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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-05-12 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session May 12, 2026. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, 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, Caleb Hood and Brian McClure. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE X Liz Strader X Brian Whitlock Anne Little Roberts _X_ John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor _X_Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call this meeting to order. For the record it is May 12th, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next item up is adoption of the agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: There are no changes to tonight's agenda. I move we approve the agenda as published. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Approve Minutes of the April 28, 2026 City Council Work Session 2. Approve Minutes of the April 28, 2026 City Council Regular Meeting Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 2 of 11 3. Oakwind Estates Phase 1 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2026-0053) 4. Village at Meridian Ph 2B Water Main Easement No. 2 (ESMT-2026- 0059) 5. Final Plat for Hill's Century Farm Townhomes (FP-2026-0009) by Brighton Corporation, located in a portion of the NE 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of Section 33, 13N., R.1 E. 6. Development Agreement (North Meridian Fields H-2026-0003) Between City of Meridian and 5B Holdings LLC for Property Generally Located at the Southwest Corner of SH-16 and Chinden Blvd. 7. Development Agreement (Pine 43 - HPC Buyer LLC - H-2024-0071) Between City of Meridian and Micro 100 LLC f/k/a HPC Buyer LLC for Property Generally Located on the North Side of E. Pine Ave. Between N. Locust Grove Rd. and N. Hickory Ave. 8. Amended and Restated Development Agreement (Pine 43 MDA - H- 2024-0071) Between City of Meridian and DRB Investments LLC for Property Generally Located on the North and South Sides of E. Pine Ave. Between N. Locust Grove Rd. and N. Hickory Ave. 9. Approval of Construction Contract to BriCon, Inc. for CDBG LMA Walkability NW 7th St. - Sidewalk Improvements for the Not-To- Exceed Amount of $414,652 10. Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Meridian and Meridian Dairy and Stock Shows, Inc. for Meridian Dairy Days 11. Agreement for Use of Kleiner Park by Meridian Library District for Summer Reading Kick-Off Special Event 12. Approval of Sole Source for Redline Gear PPE Cleaning and Inspection 13. Fiscal Year 2026 Net-Zero Budget Amendment in the amount of $11,500 for Traffic Enforcement Grant from Office of Highway Safety from the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) Simison: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 3 of 11 Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: There are no changes to tonight's Consent Agenda. I move that we approve the Consent Agenda, for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT REPORTS [Action Item] 14. Downtown Overlay Project Update Simison: So, we will go into Item 4, which is department report for the downtown overlay project update and I will turn this over to Mr. McClure. McClure: Mr. Mayor and Council, thank you for having me here tonight. As was just said, this is for the downtown overlay and standards update. Here is a quick outline. So, why we are here. Overlay review, outreach and a proposed boundary. Just a quick refresher. Hopefully you have a little bit of deja vu on why we are here. The downtown area has properties with multiple zoning districts, but a shared public realm expectation. Multiple base zones are a quilt of requirements. Elements ranging from building orientation and architecture to streetscape can miss downtown vision and elements like sidewalk aren't even always required. Architecture -- architectural review, which is based on zoning, is inherently inconsistent. Express standards for administrative design review further complicate having been designed for greenfield development and not downtown. Even if we just wanted to apply commercial or traditional neighborhood standards to the downtown area, consistency -- consistently they still weren't designed for it. Staff is proposing to keep express standards. The architectural standards manual adding detail and context for downtown. The idea is to build consistency and better establish expectations. To apply consistent standards there is three initial phases. That's minimal level of effort in the staff's opinion and, then, a lot of other possible work later. All phases overlap. This work is grouped, though, to help frame communication and support transparency. Phasing the work allows us to make progress and start moving without pre-committing to specific outcomes and Council decision making is preserved, potentially with staggered -- potentially staggered approvals to avoid an elephant. Concept phases haven't changed. Phase one is the tool. The enabling code. Phase two is the geography and defining what that means. Communicating Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 4 of 11 expectations irregardless of zoning. Phase three are the new and revised architectural standards -- express standards. These are yes, no, true or false or measured. They are intended to not be discretionary. This is a simple timeline. We would like to have one overlay tool this summer. Have some understanding of the geography by the end of the year and complete it -- to have completed the bulk of the standards work by the end of next summer. Geography may be easier or harder, depending on what goes in -- goes into defining the zone. As an example how much of MDC's requested code changes specific to downtown need to be baked in or conceptually down the road. But there is quite a bit of information there that can be figured out down the road though. Do also want to underscore this type of work is never easy. Downtown design review is complex anywhere. Most places in my experience do not operate in the express standards realm and especially in the downtown and people just also have strong feelings about design and reactions to it. Outreach. This is shaped by what we have heard. We would provide opportunities for everyone to be involved. With the resources we have the focus would be to engage with subject matter experts primarily appropriate for each phase and, then, to ensure transparency for everyone else. Broadly we announced a larger effort. Maintain a website, calendar and manage an e-mail list. Primarily general outreach is part of the public hearing process, but we are always happy to talk to stakeholders. Subject matter experts here are hopefully what you expected to see. Architectural experts, Historic Preservation Commission, UDC focus group, Chamber of Commerce, in-fill specialists as we can identify them. Also general communication blasts and conversations with residents, businesses and the larger development community that aren't engaged in a focus group. Do just want to underscore and be clear on this one. This isn't a charette. This is an envisioning process. We already have an adopted Comprehensive Plan that supports this and MDC has done their work. We also don't see this effort impacting existing residents, except as development occurs. The normal process. That's covered -- that outreach is covered in elected participation and public comments and staff intend to be clear that this isn't a proxy for historic preservation districts or a new process. So, it's -- it's status quo for the most part with standards and zoning work that is specific to downtown. The focus is on better defining expectations for redevelopment. This boundary combination -- this boundary is a combination of feedback received by staff and, then, recommendeds forward by the steering committee. The future land use map boundaries, the actual overlay concept you see here, provides a very neat package to justify this work. It's transparent and consistent and we are not recreating the wheel. For the priority standard area this is where we would focus the architectural standards work on. There is no perfect boundary. It doesn't go all the way down Main or Meridian. It's not a meat box in the middle. But there are shared elements. Most of this is zoned the same, but some of it does function differently. North and south of the tracks as an example. South of the tracks, though, does have a tremendous amount of potential and need and particularly if any of the floodplain is alleviated. I will also just note we have seen some in-fill down there and it doesn't always meet the standards we would like to hold. The focus area is a hybrid of visible potential and this isn't a final decision today. That's the overview of how we are defining this process. I'm hoping to hear that the boundaries and outreach is a good starting point. Understanding that we can pivot in Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 5 of 11 the future and we are not making any decisions tonight. No pressure though and I am happy to have -- answer questions and take feedback. Simison: Thank you. Council, questions for staff or additional comments from people that were part of the working group at this point in time? Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Mr. Mayor. Yeah. I have a -- just a couple comments and, then, I do have a question, Brian, for you on express standards. So, I will get to that in a second. I think this is helpful. Just recap for my colleagues, as a reminder this effort -- we discussed having an overlay district as a way by which we could start to work on some of the achievable things that were recommended in the Destination Downtown by MDC. Now, we have been receiving presentations from MDC over the last several months. We are getting close to finishing some of those presentations and, then, looking at some feedback to MDC and for them to take that into consideration. But we felt as a Council, if you recall a few months ago, that there were some things that we could probably start working on that was helpful and made some sense. That said, my perspective has always been this doesn't need to be a rushed process as much as it just needs to continue to progress and move forward; right? We didn't want to have to overburden the staff with a sense of get this done now, but we also didn't want it to languish. That's been my perspective and -- that I have kind of communicated is let's -- as long as we are making progress, because the decision the -- the -- the process we are setting up is complicated. As I have gone through it a little bit with some of the meetings with Brian and Caleb and -- and others it -- there is a lot to it; right? I have -- I have learned a lot just in -- in some of the complexity of this. But I'm content with -- as long as there is a process that we sort of have put in place where we are making progress and making decisions. I have also been clear that this is a collaborative process that all of us need to have some perspective and not just here at the table, but there is people in the community who bring perspective. That's really important that we could involve the community in this, so -- and as you recall the last time I think we discussed this sort of the take away for staff was help us to come back with some boundaries for what the overlay district could look like and as you can see on the -- the screen this is kind of an interesting discussion because of the uniqueness of downtown, but also the -- the residential that's so close. How do you define what the architectural standards should look like and what the boundary should be? So, there is -- there were very -- there were multiple ideas and versions of -- of maybe a boundary and where to start. As Brian mentioned, the point of it wasn't that this is the boundary, this was -- this makes sense from those of us who have been talking what does Council think. So, consider that a little bit and feel free to ask Brian and others questions about, you know, is this a good boundary to start from and, then, growing into a broader, bigger area as it makes some sense. But when it comes to the architectural standards and -- and, Brian, this will be my question for you a little bit. I think this is helpful. You talk about express standards. My understanding is when we are trying to set -- establish these standards they are -- the -- the idea that they are fairly strictly followed after we decide what they are. So, when we -- we meaning the city and the collective we with the -- the groups that are participating. As we decide this is what we want our architectural standards to be, what we are saying is there is -- it's going to be hard to find some flexibility for people who Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 6 of 11 want to come in and -- and deviate from these standards down the road. Am I understanding that correctly when you talk about the term of -- of express standards? I guess that's -- I -- I would like to kind of understand that a little bit from your perspective. McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Taylor, that is correct. The idea of express standards is generally sort of a -- a baseline minimum level of effort and they generally aren't towards good design, although I think we can help that more than we have. We have learned a lot in the last ten years. They are intended to be fairly strictly held to though. MDC has also, for example, suggested a certain threshold where staff could -- you know, it's historically called alternative compliance or design standard exception. Allow a little flexibility there, but the intent would be if you are asking for more than that it would no longer be administrative review it would go to some other decision making body for approval. Taylor: Mr. Mayor, quick follow up? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: So, appreciate that, Brian. And I think what that does is it highlights the importance of -- if you go back a slide or two actually. Right here. The idea of -- of kind of bringing in these other groups, organizations, partners with the city to understand what -- get their perspective on it, including architectural experts. But also our Historic Preservation Commission. Having an opportunity to have a voice here. Chamber of Commerce and others to talk about it. Because I think what we want to do is not rush and get it wrong, we want to be methodical and get it right. Acknowledging that there needs to be some flexibility always built into some of these decisions, because we can't foresee the future perfectly, but the idea being -- establish a pretty clear vision, but some standards by which there is an overlay and, then, people have some certainty as they are coming and looking to do work here. Keeping in mind as we hope to see the -- you know, the property across the way develop and become successful, that that's going to -- I wouldn't envision bringing a lot of more interest in redeveloping parts of the -- the downtown. So, we are going to want to get it right. But I -- I think -- I think it's just helpful context. I know we -- this has been a long ongoing conversation for most of the last year here and there and just -- I think this -- this is helpful. So, yeah, I will -- I will stop at that. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Brian, Caleb, can you maybe go to the slide that kind of has kind of your -- your timeline? Appreciate -- and this kind of falls in line I think with -- with the memo in terms of got kind of three phases. I -- I'm curious in -- in your memo it talks about some stakeholder engagement. So, want to make sure that our timeline kind of mirrors expectations for everyone. Have we shared this timeline with our urban renewal agency? Do they see that as a -- an appropriate timeline? Do they have concerns Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 7 of 11 about it? They think it's too aggressive? Too slow. Can you give us a little flavor about kind of what our partnership has been with some of these other agencies? McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I don't know. I -- we have talked about general timelines, but I don't recall sharing something as -- I mean this is a three month bucket, so it's not super detailed. Cavener: Yeah. McClure: But it's -- I don't recall sharing something overly specific with them, no. Cavener: Okay. Can you give -- I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Can you give us some flavor when -- kind of when you are talking about work -- certainly, again, the -- the memo talks a lot about stakeholder engagement, trying to get a balance as terms -- what is -- what is staff's time in terms of the work versus providing information and waiting for feedback before, yeah, maybe future decision points from Council? Can you walk us through that a little bit more, just maybe a little bit greater detail about what's going to be expected from -- what -- what Council should expect from staff at these checkpoints along the way, what staff is going to be looking for from Council and how that involves MDC or other stakeholders within the -- within the overlay district? McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, it sort of depends on which phase you are talking about. Phase one of the tool right there -- I mean that's -- that's basically done. It's just -- we just have to put it on the public hearing. It's -- it's pretty simple. The geography there -- the enabling actual downtown overlay, that's a code exercise that's going to have a lot of city staff reviewing that and -- and coordinate legal -- parks would be involved. A lot of departments that are involved in downtown would be having conversations about that. So, there is more internal work there and, then, we would be, of course, coordinating -- coordinating with the subject matter experts and -- and groups who need to be involved there. But there is a little bit more work there for staff. The -- the standards I think will probably be more of an impact on me, not necessarily a lot of other staff and, then, with more effort put into coordinating a whole lot of other people. The standards I think are what most people will care about. Getting those things scheduled, having those meetings, doing all the work for those meetings, facilitating that, making the changes, revisions, just going back to my experience with the Architectural Standards Manual, that's a lot of work on the communication side and the managing side. I don't think there is a lot of -- you know, they are express standards that -- they are never going to be kind of a lot of fluff and -- and pretty words that sort of people get divisive over. There will probably be some work courtesy of some of our ADA changes to bring up to date the Architectural Standards Manual itself and -- and put all this in a -- accessible document that recent experience tells me isn't a lot of fun. But I don't -- I don't -- I don't think it's going to be traumatic. Did I answer the question? Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 8 of 11 Cavener: I think so. Mr. Mayor, just -- maybe to just clarify. Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: It sounds like phase two, largely City of Meridian employee staff heavy. Phase three is more external stakeholder heavy in terms of them providing us feedback and context before we get to the finish line. I should have asked that question in a -- in a better way. So, I appreciate it, Brian. Thank -- thanks for that added clarification. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thank you. Brian, would you mind bringing up the map? I just noticed you seemed a little bit on the fence about whether it should extend south of Franklin when you mentioned it and kind of just wanted to check in on -- on the thinking around that. Is the idea that we start here and if it's successful it makes sense logically? You just sort of expand this geographically. How -- how would that work? Like if we don't expand our map now and we wait are we kind of misleading people if we do it later? Like I just want to kind of understand how set in stone the map is going to be and at what points we might expand it or change it. McClure: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Strader, maybe I will sort of answer that two ways. The overall boundary here, the overlay, the comp plan alignment layer, I don't see that changing at all. That provides too much justification and rationale for not having a vision process. We are relying on what we have already done, the work that's gone into this. The -- the second phase, the -- what defines that zone as an overlay zone, but what defines that zone, there are some things there that would affect development throughout. It wouldn't be architectural standards necessarily, it would be, you know, you are going to do sidewalk. You can tell -- you can tell I care about sidewalk. There is public realm expectations that we sometimes miss with new development. Most of the architectural standards itself and that boundary there -- a lot of people even -- a lot of people already have a lot of ideas on -- on what that should be and I honestly don't have all that strong opinions on it. The only thing I would note -- and I already did note it, I will just reiterate it, is, you know, south of the tracks does have floodplain and if that floodplain is ever alleviated you are going to see a lot more stuff happening down there. We have already seen some stuff down there that I'm not proud of. I would rather not see more of it. That -- that would be my only comment. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thank you. I -- I think that's helpful and I -- I feel like for historical reasons and -- and a lot of -- there are a lot of different factors that have made it so that we have really focused on this geographic area specifically, but I do agree that we should just be Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 9 of 11 mindful that maybe there are areas south of Franklin that we want to expand this to. Like I -- I don't -- I -- I would hate for us to maybe limit ourselves unnecessarily if that makes sense. I'm okay with starting here and like, you know, getting it going and we are going to get a lot more input on the -- on the geographic area I think as we do our stakeholder outreach and so forth. I -- I just think we need to look at that, because I feel like when you get off of the Interstate and you are driving into Meridian we have this kind of gateway and, then, we have a lot of development that to me doesn't really match what I think is our ultimate vision for the downtown area and I just wish there was a way to kind of transition into what we want to see more of. So, it's just an open conversation and we -- one we can keep having. But I guess just to communicate on my end I'm pretty open minded about -- about the -- the map and kind of where it should go and if we feel like it's successful even expanding it. I -- I don't want to upset the applecart. I realize a lot went into getting us to this point, too. So -- McClure: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Strader -- Council Woman Strader, I -- I apologize if missed your Franklin -- South Franklin comment initially. But there is differing potential there. I -- I think it's absolutely easier to get this stood up before expanding it too much. You know, you don't really see it here, but one of the urban renewal districts goes north of Fairview-Cherry there and there is some -- there is some potential there as well. It's not currently identified on the comp plan though and so this -- you know, a rational nexus is a little harder to get to just when we are rushing this. You know, to get it moving. Rushing to get it moving, not rushing to get it done. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: This sort of prompted a question. So, do you feel like a comp plan change needs to come in tandem with this overlay district if the district boundaries were to change? Like that was kind of an interesting comment. I just wanted to understand that a little more. McClure: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Strader, if -- if we used a different overlay boundary there that -- the turquoise, I -- I -- I would have a hard -- someone would have to provide something new for me to feel comfortable suggesting that, yes. I don't -- because we are -- we are relying on adopted comp plan pretty heavily to push this forward. Strader: Thank you. Simison: Council, any additional questions, comments? Okay. Thank you very much. EXECUTIVE SESSION [Action Item] Per Idaho Code 74-206(1)(c):To acquire an interest in real property not owned by a public agency; 74-206(1)(f): To communicate with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 10 of 11 being litigated but imminently likely to be litigated, and 74-206(1)0): To consider labor contract matters authorized under section 74-206A (1)(a) and (b), Idaho Code. Simison: With that, last time on the agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I move that we go into Executive Session per Idaho Code 74-206 Subsection (1)(c). (1)(f). (1)0) and (1)(a) and (b). Little Roberts: Second. Simison: And do you want to maybe spell out the -- the very last one before 206(a), since it's different than the others? Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Last section of that Executive Session is to consider labor contract matters authorized under Section 74-206(a)(1)(a) and (b). Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Second agree? Okay. 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. We will go into Executive Session. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. EXECUTIVE SESSION: (4:54 p.m. to 5.51 p.m.) Simison: Do I have a motion to come out of Executive Session? Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I move that we come out of Executive Session. Meridian City Council Work Session May 12,2026 Page 11 of 11 Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Motion to come out of Executive Session. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are out of Executive Session. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Overton: Mr. Mayor. Simison: Councilman -- Overton: I move that we adjourn. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Motion and second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:51 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT SIMISON 5-26-2026 ATTEST: C CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK 5-26-2026