HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008 01-07 Joint ACHDMeridian Cit Council Joint Meetin Janua 7 2008
The Meridian City Council special /joint meeting was called to order at 12:00
P.M. on Monday, January 7, 2008 by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, David Zaremba and Joe
Gorton.
Members Absent: Charlie Rountree.
ACHD Members Present: Carol McKee, David Bivens, Rebecca Arnold, Sherry
Huber, John Franden.
Staff Present: Ted Baird, Kyle Radek, Matt Ellsworth, Pete Friedman, Anna
Canning and Will Berg.
Item 1. Status Report on Impact Fees:
Brokaw: Good afternoon. For the record I am Mike Brokaw, the Deputy Director
of Operations and I am .going to give you a quick presentation on the status of
impact fees. I started the year in October 2006 with a beginning balance ofi a
negative $10 million. What that meant was the total of all of the service areas,
unfortunately were in the red when we started the year. We had one service
area that was in the black (inaudible). Collections at $14.4 million, which actually
came in a little bit higher than after we revised it. We had expenditures of $23.4
millian -out of those are impact fee eligible expenses, actually the total costs of
the projects was a little bit higher than that. So we had an ending balance of $19
million in the red. I am going to go through each one of the service areas one by
one and give you a brief overview of them. The northwest is service area
number one. This would be north of the freeway and west of Eagle Road. It had
a beginning balance of a positive $1.6 million, had collections of $5.2 million.
This happened to be the highest amount of collections in any of the service
areas. The impact fee eligible fee projects casts totaled $8.2 millian. So we
have an ending balance of a negative $1.4 million. Major projects that were
included in this service area were Locust Grave, Franklin to Fairview for
construction at (inaudible) million. Also the right-af-way on Ten Mile, Franklin to
Cherry Lane, $1.2 million and the McMillan and Meridian intersection $1.2. I
might add that these costs are just impact fee eligible costs here. The project
costs were much more than that. I believe that you have in the handout that
hopefully was either in front of you or we sent over prior to the meeting. It has a
fairly extensive list of each project and does show the total project costs on there
too. The southwest service area -this would be south of the freeway and again,
west of Eagle Road had a beginning balance of a negative $700,000; collections
of $4.2 million. This was the second highest collection service area. Impact fee
eligible projects of $7 million for an ending balance of a negative $3.5 million.
Overland Road, Linder to Meridian was the largest project cost there and then
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January 7, 200$
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Overland, Topaz to Cloverdale and Overland and Meridian and Victory and
Cloverdale. Service area number three is the southeast. It had a beginning
balance of a negative $4.3 million and collections of $1.1 million. Impact fee
eligible projects of $800,000; ending balance of a negative $4 million. So not a
whole lot of projects going on here yet. The collections haven't been too high.
This is the service area that the Park Center Bridge is in. At the most cast there
for $700,000. Of the northeast service area number four had a beginning
balance of a negative $C.6 million. Of course this is the one that is furthest in the
red; collections of $3.9 million; impact fee eligible projects costs of $7.4 million,
currently has an ending balance of (inaudible) million in the red. This is where
the majority of the construction activity was this past year. Yet the major cast
there for the Maple Grove extension, Fairview to Cloverdale, $1.7 million on the
right-af-way and then the Ustick, Five Mile to Cole project, we have quite a few
more casts (inaudible). I think the total cost for this particular year approached
$$ million on this particular project. What all of this means is we have a $19
million loan balance. That means that the general fund monies have had to put
up $19 million over and above the impact fees that were collected in order to get
these projects to the point that they are now. Of course a lot of that was
construction costs. An awful lot of it was right-of-way design costs. As you can
see from this point, northeast is the furthest in the red at $10.1 million and the
south (inaudible) and a majority of the collections have been in the northwest and
southwest. We also have extraordinary impact fees. We have three areas
currently. Right now we have $2.4 million in the west foothills. Those projects
haven't been completed yet, but when they are that is where the money will
came from. (Inaudible) completed those improvements and are hopefully going
to collect enough to make up for the $400,000 deficit there. This is some loan
balances by year. It gives you a little bit of historical information. We have gone
from (inaudible--) and a loan balance that dropped to $4.8 million in 2005 and
rose dramatically in 2006 to $11.5 million and now we are settled al $19 million.
(Inaudible--) for 2008 and right now it is looking like it is going to come in right at
$20 million. We will have to wait for the (inaudible). Right now through the first
quarter through the end of December, we are looking at about $150,000 less
than (inaudible). I believe that is all I have unless you have any questions.
McKee: Any questions for Mike?
Zaremba: (Inaudible--). Somehow there has to be improvement on the other
side of the balance sheet. ACHD needs more income and how do we do that?
McKee: (Inaudible--)
Huber: (Inaudible--) and haw long we think it may take to come out of it and if it
takes - I don't think we have really determined the time, but if it takes a longer
time than we think it should we may have to change projects in that zone until we
can get a realistic number of revenue coming in that will offset that loan because
otherwise you are going to keep doing projects and that particular zone keeps
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January 7, 2008
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going down and there is no hope of bringing it up. So we started to do same
accounting things that we haven't done in the past, but we need to make it more
fine (inaudible) and more detailed.
(Inaudible discussion)
Levihn: We are in the process of scheduling all of those workshops with the
cities. We are looking at Meridian at about the (inaudible--) variable level of
service and defining what our base starting point is from there and what the Blue
Print consultants have told us is that once that map is settled and defined, it
would be about two months after that, so one of the big (inaudible) here is when
we go to each of the jurisdictions and ask what levels of service are you willing to
accept and what areas of your jurisdiction --? And you might think that it sounds
like we could do that in a day or two (inaudible), but then we would have to have
the (inaudible--) where your jurisdiction (inaudible). (Inaudible--) or middle of
February would be about middle of May or June, but it may be complex and we
may get into a series of meetings with your staff and our Commission to try to
resolve those differences, so it is a little bit hard for me to say. The earliest, I
would say would be (inaudible--).
De Weerd: Is that information to the staff (inaudible)?
Levihn: What we are (inaudible_-). We discussed (inaudible) last Friday and
trying to get (inaudible--), the bigger ones first of which are one and I hope have
the packet of information (inaudible--).
(Inaudible discussion)
Franden: Thanks Carol. Dave to kind of answer your question in another way
too is the one thing that we will need to be going out to get reauthorization for the
registration fee and increase that and we will allow - it has to be done by
(inaudible), has to be approved, so we will ga out this November and hopefully it
will pass; if not we will have to ga out again in 2010. Right now my own opinion
is the only possible revenue source I see is that the legislature will give
authorization for a local tax of some kind and then it comes down to, let's just say
it works out the way in legislation now for a Regional Transportation Authority to
identify the projects. Well, that would be another source of revenues that would
go into ACHD. However, right now, quite honestly what I hear the conversation
being as far as monies would go and is yet of -course is to be determined is into
the state system to 20/26, HWY 44 and other projects there, but that is yet to be
determined. That is a long ways down the road.
Zaremba: I am going to ask what is a novice or rookie question Iguess -does
ACRD have the power to bond?
Franden: Yes.
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January 7, 2008
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(Inaudible discussion)
Franden: I think that is what we did, didn't we with the last registration fees,
Mike, on --?
Brokaw: That is true. We have a limited ability to bond. We cannot issue
general obligation bands like the cities can, but we were able to use a vehicle
registration fee as the specific revenue source to pay back bonds, so we were
able to do that back in 1991. If that is renewed or a new one installed then that is
probably the avenue that we could go. We would probably have to either go to
an election in order to allow us to do that or a judicial confirmation.
Bird: John, on the ITD ar the registration fees, ACH^ is going to ask for it and I
understand also there is a plan out to the legislature that state is going to ask to
do it, too, so we are going to be double the registration fees, but you guys will be
guaranteed. But, if we voted far your -you won't be guaranteed it will you?
Franden: No, if the voters voted in the affirmative then the one in Ada County
would continue on, but who knows what will happen?
McKee: If they don't then we lose about $4 million in revenue. That is about
what we get.
Bird: Is that what you are getting?
Franden: Yeah.
Bird: And that is the only thing you can bond on is guaranteed revenue? Am I
not right? You can't bond on impact fees or anything like that can you?
Brokaw: That is correct at this time.
Bird: We have gat to make sure this registration fee and you are going to have it
out this November?
Franden: Yes.
McKee: So the bond amount -you can only bond (inaudible--) as the
registration fees are paid for.
Franden: We thought we would wait until after the legislature gets out of town to
really start working it.
(Inaudible discussion)
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January 7, 2008
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Bivens: Sherry I think it makes a lot of difference the amount that we ask for the
renewal ofi our registration fee or - I will give you a little background, maybe most
of you remember, but some may not that this is the third try. They dropped it
from 50 down to 20 to get it passed and the major thing that we were running into
and I am sure that Sherry remembers and maybe some of the others do too, but
the major thing was the replacement of the bridges across the canals on
(inaudible) was a major thing that passed that registration fee here (inaudible). It
is not going to be easy to get that done.
Huber: One thing that we kind of kicked around and I don't think we totally
(inaudible) is we may take a similar approach and maybe (inaudible). As we all
know the intersections kind of give you greater capacity for a two lane road and
certainly we can all name real easy five intersections we wished and it is pretty
much -you know I think there is enough throughout the County, but I think that is
one thing that we talked about that might be an approach and I think it would
rapidly move us along (inaudible--).
McKee: Any other questions? Okay, how about we move onto the five year
work plan? Katey?
Item 2. Presentation -Draft of Five Year Work Plan:
Levihn: I will stand here by the microphone so it picks me up. I don't have a
handout on this. I understand what the question is what is the status of our five
year work program and what is the schedule for the future and I have to
apologize to the Commission they are going to hear some things for the first time
here today as well, which is why I am not going to be terribly detailed because I
have to speak with them on Wednesday. We did put out Draft A. I don't know if
all of you understand that that program was about $16 or $17 million over
programmed and with the recent drop in impact fees and the uncertainty of the
funding that seemed excessive. So staff has been working very hard to bring
that over programming down. We did meet with - I was supposed to meet with
Mayor De Weerd and Pete Friedman and we met with Charlie Rountree instead
in between Christmas and New Years to kind of give you a little bit of an idea of
where it is. We have managed in what is a very tentative draft that I have got to
go talk to the Commission about and bring a lot of that aver programming down.
One of the things that we have as yet not been able to accomplish is to keep the
impact fee loan balance low. That is one big question that we have to go to the
Commission with. Another one is we have a fair amount of advanced construct
for federal aid projects, which is a drain on our dollars. I don't know if you will
understand what that means. It means we get - we have the guaranteed federal
funding or as guaranteed as it can be in the future programmed for a couple of
large projects, for instance Franklin, Touchmark to Five Mile in your area. But, it
has been out in the out years. We currently, under our procedure with ITD have
to put up all of the money up front and get reimbursed in the future year when the
funding becomes available. That is a huge drain on our resources. Staff has
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January 7, 2008
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been in contact with ITD to see if we can da that differently and we don't have an
answer back yet, but that would also ga to the Commission and might help the
problem. In taking a look at the whole program, we have really managed to
reduce the over programming except not in the first couple of years, which is
difficult and I will be giving the Commission a couple of options about doing that
and when we met with Council Member Rountree and Pete Friedman you know,
most of the projects that are scheduled in the first couple of years; there is East
Park Center Bridge, but all of the other large ones are in Meridian and we may
need to work with you on our timing of some those projects. So I am working
feverishly to get something to go to our Commission that is Wednesday for a
discussion and see where we are going to come out with the five year work
program after that. The schedule, typically we try to have it adopted in late
January or early February to meet with the COMPASS schedule feeding into the
TIP and the STIP. If we can't quite meet that we can work with COMPASS to put
in as much as we can. It would only be, I think, one or two projects that might
shift and they can go ahead with their air quality conformity while we take slightly
longer on the five year work program. But, it has been a very challenging year
due to a number of circumstances -the reduced revenues that we have been
getting; the challenge with what kind of revenue are we going to get in the future
-the increased construction costs; the impact fee loan balance having ballooned
so much and looking like it is going to balloon some more in the future and we
are struggling with all of that. Any questions?
Huber: Katey I don't have a question, but since you are surprising us a little -
one thing that I think we need to take a look at. I was cleaning out my desk and
ran across a lot of documents that remind me of some things is that we need to
start looking at the maintenance dollars as we go into each city because I was
looking at the breakdown of the capitals in the five year plan. There was some
totals and there was no date on it. It is probably a little bit older, but if you take
the maintenance and add it to the capital, I think there is a really big imbalance
with Boise in particular and I am not saying that -- Boise is part of my district too,
but when I looked at it and I really think that it was that document that brought it -
that hit me in the face as we were looking at this money crunch. I think we da
have to not just focusing on capital, but on total dollars too, financial because I
know they have complained that they don't get enough, but when you look at the
dollars in capital and the dollars that go into the maintenance then there is a real
wacky amount opposed to revenue. Because (inaudible) revenue number to the
side of it and there was no date on the paper, but I think it was fairly recent that
that was given to us. If we take a lack at that, the number $9 million for Boise far
just maintenance. So in a five year plan that is $45 million and if you add that on
top of the capital the number really does get to (inaudible). And again if we are in
a money crunch, what are we supposed to do? We have got to look at
everything and I am not picking on any one entity because I don't know what the
totals are going to be that was just the one on the example of the sheet of paper
that I had that gave Boise's total and I don't even know what Meridian's is.
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
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Levihn: Well and a couple of other factors if we are going to bring up something
like that that we are looking at is one of the things Draft A had construction and
right-of-way and design wildly fluctuating between years; well that is very difficult
for us to have to try and execute, you know, if you had - it would be more than -
sometimes three times as much in one year as the other, so Draft B we tried to
level that out some. We also have to be concerned about sitting in with all of
ITD's work and trying to match the Ten Mile Interchange and the GARVEE
construction and not do other things. So it has been a really challenging year. I
did want to point one thing out. The five year program, since you brought it up
does not show renewal of the (inaudible) registration fee. That was a
conservative stance we took on those starting in 2011, the $4 million a year
drops out. Now it doesn't show very strongly because we make up more in same
of our other revenue, we think, with the property taxes and the impact fees, but
that is not included in there - if we do get that renewed and re-upped, next year's
five year work program might look slightly better depending on how places ga.
The other thing that may ultimately affect housing get executed this year is how
gaad (inaudible) prices come in recently. They have been coming in good, but
we dan't know if that is going to continue and with a couple of major projects
coming up --
McKee: Any other questions for Katey?
(Inaudible discussion)
Ellsworth: Try to be brief here. First a quick thank you to Katey and her staff,
Andrew O'Connor, the new five year work plan coordinator and he did a great jab
pulling information together prior to the release of Draft A. The memo that he
distributed to staff and other cities made it very clear to what is going on with
changes from last year to this year and made the whole thing a lot easier to soak
in so thank you Andy and thank you Katey. As far as Draft B and so forth is
concerned as soon as a schedule is laid out in front of us as to the release of
Draft B and when ACHD will need comments back I will work to get that back to
our Council and ask you to provide comments, but we appreciate the opportunity
to do so.
McKee: Thank you. We can always depend on you guys to come back with your
comments. We don't ever to ask. You had a comment, David?
Zaremba: Madame Chairman on the subject of maintenance, I support the idea
that it is important to maintain the infrastructure that the public already awns and
that is an important thing. I will ask again a question that I asked at (inaudible)
and put Katey on the spot a little bit to ask in front of the Commissioners. At
what point does the loan balance to the impact fee start to threaten the ongoing
maintenance?
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
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Levihn: That is one of the issues that we have to come to the Commission as to
what level of loan balance are you comfortable with? Of course, the loan
balance has rocketed because the project for constructing has gone up and we
have had to fund those projects that are underway and we don't really have an
answer for that Council Member Zaremba (inaudible--).
Huber: We have been noodling aver that for quite some time and it is just not
anything that we have come to a decision and we are hoping that with all of these
figures coming in, hopefully with our bids going down and impact fees coming in
that we won't have to make such drastic decisions, but it is coming there and it is
definitely going to have discussion. But, how we level with that maintenance, we
haven't discussed that at all because we do have to maintain the system and we
are committed to maintain the system.
McKee: Anything else on this before we move on?
Item 3. Update on S. Meridian Transportation Plan:
Levihn: Just as a refresher this is one of the really first land use and
transportation integration studies. We have tried to it and it has been a
wonderful effort on everybody's part. The .study area was the Freeway on the
north, I-84, three quarters of mile east of Eagle over on the east side there, which
basically takes in the City of Meridian city limits down into the south, kind of
halfway in between Columbia and Hubbard on the eastern portion and then Lake
Hazel on the western four miles and McDermott Road. So it was quite a large
study area. We did coordinate heavily with the City of Meridian. You were
developing an alternative land use scenario in there. It involved significant
community participation in the whole process. Like I said it was one of the full
scale integrated cooperative efforts between ACHD and the city and I think Craig
just handed it out to you. We just received notice on Friday and has been
awarded 1st place by ACEC Idaho for studies, research and consulting services
as a model plan there. It's general purpose is to try identify those long range
multi-module transportation needs in the area and comparing the growth forecast
with the new land use plans from Communities in Motion, both choices in trend in
looking at what you have got planned for coming out in that area. These are just
a couple of the alternative plans that you had. Matt informs me that he is actually
going to the Meridian City Council the first week of February with one that is
slightly different from this, but that was incorporated into looking at the study and
it is really kind of interesting I need to process what I am -- well let me get
through this slide first. So the proposed changes to your Meridian Comp Plan
actually result in a significantly higher demographic projections than had been
accounted for in Communities in Motion and reflected in the existing long range
plans and COMPASS'S long ranged plan and our Capital Improvement Plan and
as a result so if that land use scenario is adopted it means -the study indicates a
larger number of widening and intersection Improvements being needed in that
area, which therefore, means significantly higher costs than we currently have
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
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planned in that area. Some of the recommendations and these are preliminary
drafts because we got a little out of sequence with this study and with what is
happening with TLIP, so these are just being held in abeyance until we complete
that next TLIP step, but they had a revised street functional classification
designation, as I mentioned before a number of road widening projects - it did
proposed a revised access management policy, we incorporated some
pedestrian and bicycle system plans in there to address some of the multi-
modules and then it did have a little bit of a proposed route for Overland and of
course, that Overland Road was pulled out and addressed separately. The draft
final report was submitted to us in September, October. Like I said, unfortunately
it was written to actually be coordinated with TLIP, the TLIP got behind in
schedule so the results are not totally integrated with that, which we have to wait
far this next step with TLIP to be able to analyze that and compare the two after
we know what variable level of service you would like in your area, look at what
matches through TLIP with that and look again what is in with the Communities in
Motion and our long range plan and see what the difference of the required
transportation and infrastructure in that area would be, which is why I am not
presenting any precise results today because that could change. We are doing a
pretty good analysis trying to look at that and see what it may mean to especially
our CIP update and the adequate public facilities ordinances that are coming
down. For your information on the CIP update, we should be starting that about
the middle of this year again and so all of this is kind of coming together at the
same time if we are adding more projects into the CIP, but we don't show a
corresponding increase in revenue that means some projects are going to have
to drop out the end ar the new ones that are added won't be reflected in the CIP.
We just don't know how that is going to turn out. I already spoke about TLIP.
We have not gone to the Commission again with this study because we are
waiting on this and of course, you are looking at adopting that proposed land use
plan in February. I am not sure without a little bit more analysis on the financial
end, if you would like to wait a little on that adoption or go ahead and adopt it
because at this point and time, ACHD does not have the funding through these
significantly greater number of transportation projects in that area. We are
caught in this sort of chicken and egg kind of loop with trying to pull all these
facets together. Additionally, we are in the process of starting a new access
management policy. Staff is working on that in-house and again it hasn't not
even been completed in-house or gone to our Commission, but we would
certainly look at some of the access policy recommendations that have so far
come forth in this study. I have already spoke again about TLIP, the workshop.
We were hoping to get them scheduled in February and keep that much on track
as much as possible. Additionally we have the roadways to bikeways master
plan that is getting relatively near to completion. It is in a major review stage
right now. It may need to go through another do loop with TLIP; again where you
put those bikeways may matter on where your major transportation corridors are
or nat. So, all those three pieces are waiting to come together. Like I said the
CIM and CIP consistency with a long range funding, the transportation needs that
are showing in the study are significantly in addition to what is in either one of
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 10 of 1$
those documents and then finally determining the adequate public facilities
ordinance implications and needs; we need the complete picture on that to try to
come up with a funding mechanism to address the transportation requirements.
So I am going to leave it at that broad high level for now, but I am her for any
broad questions and if you have specific questions, Craig could answer those.
(Inaudible discussion)
Levihn: Well, I tried to give you my best guess on what happened with TLIP
(inaudible) and once we get that variable level of service map we have got to
again coordinate it across the whole county and I have no idea if that is going to
be an easy task ar a hard one depending on what people say.
Huber: So that is the determining factor then?
Levihn: Then after that was set, we probably need another -two months seem
to be the magic number today. Two months to try to rerun some of the modeling
analyses and assumptlans that come into that, run them through both staffs and
jurisdictions and see where we are and come up with a list of final projects and
then try to cost those.
De Weerd: So when is the bikeway plan (inaudible)?
Levihn: It is supposed to be looking at final review for the Commission in March.
Again I am not depending on - I am going to guess that is going to slip until April
because of the TLIP input. There are some areas -
De Weerd: So you will try and tie these two together?
Levihn: Yeah, I am trying to work on a master schedule for all of this. It is just
kind all hitting us from all sides to try to get that together, you know Boise's Comp
Plan, your Comp Plan update, TLIP, the bike master plan, the various studies
that are going on in the area; adequate public facilities ordinance and put it all
together. I will try to get an overall schedule together in the next couple of
weeks.
De Weerd: Katey you also mentioned in your presentation that the South
Meridian Plan has more density than Communities in Motion. Since we also are
impacted at the downstream of that, what is Kuna doing to these same roads and
Southwest Boise? Can you tell me how some of that also plays into it?
Levihn: Partially. I can tell you partially. We have a study in Southwest Boise
looking at that. It is going to have to tie in the same way. Kuna is - we are
working with them on their Comp Plan, right Chris --update?
(Inaudible discussion)
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
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Chris (last name?): it is probably going to be - I don't know if the timeline quite
as long as Boise, but presumably a year to a year and one half (inaudible).
Levihn: But, I think we can move ahead with what's in place with the plan. I do
want to emphasize that this was a really terrific planning effort. We very much
appreciate Meridian working with us on the transportation side and looking at
this. We just haven't been able to get it to the Commission with all of the
analysis and the other things going on. But, this is really the type of study that is
going to help both of our communities. I mean, the city and ACHD determine
what the transportation needs really are in the area and haw to fund them in the
sequence of how they could be done or alternatively what needs to be triggering
adequate public facilities ordinance, extraordinary impact fee or requirements on
developers so that we can try to keep up with it. One of the assumptions in this
study for instance is that it goes to 2030 and it is pretty much full build out, you
know, that is another layer that we can look at in studies is what if that full build
out doesn't occur in 30 years because people tend to be fairly optimistic and
sometimes the build out doesn't occur that way. We have also seen the flip side
where all of sudden an area booms when nobody had anticipated it, so one of
the thoughts at trying to look at some of this is maybe a 50 percent build out, a
75 and 100 in 20 years and see what that does to the funding plan for the
transportation. There is -you know we are kind of entering a new phase within
integrating this land use and transportation planning and it is making us try to
look at things in a new way and figure out what is realistic and it is going to
involve everybody.
De Weerd: Just a follow up. With that southwest area being already $3.5 million
in the whole and all these questions out there, what is the Commission's position
and applications in those areas are presented? If you don't do something
different or delay decisions, you are just going to get further and further in the
hole.
Huber: That is what I said earlier is what they would take a look at is the
potential income as that grows and matching it to - if it will be a positive ar
negative, meaning there is the impact fees, the increased with just the property
taxes to see - to match each zone that way to see what the potential is and is it
going to go deeper or is it in your "x" going to start to show positive. That is what
we are trying to get-you know alittle - it is somebody's best estimate, but it is
an estimate I don't think we have ever done before. That is what I was talking
about earlier that we have to look at for the zone, so that the zone - it is the zone
that worries me the mast of course is the one that is the $10 million because that
is just a huge red flag and if we can't see -from my view if we can't see that that
zone is going to come out of it in say five years or -again we haven't decided as
a Commission but to me we have got to be talking about they are cut off. I mean
it is that simple. Until we can see that a zone is going to get itself out, it is foolish
for us in my mind to keep pouring money into it.
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 12 of 18
De Weerd: Well, the other zones suffer.
Huber: Well, right. That is exactly right.
Franden: Thanks (inaudible). You know Tammy the other part on it is the
adequate public facilities _ if that can be implemented then what we are going to
do is we will come to you and we will say, road "x" or transportation "x" is it can't
handle this, it is over capacity. It will be over capacity. So then you are going to
have some tough decisions and you will have some tools where you can say yes
or no to a particular development and the developer will then have same tools to
say well instead of saying no let's take a look at doing something now to improve
the offsite of where our development is.
Huber: See and that is where it is really important to you guys to really
understand that level of service because what John is talking about really is
where it ends up on the facilities ordinance and so if you pick a level of service
that I will say high, but you think is ideal and then that is in your growth area then
it is going to cost more in that growth area because maybe you picked "c" and it
goes to "d" where the whole rest of the county might be at "d" because we don't
have the money and then that area is going to cost more in my mind to develop.
So, I think those are things that when you are talking about level of service and
Katey was saying that it is not quite as easy as you think it is, those are the
things that you guys are going to have to really look at and in your downtown
core, you know, how you want that. But for you because the growth -you know
where the growth is and you know where it is going to be in the next two years, I
think it is a lot more complicated question.
De Weerd: Well yeah and it is not only going to cost more in your mind, it will
cost more in reality too. I guess the premise is I understand all of that and we
have been anxiously awaiting this to happen. But, I am more anxious probably to
see how you are going to handle in these downstream areas, other people's
impacts an our roads so that the people developing in our community are not
building for a fringe development or are not covering the impact of fringe
development.
Huber: You sound like Boise worrying about all the other traffic. That is the
problem we are going to have is exactly what you described is what Boise yips at
Meridian about on the downstream - it is really something that the cities are
going to have to -because you are right. That is correct. But how do we
grapple with it? Because every city is going to have a downstream effect likely
on somebody else. Or more than one somebody else. So .that really is -- I
mean you might -that is why if you pick "c" -
(Inaudible discussion
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 13 of 18
Huber: -- but you get the flow dawn there to Kuna that takes it to a different level
and that is why I am saying that the level of service is a complicated issue.
Zaremba: Well, a lot of good thought has gone into this already and some of the
discussions that we had (inaudible--). I am a very strong advocate of pinning
some idea of what the build outs would be and even as we know that is going to
be a lot of estimates and we need to have same idea of the closer parts of
Canyon County's full build out as well. Meridian is impacted by what happens in
Nampa and Caldwell.
Huber: Well, we don't want to make it any more complicated than -
Zaremba: Well, it ends up on our roads as well, but the thing that I think that we
need to figure out is why we need to have the full build out in the plans is so that
as the land use jurisdiction and the highway jurisdiction work together -the thing
that worries developers is that the developer that comes in next month will get
their project approved and not contribute to the future infrastructure and
developer two, three and four will be okay, but developer five tips the balance
and all of sudden we are saying to developer five, you can't do anything unless
you put in $10 million and the issue of fairness is that we need to know ahead of
time what full build out is going look like and we need to parcel that out to the
people that are applying today and have a mechanism that we all agree on that
allows us to do that. I have established the problem, but I don't know what the
answer is.
Bivens: I am going to throw out another wild card. Dave through out one and I
want to. What will the effect be of reduced values on our revenue income? How
will that effect us and how soon? Then on the other side, can we project what
the cost of the (inaudible) might hopefully be reduced -
(Tape turned over)
Bivens: I think that is something we need to (inaudible--) assessors and talk to
them and see if they can give us any idea at all -any idea of what that might be,
but I don't think there is any doubt about property values going to be (inaudible).
(Inaudible discussion)
Bivens: The Governor, supposedly at 3:00 going to give us an idea of what he
intends to do with increasing the value of homes.
Zaremba: I would guess that the larger homeowners exemption that was passed
by the legislature is going to effect all of us; everybody that has property taxes.
Bird: It hasn't effected us yet because we have had great growth, but this year
and next year in Meridian at least our new building permits as you guys know is
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 14 of 1 S
maybe 25 percent in what the were in 2005 and so that is going to effect us. But,
we are just going to have to be like the private world and tighten our bills and get
by with what we have got. You have got a great idea, but I don't know if anybody
could foresee that. I mean, I wish there was people like that. Yau hit it right on
the head, but how do you forecast?
De Weerd: I will lend you my crystal ball.
(Inaudible discussion)
Bird: You can make a stab at it, but the market is going to drive -some places
you might have R-8's. Other places you might have R-4's. You might plan for R-
8's and they come in and R-8's and they come in and do R-2's or R-4's or they
want R-15's or R-40's. Let's say you want retail or you want commercial out
there and maybe that dan't go - we changed our Comprehensive Plan areas
quite often because to accommodate that kind of market place. I don't -
(Inaudible discussion)
De Weerd: -- break down the cost per square mile because if your net density
per square mile in your Comp Plan is going to change then the fees need to be
adjusted accordingly because we all know that the less dense you get, the more
(inaudible) analysis is going to take far your (inaudible). So, I guess if you can
come up with a cost per square mile, it will be easier with a Comprehensive Plan
to adjust some of those variables that you struggle with.
Franden: You mean the cost per mile of roadway, not square mile, right? You
are thinking about (inaudible) charts, right?
De Weerd: Your impact fees.
Huber: I think that would be hard to do - to just blanker that because it is a lot
cheaper to build a road out in the south county than it is up in the foothills. So we
would have to work that aut, too.
De Weerd: We would almost have to do it by area.
(Inaudible discussion)
Zaremba: (Inaudible) to standard question (inaudible) to establish that we
anticipate a certain density and a certain mix of residential and commercial area
within a square mile. But, what does your infrastructure cast to serve that? It
helps us to have it in a square mile piece of information because as she says, if
we agree to change the density, it still needs the infrastructure around it and over
here and down the way.
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 15 of 18
(Inaudible discussion)
De Weerd: -- (inaudible) and that way when we change, Council even knows
that if we are changing the density either up or down that that should have -
Zaremba: -- the downstream effect. We haven't been doing that kind of
analysis.
McKee: Can we give them a number that says if you develop at 6 units an acre
this is what needs to be done in the road system if you develap at 8 or 10?
Huber: It is going to get complicated because our downtown course will be a
whole different mix. You know, per square mile.
De Weerd: But you know --
(Inaudible discussion)
Levihn: Commissioners and Council Members, I could look into that. It does get
complicated because I think you are talking dwelling units and you throw in the
mix of commercial and retail or manufacturing and that is very different because
they have different traffic rates. I could look into seeing if that would happen. I
also just wanted to comment on Council Member Zaremba's liking to look at full
build out. When you plan you do want to look at full build out, but actually putting
the infrastructure in place depends on the rate of that build out. I mean, if the full
build out occurs in 10 years, you need $100 million in the next 10 years, you
know that is $10 million a year, where if it occurs in 30 years, you only need $3
million a year. That is a big difference. So those are a couple of the questions. I
mean you look at build out for what your ultimate needs may be, but the actual
funding plan to get there depends very much on the rate of the occurrence of the
build out.
Zaremba: I think my desire to look at full build out is directed more at
understanding what right-of-ways we need to preserve as opposed to actually
putting the pavement in there. Some of them could take 50 years to build out. It
could take 10 or it could take 50. Nobody knows. I agree we shouldn't put the
pavement there, but we as a land use agency have to know what right-of-way
has to be preserved. Otherwise somebody is going to build pn it and we will
never be able to afford to buy the right-of-way. I know it is purely imagination,
but whatever we can guess on build out -
(Inaudible discussion)
Levihn: Not that TLIP is going to solve everything, but the very last step in TLIP
is supposed to came up with producing a corridor preservation map based on all
of the input that we have got and of course that will be in flushed to some extent.
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 16 of 18
McKee: I agree with what you were saying about Canyon County. I had a
conversation with David Ferdinand the other day, who said they are slowing
down, but they are still approving plats like crazy and they know all of that traffic
is coming right through us. So we do need to get that conversation going and
make sure we have those numbers in the mix because they do. They come
across the line, you know, we are no longer counties, we are just one big region.
Any other questions, comments?
Item 4. Discussion -Extension & Widening of Pine Avenue:
McKee: Mr. Little are you going to handle that for us?
Little: If the question is traffic counts or traffic volumes, then I will. Either one. If
it deals with projects then (inaudible).
De Weerd: That doesn't look like Pine.
(Inaudible discussion)
Little: What happens with Pine with an extension? What happens after
Meridian? It is giving you same numbers there that show you the (inaudible)
counts east of Main Street. This reflects Main to Locust Grove, pretty much and
then west of Eagle between Locust Grove and Eagle. That is just local traffic
mostly (inaudible) and then what goes up into that industrial side. Same do go
through there, but certainly without it put through that is not a very reflective
count. 2030 trend forecast shows 8,600 between Main and Locust Grove and
about 18,600 between Locust Grove and Eagle. That is the higher one. The
choicest one, which deals with higher densities and more infill on that shows
7,800 and 10,000. It is much more moderate and you can see the threshold for
level service "d" for a two lane and a three lane. So essentially if you build it out
to three lanes, 17,000 is your goal and you would have about half of that in the
Main to Locust Grove section, 8,600 by that forecast and west of Eagle, you are
up over the level of service for three lanes and that is being planned to be built to
five lanes. This is a direct hourly peak directional light -more technical and I
don't think it is that important but it is just what we really use for design these
days and what we use for the impact fee, but we are moving to that direction.
Mainly I am using the 24 hour (inaudible) simplicity and it gives you a fairly good
comparison. Looking at Fairview at seven lanes is the 2030 forecast and shows
it as 8,600 as I showed you. It stayed at five lanes. We didn't get this Fairview
built out to seven lanes in 20 years. It shows more .traffic, of course, on Pine;
about 10,300. Still within the three lane threshold for a roadway. We figured like
you said 17,000 is the three lane level service "d" at capacity or level service "e",
18,500. With the choices forecast it is less than that. Bottom line is we don't see
more than a three lane demand out there between Locust Grove and Main; you
don't have more than a three lane right-of-way through mast of that. In old town
proper, I guess you would call it, (inaudible) 6t" Street west there is an 80 foot
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 17 of 18
right-of-way, but from about 6th Street east or (inaudible) you would get is more
like 60 feet less right-of-way. We have not been able to reserve it for five lanes
out in that section (inaudible--). That is a nutshell in the traffic forecasts.
McKee: Any questions? No. Thank you.
Canning: Commissioners, Council Members thank you. I think Mr. Rountree
asked far this item to be put on the agenda today and I think his concern was that
we have been focusing a lot of the north south routes through Meridian and not
so much the east west routes and we really believe that this Pine will become a
major (inaudible) route into our downtown area and then (inaudible) over time
and I think he just wanted perhaps greater attention and thought about it. Again,
it was kind of his idea and unfortunately he is not here today, but I do think it was
just more than a traffic update. I think he wanted to begin same discussions
about east west routes and how to improve that throughout Meridian.
McKee: Well, is he suggesting he wants five lanes or three lanes or --?
Canning: I don't know for sure. We can ask him again, just don't be surprised if
this comes up again since unfortunately is he is not here.
McKee: I was going to suggest that. We could always talk about that another
time.
Zaremba: Nat to speak for Charlie, but my instinct would be that he would
probably like to see a bigger route than smaller. I think that what would be the
impetus for that is the instant success of what you all did with Locust Grove. I
mean, it is thrilled and it is already packed. Well, Pine Street connecting east
and west is going to give even more access to Locust Grove and vice-a-versa
and I think Charlie is anticipating that Pine Street may go away (inaudible) were
anticipating and I would kind of support him in that. I mean we need to think big.
Bird: It takes a lot of the traffic off of Cherry Lane and Pine (inaudible) because it
starts at Ten Mile and it comes all the way to Boise. I also feel that not only Pine,
but we need to really proceed on Ustick Road and getting it taken care of and I
am the first to say that Boise doesn't want it done in their area then bring the
money over and do it in our area. But that is from the river Boise -and we have
been worrying about north and south. But, we have got to worry about east and
west because somebody (inaudible) stand out there in the mornings and
evenings and see how many two seat cars and even one "g" and the one "e" and
all of them that are coming through there and I know every town is impacted by
other cities' traffic, but we seem to be kind of the hub. We are right in the middle.
We are the hub of the Valley, but I think Pine will really relieve a lot of traffic off of
Fairview and Franklin and even Overland. Ustick, of course, (inaudible) big time.
Meridian City Council Joint Meeting /Workshop
January 7, 2008
Page 18 of 18
De Weerd: Madame Chair just to wrap up. I guess we are expecting the TLIP to
go through the city (inaudible) by next week? Is that what (inaudible--)?
(Inaudible discussion)
De Weerd: And when is draft "b" going to be available in the five year plan?
Levihn: Actually draft "b" I will talk to the Commission this Wednesday and we
will see how much effort we need to do. I can't give you 100 percent - I would
hope in two weeks, something like that.
De Weerd: And then if we could have our staff maybe work with you to get better
numbers, you know, for a kind of square mile model, urban verses suburban or
land use kind of scenario would certainly help us in our fiscal modeling as well.
So we can be better partners to you.
Levihn: I will look into what can be done on that.
(Inaudible discussion)
McKee: Thank you.
Item 5. Other (time permitting)
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 1:30 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
APPROVED:
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TAMMY WEERD, MAYOR DATE APPROVER
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