of gets phased out informally. Like I think that's a waste. So, I just want to chime in. I think this point about some mechanism of re- reviewing it and discussing it I think is important. I would be very comfortable if we are all just committed to like the next time we update the Comprehensive Plan is it X date and at that time we will look at it. That -- that's okay with me. I just want to understand what the cadence will be for kind of making sure that city councils continue to buy into it. So, I think that's important consideration. I do have a couple questions. What teeth does an overlay have relative to zoning is a question that I have. And, then, do we really need consultant support for this? I want to understand that better. I think we don't have to understand that today, but I think we need to understand that just relative to your team's workload, is that really necessary? So, those are kind of my first two questions. Hood: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Strader, I think maybe working backwards a little bit in that -- yeah, a little bit TBD on consultant help. I think we -- I think we need some. Don't know exactly until we kind of get into it a little bit and I think there is something to be said for maybe helping us, too, with the outreach piece of this and depending on how big we go with that, having a -- a firm that can kind of help us, again, with the messaging, knocking on doors potentially, website, what -- kind of those types of things, kind of depending on what we are doing. So, we haven't had all those conversations with the Mayor's office potentially to how are we going to organize things or advertise and open houses and those types of activities. So, it is kind of a TBD. We do have in the CFP kind of a placeholder right now for the FY-27 budget to use some of that for both a comp plan update, as well as some consultant help for this particular project. But right now it's just sort of a wag. We don't know, because we have scope of necessarily everything that we would need a consultant to do. We do think we have some in-house resources, but Brian and I have both been with this organization for quite some time and Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 13 of 20 we have not done this. So, we kind of don't know what we don't know. But as we get putting it together a little bit more I think that is something that, you know, we have identified as getting some third party help. So, it isn't -- and so it isn't just -- and it's not just for optics, but -- so, it isn't just the city, you know, pitching this. There is someone that is sort of a -- they are a hired gun neutral third party, though, that has some backing, they have done this, they can explain and -- and kind of come with that -- don't want to say reputation, but just, you know, some -- you know, they have done it before and can -- and can explain and even help staff through the process developing some of this. I do want to go, then, to your first -- the first part of that question. This is totally different than the Ten Mile and, again, that's sort of -- phase one the enabling. These are standards. There isn't -- the gray area won't really be there. There will be some things, again, depending, you know, potentially through a design review committee and reviewing some of those elements of a site plan, but it is a lot different. Like Brian said, the Ten Mile Plan was a visionary document. Didn't have this enabling piece of it; right? It was more the vision. We hope you will do these types of things. This is what we are trying to get as development occurs. What we didn't do with the Ten Mile is something like this that says, okay, here is what your roads need to look like, here is what the streetlight needs to look like, here is the standards for them. It was more hopeful; right? And we didn't have -- this would be in the code and these would be shalls and not shoulds or mays. So, that really is the main difference. Again -- and we haven't developed the standards yet, so we aren't quite sure what the shalls are going to be even just yet, but that's the idea. Because it is consistent throughout whatever geographical area we define, these are those elements where we want to see that consistency. So, hopefully that helps. But I think that is a really good important distinction to make between the Ten Mile Specific Area Plan, which was a planning document, and this, which will be codified in ordinance and the law. McClure: Mr. Mayor? Just to add that -- and Council Woman Strader. A lot of the standards we have to some degree now -- a lot of what MDC has proposed in my opinion is pretty close to some standards we have for -- for any given zoning designation. Part of the problem is you can have very different standards applied to properties right next to each other currently and there is no cohesive development patterns for that, because one is residential, one is commercial, one is mixed use. They have different standards based off different zones. Those are all very achievable. Staff do those every day through the Administrative Design Review. There is some shortcomings to that, but it's -- they are standards and they happen all the time without any issue. I think part of this process is intended to get some cohesive patterns happening with those standards now. So, they are happening for downtown, not based off of the zoning, but based off this overlay. So, I don't -- I don't think this is anything if it helps others -- I don't think this is anything like the Ten Mile Plan, because there is -- these are -- these are very achievable standards. We are not seeking to up end -- up end the apple cart here, it's -- I think it's very achievable. And, then, maybe just to also help with what Caleb said. Part of what I'm receiving information is, you know, we are not in a rush, don't get this done, but we also are running out of time, like years have gone by. We don't want to see problems of the past happen again. You know, consultant support is helpful when we want to be more responsive to things and we Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 14 of 20 have other projects and priorities. So, you know, if everything else is dumped off of our list it's easier to prioritize and get something done. But not that it isn't nice to have someone else's credentials lend -- lend support to an effort. But there is just other things going on. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. No. I appreciate that. I think just generally I'm supportive of this approach. Like I -- I think you have a phased approach. I think it makes since, like I'm supportive of the concept of creating an overlay, but where I'm I guess a little bit -- just wanting to make sure that whatever we set up is actually something that could be leveraged citywide, because in our strategic plan that we are considering, right, but we haven't finalized, we are thinking about some citywide esthetics and ideas and I think that this could be a really logical kind of a pilot approach of setting up kind of a design review committee, if that's where it goes, or other mechanisms that could be leveraged citywide. So, I actually think this could be really good strategic work. I just want to make sure what we are doing is sustainable and people into it. It sounds like because it's part of the code we wouldn't run into necessarily the same challenges that we ran into with the Ten Mile Plan, because, yeah, I agree that was a big shortcoming with that approach that we just saw in reading when it got kind of outdated. On the consultant piece of it, I mean, obviously, just encourage you to think about what the scope is that your team can support internally and what you truly need a consultant for. You know, certainly multi-family activity is lower. I think commercial activity is high. We still see a lot of single family residential. I know there have been, you know, staffing changes and stuff. There is a lot going on with your team. So, I think just that through, you know, with -- with Dave and everybody, just what's the capacity? How do we handle it? What do we exactly need a consultant for and what do we not need one for I think is important. So, I'm holistically supportive of this approach knowing that we would be, you know, checking in again. I think there are some things that need to be ironed out, but I think overall it's a good phased approach. Hood: Mr. Mayor? Can I respond to the consultant again? Again, we don't have this totally scoped out of what we may or may not need consultant help for and some of that is, like I said before, TBD. We are hoping for a lot of volunteers, but if we don't we may have to hire an architect to get on the team. So, that is sort of what the hope is and that's, for a lot of these tasks within the project, hopeful that we can work on things. But if, again, this needs to be a grandiose task all of a sudden, we may need to reach out and say we just can't -- we could do it, but it might take longer. So, do we want to hire someone to help us or can you wait and we will do it in twice the amount of time? So, I think there is some future decision points to come. We are trying to be thoughtful about this and just wanted to put that out there that, you know, likely at some point for some thing or two in this project we will probably need some help. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 15 of 20 Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Brian, Caleb, my fellow Council Members have raised some excellent points. I kind of want to take it back a little bit, because I believe what we are here for tonight is to embrace the concept of overlay districts and give you a go ahead or a not go ahead to get a modified UDC, bring that back in front of us to approve overlay districts citywide, so that you can, then, begin to build the overlay district for downtown and start that. I think we are going to have a lot of questions on what that overlay district downtown is going to look like. I think I do like the concept. I'm going to have a lot of questions, but I don't have questions tonight. I think they are a little premature. I think -- I agree with Council Woman Strader, I agree with a concept of the overlay districts and the approval of them citywide, but they only get established individually. I don't think we are here tonight to even tell us what the parameters would be of the size and shape of a downtown overlay district compared to what everything else is with zoning districts and MDC. I think a lot of that's a little premature and we will get there. But if I'm not mistaken -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- what you really need tonight is just Council approval to move forward with establishing an overlay district in our code, so you can begin to build the first one for a downtown; is that correct? Hood: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Overton, I think that was a really good summary and maybe just a finer point on that and it came up even in the last question. You know, we don't have -- right now we don't have any over -- other overlay districts envisioned. This is for the downtown. So, it's not -- you know, it could be south Meridian. There is a design esthetic. We would have it at our disposal. It would be a tool that we can use citywide, but this isn't something where we are planning on having 20 overlay districts citywide. So, I just want to make that clarification. I think that is -- we want some general -- are we -- are we heading in the right direction? Because, if not, stop us now before we spin our wheels. This is kind of where we are going. We will check back in in a little bit with that enabling ordinance. It says, hey, City of Meridian can do overlay districts now. We won't have any at that point in time, but it just says, hey, we are moving towards this and, then, you just kind of saw that calendar a year or so later is when we really anticipate having something to say. Yeah, here is that geographical area where our first overlay district -- and maybe our one and only, who knows what an overlay district is and the way that that's going to operate. So, thank you for summarizing and bringing us back to tonight. Overton: Mr. Mayor, quick follow up. Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I just wanted to then say that I am in support of this moving forward. I think that you have got a Council that's very vested in what this is going to look like and we are going to continue to barrage you with questions as this is designed, because we have never had anything like it before, but I will certainly support moving forward with the change to UDC and developing the code for having overlay districts citywide and, then, letting you bring back forward an overlay district for our downtown area. Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 16 of 20 Simison: So, Council, I'm going to speak up as well, just because -- I'm not going to share anything I haven't already shared with the team, so it doesn't matter. I have struggled with this approach that they are offering, because I do want to get on to the downtown conversation. You know, that's where I think that the -- this really really lies is I hate to put a lot of work into saying here is -- here is our process, here is what we are going to do, here is what it's going to be if we can't come up with something that works in our downtown, which is what we are really trying to be focused on and be timely to that, you know. So, I share -- I share with the team my -- my desire would have been to start working on what that downtown would look like first and foremost and if we -- if we like the outcome that we come to, then, we come back and we put it -- create the overlay and put things into place. We can tell -- because we -- I think that we could come up with something over the next one, three, five, six months and how we are going to operate these in the future, but it's really -- I know that there is a timing issue to some in our downtown that -- that we don't want to lose the investment in that conversation now maybe before we have some projects that's come in the next one, three, six, nine months. But that's -- that's where I have been trying to like look at this in a more timely fashion to get something, because even if they are adopted, but we say here is what we think we want, I think the development community will take that information back. But if we don't get around this to really talking about the standards for the next year, we may miss the boat on some of these items. So, I know that there is a process that you would normally go establish them, set the boundaries, design them. I want the team to get together with our downtown partners sooner rather than later to start actually working on what those are, because if we can't come to an agreement and even in that concept, what's the point of doing all the overlays? And I don't know what that's going to mean. I have no idea what we are -- what the outcomes are going to be through this process. What does an overlay look and feel like? It's just taking our current things and put them in code -- or put it into the overlay? But -- yeah. And I'm getting head shakes. So, I have struggled with this since this was brought in and even in the process and the concept of where we go, how much do we put into the effort, rather than putting the effort into the -- what the actual standards would be and, then, come back and focus on how we apply them and what they look like long term. So, just sharing that feedback from myself on, you know, I want to keep the conversation going with our urban renewal the district to get those standards as quickly as possible. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Question. Is there any reason why both can't be tracking parallel? So, we could -- if we like the framework, but to your point we want to signal sooner than later what we want to see, is there anything in giving staff the okay -- like let's pursue -- or pursue this, but yet also to your point being sensitive to some timeliness of what we want downtown. Does one have to come before the other or do you think that they can be tracking parallel together? And also let me add to this, what do you envision when you -- when you talk about what we want to see downtown, can you put a finer point on Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 17 of 20 like -- I mean you, obviously, got a big project across the way, but is -- beyond that are you -- is there anything specific you are thinking of -- Simison: The -- the first answer is I talked to -- I think that they think that they can maybe do some of it doing it in conjunction. I mean if -- but I don't know and that's when it gets down to -- if you are talking about workload and if we want them to start doing the work themselves are they focusing on one or the other and how does that leave them? I will let them answer that -- that question on that. On the second one it's just generally. I mean we -- we know of the one across the street where this was -- frankly, I'm going to say that was the one -- the original design was part of the reason why this even came up was concerns over that. I'm not going to say that's what the design is going to be, but we have had other parcels out. The -- the old civic block project was one. Don't know when those are going to come back, but I just want to make sure that we are not missing out on some other development opportunities should they happen. But nothing specific that I can point to. Mr. Hood. Hood: Yeah. If I can just maybe put a little bit of our thought process at least thus far. It is -- there is a lot of concurrency here and I know it's phase one, two and three. Phase one is fairly straightforward. We are already talking about phase two and, more conceptually, phase three and some of those standards. But, you know, Brian's already put together exhibits that have all those definitions of downtown. What we need is to figure out who gets to start to draw those lines and we can start there, but we need some help on who is actually helping us say this is where we are going to have these standards apply. You know, what does that process even look like? How do we -- who do we outreach to and how and how often? What are those checkpoints? And I -- you know, so that is some of where we are at is we are starting to sort of tee it up, but it takes a little bit longer than changing the UDC; right? That is a process. So, there is a lot of things -- phase one, two and three are moving concurrently, but it is almost like we can get to the finish line of phase one before we get to the finish line of phase two and you sort of need to have where that finish line of phase two is before you can really get to phase three, because if you are designing your standards for residential, but, then, your district doesn't have any residential you just wasted a bunch of time come standards for residential. So, it is a little chicken and egg to some degree there, too. But that really, honestly, that's some of what we need is some more -- I think some of the next steps is just direction on how your comfort level is with the outreach and the inputs and the stakeholders and kind of getting some of these decision points back to the dais, so you can -- you know, yep, we are good with that. Keep moving. Yep, this general vicinity. Do we want to go all the way to the freeway north of Fairview? I don't think so, but I don't know that for sure. Are we talking more of the core? So, again, those are kind of where we are at with some of these. Phase two is underway. It's just not as far along as phase one. Taylor: Mr. Mayor, a quick follow up. Simison: Councilman Taylor. Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 18 of 20 Taylor: Yeah. In some way I'm kind of almost envisioning as we are doing this we are also achieving your goal of sending the -- indicating what we want to see now. I could be wrong, but as we are identifying the geography of the boundaries, talking about some of the design centers, those are happening -- we are not going to wait until next summer to actually start the conversation. Those are going to be happening now and going forward. So, I think it's a fair point we should keep in consideration and I would also add the point we talk about impact downtown, right, with the expiration of the downtown urban renewal district and, then, what comes next. You know, we as a Council need to be prepared to think through that process and how we envision that going and that's going to definitely also parlay into this conversation with the overlay, with, you know, down -- Destination Downtown 2.0. All these things are -- they are just all kind of intertwined in some ways. So, yeah, I think -- as I see it I think these things can go together. They serve each other in a similar purpose, but whether or not we need to be more aggressive in the near term of indicating projects we want to see to kind of facilitate those moving along and not waiting, for a year for this to be finalized before anything happens, I think it's a valid point. So, I'm open to kind of how that might look. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor and Council, I think it's critical that what is already in motion for the most part can continue on as this project is being worked on, because we have got some really great momentum starting in downtown and I think the last thing we want to do is put a weight or a slow down on any of that. I think that things can be happening concurrent and we have got a timeframe on certain things as well. So, I think it's really important that we keep as good a pulse on all lanes as they are all happening together. But definitely don't want to -- for the most part can -- even consider slowing anything down at this point. Simison: All right. So things will come back next week and we will be good to adopt it. No? No? Okay. I guess to help move -- maybe to move on to step two or -- I guess I view this as looking at our core in our downtown as our primary purpose. Where are going to start? And I guess from my perspective I look towards you as the professionals to say I would hope that you could draw a boundary that you think would be appropriate boundary for us to start to evaluate that would -- I mean I can in my head. I assume you can as well with maybe a few caveats to go deeper to set that first level conversation. There may be second level, there may be third level, there may be fourth level over time, but I just want to make sure we look at this very manageable to get a win, to get an outcome, to get a success as quickly as we can and maybe we learn from it. I don't want to shortchange what we are doing, but I don't want to get stalled because we can't figure out where to draw a line and to have the conversation. You know, is it Franklin or is it the railroad tracks? Is it Meridian or 3rd? Does it go beyond that? How far north does it go? That's your heart. That's your core. That's your center to have this base level first conversation. I don't think it goes beyond -- much beyond that, unless you Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 19 of 20 say, well, there is too many factors and we need to move the line, because these -- these buildings don't really -- or this area won't develop that way. That's just my two cents to help us push this quickly, so we can get to run the parallel and get into that actual let's focus on something and show how this can work. That's the end of the day. It's great to do an overlay over the city or say we can do them all over the city, but if we can't get to an outcome quickly and show that it works, I don't know the -- we are going to want to go down this process if it's so cumbersome that we can't move something forward. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. I agree with that. I think we could get bogged down really easily and I, honestly, would recommend something like, hey here is option one, option two, option three of like the maps that you think makes sense and just let the Council vote on -- on that. That's what I would suggest. Like I wouldn't like spin your wheels trying to like fine tune with a lot of specificity exactly what -- you know, you are going to have an idea and I think just give us three options and have us vote on it would be my suggestion. We can always tweak it. But like -- I wouldn't get bogged down in that piece of it. I think the design piece is like the meaty piece that will be really tough. I think we focus more there. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Yeah. I agree with that and I also, you know, the Destination Downtown draft has some -- some suggestions for maps. I think that's a great place to start and we can adjust accordingly. But, you know, the question will be how big and expansive. Does it go to the freeway or not? Two or three options and we can discuss those in more detail and I think it makes a lot of sense to do that. Simison: Does that give you guys enough to move forward with establishing the ability to do overlays and come back with some maps and, then, we can move on after we define that to step three and, then, see what resources are needed? Okay. All right. Thank you. And with that we are at the end of our agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Move that we adjourn. Little Roberts: Second. Meridian City Council Work Session February 10,2026 Page 20 of 20 Simison: Motion and second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:23 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 2 / 24 26 MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK