2019-08-13 Steven and Nancy Hasselblad
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To: The Mayor and City Council of Meridian
Re: Delano Development,
Hearing date: August 20th 2019
On August 20th , the City Council of Meridian will consider a development plan
proposed by Devco Development for property immediately to the south of Alpine
Pointe Neighborhood. The majority of traffic to be expected from this
development will come through a small street in Alpine Pointe Neighborhood, N
Dashwood Place. In this letter I would like to address the differences between N
Dashwood Place and other entryways into Alpine Pointe Neighborhood. I believe
a review of these streets shows how atypical N Dashwood Place is and how
inappropriate N Dashwood Place is for a major entry street into Alpine Pointe.
Alpine Pointe neighborhood has several entry streets. Wainwright is the primary
entry street off Eagle. There are no residential houses facing or driveways facing
Wainwright for the first 2000 ft.
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Camas Creek Way off McMillan is the
second major entrance into Alpine Pointe.
There are no houses or driveways facing
Camas Creek Way for the first 330 ft. After
that, for the next 1000 feet, there are only
driveways on one side of the street.
E. Wagon Street is the connection between Settlers Bridge neighborhood and
Alpine Pointe. It is 250 ft long and has two driveways facing it and one is a
secondary exit from the property.
I would also draw your attention to E Milford Street. While it is not an entry into
Alpine Point it is a connection between the newer and older sections of our
neighborhood and could be considered an example of a street connecting one
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neighborhood to another. You will note that E Milford is 260 ft. long has no
driveways entering on to it.
Now consider N Dashwood Place. N Dashwood Place is 380 feet long and has 8
driveways backing on to street, 4 from each side. Several of these houses have
large motor home garages. As you can imagine, backing a motor home into or out
of a garage on a busy street will be very problematic.
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I am not a civil engineer, but I think there is an obvious reason why busy streets
are not designed with driveways entering onto them. And N Dashwood Place will
be a busy street unless Devco’s Delano plan is modified. The trip generation
assessment done by C.R. Engineering dated February 25th, 2019 estimates 897
vehicle trips per day on N Dashwood Place. This traffic will be passing by when
residents are backing their vehicles into the traffic. Vehicles turning onto N
Dashwood Place from Wainwright will have very little time to see if there is
someone backing onto the street before they make the turn. It should be noted
that residents of N Dashwood place also have the right under our neighborhood
CCRs to park their boats or trailers or motor homes on the street for several days
at a time. Owners of the houses on N Dashwood may also have their own cars
parked on the street.
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According to the CR Engineering report, the Delano Subdivision as presently
configured will have 87 single-family lots and 78 multi -family dwelling units. If the
Trip Generation calculations are correct, N Dashwood will be a bottle neck for
traffic and a dangerous traffic situation.
Please keep in mind that this traffic estimation is for when the project is
complete. During the construction phase which could last several years all of the
construction related vehicles, cement trucks, lumber delivery trucks, etc. will be
driving through this one small street.
Members of the Alpine Pointe community have alterative plans they would like to
propose to reduce the impact of the Delano Subdivision on N Dashwood Place.
Please consider these alternative plans and make a decision that minimizes the
impact of any development on this site to our neighborhood.
Alpine Pointe is a great neighborhood and we love living in Meridian. We
understand that the Mayor’s office and the City Council are under pressure to find
places for all the many people that want to move to our area to live. They want to
move here because Meridian is a wonderful place to live. Please don’t destroy
what is good about Meridian in your efforts to allow more people to move here.
Sincerely,
Steven and Nancy Hasselblad
4242 N Chelmsford Ave.
Alpine Pointe Neighborhood
Meridian, Idaho