HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-01-18Meridian Citv Council Meeting January 18, 2011
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 7:10 p.m., Tuesday,
January 18, 2011, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Brad Hoaglun, and David
Zaremba.
Members Absent: Charlie Rountree.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Anna Canning, Caleb Hood, Bill Parsons,
Warren Stewart, Jamie Leslie, Joe Silva, Steve Siddoway Robert Simison and Dean
Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
de Weerd: I will go ahead and open up our regular meeting. For the record it is
Tuesday, January 18th. It's 7:15. We will start with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance and Posting of Colors by Scout Troop 145
de Weerd: Item 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight we will be led in the pledge by
Duran Huffaker and they are representing the Peregrine Ward. If you -- well, I'll turn this
over to the Boy Scouts.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
de Weerd: Well, I would like to present to you boys for leading us tonight with some
City of Meridian pins and I will give those to our city clerk to bring back to you. Thank
you for leading us in that important pledge.
Item 3: Community Invocation by
de Weerd: Item No. 3 is the community invocation. Tonight we will be led by Pastor Ed
Kreiner with the Meridian Assembly of God. Is he here with us? I don't see him. So,
we will skip that item.
Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda
de Weerd: And move to Item 4, adoption of the agenda.
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Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: A couple things to note on tonight's agenda before we approve it. Under Item
9, Department Reports, 9-A, the title of that Planning Department, it's the Ten Mile area
collector system access discussion and fee waiver request. Just want to make sure that
is in there. And also under 9-D, the budget amendment for the conversion of
operational funds to personnel for the Historic Preservation Commission will be given by
the legal department. So, just want to make that note. And under Ordinances, 10-A,
that ordinance is number 11-1471. And with those, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of
tonight's agenda as amended.
Zaremba: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of January 4, 2011 City Council Special
Meeting
B. Approve the Bid Amount of $520,236.00 for the Ten Mile Road -
Cherry Lane to Ustick Road Reclaimed Water Pipeline
Installation with Schmidt Construction and Authorize the
Mayor to Sign the Agreement
C. Memorandum of Agreement for Rental of Rocky Mountain High
School Auditorium for Meridian Arts Commission and Meridian
Parks and Recreation Commission Presentation of Missoula
Children's Theater Production of "Snow White" on March 19,
2011, for aNot-to-Exceed Amount of $850.00
D. Memorandum of Understanding Between the Meridian
Speedway and the City of Meridian Regarding a Joint
Presentation of the July 4, 2011 Event for a City Contribution
Amount Not-to-Exceed $6,000.00 and a Meridian Speedway
Contribution Amount of $6,000.00 for a Total Not-to-Exceed
Amount of $12,000.00
E. Final Order for Approval: TE 10-033 Knightsky by Sea 2 Sea,
LLC Located Northwest Corner of Chinden Boulevard and N.
Linder Road Request: Approval of a Two (2) Year Time
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Extension to Obtain the City Engineer's Signature on the Final
Plat
F. Development Agreement for Approval: AZ 09-003 (Macha
Retail Plaza by Armstrong Consulting) Located at the South
Side of E. Franklin Road, Approximately 600 Feet West of
Eagle Road: Request for Annexation and Zoning of 3.95 Acres
from Ada County RUT to C-C (Community Business District)
de Weerd: Item 5 is our Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: There were no changes to the Consent Agenda tonight, so I move approval of
the Consent Agenda and the Mayor be authorized to sign and Clerk to attest.
Zaremba: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Council, if
there is no discussion I will ask for roll call.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Presentation and Discussion on Possible Adoption of
Communities in Motion (CIM) -the Regional Long-Range
Transportation Plan
de Weerd: Under Item 6-A we have a presentation and discussion on our regional long
range transportation plan. I'll turn this over to Caleb.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I just -- I wanted to give
you a quick update. I know you have all -- I think most all of you have heard updates on
Communities In Motion and the update that's gone on in 2009 and 2010, but Carl Miller
from COMPASS is here, he's one of the staff members that worked on the update to
that plan. I just want to highlight some of the work that was included in the update.
They used a different financial forecast that shows less money available for some of the
current funded corridors, so there is funded and unfunded corridors in the long range
transportation plan. They explained the differences between a priority corridor and an
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January 18, 2011
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unfunded corridor. They added new environmental, management, operations, security
and safety chapters. They discussed the implications of not funding the ITD system and
they clarified that community choices growth scenario is the preferred growth scenario
and that the transportation corridor support the vision. Carl Miller does have some -- a
presentation that will dig a little bit deeper into those, so I think I will stop. I just wanted
to give you a high level update on that and add one more thing that the Comp Plan
update that we are working now, the revamp to the Comp Plan, does include this
version that Carl is going to be talking to you about tonight and cross-references it in
there and we are proposing to adopt it as part of the Comp Plan. What I can do, if you
all want to, at the end of the discussion maybe is to see if a resolution maybe
appropriate as well to just reinforce our support for CIM. So, something to think about
as Carl is giving his presentation. So, Madam Mayor.
de Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Good evening, Carl.
Miller: Good evening. Thank you, Caleb, Mayor and Council Members. I'll just go
through briefly Communities In Motion 2035. As I was -- before this meeting started my
wife asked me to take her out to dinner and we live in Meridian, too, so I'm a resident,
as well as a member of COMPASS presenting this to you and I suggested we go to a
few of the new restaurants that are in Meridian, either on Eagle Road or Fairview, and
she said, you know, really don't care where we go, just let's go someplace expensive.
So, I said okay and I took her to a gas station. Anyway, I'm --
de Weerd: Wow, big spender.
Miller: -- here to talk to you about the -- not just solve our gas price issues, but partially
with Communities In Motion, it is a regional transportation plan that addresses some of
those ways that we can look to a more efficient roadway system. So, I will be going
through -- I have a lot of slides, but I promise I'll go through them very quickly. If you do
have questions I will stop for those, but I don't want to get too detailed into this, unless --
unless that would be appropriate in your minds. So, anyway, Communities In Motion is
the long range transportation plan. We are required to update this every four years for
federal requirements. It also identifies short range funding priorities. As Caleb
mentioned, it did look at a new growth forecast of just over one million people by 2035
and a lot of those will be in the Meridian area. COMPASS looks at mobility planning,
including transit, pedestrian, bicycle planning. Legislative services and travel demand
modeling. Communities In Motion was adopted last August 2006 by the COMPASS
board and, then, was adopted by the City of Meridian shortly after. This most recent
plan has been adopted by the COMPASS board in September. It is financially
constrained, which I will get into in a little bit, but there is quite afew -- less roads that
will be considered funded under this version of the plan and it also speaks to air quality
conformity as one of the requirements under federal requirements. The vision is we
envision a Treasure Valley where quality of life is enhanced and communities are
connected by an innovative, effective, multi-modal transportation system and looks to
community choices growth forecast where we have more compact development, less
development and green fields and agricultural land and, actually, we have been
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receiving development review applications from the City of Meridian. It looks like a lot of
those principles are in many of the applications that you have been reviewing lately, so I
will skip that one. Caleb went through a few of the differences. Basically, a different
planning area. Previously we looked at the whole six county, this time it was a focus on
Ada and Canyon county, more fiscally constrained, less money to do just as many
roadways and additional requirements for us to look at sustainability and quality of life
issues, as well as management and operations. The goal and vision hasn't changed,
neither has the preferred growth scenario and there is still no dedicated source for
funding for transit. Currently the population density looks a bit like this with the yellow
and orange areas high density developments and blue where you will have suburban
and low density growth. By 2035 we expect many of those ~ areas in between
communities in the Treasure Valley to grow together and more in-fill development in the
urban areas. To accommodate that growth we have a major corridor plan and you can
see that there are a number of corridors that we have identified as need of
improvement. However, we have even less money and so only those that have a
committed funding source for them have been identified as funded. The rest are
identified as -- as there is definitely a need, however, there is no funding for that -- those
projects at this point. A number of roads in the City of Meridian itself have made it into
the plan as funded and they are each identified in the Communities In Motion plan with
a two page spread and additional information about why they are important, what we
need to do as both transportation and land use agencies to insure that they work
efficiently in the future. So, I'll leave those. I won't go through those in detail, but they
are in the plan for your review. Also to highlight that there is a need for additional
planned transit for the optimal system that we have identified, it would be a 4.1 billion
dollar total cost. Obviously we don't have the money to do that, but to identify that as
dedicated funding streams come in we do have some definite needs in the area. One of
those being the high capacity transit corridor. We are currently under a study right now
to identify the potential alignments, narrow those down to several, each of which run
through the community of Meridian. Next two slides just go through today's travel
speeds and, then, what they would be in 2035, according to our funding corridor. The
red areas are, basically, congested roads. There are a few, especially in the urban
areas, by 2035 almost every major arterial is considered a congested road with travel
speeds of 20 miles or less. And, then, lastly, just want to go through a few slides that
show what is the use of the road. This is a road that primarily serves automobile traffic.
With some enhancements that can be more pedestrian friendly, including outdoor retail
and more walkable environment, transit. The financial side of it is a little bleak and we
are not asking you for money today. But I just wanted to highlight that in 2010 dollars
we would need 98 million dollars to create the transportation network that we need.
With the amount of households we have in the valley right now it would be about 36
dollars per household per month, just so you're aware of just the situation that we have
as far as transportation needs. Since every four years we do go into an update to
Communities In Motion, we got the plan adopted in September, took a deep breath and
we are actually getting right back into the development of it again and we will be looking
to the local cities and transportation agencies and we will be engaging with them and
what do they see as the future here and we are looking for feedback on that. We will be
addressing complete street concepts, emphasis on public involvement, how to get
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January 18, 2011
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constituents involved and going through an Internet-based approach so that even
people that can't come out to a meeting for one reason or another can still participate
and let their feelings and information known and as we go into this plan we will also be
broadening our out reach to housing authorities and other organizations that deal with
infrastructure and other quality of life issues. So, anyway, went through that fairly quick.
I would be happy to answer any questions that you have.
de Weerd: Thank you, Carl. Council, any questions? Okay. We appreciate you joining
us.
Miller: Thank you.
de Weerd: Did you have leftovers? Do you get doggie bags at gas stations? Caleb,
was there anything you wanted to add?
Hood: I think -- I think Carl covered all the material. Again, I guess my question -- and
you can certainly stew on it some more, but would be a resolution -- Carl right at the
beginning mentioned that CIM was adopted in 2006 by the COMPASS board, Shortly
thereafter the city did a resolution to also support that version of a long range
transportation plan. So, I just didn't -- I'm not clear if you want to do another resolution
in 2011 to support this current version. You know, they will start the process up right
quick to update even this version to do a full-blown update to the long range plan, which
probably won't be ready for another year or two, but this -- it's the Council's option, but
just wanted to bring that up that in the past we have had a resolution after adoption of it
and I could probably work up some language for you to look at for resolution if that's
what you wish to do.
de Weerd: Council, I guess I would look for your direction on that question
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, if we do a resolution I would like to look at it. I mean when --
when you see numbers in there like 4.1 billion dollars it kind of makes your eyes go
wide and, you know, I don't want to give people the mistaken idea that now we are
going to go out there and start trying to find a bunch of money like that, because that's --
that's enormous. So, I'd like to see the resolution, so we can see what we could craft to
make sense of adopting this. I mean there is great things in this and it's a forward
looking document, but -- so, I wouldn't mind taking a look at draft language.
de Weerd: And I think just to clarify, the plan is fiscally constrained with revenues
known today. The 98 billion dollar price tag was if you included all of the needed
projects, not just the ones listed that were fiscally constrained. Council, would you like
additional time to view this plan update and we can always bring it back.
Bird: That would be fine with me, Mayor.
de Weerd: We can consider it in a couple of weeks, then? We can set it and if you
would like a resolution at that time we can give staff directions.
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Zaremba: That sounds good to me.
B. Update on Airport-Overland Road Corridor Preservation Study
by Susan Graham with Parametrix
de Weerd: Okay. 6-B is an update on the airport Overland Road corridor preservation
study.
Hood: Thanks, Madam Mayor. I will do the introduction on this one as well. Again, this
won't be the first time you all heard this study or some background information on this
study. I have been serving on a technical advisory committee for probably close to a
year now, maybe not quite that long, but it's been in process a little bit. Councilman
Zaremba is on the policy team for the same group that's been organized to discuss --
the extension for our purposes. It's an Overland Road extension, but it's called the
airport Overland corridor study. So, the other terminus would be the airport in Nampa.
And, then, Ten Mile at Overland here in Meridian. The purpose statement -- I just want
to quickly bring you up to speed on the purpose statement for this corridor. It is to
connect on the west an existing arterial with sufficient capacity, integrate with future
State Highway 16 - I-84 -McDermott interchange. Serve as a detour route for the
interstate in case of closure or incident. Function as an urban principal artrial, including
curb, gutter, sidewalk and appropriate access management and will consider short-term
impacts to adjacent properties and existing uses, as well as long-term impacts on
future land use designations. So, again, with the two terminuses, Garrity and the
airport, essentially, on one side and Ten Mile and Overland on the east, there were
seven alternatives that were originally drafted. We used 18 different matrix to evaluate
those options to score them against things technical, two different tiers of technical
criteria. Worked with the fire department a little bit on some of the options for this and
don't know if Mr. Silva has any comments. I'll show you the -- the different options here
in just a minute. The purpose of the study is not to determine where we are going to
construct this roadway right of way, it's to preserve the right of way for construction
some day in the future. You just got done hearing about how far in the hole we are with
the roadway projects that we can't build now. This is not about another one to add to
that list right away, it is -- we want to get out in front of development and plan for
connectivity, basically, between western Meridian and eastern Nampa to make sure that
there is another opportunity there between Franklin -- well, between the interstate and
Victory, basically. Something that's a primary arterial. So, I'll let Susan with
Parametrics do a little bit of the update on what's happened thus far in the public
involvement process and some of the other things that have gone on with the TAC and,
then, I'll come back and I have a couple of questions I'd like to pose to you and some
direction that I need from you.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Hi, Susan. If you will state your name and address for
the record.
Graham: I will. Susan Graham. Parametrics. 7761 West Riverside Drive, Boise.
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de Weerd: Thank you.
Graham: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council for having me back again and I'll sit
down and come back again it looks like on your agenda. I'm just going to talk really
briefly about the airport -Overland project. As Caleb said, we have been working on
the project for about a year and -- here we go. The graphic. We are -- we are at the
point of having narrowed down what started out as seven alternatives to the few that
you see in front of you and it's actually six alternatives -- or five with two main routes.
The route alignment one that's green and, then, kind of morphs into blue that runs along
Stamm Lane that alternative has been eliminated from an operational standpoint. The
city of Nampa was really concerned with the -- with what bringing that much traffic does
down Stamm Lane and hits Garrity in a spot that's already pretty constricted. So, that
has been removed from further consideration because of the constraint to the west and
as you remember Caleb reading, one of our criteria was how does it connect to an
arterial with sufficient capacity on the west. The other one that has been -- so that takes
out anything related to one -- 1-A or one that you see right there. The other one that
has been eliminated from this graphic, at least to the point where we are at now, is the
airport road down to follow route D. Again, it doesn't perform very well from an
operational perspective. There is a lot of out-of-direction travel and, honestly, people
make would their way like they currently do without the route. And you can see it's
almost six miles by doing that. We were trying to stay mostly on existing alignments
and that's why you see an alignment shown there. But, again, it doesn't perform as well
operationally. We did have a public meeting in -- when was that? In October. And we
got a lot of feedback from citizens of both Nampa and Meridian. We had over a
hundred people attend, which was, honestly, one of the largest attended meetings --
public meetings I have been to outside of -- I think Borup Park was my second highest
attended public meeting that I had in 2010 and the feedback from the public was -- their
preferred options was 2-B and 2-C, which you see. And that is really where the
technical advisory committee team that Caleb sits on, along with representatives from
all of the other jurisdictions, we have narrowed it down to those alternatives. From there
it gets tricky. There is no good technical information that allows us to easily make a
recommendation for which of those is preferred. They have very similar environmental
and property impact. In fact, they are so close that they really -- they are, essentially, a
dead heat on cost and in property impact and environmental impact and in terms of net
benefit there is not a great difference in that either from a traffic standpoint. So, it's
really going to come down to getting some additional feedback from our policy
committee on a preferred alternative. We are also going to have another public meeting
and that will be in mid March and as soon we have that date we will let the Council
know when that is and encourage you to attend. Councilman Zaremba attended it the
last meeting. So, that's really where we are at, just to kind of keep you posted. It
doesn't change a lot on the Meridian side of the line, but, obviously, people that drive
back and forth don't consciously know they are in Meridian or Nampa and so it's
important to involve all the jurisdictions. But this is where we are currently at and I think
Caleb was going to talk a little bit more about the timing of the policy committee and
what else we may need from you.
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Hood: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Yes.
Hood: Are there any questions for Susan before --
de Weerd: No. Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, real quick. Susan, when we talk about this being a corridor in
whatever selected, does that mean that it's eventually going to be five lanes, center turn
lane, two lanes each way? Is that -- do I have the right image in mind when we talk
about this in the future?
Graham: Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, Members of the Council, that's a really
good question. I should have restated that. As Caleb said, it is a right of way
preservation program, so we are looking to reserve the maximum right of way that could
be needed. Our 20 year traffic projection did not indicate the need for more than three
travel lanes, one lane in each direction and a turn lane. So, we are looking at just
setting aside -- I believe -- do you know which right of way -- a hundred feet?
Hood: A hundred feet. Yeah.
Hoaglun: Yeah.
Graham: And so that allows some flexibility and it would be -- as Caleb mentioned, it
would only be built as the demand is out there as development occurs. But we would
preserve the long term -- it's going to cheaper to buy it -- the full width now than -- than
after development. So, that is what we are looking at.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
de Weerd: I guess I'm just surprised at how developed -- all those lots are not built on,
are they, in Canyon county? That just really surprises me. I guess I don't drive out
there.
Bird: They are not all built out.
de Weerd: They are just platted?
Graham: There is some of both. Obviously, really, the -- from Robinson Road west is
very densely constructed. The others really in that -- immediately adjacent to
McDermott are platted -- some homes. More homes than appear on this aerial, but not
in their entirety.
de Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you, Susan.
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Graham: Thank you.
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, I think Susan covered the mid March PIN number two will be
coming up and, again, you're all invited. I will send you some more information once we
have that date. It's either going to be the 14th or 16th, I think, and the location is still
TBD as well. So, I'll follow up. And, then, the policy team meeting will also correspond
with that PIN, so -- and I just wanted to check in just to make sure you're okay at the
staff level with narrowing the two alignments down to 2-B and 2-C. I will let you know I
did talk to Councilman Rountree -- and I'm not going to put words in this mouth, but after
I kind of went through this and we looked at the -- the matrix a little bit, then -- I think at
the end of the day he came back and said, well, route 2-B is straight, right? I mean
that's the straighter of the two and if all things are equal, why not do the straighter route.
So, that's kind of where we are at. We are trying to justify, as Susan mentioned, just to
make sure that one isn't clearly better than the other, but at this point we are proceeding
forward with both of those, but we will need to narrow that down to a preferred
alternative here after the -- the next public involvement meeting and the policy team
meeting. So, I will be coming back to you at some future date with hopefully a preferred
alternative and get support. While I'm talking about that, Nampa -- Claire Bowman has
already gone to the city of Nampa and one of his questions to his council was would you
be willing to have a joint meeting with other elected officials -- so, the Nampa Highway
District and ACHD and the -- and you all and talk about this together to make sure we
are all on the same page and same understanding, same assumptions going in. So, I
want to maybe get some feedback from you, too, if you thought that was a good idea or
what your -- what your thoughts are on that. So, just wanted to kind of throw that out
there or you can stew on that, too, and send me an a-mail later or call me later if you
need to or whatever, but I think that would be good so we can all kind of hear the
dialogue as well and that -- we would try to coordinate that, too. Sorry, Councilman.
With either COMPASS board meeting or BRT board meeting where a vast majority of
you are already there, so we don't have to set up another meeting to do that, if you all
choose. So --
de Weerd: Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Question for Caleb on -- so, the process, then, is there is a designation made
which one it's going to be and, then, the process starts where acquisition of right of way
will take place at a certain time. Now, if you meet great resistance on one, then, do you
look at the other -- there is probably no way to say let's go forward with both and see
which one -- where there is more willing sellers on the corridor versus -- one versus the
other and select it that way?
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Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, the attorneys don't like that very well when
you -- when you have two preferred alternatives and you start to buy right of way from
both of them, you're not quite sure -- I don't -- and we haven't -- I don't think knocked on
doors to see who is willing to sell now, because we are not ready to buy now. Part of
that public involvement process, though, is we will hear -- we can kind of determine
where some of those impacts are, but we don't know about all the properties and maybe
what all -- we will have to do some more detailed study, too, on what the impacts really
are on either of the alignments. There is a scenario where we could say route 2-B is
our preferred and run into a huge road block and say, well, we still haven't lost the
option to do route C. I think we would have to take a couple steps back and do some
more public involvement and, you know, re-adopt that corridor study again if we hit, you
know, some major hurdle that -- but I don't think we can proceed further -- to much
further with two preferred alignments before we have to say, yeah, this is where we
think it should go and start acquiring right of way.
Hoaglun: Yeah. Madam Mayor and Caleb, I was just thinking if there was a way to do it
-- and I recognize that would be difficult to kind of feel out which one might go a little
quicker than the other one, but you're right, you know, funding sources and how you do
that and legally that does pose a question. But I'm kind of like Councilman Rountree,
you know, the straighter the -- is better, but, you know, that's -- there might be barriers
there that we just -- we don't see, so --
de Weerd: Caleb, I think it would be important to get with the elected officials in Nampa
and talk about connections, because it's not just about a road, it's also about the
corresponding land uses and what their vision is versus the direction we are going. So,
that's my two cents. I guess we will look for the next meeting date and also I think it
would be important -- there is probably a couple of other things that we could get our
Councils together on as well. So, Anna, you may want to take a look at additional
things that we have going in the south Meridian area that might be worth putting on an
agenda and having it about a few other things, as well as we get the electeds together.
Okay.
Hood: Thank you.
C. Idaho Power Update
de Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-C. I see Blake and if you would like to come up
and give us an update on what you all are up to. If you will, please, state your name
and address for the record.
Watson: Blake Watson. Idaho Power. P.O. Box 70, Boise, Idaho. Madam Mayor --
de Weerd: Thank you for being here.
Watson: -- Members of the Council, thank you again for having me again here this
year. I was looking at my notes and it was about a year ago last year, so I'm sure you
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January 18, 2011
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have been anxious to hear about what Idaho Power has been up to in the last year. So,
will make this brief, because a lot of what I talked about last year has not materially
changed. We have had a couple of developments fairly recently in the energy
landscape that certainly have -- are pretty hot topics right now, so I want to touch on
that a little bit, but, again, just want to state that I certainly feel we had a good
prosperous year in the relationship we had with the City of Meridian and the community
of Meridian last year. We had great dialogue, great open communications with a
number of your staff folks and the Mayor and some of the Council members as well.
Certainly appreciate that and certainly look forward to having that open communication,
that dialogue continue. So, look forward again to supporting a lot of activities in the
community. Obviously Meridian has a lot going on, a lot of vibrant activities going on.
We will probably continue to support things like Dairy Days and the symphony,
supporting the arts in the community, a number of chamber activities certainly I think we
will be available if they are willing to allow our crews to help set the Christmas tree
again for next year. I think that went well. So, certainly, again, appreciate that
opportunity and it's nice to be able to partner with the City of Meridian and help where
we can to support the community, you know, from kind of a community basis standpoint.
A couple things I wanted to touch on. Let me kind of step back real quick and I will ask
the question. Don't expect necessarily an answer or comment to you from right now,
but that would be fine, but what I'd ask is how we are doing and as far as serving the
community and serving the City of Meridian, you know, whether it be customer service,
whether it be service reliability, whether it be our employees that are driving our rigs and
our line bed trucks and our vehicles through your communities, if you are ever hearing
any comments on that as far as the actions of our employees or just how you're being
treated at some of your folks in the city that have to have interaction with Idaho Power,
how are you treated by Idaho Power from a customer service standpoint. So, we'd
certainly like to hear those comments back and outages, those types of things, maybe
we don't want to hear those back, but -- no. We do want to hear those comments back
as well. So, kind of sit on that a little bit. If there is any questions tonight certainly feel
free to ask me, but if something comes up, something in your craw or a question or a
comment or a suggestion, we are more than happy to undertake that and take that
back, so -- a couple items I just wanted to touch on and I'll kind of use the phrase the air
of energy and energy landscape is evolving and changing literally kind of right before
us. You know, it's been pretty -- kind of state of business for a long time, you know, you
generate a little bit of electricity, ship it over some wires and you flip a light switch and it
comes on. Well, it's been that way for a long time, but recently we have seen a lot of
technological advances and a lot of changes on the generation side of our business and
kind of what that ultimately means to the end use customers, obviously, that electricity is
reliable and it's priced fairly competitively, so where we are seeing some changes there
is -- one area that actually there was an article in Sunday's paper -- I don't know if any
of you picked it up and read on wind generation and what they call these PURPA
contracts that Idaho Power Company has or cogenerators. If you go back several
years, as you probably know, there was very little wind generation in the state of Idaho,
as well as anywhere else in the country, so we are certainly seeing a lot of that potential
come on line as a utility where that impacts, potentially, our rate payers. As a utility
company it's a co-generation resource we are required by law to purchase the energy
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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output from these facilities at an established price and we are required to purchase that
electricity, essentially, whether or not we need it. Obviously, you can't store electricity,
so if we have to purchase it we have got to turn around and go sell it and typically you're
not going to sell it for the same price as you're purchasing it for. If you go back years
ago there was very little impact on our system, there was very little concern with the
reliability component, but with so much of this coming on our system now, we actually
have an order before the commission to kind of review that contractual obligation that
Idaho Power Company as a utility has. So, reviewing that right now. Just to kind of put
it in scope and perspective, right now with what we have on our system, we have in the
cue, or in contracts or negotiations with about 1,100 megawatts of wind. Just to kind of
put that in realistic terms, our peak load in the summertime is about 3,000 megawatts.
So, we are talking about a third of our generation potentially coming from wind, which is
an intermittent resource and it's a resource that we are having to purchase and maybe
even purchase at a higher cost that we could generate from other resources. Ultimately
that could mean is the cost shift over onto our rate payers. As an example, if this
continues down this same path without any intervention 2015 we will be looking at about
-- probably about a 48 million dollar hit to the operations of our company over our
existing cost to run our generation system today. So, it's kind of a big topic of
discussion before the commission. There was a bitter article in the paper on Sunday
about that, so that's something that's going on and that kind of leads me into my next
piece a little bit when you start talking about that price and that price gets shifted over
and we have to raise, potentially, our rates and our liability issue to our customers, what
kind of an impact does that have in the economic landscape we are in, certainly with
economic development, especially with your large businesses looking to site in the area
one thing that certainly is attractive today is the energy price. If this wind or if this
resource continues down that path does that price still become -- still competitively
priced, is it still a reliable resource. So, that's something we have to pay attention to.
One of the areas in the economic development that we are addressing right now is we
haven't seen a lot of requests come in for these large loads, specifically like data
centers, for example, and we are certainly in an environment right now where our
transmissions and generation systems are very tight and are very constrained. When
you're talking about a very large load coming in and needing a lot of energy, we are
probably going to have to build a generation and a transmission resource to serve that.
That's something that that cost is borne by the new customer coming on service,
because it gets spread amongst all your rate payers and how do you kind of navigate
through that environment of keeping the price fair for courting new business, to grow
your economies in your community, but at the same time make sure that's not a shift
over onto your existing rate payers and puts that added burden onto the rate payers,
especially in the economy that we are in today, so we have an order before the
commission to adjust one of our large industrial tariffs, basically, that will address some
of this where we can enter into more specific negotiated contracts with these large
customers, as opposed to today they might have to just use an existing tariff and the
rate's already established, there is no room for negotiation. If we have a large customer
come in, we can enter a special contract and we can adjust that pricing, maybe we can
work with the customer that maybe they shut down in the summertime as part of their
operation, which is when we peak, so that could be advantageous, so we could talk
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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about that. It just allows a lot of flexibility in serving that customer, but still, hopefully,
beneficial to serving that customer and the economic development that comes along
with that, but doesn't have an impact on the existing rate payers. So, those are a
couple of large items that are kind of out there right now. Certainly some of the other
things we have going on is our energy efficiency programs. We are certainly utilizing
those a lot and asking our customers to utilize the programs a lot and as the old adage
is the cheapest energy to generate is the one you don't have to generate. These
energy efficiency programs there is no poles or wires associated with that, there is no
permitting that's required for that, there is no potential for carbon tax or greenhouse gas
emissions, so a lot of case energy efficiency makes a lot of sense. I know the city has
done quite a bit with this building right here and I don't know where you stand as far as
your budgets go, but I think we stand ready to make a nice incentive payment to the city
on your wastewater treatment facility for I think putting in your aeroration blowers, I
believe, so I don't know where that stands, but certainly there is I think potential for huge
energy savings there, certainly which is a benefit, obviously, to the city, and hopefully
your citizens, but certainly lowers the demand on our system that, again, hopefully,
keeps our cost down in serving our customers. So, we are very aggressive in our
energy efficiency programs, still very aggressive in our public outreach, we have got a
lot of capital projects going on and a new gas generation facility is being built over in
Payette county. That's underway and due to come on line in 2012. It will be a nice
stable generation resource that will give us capacity or head room, if you will, to be able
to serve our existing base as it grows, plus be able to make sure that we are there and
have the capacity available to handle new development and new economic
development when the economy starts to improve. A couple large transmission projects
that we have underway, we are going through the public process on that. It's a long
process to go through that, but we certainly are engaging the public and any of those
type of infrastructure projects as much as we can. Certainly engaging the customers.
You get their input. Hopefully get their buy in. It does lengthen the process and,
obviously, we are at a point where we are very constrained on energy paths, bringing
energy -- importing energy into our service area, so there is kind of a heightened need
to continue to move forward with these projects. And I think that's primarily it from a --
Hell's Canyon we are still in the process of relicensing that facility. It was, obviously,
raining when I came in and that's a good thing. We see little dividends falling out of the
sky when you see rain or snow coming down, so, hopefully, it cools down, because the
way it was the last couple of days it's all running off and you just have to spill it, because
our loads aren't very high right now, so it would be nice to keep that water as in snow
pack up there, pull it down in the summertime. When we need it we can generate it to
serve our customers at a high period, so don't have a lot of control over that, but we will
certainly keep our fingers crossed. That moisture is always a good thing, so -- I'll kind of
wrap it up there, but, again, appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to you this
evening and appreciate the opportunity to work with the fine folks in your staff and the
City of Meridian and the community over this last year and look forward to a great
relationship going forward. Been very supportive and have a very good partnership
and, hopefully, we will see that continue. So, if you have any questions for me I will
stand for those questions at this point.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 15 of 57
de Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, if I may.
de Weerd: Yes.
Zaremba: Last year you mentioned a cool project to eliminate the need for meter
readers to be out in their trucks and around. I know my house got a new meter on it
and I just wondered as -- how far along is that program, have you hit every residence in
the valley, and is it having the benefits that you thought it would?
Watson: Certainly, Councilman Zaremba, thank you very much and you made me a
little bit nervous there when you said I remember what you said something from last
year, like, oh, no, what did I say.
Zaremba: It was cool, that's why I was aware of it.
Watson: Yes, that is advancing and we have about -- in fact, I just read it today, as a
matter of fact. About 344,000 of those meters have been installed to date. We are
working over in the eastern part of our service territory, Pocatello, Blackfoot, American
Falls. We will finish up there and, then, about halfway through 2011 we will slip into the
Twin Falls area and work that area and, then, we will be, essentially, completed --
probably even before the end of the year, but about just shy of 500,000 meters in our
service territory and I would say we are at about 344 or 345 thousand installed to date.
So, certainly one of the major components of that is, you know, allow us kind of two way
communication vehicle to take place where customers can kind of, essentially, talk back
to Idaho Power and we can actually talk to the customer and the main thing is it's going
to be able to give the customer a more consistent price signal on their energy usage.
You can go in and sign up as an account manager through Idaho Power's website and
you can drill down and get more specific information on your utility bill. Instead of just
getting the bill at the end of the month this is how much you used and there you go, you
can go in and see, you know, how much did I use on this hour if somebody really
wanted to do that, but you can go through that exercise. Once we get this infrastructure
completely installed -- like I say, it has provided a lot of benefits just in fuel savings, fleet
vehicles, those types of things will go away. Accuracy, obviously, is a hundred percent.
Our accuracy was very high with our manual reading, but we certainly had, you know,
your human error, so that component was always in there, so that's been eliminated, so
customer satisfaction, customer service billing, and hopefully has improved and become
more efficient. One of the components that we will see once we get this infrastructure in
place is it will have time variant pricing come into play as I talked about the era of
energy is changing and certainly the way it's being generated with wind is one way it's
changing, but on the pricing side you're going to see some big changes coming, you
know, it will be several years down the road, but now you pay -- well, today in a
residential you pay a price per kilowatt hour, depending on how many kilowatt hours you
use in the three different blocks. That will probably just get a little bit more sophisticated
in the pricing when we are having to deliver the energy to customers. What's the price
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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of that energy and, then, that will be reflected in the rates you pay. So, the idea is to
maybe have customers wear this price signals and they are shifting their consumption,
you know, to maybe lower -- lower cost times of the price -- energy pricing, so, yeah,
that project's moving along and it's moving along very well, so appreciate your asking.
Thank you.
Zaremba: Great. Thank you.
Watson: Long answer. Sorry about that.
de Weerd: Council, any other questions?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
de Weerd: Thank you for the update. We appreciate you being here.
Watson: Thank you very much. Appreciate it and let you get back to your business this
evening. I do have packets. Shall I just leave those over there with Jaycee and she
can distribute those?
de Weerd: Yes. With the clerk.
Watson: Okay. Thank you very much.
D. Parks Department: Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park Update
de Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-D. I'll turn this over to our parks director Mr.
Siddoway.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Good evening. It has
been a little over six months since our formal ground breaking on Julius M. Kleiner
Memorial Park and we wanted to come back and give you an update on our activities
through last summer and fall to get us up to speed through today and let you know
where we are at, some of our activities. Susan Graham is here to help present this
presentation, but I believe all of you were at our ground breaking in July and most, if not
all of you were at the -- the ground breaking that we held in November for the senior
center and many of you saw the progress in November that had occurred over the
summer and we want to share with you some of the progress and some of the fun that's
being had out there as we move forward into construction -- or through construction. In
the winter it's slowed down a little bit in the last month or two, but construction is still
ongoing out there, tiling of ditches, other things that we can do during the winter, and we
continue to press forward with the goal of having a completed park towards the end of
this year. So, with that I'm going to invite Susan up to the podium to make the
presentation and, then, we will stand for any questions at the end.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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Graham: Thank you. Susan Graham with Parametrics. This is always exciting and I
love this particular view of the park, because when Ifirst -- every month we get updated
aerials and when I first saw it this time I was like, wow, we have got pavement, we have
concrete curbing, we got some very large water features and -- and it's just so beautiful
with the foothills and with snow in the background. So, we had to start with that,
because it's come a long way. I'm not going to read all of these numbers, but, really,
wanted to give you a sense of the amount of progress that's happened out there in the
last really only seven months and, actually, Steve was telling me that a year ago we
were still at 30 percent design, we hadn't even finished design, and now we are here,
you know, well into construction. So, we really appreciate city staff from virtually every
department partnering with us to get our approvals and get our inspections and move
through and it's been great. Again, there has been a lot of activity and it's a big muddy
mess right now, but we are trying to install some -- some pretty big irrigation pipe right
now and it's -- it's moving along. So, I'm going to go really quick through these aerials.
They are mostly the same angle and you can see not that long ago -- snow storm. And
this is last month. And we will -- in about -- in another week we will have January's
aerials out and I'm not sure you're going to see a lot more. Everything's underground
now, so -- anyway, we have made a lot of progress. Here are just some pictures of the
construction in process. Lining of that pond -- both ponds is a major construction effort.
You can see that photo that's 8/24, they are rolling that out. We had about 30 crew out
laying that out. It's really heavy, it's thick, it's got to keep that water in, so it has to be
laid just right and it can't be stretched or torn. And, then, you can see where they were
putting wall in, that wall is going to be the hard edge to the pond that will come up -- the
bottom course of that wall is -- is the gray concrete, because it will be underwater and
above that is the decorative keystone wall. And, then, some concrete work being done.
You can see the ADA crossing yellow in there at that curb. So, in terms of the entrance,
the roundabout, all the concrete work is done for the roundabout entrance and you can
see the crew that are there are actually standing on textured rubber pads that make it
look like it's a rock finish, instead of concrete, so that is what's happening there. One of
the things that's actually evolved even since we put this together -- there is going to be
an historic interpretive area of the park. Mr. Kleiner has decided that he is more
comfortable with the historic items to be housed here at the city with the historic
preservation office, rather than in a structure. This is a very small structure out on site,
just because of climate control and other issues of potential vandalism. So, we are
going to do more of a signage interpretive area similar to like the types of signs that you
have in the plaza out here that will have pictures on them and have information and
some interactive elements, but we won't actually house the artifacts on site until the
community center is constructed and there is a real home for them. What we showed
here was kind of going to be a make do, but it was a pretty expensive make do and we
opted to do something more long term. The Rock of Honor is another new item that has
evolved over the last -- really just the last two or three months and you can see where it
will be -- oh. Is it one of these ones right -- Steve? It will be located here in between
the future community center and the senior center and this just is the plan view of where
it will be located. We actually have a meeting tomorrow with the Mayor and some of the
Rock of Honor folks to talk about what the actual monument would look like. But that is
where it would be located within the park. Another thing that's different is locating the
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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flags here on this knoll. Originally they were going to be over here, but one of the
concerns was if you're having a flag ceremony everyone's looking at the flags and
directly out at the parking lot. Now that we have a flag raised up they will have a better
backdrop and they will use that plaza for a lot of other memorial type functions. So, we
are really excited about that. These are just pictures of some actual -- this is the actual
play structure that we are using on site and all those other elements have always been
a part of the park, so I won't go into a lot of detail about that. The senior center, the
ground breaking was a couple months ago. There is, actually, a full foundation out
there now and that's pretty exciting. So, getting closer and closer on that. That's our
longest lead time building. That's going to be about nine months from the time we start
going vertical. So, when Steve says we are going to be done about the end of the year,
it's the senior center that is, really, the longest term element of all the projects that we
are building out there. signage. This is about the third evolution of what the signage
and theme of the park will look like, the branding of the park, and the color coded dots
on the -- on the map there indicate where some of the other signs are going to be
placed and Mr. Kleiner particularly liked to brown and the blue combination of this -- it
reminded him of the valley with the foothills and the sky and as you know he lives in
Washington and it would otherwise have been green and gray, so he was really happy
to have some blue.
Bird: He don't get to see much blue
Graham: Yeah. Or much trees, really. The fog's too low. This is what some of the
signage is going to look like. The picture in the middle is an actual cardboard laser cut
example of what the signs are going to be and, basically, this dark area here that looks
like it's rust color, that will be tin -- corten steel and the leaf will be cut out and rotated,
so there is some three dimension to the signs, even though it's really just a single cut of
the steel. And, then, the top colored panels up in this area are porcelain and printed.
So, there is a color theme that goes with each quadrant of the park, which I will go back
to. There is -- I'm going to get this wrong, Steve.
Siddoway: The active rec area is spring.
Graham: Spring.
Siddoway: Yeah.
Graham: Summer.
Siddoway: Summer. There we go.
Graham: Fall. We didn't want to make the senior center winter. So, it's fall. And this is
winter over in the arboretum and signage colors in terms of organizationally within the
park will all be coded and a certain specific leaf will be on all the signs in each one of
those areas. So, it's going to be a nice organizational element and we are working with
some great artists on this project as well. Landmark Impressions and Trademark Signs.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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Some of the site furnishings -- one of the things we are really excited about on this
project from the beginning down to the consultant team and the construction contracting
team and now fabricating team is keeping as much as we possibly can in Meridian and
in the valley and we have found a manufacturer that's going to be able to build all of our
benches and all of our trash receptacles here locally and not have to order them
through a catalog that are shipped here from somewhere else and we are really proud
of that and the partnership that we had it -- not only is it custom, which is much more
special, but it was also more affordable, so it saves on fuel to get things here, it keeps
jobs here in the valley, it's just been really great. And some of our fabricators are
actually our very own parks department staff and the bollards and the drinking fountains
are going to be, actually, manufactured by city parks during some of the down time that
parks staff has. So, we are pretty excited about that also. Art in the Park. This, again,
is the obelisk that Amber is designing and on the very top of it is a wind turbine that will
be generating and storing power in batteries at the base of the obelisk that will up light
the obelisk so it won't be -- it will be off the grid, it will be just lit by the wind that -- that is
to be found at 55 feet up, which is how high those are going to be. And the statute -- I
wish Thad -- just got a picture from the artist. This statute is now eight feet tall and
getting ready to go to the foundry in Berkeley, California. So, the things that are still to
come -- we still have more grading and utility construction, even through the winter.
The big -- big project right now is tiling of the irrigation canal. I'm continuing to work on
getting right of way. It's -- it's one of the things that's been the most challenging for me
personally and I think we are getting closer, but until we have right of way we won't be
going vertical on any of the structures. So, it does have a caveat on when we can open.
And I'm still leaving late September 2011 on there, but, again, it's really subject to
getting final right of way. So, I think that -- oh, I might have one more. Just wanted to
leave you with this picture and, then, open for any questions.
de Weerd: Thank you, Susan. Council, any questions. It kind of leaves you
speechless. You know, it's -- we are glad someone else is having to put all of this
together. We like the idea that this is a turn key park, that it's given to the city as a
completed project. You guys have been doing tremendous work on it and it makes you
really appreciate the team that's been put together and the Kleiner trust. I know they
have been living this project, haven't they?
Graham: Yes. And it's been -- it's been very exciting and, again, I do have to thank city
staff, because they have been a huge resource to this team. Elroy is out there every
day. Max Jensen and Murray from various departments, as well as Steve providing
overall leadership, it takes a village to build this park and we really appreciate the
partnership that we have had with -- with all of those folks. So, thank you.
de Weerd: Well, thank you. Steve, anything you want to add?
Siddoway: Madam Mayor, it's just been an honor to work on this project. It continues to
be one of those legacy projects that's -- we, as a community, will always be proud of
and I'm just honored and privileged to be a part of it and I look forward to having it open
later this year.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 20 of 57
de Weerd: I think you have summarized all of our thoughts on that one, so we are very
privileged to be part of it as well. And appreciate your leadership. You have been
involved in this since I met with the Kleiner trust and recommended someone that might
be a neutral party and you're no longer neutral.
Siddoway: I'm deeply committed now.
de Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you so much.
Siddoway: Thank you.
Item 7: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
de Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Action Items
A. MFP 10-005 Hacienda Subdivision by Jayo Construction
Located East Side of Meridian Road, Approximately 1/4 Mile
South of E. Chinden Boulevard Request: Remove the Interior
Common Open Space Fencing AND Remove Approximately
565 Feet of Perimeter Fencing on the East Boundary Approved
with the Final Plat Landscaping Plan (FP 05-031)
de Weerd: So, we will move into our Action Items. Item 8-A, which is MFP 10-1005
Parsons: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The subject property
before you this evening is approximately a quarter mile south of Chinden Boulevard,
located on the west side of North Meridian Road. The site consists of 19 acres and it's
currently zoned R-8. This is the -- actually, the third modification to the final plat that the
Council's acted on. The previous modifications had to deal with the changing of the
fencing materials and the timing for that -- the construction of that fencing. Before you
this evening -- here is the graphic that depicts what fencing is proposed for removal
before you this evening. It is highlighted in blue. So, there is a -- it is approximately 560
feet along the eastern boundary of the plat that currently there is an existing masonry
wall there. The applicant is proposing to remove that to avoid double fencing along that
boundary. And, then, all the other fencing that you see is adjacent to common open
space that was platted with this subdivision back in 2005. Staff is supportive of the
applicant's request to remove the fencing for several reasons. Located along the south
boundary and the east boundary are proposed townhomes. Currently there is two
structures being constructed -- one under construction and one that's been completed
and if you notice some of those common space lots or open lots are just, basically,
narrow corridors. There is no pedestrian connectivity. They don't connect to adjacent
subdivisions and so, really, if that were to be fenced it would actually decrease the look
of the townhome or at least the courtyard look that the applicant was going for when
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 21 of 57
they first came before you in 2005. So, staff was, again, supportive of that request.
And, then, also in 2008 when the applicant came before you as far as modifying the
fencing and establishing the timing for that fencing, it was agreed upon or Council acted
and approved the request that the fencing would be constructed at the time that they
submitted for a building permit and the building department would take charge of that
and review the fencing requirements at that time. I would point out to Council that
perimeter fencing is not proposed, except for along the eastern boundary, and that
condition is still in place. That perimeter fencing will be reviewed when they come in
and propose any structures along the perimeter boundary. And, then, also because of
some of the open space fencing requirement we have and the UDC requirements for
fencing, the applicants actually will shift the burden to probably -- potentially shift the
burden to the homeowners that buy homes or place -- construct homes adjacent to that
common open space. So, staff is -- and we do have new fencing standards in place
now, so any fencing that is proposed within any subdivision within Meridian will come to
the planning department for approval. So, there is a secondary mechanism for
reviewing fencing for this subdivision to insure that it will comply with the fencing
requirements of the UDC. I did want to point out that staff is recommending a new
condition of approval to tie to the plat and have that in the order that comes back before
you and that, basically, states that all fencing adjacent to these common open space
lots will comply with UDC 11-3A-7. The applicant is in agreement with the staff report.
To staffs knowledge there aren't any outstanding issues before you this evening and
with that I'd stand for any questions you may have.
de Weerd: Thank you, Bill. Council, any questions? Okay. Is the applicant here?
Would you like to provide any comment? Even if you said that you had to provide
comment. So, it doesn't look like the applicant has any. Council, any questions you
have for staff or applicant? It isn't listed as a public hearing, but is there anyone here on
this item? Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Don't have to close the public hearing, but I would make a motion to approve
MFP 10-005 with the staff recommendations as listed, plus the new condition that all
fencing adjacent to the common area would be subject to the fencing standards in
accordance with UDC 11-3A-7.
Zaremba: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, will you call
roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 22 of 57
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
B. Public Hearing: TE 10-034 Jericho Subdivision by Washington
Federal Savings Located 6055 & 6185 N. Jericho Street
Request: Approval of a Two (2) Year Time Extension to Obtain
the City Engineer's Signature on the Final Plat
de Weerd: Okay. Our next public hearing is Item 8-B, which TE 10-034. I will open this
public hearing with staff comments.
Parsons: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The subject site consists
of 9.52 acres. It's currently zoned R-4 and R-15. It is located at 6055 and 6185 North
Jericho Road. So, the plat does consist of two parcels currently. Surrounding
subdivision are Hightower Subdivision to the east -- to the west and to the east and,
then, we have Arcadia Sub to the south, which is zoned R-8. If you recall back in 2009
the applicant provided -- or submitted a time extension -- administrative time extension
before staff and during that review the planning director had recommended denial of
that time extension because the plat did not comply with the ten percent open space
requirements of the UDC. That created the applicant to submit a City Council review
application that came back before you that same year and Council did take action on
that applicant and approve the plat with six percent open space predicated on the fact
that they work with staff and add two additional amenities. To this date applicant has
not provided a revised landscape plan showing those two new amenities and since that
time the property is now currently under new ownership.
Here is the plat that they propose to you. It included 68 residential lots, ten common
lots and two private street lots. Here is the approved landscape plan or portion
therefore. Because things have changed even from the date that the previous time
extension was approved until now staff is recommending new conditions of approval
with the time extension before you this evening. I did want to point out to Council that
several of the existing trees that were to remain part of the project have now been
removed. They have either died or been removed and that was a result of -- I think a
combination of things. Speaking with one of the adjacent homeowners this morning on
the project it sounded like there was some irrigation issues with the property back then
and some of the homes that are adjacent to the west boundary had a flooding incident
earlier this year and also because the maintenance -- the property was not being
maintained properly some of the existing trees died. So, I think what's happened is in
order to address some of those issues some trees were removed to -- to take care of
some of those liability issues. Staff has not been in contact with the new owner, so we
are not sure of -- of why those trees were removed, but I can assure you a new
condition of approval is in place that will require the applicant to mitigate for that.
I'd also like to point out elevations were approved with that subdivision back in 2006 and
that's what you see. So, on the left-hand side you can see that there is single family
detached homes and, then, you can see the proposed townhomes that were provided
and discussed at the hearing as well. I would point out that townhomes are now subject
to the design manual and design review and CZC approval, so if and when construction
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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is proposed for that subdivision those townhomes will come back before staff and be
reviewed with another administrative review application. Staff did receive testimony
from -- a written agreement to the staff report from the applicant's representative. Have
not -- again, have not heard from the bank itself and if I go to the next slide. These are
the new conditions of approval that are before you this evening. They are attached in
your hearing outline. Basically, design review and CZC approval for the townhomes
and compliance with the elevations, revised landscape plan that requires the two
amenities prior to signature on the plat and, then, the applicant shall mitigate for the 113
caliper inches of trees that have been removed or currently dead on the property. Staff
is unsure at this time if that drain -- the flooding issue has resolved, so there is an
outstanding issue that Iwould -- could bring up to you tonight. I'm not sure of that.
Hopefully the applicant and some of the homeowners that are in the audience can
address some of those issues tonight. Other than that, staff is recommending approval
of the two year time extension and with that I'd stand for any questions you may have.
de Weerd: Council, any questions at this point. I understand that there were some
names submitted to the city clerk in advance of the meeting. If you could read those
names into the record at this point it would be appropriate.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I had four written comments and they all voted no
or against and they were from Karen Degrassia. Emma Howell at 815 East Boulder Bar
Street. Linda Vallino, 798 East Boulder Bar. And Odessa Keckler at 806 East Boulder
Bar.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Would the applicant like to comment at this time? Bill,
as Becky is coming up if -- when this came through for the first time extension did we
have extensive conversation about weeds?
Canning: Yes.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. If you will, please, state your name and
address for the record.
McKay: Becky McKay. Engineering Solutions, 1029 North Rosario, Meridian. As Bill
indicated, the project was originally owned by Packard Estates Development. It kind of
-- when we submitted the -- the first time extension it was in limbo and we had a weed
situation and we did get that taken care of. The property has since changed hands and
has gone back to Washington Federal Savings and Loan. I did send the staff report to
the gentleman at the bank. I did not get a response from him if he consented to the
conditions, but the conditions were consistent with what I had discussed with the staff in
the pre-application conference. The trees that were out there I did contact Mr. Groves, I
asked him if he removed the trees. He said, no, that he did not and that it was his
assumption that the bank had done it. I know that they have -- I think her name is
Barbara, a local employee, who now is, I guess, managing these properties, because
they have taken quite a few of them back and her responsibility is to make sure that
there are no hazards on the property, that the home -- existing homes aren't vandalized,
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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that they are demoed if necessary and take care of weeds and so forth and I think they
have just kind of implemented this program. This is our second time extension. The
first one to come before the Council. The last one, as you recall, was on appeal for the
staff level. We do -- we do have approved construction plans on this project. It was,
you know, obviously, the intent that this -- this move forward. I have received multiple
phone calls within the past 30 days from credible developers looking at this project to
pick it up and to proceed with it. So, you know, I would ask that the Council, you know,
consider -- you know, these don't do any good just sitting there as weeds, obviously.
We have trees that die and it becomes a problem. I don't know what they are going to
do on the tree mitigation, because it's not that big a site and I guess, you know, whoever
picks up the baton on this one and moves forward will have to address that, you know,
whether they donate trees to the parks department or come up with some other
mitigation means, I guess that would be up to them. But at this time Idon't -- you know,
I can't really give you a lot of answers. Do you have any questions?
de Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. This is a public hearing and I do have a list that
people signed up. When I call your name if you would like to come forward at that time
and provide testimony, I would invite you to do so. Ralph and Darlene Bielinski signed
up against. If you will, please, state your name and address for the record.
Bielinski: My name is Ralph Bielinski. I live at 6178 North Saguaro Hills Avenue.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Bielinski: Madam Mayor and Council persons, thank you for this opportunity. There is a
row of homes that border Jericho Subdivision on the west side. There is ten lots and
nine homes. One lot is unimproved. I own one of those homes, as do the people in the
back row here. They also own a home. I'm also president of the Hightower
homeowners subdivision -- I mean the Hightower Homeowners Association, so I'm the
-- I'm here to represent myself as a homeowner, but I'm also here to represent the view
of the homeowners association. We oppose the extension of this -- the approval of the
extension and I'd like to say why, a little bit just so you can understand where I'm
coming from. We have been -- my wife and I have been here for two years, we come
from Wisconsin, at a city in Wisconsin. I was a part of a planning commission for a city.
also served -- was elected and served as a council person. I was -- I was a part of a
city housing task force that was formed to promote residential development and I also
helped develop the city's comprehensive plan. So, I have a little bit of an idea of this
process here. As part of my background, when I first viewed this subdivision plat I
looked at it and the first thing that occurred to me was it's a planned ghetto and the
reason is the 68 homes are on nine and a half acres. The 24 townhouses, eight three-
plexes, in my background they are small units, most of those would wind up being rental
units, if not all of them, and the subject to the issues of rental properties, which is higher
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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crime, drug, alcohol, accelerated property damage. It's not what I would consider a
family oriented kind of layout and the -- and I did talk to Mr. Parsons this morning and
he told me that it was not somebody who is trying to take -- see how many buildings
they could put in nine and a half acres, but that according to your Comprehensive Plan
that -- that is designated -- that area is designated as a neighborhood center and as
such is a high density urban environment, so it's not what I consider a family oriented
subdivision. And the other issue that I had with it is the roads -- I don't know if you can
see it, but the roads exit onto -- I forgot the name of the street up there -- onto Saguaro
Hills Avenue and they exit on Saguaro Hills and Chinden Road where there is a Moxie
Java is congested already in the morning. I mean people have commented that it takes
a long time to get out of the subdivision to go to work. What complicates matters is right
across from the exit is another subdivision and we have a lot of people turning -- trying
to turn left to go into Boise or go east for jobs as well. So, the -- I don't think there was a
lot of thought -- there is going to be a tremendous amount of congestion the way these
roads are laid out. I'd like to get back to that -- how do I get back to that -- okay. If you
take a look at the road -- the exit on the top and, then, on the side, the only way you can
get out is to turn left and go down to Saguaro Hills and head out to -- past the Moxie
Java out to Chinden that way. I just had a comment on the Comprehensive Plan. From
my perspective and from my experience the Comprehensive Plan is a good -- is a
guideline, albeit a strong guideline, but it's not something that should be followed blindly,
particularly when there might be better options available, and what we would propose --
and we discussed this a little bit with -- the layout, the -- we lay out the plat, that it
become a little more family oriented subdivision, rather than the high density urban
environment. The -- when I think of a family oriented -- we are speaking about a family
valued type of environment where you have people that tend to have the same set of
values, they have kids that go to the schools, they have kids -- churches, shopping,
community events tend to be a common thing that happens there. Also the roads are a
real issue --
de Weerd: Excuse me for just a minute. Did you give him ten minutes as a spokes
person for an HOA?
Holman: No, Madam Mayor. I gave him five. So, put five more minutes on?
de Weerd: I can't -- is it five minutes for an HOA?
Bielinski: I have to address the flooding issue as well.
de Weerd: If you will hold on just a second.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think if it's a spokes person I think you
have given them ten.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Sorry for interrupting you.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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Bielinski: That's okay. The -- some suggestions that happen may -- is that there be
more exits from the subdivision and some onto Jericho Road, which is on the right-hand
side and that Jericho Road be extended to Chinden to eliminate all of the -- all of the
traffic going west and coming out, because it's going to be a tremendous amount of
congestion up there and I can see some real safety hazards up in that area, too, with all
the cars trying to get in and out there. I think that's about it that we propose. Again, we
oppose the approval of the extension based on that. We'd prefer to see something
more family oriented. A couple more comments. I think that the people that are living
there are concerned about living next to a ghetto type environment. It lowers our
housing -- property values, plus we have got builders in our area that are trying to build
and it's going to -- if the word gets out that they are going to have a high density
environment or ghetto type environment there, it's going to kind of put a damper on how
that area is viewed and right now that area is viewed very positively. So, other than
that, before I move onto the flooding issue, are there any questions?
de Weerd: Okay. Go ahead and continue.
Bielinski: Okay. There was some question on the flooding issue and we have a
flooding problem. One of the ladies in the back came to my door about 5:30 one
Saturday and said that the field behind us -- the Jericho field was flooding. And so
went out and I took a look and, then, I checked my backyard and the fence between
Jericho -- we had about a foot of water into the yard from the Jericho property all along
our property. I looked across the fence, the lady next door who is right behind the
waste ditch and she had more water -- I couldn't say how much, but more water than we
had in our yard within her yard. Went out and I checked and the problem was we have
about a half a block down we have a vacant lot, an unimproved lot, and that lot the
water was -- from Jericho was coming down virtually the full width of the lot into the
street and we had a stream in the street that was probably two foot deep and maybe
three or four inches high that was exiting into the sewer down the block -- the city sewer
down the block. What happened with -- quickly -- I called -- I called the police
department, who called Settlers, who called the Kerns ditch rider, who came out and
pulled the grate on Chinden where this thing exits downstream and he also closed the
gate on the weir box, the Kerns weir box that's located on the southeast corner of the
Jericho property. Part of the problem was when Grove was -- was to improve this
property he was supposed to upgrade the weir box to put in a full control so that this
wouldn't happen. When Grove defaulted to the bank then nothing happened and what I
would like to see happen is that -- whether this -- this plot gets approved or not, that the
bank move forward with the construction and the upgrading of the weir box in an
attempt to eliminate that. So, right now what they did was -- we talked about the trees --
some of the -- some of the trees were -- the waste ditch was widened and deepened
and some of the trees were cut down because they were adding to the debris that went
into all of our -- all the ditches that are from the cornstocks all the way down Jericho, all
the way up and across the Jericho Subdivision. There was an attempt to eliminate the
clogging of the -- of the troughs and the waste ditch. I think our main concern is that
this -- it's easily, if somebody wouldn't have seen it, that whole row of homes -- those
nine homes could have had their crawl spaces flooded. So, I did talk -- after this
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January 18, 2011
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happened there was a guy cutting down weeds in the field and I went to talk to him and
ask him if he had encountered anything like that and he said he came out to cut weeds
one time, but couldn't do it because there was two foot of water in the field. So, this has
been going on and somehow I would like to see some instruction given to Washington
Federal to move ahead with the -- with the upgrading of that box. So, again, we do
oppose the approval of this and we'd like to see it re-laid out a more family oriented
layout. Like to see the traffic rerouted and approved or exiting traffic. I don't think there
was at the time -- I don't think that there is a big consideration with the traffic flow, but
think the traffic flow really has to be considered here.
de Weerd: Sir, I'm sorry, you need to --
Bielinski: Okay. Any question?
de Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you so much. Jackie Dahl. Signed up against. Good
evening. If you will, please, state your name and address.
Dahl: Jackie Dahl. 6108 North Saguaro Hills Avenue.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Dahl: My comment is that I hope you listen very carefully to Ralph. I happen to be the
one that noticed the flooding and it came into my property and it was a tremendous
health hazard. It brought all kinds of crap and stuff and it -- it was nasty. The water was
running next to my house in the empty lot all the way to the street and it was horrible
and we were helpless. Another hazard, as far as I'm concerned, is that last summer
whoever owned the property -- I believe it was the bank, did mow the field, the nine
acres, but it was a tremendous fire hazard and if that lot is going to stay empty it needs
to have a fire line, because the homes that back up to it have absolutely no protection
whatsoever. Basically that's it. And I would hate to have to live in a ghetto and I have
back up. I really agree with everything that -- that Ralph said. And that's it.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you so much.
Dahl: Thank you.
de Weerd: Jerry Stansell signed up against. Okay. Thank you. Mitch McCoy signed
up against. Vince -- I'm sorry, Vince, I can't read your last name. Cosentino? There
you go. Signed up against. If you will, please, state your name and address for the
record.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 28 of 57
Cosentino: Okay. My name is Vince Cosentino and my address -- I just bought the
place, so I'm trying to remember it. It's 6165 Saguaro Hills. As I indicated, I just -- good
evening, Council members and Mayor. My whole situation here is I'm unprepared for
this. I just got here, just trying to get the property prepared. I have invested about a
quarter of a million dollars of my personal funds in the property and probably another 50
or 40 thousand in whatever that you have when you have a new home. I was totally
unaware of this situation until just yesterday, somebody dropped off a little note from the
-- the association. So, all I'm saying is is that, you know, your -- your duties are the
guardians of the public trust and I find that the indications of the gentleman that spoke
before me that he had indicated that the way it's going to end up is with a lot more
people than is planned -- that we all -- or I was aware of in this particular area. If that
creates street problems or crime problems and things like that I'm not too sure about my
wonderful investment. I came here because I -- I really enjoy the area and I like it and I
wouldn't have invested the dollars to begin with. So, as guardians of the trust -- public
trust I hope you people can make a decision that will help the existing residents and
some of the new residents that come here. That's about it. Thank you.
de Weerd: Thank you. Michael Birch signed up against. Okay. And Tyler Rountree
signed up against. If you will, please, state your name and address for the record.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council, Tyler Rountree, 1098
Pasacana. I spoke two years ago against this and it was a bit of a quandary to check
the box today. So, while I somewhat agree with what the homeowners in Hightower
have said, I also think I had a bit of due diligence as a homeowner when I purchased
my home and certainly looking at the plat I looked at before I purchased my home, it is
what it is. I would much rather see it meet what current requirements are, but after
living there for three years absolutely nothing behind me and the weeds, the rodents,
everything else that we are dealing with, houses -- people might be easier to deal with.
That might be a broad statement to make, but the people might be easier to deal well. I
think that Mrs. McKay hit the nail on the head, however, in that there is no one to talk to
to get these problems remedied. It's you guys. It's code enforcement. It's PD. It's fire.
Those are the people that are going to have to come to all of these homeowners' aid
unless the city puts forth the stipulation right now. There are trees that we are dealing
with with our homeowners association on the southeast corner of that property. Two
years ago part of the weed discussion that was remembered from that was those trees.
Nothing was done with those trees. Those trees are still causing problems with our
irrigation system, they are causing problems with the fencing along the perimeter of our
area. The trees need to be mitigated. The water problem that the people are having in
Hightower needs to be mitigated. All that needs to be a condition of the extension on
this development, in my opinion. And I think that the city is the one that's got to do that
somehow, because it's just going to continue to create problems. The flooding is going
to continue to be there until that's mitigated. The other problem that we addressed in
Arcadia is the trees that are along that fence harbor Box Elder bugs and the Box Elder
bug population was quite successful this last fall and they are little teeny tiny red dots
that will crawl in your house through the screen when the windows are open in the fall
and they reproduce like you would not believe. So, I get calls from my wife, who comes
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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home and our home, literally, is covered in Box Elder bugs all fall. I came home from
work this morning and the house, because it was nice yesterday, was covered in Box
Elder bugs. Our HOA has sprayed. I have sprayed. We can't get them mitigated. The
property needs to get taken care of. So, again, while I understand some of what the
Hightower homeowners were saying, the plat's the plat, but the property needs to be
maintained. With that I'd stand for any questions.
de Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions? Thank you for being here. Okay.
Those were the names signed up. Is there anyone else who would like to provide
testimony on this item? Okay. I would ask the applicant's representative to come and
respond to the testimony we have heard or any wrap-up remarks.
McKay: Thank you. You know, obviously, with the time extensions we don't get into the
design of the project and what was previously approved. As you well know, on the
Comprehensive Plan this was designated for I think a minimum of eight dwelling units
per acre due to the fact that that was one of the centers. We struggled to meet that
throughout the whole project. If you look at the Hightower project that adjoins us, it's a
very very similar development. They have front load, smaller, single family dwelling
lots, they have alley load lots, they have linear open space, so it is very similar in nature
and I think that was, you know, one of the things that the staff liked about the particular
project is it did -- it did conform more to the Comprehensive Plan than our original
design. As you -- as you also know, we -- we initially submitted a concept to the Council
-- to the city and, then, we put it on hold and we spent I think close to four or five months
working with the Westborough neighbors and working with the highway district on how
all of this transportation would work in this area and there was talk about elimination of
that Jericho intersection altogether and the focus was to send that traffic to the west
and, then, up to Castleberry Avenue and one of the things that we worked with on the
Westborough was that we have created that front-on housing on Jericho, so that we
didn't just wall ourselves off from them and if you recall they were supportive of our
application, because we had spent so much time on -- with them on our site design and
our building design. I think to say this is not a family oriented project -- families live in all
-- in diversified type of housing. We find families in apartments and these days we are
seeing people down size, we are seeing couples struggle and have to move into smaller
homes and that's kind of the trend that's taking place in the valley right now. As far as
the traffic, there was, like I said, an immense amount of time spent with ACHD and the
city on working out how all of these subdivisions would interconnect and feed out to
Chinden and this was the preferred route, not the Jericho route. The flooding issue,
there is -- there is drainage water, obviously, running off of the property. Now, as you
well know the Idaho Code requires that any adjoining properties, especially if they are
developed, that they shall provide for the drainage runoff. Now, my memory doesn't
always serve me correct, but I do recall that there was a pipe for some of that runoff to
go to the west and I remember a discussion about the size of that pipe that was
designed by another engineer and trying to work with that. I would have to go back to
the project engineer, pull the construction plans, and look at the weir. I know we were
redesigning a weir, we were piping some of the facilities, we did get approval from the
Kerns and I guess take a look at what the problem is. Obviously, you know, you can't
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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damage property that adjoins you, but also there has to be some accommodation for
that drainage. I mean we just -- it can't just disappear. So, that would, obviously, take
coordination with the HOA of Hightower, the Kerns, and permission from the bank to
look at that. As far as Mr. Rountree, I agree with him. You know, if these trees are
obviously where these Box Elder bugs are nesting, then, I would agree that something
needs to be done. We -- I had an office in Eagle that the next door property had Box
Elder bugs and I know what he's talking about. I can relate to that. I guess if the
Council approves this time extension you can add conditions. You have that ability.
Those conditions we can send to the bank. If you would prefer that I go back to the
bank and talk about these issues and have some formal response prepared for you and
defer this item, I could do that. It's whatever you're most comfortable with. But if -- if
they totally just trash this plan it's going to sit there for a long, long time. I mean the
entitlements are really the only remaining value on this property, you know, that's left.
Thank you.
de Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Becky, you know, we can put all the stipulations on it that we want, but how do
you enforce it with the bank until somebody gets ready to develop it and when some --
another developer or somebody buys it, they might not want to stay with this same plan
and we get -- that way they bring in another application and come forward. So, I feel
like we can put all these stipulations on it, but our code enforcement people are going to
live out there and how much are they going to pull with the bank and in these economic
times I don't see it jumping and starting up, you know, being subdivided and ready to
go. I don't know. I -- I was wondering -- and I understand the neighbors concerns.
Something with the water, Ithink -- I don't know if Settlers can force the bank to take
care of that or what they -- what they can do. I mean we can put a stipulation in there,
but who is going to enforce it.
McKay: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Councilman Bird, we'd have to assess the drainage
problem and try to pinpoint what's going on.
Bird: Yeah.
McKay: Is it the weir is leaking? Is it just lack of maintaining the ditches and there has
been gophers? Is it an issue of the Hightower drainage pipe is plugged? I mean we'd
have to determine what is the problem. Ithink, you know, the only -- I agree -- you
know, the banks are not that responsive, you know, to anyone. You know, they are -- I
don't they -- they are overwhelmed and they don't know how to handle this. So, the only
-- the only hammer that the Council has is these are the items that need to be
addressed. We want you to retain the proper professionals to take care of it. If taken
care of, then, we will give you a time extension. I mean I don't know how else to force
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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the issue. Councilman Bird, obviously, that worked to get the weeds taken care of last
time. But that time it was still under control of Mr. Groves, who -- I, you know, went on
the record that I could assure the Council the weeds would be mowed. In this instance
can't give you my professional guarantee. You know, these people are out of Seattle. I
do know they have a local gal and I do have her card and so I could, if the Council
would like to defer this for a month, I can, obviously, type up a detailed memo of all of
these comments as far as these issues that need addressed. The drainage issue. The
tree issue. The weeds. And whatever else seems to be the problem.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I don't know about the other Councilmen, but that would be my preference is to
get it -- to delay this a month and have Becky go back to the bank and given some of
these stipulations and see what they are going to do with it before we do it.
McKay: If the bank's nonresponsive, then, the Council can take whatever action they
deem necessary.
Bird: Yeah. Then, we can do something.
McKay: I don't know what else to do.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: And that's my thinking on this and, Becky, is -- is the hammer, the leverage
that we have over the bank the fact that we hold time extension in our hands. I mean if
we give that up tonight what do we have to say you need to comply with these things,
you need to do something about the flooding, you need to do something about the
trees. You know, that's -- I struggle with that, because this plat has a value and I don't
want to give up that value if that means none of these serious problems are going to be
addressed, so --
McKay: Yeah.
Hoaglun: -- your thoughts on that.
McKay: I guess, Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, right now the power is the time
extension, approving or denying this time extension. You're right, if you approve it
tonight and you impose these conditions that may not be enough of an incentive for the
bank to do anything. But if you say these issues need to be addressed -- I know that
the Eagle city council is encountering the same type of problems and they are
withholding time extension approval until such time as weed issues, irrigation issues,
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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other problems are taken care of. Yeah, this -- I would say this is your opportunity, so if
-- maybe you could instruct the staff to give me an official letter. I would also do a
memo myself so they know that the city -- that this is an issue and, then, if this is not
resolved within, you know, the next 30 days or at least come up with some type of a
commitment on their part written, then, the Council's intention is to deny the time
extension.
Canning: Madam Mayor? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Zaremba. Go ahead.
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I will go first. I was just going to support that idea. What
was going to suggest is that staff add two more conditions and that we let the bank
know that those conditions are required and that one condition would be to explore the
flooding problem and if that weir or irrigation junction box, whatever it is, needs to be
upgraded now, then, that has to be done and that would be the fourth condition. The
fifth condition would to treat the trees on an ongoing basis to prevent them being a
home for the bugs and my suggestion would be to add those to the conditions now and
to notify you that they have been added to the conditions which you can pass along to
the bank and, then, come see us in a month, I would vote to continue this for a month.
de Weerd: Okay. Mrs. Canning.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I just want to kind of refine the
discussion a little bit, because I think it's close, but I wanted to remind Council that Mrs.
McKay was right, if we -- historically when we have added conditions to time extensions
they sit there for two years and absolutely nothing happens until the next time extension
comes up and, then, we remind them that they committed to that and still nothing
happens. I mean we don't get revised landscape plans, we just -- it's forgotten once it
leaves here. It's put on a shelf. What has worked most effectively in the past has been
to say this is approved contingent upon you coming back to us in six months with this
done. Not make it a condition of approval, but in six months this has to be done and,
then, we will approve your time extension. So, it's a little bit of a different twist than
what Mrs. McKay is suggesting. So, rather than coming back -- there may still be value
in coming back in a month to discuss what needs to be done, but, then, to put it off for
six months to actually get it done and, then, the time extension is approved from there.
If Council has no time constraints on how quickly you need to act to this, if we have the
applicant's approval on that issue, which I'm sure we'd get, otherwise, they will have a
denial, probably, on their hands. So, that seemed to have worked -- you may recall we
needed to get a sidewalk built along Ustick? McMillan? McMillan. And that worked
really well to get that -- it wasn't owned by a bank at that point, it was owned by a
person, but instead of just ignoring it for two years we got that sidewalk built rather
quickly. So, I wanted to remind Council that that was an effective tool in the past.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 33 of 57
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba:
Zaremba: I agree with that, although I was more thinking that that six months would be
one month and that these things needed to be completed by a month from now. I guess
my issue on behalf of the people with the flooding and the bugs, is if -- if we say we are
going to reconsider this in six months, we are already talking about spring, going
through spring and being several months beyond that six -- well, six months from now
would be the middle of July. So, that gives me some discomfort with some things that
were supposed to have already been done. So, I -- I was thinking along the same lines,
but I'm not ready to be quite as generous as six months.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I think the irrigation water is turned usually in April. So, like the issue of the
weir, it would have to be completed by then if there are changes to that. So, that's a --
we got three three months to do that, if -- if that's the route we go. And same with the
trees. Prevent -- you know, when spring comes and those Box Elders start hatching
and -- it's a mess. So, I'd prefer sooner as opposed to later and give them a shorter
time frame, maybe start the process at 60 days. If they need an additional 30 days,
come back and say, okay, 30 more days, but that's -- that's about it, because, again, we
will be mid April by that point and that better be taken care of, so --
Zaremba: And, Madam Mayor, I am not talking about the promise, I'm talking about the
action having happened.
Hoaglun: Yeah.
McKay: Madam Mayor, if I may. It may take us two or three weeks to assess what's
going on and, then, get a response back from the bank or authorization to take care of it
or something in writing. I guess I would prefer to report back to the Council in 30 days,
you know, here is a letter from the bank, they will -- and, then, give them 30 days to
complete it from the next meeting.
de Weerd: And, actually, that allows us to continue the public hearing and allows the
neighbors to hear what the responses are and to offer any additional comments or
feedback to -- to what the bank's response might be.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I agree the bank comes back to us in 30 days and at that point we can decide
whether we want to give it another 30 days or what we want to do. Anna, I got a
question for you. What if we look through this flooding and stuff and find out that the
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 34 of 57
piping in the other subdivisions there are -- is not up to what it was supposed to be, how
do we put the hammer to them, because that's been known to be done a lot of times.
Canning: I'm not sure. It's probably an issue that the homeowners would have to take
up with -- their association may have to look into the issue. I know that that's typically
what happens in older homeowners associations is they end up shouldering that burden
after some point.
Bird: Okay. That would be my preference. We give the bank 30 days, Mayor, to come
back with a report and, then, give it another 30 days or something to get it done, period.
de Weerd: So, Council, if you wanted to consider at this point to continue this public
hearing to a date certain and, unfortunately, we don't have updated calendars in front of
us.
Bird: I do right here. Madam Mayor --
Zaremba: Sounds like it would be about February 15th.
Bird: 15th. February 15th.
de Weerd: Okay. I would consider a motion, then, and direction to staff in what to
include in a letter that can be sent with the applicant's representative.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would move that we continue public hearing on TE 10-034 and that staff get with
applicant and the express the concerns regarding this property to -- to forward to the
bank and within -- by February 15th report back with a letter from the bank and at that
time we will take this up again.
Hoaglun: Second.
de Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to continue this public hearing to
February 15th. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
C. Public Hearing: AZ 10-003 Borup Property by Neilson, Inc.
Located at 2250 N. Meridian Road Request: Annexation and
Zoning of 0.22 of an Acre of Land with a C-G Zoning District
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 35 of 57
de Weerd: And thank you. And thank you to the neighbors for being here. Okay. Our
next item, Item 8-C is a public hearing on AZ 10-003. I will open this public hearing with
staff comments.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the application before you is an
annexation request of .22 acres. It's currently zoned RUT in Ada County and it is
located, essentially, at 2250 North Meridian Road. It is associated with that property.
This property was developed with the adjoining property to the north and is held in
common ownership. A portion of the parking lot for the adjoining business is actually
contained on the property. When a Conditional Use Permit for a preschool day care
center was recently approved on the property to the north, it came to staffs attention
that this little strip or this odd shaped bit of property had not been annexed with the
abutting property and Council may recall I actually requested a fee waiver for this
annexation application, because it appeared to have been perhaps staffs error in not
getting the annexation legal checked correctly the first time. So, it's come full -- full
circle back to Council now as the annexation request. And due to its small, irregular
shape, and the fact that it really is associated with a larger property, we are not
proposing a development agreement at this time and just recommending approval of the
proposed annexation to clean up the zoning maps and our records in general. The
Commission recommended approval at the December 16th Planning and Zoning
Commission hearing. Keith Borup spoke in favor at that application -- at that hearing
and no one spoke in opposition or commented, nor did anyone provide written
testimony. There were no key issues of discussion. There were no changes to staffs
recommendation and to our knowledge there are no outstanding issues before City
Council.
de Weerd: Thank you. Would the applicant like to comment? It's always nice to see
you on the other side of that, since we no longer have you on this side.
Borup: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the only thing I'd -- maybe to --
de Weerd: If you will, please, first --
Borup: Oh, I'm sorry. Keith Borup. 2090 Freedom Lane, Meridian, Idaho.
de Weerd: See, I didn't think I had to tell you since you have been on Planning and
Zoning for years.
Borup: You didn't. I realize that before. I just got so excited. Maybe just -- I don't know
how much background information -- this property was purchased in 1998, three parcels
of about a little under three acres. At that time in the closing statement we paid
Meridian city taxes and have been paying Meridian city taxes since then. So, we
assume it was part of the city for some reason. Looking into. it, talked to the county and
they said, well, we made a mistake in '98, you should have been taxed on that and
that's all under the bridge. Well, I was a little curious. The property was originally
annexed in 1982 and a year later this little parcel was purchased and the parking lot
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 36 of 57
was put in. So -- but it wasn't annexed. This small parcel. So, the staff mistake I guess
happened in 1983. So, anyway, that's when it happened and we found out about it and
that's why we are here is to try to get it part of the rest of the -- rest of the property.
don't have anything else, unless there is any questions.
de Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Zaremba: I don't have any questions, but it's nice to see you again.
de Weerd: Okay. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to provide
comment on this application? Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, seeing none, I move we close the public hearing on AZ 10-
003.
Bird: Second.
de Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on this
item. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor.
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we approve AZ 10-003.
Bird: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-C. If there is no discussion
from Council, Madam Clerk, roll call, please.
Bird: Just a second. I do have a question. Did the motion also waive the fee?
Zaremba: I did not specify that, but, yes, that is my intent to waive the fee.
Canning: Council approved the fee waiver in October or so already.
Bird: Okay. I misunderstood. Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you on that.
Zaremba: Well, then, I'm happy it is waived.
de Weerd: Okay. Madam Clerk.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 37 of 57
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 9: Department Reports
A. Planning Department: Ten Mile Area Collector System and
Access Discussion
de Weerd: Thank you for joining us. Nice see you. Okay. Item 9-A under department
reports. We have our planning department.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you. I need to spend just a
moment talking about the Ten Mile interchange specific area plan with you. As you may
recall, one of the challenges that we identified within the plan was getting that collector
road system and the plan actually talks about staff assisting the development
community in developing the collector road system and finding a mechanism to get it
done and that this really was going to be one of the interesting challenges associated
with development of that area. In particular, there is a very challenging section bounded
by Ten Mile, Franklin, Black Cat, and the interstate, which if Bill could highlight that with
the -- there. Basically that box there. That particular area -- there is -- the first parcel
that came in, Meridian 118, which is in the center of that section, basically, is land
locked and that presented some issues with ITD as they were acquiring property to --
for the right of way to make sure that that access remains on there. So, there is a
number of property owners right on Ten Mile that are dealing with ITD on access issues
and those property owners have decided it may be in their best interest to kind of come
forward at this time and propose annexation to the city, dedicate the collector -- the
easements for the collector right of way as easements and, then, to work with ITD to
take what money they would be offering for the acquisition and put it into a road trust
fund. Those details will get all worked out later. There is just a couple of things I need
to run by Council today. One of the things I would like to offer these property owners
that abut Ten Mile is that if they all come in together and work together on this project, I
would like to waive the fees for annexation. So, potentially we are talking 1,700 dollars
per property owner, but we would bring them instead all under one application and they
would have separate development agreements as time goes on, but I would like to
waive the annexation fee as those come in, just a -- as fulfilling the city's commitment in
the plan to assist in developing this collector road system. The second thing I need to
talk to you about is usually you get an annexation, a concept plan, and a preliminary
plat. That's the way it usually works and it may go a little differently this time. You may
get the annexation with the right of way easements and we will get DAs at the time of
annexation, but you may not get a concept plan right at first. If you don't have a concept
plan right at first the DA for that property would say before you do any development you
need to do a development agreement modification and bring us a concept plan. The
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 38 of 57
other thing is you won't get a plat right away -- you won't get a plat right at the
beginning. There we go. They will do these right of way easements and, then, as the
condition of the DA will require that they kind of go and plat them around -- and/or
around them later. So, it's taking things a little out of sequence. I'm comfortable that we
can still get development that's in the best interest of the city and that's consistent with
the Ten Mile interchange specific area plan. I think that it's not just a benefit to the folks
on Ten Mile, we have talked to the other two properties that have already annexed,
Baraya and Meridian 118 being those properties, and, you know, even though they are
not necessarily benefiting from -- from this action that we take right now, they are
excited about being able to plat or dedicate the right of way easements and trying to
address some of those access issues in this particular area. So, the property owners
are largely on board. We haven't talked to the folk, generally, along Black Cat that --
that issue isn't quite as pressing as those facing Ten Mile directly. So, I would like your
permission to waive the fees and I would like your permission to do things a little bit out
of sequence in this area.
de Weerd: Council, questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Anna, would you draw on there what right of way acquisition you're talking about
or are you talking about all of it there? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you had to get up and go
out there. You would think with all that fancy stuff you could do it from your desk.
Canning: The ITD one -- the ones that ITD are particularly concerned with -- if I can get
the pen working. Bill, will you click on the picture, so that -- okay. Let me try again.
Hoaglun: I think it's out of ink.
Canning: Okay. It doesn't want to. Okay. I'll just do it this way. Bill, if you -- if you're
using your mouse it won't let me use my mouse, so -- okay. I'll do it this way. It is not
letting me do it. Hopefully this will work. One of these ways has to work; right? All
right. Then, again, no. All right. ITD is particularly concerned about this access road
right here.
Bird: Okay.
Canning: And, then, secondary access coming perhaps to about right there and, then,
also through the Janicek property up here. This is potentially another secondary access
as well. But the ITD portion is -- is really this little bit right here and that provides access
-- well, it starts on the Janicek property and it provides access to Fredrizzi and SJJV.
Right there. And Meridian 118 would have a little bit of that to provide the secondary
access to the SJJV property down here.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 39 of 57
Bird: Okay.
Canning: And Meridian 118 is also interested in a secondary access through the
Baraya property up here. This little bit is Baraya. Or coming up through this Baraya
portion that comes through Janicek and, then, up to Baraya -- to Baraya up to Franklin.
So, really, we are talking about almost every section of the collector roadway system,
except this little section here and this little section here.
Bird: Okay.
Canning: Now, those would still get done at the time of development, but they are not
as crucial to the -- to the -- what we see as the first access roads going through.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Canning: And, then, this is an underpass in case anyone forgets.
Bird: Anna, so what you're asking to waive is in that section right there, excluding that
section that I think Corey Barton has got already platted.
Canning: Correct. It would be for SJJV, Fedrizzi, Janizek --
Bird: Okay.
Canning: -- and it Mays -- is that the other property owner, Becky? Mays? Is that
right? The one at the corner. Carney is the -- is the fourth one. So, it would be for
those four property owners.
Bird: Okay. Thanks, Anna.
Hoaglun: Question, Anna.
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: You have mentioned fee waiver, but it sounded like they would come as one
application and there would be a fee with that or -- I wanted to be sure I got that clear. It
sounded like we are going to -- they are going to do the easements, but it would be
done as one package, as opposed to each one submitting their own and that's where
the fee waiver request was. So, I want to be certain -- I may have misunderstood
something there.
Canning: I had intended to just bundle them as one application just to make posting
and noticing a bit easier. We could still bring it in as far as an application, but it would
be a little easier to just do one application.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 40 of 57
Hoaglun: And then -- so, it would a waiver of fee even for the one -- instead of doing it
as four separate it would be bundled as one, so that -- my question was, then, is there
just one application fee or that fee would be waived as well for them --
Canning: That -- that fee would be waived as well.
Hoaglun: Okay. So, as an incentive to get them to work together to do this all as one
we waive that fee and get it to move forward and help move all the projects there and
get this resolved.
Canning: Yes.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
de Weerd: I guess --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: -- almost to make it simpler is we are asking them to do this and to annex,
so it almost would be a city led annexation application.
Canning: With all the property owners consent, yes.
de Weerd: Yes. Okay. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: And I just on that same vein wanted to clarify that the fee that we are waiving
is the annexation fee. Their subsequent applications they would pay whatever fee they
would normally pay.
Canning: That is the intent now. They may ask -- and I'm not sure at this point --
usually through the annexation process at the end Council decides we want a DA, we
don't want a DA. They may ask to have the DA fee waived as well. That's not critical at
this point. I mean I just -- we need to get them in the door first, so -- and that one may
vary by applicant.
Zaremba: I guess what I was trying to distinguish was the plat application fee and the --
there are other things that they will need to do later that we are not waiving.
Canning: Yes, sir.
Zaremba: Okay.
Canning: And Mrs. McKay is here, she is representing -- well, she's talked to all four
property owners and she's representing three of them, so if you have additional
questions on some of the specifics you can ask Mrs. McKay.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 41 of 57
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: How much footage of right of way are we getting dedicated? How many feet?
Canning: I have not looked into that.
Bird: Becky I'll bet could tell me.
McKay: Becky McKay. Engineering Solutions. Madam Mayor and Council Bird, I don't
have an exact linear footage. Would just --
Bird: I mean how wide?
McKay: Oh, how wide? We laid the streets out to match the widths as designated in
your Ten Mile area specific plan. So, if they had medians and two lanes and bike lanes
on the outside, we laid them out with the right of way that would accommodate that.
Now, they can always put like the detached walk in their property, along with their
buffer, but for the essential part of the roadway we did accommodate that.
Bird: We stayed to the plan.
McKay: Yes, sir.
Bird: Okay.
McKay: And, then, the rotaries -- ACHD changed all their standards on rotaries that
came about this month, so we did revise our plan to reflect that.
Bird: Okay.
McKay: And as Anna said, this is kind of the preferred way. We struggled for two years
trying to -- with ITD trying to figure out how these properties would have a primary and
an adequate secondary access to develop as delineated in your Ten Mile plan. We
could not figure out a way to do it, other than to get some type of overall cooperation in
this section and what ITD ended up with is they were going to, basically, make
improvements that were throw away. They did not meet ACHD standards. They were
substandard and there would be no utilities in these roadways, so, you know, they'd
have to be tore up to put your sewer, your water, joint trench and we finally came to the
conclusion instead of this throw away, ITD, why don't you put the money in a trust fund
that ACHD holds and, then, when the first guy comes in there is dollars there to start
this process and ACHD's indicated they will accept dedication of all these right of ways
without improvement. They will accept that. They said that they have that ability. And
if it will facilitate creating this transportation system ahead of development, then, they
are for it. But the secondary access -- I met with Joe Silva and it's just impossible,
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 42 of 57
unless you can get some of these roadways built simultaneously and you can't do it
unless everybody developed at the same time and we all know that's not going to
happen, unless somebody from out of state buys the whole section, so --
Canning: And Madam Mayor, Council, the one other exciting note, other than ACHD
willing to accept the easements, which we weren't sure they were going to and they
didn't have a problem with it at all, the other exciting news is that Meridian 118 is ready
to submit a final plat application, so they are eagerly looking forward to the easement,
the road trust monies being available and looking forward to -- they will probably be the
first ones to build the road.
Bird: Thanks, Becky.
de Weerd: Is that Meridian Crossing?
Canning: It's Meridian 118. It's where that X is. It's that large project that we saw that
had the mix of employment and the gas line went through it and they had the linear
parks on the other side.
de Weerd: Okay. Any other questions from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I was just going to say the spirit of cooperation that appears
to be going on all over the place, I think that's marvelous that ACHD -- that's actually a
variation to a policy they stuck with pretty firmly for a long time to accept an unimproved
easement. I think that's great and I would support -- if we can get all those people
together and work out the right of way and if it's to their benefit let's waive the -- waive
the fee.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I agree. I think this is a great effort by everyone to put this
project together in that area and there will be many projects, but trying to unify this --
this plan, so I certainly can support the fee waiver request and I know the planning
director is asking us to kind of take things out of order and be flexible, but somehow
recall when we try to do that as Council the planning director's head kind of spins
sometimes, so -- just note that for the record. You know, I'm in agreement with that,
de Weerd: Hey, I was already impressed that she came up with this, you know. So, we
probably need an official motion, Mr. Attorney?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, yes, I think you should do that.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 43 of 57
Zaremba: I move that we encourage the property owners along Ten Mile to get
together for a single right of way proposal and in pursuance of that the incentive is that
we will waive the annexation fee for those combined properties.
Bird: Second.
de Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and second. Any discussion? Again, I guess just
under appreciation to all of those that have been working for the last several years on
this, the consecration and the -- the really unique thing about the Ten Mile area specific
plan was the integration of land use and the transportation system and we appreciate a
solution that can get this going. It's important. So, Madam Clerk, will you, please, call
roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
B. Planning Department: Relinquishment of Irrigation Easements
in Unincorporated Ada County
de Weerd: Item 9-B is also our Planning Department. Thank you, Becky.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, about -- it seems like every couple of
years or so we get one of these odd vacation requests and it's just long enough in
between times that I feel like I need to remind you why you're doing it, because it's not
apparent. But the state code has an odd bit of language in it that says if someone is
requesting to vacate easements within the county and it's within a mile of the city, that
they need your approval. So, Vacera Ridge Subdivision is -- did some lot line
adjustments and as part of those lot line adjustments they had to -- they had some
easements that followed those for irrigation and so they need to vacate those
easements and they are requesting that the City Council approve that. The Public
Works Department has looked at those vacation requests and has stated that they have
no infrastructure located or planned to be located within the Vacera Ridge Subdivision.
Public Works staff supports vacating the easements as proposed by the applicant. So,
what we are looking for is Council direction for planning staff to write a letter to the
county surveyor stating that the City Council approved the vacation at this hearing.
de Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 44 of 57
Zaremba: I move that we authorize staff to write and send such a letter.
Hoaglun: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion
carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Canning: Thank you.
C. Planning Department: Transportation Studies and Projects
Overview - Includes a Discussion on Current and Future
Roadway and Pedestrian Projects in the City, Including
ACHD's Draft Five Year Work Plan for FY2012-2016 and
Discussion on ACHD Cost Share Agreements.
de Weerd: The planning department has the next item as well.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm here to give my bi-
monthly or quarterly update on all things transportation. You should have received a
memo from myself in the packet. I do want to just take a couple minutes and highlight
some of those things. I trust you have had a chance to scan it and look at the -- all of
the items that were in there. But I will primarily be working from the memo in this
presentation. The third bullet in that memo dated January 13th -- excuse me -- talks
about the Eagle-Victory-Ridenbaugh Canal project. You may have heard that ACHD a
little water that they were dealing with and had to take down the bridge and Eagle Road
is right now closed until Friday. So, that's the update I wanted to give you and they do
plan on paving over and having one lane open each direction by Friday afternoon. So,
just wanted you to --
de Weerd: I will note, too, that the fire department did not close the street. They only
reported it, but ACRD did.
Silva: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
de Weerd: I know. I listened to the news last night and it was like what is the fire
department doing closing a street. Sorry. I had to clarify that.
Hood: The other project that I wanted to highlight for you is the -- the Ten Mile
interchange. I did meet with Idaho Transportation District Three staff and connecting
Idaho staff, as well as ACHD staff -- it looks like the 7th of January to talk about the
schedule for not only Ten Mile and reopening Ten Mile that's been closed for I think
about a year and a half now, but they will be opening that back up here in March -- near
the first of March. There is some incentives for ITD's contractor to get it done by that
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 45 of 57
date and they look to be on schedule. So, we will hope that they stay on schedule and,
then, that will allow one lane in each direction across the interstate to open back up.
The ramps won't be ready until probably mid April to the end of May. So, there is a little
bit more of a window, they aren't quite sure, but they do seem to be on track for opening
at that time. Meanwhile, ACHD's project to widen Ten Mile from the southern terminus
of the ITD project through the new Overland realigned intersection will be under
construction at the same time. So, really, that project, as well as the interchange,
should all happen hopefully simultaneously, but if not within days of each other. So, it
will just be some finish work that's happening there. And, then, roadway work on the
interstate will continue on through July. But that project does seem to be on track. One
of the other things I wanted to spend a couple of minutes on is just going through draft A
of ACHD's five year work plan that was released to the cities last week. I have had a
chance to peruse that. The short version of my staff report is there is not a lot that's
been changed. I reported to you a couple of times this past year that ACHD is changing
the way that they come up with projects for their five year work plan and we are all
excited about that and I think it's a good thing. They weren't ready to flip it on its head
with -- with new inputs now and, basically, if they had invested in a project that project is
continuing through the process of design and construction right of way, et cetera. So,
there aren't a lot of things changing, which is good, because things are advancing like
they should in the program. There was a map that was also attached to the memo. I
think that's a great tool that shows where all the -- it's color coded with intersections,
bridges, roadway projects. It does show five roadway projects and ten intersections in
Meridian in our area of impact for construction in the proposed '12 to '16 five year work
plan. So, I'm not going to run through all of those projects. I did mention in my staff
report as well. So, here is that map that I was just referring to that you have. This is the
Reader's Digest of a document that's like that. So, good tool. I did mention in my
memo a couple of the tables that were prepared by ACHD staff and I just wanted to
spend a couple of minutes highlighting some things in those tables, because I think this
supplements and, again, summarizes the draft A very well. On page three of the menu
-- of the memo, attachment one, they have them listed as contingency projects. In the
previous years or at least last year these were known as slip projects, so if revenues
weren't what they had planned on, this would be the first -- or in this case they have a
couple of projects listed to fall out. It would fall back a year to two or where ever they
could reprogram it, but these are kind of the -- the first ones on the chopping block, if
you will, if they don't realize the revenue they are anticipating. So, just a couple of those
projects to call out in 2012, Franklin, Ten Mile to Linder, is that project for that year if
they don't -- if they don't realize the revenues. I will note that that's aflip-flop, because
the year before Pine and Linder was the contingency project. So, we sent a letter to
ACHD saying, please, don't let this project slip, it's very important for many reasons.
Well, that's the case. Now, Pine and Linder appears to be safe, for lack of a better --
everything is subject to revenue and, you know, construction timelines and things, but
Pine and Linder now is a little more solid and in 2012, Franklin, Ten Mile to Linder, is a
little more iffy. The other one I just wanted to call is -- or two of them, actually, in 2014
the slip project -- one of the slip projects was Ten Mile Cherry to Ustick, and the other
one is Ustick, Duane to Campton. I will come back to that project. That's one of the
projects we will talk about in this cost share stuff, but that one's advancing in the
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January 18, 2011
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program, so -- another thing to note on that Ten Mile at Cherry-Ustick project that I just
mentioned, that one's actually accelerating. It's accelerating, but, then, they have it
listed as one of these contingency projects. It's been on the shelf since I think 2006,
been designed. ACRD is trying to take the intersection out of that -- that project and
construct that as soon as they can. They also want to add a right turn lane to that
project. So, that was something that was called out in the memo, but I just thought I'd
highlight that for you now that they are going to update the design and, hopefully,
advance that project. Moving on down page three in the memo. Federal aid projects.
A couple just in the neighborhood that Anna was just talking about, Franklin and Black
Cat, that project moved up from PD in the 2015 as a federal aid or an STP project. And,
then, Franklin, Black Cat to Ten Mile, so that would be the roadway widening that's
associated or just east of that roadway -- that intersection that I mentioned has moved
into PD, so that's pretty exciting that those -- although most of those properties aren't
yet in Meridian, certainly we requested last year as part of our priorities that you look at
intersections and projects around the Ten Mile interchange. I will also all out a reason
that I think this is moving to the top of some of these lists and getting constructed
through federal aid dollars is it being a detour route for the interstate, too. So, there is
some -- the corridor, Franklin Corridor, is something that -- trying to work on, so if there
is an accident or what have you on the interstate there is another means. Just real
quick, the other federal aid project in Meridian in Ustick and Meridian. So, there is
another thing in our letter from last year that, that temporary interim intersection was put
in in 2007 I think it was. Now, it's an originally significant project that is new to the TIP.
So, just thought I'd call that one out as well.
de Weerd: And that was -- will be approved at the next COMPASS board meeting.
Hood: Hopefully, yes.
de Weerd: It did go through Executive Committee today.
Hood: I'm going to move on to page four, attachment two, and these are the changes I
mentioned. I mentioned there aren't a lot, but there are some. Most of them are -- and
when it says changes, a lot of these are -- they are advancing from PD into the -- into
2016, which is the first year of construction. It's how the program is supposed to work.
You take the projects from unfunded, you move those into PD, from PD you move it
into, you know, aconstruct -- a named year. So, a lot of these projects are advancing
as planned. Just a couple to call out. The Black Cat and Cherry and the Black Cat and
Franklin projects I mentioned as federal aid projects. Black Cat and Cherry is also listed
as an interim project on here. So, they are at least looking at doing something on an
interim basis if it doesn't fall -- if it doesn't come to fruition for a full rebuild of that
intersection. Again, that was our letter saying worst case, safety stop controls and
throw up a controller or two to make it signalized and if you can add a free right-hand
turn lane, because that will help things, too. So, just to call that out. But that was --
Black Cat -Cherry was unfunded in 2011 and 2015 and now it shows up as a 2012 to
2016 -- or, excuse me, 2015, and, then, a draft A. And although not technically in
Meridian, the Eagle and McMillan intersection I thought was another one that I would
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highlight, just because it's so close. That one actually -- if you look at the priority rank at
six out of 152, the fourth column over, that intersection is busy and it shows a lot of
need for safety and congestion benefits. So, it being a -- again, technically in Boise, but
certainly a lot of Meridian residents use that to -- as they are Meridian subdivisions just
to the west. That one is moving into the program and the PD. The other one that's not
yet in Meridian, but State Highway 69 and Lake Hazel is also in the program, although
it's slipped from PD to unfunded. Both those have a note that ACHD wants to work with
ITD and get some -- essentially dollars out of -- out of this state, but there is some
agreements that they have to come to -- to agreement on before those will come to be
projects. Locust Grove and Victory, that advance from unfunded to PD, Ten Mile,
Cherry to Ustick advance from 2015 to 2014. Ten Mile and Amity from unfunded to PD.
de Weerd: Caleb.
Hood: Yes.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, Caleb, on that Ten Mile and Ustick I know that you had that
noted up higher about how that -- that's moved, you know, currently planned for
construction in 2015.
Hood: Right.
Hoaglun: And you mentioned updating the intersection configuration by adding an
additional southbound to westbound free right lane on Ten Mile Road. So, if a person
traveling on Ten Mile headed south --
Hood: Right.
Hoaglun: -- when they get to Ustick there would be a free right.
Hood: Right.
Hoaglun: So, that's the only additional change that they are anticipating there?
Hood: Right. That project has been designed since 2006 and they would -- traffic has
reevaluated that and said, boy, we should have put a right turn lane in and let's put one
in. So, previously there was a Maverick that was approved for that corner, so just
McNellis Subdivision, that's the corner where you would have the free right.
Hoaglun: Okay. Because that's the one where we have, you know, currently a four way
stop and with the opening -- you know, we expressed concerns about that thing being a
bottle neck once the interchange opens. Ten Mile and Ustick; correct?
Hood: Ten Mile and Ustick. Correct.
Hoaglun: Yeah. Okay.
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January 18, 2011
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Hood: Be southbound --
Hoaglun: Yeah. Southbound and making a right turn on Ustick.
Hood: Right.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Hood: That's what traffic says is where it's needed, so I haven't seen that, but they say
it's warranted to add that free right.
Hoaglun: Okay. I'm scratching my head on that one, but I'm not a traffic expert, so --
Hood: Yeah. And, then, just maybe the last one to call out is the 3-C rivers crossing is
being removed, so -- I think that's on the five year work plan. I am -- and we can talk
about this a little bit more here with the next presentation on cost share, but I will be at
ACHD's commission meeting tomorrow or I plan on attending and they will have their
first presentation from their staff on this draft A as well. So, I don't know -- I probably
won't have an opportunity to provide any input tomorrow, it being their work session, but
if there is something you want me to carry forward in draft A or type up a memo or letter
or whatever, I'm certainly willing to do that. And I will be back before the board to see
draft B come out and before it goes to adoption anyway, which I think was scheduled for
the end of February. So, I will be back with the next rendition of the five year work plan
and I will draft up maybe a draft letter for that meeting for you all to look at before we
sign it and send it over to ACHD. But I want to just pause and see if there is anything --
I know I went through that pretty quick, but any messages to take forward, either
verbally or written, at this point?
de Weerd: Council, any comments?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
de Weerd: I'm sorry. Council, any comments?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I just would remember to be appreciative of the things they have always
done. Of course, we always have a list of more things we need, but they have been
accomplishing some things for us and we appreciate that.
de Weerd: Yes.
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January 18, 2011
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Hood: And, again, Madam Mayor and Councilman Zaremba, that's a great point. And
that map -- the tool that (mentioned -- if you look at that map most of the color these
days is in the Meridian side of the world. So, you know, that's kudos for them for -- for
having a majority of the projects in Meridian, so --
de Weerd: Don't say that too loud.
Hood: Yeah. Anything else? I'm going to move on to the cost share agreement, which
is the last thing in the memo. I do have one handout I'm going to give out real quick. If
you will just hold that -- that handout for just a second, I'll get to it here in just a minute,
but I do want to talk to you about cost share agreements with ACHD and, again, we
talked about these before, but the city has communicated our preferred cross-section
for arterial streets to include detached sidewalks. What we haven't been totally clear on
yet is what will happen in those planter areas that aren't yet annexed into the city.
know in that Ten Mile gap project that abuts the southern boundary of the ITD project on
Ten Mile to the realigned Overland, we asked them to use some of their recycled
asphalt or something in those planter medians until such time as properties develop in
the city and we can get them to put in -- green it up with trees and other landscape
materials. I have been working with. Parks staff and Public Work staff to come up with a
proposal for you all to consider for these cost share projects moving forward. We'd still
bring them back to you individually as they come on line, but just wanted to get some
direction on -- if there is a typical interim treatment that we can all buy in on, versus
asking you each and every time, hey, is this -- is this the right approach. And we can
still come back individually for these if we don't come to some consensus tonight, but --
but we do have aproposal -- we are going to share with you -- I do want to give you the
ACHD side of the coin here real quick and I -- ACHD is -- it looks like willing to design
and construct arterials within Meridian in our area of city impact with detached
sidewalks if the city installs some interim, nondirt, treatment within the planter areas and
maintains that area or has a third party maintain that area until such time as those
properties come into the city. So, again, we are talking about properties that aren't in
the city, because typically when they are annexed we require them to put in a detached
sidewalk and green it up. The four roadway projects we are talking about tonight -- and
this isn't to approve these cost share agreements tonight, I just want to make that clear,
but there are some draft cost share agreements that are -- have been composed that
are kind of the starting point for these, the four work roadway projects are listed on the
screen. I want to just put them on a map for you real quick and give you a little bit of the
status of them. So, Ustick, Duane to Campton, actually, has come out of the
Cloverdale-Ustick intersection project, that design team that was working on that said,
well, why don't we just fill in this gap on Ustick Road and, then, you can be done with
the whole thing between between Eagle and Cloverdale. In fact, Eagle to Five Mile
would be all the way five lanes. So -- so, that's kind of what's being proposed. That is
part of draft A, so it's not a done deal yet, but including this section, a little over half or
two-thirds of a mile to improve the -- widen the roadway, is the first section and, again,
that's in 2014 -- set for construction 2014 right now. Ustick, Locust Grove to Leslie is
set for construction in 2015. So, Leslie is on the back side of Kohl's there off of Eagle
Road and, then, back to the Locust Grove intersection and the third project is the Locust
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Grove - Ustick intersection -- so, I have kind of highlighted these projects. So, there is
three of them on that top map and, then, the bottom map is the one I think you're
familiar with and that's Franklin, Ten Mile to Linder, and that's set for construction in
2012. So, cost share agreements. ACRD would like to have these cost share
agreements signed before they undertake design work on these projects, so they can
know what parameters they are working with and if -- if they are going to have extra
wide sidewalks or detach the sidewalks or center medians or whatever kind of those --
what they call amenities, would be part of a project or not. So, this is early on in the
process, that you will be asked to say what is the -- our vision for this project, although
you probably won't see it come to fruition for three, four, five, six years down the line.
So, again, before we want you -- before -- before you sign these, the various
departments want to run some options for the interim treatment. I did want to, you
know, say it's been a -- didn't get to work on Kleiner Park, but it's been my pleasure to
work with our internal staff on some of this stuff, putting this stuff together in this
proposal tonight. The options for the interim treatment that we have come up with
include weed barrier in all of them. That's going to help keep the weeds down. So, all
of our options include weed barrier and, then, about three inches of either decorative
landscape rock, gravel, or roto-mill. Now, at the time I did the memo we weren't quite
sure what -- how much difference cost it would be for those three types. It turns out
most of your cost is in transport. So, those three options that we have listed here are all
about the same cost. If you have to move it from place A to place B you're paying
people 20 bucks a yard, roughly, to pick it up and move it. Regardless of what the
material is, for the most part. Now, if you get a really nice landscape rock you're going
to pay more, but -- so, our proposal is for these interim treatment is if there is grinding --
so asphalt grindings -- and let me show you kind of what that -- what that looks like. It's
hard to show what this roto-mill or recycled asphalt kind of looks like in projects, but I
have some pictures that I would show to you and where ACHD has that on site, their
contractor usually ships that off and it's, you know, stored somewhere else, but they
don't use it for that project and, then, there comes a need for it in time. But if it's on site
we would prefer them use that right there, stockpile it there until it's ready to go in. And,
then, option B, to use that roto-mill would be if the city installs it. We would -- we would
pay for the installation of that roto-mill. Option two would be to use gravel or other rock
in a planter area. So, again, this would be -- we go to Busy Bee or where ever and get
-- get some rock and we hire somebody to put that in there. Option three would be to
do nothing. Don't sign a cost share agreement and ACHD will just put in seven foot
wide attached sidewalks. So, that's certainly an option I wanted to put out there as kind
of that do nothing option. Now, here is what that recycled asphalt or the roto-mill would
look like. I -- we weren't able to find any real good pictures of this application in the
landscape planter, but just to show you what the material kind of looks like in a
compacted sense and, then, kind of in a raw material, too, kind of what it looks like, so it
wouldn't look finished and it certainly wouldn't -- I'm not going to sell it like it will be our
planters with trees every 35 feet and green grass, but it should hold us over and if you
will see that handout that I gave you, the maintenance costs aren't that great, too, for
any of these projects or if you look at it on a lineal feet basis it's -- it's pennies. So, it
would really just be two applications of spraying it for weeds until such time as those
properties annex into the city. Now, the idea is we will have right now at least four
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January 18, 2011
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projects and the property will annex along those -- and we will get some of those
projects that will come off line and those private property owners then maintain the area,
we will have new projects coming on. So, we will do a new cost share. So, it's kind of
this moving target where we -- either parks staff or we contract out to spray weeds. We
kind of rotate around where needed in the county, so we have these detached
sidewalks. But this really gets us our detached sidewalks. So, I do want to focus on,
again, Ted Kerns and Jay Gibbons helped put this together -- or they put it together. I
didn't have anything to do with it. It's the handout that I just gave you. I did some cost
estimates on what it looks like for the four various projects that we are specifically
talking about tonight, what the total cost would be if we -- if the city is on the hook for
installing gravel, essentially -- I mean that's what -- that's what this cost estimate is is
gravel for the four projects and, then, maintenance on a pretty early basis. So, just
wanted to -- again, in that memo I told you we would have that, so there is the additional
information on costs for what it would cost the city or what we would reimburse ACRD
for their contractor installing if the Council agrees this is a good way to go. I think that's
-- I think that's about all of my presentation. Tonight Craig Herndon -- I didn't point out --
Craig Herndon is the project manager at ACHD for two of the projects, the Franklin, Ten
Mile -Linder, and the Ustick, Duane to Compton, or whatever that road is. So, if there
is any questions on those two projects or the cost share agreements, he can certainly
help out. Again, there is an ACHD work session tomorrow. I wrote a letter to ACHD
saying I plan on going there and if the Council had some input or direction, I can share
that with ACHD's commission, so they kind of know where we are coming from on these
agreements for these draft cost share and license agreements. So, if you have any
preferences on these, I will take notes and relay them if that is your wish.
de Weerd: Council, any questions or comments?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Question, Caleb, about the median landscaping when it's part of the city falls
on the shoulders of the Parks Department. This is -- or not, depending on -- some do
and some don't, I guess. Now, on this for the installation, is this coming out of park's
budget, Public Works? Whose budget does this come from?
Hood: Good question, Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun. We were talking about
that internally as staff, too. The way it's worked in the past or at least on the first one or
two of these that we have done it's been a Parks thing that Parks has budgeted for. It
makes more sense, because Tim and I work at this level one with the highway district
for public -- especially if we get some typical -- that we say it's going to be gravel or
some interim treatment and we know what that is every single time, we don't need
Parks to be involved in that. We have got a lineal feet, we know what -- we can work
that out. So, it looks like moving forward -- so, FY-12 will be a Public Works request
budget item. So, you will see one of these ayear -- one to two a year if ACRD stays on
their plan, versus Parks. Right. The maintenance part would still be Parks.
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January 18, 2011
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Hoaglun: Okay. Maintenance would still be Parks.
de Weerd: I imagine it comes out of the general fund.
Hood: Steve said yes. That's --
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor and Caleb. I just wanted to be sure I knew
where that money was coming from and that may transition down the road when it gets
turned over the park once the annexation takes place and different things like that,
so --
Hood: Just to clarify, Madam Mayor and Councilman, the maintenance would be
private property owners. So, we are only maintaining this until such time as they come
to the city and we can say, then, you do it now. So, this is really an interim situation.
Hoaglun: So, I guess -- and you're right, Madam Mayor and Caleb, and what I was
thinking -- I have also mentally pictured a media as well, if there is some area like we
are talking about Franklin, would this also be a treatment if we agree to this that it's not
annexed we would still do something like this until that time it gets annexed and I think
those medians would be something that parks would, then, handle.
Hood: Yes. Yeah. We only have I think on our -- in our Comp Plan I think there is only
one, maybe two more roadway sections throughout the city in our area of impact that
we have even contemplated medians. These are really -- and those we would take --
take before you and say what do you want to do on these, because those are a special
case. This is more for all the projects, roadway widening -- there is going to be some
parcel, if not multiple parcels that are still in the county that we want to -- we don't want
that to be a deterrent to having detached sidewalks, because as we require subdivisions
-- it would be detached, attached, detached, attached and we just want to kind of keep
that plain for sidewalks. So, this is our way to work with the highway district on
designing the roadway section without improving it all the way, but not making it look
unfinished. So, that's their concerns, they don't want to just leave it dirt, so they want
something down. And that's the question for you all is what's that something, what are
you comfortable with at something being in that six to eight foot planter area between
the sidewalk and curb.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Yeah, some of us or maybe all of us know -- ACRD donated some of this
roto-mill asphalt to the golf course, which was installed at -- or not finished I guess, but
they are installing it as .the golf cart paths. We talked previously about when we were
talking about Ten Mile Road, whether this was a good material and it appears to me that
it packs in nicely, it doesn't blow around, which was something that we raised earlier --
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
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its a material that if it's installed in order to get a detached sidewalk in a nonincorporated
area when it is eventually incorporated and there is a requirement to change it to
landscaping, it looks like it could be removed fairly easily and easily used somewhere
else. So, I would support the roto-mill asphalt and just say that's what the standard is.
de Weerd: Any other comments from Council?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
Hoaglun: I guess, Madam Mayor, I could support its use -- it's not going to be the
prettiest stuff in the world, because you're going from sidewalk to roto-mill to pavement,
but, you know, maybe that will encourage people to hurry up and get annexed in the
city, so we can get grass in there, but I don't have a problem with that. That solves the
problem for ACHD I think with roto-mill, what to do with it, solves the problem for us, as
Councilman Zaremba pointed out, it packs in well, it's not going to blow around, I think
there is some water -- water can be absorbed through it, so you're not having total
runoff, so it solves a problem on many levels. If there is an area and there is something
where, you know, from a decorative standpoint it would -- you know, I'm not opposed at
some point to say, oh, this area needs rock, but, again, they are not annexed by the
city, you know, just in case, I'm not going to be hard and fast this has to be used
absolutely everywhere all the time, but, you know, we could consider special cases, so
-- but this will work.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just to be clear, I -- option one is
when ACHD's contractor's out there and they are tearing up the roadway anyways and
we can reuse that on site right there, that's cheap for everybody. Their contractor
doesn't have to haul it off, we don't have to haul it in. When that's not the case option
two is probably going to be a better option, because the gravel, although it's not
beautiful, it probably will look a little bit better than the roto-mill and if they are the same
cost we will haul in the gravel, then, if that's what we need to do, because it will probably
look a little bit nicer than the roto-mill. Not that it's ugly, but if we have to haul
something in, let's haul something in for the same price that's a little bit nicer, at least in
most people's minds they may find the gravel nicer. I guess that's a question, not a
statement for you all, do you want to use the roto-mill even if it's not available on site,
should we go to the golf course if they have got extra and use it on all projects or do -- I
mean as a starting point. Because we will come to you will all these cost share
agreements and say here is our options, we can -- they are not using roto-mill on site,
it's not an option, so can we -- should we gravel it or do you want to --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I think my instinct would be to say to use the same material everywhere if we
can and kind of two reasons for that and, theoretically, these are going to be small
areas, but if we have a bunch of them around town, I think it would be better to have it
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January 18, 2011
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be the same material. The other issue is if we upgrade it to something that looks
prettier, when it is annexed the property owner's likely to say, hey, it already looks good,
I don't need to landscape it. So, I -- my instinct would be to -- if roto-mill is fine, do it
everywhere. You know. And you could bring an exception to us if something really
stands out that needs to be different, but I'd just make it the standard, even if we have to
buy it.
Hood: Okay.
de Weerd: Personally I'm not a rock fan anyway and it gets messy, you're constantly
replacing it, and picking it up off the road and putting it back in. So, I agree with Mr.
Zaremba.
Bird: I second that.
de Weerd: It's the same thing, it can be black and ugly and -- but it's going to stay there
and it's probably easier to maintain and so --
Hoaglun: I took you as a rock fan, Madam Mayor. I didn't know you were jazz, blues,
what -- you know.
de Weerd: Jazz works for me.
Hood: Thank you all.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor? And I think that -- part of that answer implies yes to cost
sharing.
Hood: Yeah. No, that's how I took it. We didn't study -- I called out the chart a little bit,
but there is the information on -- you can look at the project -- I thought I was done, but
I'm going to -- I'm going to take two more minutes real quick. The Franklin, Ten Mile to
Linder -- if that's okay, Madam Mayor.
de Weerd: I'm timing you.
Hood: Okay. It won't even be that. The Franklin Ten Mile to Linder project, if you look
at the square footage, really, what you're talking about for that project is two sides of a
mile long segment. Most of that mile isn't annexed into the city. Now, there are some,
you know, SSC and some properties that are, but a majority of that mile long segment is
not in the city. So, 15 559 is the cost estimate to put that in for a mile on both sides of
the roadway. Jump down to the Ustick Leslie to Locust Grove project, half of that is
already annexed into the city. So, you can see the green, that's city limits. The south
half of that is not annexed into the city. So, basically, where this is going in is the south
side of the roadway. So, there is half -- there is probably half as much in that project as
this one. As one of the Council pointed out, you know, we will have -- some of these
projects have smaller amounts that are not in the city, like the Ustick Campton to
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 55 of 57
Duane, there is only five properties that aren't in the city right there. Well, the costs are
pretty inexpensive. I think most of them are going to be in that neighborhood versus the
15 559 is about as high as you're ever going to see for a project, because you're looking
at both sides of a one mile roadway project. So, just -- just to point that out. It's -- it's
not chump change, but it's not hundreds of thousands of dollars either, so -- I think that
was under two minutes. Thanks again.
de Weerd: Thank you. And thank you for the team that was -- that put this all together
and looked at it and -- we appreciate that. ACRD. Greatly appreciate it.
D. Budget Amendment for the Conversion of Operational Funds
to Personnel Funds for the Historic Preservation Commission
for aNot-to-Exceed Amount of $1,000.00
de Weerd: Okay. Next item, 9-D, our Legal Department.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, what's in front of you is a budget
amendment for this historic preservation commission. I think we may have talked about
this previously, but, basically, what you're asked to do is they have -- previously had
budgeted money in their operations that they helped fund an intern position with the
historical society, they did that in 2010. In discussing this with finance and my
department, it was a concern that continuing to contract for these types of positions can
be problematic when we are dealing with students who probably don't contract with
other people. So, the concern was is the IRS may have a concern about whether these
are truly contracted employees and whether they really have the ability to contract. So,
the recommendation for finance was simple to transfer the thousand dollars that was an
operational line item to a personnel line item that could still have an intern position that
would work through the historical society and the historic preservation commission
could still have oversight of that, but it would simply be handled as a personnel action --
or personnel matter, instead of an operational one. So, there is no impact to the
budget, it's merely a transfer across from one line to another, but that's what's in front of
you.
de Weerd: Thank you, Bill. Or Mr. Nary. Any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve the budget amendment for the historical preservation
commission for the sum of 1,111 dollars.
Hoaglun: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, roll call,
please.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 56 of 57
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 10: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. : An Ordinance (AZ
09-003 Macha Retail Plaza) For Annexation of a Portion of the
Northeast 1/4 of the Northeast 1/4 of Section 17, Township 3
North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho,
Establishing and Determining the Land Use Zoning
Classification of Said Lands from R2 to C-C (Community
Business District) in the Meridian City Code and Providing for
an Effective Date
De Weerd: Okay. we are at Item 10-A. Madam Clerk, will you, please, read ordinance
11-1471 by title only.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 11-1471, an
ordinance AZ 09-003, Macha Retail Plaza, for annexation of a portion of the northeast
one quarter of the northeast one quarter of Section 17, Township 3 North, Range 1
East, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as described in Attachment A and annexing
certain lands and territory situated in Ada County, Idaho, and adjacent and contiguous
to the corporate limits of the City of Meridian, as requested by the City of Meridian,
establishing and determining the land use zoning classification of said lands from R-2 to
C-C, Community Business District, in the Meridian City Code, providing that copies of
this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County assessor, the Ada County recorder,
and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law, and providing for a summary
of the ordinance and providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing an
effective date.
de Weerd: Thank you. You have heard this ordinance read by title only. Is there
anyone who like to hear it read in its entirety? Council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we pass Ordinance No. 11-1471 with suspension of rules.
Zaremba: Second.
Meridian City Council
January 18, 2011
Page 57 of 57
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve this item. If there is no discussion,
Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
de Weerd: I need --
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we adjourn.
Hoaglun: Second.
de Weerd: All those in favor say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
de Weerd: We are adjourned.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10:15 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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