HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008 05-27A meeting of fihe Meridian City Council was called to order at 7:25 p.m., Tuesday, May
27, 2008, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, Keith Bird, Joe Borton,
and David Zaremba.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Anna Canning, John Overton, Ron
Anderson, Tom Barry, Clint Dolsby, Steve Siddoway, Keith Watts, Bruce Freckleton,
Will Berg, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Joe Borton
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you for being patient with us. We had an extra long Executive
Session. So, welcome. For the record, it is Tuesday, May 27th. It's 25 after 7:00. We
will start tonight's meefing with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor's Youth Advisory Council.
De Weerd: Item No. 2-- this is going to be a long evening. Item No. 2 is our pledge of
allegiance. Tonight we will be led by the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council. If they would
come forward and lead us in the pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Gene Bennett:
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is our community invocation. I have listed on our agenda that we
will be led tonight by Glen Olson wifh the LDS church. Did he send an alternate? Well,
since I see Gene Bennett here, I will ask him to lead us in the community invocation.
And thank you for being a great sport. If you will step up to the microphone. If you will
all join us in the community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a moment of
reflecfion. Thank you, Gene.
Bennett: You're welcome. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Most Holy Father, we do
give you thanks for this nation that we live in and particularly for today, Lord, that our
guiding each of us through the -- through the day and also through the preliminary
ballots that are being cast this day in this country. We pray your blessing upon this
country and we thank you for all your provision and your protection over our families
everywhere, Lord. Amen.
Meridian City Councif
May 27, 2008
Page 2 of 52
De Weerd: Again, thank you. Gene, I would like to give you a City of Meridian pin,
which we traditionally do for fihose who lead us in fhe invocation.
Bennett: Thank you.
De Weerd: You know, the community invocation is a tradition that we rotate different
communities of faith that lead us in the invocation. There are a couple of times where
we have an absence and so I always pick on someone. So, I appreciate your
willingness to step up and lead us. Thanks, Gene.
Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda:
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 4 is adoption of the agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. B.ird.
Bird: On the agenda we have -- under fhe Mayor's office we would like to add as item
three a presentation of the scholarships to the worthy students and on the regular
agenda we have Item 15, the ordinance 08-1367. And with that I move we approve the
revised agenda.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as revised. All
those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED ALL AYES.
Item 5: Consent Agenda:
A. Approve Minutes of May 13, 2008 City Council Special Workshop
Meeting:
B. Approve New Beer and Wine Application for Sanko Visions
LLC. Dba Grains of Montana located at 1505 S. Eagle Rd. Suite
190:
C. Sanitarv Sewer and Water Main Easement Aareement for
Corner Marketplace No. 2:
D. Addendum to Development Agreement: MI 07-011 Request for
a Miscellaneous application to Modify the Development Agreement
to address the new neighborhood center plan and conversion of the
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 3 of 52
existing Caven home into a civic / social hall for Cavanauqh by
Kastera Development, LLC - Southeast Corner of South Meridian
Road and East Victory Road:
E. Aqreement for Independent Contractor Services with K2
Construction for Water Division Facilitv Phase 2 for
$468,665.00:
F. Aqreement Extension with Billina Docurnent Services (BDS)
for Billing Services and Remote Deposits:
De Weerd: Item 5 is the Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda as published and for fhe Mayor to
sign and the Clerk to attest on all papers.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is
no discussion, Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 6: Annual Assessment with Assessor McQuade:
De Weerd: Item No. 6 is our favorite time of year. We have discussion on our annual
assessment with the Assessor McQuade. Thank you for joining us today.
McQuade: It's my pleasure to be back. I just can't believe this year has just gone by
and it's time to give you the update of what's been going on in my world of property tax
assessment. Before I get started I see that sign says just three minutes or less. I'll do
my best to stay within that.
De Weerd: That was just for you, too.
McQuade: I was afraid one of my employees took
has been an interesting year in fihe assessment a
nofices. Those went out last Friday and they are ir
just sweeping from the western part of the count~
been getting calls and that seemed to be the are~
it out of our conference room. This
~ena. We are sending out 186,000
the mail right and fhey seem to be
over to the eastern side, we have
fhey have been coming from. We
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 4 of 52
have 33,500 assessment notices mailed out to owners of property in Meridian. Just a
couple of things before we get into the numbers. These numbers I think are relatively
accurate. I have been comparing what we have been handing you this time of year in
years past and fhe final numbers erd up being about 95 to 98 percent. So, I think it's
reasonably close for this early in the game. Of course, fhey are subject to changes
through the board of equalization. The tax commission weighs in with operating
property and whatnot, but I think they are reasonably accurate. Something, too, that I
just wanted to point out, as I go fhrough your numbers and give percentage of changes,
it's surprisingly close to the county in general. I will go to some communities and some
of the school districts and the numbers -- fhere is a significant departure that here at --
the numbers that I give you, all except one -- and I will point that out -- are pretty close
to what's going on in the county. Lastly, two fhings really stand out with the assessment
fhis year in fhe county and that is -- you know, we are coming off of two years where
we were seeing 20 percent increases to where that is just almost stopped. We are also
looking at new construction. That is significantly less. And so to me that's -- as I saw
what was coming out with the assessment, those are finro things that to me just stood
right out, how a rapid appreciation is stopped and new construction is way off. With that
having been said, the total market value of Meridian city is 8.3 billion. Thaf's up six
percent over last year. Just by way of comparison, it was 29 percent increase last year.
So, you have gone from an increase of 29 percent down to a six percent increase. And
the year for 2006 you had a 45 percent increase over 2005. So, it just shows how
things are slowing down so rapidly. Taxable value, that's market value less the
exemptions. That's up four percent and taxable value is percent of the total value. In
ofher words, about 25 percent of the value is coming off because of exemptions. And
you know what I'm going to do, I have got some copies of these numbers to save you
having to write those down. The residential parael -- you have got 29,600 residential
parcels and that's up five percent over the previous year. Market value of the resiciential
property is 6.2 billion. That's up two and a half percent. Again, looking at last year --
okay. We had finro and a half percent increase this year. It's a 30 percent increase last
year and the year before that it was 45 percent increase. So, it was just -- the values
are just exploding. The numbers I think most people really seem to be interested in and
that is the valuation on existing residential. I don't know if you have seen this in the
paper. But the median change in existing residential properties in Meridian is a three
percent decrease. Last year you had a 13 percent increase. This is where there was a
departure from the county as a whole. The county as a whole we are seeing about a
half percent increase. So, you're a three percent decrease. That's a median decrease.
That's one of the -- the larger ones in the county and, again, the median decrease is 50
percent of the property saw less than a three percent decrease and the other half saw a
three percent or more change. Commercial parcel came out 3,989. It's up three
percent over last year's 3,867. Market value two billion. It's up almost 20 percent to last
year's 1.6 billion. And it's an 11 percent increase. And that's something we are seeing
throughout the county is commercial still has had a-- has been fairly healthy. It seems
to be a bit counter cyclical to the residential property. Median increase for existing is six
percent and that's almost what it was last year at eight percent. Now, let's talk about
the new construction for a minute. That's important, because of budgets can increase
by three percent plus last year's levy times the new construction. To show how
Meridian Ciry Council
May 27, 2008
Page 5 of 52
significant that has been, last year Ada County we increased our,budget only by the
new construction, we didn't take the three percent. That got us by and the
commissioners were excited to do that. Again that's really -- it's a very important piece
of fhe budget. Market value of new construction is after the homeowner's exemption is
409 million. That's a 40 percent decrease for the last year's new construction. And, by
fhe way, the year prior to that we were seeing increases in new construction of 50
percent. So, we have gone from a 50 percent increase in new construction to a 50
percent decrease. And that seems to be really dramatic. We have 1,098 new parcels.
That's a 46 percent decrease over the number of new parcels last year at 170 million
dollars, that's off 48 percent from fhe 330 million the year before. Commercial, 151 new
parcels. That's just about almost no change from the previous year, 135 million. But
#hat's up 41 percent over the 91 million that you had last year. And new subs is a
change of status. This is an important number, too, because this is where we have
seen the biggest change in the county. Let me just -- you got 105 million new subs
change of status. That has been subdivided into parcels or it is.ag land. IYs now loss,
ag exemption is just bare land, that's 105 million. There is a 59 percent decrease over
last year's 255 million. We in our office -- this is where we have really seen the dramatic
decreases is in the land values. People who were getting 95,000 dollars for lots are
trying to sell fhose lots for 40,000 dollars today. It's -- and I don't know if we have seen
the bottom yet. Some people say we have seen it, others don't. The numbers are a bit
mixed right now. Urban renewal is 139 million compared to 116 million. Urban renewal
seems to be one of fhe few winners in this whole ball game. They seem to be picking
up. And anofher number that I think is interesting, that's the tax burden, who is paying
the property tax, residential or commercial. The residential here in Meridian is 64
percent, commercial is 36 percent, compared to the county, the county is at 68 and 32.
That to me is what really stands out with our assessment this year, again, is what's
gone on with the new construction to me is -- is very telling as a whole industry and,
then, of course, we have seen increases just completely stop. One point I would like to
make, too, I have had some groups have asked me -- right now the values have been
going down about one percent a month from the first of the year. These are values as
of the first of the year. If it continues to go one percent a monfh we will see maybe a ten
percent drop in values next year, but who knows where it's going to end up. But I have
several taxing authorifies say we need to know, because that's how much we are going
to reduce our budget by. Well, first of all, we are only talking about the property tax
piece and, secondly, the property tax piece is not fiied -- the amount of the budget is not
tied to the valuation. A lot of people think it is. When we have your 20 percent increase
fhey think the budgets go up 20 percent increase, but as we said a minute ago, the
budget's going to increase by three percent over the previous year's budget, plus new
construction. So, even if you had a ten percent decrease in value over this next year,
your budgets don't necessarily have to decrease by ten percent, that would be a policy
decision you would make. But under state law you could increase -- even though if
fhere was a ten percent decrease, you could increase your budget by three percent plus
any new construction that occurred. Are we going to be a ten or 12 decrease, we don't
know. But, again, we know for the first four months of this year the values have
dropped about four percent. And, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, those are
my comments for this year. Any questions?
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 6 of 52
De Weerd: Council, questions?
Bird: I have none. Good report.
Zaremba: It's very enlightening. Thank you.
McQuade: It is, isn't it. Well, we will just see what happens when the rest of fhe people
start getting their assessment notice. We have never seen this before. In all my time
there in the office we have never seen this slow of a growfh. We have seen finro and
four percent, but nothing -- it's a half a percent. And Star, Meridian, and some other
areas are ac#ually seeing decreases in existing residential value. All right. I have
exceeded my three minutes. I will turn this back over to Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you so much. We appreciate you coming. ~
McQuade: We will see you next year.
Item 7: Department Reports:
A. Mayors Office
1. Presentation from the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council:
De Weerd: Okay. Now, afiter that rousing presentation on numbers, we have our Youth
Council that will be doing their year end presentafiion to Council on fiheir activities over
this last school year. So, I would ask their chair RoAnne to come forward and Nicole.
You can tag team it, but you do have to use a microphone. You can use this, it's
portable, if you would like.
R.de Weerd: Okay.
De Weerd: And if you will, please, state your names for the record.
R.de Weerd: RoAnne de Weerd.
Foster: Nicole Foster.
De Weerd: Thank you.
R.de Weerd: Next. Next. Next. Yeah. Okay. Wait. I think there is more. No, there is
not. Sorry. Well, this is awkward. Let me stand right here. It's been an exciting year.
It's kind of sad, it's my last year. I have been with the Council all four years, so in my
opinion we have accomplished the most this year. Over fihe last four years I have seen
a lot of change in the Council, starting with our biggest project, which is a can food
drive. The next year being a bigger can food drive and raising money for the Food
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 7 of 52
Bank, to the Habitat for Humanity project the next year and, then, this year the Habitat
for Humanity house actually being built and a lot of other various projects. So, I was the
chair. Our vice chair was Sara Steele. Our secretary Lindsey Urban. Treasurer Mike
Profitt and historian was Nicole Foster. Next.
Foster: Okay. We had school representatives from some of the high schools in the
area. Kris Kezar was the representative from the Technical Charter School and Bonnie
Metcaif was the representative from Centennial and Indra Gomez was representative
firom Meridian and Carly Marks was the representative from Mountain View High
School. And they served on the executive board and they represented fheir schools in
kind of a correspondence from -- via Council to the schools.
R.de Weerd: That was somefhing different this year. In the past we have only had our
five executives and we decided since we are the only voting body, that we would
increase the number and include the schools that we represent to have a voice. Our
subcommittees.
De Weerd: RoAnne, before you move on, just -- just to refresh Council's memory, we
did have a representative from fihe three high schools or -- let's see. Yeah. From
Meridian High and Mountain View that have their schools in our city limits. Then, we did
have also members at large and that's -- Bonnie and Kris were those two.
R.de Weerd: And next year we will have a spot -- or they will have a spot for Rocky
Mountain, because that will be another large school. Subcommittees. Another different
thing fhat we did this year was each of fhe five executives on the main executive board,
they would have -- head up their own subcommittee and our former secretary Bekah
Lloyd, she was chair of the Idaho Meth Project. I chaired the Government Affairs
Subcommittee. Nicole Foster chaired the Habitat for Humanity. Sara Steele chaired
the Gang Awareness. And fhose were our -- we didn't have a fiifth one, because that
seemed like enough for us and -- I mean we had a few floating ones, like a pet project
thing and it just -- we were more successful with those couple.
Foster: Okay. One of our first projects this year was with the Government Affairs
Subcommittee and we organized the first ever youth led debate where students from
Meridian High School government classes could write questions to ask to the Mayor --
the peopJe running for Mayor and we only had one candidate turn out, but it turned into
a discussion and we had news stations there. It was a good turn out and it was good
for the youth to get involved in their community.
R.de Weerd: They had -- or Heritage Auto Body had the Car Care Fair and they came
to us for volunteers and so we had a few members go out and help out and also sell
Idaho Meth Project bracelets. We tried to sell bracelets as much as we could at every
event that we helped and volunteered at and that probably brought in about a hundred
dollars extra to the project.
Meridian Ciry Council
May 27, 2008
Page 8 of 52
Foster: Okay. At the Meridian Classic Fun Run there were youth volunteers there and
it was just to support the community and the YMCA put it on. It was early on in the year
in the fall.
R.de Weerd: The Association of Idaho Cities had a Legislative Day, chance for cities
around Idaho to correspond with their legislatures. And we sent a few youth members
from the Government Affairs Subcommittee to the Legislative Day as a follow up from
our breakfast, which we will be talking about soon. And also in support for fihe vending
machine reform resolution, And we had funch with them, which was cool.
Foster: Okay. State of the City. I'm sure many of you attended that. RoAnne talked
about what we have accomplished this year and it was a good way for the community to
know what we do and there was Taste of Meridian afterwards and we volunteered and
helped out where ever we were needed.
R.de Weerd: Probably one of our most successful events, which was put in about three
weeks, was our board by board, brick by brick dinner auction. We had maybe a little
under a hundred people show up to the auction and we raised 7,000 -- roughly 7,000
dollars through the silent auction through fihe cost of tickets and some of the items that
we auctioned off was a puppy and signed footballs and so it was a really good event.
Foster: And the money from that event was split between the Idaho Meth Project and
Habitat for Humanity, because they were probably our biggest projects for this year.
The Boys and Girls Club held a fair. We volunteered at that and talked about the impact
of drugs on -- we talked to different children from the area and warned them about it and
gave them our perspective on current issues and it was right at the beginning of spring
break.
R.de Weerd: The Governor's Brightest Star award, one of our members won the youth
award, Carly Marks. And the Anti-drug Coalition also won an award and I was a
nominee. And so it's kind of cool to have two ~youth members from Meridian get
nominated and, then, one actually win the award. And I think it's mainly for our
participation in the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council.
Foster: These are just more pictures from the Governor's Brightest Star award. Okay.
This was the Mayor's Anti-drug Collation town hall meeting and the Youfh Council
volunteered at this and it was, basically, to -- fihe town hall meeting to prevent drinking in
the youth and we volunteered at that and -- yeah.
R.de Weerd: Okay. One of our -- probably the second event put on by the Youth
Council was done through the Government Affairs Subcommittee. We decided to
partner with the American Heart Association and also we had an advisor. This was a
very involved subcommittee. Our advisor was Cheryl Miller from American Auxiliary
and she has a lot of background in legislative issues and Adrian Casper is the executive
director of the American Heart Association and so with those two kind of, you know,
helping us out and guiding us. Adrian went to us for our help in getting new support for a
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 9 of 52
resolution. We wanted it to be a bill, but it was downsized to a resolufion, but it was
brought on by -- or sponsored by Representative Henbest and it was a reform in our
vending machines at schools, an initiafiive for all schools to follow, and we were the lead
group fhat supported it, lobbied for it, helped out Adrian Casper and that was a huge
stepping stone for our Youth Council to be involved in state affairs. It passed in the
House with six opposed and, unfortunately, it failed in Senate Education Committee.
Foster: I'll let RoAnne talk about this. It was the Hundred Best Conference in DC and
she attended. I did not.
R.de Weerd: Something fihat was cool about this conference was fhat we got to send
two youth representatives, Bekah Lloyd and Sara Steele, and I went on behalf of
America's Promise. So, we got to have that extra seat. But we brought youth that were
really invoived with the betterment of underprivileged kids in Meridian and also
Meridian's Promise and we attended sessions and Bekah Lloyd actually spoke in front
of the whole conference about Meridian and our involvement in the city.
Foster: The American Heart Association Gala was another event that the Government
Affairs Subcommittee volunteered at and it was very successful, as I understand. I did
not attend this event, but many youfh members did and -- yeah.
R.de Weerd: No. I mean it's just another example on how the City of Meridian can turn
to us if they need help, you know, we don't get paid, but we like to volunteer our time.
Foster: Prevention Shines Conference was in Sun Valley this year and four Youth
Council members were chosen to go, along with the Mayor. Kris Kezar, Michael Profitt,
RoAnrie and I all went and we went to different sessions and learned about various
different topics that we can take back to the Youth Council for next year to help lead and
also just have opinions on different issues and this was a really good learning
experience for me. I had never experienced something like this and really glad I had
the opportunity to go.
R.de Weerd: And we were really exhausted at the end of it. Other events that we
helped out was the Idaho Meth Project Air Show. We had about 15 members go and
help out there. And also fihis is really cool. The Idaho Meth Project asked us to get
interviewed for PBS, their Now show, and we were -- a few of our members felt
comfortable being on national air and so it viewed nationally and it's, actually, on their
website and so people can watch it whenever. But we mainly talked about the effects
that we feel meth has in our community and how our peers are responding to the ads
that fhe Idaho Meth Project put out. And there is our Council. And I think that's fhe end.
Oh. Our next Council. This is our chair right here. I think that she's going to be a great
chair. She's been on the Council for two years now and probably has been one of the
most involved members. Our vice chair is Kris Kezar. Our secretary is Lindsey Urban
again. And our treasurer is Madelyn Pfiffer. And our historian is Christine Nusbaum.
And we don't have representatives yet, because we want to give the at large new
Council an opportunity to be on the executive board. In a nutshell, you guys saw fhat
Mendian Ciry Council
May 27, 2008
Page 10 of 52
we were involved in a lot of different activities around the community and I think that
when people in Meridian think of the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council they think of an
opportunity to serve and that's one of the promises that Meridian has promised the
citizens and so I encourage further support for the Youfh Council and I really enjoyed
the opportunity to be on it. It's definitely opened many doors and I don't think I would be
where I am today without -- without this group. Do you guys have any questions?
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Zaremba: Thank you for all you have put in. It helps the city.
De Weerd: Well, Council, I would like to make a comment. It's always been a pleasure
working with the members of the Youth Advisory Council. Their energy, their
compassion, and their interest in truly making a difference in our community continues
to amaze me every year. Every year it's a little bit different. They decide at the
beginning of the year what they will be involved in. It's a process that is very democratic
in how they choose those and they are very committed carrying them forward. As you
can see in most of the projects that they were involved in, they have left a huge
fingerprint and. this doesn't happen very often that kids can rally together and make such
a huge difference in their community and they have and I'm very proud of them. I have
seen fhem all grow in various forms in leaderships and being able to better express
themselves and really get out and show why these projects are so meaningful to them.
So, it has -- I have been the benefactor in all of that. And, of course, I always get
emotional. I'm just very -- I'm just very honored to have served with these -- that's why
they always leave me my Kleenex. But I'm very honored to serve with all of you. You
amaze me all the time. So, thank you.
De Weerd: At fhis time I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge our
scholarship winners and give them an opportunity to -- we do have two gifts. We
handed out gifts to the graduating seniors at the Youfh Council meeting, the final one of
the year, and two of the members weren't able to be there, so I do have something for
you. And I do want to read a little bit about each of our scholarship members, so I'm
going to come down to the podium. And certainly when I read your name, if you will
come and stand next to me. And the first one is Breanna, Breanna McCutchen. And
Breanna is amazingly talented. She's been one of the City of Meridian's interns and
she's a student at the Meridian Technical Charter High School. She will be attending
the College of Idaho, where I met her mom when we went for registration day and she
plans to major in business marketing and fine arts. She's been active in Skills USA
Idaho and will be going to nationals. I'm trying hard not to be emotional, okay? And,
fhen, when I try hard I just get more emotional. She's a member of the National Honor
Society and she was involved in the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council and she's made a
tremendous impact on our city with the work she's done with logos and the web design.
Incredibly talented. I know this young lady will go to great heights in your career and
whatever you choose I know you will be successful in. So, I would like to give you fhis
gift and Shelley made it especially for you and give you a City of Meridian pin. Breanna
gets a thousand dollar scholarship and we wish her great success in her future.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 11 of 52
De Weerd: Okay. I will try not to blubber with the rest of you, okay? Okay. Carly. You
know, I think they thought if they reelected me maybe I would have matured by now.
Forget that. Okay. Carly has been on fhe Youth Council for two years. She is
graduating from Mountain View High School. She's been a representative for that
school. She will be attending the School of Ministry -- and you are first, for her first two
years and, fhen, she'll move onto Boise State University. At Boise State she will be
majoring in political science and government. I will have to talk to her about that one.
She has been on the Mountain View High School Student Council. She is a member of
the Nafional Honor Society. She lettered in track, cross country, and snow ski team.
She is a member of fhe Mayor's Youfh Advisory Council. She was very active in the
March Against Meth last year and she was fhe statewide winner of the Governor's
Brightest Star Award because of her efforts and service to our community, as well as
her church community. So, I would like you to join me in congratulating Carly Marks.
De Weerd: Okay. Sara Steele. Sara will be graduating from Meridian High School.
She will be attending Cotty College and will be majoring premed. She's been active in
the Key Club for four years. Has served as secretary of the Meridian High School
Association of Student Body. She's founder and president of Impact, which is an anti
drug club there at her school. She's been a member and vice-president of the Mayor's
Youth Advisory Council for two years. And she's been our youth representafive as a
voting member on the Parks Commission. And she's had very good attendance. Our
very first youth member who's had good attendance on that board. So, that is very
meaningful in and of itself. She's active with the Treasure -- she was active in the
Treasure Vailey Parfinership -- Youth Partnership. She was a Girl's State participant.
Active with the Mayor's Anti Drug Coalition and she's got a real passion for that and you
know it when she's in the room. She's a volunteer at Chief Joseph Elementary School
and she has been involved not only as a voting member, but also on the Parks
Commission since October of 2006. She has been a huge asset to the Youth Council
and we appreciate her greatly. So, join rne in congratulafiing Sara.
De Weerd: Okay. Last and certainly not least, we have RoAnne de Weerd. And I
might mention, just so no one thinks that this was all stacked, we did have a neutral
body that chose -- we took all the names off of the applications and we have Meridian's
Promise Board that reviewed all of the applications and I think they picked the right
ones, but I had no influence, it was all done under no names, and these certainly came
shining out and you can certainly understand by just fhe little bit that I have read on
each of fhese young ladies why they were chosen. RoAnne, she is graduating from
Meridian High School. Thank God. She will be attending the College of Idaho and
majoring in political economy. She has been active in Key Club for four years. Is a
Girl's State participant. Chair of the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council for two and a half
years. She served as youth chair for the March Against Meth. She's been very active
in the Idaho Youth Project and is interning as a paid intern. She's been volunteering all
year in their office I fhink twice each week for the whole afternoon as a volunteer. So,
she's certainly given them a lot of time. She helped form the Treasure Valley Youth
Partnership. She serves on America's Promise national youth partnership team. She
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 12 of 52
served on Meridian High School wellness committee. She served on Meridian school
district's wellness committee, who helped promote healthy foods in vending machines.
She participated in the YMCA youfh government and she was named Idaho
Statesman's Volunteer of the Year in 2007. So, please, join me on congratulating
RoAnne.
De Weerd: So, again, I would like to congratulate our scholarship winners and wish
each and every one of you good luck in your future endeavors and thank you from the
Council and i for your service to our community. I would like to thank the parents of
these young ladies. We know oftenfimes it's a family that supports their many hats they
wear in running them all over town on many occasions. So, we thank you for the
support you have given your kids and, again, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
2. Resolution No. : Appointment of
Youth Member to Parks 8~ Recreation Commission:
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 7-A-2 is Resolution 08-610. It's an appointment of our
youth member to the Parks and Recreation Commission. The name you have in front of
you is for a one year appointment. It is for Ashley Williams.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Before you go on, while Sara Steele is still here, I would like to comment that
as the Council liaison to the Parks and Recreation Commission, I have had the pleasure
of watching her not only attend, but to contribute to the Commission. As she retires I
want to say that she will be missed. Her work there has been appreciated and I know
it's in among all the other things fhat you have been doing, but your contribution was
equal to all of the non-youth members as well. I don't know what to call them exacfly,
but --
De Weerd: The older ones.
Zaremba: Yeah. I didn't want to say it that way. But I certainly appreciated your
contribufion on the commission and felt that you made a valuable contribution to it. So,
thank you very much as you retire.
De Weerd,: Well, I aan tell you that each of those Youth Council members -- our youth
members never hesitated to share their opinion on anything. So, thank you. Thanks,
Sara. Okay. We are on Item 7-A 2 and I need a motion to approve this resolution.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Zaremba.
Meridian Ciry Council
May 27, 2008
Page 13 of 52
Zaremba: I move we approve Resolution 08-610.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution. Madam Clerk, will
you, please, call roll.
Ro11-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOT10N CARRI'ED: ALL AYES.
B. Public Works Department:
1. Bud4et Amendment for Construction Pro~ect ManaQer:
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-B is the Public Works Department. I will turn this over to our
director Mr. Barry. .
Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Ladies and gentlemen of
the audience, Tom Barry, Public Works Department. We have before you tonight two
items under Public Works Department reports. The first is a budget amendment for the
construction project manager. You may recall this item was brought before the Council
a couple weeks ago and Council had asked for Public Works to go back and develop a
job description for this particular position, which you should have received in your
Council packets. Once again, the position that's before you will plan, coordinate, direct
and oversee a wide variety of city wide capital construction projects, services, and
activities. In addition to supervising technical construction work and preparing and
administering project budget, plans, schedules and design specifications for single or
multi-phased city-wide capital construction projects, the position will also provide
construction-related oversight services, insuring that projects are coordinated and
completed within schedule and budget, while adhering to local, state, and federal
standards, environmental and construction safety guidelines, and best management
pracfices. The city currently out sources construcfion project management related work
on the project-by-project basis. This practice is costly and leads to inconsistencies in
standards and also missed opportunities for coordination of those multiple construcfion
projects. Bringing this service in-house we believe will insure that city-wide projects are
coordinated and uriiform standards and service levels are consistently applied and will
save our citizens money. The position itself will be managed by the Public Works
Department and funding for the position will be split evenly between the General Fund
and the Enterprise Fund. The amount for 2008's budget amendment would be
$29,747.09. This is for three months of service for the fiscal year 2008, after which the
FY-09 base budget would be adjusted for ongoing operating expenses. With that I will
take any questions you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 14 of 52
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just one. I might have missed it earlier. Tom, is it -- you know, when I see the
description it looks as though this posifion, which has got a pretty awesome
responsibility, it's to report to the assistant city engineer, as opposed to yourself.
Barry: Correct. On the draft position description, which was before you, it said that it
reported to the assistant city engineer. I believe that has been changed with
consultation with the human resources staff and now it would report to the city engineer.
Borton: Okay. Good.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Bird?
Bird: Madam Mayor, thank you. Tom, reporting to the city engineer, we have got him --
we have got him being everything from a general contractor to a sewer and water and
plant expert watching over everything and fhere is a big variety in the difference of those
jobs and to be quite truthfully wifh you, honestly, in my opinion, strictly in my opinion,
civil engineers don't build a lot of buildings.
Barry: Pardon me, sir'?
Bird: Civil engineers don't build -- or construction manage a lot of buildings and we are
asking fhis gentleman to not only oversee our sewer infrastructure, our pant
maintenance at the wastewater or water, but any building that parks puts up or city puts
up, police station puts up, fire stations put up, and we are still talking about two different
professions, in my opinion on the deal. While I-- while I like the idea of having
something like this in-house to a degree, I also think there is some times that -- when
there isn't any work going on, what's this guy going to be doing. You know, his salary is
not cheap, nor should it be, but --
De Weerd: Her salary. Sorry, Mr. Bird.
Bird: Anyway, his salary is not -- his or her salary -- whoever's salary.
Rountree: Somebody's salary.
Bird: Somebody's salary is not cheap and if there is no work we have problems laying
people off in fhe public sector. So, I don't know, I-- before I can vote for this, there has
got to be more -- more detail and more stu .ff given to me or more reasons to do it.
Barry: Thank you for your comments, Mr. Bird. You have raised a couple of issues I'd
like to address if I may: Regarding the job description and fhe fact that the breadth and
scope of information, knowledge, skills, and abilities this position would require of an
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 15 of 52
individual, you have made some very good points. It's intentional, because the position
is a great responsibility and does require an individual to have a large breadth and
depth of information and knowledge regarding construction project management.
However, the position I don't -- I believe there is some confusion with exactly the
position and the position is not a design engineer, the position is not a construction
inspector, those are two different functions that would precede and also follow the
actual construction related work that this position would be responsible for managing.
This position manages essentially construction-related activities and that's it. So, the
person would not be designing buildings, they would not be designing water and sewer
systems, fihey would not be overseeing installation of those as it relates to meeting the
requirements of the law, that's the job for the construction inspectors that we have
already on the city staff. This position is to make sure that the projects that we have
that are municipal projects, whether they be water services, sewer services, parks, fire
stations, you know, city halls, any of those types of facilities and buildings that we have
an individual who is very knowledgeable in construction-related contracting, managing,
scheduling, budgets, fhe whole sort of thing in order to keep fhese projects running on
time within their scopes and wifhin their budgets. So, that is the -- that is a great
responsibility and, of course, requires some knowledge in various sectors of
construction management. But, again, not primacy as it relates to any particular
discipline. You have also mentioned the fact that if there is no work required or that
there may not be a period of -- or there may be a period of time where there may not be
sufficient work to keep a staff member employed. I-- when I discussed this particular
position at lengfh consulting wifh the finance department, purchasing agent, also with
the parks department and others in my division, as well as other departments, there
seems to be at least in the foreseeable future, despite the fact that growth is slowing, no
indication that the requirements for this position are not needed at this point in time and
in the foreseeable future. So, I don't know what the future will bring, but currently at this
time there seems to be a great need and I will remind the Council, if inemory serves,
Mr. Siddoway, the parks director, had commented I believe a couple weeks ago in
support of fhis position, that there could be significant cost savings -- I think as much as
80,000 over the next year or two on just two of his projects related to parks projects
alone. Certainly we have Public Works projects that are going on. We have fire
stations, improvements, city hall -- we have a variety of different things for this particular
position to manage and be responsible for. So, I think I have addressed your questions,
Mr. Bird. I don't know if that was satisfactory or not for you.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Mr. Watts, do you have anything to
add?
Watts: Yeah. I think the job description that -- that Tom has presented to you has been
circulated throughout our department, the Public Works Department, the Parks
Department, and everybody's had input on it and I think it's what we had all envisioned
in the -- wifh the projects coming up I do believe fihat we will have a need for it and I do
believe it will save us money.,
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further from the Council?
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 16 of 52
Rountree: Tom, you know, we really haven't sat down and talked about this position
and how it fits in the organization. I'm -- I get the sense of where you want to go, but I
don't think we have gotten fhere yet. When you look at the array of the things that this
individual was supposed to be responsible for -- first off, we won't find an individual that
can do fhis kind of work. I mean you're talking -- you're talking civil engineering, you're
talking architecture, you're talking contract administration, you're talking a lot of different
things. I mean we have people that spend a lifetime just dealing with one of these
multiple elements. I haven't got my hands around this yet or wrapped my head around
it quite yet. I know what you want to try to accomplish. I'm still having -- I'm still
struggling with it, to be honest with you, and have a little experience in this arena and --
boy. If we can find two people like this, we can consolidate a lot of stuff. So, anyway, I
would like some more time to sit down with you and I would hope that at least you would
have your liaison on your side and at this point I'm not even on the fence, I've kind of
fallen off, so --
Barry: Thank you, Mr. Rountree. I appreciate your comments. The position as you
know -- I mean whenever we write job descriptions I think Mr. Nary can make -- can
second this, we shoot for the sky and this job description is no different. I think to boil it
down, it can be -- we can boil the -- what our need is down - very, very simply and that
is we need a certified municipal construction project manager period. That's the duty.
There are all kinds of municipal project constructions managers who do just this type of
work who are not specialists in any one particular discipline, but their breadth of
knowledge as it relates to municipal construction is what we are really after, not so
much the detail as it relates to water engineering or wastewater system design or any of
fihose sorts of things. Still, I respect and appreciate fihe concern wifh the Council and if
it is your desire, I'm happy to work offline more one on one with this particular position.
It was my hope that the job description would provide the level of detail that was sought
and requested the last time we met. Evidenfly that may not be the case.
Rountree: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Rountree: If I might, I would say if there is a certification process I think that's where we
go and what constitutes that. Then, we look at the salary range that goes there, then,
we look at fihe organizational structure. I can see having a bit of a conflict here having a
construction manager or certified municipal construction manager managing a city job
fhat's, then, being inspected by city inspectors that's also getting zoning certifications
from city planning staff and we all better be really good f.riends when we get into that
situation, because it could -- it could cause some issues. So, I think we need to get our
heads around that, too, and how to make that work.
De Weerd: I guess what I would ask is that you get together with Councilman Rountree
before next Tuesday, we can bring this back, but, Keith, what I'd like you to do is to
bring a couple of fhe examples that were identified last fall and timeline and contractual
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 1'7 of 52
issues that we have had in the past that this was supposed to help answer. If you can
cite some of those examples and have those available during -- maybe you want to
meet with Mr. Barry and Mr. Rountree as well. I think those -- those examples will help
in telling the story about -- refreshing the memories of why this position was deemed
essential last fall and why it continues to be important. I just think we haven't been able
to show what exactly we can avoid wifh this position in -- on your team.
Watts: Sure. I would be glad to. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would just chime in that I-- I'm already on board with the idea of what we
are trying to come up with here. I do also agree that reading the job description it's
pretty ambitious, if there is a way to say this is the qualificafions for X certification, that
may simplify, you know, where are trying to go. But I remember that there do seem to
be things slipping through the cracks that this position certainly could fulfill and I
definitely feel it's necessary to make this somebody's responsible and not just a
collaterai duty of other fihings that other people are doing. So, I`m in favor of the
position. As always, the details have to be worked out. Just a comment.
Barry: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. And seeing that your key staff members who would have some input
into that are sitting in this room as well, I'm sure they can help you.
Barry: Absolutely. Thank you.
Rountree: And, again, I'm here to help, but get me on the team.
Barry: Yes, sir, we will be happy to do that. Thank you, Mr. Rountree.
Bird: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: That certainly makes it easier. Mr. Bird.
Bird: Tom, I appreciate at least you taking the effort in doing it. You at least -- we are
famous for talking about it and not getting it done and you did get it done.
Barry: Thank you, sir.
Bird: Thank you.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 18 of 52
2. Discussion on Annexation and Utilitv Services for
Countv Subdivisions:
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-B-2. Discussion on the annexation and utility services for
county subdivisions.
Barry: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we wanted to have a discussion with
the Council this evening regarding the servicing of county subdivisions, as this particular
issue continues to be an item of stress for many of our county residents wifhin the area
of impact, but also the Public Works Department staff who are trying to come to an
agreement on how to move forward, the integration of those properties within the area
of impact into the city and also the providing of city water and sewer services for those
residents. We have several issues that we'd like to address and for that you will notice
we are speaking regarding a memo that was sent to you in your Council packets. The
acting city engineer Clint Dolsby will be walking you through some of that. I have fihe
development services manager here and also the planning director and the fire chief are
also here to answer questions related to this particular issue, as well as present
concerns as they arise. So, without further adieu I'll turn it over to Mr. Dolsby.
Dolsby: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, there is several issues related to
those county developments that we wanted to bring up that I also have listed here on --
in your packets. We have had a few of fihese county developments approach us say
over the couple of years, some more than others, but they all seemed to have the same
general issues that go along with it. The first one being annexation. It's always been
the Council's policy, as we understand it, to reguire annexation or at least consent to
annexation when an applicant comes in and hooks up the city services and we expect
to continue that process. One of fhe larger issues for us would the funding sources for
infrastructure improvements, say if one of those county developments would come in or
if you would come in, some of them already have infrastructure in place for their
subdivision, some don't. There is -- we have to go through the procedure for evaluating
that infrastructure to see if it would meet our standards for acceptance into our city
system or if they would have to replace it. Another itern that works into this scenario
would be whether there is enough fire flow in that subdivision to satisfy our
requirements. There is cases where they could be okay and the subdivision would not
have as much of a financial burden on them. There is also ofher cases where we could
run into issues where either there is no infrastructure in place or they need to replace
the infrastructure and it would cause a lot more of a financial burden on that subdivision.
In those cases a lot of times they turn to us for help. There is a couple different
mechanisms that we can use to help fund fhose infrastructure improvements. One of
them is a local improvement district that's more managed by the city staff where we
form an improvement district and place -- have assessments against the properties and
fhey repay it on an annual basis to the -- to the finance department to the city. And
there is another newer system that's being put in place called the community
infrastructure district where you form a governing like committee, which consists of
either City Council members if it's in fhe city limits, or it can consist of some members
from the -- more of the county commissioner level, and that district would be in charge
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Fage 19 of 52
of -- in charge of the funding and -- there would be different funding sources they can
use to get funding for fhose improvements. They would be in charge of -- I think it's two
different bond measures fihat they can place against the properties to get funding for
those improvements and, then, they are paid back by the property owners. Those are
the two different funding mechanisms fhat we have identified that we wanted to present
to you to see what your opinion was on them. Let me see if I have covered everything.
Also, a few of those subdivisions in the county -- the reasons they have come to us is
either fheir systems are failing or there is contamination in their -- like I say in their water
system. And a couple of them are under consent orders to fix their water systems. And
that's what's caused fhe financial burden to them. And fhey have also come in with
requests for whether we would work with them on connection fees. We have always
said fhat they are required to pay connection fees and that was -- that's been our stance
on that issue. So, I guess what we are more looking for is just direction with regard to
like the approach for these county developments. Do we -- what would you like us to
do, would you like us to work with them on one of these different funding issues or is
there some other approach you'd like us to take when we get approached by these
developments that want to connect to city services, but have problems with -- mostly
with just the funding of the improvements that we would require for them to connect to
the city. So, with that we'd stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any thoughts or comments?
Rounfiree: Madam Mayor, there is seven items listed, bullet points. I assume that
Public Works is asking for direction on each one. So, why don't we just go through
them in order and either get unanimous direction or debate each one, but I think they
are probably going to be unanimous on every one of them, given our previous
discussions. So, if you want to -- I suggest that, if you want to lead us through that
exercise we can do it.
De Weerd: Okay. If you want to lead us through those talking points.
Barry: Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council.
The first on annexafion. There are questions as to annexation of properties and
concern by county subdivision owners that many do not want to be annexed regardless
of whefher or not they receive services from the city or not. My understanding -- and I'd
like to get confirmation -- is fhat if we provide services to folks that we, in lieu of those
services, require them to annex, if they are contiguous or, alternatively, sign a consent
to annex if they are not currently confiiguous. The first question is -- is that
understanding correct?
Rountree: Yeah. I think we are unanimous on that point.
Barry: And with that there is one caveat that I'd like the planning director to address
associated to annexation.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008 _
Page 20 of 52
Canning: Thank you. The only issue that sometimes comes up, if it's a larger parcel
that for whatever reason requires sewer and water, there is some question about
whether you want to annex a 20, 30, 40 acre piece of property wifh presumably an
entitlement tied to that zoning that you give it at the time it comes in. So, that's my only
concern is we are going to be in a situation here fairly soon where you have a 20 plus
acre parcel that wants -- that wants water service and is willing to annex, but do we
reaily want them to annex at this time.
De Weerd: Anna, I guess that raises the question of something we discussed earlier
today on, appropriate zoning. If you had a larger parcel -- you know, ofher communities
have designations for open space or single uses, but do you want to comment on that?
Canning: I can. And I have thought about that. When the -- when we were developing
the UDC there are other communities that have an open space one. My concern is that
even if we were to have such a one, it would make some sense to have -- it's just -- the
complexity of developing a new district and what that might yield. If you had an open
space district it would make sense to make parks -- change the zoning of the parks to
be the open space. That's not an issue. Parks would presumably be a principally
permitted use within fhat zoning district. And, then, there is some itinerant things that
come with that, like the ability to do special events and things like that. So, even fihough
you're giving them an open space designation, you're still giving them a park
designation. They could develop a private park that had a huge impact to the city. I
mean you just -- you're giving -- I have said to you time and time again your one
opportunity to really influence and shape development is at that point of annexation and
regardless of if we come up with a single use category, you`re sfiill giving an entitlement
along with that annexation. So, I do have concerns about that. I spent the afternoon
after we raised the fhought this morning, I spent the rest of the day mulling over it and I
-- they just still kind of don't seem right to me, but --
Rountree: I guess what I'd throw out is fhat there is two options and both require
subdivisions. The first would subdivide the parcel in such a way as only the dwelling
they want served is subdivided and annexed or if they don't like fihat option, they
subdivide and zone the entire property, bring it before the Council as a complete
annexation with requested zoning and requested use. Otherwise, we don't consider it.
As opposed to -- and I agree, I don't fihink we'd want to annex 20 acres and not know
what the entifilement is going to give them.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Of those choices I probably would lean towards the second one, that we
have in the past or Councils before me have in the past resisted creating enclaves by
only annexing a portion of a property that somebody previously owned the whole portion
and -- you know, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There are
reasons why we might not want to annex, but I think we have also tried to avoid creating
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 21 of 52
enclaves. Every time we do a piecemeal annexation we would add to that. If I may,
while I have the floor, ask kind of a general question and I-- I have wondered in the
past what people's fear of annexation is and, to be honest, if I understood what County
Assessor McQuade said earlier tonight, there isn't very much tax difference. Usually
people are saying they don't want to pay the city taxes, but I understood him to say a
couple of times that a parcel's tax burden, at least in relafion to Meridian, is not very
different than it would be in the county and in some respects that's kind of intuitive.
When I look at my tax statement there are like 15 lines on it and only one of them is the
city, which would be either the county or the city, all the rest of them don't change. And
my understanding --
Rountree: You have both.
Zaremba: Uh?
Bird: You got both on there.
Rountree: You have both if you're in the city.
Zaremba: Okay. So, still if -- you know, if the tax burden is that much different, what
are people afraid of? Why are they saying they don't want to be annexed? I don't
understand that.
De Weerd: That's a million dollar question.
Zaremba: Anybody.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Zaremba, I had the --
you know, quite actually, fhe honor of sitting on a legislative sub committee last summer
and one of the big issues of discussion was annexation by foiks that represented the
Boise area and the Meridian area and a lot of the concerns on past annexations in this
particular area were fhat you were charged for those city services, even though you
didn't really receive anything in addition to what you were getting before. So, the
annexation came along, your tax bill goes up, but your services did not. They did not
receive sewer and water in particular. Now, they did receive like the library services
and things like that. Those are a less -- a little harder for people to understand. They
tend to think of sewer, water, police and those services weren't readily available to
those recently annexed properties. Particularly the sewer and water. There is this
conception that if you're annexed you should have fhose readily available and not all
those folks did. There is also quesfions about most of the city codes don't
accommodate livestock very well and that was a large part of those folks lifestyle was
having livestock. So, those were the biggest -- the biggest ones. When we did the
annexation for the larger subdivisions, whose names I can never remember, just a
couple years ago, we did a tax comparison and the tax difference was about -- I think it
was about a hundred dollars on a 240,000 dollar home, something along that line. So,
the additional tax was not significant.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 22 of 52
De Weerd: Vienna Woods and Edinburgh.
Canning: Thank you. Those are a lot of people's aoncerns. And, then, there is just --
it's Idaho. Some people just don't like being a member of a city. That's all fhere is to it,
so -- nor do they want to be part of a homeowners association most of the time, so --
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I mean there is two -- there is two real
issues on annexation that I think staff was looking for. One is the one Mrs. Canning's
talking about where they are already contiguous, they would like to annex. Now,
normally when it's single parcels, what you folks see are one house or one business,
their system failed in some fashion they are required to hook to the city services and the
city engineer has authority to grant that and their requirement is they generally annex at
fhe time. That's what usually happens. So, those aren't the problems. The ones Mrs.
Canning is talking about is the large parcels, they have no idea what they want to do
yet, they are currently farming it or it's currently a pasture or it's currently open space
and they still need services for the single home, but they have 40 acres attached to it or
25 acres attached to it and they have no concept of what to do today. So, because we
don't have any transitional zoning in the city ordinance, I fhink that's our concern is do
we create something like that, whiah has a lot of ramifications to it if we do so. The
other ones that we have a question about are the ones that you're probably the most
familiar with, is they are not currently annexable, because they are not contiguous. We
require that they annex when they become contiguous and part of the problem we have
is we have a number of those parcels that are out there that get forgotten in the mix,
because someone has to trigger that reminder. You're contiguous now, come in and
annex. And it requires the property owner to do it when fhey have no incentive to do
fhat. I mean -- and I guess the short answer, Councilmember Zaremba, on why don't
you just want to be annexed, it kind of depends on who you ask. And for many of them
there is no inceniive, even if the -- even if fihe tax increase to them is a hundred dollars
or five dollars, it's five dollars more than they are paying today for, essentially, the
services they already get. And so they are not -- there is not a lot of incentive to do that.
And so I fhink those are the -- that's at least on the annexation question that the staff
struggles with with some of these outer lying parcels that are now closer to the city than
they ever used to be or right within our city that they never used to be, they have
systems that are either failing or going to fail within fhe immediate future and that
annexation question I think was at least what the -- from our discussions on the staff
level was really just answering that. I fhink your direcfion has consistently been to
annex now or as soon as you're able and I think that's part of the question the staff is
still wanfiing to be sure that that's still the message to be telling these folks, that you
either annex today if you can or annex as soon as you can at some point and maybe
some of that's our own internal system trigger to make sure we capture those at the
time, because there is a cost to it and if I didn't to want annex in the first place, all I
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 23 of 52
really wanted is sewer, which I have today, and now you are going to make we pay 800
dollars to come and annex when I didn't want to anyway, I'm not excited to come down
and fill out the application form and fihat's kind of a problem we run into occasionally.
Did I capture at least some of fhose quesfions? I wanted to make sure we were all on
the same page.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: What if as a part of a hook-up fee we charged them an annexation fee,
instead of waiting five years to do that or -- I mean if we already had the fee, then --
then, again, it's no -- I don't know. That's just a question.
Rountree: If's not about the fee.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: On the annexation, you know, we have -- we have been pretty good. If they -- if
the scenario is they decide fhey don't want to be annexed after they have got the sewer
and water, go plug and see how fast they think that 800 dollars is worth. I'd like to just
leave it like it is. I agree with you on the Iarge parcels. I don't know -- that's somefihing
we can take care of at annexation time, but any -- if they have our services and they
become contiguous, then, they better be in the -- better be applying for annexation or
shut off the services and they will apply.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we -- we typically get a-- there are
some times where it's either not possible or we don't want them to annex and we can
get a consent to annexation at that time and the trick, I suppose, is -- or the challenge
for staff is keeping track of when we need to go into annex and, then, Mr. Hood's going
to come talk to you in a couple weeks about a whole page full of annexations that we
need to do and he's going to break them up in thirds and start doing them and bringing
fhem through to you, but it's a difficult task to meet all the state requirements. It's not
easy to go and annex folks. But we can do that. It's certainly an option and we can
continue to do that, if it's not appropriate for fhem to annex at that time. The things
involVed Mr. Borton's -- or Councilmember Borton's kind of looking quiuical at me, so --
I mean it's just -- it's complicated in the sense that we have to go out and hire someone
to do legal descriptions. We have to hold neighborhood meetings. We have to figure
out what the tax burden is going to be: We have to bring the application though the
Planning and Zoning Commission and, then, up to you all. So, there is a fair amount of
work and cost associated with it. Out-of-pocket costs associated with it, so -- but we --
we can continue to work that way and with the GIS we are getting better at having the
tools that we need to identify these properties and identify them more quickly and bring
them to your attention.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 24 of 52
De Weerd: I guess over fhe last number of years -- I think at least a half dozen we have
tried to have a consistent policy in if you're confiiguous you need to annex. In particular,
if they are smaller lots. If fhey are the larger size, I believe we have looked -- given
them a window of fime to -- to annex in particular. I guess, like I said it earlier today is
fhe one off of Locust Grove and I think he was given five years. But it's -- it's the single
hook up that seems to be fine to have them come in and annex within a certain window
of time. It's the single owner -- the subdivisions that are of most concern. We would
want to be contiguous and we would want them to annex and come up to code. Those
are probably the largest headaches which we know, because we have a couple of
subdivisions that are that way. But I guess we haven't been in fhe same situation that
the city to the east of us has been when they have gone and enforced -- seemingly
forced annex when you're already getting all of the services, why would you want to pay
city taxes on top of that? So, we don't want to get ourselves in that same scenario.
Unfortunately, I think fhe county, when they were approving urban densities in our area
of impact, fhey didn't see how some of these systems would fail and we would inherit
their mess and that's what we are facing now.
Rountree: We haven't inherited them.
Canning: And, Madam Mayor, Members of fhe Council, that's exactly why Boise city did
have to force annex is because they were required to take over a number of failing
municipal wastewater systems. So, they were in a similar situation. With regard to
subdivisions, we did have one question. When Meridian Heights, Kentucky Ridge,
came fhrough, your direction to them was pretty clear, they needed to annex. And their
question back to us that we didn't know the answer was what if there is one lone hold
out? Do fhey have to come up with all the consents to annex or are we willing to annex
those folks on their behalf?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, philosophically, my position is the City of Meridian is not a
charitable organization to those people who vehemently oppose being part of the city
and that's exactly what those folks did. They didn't want anything to do with the city.
They didn't want to pay city taxes. They didn't want city government. They didn't want
city services. They wanted to be pioneers and be out there by themselves. However
we do it, I don't believe the city needs to spend a dime to make their lives more
comfortable because of the choices they made. I believe we owe fhem the ability to
take advantage of fihe services fihat we provide. If there is a hold out out there and that
keeps them all from going, I would say we will move forward with the -- I would move
towards moving forward with the annexation, but somebody's going to bear the cost of
having to do the exfira work that would be required with that one parcel, whether it's
legal fees, whatever. Somebody's going to bear that cost, not the City of Meridian.
Nary: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 25 of 52
Rountree: I mean we have talked about this enough. I mean at least three times. And
the message has been we are not going to pay for their bad decisions and bad
management.
De Weerd: Well, it's actually not we, it's our rate payers and that's who we --
Rountree: I'm a we. I mean our taxpayers.
Bird: We are part of them. That's we. I agree wholeheartedly with Councilman
Rountree on that.
Zaremba: Well, Madam Mayor -- and to add, that last piece was what I was going to
add. It's a disservice to the rest of our customers, including us, to provide services to
somebody wifhout them carrying their share of the burden. That penalizes the other
70,000 people in the city.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, yeah, and I think that answers it,
because, really, most -- we have two different types of applicants it appears. The
Meridian Heights, for example, they are a single point water source and so we would be
replacing their systems. So, anyone who chooses not to annex into the city has no
water service at all. So, there is a great incentive to consent when you have no
services at all because of the way their system is set up. I think the ones that we are
seeing now are ones where individual parcels would -- would hook up to the city
system. So, again, I think they use the single point. They would separately attach to
the city system, but I think if's the same answer, if they don't want to attach to fihe city
system and pay the fees and annex as the rest of them are, they don't have a source of
water or a source of sewer for them and I think that probably helps the staff being able
to send that message back to fhem.
Barry: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Barry: We appreciate that clarity certainly from fhe Council and Mr. Nary as well. Just
to follow up, we seem to be very clear with regard to annexing individual parcels already
subdivided by -- in the county in order to receive services. The question about large
parcels, you know, that are not yet developed and whether or not we would want to
have them receive services without annexing, because we don't believe potentially that
there is a benefit to annexing them at the time they receive those services, is it my
understanding, then, fhat we could require them to consent to annex and, then, do --
and, then, move forward with the annexation on our terms at a later date? The reason
that wo.uld be beneficial -- and I look to the planning director for guidance on this -- is
that at the time -- if we annex them -- if we annex them as a large parcel, then, we really
have nothing to hold them in a developer agreement to requirements to meet
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 26 of 52
development standards at the fime they develop. So, thus, it seems advantageous for
us to hold off the annexation, even though we get the consent to annex at the time they
receive services, so that we could utilize a development agreement as a document that
has more teeth to require certain conditions as they move forward with the development
of that large parcel.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Would we have the ability to not annex, but to charge fihem monthly
administration -- anybody who receives the services, water or sewer or both, and is not
annexed we tack on an administration free, a hundred dollars a year, 20 bucks a month,
that gives them some incentive to -- and I don't even know if that's a totally undesirable
suggestion or not, but --
Barry: It's an interesting idea. I'm getting help from my colleagues here. My
understanding is at some point in the past we did charge double assessments for
services of property owners who were outside the city when -- at the fime that they
hooked up, as maybe a way to capture those costs. I don't know. Is it possible that we
could tack on a fee for services outside of service, I don't see why not. That would be
up to the Council to -- to consider and adopt. There are -- there a number of questions
as it relates to cost of service that go far beyond administrafive costs for providing
services to fhese individuals, particularly if on the list, when we get down to it regarding
substandard infrastructure wifhin the community itself and who pays to bring that
infrastructure into compliance for both fire requirements, water pressure requirements,
water quality requirements, so on and so forth. So, we will get to that in just a minute.
But that has a cost burden as well, which we may want to consider if Council so chose
to go down an administrative recapturing of costs. But as it relates to the overall
annexafion, Public Works staff is clear on smaller developed parcels in the county. The
question of whether or not we want to annex now larger parcels seems to be one that
can be solved one of two ways. A, having an interim zone that we annex them into,
which, then, they could come -- like an open space zoning and, then, when they want to
develop they come in and make a request for that zoning and we'd still be able to get
fhe requirements of the conditions under that rezone request at the time they develop
that large parcel or, B, just acquire a consent to annex and, then, annex on our own
terms at a later time, would likely be at the time that parcel -- that large parcel came into
develop. I mean those are the two options I see. I guess I-- if there are others we are
willing to entertain those, but I'm interested in Council's direction on those two issues.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton
Borton: Tom, I guess a third option -- and I might be backing it up and be too simplistic,
is to not annex. Large parcel, small parcel, subdivision or not, if you want city services
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 27 of 52
you choose to join the city or your don'#. And if you're a large parcel and you don't want
to annex and join, then, that's fine, and don't. And if you want to and you want to make
the request, you can come forward knowing that you're going to have to meet all fire
flow requirements, exisfing infrastructure requirements, we can lead you to some
general tools that are available whether it's a CID or an LID or what have you, that might
assist them in their request to us to annex, how they are going to provide those
infrastructure improvements, whether it's a large parcel or whatnot and, if not, if they
can't do it, once fhey have got 300 lots and 110 of them aren't interested in annexing,
maybe they are stuck.
De Weerd: Mr. Anderson.
Anderson: Madam Mayor, Council. I feel obligated to comment on this particular
situafiion due to the fire flow issues and those kind of things, but I guess when I look --
when I look at fihis, fhis is a pretty complicated issue that you have been asked to solve
in a department report and it almost warrants a discussion in one of your workshop
sessions, so that you can understand the entire picture it may require even city staff
getting together more and brainstorming additional options that can be presented to you
before we ask you to just come up with a magic solution for us. But I will throw in
another wrinkle for you and that's the one of public safety and if you look at the map
over in the corner over there at the City of Meridian, all those white pieces, that's area
that's still in the county and so what happens is our city ends up looking like a piece of
Swiss cheese and that creates issues for both the police and the fire department,
jurisdictional issues for fhe police department, knowing whether they have the authority
or the county sheriff or who's cail that is. In the fire department a lot of those areas are
un-hydranted areas and so some of those are developed subdivisions that have been
built and fhat means we have to approach fhose differently. We have to bring a water
supply with us and quite often, depending on the size of homes there, we may not have
adequate water to even fight the fire. Councilman Zaremba, as our liaison, we had an
in-depth discussion about this at our last rural district commissioners meeting, but we
have an ongoing issue wifh Ada County right now that they have decided fhat they will
not enforce the fire department's requirements for fire flows. So, when a subdivision is
built out in the rural area and we comment on it and we say it needs X amount of fire
flow, they will disregard that and they will approve whatever they decide is appropriate.
So, there are still subdivisions being approved today that will be approved that are in the
City of Meridian's impact area that will not have adequate fire flow. That's silly to me,
because at some point we know they are going to be in the city. Why an agreement
can't be reached wifh fhe county that if they approve a subdivision within the city of
Meridian's impact areas, that they put in the infrastructure, water, sewer, that will be
needed ultimately when that piece of property does annex into the city, because we
know that it's going to be there. But because of these jurisdictional issues and the fact
fhat we need to be able to have adequate water to be able to fight a fire, the police need
to know whether fihis side of the road is in their jurisdiation and this side is out, what
happens if a crash happens in the middle of fhe road all those kind of things, these
issues need to be addressed. So, ifs not just, I guess the matter of annexation, it's not
just a matter of saying that these folks need to pay their way -- you know, I'm a
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 28 of 52
taxpayer, too, I'd like to see that happen, but we need to clean up a mess that's
occurred over the last 40 and 50 years and we need to resolve that and so we need to
come up with some solutions on how to do that. And I don't think you're going to be
able to pull out the crystal ball tonight and do that. We need to have more discussions.
But there are a lot more issues to it, than what we have even talked about tonight that
we need to take into consideration.
B'ird: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I wholeheartedly agree with -- with what Chief Anderson and everybody --
De Weerd: Can you speak up, please.
Bird: I wholeheartedly agree with everything that's been said up to this point, but this is
something that we need to take a workshop on and sit down and work on it. This -- I
mean we have spent over an hour on it right now and we could, basically, spend
anofiher two hours on it and probably not get to the bottom of it. So, I don't know about
you, but I'd sure like to move onto the next agenda item.
De Weerd: Is fhere some immediate issues or situafions you're working with right now,
Mr. Barry?
Barry: Yes, Madam Mayor, but I think what -- I think Mr. Bird and Mr. Anderson have
made very good points. We would like to defer fhis conversation to a workshop on June
the 10th where Caleb will be coming and speaking to you about annexation. This might
be a good time for us to have this conversation and get a more in-depth discussion on
the. issue. Certainly, annexation is one of -- as Mr. Rountree pointed out, seven issues
that we have before you and it has taken us a lot longer than anyone I think envisioned,
so I believe it makes sense and we respectfully would like to cease the conversation at
this point and bring it back to you in a workshop.
De Weerd: Permission granted.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Rounfiree, Caleb
had requested the 10th, but I notice he's not actually on the draft agenda yet.
De Weerd: For your annexation discussion?
Canning: Discussion.
De Weerd: It might be a good partner to this one, so --
Meridian Ciry Council
May 27, 2008
Page 29 of 52
Rountree: I say we partner this one wifh the annexation presentation . and, in my
opinion, the 10th, for everybody's information, is now closed, because I don't think we
are going to do anymore than this and if we are lucky we will get through this.
Canning: But --
Rountree: Caleb will be there.
Canning: Okay.
Rountree: Yes.
Barry: Thank you for your time.
C. Purchasing Department:
1. Chanqe Order No 3 with Suncoast dba B8~B Steel
Erectors, Inc. for Meridian City Hall Phase 3 for a Not to
Exceed Amount of $17,085.05:
2. Chanqe Order No 3 with MJ's Backhoe & Excavation,
Inc. for Meridian City Hall Phase 2 for a Not to Exceed
Amount of $35,204.00:
3. Chanae Order No. 1 with TTE-Pre-Com for Meridian City
Hall Phase 3 for a Not to Exceed Reduction of Negative -
$29,687.37:
4. Chanqe Order No 1 with American Wallcover, Inc. for
Meridian City Hall for a Not to Exceed Amount of
$7,665.30:
5. Chanqe Order No 2 with Arnerican Wallcover, Inc. for
Meridian City Hall Phase 3 for a Not to Exceed Amount
of $1,968.60:
6. Chancte Order No. 1 with AATronics for Meridian City
Hall Phase 3 for Meridian City Hall Phase 3 for a Not to
Exceed Amount of $4,527.86:
7. Chanqe Order No 4 with Sidewalks, LLC for Meridian
City Hall Phase 2 for a Not to Exceed Amount of
$64,519.57:
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 30 of 52
8. Chanqe Order No 1 for Heroes Park Construction with
Boise Excavation, LLC for a Not to Exceed Amount
$9,779.25:
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Since Mr. Barry's office took the most time tonight, Mr.
Watts, I'm sure yours will be short; right?
Watts: Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. I have, I believe, eight
change orders on here today. Seven of them were for City Hall and one for the parks
department and I have Gene here from Petra who will review any questions or address
any questions you have on the change orders that we have for City Hall. They have
been discussed, I believe, previously and have now made it to Council.
Bird: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mr. Watts, I have looked through all of them, but refresh my memory on change
order four for Sidewalks, LLC, for the tune of 64,520 dollars, to round it off. What is that
for, phase four -- or phase two?
Watts: I will have to have Gene come up and talk. It's several RFI's that LCA had
submitted.
Bennett: Madam Mayor and Members of City Council, essentially, the bulk of that
change order number four dealt with the dock, the screen wall, and the -- that area in
back of City Hall that was not bid in the original contract for sidewalks.
Bird: Okay. Thank you, Gene. Appreciate it. In other words -- Gene, in other words --
and I also believe that fhis B&B Steel Ereators for 17,100 dollars, basically, is part of
that dock.
Bennett: That's correct.
Bird: So, we are up to 81,000 or 82,000 for a dock. My public knowledge -- deal should
have been in fhe original bid, but that's fine. Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further questions from Council?
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Gene. Do I have a motion to approve?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 31 of 52
Bird: I'm going to take sorne time, because I'm going to read it publicly for all the
amounts. Change Order No. 3 with Suncoast doing business as B&B Steel Erectors,
for Meridian City Hall Phase 2 for a not to exceed amount of $17,085.05. Change Order
No 3 for MJ's Backhoe & Excavation, Incorporated, for Meridian City Hall Phase 2, for a
not to exceed amount of 35,204 dollars. Change Order No. 1 with TTE-Pre-Com for
Meridian City Hall Phase 3, for a not to exceed reduction of negative $29,687.37. I love
those change orders. Change Order No. 1 with American Wallcover, Incorporated, for
Meridian City Hall for a not to exceed amount of $7,665.30. Change Order No. 2 with
America Wallcover, Incorporated, for the Meridian City Hall Phase 3, not to exceed
amount of $1,968.60. Change Order No. 1 wifih Aatronics for Meridian City Hall Phase
3, not to exceed amount of $4,527.86. Change Order No. 4 with Sidewalks, LLC, for
Meridian City Hall Phase 2, for a not to exceed amount of $64,519.57. And Change
Order No. 1 for Heroes Park construction by Boise Excavation, LLC, for a not to exceed
amount of $9,779.25. I moved that we approve to pay these and the Mayor to sign and
the Glerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. You have heard a motion and a second to approve these items. Is
there any discussion?
Watts: Excuse me, Madam Mayor. I just want to make one correction. On the first
one, that was phrase three for Suncoast B&B, not phase two.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Yeah. Phrase three. Did I say two?
Watts: Yeah.
Bird: I'm sorry.
De Weerd: Okay. Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Watts: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members.
D. Parks Department:
1. Discussion on Boys and Girls Club:
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 32 of 52
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. And last, but not least, our parks department.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Two items for you
tonight. The first is a discussion on the Boys and Girls Club. This is just an item to
close the loop with you. When we were before you approximately a month ago we
discussed the Boys and Girls Club building, the old police station, on Idaho Street and
talked about its potential use as a community center and Allison Kaptein was here and
we talked about the various uses that we could use that for. Council, then, directed us
to discuss the use of that building with the other directors from other departments within
the city and look for other potential uses that that building might be used for and if there
were others who also would like to have use of that building. We did so and was
discussed at a director's meeting a few weeks ago. We determined at that time that
there were no other departments that have a desire to operate that facility on their own.
We did discover a couple of potential partnerships. One with the police department
where they asked if we could make an area available for an officer to make phone calls
and things if necessary, which we can certainly do. We offered to make an enfire office
available, but they said that that was not necessary, as there will be new offices
constructed with the new City Hall here close by. But we can make a space available
for an officer to make phone calls, work on reports from an area if need be without any
problem. Also with fire, they asked if we did get this space, if they might be able to use
it to teach their CPR classes and we can certainly allow that and my next follow-up
question was could we be part of that -- those CPR classes ourselves and take
advantage of that. So, I'm just here to report back and let you know that we did have
those conversations with fhe directors and would just open fhis up for any discussion or
comments and see if we might be able to move forward with the use of that building as
a community center as the Boys and Girls CIu6 vacates it later this summer.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Zaremba.: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Is a motion in order'?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Zaremba: I move that the Parks Department, upon vacafiing the current Boys and Girls
Club, the old police station, that the Parks Department take possession of it and operate
that building.
De Weerd: Do I have a second?
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 33 of 52
Rountree: I will second that.
De Weerd: Okay. Any discussion? Okay. I will ask for roll call on that.
Roil-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
2. Budget Amendment for Additional Attendants at
Settler's Park Splash Pad for $27,202.00:
De Weerd: Thank you. And last.
Siddoway: Thank you. Madam Mayor, the next item is regarding our splash pad
attendants. We have before you a proposed budget amendment for a total of 27,202
dollars. What this funding would do is allow us to place splash pad attendants at the
splash pad. We have been making several upgrades, as you know, to the splash pad
this spring and most notably the installation of an ultraviolet treatment system. Another
precaution that we have talked about for some time and are implementing is the splash
pad attendants actually on site. As we have been creating those schedules we
discovered that we do not want to have an individual attendant out on site at one time
into -- late into the evening. The applicants we are getting for this position are typically
teenage girls. We are asking them to stay until the close of the splash pad at 9:00 p.m.
and our parks staff leave in the afternoon, The maintenance staff. So, we would like to
hire a total of four employees -- four splash pad attendants, finro of which would be on
site at one time. We would propose to offset the cost of the additional splash attendants
by opening our concession stand in Settler's Park and selling concessions to the public
and using the revenues generated from that concession stand to offset the amount fhat
we are asking for. But we may be able to fully pay for all four, but we are being a little
conservative. If we -- I looked at the revenues that we had for movie night, they
averaged about 200 dollars a night. We had it open on Monday, yesterday, and also
earned approximately 200 dollars having it open yesterday. So, it seems to be a fairly --
a fairly good number. We -- if that continues through the summer, we can earn close to
20,000 dollars of that back in revenues. So, with that I will propose that this amendment
would allow us to fund those positions and to -- and, again, to offset that we will be
opening the concessions building and generating revenues from that. The idea is to
have an attendant on site at the splash pad and one in the concessions building and,
then, they would rotate off approximately every hour and spell each other, give them
some variety, and also some backup in case there is any kind of -- a situation that
occurs at the splash pad. And with that I'll stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions?
Rountree: I have none.
Bird: I have none.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 34 of 52
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move that we adopt the budget amendment for additional attendants at
Settlers Park splash pad for a not to exceed -- not to exceed amount of 27,202 dollars.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and second. Any discussion? Hearing none,
Madam Clerk.
Ro11-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Steve.
Siddoway: Thank you.
Item 8: Items Moved from Consent Agenda: '
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 9: FP 08-004 Request for Final Plat approval for 65 single-family building lots
and 5 common lots on 20.51 aeres in an R-4 and R-8 zone for Olive Tree
at Spurwina Subdivision by Spurwing Limited Partnership - north of
West Chinden Boulevard and west of North Spurwing Way:
De Weerd: Item 9 is on FP 08-004 and we do have written comments from the
applicant agreeing with the conditions. Anything further from our planning director?
Seeing none --
Rountree: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve Item No. 9, FP 08-004.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9. Madam Clerk, will
you call roll.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 35 of 52
Ro11-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent.
MOTION CARRFED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 10: Continued Public Hearing from May 20, 2008: AZ 08-003 Request for
Annexation and Zoning of 12.06 acres from RUT to R-40 (10.56 acres)
and C-C (1.15 acres) zones for Rectencv at River Vallev (REVISED) by
Mason & Stanfield - 2500 North Eagle Road:
Itern 11: Continued Public Hearing from May 20, 2008: CUP 08-004 Request for
Conditional Use Permit for a multi-family development in a proposed R-40
zoning district for Reqencv at River Vallev by Mason & Stanfield - 2500
North Eagle Road:
Item 12: Continued Public Hearing from May 20, 2008: VAR 08-002 Request for
Variance to UDC Table 11-3C-6 for a reduction in the number of parking
spaces required for multi-family dwellings in covered carports or garages
for Reaencv at River Vallev by Mason & Stanfield - 2500 North Eagle
Road:
De Weerd: Thank you. I:tems 10, 11, and 12 are continued public hearings with
comment specific. I will open this with Mrs. Canning's comments.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, as you will recall, you heard this item
last week, if's the Regency at River Valley.
De Weerd: I'm sorry, you need to speak into the microphone.
Canning: This is the Regency at River Valley and -- here we go. It's located at 2500
North Eagle Road., approximately a half mile north of the Fairview-Eagle Intersection.
The applications you considered last week were annexation and zoning, Conditional
Use Permit, and variance. The outstanding issue before City Council -- you had
appeared to have resolved the concern related to the proposed use and development of
the site. The only outstanding concern was the timing of annexation relative to the
property to the south and Council requested that staff consider the issue and provide a
recommendation. We have been working on that language. I thought legal staff was
going to bring you the fiinal edits and as it turned out they thought I was going to bring it,
so I think I can have it ready for you in a moment. I have got two of them typed up and
maybe, Mr. Nary, you could explain what we are thinking while I finish typing up fhe last
one.
Nary: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think the issue before you
last week that we set this matter over for is if the Council wished to approve this project,
there are some confingencies, because of the access to fihis particular parcel and,
generally, fhe code doesn't allow us to condition annexations, but what we propose --
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 36 of 52
and our discussion with the planning department is that we can, with a development
agreement, put those conditions on the record as to what's required prior to the property
actually being annexed. Our current process is once the development agreement is
signed we generally, within the next week or two at the most, put that property on for the
annexation ordinance for final approval. What the state code says is that there is -- the
state code contemplates a difference in time between the approval of a development
agreement and the approval of annexation ordinance. If you record it, it does become
notice to future property owners, which is, I think, an important consideration for the city,
that whatever entitlements -- if this property were to be approved for annexation, you
would want fihose enfitlements to attach and go forward with the land. The other
condition in the Idaho Code says that the conditions in the development agreement
don't become effective unfil the property is actually annexed.. In this case that actually is
fine, because what fhe city is not wanting is that particular parcel to develop until the
access road is available to them for use. So, we can put the conditions in the
development agreement. The parties can -- can execute that development agreement
prior to that. We would put in language that based on one of three conditions -- and I
think that's fhe issue that Mrs. Canning and our office I guess missed -- missed on this
morning as bringing those specific conditions to you, but, basically, there is three
different conditions that we feel would make that access developed and, then,
accessible and useful for this project, once those conditions were -- those up there.
Once those conditions -- one of those conditions occurred, then, the city would put the
annexation ordinance forward, bring it back in front of the City Council. There is an
automatic requirement in our ordinance that says annexation -- that the -- the
annexation has to be within a year of the development agreement. So, there is already
a time limit in our ordinance that these have to occur. Otherwise, you have to revisit it
again before it can go forward. So, we think that would cover fihe basis and allow for the
-- the -- I guess the conditions that the Council felt were appropriate in bringing this
matter forward for approval.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: From what I'm looking at I would just add one sentence and that would be
that the city does not guarantee that any of these will occur.
Nary: And, additionally, too, there is -- there is a few other portions of our development
agreement that the standard boilerplate language that Mrs. Albertson, my staff fhat
helps draft these, we were looking through today and fhere is probably a few others we
are going to have to modify. So, there probably will be some discussion with the
applicant on some of those condifions, because they already pre-suppose that we will
immediately complete the annexation process and in this case we are. basically
developing an agreement for the annexation ordinance to be done later after other
contingencies occur in the interim. So, we will make sure to put that language,
Councilmember Zaremba, as you stated, and as well as some of the other ones we will
have to tweak a little bit, but I think the general idea that we think we can support, if the
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 37 of 52
develop is in agreement with, is that the city would agree to the development agreement
now and the annexation would not occur until some of these -- one of these
confingencies occurs.
De Weerd: Okay. Questions?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I like the addition of this occurring as we are watching. I
would make the last -- the last paragraph two separate paragraphs and probably
instead of this, I would say these conditions. And if the applicant is comfortable with
that, I think -- it seems to me that was where we were going last week, wasn't it?
, De Weerd: Okay. Anna?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I did call the applicant and discuss
this general concept with them. You may want to have them come up now that we have
the specific wording, so to speak, up on the screen.
De Weerd: It's been a moving target. I'm sure they will comment, so --
Rountree: Madam Mayor, as long as we are word-smithing -- there you go. Delete it.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything else?
Rountree: That's all I have.
De Weerd: Okay. Applicant comments?
Canning: Madam Mayor, while the applicant is working his way up to the microphone, I
did want to comment on the third condition. The idea on that one for Allys Way would
be that the applicant could use their emergency access as their primary access until
such time as River Valley Street was available. ACHD had had concerns with that
access point being so close to the River Valley intersection, but we are talking about
before that River Valley Street intersection is there. So, there shouldn't be a conflict
with ACHD, although they are here, they can comment on that. But fihat was the idea
behind the third one.
De Weerd: Okay.
L.Anderson: Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council, my name is Lars Anderson,
with Bach Homes, 11650 South State Street, Draper, Utah. 84020.
De Weerd: Thank you.
L.Anderson: I remembered fhis time. And we have reviewed the conditions and agree
with them.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 38 of 52
De Weerd: Great. Council, any questions for the applicant?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: We have none. Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Did we resolve the issue of not having the parking spaces covered in the
numbers that they -- that the ordinance would say? Do we have a way to -- have we
discussed that to our satisfaction?
Rountree: There is a request for a variance.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, my understanding is that the -- most
of the Council, if not all, had expressed their okay with the requested variance and had
given some reasons related to the canal -- or the irrigation district requirement.
Zaremba: The canal being the reason that it would make it acceptable. Okay. I didn't
know if we nailed that one down. I remember the discussion, but --
De Weerd: Okay. Any comments from the ACHD? Christie -- okay. Okay. Council,
any further information needed?
Bird: I don't need any.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, would you like me to clarify the
emergency access or the temporary use of fhe emergency access on that third item?
Rountree: Yes.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I have added the statement: This
would allow temporary use of the -- I could put eastern emergency access until such
fime as River Valley Street is constructed.
De Weerd: Anything -- does that help?
Zaremba: Uh-huh.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything else from Council? Any final comments from the
appJicant? Any finai comments from staff?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council; I did want to remind Council that the
applicant did offer to -- if the right of way is available for River Valley Street, to fully
Meridian Ciry Council
May 27, 2008
Page 39 of 52
improve that from his property to the southern curb of the roadway. I believe I stated
that correctly. Yes. I'm getting nods.
Zaremba; Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Clarification. You mean, essentially, his full soufhern property line, not just to
his own entrance?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, he would -- he would develop the
right of way adjoining his southern property line all the way to the south curb of River
Valley Street. So, he would be --
Zaremba: Oh. Okay. From Eagle to Allys.
Canning: Yes.
Zaremba; Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further'? Okay. Any final comments firom the applicant?
None?
L.Anderson: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council -- state my name again?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
L.Anderson: Lars Anderson with Bach Homes, 11650 South State Street, Draper, Utah.
84020. I did want to clarify that that offer was, obviously, contingent on the dedication
of the right of way and only included the frontage in front of our property, but did include
fhe southern edge of the right of way all the way to Eagle Road. The only section that
was excluded was the section -- the section thaf we don't have frontage on, about 250
feet from Eagle Road to where our property line begins. So, just to clarify that. On the
north side of Eagle Valley Road. The first 250 feet firom Eagle Road to our property line
would be paved, but without curb and gutter is what we stated in fhe letter, because --
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I believe he's stating on the north
side of fihat. Since there wouldn't be the right of way there he wouldn't have access to
it.
L.Anderson: Okay. I just wanted to clarify fhat. All the other conditions we agree to.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Council, if fhere is no further information needed
-- if you feel comfortable with what clarifications are needed, I would entertain a motion
to close the public hearings on items 10, 11, and 12.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 40 of 52
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we close public hearings on Item 10, 11 and 12.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Okay. I would enter a motion on Item 10.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve the annexation in Item 10, AZ 08-003, with all staff
and applicant comments and offers and a DA to reflect the conditions as indicated on
fhe overhead, in addition to all the other applicable provisions.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have motion and a second to approve Item 10 as stated. Any
discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTIDN CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 11.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I move that we approve Item 11, CUP 08-004, subject to all
fhe appropriate comments and conditions.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 11. If there is no
discussion, roll call vote, please.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRI'ED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 12 is on a variance 08-002.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 41 of 52
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve the request for variance VAR 08-002, primarily
because of the conditions that lay on the land that would be part of the parking facility,
with respect to Nampa-Meridian Irrigation's lack of ability see fit to let structures be built
on that easement.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to approve the variance. Do I have a second?
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll
call.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 13: Public Hearing: VAC 08-004 Request for a Vacation of a portion of the
public utility easements platted with Verona Nos. 2 and 3 Subdivision for
Verona Nos. 2 and 3 by Prirneland Development - NEC of W. McMillan
Road and N. Ten Mile Road:.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 13 is Public Hearing VAC 08-004. I will open this Public
Hearing with staff comments.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is vacations for Verona
Subdivisions No. 2 and 3. They are located generally on the northeast corner of West
McMillan Road and North Ten Mile Road and there is vacations requested. One is for
the ten foot PUD easement along the west boundary of Lot 2, Biock 12. One is the 35
foot blanket easement on Lot 36, Block 10 and Lot 1, Block 12. And the other is for all
PUDI easements along the west, north, and internal lot boundaries of Lots 41 through
46, B1ock 3. To our knowledge there are no outstanding issues before Council and
staff is recommending approval. This site has been surveyed and the easements
proposed to be vacated do not contain any utility infrastructure. These are, basically,
necessary to -- to clean up the last of fihe -- you have had rezones and new subdivisions
filed in these areas and it's just to clean those up and --. so they can move forward with
the site.development.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Rountree: I have none.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 42 of 52
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Does the applicant have any comments? No comments. Must
agree with staff, since they agree with you.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I would move that we close the Public Hearing on Item 13, VAC 08-004.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to close the Public Hearing on Item
13. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion aarried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Borton: Madam Mayor'?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: I would move fhat we approve Item 13, request for vacation VAC 08-004.
B'ird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 13. If there is no
discussion, Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 14: Public Hearing: ZOA 08-001 Request for a Zoning Ordinance / Unified
Development Code (UDC) Text Amendment to modify, clean up and add
specific sections to the UDC (see application for details of all sections
proposed for amendments) for Unified Development Code Text
Amendment #4 by the City of Meridian Planning Department:
De Weerd: Thank you, Item 14 is a Publia Hearing on ZOA 08-001. I will open this
with staff comments. .
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is our fourth Unified
Development Code text amendment since its adoption in 2005. We are still finding
things that could be fine tuned or nits and picks here and there or other issues that you
have asked us to address. So, the Commission did recommend approval of this at their
Meridian Ciry Council
May 27, 2008
Page 43 of 52
May 1 st, 2008, Public Hearing. Planning sta .ff spoke in favor. No one spoke in
opposition. No one commented, nor provided written testimony. Key issues of
discussion by the Commission were request for clarification on the intent of the
modificafion to UDC 11-2A-2C regarding the necessity of adding: Or listed as a
preliminary use and I'm -- there are a lot of these amendments that are written for the
sake of enforcement and just being able to -- for the prosecutors or whatever individual
that takes these forward to be able to stand in front of a judge and say that it's clearly
covered by the UDC. So, a lot of the amendments fihat are before•you -- about half of
them or at least a third are related to that and what I'd like -- with regard to key
Commission changes to staff recommendation, fihere were none. All they asked for was
fhat clarification. And to our knowledge there are no outstanding issues for City
Council. I did receive a letter from Mr. Jewett and he talked to me quite some time ago
about the concepts proposed in his letter and you have a copy of that. I am generally
okay with those. I didn't get them in enough fime to really go over the exact wording, so
I would like to go through kind of just the general concepts in the UDC text amendments
and, then, probably review Mr. Jewett's suggestions and bring back appropriate wording
for you next week. Having said that, I'm going to jump into the general concepts. As I
had mentioned before, a lot of these are enforcement related. In particular, that very
first one, 11-1-12, this is actually something fhat we think will come in very handy. It's
already come in handy. We have a similar provision in the temporary use ordinance.
And it, basically, says in the enforcement section that the city may withhold any
approval and a permit for any and all proposed activity or uses on any real property with
outstanding violations of this title, except that such approval and/or permit shall not be
withheld where doing so would adversely affect health, safety, or the general public
weifare. So, that gives us the ability -- if there is an outstanding vioiation, it just gives us
a tool to get them to come into compliance, because sometimes~ they -- they basically
just say sue me and we're not always sure we will win in court, so we don't proceed with
the lawsuit. There are a number of those. If you look down to number 11-2, the
applicability statement, again, those were put in by Mrs. Kane for the purpose of -- of
aiding in prosecution. And the same wifh 11-2A-2A, permitted uses. This language is
just largely for enforcement purposes, as is 26 and as is 2C. And you will see those
repeated fhroughout every zoning district. We also have changes related to changes in
the IBC and that one is number 3D-3 here. So, where the UDC prior -- previously
allowed buildings less than 120 square feet in area to not require a buildin~ permit, so
we exempted them the requirements of ineeting setbacks. That number has moved up
to -- or -- I'm sorry. It was previously 200, now it's down to 120. So, we made a similar
change to the UDC to be consistent with that building code. There are a number of
changes related to wireless communication facilities and I certainly don't want to go
through them all, You may remember when -- just prior to the UDC being complete Mr.
Dave McKinnon brought through a text amendment to the old code for wireless facilities
and about midway through fihat --
De Weerd: I remember his presentation.
Canning: Yeah. About midway through fhat he just -- his client decided not to pursue
the text amendment anymore. So, it kind of got half the way through and, then, was just
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 44 of 52
left. When we were doing the UDC we tried to incorporate those things, but I have to
admit I was confused and couldn't figure it out. Well, I finally -- we haven't had a lot of
wireless communication facilities. I knew there was a flaw in there. I was having a hard
time figuring out where the flaw was. I sat down one afternoon -- I think I figured it out
and so fhere is a lot of little changes necessary to make it do what we wanted it to do
and that was, basically, to allow stealth facilities and to allow very small facilities within
the residential neighborhoods that met certain standards. So, I'm not going to go
through those in detail. You did that years ago. But ifs just -- fhe mechanics of it
weren't working correctly, but I believe they are now.
De Weerd: I still wouldn't want to see it on a street light outside my window.
Canning: Yeah. There are -- there is one I wanted to bring to your attention regarding
access to streets and that's on 11-3A. This is to address some of the issues we have
with some of the older commercial developed areas. Fairview Avenue comes to mind
befinreen Eagle and Meridian. Basically, what this says is that if you're developing
property that has access to an arterial or collector roadway and you have got another
option, you need to keep that option or if you don't have another option you need to
provide cross-access. ~The idea was that we can, hopefully, close down some of those
access points to those arterial roadways over time. This is probably the most
controversial provision we had added to the whole -- the whole document, so I just
wanted to make sure you were clear on that and aware of that. We did a few
modificafiions to the required parking spaces for residential use. These are down in 3C.
Basically, the way Mr. Hood restructured this was to make the parking space
requirement related to number of bedrooms, rather than the type of unit necessarily. It
provided a little more equity when it came to -- well, it provided a relief to one bedroom
units, which we are seeing a lot of smaller units these days where you don't really -- if
you have got one bedroom you probably don't need four car parks, as would be
required right now if it were a detached family dwelling. So, that's the general intent of
those -- of those changes. Oh. And, then, in 11-3G5B we kind of clarified this idea of
when is it okay not to actually pave a parking area. We have discussed this with you
about temporary uses. There are some other times where asphalt isn't really necessary
to achieve the goals we want as far as development of the community, but making sure
that we have a dustless surface and making sure that just -- that there is a reason for
not doing the asphalt. Okay. Moving on. We made a few changes to signs. Those are
in 3B. One -- Mr. Anderson's gone, but this was kind of for him. We found out -- oh,
there he is. We found out that because of the zoning on some of fire stations in
particular or some of our ofher public and quasi-public buildings we have out there,
sometimes they have a residential zoning with no sign permissions. So, we did add a
statement that says any sign erected by or under fihe authority of the City of Meridian on
property owned by the City of Meridian shall be exempt from the provisions of this
article. And that allows us to identify station number four as such -- or station number
five as such. So, that was fihe idea behind that change. And, then, we did at look some
of the temporary sign provisions. I know the Mayor has recently asked us to look at
elecfion signs again. We did have a section in here coming forward prior to that request
from the Mayor. Okay. So, we also clarified the permanent and temporary window
Meridian City Council
May 29, 2008
Page 45 of 52
signs and particular temporary window signs. We clarified that fhey need to be painted
directly upon fhe window glass or composed of a transparent material affixed directly
upon the window glass surface. The idea was not to have opaque objects placed on
the windows such that they don't function as windows any longer. And I think that that
becomes important for clutter and also some of our design guidelines as we are looking
for visibility into those spaces. It also -- we were having issues wifh a sign company
putting -- basically affixing large rather very solid copy -- changeable copy letter signs
put on the windows -- affixed to the windows and calling them window signs. So, this
would clarify that issue as well. Let's see. We also have -- we added a change for
school signs. We have allowed school signs, but we didn't have any standards for
those. So, we did put a standard in that maximum height for school signs shall not
exceed 15 feet and maximum background area shall not exceed 80 square feet. We
did send this off to the school district. They haven't provided any comment. We also
sent it to the Building Contractors Association and the Developers Council and we have
received no comments. Finally -- oh. Wait a minute. No. We have made some
modifications to the L-O district and new district setbacks and those are -- I need to go
backwards for you here. One of the items we added -- this was specifically one the
Council had requested was business hours of operation within the L-O and C-N districts
shall be limited from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. This restriction applies to all business
operations occurring outside an enclosed structure, including, but not limited to
customer or client visits, trash compacting, and deliveries. This restriction does not
apply to business operations occurring within an enclosed structure, including, but not
limited to cleaning, bookkeeping, and after-hours work by a limited number of
employees. We also changed fhe front and fhe rear setback on the L-O. It was the only
district that previously had any front and rear setbacks. The idea had been that the L-O
lots would -- would be homes that were being converted. We did have people going in
and doing L-O subdivisions and those setbacks were making for inefficient layout and
development of the subdivision. What we left for the L-O was to make sure that we had
the buffers to the residential uses and, then, the interior side setback buffers as well.
So, we feel we left the protections necessary, but gave them the -- a little more flexibility
with regard to subdivision design. Okay. And, then, finally, we added two new districts
and fhose are the ME and the HE. The MEHE. And they are mixed employment and
high density employment. So, you will see the mixed employment -- and these are
directly related to the Ten Mile specific area plan. The mixed employment corresponds
with the land use designation of that name and would allow a mix of light office, light
industrial, any employment center are basically -- they typically were envisioned as not
-- not the tallest buildings in the Ten Mile specific area plan, so we picked the height
limits similar to fihe C-G zoning currently. And, then, for the high density employment,
these were a minimum or four to six stories, so we have a maximum height limit of 95
for that one. .
De Weerd: So, what do the initials stand for?
Canning: Mixed employment and high density employment. And, fhen, I have pulled
out fihe use table and showed you which uses were allowed and how they are allowed.
So, like animal care facility would be conditional in the mixed employment. I don't know
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 46 of 52
why I left these ones in. Church, as always, is conditionally allowed. Conference center
would be conditional in mixed employment, but principally permitted in high density
employment. A employment center would be allowed as an accessory use in either
district to a large office complex, for example, or conditionally allowed as a stand alone
use. A group day care, again, conditionally allowed. Drinking establishment,
condifiionally allowed within fhe high density employment. Education institution, a
private school would be principally permitted. Public school as well. Financial
institution would be principally permitted in the mixed employment, but only an
accessory use to fhe high density employment. The idea being there it would be bank
offices that would be more appropriate wifhin high density employment, not just the
bank itself. Not fhe customer service end of that. Flex space, which is kind of a light
industrial use, would be principally permitted in the mixed employment. Fuel sale facility
would be conditionally allowed within the high density employment and a lot of these
issues had been considered within the plan itself. They had a number of appropriate
uses, so it was fairly easy to go through and to pick out the specific uses that were
appropriate with those districts. Truck stop would not be appropriate in either. Health
care or social services would be principally permitted in eifher. Hospital would be
principally permitted in the high density employment. I'd actually like to -- if the Council
approves the zoning designation, to go talk to St. Luke's about perhaps rezoning their
property from L-0 to high density employment, more consistent with their use. Hotel
and motel, principally permitted in high density employment, conditional in mixed
employment. lndustry information principally permitted in either. Light industry
principally permitted in mixed employment, conditional in high density employment.
Laundry and dry cleaning could be accessory in fhe high density. Parking facilities, as
well as parks, public and -- public infrastructure, public or quasi-public use, public
utilities, those are all kind of general public uses. Personal service would be accessory
in the -- both zones, whereas a professional service, like bookkeeping, would be
principally permitted. So, this would be like a hair dresser would be accessory to the
larger use, but offices, again, would be principally permitted. Research and
development facility, principally permitted. Restaurant and retail stores, both accessory
in either zone, as well as temporary uses. Car wash could be accessory to the fuel sale
facility in the high density employment. Warehouse would be an accessory or
conditional use in the mixed employment. And, then, we get into the wireless stuff.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Back on the restaurants. Wouldn't -- in a high employment area wouldn't we
want to encourage there to be restaurants, so that they wouldn't have to go very far for
a lunch break or before and after'? It would seem to me that would be a good place for
principally permitted restaurants. Or am I thinking wrong?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. No, that's -- and fihat's why we listed
them as accessory. The idea is you don't want to have a restaurant pad, though. The
high density area envisions minimum structures of four to six stories, so --
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 47 of 52
Zaremba: It would have to be in the big building, not a separate building, is fhat the --
Canning: I haven't seen a six story restaurant yet. So, I mean I suppose we could have
one want to come in, but the idea was that they would be accessory to -- you know, be
on one floor of an office building or something like that.
Zaremba: But it could be operated separately from the rest of the businesses.
Canning: Yes.
Zaremba; In other words, it's not the cafeteria of a big business that's in there
Canning: Correct. And perhaps we need to -- that's a good point.
Zaremba: It's open to fhe public.
Canning: Yeah. We could make that principally permitted. That's -- accessory does
imply that it's accessory, so maybe it would be better to do principally permitted and,
then, just rely on the fact that it needs to be --
Zaremba: Six stories.
Canning: -- four to six stories.
Zaremba: Just a thought. -
Canning: You talked me into it. I think I have overwhelmed the Council. I wasn't
looking for action tonight, so I can take fhis up again wifh you next week or -- that would
seem fhe most appropriate -- oh, I'd like to talk about Mr. Jewett's letter, too. I forgot
about that.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, if I might ask Anna. There is a couple things we have talked
about that may or may not be applicable to this amendment, but one question that came
up a number of months ago was gated communities. Is that something that could be
discussed in this amendment?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we hadn't discussed it. The direction
you gave the applicants was that they needed to bring it forward, that staff wasn't going
to. So, I didn't. But I could.
Borton: We sort of left it hanging.
Rountree: I personally would like to wrap up some of fhese, if -- we can at least talk
about them and either leave them the same or make -- modify them to make them work.
And that's one we have talked about I know. And, then, another --
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 48 of 52
Canning: You may recall staff didn't support that one. I think that may have been why
you asked them to bring it back, but we can work on it.
Rountree: Well; I know you didn't support it, but I got the sense that we might have.
De Weerd: You may not have, but --
Rountree: You may not have, but I thought Council --
De Weerd: There was an interest --
Rountree: I fihink there was an interest on the part of the Council.
Canning: Yes.
Rountree: So -- and, again, I don't know if this is the opportune time to talk about
landscape requirements on industrial zoning, but that might be a future amendment that
we need to talk about.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Mr. Rountree, I fhink that we can do
that through the alternative compliance. I'm more comfortable with that -- doing that that
way for now.
Rountree: Okay. As long as we can make it work.
Canning: We will -- I think we can.
Rountree: Okay.
Canning: And at least give it awhile to see what bugs we flush out and, then, we can
make an amendment once we get that worked out.
Rountree: I'm fine with fhat.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the issue Mr. Rountree is --
Councilmember Rountree is speaking about is the necessity for the five foot landscape
strip on truck maneuvering areas within an I-L district, as opposed to car parking areas.
These were just only the areas where the trucks are maneuvering. It's generally against
another I-L property. And I think that the code allows me enough flexibility to work with
the applicants on just providing some alternative compliance for those areas until we
find out a better code solufion. ~
Rountree: Okay.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 49 of 52
De Weerd: Okay. Council, anything further? I guess I would ask Mr. Jewett, do you
have any comments that -- I know that we just got your letter -- I haven't looked at it.
Staff hasn't reviewed it. Do you want to comment on that?
Canning: Or I can, Jim. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if you wouldn't mind,
I'd just -- I can comment on the general nature of Mr. Jewett's comments.
De Weerd: Or why don't you -- would you rather read it and have a chance to really
evaluate it or do you feel you need to comment on it tonight?
Canning: Well, I just wanted to give a brief overview.
De Weerd: Okay.
Canning: What -- the TN-C and the Old Town District didn't have the same kind of
allowances for height and variations from height and foot -- square footage footprints
that the other commercial districts did. And in reviewing his South Ridge project Mr.
Jewett felt the need to have that flexibility for the TN-C district and it may be appropriate
to have it for the Old Town District as well. What I'd like to do is work with Will Thornton
who is working on kind of the site design stuff for those districts, be able to go over
those with him. But, basically, it says if you want to do something else it's a CU, rather
than a variance. If you want to do a larger footprint, it would be as a conditional use. If
you want to go higher, it would be a conditional use, rather fhan a variance. And I'm
okay with that concept. There was one -- there is a finro story minimum requirement for
the TN-C. Mr. Jewett is proposing that -- that it could be -- as long as 50 percent of it is
two stories, you could have wings, perhaps, that were one story. That's the one in
particular I want to talk to Mr. Thornton about and see how that folds into our design
guidelines we are considering. But, in general, I'm okay with the proposals suggested.
De Weerd: Okay. Good. I love the fact he doesn't want to comment. Okay. However,
this is a Public Hearing. Is there anyone who would like to provide comment at this
fiime? Certainly it looks like we will be continuing it until -- until when? Next week?
Bird: June 3rd.
Rountree: June 3rd.
Canning: Next week would be fine for me, Madam Mayor.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: I move that we continue Item 14 until June 3rd.
Bird: Second.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 50 of 52
De Weerd: 'Okay. I have a motion and a second to continue Item 14 to June 3rd. All
those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRI'ED: ALL AYES.
Item 15: Ordinance No. . RZ 07-014 Request for a
Rezone of 30.08 acres from R-8 to C-N (13.59 acres) and TN-C (16.49
acres) zones for Cavanauqh by Kasterra Development, LLC - Southeast
Corner of South Meridian Road and East Victory Road:
De Weerd: Okay. Item 15 is Ordinance No. 08-1367 and I would ask Madam Clerk to,
please, read this by title only.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 08-1367, an
ordinance finding that Projects West, Inc., the owner of certain real property, has made
a written request for rezone of the zoning classification RZ 07-014, Cavanaugh, for real
property being a parcel of land in the northwest one quarter of Section 30, Township 3
North, Range 1 East of the Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as described in
Attachment A of this ordinance and rezoning certain lands and territory situated in Ada
County, Idaho, and within the corporate limits of the City of Meridian and rezoning the
land use zoning classification of said land from R-8, Medium Density Residential
District, to C-N, Neighborhood Business District and TN-C, Traditional Neighborhood
Center, in fhe Meridian City Code, providing that copies of this ordinance shall be filed
with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County recorder, and the Idaho State Tax
Commission, as required by law, and providing for a summary of the ordinance and
providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by title only. Is there anyone who
would like to hear it read in its entirety? Seeing none, Council, do I have a motion?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve Ordinance 08-1367, with suspension of rules.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a mofion and a second to approve Item 15. If there is no
discussion I will call for roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 51 of 52
Item 16: Ordinance No. 08-1366 : Reconsideration for Final Decision
Ordinance (2nd of 3 Readings):
De Weerd: Item 16 on Ordinance 08-1366, is in a second reading. Madam Clerk, will
you, please, read this by title only.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 08-1366, an
ordinance adding Title 1, Chapter 7, Section 10, Meridian City Code, regarding request
for reconsideration for final decisions of the Meridian City Council of the City of Meridian
and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: Thank you. This will be set on the next agenda for the third reading.
Item 17: Executive Session per ldaho State Code 67-2345(1)(b) -(to consider
the evaluation, dismissal or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or
charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or
individual agent, or public school student):
De Weerd: Item 17 is an Executive Session per ldaho State Code 67-2345(1)(b). Do I
have a mofion?
Bird: So moved.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to adjourn into Executive Session. Madam Clerk,
will you, please, call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; 'Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
Bird: I move we come out of Executive Session.
Borton: Second.
Rountree: All in favor'?
MOTION CARRfED: ALL AYES.
Borton: Move we adjourn.
Bird: Second.
Meridian City Council
May 27, 2008
Page 52 of 52
Rountree: All in favor'?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 11:43 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
~ ~~
-~
MAYOR TAM De WEERD
ATTEST:
Ul~ i 03 i 20~"
DATE APPROVED
\``~~~,,, ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~„~,,,,~~
.•~y o~ ~,~~
,~ ~,
. ,
.~
O ~'
eL \`` ~ `eY' ~ ''
:
JAY E L. HOLMAN : ggAL =
=i -7 ~~ `:
~ Q_ .
' 9 ~T t~ • .~~•
, ~,
~ ~.
.
.
''''~~~~~~iir i r~ `"``~~~`~~~