2021-08-12 Meridian Planning and Zoning Meeting August 12, 2021.
Meeting of the Meridian Planning and Zoning Commission of August 12, 2021, was called
to order at 6:02 p.m. by Chairman Rhonda McCarvel.
Members Present: Chairman Rhonda McCarvel, Commissioner Andrew Seal,
Commissioner Nick Grove, Commissioner Steven Yearsley, Commissioner Maria Lorcher
and Commissioner Nate Wheeler.
Members Absent: Commissioner Bill Cassinelli.
Others Present: Adrienne Weatherly, Ted Baird, Kurt Starman, Bill Parsons, Joe Dodson,
and Dean Willis.
ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE
X Nate Wheeler X Maria Lorcher
X Andrew Seal X Nick Grove
_X Steven Yearsley Bill Cassinelli
X Rhonda McCarvel - Chairman
McCarvel: Okay. Good evening and welcome to the Planning and Zoning Commission
meeting for August 12th, 2021. The Commissioners and staff who are present for this
evening's meeting are at City Hall and on Zoom. If you are joining us on Zoom this
evening we can see that you are here. You may observe the meeting, however, your
ability to be seen on screen and talk will be muted. During the public testimony portion
of the meeting you will be unmuted and, then, be able to comment. Please note that we
cannot take any questions until the public testimony portion. If you have a process
question during the meeting, please, e-mail cityclerk@meridiancity.org and they will reply
as quickly as possible. And with that let's begin with roll call.
ADOPTION OF AGENDA
McCarvel: Thank you. First item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. Can I get
a motion to adopt the agenda as presented?
Grove: So moved.
Lorcher: Second.
Seal: Second.
McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. All those in favor say
aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
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Item 1. August 12,2021
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MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item]
1. Approve Minutes of the July 15, 2021 Planning and Zoning
Commission Meeting
2. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Brightstar Residential Care
Facility (H-2021-0040) by Jeff Hatch of Hatch Design Architecture,
Located at 3336 and 3340 N. Meridian Rd.
McCarvel: Next item is the Consent Agenda and we have two items on the Consent
Agenda this evening. We have approval of minutes for the July 15th, 2021, Planning and
Zoning meeting and Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Brightstar Residential Care
Facility, H-2021-0040. Can I get a motion to accept the Consent Agenda?
Grove: So moved.
Lorcher: Second.
Seal: Second.
McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to accept the Consent Agenda. All those in
favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
McCarvel: At this time I would like to briefly explain the public hearing process. We will
open each item individually and begin with the staff report. The staff will report their
findings on how the item adheres to our Comprehensive Plan and Unified Development
Code. After staff has made their presentation, the applicant will come forward to present
their case and respond to the staff comments. They will have 15 minutes to do so. After
the applicant has finished we will open the floor to public testimony. Each person will be
called on only once during public testimony. The Clerk will call the names individually for
those who signed up on our website in advance to testify. You will, then, be unmuted.
Please state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to
address the Commission. If you have previously sent pictures or a presentation for the
meeting it will be displayed on the screen and our Clerk will run the presentation. After
all of those who have signed up in advance have spoken we will invite any others who
may wish to testify. If you speak on the topic -- if you wish to speak on the topic you may
press raise hand button on the Zoom app or if you are listening on the phone, please,
press star nine and wait for your name to be called. When you are finished, if the
Commission does not have any questions for you, your time is up and you will not be
called on a second time. After all testimony has been heard the applicant will be given
another ten minutes to come back and respond. When the applicant has finished
responding to questions and concerns we will close the public hearing and the
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Commissioners will have the opportunity to discuss and, hopefully, be able to make a
final decision or recommendation to the City Council as needed.
ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item]
ACTION ITEMS
3. Public Hearing for Cole Valley Christian School Portable Classrooms
(H-2021-0043) by The Land Group, Located at 1108 N.E. 21/2 St.
A. Request: Conditional Use Permit to install four(4)temporary portable
classrooms for a time period of 4 years on the school site.
McCarvel: So, at this time we will begin with item H-2021-0043, the Cole Valley Christian
School Portable Classrooms and we will begin with the staff report.
Parsons: Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the Commission. First item on the
agenda this evening is the Cole Valley Christian School Portable Classrooms conditional
use permit. The site consists of 6.96 acres, currently zoned R-15 and located at 1108
Northeast 2 1/2 Street. The Comprehensive Plan designation for this property is Old
Town, as you can see in the attached map here and history on this subject property -- in
2013 this body did approve a conditional use to allow auxiliary ball fields and, therefore,
the school -- basically expansion of the school site. A CUP is required to install four
temporary portable classrooms on this site. A couple reasons for it. One is the school
needs to expand. It's enrolled more students. And, two, when you acted on that approval
of that conditional use in 2013 there was a condition of approval that requires any erection
or construction of structures on this property to come back and amend that conditional
use permit. That's why we are here before you this evening, because at the time that we
were before you there was nothing envisioned for this site, except for ball fields --
essentially open space on the property. If you had a chance to look at the staff report you
will note that staff did require some street improvements along 2 1/2 Street. That is also
consistent with ACHD's conditions of approval in the staff report. Staff did receive an e-
mail from the applicant about 4:30 this afternoon. They are in agreement with the
conditions of approval, except for item 4-E. They would like the Commission to strike --
remove verbiage along 2 1/2 Street and Washington Street from that particular condition
and staff is amenable to that recommended change as well. The other thing to note about
the -- ACHD's conditions is they would like them to put in a pedestrian crossing near the
Washington intersection here, so consistent with what you see on the site plan here. So,
as the applicant moves forward through the process with us they will continue to work
with ACHD and install those improvements as well, so we do get safe crossings for those
students from the campus, which is on the west side of 2 1/2 Street to the east side of
these portable classrooms on the -- on, again, the east side of 2 1/2 Street. Staff is also
requiring a ten foot landscape buffer along the roadway as well. Here you can see in the
plan that they are showing some -- some gravel and trees and we want a little more
beautification on the site. I would also let the Commission know that the portable
classrooms are intended to be on the site no more than four years maximum and that's
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how it's been structured and conditioned in the conditional use permit. Looking at the
public record there was public testimony submitted on behalf of this from Alan Scott and
Margo Permut. Staff is recommending approval with conditions in the staff report and
supportive of that modification by the applicant and with that I will stand for any questions
you may have.
McCarvel: Thank you. Would the applicant like to come forward? State your name and
address for the record.
Thomas: This one? Michael Thomas. Address 4013 Alma Lane, Nampa, Idaho. 83686.
I'm here on behalf of the client to answer any questions that you may have. We are in
agreement with the staff report.
McCarvel: Okay. Any questions for the applicant or staff?
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: Bill, this is probably best answered by you, possibly the applicant, but has the the MDC, have they been consulted on this, considering it is in their area and also the the new one that is in discussion?
Parsons: Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, yes, MDC is -- is aware of this
application. We did receive a phone call from the administrator and she asked that we
don't require the street improvements along 2 1/2 Street, because it is meant to be an
interim use on the site. But, again, there is no guarantees as to when the school is going
to vacate and I -- my understanding is they have purchased property and they will be
leaving downtown at some point, but there aren't any definite plans at this point to do that.
So, as both city staff and, of course, the Ada County Highway District were -- we wanted
to make sure that we get some kind of safety improvements along that roadway for the
kids crossing that street and if you have had a chance to look at some of the public
testimony that was some of the concerns of residents is just kids going up and down the
road going to school. So, we have to -- yeah. We agree this is -- enrollment's not going
to be a forever situation, because ultimately we want 3rd Street to punch through
downtown and provide that north-south connection between Fairview and Franklin, but at
this point it's -- it's safety of the kids and so we feel some of these improvements are
necessary at this time.
McCarvel: Thank you. Any other questions for staff or the applicant? Okay. Thank you.
Madam Clerk, did we have anybody signed up to testify on this application?
Weatherly: Madam Chair, we do not.
McCarvel: Okay. That being said, is there anyone in the room or on Zoom who would
like to testify on this application? Sir, come forward. And, please, state your name and
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address for the record when you get to the mic.
Garza: Sure. Joseph Garza. I live at 272 East Washington Avenue, which will be in front
of these portables, if you will. So, safety. We brought up a little bit about safety. We see
this every day, the wife and 1. Kids almost getting hit. Very narrow streets. Been pleading
with Ada County Highway District to, please, address this. Now we are going to add on
and congest more here. It's really nice that they decided to go here on the west side of
the property, if you will, or where the portals will be. I would like to, please, vision yourself
and all the improvements that we have done at our home, which will be right in front of
this -- your home to be there and to take a look at that. It's a very narrow street. It's a
portable. The begin -- the beginning that I would like to make is -- with Ada County
Highway District, I agree, four years is not temporary. It is not. We are talking about,
yes, we are going to move -- we are going to go ahead and do this and that. That is a big
gray area. I'm sure we all have kids here. We do, too. We are empty nesters now.
Sometime we are going to get to it; right? Just like the four way stop that we should have
put in. These are our concerns from our neighbors as well, but they, unfortunately,
couldn't be here. I think that this is just wrong as far as -- in so many levels of safety. I
just don't have enough time and -- but on top of this is -- speaking with our real estate
professionals in town and also in Boise, which I know very well, quite a few of them, that
is not an improvement to downtown. It's not an -- it just isn't. If it was more of a structure
like it is on the other side of street, which was built I know a lot of years ago, maybe that
would be something to take up and that would be understandable. Something portable
like this, you know, I mean, really, once again I can't emphasize enough. Picture yourself
in our home looking out to this.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Garza: You are welcome.
McCarvel: Is there anyone else in the room that wishes to testify on this application?
Okay. Thank you. Does the applicant have anything else to add? Where did he go?
No? Okay. All right. With that could I get a motion to close the public hearing on H-
2021-0043?
Seal: So moved.
Grove: Second.
McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to close the public hearing on H-2021-0043.
All those in favor say aye. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
McCarvel: Comments? Thoughts? Who would like to go on this one?
Seal: Madam Chair?
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Item 1. August 12,2021 $
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McCarvel: Commissioner Seal.
Seal: I will just start out. I mean I'm glad they came back and they are amenable to the
staff report. That was kind of a sticky wicket there. I mean they -- obviously they want to
make this as temporary as possible, since they have bought -- you know, they have
purchased new land and everything, but they have kind of got themselves in a little bit of
a jam here where they need the additional capacity. So, hopefully, these won't be around
very long. I mean you are probably looking at a couple years at least that they are going
to be there, so having the information from ACHD as far as what needs to be done there
to keep it up to code and follow all the rules is something that we are going to follow with,
so, you know, I think it's something that's necessary to keep the school going. I kind of
agree. I wouldn't like to look at trailers over there, but, hopefully, they can get this in --
you know, get their new school built and get moved over there and the trailers will be
removed in short order.
McCarvel: I -- I will jump in and I would be in favor of keeping all the road improvements,
especially the pedestrian crossing and the sidewalk improvements there that's -- I think
that's necessary. Just added safety. And as to the resident's comment, it was -- it's been
a need for a while, so --
Lorcher: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Lorcher.
Lorcher: So, 2 1/2 Street was always my secret special way of getting from Fairview to
Franklin. Do -- do they have any -- what's the time frame to punch 3rd Street through?
Has ACHD said anything or is that even on the radar?
Parsons: Yeah. Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, it's really contingent upon
what Commissioner Grove was saying, developing that new plan, working with MDC and
having the school vacate and build their new campus in northwest Meridian and they can
sell the property and, then, kind of go to work in making that happen and, then, possibly
vacating 2 1/2 Street and punching through 3rd Street. So, it's really contingent on
development and having a redevelopment plan for the property.
Lorcher: I go to the post office every day for my business and when Cole Christian --
either in the morning -- actually, all day long that there is no place to park in -- in the post
office parking lot, because it's full and there is quite a bit of congestion over there. I think
these portables will probably add to that mix, but, then, the other side of it is that if you
don't present the portables, then, you are maybe cramming 25 to 35 kids in a classroom
and, then, they can't learn. So, what's the balance there, having temporary portables or
a school situation in which, you know, they can't accommodate their students for proper
learning. With the landscaping, because that's temporary, are you requiring them to plant
trees as well?
Parsons: Yeah. Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, that is correct. They -- the
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code requires you to do one tree every 35 linear feet and, then, ten feet of lawn and other
vegetative ground cover. The other thing that I failed to mention, too, is since you brought
up parking, was we are asking the applicant to work with ACHD and provide some
additional parallel parking along 2 1/2 Street with those improvements, so that we -- we
add a little more capacity in the area.
Lorcher: I think I might have to find a new secret special way there. Orjust so -- because
there is going to be a lot of kids going back and forth from that area. I don't know. I'm
torn between what to do for the kids and the safety of the community and the families that
live on Washington Street, but it is temporary and, hopefully, they would hold true to that.
McCarvel: I mean the intent is absolutely to be temporary, but we all know -- I mean
things can change, but the plan moving forward is to -- for it to be temporary, but I think
even temporary to have that -- those improvements done there would kind of mark it as,
yes, there is more going on here than just the secret special way of getting through,
so --
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: I guess before I can say much, Bill, with -- if 4-E is stricken, what does that do in
terms of-- like the parking that you mentioned and any other aspects?
Parsons: Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, we are not striking 4-E, we are
just removing along 2 1/2 Street and Washington Street. ACHD already has specific
language in their draft staff report that they have to do curb, gutter, sidewalk along 2 1/2
Street, so I think the applicant really wants to just marry our condition up with ACHD's
conditions.
Grove: Madam Chair, my-- my thoughts on it are -- are somewhat mixed. I see the value
in being able to get more kids in there -- probably will hasten their ability to fund the project
to move out and so there is that piece. Looking at the larger picture, though, with the --
the new urban renewal that the city and MDC have been talking about and that -- you
know, the things that they have been discussing in terms of how that area redevelops, I
don't want to do anything that would hinder the ability for that to move forward smoothly,
so I have some trepidation about how that could potentially impact that redevelopment of
the larger area.
McCarvel: Any other thoughts?
Yearsley: I have no comment.
McCarvel: Okay. Motions?
Wheeler: Okay. There we go. Madam Chair? Yes. I have a question -- is there anything
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that's requiring it -- where the portables are being placed were to go back to the way that
it is now or improved from that? Do you know anything on that, staff? Because I'm
assuming that it's going to be graded, it's going to be flattened out, there is not going to
be grass underneath it and when the portables are removed is it going to be put back
where there is going to be lawn there or where the ground is going to be removed so it
doesn't look like it's just emptied?
Parsons: Yeah. Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, there is nothing specifically
to that effect. If that's something you want to add you certainly can. Again, it's my
understanding that these will be removed at the end of four years and, then, the property
will be sold or maybe actively being looked at being sold. So, I don't know what may be
in store with the new owners and how quickly the school plans to vacate the downtown
area. But, yes, the intent would be to remediate it back to that conditional use permit
status of a ball field and lawn.
Wheeler: Okay. But there is nothing in the -- in the application currently that says that
they have to do that.
Parsons: The only thing in the application is comply with your conditional use permit,
which is -- again, shows it as ball field -- or vegetation.
Wheeler: Okay.
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: I have one last question for Bill on this. Is this type of conditional use permit, at
the end of four years, are they able to reapply for an additional four years and if that is
the case are we able to condition that there would not be an opportunity to apply for
another one? What are some of our stipulations around that?
Parsons: Yeah. Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, certainly we are putting a
time -- that's -- if you look at the requirements of the code, you have the ability to put time
frames on a use on a property. That's in Chapter 5 of our ordinance. In this particular
case we are putting a four year limitation on this. So, yes, they would have to come back
before this body to extend that or removal is how the code reads. But, yeah, there is
nothing in here that prohibits them from reapplying if in the four years they haven't moved
or sold the property or done something differently.
Yearsley: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: After considering all, staff, applicant and public testimony, I move to
recommend approval to City Council of file H-2021-0043 as presented in the staff report
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for the hearing date of August 21 st, 2021, with the following condition: To strike condition
4.E.
Grove: Question. Is this --
Yearsley: Actually, that's -- it's -- my apologies. This is a condition -- it is to approve, not
to recommend approval.
Parsons: Correct. Staff had put the wrong verb -- my -- my hearing outline is correct.
Yours isn't, so I apologize.
Yearsley: Sorry. So, basically, recommend to approve this conditional use permit with
the following -- with those modifications.
Parsons: Madam Chair, clarification. Are you wanting to strike the condition in its entirety
or just the verbiage by the applicant?
Yearsley: Yes. What -- what the applicant had requested.
Parsons: Perfect. Thank you.
Seal: Second.
McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to approve file number H-2021-0043 with
modifications. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Madam Clerk, would you like to do
roll call?
Roll call: Wheeler, nay; Grove, nay; Seal, yea; Lorcher, yea; Yearsley, yea; McCarvel,
yea; Cassinelli, absent.
McCarvel: Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO NAYS. ONE ABSENT.
4. Public Hearing for Centerville Subdivision (H-2021-0046) by
Engineering Solutions, LLP, Located at 4111 E. Amity Rd. (Including
the Outparcel to the South) and 5200 S. Hillsdale Ave., at the Southeast
Corner of S. Hillsdale and E. Amity Rd.
A. Request: Annexation and Zoning of 40.49 acres of land from RUT to
the R-8 (13.35 acres) and R-15 (27.14) zoning districts.
B. Request: A Preliminary Plat consisting of 190 total lots (124 single-
family residential lots, 35 townhome lots, 2 multi-family lots, 1
commercial lot, 1 clubhouse house, and 27 common lots) on 38.95
acres of land.
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McCarvel: Next item on our agenda is H-2021-0046, Centerville Subdivision, and we will
begin with the staff report.
Dodson: Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the Commission and members of the
public. Thanks for being here. Try to make this quick. I got a honeymoon to get to,
so --
McCarvel: Couldn't get anybody to cover?
Dodson: The boss man, you know. It's all good. As noted, this next item on the agenda
is for Centerville Subdivision, H-2021 -- thankfully past 2020 -- 0046. It is for annexation
and zoning and a preliminary plat. The site consists of 40.49 acres of land currently zoned
RUT, spread across three parcels, located at 4111 East Amity and 5200 South Hillsdale
and also the out parcel in the very southeast corner. As you can see -- it's probably best
in this one. Generally at the southeast corner of Hillsdale Avenue and East Amity. There
is no history of zoning or improvements or approvals with the City of Meridian. We have
two Comprehensive Plan future land use designations on the site, medium density
residential and mixed use neighborhood. As noted it is for annexation and zoning and
preliminary plat. It is a request for rezoning from RUT to the R-8 zoning district for about
13.3 acres and the R-15 zoning district, which is 27.14 acres and it includes a concept
plan that shows 159 single family units and 168 multi-family units, with a preliminary plat
consisting of 190 total lots, 124 single family lots, 35 townhome lots, two multi-family lots,
a commercial lot, which is not commercial zoning, because it's for a daycare, which is
allowed within the R-15 zoning district and, then, 27 common lots on 38.9 acres. Again,
this is only for annexation and zoning and preliminary plat, no conditional use permit for
the multi-family is a part of this -- this application set. That would be required to come at
a later date. The project is proposed in four phases. Just go to that -- a majority of the
detached single family is proposed in the first and second phases. The access to Hillsdale
and Amity as seen here is proposed with phase one, as well as the large central open
space. The existing stubs that are to be extended from the east and the south are
proposed within phase two. The majority of the multi-family is proposed within phase
three and the clubhouse, pool, remaining multi-family and the front loaded townhomes,
which is the southwest corner of the site, is proposed in the final phase four. The project
is proposed with 5.64 acres of qualifying open space, which is approximately 14 and a
half percent. Future CUP for the multi-family would confirm the required minimum amount
for multi-family, which would be determined by the number of units, which I will get into a
little bit more detail later. The qualified open space consists of the required street buffers
along Hillsdale and Amity, the large centralized open space and other small open space
areas throughout the site and that those do include pedestrian connections throughout
the site as well. To note, the proposed open space does exceed minimum code
requirements as currently proposed with the assumption of 168 multi-family units. Access
to this site is proposed via South Hillsdale and East Amity. The applicant is extending
two local stub streets into the site as noted, one from the south and one from the east,
which is actually a city of Boise subdivision. Sorry. There was a TIS required for this,
because they proposed more than one hundred units, which is a traffic impact study. The
traffic impact study estimated that the project would generate 2,600 additional vehicle
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trips per day and 266 additional trips per hour in the p.m. peak hour, which, again, would
-- if it's over one hundred in the p.m. hour that would also trigger a traffic impact study.
The TIS and ACHD did recommend the following improvement. For Hillsdale Avenue
and the Amity Road intersection at the very northwest corner -- we will go to this one. I
apologize. The corner here -- they are proposing and requiring an interim signal there to
help with ingress and egress for this entire area. The reason why it's an interim signal is
because it's actually slated to be proposed -- or constructed as a single lane roundabout
in the future, which would be here. Sorry. Here. My understanding was that is not in the
CIP currently, but it is proposed, which is why they are saying it's an interim signal at this
time. Secondly, on Amity Road and the Amorita, which would be the entrance here, they
are proposing the applicant construct an eastbound right turn lane, which would be going
this direction. Right turn lane into the site and a westbound left turn lane to be constructed
on Amity for access into the site. Safe access to Hillsdale Elementary School, which is
to the southwest of the site, and directly across Hillsdale Avenue, is, obviously, very
important. ACHD recommended and the applicant agreed to -- to install a rapid
rectangular flashing beacon, an RFB beacon, at the Hillsdale and Hill Park Street
intersection for an additional safe crossing for current and future residents. This is
something that -- it was recommended and not required, but the applicant took it upon
themselves to propose that and take care of that access, which we do appreciate. As
noted, the project area does have two future land use designations on it. Mixed use -- or
same designation as the subdivision to the south. Medium density residential allows
density for -- gross density at three to eight dwelling units per acre and a mixed use
neighborhood allows density at six to 12 units per acre. The project area that has a mixed
use neighborhood is actually a part of a larger mixed use area, as seen in this picture on
the left. That entire area encompasses approximately 70 acres and half of it is already
approved for residential development with the Hill Century Farms North Subdivision. The
remaining area is comprised of commercial zoning, as noted in the central picture, with
mostly C-N and some C-G -- or some C-C. I apologize. It includes self storage and
urgent care, medical and dental offices, assisted living facility and some vacant
commercial lots. The applicant is proposing a mixed use residential project that is more
in line with the medium density residential designation than the mixed use neighborhood.
The applicant is including a lot along South Hillsdale Avenue, which would be this lot here,
for a future daycare within the R-15 zoning district and that is consistent with the mixed
use neighborhood designation. Staff is unaware of future uses in the undeveloped
commercial lots along Amity that are part of the adjacent project, but those would also be
incorporated and analyzed as part of the mixed use neighborhood designation. Staff
does have concerns with the lack of neighborhood serving uses in this area. Staff
believes that replacing two of the multi-family units directly south of the daycare -- should
be these. Staff does believe that replacing those two units at the southeast corner there
with a multi-tenant commercial building that may include additional commercial uses, like
a restaurant, convenience store, or other retail, would be of benefit to the site and it would
also help the project comply more with the Comprehensive Plan. As noted it does meet
the Comprehensive Plan currently. That doesn't mean it can't be better. That is why staff
did not make a specific recommendation to change that, but has noted carefully that the
Commission and Council should take that into consideration. The applicant is proposing
a gross density of 8.4 dwelling units that can be rounded down to eight units per acre per
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the Comprehensive Plan allowances, which makes that a proposal for the maximum
allowed density in the medium density residential. But, again, they do have the mixed
use neighborhood, which can allow up to 12, and they are not parcel specific, so it can
be not -- I don't like the word floated, but densities are a little harder to calculate when
you have more than one. However, this density does include the proposed 168 multi-
family units that are not part of the current application and that would require a future
CUP. They have proposed just transitional lot sizes and density within this project. Along
the perimeter they have lot sizes that match the existing development to the east and the
south. Specifically on the south side they are lot line to lot line. On the east it's not quite
one to one. As you move more interior to the site, as you can see, the next ring are lots
that are slightly smaller and are within the R-15 zoning district. It culminates in the multi-
family lots on the west side of the development, with the majority of them being located
in the northwest corner. Staff finds that the proposed project is compatible with
surrounding development because of this transitional density proposed. Because of this
transitional density staff is taking the overall gross density calculation within the mixed --
or sorry -- within the medium density residential and not the mixed use neighborhood.
So, looking at it as a maximum of eight units to the acre, which is the more restrictive
density range. As noted there is 8.4 as proposed, which staff finds is a little high. So,
staff has recommended a reduction in the maximum number of multi-family units allowed
with a future CUP, to bring the overall density below eight units per acre, without the need
to round. Staff does recommend this for the following reasons. The low jobs-to-housing
ratio in the vicinity as noted in the COMPASS report. The traffic level of service.
Emergency service response times and school capacities. All things that are well known
in this area of the city. Staff has recommended limiting the majority of the future multi-
family structures to two stories, instead of three. Specifically all of the 12-plex units be
limited to two stories, with the two larger being allowed to three stories, so that there is
both a transitional height and density from the arterials to the interior of the site. This
equals a reduction of 40 units and brings the overall gross density to 7.37, which is below
the eight allowed. Should Commission or Council find that additional neighborhood
serving commercial uses as previously discussed should be added, this would further
reduce the units and further reduce the density and provide better transition from Hillsdale
Avenue and, again, would help the project be more consistent with the Comprehensive
Plan, but I did not specifically recommend this. There were 88 pieces of testimony as of
2:30. I'm sure there are more now. The majority of them are in opposition of the project.
There were a few that were in support. The issues that were presented were the project
being too dense, the traffic concern, school overcrowding, and not matching the existing
character of the neighborhood. There was also some notes about changing the plan
according to what it was previously and I didn't quite understand that, only because this
is RUT and as it's shown on the future land use map is not meant to be the same as those
subdivisions to the south and the east. It's meant to have a little higher density because
of its proximity to the commercial and the mixed use. Staff does recommend approval of
the subject applications per the analysis in my staff report and with the DA provisions and
conditions of approval noted as well. After that I will stand for any questions.
McCarvel: Okay. Thank you. Would the applicant like to come forward?
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F15]
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McKay: Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the Commission. I'm Becky McKay with
Engineering Solutions. Business address 1029 North Rosario in Meridian. I'm
representing the applicant Challenger Development on this particular project that's before
you. So, as Joe indicated, the request before the Commission this evening is annexation
and rezone of 40.49 acres. That includes public right of way. The actual size of the
property is 38.95 acres. We are asking for a combination zoning of R-8 and R-15, 13.35
acres of R-8 and 27.14 acres of R-15. In this particular project we have a mixture of uses
and one of the things that was the -- the driving force as far as the design on this -- we
have worked on this for over a year. It hasn't been something that we have thrown
together in a short period of time. It's kind of evolved as we had a couple of different
neighborhood meetings and met with staff on multiple occasions and worked with the
highway district and the school district. As you can see this particular parcel here is -- is
an enclave. It's developed all the way around. To the -- to the east is Rockhampton
Subdivision, which was developed in Ada county in Boise's area of city impact. The area
of impact boundary is right here at our eastern boundary. To the south is what's called
Howry Lane Subdivision No. 2. 1 believe they market it as Hillsdale Creek. And, then,
the Century Hill Farms development, which consists of mixed use single family. They
have got mixed use neighborhood development, office components, multi -- or I think they
have mini storage components and, then, directly north across from us is Shelburne
South, which is currently under construction. So -- so, this particular parcel when -- when
looking at the development that's underway and that's taken place -- is -- definitely
qualifies as in-fill development. In looking -- looking at the parcel, these -- these very
rectangular parcels with the stub streets are always probably the most difficult for me from
a land use perspective. I have been doing this 30 years and it's -- these are always the
hardest ones to work with. You have existing stub streets. We have a stub street that
goes to Rockhampton. We have a stub street that goes to Howry Lane. We have existing
collector roadway Hillsdale Avenue that runs down our west boundary. We have the
Shelburne South development, who -- their collector roadway is directly across from us
on Amity Road. So, we are bounded by a minor arterial, which is Amity Road and, then,
Hillsdale Avenue, which is a collector. We have the Hillsdale Elementary School just to
the west of us. We have the YMCA South that is to the west of us and, then, we have
neighborhood commercial zoning also to the west of us here. This kind of shows you --
we had to break the plat into kind of two pieces to kind of show you what -- what we
looked at and -- and one of the things that I considered in this design was, obviously,
transportation, providing two points of ingress and egress. We had to match this collector
that goes -- this commercial collector that goes to the west. We had to, like I said, align
with the collector going into Shelburne South and, then, I had to make these stub streets
work without sending my traffic as cut through traffic into these adjoining developments.
So, we -- we met with the neighbors. We had two neighborhood meetings. Our first
neighborhood meeting that we had was in June of 2020. Initially we proposed 355
dwelling units, which had 125 single family, 26 townhomes, and 204 multi-family units,
plus a daycare, and that overall density proposed with that draft was 9.11 dwelling units
per acre. The primary concerns that we heard from the neighbors was the number of
dwelling units, if we could reduce those. If we could redesign our interconnectivity with
those adjacent stub streets to minimize any cut-through traffic. What we could do to,
obviously, mitigate our traffic and improve the transportation impact of our development
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
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in this area -- and three was what could be done to make a safer route to schools and
alleviate school capacity issues. So, we came back to them with a revised plan back in
June of 2021 . So, we took -- we took a full year working on it, working with our traffic
engineers, like I said, the city, the highway district, the school district. We wanted to make
sure that all of the agencies were involved in this project, because it -- like I said, it's an
in-fill and it -- that leads to complexity. So, what we did after that meeting -- that first
neighborhood meeting is we reduced our single family dwellings from 125 to 124 lots. We
reduced our multi-family units from 204 to 168. So, we basically removed 36 multi-family
units and one of the comments that we received from the --the neighborhood to the south
was we had -- we had two multi-family buildings here and they have a collector roadway
called Rockhampton that comes in and comes into their site and they said, you know, we
would like some type of a transition, you know, whether it be some townhomes or
something, but we don't want multi-family. So, we eliminated the two buildings that we
had and replaced these with pods of just three townhomes that would front load. One of
the things that the staff asked us to do is they said, you know, the fact that you have two
different designations on your property, the -- the mixed use neighborhood, the medium
density residential, we want to see a diversity in this project. We know it's only 38.95
acres, but we would like you to do your best to provide some variety of housing and
different styles and also providing transition from those existing residential lots. So, that
-- that was the task that was set forth to us and -- and they said, you know, we -- we would
like to have a higher density along the collector roadway, Hillsdale Avenue, along the
arterial. Fire Department said we want a -- a separate access to Amity and, then, a
collector roadway coming in and, then, interconnection to these two stub streets. So, one
of the things that I did is -- we had a street that came straight down. We eliminated that.
We went and did a full 90 degree turn and we did a pedestrian path and, then, we did a
90 degree turn here. One thing we wanted to make sure is that it was more convenient
for our residents to come out to Hillsdale Avenue or to come out to Amity Road versus
cutting through any of these neighborhoods. So, we made it very circuitous in its -- in its
road alignment. One of the other things that -- that the staff encouraged us was, you
know, we want detached sidewalks. We want it to feel soft when you come in. So, we
have a 20 foot landscaping with detached walks on our entry collector and, then, that
collector comes in and this is 1.93 acres, so this is our central open space and that's what
you see when you come off of the collector roadway and, then, when you come in off of
Amity Road we have a pocket park here, that .28 acres. We have a plaza here with public
art and we have pathways that come through and so we wanted the curb appeal to be
the best that it can be. Amity Road is designated as an entryway corridor. So, the
landscape buffer required is 35 feet. We have provided 35 feet. One of the --the pathway
coordinator said, you know, we don't show a multi-use pathway along Amity, but because
of the YMCA, because of the Hillsdale Elementary, could you do a ten foot sidewalk along
Amity? We said sure. Absolutely. So, we are proposing a detached ten foot land -- or a
ten foot sidewalk all along that Amity corridor and, then, detached five foot sidewalk all
along the Hillsdale Avenue. This is kind of a blow up of -- of the landscape plan. As you
can see we have -- we have medians as you come into the development. Significant
landscaping along -- along that Amity corridor. Like I said, we have the plaza with public
art. Pathways. We want to make this a very walkable subdivision, since we have
adjoining amenities. So, within our central open space here, as I indicated, which is 1 .93
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F17
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acres, we have playground, we have a plaza, we have picnic shelters, we got -- we have
pathways, micro paths that lead and drop down into -- into the subdivision and the staff
had a good -- good recommendation that --that we took to heart and they said, you know,
we want you to integrate the multi-family with the townhomes and we said, well, you know,
we didn't -- we didn't think about that, because we initially had these as front load. So,
what we ended up doing is -- we have a 26 foot drive aisle that runs all along the back of
the townhomes and we said, yeah, we will go ahead and we will rear load those
townhomes. That allows us to, then, do detached sidewalks all along Odell Street and
we have detached sidewalks all along the -- the east side of the street, which will have a
softer look. The Cunningham lateral runs through the property right here. We do have
approval from the New York Irrigation District. This is our primary irrigation source and
our pressurized irrigation system will source from that. We have approval to pipe that
facility right here and, then, connect to the existing pipe that runs across Hillsdale Avenue.
Bureau of Reclamation has also approved that relocation. The only stipulation that they
have is that we can either put gravel or grass or a combination of both. So, one of the
things that -- that we talked to the staff about was we do alternative compliance and we
have like a compacted pea gravel with grass for the kids, so that they could come over
and, then, link up to the sidewalk here. Or people from the -- the Rockhampton -- or not
Rockhampton. I'm sorry. Howry Lane Subdivision could also interact, because they have
open space located there. So, as far as our amenities, obviously, the -- the code requires
only ten percent. I have been -- I was on the committee for the open space update to
your UDC, so I wanted to make sure that -- that this one had more than the minimum.
So, we have 5.64 acres of qualified open space. So, we are roughly 14.48 percent and
that's for the subdivision as a whole, not including the requirement for the multi-family
open space. We have a 1.93 acre central common area, with playground, pathways, and
a plaza area. We have micro paths. Template sidewalks. We have our pocket parks.
Public art. Plazas at our Amity entrance. And within the multi-family area we have two
tot lots, one to the north, one to the south. We did that because we have a collector that
basically bisects the multi-family. We also have provided a picnic shelter and in the multi-
family development there is a clubhouse, pool facility, and parking lot. This shows you
the Centerville townhomes. These are the -- these are the rear load, so they load within
the interior of the multi-family project. There will be two car garages with a 20-by-20 pad,
so they will be able to park two in the garage, two in the driveway, as required by the
UDC. This is what we call our farmhouse kind of elevation. It's kind of a new look that
my client's working on and their -- and their architect. We have provided the front
elevation, the rear and the sides. You can see that there is significant modulation in the
roofline. Different patterns, architectural features that, obviously, provide articulation and
interest. This is the three unit one. The one I just showed you as a four. So, I wanted to
show you what the three units look like. As you can see it's -- it's very similar,just smaller.
And, then, on the southeast -- or southwest corner next to the Howry Lane collector, we
will have what we call front load townhomes. So, we have rear load and front load. This
is -- these are the front load townhomes. They are more of a contemporary design. You
can see the varying roof lines, varying materials, combinations. Wrap it up. Centerville.
These are the sample elevations of the lots are 74, 80 and 90 foot lots. You can see the
homes. Single story. Two story. A combination of both. Sixty-four foot wide lots and,
then, we have some 36 foot wide lots to provide diversity within the project and these are
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F18
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the elevations of those. As far as the apartment building, they are going to be a
contemporary style. That's a 12 unit complex and that's a 24 unit complex. There is our
clubhouse. And -- and I will use those in rebuttal. I will zip to that. Oops. Oh-oh. What
happened to me? Yeah. I got excited. We think we have a really great project and --
and we would like the Commission to, obviously, look at the diversity and the -- and the
rooftops that we need, obviously, to supply the mixed use community designation to the
north where the Albertson center is going and the mixed use neighborhood. Until we get
rooftops we don't get that commercial component. We included a daycare in here,
because we think that will, obviously, be a benefit to not only us, but the neighborhood in
general. Do you have any questions? Sorry, ma'am.
McCarvel: Any questions for staff or the applicant?
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: Becky, do you have any thoughts on staff's recommendation for adding the
commercial retail piece to the southwest -- I guess it was phase four portion of the multi-
family area?
McKay: Madam Chair, Commissioner Grove, yes, I do. If you look at the Century Hill
Farms mixed use neighborhood -- if Joseph could go back to my PowerPoint. They have
-- there is the St. Luke's facility. There is a veterinary clinic. There is a dentist. So, they
are starting to get that -- that -- those essential neighborhood uses. One of the things
that I didn't want to do was to compete with Brighton. Obviously I think Joe indicated in
his staff report there is approximately 70 acres over there that is mixed use neighborhood
that has been approved with that -- the intent that it have a retail component, a
neighborhood commercial component. So, 1, obviously, can't compete with Brighton, nor
do we want to, so the way we looked at it is we wanted to, obviously, come up with uses
that would support their commercial and would complement it and the daycare we thought
was a good use. You know, right now, if you put like some -- some offices here or
something, you know, right now they--they call those like toadstool offices, because they
are smaller. Trying to integrate those into the multi-family. One of the things that we look
at is a self-sufficient multi-family and in my consulting with the multi-family experts they
said, you know, 200 units with a clubhouse, a pool, playgrounds, open space, pathways,
all of that is typically preferred. So, I had to convince them to let me go down to 168 and
say, you know, this is why we are doing that, you know, because we need to integrate
some more townhomes, we need to do some better transitioning, we need to add some
more open space, but I just don't see that it's going to be really viable. You know, we
have got the Y, we have got the elementary due west of us, and I don't want to compete
with Brighton and -- and so, you know, we have to look at the big picture and what we
can provide and bring to the -- to the community and the neighborhood here.
McCarvel: Becky, how do you feel, then, about staff recommendation for two stories
instead of three story?
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F19
Page 17 of 69
McKay: I wanted to cry. No. I talked to Joe about that. Sent some a-mails back and
forth and -- and -- and this -- you know, this -- from my planning perspective are my
thoughts. You know, we -- we articulated these buildings -- we are on an arterial here.
These buildings, as far as their separation from the edge of right of way here is 50 feet.
So, I'm trying to figure out -- you know, we want to put the density next to the arterials,
next to the collectors. That's always been one of the -- you know, the proverbial planning
tactics and so I -- these being three story, I do not find that they are going to negatively
impact anyone and they also generate less traffic --
McCarvel: Quiet, Please.
McKay: Now, along the collector roadway I oriented the buildings so all you see is the
end and these -- these buildings are 12 unit. So, you are seeing the end and I have -- I
have traveled to other states and looked at similar projects and -- and if you -- you just
see the end of a building you don't see the bulk and here we kind of modulated the
buildings and -- and as far as --these are two story. I have talked to my clients, you know,
I kind of said, you know, what -- what's your thoughts, you know, on these -- you know,
could we make these two stories, so we have, you know, a transition, two story, two story
and transition to three story. These are within the interior, the three story here. These
are the larger buildings. And, you know, obviously, no developer wants to lose units, but
I think, you know, I would like the Commission to -- to look at -- instead of just chopping
off 40 units and say, you know, nothing can be over three stories, I -- I really think that
that's not the correct way to go. The multi-family units only create 1/7th of the number of
students -- and I got that directly from the school district-- .1 student per unit versus single
family which is .7. The number of vehicle trips per day for each single family dwelling is
9.5 typically. For the multi-family it's I believe four -- let me look. Let me verify. Hold on.
5.4. So, you -- you have roughly about half the traffic generated. The other thing to keep
in mind is we have to install a signal. So, you know, we have an intersection that needs
a signal and meets the threshold now. We are willing to install that signal. We are willing
to create safe route to schools. We are going to put in that flashing light here at Hill Park.
We took to heart the messages that were given to us, but if I can't get enough units to,
obviously, pay for the mitigation that creates a significant problem. So, I guess I would
like the Commission to keep an open mind and -- and look at maybe some middle ground.
Thank you.
McCarvel: Okay.
Yearsley: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: Bill, I thought when we --we approved Hillsdale Subdivision at that intersection
that they came back and said we couldn't put a signal there because of the high power
tension lines. How do we mitigate against that? And I thought we couldn't do a
roundabout there because of the power pole that's right there. Do you remember that? I
remember that was the reason why they did the signal then.
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F20
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Parsons: Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, yeah, I'm not recalling that
recollection, but certainly Joe's looked at the staff report. It seems like it's all a go for
them to do those improvements.
Yearsley: Okay.
McKay: Madam Chair, if I could answer Commissioner Yearsley's question. It's intended
in the -- in the master street map that this be a single lane roundabout. Ada County
Highway District indicated they have been unable to obtain right of way on the parcel to
the west to get that other piece of the roundabout, so the interim signal is a viable option
and they are calling it interim, because until such time as that other parcel were to
develop, then, they would be able to obtain that right of way. They are requiring that my
client dedicate right of way for our portion of the roundabout, which is the long term plan
and in compliance with the master street map. But right now this particular intersection
warrants either a signal or a roundabout and interim signal is our only option.
Yearsley: Okay.
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: Staff -- I had a question regarding the school report that was in here and I didn't
see the school report from Miranda for the like long term breakdown, but is there anything
additional that you could add with the capacity within this general area and how this
impacts that moving forward?
Dodson: Commissioner Grove, great question. Yeah. Miranda did put it in here and her
numbers do vary a little bit than what the West Ada School District has, because she
looks at things a little more holistically I guess you could say. But the Hillsdale
Elementary, as was known, did have a cap for a while. They changed the boundary of
that area to accommodate more of this localized area. There is an anticipation, after
speaking with West Ada, that these additional students that this project would be
accommodated there for at least the elementary school age. In addition, what we don't
look at in our data are the charter schools. We just -- I asked Miranda why do we not do
that? Are we going to, et cetera. And it's just hard to track that kind of data, because
they are not required to report it to us. Obviously, there is quite a bit here as compared
to other states and how they function pretty well compared to other places I have been.
There is Gem Prep South that I have noticed coming online probably in the next couple
of years, if not the next year. There you go. Fall of next year. That's a K through 12
school, which will help tremendously in this area. I know I approved Compass Charter
expansion and I believe they will be coming online for K through 12 this year and that's
not in this area, but it is another charter school in the city. There -- there are avenues to
help relieve some of these. Owyhee High School is also coming online. I don't know
when. I'm not going to get into that TCO debate, but it's -- it's coming and that will help
relieve some of the high school issues that we have had, because, obviously, the -- you
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F21
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know, you have the most elementary schools and middle schools and, then, you have the
least amount of high schools, because they are the largest. So, there is some relief on
the horizon. I can't speak to any of the things that might require a bond and an education
policy that I am frustrated with here in Idaho, but it's outside of our control. Hopefully
some of those things occur and we get another high school down in the south Meridian
area, but, again, that would be years down the line, but Miranda did supply her thing and
assuming this gets approved with the submitted capacities, it does show each of the
schools being over their current capacity with what is the approved plats, but that's pretty
much every single development in the city at this point.
McCarvel: Any other questions for staff or the applicant?
Wheeler: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Wheeler.
Wheeler: I have a question for the applicant here. I'm noticing that there is a St. Al --
was it a St. Luke's Medical Center that's just right there on the corner of Hillsdale and
Amity Road and I know there has been talk about limiting some of the density. Would
there -- has your developer thought about taking any of those multi-family units on that
hard corner there of Hillsdale and Amity and turning those into some sort of light office or
office use or something like that to complement what's across the street from Hillsdale?
McKay: Madam Chair, Commissioner Wheeler, one of the things that -- that restricts this
site is, obviously, there is no access. You know, in the old days when we could get say
a right-in, right-out or get an access closer to the intersection, that made like a commercial
or an office component more viable. As ACHD has -- has modified their policy manual,
you know, they-- they have pushed all of our approaches back beyond that 660 foot mark
and even further if a proposed roundabout is -- is proposed. So, if you get an office here
they would have to, obviously, come down the collect -- you know, come down the
Hillsdale Avenue collector, come in here and, then, come through a multi-family
development to get to a corner parcel. So, convenient access is, obviously, critical to
viability of office or retail and so, you know, that was -- that was one of the -- the things
and -- and at the time when we pre-app'd with the staff, you know, the staff said, you
know, we can see your struggle based on where your access -- your collector has to be
located here and here and how to, you know, make this more mixed use. The daycare
use -- I did one of these along the collector at Crossfield Subdivision off of Ustick Road.
We had a variety of single family. We had a similar multi-family component and we had
a daycare and it has been a very very nice viable development that is well balanced and
I think that's one of the things that we have to look at with the pricing that we are seeing,
what's viable with the costs escalating and -- and trying to make these -- these
communities balance, so that, you know, what did I see, the price in Meridian jumped
again, you know, what is it, 555,000 median price. So, you know, we are -- we are
struggling to provide housing for different lifestyles, different incomes, and -- and we are
-- we are doing our best to -- to balance our projects and I think we are doing a lot better
job than just single product projects that are pricing so many people out of the market
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F22
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and right now those kind of toadstool offices that are, you know, 4,500, 5,500 square feet,
there is a lot of vacant lots like that. My office is in Meridian. The lots around me off of
Pine and Rosario have been vacant for years. You know, it's -- you know, right now office
is not prime on the list. Residential is. A lot of people work from home. I think we are
kind of seeing a little bit of a transition in -- in this marketplace as far as office is concerned.
Seal: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Seal.
Seal: Just looking at the layout and everything here and kind of looking for that middle
ground in here is -- and something that we have had go in and has kind of been a hit in
some of the other areas has been kind of a business incubator where it has a residential
piece to it, but it allows them to do business, you know. What did we call it? The mullet
house or something like that where it was a, you know, business down below and, you
know, residential up above. Is -- is that something you would entertain, you know, again,
trying to find a middle ground. I'm kind of in agreement with you where three stories on
some of this would -- I don't think would be harmful, but, at the same time I think the
commercial element in some way, shape, or form needs to be present in here. I think a
business incubator might be a way to do it, because there is just a lot of traffic that's going
to go down there because of the YMCA, because of the school, you know, where it's not
going to be something that's abandoned down there or something that's not going to get
any -- any traffic coming by and just to have people even know that it's there.
McKay: Madam Chair, Commissioner Seal, we -- when I did the Gramercy development
just south of Overland Road we incorporated what we called a Brownstone, which was a
live -- I think live-work. They were three story type units, exactly what you are talking
about, where we had -- somebody could have an office on the first floor and, then, live on
the second and third floor. They were alley load and we -- we designed that into the
project. We had the architects design it and when it -- when it was bid out the price of
those live-work units was so excessive that the developer abandoned it and here we were
left with improvements in the ground as far as infrastructure and they never materialized
to this day and I did Gramercy years and years ago. Now, if you were talking about say
some type of an office building versus putting it here at the corner at the intersection
where one has to, you know, wade their way through, you know, an office component say
across from the daycare would make more sense. You know, this is -- we will have a
landscaped median here. It will be right-in, right-out, but, then, this is a full access here,
because we are restricted by the highway district, because this is a collector and Hillsdale
is a collector, so my first approach is a right-in, right-out only. My second approach here
is full access. So, you know, access is everything when you are talking some type of a
commercial component. So, I would have to have something that, one, people could get
to, see, but as far as this -- you know, this being a drive in or, you know, live-work -- I --
the live-work is just cost prohibitive right now. I mean you are -- when we got our prices
in those units were I think 355 to 375 thousand per unit and that's when you could buy a
single family dwelling significantly larger for 250,000. Now you are probably talking 550.
So, you just can't compete in the marketplace with that live-work. It's just -- I just don't
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
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see it as viable. We have -- we have tried it and -- and have failed.
McCarvel: Okay.
Seal: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Seal.
Seal: Follow up, sorry to drag us along. So, show me some middle ground. You are
talking about it and we are not -- we are not getting there. I think there is a recurring
theme here that we need to see a little bit of some kind of commercial element in here.
So, what is that middle ground? You want three stories. We want commercial. Where
can we meet in the middle?
McKay: Madam Chair, Commissioner Seal, I guess, you know, if we are -- if we are -- if
we want to try to find a compromise, we have the daycare here. If you wanted like an
office building, you know, located here, that would make sense, across from -- from the
daycare. As far as the -- the three stories, my -- my professional opinion is, you know,
we are -- from the nearest home -- this is a collector. From the nearest rear lot line I am
I believe 275 feet to this dwell -- this three story unit and I am 290 feet to this dwell -- this
multi-family unit, but if you wanted to do say a two story transition, I would do them here
and, then, I would do some type of an office component here and, then, maintaining the
three story within the interior along the collector and along the arterial. I mean that -- that
-- that's just good planning. You know, we -- we do need to provide diversity. It's more
important now than I have ever seen it in the 30 years that I have been doing this. Variety
is -- is the name of the game and our community is going to depend on it. I had a letter
in my opposition packet from someone who lives within the three -- 500 feet, 300 feet,
indicating I'm an employer in this area -- in -- in this Treasure Valley and I'm -- I am
interviewing employees from out of area and I can't hire them, because they can't find
any housing or affordable housing or transitional housing. So, I mean we have got to do
what we can to, obviously, make our community balanced and I guess that's the message
I would like to send. We are willing to work with the Commission. I'm not drawing a hard
line here. I'm just -- I'm trying.
Dodson: Madam Chair?
Seal: Appreciate that. Thank you.
Dodson: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Oh. Joe.
Dodson: Sorry. My voice echoes I guess. I don't know. I did -- I understand what Becky
is saying. The applicant. And I'm not saying she's wrong. I think what she's proposing
is a transition from the south to the north works. I think that's a fair compromise from a
planning perspective. I am concerned about this office component and by that I mean
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F24
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because of the office across the street and that is what keeps coming up. Those are not
limited to any specific use, but because of the St. Luke's -- because of those lot sizes
they -- I have seen them just come up as offices, offices, offices, offices and mixed use
neighborhood doesn't call just for offices and there is already vacant lots over there that
I assume will likely become more offices and ancillary to the medical use. That's why I
mentioned in my staff report some type of retail or food or something that these residents,
both existing and future, can walk to to get a cup of coffee or something. I mean, yes,
come from San Diego, granted, I'm not a communist like NextDoor keeps calling me, but
I -- it just -- when I was in college there it was very nice to literally walk around the corner
and be able to grab some food. You can't do that in a lot of places here in Meridian. So,
being able to offer a commercial component that has that capacity I think would be a
better benefit and a better fit than another office building.
McKay: Okay. So, yeah, Madam -- Madam Chair, I mean, you know, a coffee shop, a
sandwich shop -- I did take pictures of the commercial that's out there. We have dentists.
We have the St. Luke's. We have a veterinary hospital. That St. Luke's. So, you know,
like I said, I don't want to compete with -- with Brighton and Dave Turnbull. I don't want
to rain on his parade. You know, maybe he's got a Starbucks going in. I'm not sure.
McCarvel: We got some sort of little -- I mean local sandwich shop or something -- yeah,
might be --
McKay: Okay.
McCarvel: -- a better fit. Okay. Any other questions for staff or the applicant? Okay.
Thank you. Madam Clerk?
Weatherly: Madam Chair.
McCarvel: Do we have a list --
Weatherly: Yes, indeed, we do.
McCarvel: -- of people to -- and before we get started, I know there is probably a lot of
people who want to testify, so if we -- as we are going through this if you are hearing that
your opinion has already been stated I think, you know, we have spent a lot of time here
with the applicant in the staff report listening to the issues and I think we know that, of
course, traffic and schools and that kind of thing is always top on people's mind and we
do want to hear your opinions, but if you are hearing the same things over and over we
can kind of get to a point where we can have a show of hands and if that's your concern
we can glean from the show of hands that that's where we are at and so with that we will
begin with number one on the list. Who do we have?
Weatherly: Madam Chair, first on the list we have Alex Brown.
McCarvel: Okay. Alex.
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F25
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Brown: Name is Alex Brown. I live at 4060 East Amity Road, Meridian, Idaho. I'm right
across the street from the intersection. I have 5.9 acres of ground. Just to the west of
me is 40 acres that belongs to the school district, which she is saying that they are going
to take my property and the school district property and put in lights and roundtables. I
have talked with the school district, they do not want a road on the west -- or the east side
of that property. Whenever they put in a school they want it closed off to a single exit in
the front, so they do not have people driving past there to get to the subdivisions that they
are building to the north of us. I have lived at this property for 50 years. I have no
obstructions or directions of -- I don't oppose the people who are moving into these
houses. I do oppose putting multi-family units in this area. They just built hundreds of
multi-unit areas to the west of Meridian off of Franklin, off of Overland, off of Ustick. We
do not need them out here. We have one at the corner of Lake Hazel and Maple Grove
that is a disaster. It is a slum. It has been there a very short time. When you build multi-
unit areas out in the country where they do not have access to utilities -- or stores and
things that are close -- most of those people are put in there and they are given rent
assistants, so they don't have cars to drive, they need to walk to where ever they go or
get a bus. We don't have buses in this area. They keep talking that they are going to do
buses and, then, they talk trains. Well, this part of the country has done away with trains
and done away with buses years ago. It's not going to happen. They might get a bus in
downtown Boise, but they are not going to have it out here in the country. We do not
want multi-unit -- multi people in the area to construct -- to interfere with what is being
built in the whole area around it. It is residential housing for single families and they say,
well, we don't want to get into the stuff that's going on to the south. Well, there is not very
much going in there. He is putting in a few little things like they are putting in just to the
east of this proposed subdivision. The nearest thing that is going to be used by people
who live in there will be the Albertsons. That is three-quarters of a mile away. When they
get it built. They are still building roads over there. They haven't started on that.
Albertsons is not the prime grocery store in this area. People are not happy with
Albertsons. That's why whenever they ran out Smiths and when they ran out Buttery's,
Winco and Fred Meyers and Ridley are still here, because people want something
besides what Albertsons offered, which was mostly high prices and products that are not
up to par. That's about all I have to say about this.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair --
McCarvel: All right. And in order to get through I would like to remind you that this is not
a pep rally, this is a public hearing.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next we have Dale Miracle, identifying as the Rockhampton --
Rockhampton One HOA president.
McCarvel: Okay.
Miracle: Yes. My name is Dale Miracle and I live at 12439 West Highlander Street in
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F26
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Boise and I'm currently the HOA president of Rockhampton One Subdivision. It's to the
east of this development and we do have some concerns about that. Our HOA people
did a canvassing of the area to see what concerns they had about this development that's
coming in. Probably the top of the list was schools. Crowding. And I won't go into that
much. The next was congestion of Amity and Cloverdale Roads and the last one was
local congestion in our subdivision. As far as overcrowding, I will just touch on that. It is
a big concern. We go -- we are in Boise -- the Boise side of things and our main grade
schools are Amity and Lake Hazel and most of the grade schools are bused from there.
As I understand it, the -- the Hillsdale school cannot accept anymore people at this time,
but I haven't heard anything positive about that. Somebody else will talk about that in
more detail. The next thing is congestion of Amity and Cloverdale Roads. I did talk to a
senior transportation planner for Ada county about what they had planned for Amity and
Cloverdale Roads. At present time they told me that there was a roundabout at Amity
and Cloverdale planned for 2026 and that was about all that they had for that area. They
do have an open discussion, they want input on what would be needed in that area and I
had hoped some --that we collectively would put some of those projects earlier to combat
what I think will be a lot of congestion on Amity and Cloverdale. The third thing is
congestion in our subdivisions. I do appreciate the developer limiting cut-through traffic
through our subdivision, but I think there will still be some cut through on Macumbo Street,
because it goes straight through to Cloverdale through Rockhampton and I believe that
with the congestion that I foresee happening on Amity there will be a lot of people that
will try and cut through over to Cloverdale Road. At this time along our subdivision
Rockhampton One there are no lights or--there is one walkway for pedestrians and that's
about it. So, that it-- it's going to be a big concern. The other concern is we have another
Lachlan Street, but it goes into -- it turns off and goes into another subdivision, but it can
turn back and go back into Cloverdale. It's probably not as big a concern as our Macumbo
Street being a straight through street, but it is a consideration for some of the multi-level
three story apartments that might want to try and find shortcuts. The last thing is I believe
traffic will be so busy along that area that it is going to cause a lot of congestion.
Cloverdale is already a very busy street, a lot busier than it was, and without any sort of
improvements I believe there is going to be quite a bit more congestion. Another concern
is -- especially with apartment complexes, parking might be at a premium there around
the apartments and as with other apartment complexes that I have seen around town
here, they choose to park on the roads and where ever else they can for their second and
third vehicle or trailers or RVs and I'm seeing this as a problem and it might come into our
subdivision to be parking along our park that -- that is very conveniently placed there.
Other than that I think some other people are going to talk on more of these items.
McCarvel: Okay. Thank you.
Miracle: Anyway, thank you very much.
McCarvel: Thank you. Who do we have next, Madam Clerk?
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Jerrod Galm.
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F27
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McCarvel: Thank you.
Galm: Madam Chair, Members of the Commission, my name is Jarrod Galm and I live at
3868 East Woodville Drive in Meridian. I represent my family and other neighbors to
oppose the proposed Centerville community. I'm going to speak to you how this project
is going to affect area schools -- schools now and in the future. The West Ada School
District is facing significant challenges as it grapples with the explosive population growth
our area has experienced in the past several years. In these proceedings Engineering
Solutions, representing Challenger Development, paints a romantic picture of how more
schools are being planned to accommodate area students. Sadly those schools are
planned, but there is no funding to pay for their construction without relying on ballot
initiatives for levees. Home values have skyrocketed in recent months and as a result
the property taxes have risen as well. While we would all like to say that we are going to
do it for the children and be noble and vote to accept property tax increases to pay for
new schools, reality is most residents probably won't. Hillsdale Elementary is across the
street from the proposed development and last year it was beyond capacity to adequately
serve students and had an enrollment cap in place. In February that cap was lifted due
to redistricting, but the school is faced with overcrowding again with another cap
imminent, forcing children who live within the walk zone to be bused to other area schools.
This is not good for traffic, the environment, or the kids. It's important to know that
Hillsdale Elementary, unlike other schools, does not have the physical space to add
modular units or portable classrooms to accommodate more students. So, once it
reaches its cap there is no room for growth. The district will have no choice but to bus
kids elsewhere as they have done in the past. If you look at the school impact table, Lake
Hazel Middle School and Mountain View High School are already over capacity for the
upcoming school year and will be beyond their capacities for years to come. Using West
Ada School District's formula to estimate the number of new students the district would
have to accommodate this development would bring 123 new students, putting Hillsdale
at 116 percent of capacity, Lake Hazel Middle at 108 percent of capacity, and Mountain
View High at 121 percent. These numbers do not include the current construction
occurring in Sky Mesa, Lavender Heights, The keep, East Ridge, Orchard Creek,
Shelburne, Calistoga and Century Farm. Based on these developments and using West
Ada's formula, another 200 or so students will be residing within the boundaries of
Hillsdale and the other schools. As is evident, Hillsdale on its own will not be able to
support these students. As area schools eclipse capacity the quality of education our
kids receive will diminish. I want to finish by saying that I understand that the state drives
education funding and that local leadership believes it's powerless to help. I'm here to
tell you that's not true. It's incumbent on the local government to manage growth to relieve
the pressure on our education system until the state can deliver educational resources to
accommodate growth. The buck stops with you. I'm not against development or
progress, but I am against the developer trying to alter a plan that was thoughtfully
established by the city to manage growth. The Centerville Subdivision as presented
doesn't fit with the existing south Meridian neighborhoods or the spirit of the city with its
master plan. I implore you not to recommend the application to rezone as submitted and
request that the developer revise the community design to fit within the city's existing plan.
Do it for the children.
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F28
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McCarvel: Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is James Phillips.
Phillips: I will be representing Meridian Southern Rim Coalition, so we will be the ten
minutes request. My name is James Phillips. I live at 4140 East Rockhampton Street,
Meridian. I'm here representing Meridian Southern Rim Coalition and today we are calling
on P&Z Commission to demonstrate good stewardship of public trust by recommending
denial of Centerville Subdivision. Throughout my presentation I will be making references
to the City of Meridian comp plan. Why? Because it is a source document that the general
public, developers, city partners and decision makers reference and use to ensure
Meridian is a premier place to live, work, and raise a family. The phrase being good
stewards of public trust is used by the City of Meridian's comp plan and is based on
fundamental values of which P&Z Commissioners and staff are entrusted to protect. A
common theme today will be around P&Z, how P&Z can be good stewards of public trust
by guiding strategic growth and ensuring sustainable neighborhoods. The current
Centerville Subdivision breaks public trust in three fundamental ways. One, does not
meet public expectations set by the future land use map. FLUM. Does not meet public
expectations set by Meridian's comp plan. Exacerbates public concerns, seen as red
flags as found in the agency comments. So, how do we, as a general public, set our
expectations? It's the same way that agencies responsible for ensuring Meridian is a
premier living place do that, that is by using the FLUM and comp plan. The red line
outlines the area of Centerville Subdivision. The blue line outlines mixed use
neighborhood, MUN, designated areas found in the proposed subdivision. The MUN
designation measures approximately 8.69 acres. Using MUN designation densities we
calculate the expected number of units to be between 48 and 108 units. On average 78
units. Of note a surprisingly large spread and one that provides developers with a lot of
latitude when designing a preliminary plat. Again, this is what the general public and
other coordinating agencies and partners do to determine possible area impact before
land is developed. It is used to make real world decisions, like whether or not to buy a
home adjacent to an undeveloped parcel of land or create five year plans based on
projected FLUM density ranges or determine how best to adjust school boundaries to
accommodate projected growth. It's important. However, the general public received the
following. A quick back of the napkin calculation using the same MUN designated area
specified by the FLUM immediately raises red flags. One hundred and thirty-eight -- 120
apartment units, 38 townhomes in an 8.69 acre area results in approximately 16 units per
acre density. This density is higher than mixed use neighborhood densities, maxes at 12,
mixed use community densities maxes out at 15. But, finally, falls in acceptance densities
ranges within mixed use regional densities. As an aside, redoing the calculation using
the P&Z staff report recommendation to two stories, instead of three, helps, but the
density is still above the -- the mixed use MUN accepted max. It's not until you make
apartment buildings one story that densities fall within acceptable ranges of MUN at 8.5
units per acre. Now, given that, density is calculated in gross of entire area being
developed and developers can have P&Z consider -- floating adjacent dense --
designations into less dense designation areas, there -- thereby effectively averaging
down dwelling densities. Why does this matter? Why does this matter? Here is my point.
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F29
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Had the developer only purchased the parcel that sits in the MUN designated --
designated area and proposed the above mixed use plan, this is the analysis that P&Z
staff would do and the answer to the question is this in line with the FLUM and comp plan
would be a simple and clear no. Where would such a mixed use plan work? Becky did
present some things that make -- that makes this plan a good plan, but where would it
work? Per comp plan it would best be suited for areas like those circled in red and why?
Because it matches dwelling densities. It's within walking distance to existing or planned
public transportation routes less than half mile away. Near major centers of commercial
hubs and places of employments where job housing ratios are expected to be high.
Found off major key transportation corridors for which Hillsdale Avenue and Amity Road
are not. In other words, the proposed mixed use plan fits best where it can interface with
urban designated areas. It's development 101 on how to create a sustained
neighborhood. Like I mentioned before, P&Z is allowed to float designations when
calculating whether density is in compliance. This is a provision made in the comp plan.
It states future land use designations are not parcel specific, meaning it's not expected
the FLUM designation to align with parcels purchased by developers. Hence the need
for flexibility. However, this flexibility comes with constraints. Designation may not apply
to more than 50 percent of the land being developed. My question for P&Z and staff is
how far is the MUN designation being floated in order to average down density to be
below the 12 units per acre max? Is it in compliance with the comp plan or vice-versa?
How far is the medium density residence -- MDR designation being floated in order to
consider Centerville Subdivision density below max MDR acceptable density. Even if it's
found to be technically compliant, are we approving of a practice that comes at the
expense of promoting uncertainty and unpredictability? If we are to zoom out and include
the additional Centerville Subdivision parcels by using the floating technique to calculate
whether or not densities are within acceptable ranges, we are simply covering up the
dwelling density problem by allowing a mixed use area with urban density and needs to
interface with medium suburban density. It does not address the fundamental issue the
proposed mixed use area has, namely, it does not interface with appropriate size urban
amenities, infrastructures, and services. These urban services are needed to create
sustainable neighborhood. It's like using a band-aid to stop arterial bleeding. It's not
going to work and it doesn't bode well for the patient. City of Meridian strategic plan
state's in growth goal two, preserve and protect land use and zoning plans to promote
certainty and predictability for future development. Using floating and gross destination
density calculations to conclude that a preliminary plat is generally consistent with the
letter of the law is only the initial check. The P&Z should do -- that should do. Arguably
even more important is the check that the preliminary plan is consistent with the spirit of
the law as outlined in the comp plan. Not doing so breaks public trust. P&Z and staff
have the opportunity to -- here to guide strategic growth and by recommending denial of
Centerville's mixed use proposal, the Commission will demonstrate that they are good
stewards of public trust and understand that it takes -- and understand -- show that they
understand what it takes to create a sustainable -- sustainable neighborhood. And in the
interest of time I will go ahead and cut this slide here. But, as you know, just pointing out
again, that the mixed use neighborhood that's proposed is not in line in multiple ways with
the comp plan. Changing gears, then, looking at the medium density residential, MDR
component of Centerville Subdivision, there are a number of policies -- policy direction
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F30
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and comp plan guidance we want to point out that the public expects to be followed.
Roadways -- roadways should be used to transition between residential densities and
housing types, not back fences. The new development should foster walkable and
bikeable community. The new development are to be compatible with surrounding uses
through buffering. Most importantly, location and balance of land use and density should
be sustainable. Land use decisions have a direct effect of sustainability of how roadways
function. Density also affects public facility services like schools and parks. Highlighted
with different colors, items in the line -- that are not in line with the previous Comp Plan.
Density transition issues in red. Walking spaces, which tend to be called parket pocks --
pockets I believe -- are in green. Sustainable MDR density in orange. Missing buffering
in yellow. It's kind of hard to see there. What does the following -- what does following
these comp plan policy direction get our community? It provides school capacity
breathing room. Much needed. Reduces traffic congestion. Reduces conflict over
shared public facilities. Creates better quality of life. Lastly, Centerville Subdivision
exacerbates public concerns as seen here as red flags. Per COMPASS a good job
housing ratio is between one and 1.5. This is critical for supporting future high density
urban housing. References rooftops being important. Centreville Subdivision's job
housing ratio is .06. It's only going to exacerbate. Again, in the interest of time I will go
ahead and kind of run through here a little bit. One thing to point out in the traffic impact
study again, according to the study -- it was done in 2018-19 and they use a forecasting
of two percent increase on Hillsdale Avenue. There has been more than two percent
increase in occupied houses just from the neighborhood. How can this projection possibly
be accurate? Again, the entranceway on the west ten percent of the distribution. When
-- it was asked where the daycare is. That's where the apartment is. That's where they
put the rear face townhomes. They are going to go through there. How can that only be
ten percent, resulting in bad assumptions.
McCarvel: Okay.
Phillips: And just in closing, it's a matter of comp plan's policy direction to ensure that all
planning, zoning and land use decision balances the interest of the community. We ask
the P&Z Commission to demonstrate good stewardship of public trust by recommending
denial of Centerville Subdivision. Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Crystal Altieri.
McCarvel: Thanks.
Altieri: Good evening. My name is Crystal Altieri. I reside at 4044 East Tenant Drive,
Meridian, in the Hillsdale Creek Subdivision. I would like to address today a fire safety
concern. In Chapter 6 on page 81 of the City of Meridian's Comprehensive Plan it states:
The Meridian Fire Department will continue to be an important asset in the development
and land use decisions as they ensure there is adequate fire flow, access, and compliance
with the fire code. On July 12th, 2021, Deputy Fire Chief of Prevention Joseph Bongiono
sent a concerned citizen a letter about the Centerville Subdivision in which I will highlight
a few of his key points. The Centerville Subdivision is closest to Fire Station No. 4. The
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F31
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current reliability for Fire Station No. 4 to the Centerville Subdivision is 78 percent and
does not meet the target goal of 80 percent or greater. The Centerville Subdivision falls
outside of the five minute area response time. Station 7, if approved and funded, will be
able to help with the Centerville Subdivision, but, again, that has not even been built. Due
to the three story apartments that are being planned, a ladder truck will be required for
aerial attack. The minimum response time for a fire truck with a ladder for aerial
prevention is 13 minutes, which falls outside of the ten minute time frame the City of
Meridian Fire Department requires. Excuse me. On May 20th, 2021, there was a house
fire in Century Farms at 3635 East Mardia Street. The alarm sounded at Station 4 at 4:21
p.m. The Fire Department did not -- I'm sorry -- arrive on scene until 4:29 p.m. Eight
minutes. The response time expected by the Meridian Fire Department is a goal of five
minutes. They missed that five minute goal by 60 percent. The house has now been
declared 350,000 dollars in damages. In closing I would like to quote what Mayor Simison
said in his 2021 State of the City address. We need to bring down our response times to
meet our current goals and that means doing the right thing to deliver the services our
current residents expect and demand. Thank you.
McCarvel: Thank you. Madam Clerk.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Dee Skinner.
Skinner: Good evening. My name is Dee Skinner. I live at 12425 West Highlander
Street, Boise, Idaho. 83709. My residence is in the subdivision of Rockhampton One,
which is directly east of the proposed Centerville Subdivision. We have 226 houses in
Rockhampton One in a space of about 67 acres or approximately 3.4 houses per acre.
We are a mature subdivision, having been built in 2001. Most of our residents are adults
who own their own home, enjoy taking their dog to the park and walk along the many
pathways around the houses. We in Rockhampton One will be greatly affected with this
Centerville Subdivision as it is proposed. The quality of life will be affected by extra traffic,
overcrowded schools, packed roads, particularly Cloverdale, although that's not a direct
connection. Other people can and will give more details on those topics. My concern
and the concern of many Rockhampton residents is the overwhelming density of the
proposed subdivision and the impact of quality of life on the new and current residents.
Consider the impacts on the safety of children, fire and police protection, one exit to Amity,
one exit to Hillsdale Avenue and two exits onto residential streets of Rockhampton One.
Macumbo and Lachlan are direct paths to Cloverdale, which will have increased traffic in
car numbers and car pollution. Remember that's residential streets. There are no
pathways to enjoy walking around Centerville's neighborhood. The east and south border
houses have nothing but street and sidewalk. I suppose it is left to the residents to provide
landscaping. I hope the new residents enjoy the pavement jungle. Minimum space or
open space is an embarrassment to that many housing units. I invite you and expect you
to come and walk through the neighborhoods surrounding this acreage, lower the density
and make this proposed subdivision compatible with Meridian's Comprehensive Plan.
This subdivision proposal is about how many houses or units can be jammed into this
acreage and the impact on busy roads and schools and public services. It should be
about homes, homes that provide a quality of living where children play safely and go to
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F32
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school, where fire and police services are available quickly, where there is quality of life
for new residents and residents of surrounding communities. Finally, please, be in favor
of reducing the density and stand for the quality of life that residents of Meridian deserve.
McCarvel: Okay.
Skinner: Thank you.
McCarvel: Madam Clerk.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Melissa Phillips.
M.Phillips: My name is Melissa Phillips and I'm at 4140 East Rockhampton Street in
Meridian. I live in Hillsdale Creek and my home is on the first lot that backs up to the
proposed Centerville Subdivision. We knew one day the property behind us would
develop and would be mostly medium density residential with eight acres of mixed use
neighborhood, as indicated on the future land use map. But when we viewed the original
preliminary plat plan we saw many red flags. Since June of 2020 when the plan was first
brought forth at the neighborhood meeting, I have spent hours researching in meetings
with our newly established committee and I have spent a lot of time listening to Planning
and Zoning and City Council meetings trying to understand what the vision of Meridian is.
I have concluded that the proposed plan is largely not in line with Meridian's vision. On
page 1-6 of the Comprehensive Plan it states: The plan establishes a future vision and
course of action based on the values and feedback of the community. The overall My
Meridian vision statement developed by the people of Meridian represents their voice
about what they value in the community, an equally strong mandate for what they want
of the future. The community has voiced what they want to see in their city and if Meridian
staff continues to value the community's input, then, we ask that this developer be
required to follow the Comprehensive Plan by promoting responsible land use by not
maxing out dwelling densities. Our committee created a change.org petition to oppose
the development as it was not in line with Meridian's vision. As of tonight there is over
1,600 signatures. This demonstrates to us how much of a surprise this is to the
community and is not what we expected for this undeveloped land. The Comprehensive
Plan also states on page 1-1: Thoughtful and deliberate planning is imperative to
preserve and improve upon the current quality of life. I want this future neighborhood to
be thoughtfully planned, so my family, friends, neighbors' quality of life isn't jeopardized
and the future residents have a quality of life that they are proud of, too. I'm not opposed
to high density or apartments. They have a purpose. This is just not the place to pack in
168 apartment units, 35 townhomes, and 124 single family dwellings. When I drive past
three story apartments in Meridian they are along major transportation roads and in safe
-- keywords safe walking distance to stores and public transportation. We ask the
developer to do what is right for our community. Centerville can be changed to better
create a neighborhood that is in line with Meridian's vision and serve our community
better. I asked that the Commission recommend denial of the Centerville preliminary plat
as presented and I just wanted to make one more bullet point comment from Becky's
original presentation, that ACHD had said okay to those lights on Hillsdale Avenue, but
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when we called ACHD there was no typography taken of that street and while a walking
light would be great to get to the YMCA, there is no safe access for children to go down
to the school, so -- so, it is a hill and you can't see at the bottom of the hill that there is a
walking light there, so -- anyway, thank you.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Eric Schuermann.
McCarvel: Thank you. Is Eric online or in the room? Okay.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Amy Johnson.
Johnson: My name is Amy Johnson and I reside at 4069 East Tenant Drive in Meridian.
It's the Hillsdale Creek Subdivision as well. I'm actually very opposed to this development
as currently written and I concur with most of the public concerns about school
overcrowding, traffic safety, and that this proposal is just not in keeping with the
surrounding neighborhoods. But in addition to the sentiments, I would like to mostly focus
on parking and traffic impacts. I sat on the traffic commission for the city of Beaverton,
Oregon, for eight years. For reference Beaverton is a suburban city in very similar size
to Meridian and borders Portland, Oregon. It, too, experienced rapid growth during the
past 20 years and I feel like Meridian can learn from the mistakes it made to keep our city
within the My Meridian vision plans. The majority of the complaints from the residents in
Beaverton stemmed from parking and traffic. We played whack a mole with the parking
restrictions around many neighborhoods that all began with multi-unit apartments and
townhome communities, which often dedicated only one parking space per dwelling,
when there was generally a need for three or more cars per dwelling. Three to four
business -- or excuse me. Three to four visitor parking spaces were there for the whole
complex. The building developments were all made within the city's minimum standards,
but as we all know reality often differs from design. However, Beaverton was different
from Meridian in the sense it has a robust public transportation system obviating the need
for as many vehicles and parking spaces. When residents of one community ran out of
parking spaces they parked in surrounding neighborhoods. They made the adjacent
streets crowded and unsafe for motorists, pedestrians, residents of neighboring
communities. Those affected neighborhood residents would, then, come to the traffic
commission requesting parking restrictions as a means of preventing the problem,
therefore, kicking the can down to the next neighborhood. With Centerville the obvious
places for overflow -- overflow parking are going to be the YMCA, which will conflict with
their patrons use of the lot, and Rockhampton Lane, which is in the Hillsdale Creek
Subdivision. Rockhampton Lane has a very steep elevation climb with a blind corner.
Parking along this road is extremely dangerous and we see that when Hillsdale
Elementary hosts events. The Centerville plan before us does not provide enough buffer
zones between the neighborhoods and spaces between lots to allow for adequate street
parking and when both sides of the roads are used for parking, whether it's allowed or
not, it will not be safe. In addition, the staff report from the Meridian Fire Department
dated 7/12 of 2021 found in the agency comments on page one, states that the north
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apartment complex is underparked and does not have visitor parking areas. This proves
the point that this development does not provide enough parking for its own residents and
overflow will seep out of the development. I suggest that the Planning and Zoning
committee do away with the multi-family dwellings altogether and have Centerville mimic
surrounding neighborhoods, such as Hillsdale Creek, Shelburne, Century Farm,
Rockhampton, et cetera. Keep the zoning to R-8, medium density only. It would mostly
eliminate those parking issues that would be created with these multi-family proposed
dwellings and it would keep -- be in keeping with Meridian's Comprehensive Plan. I just
have a little bit more. Can I finish? Cramming in these multi-family dwellings is not
responsible. On page 2-2 of Meridian's Comprehensive Plan you do outline that
neighborhood should also enhance and retain livability and value through innovatively
designed amenities, pathways, public spaces, gathering spaces and elements that
prevent social interaction and provide the city with a sustainable tax base. High density
housing must be strategically located to public transportation, community services and
employment areas. This is not a strategic location for high density housing. There are
very few amenities, community services, and pathways designed. It's not located near
public transportation as mentioned above or employment areas. There are multiple
fundamental elements to this proposal that endorsed -- or are in direct opposition to
Meridian's vision. Parking is only one of them, but from my experience with working with
the traffic commission parking is a huge issue to consider when high -- high density
developments are proposed. Please deny this proposal.
McCarvel: Okay. Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Alan Harris.
Harris: Hi. My name is Alan Harris. I live at 4066 East Tenant Drive. I came up to talk
about recreation area. I don't think there is enough in the space, so I will breeze through
that real quick. We have a problem even up with the Centerville Subdivision itself. The
area that we have is Discovery Park -- is the largest park up there for -- to play in and
whatnot. That's going to be taken care of with all the housing that's going up there. That
-- that won't even exist for this area down here. I just like to talk with -- or address the
gentleman that spoke first. I spoke with the -- or saw -- read something from a woman
saying that the apartments will be a suitable and access expensive wise for people. It will
cover expenses and help veterans, seniors, and those that have a need, because it will
be less pricey. I am a veteran. I am a senior. And I have also lived in those type of
projects -- those apartments when I was growing up for many years. This is not the area
for it. It just is not the right area for it. I moved here with expectations. Surround me with
single family homes. Fine. But to put an apartment complex -- I believe it says two plots,
168 units. It's already been said -- I don't need to reiterate the parking and stuff. That's
what -- but just -- it is not affordable. People cannot get bused into town. The veterans
-- it's not for veterans. It's not for seniors. They are not going to be able to get around.
That's just crazy. It's not going to happen. We don't have the transportation here. Again,
it was already addressed with the Fire Department. There is a sign up for the fire
department that is going to go in. When? Again, let's keep this to the density that's
already in the city records. I would appreciate that and really address that issue. I am
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not in favor of this. Thank you.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Matthew Thiel.
McCarvel: I think while we are getting that presentation loaded, the Commissioners have
requested a three minute break.
(Recess: 8:07 p.m. to 8:12 p.m.)
McCarvel: If everybody could take their seats again. We are ready to resume. Okay.
Thiel: Hello, Madam Chair. My name is Matthew Thiel. My address is 3515 East
Woodville Drive. I was asked to speak on behalf of a committee of Century Farm
Subdivision residents. The subdivision is still under the -- the HOA still under the
declarant control, so I was hoping that I would have more than three minutes --
McCarvel: Okay.
Thiel: -- with your permission.
McCarvel: How many more ten minute people do we think we have in here? I mean it
seems like we have had a lot of those tonight. And who all are -- then that -- that's usually
under the guise that, then, other people won't speak. So, who else do we have left in the
room that would like to speak tonight? Okay. Yeah. We are used to it. It happens. Go
ahead.
Thiel: Thank you. So, Century Farm Subdivision, Brighton Development, there is 685
lots over to -- about 205 acres. There is two -- that does not include two future phases,
including also a Cadence, which I'm not clear as part of that subdivision. There is a
mixture of Brighton homes and other builders. Like I said, the HOA still under the
declarant control. It's a pretty diverse community. Two pools. Great amenities. Quality
development and a good community with a lot of good neighbors and it's a great place to
live. This is just kind of an overview of what -- where it's located in proximity to the
proposed Centerville Subdivision. I wanted to talk a little bit about the policy directions,
again, with the Comprehensive Plan. There is a couple, you know, highlighted phrases
and points to be made. My -- you heard more about the -- the -- the data -- the density
dwellings. I'm more about a -- kind of a more subjective approach to this, more of an
appearance. How does this affect livability? Economics. How does it affect the transition
between the neighborhoods. What other -- kind of other problems that may not be
mentioned tonight? Again, I wanted to point out this and as I'm sitting here thinking about
this -- all the perfect storm of problems, whether it's schools or the roads -- I'm thinking
personally that maybe the Comprehensive Plan that we are sticking to does need to be
revised. Maybe the high density is not the best thing, given the challenges and how --
maybe how difficult that would be to build a new school or to construct new roads. But
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the question I -- we are asking is is this an appropriate use; right? Is this the best thing
that we can do for the community; right? Is there -- is there a solid buffer a transition --
not just for the residents in the surrounding neighborhoods, but what about the single
family homes on the border there in yellow, where is their transition? I started to put
together a map of local --where --where are people going to work and I saw a COMPASS
piece that said there is 670 jobs within a mile of the proposed subdivision. I'm trying to
think of where -- where are these -- where are these jobs and I could only come to the
conclusion that the bulk of them were the schools that are -- that are there. You see the
-- the pink -- the pink area is the current subdivision that's being proposed. I tried to
outline areas that -- where there might be some jobs and commercial space, but the bulk
of it is several miles away from that main corridor in Overland and on the freeway and up
north, Franklin and those areas, where you do find apartment complexes and multi-use,
where you do find high -- higher density dwellings and there is not a lot of walkable space
or public transportation south of 1-84, especially in this area. This is just -- this is already
pointed out by the Planning and Zoning employee, that there is a limited use of what
makes up mixed use areas and I will say that as I'm sitting here listening to your comments
about toadstool offices, I'm thinking my wife is looking for an office, how great would it
have been. She works from home. She would probably have -- want to go walk to -- take
the kids to school and, then, go right to the office, but she's already found office space
and she was texting me as I'm sitting here saying, you know, we need -- we need
restaurants, we need, you know, salons and spas, we need groceries and other retail
areas. Even things like the clubhouse that's there, it's really -- my guess is it's limited to
the residents in that neighborhood, not to the public, and the daycare is somewhat limited
in size for the area. So, talking about livability, high quality of life; right? Protecting the
identity of existing residential neighborhoods, which I think is one of the -- and I have to
-- I do have to appreciate Becky, though, because she did -- you know, for those
neighborhood meetings she was very calm and collected and they were -- it was like
feeding to the wolves. There is a lot of angry people about this and she remained --
remained professional the whole time and I think that's something to point out and be
appreciative for and so the things about the existing neighborhoods; right? We don't
really have alleyways. There is no apartments around in this area. As far as Century
Farm Subdivision is concerned you can't park on the streets in the CC&Rs and I realize
that you guys aren't in charge of CC&Rs, but it's something to point out, because it is part
of the identity of the neighborhood; right? Right? Something as simple as rentals. You
are not allowed to rent your house out. I say townhomes -- it's really those -- on the
southwest corner of the whole block there are some smaller lot, higher density dwellings
within Century Farm Subdivision, so they are there; right? There is a diverse design of
dwellings throughout the entire subdivision and there is definitely flowing open spaces
and I will show you some pictures in a bit and also the -- the Verges and I think that's
really what -- it's that -- it's that grassy area between the -- the sidewalk and the houses
that exists that I think really gives it a more open, higher end feel for the neighborhood. I
actually started out on one Saturday wanting to go drive around. My hypothesis was that
the -- most apartment complexes result in people parking on the streets and I did drive
around to several places, some of which were actually -- did just that and, really, in -- in
a bad fashion. Others were actually well contained. But I heard that the Planning and
Zoning Commission changed the rules for how many units are attributable to apartments,
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so I left those slides off of this. But this gives you kind of a visual of what -- what you are
driving through and I'm not sure how many people drive through this area and how familiar
you are with it, but here is just kind of a picture of right up front of Hillsdale Elementary;
right? And you can talk -- this is one that's over in Hillsdale Subdivision. Open. Why --
and you see that it's clean. Here is where you are leaving Hillsdale for Rockhampton. It's
a little bit more older neighborhood, but it's still nice and it's not -- people aren't parking
all over the streets and people aren't -- you know, it doesn't feel crowded and bunched
up, because, really, what this concern is is that we are packing people in like sardines in
this area. Yes, in the name of -- of affordable housing, but are we really doing the right
decision by doing that? Is this the right move to make. Right? And these are more
pictures of Rockhampton. This is one from Century Farm. This is another from Century
Farm as well. You can see the open space right here looking down the road and it's --
it's clean. Now you start getting into higher density area within Century Farm. You will
notice that people -- I don't know about you, but they don't park in their garage. Their
garage is too tiny in these lots for two cars. So, they are going to be parking out in the
driveways and, then, houses with more than two vehicles they are going to end up parking
on the street. You can see how things kind of change. Century Farm and higher density
area and I went to one of the existing subdivisions and this is what we are trying -- this is
a CBH one that's off of Black Cat Road between Chinden and McMillan and you can start
seeing how the same thing happened. We are trying to avoid this look right here. This
look and feel where they are just all lined up down the road, people are parking in their
driveway, some of them are sticking out on the street; right? This is not -- this is not
Century Farm. This is not Hillsdale. This is not Rockhampton. Okay. Pools. I want to
talk about preserving -- so, the YMCA they built multi-million dollar pools and you can't
even -- you have to book a reservation to use those, because of the fire code there is too
many people in the area; right? Even the Century Farms Subdivision, the residents want
a third pool. They have been participating -- they have been petitioning Brighton for that.
These are some kind of planning and zoning things that I came up with. There is 200 feet
of sidewalk missing right here. You can see where the development is. There is also --
and it's -- it's a curve -- it curves downhill and around the corner. You also need to make
sure we are connecting the existing sidewalk to the proposed subdivision, but this is a
safety concern right here. Right? This is a tree. It's kind of petty to put it in here, but I
think a lot of people -- if you cut that big oak tree down you are going to have a lot of
angry people and I think that oak tree sits on the actual lot lines or parcel lines. I'm not
positive. Depending on what you look at. I was looking at some of the stormwater runoff.
It's all done underground. There is some geo tests that says this is great. I just want to
make sure that -- that you guys are scrutinizing that, making sure that we have the right
and sufficient qualities, because once you bury it underground it's going to be difficult to
-- to amend it if it's not designed properly. Then traffic. And this is an interesting -- I don't
want to talk too much about traffic, but I think the whole point that I'm trying to make is
that -- is that are we exacerbating future problems and Ryan -- this is from an article that
KTVB wrote and here you have -- Ryan has a --you can't build your way out of congestion.
At some point you have to manage it and are we managing correctly by continuing to
pack more people into these lots and do these parcels, without consideration for all the
other development that's going on and you guys -- in closing you have quite a bit of local
concerns and things you guys need to consider and I did put affordable living in here,
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because I don't think people are necessarily opposed to it, I think they just want it to be
managed correctly and to be balanced and within reason and common sense and with
regard for the surrounding communities and amenities and right now I don't think as this
plat is proposed that it does -- it does very little of that and I think there is a lot of grave
concerns and I don't think people want to be -- we told you so. We don't want that to
happen. Once it's built you can't go back and undo it.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Thiel: Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Jon Naseath.
Naseath: Madam Chairman and -- thank you for the time. By way of introduction, my
name is Jon Naseath. I'm a property developer. I develop multi-family properties in Utah
and have a few underway right now. So, I understand the context, I understand the
strategy. I'm also a CFO and financial advisor of companies. Also want to introduce -- I
grew up in -- in San Diego and when I grew up there it was a wonderful community to
grow up in and there is reasons why I haven't lived there for a long time and moved away
and moved here and I -- I moved into -- sorry. I live at 5275 Hillsdale and it's a wonderful
place to live and I bought the house because of the community and because it's a forever
home where I saw my kids could run around and be safe and what -- as we walked away
from the last team community meeting that they had there, I listened to all the facts, but
at the end of the day I just felt like what was my forever home is now -- this whole
community is going to be turned into a beginner home setup and it's not a place where it
will retain where I can keep on time for a long time, so that I could be being pushed out
for various reasons. I wanted to point out a few of those. 5275 South Acheron is my
home. Sorry. I'm a little bit nervous on that. And it's a great home. So, the comment
was made earlier that -- that Joe wasn't sure -- by the way, good luck on the honeymoon.
Hope you will get it in here soon. Wasn't sure what the changes to the zoning was meant
by-- I think it's all the things that were described today. It really is this expectation of what
--what are we buying into, what is the investment that we made as homeowners for where
we want to raise our families compared to the investment that this developer is making
and what they want to make as profit and, then, move on. We invested in this property,
in this community, and this is where we want to stay. Also just -- I will skip that one. This
is our -- my point is this is our home. This isn't just a site where we live or where we built.
These -- these are our homes. Three main points I wanted to make. There is a food
desert where we live. A lot of bigger multi-family things -- let's talk about where you can't
get food in the area. This is literally a food desert. My kids -- it's not safe to walk to
anywhere currently to get food. I can ride my bike, but those are dangerous streets and
there is also going to be from a water desert. People who have wells in our neighborhood,
there is problems there, and as we are seeing what is not -- right now a nice path to walk
down, to walk to the YMCA, is going to be gone and they are going to move the stuff
underground. The concern is is there going to be enough water for our communities as
you add more people taking it, which even just as the property has been built out my
shower pressure has gotten a lot less powerful than it was as it's been built. So, from an
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investment perspective I think itjust boils down to -- I'm a CFO, CPA. I think it boils down
to -- there is a strategy to pack as many units into this property as possible and -- and I
understand that. I thought it was interesting when the question was asked what do they
think about having three units -- three level stories. I think it would be absolutely wrong
to have three levels in the unit. I think as you enter our street and into the broader
community there that is the face of the community seeing these big big things and people
who don't know the area will think that's what's all is in there. I thought the interesting
answer was that -- I think her name is Becky -- said she would cry when she -- what was
her response and she said it would make her want to cry. I think that her developer has
made plenty of profit in the last number of years by these property values going up and
he is going to make crazy profit as it is, even without the multi-family. So, let him take
some of that profit, pay her a little bit more, so she doesn't have to cry. And, then, let's
move on. Thank you very much.
Johnson: Madam Chair, next is Russell Anderson.
Anderson: Russell Anderson. I live at 4414 South Seabiscuit Avenue, which is right on
the corner of Amity and Cloverdale. Give you a little background. I have been in Idaho
for 60 years. Moved here to Boise from Mountain Home. I was on the City Council for
eight years. Fifteen years on the volunteer fire department. Thirty-one years highway
district. They have pretty much covered everything, I can tell you that. Response time
on the Fire Department, that does affect everyone living in Meridian. That will affect your
insurance, your businesses and that. If that goes up your insurance rates are going to go
up. As far as water, going to be a concern. If irrigation districts run out of water, what are
the subdivisions going to do to irrigate all their greenscape, which you want. They are
going to use city water. And I know from a town that used wells for all their irrigation
primarily, that's a challenge, because if one or two go down and you have trouble. So, I
just think I hear proposed, proposed, proposed. This plat is not ready to move forward.
think it needs to go back to the city staff, you need to rehash, bring it back and look at it
again. This is not ready. There is so many lots out there right now that have not come
online that are approved and they are done. They just got to build. It's slow a little bit
right now because of material, labor, all that. I think we are in for the slowdown. I think
this high density is not for this area and everybody else has done a great job and I thank
them and that's all I have say. Thank you.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is George Hoxsey.
Hoxsey: Do you have the slides -- oh, thank you. George Hoxsey. I live at 4184 East
Rockhampton Street. That's in the Hillsdale neighborhood immediately south of the
proposed development. Some of my comments here have already been addressed. I
will do my best to skip over those in the interest of everybody's time, but I do want to
maybe add some additional color or flavor on a few of them. Fundamentally, I do not
believe that multi-family fits in this location. I think that point has been made very well,
that we are not near major roadways, we are not near public transportation. There are
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no major retail centers and as was pointed out in the COMPASS report, we are very short
on jobs in the area. I do want to talk a little bit about Hillsdale Avenue specifically. I was
unable -- and I haven't found anybody else that is able to find any traffic study or any
traffic counts that have ever been done on that road. So, I'm very curious how a decision
was made in terms of no left-hand turn lane needed into this development. You know,
there is no dedicated turn lane, yet there was never a study done, because I cannot find
traffic counts for Hillsdale Avenue, nor for Howry Lane back, you know, before it was
developed and so I think that's an oversight certainly and I think it should be looked at.
Also just to touch on public transportation. I think right now the nearest bus stop is about
two and a half miles away. The nearest planned bus stop is still over a half a mile away
and you would have to walk down Amity and up Eagle to get there and looking at the staff
report I noticed that they made a comment that they don't consider Amity to be walkable.
So, you know, we really shouldn't look at the Albertsons as a -- as a walkable shopping
center for this development and I would definitely agree with that. I would -- I would not
walk on Amity. I would not ride a bike on Amity. You know, very unsafe. The shopping
center -- just a bit to touch on that. It was approved in 2017. It hasn't broken ground.
The last delay I believe they asked for was last year. The reason stated was a lack of
labor. I do not think we are in a better labor situation today than we were a year ago.
think we are in a worse labor situation today and so I would have serious concern about,
you know, when is that shopping center really going to happen; right? I will talk a little bit
about parking concerns and safe route to school. Again, some of this has been touched
on, but I will move quickly. I want to focus on the southwest corner again here, which is
the entrance -- the main entrance to Hillsdale. So, this is the zoom in here of the
southwest corner. Rockhampton Street is the main entrance -- the only entrance in and
out of Hillsdale Creek that goes to a collector. The other ways to get out of -- in and out
of Hillsdale Creek would lead us through either Century Farm or the Rockhampton
development. So, this is really the prime way for us to get in and out. It is also very close
to -- you will notice Hillsdale Elementary is right over here; right? And so my concern is
about overflow parking and what that does from a safe route to school perspective. I
believe this is the nearest public street that allows parking and so it will be the first one
that will be filled up with cars as they overflow from the multi-family development. There
is a pathway that has been put in here from the Centerville Subdivision that will lead right
to the Cunningham Lateral. We cannot close this off. So, this is open fencing. There is
nothing here preventing students from walking this direction and coming across an
uncontrolled crossing -- there is no crosswalk there. There is no crossing guard in order
to get to school. So, while I believe the proposed crosswalk at Hill Park will help the
northern half of the subdivision, the southern half of this subdivision will be -- you know,
this is the -- the fast way to school and it will be very dangerous. So, in conclusion,
quickly, I oppose the development as proposed. I am not opposed to development. I
would like to see a plan that is more in line with the FLUM where there is nine acres of
MUN, I would love to see some residential restaurants, you know, local grocer, things like
that would be fantastic. That's what's needed in the area. Thank you for your time.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Elizabeth McDowell.
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McDowell: Hello. I'm Elizabeth McDowell and I live at 3839 East Fratello Street in the
Shelburne Subdivision. I'm here to speak in opposition to the planned Centerville
Subdivision. I'm a 19 year resident of the Treasure Valley, so I have seen the explosive
growth that's taken place in our area in that time and there is no doubt that affordable
housing is needed. The demand for rental properties is huge and we do need more multi-
family dwellings. However, south Meridian is not the appropriate location. The issue I'm
most concerned with is that there are hundreds of homes in south Ada county solely
relying on well water for their households and these are not necessarily large farms, they
are often homes on quarter acre lots built before city water lines were run to the area.
Many of them have recently been affected by the incredible surge of new development
causing their wells to suddenly run dry. In May of this year Channel 2 News reported on
one local resident who was without any water to his home for months. Drilling companies
had wait lists that were months long and the cost to the homeowner to drill the well deeper
would be 30,000 dollars. He would have no running water to his home during this wait
time. A neighbor even ran a garden hose to the property, so this resident would have
some water while he worked to resolve this problem and he is not the only one. Channel
2 reported that this resident received over 600 phone calls from other area residents who
were being affected similarly or were concerned that they could be next, because their
homes were also on well water. Our community is in a crisis for groundwater. I was
fascinated to recently learn that our groundwater is an aquifer, which is replenished by
natural precipitation and farm irrigation. My rudimentary understanding is that when all
of our land is no longer used for agricultural purposes and gets paved over with parking
lots and roads, our water table drops, our wells run dry and, then, must be drilled deeper.
This irresponsible overdevelopment cannot be allowed to continue. It is required by Idaho
law that this Commission ensure necessary resources will be available to all residents
before any development is approved. When my husband and I purchased our home in
Meridian last year we had no idea how truly inadequate these resources were. We, along
with many neighbors I have spoken to, naively assumed that responsible development
was taking place. It is now clear to me that this is not the case. In south Meridian our
schools are overcapacity. Our roads are dangerously inadequate. We lack close by
emergency services and many homes are losing access to their household water. This
is unacceptable and against the law. In my opinion our city needs to institute a
moratorium on building, as some other local area municipalities have done, until our
infrastructure can catch up and responsible growth can take place. Developers need to
be required by law to fund necessary infrastructure before development is permitted. We
are all here because we care about our community. We don't need high density
residences with parking lots and concrete, we need houses with yards, schools with fields,
parks, walking paths and nature. Bottom line this plan is simply not compatible with
surrounding neighborhoods and will serve to severely negatively impact the ability of
current residents to enjoy our neighborhoods. I would ask that this Commission deny this
proposal. I would also like to add dog groomers to the list of businesses that would be
great in that little area. Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next on the list is Paul Prestwich.
Prestwich: Hello. I would like to talk a little bit about the TIS report and the data -- the
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numbers that have been provided to the staff.
McCarvel: Would you give your name and address for the record.
Prestwich: Paul Prestwich. 5249 South Bleachfield.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Prestwich: Got you. And I would like to talk about the numbers there. As -- as was said
earlier, the number of trips, according to the proposed development, is going to be 2,599
approximately. And I'm going to use 2,600 as my number that are going to be occurring
each and every day as a result of this proposed development. Now, of that the distribution
that the TIS indicates is that 70 percent are supposed to go out onto Amity Road. That's
1,819 trips turning onto that two lane road with maybe a little turn lane that they can get
into. The other 30 percent, surprisingly enough, were equally distributed between the
other areas. Hillsdale Boulevard, the collector road, is supposed to take ten percent of
the traffic. But Rockhampton is also supposed to take ten percent of the traffic, as is
Hillsdale Creek. So, 260 trips per day they schedule to go through the surrounding
neighborhoods. Now, according to the staff report that the staff had earlier, they said the
traffic -- the site traffic is not expected to travel south and to reach Amity Road or
Cloverdale, since direct access is available through Amarita. It's not practical for the
traffic and the site to go to the south or the north. But, yet, the plan specifically says that's
what's going to happen, 260 trips into those residential neighborhoods at least. Now,
would also like to talk about one of the other things that was brought up earlier, which is
the baseline. They said the TIS -- no new traffic counts were collected. Old counts from
2018 and '19 were used. A lot of development occurred in this area between 2018 and
2020. A lot of build outs occurred, a lot more traffic, but, yet, they didn't use those counts.
Why is this important? It's important because it establishes for the developer a lower
baseline by which to extrapolate future numbers from, meaning our traffic counts are
probably way low in this TIS, because they are not using current data and numbers.
When you look at the TIS virtually every option that they propose here -- here is one that
says the segment between Amity and Eagle and Cloverdale, they are expected to exceed
ACHD level of service planning thresholds with the existing lane configuration for the peak
hours. It's going to fail. What's the remedy? Well, build a five lane road. That's not in
anybody's plan. Put in a three lane road. Yeah, that's coming 15 to 20 years. Put in a
little stub median -- well, remember, coming off of Amity into this development 1 ,800 cars
are supposed to be turning into there every day. So, that's going to create a lot of traffic
nightmare. If you look at the TIS virtually every single option they have here says it's
going to fail by 2025. Now, I would hope that each and every one of us here -- each of
you in the planning area would plan to succeed, not plan to fail. Deny this development,
because it's got some bad numbers to it.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Rebecca Prestwich.
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R.Prestwich: Madam Chair and Members of the Commission, can you hear me? All right.
Madam Chair and members of the committee, I'm Rebecca Prestwich, and I live at 5249
South Bleachfield Road in the Hill -- or street or avenue. I don't know what it's called -- in
the Hillsdale Creek Subdivision. That particular street starts at Rockhampton at the --
and it goes and it just weaves around and it actually has four different names as you go
down the same street into the community. It's a small community in that street. Families
play in the street. Children are out riding their bicycles. People are sitting in their front
lawns visiting with one another and it's a really pleasant community to live in and I think
that that embodies the vision that Meridian has as a premier community and a place to
live and work. I'm not going to repeat all the things that have been said tonight, because
I think they have been eloquently spoken, but I do want to speak about some of the
definitions and some of the codes and the Idaho statutes. So, that will be what I address.
The city's AOCI is negotiated with Ada county pursuant to the Local Land Use Planning
Act. Within that there are unincorporated -- unincorporated areas of Ada county have the
day-to-day administration of the city, as you will know. Now, the county uses the city's
adopted Comprehensive Plan, which has been spoken about many times. This
Comprehensive Plan counts the area of this development as rural transition. The -- it's
rural urban -- excuse me -- transition zoning. Now, the definition of rural transitioning
zoning was a surprise to me. The zone allows five acre lots, single family residential
development, as well as agricultural-related uses and a range of some conditional uses.
Now, that doesn't describe anything about that community to me that's being proposed.
The subject property currently contains two future land use designations, as you have
heard, 9.8 -- and I got these numbers from the county assessor. I have put this into the
file, so you can refer back to it if you want to. The mixed use neighborhood designation
is 9.97 acres. The medium density residential consisting of 28.9 acres. Idaho Code 67-
6511 requires the zoning district shall be in accordance with the adopted plan. Shall. I
looked up what the meaning in the plan -- what shall meant and it says meant to be. It
will happen. That's in accordance with the plan. The Comprehensive Plan. As I was
listening at the beginning of this meeting and I was listening to the members of the
committee, it seemed to me the questions that were being asked to the developer, the
committee had already made a decision that they were going to approve this
development. That seemed surprising to me and I don't know if that's really your intention,
but it seemed to me that that's exactly what you were doing and you have to ask yourself
with so many people attending this meeting and so many objections and questions that
have been raised, is this really the appropriate development for the parcel in question? I
want to also say --
McCarvel: Ma'am, if you could wrap up your thoughts. Your time --
R.Prestwich- I'm sorry, I thought I had ten minutes. I'm representing the Hillsdale Creek
HOA and I apologize for not saying that.
McCarvel: Okay. And who -- who here are you -- who is really speaking on behalf of?
R.Prestwich: The Hillsdale Creek Homeowners Association. I apologize for not saying
that. As -- in the staff analysis it was stated the applicant has not proposed to incorporate
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additional neighborhood servicing uses and meet all the Comprehensive Plan policies for
this designation. So, he hasn't -- it hasn't done that. It's not complying with all of the
promises -- the designations and it's not complying with the requirement. The applicant
is proposing a mixed use neighborhood. That's different -- I mean mixed use residential.
That's different than the mixed use neighborhood. The mixed use residential in the city
plan is intended for city centers, where there is more need for high density housing for
people to get to work quickly and you have heard that people can't get to work, you have
heard that that's -- there is no transportation. The roads that they would have to travel on
and walk on are extremely dangerous and imagine if someone were to get hurt or an
accident were to occur or even a life was lost how this would be affected in the
neighborhood and how people would feel. As stated in the analysis notes of the staff,
the overall gross density proposed lies near the absolute maximum allowed. It can be
rounded down for future land purposes, but for this simple fact staff recommends a
reduction in the maximum number of units throughout the site. Why is it that developers
are allowed to go to the maximum and, then, they get to round down and manipulate their
numbers to fit into a plan. That doesn't set well with most of the community members.
The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho, COMPASS, provided data
regarding -- regarding this project. COMPASS' recommendation says Amity Road is not
recognized in community motions plan 2042.0 as one of the key -- and it is one of the key
unfunded -- unfunded corridors. The Valley Connect, the 2.0, has -- has identified future
transit service, but no anticipation of completed route. Nearest bus stop is 2.6 miles. Now
imagine if you're a mom and you have got a child with a burning fever and you need to
get to your doctor and you have to walk 2.6 miles and, heaven forbid, it would be in the
snow, how would you feel about -- excuse me -- your child. The nearest grocery store is
2.4 miles -- and everyone talks about Albertsons, but the fact is that if you are in an
economic position to -- to live in a community that would help support your rent, you can't
afford to shop at Albertsons. It's one of the most expensive grocery stores there is. And
that is a disservice to the members of that community to put them in a place where they
can't get the groceries they can afford and there are plenty of other grocery stores in town
where you can. Fire protection needs to be spoken to. Fire protection, according to Title
8 of the ordinance code of the -- what is it -- ACHD -- fire protection shall be provided to
all areas within the planned community with a response time of five minutes. You have
heard that that is a failed test. The Fire Department cannot meet that time and I have
their letter and it's in your file motion and, Item E, the Fire Department cannot meet the
response time of five minutes and it cannot meet the response time goal of 12 minutes
for the ladder truck. So, that means that if a fire were to occur in that community those
residents would be facing imminent danger. I'm certain that you don't want to put anybody
in that position. I don't want anyone to be in that position. I think it's really sad that we
put in developments before we have the infrastructure. I know that our statutes require
that all of the infrastructure be in place before we -- we approve these developments and,
please, take that into consideration when you are making this plan. I just want to add to
what's been said about the schools and I know you are probably tired of it, but this was
from the West Ada School District and I quote: To meet the need for additional school --
school capacity West Ada will gladly accept the donation of land appropriation for a school
site. Passage of a bond will be required prior to the commencement of new school
construction. So, schools are not going to be -- meet their needs in a very near future.
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The last bond was voted down. People don't understand how the government here -- the
new people coming in don't understand the procedures of government and who funds
what and who does what and that is creating a lot of unrest and dissatisfaction in the
community. Engineering Solutions said in their report: The intersection at -- where we
are talking about the -- the -- isn't it Hillsdale and Amity -- that it is anticipated to exceed
maximum operational thresholds and trigger mitigation by 2023 with additional
background traffic increase of approximately 380 vehicles during the peak hour and --
and beyond 2020 existing traffic volumes will grow. That's all I want to say. There is just
too much happening in our community. Growth is happening too fast. It's time for us to
take a pause and the members of the community would respectfully request that you
consider pausing and sending this proposal back to the development and -- and keeping
it in -- within the FLUM and we thank you very much.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Michael Bauer.
Seal: Madam Chair? Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Yes, Commissioner Seal.
Seal: Just in the interest of time, if anybody else is going to speak on someone else's
behalf, can we see who they are speaking on behalf of --
McCarvel: Yeah.
Seal: -- because more than half of our speakers so far have been speaking for a larger
group, although I'm unaware of anybody that they have spoken for.
McCarvel: Yeah. If-- If we can keep it to comments that are new issues that we haven't
already heard. Madam Clerk, who do we have next.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, that's Michael Bauer.
McCarvel: Michael Bauer. Okay.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, next is Lorelie Sturkey. Madam Chair, that's the last I have on
the list.
McCarvel: Is there anyone else in the room that has something new to add? Okay. In
the front here.
Snow: My name is Brian Snow. 4206 East Rockhampton. My property's adjacent to the
proposed development. I purchased the home in 2019 while I was stationed overseas in
Bagram Air Force Base. It was a tumultuous time with a lot of bad memories that I will
summarize in saying it was bad. The thing that I enjoy about this community is it's
peaceful and quiet and my backyard I see the sunset every night and I really don't want
to see a three story apartment building. So, I would like to say thank you for the proposed
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change going from three stories down to two. We don't need vertical growth. We need
to see the sunset. Thank you.
McCarvel: There in the back.
Schuermann: Hi. My name is Eric Schuermann. I live at 12871 West Auckland Street,
which is inside the Hillsdale Creek Subdivision. I just wanted to talk about one specific
issue. I kind of got here late, so I'm not sure if I saw anybody talk about this. I didn't see
it while I was here, so I'm going to talk about it. But Hillsdale -- where Hillsdale comes
into Rockhampton, right there kind of like in front of the school, we have a lot of cars that
pile there when Hillsdale Elementary has an event. So, the reason why I want to talk
about this is because they actually back up all the way on both sides of the street. There
are no parking restrictions on that street and so they kind of curl around that street. I don't
know if there is like a map somewhere I -- sorry, I didn't come prepared. But it curls
around and, then, kind of-- kind of comes into Hillsdale's -- like an amenities area and so
there is cars that are all backed up throughout there whenever they have an event. So,
we can't even get in our homes then. The cars are on both sides of the street. You
cannot put two cars in the street at the same time. So, I'm surprised that there hasn't
been anything that's already occurred there with a -- like somebody just opening a door,
as simple as that, and somebody getting taken out already. So, how -- my question is
how does anyone propose that having a subdivision with thousands of people in it -- that
that street would be clear at any point, let alone when Hillsdale Elementary has an event.
What would happen if Hillsdale Elementary would already have an event that would crash
the streets and, then, you are talking about adding thousands of more people in a
subdivision next door. So, thank you.
McCarvel: Thank you. Sir.
Jackson: My name is Troy Jackson, president of the board of directors for Hillsdale
Creek. Just a quick addition to what I'm also hearing tonight in regards to the -- the traffic
and the school. We -- my wife and I and my three children moved two blocks closer to
Hillsdale Creek, so that our daughter could continue going to school there and now we
have got the next two coming up through the ranks this year, it will be two of our children.
We can't go there. There is three houses between my house and that school and my
children cannot go to that school. So, I hear talk about -- you know, we talked to the
school district and there is room and we can ship and bus and all this stuff -- we changed
our lives around and moved into a house that, of course, costs more than double what
we were living in to get our kids into a school that we were already going to that they gave
us special permission. They can't go there. So, when I hear this I want to laugh and,
then, I want to be upset. The reality of it is is that I don't care who is talking to who that
school is full and the YMCA is full, too. So -- so, good for that, you know, because our
kids can go and enjoy that and now as you just heard my neighbor before me -- we are
talking about adding hundreds of people to something that we cannot imagine and I don't
care -- 1, obviously, like anyone that's living where I live and where some of these folks
live, we don't want to see a bunch of apartments there, but most of them -- it comes from
a good place. I mean it just doesn't make sense. It really doesn't. And I'm just asking
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that, you know, these constituents can be heard tonight when it comes to this
development. That's not going to work and we got to do something to do the stop gap on
this -- and my daughter here almost got killed by a car right on that street, it's so
dangerous right there. I mean there is five people in this room that stood there and
watched, we were just trying to cross. My neighbors are trying to go through people's
backyards to safely dodge. It's like a war zone and it shouldn't be like that and it is and
I'm telling you no matter who is -- who is talking to who as to who, that's a reality that we
got going on in our little subdivision right next door to what's going on -- or proposed to
be going on there. And thank you. Appreciate it.
McCarvel: Sir.
Foreman: Hi. I'm Benjamin Foreman. I live on 12319 West Billabong Street in
Rockhampton neighborhood. So, I thought it was interesting that we heard at the
beginning that these 12-plex apartments won't affect anyone and that was spoken by
somebody that doesn't live in the area and so I think these people's voices have been
heard quite clearly. It's going to affect fire, school, water, traffic congestion, parking,
character of the neighborhood and everybody has tons of facts and figures they can throw
out and like this gentleman just said, I -- I live within walking distance to Hillsdale
Elementary School. I can't send my kids there either. I had to temporarily -- temporarily
move out of the neighborhood and came back because of school -- COVID and school
situations. We wanted to put our kids in Hillsdale Elementary School. My wife called the
school and they said we can't even talk to you. The conversation was literally 30 seconds
and they said you are going to have to bus your kids somewhere else. So, does it seem
fair to open up a whole new section with 138 different units for, you know, that many more
kids where the people that live there they already can't send their children to the schools
that are in their neighborhoods. One other -- one other comment is usually the counter
response to the traffic, you know, congestion that's going to be made is they say, well,
there is 9.5 trips per single family home, but there is 5.4 trips per multi-use homes. Well,
that sounds good. It sounds like, oh, now we are actually reducing the congestion. But
the point is, no, with multi-family units we are adding 5.4 trips to the roads in addition to
what's already there. So, let's not get confused by the math. It's not that, oh, by building
multi-plexes now we have less traffic, we have more, it's just perhaps that there is a little
bit less as compared to single family units. What we want as a community is we don't
want any tall buildings; right? I like the idea of reducing it down to two levels. I would
love to have, you know, single family units. I don't know if that's going to happen, but I
think the common theme that we are all saying here is 12 12-plex apartment buildings
doesn't fit the area. There is none of those anywhere else in -- you know, within several
miles of the area. Let's do away with this plan. Let's start back at the drawing board and
not just get carried away with, you know, building, building, building and building
something that doesn't fit the area. Thanks.
McCarvel: Anybody else?
Wiley: My name is Jim Wiley. I live at 12553 Dalrymple Court in Rockhampton One in
Boise and I hadn't originally expected to speak, but there were a couple things -- and I --
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
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maybe you guys really have -- there is only three items that I wanted to discuss. First of
all, nobody has really brought this up yet, but I want to thank the developer and the
architects for coming up with a beautiful plan. I love it. I think it looks beautiful. I think
it's great. I can't wait until they break ground and I hope they tell me where the new
location is going to be when they break ground, because I want to be there to see it. It
should not be here. The three things that I come on -- one thing that she had mentioned
was -- you have these beautiful townhomes with two car garages and, then, two cars can
park in the driveway. I don't know anybody that parks four cars in a house. Just down
the street on the corner of Amity and Eagle is a beautiful new storage facility going in,
because people have too much stuff. You are not going to park two cars in the garage
and two cars in the driveway, they are going to be parked on the street. Another one is
they talked about concerns about plans for traffic changes. I keep hearing the word
proposed and proposed always scares me half to death, because proposed is that
fairytale land out there and you guys talked earlier about the conditional use permit for
Cole school for four units to go -- temporary buildings to go down there and, then, you
even -- one of the commissioners even brought up the idea, you know, what do we do
four years from now when -- can they extend this? Can they extend it and extended and
extend it? So, anytime you talk about something being proposed, whether it's street
improvements -- they talk about a temporary light. They talk about all these different
things that they want to propose. I don't think any of them should be considered until they
are in writing and they have been approved and we know that they are going to happen,
because proposals get changed all the time. We have seen it with this and, then, the last
one that she had mentioned was the impact of the three story apartments on the homes
that were -- she says the nearest home is 500 feet away. She's wrong and don't listen to
her when she says that, because she is wrong, because there are townhomes going right
across the street from those and there are new homes that are going to be built closer
than 500 feet and we have to think about the impact of what these new residents are
going to have and you can say, well, they -- if they don't like looking at the apartments
they shouldn't live there. Well, that's not the proper way to be thinking and I don't think
that's the way any of us want to address that problem. There are going to be people that
are going to be closer than 500 feet or whatever the number that she gave. They are not
going to like it and they are going to have problems with it later on. Let's address the
problem now and let's get it taken care of and I thank you for taking the time to listen to
all of us and I hope your honeymoon gets reinstated very quickly. Thank you very much.
McCarvel: Is that everybody? Okay. Would the applicant like to come back. You have
ten minutes, Becky.
McKay: I know. And I got a lot. It's going to be tough, but I will be quick. I will try to --
Madam Chairman, Members of the Commission, try to address some of the -- some of
the questions, some of the concerns. One of the things was brought up about was the
apartments at Lake Hazel and Maple Grove. That is not even similar to what we are
proposing. Those were done in the county. The county ordinance only required like 1.5
spaces per dwelling unit or less and that has been a disaster. Concerning the Albertsons,
I was told that Albertsons could not go vertical until Eagle Road was upgraded and the
dual lane roundabout was installed and so that's one of the things that has delayed the
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Albertsons going vertical there at the northwest corner of Eagle and Amity. School
overcrowding. Congestion. I have been working with the school district -- Marcy Horner.
Marcy indicated that they have 700 capacity at Hillsdale Elementary. Enroll -- current
enrollment she said is in the upper six hundreds. She said the district has reduced the
boundary and typically the elementaries -- I have done probably five or six elementaries
within projects that I have done, they are supposed to serve that particular section. The
boundaries of Hillsdale went beyond that section and they are slowly shrinking them.
What she said is going to alleviate some of the problem is the Gem Prep Charter School.
It will serve the same area as Hillsdale Elementary. It has a fall 2022 opening. She said
the first year they will have 312 student capacity and, then, they will expand to 500 after
that. Blue Valley Elementary. It's already planned, designed, ready to go at South Ridge
Subdivision. That is their priority school to take some of the heat off of south Meridian. It
will require a bond. She said that the school board has not decided when they are going
to run that bond due to COVID. So, they have no time table. As far as Lake Hazel Middle
School, it has a thousand student capacity. It is slightly over capacity. The school district
owns property just on the north side of Amity across from the Centerville development.
Mountain View High School. That high school I did in my project called Millennium years
ago. We brought the sewer across the interstate to serve that high school. It is -- has
2,175 student capacity. Its enrollment is 2,428. Owyhee High School will open this fall.
According to the school district, hell or high water, it will be opening. They are having
some glitches on getting materials to wrap up some of the things, but it will open. She
said that will alleviate the overcrowding at Mountain View High School and -- and help
with the -- the students. I'm trying. Hold on. Go back to my list. As far as the existing
comp plan, this is a priority area. The Mayor, the Council, has said that southeast
Meridian is a priority growth area. You have your new regional park. You have this YMCA
South. They just put in a new pool facility. If you look at your Comprehensive Plan and
it states in there under the definition of mixed use neighborhood it talks about it being
near parks, being near schools, being located at an arterial, on a collector. This property
checks all the boxes as far as that mixed use neighborhood and -- and fitting in with the
overall plan. Your comprehensive land use map is a guiding document. It is not set in
stone. It is -- it is something that -- it grows, it changes, and you guys look at it, your staff
looks at it. Your staff recommended approval of this particular project. This project fits
within the confines of the definition of mixed use neighborhood. It said it should be
primarily residential and diverse residential. Townhomes. Apartments. Single family.
With commercial component. Something that serves the particular neighborhood. As far
as a walkable neighborhood, we have pathways throughout this whole project. We have
a 14 and a half percent open space with ten foot wide pathways, five foot wide pathways,
interconnecting micro paths. We have three playgrounds. We have a clubhouse. A pool
facility. We have public art. Gazebos. We are trying to make this a community that
people can be proud to live in, not just another subdivision plopped down in the middle of
the City of Meridian. I have been doing work in Meridian for 28 years. Used to be a sign
at the Planning Department: Population City of Meridian 9,400 people. And now look at
-- look at what has happened. This particular project -- there is central water in Amity.
Twelve inch water main. There is a 12 inch water main in Hillsdale Avenue. There is a
sewer main. Sewer and water are available. I'm not putting down a well. The article that
one woman indicated, those people's wells are 50 to 75 feet deep. That worked out great
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when we had -- were covered by farmland and we got a lot of recharge into the shallow
aquifer. But as the farmland does develop that shallow aquifer changes and so 50 to 75
foot deep well just -- they are drying up and that's -- it's happening all over the Treasure
Valley. It's not indicative of -- of south Meridian, that's south Boise. As far as the fire
station. Your Fire Station No. 7 is going to open in the spring of 2023. It will be coming
online. The Mayor said in his State of the Union address the fire station in our priority
growth area in southeast Meridian and northwest Meridian -- I want to build two fire
stations. The fire station will be 2023. We won't even have hardly any houses going out
of the ground by spring of 2023. It takes that long to design these subdivisions. Everyone
thinks that instantly you have all of these homes online. This is a four phase project. It
takes four years to build this particular project out. As far as reasonable development, 70
percent of the trips are going to go northbound. People are saying, oh, this is just out in
the -- like it's out in the -- in the far burbs. No, this is a priority area. We are less -- we
are less than two and a half miles from the Eagle interchange. The number one employer
for the state of Idaho is St. Luke's. Where is St. Luke's? Due north. You have Scentsy.
You have Silverstone. You have El Dorado. You have a bunch of major employers. A
lot of new medical facilities going up. A lot of offices going up. This is -- this has -- there
is a park and ride on the south side of Overland. I see them park there and get in the
van. So, as far as trying to create -- take some of those vehicle trips off the roadways
with ride sharing and -- and mass transit -- mass transit is slow in Meridian. I mean Boise
has it, but it's always been a struggle and mass transit will not go out to areas if you have
three and a half dwelling units per acre. They won't. It's not cost effective and it's been
said multiple times. The target is eight dwelling units per acre to make it cost effective to
take community buses out into an area and create a public transportation network. This
particular project -- there has been a lot of thought, a lot of effort, a lot of work. I can't
make everybody happy and I can't create a project that's not going to generate trips. It's
going to generate trips. But what I can do is I can mitigate for my impact. We don't go
in, who is going to put the signal in at Hillsdale Avenue? They talk about, oh, people are
going to park on Rockhampton, people are going to park on Hillsdale Avenue. No, those
are collectors. There is no parking on collector roadways. Ada County Highway District
policy manual states that. There will be no parking on our collector entrance roadway.
The parking that we show within our multi-family area exceeds the minimum parking as
stated in the UDC. It also has to come back as a conditional use permit. What I'm asking
you is to look at the big picture and look at balancing Meridian. We can't just develop at
three and a half dwelling units per acre. We have got to have some diversity and I ask
the Commission to consider the facts and not just emotions, because this is a priority area
and if this isn't appropriate in a priority area I don't know where it is appropriate. Thank
you.
McCarvel: Okay. Any questions for the applicant? Sorry. It was questions from the
Commission. Sorry. Okay. Thank you. If there is no more questions for staff or the
applicant, could I get a motion to close the public hearing for H-2021-0046.
Seal: So moved.
Lorcher: Second.
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Item 1. August 12,2021 F51
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McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to close public hearing for H-2021-0046. All
those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
McCarvel: Who would like to kick off the --
Seal: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Seal.
Seal: I will go first here. So, yeah, I mean as I -- it's interesting, because we kind of go
through all --every single time we have a multi-family that goes in somewhere. Everybody
thinks they are needed, but they just don't want them next to them. So, find that
disappointing that we can all share in it. I mean I live in an area where they are doing
some development that I don't particularly care for. That said I understand the
development's needed and it's part of what's going to support our infrastructure long term,
not just as long as I live in my house. So, there is -- there is just some things that are
very disappointing to me. So, as far as what West Ada has in their report, that is their
form letter. We get basically the same exact information from them every time. Not that
we don't look at it, not that we are not discouraged by it, not that we don't want our children
to succeed and we want them to have lower student class ratios or student-to-teacher
ratios, it's simply that that's -- the funding has to come from the heads that are in that
school district. So, there has to be too many heads and, then, they build. That's the way
that it works. As far as the fire stations, same thing, same form letter. I have all of --
every single application that has come through -- I don't know that the fire station has ever
met that 80 percent. In fact, we have called them in on it and had long discussions about
it, because it's been very difficult to swallow that they are putting into a report that they
are not meeting their goals. Their goals don't necessarily mean that they aren't going to
be able to be there to save lives, it simply means that they are going for a goal that is
somewhat unattainable in the current growth pattern that we have. Not that they are
going to abandon it, it simply means it's incredibly difficult to hit and with the explosive
growth -- growth like we have it's difficult for them to -- to attain that. Yeah. I mean --
and, you know, I mean there is some people that brought that up living in the Hillsdale
Subdivision that it -- they couldn't meet that. I'm rest assured that when your subdivision
went in they submitted the same report with the same data. So, you know, I guess as a
person living in Meridian occasionally I'm willing to look at myself as the problem. So, I
kind of wish more people would help to do that. So, it's a problem that we have. We
need more diversified housing that comes in there. So, I would like very much for my
children to be able to live here. They can't afford it, so -- and they are responsible
homeowners and they would love to live in a multi-family and they would park in the
garage. So, outside of that I think that the subdivision itself as its presented I think it's
very thoughtful. I think that they tried to diversify as much as they could with the amount
of land that they had. I do think that -- I don't know that the multi-family concept piece of
it necessarily fits, but I do think that a higher density in there is relevant, simply because
of where it is in location to the YMCA, to the park, to Eagle Road, to everything that's
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going on in there. I think that the density itself -- I agree with lowering it to keeping the
multi-family to two story. I do think that there needs to be an element in there that would
eliminate even a little bit more of that, bring things to the front as far as being able to run
some kind of business operation out of there. Not necessarily offices or something, but
something like people said, a coffee house or things like that. I know that the developer
is kind of at the mercy of, you know, who would be able to come in there with something
like that. They can't guarantee that that's what would go in there, even if they try and plan
it. I, myself, I'm a -- you know, obviously, a fan of the -- of the small businesses that can
go in there. The business incubator type stuff. So, it sounds like that that's not something
that's going to be approached here, but I would like to see more stuff like that happen,
especially on a frontage road like that that is going to get a lot of traffic, people coming
down through the YMCA, you know, and other things that are going to be in that area.
So, overall I think it's a decent plan. I just don't know that it's ready to move forward at
this point. I think there is more that could be done in order to help transition the -- the
multi-family a little bit better to bring in a little bit more of a business emphasis to it and
that's kind of where I'm at. I just don't think it's quite ready.
McCarvel: Okay.
Lorcher: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Lorcher.
Lorcher: I wanted to let everybody know that I hear what you are saying and it sounds --
it sounds like the community is not opposed to growth or housing, but just the multi-
dimensional -- or multi-family and it also sounds like you would like a little bit more
commercial as well. There is parts of the plan that seemed to work and some of it that
needs to be possibly reconsidered. I would support a continuance to go -- have the
developer go back and possibly redesign a balanced multi-family housing plan to fit in the
neighborhood and to offer some more commercial.
Yearsley: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: So, living in south Meridian I am like every one of you, I have contributed to
the growth of south Meridian. I have contributed to the traffic and the overcrowding of the
schools. I have been in Tuscany for the last 16 years and I contributed to the
overcrowding of Lake Hazel Elementary School. I'm sure Rockhampton contributed to
the overcrowding of Lake Hazel Elementary School, the same way as Hillsdale has
contributed to the overcrowding of the Hillsdale Elementary School. We have all
contributed. We all contribute to the traffic congestion. Why does this subdivision all of
a sudden break that threshold that we can't handle anymore? Growth is always a hard
pill to swallow. When do you stop growth? Do you stop it now? Should you have stopped
it before Hillsdale? Should we have stopped before Rockhampton? Our goal I guess is
to manage that growth and how do we -- we best make it fit. Basically the --the objection
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that I heard today is we don't like the multi-family, which I totally understand. I understand
that there is a place for multi-family. I understand that there is better places for multi-
family. That being said, I think that this -- this plan is a little dense. I -- I do agree that
the -- I think that the town -- the part multi-family housing should be limited to two story
for all of the complexes. I would prefer to see the multi-family go away and deal more
with townhomes. I think that would be a better fit for the area. But, you know, again, I
still also believe in property rights as well. So, that being said, that's -- that's my -- my
opinion. I also like the idea of some additional potential retail as well. I agree there is a
-- there is no place to eat out where we live, so -- in fact, I am really excited for Albertsons
to come just for that reason, so -- so that's my opinion.
McCarvel: I will jump on your bandwagon. I'm part of the problem in south Meridian.
Built in Sportsmans Point when that was coming up and my son was the first freshman
class at Mountain View and they opened their doors I think 400 kids over capacity. So,
it's -- it's been an issue forever and it just is when you are growing like we are. I -- and
as I read through the staff report in preparation for this meeting I as well thought this is a
lot of transition and a lot of variety in a short area. I think it could be spread out to where
the density of phase one and maybe some townhomes was the highest end of the density
there and some more commercial to support the uses that are needed there. I just -- I
think trying to fit all of those levels of density in that area is pushing it. So, that's where
I'm at as well.
Wheeler: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Wheeler.
Wheeler: I live close to Commissioner Yearsley out there at southeast Meridian and,
then, I grew up in southwest Boise, two miles away from my childhood home and so that
whole area I have been able to see grow, whether I like it or not, and, then, been a lot of
fun over there. I, too, am looking for Albertson's, because, then, I can take a quick little
bike ride, get over there, get some groceries and get back before I know I was gone and
can get dinner on the table pretty fast. I also know that -- that to meet the density of this
is a little bit too much for what's needed and I think that the mixed use neighborhood has
more of a blended aspect that it should be with retail and commercial and housing and
things of that nature and I also on the retail side I think one thing is you said is to get a
retailer to come to a mid block location -- in other words, not on a hard corner is just
difficult, because it's just traffic counts that drive their profits and what they want to see.
So, that -- that will -- that will be a little bit of a stretch to try to do that, but it would still be,
you know, to me it's -- it's -- it's a little bit not as diverse as what I would like to see with
the -- with the kinds of uses that are for the mixed use neighborhood.
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: First off, Joe, apologize to Miranda for me, because I did see where her report
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was, I just looked over that one. I know that was like four hours ago. But one of the
things that I think I will start off with is just looking at the -- the designation on -- on the
future land use map and having sat through the entire strategic plan thing that was, I don't
know, 18 months or something -- two years. I don't know. It's been a long time. A lot of
meetings. Making sure that when we have these go forward that we do get some of that
diversity of housing types and housing opportunities, so that as the city grows and ages
that we don't have all of the exact same thing for the next generation who comes in behind
us and being able to think beyond where we are right now. One of the things that came
up with -- I don't know, one of the first ten people that talked tonight, was that you were
afraid that we had already made up our mind and that you were not being heard. We
wouldn't be sitting here for, I don't know, three plus hours on this if we weren't listening to
what you are saying. So, we are hearing what you are saying and we are taking to heart
the feelings that you have shared with us tonight. Similar to what Commissioner Seal
mentioned initially here was a sentiment that we -- we hear a lot and that is I really like
this, just not in my backyard, and this is not unique to you and the development that we
are talking about right now, it happens in every corner of our city when we get these
developments, especially when multi-family comes in, people are very in favor of it as
long as it's nowhere near them and that is something that we have to balance out when
we are listening to this, because that is a need within our city now and as we grow we
have to have some balance to what had traditionally been built in Meridian and being, you
know, just single family homes. It's something that we have to make sure that we keep
in balance as we grow and don't rely on it solely being in one locale. You don't want to
have just a section of your city 50 years from now that is only multi-family, because you
didn't put -- nobody wanted it next to their house when it was being built. So, something
to keep in mind as we talk about this. I, too, have some major concerns about the schools
and the roads that are out there. Unfortunately, there is limited pieces of that that we can
control. We can make suggestions. We can, you know, condition developments as they
go in, but we have to rely on our community partners to -- to help with -- with those pieces
and properly prioritize those needs. One of the people talked about the --the step up and
-- or transition from larger lots to smaller lots. This is something that we see in most
developments that are going in next to developments that are already built out and this
is, essentially, what we are looking for is those bigger lots going into smaller lots. So,
with that I would like to say that it looks mostly normal to me. I agree that we could really
use some of that retail aspect out there. I think there is a missed opportunity if the retail
component is not addressed, especially in regards to the other businesses that are out
there or going to be out there. I think that having some of that community retail restaurant
space next to the YMCA, next to parks, next to lots of homes, next to medical facilities --
it makes sense and would definitely be a good fit in that area. A couple other things.
Sorry. I know it's long, but we are already here this long, so go a little bit longer. One of
the -- the biggest problems for me is something that you said, Becky, that this is just not
another subdivision plopped down in Meridian. I would respectfully somewhat disagree.
It looks very similar to a lot of the other things. I don't see anything that is remarkably
unique about the layout or the product. I -- I like various components of this and I could
get behind it, but I would like to see this project continued and come back with a lot of the
community's input taken into consideration. I think that the multi-family being that two
story -- rethinking how some of that is configured and -- and -- and worked in. I think
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there are opportunities to enhance the overall buy in of the community to make it feel as
if this entire -- let's take a square mile and say that it's kind of being tied together. This
project doesn't have to do this by itself, but it does need to work to find a way to not have
these new neighbors that are going to be coming in from all of the people that are here,
so that they can come in and be welcomed as new members of the community and not
despised for something that they had nothing to do with and I hope that when you do
have these new neighbors that you take that into consideration, that they were not part of
any of these conversations and you are welcoming them -- them to our community when
they do move on.
McCarvel: I'm going to ask a question based on what I have heard from everybody. Are
we really at a point of continuing? Do we think that the -- that that's going to do anything
or move it forward with recommendations or move it forward with a flat out recommending
denial?
Lorcher: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Lorcher.
Lorcher: If we deny, does the applicant have an opportunity -- do they have to start all
over?
McCarvel: No. They go to Council with our recommendation and, then, it's up to Council.
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: I believe. Yeah. Commissioner Grove.
Grove: I would say continuance for the simple fact that one of the -- the sticking points
on some of this is Fire Station 7 -- like this development has time before it has to be in
ground versus some of the other developments that we see. So, I would be okay with
saying continuance and see if we can get some of these components worked in. I'm
seeing a nod from the applicant that they would be in favor of -- of doing that.
McCarvel: Okay. So, then, question for -- I will keep it to staff, so we don't have to open
the public hearing. What recommendation based on workload and reasonability do we
have to get something reworked? What date are you looking at?
Dodson: Madam Chair, I'm assuming a month would be sufficient to kind of work through
some of this, because we don't have a quorum on the 2nd -- for the first hearing I should
say in September, so it would be the second hearing in September. I already have two
CUPs for that night, so it doesn't bother me.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, there are currently -- so, your next meeting would be --
McCarvel: The 16th.
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Weatherly: -- the 16th of September and there are currently five hearing scheduled for
that evening.
McCarvel: October 7th it is.
Weatherly: And, Madam Chair, just for the record, there are two hearings already
scheduled for October 7th.
McCarvel: Okay.
Dodson: Would a further delay be acceptable? The second hearing in October?
McCarvel: Okay. 21 st? Okay. Would anybody like to make a motion?
Wheeler: I would like to make a motion then.
McCarvel: Commissioner Wheeler.
Wheeler: Nick -- or excuse me. Commissioner Grover, were you going to make a
motion? Okay. All right. All right. I move the continuance of file number H-2021-0046
to the hearing date of October 21 st, 2021, for the following reasons: To work with the
input from the public testimony in matters of density and mixed use.
Yearsley: I will second that.
Parsons: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Yes.
Parsons: Before -- before we second anything, just want to make it really clear for
everyone that's testifying tonight that we really want to just focus on the items you want
to discuss at that next hearing, meaning a revised concept with more commercial and
less density I think is what you are getting at. So, if we can just keep the public comments
to those couple items at the next hearing that would be appreciated. We don't want to
open up everything else again. So, whatever you have in your motion just make it clear.
We are only discussing specific items.
McCarvel: Yeah. I'm hoping that everyone has realized that we do listen and we -- we
do have some common sense and -- or we have heard it and -- so, it has -- do we need
more on your -- on the motion, then, Bill, or --
Wheeler: You are correct, it is in the area of mixed use components and density is what
I had.
McCarvel: Okay.
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Wheeler: I think that's what it was stated. Is that what we had down?
McCarvel: Yeah.
Lorcher: And adding more commercial.
McCarvel: More commercial. Yeah. More commercial. Less density. Yeah. Okay.
Dodson: I would say we are good then.
McCarvel: All right. It has been moved and seconded to continue Item No. H-2021-0046
to the hearing date of October 21 st. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
McCarvel: We will see you all on the 21 st. Okay. And we do have another application
tonight if you are wanting to stay, otherwise, if you would, please, quickly exit, so we can
get on with our next application. Okay. Does anybody need a quick minute to stretch?
Okay. Three minutes we will be back.
(Recess: 9:42 p.m. to 9:48 p.m.)
5. Public Hearing for Briar Ridge Subdivision (H-2021-0036) by Gem
State Planning, Located on the West Side of Meridian Road Between
W. Lake Hazel Road and W. Amity Road, Directly South of the Mid-Mile
Point
A. Request: Rezone a total of 40.99 acres of land from the R-4 zoning
district to the TN-R zoning district (Traditional Neighborhood
Residential).
B. Request: A Preliminary Plat consisting of 227 residential building lots
and 47 common lots on 38.86 acres of land.
C. Request: A Modification to the Existing Development Agreement
(Inst. #2016-007070), as required by the existing development
agreement provisions, for the purpose of updating the development
plan and to redevelop the subject property to incorporate the
proposed preliminary plat.
McCarvel: All right. We would like to resume the meeting. For the record we will now
open H-2021-0036, Briar Ridge Subdivision, and we will begin with the staff report.
Dodson: Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess informally do you want me to go through this
or do you want to just ask questions. We can -- we can handle it however you would like.
I presume you all have reviewed the majority of the staff report and done everything you
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need to do, but I can definitely go through the main points --
McCarvel: Go through it.
Dodson: Okay. It consists of 40.99 acres of land, currently zoned R-4, located on the
west side of Meridian Road, between Lake Hazel and Amity. It is directly south of the mid
mile point. Medium density residential and medium high density residential on the future
land use map. The applications before us tonight are for the -- a rezone from R-4 to the
TN-R zoning district, which is the traditional neighborhood residential district, which we
do not have much of in the city at all. It consists of a preliminary plat consisting of 227
single family residential building lots, 123 detached and 104 townhome lots, all for sale
single family. Forty-seven common lots on 38.8 acres of land. There is also a
modification to the existing development agreement because, again, it was annexed in
2015 and the first modification is basically required if there is new development, as is
written in the existing development agreement for the purpose of updating the
development plan to redevelop the property consistent, whatever that future development
would be. Again, this property was annexed in 2015 under the south Meridian annexation
where the lots down here were annexed in to help re-establish some of our city
boundaries from being taken over. In that development agreement and with these -- this
annexation, there is all of the southern Meridian annexation, made some commitments to
provide services and development in this area. With that being said, I -- I mentioned in
my staff report about the urban services and I was probably a little too harsh considering
some of the commitments that we have made by annexing already and zoning and having
a development agreement and everything out here already. So, the project is proposed
in three phases. This is a revised phasing plan. It shows a majority of the east third of
the site in phase one. A portion of the collector street along the north boundary and an
emergency access to Meridian Road also in phase one. So, this was received after Jane
and I and the applicant met following the publication of my staff report to kind of talk about
some of the conditions and the phasing. Seen here phase two is shown with the large
central open space lot. Fifty-eight more lots and most of them detached. The remaining
length of the collector street, which is a West Quartz Creek Street and, again, it's a
collector street. Three includes 112 lots. So, literally half of the development is not --
density wise is not occurring until phase three. A majority of that is the townhome units
in the southwest corner of the site and staff does support the revised phasing plan. The
project contains two future land use designations as noted, medium high and medium
density residential. There is mixed use regional directly to the south with the existing C-
G, R-15 and R-8 zoning, as well as the opposite corner. The applicant is proposing an
overall gross density of 5.84 acres -- or dwelling units per -- well, that doesn't make any
sense. 5.8 dwelling units per acre, which falls within the density range of the medium
density residential. Again, because there are two, just like the last project, and that we
have now, the calculations when you have more than one become rather flexible. Yeah,
theoretically the applicant could have proposed a project with twice the density proposed
currently and still be compliant with the comp plan in terms of density. They lost one,
because it -- to me it showed by reviewing this that they were not just trying to cram as
many lots in. They had a very thoughtful site design. By proposing a project density
consistent with the medium density residential and not the medium high, the applicant is
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aware of the existing commercial zoning to the south and its future land use designation
of mixed use regional. This should likely incorporate higher intensity development of both
commercial and residential. The applicant proposed a higher density product, which is
the units in the southeast quadrant of the site by placing the alley loaded townhomes
here. Staff does find that the proposed project is consistent with the Comprehensive
Plan. Again, they are requesting the TN-R zoning district as noted. It requires a six
dwelling unit per acre net density, which following publication of the staff report I have
been -- I received that it is at least 11 dwelling units per acre net density, so we are
perfectly fine there. It requires at least two housing types, which are shown here at least.
Street oriented design, which is more focused on the pedestrian than the car. The overall
site design proposed by the applicant is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, the
future land use designation, and this requested zoning, because of the transitional density
proposed, because of the multiple housing types, and because of the inclusion of
parkways throughout the entire development, as well as the extension of a collector street
along the north boundary for future connectivity. The project is proposed with three
housing types to meet the requirement of multiple housing types. Detached single family,
alley loaded detached single family, and alley loaded townhomes. Some of these alleys
here, here, and here are detached, rather than attached. This area. So, a third housing
type. Staff does support the proposed housing types and the overall site design that
incorporates parkways throughout the whole site, which, again, is a foot parkways, street
trees, and five foot detached sidewalks, which really help activate street and keep
pedestrians safer. The project is proposed with at least four and a half acres of qualifying
open space, which is approximately 11.6 percent. It consists of the required buffer to
Meridian Road. The large centralized open space a lot. The MEWs between the
townhome units. I didn't include this in my list, but the buffer to the collector street along
the north boundary and the -- and other small areas of open space throughout the site.
The project has parkways as noted and would qualify as qualified open space. It takes a
little bit of a calculation, because you have to subtract all the driveways, et cetera. The
applicant did not need to incorporate this area to meet the minimum open space
requirements, so they did not include it. So, their four and a half acres of qualified open
space is probably a lot closer to their proposed total of seven. So, again, they don't need
that in the calculation and I will explain that further. Staff is not concerned that this is not
in the calculation, because they requested zoning of TN-R also requires parkways. So,
no matter what the city is going to get the parkways, because of the requested zoning,
whether it qualifies as open space per their calculations is kind of null. It is a great addition
to the community nonetheless. The proposed amenities also exceed code requirements.
Per the plat size two are required. They have proposed a multi-use pathway along
Meridian as required by the master pathways plan. A children's play structure, picnic
shelters, and open space in excess of COVID has noted, that the central open space lot
is vastly larger than what would be required, a two acre area. Keeping fencing. Meet the
code requirements, except for those specifically noted in the staff report. There is just a
few of those items. I don't want to get into the weeds on that. The applicant has agreed
to those required modifications. There is a required noise abatement wall along Meridian
Road, because it's a state highway. Their proposal for that also meets code
requirements. With the proposal for multiple blocks of alley loaded homes and 33 foot
wide street sections there is ample on-street parking, because there will not be as many
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driveways as standard front loaded detached development. Off street parking shall also
be maintained on each building lot. So, the applicant will talk a little bit more about the
parking as well. Access is proposed via construction of a new collector street as noted,
which runs along the entire north boundary. There will not be any direct lot access to
Meridian Road. A secondary emergency access proposed to Meridian Road in the very
southeast corner of the property. Again, this is only an emergency access and not a
second access for residents. Just an emergency access at this time. The preliminary
plat also shows two stub street connections to the west boundary for future connectivity.
Meridian Road, Highway 69, is being studied by the Idaho Transportation Department for
overall corridor improvements all the way south to -- or what is it -- Orchard Avenue in
Kuna. This is a mid mile collector and this intersection at the northeast corner of the
subject site is part of this study and is proposed to have what they call a reduced conflict
U-turn crossing, RCUT, which eliminates left hand turn lanes from the collector road and
left-hand -- and through traffic from those lesser classified streets. There is a couple of
these in Boise, though I have not driven on them. There are a couple others. If you go
-- in my staff report I did include links to their corridor. It showed some really cool things
about how it works and the safety improvements and everything. So, I implore you to
look at that. This is an example of what it would look like. Where I put the red box is
where Briar Ridge would be proposed on this exhibit and how residents would exit out of
here and they would not be able to turn left to head north, they would have to turn right
and do a -- that will be a signalized U-turn on these types of things and, then, they will be
able to head north through the intersection. The applicant is required to participate in a
cost share agreement for the future intersection and road improvements to the state
highway in lieu of constructing any improvement at this time, other than the collector
street, which is under ACHD control -- or jurisdiction I should say -- and they will be
required to construct that per the phasing plan. They are not required to do any
improvements at this time, because the corridor is part of a future project and the
proposed traffic generation does not exceed more than ten percent of its overall traffic
counts at any of the intersections that is both -- this new one, the one at Amity and the
one at Lake Hazel. ACHD did provide a staff report after this city staff report was
published. They agreed with the ITD conditions and because they have no jurisdiction
over the state highway. They did require some revisions to the internal street sections to
ensure compliance with district policies. It's just some minor adjustments to road widths,
things like that, that will not have any -- any real effect on the site or site design. There
were three pieces of public testimony. One of them I did not quite understand being a
hundred percent relative to this, but I think it had to do with overall just development and
water usage. On the other two it had to deal with traffic concerns on the highway -- on
State Highway 69 and concerns with density overall, with one of them noting their desire
to keep it R-4 in proposed density with that, which would not meet the Comprehensive
Plan designation on the site. Staff has recommended approval of the project with some
conditions. I will state that I did not include it, Jane, but one of the things that was
discussed was --and I have agreed to the applicant's requested revisions to my requested
revision, that instead of removing all the lots on the west boundary of the open space,
removing Lots 12 and 13 here and, then, making up those two lots by adding two
townhomes here and getting rid of this extra parking and, then, also taking this extra
parking here and adding another area of green space. Each of these are about 5,100
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square feet, so it would add another 5,000 square feet of green space and they have
agreed to add a --- some kind of children's play structure. I recommended climbing rocks,
because they already have a children's tot lot in the north -- as another amenity, so to
speak, in the south half. So, the applicant has agreed to that. It will open up this central
open space to allow safer viewing of it from both the residents and from police. So, that
was the main point of that and they will maintain all the other open space as proposed.
Other than that I believe we are in agreement with the staff report and I will stand for any
questions.
McCarvel: Okay. We are going to move on and have the applicant come up.
Suggs: Good evening, Commissioners, staff. I was going to say guests, but -- I'm Jane
Suggs with Gem State Planning and I'm representing -- oh. 9839 West Cablecar Street
in Boise, representing the Briar Ridge Subdivision and I think Joe did a really good
overview. I have all of this stuff planned, because Joe had really kind of -- in his staff
report had talked a lot about why this maybe should not be the place to develop and so
some of you may remember this 2015, 2016 --what I call the mass annexation, but it was
a negotiated annexation. So, I'm just going to very quickly -- I'm not going to read this
whole thing, but I'm going to just very quickly go through and show you those are the
properties that were annexed at one time through development agreements with those
owners and so if-- you already know about this, so I hate to repeat myself, but -- and this
is the Comprehensive Plan. These are the plans that were shown to each of the property
owners, too, and was part of the presentation to the City Council on the annexation. So,
you see the BR right here -- this. Okay. I know it is, so I'm not even going to touch it. It
is super sensitive. I have tried this before. So -- so, there is the BR. There you go. And
you can see where it's medium density on the top and medium high on the bottom and,
then, here was their zoning and you can see that we were off four. So, one of the things
I thought was interesting was the development agreement allowed the annexation of the
properties with R-4. It allowed the property to continue in their current use. It even
included in the development agreement that you could continue to raise livestock and you
can discharge firearms, even though you can't do that typically in the city limits, and in
exchange for these agreements to annex, the owners or developers would need to
develop according to the comp plan, just as Joe said, and it turns out in the development
agreement also the DA modification, the development agreement modification, would be
at no cost. The first one. And the rezone -- this is the first rezone of the property -- is
also free. Thank you very much. No fees for that. So, that I thought was pretty
interesting. So, that's just an expectation that we would be coming in with some other
development according to your Comprehensive Plan. And, again, Joe already mentioned
that there was an agreement to, quote, provide for the advancement of sewer and water
infrastructure for the benefit of the subject property. That is in the DA for this property
and they have done that. Sewer has been extended down Meridian Road in the past -- I
guess that was in the first couple of years after the annexation. And I'm going to skip
through this. So, that's kind of a long history about the parcel and how it got to where it
is today and if there was a question about whether or not development should happen,
there is -- you know these other subdivisions -- there is Prevail Subdivision, which is kind
of just kind of catty-corner to the northeast. Across the street recently approved Shafer
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View Terrace. And, then, down on Amity Road -- I mean Lake Hazel Road you will see
the Apex project. So, you are familiar with all of these projects. You might not be familiar
with Lynrock. That's just west of us. That's in Kuna. So, it kind of carved out that way
and that was part of this annexation issue was -- let's see where the -- where the city
limits are going to meet. So, here we are with our Briar Ridge Subdivision. Again, Joe
did a really good job of kind of outlining what TN-R is. Traditional neighborhood
residential. You will see sort of a semi-gridded pattern, but there are lots of things that
the TN-R asks for. It does ask for different types of housing, so, of course, we have
attached and detached single family residential houses. We have the townhomes, which
are alley loaded and it promotes -- the TN-R also promotes open space and pedestrian
activation and we have all of those things. You will see with the tree there we have the
planting strips, which are -- basically allow for kind of tree shaded sidewalks when you
walk around. Of course, the large park that actually got even a little larger because we
are taking those two lots out, so you can kind of see through the park, but we didn't want
to lose those lots -- and I -- Joe and I had this conversation. These are very desirable
lots to be back up to a park, so we were happy to lose a couple of them and as long as
we can bring them back down into these parking areas and so as Joe mentioned -- I'm
going to try this, Joe. This little -- this little parking area -- actually, because we have a
lot of alley loads, that means all the frontage of the homes is available for street parking.
So, sometimes when you get into these situations you don't have a lot of room for parking
if you have got front loads -- smaller lots on front loads. So -- so, we put in these extra
little alley access parking areas. We are keeping this one. We are going to put two lots
here, so this four will turn into a six. It will just mirror this. We are keeping these two kind
of alley accessed parking areas and, then, we will also turn this one, as he said, into a --
like a green space. So, that seemed like a good compromise, because I have really never
been in Meridian where you said you didn't need that parking. So, I was happy to see
that. I mean we can reduce some of that pavement. Again, over 11 percent qualified
open spaces and, then, that regional pathway and we take that regional pathway that
runs along Meridian Road and we actually -- because there is the McBurney Lateral,
which we are doing hopefully, if we get through the approval process, we will get started
on that winter work this year. This is why I was asking as if I could get heard tonight,
because we do have winter work and we don't get started on those construction --
construction drawings necessarily until we know that we have a project. So, we are kind
of moving that and the McBurney runs to the property, but we are going to be piping it
and, then, right across here -- oops. Can't do it. There is a pathway that takes you into
the park and it's one of the regional -- kind of a regional pathway. Just wanted to repeat
these updates. Our construction phasing will begin up in the northeast quarter--quadrant
and run along the east boundary, so we can put in the secondary access. We are
agreeing to move the two buildings on next -- on the west side of the park and, let's see,
a few more things. And you might notice that some of these are like the last project. We
have front loaded detached single family homes, so some of these are two bedroom -- I
mean two car garage, some are three and, then, some are the narrower homes. We have
few of those, too. And, then, here are pictures of the alley loaded product. I think the
little -- little cottage thing looks so cute to me. Single level. And, then, there is a picture
of the townhomes. That's not the best picture in the world. We are doing more of those
now, so I will get some better pictures next time. So, those are our housing types. And,
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then, again, just think that we have put together a really attractive project. I think at one
point -- there have been -- there was another planner working on this about three years
ago I think. Bob Taunton. And, then, we came in about a year ago and we were looking
at apartments down where we have the townhomes and we worked with the staff and
they said that might be a little much. So, we came with the townhomes and we think this
is the type of quality and the type of product you would like to see. It's still some density
there because of the townhomes, they are attached, but they are very popular and with
the alley load they just make a really nice streetscape. It's -- I think this is a very attractive
project and I'm pretty excited about the mix of housing there and the location and I do
request your recommendation of approval on our preliminary plat and our development
agreement modification and I will answer questions.
McCarvel: Any questions for the applicant or staff?
Lorcher: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Lorcher.
Lorcher: Did you say that the water that's going to be all piped or just portion of it and,
then, where the greenspace it's going to be open?
Suggs: It will be all piped.
Lorcher: All piped.
Suggs: All piped. Actually --
Lorcher: It will be underground?
Suggs: -- the -- it will go from -- as it crosses this little park area here -- I mean this little
open space here with the path it actually goes north up here and, then, runs along to the
west. So, you will see that extra large little green area next to the street. That's because
that's an easement for the McBurney lateral all piped. So, there will be no open areas on
this -- no open water on the property.
Lorcher: Okay. Thank you.
McCarvel: Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: So, staff had mentioned commercial to the north -- or south.
Suggs: South.
Yearsley: I haven't been here since I wasn't sure what -- what's -- what's planned south
of there, do we know?
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Dodson: Commissioner Yearsley, nothing at this time.
Yearsley: Oh. Okay.
Dodson: But it is -- it was one of -- I think the only property zoned C-G with that big
annexation, so that is very much anticipated to be commercial and I have an inkling that
Commission and Council will not want to change that.
Yearsley: Well, I think that's a good location for it. I thought there was something already
planned, so I was just curious.
Suggs: Can I add to that? I did have a neighborhood meeting and the only person that
showed up was the real estate agent who was representing that property, the Bridge
Family Trust, and he just wanted to know what we were going to do, so -- yeah. That has
changed hands recently, but I think they might still be working out some sewer availability
and, of course, we will try to do what we can, but I don't know that it's in the same sewer
shed, so -- but you will see something one of these days, because -- because it's -- it's
Meridian.
Seal: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Hold on a minute, Commissioner Seal.
Dodson: The commercial portion, it is -- the Apex that Jane mentioned, they have a
commercial component to it. It's about a mile and a half away'ish. As they get more
homes, more rooftops over there, that commercial will be planned and in that concept
plan, which I believe you guys saw at the end of last year, that did have some -- some
nice commercial component with plazas and things like that that people will be able to
easily access from here, at least by car nonetheless, but a lot closer than what is currently
in the periphery.
McCarvel: Commissioner Seal.
Seal: I just -- the townhomes, are they a rental product or are those for purchase --
something that can be purchased?
Suggs: They will be individually for sale to -- for sale to individuals. I do think there is
another product that I worked on that had townhomes and occasionally people would buy
-- like if there were four or six, they would buy them, but they are all -- they will have a
firewall between each one of them, so they are individual for sale on their own lot.
Seal: Okay. Thank you.
McCarvel: Any other questions? Commissioner Wheeler?
Wheeler: Thank you, Madam Chair. On that slide you -- you mentioned that there was
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a -- was a pedestrian walkway or a gateway or something like this. What did you what --
did you say?
Suggs: We are putting in a regional pathway as required along Meridian Road as a ten
foot pathway, but we are leaving -- and there is a wall. We are required to put a wall that's
at least ten feet -- the top of the wall at least ten feet above the centerline of Meridian
Road. That isn't your standard for how we treat highways. But we are putting a little
break in that wall, so that people can exit from that walkway and walk across into our
development into the pack -- into the park.
Wheeler: Very good.
Suggs: And that's just a little break in the wall so you --
Wheeler: Okay. And that wall goes all the way down that frontage?
Suggs: Yes.
Wheeler: And is that the only place where there is a break in there? That one? Okay.
Suggs: That would be only place there is a break. That's supposed to be continuous --
well, for the streets. But, yeah, that's the only place that you would be able to get through.
And typically on most of the properties you will not see that, unless they have something
like we have, and I believe it's got a rhino wall. We have a detail of it in our staff report
and it's on the landscape plan.
Wheeler: Very good. And the only other thing that I would say -- and this is just input.
would have fun and get creative with some of those pathways and have fun with it, like
maybe permanent hopscotch little thing or some little -- you know, stuff like that just for
people to do just to make it kind of fun and homey, but that would just be some thoughts
on that.
Suggs: Thank you for that input. I appreciate it.
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: Joe, with the green space going in on the southeast parking lot down there, is
there any sightline potential problems for that bulb out?
Dodson: I'm not following it.
Grove: I mean it -- can the -- I know sightlines with the green space can be a problem.
Is that potentially a problem --
Dodson: For CEPTD -- right. Okay. Now I'm following you. There shouldn't be any real
fencing issue if-- because you have the green space on the right and, then, you have the
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alley on the left there, because it is this one that would turn into green space, there
shouldn't be any issues. If there is fencing proposal adjacent it would have to be open
vision, because there is not two streets next to it. So, there shouldn't be any line of sight
issues there, no.
Suggs: Chairman, I have one thing to add that might add something to that. If you look
in those linear green spaces you will see a little tan block. That's a shade structure, so
that's just a gathering space that's sort of in line and we have sidewalks that run east-
west all through there, too. So, that would add an opportunity for people to hang out
there, have some eyeballs on those -- you know, where they might put climbing rock. We
think that that kind of activates that little space, too, in a nice way for the townhouse.
McCarvel: Okay. Any other questions for the applicant or staff? Okay. Do you want to
sit down while we take public testimony?
Suggs: No, but I do want to say this. Thank you so much for staying here tonight. I know
this is late and that was a lot.
McCarvel: I wish we could put -- we should have put you on the other side of that.
Grove: Madam Chair?
Suggs: I know Becky. She's good.
McCarvel: Yeah.
Suggs: I like to watch her.
McCarvel: Yeah.
Grove: I do have one final question.
McCarvel: Oh.
Grove: Sorry.
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: Just looking at the school pieces, is that -- is this really in Meridian High School's
zone? I mean that's -- I was looking at that, that's -- is that seven miles?
Dodson: Commissioner Grove, when I looked at that, too, I was asking myself the same
question and, then, that's what we get from the school district. I don't understand that
quite honestly, but, yeah, I live very close to Meridian High School and I would -- like it's
seven miles from here, that's kind of a lot. Any of this that's I guess west of Eagle at this
point it's kind of -- that's a far drive for high school students.
Meridian Planning&Zoning Commission
Item 1. August 12,2021 F67
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Lorcher: Commissioner Grove, I was on that boundary committee where we actually
included Meridian Road to Meridian High School, mostly because it wasn't density at that
point in time, but because of the overcrowding of Mountain View and we are going to see
what happens with Owyhee, you probably will see within the next 18 to 24 months that
will be probably reevaluated. But right now it's a straight shot to Meridian High School
and it was -- and we put it there specifically because of the low density at the time and it
hasn't changed.
Dodson: Understood.
McCarvel: All right. We will go through the motions. Madam Clerk, is there anyone
signed up to testify on this application?
Weatherly: Madam Chair, we do have one person signed in to testify and that's Cody
Black. Cody, you should have the ability to unmute yourself.
Black: Hello. Can you hear me?
McCarvel: Yes.
Black: Hi. Okay. My name is Cody Black and my business address is 16155 Northside
Desert in Nampa. I'm just calling on behalf of the -- so, I represent the southern property,
that commercial corner. So, we are just -- we are property neighbors and I'm mostly just
calling -- I was just curious looking at the map, I was curious about the road that will be
just north of my property and, then, also I'm curious about the -- the -- the lots as well. I
just don't see any sort of landscape barrier in between their property and ours and I also
-- I was curious about the road and just if that's being designed to be half on our property
and half on theirs and, if so, if it's going to be built like half plus 12, according to ACHD
standards and I just -- yeah, I was just kind of curious a little bit about that. Other than
that I really have no issues with the development. I think it looks nice.
McCarvel: Thank you.
Black: Thank you.
McCarvel: Would the applicant like to come back and address that.
Suggs: Thank you. Again Jane Suggs representing Briar Ridge. Thanks, Cody. I didn't
know you were my neighbor at this point. Yes, that is a road that will be half plus 12. It
does provide that emergency access as a driveway from -- to the east. We think that
that's a really good opportunity to not only provide a little bit of a buffer between what
might happen on your property and those townhomes, but a good connectivity as well
and if I'm right, Cody, about a little triangle of that property right near that road actually is
on the north side of the canal, so I'm thinking that we might see some expansion of some
commercial, maybe some multi-family there, too, as well, just because of that and I'm
sure -- we haven't talked about that. The rest of the properties that just back up, there is
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Item 1. August 12,2021 F68
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just a fence line there, so all of the surrounding area will be -- have a fence. So, just like
the ones on the west. There is no landscaping there that those houses will back up. You
will see that in all your subdivisions, where there will be a fence along the back property
boundaries. Those particular homes there are front loaded, so the driveways are and the
garages are on the front and so the back -- the backs of those lots will be a fence.
Dodson: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Yes, Joe.
Dodson: You know, to further on that for the -- the road on the south that -- because it's
a local street as that section, other than the driveway access to Meridian Road, but it's
just local street, so there is no requirement for a street buffer for that, because it's
proposed on the boundary. We do that relatively commonly. Whatever came to the south
would have to include any kind of buffer if it -- because it is C-G there is a minimum land
use buffer there, but I -- per Jane's comment there is a little triangle piece that kind of
aligns with that that would likely -- to the topography and that might even be the sewer
shed line, because of topography that I would be surprised if that little corner piece does
go as commercial, but it's very small compared to the rest of the area and that would
provide a -- like -- like Jane said, an adequate transition, another connection point for
residences if that were a multi-family, a little segment there. But staff is not concerned
with the -- the lack of landscaping on the south side at this point. Future development
would be required to provide that.
Yearsley: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: I also believe that -- that a future extension of that -- rest of that roadway
wouldn't be required until that property redeveloped or if it were to be developed. So, I
think that's also so he wouldn't have to be required to build that at any time.
McCarvel: Okay. If there is no other public testimony and no other -- I guess that was
the only one we had; right? Okay. Can I get a motion to close the public hearing on H-
2021-0036.
Seal: So moved.
Lorcher: Second.
McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to close public hearing on H-2021-0036.
All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
McCarvel: Anybody want to jump off? I will go. Yeah. I think it's a lovely little addition
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out there and kind of sets the standard for what's to come around it. Be curious to see
what they do with that turn around on the highway, but that's not the concern for this I
guess. Yeah. I think that's a nice blend and mix, something we would have liked to have
seen on the other one tonight, so --
Grove: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Grove.
Grove: When I first looked at it I had some concerns with like open space, but having
looked at it a few more times and whatnot and seeing how the changes tonight were
presented, I like the redistribution of some of that green space to the southern properties
a little bit more. Interesting project. I like it. The only thing that I don't like about it and
it's out of control of this is just the distance to the schools that are assigned to it, but there
is nothing that we can do about that.
McCarvel: Yeah. Any other comments, motions?
Yearsley: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: For me I personally don't like it. I don't know. I -- you know, to me out in the
middle of nowhere that it doesn't feel like it fits. Maybe in five to ten years as it grows
around it may fit better, but it meets the future land use designation and -- and at this
point I don't object.
Grove: Madam Chair, I just want to say one thing. I don't disagree with you on out in the
middle of nowhere aspect and I would probably have a bigger problem if it wasn't on the
state highway. So, if it was just kind of out in the middle of nowhere doing it I would have
a bigger problem. If you drive out in Nampa and you see what they are doing and it's kind
of out in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden you see like 700 homes and, then,
nothing and no way to get to them, like that's a poor design, but being on a state highway
I don't have that concern.
Seal: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Seal.
Seal: If nobody objects, I will shoot a motion here.
McCarvel: Okay.
Seal: After considering all staff, applicant, and public testimony, I move to approve file
number H-2021-0036 as presented in the staff report for the hearing date of August 12th,
2021, with no modifications.
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Item 1. August 12,2021 F70
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Grove: Second.
McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to recommend approval in H-2021-0036,
Briar Ridge Subdivision. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Yearsley: Madam Chair?
Seal: Madam Chair?
McCarvel: Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: I move we adjourn.
Parsons: Madam Chair, before we --
McCarvel: Oh, no.
Parsons: Yeah. It's me. I'm sorry. I wanted to ask the Commission if they were in favor
of maybe doing a special meeting next week to approve the findings for the Cole Valley
portable classroom CUP. If we don't get those findings approved and we don't have a
hearing for a month we won't conclude that business for a month for them and they really
need to get under construction and get those schools placed on that property. So, I just
wanted to see if there is a way we could get together in a quorum next week on the 19th
just call in -- do a quick Zoom meeting, approve those findings, and do the quick five
minute business and allow them to move forward with this through the city's process.
McCarvel: I think we kind of chatted we can even do that during business hours if we
could do that like at noon and just call in. Yeah.
Seal: I can fit -- yeah.
Yearsley: We need one person here don't we?
Seal: Yeah, I --
McCarvel: Commissioner Seal is volunteering to --
Seal: I will do that.
McCarvel: You are going to be around anyway? Yes, Commissioner Grove is across the
street. Okay. Yeah. We got. If -- yeah. If we can just do it like at noon on Thursday.
Okay.
Lorcher: Yeah. I can be here, too.
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McCarvel: Okay.
Seal: So, it sounds like lunch will be provided then.
McCarvel: I don't know what your complaint -- we will just start without you. We don't
need you and the Clerk here just to do a Zoom meeting. I apologize to the Clerk and to
Dean for starting without you. Okay.
Weatherly: Madam Chair, I just want to confirm for the record, we are going to do a
special meeting next week August 19th at noon. We will have a quorum. Several of you
in-house. Okay. And the 6:00 p.m. meeting will be canceled for that evening.
McCarvel: Yes.
Weatherly: Thank you.
McCarvel: Okay. Now, Commissioner Yearsley.
Yearsley: I move we adjourn.
Grove: Second.
Seal: Second.
McCarvel: It has been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor say aye.
Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: SIX AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10.28 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS.)
APPROVED
8 I19 12021
RHONDA MCCARVEL - CHAIRMAN DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK