HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 12-21Meridian City Council Meeting December 21 2010
A Council meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m.,
Tuesday, December 21, 2010, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, President David Zaremba, Charlie
Rountree, Brad Hoaglun and Keith Bird.
Others Present: Jaycee Holman, Bill Nary, Anna Canning, Pete Friedman, Bill Parsons,
Sonya Watters, Mark Niemeyer, Tom Barry, Joe Silva, Jeff Lavey, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
de Weerd: I will go ahead and call tonight's meeting to order. First I would like to
welcome all of you to the City Council meeting. For the record it is Tuesday, December
21st. It's 6:00 o'clock. It's just a couple days before Christmas. I hope you're all ready.
We will start tonight's meeting with roll call attendance. Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
de Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Pastor Burton Roberts with MGT Legacy
Church
de Weerd: Item No. 3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be led in the
invocation by Pastor Burton Roberts. It's a pleasure to see you. And we ask you to join
us in the invocation or take this as opportunity for a moment of reflection. Pastor.
Roberts: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Our most gracious and kind Heavenly Father, it's
so easy to come to you at this time of the year and be thankful in our hearts for all that
you have provided for us. For the special occasion and gift of your Son Jesus Christ.
We celebrate Christmas. May it truly be a time when we learn the real meaning of
Christmas and that loving and caring hearts just constantly be a part of our lives in
these days. We ask, Father, for your special watchcase this time tonight as the city
fathers come together and Mayor to -- to discuss and work on the things of life. Give
them the wisdom, the guidance, and the knowledge that can come from you. Bless
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
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them with health and strength, cause each one of us this day to be thankful for all of
your many blessings. We ask these things in Jesus' wonderful name, amen.
Item 4; Adoption of the Agenda
de Weerd: Thank you for being here this evening
agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Item No. 4 is the adoption of the
Hoaglun: A couple items on the agenda to make note of. Under the Consent Agenda,
Item 5-P, that resolution number is 10-762. 5-Q is resolution number 10-763. R is
resolution number 10-764. S is resolution number 10-765. T is resolution number 10-
766. And also under Item 9, Ordinances, 9-A is ordinance number 10-1468 and 9-B is
ordinance number 10-1469. So, with those changes, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of
tonight's agenda.
Rountree: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of December 7, 2010 Pre-Council Meeting
B. Approve Minutes of December 7, 2010 City Council Regular
Meeting
C. Water Main Easement for Linder Self Storage Located at 5120
N. Linder Road by Idaho Self Storage-Linder
D. Water Main Easement for Bayside Taylor Commerce Park
Subdivision Located at the Northwest Corner of N. West 10th
Street and W. Taylor Ave., by Bayside Capital Co., for Access
to the New Fire Hydrant
E. Water Main Easement for Linder Self Storage Located at 5120
N. Linder Road for Access to the New Fire Hydrant Being
Installed at the Location
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December 21, 2010
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F. Sewer & Water Main Easement for Linder Self Storage Located
at 5120 N. Linder Road by Idaho Self Storage-Linder
G. Sewer & Water Main Easement for Bayside Taylor Commerce
Park Subdivision Located at the Northwest Corner of N. West
10th Street and W. Taylor Ave., by Bayside Capital Co.
H. Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement Agreement and
Permanent Easement Contract with Carolee A. Fusselman for
a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $5,914.20
I. Dog Licensing Designee Agreements (6) Effective January 1,
2011 through December 31, 2011
^ Pet Care Clinic - 1151 E. Fairview, Meridian ID 83642
^ All Valley Animal Care - 2326 E. Cinema Drive, Meridian ID
83642
^ Meridian Vet Hospital - 421 W. Franklin, Meridian ID 83642
^ Settlers Park Veterinary - 3220 N. Meridian Rd., Meridian ID
83646
^ Treasure Valley Veterinary Hospital - 2600 S. Meridian Rd.,
Meridian ID 83642
^ Intermountain Pet Hospital - 800 W. Overland Rd., Meridian
ID 83642
J. Meridian Food Bank Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG) PY2010 Subrecipient Agreement
K. Meridian Arts Commission 2010 Annual Report
L. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: RZ 10-005
Volterra Subdivision (North and South) by Primeland
Investment Group, LLC Located North Side of W. McMillan
Road Between N. Black Cat Road and N. Ten Mile Road
Request: Rezone of 58.33 Acres from R-4 (Low Density
Residential) Zoning District to the R-8 (Medium Density
Residential) Zoning District for Volterra Subdivision South
M. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 10-004
Volterra Subdivision (North and South) by Primeland
Investment Group, LLC Located North Side of W. McMillan
Road Between N. Black Cat Road and N. Ten Mile Road
Request: Preliminary Plat Approval of 301 Residential Lots, 1
School Lot and 38 Common Lots on Approximately 120.6
Acres in an R-4 Zone for Volterra Subdivision North
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 4 of 38
N. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 10-005
Volterra Subdivisions (North and South) by Primeland
Investment Group, LLC Located North Side of W. McMillan
Road Between N. Black Cat Road and N. Ten Mile Road
Request: Preliminary Plat Approval of 194 Residential Lots, 10
Commercial Lots and 22 Common Lots on Approximately 80.4
Acres in a Proposed C-G, L-O and Proposed R-8 Zones for
Volterra Subdivision South
O. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: MDA 10-
009 Volterra Subdivisions (North and South) by Primeland
Investment Group, LLC Located North Side of W. McMillan
Road, Between N. Black Cat Road and N. Ten Mile Road
Request: Modify the Recorded Development Agreement
P. Resolution No. 10-762: Adoption of the 2011 Initial Point
Gallery Schedule
Q. Resolution No. 10-763: A Resolution of the Mayor and the City
Council of the City of Meridian, Adopting changes to the Cross
Connection Control Program; and providing an effective date
R. Resolution No. 10-764: A Resolution of the Mayor and the City
Council of the City of Meridian regarding Standard Operating
Policy and Procedure No. 6.2.1, Use of City Vehicles; and
Providing an Effective Date.
S. Resolution No. 10-765: A Resolution of the Mayor and the City
Council of the City of Meridian Amending the Standard
Operating Policy Procedure No. 3.4.5 relating to On-Call/Call
Out Duties and Compensation; and Providing an Effective Date
T. Resolution No. 10-766: A Resolution Of the Mayor And
Council Of The City Of Meridian, Idaho, Approving The City Of
Meridian Staff Participation In The Meridian Development
Corporation's Destination Downtown Plan
de Weerd: Item 5 is our Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, under the Consent Agenda, as I just noted, 5-P is resolution
10-762. Q is resolution number 10-763. R is resolution 10-764. S is resolution 10-765.
And T is resolution number 10-766. With those additions I move approval of tonight's
Consent Agenda and the Mayor be authorized to sign and Clerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
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de Weerd: Thank you. I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda.
Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: Atl ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Community Awards Presentation to Public Works Employees
Crystal Green and Thomas Lee
de Weerd: Item 6 is our community items presentation. Tonight we have a
presentation within our Public Works Department and, Mr. Dees, I will ask for you to --
and Iwill just be your Vanna and present the award.
Dees: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's my great pleasure to do this this
evening. We are proud of everybody we have, just at the onset I want to tell you that.
Proud of everybody we have in Public Works particularly in the water and wastewater
divisions. They do an outstanding job each and every day for the citizens of Meridian.
We want to recognize two of them this evening and I'm going to call them forward now
to embarrass them at the most -- as much as I can. So, Crystal Green and Tom Lee,
will you, please, come forward. While they are coming forward let me tell you what
happened to these guys. The southwest operators section of the Pacific Northwest
Clean Water Association -- now there is a mouthful -- these are two of the member
associations that we belong to -- have voted these folks as operator of the year --
collection system operator of the year and laboratory analyst of the year for the year
2010 and that's kind of a big deal for us. Tom Lee got the collection system operator of
the year award. He got that award because when he first came to us we made him the
-- eventually made him the collection system manager and he was tasked to develop a
cleaning and inspection schedule or system for our collection system that we have in
wastewater. Well, he did that and he used the new truck that the Council was gracious
enough to let us buy -- new trucks I should say, both the television van and the cleaning
machine, and with that he had identified some 200 man holes that had a thing called
infiltration. That's a leak. He went aggressively after those man holes to stop the leaks
and in so doing he managed to stop 420,000 gallons from coming into our treatment
plant, which for us is a huge deal, because as you know we are much limited on our --
the amount of flow we can take into the treatment plant. So, he gained a lot of capacity
just by his aggressive action looking after those man holes and we certainly appreciate
that. He continues on, because he's got an aggressive campaign to continue that work
throughout a next number of years and, hopefully, you will see a lot greater results of
that because of his actions. Do you want me to tell about that other person, too, while
I'm just -- do both at once, Vanna? I mean Mayor. Sorry. Crystal Green is the
southwest operator section, Pacific Northwest Clean Water Association analyst of the
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December 21, 2010
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year and we appreciate that very much. She does a lot of things in the lab. She's not
only community minded, she works in the community for a lot of things that helps make
Meridian a great place to live. She does some terrific work in the laboratory. One of the
things she does is the microbiological testing for Meridian Parks Department for the
splash pad and that sort of thing. So, she provides the folks the results of that, so we
can keep that safe for our children and those folks using those facilities. She also
helped ACHD identify some 500 storm drains by marking them and the way she did that
is she used the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, as well as the Idaho Youth Conservation
corps to go out and mark those things to alert the community what goes into those
storm drains, because it eventually winds up into the river. Through that education
campaign we have got -- we have got a pretty aggressive storm system campaign going
on and she's the one who did that. She organized it sort of all by herself. I'll tell you a
couple other things about Crystal. She's very ambitious. She's earned several
professional licenses since she's been working for us and she managed to complete her
masters degree just this month from the University of Idaho, is that correct? And she
wanted me to tell you that she's gone 20 years -- now, think about that. Look how old
she is. Twenty years without making a B. She's made straight A's for the last 20 years,
except for -- except for in the first grade she got a needs improvement on penmanship.
Now, I don't know how you resolve all that, but we certainly congratulate you for all your
things and we have some plaques for you and, Mayor de Weerd, if you would like to
award those, that would be terrific. First of all, a round of applause for them.
de Weerd: I'll give you the wrapping.
Dees: It was our best wrapping we could find. Again, congratulations. Madam Mayor,
we -- oh, you want to say something?
Hoaglun: Chief Lavey, would you bring that up here, please. Thanks. My wife brought
it in for me. I just had her put it back there. It's not a bomb. The chief was thinking that
someone put a bomb back there. An unidentified package, so -- I want to take
ownership of that package, so -- she runs in, drops it on the table and takes off. It looks
real good.
de Weerd: I would like to thank the employees before they hustle out the door. You
don't have to stay, but we appreciate all you do. We know that you do a lot with -- we
have a lot of tasks for our employees and we appreciate each and every one of you and
you're the ones that make us look good and so I just want to extend our gratitude to
what you do in your day to day responsibilities and the pride that you take in what you
do and that was very evident in what we heard tonight, but our -- our heart felt thanks
for what you do. So, thank you.
Item 7: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
de Weerd: Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8; Action Items
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December 2l, 2010
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A. Public Hearing: MDA 10-010 Scentsy Campus by Sam
Johnson, H.O.T. 1, LLC Located Southwest Corner of E. Pine
Avenue and N. Eagle Road Request: Modify the Existing
Development Agreement to Update the Owner Information and
Development Plan
B. Public Hearing: VAR 10-002 Scentsy Campus by Sam
Johnson, H.O.T. 1, LLC Located Southwest Corner of E. Pine
Avenue and N. Eagle Road Request: Variance to UDC 11-3H-4B
to Allow aRight-in /Right-out Access Point to/from the Site
Via Eagle Road Between Pine Avenue and Commercial Street
de Weerd: So, we will move right into Item No. 8, our Action Items. I will open up the
two public hearings on Items 8-A and 8-B, MDA 10-101 and VAR 10-002. I will ask for
staff comments at this time. And, Anna, you're trying to distract us again. You have
quite the extensive hat collection.
Wafters: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the first application before you is a
modification to the development agreement for Pinebridge approved with the previous
rezone of this property. Since the subject property is no longer part of the Pinebridge
development, a new development agreement is proposed that will only apply to the
subject property. The second application is for a variance to Unified Development Code
11-3H-4B2 for one right-in, right-out access to and from the site by via State Highway
55, Eagle Road, midway between Pine and Commercial. This site is -- consists of 60 --
excuse me -- 35 acres in size. It's currently zoned C-G and is located on the southwest
corner of Pine and State Highway 55, Eagle Road. This is the development plan for
Pinebridge. The subject property is outlined in red. Summary of the development
agreement modification request. When the property was rezoned in 2007 as part of the
Pinebridge development, it was included in the Pinebridge DA. Subsequently, the
subject property was purchased by the applicant and is proposed to develop as a
distribution center and corporate campus for Scentsy. Thus, the new owner-applicant
wishes to separate this property from the existing development agreement and record a
new development agreement solely for this property and to include a new conceptual
development plan. The applicant has submitted a modified version of the existing
development agreement, which reflects the new ownership of the property, proposed
development plan, and removal of conditions that are no longer applicable. Please refer
to Exhibit A-3 of the staff report. The applicant proposes to be allowed to construct a
distribution center, which is classified as an accessory use in a C-G, district, prior to
construction of the office tower and auditorium and fitness center, which are classified
as principal permitted uses in the C-G district. Because Scentsy is constructing a new
warehouse directly to the south, it is integrally related to the distribution facility and
because construction of one of the principal permitted uses is proposed to commence
within 30 days of completion of the distribution facility, staff is supportive of this
provision. Staff has included recommended modifications to the development
agreement provisions proposed by the applicant, then, included in the Exhibit A-4 of the
staff report as follows: The first is removal of the specific design standards, as all future
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December 21, 2010
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development is required to comply with the design standards listed in the UDC, as well
as the guidelines in the City of Meridian design manual. And, two, inclusion of Public
Works development requirements. Just to note that the Public Works Department did
request DA provision number 5.1.14 be stricken, as it is not applicable to this property
and just one other side note. There are some existing planter islands that have been
constructed adjacent to this property and Pine Avenue here and staff would just like to
add a provision that the applicant work with the developer of Pinebridge to clarify when
and by whom the planter islands will be landscaped and maintained and, then, have
them address this in writing to us prior to occupancy of the first structure on the site. A
summary of the variance request. A variance to Unified Development Code 11-3H-4B2
is requested, which requires the owner to develop or otherwise acquire access to a
street other than the state highway when a change or increase in intensity of use is
proposed. Applicant proposes one right-in, right-out access to and from the site via
State Highway 55 midway between Pine and Commercial with a right turn deceleration
lane southbound on State Highway 55. the Idaho Transportation Department has
already approved this access as proposed by the applicant. And here is just a
proposed access lane configuration here. The traffic impact analysis submitted with this
application evaluates the intersection of Eagle and Pine and the traffic impact with an
access as proposed. The study surmises the right-in, right-out would reduce traffic at
the Pine-Eagle intersection, lower the average delay, and reduce the right turn traffic
approximately 12 percent during the p.m. peak hours, resulting in queue length
reduction and an overall improvement in site circulation. Additionally, the access is
projected to reduce the number of conflicts and likelihood for potential crashes at the
intersection due to a reduction in traffic. Just want to back up a little bit here. On the
development agreement modification portion of the application this is Scentsy's master
plan for the site. Building A is the -- this is the structure they propose to develop first,
the distribution center, and, then, these are the proposed building elevations for the
distribution center, the auditorium, and fitness center and the office tower. And those
will be included in the new development agreement for the property. Written testimony
has been received from COMPASS on this application after the staff report was
transmitted and I'm just going to read off some of the comments that were in that written
testimony. The first is concern about setting a precedent by approving additional
access points where multiple accesses already exist. The second, along with the
deceleration lane and acceleration lane would also be a solution to increased safety for
drivers merging into traffic at high speeds. The third is the proximity of the proposed
access in relation to an existing large message sign that spans the roadway, possibly
causing distraction to traffic and support beams for the sign that may interfere with the
driver's line of sight. And the last one is Valley Regional Transit has planned for a future
bus service along Eagle Road. Note that the city has requested consideration of bus
service on Pine. Comments in regard to the bus service are follows: One, the closer
the buildings are to Eagle Road the shorter the walk to a future bus stop. Two, a five
foot by eight foot paved landing connecting to the curb and sidewalk would give Valley
Regional Transit an ADA compliant location for a bus stop. And, third, the current
design of the right-in turn lane not .allow the bus stop at the development entrance,
because it cannot get back onto Eagle Road without going through the parking lot. The
bus stop would need to be located between the entrance and Commercial Street or at
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December 21, 2010
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the intersection of Eagle and Commercial. Valley Regional Transit planned service will
not be implemented until funding becomes available. No specific dates or time frame
have been established. Staff is recommending approval of the subject application per
the findings in Exhibit B of the staff report. Staff will stand for any questions Council
may have at this time.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Council, any questions at this point?
Rountree: I have none.
Bird: I have none.
de Weerd: Okay. Is the application here this evening? Well, welcome. If you will,
please, state your name and address for the record.
Johnson: Yes. Madam Mayor and Council. My name is Sam Johnson. I represent
H.O.T.1, LLC, and address is 3698 East Lanark, Meridian, Idaho. 83642.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Broadbent: Madam Mayor de Weerd and Members of the Council, I am Phil Broadbent.
I'm general counsel for Scentsy. I reside at 913 River Heights Drive, Meridian.
de Weerd: Thank you, Phil.
Broadbent: Well, thank you. I'd like to first of all thank your -- thank you for allowing us
to be on your agenda tonight, as well as thank your staff for the time and effort that they
put into helping us with these two applications. We appreciate their efforts and their
guidance. H.O.T.1, LLC, stands for Heidi and Orville Thompson and they are the
owners -- they are, as well, the owners of Scentsy. You probably know of Scentsy
being here close by and know of the tremendous growth that is occurring within that
company. We are working to develop a new corporate campus for Scentsy to reside
with all of its growth in a confined area. We have crossed a milestone this year. This
summer we moved from one building and now we are in three, because of the growth
and needs of our company and we hope to create this campus so that we can all be in
the same -- we will all be in different buildings, but we will all be within walking distance
and be able to function easily from department to department. The reason we require
or requested, excuse me, the development agreement modification is that we would like
to stand on our own and make the development agreement applicable to what our site
plan is -- what our sight plan will do for us as a company and fulfill our goals as a
development. We hope that this -- this development agreement only covers a portion of
what our corporate campus is planned to -- planned to be. You can see here on this
map that it's showing 35 acres, which we have purchased as part of the Pinebridge
Subdivision and we have also purchased 13 acres just to the south across the private
street of Commercial. Together 38 acres we hope to be a dynamic corporate campus
and we will show you a few more slides here in a few minutes. The variance -- the
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December 21, 2010
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variance application is, as stated by staff, a request to have additional access points
onto Eagle Road and we have -- the previous owners had taken the initiative and gotten
a permit from ITD and just recently when we have closed on the property we have
transferred that permit into the name of H.O.T.1, LLC, and we request that you grant us
the approval to this variance. We believe that this access point will improve the traffic
flow for peak hours coming and going from this corporate campus and not hinder any
public safety issues and traffic. We would like to give you a brief overview of what the
entire campus will look like or at least as conceptually planned. A lot of these images
are very conceptual, ever flowing, and always -- always subject to change a little bit, but
we feel like we have narrowed it down enough that we'd like to present it to you tonight.
This is a current view of the entire 48 acre campus. You can see the bottom portion is
the 13 acres which we purchased from Elixer Industries. It has a couple of existing
buildings on it and, then, the north portion of it is the subject property tonight, 35 acres
of -- part of Pinebridge. Next slide. This is the existing manufacturing building that we
just moved into this past summer. It's the old Elixer Industries building and this is what
it looks like now. And next slide. And this is what we hope it will look like here this
coming spring. And this architecture is based off of what we have decided to -- to
model our theme for the entire campus. It's very -- it's a -- it's just simple changes, but
dramatic and, hopefully, be an improvement to what people can see from Eagle Road.
Next slide. This is another view of that same facility. And next slide. This is a new
warehouse that we are currently building now. You can -- you probably noticed the few
concrete panel walls standing up out there. This is just west of that existing building.
We are pushing hard to have that warehouse ready for our needs come February. Next
slide. This is another view of that same facility. And this building here is -- the small
building that's up close to Eagle Road, it's a small warehouse and it -- next slide. Here
is just a couple angles of what we are proposing to do. Now we move north of the -- of
the commercial road and that very large building on the left is the distribution center and
this is something that our proposed look of that building, although the colors aren't
applied, you will see here in a few more slides, just gives you several different angles
and viewpoints of what that building may look like. And -- go back. There you go.
That's kind of the color schemes that we are looking at with this building and we are
currently under a -- we are actually almost ready to submit this building for construction
approval, granting everything works out well here tonight. Moving further east from that
distribution center is the office tower that the next building, which is Building B in our
development agreement. Here is a few -- a couple of viewpoints of what that building
will look like. Go ahead. Next slide. And a couple advantage points of how the plaza
spaces will work around that -- that building. As you see here there is a -- there is kind
of a daylight basement. It's proposed to be a six story building, but the first story will be,
basically, a basement. We are able to hold a -- we hope to be a world class employee
cafeteria and provide meals for employees and employee families. So, then, you would
see the five stories above the ground and, again, this is -- this is our -- our shell of what
the building will look like, but things are not completely figured out yet and still
conceptual in nature. Here is a color rendering of what that might look like. Next slide.
This -- this view here is -- you can see Commercial Street on the bottom. Pine is up on
the top. And it kind of gives you an idea of what the relationship between these next
two buildings -- this auditorium and fitness center or event center. Currently Scentsy
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December 21, 2010
Page 11 of 38
has an employee gym that all employees are able to go to and even spouses and very
-- our intent here with is auditorium and fitness center is to have a place that we can
exercise and kind of amulti-purpose building. Having an auditorium large enough for --
for employee meetings and maybe even community events and these here will go
through fairly quickly. This is a -- this is that park area, the plaza area that's between
the two buildings and these next few slides are some computer graphics of what that
space -- what we are hoping to achieve when we construct that space. It's going to be
kind of a recessed area, like I said, a daylight basement type of effect and plaza and
green space all intermingled. And with that, that gives you a flavor of what our plans
are and as a -- as a corporate campus and stand for any questions.
de Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Mr. Johnson, did you have any comments with respect to the
recommendations from staff?
Johnson: We believe that all -- we are in agreement with all of the recommendations
that they have put into the DA.
Rountree: On the right-in and right-out on -- go ahead.
Broadbent: I was just going to mention that they eliminated item number 14 on their
proposal, it's -- I don't know if it's crossed out on your copy. It's not on mine, but they
eliminated that requirement.
de Weerd: So, on 5.1.14?
Rountree: Yeah.
de Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: That's noted.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Rountree: On the right-in and right-out on Eagle Road -- I should know this, but when
drive the road I'm kind of blind to it, because of the traffic. Is there a median there at
this point?
Johnson: There is not a median right now. As far as I'm aware the plan with ITD is to
put a median in in 2013.
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December 21, 2010
Page 12 of 38
Rountree: That's my understanding as well. Just a note of caution and these Iamb
chops as they are kind of referred to simply don't work. They don't work. We have got
aerial photos of people making left-hand turns in the right-out, we have people making
left-hand turns in the right-in. So, I don't know if there is a design configuration that
makes them work a little better and I -- I noticed you have your traffic engineer tonight,
but just -- it's a point of caution, because it's -- it's a safety issue for your employees and
your customers, if they are using that. So, I just point that out that they are allowed and
ITD approves them, but they just don't work.
Johnson: We will definitely take that into consideration as we design it.
Rountree: Thank you.
Johnson: The hope is that they discourage at least some.
Rountree: They do.
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you for the presentation. This is an exciting thing coming along here
for you and for Meridian I'm sure. Just one observation. We have had other projects
that have suggested basements or daylight basements and things. I don't know if you
have had a geologist or an engineer or whatever it is that needs to do it, but a number
of them thought they were going to do that have run into a high water table and stopped
doing that and just a word of caution, before you put too much effort -- as attractive as it
is before you put too much effort into it, make sure you're not going to be stopped by the
water table.
Johnson: I appreciate that very much. We are actually in the thick of that analysis right
now. We believe that we can -- we can achieve what our plan is -- maybe some slight
modifications, but it is -- the high water table is a little issue, but it's -- we are finding it's
ten, 12 feet down and we feel -- we are not going to be going down that far, so -- one of
the things we are doing is on the high side we are actually -- it's mostly fill, so the high
side is really not -- and we are not digging down for the bottom floor, we are pushing up
for the other side of the basement.
Zaremba: Great. Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor. Sonya, can we go back to slide 35 I think. The one that kind
of gives us the overview?
Watters: Thirty-five on the applicant's?
Hoaglun: Yes.
Watters: Yeah. Give me just a minute here.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 13 of 38
Hoaglun: Okay. My question is -- I saw it. It was up for a little bit, but not long enough.
I just wanted to be certain -- it looks like you had access -- if you have got folks in the
building you're rehab'ing right now -- I call it the old Club Warehouse one, because it
was way back when. That if they are there and they want to go left on Eagle, are they
able to go through -- and it looked like they were able to go through the campus to get
to Pine, so, then, they can go left to head north on Eagle Road. It looked like. I just -- i
just wanted to be sure, so --
Johnson: Yeah. That's definitely -- we have a few thoroughfares through the parking
lot. We tried to -- we want to discourage that their -- that their street looking, but at least
gives them a path to access Pine, because when that median is -- is in place it's going
to -- the median in Eagle is going to definitely restrict them. ITD this -- actually, this last
month or so placed signs on Eagle Road -- all access points currently now have a sign
that says, you know, no left turn allowed. But traffic will be able to access Pine from
even the south portion.
Hoaglun: Yeah. In long term -- and, Sam, is Commercial Street -- is that going to dead
end down there or is that going to swing back out to Pine in a long term plan or what --
Johnson: Not sure, actually. With the purchase of this 35 acres we actually do own this
portion of Commercial now. This quarter mile section of Commercial is also private.
Right now it currently goes and dead ends -- it's a very odd dead end and intersection
on the -- you know, a couple feet away from ACRD right of way. But things don't line
up. We don't own that portion -- that westerly portion of Commercial, so we are not
quite sure what that -- what that plan will be in the future.
Hoaglun: But overall it looks very nice.
de Weerd: Thank you. Any further questions?
Zaremba: Just one other observation, if I may. It looks like the additional portion below
-- or south of Commercial, the southern boundary would be along the railroad track right
of way.
Johnson: Yeah.
Zaremba: It doesn't look by the drawing that you're taking advantage of that. Is
there any thought that at some day you might supply or ship using the rail line?
Johnson: That's one of the very main reasons that we wanted this -- this location and I
failed to mention that in the presentation. Our manufacturing right now is growing so
rapidly that we need to -- we need to supply our raw materials -- mainly wax -- by rail.
We need to switch to that type of a system. So, that was the main reason for
purchasing this property. We are just starting with the construction of bringing --
bringing anew rail spur off of the main rail line. It will run -- you can -- that curved line
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 14 of 38
that shows is generally representative of the new railroad path. It will not curve back to
where the Scentsy logo is, it will dead end there, but it will connect further to the west
and we will be getting our raw goods and raw wax from rail cars.
Zaremba: Cool. Thank you.
de Weerd: Well, I guess an additional note at that time and certainly one we hope to
have conversations with you on is we are having discussions with the railroad about a
multi-use pathway and I believe I had mentioned that in our meeting that it's going to be
a corridor to move goods and services that also we hope to move a workforce, at least
give them another option of how to get to and from work and points of interest. So, we
would love to work with you on that as well.
Broadbent: We have already been thinking about that issue as to some day maybe that
will be access for people and how to implement that into the campus.
de Weerd: Very good. Okay. Council, any other questions? Thank you so much.
Johnson: Thank you.
de Weerd: This is a public hearing. Is there any member of the public who would like to
offer testimony on this item? I do have a couple of people who signed as -- on the sign-
up sheet. Pam Golden with ITD signed up as neutral. Would you like to comment?
Please. If you will, please, state your name and address for the record.
Golden: Good evening. I'm Pam Golden with ITD District Three, 8150 Chinden
Boulevard. I just wanted to shed some light on the Eagle Road issue. The pork chop,
Iamb chop that you see is actually painted. The permit that they received requires them
to build a median from Pine clear to Commercial that is of the same style as that median
that's in the south of Franklin, so it will be physically restricted from turning left. To
address some of the comments from COMPASS, which don't seem to be a real big
issue, but we typically don't like acceleration lanes in this situation. The speed on Eagle
Road, while posted at 50 miles an hour, during peak periods is 50 miles an hour.
People don't use them like they should, so they create more of a problem. The DMS
sign is actually to the right of the exiting driver. We don't foresee any issues with sight
distance. And as far as bus service on Eagle Road, that's a bridge yet to be crossed. If
bus service is to be on Eagle Road it will probably require pull outs, because that's a
high speed, high volume road and we don't want people standing right up next to it, so --
so, if there is any questions.
Hoaglun: That answered all of mine. Thank you.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you for that clarification, Pam. Gary Funkhauser also signed
up and I think his message already was delivered; right? Thank you, Gary. Okay. Any
other testimony on this item? Okay. Any final comments from the applicant?
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 15 of 38
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we close the public hearings on Items 8-A and B.
Zaremba: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item 8-A and B.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Just to comment, the fantastic success of Scentsy and their willingness and
desire to engage in this kind of a campus in the City of Meridian is truly a blessing,
particularly this time of year and these times. So, thank you all. Having said that,
move that we approve item 8-A for the MDA 10-010.
Bird: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second on Item 8-A. Any discussion? Madam Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve Item 8-B for the variance 10-002.
Bird: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-B. Madam Clerk, will you,
please, call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 16 of 38
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
de Weerd: I, too, would like to offer my appreciation to the team that was here, but also
the team that's been working with -- our building department, our planning department,
the communication has been phenomena. We appreciate you including us as a
member of your team, because certainly your success is our success and vice-versa.
We understand that and we have appreciated Orville and Heidi's commitment to this
community and to the Treasure Valley, to the state of Idaho. All four of their locations
have been in Meridian and it's great to see them locating their long-term vision in our
community and bringing the kind of investment and commitment to this area that we
hope we can return to them as well. So, thank you for being here before Christmas and
we wish you a Merry Christmas.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I just might want to add that, you know, the use of the
auditorium, they offered a community event, maybe we will have a Mayor's State of the
City address there some day.
de Weerd: I think I have already mentioned that to them. It's rare that we have any kind
of facility we do anything of size in. So, thanks again. And, please, convey our thanks
as well. Thank you.
Item 9: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 10-1468: Animal Control Ordinance Update
B. Ordinance No. 10-1469: An Ordinance Of The City Of Meridian
Repealing And Replacing Ordinance No. 1458; Providing For A
New Chapter, Chapter 7, Of Title 2 Of The Meridian City Code,
Relating To The Establishment, Duties And Powers,
Membership, Organization, Meetings, And Hearing Procedures
Of The Board Of Adjustment
de Weerd: Okay. Item 9 we have under ordinances Item 9-A and 9-B, proposed
ordinances number 10-1468 and 10-1469. Madam Clerk, if you will read these two
ordinances by title only at this point.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 10-1468, an
ordinance of the City of Meridian repealing and replacing Chapter 2, Title 6, of the
Meridian City Code, relating to animal control, including definitions, animal control
officer, city dog pound, City of Meridian dog license, impoundment. reclamation, and
relinquishment of dogs, declaration of abandonment, declaration of vicious dog,
requirements for vicious dogs, livestock harbored on private property, prohibited acts,
providing a savings clause, providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing an
effective date.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 17 of 38
Holman: City of Meridian Ordinance No. 10-1469. An ordinance of the City of Meridian
repealing and replacing ordinance number 1458, providing for a new chapter, Chapter 7
of Title 2 of the Meridian City Code, relating to the establishment, duties and powers,
membership, organization, meetings, and hearing procedures of the board of
adjustment and right to appeal. Replealing Title 9, Chapter 1, Section 17 of the
Meridian City Code regarding the board of appraisers and replacing with a new Title 9,
Chapter 1, Section 17 relating to dispute resolution, amending Title 8, Chapter 1,
Section 19, relating to establishment of meter installation fees, amending Title 9,
Chapter 1, Section 21, relating to termination of service, notice, and right to hearing.
Amending Title 9, Chapter 2, Section 1 through 4 of the Meridian City Code relating to
definitions, repealing Title 9, Chapter 2, Section 3 through 7 of the Meridian City Code
regarding appeals of wastewater discharge permits for the board of appraisers and
replacing with a new Title 9, Chapter 2, Section 3 through 7 relating to appeals of
wastewater discharge permits before the board of adjustment. Repealing Title 9,
Chapter 4, Section 20 of the Meridian City Code relating to the board of appraisers.
Repealing Title 9, Chapter 4, Section 21 of the Meridian City Code regarding sewer
charge appraisal and replacing with a new Title 9, Chapter 4, Section 21, relating to
sewer charge appraisal before the board of adjustment. Providing for a savings clause
and providing an effective date.
de Weerd: You have heard these two ordinances read by title only and you can see
how exciting they are. Is there anyone who would like to hear them read in their
entirety?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve ordinance number 10-1468 with suspension of rules.
Hoaglun: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-A. If there is no discussion,
Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
de Weerd: Thank you to our city attorney and to our chief for getting that done. Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 18 of 38
Bird: I move we approve ordinance number 10-1469 with suspension of rules.
Hoaglun: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-B. Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
de Weerd: At this point we will invite the Planning and Zoning Commissioners to join
us. We will recess for five minutes.
(Recess: 6:47 p.m. to 6:54 p.m.)
Item 10: Roll-call Attendance of Planning & Zoning Commissioners
X Tom O'Brien
X Michael Rohm
X Scott Freeman
O Vacant
X Joe Marshall
Item 10: Reformatting and Update of the City's Comprehensive Plan
de Weerd: Okay. I will just call this meeting back to order. I'd like to welcome our
Planning and Zoning Commission here with us tonight and I will ask, Madam Clerk, to
call roll for the Planning and Zoning Commission.
de Weerd: Thank you. At this point I will turn this over to Anna for -- to the queen. I
think Cindy Luhu or -- over there on Item 11 on reformatting and update of the city's
Comprehensive Plan.
Canning: Madam Mayor, thank you. And Council Members and Planning
Commissioners. I wanted to jump in before Caleb starts talking to you, because I don't
know if all of you have met Brian. But this is Brian McClure, he is full time as of today
and I brought my whole bag of hats in today and Brian had one on most of the day, but
we thought it was best if he didn't come to his first Council and Planning Commission
meeting with a hat on, but he --
de Weerd: I think it would have made a big hit.
Canning: And with that I'd like to segue into Mr. Hood, who has got a great hit of a
Comp Plan for you today. You know, we have been hoping to reformat this Comp Plan
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December 21, 2010
Page 19 of 38
for awhile. We wanted to make it consistent with the strategic plan and to really meld it
with the other city documents and Caleb is here to describe those efforts to you today.
de Weerd: And that's why he didn't wear the hat, because hats off to you, Caleb. This
is really a monster job.
Hood: Well, Anna just about stole all my thunder. That's what I was going to talk about
tonight. And Iwill -- I will try to keep this fairly brief, but you will have to bear with me,
because there is a lot to go through and this is an important document for the city, so I
don't want to just gloss right over it without -- at least allowing you the opportunity to ask
questions or provide comments into this process. It's not really a presentation, this is a
workshop, so stop me at anytime if you have questions or comments. It could be on
what we are -- what I'm speaking or trying to direct your attention to or you may be
reading other things and thoughts come your mind, so, please, feel free at anytime to
just jump in. I do want to segue from Anna into the existing conditions report, because
last time you were all together was in May and we talked about this document. Well,
this document has been updated with some of the comments I received from you all,
from the general public, from our website, we had all the department directors look at
this document as well and so we have made some of those changes.
Zaremba: Caleb, for the record just say what that document is, please.
Hood: Existing conditions report. Sorry. It's the existing conditions report. This
contains a lot of background information that led up to the actual comp plan itself. So,
that's just kind of how these documents are going to work in concert. We tried to take a
lot of the background information out of the Comp Plan itself and use the Comp Plan
more for the policy statements and the action items and what we are trying to
accomplish moving forward. So, again, I'm not going to spend any time tonight, but it is
on the city's website to go to www.meridiancity.org\compplan, there is a hyper link, and
you can look at the most current version of this document. You will also have an
opportunity to look at those revisions as we bring both of these documents back before
you, the Planning and Zoning Commission probably sometime February, maybe March,
and, then, the Council a month or maybe two after that. So, both these documents will
be before you and the public for official review in the next few months anyways. So, just
wanted to kind of bring you up to speed on that.
de Weerd: Caleb, I also would note we do have most of the directors here this evening
for comment, so same rules applies to you, if you have comments just jump right in
there. Make sure I see you and we will get those comments on the record, too.
Hood: t did also want, for the record, just to note that ACHD did provide me comments
last week on a couple of things regarding the comp plan -- or, excuse me, the existing
conditions report and a couple of preliminary comments that I think most all of those can
be accommodated as well. So, I do have a three page letter from Jeff Lowe, dated
November 30th, that I just got and, again, I think we can incorporate most all of their
comments into that existing conditions report. So, with that being said I just wanted to
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 20 of 38
explain now what's gone on since May and -- and the outcome of some of the labors
that we have been working on. Certainly haven't done it in a vacuum, have had lots of
help. Planning staff, based on some feedback received, made some changes to the
goals, objectives, and action items in the plan and we will talk about the implementation
plan here in just a few minutes. We went through the current Comp Plan and we,
basically, pulled out everything we thought was still relevant and good, still applicable to
what we do and where we are going as a city and we tried to save all of that. We did
wordsmith a lot of this stuff just to make it clear, more concise, to the point. Like I said,
hopefully, it is that and you find it that way, too. I know you didn't have a ton of time to
maybe read it cover to cover, just getting it Thursday into your mailboxes, but -- but I
think it's a better document than what we have on the books right now. So, we also
established some working groups to address some specific elements. I also mentioned
that last during our last workshop. Arts aren't currently addressed in our 2002 version of
the Comp Plan. Economic development needed a big revamp. We had a sustainability
group that met. Actually, there were three or four sub groups of sustainability that met.
Housing -- we had a housing subcommittee that met. And it wasn't a subcommittee, but
I did speak with some health -- healthy initiative folks, the American Heart Association
and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on some addition goals and action
items. So, there were more of a working group, I guess you could say. So, thanks to
Molly, she -- she led the charge with Pete on the sustainability groups that I just
mentioned. They were a lot of help. Lori Den Hartog with the housing group. Nancy
Rountree and Meg Whitman with the arts commission. Adrian Casper. Brenda in the
Mayor's office. Robert, Luke, and Shelly all in the Mayor's offices, were a great deal of
help in putting this together. And I can't forget Anna and Brian. Brian has been with the
city now I think about three months, somewhere right around there, and he's done the
pretty picture you see on the screen. It was a photo, I believe, from Shelly, but he
formatted this document and kind of made it look -- look nice. I know he's not totally
satisfied with its look right now, but it is draft and he's still working on some of the -- the
margins and some of the fine tuning and stuff, but I do appreciate his help thus far, so --
and, then, IT has -- I mentioned the website earlier. They have created a specific
website just for the comp plan. So, that was I think a great benefit, because, then, you
have the ASPX four digit number and nobody can remember that back slash comp plan.
Pretty easy to remember. So, that was I think nice. I referred a few people to that after
the town hall meeting and I don't know how many hits we have gotten, but -- anyways.
So, also internally we had some meetings with the directors and their designees. Some
of those were electronic conversations as well. To have them update their policies or
action items to reflect what they have got going on in their plans moving forward, so we
can, again, make the policies and the actions the most relevant. I also handed out -- we
don't -- we are not going to go through it tonight, but I handed out what the Comp Plan
implementation table or action plan looked like in 2002, just so you can kind of see what
things we are still working on and are still part of this document and what things we
have accomplished. I will note that most of them have been updated somewhat. It says
modified on some particular ones. If there was substantial modification I put modified
there, but most all of them had some wordsmithing involved with them, but the intent of
most all of them are still relevant today. I mean there is still things we try to shoot for
and achieve, but we have accomplished some things, too. So, that's good to note. I will
Meridian City Council
December 2l, 2010
Page 21 of 38
also note in that document that is just the 2002 version, so it isn't -- it doesn't include the
amendments that we have had since 2007. We have probably processed two or three
text amendments per year and probably a couple of those -- one or two of those include
some policy changes. But I just wanted to kind of give you a snapshot of what it looked
like from the very beginning in 2002 and what we are proposing in 2010, so -- also just
some of the outreach and, again, how we have gotten to this point before I actually jump
into the meat of this document. The City News, the ValleyTimes, to solicit input in the
Comp Plan and also to invite folks to the town hall meeting that was held in October.
That was on the 19th at the library. We shared some of preliminary policy changes and
asked for feedback on what's important to the community. I also posted a summary of
that meeting on the Comp Plan website and updated some of the policies, some of the
-- what we heard back from the public during that meeting is in the document that you
have in front of you tonight. Did everyone bring their copy, by the way? Everybody's
got a copy or has -- can look at it online? Okay. Or on your computer. I mentioned the
subcommittees already. We used Facebook, Twitter, This Week In Meridian video and
a blog also to kind of get the word out. So, we used, basically, all the tools in our
toolbox to get the word out there. This type of thing doesn't excite a lot of people.
de Weerd: Until it's in their backyard.
Hood: Yeah. And, hopefully, present company excluded from that statement. I hope
you all find this -- it may not be the most fun thing to talk about, but -- but I did have -- I
did get some good input from those that chose to be involved and, again, haven't -- or
able to incorporate that into the draft document. And we are not done. We have
another public hearing process. The clerk will do the full noticing and we will see what
other comment we may get. So, I will also note that I sent this out to COMPASS,
ACHD, Nampa, Boise, Kuna, Eagle, all of the directors over there to just see if they had
any comments as well. So, it's out there and hopefully we get some feedback from
them as well. So, what changes are proposed? First of all, everybody -- the Mayor
mentioned not in my back yard type stuff. We aren't changing anything on the future
land use map. That gets a lot of people excited when you start changing land use
designations. We are not proposing any changes to the future land use map. So, it is
text only changes -- text only changes proposed in the document. There are some
changes to the other maps and tables and things in the document, but not the map. Not
the future land use map. It's got a brand new format. It doesn't look anything like the
2002 version. It does take some of its form from the existing conditions report, some of
the fonts and things are real similar in there. Again, the overall goal was to make it
simple, concise, clear, user friendly. The existing conditions report will be an addendum
to the Comp Plan. So, it's not -- we didn't take all the meat out and, then, people are
saying what are you talking about. I mean it's there, it's just in a separate binding. So,
they are, essentially, one and the same, they are just -- you don't have to carry around
all that background information with you. It's used to tell the story for the goals,
objectives, and action items in the Comp Plan. So, what we have here is a comp plan
that's less than 60 pages and it tries to just take the very most raw background
description of each element that's required by state code and just kind of get -- give you
an idea of why some of the goals and objectives and action items are included in the
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December 21, 2010
Page 22 of 38
document, so -- again, it doesn't look -- it doesn't look anything like that current version,
but it really does have a similar feel and the message and policy statements are real
similar. We haven't flipped it on its head as far as the policy statements go. I'll touch a
little bit more on some of the new things we have addressed, though, and allow you
some time to comment on those. At the beginning of each chapter -- chapter two
through seven we do a quick summary of just that chapter and, then, we hold out the
goals and objectives for that -- that chapter, essentially that element. So, public service
list all the goals and objectives for that particular subject matter. We thought that was
another good way to just give a feel for where we are going with this, so you can tell
what the overarching goals and objectives are for each thing. Your action items, then,
support how you get to achieving your goals and objectives. I think what I will do now --
that's just some background information. Do you have any questions thus far on
anything I have talked about? You might go onto page 77. Thank you.
de Weerd: Any questions? Okay. Clear as mud.
Hood: So, I'm going to run through real quick -- and we don't want to. If you don't want
to do page by page -- but I thought we would scroll through at least a couple of the
pages in the implementation plan. Again, this is where a lot of the work will be -- will be
done. This is what staff will be working off of -- this will be included in PADs. This will
be part of action plans, strategic plans, and -- at least that's the goal is that all city
departments can use this document and we will all gather around it and our capital
improvements plan will be married to this document and some of the things that we are
working on at the staff level will come out of this document. So, we don't have to go
through all these, I just want to get you, again, familiar with this document. The far left-
hand column on page -- from D-2, it's at the back of the document, the far left-hand
column has status priority as the title right now. That will eventually be the priority order
for staff to work on, so we will have a low, medium, or high or immediate or intermediate
or a long-term goal. We will kind of figure out how to do that when we get to the
implementation. But after adoption we will all sit down as departments and figure out
who needs to be involved with the action item and if it needs to be done tomorrow or if
it's a longer term goal or objective or action item. So, that's kind of that first column.
But right now we are using it to just let you know, hey, this is something new. It's not in
the 2002 version, it's something that is from scratch we came up with and we want to
make sure you're okay with where we are going with some of this stuff. So, that will
eventually go away, but that's what that -- the purpose is of that status priority column.
You will also notice in the plan if you -- the second -- so, the very last page is the future
land use map. The second to the last page is your legend and if you fold it right you can
have the legend out while you -- while you flip through each page, so you know what the
symbols stand for. That's the intent is that you don't have to go what is does the star
mean again and, then, try to find that page. It's right there for you so you can remember
what all the symbology means. So, that's pretty cool how that works out. So, that's
what we tried to do with the subject line there is put it -- it correlates, essentially, to --
there is 17 elements in state code that have to be addressed in a city's comprehensive
plan, so those symbols, essentially, tie back to an element that's required by state code
to be addressed.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 23 of 38
Marshall: Madam Mayor, if I could. Caleb. A quick question for you. The new subject
column over there -- I have been looking at that, studying that, and you have got
housing, traffic, you know, different areas, but none of them seem to be really
associated with individual groups, as in with -- it says over and over that the action
items would be assigned people or groups to accomplish these and in the 2002, the
responsible party is listed. Mayor's office, planning, legal, police, and who is specifically
responsible for each of these, but I don't see that in this. I enjoy the new categorizing,
but I'm still not sure who the responsible party is.
Hood: Right. And that's something that we talked about as well. I can -- I can tell you
the intent -- it's not written in here -- for most all these what department it would
correlate to. As I mentioned with the next steps when we all get together and kind of
assign these actions items, we will also assign, essentially, departments that are
responsible for just going -- like economic development with a dollar sign would be
someone from the Mayor's office say. Land use planning. And so on and so forth. So,
if there are three or four, then, it would be someone from that department -- and we can
explain that -- I mean we can explain that in this document more.
Marshall: Would that be in the final product that the public would read? Because if
don't know the city and I don't know what you have done, reading through this it doesn't
look like you have assigned anything to anyone.
Hood: Yeah. No. I think we need to probably clarify that and if there is a question -- if
you have a question about it others will, too, so -- that's something we struggled with
was do we call it subject or element or -- responsible party doesn't really get back to
tying it back to the chapter and recreation or -- or housing, so you assign planning -- you
put planning in there, well, that doesn't really say housing, but we are housing, so we
could add another column, too, that says responsible party, we just -- it gets -- it gets
real tight on formatting, but I think we can explain that.
Marshall: I understand and I understand where you're going with that, but at the same
time just reading through this -- and which -- to be honest before I was ever involved
with any of this I thoroughly read the Comprehensive Plan before I knew anyone here at
the city, but several times in the document you say you are going to name the
responsible party and so when I get to this -- this section I'm looking for, okay, who is
the responsible party, because you said you're going to name that person several times
in there -- or a group. And so that -- to me when I was reading it I was really looking for
that.
Canning: We'll get it done. No problem. We will give it all to Public Works. They are
not here.
de Weerd: Molly can --
Rountree: Molly just is coming towards you, Anna.
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December 21, 2010
Page 24 of 38
Hood: No. That's agood -- and we did play with that. It is something -- and that's the
intent. We want to have some accountability for this and it's just -- yeah. We will figure
out how to do that, so --
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: On that subject, Caleb, it seems to me that the appropriate way to do that is
to identify the lead department or agency, if it's another agency. I don't know that you
necessarily want to say they are responsible, because a good number of these things
are going to be done by various departments working together. So, I -- but I agree that
the lead that's going to make it happen should be identified.
Hood: I think -- Madam Mayor. Councilman Rountree, you will notice this slide
probably isn't the best example. There is only one that has two, but we can look at
making that lead. We may also think about putting in some parenthesis, some support
as well, because there are quite a few of them where it may -- you know, we work
together all the time, so just that there is some understanding that --
Rountree: Well, you know, if you're going to use the symbology and you have lumped
categories or you have split out subjects, however you want to look at it, it seems to me
there are some of these things like public safety, well, that's not just police, that's fire,
it's also the emergency management group. Planning has a role in it. Public Works has
a role in it in terms of the GIS activities and the people that are working in the field. So,
you just can't put a red cross out there and say that's public safety and it doesn't just go
in one place, it goes multiple places and --
Hood: To both of your points, though, again, the intent is to kind of make that a lead,
not that anyone -- that it is all Public Works responsibility, but they are ultimately
charged with following through on that.
Rountree: They can move forward with it.
Hood: They will need help from Planning or various other departments and agencies,
but we will play with that some more. Again, we need to -- once we get through or
some buy-in on these statements, I think we can work on, then, which -- who is doing
what and that's kind of some of the next steps.
Marshall: And, Caleb, the only reason I used the term responsible party is because
believe that term was used --
Rountree: In the text.
Marshall: -- in the text several times.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
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Hood: Okay. I'll change that or make sure it's clear that -- nobody works in a vacuum
here, that it is -- we are all a team and they are the lead or however we are going to
word that. So, I said I wasn't going to go through all of these page by page, but just -- if
you get some time here in the next couple few weeks. If you can go through and
particularly look at the ones that are new and see the comments. You can certainly look
at all of them, but some of them should look familiar to you, the ones that don't say new
and any comments you have before we actually propose this for adoption to you all, I'd
like to talk to you about it or see what your comments are on some of those. I wasn't
planning on going through a lot of them. I will highlight maybe just a couple of the
things that -- sustainability groups went crazy. They had a lot of stuff in here and I
appreciate their work. I do want to just take a minute, because -- I think I mentioned it in
May. Our current version of the Comp Plan doesn't talk about being sustainable one
time, so we have a bunch of new goals, objectives, and action items that talk about how
we can be better at using the resources we have and -- and so I just -- and Chapter -- is
it five or six? Five. So, Chapter 5 has a lot of new information, particularly the goals in
there. You will see there is a lot of new -- new goals in that chapter. A few pages. So,
if you can look at those and all of them -- arts -- again, I mentioned arts. They had
some new ones. The housing subcommittee. The housing subcommittee actually just
looked at what we had already and spruced them up. I think they maybe come up with
one or two new action items, but they said what we have is pretty good, actually. So,
they didn't need to start from scratch to do that, they -- we had some good folks from
around the valley, real estate agents and low income developers and other public
government agencies at the table helping us review those and -- anyways, if you want
we can go through each -- each of these slides, too, or I can -- at your leisure you can
go through them, but I would ask that if you have anything -- any comments or
questions that you would contact me here within the next few weeks. We'd like to get
this submitted by mid -- by mid January, anyways, so we can, again, keep to that
timeline that I was explaining earlier.
O'Brien: Madam Mayor. Caleb, I have a question regarding that. I think I -- I want to
bring it up here where maybe other people could comment on it. On page D-2 of the
new Comprehensive Plan, where it says at the top encourage health and well-being of
community and the fifth item down from that it says help educate, curtail the rate of
obesity, drug, alcohol, tobacco and other substance use. What I found lacking here,
think, is -- is there is no mention of child abuse or domestic violence and wondering if
that's something that should be addressed by the city or is this something that Health
and Welfare does outside of that entity?
Hood: Well, I'll maybe answer, although I don't know that it would be planning that
would take a lead in a lot of that stuff, but I think the first part of that, help to educate I
think is something we could take a part in to various mechanisms. You know, I -- those
are good things I think that fall right in the -- right in that same encourage health and
well-being as a community, sustain, enhance, promote and protect liveability and quality
of life. So, I don't have a problem. I don't know if -- I just jot them down, I think they are
good things to add to that running list and if there is others --
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Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Not that I don't agree, but it seems to me at some point we have to draw the
line and as far as the city's efforts in any of these health and community issues, we
should partner with those organizations that have developed programs to do these
kinds of things and the city's effort ought to continue to emphasize those things that the
city's been directly involved in, drug use and that sort of thing with youth, or now
involved in tobacco use or potentially those kind of things. But, you know, where do you
draw the line in terms of all the other conditions that are health related that are good
causes, but there is only so much the city can do and I just throw that out. Where do we
stop?
de Weerd: Joe.
Marshall: Madam Mayor, thank you. Along that line, I would like to ask --Iran through
these -- and to be honest, I blew through a lot of them pretty quickly, so it may be in
there somewhere, but do we say anything about the city encouraging and sponsoring or
somehow tying in volunteerism and local donations? My thought being is somehow the
city could have on its website some kind of tie in, an explanation of anywhere locally
people could volunteer. I mean I know there are volunteer websites out there nationally
and regionally and things like that, but is there anything -- if I want to volunteer here in
the City of Meridian what is there to volunteer for locally? If I want to donate -- and I
keep running into this each year, I -- around October, November time I'm looking for
some place that I like to donate and I'm looking specifically in the City of Meridian and I
have to go to say the Idaho Communities Foundation and ask them are there any grant
requests from the City of Meridian. I don't know what's out here. That's how I years go
found out about Settlers Park and being able to donate to that was through the Idaho
Communities Foundation. But if there was a link on the website, if somehow we had a
web page or some -- I don't know. But I don't know if this is the place to address that or
if, you know, maybe that could be an action item on here or something -- I don't know if
that's appropriate and therein you would have your abuse groups -- you know, anti-
abuse groups -- I hope -- and things like that that people could volunteer for and could
donate for as well.
de Weerd: Well, I guess I will take a stab at answering that, because you get into that
fine line, as Councilman Rountree mentioned, of things that we really don't -- that's not
within our charter. Certainly in preparing for the -- our entitlement status and the
community development block grant, we came up with a community resource guide as
part of the grant requirements, but that still is that gray area of -- it's a mammoth project
and it takes staff time to keep it relevant and it's -- it's things I think probably the schools
get into -- I don't know if any one agency, other than United Way, the schools, Health
and Welfare, get into things like that, but we do have an opportunity or a volunteer form
on our website, we could probably even put -- have an interest in donating let us know
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
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and could try to individually match them up, but I just see that as something way beyond
our purview.
Hood: Joe started off with a question there and the only place I can think of to volunteer
is actually at the bottom of that same page, D-2, we talk about support and encourage
involvement of community youth in the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council and other youth
activities and groups. So, we specify trying to have those types of opportunities for
youth, but nothing about donations or the general public in providing additional
opportunities for them to volunteer.
de Weerd: It's not all inclusive, it's just offering something that the city is involved in.
Hood: Yeah.
Hoaglun: And I think, Madam Mayor and Caleb, I was just going to suggest -- you know
these are good ideas, but we have to make sure they tied to that focus -- you know, on
page three it talks about the Meridian Comprehensive Plan as an official policy guide for
decisions concerning the physical development of the community and those things
certainly apply to the physical development of the community, but at the same time you
can take those and run them in other directions, so for the purposes of the comp plan,
you know, keeping it on that focus of the development of the city, I mean it develops the
city in other ways, but when you talk about Comprehensive Plan, I think that's the focus
that we need to keep it towards and they certainly can for that, too.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I guess I'd like to go to a couple places that Caleb wanted to. One, I'm not
interested in going through this page by page. I will be glad to provide my comments to
you. But there are some things that I would like for you to think about. It's seem to me
-- and you pointed it out -- we -- we had a rather extensive array of sustainability things
and when you compared the goals and objectives to say economic development it
seems like probably given the emphasis and the need there, we could probably bolster
that. I don't -- I'm not suggesting how at this point, but that's -- that's critical right now
and that probably ought to be really close to our number one priority. With respect to
economic development and some of the other chapters in here, I'm hearing more and
more -- and this is over the last couple years -- in talking to site selectors and the
literature, we continue to talk about quality of life and I believe that's important, but we
are hearing more and more about quality of place and it's alluded to in here, but it's not
realty pointed out that that's something that we are trying to accomplish with design
review and seeking employment opportunities and that sort of thing. So, I would like to
to see an emphasis there, as well as on job creation. I like to document in terms of the
size particularly. It's spot on. You can read it in a hurry. There are some issues I have
with it, but in -- nothing critical, but acouple -- a couple things that you might want to
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look at as you go through and review this and do some editorial stuff -- and I'll just point
out on page 17 when you talk about in reviewing development applications the following
standards will serve as general guidelines. Okay. The verb there is will serve and
you're talking about standards and guidelines. Well, okay. Then, down in the bullet
points you talk about mixed use projects that you could include. When I read those
kinds of words I get really confused. In my mind a standard is something you have to
comply with. In my mind a guideline is something that you want to achieve, but you're
flexible. When I hear the word will, that comes across to me that we are going to do it.
When I hear the word should I'm thinking, well, we will give you some consideration, but
we might not. So, clean that kind of stuff up. And, then, on page -- somewhere. Fifty-
three. The last paragraph, you talk about the city is committed and, then, you talk about
we will be solution oriented and, then, we talk about these things are. So, you jump
around in verb tense and I think a lot of these things that you use the verbs will be, we
are doing it. The city is. That's what we are. That's what we are about. So, that's just
a matter of doing word searches on those kinds of things and make them consistent.
It's an editorial comment, but I think it's important, because you could read some of
these that we will be talking about interactions, will be -- well, we are doing it. So, they
are important to us. My final comment about the format of the document is -- is that
going through it and reading it and doing what I do, I had a lot of questions with the
goals and objectives and, then, I got into Appendix D and a lot of my questions were
answered. So, not to add pages, but add continuity, my preference would be if you're
going to talk about goals and objectives, talk about the actions items in the same spots,
so I, then, don't have to go through an appendix and, then, okay, I got to relate that back
to the text that I read about whatever and eliminate Appendix D or you could have an
Appendix D that is a matrixes that's really helpful for you and somebody familiar with it
document. I would also recommend that you have some additional appendixes. You
referred to the Ten Mile plan throughout the document. It's really never provided. It
ought to be an appendix, whether it's in a separate volume or not -- this thing when I go
to my library ought to be total. In terms of the plans and stuff that we have prepared
and we are suggesting are guidance documents for the Comp Plan, no, you don't have
to provide the complete bibliography, but I think that stuff ought to be pulled together
when we do it, so as a reader I don't have to -- oh, now I got to go to the Ten Mile plan
to figure out what that's all about and where do I find that and who do I get that from and
what version is it and -- you know where I'm coming from.
Hood: Yeah.
Rountree: But I like it. I think you're going the right direction.
Hood: And we will play with that. I know -- yeah, we can -- I don't know if Anna has
comments now or --
Canning: Could I ask for some clarity? So, you wouldn't want the Ten Mile plan bound
to this one, would you?
Rountree: No, it could be a separate --
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Caning: Okay.
Rountree: It could be a separate document, but it could be volume two, appendixes.
Canning: Okay. And we jumped back and forth about whether to put the action plans in
the body or just in the table at the end and if -- if it read -- if it raised a lot of questions
we probably need to put it back in the text, but I think that pulling appendix D and just
making it a staff document is not a bad idea at all, because, then, you can put the lead
agency or -- or you can have more room for comments and support groups and other
text.
Rountree: You can use it as a basis for your analysis and tracking and all that kind of
stuff.
Canning: Yeah.
Rountree: So -- but, anyway, just consider it. I'm -- like I said, I like the document, it's a
whole lot better than 500 pages and --
de Weerd: Any other comments at this point? Caleb?
Hood: I do have just -- I want to jump back to the front of the document and just maybe
get you familiar with kind of the structure. We have already touched on it and you're
probably overly familiar, but I feel it's my duty to just run through the actual text with you
real quick. Also, in the appendix before we jump to the beginning, there is the glossary,
acronyms, and abbreviations and the private property takings analysis checklist. Also,
what we played with in addition to -- what we didn't want to do is repeat all of the action
items and, then, have this implementation table, because that doubles the size of the
document, essentially. Something else we played with putting in this plan, but ultimately
-- or at least at this point we decided not to, is a cut sheet. We also talked about a cut
sheet back in May and Brian's been working hard on that, so I'm going to turn the floor
over to him for a minute to just walk you through this handout -- at least that's how we
envision using this tool for people that come in.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I see a question here that I have written down and I should
have remembered this, but when you talk about the regulatory takings checklist, I think
an introductory paragraph to what that's all about and the applicability of that checklist,
is it applicable to all our actions? I don't believe it is.
Canning: Just the Comp Plan, I think. I don't know.
de Weerd: Are you mumbling over there?
Canning: Yes, I am. Sorry.
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December 21, 2010
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Rountree: I guess my question is I don't know that it's necessarily applicable when we
are dealing with annexations.
Hood: I will work up an introductory --
Rountree: That's legit.
Hood: I'd have to look at the state code again.
Rountree: Okay. All right.
Hood: There may be some of this that is still applicable to annexations. I need to look
at that.
Rountree: Okay. Sorry about that.
Hood: That's fine. So, Brian, you want to --
McClure: You all have a handout? Okay. The intent of this cut sheet is to -- the intent
of this cut sheet is to briefly explain the language designation correlating with the future
land use map. The one you see there, this is a sample cut sheet for the mixed use
regional designation. The goal of the cut sheet is to be a helpful, quick reference for
casual over-the-counter inquiry, online reference, or use during pre-apps. Each cut
sheet should cover sample zoning restrictions, land uses, general guidelines and design
characteristics, sample layouts, photos, sketches, and existing site plans help to
reinforce text and visually convey the intent of the designation. Ultimately we hope to
have a cut sheet for each land use on the future land use map. And, then, all the
information you see here would be directly out of the Comp Plan or the design manual.
As-you can see in this slide here, the back sheet would be most of the visuals and the
front sheet would be most of the text coming from the Comp Plan and design manual.
Hood: Our mixed use designations are the ones that tend to throw people off for the
most part. Commercial people can get their heads around. Residential, okay, that
makes sense. The mixed use has -- we have certain ratios on some of those and
certain characteristics that we are looking for and we thought this would help to kind of
paint the picture -- not as a blueprint for what you have to build, but just get -- get an
idea of what that kind of means and scale and size and street layout and connectivity
and all those things that are mentioned. So, we would have eight of these -- eight or
nine. We have different mixed use designations and, then, we have the neighborhood
center overlay as well. So, we'd have six, eight, ten of these anyways that -- that we
would hand out over the counter just as a summary that pulls in -- Brian mentioned
some of the things -- most of the things from our Comp Plan, but also some of the
things from the design manual to paint that picture.
Canning: And we -- we were having Will Thornton -- a lot of the sketches were from
ones that Will did that we could -- that describe that context that was so important in the
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design guidelines in making that bridge between the Comp Plan designation and the
design guidelines is that whole issue of context in relationship to your adjoining land
uses. So, the sketches help to show those relationships.
Hood: You may recall from the existing conditions that we had some place holder kind
of things that we scabbed in from other places and these are, like Anna said, generated
from staff. So, we think they do a pretty good job with the text of kind of creating that
guide for these areas. So, just wanted to kind of make you aware of that. At first we
thought, well, maybe we would even put that in the Comp Plan itself, but I think it will be
best used just as a handout for folks that have that designation or their neighbor maybe
has designation and they can understand some of the high level stuff that we are
looking for in those areas, so --
Canning: And part of the reason we decided to pull it out was an issue that Council
Member Rountree pointed out earlier, it's kind of a mix of standards and guidelines and
comp plans -- it's a real hodge podge, but -- so we didn't want to confuse folks by
having standards which are UDC standards repeated in the Comp Plan. So, that's one
of the reasons we decided it would be better as a -- as just a handout.
de Weerd: I think, Anna, it's -- it's very useful and although you should be specific, you
could give a general description, so, then, you can make changes without having to
change the Comp Plan, but at least you let people know it's there and what kind of
contents it would include.
Canning: Oh. Okay. So, just reference them as being available?
de Weerd: Reference as available and kind of in each -- you know, in the general
guidelines, design type pattern, but what they would find in that -- on that cut sheet in
general terms. A descriptive paragraph.
Hood: And I do think after we see how the mixed use ones come out we will probably
put this together for residential, too, and commercial office and all of them. I mean it
makes some sense to just have one for all of our land use designations that kind of is a
nice summary take home thing that you can put on your fridge if you want, but you can -
-- you can have that it really is just -- you know, it's the basic information you need to
understand what the designation means.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: Caleb -- and not suggesting to make this more complicated, but maybe if
somebody wanted a little more information you could at least refer them to the
appropriate sections in the UDC, so if they wanted to take it on themself they could
either do that on the Internet or go through their copy and, then, come back and be able
to ask questions.
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December 21, 2010
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Hood: To the Mayor's point, I think we will cross-reference -- I think we will cross-
reference those in here and hear those, so, you know, we will put something on each
document that says go to this section or see that cut sheet, so --
Hoaglun: Just my two cents. I really like the cut sheet concept. That works well,
because you get people coming in, we are thinking about mixed use, but we might do
commercial, we might do something else and it gives them that quick overview, instead
of handing them a big document and say, well, go through this, this kind of gives them
the -- the overview and they go, okay, there is enough to see the differences and, then,
you can dive into the details and say, well, let's explore this one a little more. So,
really like this -- this idea, so --
Hood: And we have to get to that level of detail, but this helps get that basic
understanding we are all talking on similar terms when we get into the next level of
detail with what does that really mean for your site.
Hoaglun: Exactly. Yeah.
Hood: So, I think it will be useful, too, so --
Friedman: Madam Mayor, Council Members, I think also that will build upon some of
the efforts we are undertaking right now is we are moving towards some of our
interactive pdfs that are in our general handout portion of our website, so that we can
either have these available at the counter or you will be able to access them online also.
So, it's going to go together as we move forward in providing more and more
informational accessible to our users, you know, through the screen, in addition to
coming in.
Hood: All right. I'm going to go back to the front of the document real quick, if that's all
right with everyone. Just -- I think just a few more minutes. But we can take as long as
you want, too. So, table of contents, I'm going to start on page one of the document
real quick with the introduction. We will do a new vicinity map up. That one's an old
one, we just ran out of time to put a new vicinity map in. Chapter one is introductory.
Introduction. History of the Comp Plan. Purpose and scope of the plan, and how we
are going to use the document. It includes an outline of the city focus areas and
initiatives. Chapter two is on page seven. Right now it says community vision, but I
think we are going to change that title to be community character or Councilman
Rountree had, you know, quality of place or something along those lines that captures
kind of that liveability concept a little bit better. This is -- this stuff is pretty new. Most of
this stuff is -- some of the sustainability stuff we don't talk about quality of life or
liveability in the current Comp Plan, but, really, that's what it's all about. I mean it's
about making Meridian a better place to live, work, and raise a family. So, that's kind of
what -- what this talks about, although it's difficult to measure a lot of times, so -- but
that's chapter two, talking about health, liveability, walkability, clean, accessible, strong
neighborhoods, family friendly, inclusive, general overall well-being and other factors
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
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and services that make our community desirable to live in. So, that's a brief synopsis of
chapter two. Chapter three, strategic growth. It starts on page 11. It briefly starts out
with population, then, jumps into land use. We already looked at the new designations
that Will put together for mixed use or at least one of them. Transportation, community
design, we will tighten that up a little bit better. Housing, utilities and infrastructure.
TLIP, something that wasn't -- isn't currently addressed. Pathways, Communities In
Motion, alternative transportation, Blueprint For Good Growth, sewer, water, garbage
and recycling, irrigation, power, gas, and communications are kind of the sub topics
within there. At the end of the chapter is a grief discussion on a future acquisitions map
and I want to just take a minute to talk about that. Future acquisitions map is a 20 year
facility and infrastructure needs for fire station, parks, pathways, well sites, wastewater
treatment plant, utility corridors, streets, overpasses or highways and downtown
infrastructure. Now, that isn't an exclusive list, it is for infrastructure and facility needs of
the city --
Hoaglun: You forgot water storage tanks, Caleb.
Hood: Water storage --
Hoaglun: That's always a good one.
Hood: And we have -- we have talked at the staff level about what type of those
facilities, utilities and corridors we will need, .looking at CIPs from Fire and Parks and
Public Works and, you know, where are they planning these things at. We just haven't
gotten -- we haven't got there. We haven't fully vetted that through the process to
determine what's eligible to go on the map, a little legal question that's still out there
about what can you put on the map, do we want it to be site specific or do we want it to
be more general and if we make it more general and a certain site comes up, how do
we go about -- that the site or -- so, we want to make sure it's a map that has some
value for when -- you know, when these things come online that we actually can use it
for what it's intended for, to reserve set aside what we need to do -- whatever we need
for these different facilities and infrastructures. So, we are working on it, we will come
back with an amendment to the Comp Plan in '11, so that's kind of the timeline. We will
get all the department directors and their staff together, too, to have another meeting.
think we have had two so far. So, we need to have a couple more, so --
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: That's a particularly sticky piece of statute and Bill probably is familiar with it,
but once you start putting things on a future acquisition map, if somebody decides to
develop it puts the city or any other agency on the spot that they have to acquire within
a prescribed period of time and it's a real short period of time. Probably within the --
within the bounds of even getting appraisals and, then, you have to be willing to buy it or
it's for naught. So, it's almost as good just to identify places like we do now on our
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December 21, 2010
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maps that we'd like to have a school here and we'd like to have a park here, but have it
be flexible enough that you can move it around, but I mean if you start calling it a future
acquisitions map, the city has to be in a position or anybody else has to be in a position
to acquire it. Or do some other thing if it's related to annexation through whatever
processes we have there.
Hood: Right. And that's -- and that's some of the discussions we have had. There may
be overpasses, for example, you know -- you can't move that somewhere else. If it's
going to be Linder Road and you know you want an overpass, these properties that are
right there where the overpass is, they are going to be affected and you can put it on a
map. Well sites -- maybe that's a little more flexible. Or schools, maybe that can float
within a section. So, that's what we are -- that's kind of the level we are at is what
should be on this map. Are we talking -- we know it's that parcel right there, because it
has to be or is it something -- hey, we need something in this area and maybe those
aren't on this map. So, that's -- that's kind of where we are at with this is -- and it does
at least afford us the opportunity if that -- that one property that we have to have comes
on even through Ada county, we can put them on notice and say this is on our future
acquisitions map -- I think we have 30 days or something to notify them that -- that we
are interested in that and then -- I can't remember how that statute reads, but it is a
quick turnaround time. I mean we would have to jump on those things and that's -- we
will have some dialogue certainly with the Council on this, too. We just weren't
confident enough to put a map in front of you and ask for adoption and slow up this
whole process with a future acquisitions map, but we do have at least a discussion in
here if we decide not to go with the map at all, our text amendment will be to remove the
discussion. If we do want a map, then, maybe we will explain that these --- the things
on this map are site specific, because there really aren't any other options, but we will
see where this goes. It's been interesting so far and we just need to do some more
homework before we put it out there, so -- any other comments on -- on that map? Also
in chapter three -- I just want to put you guys on notice -- I don't expect you to
remember it or anything, but sometime this next year we will look at changing our high
density and the residential steps. You may recall we added medium high density
residential some time ago and now we have some -- a conflict, but we have a pretty
substantial overlap with densities. Our medium high density is almost higher than our
high density requirement. So, we need to -- we need to bump those up, but -- but this
Comp Plan we are trying to stay away from some of the more controversial changes to
this or potentially controversial changes and we thought changing our high density
designation to be up to 15 to make that the floor instead of the ceiling, you may get
some more people interested. So, we will be coming forward next year with that text
amendment. I'm going to move on to chapter four, which is on page 39. That's an
economic growth chapter and there are quite afew -- you know, we, basically, took
Brenda's strategic plan, kind of tweaked it a little bit so it fit more of our verbiage -- that's
basically the economic excellence strategic plan. Chapter four talks about economic
development, the business enterprise corridors, specific area plans and the chamber.
So, that -- chapter four is devoted to economic development. Chapter five is
stewardship --
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 35 of 38
Freeman: Madam Mayor, can I interrupt before we go onto chapter five?
de Weerd: Uh-huh.
Freeman: Just a comment. On chapter four I noticed the map that you show there isn't
necessarily coordinated with the specific area plans that you describe. The names are
different, like northwest on the map was called the field area in the text and, then, there
are things on the map, like the gateway that aren't even addressed in the text. So, we
want to make sure we get that coordinated.
Hood: And health sciences technology is not called the --
Freeman: Yeah. Different terms and there is things on the map that aren't discussed in
the text.
Hood: Oh. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. We will clean that up. Anything else in chapter
four? Chapter five, stewardship and -- you know, stewardship of the public trust. Again,
this is after the city's initiatives, you know, it's -- it's growth, economic growth,
stewardship of the public trust. Page 43. It's the natural and built environment and it's
earth, wind, and fire. Sustainability. Green building. recycling. Hazardous and historic
areas. Hazardous and historic areas don't really fit all that great under stewardship, but
there is really not a good place to discuss hazardous and special sites. So, chapter five
just seemed to be a good place -- certainly for the stewardship for historic buildings, but
hazardous sites really doesn't fit in too many places. Most of our hazardous sites are
natural or semi-natural. There is a natural gas pipeline, but the flood plain is probably
our -- our main hazard in Meridian and it's not even real hazardous. So, we are pretty
lucky that it's not real heavy in the analysis, but that's where that element is at. Chapter
six on page 49 talks about services. This is another pretty hefty chapter, that --
community, social, and government type services. So, schools, emergency services,
police, fire, EMS, parks, arts, libraries. We talked about City Hall and what we do here.
The CDBG program and private property rights. That's another one that -- we didn't
want to make a whole chapter for private property rights and it kind of fits under
extraordinary government or special government type provisions. So, that's at the end
of chapter six. And, then, implementation in chapter seven, I do want to point out -- we
talked about it a little bit, but the implementation plan on page 57 talks about alignment
with other plans. Not that we expect everybody to have the library that Councilman
Rountree does and have all these documents printed out and easy to read through, but
we do want to align with all the adopted plans, our capital improvements plans that all
the departments in the city's put together, strategic plans, PADs, and it also talks about
next steps, which is the prioritization and assigning leads or however that works. So,
we will work -- I will work on chapter seven, too, and make that clear on how that -- how
the document is supposed to be used and how I will implement these things. Next
steps. So, I mentioned earlier -- you will have another opportunity through the hearing
process to comment, so I'd like your initial thoughts here in the next few weeks if you
have the time. I realize it's a busy time of year. But if you can get me some comments
back, that's great. Otherwise, I can take them from you any other time, too, it's just --
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 36 of 38
that will be what we have put forward on the public record for the initial review for the
general public to have.. It's up now, but we haven't done the noticing to really put
everybody on notice. So, we will clean up the document, we will also go to like BCA -- I
don't know if there is any other groups or outreach that you all want me to do or any
other organizations you can think of that I should share this information with or that may
care about this information. I am certainly willing to go there if you have names or
organizations that I should outreach to.
de Weerd: Caleb, I would make sure you have some kind of a summary and -- a
summary sheet that we have at Meridian Unplugged, our town hall meeting next month.
Hood: Okay.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I think anyplace you identify a specific agency probably ought to get their
comments and the one that stands out in here is that there is a paragraph about the
chamber and I think you ought to make sure they have an opportunity to review that and
provide their input.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Just as a comment, I -- this is wonderful work and I appreciate the effort
that's gone into it so far and I think it's going in a great direction. As usual I have a
sideways question and this goes back to one of your first statements that it's not in the
scope of this current project to change the future land use map and I agree with that as
not being in the scope of this project. I do think at some point we need to think about
that and how that would work into the process and the area that I'm thinking of
specifically is now that we know there is a plan for connecting Highway 16 all the way to
the interstate, as I recall our current future land use plan where Meridian would
approach that is mostly residential and it seems to me when we end up with a L-shape
of freeways, noise and vibration, residential may not be as attractive now that we know
what's going to be there and I'm just saying at some point, as we have done the Ten
Mile interchange area plan and the south Meridian area plan, I assume we are going to
do an area plan for that area and I'm just -- I'm not sure it even needs to be mentioned
in this document, but I'm hoping we will do something there and that would change the
future land use plan.
Canning: The fields area plan -- I'm sorry. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council.
de Weerd: That's all right.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 37 of 38
Canning: The fields area plan would cover --
Zaremba: All the way down to I-84?
Canning: Well, largely, because it will swing away from our boundary as it exits that
area, so we think that should suffice. Yeah. Good job, Caleb. There you go.
Hood: Yeah. There is for the first -- Madam Mayor. For the first couple of miles on --
this is sideways, so north is to the left, but --
de Weerd: That goes with the sideways question.
Hood: Yeah. Sideways question. There you go. Very nice.
Canning: You get the witty award today, Mayor. I don't know.
Hood: That -- you know, Anna answered for the first couple of miles in there. I don't
think we envision that fields area coming down in this area or this area, so we can -- we
can maybe look at that as well. I don't know if that's going to be simultaneously or not.
There is some existing low density residential in some of those areas that may not want
to -- to be changed. We did update our map -- see if I can zoom in here a little bit
without messing this up. To actually put where the environmental document -- the
preferred alignment envisions the interchanges at Ustick and Franklin, so -- and at
Chinden. You can see some of the mixed use stuff that kind of goes around the --
working on here. This is all mixed use right in here and, then, there is -- that's all mixed
use in there, too. But we will look at -- I think a majority of that corridor anyways, when
we do that fields -- that fields plan, so --
Zaremba. Great. Thanks.
Hood: And, then, I guess just another way to get the word out, I mentioned the clerk.
We will also use -- again, we will use Twitter and Facebook and whatever else is out
there -- the website, blogs, to just make sure that anybody that's paying attention at all
has an opportunity to comment and let us know what their thoughts are on this plan, so
-- that's what I had. I appreciate your time this evening. Again, you can feel free to call
me ore-mail me with any follow-up questions or comments you have, too, so --
de Weerd: Any additional comments? How about any from our directors?
Commissioners, nothing further? Council? Yes. Joe.
Marshall: Caleb, again, I wanted to reiterate what Councilman Zaremba had mentioned
there is that this really is a vast improvement over the last, which was a little bulky, and
it's trimmed down version is much easier to peruse and to get through and it's pretty
straight forward and looks nice.
Meridian City Council
December 21, 2010
Page 38 of 38
Hood: Well, thanks. We are not all the way there yet, but I think it will be a better tool,
as well and, again, I had lots of help. So, thank you to everybody that's helped, so --
Hood: Thanks. Merry Christmas.
de Weerd: Merry Christmas. Well, we are at the end of our agenda and I would like to
wish you all a Merry Christmas. I will see Council on Tuesday -- next Tuesday night we
have a Council meeting and no rest for you. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Rountree: So moved.
Hoaglun: Second.
de Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
de Weerd: Thank you.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:03 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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