2020-03-16 Sheryl Tolman
Charlene Way
From:Sheryl Tolman <upliftus2@gmail.com>
Sent:Monday, March 16, 2020 7:09 PM
To:City Clerk
Subject:McMillan Independent Senior Living H-2020-0004:
I realize I may be just shy of the 72 hour prior submission, but I thought you would cancel the meeting given the
President's new recommendations to stay home, so I hope you will still consider my testimony (I expected a few more
days to prepare my testimony, but I am trying to be a good citizen and help others). I think you should seriously consider
postponing this meeting as many of the most-impacted, long-term residents are in the high risk category and deserve to
have their voices heard.
Public testimony:
I live on McMillan Road and I want to go on the record opposed to the current application for this project. Four story
buildings do not belong in our neighborhood. Trees come and go and won't completely block the view, so I despise that
argument. Staff and city council members were also concerned about the height. The current proposed buildings will
negatively impact the surrounding neighbors. Views will be ruined, traffic will increase, property values will likely
decrease, and the quiet neighborhood that surrounds this location will lose their beautiful sense of community.
I live on McMillan Road and though on paper I have been given another legal right of way off my property, a fence I
never agreed to, is blocking my access to it, despite requests to remove it. As a result, McMillan Road is my only way
out. Traffic is becoming a headache as it can back up nearly to Goddard Creek. Most subdivisions provide alternate
routes for times like these, I don't have that option - only east or west. The traffic added by this many apartments is too
great. I don't like the argument that there is on-site dining and activities, so there won't be that much traffic, because if
they really believed that were the case, the apartments wouldn't have kitchens, which I would venture to guess they do.
At the city council meeting, the develiper said they addressed all of the concerns at the neighborhood meeting. When
asked how many people came, they ventured a guess of 20-30. When it was looked up, the truth showed 6 (if I'm
remembering correctly), none of which lived in the neighborhood - I'm guessing they were all related to the
development. I talked with the other neighbors after the city council meeting and not a single resident had any
recollection receiving a notice of the neighborhood meeting or the detailed plans the developers said were mailed out.
These residents had concerns once aware of the project, especially of the size. I looked up the public notice for the Jan
city council meeting and realized what was going just on the night before, amazed what the limited info furnished on the
notice really meant. I drove to the quiet neighborhood adjacent to this proposed development and went door to door
to see what they knew. (It was a delightful experience to meet these people who shared a sense of community
uncommon to many neighborhoods.) I don't recall a single person, of the handful I spoke to, being aware of apartments
going in, yet nearly every single one I talked to, dropped what they were doing and showed up at the city council
meeting in opposition to the project. They had concerns. Many of these homeowners have lived there for over a decade.
They too have had to deal with increased traffic on McMillan and Ten Mile and now there is the plan with this project to
add traffic to their neighborhood intersection. Please consider the long-term residents and not just developers who have
a temporary interest, yet long lasting impact.
This isn't the testimony I had hoped to give, but the one written on short notice with my community's short-term and
long-term concerns in mind. Thank you for your service to the community.
1