2019-04-29 Allen Westhoff1
Charlene Way
From:Allen Westhoff <aswesthoff@cableone.net>
Sent:Sunday, April 28, 2019 9:45 PM
To:Meridian City Clerk
Subject:Delano Development
To the Honorable Tammy de Weerd, Mayor,
To the Members of the Meridian City Council, and
To the Meridian Planning and Zoning Commission:
We, as concerned neighbors, are strongly opposed to the proposed Delano development as submitted, consisting of 85
densely packed single-family homes and a group of multi-story apartment buildings that could be between 96 and 200*
units when the ultimate CUP is accepted at the latter phase of construction. We oppose the Delano development in its
current form, for the following reasons:
First, DevCo, the developer, has done nothing to address Alpine Pointe residents’ valid concerns about having thousands
of additional car trips through our subdivision each day (we have had three DevCo-hosted neighborhood meetings to
date). DevCo’s plan will route the traffic from both this single-family development and the adjoining apartment
complex through Dashwood Pl, a quiet residential cul-de-sac in Alpine Pointe that was never designed or designated to
be a commercial collector road. From the Dashwood stub road, these thousands of cars will disperse throughout Alpine
Pointe to connect to McMillan, Locust Grove and Eagle Road, creating noise and traffic hazards. The outlined traffic
patterns will bring collateral traffic to Settlers Bridge as well. Champion Park will also have thousands of high-density
development neighbors. We respectfully ask you to help us protect our quality of life.
In addition, Alpine Pointe has two school bus stops within our subdivision, thus the additional traffic will pose significant
danger to young school age children as those using our sub as a pass through are more likely to drive at a higher rate of
speed and not have the same concern about safety as our residents do.
To clarify, it isn’t solely the Delano project that will bring forth this heavy traffic burden, but the situation is impacted by
the connection to existing subdivisions and projects under construction that will bring the total density of the block of
land bounded by Eagle Road on the east, Alpine Pointe to the north, Ustick to the south, and Champion Park to the west
to a total population that is significantly greater in density than anywhere else in the city!
To illustrate how this proposal and future land use of nearby undeveloped parcels will result in such high-density, this
Ustick/Eagle area already has the Centrepointe Way/Ustick four-plexes (80 units) and the Brickyard Apartments (279
units). Add another 85 single-family homes and 96 to 200 additional apartments, and we are looking at 540 to 630
homes/apartments and 1,490 to 1,739 or more residents in a small, tightly packed footprint (avg Meridian household
2.76 persons).** This total resident count and an unknown quantity of commercial traffic will use Alpine Pointe
(specifically Dashwood Pl) as the sole northern route into and out of this area. We feel that this much density must not
be routed through a quiet and far less dense subdivision like Alpine Pointe (3 houses per acre).
Furthermore, the future plans for this area will add to the traffic burden; we are concerned that even more high density
apartment projects will be proposed in the future when the combined 10 acres belonging to Mrs. Wong and Mr. Hedrick
are sold (R4582530100 and R4582530202).*** The future zoning of these parcels and the resident density would route
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even more traffic into Alpine Pointe via the future Centrepointe Way to Wainwright commercial collector, N Dashwood
Pl, and at Eagle/Wainwright.
Third, over-connectivity: Alpine Pointe, at 90 acres and 211 homes, will be over-connected relative to other comparable
and even larger subdivisions. If we add DevCo’s proposed access point on Dashwood, Alpine Pointe will have eight
entrances/exits when the Rogue River connection and the Centrepoint Way/Wainwright commercial collector are
constructed. This just further exacerbates our existing problem of drivers using Alpine Pointe as a high speed shortcut to
avoid Eagle Road’s already overwhelming traffic burden.
Finally, DevCo’s current proposal makes an abrupt leap from Alpine Pointe’s 3 homes per acre to 15 and then to multi-
family. We would like to see a more fluid transition from our mostly R4 to perhaps R8 in the portion of the Delano
development that is closest to Dashwood, and then a transition south to R15 (north of the Brickyard project). Perhaps
consider designating the Delano apartment paddock to R-15 as a transition as well to cap population density (parcel
R4582530300).
Ladies and Gentlemen, we respectfully ask you to consider these issues with an eye towards not only the future of
Meridian, but the quality of life of its residents. We trust you to act in our best interests.
Sincerely,
Allen Westhoff email: aswesthoff@cableone.net
Sandra Westhoff
4146 N. Linwood Way
Meridian, Idaho 83646
*Without indoor fire sprinklers, multi-family dwellings are limited to 100 units. With sprinklers, they can go up to 200
units on a parcel this size, or more with an accepted variance application.
**Based on Meridian’s average household size of 2.76 persons per residence (source
http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/meridian-id-population/ )
***Wong and Hedrick parcels (10 acres, R4582530100 and R4582530202) could result in +/- 400 total apartment units,
or +/= 1200 or more residents (a density of +/- 120 persons per acre).