2020-09-26 Robert Trerise
Charlene Way
From:ROBERT Trerise <retrerise@msn.com>
Sent:Saturday, September 26, 2020 2:06 PM
To:City Clerk
Cc:Rick and Carolyn Mauritzson; gregstock138@gmail.com; Gretchen Tseng
Subject:Public Hearing on October 15, 2020 - Spurwing Sewer Easement Annexation AZ
H-2020-0087
Attachments:Access Road Issues - July 2020.docx; Letter to County re Olive Tree Access\[5170\].docx
External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments.
Attached are two documents summarizing our comments/objections to the annexation of this property. Since the
hearing is planned as an indoor event, and since we fall within the population of those most vulnerable to Covid 19, we
will be unable to attend this hearing in person. Nonetheless, we would like to register our sincere objection to the
proposal. It is very clear that this proposed annexation of property is Mr. Hewitt’s attempt to ultimately construct a
roadway between our street (Balata Ct), and the Olive Tree Subdivision. This roadway was denied by Ada County after a
great deal of input from us and all of our neighbors. An appeal to that denial was also denied by the County after
hearing all of our concerns. So, Mr. Hewitt and his representatives are now attempting to circumvent the County by
having the property annexed by the City in order to ultimately complete that roadway (which follows the path of the
proposed sewer easement). The roadway has, in fact, already been constructed in part by Mr. Hewitt without proper
approval. He has been asked by the County to return the property to its original condition but has failed to do so. In
fact, as I understand it, the County has filed a law suit against him for failing to do as they requested.
This proposed annexation simply represents Mr. Hewitt’s refusal to accept “no” for an answer. The County said “no”
based on all of our inputs, so now he is attempting to shift responsibility to the City to make the determination. Please
do not fall into his trap by annexing this property so that he can then proceed with a project that his been rejected at
least twice already.
Thank you for your consideration.
Robert and Clare Trerise
3011 W. Balata Ct.
Meridian, Idaho 83646
208-376-8498
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1
7/22/2020
BALATA CT RESIDENT CONCERNS ABOUT OLIVE TREE SUBDIVISION ACCESS
ROAD AND SEWER EASEMENT PROPOSAL:
The quickest, safest, and most logical emergency access would be directly from Chinden Blvd at
Ten Mile Road where the access road was originally approved by the City of Meridian.
Access requiring emergency vehicles to loop around through neighborhood streets before
approaching the area of emergency is dangerous and makes no sense.
This is just another attempt by Jock Hewitt and the Club to circumvent the normal approval
processes by shifting the decision to the City after the County has refused the proposal multiple
times. Mr. Hewitt has not only refused to accept the decisions of the county, but has refused
the County’s order to put the land back to its original condition after he installed the existing
gravel road without proper review and approval. Instead he seems hopeful that the City will
“bail him out”.
The last time the normal processes were circumvented (i.e., without a public hearing) it resulted
in the Balata Ct traffic issue (i.e., 550+ vehicles per day up and down what used to be a quiet cul-
de-sac), and neither Jock nor the Club has taken any significant steps to help mitigate that
problem. We cannot trust that they have residents’ interests at heart at all.
If this is approved, it will preclude some potential future changes (such as closing, eliminating, or
better managing the gates) that might reduce or eliminate our significant traffic issue because
the Balata connector would then have to remain open for emergency vehicles to access this new
emergency road.
This will clearly result in another devaluation of Balata Ct property values.
The proposal will result in an unnecessary and unsightly creation of a gravel road next to our
upscale properties, especially the Tseng’s and Klein’s. And there has been no other offer of
significant landscaping to improve its appearance.
The Club’s argument that the original proposed access road would be unsafe and negatively
impact the golf course does not hold. After all, they are the ones who built the private road
connecting the sub divisions to the west with Balata Ct, and that has now resulted in over 600
rdth
vehicles crossing the golf course per day between the 3 Green and the 4 Tee box. Because
this access road would allegedly only be used for emergencies, it would create no danger nor
inconvenience for golfers to cross over it between the second green and third tee box.
To: Ada County July, 2020
This message is my way of registering a deep concern about the plans for the Spurwing and Olive Tree
Subdivisions, and specifically W. Balata Ct. I am a retired Vice President of HR for HP who moved to this
subdivision with my wife in November of 2005, the month I retired from HP. We purchased our home
that year at 3011 W Balata Ct., which at the time was a nice quiet cul-de-sac, with minimal traffic and
nicely maintained estate homes. Our plans were to live out our retirement in our dream home at this
location.
Since then, as you know, our street was opened up to what is now a “thoroughfare” with over 500 cars
per day traveling between Spurwing Greens and the intersection at Chinden Blvd and North Long Lake
Way. We were told that the County Director had approved the change without a public hearing because
the street was simply going to provide “access” to the Spurwing Club for those living in the Greens. We
were also told that the addition of gates at the west end of our “cul-de-sac” would serve to limit that
traffic for that purpose. Neither has been the case. The Club at Spurwing immediately provided remote
controls for those using the gates so they could “zip” through them without stopping and proceed down
our street at their leisure. Many of them do just that and tend to travel at unsafe speeds in so doing. It
just makes me sick when I go out to retrieve my mail or newspaper and am passed by several “speeding
cars” each time going to and from Chinden (not the Club). I was even dangerously passed in my car at
the S-Curve leading out of Balata Ct the other day. The other driver was going at least 35 or 40 mph. I
caught up to her at the light on Chinden and told her she needed to slow down and be more cautious.
She argued that it was me who was going too slow and that I should be going at least 35 mph. I
informed her that the street is not even a “through street”, there are children and golfers in the area,
and I implored her to slow down.
As you can see, we and our neighbors have been extremely frustrated with this situation, and thus far,
have seen little response to remedy it by either the county or the Club at Spurwing.
Now we’re told that Jock Hewitt has applied for a permit to add another street, connecting the west end
of the new Olive Tree Subdivision to west end of Balata Ct. Apparently he started this project without a
permit and has been put on hold until such time as he gets one. He is now applying and your offices will
review this request and decide what to approve or not approve, and what, if any changes should be
made to the use permits for Balata Ct. Our neighbor, Rick Mauritzson, has been in communication with
you about our concerns, and we support his conclusions and recommendations. We have already been
victimized by the actions of these developers, without the proper review and oversight by your offices.
If this new access road is to be approved (and we hope it is not), please restrict its usage to only
emergency vehicles, and please consider placing restrictions on all of the other traffic currently abusing
Balata Ct. It was never intended nor approved for through traffic.
Thank you for your consideration.
Robert and Clare Trerise
3011 W Balata Ct.
Meridian, Idaho 83646