HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-02-24 Regular Meridian City Council February 24, 2026.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday,
February 24, 2026, by Mayor Robert Simison.
Members Present: Robert Simison, Luke Cavener, Liz Strader, John Overton, Doug
Taylor, Anne Little Roberts and Brian Whitlock.
Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Sonya Allen, Nick Napoli, Mark Ford, Steve
Taulbee and Dean Willis.
ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE
X Liz Strader X Brian Whitlock
_X_Anne Little Roberts X John Overton
_X_ Doug Taylor _X_Luke Cavener
X Mayor Robert E. Simison
Simison: Council, the meeting will come to order. For the record it is February 24th,
2026, at 6:00 p.m. We will begin tonight's regular City Council meeting with roll call
attendance.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Simison: If you would all, please, rise and join us in the pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
COMMUNITY INVOCATION
Simison: Okay. Up next is our community invocation and tonight that will be delivered
by Jenifer Cavaness-Williams with the Baha'i Faith. If you would all, please, join us in
this community invocation or take this as a moment of silence and reflection.
Cavaness-Williams: Oh, God, we are weak, give us strength. We are poor, bestow
upon us thine unlimited treasures. We are sick, grant us thy divine healing. We are
powerless, give us thy heavenly power. Oh, Lord, make us useful in this world. Free us
from the condition of self and desire. Oh, Lord, make us firm in thy love and cause us to
be loving toward the whole of mankind. Confirm us in service to the world of humanity,
so that we may become the servants of thy servants, that we may love all thy creatures
and become compassionate to all thy people. Oh, Lord, thou art the Almighty, thou art
the merciful, thou art the forgiver, thou art the omnipotent.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RECOGNITION
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Simison: Thank you very much. Council, anything under announcements and
recognition -- recognition?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Real quick. It's been a busy week in Meridian and I just wanted to take a
quick moment to thank, recognize and appreciate the fine men and women of the
Meridian Police Department and our many partner agencies. I don't know about you,
Council, I -- I slept better last night knowing that our community is in a safer place and
it's due to exceptional police work and exceptional partnership agencies. So, on behalf
of myself and the Council I want to thank the Police Department for their great work this
last week.
ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Simison: Okay. Seeing nothing else we will move on to our public forum. Madam Clerk
-- oh, Mr. Overton.
Overton: Sorry. We should approve the agenda.
Simison: Yes, we should. Councilman Overton.
Overton: Mr. Mayor, there are no changes to tonight's agenda. I move that we approve
it as published.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Motion and second to adopt the agenda. All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is agreed to.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
PUBLIC FORUM
Simison: Next step is public forum. Madam Clerk, anyone signed up under public
forum?
Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No one has signed up.
PUBLIC HEARINGS [Action Item]
1. Public Hearing (continued from January 13, 2026) for Latitude Forty
Three Subdivision (H-2024-0059), by Rodney Evans + Partners, LLC.,
located at 675, 715 and 955 S. Wells St. Continued to April 7, 2026
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A. Request: Annexation of 17.27 acres of land with R-8 (13.78 acres),
R-15 (2.42 acres) and C-N (1.07 acres) zoning districts.
B. Request: Preliminary Plat to re-subdivide lots 7, 21 and 22, Magic
View Subdivision, Amended into 79 residential lots, 1 commercial
lot and 11 common/other lots on 15.97 acres of land in the R-8, R-
15 and C-N zoning districts.
Simison: Okay. Then with that we will go on to our work for this evening. First item up
is a public hearing continued from January 13th, 2026, for Latitude Forty Three, which is
H-2024-0059. We will continue this public hearing with comments from staff.
Allen: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. Since the last hearing revised
elevations were submitted for the first phase of the development, which is the portion
north of the Five Mile Creek. These were the elevations that were originally submitted
with the application and the elevations that the Commission recommended approval of
in their action. These are the proposed elevations that were submitted by the applicant.
Several -- ten to be exact -- letters of testimony have been received since the last
hearing for a total of 28 and those are included in the public record, as well as these
elevations. The applicant also submitted proposed concepts for the future east-west
collector street where it crosses this site that's been the topic of discussion with this
application. And Caleb Hood is present to speak more to that here tonight if you have
questions. That's all for staff. Thank you.
Simison: Okay. Council, any questions for staff for follow up?
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Could you go through the elevations again? I just wanted a chance to look at
that.
Allen: Yeah. Again, these were the ones that were approved by the Commission.
Strader: Okay.
Allen: And these are the proposed elevations.
Strader: Thanks.
Simison: Council, any additional questions for staff?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
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Cavener: Sonya, apologies if I have -- if I have missed this. I know this is kind of an
older staff where there is a long application.
Allen: Uh-huh.
Cavener: I didn't see anything anywhere about student generation, where students are
set to go if this were to be approved. I know we didn't get a letter from West Ada, but
know sometimes in our staff reports we include that information. I just need to know if
have missed it or if we have that information.
Allen: If you want to give me a moment I will take a look at that. I don't remember off
the top of my head. It's been a while.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: What I might suggest -- and I think my point was -- I know we have got a lot
of public testimony tonight. That would be something that I would like to get some
clarification on maybe when we get towards the end of public testimony.
Simison: Okay. All right. Any additional questions for staff at this time? Okay. Would
the applicant like to come forward.
Semple: Good evening, Council. Ben Semple with Rodney Evans and Partners. 1450
West Bannock Street, Boise, Idaho. 83702. We are back. First I want to thank staff, as
well as the -- the city in general. The consultant report that we received regarding the --
you know, we are here primarily to discuss about an east-west collector road that was
kind of the topic of discussion. They really necessitated that deferral about ten months
ago or so. I did provide a presentation. I'm not sure if you guys can pull that up.
Maybe you have got it? I have a thumb drive also if that is easier. While Sonya is
pulling that up, just to touch real quickly on this so to refresh everyone's memories. It's
about 17.27 acres, located between Magic View and the freeway or Wells Circle and --
on the west side of Wells Street, just west of Eagle Road and the request is to annex
the 17.27 acres and assign zoning designations of R-8, R-15 and C-N zoning to the
subject parcels. That consists of about 13.78 acres of R-8 zoning, 2.42 acres of R-15
zoning and 1.07 acres of C-N zoning. The -- the -- the request is also for a subdivision.
So, real quickly here -- here is the -- my presentation is open. Just the project site here.
Just to get everybody oriented, Five Mile Creek kind of bisects the project. Phase one
that you will hear us talk about is north of Five Mile Creek. Phase two is south of Five
Mile Creek. The current zoning is RUT in Ada county. We are requesting that the
annexation complies with the future land use of medium density residential, as well as
the mixed-use neighborhood designation on the southern portion. The preliminary plat
that we presented earlier -- or I guess towards the middle of last year has not been
changed at this point. We still have 59 single family lots in the first phase. We have 20
single family lots in the second phase and the one -- approximately one acre
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commercial site that would follow along Wells Circle. A phasing plan that we have here.
And, then, this is the preliminary plat. I'm going to take a minute to talk about this a little
bit more. Our open space of 2.96 acres -- that 2.28 acres is required, 15 percent of the
overall development. We have 2.47 acres of qualified open space, which calculates out
to 16.3 percent of the site of qualified amenities required for this development would be
three points based on the one point per five acres of gross development area. We have
12 amenity points proposed. That consists of a picnic area, a tot lot playground, two
sports courts and multi-use pathway. The amenities in phase one constitute four points.
That's a picnic area, the tot lot playground, multi -- multi-use pathway and, then, the
open space. The amenities for phase two would consist of some additional open space
and the two sport courts. So, this gets us kind of the timing of these applications. So,
we had submitted these applications kind of late 2024 and we are here middle of 2025
with a unanimous recommendation for approval from Planning and Zoning and at that
point in time it was brought to our attention that there was some inconsistencies with
long-term east-west collector location to get from Eagle Road over to Locust Grove.
There is -- I know there is some other extents of that, but that's primarily what's
impacting this project. At the time we requested to defer, so that that -- the consultant
that was hired by the City of Meridian could do their study and determine what the best
locations for an east-west collector were. They presented those alternatives to the
Council. I'm going to go ahead and skip to that real quickly. So, this was a month long
study. January 27th this Council reviewed those alternatives and selected either D or E
as the preferred locations of that east-west collector. This is concept D. It's a little
difficult to see here. If you can see my cursor here, D runs along Freeway Drive, kind of
hooks north where Wells Street currently is and, then, followed Wells Circle and, then,
led west through some county property. Concept E was very similar, other than it --
when it hit the western boundary where the county property is it -- it jogged south. This
would be concept D. As overlaid you can see on the right side of this image is where
concept D would follow Magic View Circle, kind of move north a little bit and, then,
continue west towards the bottom of the screen here. You can see where concept E
similarly follows Magic View and, then, jogs south. Yesterday we had some additional
conversations with staff and we were presented a third option that follows a little bit
further north. Our phase two can still accommodate that right of way. It will take a few
additional moves with the pre-plat to land that right of way in the correct location.
Effectively we are here saying that if Council prefers us to run it a little further north that
works for us. This really only impacts phase two. As you can see here we could retain
concept D or E. There is no real additional steps required on our end. A little bit of a
tweak at the southwest corner of phase two. If there -- if the third option is selected we
feel like with a revision to the preliminary plat we would -- we would want to come back
to show you what that looks like. This is where that concept D -- or, sorry, I guess we
will call it the new concept that we were provided yesterday -- generally falls. You can
see that it kind of aligns with what we are calling Equator Drive that is part of the -- the
proposed subdivision. That would be just to the left of this on screen. That being a
collector there is some moves that would have to happen with the uses along the
collector, some buffers for residential uses down there, but ultimately still really
preserves about one-third commercial, two-thirds residential in phase two. As you can
see in these slides -- and I will just jump back to these other ones. If you look at phase
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one, which is north of Five Mile Creek, our entry into phase one would be here off of
Wells Circle and all the traffic would go north into the subdivision of phase one. The
alternatives for the east-west collector are down here on the south edge and even here
we are still -- we actually still meet ACHD spacing requirements for offset from collector
roadways. So, what I want to talk about is a little bit more of what we have gone
through this process. After we have kind of adjusted -- or looked at adjusting the south
phase two here we have determined that phase one really has no impact with the east-
west collector. Again, can fully retain that right of way as was the Council's direction
when we were deferred originally to find an ability to accommodate that east-west
collector roadway through the site. Excuse me. And actually initially this is not the first
adjustment that would come out of this project. All of the other adjustments that we
have made were based on original neighbor comments and concerns. We have
eliminated a direct vehicular connection to Magic View Drive, which is at the northwest
corner of the project. Right here. We have converted that to a shared driveway that's
bollarded so it could be an emergency connection only. That would allow for pedestrian,
you know, connectivity, but we are not allowed direct vehicular connection. We did this
to respond to the neighbors' concerns, really trying to push traffic over to Wells Street
as far south as we can in phase one to try to encourage the traffic to either turn south
and go to Freeway Drive to get to Eagle Road, they can turn left and go on Wells to get
to Allen Street to Eagle Road. There will be traffic that turns left and goes through
Woodbridge as currently happens right now. But we really feel like this responded to
those -- kind of those concerns. One of the other things I do want to point out is when
we came in at our pre-app for this project we had 90 residential lots proposed between
both phases. When we went to our neighborhood meeting we had reduced that to 85
residential lots. When we went to our initial submittal, again based on some feedback
from the city, as well as looking at neighbor concerns, we reduced that to 81 residential
lots and through working with the city, some tweaks that we needed to make to where
the right of way falls, some landscape buffering, that has been reduced to 79 residential
lots. That is over both phases of -- of the project. Fifty-nine lots, again, would be in
phase one north of the canal -- or the -- the Creek. Twenty, roughly, will be south.
Additionally we made some changes to the lots along the western boundary of phase
one, which directly abuts the Woodbridge Subdivision. We brought those into
conformance to a one-to-one lot ratio. We have 15 lots on our side. We have -- there is
15 existing lots on the Woodbridge side. We also substantially tried to align those
property lines in corners with those properties, while also being sensitive to the
developer and -- and future build out, trying to keep our lot widths pretty standardized,
so we didn't have a lot of different lot widths. Additionally, we have setbacks along the
western side of phase one. That would be an R-8 zone. We are requesting a 12 foot
setback, which is the R-8 standard. We have talked to the developer and the
developer's builder and they are comfortable that a single story home would have a 12
foot setback -- rear setback. A two story home would have a 20 foot setback, which
exceeds -- far exceeds the R-8 standard. I think, actually, it's in excess of the R-4
standard for a rear setback. We would like to retain -- and this is similar to the
conversation we had before -- retain the option of providing a covered or uncovered
patio space behind those two-story homes that could go to that 12 foot setback.
Whether a one-story or two-story home we would not encroach into that 12 foot
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setback. I would like to mention that in talking with the builder they have indicated that
60 percent of their lot sales their buyers are selecting single story homes. We anticipate
that that would continue through this development as well. We are in agreement with all
the staff report and conditions of approval. We feel confident that this will provide a high
quality project to this area and that it has responded to the city's requests for the east-
west collector location for future, which will help alleviate traffic concerns that the
neighbors have that we have heard. We also wanted to make sure to just reiterate that
this developer and their builder now will be working with the neighbors to make sure that
the fences along that western property boundary are on the property line and in good
condition. That is not something that was able to be addressed in the last
approximately a year, because we were delayed. I will mention that this is a different
builder. You will probably hear about that from neighbors tonight. I have seen that in
the comment letters that were provided. When we were deferred the builder that was
selected before that had committed to this project felt like they could hang around for a
little bit. Unfortunately, that time frame got too long for them to feel comfortable with
committing to closing on the property to be the builder. It happens. They have -- this
developer selected another builder. I know that that builder is different than the ones
that the neighbors have talked to. We feel like they are still going to build a very high
quality home. These are very cohesive with this area, as well as most other areas in
the City of Meridian. Again, single family homes. We are really comfortable that this
project meets all of the UDC standards, all of the Comprehensive Plan future land use
standards and really does set up the city for success in finding a way to create this east-
west collector between Eagle Road and going as far as Locust Grove and I think even
further west than that as well. So, I would stand for additional questions you might
have. Council Member Cavener, I do not have an answer for you about the school, --
but because we -- as you stated we didn't get a letter from West Ada. Hethe Clark here
with the development team he does have some information about that if you would like
to hear that, too.
Cavener: Great.
Semple: Thank you.
Simison: Councilman Cavener, would you like that to be your first question for the
applicant?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor, thank you. Hethe Clark, if you have got some information on
schools I know our staff would probably appreciate that and I sure would as well. So,
any insight to share I would be happy to hear it.
Clark: Yep. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Cavener, Hethe Clark. 251 East Front Street
in Boise. So, I thought that might come up. I have been around a minute. So, I -- I did
just do a little research looking at the assigned school areas and relying on the West
Ada website to do all this, because, obviously, there is not a letter to confirm it, but it
appears that it's Centennial that's the high school. Current enrollment is at about 1,700.
The prior high was about 2,100. Middle school is Lewis & Clark, just shy of 900 current
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enrollment. Prior high of about 1,125. Elementary schools. Meridian. And that looks
like that enrollments pretty stable at about 400 and, then, as -- as we have talked about
in the past, you know, district wide you have got about a thousand fewer first graders
than you have seniors. So, hopefully, that -- that's amount -- that's what I can give you
now without specific direction from the -- from the school district.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener,
Cavener: Hethe, thanks. That's one of the reasons why I asked the question. I did a
little research myself this weekend and I certainly saw that Centennial popped up and it
was a little bit of a head scratcher for me based on the location. So, I appreciate you
sharing some of the information that you found as well.
Clark: You bet.
Simison: Council, other questions for the applicant?
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Talk to me a little bit about your open space and why you determined to put it
there. Usually we do like open space to be kind of central to each phase and it was a
little bit like it's not. So, I just want to understand that choice.
Semple: Mr. Mayor, Council Member Strader, thank you for that question. So, I wanted
to bring up the open space exhibit. I kind of skipped back past it pretty quickly, because
wanted to talk about that -- the roadway. We have located the open space in the
floodway area or floodplain area of Five Mile Creek, which basically restricts us from
being able to develop single family or really any building within that space. What it does
is it allows us to utilize the -- what is a -- a benefit or a -- an amenity for the overall city
of open Five Mile Creek. The south -- or sorry. The north side of Five Mile Creek has a
very low slope approach to that creek and so what that allows us to do is really get
some nice picnic areas, that tot lot area, and incorporate some passive recreation.
Additionally, the -- the multi-use pathway that is associated with the City of Meridian's
pathway plan and ties into the pathway that comes through Woodbridge -- is located --
don't know -- can you guys see my cursor on this screen? Okay. It runs right along
here, which is the north side of Five Mile Creek. It will stub here in case -- in the event
that this parcel redevelops, but it does hook north and, then, ties into the Woodbridge
pathway there. With that linear pathway and green space that's kind of already
established in terms of a location. We have really felt that consolidating a larger area of
open space here would better serve this community, specifically because the entry to
this -- the -- specifically phase one will be a very landscaped, very kind of -- I won't say
wild, but a very landscaped and developed open space area that will really kind of draw
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all the residents into that. The additional open space on the south side stands alone for
itself. We -- we have enough open space on the north side in phase one to more than
accommodate the requirements of the UDC for open space and programming there.
Our phase one again has four amenity points, which would be more than the entire
development requires. We do have some additional landscape buffers and some other
areas for some passive recreation and kind of pedestrian connectivity, but rather than
segment that, knowing that with phase two we would also like those residents to be able
to enjoy the open space area as well.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Just one more. If you could just confirm. Are you intending to build the east-
west collector in phase two or are you flexible on that? Help me understand that. And
with staff's third option, which I don't fully understand, so I would like to flush that out,
but -- with them. But when are -- when are you proposing to do that?
Semple: Mr. Mayor, Council Member Strader, at this point it would be built in phase two.
know that there is some pretty substantial work to secure additional right of way for the
extension of that, both to the east and west of our site, but we are ready to dedicate
wherever that needs to fall. You know, we are -- we feel like if this third option we were
presented yesterday is really where that collector needs to go, we are going to be back
here talking about what that really looks like in terms of the final location and, ultimately,
I -- if it falls along Magic View Circle, I will have to confirm with my client, but it makes a
little easier to do that earlier. Currently that's set up as just a local roadway. It would
take an expansion of that right of way -- redoing that roadway of Wells Circle that
currently serves a couple commercial areas and some residential properties.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Maybe just some early feedback. With really contentious applications where
we have real infrastructure issues usually I'm looking for developers to come with a
solution to the problem and really contribute to the solution and so I -- I can tell you right
now, just from my own perspective, that solving the problem in phase two already feels
problematic to me. I'm going to chew on it during the meeting, but it's -- you know, I can
think of some other examples where, you know, we have had like nonstarters on
McMillan Road where the developer, for example, puts in a roundabout at their own cost
or does something that really moves the needle in terms of the infrastructure and here
-- I'm not really seeing that in your strategy. So, I just wanted to flag that for you so you
have a chance to chew on that during the meeting. Thank you.
Semple: I appreciate that.
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Overton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: Ben, I think we are going to have a lot -- much longer talk this evening about
that preferred roadway, but for all practical purposes I just want to make sure we put
one part of it on the record as we go forward, just out of fairness to you and fairness to
everyone else. The preferred roadway was what this City Council decided on as our
future roadway to alleviate and reduce traffic through the Woodbridge Subdivision, with
full knowledge that it would require complete rebuilds of the subdivision to the south of
Woodbridge now. It's not something that we look forward to having happen in the next
ten to 15 years. There is no current applications that would help us do that
redevelopment at this point, but we as a city are tired of not protecting those roadways
for the future and having developments come in and reduce our ability to fix a problem
that we have had for 20 years. So, as we continue to talk about this I want to just tell
you we are going to talk about it with staff a little bit more as we go through this hearing
tonight. We just need to make sure that this isn't something that the applicant's offering
up, we are -- we are basically requesting them as a city -- we have already sat down
with ACHD and said this is where we want our preferred roadway to go. It makes the
most sense for them, it makes the most sense for us for the future, we just don't know
when that future is. Mr. Mayor, one quick follow up.
Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: On a different note, a question I really need to have answered now is in your
application, going all the way back to almost the beginning, you have a letter from ITD
requesting that you provide a traffic impact analysis and I'm talking the date on that
original letter is February 10th of 2024, 1 believe. So, it's over two years ago. The
language requesting that TIA, Traffic Impact Analysis, appears in every single document
that Planning has put forward on page two and page eight as we have gone through this
process and gone through all of these other hearings. But we are sitting here tonight
over two years after that was requested and I don't see that we have that analysis in
hand.
Semple: Mr. Mayor, Council Member Overton, you are correct, you don't have that in
hand. When we were deferred, not knowing where or how an east-west collector may
impact this development, it was hard for us to provide -- or to have a traffic impact
analysis completed that would meet all the standards that ACHD, ITD, and the city are
looking for to be able to fully determine that. We do have a scoping memo that's been
approved. We do -- that -- the process is in process to get that traffic impact analysis. I
-- I thought that the condition was -- had something to do with final plat for that traffic
impact analysis regardless of when it is in process in order to inform us as to whether
there are impacts. In nonformal discussions with ITD they indicated they can't really
expand their right of way on Eagle Road. There really isn't a whole lot in terms of
improvements, so that the -- the Eagle Road area that could be done currently, other
than, you know, maybe some signalization, timing, some changes to that. We are fully
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open to -- and anticipate some mitigation requirements from ITD to come out of that
traffic impact analysis. I think that finding a -- finding out where exactly that collector
goes now that we have that information, we feel very confident that our project right now
as presented would retain both D and E preferred alignments for that east-west
collector. We are ready to commit to dedicating that right of way for that east-west
collector right now, you know, with this application. If this third option that we were
presented yesterday by staff ends up being the new preferred location, if that's the way
that the Council dictates that that -- where that road goes, Equator Drive, which you can
see right here substantially aligns closely with that, kind of line that was drawn on the
master street map, in which case we would just dedicate that as our collector right of
way for future east-west. I think that that protects the city, because that would be
enshrined in the development agreement that is entered into, even if that is a to be
determined location that is something that the developer is willing to commit to, to really
make sure that the city knows they are ready to dedicate the right of way for that. If it is
Wells Circle that becomes that, I believe that those improvements could be done earlier
than later, because it's already a partial road section, so it makes it a little bit easier to
develop. For phase two if it had to move further north, the right of way would be
dedicated with the plat and, then, when that construction came along that would be built
as a collector roadway. At this time, even east of here, if it is that third option there
really is a lot of work to find and negotiate with those private property owners to get that
alignment to work. If it's Freeway Drive and Wells Circle, we really have no issue with
finding that right of way at this point or really aligning it with what the city's vision is for
that.
Overton: Mr. Mayor, follow up?
Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: I think you kind of got off my topic.
Semple: Okay.
Overton: Woodbridge Subdivision has been concerned about -- the foremost has been
traffic.
Semple: Uh-huh.
Overton: When Idaho Transportation Department states that because State Highway
55 corridor is already congested and this project will increase the number of vehicle
trips and they request a study, so that we can see what that study looks like for what
that impacts going to be on Highway 55, it becomes very important to me that I have
that study in hand before we try to make a decision, because what concerns me the
most is if we are going to push that much more traffic towards 55, how much of it's
going to turn and go back west through Woodbridge and I think that's what most of the
folks in this room are concerned about is we don't have those pieces to look at tonight.
Now, I understand that there was a concern over the driveway, but that was not an issue
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for the first year and we still didn't see that that was supplied as part of this application.
We didn't bring that forward. But now we are sitting two years late, it's overdue, we
don't have it, I'm having a hard time making a decision in favor without having all the
pieces in front of me that say what the impacts are going to be with this project.
Semple: Okay. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Overton, I -- I appreciate that. I think that
we were trying to figure out is this development going to change completely because of
the consultant's study for an east-west collector? Was it going to run it through the
middle of our phase one where we would have to fully adjust that and move stuff
around, which at that point it had -- we started a TIA, Traffic Impact Analysis, at that
point it would be invalid, because it wouldn't be responding to this design. I do know
that they have provided us, as I stated, with some feedback that other than some minor
changes to some timing of signals to try to move traffic out of those intersections at
Eagle Road, State Highway 55 and Allen or where -- I think Freeway ties in as well, at
this point the Highway 55 corridor there is not a lot that could be expanded there,
regardless of what this project looked like. Now, that we have a little bit more
understanding of where that east-west collector will go, I think that that traffic impact
analysis can get completed pretty quickly. So, I would -- I will talk to my client after the
Q&A here, see where we sit with that, see what I can provide for additional information
during the rebuttal.
Simison: And, Council, if I could -- I want to thank staff for maybe bringing up my
comments essentially, but after our -- our joint meeting we looked at D a little closer
and, really, the way the DLM comes, you come down Freeway, you take a hard right
and, then, a hard left in order for that alignment to work. So, what we really looked at is
say if we are really trying to move traffic through this area quickly you have to take away
those turning movements. So, we -- I'm not -- we don't know if it would even work, but
we haven't had time to analyze that if you were to realign and take the road behind one
of the hotels and push it up through that direction, which is why that was brought up in
this context. I think that from -- when this was originally continued we at least
understand the difference between phase one and phase two of this project is -- we are
likely not going to build a road in phase one, based upon the -- the comments that have
happened. Phase two, if we stay with D or E, is not impacted, you know, because it is
on the -- on that southern edge of the property through that. But, again, I think that
there is a little bit more refinement on whether or not that road should be evaluated to
be straightened or not to achieve the goal, because the more turns we have in it -- it's
no different -- it would be like going down past -- right up down at the state patrol and
you take that hard right and take that left again, that's not a very good thoroughfare if
that's what you are trying to create and that's almost identical to what we have created
that point on the D alignment if it were to remain the -- the choice. So, I just want to put
that out there. That's why you are hearing about this. It's not as if, though, there is any
decision points. It was just -- we should at least explore that opportunity if we are going
to try to do this right long term. So, just want to put that out there for everybody.
Council, additional questions for the applicant? Okay. Thank you very much. Madam
Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to provide testimony on the item tonight?
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Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes. The first person is Robin McCulley. She's
indicated that she's representing an HOA.
Simison: Can you say your name and address and you will be recognized for ten
minutes.
McCulley: My name is -- good evening, Mayor, City Council. My name is Robin
McCulley and I live at 728 South Woodhaven Avenue and I have been a resident of
Woodhaven -- of Woodbridge for about 11 years now. While I support the growth in the
-- of our community I do have several specific concerns that I want to address with you
guys tonight. First, the issue of the fence on the west side. I spoke of this originally
about nine months ago and I submitted a letter, as well as pictures to you of that fence
directly behind my home and you addressed it with the homeowner -- or the owner of
the property and asked him if he was willing to work with the residents and make sure
that we came, you know, to agreements on that and he agreed that he would work with
us. To date we have not heard anything from him and it's been over nine months at this
point. But I noticed when he submitted just this last week the new information I was
online and I looked at the survey, which is on page 37 on -- under department report
update dated the 18th -- February 18th, it actually says on the report -- it says existing
privacy fence to remain. This makes me question whether or not they were actually
generally -- there were any genuine intentions to address any of our concerns. I'm also
confused about whether a new fence can be legally constructed directly adjacent to our
existing fence. I reached out to Planning and Zoning three times and I was told three
different answers. So, that inconsistency alone -- we need clarification I think before
moving forward with that. There are also matters of ownership of trees back there.
That, again, the property line was not established in the survey and he brought that up.
Also you guys mentioned that you thought that their addition with Pacific Lifestyle
Homes presenting their homes would be a good fit for Woodbridge, saying in terms of
size, quality and value they were very comparable to Woodbridge. They no longer are
in this case with the new elevations that he is proposing. Previously they were in 500
and -- 500 to 600 thousand dollar range, estimated over 2,000 square feet. They are
not at that price point anymore. We, as the residents of Woodbridge, were working with
Pacific Lifestyle Home, the builder. We were having open discussions. As of last
Wednesday he was unaware -- he thought he was waiting on traffic studies. He had not
heard anything else from the owner. He did not receive anything until the next day from
their lawyer saying he was no longer a part of this. So, that's confusing to us. Finally,
the traffic impact. As you all know with the several projects that have already been
approved on -- coming to Locust Grove area, ACHD has already estimated 5,000 cars a
day coming to the area of Locust Grove. Adding Latitude Forty Three is only going to
cause burden -- more burden and congestion that we are already seeing problems and
puts our families and pedestrians, children at risk. We don't think our infrastructure is
ready yet. It's under strain at this time and until we can clear some of that up we think
adding more vehicles is just cause for possible serious consequences. I know that he
just -- I just wanted to respond to him saying that he was waiting for the traffic study to
see if it was going to run through phase one. Woodbridge aligns adjacently to phase
one. I mean he -- he told you that it is platted out to match us. So, the only way that
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that would have ever happened is if you were going to run another road through
Woodbridge, which you have all told us that you were trying to wait, because you are
trying to help us and -- and get that congestion out of there. We all think that we need
to be proactive as all these things -- the ICOM, the State College, West Ada's new
technical school has all been approved. It's coming. We know that it's coming, but we
need to move that traffic and figure out a solid way to move that around Woodbridge
instead of through Woodbridge to keep our families safe. Given this concern, the
unresolved fencing issues, uncertainty about property rights, change in the scale of
development, significant traffic impacts I respectfully ask you all to vote no to the
Latitude Forty Three until some meaningful resolution -- resolutions and clear
protections are in place for all of our affected homeowners and we have several
residents here -- they don't like to speak, but they are here to back the HOA and our
vote of no to Latitude Forty Three. Would the residents, please, stand up that are here
to vote no. Thank you. Thank you.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Robin, thanks. I want to say I read all three of your e-mails over the past year
and change, so I appreciate you kind of putting a face to the name. My one question
really stems with how you ended your presentation tonight on behalf of your fellow
residents, which is -- you touched on -- you would want the Council to vote no until there
is meaningful resolution. What does meaningful resolution look like for the
neighborhood?
McCulley: I think we have to have real open -- not just ideas, but movement in that area
for -- we have to have at least something on the ACHD's five year plan or sooner. We
have all these other things moving in on Locust Grove, all these cars that we know are
already coming and before we continue to add to it on the east side I think that we need
to have real meaningful things in place and seeing it progress. At this point we have no
progression. We have ideas. We have presentation. I don't know if you all have met
with -- I think Mr. Overton said that you met with ACHD already to put your ideas in
place, but to really have it on the five year plan it's going to happen, give us some hope
that we will see some relief. That West Ada technical school with those high schoolers
coming and going all day, they are going to cut through Woodbridge to get to the fast
food areas. We know this and that's going to be all day long and our community is
already under so much burden with the traffic as it is now, if we add 79 more homes
with an unknown amount of cars to each home it's just going to be even more of a
burden.
Cavener: Mayor, can I follow up?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
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February 24,2026
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Cavener: Robin, this process is really designed to be collaborative; right? And Council
is trying to hear from everybody and I think you have a unique opportunity representing
your HOA, you have got the applicant here and so what are -- I heard a lot of kind of
like, okay, we -- we want to see some action from the highway district. Outside of that
what are the specific things you are looking for from the -- from the applicant when you
talk about meaningful resolution? What are those specific things that you are looking
from the applicant to be able to provide for you?
McCulley: From the applicant we have always been open to discussions with the
potential builder and the applicant to speak with us about what they are trying to bring in
behind us. We like to work with them, give them ideas, discuss what we know you all
are looking for as well. I mean we know this area will be developed at some point and
so we are -- we are not oblivious to that. We know that. But we also want them to work
with us. This setting change in builder, it hasn't given any of the residents that the,
quote, bait and switch, it feels very much like that to our residents, because we had
worked with this builder this entire process, to then find out last week that it had
completely changed builders. We have now changed elevations. It's like -- everybody
was very surprised. We hardly had enough time to get all the information out to the
residents.
Cavener: Sure. Mr. Mayor, maybe one more. And -- and, Robin, I apologize, I'm not
trying to go back up with you --
McCulley: Yeah. No. Go ahead.
Cavener: -- we as the Council have an opportunity to impose conditions if the Council
were to generate approval and part of the reason we take public testimony is we were
trying to get some insight as to what those things are. My assumption is if the Council
said, hey, applicant you have to adhere to the previous elevations that were presented,
that wouldn't necessarily change that your neighborhood would be opposed to the
application and so when you -- when you said you want meaningful resolution, I -- I
apologize that I'm -- I'm really looking for specific things, which I -- I haven't really heard
and so I guess I will give you one more opportunity. If there are specific things that the
neighborhood has presented to the applicant that you believe need to be addressed by
the applicant that they have refused to address, those are the things that I'm looking for.
McCulley: Well, unfortunately, our HOA and the residents haven't had the opportunity to
even meet and come up with these things, because all of -- this has just happened in a
very -- the initial change was done three business days ago, only six days before this
vote. So, it was -- we haven't had an opportunity to meet as a group out of the
residents, we haven't had a chance to even discuss anything, so they have written
letters, you know, talked to us as much as they can, we have put it on our website, that
type of thing, but they really haven't had an opportunity to talk to the owner and that
type of thing about the amenities for, you know, deciding to just go forward with phase
one. Phase one doesn't -- I mean I heard that it meets the three points or four points
that it is, but, honestly, the pickleball courts were in phase two. That was the biggest
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February 24,2026
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amenity. That was what all these 79 houses, you know, something big that they could
do. That is no longer. So, those types of things. Talk about amenities. Talking about
elevation. Talking about just all that in general, like having -- having discussions when --
when originally they said they would work with Woodbridge and they wanted
Woodbridge to be a part of it and they wanted us to, you know, have nice good
discussions and, you know, work with them, which we completely have. We have been
on board from the beginning with them and now six days ago, three business days ago
everything changed. Like we will not be using this builder. We will not be using these
elevations and so we were quickly trying to gather information and get it out to
everyone.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor.
Simison: There will be -- not -- right here.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor, just -- Robin, thanks. I know it's a very hard job, a very -- the job
doesn't come with a lot of thanks and appreciation serving on your HOA board. Just on
behalf of the Mayor and Council, thanks for serving on your HOA and appreciate you
being here tonight.
McCulley: Thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you.
Simison: Robin, you may -- you are probably not done yet, Robin.
McCulley: Oh, I'm not done yet.
Simison: I know I --
McCulley: Okay. Sorry. I'm not done yet. Just kidding.
Simison: Council, other questions? I do have one question.
McCulley: Yes.
Simison: So -- so, you talked about the road a little bit. I'm not -- we are not ACHD, we
don't get to decide when roads are built, but I don't think this road is going to be built at
all unless it starts with development one piece of the property at a time. So, I guess my
question is -- and on behalf of your association as best you can --
McCulley: Yes, sir.
Simison: -- would you rather have the current road situation you have for the next 30
years or would you rather start the process piece by piece, knowing that it's going to
maybe get incrementally worse before it gets better at the end? Because it's -- I don't
see ACHD going in and doing eminent domain and purchasing up properties in this
area, it's going to only happen over time as developers or others buy homes and
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redevelop their properties with it -- where a road will eventually get extended through
that area. That's my crystal ball for you. So, I'm going to ask you for what would you
rather see on -- see happen.
McCulley: Well, I would like to see that it's presented to ACHD as a problem that's been
a problem for many many years and even though it may only be placed on the five year
plan, that maybe it could be -- because it's -- it's grown so quickly and there has been
so many issues and things have happened in that area, that they could put us closer to
the top of the list than 30 years out. I -- the piece by piece -- I understand that ACHD
does work more retroactively than proactively, but in our case we already know,
because the projects have been approved on Locust Grove, the three -- there is several
projects on Locust Grove, that it's coming. These -- these are coming and so we know
this already. I just -- I think our community just doesn't want to add any more. Like
what's the cutoff? At what point -- we are going to be so bogged down that getting out
of -- onto Eagle Road, whether you are at the light by the -- at McDonald's or whether
you are at the light at St. Luke's, is backing up so far now and it takes so very very long
to get out and that's without these things being in effect yet. Those -- the ICOM and the
West Ada, they are not there yet. Latitude Forty Three is not there yet and we already
have substantial backup. So, I think -- I wish we all had a crystal ball. I know when
stood up here in front of you ten years ago pregnant with my son talking about this very
issue, I said, you know, the traffic then was bad and I just wish that we could figure out a
way to take care of it and help the residents of Woodbridge and keep -- say no to these
things that we can still say no to, since the ones that have already been said yes to we
don't have any recourse for that. We can't -- we can't take those back, so -- but this one
we still have the opportunity to say we have to figure some things out yet. We are not
quite there yet and we need to get there before we can allow anything else to come and
-- and I just -- I think all of the residents would say that. They would say, you know, we
have had a child hit in our neighborhood. We have speeders. We have so much
congestion and traffic that they are just looking for safety. Safety for our residents.
Safety for our children, the pedestrians, everyone, and just adding more traffic -- 79
homes with potentially two drivers, it's just going to add so much more to that whole
entire area. Not just -- you know, just for everyone's safety, so --
Simison: Okay.
McCulley: Does that answer your question?
Simison: Not exactly, but I will -- I will let you get off with that. There is no right or
wrong answer, but it -- you know, it's just the reality of the situation that is there, that if
you want another road to bypass, development is going to have to help bring it.
Otherwise there probably won't be a road in the near future and we will have to look at
what we have and make adjustments into this Woodbridge area if you want to do traffic
mitigation on that. But that's for a separate conversation, not for this application.
McCulley: Yes. I understand what you are saying and I think -- yes.
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Simison: Okay. All right.
McCulley: Thank you.
Simison: Thank you. Okay. Madam Clerk, next on the list?
Lomeli: Mr. Mayor, no one else has indicated they would wish to testify. Do you want
me to go through names or --
Simison: Well, since we -- yeah, you -- everyone -- don't worry. We will just -- I just
want to make sure that no one else has said they want to testify.
Lomeli: Correct.
Simison: Okay. Then just come on up one at a time and you will be recognized for
three minutes. You can state your name and address. Don't worry, everyone will get
their opportunity.
Pieper: My name is Afton Pieper and I live on Bowstring, 2228 Bowstring. Sorry. So, I
see it all. So, you wanted a proposed solution; right? There is just no way you can
allow that volume of homes to be developed. So, if you want to allow something just
don't allow that volume. That volume is huge. It is a huge, huge problem for not only
our neighborhood, but like she was starting to indicate getting out onto Eagle, get --
either way it's a problem. Getting into our neighborhood from Allen Street off of Eagle,
that's a problem. It's already backed up to where if you take a left on Franklin -- if you
are on Franklin, take a left onto Eagle, that backs up into the intersection, because
everybody is trying to get in that right lane to get onto the interstate, so we can't get into
the right lane to get into our own neighborhood. That's just going to add more and
more. So, not just a problem in our own neighborhood, you have got a problem with the
hospital. You have got a problem with the entire intersection of Eagle and Franklin.
have seen two car wrecks on Locust Grove turning into Woodbridge and the problem
usually is people ride that middle lane because they say, oh, I have got to take a left all
the way up there. So, they smash into someone else who is also trying to take a left.
So, we already have real problems. Two kids have been hit, not one. Two. One kid,
huge scar on the back of his -- on his back; right? He didn't tell anybody. He showed
some neighbors, but he didn't -- he didn't say anything about it. He was hit on a
scooter. Another kid he was on the sidewalk and got hit. He was not in the street.
Sidewalk. So, if you have got kids getting pushed -- like this car, he was on the
sidewalk waiting for his turn. They rode and won't -- go up -- went up on the sidewalk
and knocked him off his scooter. Those are real problems. They are not just, you know,
oh, well, that -- that kind of thing happens. No. We have homes, you know, horns
honking every single day, people, you know, they are honking because we are not going
fast enough, honking because we are not going in and out of our driveway fast enough,
passing us on the left when we slow down to go into our driveway. That's happened so
many times like I can't even count anymore. It's -- it's bad. So, beyond our
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February 24,2026
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neighborhood, which I get it, you have got development, neighborhoods are kind of
going to degrade with development, things are going to get nicer and we are going to
get worser, because that's how it is, but are you okay with two kids being hit? Are you
okay with extra car wrecks? Are you okay with actual backed up traffic into intersections
for the -- not just Woodbridge, but the rest of the community. Eagle is -- I mean what --
what are you going to -- I know you have got this --
Simison: If you could wrap up, please.
Pieper: Okay. STAR is coming. That's going to help maybe a little bit. But you can't
allow that volume of homes. So, you asked what solution do you want to propose? I'm
proposing you cannot allow that volume of homes. Maybe you can allow one acre lots
there --
Simison: Thank you.
Pieper: That's it.
Simison: Thank you.
Pieper: Can't allow more.
Simison: Council, any questions? Okay. Thank you. Next.
Rice: Good evening, Mayor Simison, City Council Members. My name is Karen Rice
and I have been a resident of Woodbridge for 11 years. My address is 2324 East
Bowstring Street. Over this time I have observed a consistent increase in traffic. You
just heard from my neighbor. Last summer a car hit a child while he was on his scooter.
The driver did not stop. Fortunately, a neighbor helped the child get home. Recently
witnessed a speeding car pass a neighbor that was walking their dog and they speed
past them before they could finish crossing the street almost hitting them. Two weeks
ago my own son's basketball was hit by a speeding car and the driver did not stop to
express concern, nor did they address the incident and it's very alarming to be in the
house knowing that your children are on the street and you hear a very loud, right, a
basketball popping under that pressure. It was a -- I was very fortunate that my children
were fine, it was simply a basketball. These examples underscore the urgent need to
prioritize our children's safety through responsible decisions. The current traffic
situation in Woodridge is deeply concerning. We frequently experience near misses
and fear a severe incident will occur. Our subdivision is already overwhelmed with
traffic and I urge you to address these issues before we add more. With current
approval -- the approved development, such as the West Ada CTE Center, ICOM
expansion and ISU expansion, we anticipate a significant increase in traffic that we
dread. The proposed Latitude Forty Three will further exasperate this problem. As an
administrator in our school district I often say 90 percent of student issues start as adult
issues and as educators we strive to support our students by removing obstacles and
reducing adult issues that negatively impact students. I say this because the traffic
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situation is an adult issue that is negatively affecting and impacting our children's safety.
The Latitude Forty Three development is too dense and adds more traffic to an already
overloaded situation and I know that we are addressing traffic and it's really about
Latitude Forty Three, but it's really a -- it's really a together situation. I urge you to take
responsibility and halt further development until current traffic situation is addressed,
ensuring the safety and needs of existing residents take place and precedence over
new developments. If a tragedy occurs the responsibility will lie with the adults that are
making these decisions. Please support Woodbridge by finding solutions to our traffic
issues before proceeding with new developments that will continue to -- to add to an
already bad situation. I say this as a resident and an HOA board member.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? I'm -- I'm going to say something that is
going to make me maybe the least popular person in the room and I'm going to -- I'm
going to put it out there, just because we have a lot of people from Woodbridge here. If
we put a bollard into Magic View Circle to stop all cut-through traffic, that it means also
residents can't drive out to Eagle Road, would that be acceptable to people in this
room?
Rice: Yes. Yes. If -- if our subdivision was able to act like a cul-de-sac instead of a
highway we would appreciate it. Because our streets are the equivalent of Overland
and -- and Franklin, because people are too lazy -- adults aren't willing to make adult
decisions for children to take an extra three to five minutes to get to Overland and to get
to Franklin and I do believe that you would have the support of the community to make
our subdivision act like a cul-de-sac.
Simison: Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't think I was going to get applause or a pause
for the suggestion, but -- anyways, thank you.
Rice: Thank you.
Bode: Good -- good evening everyone. My name is Philip Bode. I live on Bowstring
Street in Woodbridge community. I just moved here in November with my family. I have
a two year old son and a one year old daughter. Since moving there I -- I know you
guys heard a lot about what it is like with the traffic, et cetera. I live in the -- Bowstring
has this long stretch of street and, then, two loops. The people speed up really bad on
this straight away. They go about 40 miles an hour in a 25 and that's 2,000 -- 2,500
cars in the morning and 2,500 cars in the evening and it's -- some days I'm unable to
exit my car. I'm unable to park. There is a lot of issues that come with that. But the
safety for the children is the most important to me. What I wanted to answer is the
question about solutions and -- and I think one of the biggest solutions is -- I used to live
in Boise and there was an area that was the same way, it was a path to a school and
what there was there was just speed bumps in the way and it was a 25, same as -- as
this location and if there is enough speed bumps it slows down the traffic at least to a
manageable speed, so kids don't get hit, because most cars are low to the ground and
they will just scrape and most people that cut through, I -- I -- I think they will cut through
every day. It's probably the same people or it's people of maps, that just follow Google
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Maps because ways will direct them that way, because it's the shortest solution or
shortest way to -- to get through there. So, I think an immediate solution that's very very
easy and very very cheap is having developers pay for something like that before we
move on. I mean that's a simple fix; right? At least we can, then, slow down the cars to
see children maybe, because as you all know the faster you go to -- the -- you know, the
slower you can react. So, if we can do stuff like that that would at least help. Just trying
to come up with solutions, not with more problems, you know. I think -- that's all I have
to say for today. Yeah.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Okay. Next.
Seaman: Hello and thank you for the opportunity to talk. I'm Mike Seaman. I live at
544 Trunnel. I just moved into Woodbridge. I'm going to turn around and ask everyone
just a quick question. Raise your hand if your home is the biggest asset that you own.
So, if you have -- yeah. Like a retirement account that's got a million bucks in it maybe
you are different, but -- so, when we talk about traffic, obviously, there is children's
safety, all those concerns. My main concern is that the developer is now changing the
scope of their homes and while traffic will also deteriorate the value of everyone's home,
I think the most egregious thing that's happening right now is the developer is trying to
shoehorn these smaller homes in. We had -- I was not part of the discussions. I just
moved to Woodbridge. But if we had homes that are five and six hundred thousand
dollars, 2,000 square feet, and now we have changed them to 12 and 14 hundred
square foot homes and possibly a phase two that may or may not be built, my concern
is I live in Woodbridge for the next few decades and my children start driving is that our
home values aren't going to be protected. So, the safety for sure is important. But
everyone in this room bought a home in Woodbridge or nearby probably, knowing that
this is a great place to live and there is homes are built and more people are added to
the road, my long term concern is the home values are just going to go down in
Woodbridge and all over. Small impact on the tax base, but huge impact on everyone
here in this room that has a home that they are counting on appreciation and kind of
value holding. Any questions?
Simison: Council, any questions? And, then, Luke, maybe to address that point -- the
questions, like what can the developer do? Maybe to start with honoring the initial --
and not just elevation, but the initial plans for the home. Point of clarity, too, on the
elevations. My understanding is the elevations are like the look of the home. I don't
care about the look, but if we are talking about a 1,200 square foot home, instead of a
2,000 square foot home, that's a big difference in value. Thanks.
Simison: Thank you.
Spencer: Good evening, Mayor Simison, Council Members. Thank you for the
opportunity to speak. My name is Raymond Spencer. I live at 600 South Woodhaven in
-- in the Woodbridge development. Most of the homes on my street back up to the
proposed Latitude Forty Three development and what I take away from the presentation
and some of the materials we have seen is that the developer is proposing to have a
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minimum setback of the homes to our property line of 12 feet. So, if you look up at
these ceiling squares and you count six of them that's 12 feet. That's not a lot of
distance. And I think what we would like to have is some sort of a guarantee that the
single -- single story homes backing up to our property would have a setback of maybe
20 feet. That's asking for four more of those squares, because on top of one another
like that it creates -- it creates a -- it -- you know, a visual block. It -- it -- it becomes a
little bit uncomfortable and I think that's probably the least the developer can do to give
us a little bit more breathing room and, then, based on some of the other comments
have heard tonight I do agree with the traffic issues, especially going toward Eagle
Road, 55. You have got the Wells and Magic View intersection that forms that funny
little jog and, you know, we are going to have some issues there as well and I -- I just
wanted to ask you to think about -- think about the setbacks and think about also some
of the issues that were brought up in terms of the -- the -- the -- the open space and
where that might be located, because we are going to have some ugly fences along
Magic View, minimal landscaping. I like to think of Meridian as a place that has
greenery and beauty and all of the pieces coming together to create a greater whole
and I'm not quite seeing it with this development. So, those are my comments and
thank you for the time. Appreciate it.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Spencer, thanks for being here and, again, you are one that
has been following this project for a long time and I appreciate all the a-mails that you
have sent.
Spencer: Sure.
Cavener: And in the one year a-mails I think that you sent about a year ago you
identified some concern about a shift in builder and so can you give Council some
flavor, to the best of your recollection, the history of different builders that have been
assigned to this kind of project? And I think at one point in one of your a-mails you
referenced kind of a bait and switch. I don't -- I don't quite come to that same
conclusion, but I'm trying to get some of your insight as to the history of different
builders being assigned to this project.
Spencer: That's a great question and I may not be able to answer it --
Cavener: Okay.
Spencer: -- completely, because I have only been a resident of Woodbridge for maybe
a year and a half now and so I don't have experience proceeding that, but what I do
know is that the builder that we had previously that we had really great open dialogues
with and -- and the ability to converse and kind of see examples of their work, that led to
a degree of comfort in our group that -- that, yes, there are responsible people looking
out for our interests. The other -- the other thing that I can say is that with -- and a bait
and switch maybe -- I mentioned that in my a-mails and it may not be fair. I don't --
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don't want to say that, but -- but what I did see in the elevations that I saw a dramatic
shift from what was approved to something that is much different in my eye and I have
worked in design and I have worked with developers a lot over my, you know, previous
career, so I -- I do have some experience with these things and a bait and switch may may not be -- you know, I mean that may be a little extreme, but at the same time it's --
it's something to look at, because I have never seen a project that gets approved and,
then, a week before a present -- or before a meeting like this the cards get shuffled
around and you have got different images. I just don't see it and I have never seen it go
through without some kind of extensive look back to understand how we got there. So,
yeah, sure. Thank you very much.
Simison: Thank you.
George: My name is Kyle George. I live at 1713 East Pegram Street and I have lived in
Woodbridge for 22 years, so I have seen a lot of changes from the time we first moved
in to now. But I do have a concern with the traffic. I really believe we should have that
study before any final decisions are made and especially in regards to -- there is only
two ways in. I choose not to use the Eagle exit unless I have to and at certain times of
day I won't even go there. I have to use Locust Grove and we would see -- we see a lot
of excess traffic on Locust Grove due to development that's on that end of the
subdivision due to the school, the medical school, the high school and the proposed
development that's going to be new development there is going to increase that traffic
flow as well. So, I'm hoping that that study could be done before any final decisions are
made, because we are really impacted by the traffic on both ends.
Simison: Council, any questions?
George: Thank you.
Simison: Thank you.
Henderson: Good evening, Mayor and -- and City Council Members. My name is
Deborah Henderson and I have lived in Woodbridge for about seven years. I live at 660
South Woodhaven Avenue. Thank you for the opportunity to review the proposal and
provide our input. I think the biggest point that I want to make this evening is that I was
-- I was disappointed to not hear a clear resolution from the proposal tonight. I think we
can all agree that the traffic concerns and -- and having collaboration on a through
street that would help solve all of these safety concerns that we have is a priority, but I
did not hear a clear plan of action. In fact, I heard deprioritization of that issue from the
applicant in terms of timing, having this be a part of phase two, as opposed of -- as
opposed to phase one. That -- that's a really big issue I think for everyone here in this
room. At this time we still do not have a completed traffic study or a defined plan
addressing access and circulation impacts. I believe it's irresponsible to approve the
annexation of over 17 acres without that information and Intel, given that this so
significantly impacts safety, emergency access and, you know, all of the concerns that
you have heard -- heard tonight. I think that the -- the current zoning is commercial
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neighborhood zoning and that serves as an -- actually a really important buffer to these
-- these functions that we have all been talking about between having single family
homes and -- and future development and changing that designation to higher density
residential without a clear action plan for infrastructure and traffic mitigation I think
removes that buffer and introduces significant impacts without adequate preparation.
Annexation is permanent. Approving this request before these concerns are fully
resolved would be premature. So, for these reasons I respectfully ask Council to deny
the annexation until we have a completed traffic study and we have a clear actionable
transportation solution in place. Thank you.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Okay. Thank you.
Fox: My name is Celeste Fox. I live at 582 South Woodhaven Avenue, backing up to
this development. I just -- if you allow this tonight I would like to ask for some protection
in the development agreement. When we worked with the builder who was presented
to us at the neighborhood meeting August 2024, we asked him how -- what are the
setbacks to our homes that are adjacent. He had the schematics and he showed us.
They were 26 feet to 30 feet, because he builds toward the front of the property and
have at home several of his schematics with these figures on them, so that -- on the
north end where I live that property is higher than mine, so you have ten feet behind the
house that's single story -- I'm single story. There would be at least four feet higher than
that looking down on mine. Ten feet is nothing. That just is nothing. None of us on
Woodbridge have ten feet backyards and we are asking -- I'm asking if in the
development agreement you would at least, for the single stories, have at least 20. 1
mean we have really liked working with this builder, because he had concerns for our
concerns. He showed consideration. He wanted -- he wanted people in his buildings to
have good backyards. If you have tiny backyards and you are overlooking a neighbor
that's not really a good neighborhood fit. So, I'm just asking for this protection. Thank
you.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Okay. Thank you. Is there anybody
else that would like to come forward and provide testimony on this item or anybody
online, you can use the raise your hand feature online. Seeing no one coming forward
and no one raising their hand online would the applicant like to close?
Clark: Members of the Council, Hethe Clark. 251 East Front Street. Ben's got more
detailed notes and he is going to kind of go into the minutia, but as I was sitting there I --
I did want to raise one issue and make sure that we have the conversation about this,
especially before we close public testimony and just kind of get everybody on the same
page in terms of what the city's planning is for this, because I think it really drives a lot of
the questioning and the -- and the question -- and the kind of discussion that we are
going to have tonight. You know, I -- a lot of what we have heard from the public has to
do with decisions that were made many years ago with regard to the configuration of
Woodbridge, which, as you guys know, those first few phases are set up with it as a
collector, the last few phases are not. So, it created some of these problems that we
are talking about structurally. The comment has -- well, let me say that I -- I -- I don't
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think that anything with regard to that changes regardless of this application going
forward or not. That -- that isn't an existing situation. There has been a number of
comments about the idea that we should stop development until there is a solution.
Unfortunately, I agree with the Mayor that there is no solution without development,
because this property is not going to be eminent domained by ACHD. I just don't see
that possibility. So, we do have to work together as a public-private partnership to arrive
at a solution to make this -- make this eventually work. So, that's a long prologue to say
that I think it would be good for us to have a conversation initially about what solution it
is that the city wants to see. We -- we came in to this week thinking it was dere and
thinking that we were going to preserve that right of way and make sure that it was
available or constructed for the city as soon as possible, so that it can be part of that
solution. If we are going with the -- the new alternative, I think we should talk about
that, because that will require a deferral to talk about a -- a new arrangement on the --
the phase two portion of the plat and to me that's the -- the key issue is to try to get
understanding on that, so that we can, then, have a -- a meaningful conversation about
what that partnership looks like to make sure that we are doing our part to make sure
that there is an alternative traffic arrangement. So, does Council agree with that or do
we want to -- to me I was hoping that maybe we hear a little bit more from Caleb, for
example, about that, so that we can understand where -- where this third alternative is --
you know, what the incentives are and -- and, then, maybe we can guide our rebuttal
testimony based on that.
Overton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: I would like to hear from Caleb Hood on those discussions that he had with
Mindy with ACHD.
Hood: Mr. Mayor, if you and the Council are good with that I have got just a quick recap
history of kind of what's gone on over the last four weeks. So, four weeks ago Kittelson
& Associates, who we hired to evaluate -- further refine, if you will, what you see on the
screen now is actually from our 2019 Comprehensive Plan. It's one of the three
concepts that was developed at that time. So, Mr. Semple mentioned earlier that the --
the -- there was some inconsistencies with their project and the comp plan. I -- I don't
know that I would say it that way. It wasn't fully developed from 2019. This has been on
the books and we really haven't taken it to the next level -- level to refine and really
identify where that roadway network could work and so we hired Kittelson last year and
-- and they presented to you on the -- the 27th of last month. Two days later city staff
and ACHD staff met to kind of -- they -- they watched it online as they do typically for a
lot of our meetings and we talked through kind of next steps, primarily adding it to the
master street map. As part of that conversation we talked about maybe not having the
-- the way Alternative D was shown by the consultant and based on a lot of the
conversation that the -- that the Council had during the presentation on the 27th about
making it as direct as, you know, appetizing as possible to motorists to use, instead of
cutting through Woodbridge, we said, hey, let's move that -- instead of using the circle --
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Wells Circle as the -- the collector, moving that up somewhere south of the Five Mile
Creek and north of Wells Circle meeting that offset and that's what was communicated
to the development team -- the same day actually. We met with them on -- on Thursday
and had a meeting -- Hethe actually I think e-mailed us on Tuesday after the -- the 27th
watching that meeting and wanted to just make sure we were hearing the same thing
from Council and, yes, it is Alternative D. When we met with ACHD staff said the master
street map isn't an engineering document, it's more like our comp plan. It's a guide;
right? It doesn't say it has to be exactly right here, but it should paint the picture and the
vision for what's needed for the -- the transportation network. So, when having those
conversations with -- would you mind advancing the slides on. So, here is some of the
original concepts from Kittelson and I'm going to just scroll past that one. So, here is
what D looked like. I think you had some version of this in -- in your presentation as
well, so I'm not going to linger here long, but this is what was explained to the applicant
-- and I will apologize I didn't do a very good job, obviously, because we tried to say
south of the Five Mile Creek, north of Circle Drive and -- but somewhere in there you
guys can pick, because those dimensions for the lots -- we aren't designing the project
for them, so somewhere in there we need a collector roadway. But this is, essentially,
what would happen and go between -- north of the existing hotel there and -- and hook
up with Allen -- with Freeway Drive to, then, get to Allen and up to the signal or if you
are going southbound on Eagle Road. So, anyways, that's -- that was just shared
yesterday. So, this is what I think is being referred to as sharing yesterday. This exhibit
was just shared with the applicant team. But we have talked about it over the last
couple of weeks trying to verbally and even in written explain what this Alternative D
modified kind of look like and what we were gearing up to present to ACHD and their
Commission next Wednesday. So, staff is prepared, been meeting with their staff even
after two days after you heard the presentation and just fine tuning our presentation to
go to the ACHD Commission, so -- but, again, this modification to Alternative D -- and
Mayor I think did a great job of explaining -- was based on the feedback we heard given
consultant and staff when Alternative D was presented to you all here four weeks ago.
So, that is staff's preferred location, although, again, this isn't exact, so even the overlay
that was shown earlier it could use that -- their local street in that location if that works
better for them or even move south a little bit. I will share -- we did talk to Mindy
Wallace this morning and I'm not sure if she is online. We are just trying to verify. But it
didn't sound like she had logged in yet. But if it's a collector does need to be 330 feet
offset from -- if it's a collector -- from a collector to a local street. Local streets only
require 125 foot offset. So, that's why it need -- that offset is what we were trying to look
forward to. There is a minimum. You can't just butt it right up to Wells Circle Drive. But
this generally would be the location to make that as direct of a connection out to the
central intersection -- the signalization at Locust Grove. So, hopefully, that kind of gets
you up to speed on some of the conversations that have gone on over the last roughly
month.
Simison: So, Caleb, since you are answering questions, if -- if we were to make -- and I
don't know the name of the street -- but emergency access only coming out, what does
that process generally look like? Do you need to ask ACHD on that and -- yeah, I don't
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-- I'm not going to ask you to handicap the likelihood of their decision, but what would
that look like?
Hood: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, I -- I can let you know that request or evaluation for the -- for
that request was submitted to ACHD and they were and are looking at it. It was brought
to our Transportation Commission actually here -- it was either last meeting or the
meeting before and that is up -- largely up to ACHD. I don't bet too terribly often. I don't
think the probability is very high, though, the likelihood of that actually being bollarded or
dead end or emergency access only. Now, maybe if you had another road that could be
bollarded, but as is now I would not -- I'm not thinking that's a very high likelihood of -- of
-- of happening.
Simison: And is there a specific reason to your knowledge? And I -- I look at it this way.
I can tell you one place we have never got any complaints about traffic in the City of
Meridian and that's from the -- the subdivisions coming off of Locust Grove that can't
access Meridian Road through the Waltman property. I'm not going to say they like their
drive around, but we don't get complaints and it's a much bigger issue, but they have
several exit points onto Locust Grove. So, I didn't know what your thoughts would be on
the reason why.
Hood: And, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate the question to a degree, because I'm not a traffic
engineer, so I can't give you the -- all the reasons why ACHD may or may not allow it to
be bollarded or otherwise closed off to the public, but it is a public road, so a public
street generally is accessible by the public and they don't -- I can't think of another case
where they have actually closed off a public road with -- absent a vacation. So, if there
were a vacation of a portion of that right of way and it's no longer public, accessibility
there maybe. I will -- I will throw two more things in there. Why don't I think ACHD will
probably support this. One is they are going to probably look to the fire department and
go, okay, you are not -- you can still technically get through with bollard or a gate or
something, but it is going to hamper their -- their access in -- into and through this area.
So, that's one. The other one is we are going to send everybody out to Locust Grove
and Franklin, Eagle, which are already congested and through those intersections,
which are already a mess. So, if you are forcing everybody, including the Woodbridge
neighbors, out to those intersections -- that's why people are cutting through, because
it's not easy to get through Eagle and Franklin. Well, now if you have to go through
Eagle and Franklin and you are pushing more -- even more people through, that would
otherwise have an opportunity to get out to Eagle Road directly, you are just going to
cause more delay at those intersections that are already failing. So, I just don't think
they are going to -- I'm not -- I don't know for sure. That is a question for ACHD. But
know they have been petitioned to look at that and we are still waiting to kind of see
what that -- what that analysis looks like. But the Transportation Commission is tracking
as well.
Simison: Okay.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
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Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: I understand it would be unprecedented. It would be a big shift for them. I'm
just brainstorming and away from this application, but I would think if the City Council
wanted to send a letter that we would like an emergency measure put in place until such
time that we can complete this concept, I would hope that they would be open to that,
because that -- that wouldn't tie their hands down the road later to opening it once an
alternative route has been established. It's just -- the situation is so acute and I think it's
a very productive suggestion that neighbors I think would have to weigh in on it some
more to some extent, but I don't -- I -- I -- I'm open to it personally. On this third --
guess this third option, it's really -- I guess the only difference here is some of the sharp
turning movements. What would you suggest in terms of timing of phasing and so forth
with this kind of a concept? I mean Hethe has mentioned he is open to a continuance
to try to iron this out in further detail. I feel kind of uncomfortable that this work would
happen in phase two, although I -- I don't know that, you know, having it earlier really
accomplishes much if we can't get that segment completed and so I'm just curious kind
of what your thoughts are around timing and, you know, it -- working through this.
Hood: So, Mr. Mayor -- Mayor, Council Woman Strader, I guess it kind of depends on
the question. I would like to see, you know, some resolution to this and they do get to
set the stage for continuing further to the west to eventually make this condition. I will
echo on the last couple of comments, though, on this. I mean this is going to be
development driven. This -- this will not be -- we have -- we had -- that was part of our
conversation. ACHD at least -- not right now. We could maybe add it to the letter if we
are going to ask them to consider bollarding the Woodbridge Subdivision, including this
in their programming as well, but it doesn't -- it's not impact fee eligible and it's -- and it's
not even a collector right now, it's just a local street. So, they don't fund those. That is
on the backs and shoulders of development as it occurs. So, it's not really eligible for
their capital improvements plan.
Strader: Okay.
Hood: Unprecedented. So, not saying it could never happen, but the likelihood -- and
it's -- that -- it's not -- not a very great candidate for something to use ACHD capital to
move the needle on -- on that. So, the timing I think, yes, let's get a design and I think
that's -- the applicant, you know, is here today to kind of get that feedback from you, is
it, you know, using the existing right of way there -- it -- it can work. Like the Mayor said
previously, though, that kink makes it awkward and not as, you know, attractive to use,
again, for motorists. With some additional tweaking there, though, maybe it -- maybe it
will function fine. That -- that is some of the analysis we don't know staff and some of
the next steps that we were going to look at with ACHD and -- and potentially even
additional consultants is how do we make this intersection function efficiently. We are
not -- we are not with -- absent a government agency stepping in -- and I don't see that
happening and going and condemning or working with to otherwise acquire or buy
property and build the road, again, we are going to be relying on development to
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happen and so the timing of it -- this is a piece of it. Getting the rest of it or the other
additional pieces of it is going to take some time.
Overton: Mr. Mayor, quick question.
Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: Caleb, just to -- sometimes these maps are hard to look at --
Hood: Yeah.
Overton: -- and understand. Just so we are clear with the folks in the audience, when
we are looking at that red dotted line right where your cursor is that coming up on what
would be south of Five Mile Creek --
Hood: Yeah.
Overton: -- through the applicant's current project. It is T'ing with Wells. It is, then,
going behind the hotel. It's -- it's in that corner and, then, the cutback is after that hotel
before it hits Five Mile Creek the second time.
Hood: Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Councilman Overton. That -- that -- that's a great
way to describe it. So, this is -- this is basically the southern boundary of the applicant's
site. This is the existing Wells Circle. So, Willamette Dental is right here. Here is the --
the applicant's project is right here. So, yes, it -- and, again, the applicant in their
presentation had a line that kind of went through -- and, again, this isn't the exact
location, but the way you describe it is great. Going north of the existing hotel. This --
again, this isn't designed exactly, we would need to figure this out with ACHD and
engineer it. That Five Mile Creek actually comes in right about here. So, it's -- it's not a
simple intersection by any means, but at least it makes that more of a direct connection
up Freeway to Allen, gets you to the signal or out to Eagle Road more directly.
Overton: Thank you.
Simison: Any further questions for -- for Mr. Hood? No? All right. So, he's -- so, Hethe,
so you got seven minutes left.
Clark: I will go fast.
Simison: Are you making a -- are you keeping going?
Clark: I'm going to go for one second longer and, then, I'm going to hand it off to Ben,
because I think maybe I can wrap up what we were just talking about here and maybe
give it a little direction. So, the -- we are prepared to develop in accordance with option
-- I will call it Option Thee, whatever is up -- what was on the screen. So, to just be
clear, in contrast to what we had previously shown, that one does require a
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reconfiguration of our Phase Two. So, that would mean that if it's the Council's direction
to design according to that, then, we need a couple weeks to come back to you with a
flipped Phase Two, so you can know what it is that you are approving. A couple of items
along that line, too, just to kind of close that thought out. One is that we would be in
support of Council Member Strader's suggestion about, A, trying to reach out to ACHD
and tie the emergency access to the -- the creation of the -- of the new roadway. We
think -- we designed our project so that you folks would go away from Woodbridge. You
might recall that we have just emergency access on the north side and we put our main
access all the way down on Wells to push that -- folks that way. So, we are -- we are
more than comfortable with that. Also to Council Member Strader's comment about
making sure that we are committed to make -- have the solution in place. One way
have seen that happen is that we share -- we share your concern about not putting
pavement down that leads to nowhere and is kind of a sunk cost in the short run, but
have seen in certain development agreements where if there is notice from the city that
says, hey, we have got that other piece and you give six months' notice that we have --
we are obligated to go make sure that that's dedicated and put in place. So, there are
ways to deal with that even with the phasing, so -- and -- and we would be happy to
include a condition along those lines in the development agreement to make sure that
that commitment Is clear, because we do feel that way. So, I'm going to turn it over to
Ben to finish out otherwise.
Semple: Thanks, Hethe. Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, just real quickly I wanted to
touch on some of the other items. The TIA status in particular. We did talk with ITD.
just checked with our civil engineering consultant that's here. They talked to them this
week. We can get that TIA. They said they -- ITD was -- basically had kind of put this
on ice just like we had when we kind of got deferred, because of this whole collector
issue. We can submit that to ITD this week, like tomorrow or by Friday, so that they can
have that to start evaluating. Also because we didn't advance that any further is
because we had put this on hold for ten months and we didn't even know if we had a
project at this point. If we don't have a project we don't have traffic to evaluate. So, we
are -- we are ready for that to happen. I did want to touch on something. The fence on
the west side -- the survey shows that it does not follow perfectly the property line there.
The project -- those -- that fence will be addressed when this project starts to get built.
That builder or the developer, my client, will reach out to those homeowners at that
point. We can't go fix a fence, again, if we don't have a project. My developers aren't
going to go do an outlay to fix everyone's fences if they don't have a project that they
are advancing. Pacific Lifestyle Homes and the developer had an agreement. They
had some conversations a few weeks. That agreement didn't work anymore for either
party and they both mutually terminated their agreement and so my client selected
another builder, because they needed to have a builder, so that they could provide
some conceptual elevations. It's our understanding that City Council doesn't review
single family design. This is something that -- and you guys also don't dictate a builder
on a project. Lots of projects get constructed full subdivision lots with, you know, maybe
a couple builders on -- on the line. So, talking to the builder we just got confirmation
these homes are an average of 2,000 square feet. They do have a smaller model at
14,178, but they have models at 26,002 square feet. The smaller homes average
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400,000 starting, with up to 20 percent add-ons for additional improvements, finishes
inside. The 2,000 to 2,600 square foot are going to start around 500,000 plus, with that
same additional add-ons. So, these homes are very comparable to the previous home
builder as well. I'm glad that we have some direction on this alignment. I think that
actually are -- where we have what's called Equator Drive that you can see, it's just to
the left of that right dashed line, with some minor adjustments we can make that work.
We will dedicate that right of way that will fully accommodate a collector roadway in the
future. That, as you heard Hethe say, that we are committed to that and my client is
also committed to that. We will continue to work with ACHD. Again as Hethe stated, we
would be in support of, you know, some working with a development agreement and
ACHD to figure out how to protect the residents of Woodbridge until there is a larger
collector roadway to facilitate more traffic. This is not a high density housing project.
This is actually a lower density than what the designations of the comp plan would allow
within the city's code. So, I appreciate that -- the comment that, you know, it's different
than Woodbridge, but I -- I would not classify this as a high density residential project.
want to also clarify setbacks. We are not proposing a ten foot rear setback. We never
have proposed a ten foot rear setback. If the previous builder had certain models that
worked for him -- that worked for them -- during our previous City Council hearing we
did not commit to anything more than a 20 foot rear setback to the main body of the
home, with the provision to go to 12 feet with a covered patio. That's in the record.
That is in my notes. That was in my presentation from the last time as well. So, I just
wanted to, again, commit -- we have talked to the builder. This will be put in the
development agreement, 20 foot rear setback to any two-story home, but we would
retain the -- the provision for a single story home to go to that 12 foot rear setback as is
allowed in the R-8 zone. We feel like that will protect other homes on that side of
Woodbridge -- on the Woodbridge side of the fence. There is a mixture of one and two-
story homes on their side as well and they have setbacks --just measuring from Google
Earth and, you know, some other aerial photos, between 15 and 20 feet to the back of
their homes. Trying to look at other notes real quick. ACHD -- while ITD did request a
TIA for the intersections and Eagle Road, ACHD did not request, nor did they require a
TIS for this project. With that I would stand for additional questions.
Simison: Thank you. Council, additional questions?
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Strader.
Strader: A comment and, then, a question. We have not in the past spent a lot of time
reviewing elevations of single family homes, but I take issue with the concept that we
could not on an annexation. City councils have a lot more discretion on annexations
and whether they are in the best interest of the city. I had an example in my district
where elevations actually became extremely important and we ended up with a four
story building where we were expecting a three story building. So, elevations are pretty
important to me at this point and I will look at them anytime. So just to let you know
about that. Trying to be productive, you know, would you like maybe a six month
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continuance or something to try to carry the ball and see if you could get the
Woodbridge neighborhood to vote or somehow get consensus on whether they would
want emergency closure and bollards to their subdivision, work with ACHD -- and I think
those of us on the Council that would support that concept could help support you in
that, providing letters or whatever is needed to ACHD and try to see if you could come
up with some sort of an arrangement like that. Is that the time frame that we are talking
about? You are talking about getting ITD rolling on a TIA next week. This doesn't feel
like this will be solved in the next few weeks to me. I think if you are able to -- I would
love for you to try to see if we could get some kind of solution together in the next six
months. But I just wanted your feedback on timing and kind of process from this point.
If -- if I had to vote today I don't see a path here, but maybe with time and you working
through this maybe there is a way to solve a lot of the issues together. So, I would just
like your feedback on that.
Semple: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Strader, I'm not -- I -- I can't commit my
client to a six month deferral at this point after ten months of deferrals so far. When we
came to the initial City Council hearing with no knowledge of this issue of an east-west
collector and ten months ago it was brought to our attention at this hearing. We have
adjusted our plan. We have worked with staff. We have really tried hard to get to a
point -- multiple deferrals to try to work through all of these issues. The TIA my
understanding it was a recommendation from ITD to do a traffic impact analysis of the
intersections on Highway 55 and how this could impact that. We are going to request
that they advance that as quickly as possible, obviously, so we can get a solution. I do
know the last time we were here at the full hearing we had a very robust conversation
about how the first phase of this project, for one, didn't -- we didn't feel like it really got in
the way of this east-west collector, felt like the majority of the Council kind of felt -- at
least had made some comments about how they were almost there on the north half, if
we could solve for this in the future. So, I think we have shown we are willing to commit
time and effort to help the city to work in partnership, public and private, to solve this
issue, because it is an issue. All that to say I'm going to need to get feedback from my
client. I think that six months -- again, I can't commit them to that. I think that what
Hethe has asked for is a two week deferral for us to work on the southern half of this.
What I would request is to allow that to occur, so that we can work with ITD, see what
kind of information we could get back and at least determine the time frame, so that we
could come have a conversation and provide you with a realistic time frame to have an
answer for that, because I could say, sure, we will give six months and what if we go six
months and, then, still not solved. But if we got it solved in two weeks, then, we would
be sitting for six months waiting.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Yeah. I -- I get where you are coming from. I just -- looking for some direction
tonight. So, I think it -- I think that the choices are do you want an up or down vote on
this tonight? Do you want a continuance and for how long? Or do you maybe want to
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request a break until 8:00 o'clock or something so you could call your client and maybe
get a better sense. Because we could -- I mean you could -- it's your right as the
applicant, you can ask for an up or down vote tonight, but I -- my understanding is if that
occurs -- and sometimes that can significantly delay future attempts. So, that -- that's
kind of why I was asking that. And I don't -- I'm not saying six months is the answer, but
just trying to get some direction from you on what you would like to do.
Semple: Mr. Mayor, Council Member Strader, I don't have to wait until 8:00. My client's
sitting in the audience here. So, if you can give me two minutes I can come back up
with an answer for you.
Simison: Well, why don't -- it is -- we have been up here for two hours. Why don't we
take a break and we will continue at 8:00 o'clock with that answer and, Caleb, maybe
give you -- I know ACHD's contact -- when do you think they might make a decision on
the request from transportation -- I don't know if we can do any research on that in the
next ten minutes. We will take a break. So recess until 8:00 o'clock.
(Recess: 7:50 p.m. to 8:03 p.m.)
Simison: All right. We are going to go ahead and come back. We -- just once looking
for one more City Council Member. Oh, there she is. She's up here. Okay. Do
understand that there may be a request?
Semple: Mr. Mayor and City Council, yes. After conversing with my client we would like
to request a six week deferral, primarily to -- for the reason -- the following reasons: We
would like to get in touch with ACHD to further the conversation about the request that
we have heard from the HOA, as well as what it sounds like the city may have already
communicated to ACHD about some temporary bollarding emergency access and the --
the future collector location. We also did -- we were able to get our builder on the
phone and they have committed to providing some updated elevations with some new
materials, as well as we will be setting up a meeting with the HOA with that builder to
work through some of the -- the questions and concerns that the neighbors have on this
and that will allow us time to continue the conversation with ITD or -- around the TIA and
we can work on the new pre-plat alignment that preserves the future collector right of
way through phase two and also resolves what that does to our layout in terms of where
our commercial is located, where our residential is located, to ensure that we meet all
the UDC standards for buffering, for residentials along collectors. My initial take on it
and just looking at this and in talking with staff a little bit as well is that most of our open
space ends up being consolidated in the center of this full development surrounding
Five Mile Creek with still that connected -- pedestrian connectivity north-south through
that to allow unencumbered pedestrian activity to get to the commercial from the
residential. With that I would stand for any additional questions if you have any.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any additional questions for --
Overton: Mr. Mayor?
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Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: So, Ben and Hethe -- and for everybody in the room, full disclosure for those
that don't know, because I think there is still a couple people in the room that don't
know. I have been a proud homeowner in Woodbridge for 24 years and I have stood up
on the side that you are at tonight many many times arguing for Woodbridge, arguing on
traffic. It's still very near and dear to my heart and it's a big concern. The reason we
stopped ten months ago was because the only possible solution we have long term was
not solidified. It was conceptualized and that was it. We could run a road through here.
We can try to get traffic out of Woodbridge. And so we made a request. Council
honored that request that we have a study done. That study is what came up with the
preferred route through the south portion of this project, what's called phase two on the
south side Five Mile Creek, where I think we are at now is -- and I appreciate Hethe and
Ben for all your patience as we have gone through that, but where we are at now is --
think the Woodbridge residents had a certain comfortable position with the prior builder.
They really need to meet with and get a level of comfort with the new builder and I think,
unfortunately, bringing a new builder in at the end and changing the look of the houses
-- that didn't work out so well for you and I think we need to do that differently and six
weeks should be enough time for us to organize those type of meetings. I'm not going
to promise I can support this in the end anyway, because it's a mess and living there 24
years I -- it was still dirt on phase two in Woodbridge and the way they built it to do
traffic calming, it didn't quite work out that way. The traffic calming ended up being -- if
you were in phase two of Woodbridge, basically I'm talking about the east side of the
creek. All that traffic went in front of your houses, instead of how it was on phase one
where everybody was in pods. Not our finest moment allowing the developer to do it. It
was a council -- shoot, it was 2001 when the council approved that. But we are here
today and we have been here for several years trying to mitigate and fix this with
whatever thing we have possible in our toolbox. That's been my fight for, shoot, at least
15 of my 24 years in Woodbridge. So, when we try to find a solution to this I need
everyone to understand -- and I appreciate the flexibility that the applicants are having
going another six weeks. Let's see if we can make headway on not just the possibility
of ACHD putting a bollard or gates up, but how that progress is going to go on that
preferred route, because we still haven't gotten that finished on our end with ACHD and
to see if you can reach that comfortable level again like you had with the previous
developer with the HOA and the residents of Woodbridge, because it should be known
as we have gone through projects over the years and we have had I think three or four
-- we approved a couple of them. This group is not all about the word no. They are all
about the word fair and they want to make sure that what's done is done fairly for them
and in the best interest of everybody involved. So, I appreciate you coming back. I
think six weeks is a good move and I would certainly support that move to come back.
Simison: Thank you. Before I do a motion, Council, I mean we could put this on for
next week, but if this Council wants to send a letter to ACHD on this regarding making a
recommendation or making an urgency to evaluate the request that is apparently
already with staff?
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Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I think it's -- I think it -- to me it's going to be -- it will be twofold. I think, yes,
we should be sending a letter to ACHD, but I'm going to volun-tell our good HOA
president Robin to also engage and ask this question amongst the residents. I -- I can
totally appreciate everyone of you here -- as a quick -- hands went up quick, yeah, we --
we want some of this stuff blocked off. We work for everybody who lives in Meridian
and I recognize there are probably people that are home that don't feel that same way
and so it's important for us that we want to hear from those as well. We don't want to
make a decision in a vacuum. So, Robin, I'm going to ask you to -- to reach out to your
neighbors and, you know, ask them their thoughts on -- on blocking it off. I -- I know at
one point there was a request about speed bumps. I would like to maybe request that
that be -- provide that to us when you come back of what -- how you polled the
neighbors and what the response is, so we can have that piece. I think that needs to
run parallel while we are asking ACHD, because what I don't want to have happen is we
come back and, then, we send a letter, then, we say, well, wait, wait, wait, what do the --
what do the rest of the neighbors think. I'm trying to make -- trying to run two paths at
the same time, Mr. Mayor.
Simison: Okay. I will figure out what that means for what our letter will state in our
conversations after this evening, so -- okay. With that do I have a motion from
anybody?
Overton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: I would like to move that we continue H-2024-0059 until April 7th, 2026.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to continue this item to April 7th. Is there
discussion?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Because -- I'm happy to speak to the motion. I'm going to support the motion.
think there are some subsequent things that maybe need to happen in terms of
communication to the highway district that doesn't necessarily need to be captured
within this motion. So, maybe you and I and staff and council president can touch base
afterwards, because I think there is some additional follow-up actions that we may want
to inquire from the highway district as well.
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Simison: Okay. And we will include Mr. Hood in that conversation after this meeting.
Cavener: Thanks.
Simison: Okay. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the item is continued. We will see you all back
hopefully with good resolutions, so --
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
2. Public Hearing for Cielo Azul Condominium (SHP-2026-0001) by
Marcel Lopez, located at 3512 and 3526 E. Louise Dr.
A. Request: Short Plat to condominiumize two (2) office buildings into
eight (8) office units for individual ownership within the L-O zoning
district.
Simison: Okay. With that we will move on to Item 2, which is a public hearing for SHP-
2026-0001 and we will open this public hearing with staff comments.
Napoli: Mayor, Members of the Council, give it a second real quick. Members of the
Council, good evening. Next item -- item on the agenda is the short plat for Cielo Azul.
The site consists of 1.1 acres of land, zoned L-O, located at 3512 East Louise Drive and
3526 East Louise Drive. So, the applicant requests a short plat to condominiumize two
office buildings into eight separate office units for individual ownership. The proposed
short plat depicts subdivision of airspace within these two office buildings. They are on
two separate properties and are currently under construction. The proposed short plat
aims to create the eight separate office condominium units for future ownership
purposes and as stated the buildings are under construction and are in compliance with
previous approvals. Staff is recommending approval with conditions of this one and has
not received any written testimony and I will stand for any questions.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions for staff? Okay. Is the applicant here?
Good evening.
Lopez: Good evening.
Simison: If you could state your name and address for the record and be recognized for
ten minutes.
Lopez: Yes, sir. Thank you. Marcel Lopez with Conger Group, 810 East Central Lane,
Suite 120, Meridian. 83642. Thank you. Happy to be here tonight. Want to thank Nick
for his help in getting us through this process. Yeah. So, Nick explained it pretty well.
Super simple. Short plat for condo of the two buildings to create the eight suites for
ownership, rather than having these commercial offices as an option, rather than paying
for rent. They are currently under construction. Anticipated completion will be in April
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this year. So, we are approaching that real quick here. But, yeah, super simple.
Appreciate Nick's time and effort and ask for -- respectfully ask for your approval.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Taylor: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Taylor.
Taylor: I just have a real quick question. I'm really -- really curious about the -- making
these condominium style ownership. Is that -- how common is that in sort of this office
space in the marketplace? Is it something that is a growing interest or is it something
kind of new that you are trying out and just kind of really curious about that.
Lopez: Sure. Mayor, Council Member Taylor, so this is our first endeavor into this
condo -- office condo product. There has been a few in the last couple of years here in
Meridian. There was a big one done on Ustick and I forget the cross-street, but that one
looks like at least -- it sold actually pretty quick and most of those units are currently
under ownership, so -- there is also ones that we are seeing happen in Nampa. Not so
much in Caldwell. Boise is -- haven't seen much. There is a lot of -- condo -- older
condo plats, more residential than commercial, but with the cost of land, the cost of
construction, this is an alternative to leasing and really gives the small, medium
business owners an opportunity to own, but, you know, helps distribute that cost, rather
than buying -- you know, buying a building and -- at a higher expense.
Simison: Any additional questions? Okay. Thank you very much.
Lopez: Thank you.
Simison: Madam Clerk, anyone signed up to provide testimony on this item?
Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, I have Mike Seaman. Might have been for the
other --
Simison: Maybe. Okay. Is there anybody present who would like to provide testimony
on this item, either in the room or online? If you are online use the raise your hand
feature. Seeing no one raising their hand or coming forward, applicant, do you waive
any final comments? Does the optical waive -- or would you like to make any final
comments?
Lopez: No. Thank you. We are just in -- in agreement with the staff report and
appreciate your conservation.
Simison: Okay. Thank you very much.
Overton: Mr. Mayor?
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February 24,2026
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Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: Seeing that there is no more public comments, I move we close the public
hearing.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Is there any
discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it
and the public hearing is closed.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Overton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Overton.
Overton: I kind of like it when I see new products out there that we are not used to
seeing all the time, because it may be they are responding to something that we don't
even see happening in the community and -- and it's -- it's refreshing to see. I -- I get
tired sometimes of seeing the same old thing over and over again. So, thank you. And
with that I would like to -- after considering all staff, applicant, and public testimony
move to approve File No. SHP-2026-0001 as presented in the staff report for the
hearing date of February 24, 2026.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve Item 2, which is SHP-2026-0001. Is
there discussion? If not, clerk call the roll.
Roll Call: Cavener, yea; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea;
Whitlock, yea.
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries and the item is agreed to.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
3. Public Hearing for Farrington Heights Subdivision RZ, PP, MDA (H-
2025-0016) by Studio H Architects, generally located at the NW
corner of E. Pine Ave. and N. Adkins Ave.
A. Request: Rezone of 2.9 acres of land from the R-4 to the R-15
zoning district.
B. Request: Preliminary Plat on 4.68 acres of land consisting of 25
building lots and 6 common lots.
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C. Request: Development Agreement Modification to terminate the
existing development agreement and establish a new one.
Simison: With that we will move on to Item 3, which is public hearing for Farrington
Heights Subdivision, which is H-2025-0016. We will open this public hearing with staff
comments.
Napoli: Mayor, Members of the Council, next item on the agenda is the rezone,
preliminary plat and development agreement modification for Farrington Heights. The
applicant requests a rezone of 2.9 acres of the 4.68 acres of land from the R-4 zoning
district to the R-15 zoning district, leaving the remaining 1.78 acres as the R-4 zoning
district. A preliminary plat consisting of 24 building lots -- and that will be 21 new
buildable lots, with three existing ones that the three existing homes will remain on and
seven common lots across that 4.68 acres of land and a development agreement
modification to replace the current one with the new one. So, the subject properties
were annexed in 2000 as a part of the Farrington Opel application and the zoning
granted at that time was R-4 -- would be R-4 zoning district. With the annexation
approval the properties were subject to a development agreement that restricts the
properties to adding one additional home on the 4.68 acres. This -- this is the reason
for the DA modification request tonight. In addition, this application was previously
heard by the Planning and Zoning Commission on August 7th of 2025 and was
recommended for denial. The City Council, then, heard that application later in
September and remanded that application back to the Planning and Zoning
Commission to address concerns from the neighbors. During the next Planning and
Zoning Commission hearing on December 4th of 2025 the Commission asked the
applicant to remove the open space to allow for larger building lots to accommodate
some single story homes adjacent to the existing residential homes to the west. The
applicant has revised their plan to lose an additional lot, provide larger lot sizes and
single story homes adjacent to the western boundary. In addition, they have reoriented
the local street at the northern boundary to eliminate single family homes that abut the
single family homes to the north and at the January 5th hearing of 2026 the
Commission did recommend approval to City Council of this application and as a result
of that staff did amend our staff report several times and the most recent amendment to
the staff report proposed a provision in the development agreement that restricts Lots 2
through 8 -- so, that would be this western boundary where my cursor is at. So, lots 2
through 8 will be restricted to single story dwellings and Commission did add a provision
restricting building heights in the entire subdivision to a maximum of 35 feet, which
would be consistent with the R-4 zoning district. R-4 -- the R-15 zoning district would
allow them to go up to 40 feet. However, the Commission recommended restricting all
heights to 35 feet. So, the surrounding landscape of this subdivision consists of single
family detached homes to the north, east and west, while to the south is Pine Avenue.
The average density for one mile radius is 6.1 acre -- 6.1 units per acre, which is higher
than the 5.12 units per acre the applicant is proposing. Access to the property is
proposed from North Adkins Avenue, a local roadway on the eastern portion of the site.
This local street is a shared drive between the proposed subdivision and the existing
subdivision to the east and north. The applicant is proposing three access points off of
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North Adkins, with one being a common drive for access to 14, 15 and 16 of Block 1
and the other two being local street extensions. No open space or amenities are
required to do the subdivision -- subdivision being under five acres in size and as
mentioned earlier the Commission actually did direct the applicant to remove the open
space and amenities to provide larger lots to accommodate single story homes. So, the
main concern from the citizens regarding the proposed traffic at the Planning and
Zoning Commission hearing where traffic, parking and building height allowances. The
applicant revised their plat to make larger lot sizes, restrict -- wow. I apologize. To
make larger lot sizes and restricts lots that abut the existing homes to the west to single
story. However, some of the citizens did ask for clarification on building heights and
wanted to see them below 26 feet in height. In addition, the citizens had concerns
about overflow parking spilling onto the streets. However, most of the neighbors were
appreciative of the major changes the applicant has made to address their major
concerns throughout this process. I did want to touch on their updated elevations. So,
they did provide some updated elevations for you tonight to show that single story and
two-story product. So, the single story homes they did provide a few different elevations
that will go in the development agreement for tonight and there is some additional two-
story elevations as well for the properties that will be able to develop for two-story. So,
the Commission is recommending approval of this application and we have not received
any written testimony since the Commission hearing and I will stand for any questions
that you have.
Simison: Thank you, Nick. Council, any questions for staff? Okay. Would the
applicant like to come forward. Good evening.
Durtschi: Good evening. Nick's getting my PowerPoint started. Mayor, Members of
Council, hello and good evening again. My name is Sabrina Durtschi and I'm here on
behalf of the applicant. My business address is 5179 South Bovin Avenue, Boise, Idaho
837 -- 83716 and this evening I am so excited to present to you our application for
Farrington Heights Subdivision. So, Farrington Heights has been envisioned as a
welcoming, modern and thoughtfully planned community that future residents are going
to be proud to call home. In shaping the design and overall theme we layered in clean
contemporary elements inspired by the craftsman architecture and modern farmhouse
influence. Our goal is to create an in-fill project that feels both timeless and balanced,
modern and fresh in character, yet warm and inviting and here is a view from our Adkins
approach as you drive down the street for the new community. The site embraces a
contemporary aesthetic and provides the opportunity to transform an underutilized
parcel into a cohesive neighborhood oriented residential enclave. The homes are
thoughtfully arranged to frame the internal street to create a strong sense of place and
visual continuity and a blend of architectural styles with craftsman influences, introduces
character and variation, while maintaining a unified, harmonious streetscape. Shown
here is one of our primary entrances and the monumentation for Farrington Heights.
This concept reinforces the modern identity of the neighborhood and establishes a
clear, attractive arrival experience as people enter and recognize the community. As
Nick has gone over with Farrington Heights we are requesting a DA modification, a
rezone and a preliminary plat. Highlighted in white are the three existing homes that are
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February 24,2026
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part of our application and, then, we will have 21 new single family homes and seven
common lots. Our gross density will be 5.12 units per acre, with our diverse residential
lot sizes ranging from 2,951 square feet up to over 9,078 square feet. So, with this
application a portion of the site will be rezoned to R-15. This request is not being made
to increase the overall density of the project, instead the purpose of the R-15
designation is to provide the flexibility needs to meet the zoning standards that are often
challenging within in-fill development. The R-15 rezone helps us address those
complexities by allowing us to create a well-designed and functional, cohesive
neighborhood. What -- with a reduced lot count and overall project vision. As the staff
report states and Nick had mentioned, our density is at 5.12 units per acre, which is less
than the one mile radius of the existing residences, which is at 6.1. So, we believe that
the zoning request of R-15 directly supports the creation of a high quality in-fill
community. So, to better understand how the site fits in within the broader area I think
it's helpful just to quickly review the surrounding context. To the north we have multiple
phases of Danbury Fair Subdivision, platted between 1994 and 1996. There is also an
enclave parcel directly north to us that is still in the county. To the east we have Maws
Edition No. 1 and 2 platted in 1993. To the south we have Pine Avenue that borders the
site with industrial and commercial development located directly south, including the
weed and pest control campus and to the west we have Danbury Fair Subdivision again
and further west is the Avery Subdivision, which was platted back in 2019. So, the
subject site is surrounded primarily by established residential neighborhoods that --
nearby subdivisions dating back into the 1990s through the most recent 2019, reflecting
a pattern of continued residential growth for this area. So, over the last few months we
have worked diligently with the neighbors -- property owners to shape a community that
fits well with the surrounding subdivisions. We sincerely appreciate the input, the
collaboration and support expressed by the neighbors, including their supportive
comments within our last Planning and Zoning Commission hearing. Now, as Nick
mentioned, we have made several revisions to our application, so I want to quickly walk
you through the changes. The first hearing back in August here was our original
application and this included 30 lots. During that hearing the Commission provided
direction to revise the plan and incorporate usable open space into the site. The
applicant went back to the drawing board. We provided the second revised layout. This
layout reduced the lot count by five to 25, included open space. We provided some
amenities as the zoning Commission requested. So on our December 4th hearing we
were, then, redirected to remove the open space -- to incorporate the open space into
the western lots to make them larger. So, after all these directions the applicant has
finally made modifications within this third and, hopefully, last layout in which we
received a unanimous recommendation of approval from Planning and Zoning
Commission. So, what did we do? We relocated the northern road -- alignment of the
road to create a stronger buffer between the project and the northern abutting
properties. We removed previously proposed open space and redistributed that area
into the western lots and, finally, we increased the lot sizes along the western edge to
better accommodate single story and improve compatibility. With these significant
changes the applicant is also committed to limiting the lots along the western boundary
to single level homes in order to help alleviate neighboring concerns and provide an
appropriate and sensitive transitioning to the surrounding properties. I share this
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February 24,2026
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feedback to make a clear understanding of the history and the evolution of the project.
It is evident that the applicant has made a strong effort to be responsive, to be good
neighbors and to create community that thoughtfully balances the needs of future
residents and the surrounding neighborhood. Now let's take a look at -- quickly at the
elevations for the single level homes. They are a blend of modern farmhouse,
craftsman inspired design, emphasizing strong front facing gables and clean lines and
varied materials to create a visual interest in curb appeal. We felt these designs
support a single level story that feels substantial, yet compatible with the surrounding
homes, providing appropriate transition and a cohesive, attractive streetscape. Our two
story homes continue that modern farmhouse, craftsman styled inspired architectural
theme, offering a balanced blend of clean lines, layered roof forms and varied materials.
The massing of the homes is carefully composed to provide the presence of two-story
living, while remaining compatible with the surrounding development. Together we feel
these designs contribute to a visually rich, yet harmonious neighborhood character that
complements our overall vision for Farrington Heights. And to summarize, we truly feel
that this is a well-designed, high quality community to offer a balanced blend of modern
livability. Situated in the heart of Meridian, this enclave parcel is located near
commercial and employment hubs and provides a well-rounded selection of mid-density
housing options to meet for a growing population. The City of Meridian's
Comprehensive Plan encourages in-fill that delivers of diversity of lot sizes, housing
types and densities. Farrington Heights lies with vision by introducing a fresh, modern
neighborhood character with an established area, offering new housing choices and a
thoughtful range of densities and we truly feel it will be a positive addition to the
surrounding neighborhood and a benefit to the City of Meridian as a whole. We agree
with the staff report and we did receive unanimous approval from your Planning and
Zoning Commission and with that I would like to thank you all for your time, your
thoughtful consideration and respectfully request approval of our application this
evening. Thank you so much.
Simison: Thank you, Sabrina. Council, any questions for the applicant?
Taylor: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Taylor.
Taylor: Ms. Durtschi, thank you for your presentation. I have a question on the R-4
projects. I'm -- I'm looking at the map. I see some existing structures. Those are just
being brought into the city, but there is an empty lot and stairway -- oh, yeah. Go back
to the one -- number three when you brought -- yes. The third revision there. So, we
are eliminating their driveways off of Pine; correct?
Durtschi: Uh-huh.
Taylor: And, then, giving them access with that stub road, what's the -- what is going to
be built on the north side of -- and I can't read the number of the lot, but is that going to
be a home? Because that's a much larger lot it looks like than a lot of your other ones
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and on the map I'm looking at it looks like it's blank. So, can you just help me
understand what you are -- what's going to go there?
Durtschi: Absolutely. Mayor, Council Member Taylor. So, yes, that is another single
family residential lot that will take access from the common drive and as you mentioned
we are removing, per ACHD's direction, all access off of Pine for public safety reasons.
So, that fourth lot will be a single family home.
Simison: Council, any additional questions for the applicant?
Durtschi: Thank you again so much.
Simison: Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to provide testimony
on this item?
Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes. We have Raymond Spencer.
Simison: If you would like to provide testimony, please, come forward at this time when
your name is called. Okay.
Lomeli: The other one. Rick Salladay.
Simison: Good evening. State your name and address for the record and be
recognized for three minutes.
Salladay: Mayor and Council Members. Live at 992 North Stonehenge Way. I am
directly behind this subdivision that's been planned. My biggest concern -- I have lived
there 35 years. I was one of the first residents of the Danbury Fair Subdivision. The
biggest concern with this is my height or my elevation sits about three or four feet below
that field behind me. I'm probably one of the lowest lots on my side of the subdivision.
have a three foot retaining wall holding back what used to be a drainage ditch for the
farm there. On top of that three foot retaining wall I have a six foot fence. So, we are
talking nine feet of elevation. I don't know if that's my feedback.
Cavener: Do you want to -- perfect.
Salladay: Behind my fence there -- sorry -- they have parked a couple trailers. Now,
above that nine feet of a retaining wall and a fence I can see probably five, six feet
behind me where they have parked a couple trailers five feet above me, the windows of
those trailers. Both sides of my fence my neighbors have patios where they can walk
up on their patios and my six foot fence hits them about there. So, my concern is these
houses are directly behind me and now they have revised their -- their plan for the -- the
housing, they took away the green space that was behind me -- they took away the
green space that was behind my house to accommodate the road that was abutting the
other properties to the north, but I don't object to that, I don't care how that gets built.
My main concern is the elevation height behind me. If you put a house and whatever
elevation -- you are saying 20, 30 feet they are saying, that's going to be like a three
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story house behind me. It's not -- you know. And they are supposed to one level
stories, but it's going to be two to three stories above me. That's my concern. I think
they need to have some sort of -- either an eight foot fence behind me, some sort of a
landscaping, something to help block that view, because I have -- I have experienced 35
years of open field. Like I said, I was the first one in that subdivision. I didn't put a
fence up until three years ago when they parked a trailer behind me and I even left that
open for two years, because I got along with the people, but at a certain point one trailer
turned into two, two trailers turned into three, three trailers turned into four, now it's
down to two again. But the point is, as you see, my elevation issues. That's my big
point. Okay? So, that's all I have to say about that. Other than that that field is going to
be developed no matter what I say.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? All right. Thank you.
Salladay: Just somebody look at that elevation before they build -- or to require some
sort of landscaping. That's all I ask.
Simison: Thank you.
Lomeli: Mr. Mayor, the next person is Stephanie John.
Simison: Good evening. State your name and address for the record.
John: Sure. My name is Stephanie John. 1111 North Adkins Avenue in Meridian.
don't know why it's doing that. Okay. Okay. I will just keep going. I think I turned it off.
No, maybe not. Okay. This plan has had many revisions. We have been before
Planning and Zoning Committee and you guys a couple times. The development team
-- oh, my gosh that is so --
Lomeli: Do you want to take the one on the right off and, then, try this left one for me.
John: Let's see if that -- sorry about that. Sorry. Okay. We will restart. I already said
my name. This project has had many revisions. I really appreciate the developer's time
and communication. They really did listen to everything we have had to say and we
really -- I really appreciate that. The number one concern I still have is height. They did
go down to the R-4. I really appreciate that, given that they are going for the R-15 and
their heights -- or elevations, as you call them, could be so much higher. The reason I'm
so worried about it, as they pointed out, all the houses surrounding them, especially
mine on the north property, still in Ada, are very small houses. I just didn't want it to look
completely out of place. I think the pictures they show were great. I just don't want
those. Is that better? Is it on? Okay. Anyways, I really was just worried about the
heights. It seems like they are aware of that and they are going to be conscious of that.
They have spoke to us about that even after the Planning and Zoning committee sent it
through, which I do appreciate. I would like something maybe in writing. I know they
are going to redo that development agreement, so maybe if we could put that in there,
agreeing to the R-4. Maybe less height if possible. But they have given some, we have
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given some, truly this is a community effort. I think that's something that should be said,
given the last group that was before us had a lot of negative things to say and our group
doesn't have a ton of negative things to say. They really did listen to us. They were
really great members of the community. I can't stress that enough. And even though
may not agree with everything, heights, I do appreciate that they listened to me and so
just like I am now, I wanted to make sure that they knew that. I still am against that, but
I do agree with what they have and I appreciate their time and your time and Planning
and Zoning. A special thanks to Mr. Nick, who answered my millions and millions of
questions. I really appreciated that. It gave me a clear understanding of what I needed
to know and really how to help my community. So, I appreciate that. Any questions?
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Thank you.
Lomeli: Mr. Mayor, the next person is Bob Flaten.
Flaten: My name is Bob Flaten. I live at 1111 North Adkins Avenue. I have since 1991.
Simison: If you can hold the microphone --
Flaten: Can you hear me at all?
Simison: Yes. There we go.
Flaten: So, again, Bob Flaten, 1111 North Adkins Avenue. We are the property just to
the north of this development. Been there since like '91. Anyways, to kind of reiterate
some of what she said, yeah, we did have a lot of bumps along the way just from the
very beginning and I feel like the developer and his team have had an open ear to a lot
of that. I'm very thankful to that. They are a lot more likable than I would have thought,
to be completely frank with you. In an ideal world I would still see things different and
have been open with them about it, too, because I don't want them to think I'm trying to
backstab them or anything, but if we could have had a full single level kind of
development that was an exact match to everything that is there, that's the ideal world.
But as the misses has brought up, it's kind of a give and take thing. They have lost
some, we have lost some. I think we have gotten to a pretty healthy point for the most
part. Interestingly enough, I have been right here along with you guys for the last
couple hours and hearing a lot of the community. I'm seeing a greater issue here than
just like this development and this is all kind of before all of you guys, you -- you
yourself are living kind of one of those issues, but it seems like Meridian as a whole is
kind of trying to cram as many people in as possible in a lot of ways and I think the
residents, not just, you know, ones that have been here long term, like myself, but ones
that have just moved here from out of state, from other parts of the Treasure Valley and
Idaho and in tune -- are all kind of getting the same kind of consensus here and that is
wanting our own space. I mean no disrespect to anybody, but, you know, this -- people
move to Meridian because of what it was, very respectful not because of probably
where it's going. I think we are kind of getting to a breaking point there. So, again,
speaking on a much broader spectrum, thank you all for listening, I'm getting concerned,
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but, hopefully, you know, you guys being on the front line of that can ascertain kind of
what's the most reasonable course of action and I wish you the very best with that.
Circling all the way back to this, ideally, yeah, they are all single level, but, again, these
people have done great things for us when I thought they would just give us a deaf ear
the whole time. So, I'm very thankful for them in that regard. If you have any questions
I'm more than willing to answer. I have kind of shot every shot that I can for where we
are. In fact, I think I probably wrote -- I know for a fact I wrote to you, Mr. Mayor, and
quite a few other people, quite frankly. But, again, that's kind of my spiel for now.
Simison: I think you are not going to get off that easy. I think Councilman Cavener has
got a question for you.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor. It's Bob; right?
Flaten: Yes, sir, it is.
Cavener: Thanks. You know, I, too, am a long-term Meridian resident. So, I -- I can
appreciate kind of what -- particularly your part of Meridian looked like 25, 30 years ago
versus how it's shifted and evolved. I grew up just right down the street from you. So,
appreciate where you are at. I appreciate your correspondence and communication
through this whole thing. You know, it's -- it's rare when we get -- I get a sense that you
are not necessarily supportive of this application, but you are not necessarily coming
into criticize or attack the applicant, which, again, I think that's also the Meridian way, we
-- we may have differing of opinions, but we are trying to collaborate as best we can.
feel -- and, again, I wasn't -- I don't attend the Planning and Zoning Commission
meetings, so I just -- I read it or I watch it online, but I have read your e-mails. My -- my
perception is the Planning and Zoning Commission and the applicant were very
receptive to your feedback and you have seen a lot of iterations that have come as a
result. So, I would never expect you to jump up and down say I'm so excited for this,
but help me understand -- you have a magic wand, you are king for a day, what do you
change about this application that's before us to get to a place that you would be
supportive? What -- what is it not doing or what is it doing too much of?
Flaten: I mean speaking just very much I have got the crystal ball in front of me, I guess
there is two things. Number one, again, just overall density and I -- I understand that
they are saying we have the correct density or even less density than already exists.
But much like right across the road, the road -- the Woodbridge Subdivision, we are
feeling that congestion. I mean we are only a mile to the north of that and there is a lot
-- a lot of people and buildings that we are talking about putting in that same little area.
There didn't used to be crosses at Locust Grove right there. There is multiple crosses
now at Locust Grove and Pine and I fight every day to pray to God that we can keep our
children safe and that they never become one -- or that I don't become one -- or that,
quite frankly, nobody becomes one, because I think one is too many and I think just with
all the people that we are trying to force in these situations -- or into these little areas we
are going to create situations that -- kind of like looking back at the -- the vote of 2001 to
originally start the Woodbridge Subdivision, we are kind of at the infancy stages of that
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just as a whole in that area and I'm concerned that we could be creating just a monster
for the residents of Meridian and, again, respectfully to all of its residents, nobody wants
to move here to be in Tokyo. You move to Idaho because of the stories you have heard.
And those stories weren't married in the last day or the last week, they have been made
over decades from people that have lived here long term and have had family members
move here and been told all these great things.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Thank you. And I'm -- you know, I -- I'm glad you have moved to your home.
I missed the drive-in movie theater where you -- where your home now sits and so it's
those hard things of like I want to hold on to what I had and you find those things that
get whittled away and, then, you get to yourself ten, 15, 20, 30, 40 years later and
saying, again, kind of where is the community they grew up, where -- where did it go.
So, thank you for your diplomacy and -- and your candidness tonight. I appreciate your
testimony. Appreciate you being here.
Flaten: I just realized that maybe I didn't answer your question directly. Magic Wand.
Cavener: Yeah.
Flaten: The center becomes single story, because -- I know there is a couple residents
-- the one that really just stands out in my mind, I think about him every night, is Jack
Hart. Yeah. Or Jack Harp. Excuse me. He lives just right down the road from us. He
is basically -- I guess I can't really tell from this, but point is he is directly across from
what will be the two stories and I know that we didn't have a whole lot of neighbors band
together on that side. I think a couple are moving. A couple are just, with respect, older,
don't really want to mess with it just -- but I just -- the fair word really sticks with me. We
are all about fair. That's the part that kind of keeps me up at night. Our issues have
been addressed and addressed well and I think they have done a really kick butt job,
quite frankly, but there are those neighbors that are still kind of left in the dark. So,
magic wand, I make sure that they don't get left behind and we are all in the equal.
That's it, but --
Cavener: Thank you. I appreciate it.
Flaten: Absolutely. Thank you all.
Lomeli: Mr. Mayor, the next person is Don Flaten.
D.Flaten: Yes. So, I want to first address -- I do appreciate --
Simison: Can you state your name and address for the record,
D.Flaten: Yes. Of course.
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Simison: And put that a little closer up.
D.Flaten: A bit closer?
Simison: Yeah.
D.Flaten: Don Flaten. 1111 North Adkins Avenue. Property bordering immediately
north. I do appreciate the accommodation of the developer, their intelligence,
experience. Within the context of this plan I see, you know, quite a bit of
accommodation and thoughtful planning. However, at the outset all members of the
City Council, everyone here, these are very misleading discussions of density. There
are 21 homes on 2.9 acres. That's 7.3 per acre. Very simple math. They are averaging
the existing lots and what may or may not be done with the vacant lots adjoining this.
Immediately surrounding this are homes four to five per acre, all the way around.
Everywhere. Casting a net that's a mile wide is absurd. That goes across Locust Grove
and includes all the high density housing developed there. The condominium
development north of Danbury, the very large homes, very tight separation that were
approved and built on Pine Street, all of that's within there. Look at the immediate area.
This is completely out of context with the immediate development. My objection is and
always has been density. It is high density. Look, for example, at the two-story homes,
ten contiguous homes, average lot size 3,200 square feet. Don't tell me this is low
density. That's very high density housing. I don't see parking accommodation. That
was brought up and -- and kind of dismissed in the planning. It's -- and traffic. We have
Adkins Avenue, everything feeding to one -- one and we are very busy. There is no
traffic light there. We may --ACHD may want one at some point, but don't be misled by
the numbers and, Nick, you are accurate, it is -- or within a one mile radius it's lower
density, but this is much much higher density than the surrounding neighborhood and a
very different character. It's beautifully planned for what it is. It's just inappropriately
placed. That having been said, if it is within the purview of the City Council, the
flexibility, if you were to go ahead and improve the plan I object to it, but if you were to
go to approve the plan as it's posited, I would very much encourage -- and this is
extremely important given the discussion, objection to neighbors height, that there be
prohibition placed on the development for elevated patios, people building out patios at
the level of -- of their roof, for example, and proximity of structures, that those being
forced for storage. They are often put right against the fence and they will loom over
the neighbors, just as they see trailers parked against the back fence and obstructing
view from neighbors right now. So, that's about all I had to say. It's just I think we are --
it's very misleading to -- to look at these numbers or talk about. This is a high density
development. I object to the density. Simple as that.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Okay. Thank you.
Lomeli: Mr. Mayor, we have Brian Turner.
Turner: Hello. Brian Turner. 1345 East Shellbrook Drive. My property is one of the
properties that are on the -- the north end of this development and I -- as mentioned by
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previous individuals, I really appreciate the opportunity to give feedback. The initial plan
was -- I think not a good fit for this area and as I have looked at the compromises, both
on the applicant's side and a compromise on our desires as existing neighbors, I'm in
support of this plan. I certainly -- there would be things that I -- out of my personal
opinion I would like to see differently, but seeing the compromises made I'm in support
of it. And that's all I have to say. If there is any questions.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Thank you.
Lomeli: Mr. Mayor, no one else has signed up.
Simison: Okay. Is there anybody else present that would like to provide testimony on
this item? If you are online raise your hand or if you are in the audience if you would
like to come forward. Good evening.
Blanton: Good evening. My name is Karen Blanton. I live at 1418 East Sotheby Street
in Danbury Fair and I -- I testified during the first meetings. I'm so absolutely grateful for
the -- the development that they heard even us, the surrounding neighbors, to go ahead
and make something that will be attractive in our community and give -- give space so
that there is not going to be people right in front of everybody's home to make a really
beautiful development in their community. Development is development and everything
might not be perfect for everyone, but I have never -- I have developed property in
Washington state and I have never seen anybody put forth so much effort in getting the
collaboration from everybody to make it as nice as it could be. We do have the
concerns still about getting out into Pine and Locust Grove, the extra traffic that goes
out there. So, if you could do something like a traffic light or something to help get
people in and out more safely, so that when you are making the turn to get them that
would be fabulous. But I -- I have seen all of -- everybody working together on this and
I'm so proud to be somebody who is living in Meridian, Idaho. Thank you for your
cooperation and your love for the people that are here. That's all. Thank you.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Thank you. Is there anybody else that
would like to provide testimony on this item? Then would the applicant like to come
forward to close?
Lakey: Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. For the record Todd Lakey, Lakey
Villegas Law. Address 141 East Carlton Avenue, Meridian, Idaho. And Sabrina and
are -- are kind of tag teaming tonight. I think you saw a very different picture than you
saw earlier and, then, frankly, you have seen in regards to this project in the past. If you
look at your P&Z minutes, one of your P&Z commissioners commented they had never
received so many positive comments in regard -- and we had a few more people at the
P&Z hearing and I have been doing this for 30 years. I have never heard anyone call a
project I worked on a kick butt design. So, I appreciate that positive and very honest
feedback. It reflects the effort that my clients put into this project and I also appreciated
folks describing this as a balance. It's always give and take; right? You give some, you
-- you get some and just want to emphasize a couple of the things. The movement of
the open space, that was at the request of P&Z and the vast majority of our neighbors.
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They preferred those larger lots, those single story homes on that western boundary
and that 35 foot height requirement, that was our proposal at P&Z, to make it not R-15,
but consistent with the R-4 and, then, we are surrounded by R-8 and that 35 foot
requirement really would be mostly applicable to those two-story homes that are tucked
into the middle, that are not on that boundary. Commissioners, I would also -- or excuse
me -- Council Members, also emphasize that your comp plan that talks about this being
in-fill and in-fill is encouraged to be of a higher density than the surrounding properties,
but we, again, listen to the neighbors our -- our density is 5.1 dwelling units per acre.
Your larger area is 6.12 and the future land use map calls out for three to eight dwelling
units per acre. So, we are well within that. We will comply with the ACHD requirements
and also would add that these homes will have two car garages. So, you will have two
car parking availability within the garages and, then, you will have the driveways that
can accommodate an additional two cars. So, Council Members, I would again express
appreciation on behalf of my clients for the opportunity they had to work with the
neighbors and for the collaborative effort that -- that was. They appreciated that effort.
think both sides benefited from it. You have a great product now before you because of
that collaboration and we would ask for your approval. I'm happy to answer questions if
you have them.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Lakey, thank you for being here. Is my understanding
the third revision is the final, because I thought that all green space was removed, but it
looks like there is some buffer there and -- and do all three of those properties have an
elevation issue that that green space will help buffer?
Lakey: Mr. Mayor and Council Member Little Roberts, so it is that third revision where
they have moved the road to the north and there is still a landscaped area that provides
that additional buffer. So, you have got landscaped areas there with vegetation and
trees and, then, you have got the road providing that additional separation. So, that is
the design and that does help provide additional separation from elevations for the
homes that will be built.
Little Roberts: Great. Thank you.
Lakey: Uh-huh.
Whitlock: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Whitlock.
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Whitlock: Mr. Lakey, thank you for all the work that's gone into this to go from no to
bringing a proposal that, again, has been characterized as kick butt. I -- I think that that
same -- those same accolades need to go to our Planning and Zoning Commission.
They worked hard on this to get to a yes and I just want to express appreciation to you
and your client for listening to those concerns and coming back with a -- a revision that
-- that is much much better and -- and I just wanted to acknowledge our Planning and
Zoning Commission and the work that went in. I want to thank the -- the neighbors as
well for finding an open ear with you and in your client. That's always good when we
have that kind of communication. So, I just wanted to express my appreciation to you
for that. As I look at this revision three, again, the transition from the north seems to be
addressed with a road and -- and a bit of green space there, even though you are
getting to higher elevations and we heard concerns about those higher elevations on
those homes. I think this reconfiguration moves those farther to the south and -- and
helps address some of those concerns. Rick -- and I didn't get his last name written
down, but there to the west where he has a retaining wall that's built and a fence on top
of that and still some concerns about the elevation, I don't know if there is a way that his
concerns can be addressed on that west side of the property. Do you have any -- any
thoughts on that?
Lakey: Mr. Mayor and Council Member Whitlock, before I talk about that I would like to
acknowledge your -- I guess acknowledgement as well of the Planning and Zoning
Commission and your staff. Both. We -- we appreciate very much the direction and the
work that your staff put into it and the direction that we received from the Planning and
Zoning Commission that helped redesign this project. I think the gentleman that lives to
the west previously lived next to that green space that, again, the majority of folks
wanted us to remove and utilize larger lots and single family homes. We do plan on
putting in a new fence along that property boundary, but I think the main issue that we
did to address that was to make sure that those were single family homes and, then,
move the two-story homes further away, not just to the east, but to the north slightly
from his property. So, again, we did our best to address the vast majority of concerns
and it's not perfection for everybody, but I think it's a very well balanced plan that -- that
meets the -- the vast majority of the concerns that were expressed.
Simison: And I think maybe to piggyback on that, one of his comments was this
seemed like in not wanting a deck that was up and I -- if it's single family there would, in
theory, it's no deck access.
Lakey: Mr. Mayor --
Simison: If I'm tracking single story that --
Lakey: Uh-huh. Yes. Single story so -- correct, there is not going to be any decks on
those homes that are up above that elevation.
Simison: Yeah. Okay. Council, any additional questions? Okay. Thank you.
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Lakey: Thank you, Mayor. Council Members. Appreciate the opportunity to be with you
tonight.
Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor, I -- seeing no comments, move we close the public hearing.
Overton: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Is there any
discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it
and the public hearing is closed.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Taylor: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Taylor.
Taylor: Just make a couple of comments. I think for an in-fill project this is a pretty
good one that's been brought to us. These are always really difficult to sort of find a
way to plug in something into a place, especially that's been so well established since
the 1990s. You know, you have to consider things such as, you know, how do you --
what do you do with the property? Do you leave it there vacant? Do you put it to its
highest best use? The owners of the property, how do they want to sell that and move
on, develop it, et cetera. I was really pleased to hear how P&Z really worked through
this with the -- the neighbors and the -- and the applicant. I think that's a really -- that's
a great -- really great success story about how P&Z should work to help get projects
ready for approval and work through a lot of the -- the details. So, very appreciative of
that. I know we can't always make everything as perfect as we would like to see, but
do think some of the accommodations are -- are well thought out. So, I'm -- I'm -- this is
part of my district and I remember walking through there at one point looking at the
property and actually wondering what was going to go there. So, I am -- as far as in-fill
think this is a really great project. So, happy to support it tonight.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Just a comment. Just -- it's so rare to see like neighbors and an applicant
work together so closely and I just really think that everybody demonstrated the
Meridian way and like how to be great neighbors and just really appreciate that. It's so
refreshing. You can see what a better project resulted from that. It's just super
encouraging. Thank you.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
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Cavener: I'm -- I'm always sympathetic to our neighbors who have had part of dirt that's
been bare and empty next to them for -- for 30 years. You grow accustomed to that.
You grow accustomed to that road that isn't going to go through and, then, it suddenly
goes through and it brings traffic and as I mentioned earlier I have -- I have lived here
my whole life. I used to be downtown Meridian's paperboy and that's -- your
neighborhood was part of -- part of my route. So, I'm always -- I'm always sympathetic
to that and I know that change -- specifically change what we feel is going to have a
negative impact on our life, can -- can feel different than other change and so to Council
Member Strader's point, I -- we see often -- I know you guys are here as kind of a one
and done and we often see in these meetings where it's contentious, right, because it is
your home and it's your community and everybody cares, everybody's trying to do the
right thing, but it feels different and I think Council Member Taylor touched on in-fill is
challenging. We as Council wrestle with what we call in-fill development on an ongoing
basis and it's because of those challenges it impacts people who have lived here a long
time. It feels different than, you know, maybe a hundred acre farm that's now going to
be turned into a neighborhood or a commercial development and so to Council Member
Strader's comments, I appreciate the collaborative effort. I know there are folks in this
room and neighbors that may not like a possible decision the Council will take tonight,
but I -- I really want to commend the -- the applicant and their team for really listening to
the neighbors. You know, the term NIMBY gets thrown around a lot. We hear that as
City Council Members and at -- at no point have I felt this would ever classify or quantify
NIMBY conversation. Yet we see applicants from time to time to dismiss the feedback
from neighbors is just NIMBY. They just don't want to see any development. And so
want to commend the applicant team for being responsive to the feedback and I know
this was a long journey to get here tonight. I remember when we remanded this back
did not love this project at all and I think the great work from our -- our residents and a
very receptive applicant that I'm in a space tonight where I will be supportive of this
request. So, I appreciate the collaborative nature that brought us here this evening.
Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I also think that it's been so impressive to watch the collaboration with
this and getting to what is wonderful, in my opinion, in-fill project, because they are the
most difficult I think to do and if we don't have any other comments I will go ahead and
make a motion.
Simison: Just one quick comment. If you -- you know, I -- I have given Sabrina a lot of
comments, but I know it's not just Sabrina, it's got to -- it's got to be the property owner,
it's going to be -- like I say, it's a whole team that comes together, but it does start with
the -- the public facing person of this and so this is the last comment you are going to
get from me in the month of February, Sabrina, but you -- you -- you -- you have -- you
have taken a lot of projects and had to -- in a lot of different ways and there is just
another great example of the work you do in our community. So, thank you. So, with
that --
Meridian City Council
February 24,2026
Page 54 of 59
Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: After considering all staff, applicant and public testimony, I move to
approve File No. H-2025-0016 as presented by the staff in the staff report for the
hearing date of February 24th, 2026.
Taylor: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve Item 3, H-2025-0016. Is there
discussion? If not clerk call the roll.
Roll Call: Cavener, yea; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea;
Whitlock, yea.
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries and the item is agreed to. Have a good night,
everybody. Or stick around to hear some amazing ordinances.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
ORDINANCES [Action Item]
4. Ordinance No. 26-2111: An ordinance (Apex Cadence — H-2024-0061)
annexing land being a portion of Government Lot 1 and the
southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 6, Township 2
North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as depicted
in the map exhibit; rezoning 0.86 acres of such real property from
RUT (Rural Urban Transition) to the R-15 (Medium-High Density
Residential) zoning district; directing city staff to alter all applicable
use and area maps as well as the official zoning maps and all official
maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning districts of the City of
Meridian in accordance with this ordinance; providing that copies of
this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada
County Treasurer, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax
Commission, as required by law; repealing conflicting ordinances;
and providing an effective date.
Simison: With that we will move on to Item 4, which is Ordinance No. 26-2111. Ask the
clerk to read this ordinance by title.
Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. An ordinance Apex Cadence, H-2024-0061, annexing
land being a portion of Government Lot 1 in the southeast quarter of the northeast
quarter of Section 6, Township 2 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, property from
Rural Urban Transition to the R-15, Medium-High Density Residential zoning district;
directing city staff to alter all applicable use and area maps, as well as the official zoning
Meridian City Council
February 24,2026
Page 55 of 59
maps and all official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning districts of the City
of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance; providing that copies of this ordinance
shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Treasurer, the Ada County
Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law; repealing
conflicting ordinances; and providing an effective date.
Simison: Thank you. Council, you may have heard that ordinance read by title. Is
there anybody that would like it read in its entirety? If not, do I have a motion?
Taylor: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Taylor.
Taylor: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 26-2111.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and second to approve Ordinance No. 26-2111. Is there
discussion? If not clerk call the roll.
Roll Call: Cavener, yea; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea;
Whitlock, yea.
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries and the item is agreed to.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
5. Ordinance No. 26-2112: An ordinance (Apex Cadence — H-2024-0061)
de-annexing land located in a portion of the southeast quarter of the
northeast quarter and the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter
of Section 6, Township 2 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, City of
Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as depicted in the map exhibit;
directing city staff to alter all applicable use and area maps as well
as the official zoning maps and all official maps depicting the
boundaries and the zoning districts of the City of Meridian in
accordance with this ordinance; providing that copies of this
ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada
County Treasurer, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax
Commission, as required by law; repealing conflicting ordinances;
and providing an effective date.
Simison: Next up is Ordinance No. 26-2112. Ask the clerk to read this ordinance by
title.
Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. An ordinance Apex Cadence, H-2024-0061, de-
annexing land located in a portion of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter and
Meridian City Council
February 24,2026
Page 56 of 59
the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 6, Township 2 North, Range 1
East, Boise Meridian, City of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as depicted in the map
exhibit; directing city staff to alter all applicable use and area maps as well as the official
zoning maps and all official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning districts of
the City of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance; providing that copies of this
ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Treasurer, the
Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law;
repealing conflicting ordinances; and providing an effective date.
Simison: Thank you. Council, you have heard this ordinance spread by title. Is there
anybody who would like it read in its entirety? Seeing none do have a motion?
Taylor: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Taylor.
Whitlock: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 26-2112.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve Ordinance No. 26-2112. Is there any
discussion? If not clerk call the roll.
Roll Call: Cavener, yea; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea;
Whitlock, yea.
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries and the item is agreed to.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
6. Ordinance No. 26-2113: An ordinance (Apex Cadence H-2024-0061)
for rezone of land located in the east half of the northeast quarter of
Section 6, Township 2 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, City of
Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as depicted in the map exhibit, rezoning
56.11 acres of land from the R-8 (Medium-Density Residential) zoning
district to the R-15 (Medium High-Density) zoning district in the
Meridian City Code; directing city staff to alter all applicable use and
area maps as well as the official zoning maps and all applicable
official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning districts of the
City of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance; providing that
copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor,
the Ada County Treasurer, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho
State Tax Commission, as required by law; and providing an effective
date.
Meridian City Council
February 24,2026
Page 57 of 59
Simison: Next up is Ordinance No. 26-2113. Ask the clerk to read this ordinance by
title.
Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. An ordinance Apex Cadence, H-2024-0061, for rezone
of land located in the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 6, Township 2 North,
Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, City of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as depicted in the
map exhibit, rezoning 56.11 acres of land from the R-8 (Medium-Density Residential)
zoning district to the R-15 (Medium High-Density) zoning district in the Meridian City
Code; directing city staff to alter all applicable use and area maps as well as the official
zoning maps and all applicable official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning
districts of the City of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance; providing that copies
of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Treasurer,
the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law; and
providing an effective date.
Simison: Thank you. Council, you have heard this ordinance read by title. Is there
anybody that would like it read in its entirely? If not, do I have a motion?
Taylor: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Taylor.
Taylor: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 26-2113.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve Ordinance No. 26-2113. Is there
discussion? If not, clerk call the roll.
Roll Call- Cavener, yea; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea;
Whitlock, yea.
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries and the item is agreed to.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
7. Ordinance No. 26-2114: An ordinance (Hill's Century Farms
Townhomes H-2024-0072) for rezone of land encompassing all of
Lots 2-7 and a portion of Lot 10, Block 2 of Hill's Century Farm
Commercial Subdivision No. 1 (Book 115 of Plats, Pages 17131-
17134, records of Ada County, Idaho) and all of Lots 12 and 13, Block
2 of Hill's Century Farm Commercial Subdivision No. 2 (Book 124 of
Plats, Pages 19913-19915, records of Ada County, Idaho) situated in a
portion of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section
33, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, City of Meridian,
Ada County, Idaho, as depicted in the map exhibit, rezoning 5.45
acres of land from the C-N (Neighborhood Business) zoning district
Meridian City Council
February 24,2026
Page 58 of 59
to the R-15 (Medium High-Density Residential) zoning district in the
Meridian City Code; directing city staff to alter all applicable use and
area maps as well as the official zoning maps and all applicable
official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning districts of the
City of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance; providing that
copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor,
the Ada County Treasurer, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho
State Tax Commission, as required by law; and providing an effective
date.
Simison: Next item up is Ordinance No. 26-2114. Ask the clerk to read this ordinance
by title.
Lomeli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. An ordinance Hills Century Town -- Farms -- Farms
Townhome, H-2024-0072, for rezone of land encompassing all of Lots 2-7 and a portion
of Lot 10, Block 2 of Hill's Century Farm Commercial Subdivision No. 1 (Book 115 of
Plats, Pages 17131-17134, records of Ada County, Idaho, and all of Lots 12 and 13,
Block 2 of Hill's Century Farm Commercial Subdivision No. 2 (Book 124 of Plats, Pages
19913-19915, records of Ada County, Idaho, situated in a portion of the northeast
quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 33, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise
Meridian, City of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as depicted in the map exhibit, rezoning
5.45 acres of land from the C-N (Neighborhood Business) zoning district to the R-15
(Medium High-Density Residential) zoning district in the Meridian City Code; directing
city staff to alter all applicable use and area maps as well as the official zoning maps
and all applicable official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning districts of the
City of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance; providing that copies of this
ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Treasurer, the
Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law; and
providing an effective date.
Simison: Thank you. Council, you have heard this ordinance read by title. Is there
anybody that would like it read in its entirety? If not do I have a motion?
Taylor: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Taylor.
Taylor: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 26-2114.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve ordinance No. 26-2114. Is there any
discussion? If not clerk call the roll.
Roll Call: Cavener, yea; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea;
Whitlock, yea.
Meridian City Council
February 24,2026
Page 59 of 59
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries and the item is agreed to.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
FUTURE MEETING TOPICS
Simison: Council, anything under future meeting topics or do I have a motion to
adjourn?
Overton: Mr. Mayor, I move that we adjourn.
Little Roberts: Second.
Simison: Motion and second adjourn. All in favor signify by saying ayes. Those
opposed nay? The ayes have it and we are adjourned.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:16 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
3 / 10 1 26
MAYOR ROBERT SIMISON DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK