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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-05-19 Regular Meridian City Council May 19, 2026. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:02 p.m., Tuesday, May 19, 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, Emily Kane, Nick Napoli, Kyle Ludwig 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, we will call this meeting to order. For the record it is May 19th, 2026, at 6:02 p.m. We will begin tonight's regular City Council meeting with roll call attendance. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Simison: Next item up is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you would all, please, rise and join us in the pledge. (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) COMMUNITY INVOCATION Simison: Okay. I do not see Pastor Hanke with us this evening. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: So, we will move on past the invocation and go to adoption of the agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: On tonight's agenda we will be vacating the Executive Session at the end and with that only change I move that we adopt the agenda. Little Roberts: Second. Meridian City Council Work Session May 19,2026 Page 2 of 7 Simison: Have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda with the amendment of removing the Executive Session. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is adopted with the change. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RECOGNITION Simison: Council, anything under announcements and recognition? PUBLIC FORUM Simison: Okay. With that, then, we will move on to Public Forum. Mr. Clerk, anyone signed up under public forum? Johnson: Mr. Mayor, nobody signed up. PUBLIC HEARINGS [Action Item] 1. Public Hearing for Syringa Crossing Mixed Use Development (H- 2025-0007) by Hawkins Companies, generally located at the northwest and southwest corners of S. Meridian Rd./US69 and Amity Rd. Simison: Nobody did? Okay. Then with that we will move on to our public hearings. First item up is a public hearing for Syringe Crossing Mixed Use Development, H-2025- 0007. We will open this public hearing with staff comments. Napoli: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, so the applicant is requesting a continuance on Syringa Crossing to June 16th to work with city staff to adjust their plan and address the Planning and Zoning Commission's comments. Simison: Okay. Is the applicant here -- or, Council, any questions for staff? Is the applicant here? Do they have any comments they would like to make? I do see Mr. Mansfield online. Mansfield: Good evening, Council. I don't really have any comments. We are just working with staff and we -- working with our consultants to address some of the concerns of the Planning and Zoning Commission before we take this in front of you. We want to bring you a nice project. So, we are requesting deferral to June 16th. Simison: Okay. Council, any questions for the applicant? Okay. So, everything was noticed properly, there were no issues, this is just a request to continue on this item. Did we have anyone who has shown up tonight to speak on this item? Okay. Seeing Meridian City Council Work Session May 19,2026 Page 3 of 7 no one that has identified themselves as speaking on this. Council, what's your pleasure? Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Per the applicant's request I move that we continue that Syringa Crossing Mixed Use Development, H-2025-0007, until June 16th of 2026. Overton: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to continue this item. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the public hearing is continued. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. 2. Public Hearing (continued from April 28, 2026) for Rolling Hill (H- 2025-0040) by The Architects Office, located at 1560 Rolling Hill Dr. (Parcel #R7555000032), 1520 Rolling Hill Dr. (Parcel #R7555000041), 1480 Rolling Hill Dr. (Parcel #R7555000050), 4270 E. Overland Dr. (Parcel #R7555000015 and Parcel #R7555000025), 4240 E. Overland Rd. (Parcel #R7444000022) A. Request: Annexation of 8.16 acres of land with the C-C zoning to construct 184 vertically integrated residential units and 18,226 sq,ft. of commercial space across four (4) buildings. Simison: All right. With that we will move on to Item 2 this evening, which is a public hearing continued from April 28th, 2026, for Rolling Hills, H-2025-0040. We will continue this public hearing with comments from staff. Napoli: Mayor, Members of the Council, so, yes, this application was continued -- Rolling Hill project was continued from April 28th until now and the City Council continued that project for staff to create a development agreement provisions for approval, get revised landscape plans, elevations, unit count, commercial square footage and coordinate with the adjacent neighborhood and developer regarding the sale of future properties in the area. So, I did want to highlight just -- staff did have a meeting with an adjacent developer. I did send you guys an e-mail kind of updating that. Don't want to highlight it too much, because it's not part of this application, but there are seven properties to the north of Eastview Circle that are under a LOI or letter of intent. He is still having conversations with three other of the properties for that and as you can see one is up here and two are kind of in this corner that are directly above this and those conversations are ongoing. I will kind of leave it at that. As far as -- so, staff did receive all the revised drawings and updated landscape plan. We did get the Meridian City Council Work Session May 19,2026 Page 4of7 irrigation issue as far as trees resolved and they are actually going to be providing them on the south side of the pathway, instead of on the north side, so it won't be in the irrigation district's easement. So, we did resolve the issue with the trees in the irrigation district's easement. They did provide the updated elevations for you guys to look at, so as you -- as we discussed at the previous hearing they did have a transition to the north. There was like a three -- three -- three stories onto the interior and two stories to the north and they did revise that to show three stories on both sides and that did raise the unit count from 184 units to 200 units. So, it was an increase of 16 units and about nine percent throughout the project. That did also increase the square footage for the nonresidential space or commercial space to 19,517 square feet of nonresidential space and the open space calculations did decrease a little bit of 45,000 square feet instead of 53,000, but generally it is all still what you guys saw, it's still the same concept plan and those are just the changes that were made from the previous hearing at your guys' request and I will stand for any questions that you have. Simison: Okay. Thank you, Nick. Council, any questions for staff? Okay. Will the applicant like to come forward with any comments? Good evening. Slagle: Good evening. I'm Brett Slagle. My address is 2409 North Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, California. 90266. 1 saw you guys three weeks ago. Thanks so much for allowing us to come back. Our presentation is very short and really just on quick repeat, so I will just blaze through it really quick. We moved to 200 units. We raised the building to three stories on the one side and we raised the commercial or nonresidential square footage. Site adjustments. We made some minor footprint adjustments to the northern buildings. We made minor amenity location adjustments, but we maintained all the existing amenities that you previously saw. As Nick pointed out, we just -- we also adjusted the landscape -- landscaping on the north side of the building to accommodate this row of trees per the development agreement. The northern neighborhood -- this information is somewhat different and we are kind of getting this a little bit on hearsay, but we understand that maybe now there is nine -- the -- so, the one is kind of in the corner there, maybe those people are now under LOI, we are not entirely sure, we are not running that process. But, anyways, it's our belief after speaking with kind of their informal representative that, yes, in fact, all of these properties, except for the -- currently the one in the red is the one that is a holdout at this point, but they are trying and deliberating with them right now. But it does really seem factual that these people are interested in selling and, then, the second point here is that Nick and his team have met with this developer as well, so that's the second time you have heard that information. Development agreement. This is just for us to simply say that Nick and community development, we have been going back and forth on the development agreement. We are in agreement with it and so here it is, but we are ready to accept all of these points today. Public comment. I just want to make a quick point that a lot of the advocates for the project that were here three weeks ago are here again. I have asked them to not speak again unless they want -- specifically want to, but I didn't feel like that was probably a great use of any of our time and so by all means they can speak again if you -- if you would like them to, but I think probably trying to keep it moving. I know you have to open it up for public comment, but just know that Meridian City Council Work Session May 19,2026 Page 5 of 7 they are here if that's necessary and that's all that I have today and I will stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Perfect. Thank you. Slagle: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Simison: Mr. Clerk, do we have anyone that signed up to testify? Johnson: Mr. Mayor, the only people that wrote down their name did not mark -- did not mark that they wanted to speak. Simison: Okay. Well, we will leave it up to you if you would like to come forward and testify, but we just ask that you limit your comments to the changes that we have seen or the development agreement just to -- you know, that way we can keep it focused. So, if anyone would like to come forward. And if you are online you can use the raise your hand feature if you would like to provide any comments. Seeing no one coming forward and no one online raising their hand, does the applicant waive any final comments? The applicant waives. Council, your direction. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Just a quick question for staff before I make the next -- as we sit here tonight development agreement has been drawn up, the applicant says they are in complete agreement with that. Are there any other outstanding issues that we need to know about with this application? Napoli: Mr. Mayor, Council President Overton, no, there is not. You know, as far as -- it would be the development agreement provisions in front of you and updated unit count, updated commercial square footage, as long as all of those are things that Council understands and is in agreement with there is no other outstanding issues. That's correct. Overton: Thank you. Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I move that we close the public hearing on Item 2, Rolling Hill, H-2025-0040. 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. Meridian City Council Work Session May 19,2026 Page 6 of 7 MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Overton: Mr. Mayor, if there is no other comment -- Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Move forward and recommend -- after considering all staff, applicant and public testimony I move that we approve File No. H-2025-0040 as presented in the staff report for the hearing date of May 19th, 2026. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve Item 2, which is H-2025-0040. Is there a discussion? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Real quick. Appreciate staff working with the applicant on this and I think this was a good use of a continuance. I have a general rule where I speak and let the applicant know when I'm not going to be speaking in favor. So, I recognize for many people in the audience this is the right solution. I view this as exacerbating an already challenging problem in the area. So, I won't be voting in favor. I have got a good sense where the Council is going to land tonight. Wish you well on your project, but it's just not a request before the Council I can be in support of this evening. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. I just wanted to make a quick comment. This has been a really tough neighborhood to try to figure out and I just really appreciated the continuance and staff and the applicant's follow up here. I thought it was really helpful and I feel like it really established that this is a neighborhood that is in transition. I know not every single property is in transition, but we can't make decisions based on that one marginal property. I think the whole neighborhood feels like it's in transition. It feels like it's ready for its next phase and I think that's exciting. It's -- listen, it's always sad when a -- kind of a piece of our more rural historical piece of our city leaves, but we are moving on to something new. That's hard. But at the same time it's exciting and it feels like a great project and I think hopefully the continuance gave the applicant an opportunity as well. So, I think this was a win for everybody and I will be in support. Simison: Thank you. Council, any additional comments? If not, clerk call the roll. Meridian City Council Work Session May 19,2026 Page 7 of 7 Roll Call: Cavener, nay; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea; Whitlock, yea. Simison: Five ayes, one nay, and the item is agreed to. And send my appreciation to you, Nick, for helping get this through quickly and that was much appreciated. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE NAY. FUTURE MEETING TOPICS Simison: Okay. Executive Session was vacated. So, Council, anything under future meeting topics? Or a motion to adjourn? Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I move that we adjourn. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying. Opposed nay? The ayes have it, we are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6.15 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT SIMISON 5-26-2026 ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK 5-26-2026