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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 13 2003 Pre-Council MinutesMeridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 13, 2003 The Pre-Council Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 5:00 P.M. on Tuesday, May 13, 2003, by Council President Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Bill Nary, and Cherie McCandless. Members Absent: Mayor Robert Corrie. Others Present: Bill Nichols, Brad Hawkins-Clark, Anna Powell, Brad Watson, Gary Smith and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: X Tammy de Weerd X Bill Nary X Cherie McCandless X Keith Bird O Mayor Robert Corrie De Weerd: Call the Pre-Council meeting of Tuesday May 13th to order. Mr. Clerk can you please call roll. Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: De Weerd: Adoption of the agenda. Bird: Madam President. De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move that we adopt the agenda as published. De Weerd: Do I hear a second? Nary: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. Item 3. Request for Water Service to Westborough Subdivision by Goldcreek Developers, LLC: De Weerd: Item number three. Request for water service to Westborough Subdivision by Goldcreek Developers, LLC. We will start first with staff. Watson: Madam President and Council members we received a letter from Jane Suggs representing Jim Jewett several weeks ago requesting water service to Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 13, 2003 Page 2 of 6 the proposed Westborough Subdivision. I presume you have a copy of that letter April 8th in your packets. This Subdivision is located on the southwest corner of Chinden and Locust Grove Road. Council has already approved the extension of water and sewer services to serve the proposed charter school that lies in the southeast portion of the 40 acre parcel as well as a church. I can’t remember the name right now – Valley Life Community Church, that is this parcel. That project was bid and I believe Council awarded the contract last week or the week before. So that will be under way here shortly. I think that is the extent of the summary I have. They are simply requesting at this time to provide water service to the - what I believe is the five residential lots and the western potion of the 40 acre parcel. It’s not contiguous to any existing city limits. With that I’ll answer any questions you might have or turn it over to the applicant. De Weerd: Council are there any questions? Bird: Madam President. De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: Brad what’s your recommendation? Watson: When this project first came through the county earlier this winter it was referred to us and I did prepare very very brief comments for Ada County Development Services. The substance of my comment I guess is summarized in the last paragraph that simply says if we had received the request to serve this with water assuming operations and maintenance responsibilities is not, may not be financially beneficial to the city. There are some concerns I guess on putting just five lots on what turned out to be – (Tape Error) Bird: That’s all I had. Watson: I guess we would hope that the applicant could explain a little bit more about the project, the costs involved, their expectations of the city as well as what they proposed to do. There’s nothing in this letter that really talks through the specifics of it. De Weerd: Thank you. Will the applicant please come forward or a representative. Jewett: Madam President and Council. Jim Jewett 3654 South Star Road here in Meridian. What was the question? We got approved with individual wells with the county on the application. There’s United Water service available at this corner and in talking to Brad at earlier times he said they would at least like the opportunity to hear it without me just going to United Water. So that’s why I put Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 13, 2003 Page 3 of 6 the letter forward because you did agree to bring water down here to service this school which eventually the second school will be in this location. So it almost made sense to at least request that water service now instead of letting United Water service a portion of that out there and then let the city serve the other portion. So I made that request, the other thing I made a call to Brad about was that Ada County required Meridian comment on dry line sewers out here down Jericho as well. So we were kind of looking for what you wanted to do, if you wanted to put dry line sewers or just not do anything right now. And also one thing I had mentioned to Brad or Bruce or somebody was another well lot is going to be platted in the subdivision here about possibly donating that to the city in exchange for putting the water over there. You know maybe something could be worked out there to make it more financially feasible for the city. So our urgency in the whole issue is simply that we need to get the subdivision to be able to get the school their lot so they can move forward. They’ve given us a pretty tight timeframe and it’s going to be hard for me to meet it without having some answers so that I can get the plat recorded at the county. De Weerd: Mr. Jewett when you came in front of us to request the water to the place where the school was going to be. Why didn’t you ask at that time for the other six lots? Jewett: Because the application for the county was for individual wells. So we weren’t asking and I guess it really just wasn’t thought through well enough and the other conversations I had with Brad after that. No it was Bruce. Bruce Freckleton. He said that he thought that the city would want to have the opportunity to hear whether or not they wanted to service that side before I just gave it to United Water. De Weerd: I guess what I understood from – that you were approved with six well lots on those so what you are saying is different from what was approved by the county that you are to put wells on there but you are telling me that United Water would be in there. Jewett: What we are looking for is the fire flow and that’s what wells won’t provide us is the fire flow. Now so I guess were that’s where we are really looking for in getting somebody’s (inaudible) water system is to get the fire flow as well. I haven’t approached the fire department to ask if they would approve it without the fire flow and I don’t know what his position would be but I know they prefer having fire hydrants. Even on the larger lots. We’ve done it in other areas around Meridian that’s not part of the city were we put in ponds and just different types of (inaudible) sprinkler systems in the house. It just seems better if we can give them fire flow. Again I apologize for the tardiness in making the request I guess it could have been made with the request for the school. The school itself made that request after they had made a deal with us to purchase that property or trade that property. They came forward with the request for sewer and water. The water actually if I recall was granted earlier to the church because the Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 13, 2003 Page 4 of 6 church was going to go to United Water and something happened there where the city said well no we would rather service it then have United Water so I think the water services was already provided in front of the school before the school came forward. I think it was the sewer that came. De Weerd: Thank you. Bird: Madam President. De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I for one do not want United Water over there at all. I know they would be glad to come over for six lots or whatever they need because they like to get in up there and once they get in I think its going to be harder then we think to get us out. But we did come up to around that church for a simply reason Mr. Jewett and I think we need to look into either supplying the water out there with our well and we can set up a well that’s – we know that area is going to all develop. We can set one that comes around and can do a lot more then just service. I for one would not be interested at all in entertaining United Water to come in. De Weerd: Any other comments? Watson: Madam President. De Weerd: Mr. Watson. Watson: I want to avoid another Silverstone situation here. I don’t think we are interested in servicing this with water if we incur the costs to bring that half a mile of water over there. In fact we would need a budget amendment this year to do that. That’s what I heard the applicant say in exchange for the well lot we would construct that line. So I just want to make sure we are very clear and all on the same page before we go forward. The other comment would be that if we do do water then we should be doing the dry line sewer as well. De Weerd: Mr. Nary. Nary: I guess the only other thing I want to be clear although the state statutes supports it at the moment that those lots since they are not contiguous right now then we provide sewer service or water service to them then they are all consent to annex to the city when they are contiguous. State statute supports that concept currently but it may not in the future. Jewett: And I would agree if the city does agree to provide services I can right on the deeds a requirement that upon connectivity that they’ll consent to annexation. The reason being is we were retaining this larger parcel for some distant future redevelopment and of course we don’t want to be blocked out of Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 13, 2003 Page 5 of 6 the city as well. So we would do it for our own benefit as well as the benefit of the City’s. De Weerd: Mr. Jewett did you understand the (inaudible) staff’s comments were? Jewett: Yeah and I haven’t obviously they need some direction from the Council before they could actually negotiate or discuss anything with me. All I said as an option was that we have the well lot and some partial deals could be made. We would obviously if we can’t get our water we will build the frontage that is part of our requirement. So I meant that is something that we need to negotiate. So I don’t know – I certainly wouldn’t want to build a 12 inch line, I mean 8 inches standard is what we usually build so I don’t think any modeling as been done so I think if Council wants to go in a direction I would have to sit down with your staff and work it out. De Weerd: So staff at this point if the direction is given to work with the applicant on the dry line requirements and if we do agree to service with the water that the line be provided by the applicant and that the well site itself is something to be worked out at the staff level. Watson: Madam President and Council members. I think what Mr. Jewett is saying is those are all details that he would like to negotiate with staff and then come back to you for a final check. We need to do some preliminary engineering and some costing to even be able to make a recommendation to allow you to make an informed decision on this it sounds like. Sounds to me like the only decision that could made tonight is, no we don’t want to entertain this idea. De Weerd: Okay if Council would like to just to give staff direction to move forward and talk further with the applicant on providing water service to those six lots and dry line service. Nary: Do you want a motion Tammy? Bird: Do you need a motion Tammy? De Weerd: I don’t think we need a motion I think we can just ask staff to work with the applicant and bring something back that we can make a motion on. Watson: Okay I understand that direction. De Weerd: Is Council in agreement with that. Nary: Sounds like unanimous consent. De Weerd: There without a motion. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 13, 2003 Page 6 of 6 Jewett: Thank you. De Weerd: You bet, thank you. Okay I will entertain a motion to adjourn the Pre- Council agenda. Bird: So moved. Nary: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. Meeting adjourned at 5:47. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:47 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: / / ROBERT D. CORRIE, MAYOR DATE ATTESTED: WILLIAM G. BERG, JR., CITY CLERK