2019-09-03 Sandi King1
August 31, 2019
Honorable Mayor Tammy de Weerd, &
Members of City Council
I live at 2453 Honeywood Court, Meridian - Alpine Pointe Subdivision. We as a
subdivision and individually are opposing the DEVCO Development at Eagle Rd and
Jasmine St. as it currently exists.
As homeowners and taxpayers of this beautiful city, we have been requesting
reasonable changes to modify the current application and construction design that is
currently before you. You have received many letters, calls , and a signed petition by
our homeowners to DENY this application in its current design and density. The City of
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission Hearing of July 18th passed a Motion to Deny
the current application – I am respectfully requesting that the DEVCO – Jasmine St
application also be Denied by the City Council.
My intent is not that this sound like a gripe session, but so that you understand what we
as homeowners and your staff have dealt with over these past many months. You are
one of our last hopes to change the direction of what is happening in this small area.
This current area of available growth, North of Hobby Lobby – East of Champion Park
Subdivision – West of Eagle Road & South of Alpine Pointe could potentially house over
3,000 people once fully built out = to the city of McCall at 3,300. Think of that – the
huge increase in vehi cle traffic being able to travel through our subdivision unless
changes are made. Please also consider our plea for changes to your existing plan of
connectivity for our area of growth.
I am also requesting that you all read the minutes of the July 18th Planning & Zoning
Hearing minutes & video. Within those minutes you will find that the Jim Conger has
blamed everyone but himself for the lack of any resolution to our concerns as well as
blaming your City Staff and City of Boise for issues which really are at the fault of Mr.
Conger and his staff. We have tried very hard to work with Mr. Conger, but he has
never been willing to make any effort in making changes t o this new project.
Multiple infractions of City Code related to this application as in other subdivision
application processes have occurred and continue.
The traffic study done by or for ACHD is severely flawed. There are currently 5
existing ingress/egress in our subdivision – considerably more than any other that we
have found in our Meridian area with the average being 2-4. In addition, there are 3
more that are to be utilized as infill property is developed for a total of 8 ingress/egress
points. The ACHD traffic study only placed counters on 2 of the 5 entries, and the
study was done over Spring Break so traffic was much less traffic during that time. This
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was brought up at the ACHD hearing – but it was clearly evident ACHD’s decision was
made well before the hearing. Our beautiful quiet subdivision will be anything but once
all these accesses are open. No one was aware of “how connected” we were going to
be. Connectivity might be a fine vision … but I don’t believe this le vel of connectivity for
Alpine Pointe is right or fair for the existing residents of this city, when our streets within
our subdivision are to be turned into arterials to move traffic away from Eagle Road ,
commercial businesses, restaurants, and mid to high density residential areas.
Mr. Conger stated he met with us and made concessions which is a complete lie –
our subdivision’s residents met with him 3 times and not once has he make any
concessions to our solid & respectful concerns. The Planning and Zoning Commission
passed a motion to continue his application & that the developer was to work with the
homeowners to try to resolve our concerns – we said we were willing to do that, but no
effort was ever made to have another meeting.
Mr. Conger has blamed your P&Z staff for errors which were in fact his errors.
Please take note of the quantity of false statements presented by Mr. Conger and his
staff or hired “specialists”. In a court hearing if you are caught in a lie – Your Entire
Testimony can be throw out. Please do not take his word at face value, please check
the facts.
Mr. Conger in the July 18th Hearing also stated that City of Boise was fine with this
application and the transfer of property from Boise to Meridian – which is not true. This
is documented in City staff testimony as well as citizen testimony.
Mr. Conger has made statements that our subdivision residen ts have no complaints
and are fine with his plan even though we have stood against this application in its
current form continually over the many months this has been in process – He has told
Alpine Pointe to partner with him to “fight” the City in their “requirement” to build 3 story
apartments and to close entry into his housing project through Jasmine St. – and the list
goes on…
Please understand we are not against growth, but are asking for reasonable growth and
transition. Our subdivision and the connecting housing around us are R-2 to R-4. The
DEVCO Jasmine St project is R-8 to R15 (11 homes North boundary; 9 on West
boundary are R-8 – remaining 65 are R-15) and an apartment complex of R-40 which is
located within City of Boise. Additionally, the apartment complex is located within the
City of Boise. Mr. Conger pulled the application to Boise back in 2018. In the July 18th
hearing Mr. Conger stated that the land really doesn’t belong to either city so he didn’t
need to go forward with a transfer…
With residential lots that only have 31’-34’ foot frontage there is No transition – just a
minimal effort into Medium High Density. The Lot square footage might look OK on
paper but considering that the lots are approx. 31’ – 34’ width & 103’ depth that makes
the overall Sq. Ft. of the lot look larger than it functionally is. Garages are shallow in
depth and the pad in front can’t accommodate a full- size pickup parking across the
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sidewalk. With a 27’ wide street and parking only allowed on one side of the street, 31’-
34’ lots and majority only being 32’ width only allows for one car per 2-3 homes on the
street. The city has received many complaints about Solterra vehicles parking on other
properties such as the Church and other residential areas.
The Jasmine St subdivision is similar to Solterra off of Fairview, however Solterra
Subdivision has a large park as you enter off of Fairview & Hickory – except that the
Jasmine St project only has narrow green strips no real park area for kids to play. There
is, within the plan, a ½ acre park for the kids. There is a requirement for 10% green
space for this sub, and this one has 11%, though the majority of it 24,000 SF is the
landscape buffer to the Brickyard/Jasmine strip. An additional approximate 21000SF is
for the park… It has been our argument that more green space that is actually usable
space for residents should be required. Mr. Conger applied for this buffer to be counted
as green space – which now means the required green space is met, but half of it is
unusable for recreation since they are narrow strips next to traffic.
Thank you all for your time and attention to our concerns.
Sandi King
2453 E Honeywood Ct
Meridian ID
ssking72@live.com