2020-07-09 James MaxwellKayla George
From: James Maxwell <maxwellj@me.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2020 3:57 PM
To: City Clerk
Subject: Modern Craftsman at Black Cat CUP, MDA, PS, RZ H-2020-0022
Dear Committee Members,
I am writing to inform you of my strong opposition to the Modern Craftsman development under consideration. After
review of the provided documents, I believe this development will negatively affect the quality of life and property
values of the adjacent Spurwing neighborhood.
The proposed development is exclusively rental units and that will create an environment in discord with our
neighborhood which has a high degree of owner occupied homes. Rental units inherently will not exhibit "pride of
ownership " and will be at best a temporary residence for many of the tenants as they move onto a better living
situation. I believe a development that allows people to own their home is more in keeping with the environment that
is so appealing and much of the reason we decided to purchase our own home in Spurwing Heights. This juxtaposition
of tenant only occupied to owner occupied homes will create long term and significant conflict which is not desirable.
Another major concern is the high density of rental units in the proposed development. From the provided plans it is
evident that the units are literally packed on to a small parcel of land. This will result in crowding issues within the
project and this will negatively impact our adjacent neighborhood. For example, there is very little open space in the
proposed development for outdoor recreation. This will cause the tenants to seek out places for recreate and given the
proximity of such open spaces in the Spurwing Heights development, it will be natural that the tenants will
inappropriately use our facilities. I would point out that we not only have paid for these facilities through the purchase
of our homes but also pay monthly dues to maintain our parks and other open spaces. To be clear, these are private for
use of residences of our neighborhood exclusively but there will be nothing to keep the tenants of proposed
development from using our facilities. Will we be required to hire security to patrol and control use of our own
facilities? This would seem unreasonable and costly to those of us who are paying for the right to use these facilities
exclusively.
There appears to be limited parking in the proposed development and this will result in overflow into the area within
and surrounding our neighborhood. Additionally, these tenant only occupied properties often have multiple occupants
per unit beyond what the rental agreements may allow for effectively increasing the density beyond the proposed value.
Given the difficult economic situation, we will see more people crowding into small rental units out of economic
necessity. Over time this will result in increase noise and other factors which will sign degrade the quality of life within
our neighborhood.
I also wish to register my complaint that this meeting and important decision is being undertaken during a pandemic
with a current increase in Covid 19 cases in Ada County. Many of the residents who would want to attend the meeting
in person are unable to due to the associated health risks. I believe such an important decision should be delayed until
the committee can witness in person the objections that many have to this proposed development. Assuming that this
will not be delayed, it is incumbent upon committee members to read these statements with care and diligence and to
proactively engage with all stakeholders.
In summary, I strongly oppose this proposed development and ask the committee reject the rezoning request. An
owner occupied development with a much lower unit density would be in keeping with the environment and would
likely face significantly less resistance and opposition from the community.
Sincerely,
James Maxwell