2020-03-04 Lindsey Bowshier
Charlene Way
From:Lindsey Bowshier <lbowshier@tributemedia.com>
Sent:Wednesday, March 04, 2020 9:19 AM
To:City Clerk
Subject:For p&z hearing Thursday 3/5: Support for additional height consideration for Union
93 project
External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments.
I am writing to express my support for the Union 93 project’s request for additional height.
As president of the Meridian Downtown Business Association, I cannot claim that this has the support of all our
members. It, of course, does not, as some of them even came to speak out against the project at the hearing on Feb
20th.
It is my job to listen to their concerns and represent their interests to the best of my ability. The majority of what I am
hearing is parking concerns. These business owners who have expressed concerns are valuable community members
and I know they have Meridian’s best interest at heart, but I also know that they are busy running their business, making
a living and raising their families and they do not have the time or bandwidth to study city code or learn the nuances of
these approval processes.
What we have is a Hole vs. Drill Bit discussion. What our downtown businesses are say is “We need a hole” (Parking). It’s
not their job tp know how to make it. As leaders in this community, we need to find the best way to make this hole
(parking—I cannot stress enough that no one really wants a huge hole in downtown, haha). The extra height the
developers are asking for is like the drill bit that has the ability solve the problem. What I think most people are hoping is
that by denying the height, there will be fewer apartments, therefore less strain on our parking in downtown. However,
as someone who has met with this developer and have been following along in the process, I know that the extra height
actually over-parks the project and provides the parking everyone actually wants.
In my dealings with the Galena group, I know they have no nefarious intents, but they do have a responsibility to their
stakeholders and parking doesn’t create revenue, apartments do. If denied the additional height for parking, they will
still bring residents with cars into our downtown but without the higher ratio of parking to units. So even when my
member say they don’t support this due to parking concerns, I feel like it is my responsibility to protect them from
shooting themselves in the foot by pushing for a denial of the very thing (remember the drill bit?) that will address their
concerns.
Thanks for taking the time to consider this.
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LINDSEY BOWSHIER | Director of Web Strategy
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