HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-01-14II~lAN CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
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MEETING AGENDA
City Council Chambers
33 East Broadway Avenue
Meridian, Idaho
Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 3:00 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
X David Zaremba X Joe Borton
O Charlie Rountree O Keith Bird
X Genesis Milam X Luke Cavener
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Adoption of the Agenda Adopted
4. Consent Agenda Approved (Pg 2-3)
A. Revised Final Order for Approval: FP 13-035 Bainbridge Subdivision No. 1
by Brighton Development Located East Side of N. Black Cat Road,
Approximately 114 Mile South of W. Chinden Boulevard Request: Final Plat
Approval Consisting of Forty-Two (42) Single-Family Residential Building
Lots and Two (2) Common/Other Lots on 13.71 Acres of Land in an R-8
Zoning District
B. Development Agreement for Approval: MDA 13-017 Three Corners by C13,
LLC Located Southeast Corner of N. Locust Grove Road and Chinden
Boulevard Request: Modify the Recorded Development Agreement (Inst.
#108022887) to Incorporate a New Concept Plan, Attach New Home
Elevations and Update Certain Sections of the DA to Reflect the Proposed
Changes
C. Development Agreement for Approval: RZ 13-011 Crimson Maple by
Crimson Maple Townhomes, LLC Located on the East Side of NW 4th
Street, North of W. Maple Avenue Request: Rezone 1.59 Acres from the R-8
(Medium-Density Residential) Zoning District to the R-15 Zoning District
(Medium High-Density Residential)
D. Award of Bid and Approval of Agreement for "Wastewater Treatment Plant
(WWTP) Administration and Lab Buildings -Construction, Bid Package 21
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, January 14, 2014 Page 1 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
Elevators" to Schindler Elevator Corp. for aNot-To-Exceed Amount of
$140,000.00
E. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement with CJRDesign for
Fabrication and Installation of Meridian Split Corridor Phase 2 Public Art
Project
F. Interagency License Agreement with Ada County Highway District (ACRD)
to Encroach Upon a Portion of the Public Right-of-Way to Install Conduits
that Enclose Fiber Optic Cable
G. Award of Bid and Approval of Agreement for "PTSC Ditch Tiling" to
Thueson Construction, Inc. for the Not-To-Exceed Amount of $58,700.00
5. Community Items/Presentations
A. Economic Development: Fields District Consultant Presentation Motion
approved to direct the Community Development Director to move forward
(Pg 3-14)
6. Items Moved From Consent Agenda None (Pg 14)
7. Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Strategic Plan Update (Pg 14-26)
B. Mayor's Office: Resolution No. 14-972: Resolution Appointing Darrel
McRoberts to Seat 8 of the Meridian Transportation Commission Approved
(Pg 26-27)
C. Public Works: Energy Star Award for City Hall (Pg 27-29)
D. Community Development: Raised Curbs in Franklin Road, West of Linder
Road Motion approved to instruct staff to draft a fetter to Ada County
Highway District supporting Jackson's request to reevaluate the raised
curbs on Franklin Rd., west of Linder and to remove the western most
curbing leaving the eastern curbing in tact (Pg 29-43)
8. Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 14-1589: An Ordinance (RZ 13-012 -Raisin' Angels) for the
Re-Zone of a Parcel of Land Located in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 8,
Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise, Meridian, City of Meridian, Ada
County, Idaho Approved (Pg 44-45)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, January 14, 2014 Page 2 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
B. Ordinance No. 14-1590: An Ordinance (RZ 13-013 -Casa Bella Subdivision)
for the Re-Zone of a Parcel of Land Situated in a Portion of the NE 1/4 of the
SE 1/4 of Section 30, Township 4 North, Range 1 East, Boise, Meridian, City
of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho Approved (Pg 43-44)
C. Ordinance No. 14-1591: An Ordinance (AZ 13-013 - Creekstone
Subdivision) for the Re-Zone of a Parcel of Land Located in the Southwest
One Quarter of the Northeast One Quarter Section 10, Township 3 North,
Range 1 West, Boise, Meridian, City of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho
Approved (Pg 45-46)
9. Future Meeting Topics
10. Amended onto the Agenda: Executive Session Per Idaho State Code 67-2345
(1)(a)(c)(f): (a) To consider hiring a public officer, employee, staff member or
individual agent, wherein the respective qualities of individuals are to be
evaluated in order to fill a particular vacancy or need. This paragraph does not
apply to filling a vacancy in an elective office or deliberations about staffing
needs in general, (c) To Conduct Deliberations Concerning Labor Negotiations or
to Acquire an Interest in Real Property, Which is Not Owned by a Public Agency,
and (f) To Consider and Advise Its Legal Representatives in Pending Litigation
Into Executive Session at 5:29 PM
Out of Executive Session at 5:52 PM
Adjourned at 5:52 PM
(Pg 46-47)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, January 14, 2014 Page 3 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
Meridian City Council Workshop January 14, 2014
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:01 p.m., Tuesday,
January 14, 2014, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, David Zaremba, Genesis Milam and Luke
Cavener.
Members Absent: Charlie Rountree and Keith Bird.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jacy Jones, Bruce Chatterton, Caleb Hood, Warren Stewart,
John McCormick, Tracy Basterrechea, Mark Niemeyer, Robert Simison, Ken Corder,
Natalie Podgorski and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Joe Borton
Charlie Rountree Keith Bird
X Genesis Milam X Luke Cavener
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and start this afternoon's meeting. I would like to first
begin by thanking you all for being here with us. We greatly appreciate having faces out
in the audience. So, thank you. For the record it is Tuesday, January 14th. It's a
minute after 3:00. I will start with roll call attendance, Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Thank you. Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all join us in
the pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: On our agenda this evening there are a couple of things to comment. There
are no major changes, but Item 7-B, that resolution number is 14-972. Under
Ordinances, Item 8-A, that ordinance number is 14-1589. Item No. 8-B is Ordinance
No. 14-1590. 8-C is Ordinance No. 14-1591. And, then, after Item 9 we need to amend
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January 14, 2014
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into the agenda an Item 10, which is an Executive Session per Idaho State Code 67-
1234(1)(a), (c) and (f). And with those comments and one change, I move we adopt the
agenda.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as stated. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Revised Final Order for Approval: FP 13-035 Bainbridge
Subdivision No. 1 by Brighton Development Located East Side
of N. Black Cat Road, Approximately 1/4 Mile South of W.
Chinden Boulevard Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of
Forty-Two (42) Single-Family Residential Building Lots and
Two (2) Common/Other Lots on 13.71 Acres of Land in an R-8
Zoning District
B. Development Agreement for Approval: MDA 13-017 Three
Corners by C13, LLC Located Southeast Corner of N. Locust
Grove Road and Chinden Boulevard Request: Modify the
Recorded Development Agreement (Inst. #108022887) to
Incorporate a New Concept Plan, Attach New Home Elevations
and Update Certain Sections of the DA to Reflect the Proposed
Changes
C. Development Agreement for Approval: RZ 13-011 Crimson
Maple by Crimson Maple Townhomes, LLC Located on the
East Side of NW 4th Street, North of W. Maple Avenue
Request: Rezone 1.59 Acres from the R-8 (Medium-Density
Residential) Zoning District to the R-15 Zoning District
(Medium High-Density Residential)
D. Award of Bid and Approval of Agreement for "Wastewater
Treatment Plant (WWTP) Administration and Lab Buildings -
Construction, Bid Package 21 Elevators" to Schindler Elevator
Corp. for aNot-To-Exceed Amount of $140,000.00
E. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement with
CJR Design for Fabrication and Installation of Meridian Split
Corridor Phase 2 Public Art Project
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January 14, 2014
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F. Interagency License Agreement with Ada County Highway
District (ACRD) to Encroach Upon a Portion of the Public
Right-of-Way to Install Conduits that Enclose Fiber Optic
Cable
G. Award of Bid and Approval of Agreement for "PTSC Ditch
Tiling" to Thueson Construction, Inc. for the Not-To-Exceed
Amount of $58,700.00
De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: There are no changes to the Consent Agenda. I move that we adopt it as
published and for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is
no discussion from Council, Madam Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea;
Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: Thank you. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 5: Community Items/Presentations
A. Economic Development: Fields District Consultant
Presentation
De Weerd: Item 5-A is our economic development report. I will turn this over to our
Community Development Director Bruce Chatterton.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor and Council Members, very happy to introduce the
consultants for the presentation of the final results, the final report for the Fields District
Phase One. Now, we are going to try to strike a balance here between telling some
Council Members and the Mayor what they have already heard -- and by Council
Members that really only would be Council Member Zaremba, would really be the only
one that was sitting it at the time and perhaps rehashing just a little bit of this
information, just enough to set the context. The Fields District is really an interesting
thing. It started off as an idea of whether or not an ag-related research component
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could work in Meridian and as we got into it we began to find a lot of information that
really helps us out and helps us define further Meridian's overall economic development
goals and targets that we can hit. So, I'm going to ask you maybe to suspend a little bit
of -- not rush to judgment on this thing, because part this is finding out some great
opportunities, some areas where different industries kind of come together, some
confluence here, but we haven't yet defined what it is, because it could be anything from
promoting a really viable industry cluster related to agriculture or it could be a research
park. But I think you will find the findings, if you're not familiar with them already, very
interesting. If you find them interesting enough we would ask that you authorize us to
move ahead with negotiations for the consultants to possibly move to a phase two, a
feasibility study to further define what we are talking about here. We do not yet have a
final fee proposal or a scope of services. We would develop that if you like what you
hear and we have purposely structured this in the way, so that we are spending the
minimum amount of money to get the job done here. So, I'm going to go ahead and
they are going to tag team and our consultants are Sean Garretson and Steven
Spalding and they are going to tag team this presentation and I'm sure you will have lots
of questions. Thanks.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce.
Garretson: Good afternoon.
De Weerd: Hi. Sean.
Garretson: Hi. My name is Sean Garretson, I'm with Pegasus Planning and
Development. Steven Spalding with is Point A Consulting. He's going to come up here
in just a little bit. We are going to try and do all this in 20 minutes. We are going to tag
team, so we both know how quickly we need to go through our materials. Some of our
other colleagues aren't here. You can see some of the other folks that are on our team.
Also Point A has a couple of other subject experts that are on the team that aren't listed
here. But Pegasus is an economic development consulting firm based in Austin, Texas.
We work all over the country. Point A is based out of Louisville, Kentucky, and their
main focus is commercialization and ag commercialization, as well as economic
development. So, the first charge to us when we bid on the RFP for the Fields District
was to do the full enchilada -- was to do a feasibility study. So, we proposed that into
three phases. The first phase, which we are now calling the go-no go phase and, then,
the second phase, which is a feasibility and, then, the third phase, which is a plan.
Well, the city I think smartly decided to not cut the contract for all three phases, but to
say why don't you just do phase one first. Let's just make sure that we got enough here
to go on before we go into the next phase. And so this culminates phase one. So, I
know you have in your packets a copy of the full report, a five page sort of summary
and, then, a large appendix that have a lot more data involved. But the project goals
overall were to diversify the economy and, then, limit your agricultural heritage. So, the
process we used -- we kind of looked at what are the hard facts. A lot of the analytics.
Soft facts. Stakeholder interviews. Site visits. Staff discussions. And some preliminary
case studies. We are going to go through the high level portions of all of that. We also
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had the first start with understanding the plan context that we are working in. I'm not
going to go through this extensively, but, you know, those -- those red circles up here
and up here, that's the Fields District area. So, you know, the business enterprise areas
that you have -- I'm sorry, I love this machine, so I might get carried away with it. But,
you know, the business enterprise area that you have -- I mean it's -- it's remarkable
you have diversified your economy so much in the last ten years your residential tax
base -- or, excuse me, your residential share of the overall tax base has gone down 16
percent, which is great, over that time period it means you have gotten a lot more
commercial and I think that's -- that's exactly what we -- what we see when we come
here. Your Comprehensive Plan I think aptly states sort of what the intent is for the
overall Comprehensive Plan, but specifically related to diversifying the economy. We
also understand that, you know, we are in an area of the Treasure Valley, one of the
richest farmlands in all of the country and if you look at the amount of subdivisions from
-- from 1960 to 2011, I mean it's -- and this is Meridian right here, a sea of red --
obviously, you have gotten a lot of residential growth and we understand from actually
today that some of the reason for that is that Boise is a little bit landlocked, they can't do
a whole lot of green field development. Going to continue to get more and more of that.
I think, you know, the transportation context is very important and pertinent to the Fields
District area. That intersection there, you know, is 20-26 and 16 and this is so important
for you all long term and, you know, the Fields District, if it geographically does end up
going over here somewhere, that -- we can, then, provide a catalyst for all to move
forward. So, you know, in looking at all that context, you know, our task, really, is right
in the middle of these three areas, you know, the economic diversification issue, the ag
bio science issues and the land development issues and that's where we have been
spending our time the last few months. Meridian, by nature of your name, you are in the
center of everything. You know, you are -- you are right in the center of growth, great
infrastructure going through here all different directions, you know, your residential
growth has just exploded. You are in a very good position economically. You know,
what's interesting when you look at the demographics and economics, some of the
things that really pop out in terms of the differences between Boise, Meridian, Caldwell,
and Nampa -- this is your percent of -- of those in your -- of your labor force that have a
bachelor's degree or higher, 33 percent versus Caldwell and Nampa much much lower
than that. That's a very good thing to build upon and, you know, I think as the white
paper that we looked at when we first started this project aptly said, Meridian is at the
point of the nexus, really, of where technology meets agriculture and I think that's the
area that you really need to own. We have mapped out sort of a lot of the assets that
you have throughout this region. Again, it just -- it underlines the point that you're in the
middle of all this and you have a lot to build upon. The other thing that we have also
noticed is that, you know, the farmland has been lost considerably and, you know, we
are the -- the first charge to us was to also look at the potential for farmland
preservation. We understand -- you know, I'm from Texas, we understand -- you know,
Idaho is a lot like that in Texas in terms of land rights and that sort of thing. That might
be challenging for us. But I'm going to turn it over to my colleague and he's going to talk
about what I think is one of the more interesting parts of our project that we have found
on agriculture and, then, he's going to talk about case studies and, then, I'm going to
wrap it up.
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Spalding: Thank you, Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Hi, Steve.
Spalding: -- Members of the Council. Nice to meet you for the first time. And I will see
if I can get the mastery of this wonderful piece of equipment up here and tell you what
we are doing. Why do we have this slide up here?
De Weerd: And, Steven, if you will just state your name for the record.
Spalding: Steven Spalding with Point A Consulting and part of the team being led by
Pegasus Planning.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Spalding: Thank you. Am I okay on the mike also as far as -- yeah. Why we have this
slide up here. And this is because we all started from a premise that this was a center
of agriculture, but the question was what is it about agriculture that's here that could be
a driver? What can be new, better, and different. You know, if we just do what we did
before we are going to get what we always got and so we broke it down and we started
saying how much of each of these things that's here. So, we have the animal
agriculture, we learned a lot about the growth of the dairy industry in the state. It's not
happening here, but it's creating tremendous pull elsewhere. We learned what the
unique things were going on in plant agriculture here in particular and you can see the
list of the things here and the remarkable diversity that's here and, then, we looked at
what we think of as classic research and we know that there is field research, which you
can see examples or all over this metropolitan area that are there, some of the major
brands in world agriculture that are here. We know that your agricultural extension
service from the universities are here, but that's very different than what's going on in
laboratory buildings and, then, there is all kinds other things going on in terms of
incubators and, then, we looked at other things, which are the current trends in
agriculture in terms of how geographic information system is being applied to
agriculture, the whole explosion -- literally explosion of the use of big data and precision
agriculture as it's being called and, then, we have all other kinds of agri-businesses,
some of which need a very urban environment, some of which are not so clean and
need a different kind of environment. And, then, we even looked at the agencies. So --
next slide. Does it work here? There we go. So, here is what we did. We took a
matrix and we said to ourself if these are all of the building blocks, the buttons and
levers and the moving parts of this thing, we looked at what we are calling a jobs and
economic opportunity index and if you go in this direction you get more of it. Now, this
doesn't mean that these things down here -- and I'm going to use row crops as an
example. We could take sugar beets. We can take potatoes. And the fact is is that
those who plant and work in those fields make a great deal of income and one of your
major signature companies in this metropolitan area, Simplot, of course, is built on that.
But the question is if you did more and more and more of the just planting potatoes, just
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to be simple about it, would you get more economic opportunity, as opposed to the
thought that those who are going to plant potatoes were already planting potatoes and
the same is somewhat true with the dairy industry. This is sort of our index of more
rural and more urban. Okay. So, we -- we went into things like seed production, as an
example, which we have talked about a lot in this area and we say to ourselves is it
more rural? Is it more urban? If you had more of it would you produce more jobs?
Would you produce more wealth for the community or not? And so you can compare
something like seed production, which still has to be out in fields, okay, versus
veterinary services and you have, again, some world brands and companies that have
been founded in this metropolitan area, that can be much more value added in terms of
the kinds of jobs that were provided and so forth and, yet, a lot of these things are still
somewhat in the rural part of the field. If we move up into a different area we get fruits
and vegetables, which is a pretty famous, you know, obvious kind of an area and what
we find is that they are right at the nexus. If you get into orchards you get into nut
growing and wineries and things of this kind, suddenly -- and now you see a transition
up here into this area -- now you have got things that can be a blend of being in a very
very rural area versus a more urban area and you will also see higher value added from
the processing and so forth and so this continues up here where we have now at an
extreme those that are what I would call the university functions, information technology,
GIS, bench research and headquarters of an organization. So, we will take again
Simplot, you know, and where they are located and their building. So, there are things
that are extremely urban versus extremely rural and what we finally decided was that
we really want to concentrate on this quadrant here and the activities that are part of
agriculture that -- what I call the buttons and levers, the steering wheels that we would
grab hold of and we would say to ourselves these are the areas that have the greatest
potential for new job creation and wealth creation that isn't already going to happen and
I think that's what economic development is about, it's having you intervene and make
something happen that would not have otherwise happened. To go forward -- and there
is a lot of detail in here, a lot of background research that we can come back to and we
will -- I'm trying to see how to make -- oh. Okay. There you go. Thank you. Let me
say that there is a lot of information here. I'm going to move very quickly through this --
this is working through a funnel and we have to decide what information is important,
what information is relevant to us, but, essentially, we had the really great strength in
classic economic developments and the classic strengths in terms of agricultural and we
had challenges and we want to sort through things, but what we would say is that the
glass is more than half full. That the challenges justify the idea that there is -- they are
there, that there are things that we can intervene and we can make it as a driver of the
economy. We learned a lot of this from a whole lot of people. The ones in red are
companies and individuals and organizations that we have already talked to. You will
see that there is a lot of in black that we have not been able to get to and if we have --
say if we felt -- you know, at some point you have to stop in your drill down and stop
your data collection -- we knew enough to know what we knew. We also know what we
don't know and this would be part of our next phase if we go on and study it further.
Interesting things -- you know, people remind us we don't just grow potatoes, but for
Meridian the sky is the limit, so there was a lot of optimism. But there were also notes
of caution and this one that I really want to signal in particular. There have been some
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assumptions that higher education would be where most of the research is being done,
where the entrepreneurship is, where the extension service is, et cetera, et cetera.
University of Idaho is getting a brand new president coming in March 1st, but they are
sending a signal that that's not where the dollars are. So, it drives us to think very
seriously about the private sector and the role of the private sector and others in driving
forward a strategy there and not to assume that -- that higher education is going to be
the answer to everything. So, we bring these things forward. What we have seen --
and this gets back to some of the basic character of the state of Idaho. It is a small
population state. It does have relatively limited higher education assets and we heard
this resoundingly from all of the research folks involved in all of the universities and
Idaho national labs that we talked to that collaboration is the key, that the joint venture
projects -- and there is some examples of this in energy and example of this in water --
it's away to go. The Mayor and others here have been involved already in looking at
Asia. We think that there is tremendous opportunities here. When we talk about
research it's especially the commercialization part and understanding even what the
federal USDA is doing in terms of funding for start-up companies. We are involved in --
my partners and I are involved in providing consulting actually and mentoring to a lot of
these people who win these start-up company awards from the USDA. They are in
diverse kinds of aspects of agriculture and a lot dealing with ag waste, a lot dealing with
ag equipment and so on. So, the preservation situation, as Sean has said, is still very
challenging and I think we are going to have to see some focus on product development
here in the region as we go forward. So, we bring all this forward and say how do you
put your arms around this and what are the kinds of tools, what are the scenarios that
you would use to bring this together as a growth mechanism as part of an economic
development strategy and so what we see is that there has been some very very
interesting things going on right here in town in terms of high school -- magnet schools
in agriculture. And we started looking at some examples that had been done around
the country. In my own state in Lexington, Kentucky, has built an entire magnet high
school around agriculture that's on the edge of Lexington, Kentucky, which is a very
interesting area with all of its horse farms and the land preservation. But we have
another case of -- in the western parts of the state in an existing university driven
research park where they put a -- actually, they are going to put two now -- stem high
schools in the research park as anchors. So, we started seeing these precedents that
exist. I have already talked about the need for joint ventures among institutions and we
also know that a lot of the research being done in a lot of these research parks or in
these other communities are centered in, you know, high end laboratories. I mean
Danforth planned science center in St. Louis, it's right across the street from the
Monsanto headquarters and it's -- it's really a laboratory building, okay. So, some of
these can work in very urban areas and there has been a lot of talk, of course, about
North Carolina and what's going on there. We also have to revisit what is it about the
North Carolina experience that made this successful? I think I'm going to probably skip
through a number of the rest of the slides. What we want you to know is that we have
done the drill down as we looked as these different archetypes and said which of these
are suitable here? Which ones could succeed here? Which ones do we have natural
actors and the organizations that are interested and able to take some of these ideas
and run with it, like you have already with your -- with your public schools and with your
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-- your community colleges -- you know, is that something to build on and as we go
forward we know that there have been precedence in creating university consortiums,
so we know that they work and that the university leadership in this state understands
the need to do things together in order to get critical mass of research. We have looked
at these kinds of large scale parks -- I mean one in Florida now here is 1,600 acres that
is exclusively ag focused and half of it is owned by the public school board and the
other half is owned by a county. You know, is that a model where we want to go? And,
then, again, these are examples of the freestanding research institutes. So, this one
here in Alexandria has not been built, but that's an example of what's being done in
Research Triangle Park. Syngenta also has one very similar to that that says is that
what we are trying to do. So, this is not about 6,000 acres, but it is saying that -- that
the key and the dynamic aspects is how do you create, you know, institutions like these
and is there a place for those and is there the will and the ability to bring the resources
together to implement strategies like that here. Again, going on into what's going on in
North Carolina and very interesting looking at your own initiatives right here in Idaho
that confront industry partnership. So, I think with that I want to turn it back to Sean.
Garretson: Thank you, Steven. So, I will go ahead and try and wrap this up. So,
originally our -- again, our -- our task was to determine whether or not there is enough
here to move forward and our recommendation as a report says there is enough here to
move forward and I think you have heard from both of us there is enough stakeholder
support to -- to support Meridian at a -- at a local and regional initiative and I think the
economics and the graphics suggest that you definitely have enough to move forward. I
think that, you know, no matter what as you move forward these three types of case
studies should be the ones to focus on. Work force. Business collaborative.
Entrepreneurship. Ag research consortium. And the issue of place based -- are we still
just talking about this Fields District area, which is all right here? That's yet to be seen.
I think it still is important to have a catalyst here, especially getting regional and state
cooperation for 16 and 20-26. But the next steps we see -- you know, we have
submitted our final report to you -- you know what, this is an older slide. How did this
get in here? ~h, no. Well, so don't pay attention to that. I'm just going to say it. So,
our recommendation is to adopt the report and move forward with the next phases. We
already put together just a real draft of what that looks like, phase two and phase three
combined and we do recommend that if you look at it as part of an overall economic
development strategy I think that's a great way to bring in healthcare, technology, and
ag science all focused on economic development. So, with that if there are any
questions we would be happy to answer some.
De Weerd: Thank you, Sean. Council, any questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I noticed in the summary recommendations there is reference to doing phase
two and phase three together. I was unsure about completing a -- oh, sorry. Unsure
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about completing the full feasibility study. Don't you need to complete that first before
spending time and effort on an implementation plan if the feasibility study may or may
not show something warranted?
Garretson: Well, yes. I think traditionally if you hadn't gone through this phase that we
have just gone through that would be absolutely the way to go, to do a feasibility and
then -- and then, determine if it's feasible and, then, move forward. We know that there
is enough here to build upon to do something great for Meridian. We don't know what
that's going to look like yet though and that's -- that's what that feasibility portion of the
combined phase two and three would flush out. You know, feasibility might not be the
best word to use moving forward. Really, it's more of a planning exercise to really flush
out what that is exactly, make sure all the stakeholders are bought into that and
supportive of that and, then, to flush out the -- what is the financing of that, what's the
conceptual plan look like, and what's the governance for that -- for that body.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Sean, thank you for this report. It's very very thorough. My question really
relates to -- it appears that you have talked to a lot of people that could be potential
stakeholders in this project and I'm hoping you might be able to shine a little bit of light
on how many of these stakeholders are wanting to take an active role in this project and
how many of them -- are they waiting for the city to really be the leader this? I mean
what's the collaboration look like?
Garretson: That's a great question and I'm going to respond to that in two ways. One, I
think the majority of stakeholders are -- they are wait -- they are standing on the edge of
the pool. They are waiting for -- you know, for us to determine, you know, what the
temperature is of that pool before they jump in and I think they really want to understand
what is it exactly before they fully engage and react. I would say that being said,
everybody, with the exception of one or two -- that everybody is -- is very interested and
wants to see Meridian be successful with this. The other part of that response is I do
believe -- and we have said this to the Mayor -- I do believe that the more that this
project is -- not just from a PR perspective, but it's truly planned and developed as a
regional project, I think you are going to get a lot more support from --from regional and
state stakeholders, even though it can still be a Meridian initiative, which it should be,
given the proximity to everything else in location, I think you're going to get a lot more
leverage with your stakeholders if it's -- if it's perceived that way.
Cavener: Okay.
De Weerd: And I think that's similar to what we discovered with the CORE. It really
started with a focus and building a foundational piece from the Meridian perspective, but
it has grown to regional and statewide now, so -- and I think we need to, as a region,
start working closer together on these types of visioning processes and determining
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who are we, what are we and what can we offer industry to help them grow and
succeed and when we work together we have a much greater opportunity in doing that.
Garretson: Will say, if I can add, that --Ithink you might have used the word product. I
think a lot of folks in the region and the state from an economic development
perspective would like to see Meridian have more product to be able to promote and --
and Ithink that this initiative is definitely getting you to that point.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you. This is exciting to see this moving forward and the information
that you have studies and provided so far is -- is really great. Ithink the question I
would ask -- and this is probably phase two or phase three kind of work and -- and that
is is there a place in there when you will get involved in talking to some of the people
that are maybe property owners now on the ground and understanding that as Highway
16 comes through, the nature of that area is going to chemicalize and change anyhow
and I guess my question is going to will there be a part of your study that would confirm
that this is the right location, as opposed to maybe southwest Meridian where the
people have said they want to continue their ag life forever and something that would be
research oriented would help them do that. So, as I say, I'm thrilled that this is moving
forward, but will a part of it be to determine are we looking in the right location.
Garretson: Definitely. And Ithink -- we have, actually, a couple of stakeholders that we
have met with in the room and I think Mr. Eggers is the only one we have met with so
far from that immediate area -- that lives up in that area and, you know, his word of
wisdom was definitely talk to more folks and we know that we need to do that and that's
going to be part of the -- actually task one as part of phase two and I think, you know,
the point that you're bringing up is good that we shouldn't just limit it geographically to
that Fields District location. Ithink we need to understand what the other opportunities
are from a geographic or site specific perspective in other areas of town. The thing that
is important to take away, though, Ithink -- you know, we -- well, I will finish my
sentence and, then, I will come up with an example. The thing that I brought up earlier
-- having this area -- you know, let me erase it. You know. So, this whole area really is
the Fields District. That's kind of about what it is. You know, it might be smaller than
that, but when you have Highway 16 going through -- and who knows exactly what's
going to happen with 20-26, but if that does see improvements and per your Comp Plan
this becomes a very important highway commercial mixed use area. Having something
like this as a catalyst to jump start the kind of diversification you want in there -- we
have seen it time and time again work very very well. So, it really depends on, you
know, what it is exactly we are going to be recommending and where the best location
is for that. But the stakeholder is -- stakeholder input in a big part of that.
Zaremba: Okay.
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De Weerd: Thank you, Sean. Any other questions from Council? I do know that our
Community Development director is looking for direction from our Council.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Members, again, if you like what you have heard all
you would really be doing is we would be asking for your concurrence to negotiate a
scope of services and a fee proposal, which, of course, we would bring back to you for
your approval. That's the ask at this point.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: My comment would be I think this would be wonderful for the future of
Meridian to move forward. I personally am pleased with the results of phase one so far
and I would suggest that we authorize the director to negotiate for phrase two and three.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I agree --
De Weerd: Will you, please, move your --
Borton: Qh. Sorry.
De Weerd: Yes. Thank you.
Borton: I agree with Councilman Zaremba and as far as any helpful direction in that
negotiation is to try and address specifically within the scope some of the comments
that have been raised here and I'm sure it will clarify my question as to sort of the
process of completing the feasibility study in detail prior to being able to formulate how it
can be implemented, especially in light of some of the location questions that
Councilman Zaremba brought up, but it's a great report and extremely exciting
opportunity, so I support it.
Chatterton: Mayor and Councilman Borton, I agree completely with the need to make
sure that we have got a feasibility study before -- before moving on. Another issue was
sort of the efficiency of getting things done. I think what the consultants were
suggesting that we combine two and three -- phases two and three together, that they
have mobilized, they are out here, they can do some of the same work. We are going
to try to do our best to strike the best balance between not getting ahead of ourselves,
but also making sure that we are not spending more than we -- than we have to by
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drawing things out too much. So, we will be coming back and possibly have a couple of
alternatives for you to review.
De Weerd: And I guess I would just add -- I think there is a greater sense of urgency in
terms of identifying certainly key stakeholders we want to work with and further vetting
this, but there is also the land use piece to this that is going to be integral to -- to seeing
what we need to do in that regard and certainly on top of everyone's mind is, you know,
community prosperity and family wage jobs. Now, we know that it's not the city that's
going to be doing it, but it is the city that has a key role in establishing an environment
that people want to investment in and that is a key role of the city in working with our
stakeholders and I think that that's what this product can help us understand, too, is
identifying what those rolls and key responsibilities are to the various stakeholders that
would be the keeper of this plan and the implementer of the plan.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Along those lines I would add that we already have a pretty good example of
the CORE district. Meridian has been the catalyst and the shepherd, so to speak, in
helping that happen, but there is a somewhat independent group that's -- that's taking
on the day-to-day operation of making it happen and I think that's the kind of synergy
that -- that would translate well into this. So, Meridian would, of course, have a position
in pushing it along and being the shepherd, but it would not necessarily be at the
expensive of our citizens, although the benefits would certainly come to our citizens.
De Weerd: Okay. So, Mr. Nary, do we need a motion and directing our department to
move forward?
Nary: I think at least a voice vote, Madam Mayor, yes.
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would suggest that we direct the director to move forward with this. That's a
motion.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to direct the director. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
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De Weerd: Thank you. And thank you, Sean and Steven.
Garretson: Thank you.
Item 6: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: So, we will move right into 7, under Department Reports, and we will invite
Robert forward at this time to do the strategic plan update for the Mayor's office. You
actually won't have to listen to me this time.
Simison: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Yes, we have decided to
let the Mayor off the hook, since you're going to hear from her in a couple weeks, so
why come down and ruin the good surprise and so you will just hear from some staff
today. Kind of focusing on the Mayor's office strategic priorities, I'm going to start off
with being Captain Obvious today. Meridian is a growing community and a lot of what
we do is focus on family and youth. That's true I think around the city and the Mayor's
office as well. You know, we heard today -- I won't quote the director on it -- that stated
we have 34,000 kids in the City of Meridian and I can't vouch for that number. If that's
true, you know, that's a lot of kids and so you will hear from Ken later kind of talking
about what we are doing in our office to help engage the youth on various capacities,
but, you know, as a city that's really been the direction that's been given, you know, we
have youth on our commissions, you know, they are an important part of our
community. So, you will hear more from him about that later. But, you know, I just did
want to say this. As an office, you know, we all take our direction from the Mayor, but
we are truly there to insure that the vision of the city is being made and it's sometimes
good just to hear it again, but we are working to insure that Meridian is a vibrant
community whose vision is to be the premier place -- premier city to live, work, and raise
a family and so that really -- when you look at the nutshell, what is our strategic
direction, and we do hear from the Mayor about the five strategic priorities that are in
the State of the City, but we are all there to meet the mission, vision, CARE values of
the city and that's really what we try to take to heart in the Mayor's office. So, we are
just going to provide a few things and I'm going to try to get out of here as quickly as I
can, so you can hear from the meat and potatoes that are going to be following me in a
few minutes, but I did want to start just talking about the staff. We have a couple of
them here in the room right now. We have -- C.J. is back there and his position became
full time this year with three-quarter time where his time is spent 50-50 between working
on economic development efforts, much like helping with the stuff that you just saw a
few minutes ago, as well as on downtown, and Ken, who you hear from on occasion.
You will hear more from him. Peggy, who is upstairs manning the office. We do have a
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couple of changes that I did want to highlight. You may or may not have heard about
some of the personnel changes which are occurring. A, Natalie, the city's
communications manager, who reports to me, she -- you know, we'd like to claim her in
our office, but she is the communications manager and has her own division and budget
in the city -- has decided to move on, so we will be looking for a replacement for that
position in the near future. And Shelly, who has been with the city now nine years in
January I think we heard, has accepted a position down in the Parks and Rec
Department and so, you know, her position is not going to be refilled in our office and is
actually being transferred down. We are going to wait until after we fill Natalie's position
for that to take place. Because I was just kind of looking at the faces, me, Ken, and
Peggy and I was like, wow, Ireally -- oh, and C.J. The four of us. That's a lot of work
that we are going to have to do with just the four of us in the meantime, but, hopefully,
we will get those positions filled soon and changes. This is just a real quick look at
some of the things that we have focused on in 2013, which, you know, a large part of
what some of the strategic efforts of the city -- the Mayor's role in the Drug Task Force,
you know, the city has taken the position through the MADC and the Drug Free
Communities grant that these are priorities, not only for our city -- and our city has
shown that we are leaders around the state on these issues. So, her involvement by
default has been some of my involvement and that to make sure that that has been
taking place. It's -- it's been a lot of fun and a lot of work and it's nice when people
around the country are pointing to our city as, you know, the example of what they hate,
because we are standing up against these very issues and, you know, the Mayor
doesn't like being called in national blogs, but we sometimes take pride in those type of
activities taking place, so --
De Weerd: Thank you.
Simison: And one other thing I just want to point out on this list was the cash mob for
downtown businesses. You know, these are things that we are doing because they are
part of the larger direction that the city has made. It's not just that we want to try to get
some people to come out to businesses, but a decision was made to close down the
street by the City Council to expedite that project being completed sooner and part of
that commitment through that process was helping our local businesses any way we
can. So, ACHD had a role, our Public Works Department had a role, Economic
Development had a roll and we had our roll in that in trying to mobilize cash mobs and
working with the Chamber. So, what we are doing -- the things that we are doing are
tied towards these large priorities of the city. I just want to point out a couple of the
general things that we are continuing to work on day in and day out and I will highlight
the first one. We currently are looking for someone fora Planning and Zoning
Commission seat. We have an opening on the Arts Commission. We need to fill
Ralph's seat on the Air Quality Board. He's here today, but he stepped down. Yes, we
all shake our head at that. So, these are some of the day in, day out duties that we are
trying to do is fill the city commissions which Council has approved and find good,
quality leadership to do that. Also just kind of focusing on downtown. You know, from
our office perspective C.J.'s position when it did come full time was an additional six
hours in his role and involvement in trying to get the vibrancy in downtown, whether it's
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January 14, 2014
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working with economic development or downtown businesses, but to be that connection
point for downtown businesses. So, those are some of the general items that we are
focused on, but what you will see from -- and hear about from Ken, about -- is really
kind of some of the programs that we do in our office. He will talk a lot about MYAC and
Faith Ambassadors Council, so I'm not going to really discuss that in any capacity, but
we continue to work on partnerships with the Meridian Library District, the Mayor and
CEO's Book Club is a great example of a program that we have been able to do. We
have been able to utilize volunteers a lot to help this. Sherrie Ewing, our -- our
steadfast volunteer, sometimes de facto employee it almost seems, but we will continue
to do these type of programming with the help from others to make them occur. And,
then, the youth scholarships -- and this is really one of the ways that we are supporting
youth, in addition to MYAC, but putting these scholarships out there -- our hometown
heroes, our neighborhood stars, these are ways that we are engaging the community
and trying to give back and trying to recognize those who are giving back to the
community, they are a community priority and we are trying to make them a priority as
well. Customer service. This is, obviously, an important part of what we do in the
Mayor's office, regardless of who contacts us in what form, but, you know, we try to be
the leaders in the Meridian Way here in the city to make sure that we are timely when
we -- when we get these contacts and we engage them, if we don't answer the
questions we get them to the people that can and help follow with that follow through.
We try to make sure that this is all done friendly, professionally, and ultimately we know
that we always can't give them the answer they want, but we will try to make sure the
right thing is done for the community when they do get the answer that they need. So,
in the last year we did have almost 400 people contact the office in one form or another.
You have seen some of these through your comments that come through a-mail and the
customer comment cards, but we take pride in trying to be responsive to those people
and be the customer service leaders. A lot of that work is done by Peggy and Ken in
our office. We all have our roles, but they really kind of take the lead in getting that
information out to things -- out to the people and getting response back. Our city events
here, you're familiar with these, but know that we continue to work the programs that we
offer and how to improve them and make them better and Coffee with the Mayor is a
great example where we have traditionally done four of these a year. We are going to
add at least four more, possibly up to 12, but different varieties in terms of getting the
Mayor to a coffee place on a Saturday, this is a little bit more one on one, sit down with
people, looking at different times to do it to make them more easily available for people
that may not be able to do the Monday through Friday 8:30 in the morning stuff. So, we
are looking for ways to continue to engage. Dedications. You're going to hear a lot
from Natalie about this, so this is -- and this is kind of where I end, but I just want to
point out that, you know, with her position this last year we were able to sit down and
take a look at what we were doing and how it was working and looking at the return on
investment that we were seeing from these and we will continue to see and track and
monitor and you hear a little bit about that, but, you know, through her efforts, you know
-- and we were able to determine the things like Celebrate Meridian, the time we put into
it, we weren't seeing that return, so we went away from that. City newsletter, which
used to be a monthly, much larger publication, we have been using MailChimp, for
example, to make -- now it's twice a month, but it's a lot less content in how it is, but we
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January 14, 2014
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are able to see our people using that. Are they looking at it. And this has really helped
and these are some of the things that she -- this position has helped us get to that point.
So, you would know more about that. And the last thing I wanted to point out just kind
of from a larger perspective of communications -- one of the things we were able to do
this year, thanks to Council's direction, was we got the annual report out to every home
in the city last year and, you know, that's a little thing and that's a big thing. That's
taking something that we -- we do invest time and energy and resources into and we try
to give it out when we would have contact, but we took the proactive measure of getting
it out to everyone's homes, working with Meridian Press and others to get that delivered.
So, those are some of the things that I wanted to focus on. I'm happy to stop and
answer any questions or I will turn it over to Ken and let him continue for any questions
later.
De Weerd: Council, any questions at this point?
Simison: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay.
Corder: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. For the record, I'm
Ken Corder, community liaison for the City of Meridian. Today I will give a brief update
on some city programs I currently oversee, community outreach, as well as the recently
completed 2013 listening tour. In regards to programming, Meridian has been the
Treasure Valley's leader in youth engagements. Our teens and tweens are talented,
active, and care deeply about Meridian. You can see the evidence in our Mayor's Youth
Advisory Council. We have nearly doubled the program size this year to approximately
100 regular attenders, with a median attendance averaging around 75. To maintain
communication we use Facebook. Our page currently has 400 likes. We have a new
Twitter account to insure clear communication and be in vogue with our teen
participants. Our larger population -- or our larger population has increased overall
volunteer hours, increased our Council for outreach endeavors and allows broader
feedback for the city on youth and concerns. Through partnerships with police and
Parks and Recreation we have been able to educate and reinforce our younger
demographics on traffic and Internet safety and have provided safer outings for teens in
healthy environments. The youth have been very active this year, having planned two
youth summits at Wahooz. Our first annual Trunker Treat event that brought close to
200 -- or, excuse me, 2,500 people to City Hall benefitting Meridian's Food Bank -- or
the Idaho Food -- excuse me -- Meridians Food Bank and they have also participated in
Rake Up Meridian, just to name a few. Feedback from the community has been
positive as the youth are participating and the upkeep of our community minded culture.
In order to pull off their community outreach, the group applied for and won three grants
from the American Lung Association, Idaho Power, State Farm, totaling close to 6,000
dollars. This allows the groups and its functions to grow yet keeps the budget the
same. Do to their hard work and dedication the group recently received the governor's
Brightest Star, First Lady's Choice award. One of the top two prizes in a pool of over
70 candidates. As their advisor I am very proud of them for this achievement. Looking
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forward -- looking forward for our 2014 priorities, we will be working closely with the not
for profit Buckle Up For Bobby, as well as the American Lung and Heart Association on
teen peer pressure and safety messaging and events. 2014 will be a banner year for
MYAC. Meridian is a well churched community. Pews are full and new churches and
ministries are laying down roots here. We have several faith communities within the
greater faith community, communication with one another has been cited as paramount.
The faith communities are willing to work together, but not willing to duplicate efforts on
events and benevolence functions. In essence, we are starting to make the big dots of
the communication lines open wider. With this in mind attendance at these quarterly
meetings is now at an all time high. Our bolstered unity was evident at the I Heart
Treasure Valley day of service where our faith communities worked together for the
greater good of the city through service projects. They are now working together to
offer alternative activities for our tweens and teens on Fridays and Saturday evenings,
in addition to school breaks when negative community behaviors typically arise.
Additionally, we are connecting and increasing the outreach to community needs on
such issues such as homelessness, peer and parental mentoring, and access to food
and clothing pantries. Lastly, with the faith community we are addressing the Internet
and social media concerns of our youth through partnerships made possible through the
city, i.e., our social media guru Officer David Gomez. And we expect a significant
turnout from our faith community at next week's teen focus town hall. Meridian's
Promise. Another aspect of the faith community to our youth is the dedication to
Meridian's Promise. We are partnering with various business, faith entities, youth faith
entities and passionate individuals to come along side one another to develop our youth
and realize the five promises of caring adults, safe places, healthy starts, marketable
skills and opportunities to volunteer. The goal is to make the group separate of the city
with a strong bond to insure quality and longevity. To do this we need to find a person
or group of people who will own it and make along-term commitment to the program.
You might say we are looking for a needle in a haystack, which, fortunately, we found
two. With a new leader or leaders or generals as we are calling them in tow, we will
lock in place the promise partners of the five information promises. This setup allows
for durability for the program where if one person is to step down the organization will
continue and thrive. A lesson learned from the previous incarnations of Meridian's
Promise. Moving forward, one of the group's first projects is the dissemination of the
30,000 dollars the city just recently received from the Hi Five grant. Community
outreach. The Mayor and I meet annually with all high school principals to discuss
trends and take the pulse on each school. In our discussions bullying and cyber
bullying were named as the number one issues cited by our schools. Knowing this has
allowed MYAC, our police, and faith communities the opportunity to act through their
own outreach endeavors. In working with our PTAs we have forged new connections
and now have avenues to gain knowledge on school safety concerns, surrounding
neighbor areas of opportunity and the overall quality of life in the region. Additionally,
we have had the opportunity blast our skinny newsletter to their shared data bases.
Outreach with PTA is also at an all time high. It is important to support business in
Meridian. As we continue to grow in population, so must have the services that insure
our quality of life. We assisted in 41 ribbon cuttings and continue to bridge businesses
together to support one another and build a solid network for longevity for our program.
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We ask the previous business celebrating a ribbon cutting to pay it forward with a small
token gift. It's well liked and it is the envy of the other chambers and cities in Treasure
Valley.
De Weerd: And it was a great idea.
Corder: Madam Mayor. I'm not sure who came up with that.
De Weerd: Luke.
Corder: Indeed. We continue to meet with various faith leaders and ministries. They
are an integral and active part of our community. Having met with 22 last year we were
able to take the pulse of our congregations. One meeting in particular with the LDS
stake presidents was of great importance. We learned of their desire to educate their
youth of social media and Internet dangers, something that they were not astute to in
our community. We have since set up classes through the Meridian Police Department
and expect a contingent of their youth at next week's Teen Town Hall. The funding
sources for Planned Parenthood and stand on healthcare continue to be at the forefront
of our churches and it is imperative to our faith community that they find funding
sources. So, as we work with the Planned Parenthood -- there is a business next to
them who feels business has gone down. The Mayor's office was actually able to
bridge them to Meridian PAL and make them a part of our city employee program and
thus circumventing their issues with the demonstrations in front of Planned Parenthood,
allowing us to assist them through bolstering their business. We continue to meet and
strengthen ties with our HOA boards. I attended 25 meetings last year and found most
residents are extremely satisfied with our quality of life in Meridian and the city itself, but
would like to see more connectivity to the city via it news and events. Through the
usage and participation or HOA Facebook groups, continual contact with HOA leaders
and property management companies, we have had a high level of success in doing
just that. There has been instances where separate HOAs have needed to discuss
matters and the improved outreach has assisted in bridging them together. The two
prominent property management companies in Meridian, AMI and MGM, have also
allowed me to hold classes on the pros and cons of Facebook groups to further
enhance this connectivity. I will be meeting with AMI's groups early in 2014. Speaking
on groups, I specialize on the Facebook functions of groups and oversee 44 Facebook
groups on utilizing my Facebook handle kencommunityliaisonmeridian. This has
allowed me to keep track of what's on the hearts and minds of our fellow Meridianites
and share pertinent city news and events with each. Additionally, we have seen an
uptick in attendance at city events through the promotion on the groups. Lastly, the
groups have benefitted our town hall meetings, allowing us the ability to mine for topics,
locations, and also the timing thereof. Our 2013 listening tour. Mayor Tammy asked
that we put together these small incident gatherings of ten to 12 people where we can
sit down in various locations throughout Meridian to take the pulse on the community.
We broke Meridian into seven regions and asked for across-section of each. You can
see the listings here. They are HOA representatives, school representatives, churches,
some library district folks, business representation, et cetera. During the meetings we
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ask basically three questions. What do you like about Meridian? What are the areas of
opportunity? And if you had a wish list to add to Meridian what would you add. Family
friendly and community minded was unanimous in all of our meetings. Everyone feels
that we are community based and our culture is indicative of a growing family, a premier
place to live, grow. Our services are top notch through police and fire. Our parks and
recreation systems and programming are an attraction piece to our city and, actually,
have been cited for reasons to actually move to our city. The schools are top notch and
innovative and do less with more financially and our -- to move people, the Ten Mile
interchange and split corridor have vastly improved the quality within traffic. The Village
at Meridian has cemented our status as the center of the Treasure Valley and does give
people a sense of pride and the city does a good job of communication through social
media, the e-newsletter, Natalie Podgorski and myself. The areas of opportunity cited
generally were traffic congestion, sited more often in the northern regions, and also on
Eagle Road, oftentimes referred to as Evil Road. There is a though that the schools
might be a bit overcrowded due to folks moving in. Folks do actually purchase their
homes based on school boundaries and so folks are very leery of us rezoning. So, this
is information we will share with the district. Also the rapid growth. The citizens would
like to know our plan moving forward. And, then, also downtown. Folks would like to
see added vibrancy. Retail. Restaurants. Picnic areas. Walkability. And on the wish
list. Folks primarily in north, but cited throughout the listening tour, folks would like to
have off road bike paths. It's very near and dear to our citizens and in the southern
regions they would like to be able to connect to the northern part of Meridian. Cited
often was the need for a performing arts center, so folks won't have to go into Boise.
Our parks -- in the south folks -- folks in that region also would like to see an increasing
amount of parks, restaurants, and retail. Again, revitalize downtown. Resources for our
homes, population, as well as resources for childhood obesity, which the city will be
addressing utilizing the fund from the Hi Five grant. So, Madam Mayor, Members of the
Council, I'm happy to answer any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Milam: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: Just a quick comment, if I may, Mayor. Ken, very very thorough. Obviously,
your position is very near and dear to my heart, but I appreciate everything you're doing.
You're definitely putting community in the community liaison position and I appreciate
you sharing a lot of this information today. Again, congratulations on your success with
the youth program. I know you work hard with Patrick and with Officer Gomez and it's
great to see the return on investment. I think our citizens at all levels get a great return
on the dollars that we invest in -- in you and in our youth programs, so I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Corder: Thank you, Councilman Cavener.
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De Weerd: Thanks, Ken.
Corder: Thank you.
De Weerd: It's a tag team.
Podgorski: Yeah. Now, I will pick up my section. So, Madam Mayor, Members of the
Council, I'm just going to do -- quickly talk about some of the trends we have been
seeing in our communication efforts, work that we are already doing, outline some
suggestions for the future -- as I depart and the next person comes on board just a few
suggestions and observations that I have. And, then, talk briefly about some future
projects that are scheduled to happen this year. So, starting just with that -- oh, it looks
like one of my slides is missing, so -- well, I want to give you a social media snapshot
kind of of the city, so I will talk about that, just without the slide, so you have an idea,
and we have been focusing a lot of efforts on increasing our social media presence,
because we have heard that that's a way and we have seen that that's a way people
like to connect with the city. So, between the City of Meridian Facebook page, which is
Meridian City Hall, the Meridian Police Department, the Meridian Fire Department, and
the Parks and Recreation Department, we have 6,600 likes. So, some of those are the
same people who like our different pages, but that shows you we have a pretty good
reach on social media to be able to connect with people and this has been utilized quite
often. People will ask us questions on social media, they will send us messages, and
so it's been a great way to connect with people. And, then, just based off of looking at
the past four months and just evaluating the City of Meridian's Facebook page, the main
one -- and we are growing by approximately 30 people each month. So, it's a little bit
slower than some of the other pages, but we are seeing new people join almost every
day. On Twitter we are also seeing huge growth on that. We have about 95 new
people who sign up to follow our Twitter account each month and I believe we are at --
this summer around 2,000. That number was on the slide and I don't have it. And the
police department also they are about 1,200 people that are following that. So, that's a
good way to reach people and it's definitely growing faster right now than Facebook, so
that's kind of a trend to track, and we have also been seeing some positive success with
MailChimp and that's a tool that we have been using to send out a-mails to the
community and we average -- compared to the national average of which you should
base success on, they say a successful campaign is, we are above that, so our
campaigns are deemed successful by their standards. We have seen in some cases a
decrease of when we started our subscribers, but when we first started we took all the
e-mail addresses that the city had, so people who -- mainly from Parks and Recreation
and so some people who didn't necessarily want to receive Meridian news and maybe
they signed up for a sports week from Boise, but right now our numbers are pretty
stable and we are seeing changes. We were sending it out every week and changed it
to every other week. We have seen our numbers go up a little bit in terms of people
opening the e-mail and, then, people actually clicking on the links once they open the
e-mail, so that's some positive news. I know YouTube views -- we do the weekly videos
for events that are happening in the city. That's also been increasing, so that's another
positive sign. So, people are definitely looking for ways to connect with us. And so
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moving to this slide that you see on your screen, this is talking about -- going off of what
Ken said with the listening tour and at the listening tours we did a survey based off kind
of the city's communication efforts. Now, I will preface everything I say with this was not
a scientific survey and it is valid in no way, shape, or form, but I do think it gives a great
-- just some insights. So, we had 52 people who participated in the survey. Some of
those people didn't answer all the questions or forgot that there was a back side, so
that, again, goes with the fact it's not totally valid. Eighty-seven percent of the people
that filled out the survey thought that we were doing a good job communicating to them
about what's happening in the city and I think that's a very good number that we should
be proud of. Obviously, there is still ways that we can improve, because there is 13
percent who didn't think that. A lot of people talked about the a-mails that we have been
sending out as one of the top ways that they are staying informed. Also they mentioned
the website and Facebook. Also in that the community -- these are their top five things
that they would like more information on. Events and general city news. New
businesses coming into town. City programs. And, then, traffic updates. Forty-six
percent of people prefer to receive their information from the city through a-mail, so
that's good that we have started moving in that direction. Thirty-six percent of people
want information from the city on a monthly basis, so we are giving information more
than that, but we are hitting that audience. Twenty-four percent want it weekly and 24
percent also want it bi-weekly. So, definitely a range on how often people want
information. And, then, right now people listed Internet and TV as their top sources for
getting the news and that's an exciting thing, so I will talk about that in a later slide. So,
starting with some recommendations as I pass the torch onto somebody else. Starting
with internal communications, Ithink, you know, for the most part our departments do a
great job at knowing what other people are doing, but I think it's important that we
continue to increase the understanding and knowledge of what other departments are
working on. I would never expect someone from fire to know every single thing that's
going on in parks and recreation, but I think it is important that departments have some
awareness of what's going on in other departments, so if they take a phone call from
somebody and something comes up they might be able to answer a question or say,
you know, I heard something's happening in parks, you know, we could get you more
information or have you talk to them about this. You know, one of the ways I think is an
employee specific newsletter. I know that e-mails go out occasionally, but maybe it's
doing it on a more consistent basis, so people know to look for it and that's where they
can go to find updates from the departments. Maybe it's utilizing the Internet site,
starting a blog there or even just a thread that people could add to, so people felt like it
was more of a two-way conversation, than just one person telling them lots of
information, but there is actually a way for them to get engaged as well. And I think one
of the things that we tried to do while I was here -- and I think we can continue to do a
better job is making sure that before information is shared with the community
somebody sees it, so it's not just one set of eyes and make sure it meets the standards
of the city. So, I think -- I know that there were times when I didn't see things that went
out that I totally would have liked to have seen. Ithink maybe it would be helpful if there
was a standard operating procedure developed that all the departments had a
representative kind of sit down and figure out what are you sharing with the community,
how can we help you and what does that look like, what are we going to be checking
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for, just so people have an understanding. And, then, Ithink -- and we have seen this
before, but just our strong internal communication, the more we know about what the
left hand is doing I think it really helps -- it helps us build those relationships with the
community. Going on to social media. We have -- as I said, we have been having
some real success there. Ithink the important thing is to keep track of all the sites that
have been developed. We have right now, as I mentioned, we have Meridian City Hall
Facebook page. The fire department has a Facebook page. The police department
and the parks and rec department and that is great, because that is a way for people to
go get information about specific things that they want, so we want to make sure we
have one main site that people can know to go and they will have all the information
there and we tried to make that the Meridian City Hall and Facebook page and also we
have to be careful with all of these departments having pages and social media sites,
that's a great thing, but we do want to make sure we are not fragmenting our brand.
You know, the City of Meridian -- as a city we have one image. The departments each
have their own image, but we want to make sure we are not spreading ourselves too
thin, so our brand and image kind of gets diluted, if that makes sense. And so in
moving forward how social media should be used, I think that definitely we want to
continue to find ways to use it to engage with our community, to grow their
understanding, to help them, you know, as another forum that they can ask questions
and connect with us. You know, one thing that we really would like to see -- or I would
like to see, even though I'm not going to be here is tweet alongs with the first
responders -- and they might be shooting daggers at me saying I want them to do things
and I'm not even going to be here, but I think that's a great idea and a way for people to
really get an inside look at what happens, you know, for the fire department and police
department on a daily basis. Most people aren't going to have the opportunity to do a
ride along with an officer or firefighter, but if we can take them on a ride along virtually
through a tweet along, you know, let them know this is what the officer is doing now,
you can share pictures that way, and it's a great way to connect and just help people
really build understanding for what they do. And another way through social media is
doing Q and A sessions through social media channels with some of you up here, but
also with some of the department directors and that way, you know, it's another way for
people to connect. You guys are great people, but I think sometimes in the community
people are a little maybe hesitant to approach you with questions, but as you all know
on the internet people are not afraid to say anything. So, I think in a way don't want
them saying bad things to you guys, but, you know, I think it's a way that they will feel
more comfortable, maybe ask questions that they have or concerns that they can bring
up in an environment that they feel better about. And, then, I also think we -- we did this
a little bit this past year, but, you know, as I said, our twitter presence is growing and so
giving -- using that to give people information and a great way to do that is through our
large city events is to tweet those events, so the people who can't be there can see it on
twitter and, then, maybe they will see that something is going on and it would encourage
them to come in the future. So, the website. I talked about this a little bit in the listening
tour survey results. The number one answer people gave for where they go to get
information now is the internet and that's a great thing for the city, because we have a
presence on the internet. So, we, in theory, instead of people going to Channel 7 or the
Statesman or the Meridian Press to get information, we -- if we have a great website
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people will go and they will get the information directly from us and that is so powerful,
because that means that nobody else controls the message except us and that way we
can give people the information that we want to have them and tell them the way that
we want to tell it and just give them the facts that they need. So, the exciting thing is
this is in the budget -- a website redesign is in the budget for this fiscal year and I think
that's agreat -- it's just a great opportunity for us to improve cohesiveness with the
website. Some departments just have different setups and each department should
have a different feel, but we want to make sure if I'm on the parks and rec pages, if I go
to the Mayor's office page I should be able in the same spot to figure out where contact
information is. You don't want people searching or -- well it was like that on that section.
The other thing, too, right now before we get to the redesign I think it's important that
departments check the content on their website and make sure it's up to date, easy to
understand and that's something that's going to be really important before we launch a
new look, but that's something that's going to be crucial to continue to maintain and
after the redesign is done if we want people to come to us for information first, we have
to make sure we are giving them new information and that things are up to date,
because if things aren't up to date they are quickly going to go somewhere else where
they are current. Community outreach. I think as you have heard Ken talking about --
and Robert talking about all of the events that the city has been involved in and done,
the city does a great job engaging with the community, but it's just continuing down that
path and making sure we are continuing to engage with the community. Some of the
things that we have started this year were video updates from the Mayor and that's
received some positive feedback. I will admit she has better -- better open and click
rates than we do in the general city -- city newsletter. But there are other ways -- you
know, just look for continuing ways for city leaders, department directors, to participate
in community events and panels, possibly explain community office hours. I think that's,
you know, some of the things that we have talked about with Coffee with the Mayor is
putting it to a different time that makes it more accessible for other people to go to. And
continue working to understand how people want to receive the information and working
to meet the needs. For example, people say they want to receive information through
e-mail, great, we are already doing that, but if people want to receive their information
another way, just adapting to make sure we are covering all of our bases there. One
great recommendation -- we do have a lot of events, we make sure to post them on our
website, through our social media channels, but kind of a great bang for our buck way is
to post them on other people's community calendars, because there is always
opportunity for free publicity to get it put in and the Meridian Press on Fridays, to have
Channel 7 highlight the event or KBOI highlight the event on TV. So, that's kind of a
great way. It doesn't always happen, but I think it's worth doing, because it's reaching
another audience that we might not reach on our website. And just traditionally media, I
think this year we have done a great job building relationships with local media. I think
that's something that will continue to happen after I leave. And it's also making sure --
not just building those relationships, but using those relationships. And picking stories.
There is a lot that happens here that people just don't know about. So, there has to be
somebody who is willing to call up those reporters and let them know that we have
something amazing happening and, then, also in regards to that, when they call us up,
because they want to talk about something, we need to try to be as accommodating as
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possible, because the stronger that relationship is the more mutually beneficial it is. I
think it's worked really well this year directing media requests to one point person. I can
tell you as a reporter and working in a news room before I came to work here, we were
always a little bit confused of who to call and sometimes, you know, where those calls
would go and so I think it's really important that you just have one person who can kind
of help filter and get the answers that the person needs or connect them with the person
that they need to and it's less confusing, it makes sure that we know everything that's
going on. I think also we did a little bit with some departments, but not a lot. Offer
media training for employees who have the potential to be on camera and would be
interested in being on camera. The captains for the fire department. The sergeants for
the police department. Those type of people. Now, looking ahead to things that are
scheduled to happen and the city survey is scheduled. We just awarded the contract to
ETC Institute and they have a really impressive track record, so I know that they will do
a great job. Robert is going to be overseeing this process, but this is going to do a
really great job of helping us understand the perception of the community, what they
think of us, how they think we are doing, and also I'm hoping that some of that
information can be used to learn further in a more scientifically valid way how they want
us to connect with them, so we can continue to give them the information that they
need. And the website redesign, as I briefly mentioned, that's -- money has also been
assigned for that -- set aside for that to happen this year and that is going to include a
mobile version of our website, which I think will be -- will be helpful for people on the go
and people are definitely using their phones a lot more. So, that is all I have for you. Is
there any questions?
De Weerd: That's a lot. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: A couple of quick questions, Natalie. Related to social media, are we seeing
more interaction, more feedback from our citizens via Facebook versus Twitter? Is
there -- does the police department get more comments than the fire department? I
mean where is the bulk of the interaction happening?
De Weerd: The parks department.
Podgorski: The parks department --
Basterrechea: The police department gets all the good comments.
Podgorski: The parks department, if you look at departments purely on likes, the parks
department is winning in the likes world. In terms of interactions, I think we see equal
interactions on Facebook compared to Twitter. In terms of just people hitting like, we
see, obviously, that more on Facebook than we see people retweeting our content. But
in terms of people actually asking questions, I'd say it's pretty equal between Facebook
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and Twitter, it just depends on what you post. Sometimes you can post something on
Facebook and you will get a lot more response than you do on Twitter, so it kind of just
depends on the subject and the day.
Cavener: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions? Thank you
Podgorski: Yeah. And I just want to say, Madam Mayor and Council, thank you so
much for this opportunity this past year. It's been great learning all this stuff that I just
talked about and working with the city. It was an amazing opportunity and I thank you
for giving that to me. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well, Natalie, I think as you stepped into a new position you really
developed a program and you gave it a good foundation to -- to go really build on and --
and Ithink that that was reiterated in our listening tour and people being satisfied with
how we are communicating, that we are giving relevant information that matters to them
and you're finding all those different vehicles that they did look to for their information.
So, I just want to extend our thanks for -- for what you have done in building a great
program and giving a good foothold for someone else to step in.
Podgorski: Thank you.
B. Mayor's Office: Resolution No. 14-972: Resolution Appointing
Darrel McRoberts to Seat 8 of the Meridian Transportation
Commission
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Well, Council, that is your strategic update and so we
will go ahead and move onto the next item and I will turn this over to me. So, Council,
in front of you you do have Resolution 14-972, appointing Darrel McRoberts to Seat 8 of
the Meridian Transportation Commission. The chair of the transportation commission
and I did sit down and interview a number of people for this and did narrow it to Darrel,
who has had some -- some good and relevant experience in -- in maneuvering through
the world of transportation funding, politics, and -- and maneuvering on our own roads.
So, Council, I look for your confirmation of this appointment.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we approve Resolution 14-972 appointing Darrel McRoberts to Seat 8
of the Meridian Transportation Commission.
Milam: I second.
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De Weerd: Thank you. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 7-B. Madam
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea;
Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: Thank you.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
C. Public Works: Energy Star Award for City Hall
De Weerd: Item 7-C is under our Public Works Department and I will turn this over to --
John, are you doing this?
McCormick: Yes.
De Weerd: Well, you don't have a cart to bring in your prop, so that's a good sign.
McCormick: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, good afternoon. And thank you for
this time allocated to the topic of energy. And, for the record, my name is John
McCormick, deputy director of Public Works. It seems that time is a funny thing. It's
hard to believe that we have been in this building for over five years and during the first
few years that we were in the building we struggled mightily with a number of facility
issues and largest among them I think was the HVAC operations and the issues that
resulted from inefficient operation of the system and the uncomfortable environment that
we lived in as occupants in this building. The system controls were performing
unreliably. It was heating when it should have been cooling and cooling when it should
have been heating. The controls were fighting one another for time and energy. So, it
wasn't performing too well and the temperature throughout the building was just
impossible to control. Three years ago the building maintenance team set a goal to
make the City Hall building more energy efficient and more comfortable for its
occupants, both the workers and the people who visited and attended meetings here,
that sort of thing. We determined that achieving an Energy Star rating would be a
milestone and a major milestone in accomplishing this goal. We began with an energy
audit, which resulted in a rating of 71 percentile, which was far below the level that was
needed to achieve the Energy Star rating, so it didn't meet the goal. To qualify for the
Energy Star rating a building must operate at an efficiency level on a sustained level --
orsustained basis, excuse me, of 75 percentile for at least a period of one year and that
would be considered demonstrated performance and we were not there. In late 2010
the building maintenance team began working in partnership with Climatec Corporation
to address the HVAC issues. Over the next two years they implemented together three
specific actions that addressed the concerns of the energy audit results. These are --
there were many other actions, but these are the three probably more important
contributors. The first is that we enabled a website economizer to provide the capacity
or capability of delivering free cooling to the IT -- IT server room frequently occurs when
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the outside temperatures can be used to cool the facility and in this case it was directed
to the server room and when the outside temporary drops below 50 degrees, then,
outside air can be drawn in and substituted for the cooling that might have been
generated through internal system. This action significantly reduced consumption of
energy because we didn't have to run the compressors to do that work and it also
stabilized temperatures in the server room, which have a very tight tolerance both for
temperature and for humidity. They were out of control and we were able to bring those
in control and they have remained there ever since. Secondly, we designed a single
standard platform to insure optimal system performance for energy consumption and
comfort. We did this through the use of direct digital controls, which were installed
using Automated Logic devices -- that's the brand name -- throughout the building.
Previously we had probably four to five different components that were used in the
process of delivering heating and cooling to the building, so -- and they were not
cooperating with one another at all. This action, then, reduced consumption for both
electricity and gas, because the gas feeds the boiler and it stabilized temperatures
throughout the building, so the space heaters started to disappear, people stopped
trying to accomplish things by tweaking the controls and that sort of thing. So, we have
had pretty good success with that change. We also trained employees at the City Hall
on how the system is supposed to operate and what they could expect it to do going
forward and that would be to provide maximum benefit for their comfort, as well as
delivering energy consumption and that turned out to be very successful to do that
communication and training. I am pleased to report that we have reduced consumption
and that's gas and electricity by 33 percent over this last three years.
De Weerd: Wow.
McCormick: Pretty significant reductions. And, more importantly, we have stabilized
the performance of the system, so that it is predictable month to month. Before we
used to have these wide swings of usage of kilowatts and therms from month to month
and you could not predict what was going to happen the next month. We have had
some really terrific temperature swings in our weather the last year, cold to extreme
warm, hot, and we were able to maintain that stability throughout that time. So, that's a
remarkable result in itself. The building is more comfortable. It's more energy efficient.
And we have sustained an 88 percentile rating for this past year. What that means is
this building is now operating at the 88 percent of all buildings in the whole country.
That's very remarkable to go from where we were at to where we are and we have been
awarded at plaque to attest to that and commemorate that milestone. So, I'm very
happy to present that to you, Madam Mayor, and the Council today. So, we will have to
figure out a place to hang it prominently. We have got a lot of things hanging around
here, so there must be somewhere we can put this plaque. I want to also -- to
acknowledge the team that was involved. Eric Jensen, the building maintenance
technician. John Sweeney, the building maintenance worker. And, of course, working
in cooperation with Climates. We were able to do a major changeover with a minimum
amount of disruption in this building and that was accomplished because of their efforts.
So, I want to thank them for that. So, Madam Mayor, I didn't have any slides and I'm
not asking for money, so that's a fairly brief presentation.
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De Weerd: Very nice.
McCormick: Isn't that nice?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
McCormick: It's heavy, too, by the way.
De Weerd: That's awell-deserved award for you and your team, John. I know you
spent countless hours in getting your arms around it, understanding it, as well as Eric
and John working with Climatec and so I just want to extend certainly on behalf of
myself and Council our heartfelt thanks for your tenacity and your dedication and
determination in really seeing that we do have a system that performs the way we had
thought it should perform and so today I -- I know that we have come a long way and I
will attribute that to your leadership and thank you.
McCormick: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And just so you know, this is going to be
replicated when we open the new admin building at wastewater. That was decided to
build that building to the Energy Star standards and so it's something that we can do
right from beginning and I would expect, likewise, the performance that we have
experienced here will be duplicated there. So, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
De Weerd: Thank you. I was going to say, that's really sick, but, you know, that just
doesn't sound right.
McCormick: Do you want to hold onto this, Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: It's all yours.
McCormick: Okay. Thank you.
D. Community Development: Raised Curbs in Franklin Road,
West of Linder Road
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Our next item is under Community Development and I
will turn this over to Caleb, even though I don't even recognize him.
Hood: Madam Mayor, it has been awhile. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council,
thank you. I will be presenting -- at least introducing the next item on your agenda this
afternoon. You should have in your packet for today a letter from Cory Jackson, the
president of Jacksons Food Stores. I hope you have had a chance to read that letter
and the request. Before I turn the floor over to the representative Robert Tefteller, like I
said, I just want to kind of set the stage for you a little bit, give you a little background
information on the -- the raised curbing that is the topic of this item here. ACHD recently
finished the widening on Franklin Road between Ten Mile and Linder and as the project
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was wrapping up some raised curbing -- and I believe Mr. Tefteller will probably go
through his -- he took a series of pictures that kind of shows what's out there today.
Google Earth is a little bit out of date in that aspect. It doesn't show the raised medians.
But bear with me as I kind of explain to you the situation out there right now. ACHD did
put extruded curb right down the middle of the roadway that makes this first eastern
most access into the C store, Arctic Circle, Subway, coffee shop complex, aright-in,
right-out. So, there is a center barrier of raised curbing that goes all the way to the
second driveway. You can turn left into this driveway, but you cannot turn left out of this
driveway. So, this is athree-quarter movement access now and this is a right-in, right-
out only access, where previously they were both full movement accesses and I believe
there was a sign at either or both -- I think just this one that did say right turn only, but
there wasn't anything physically stopping a motorist from turning left out of the site. I
would note there is also cross-access with the adjacent property owner. This one was
actually before you recently, it was called Twelve Oaks, has not developed yet, but it
has been through our entitlement process recently, but as you can see a large portion of
that access has not been improved and is not paved. It's gravel. Dirt. The actual
approach is paved today, but the connecting piece here is not currently paved, but you
can make afull -- all four movements, right-in, right-out, left-in, left-out from that -- from
that driveway access. And, again, there is cross-access there. Just a little bit of a -- an
aside before I get into some more of the history on this project and what's occurred in
the recent past. ACHD -- it's pretty typical these days when they do a roadway and/or
intersection project to go in and retrofit intersections with some raised curbing,
particularly the one at -- where a driveway was approved or exists that's near the
intersection and I use that term loosely near. This driveway was approved back when
the Van Hees Subdivision was approved at 220 feet from the intersection, where this
was stop control before, it met their policy, it's since been improved and -- and is now
signalized and widened, that now does not conform to ACHD's current policy for where
they would approve a driveway that close to a signalized intersection. But, again, when
this driveway is approved it conforms and they reserve the right, essentially, to go in
and retrofit things with projects. So, it is fairly commonplace for them to come and
install some physical barrier in the center of a road when they are in the neighborhood
doing a roadway project or when a history of accidents for traffic volumes get to a
certain level they will just go in and put those types of things in the road. So, I don't
think that makes Jacksons feel any better. They are not being picked on, though, this is
something that happens on a fairly regular basis. So, some of the -- the issue in this
particular case or some of the confusion seems to be from some of the past history and
actions and maybe what Jacksons was anticipating. So, I'm going to run through, like I
said, just quickly some of the history on this project and the background. When ACRD
began scoping and designing this roadway widening project back in 2007, they did not
have any medians -- center landscape medians proposed for this project. That was at
the same time that the city was going through our Ten Mile specific area plan process
and that process we -- we, the city, designated this section and other sections of
Franklin Road and Ten Mile to have center landscape medians. So, we asked ACHD to
include that in the design of this roadway widening project. They accommodated that
request. Some of the property owners that are down the road just a little bit further, the
-- what was then SSC, now Republic Services, the bus barn, Joint School District No. 2,
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approached the City Council in the spring of 2010 saying, hey, we drive large vehicles
out here. These center landscape medians make it nearly impossible for us to -- sorry, I
didn't go down far enough -- to maneuver our large buses in and out of -- of our facilities
and they petitioned the City Council to ask ACHD to remove the medians. That was in
June of 2010. We sent a letter over to ACHD requesting that those center landscape
medians not be installed. During the July 28th, 2010, commission meeting the
commission did decide to delay the construction of the landscape center medians on
Franklin Road, but retain the raised curbs for access control at both Linder and Ten Mile
intersections. So, I think what got lost in that a little bit is the center landscape medians
that the city requested and some access control provisions that ACHD, again, sort of
retains the right to install at anytime and their staff at that time said, hey, we would like
to still put in some physical barriers and eventually even -- today there is stubbed
utilities for center landscaped islands up and down Franklin Road, but those, obviously,
weren't installed with this project. So, the staff report called it out at the time. I think,
again, what adds to some of the confusion is ACHD's project page on their website
intermingled the two and so it said medians if and when they are warranted. Well, these
raised curbs are not considered center medians. It's a raised curb and Jacksons will
think, oh, we got -- I'm not going to put words in their mouth, but wasn't expecting any
type of traffic control there and, then, they see these go in and so they are asking the
city to support them and they asked ACHD to remove the medians from in front of their
-- their -- the property there until it's warranted. So, I think with that, before I turn it over,
I will just also mention that Ryan Head is here from ACHD, too, for any questions that
you may have. I see some other representatives from other businesses, property
owners in this complex as well. The Meridian Transportation Commission did discuss
this item during their January 6th meeting, which was just last Monday and they agreed
to take no action on Jacksons' request. So, with that, Madam Mayor, I think I will stand
for any questions, but I know Mr. Tefteller here would like to address the Council, too.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, just one question. You didn't mention the access on Linder.
That's a full access; am I correct?
Hood: Councilman Zaremba, Members of the Council and Madam Mayor, that is
correct. There is a -- a full access on -- on Linder Road, so someone that is in this
complex, if they are wanting to head west on -- on Linder, could -- could come from
through here and make a lift at the controlled intersection lasting an hour. So, I did not
point that out in my presentation, but there is a -- I will point out, though, that this -- even
though potentially someday could be restrictive, as it is with two at that intersection as
well. There is no center median there now, but this is at a location where ACHD could
install something there, because it is pretty close. What you really don't want is conflict
points. You can see where the -- the taper begins, the decal lane begins for the left turn
lane on the westbound Franklin and someone -- you know, using that to either turn into
another driveway -- they don't want those suicide lanes, basically, is what is commonly
referred to, but any conflicts in that center island is what you try to avoid, because that's
where you can get some pretty bad accidents.
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Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Caleb, so do you know have there been reports of increased accidents at this
location?
Hood: Councilman Milam, Members of the Council, I did not check -- that came up --
actually came up last Monday. There is a lag time in reporting through police and web
cars where I can get some of that information. Just anecdotally -- and, again, I think Mr.
Tefteller will attest to this a little bit, talking with some of the store managers and
attendants out there, they haven't noticed anything -- any increase in -- in accidents or
even traffic problems for that matter. I did not do that research to see if there had been
an increase. This was not -- that was not the reason that ACHD put these in. It is to
head off any future accidents, but, again, you can see if someone were to take the
nearest driveway as an example, you can see where someone usually will decelerate to
turn in here and you start to have that conflict with someone coming over to getting the
turn lane here. So, just head that off and not have ahead-on collision from ACHD. But
I don't think there is a history of accidents, that it's not all that problematic up to this
point, but I cannot guarantee that with any staff at this point.
Milam: Okay. Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Would the representative like to come forward?
Tefteller: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor and Council Members. My name is Robert
Tefteller, I'm with Jacksons Food Stores. We are located at 3450 East Commercial
Court here in Meridian and I thank you very much for giving me the opportunity this
afternoon to present our position. Thank you, Caleb, for the introduction and for point of
clarification as I begin -- excuse me. I'm not good with a microphone. I would like to
point out that with regard to the -- the description of the medians, the raised curbing, as
opposed to a full center median, in either event it's an access control item that's been
placed in the street and so for purposes of this conversation I may say median instead
of raised curb median, but in either event I think that for our purposes they have the
same effect on traffic and they present the same issues to us. Caleb, I will see if I can
work my magic and show the pictures that I prepared for -- okay. So, here is a shot
from Linder looking down Franklin and you can see the curbing in the middle creating a
left turn lane and moving through -- if I can proceed. This is one shot looking back
towards Linder from the second driveway, which is the three-quarter driveway, but you
can see through the middle of the street that -- actually, this is the full access driveway.
You can see through the center of the street the raised curbing creating the access
restrictions to the site and the red car in this picture is at the full access drive, which is
the current driveway, which isn't improved. I will go back to the global if I can. Caleb,
can you get me back to the overhead graphic or the satellite -- yeah. So, this driveway
here is full access. This driveway is now three-quarter access with a left turn in. There
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is a left turn into that driveway and, then, this one is blocked across. So, for those who
haven't -- or may not have had a chance to read our letter, just to be brief, the
installation of the curbing came as a complete surprise to the Jacksons Food Stores.
We had remodeled our store at this intersection in December of 2012, based on the
information we had from 2010, which was that with this Linder to Ten Mile project there
would be no medians installed on Franklin Road. The ACHD website for this project
maintained that after a discussion between the City of Meridian, the ACHD
commissioners, and members of the community and stakeholders, that no medians
would be installed along Franklin -- and I will try and scroll down on this -- well, maybe I
have to push -- it's not working. Maybe you can scroll it for me, Caleb. Highlighted in
yellow on your screens and underlined in red -- medians will be installed in the future
when traffic volumes warrant their installation. Based on data that we had as a
business, our understanding was that the average daily trip counts for the intersection
along Franklin Road there was approximately 12,500 cars a day. To our knowledge the
average daily trips on Franklin at that intersection is still approximately 12,500 cars a
day. But the stated intention of ACHD was to install the medians and the access
restriction at the point the traffic volumes warranted the change and I will state as a
company we are concerned about safety and the safety of our customers and the
customers of the surrounding businesses as ACHD. We certainly don't want any
accidents, but to put a fine point on it, as a one-way traffic business at 25,000 average
daily trips, that's the same amount of business potentially for us as a two way access
business at 12,500 average daily trips, because we have better access to the parcel in
its unrestricted configuration. So, just a few points that I wanted to make today as I
seek your help on behalf of Jacksons and the neighboring businesses on that parcel.
Simply put, we just had no warning that these are -- these raised curb medians were
going to be installed. Again, as I mentioned, the project website didn't mention the last
public involvement for this was in 2010 and there has been no meeting or public hearing
or -- or call for involvement since then prior to the installation of these curbs and, again,
the current traffic levels appear to be similar to what they were in 2010, not yet
necessitating the need for these. Then, my second point would be, you know, curbs like
this and medians have a negative effect on businesses and they have a negative effect
in a variety of ways and one of which is when you have an existing business as we are
and an existing site and as you look at the picture on your screen of this site, you will
see it's kind of a hodge podge of businesses. This isn't a site that was developed with a
specific vision of cross-access in mind in the sense that you have got the canopies for
our gas station in front, which creates a variety of traffic movements on site, a coffee
shop or the drive-thru, Subway restaurant with adrive-thru, a car wash in the middle -- I
mean we have a lot of odd movements on the site, but the idea I think at the time this
was all developed was over time Franklin -- you wouldn't need access restrictions on
Franklin for quite some time and so there was good access to the property from -- from
almost any driveway that serves it. But be that as it may, once a property is totally
developed and, then, you impose an access restriction on that property, it's not like
you're in the planning stages with a new development where you're seeking a building
permit and access permits for arterials. We are where we are. This property exists the
way it is and it's not really going to be changed at this point to suit the roadway, but the
roadway has been changed in a way that doesn't necessarily suit the business. When
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medians are installed medical, special retail, or other destination businesses -- and the
key word is a destination business -- is adversely affected as gas stations, food stores,
fast food restaurants, and pass-by businesses. We are a convenient store chain and
we rely on having locations that are convenient to our customers and as a result that
medians have been shown to have more of a negative effect on business types like
ours. In fact, there is studies that conclude that the economic loss to retail gasoline
properties is greater than for any other property type out there. Location, exposure, and
accessibility are really key elements for a business and that ties into my third point -- as
the body that supports and nourishes economic development in the City of Meridian and
the surrounding communities, I think all of you and some of you are business owners or
have been, understand the planning that goes into operating a business. As small
businesses are want to do, we need to take a lead time to deal with tax, regulatory, and
entitlement issues and all of these things phase into our long-term planning about how
we will expend our capital and improve our sites and develop and change the property
uses. Jacksons spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars remodeling this site in
December of 2012 and I would be willing to say that the capital expenditure was in good
part predicated on the knowledge that no medians or access restrictions were going to
be installed at this property and, you know, once we do a remodel like that we need
time to recover that capital expenditure through an increase in sales, but we believe the
medians that are in place are now having a detrimental effect on the sales and
hindering our ability to recovery that capital expenditure. I think factoring in our surprise
where the businesses needed to plan, the purpose of our request today is to ask for
your assistance in this matter is that moving forward and certainly at this location now it
would be helpful as a business and for any business in this community to know that
when a proposal is put out there and a plan it put in place, that the plan will be followed
and if the plan is 25,000 average daily trips before medians or access restrictions will be
installed and we are only at 12,500 average daily trips, it would be nice knowing going
forward that what's said and done and agreed to by the community is basically what's
left out there and what can be followed. So, just by way of closing, again, having been
caught off guard, we respectfully request that the city consider our position and we
would appreciate it if perhaps the Council could prepare a letter to ACHD in support of
our position that the raised curb medians be removed and -- at this location and I
apologize, our letter spoke more broadly than that, but specifically we are -- we are
looking for your assistance with this location at Linder and Franklin. And with that I will
take any questions you may have.
De Weerd: Well, Robert, I can certainly tell you it's surprised me. It's kind of like
another spot in our community that has caused some consternation with the installation
of a curb that has created a very odd traffic situation and that's in the south part of our
community. We don't know when these are going in and, frankly, we don't know why
necessarily and that's one of the -- the awkward things about not having that road
authority, we don't always know when these kind of improvements are going to go in, so
-- and I don't want road authority necessarily. Ryan, you make sure to -- to
communicate I did say that. But certainly these -- these are some of the bumps in the
road that we will find as we continue to find better communications and those kinds of
things. But I certainly understand the direction and position you're coming from and am
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sympathetic to it. In particular we are -- it suggests here full access is on an
undeveloped piece of property, so, you know, that -- that's what ultimately baffles me.
So, Council, at this point do you have any questions? No?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Robert, so, when did these go in?
Tefteller: I believe October -- mid October.
Milam: And have you -- what kind of decrease in revenue or sales have you noticed?
Tefteller: Right now it looks like our sales are down about ten to 12 percent and the
trending looks to be down still.
Milam: Thank you.
De Weerd: And do you think it's because of this or is it -- is it that comparing -- you
know, I know I have given one of your owners back there a real hard time, because
every time I go by there I want to stop and get coffee and the lines are too long and so it
just greatly irritates me. I think I need an express lane just for the Mayor, but -- so -- I'm
kidding, Ralph. He just rolled his eyes at me, so --
Tefteller: To respond to your question, it looks like year over year we are down in sales
at this point in time, so, you know, trying to do the comparison to adjust for seasonality
or the construction or anything like that, but year over year this time last year we are
down and so that -- that indicates to me that the change -- the construction was done
last year for the remodel at this time and -- you know. But now we have the medians
we didn't have last year. So, anecdotally I believe it's related to the medians.
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Okay
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Just maybe afollow-up question then. Can you tell us a little bit about the
road construction as a whole and how that impacted your business, because while I
definitely think that the medians played apart, I -- as someone who patronizes that
business on at least a weekly basis -- that road construction definitely impacted my
ability to come in and patronize your business, as well as the other businesses that
were in that area.
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Tefteller: It did as well. I did joke with the transportation commission that the
construction workers were good for our business, but the construction did have a
negative impact on the business as well and so, you know, we were hoping to see some
lift after that was concluded.
De Weerd: So, Council, you do have a request in front of you. I would ask for your
direction on this item.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, are we going to hear from the ACHD representative?
De Weerd: Well, I don't know what Ryan can add to it. He's kind of in the position of
our staff when you make decisions. But, Ryan, if you would like to come and take the
arrows, I welcome you for it.
Hood: Madam Mayor, Ican't -- I'll let you know I did talk to Ryan before this meeting
and we talked a little bit and he's here to answer questions. He didn't have a
presentation or anything, but he certainly does know about it. I mean if you have
questions for him I think he could -- he could address those, but unless there is
something that he thinks that I have left out of the presentation -- but I don't know that --
he's not prepared to actually speak on the matter, unless there is a question.
Zaremba: I probably would ask some safety questions and that is why -- why these
curbings exist here and other places and just general information about access
management and safety.
De Weerd: See, Ryan, I tried.
Head: And I appreciate it. You're asking a transportation planner to speak as a traffic
engineer and that may be a little dangerous. And Caleb is correct, I -- we did speak and
we are in support of the comments that were made and we -- similar to the Mayor, we
are sympathetic that when access controls go in that it does have impacts on existing
businesses. That's -- that's understandable, that that may be a result of any form of
access control and understandably so that it does -- the information on the project
website was probably a little bit incomplete. Our staff report to our commission did
indicate that we would retain those access control medians at the intersections. It is a
standard practice on principal arterials in particular when we make improvements at
intersections to install them for much the same reasons that Caleb indicated, to avoid
conflicts between vehicles trying to turn in where there is left-hand turn lanes, it does
create a conflict location, which is really in that location, unless you do that control, is
unavoidable. So, the intent of that is -- is to stop those -- those conflict locations and,
then, for that reason when we make improvements to intersections off of arterials we
will add those -- those medians of that sort.
De Weerd: So, Ryan, why now? In particular when you really are asking our citizens to
go through an unimproved lot to get their full access to -- to go west.
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Head: The particulars as to why -- in particular I can see the concern with the -- the first
driveway and, again, I'm speaking as a planner, not a traffic engineer here. The second
driveway I don't know the history behind that and I can definitely look into that and try
and get you some information as to what -- what the background is and as Jacksons
submits any request to ACHD it will be evaluated and if there is a particular reason
behind -- or justification for -- for removal of that I think that we would consider it for that
reason. I would add, though, that it was always discussed that it would -- that medians
would not be installed at this time, but there was intent that they would be installed in
the future as the area develops. I'm a little bit concerned with numbers being thrown out
of what the current counts are, because the best information I can find at this point is
that counts have not been obtained since -- since the construction. We tend to give it
some time to let traffic readjust to the new traffic patterns, so I'm a little concerned with
-- with specific counts being given at this point. It's probably anecdotal and that may be
the case. However, it was always intended at the intersections that we would do this. I
can -- I can speak from my experience on that first driveway -- I can definitely see the
concerns there where it does conflict with the left-hand turn lane and overlap there. I
don't -- I can't speak personally as to why that second driveway was -- was controlled as
it was.
De Weerd: I agree. So --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: My comment -- and I guess my concern -- I think we all understand at some
point there will come a time where there needs to be access control here, but in our
request to delay that for this entire length of this mile I don't think it was the Council or
the city's intent that there would never be medians and access control. In fact, I think
we asked that they continue to be in the design, just don't install them yet.
Tefteller: Correct. Yeah.
Zaremba: And in this particular location -- I drive back and forth there quite regularly. I
was always very uncomfortable when it was, essentially, a two lane road and what
made me uncomfortable is the closest driveway to Linder -- or Franklin was right at the
point where the roadway was merging from two lanes to one lane in that direction, from
a four lane road to a two lane road and to see people stop in -- not only what was the
traffic lane, but was also the lane that other people were merging into from -- from the
discontinuing extra lane was very uncomfortable. I was kind of hoping when the street
was widened to four or five lanes, as it is now, that that kind of apparent rear-end
conflict would be removed. So, I guess my question is now that -- now that there are
two lanes in each direction do you have any idea of how that changes the safety factor?
To me the westbound traffic is much safer, even if somebody did stop there, but, then,
again, if you allow left turns across what's now two lanes, instead of one lane, is there a
risk factor there.
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Head: With every additional lane that aleft-hand turning vehicle crosses it adds
additional conflict points. That's a -- that's a basic factor. And it may -- you know, in
looking at it and maybe the driveway on the opposite side of the road that's more of a
concern, that left out and the need to control that at the same time, makes it difficult to
control one and not the other, that may be the primary cause that that additional median
was there. I really don't know in that location -- I'm not sure I have the best answer to
your question, not being a traffic engineer.
De Weerd: So, we have those situations all over town. So, you just kind of wonder
what makes this different. Just thought I'd throw that in there, since we are not talking
to a traffic engineer.
Head: You can say whatever you would like.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: One question for you, Ryan.
Head: Yes.
Cavener: If Jacksons were to submit their letter asking ACRD to reevaluate this
decision, at that time would they implement a traffic count? I mean you mentioned
earlier that you want to wait for the traffic to settle before you do a count.
Head: Uh-huh.
Cavener: -- which I think is a prudent decision. I'm curious what -- when would ACRD
do a traffic count to be able to validate their claims or if you know. Recognizing I'm
putting you on the spot.
Head: I would anticipate we would do a count -- we are probably at the point of doing a
count in the near future. Especially on principal arterials we track them pretty -- pretty
close after construction. The installation of this is less about the count and -- as
opposed to the conflict points. The count was tied to this installation of the full median
to the west where we put that -- that criteria when it got to these counts when we would
expect that need to be there. It wasn't so much at the intersection. We looked to install
these at intersections where we see those -- those conflict points. So, it's not so much
about the number of vehicles, it's about reducing conflicts and creating an environment
that's as safe as possible.
Hood: Madam Mayor, if I can just maybe fine tune that point a little bit. Ryan
mentioned it, but Franklin is a principal arterial and so it's not -- there is a general rule at
ACHD for access points along principal arterials. So, anything closer than 600 feet to
an intersection is supposed to be right-in, right-out, but the closest you're supposed to
get to a signalized intersection on a principal arterial for full access is 660 feet. That
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puts you back in this neighborhood. So, it was timely to put that in from ACHD's
perspective, because they were improving this roadway and so part of that is retrofitting
the driveways to comply with their current policy standards for where accesses should
be located along a principal arterial, so -- but you probably will see more and more of
these going in with overlay projects, just, again, like I said, if traffic -- if there is an
accident history you will see more and more of these, again, because ACHD is trying to
push for full access back to at least 660 feet from a signal. And, again, this is about at
680. So, this is at 440 and this is at 220. At 220 feet near edge of pavement to near
edge of pavement, 440 feet from near edge of pavement to near edge of pavement.
So, by their policy these both should be right-in, right-out.
De Weerd: And, Caleb, I certainly understand that and I think that the business --
businesses that are here in that development do, too, eventually and certainly when the
property is developed to the west of them. So, you're not driving through a vacant dirt
lot and with communication and working with the businesses on that. So, Council, I
think you have a request in front of you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Not to prolong this, but the police and fire representatives have been looking
like they are paying very close attention to this and I would ask if they have an opinion.
Niemeyer: Yes, thank you, Councilman Zaremba. Madam Mayor, Members of Council,
I do -- I would like to comment on this one. When I saw the final project I was very
concerned on how this was developed. Gas stations such as this is one of our highest
-- highest target hazards. We recognize that, we know that, and we have plans to
respond to that. This particular location, if we had any kind of reported fire and we had
to respond, we have one station coming from the west and everybody else coming from
the east. If you look there is athree-quarter access and you saw a car in that three-
quarter access, you can imagine a fire truck and an aerial truck are not going to fit
through that. The unimproved lot towards the far west end -- I have driven on it when
it's wet and muddy and I don't know that a fire truck is going to do too well on that. So,
if you look at that it's really limited our access to the one on the east and that is a very
tight corner to get around in a fire engine and especially an aerial truck. Imagine people
trying to leave that and more coming in, we have really been limited to one access. In
addition, I think, Madam Mayor and Councilman Zaremba, you know, my take on curbs.
The new Council will hear it someday, but I have been able to at least stomach rolling
curbs, so that we can roll up over the top of those curbs to get in where we need to go.
You look at the curb that has been placed, we are not going to drive over that. PD is in
the same boat. They are not going to drive their cars over that curb. We don't want our
maintenance and repairs bills going even higher. So, certainly at this point our access
is limited to any type of response into that facility and that location. I think it definitely is
worth considering the request until we can figure out a better way to do this.
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De Weerd: Thank you, Ryan, for your participation. You know, I don't want to turn this
into a public hearing, because this really is going to go to the decision makers, to the
commission, if a letter is written and -- unless Council would like to continue to accept
comment.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Briefly. I think the comments brought up with regards to police and fire is
enough to more than warrant supporting the request of Jacksons and what Robert has
presented today. But I think an equally independent basis to support the request is the
massive amounts of risk and capital that he highlight that a business owner takes in
making a decision to make that type of capital investment and in hopes of trying to rely
on representation of another entity. In this case ACHD's staff report really -- whether it
intended to or not -- gave Jackson an opportunity to forecast the necessary revenue
stream to recapture the investment and take massive risk in our city, which we are very
thankful for. To then have that representation, for whatever reason, changed early on
without the traffic counts to support it, that by itself is a great concern to me, because
what you're going to do is you're going to have a chilling effect on businesses and their
opportunity to rely on those representations. So, they will be even more reluctant. It
adds item number 22 to the list of risks and how things can go wrong in investing in a
business. So, either reason and both reasons, I think if we are going to write a letter I
would want to highlight all of that. I know it's not ACHD's desire in this context to have
tried to mislead or create a false impression. I'm sure that's not the case. But it's
important that we are all reminded that our representations are relied upon by private
business and they take massive risk and massive business decisions relying on what
we say. So, again, I don't think anything was overtly done, but I would want our letter to
-- to make note that we are sensitive of that, when we make those representations, I'm
sure ACHD -- we can all be reminded to be very careful, because Jacksons in this
context relied on it, so --
De Weerd: Well, I think, Caleb, you probably have enough of our comments that you
can wrap it into a letter and, Council, would you like this brought back next week or do
you feel comfortable just getting it to you for your review and signature?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, who are we thinking would sign it? Would it come from our
Community Development Department or you would --
De Weerd: Well, it certainly can come from me, but I think if it's -- it could come from
Mayor and Council.
Zaremba: Okay. Supportive of ACRD reviewing this and considering removing the
barrier for -- at least temporarily.
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January 14, 2014
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De Weerd: Until traffic counts are warranted as they represented in their staff report
and decisions for investment were made.
Zaremba: So, unless this happens in the next day or two, I will be out of town, so I
would say I am comfortable with Caleb writing the letter and you signing it. I don't need
to see it.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, then, that's how we will move forward, then, Caleb.
Hood: Just for clarification, Mayor -- I can do that. Just one point of clarification. To
ask ACHD to look at removing the entire length of this; right? Not -- or is it some
version of leaving it through the first access, but, really, anything past that first driveway,
removing that. What is the -- the direction there? Is it -- because Jacksons has asked
for the entire -- entire thing to be removed.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: What happened in 2010 when the initial request was made to delay
installation? Was it a delay for both sections or -- or just the western portion?
Hood: Councilman Borton, Members of the Council, when the city requested ACRD
delay design and installation of the center medians, that's for the landscape medians,
which we knew were going to end somewhere back in here. So, we really didn't even
discuss any type of access control. It was a general wait on designing any center
medians in this project. That's why I tried to make the clarification between a center
landscape median and these curbs that ACHD had to put up for access control.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: To the extent that the medians, which were delayed, applied to both of those
intersections, it would make sense to me -- and that's what was relied upon once it was
removed, it would make sense that a letter would incorporate the removal from both of
those access points, the eastern most and the one just west of that.
Hood: So, just for clarification, the entire -- the entire median. This is the eastern most?
Is that --
Borton: Correct.
Hood: Or are you counting this as the -- this is west, so --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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January 14, 2014
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Hood: -- the entire --
Borton: Not the dirt lot.
Hood: Okay.
Borton: Sorry.
De Weerd: Do the rest of the Council agree with that?
Cavener: Madam Mayor? By and large I agree with that. I guess I -- I struggle a little
bit with this -- I guess it would be the east most, the one that's directly in front of the
business. Thanks, Caleb. I have personally seen, before those were installed,
accidents -- was almost involved in an accident at that point, so perhaps I'm -- I'm extra
sensitive to that intersection. That said, I -- if -- if the Council believes that we should
request to remove all of it I would support that.
Basterrechea: Madam Mayor and Council? The police department --
De Weerd: Where is that coming from?
Basterrechea: The police department agrees with Councilman Cavener. That would --
we would support removing the median from the middle, but the nearest access to
Linder Road would cause us some headaches as far as accidents go, because of its
closeness to that intersection, along with the merging.
De Weerd: That's certainly something I agree with, too.
Milam: Madam Mayor? So, are we recommending, then, that we leave the median
through the first entrance and remove it from the second entrance, so there is one full
access?
De Weerd: I think the discussion's really centered around supporting the request to
move the -- the odd configuration in front of the further west existing exit and egress and
ingress and keeping the curbing in front of the one on -- closest to the south or their
northeast corner. So, the first way. Yes. Overby the gas station.
Milam: Keep the first one, get rid of the second one.
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: Okay. So, it's one full access for ingress, egress and police and fire access --
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
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January 14, 2014
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Milam: -- with pavement.
De Weerd: A compromise.
Zaremba: That sounds reasonable to me.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, I would ask for a motion from Council on this item.
Cavener: I will jump in then. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: And if I do this wrong you will have to forgive me. So, I guess -- Madam
Mayor, I move that we -- we instruct staff prepare a letter to ACHD supporting the
recommendation for Jacksons that they reevaluate the curbing that has been installed
along Franklin at Linder, with a recommendation that they remove the west most curb
and retain the east most curb.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Discussion from Council? Madam
Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea;
Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: Thank you. And thank you for coming.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 8: Ordinances
B. Ordinance No. 14-1590: An Ordinance (RZ 13-013 -Casa Bella
Subdivision) for the Re-Zone of a Parcel of Land Situated in a
Portion of the NE 1/4 of the SE 114 of Section 30, Township 4
North, Range 1 East, Boise, Meridian, City of Meridian, Ada
County, Idaho
De Weerd: Our next items are ordinances. I will ask Madam Clerk to, please, read Item
8-A by title only.
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor. An Ordinance RZ 13-013, Casa Bella Subdivision
for the rezone of a parcel of land situated in a portion of the northeast quarter of the
southeast quarter, Section 30, Township 4 North, Range 1 East, Boise meridian, City of
Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, establishing and determining the land use zoning
classification of R-8, Median Density Residential Zoning District, in the Meridian City
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January 14, 2014
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Code, providing that copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County
assessor, the Ada County recorder, and 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 would like to hear it read in its entirety? Seeing none, Council, do I have a
motion?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would just comment by way of explanation that normally an ordinance is
read three times over three different meetings. There is a provision in the law that we
can waive that requirement if we feel there is no controversy. So, now I'm ready to
make my motion. Madam Mayor, I move that we approve Ordinance 14-1589 with
suspension of rules.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-A. Madam Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea;
Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
A. Ordinance No. 14-1589: An Ordinance (RZ 13-012 -Raisin'
Angels) for the Re-Zone of a Parcel of Land Located in the
Southwest 1/4 of Section 8, Township 3 North, Range 1 East,
Boise, Meridian, City of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho
De Weerd: Item 8-B is Ordinance 14-1590. Will you, please, read this ordinance by
title only, Madam Clerk.
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor. An Ordinance RZ 13-012, Raisin' Angels, for the
rezone of a parcel of land located in the southwest quarter of Section 8, Township 3
North, Range 1 East, Boise meridian, City of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, establishing
and determining the land use zoning classification of L-O, Limited Office Zoning 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 Idaho State Tax Commission, as
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 14, 2014
Page 45 of 47
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 would like to hear it read in its entirety? Madam -- I'm sorry. Do I have a
motion from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we approve Ordinance 14-1590 with suspension of rules.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-B. Madam Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea;
Cavener, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
C. Ordinance No. 14-1591: An Ordinance (AZ 13-013 -Creekstone
Subdivision) for the Re-Zone of a Parcel of Land Located in the
Southwest One Quarter of the Northeast One Quarter Section
10, Township 3 North, Range 1 West, Boise, Meridian, City of
Meridian, Ada County, Idaho
De Weerd: Okay. Item C is Ordinance 14-1591. Madam Clerk, will you, please, read
this by title only.
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor. An Ordinance AZ 13-013, Creekstone Subdivision
for annexation of a parcel of land located in the southwest one quarter of the northeast
one quarter, Section 10, Township 3 North, Range 1 West, 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 required by the City of Meridian, establishing and determining the land use
zoning classification of said lands from RUT to R-8, Median Density Residential 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 Idaho State Tax Commission, as
required by law, and providing for a summary of the ordinance and providing for a
waiver of the reading rules and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by title only. Is there anyone who
would like to hear it read in its entirety? Seeing none, Council.
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January 14, 2014
Page 46 of 47
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we approve Ordinance 14-1591 with suspension of rules.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-C. Madam Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea;
Cavener, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 9: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Okay. Item 9 is future meeting topics. Council, any items for consideration
for future agendas?
Item 10: Amended onto the Agenda: Executive Session Per Idaho State Code
67-2345 (1)(a)(c)(f): (a) To consider hiring a public officer, employee,
staff member or individual agent, wherein the respective qualities of
individuals are to be evaluated in order to fill a particular vacancy or
need. This paragraph does not apply to filling a vacancy in an
elective office or deliberations about staffing needs in general, (c) To
Conduct Deliberations Concerning Labor Negotiations or to Acquire
an Interest in Real Property, Which is Not Owned by a Public Agency,
and (f) To Consider and Advise Its Legal Representatives in Pending
Litigation
De Weerd: I will move to Item 10, an Executive Session. Do I have a motion?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Move we go into Executive Session per Idaho State Code 67-2345(1)(a),
(1)(c) and (1)(f).
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Madam
Clerk, will you call roll.
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January 14, 2014
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Roll Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea;
Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:29 p.m. to 5:52 p.m.)
Zaremba: Okay. I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Borton: So moved.
Zaremba: Do we have a second?
Milam: Second.
Zaremba: We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye? Any opposed? We
are out of Executive Session.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Zaremba: I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Borton: So moved.
Cavener: Second.
Zaremba: We have a motion and second. All in favor say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Zaremba: We are adjourned.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:42 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR TALI Y DE WEERD DATE APPROVED
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