CC - Staff Report 6-14
STAFF REPORT
C OMMUNITY D EVELOPMENT D EPARTMENT
HEARING 6/14/2022
DATE:
TO: Mayor & City Council
FROM: Brian McClure, Comprehensive
Associate Planner
208-884-5533
SUBJECT: H-2021-0098
2022 Future Land Use Map AOCI
Cleanup, CPAM
LOCATION: Various; Citywide
I. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The City of Meridian Planning division submitted an application for a Comprehensive Plan Map
(CPAM) amendment. This amendment includes cleanup, or administrative-type changes to the Future
Land Use Map (FLUM; Map), and modifies the boundaries of the Area of City Impact (AOCI) shown
on the FLUM. Additionally, Planning staff have modified the future land use symbols to improve
visual recognition, and better-defined sub-area type plans in the legend. This amendment does not
modify any policies or text of the Comprehensive Plan.
II. PROJECT OVERVIEW
There are seven proposed areas of change for this Map amendment that either modify the boundaries
of the Area of City Impact (AOCI), or the future land use designations shown on the FLUM. All of
these changes are north of Interstate 84, and the majority of them have had some previous type of
decision or action by either Meridian, the County, or an adjacent City. There are 34 unique parcels
affected by the proposed changes, with 23 unique owners. Letters notifying each of these owners with
the specific change were mailed on March 4, 2022. The following are descriptions of the changes,
organized by each of the seven areas. Maps of each of these areas are included in the Exhibits
section, with all changes being categorized as either AOCI (an AOCI change), or Cleanup (a change
to the future land use designation).
A. Area 01 Description
The only change to this area is to remove all affected parcels and right-of-way from Meridian’s
AOCI. This area has already been removed from Meridian’s AOCI by Ada County, in
coordination with Meridian and the City of Star, but is not yet reflected on the City’s Future Land
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Use Map. This area is not planned for water or sewer service by Meridian, and is not accessible
from within the City.
B. Area 02 Description
The only change in this area is a cleanup for a prior CPAM approval, resolution 21-2266, which
was not drawn consistently and affects only right-of-way. Staff try to recommend Map changes
that consistently follow parcel or centerlines, but this was not the case in this area. This is frankly
a drawing error that staff would otherwise simply correct with map cleanup (once discovered),
but this application presented an opportunity to daylight the desire for consistency in designation
boundaries. All applications for changes to the FLUM should consider the alignment of adjacent
boundaries, either following the centerline of roadways (preferred), or parcel lines.
C. Area 03 Description
The only change to this area is the removal of all affected parcels and right-of-way from the
AOCI. All four parcels impacted are owned by the Ada County Highway District (ACHD). The
ACHD is developing a new Traffic Operations Center that falls in both the City of Boise and
Meridian AOCI, and it is not realistic to develop the project in multiple jurisdictions. This project
has already been initiated in the City of Boise, in coordination with Meridian, but the AOCI has
not been modified by the City or Ada County to date.
D. Area 04 Description
The changes in this area overlap and are a little complex, but the basis for all of the changes are to
recognize the County approved AOCI (and previous decisions by Meridian). There are five
impacted parcels and four unique owners. Only one parcel is not already annexed into either
Boise or Meridian. The County parcel which is an enclave, #R4582530100, is planned for
services in Boise but is currently shown as split between Meridian and Boise in the adopted
Future Land Use Map. All of the other changes are expansions or retractions of the adopted future
land uses, and all of which align with existing or entitled developments.
E. Area 05 Description
The only change to this area is the removal of a single parcel and adjacent right-of-way from the
AOCI. This modification was previously approved by Ada County, in coordination with Meridian
and Boise. Further, it is an older existing County development and has been annexed into the City
of Boise.
F. Area 06 Description
There are two changes affecting three parcels and adjacent right-of-way in this area. All three
parcels have a Civic future land use designation but are not civic uses. Parcel #R5672000315 is
the former, Old City Hall site, and is now being developed as a mixed-use project in private
ownership. The proposed Map designation is Old Town, which surrounds the site and
corresponds to the parcel’s Old-Town zoning. The other affected properties have had a Civic
designation going back to at least the 2002 Comprehensive Plan. It is not known if there was once
a reason, or if it was simply an error not caught until now. The proposed designation is Medium
Density Residential, which other adjacent properties are currently designated. The existing uses
have R-4 zoning, but likely include non-conforming uses (which are unaffected by this change).
The Civic designations under both the 2010 and 2019 Comprehensive Plans are intended for
facilities owned by public agencies, or by quasi-public agencies such as Idaho Power, and which
should have some public awareness on the FLUM.
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G. Area 07 Description
There are two different changes in this area with 14 impacted parcels. The first change is
updating the future land use designations of the properties which the West Ada School District
and Idaho State University have made improvements to. This area includes parking along
Commercial Drive and I-84, and also the new Idaho Fine Arts Academy. The current designation
is Commercial, and proposed for Civic (matching the rest of the adjacent school/university owned
properties.)
The second change affects the other 12 parcels along Franklin Road. These parcels all contain
commercial operations, in both the County and City, and which are surrounded by Industrial uses
or the Meridian Cemetery. The adopted land use is High Density Residential, and the proposed
change is Commercial to reflect the existing uses. The office park has a few undeveloped pad
sites, but are all zoned C-G. The Ada County parcel along Franklin Road has an R6 zoning
designation (residential), but operates several businesses. The Commercial future land use
designation would not disallow uses already allowed within C-G. Annexation and zoning of the
adopted High Density Residential future land use designation, would require a conditional use
permit for multi-family in all consistent zoning, just like a commercial designation.
H. Summary of Future Land Use Changes
1. Summary by Future Land Use Areas
The following table summarizes changes to the AOCI and future land use designations.
Change Type Current Designation Proposed Designation Acres
Cleanup Civic Old Town 1.34
Cleanup Civic MDR 0.75
Cleanup MHDR Commercial 5.00
Cleanup Commercial Civic 19.99
AOCI Remove MU-RG 2.94
AOCI Remove MDR 31.91
AOCI Remove MU-I 6.96
AOCI Remove MDR 1.14
AOCI Add MU-RG 1.44
AOCI Add MU-RG 1.64
AOCI Remove MU-RG 0.41
AOCI Remove Commercial 1.91
AOCI Remove Industrial 6.77
Cleanup Mixed Employment 0.13
Total Area Impacted 82.31
Total Cleanup Area 27.20
Total Area Added to AOCI 3.07
Total Area Removed from AOCI 52.04
2. Summary by Parcel
The following table describes the future land use designation changes for each affected
parcel.
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Current
Parcel # Acres Description of Future Land Use Change
Zoning
R0797730010 C-G 0.81 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730020 C-G 0.14 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730030 C-G 0.15 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730042 C-G 0.21 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730052 C-G 0.14 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730060 C-G 0.15 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730070 C-G 0.36 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730080 C-G 0.15 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730090 C-G 0.15 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0797730100 C-G 0.25 High Density Residential to Commercial
R0888210100 C-G 13.22 Commercial to Civic
R0888210200 C-G 5.69 Commercial to Civic
R1798151400 R-40 3.49 Mixed Use Regional to Mixed Use Regional (entire
property)
R4582530100 RUT 5.00 Mixed Use Regional to None (remove from AOCI)
R4582530281 C-G 0.63 Mixed Use Regional to Mixed Use Regional (entire
property)
R5672000315 O-T 0.91 Civic to Old Town
R9322500043 R-4 0.02 Civic to Medium Density Residential
R9322500045 R-4 0.30 Civic to Medium Density Residential
R9322500077 R-4 0.30 Civic to Medium Density Residential
R9846840100 L-OD 0.78 Medium Density Residential to None (remove from AOCI)
S0420449850 RUT 2.30 Mixed Use Interchange to None (remove from AOCI)
S0421325480 RUT 0.46 Medium Density Residential to None (remove from AOCI)
S0421325620 RUT 4.64 Medium Density Residential to None (remove from AOCI)
S0421325800 RUT 5.26 Medium Density Residential to None (remove from AOCI)
S0421326015 RUT 3.42 Medium Density Residential to None (remove from AOCI)
S0421336200 RUT 6.28 Medium Density Residential to None (remove from AOCI)
S0532417376 C-G 0.87 None to Mixed Use Regional (add entire property to AOCI)
S1104438500 C-2D 1.59 Commercial to None (remove from AOCI)
S1109438931 RUT 3.88 Industrial to None (remove from AOCI)
S1109438940 RUT 1.04 Industrial to None (remove from AOCI)
S1109438950 M1 0.52 Industrial to None (remove from AOCI)
S1109448970 M1 1.07 Industrial to None (remove from AOCI)
S1118120731 R6 0.57 High Density Residential to Commercial
S1118120740 R6 0.69 High Density Residential to Commercial
Note: Current Zoning shown in italics font style represents a non-Meridian zoning
designation (i.e. County or adjacent city). Total acreages will not match Summary by Future
Land Use Area, which includes right-of-way and other non-parcel area.
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I. Other Changes
1. Area of City Impact Boundary
The AOCI boundary line on the current Map will be revised to reflect all future land use area
additions and subtractions. See the Exhibit section, Future Land Use Map (with all changes).
2. Graphic Revisions
The proposed Map includes several other graphic type changes. First, the legend is modified
to show “Special Planning Areas”. This was previously dedicated to the Ten Mile
Interchange Specific Area Plan, but has now been expanded to cover other planning areas,
like the Fields District. These areas will be labeled with their relevant plans, and the web
maps will have links to their respective plans in popup dialogs.
The other change is to the symbology of the various future land use designations. Many of the
adopted designations are difficult to differentiate accurately. The base color for each
designation is generally the same or very similar, but additional hatching and patterns have
been selectively added to better differentiate designations that currently share similar hues
and intensities. There was a concerted effort to balance differentiation of the symbols while
minimizing complexity.
III. APPLICANT INFORMATION
A. Applicant:
City of Meridian Planning Division, 33 E Broadway Ave, Suite 102, Meridian, Idaho 83642
B. Owner:
Not applicable
C. Representative:
Not applicable
IV. NOTICING
Planning & Zoning City Council
Posting Date Posting Date
Notification published in
4/5/2022 5/29/2022
newspaper
Notification mailed to property
N/A N/A
owners within 300’
Applicant posted public hearing
N/A N/A
notice sign on site
Nextdoor posting
4/5/2022 5/25/2022
V. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN ANALYSIS (Comprehensive Plan)
A. Future Land Use Map Designation (https://meridiancity.org/FLUM)
This application does not include any annexation, rezones, or new entitlements. As such,
no specific analysis is provided for the proposed changes. Never-the-less, the following
future land use designations with descriptions (copy and paste from the Comprehensive
Plan) are included in the application:
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Medium Density Residential (MDR): This designation allows for dwelling units at gross
densities of three to eight dwelling units per acre. Density bonuses may be considered
with the provision of additional public amenities such as a park, school, or land dedicated
for public services.
Medium High Density Residential (MHDR): This designation allows for a mix of
dwelling types including townhouses, condominiums, and apartments. Residential gross
densities should range from eight to twelve dwelling units per acre. These areas are
relatively compact within the context of larger neighborhoods and are typically located
around or near mixed use commercial or employment areas to provide convenient access
to services and jobs for residents. Developments need to incorporate high quality
architectural design and materials and thoughtful site design to ensure quality of place
and should also incorporate connectivity with adjacent uses and area pathways, attractive
landscaping and a project identity.
Commercial: This designation will provide a full range of commercial uses to serve area
residents and visitors. Desired uses may include retail, restaurants, personal and
professional services, and office uses, as well as appropriate public and quasi-public uses.
Multi-family residential may be allowed in some cases, but should be careful to promote
a high quality of life through thoughtful site design, connectivity, and amenities. Sample
zoning include: C-N, C-C, and C-G.
Industrial: This designation allows a range of uses that support industrial and commercial
activities. Industrial uses may include warehouses, storage units, light manufacturing,
flex, and incidental retail and offices uses. In some cases uses may include processing,
manufacturing, warehouses, storage units, and industrial support activities. Sample
zoning include: I-L and I-H.
Civic: The purpose of this designation is to preserve and protect existing and planned
municipal, state, and federal lands for area residents and visitors. This category includes
public lands, law enforcement facilities, post offices, fire stations, cemeteries, public
utility sites, public parks, public schools, and other government owned sites within the
Area of City Impact.
Old Town: This designation includes the historic downtown and the true community
center. The boundary of the Old Town district predominantly follows Meridian’s historic
plat boundaries. In several areas, both sides of a street were incorporated into the
boundary to encourage similar uses and complimentary design of the facing houses and
buildings. Sample uses include offices, retail and lodging, theatres, restaurants, and
service retail for surrounding residents and visitors. A variety of residential uses are also
envisioned and could include reuse of existing buildings, new construction of multi-
family residential over ground floor retail or office uses.
The City has developed specific architectural standards for Old Town and other
traditional neighborhood areas. Pedestrian amenities are emphasized in Old Town via
streetscape standards. Additional public and quasi-public amenities and outdoor gathering
area are encouraged. Future planning in Old Town will be reviewed in accordance with
Destination Downtown, a visioning document for redevelopment in Downtown Meridian.
Please see Chapter 2 Premier Community for more information on Destination
Downtown. Sample zoning include O-T.
Mixed Use Regional (MU-RG): The purpose of this designation is to provide a mix of
employment, retail, and residential dwellings and public uses near major arterial
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intersections. The intent is to integrate a variety of uses together, including residential,
and to avoid predominantly single use developments such as a regional retail center with
only restaurants and other commercial uses. Developments should be anchored by uses
that have a regional draw with the appropriate supporting uses. For example, an
employment center should have supporting retail uses; a retail center should have
supporting residential uses as well as supportive neighborhood and community services.
The standards for the MU-R designation provide an incentive for larger public and quasi-
public uses where they provide a meaningful and appropriate mix to the development.
The developments are encouraged to be designed consistent with the conceptual MU-R
plan depicted in Figure 3D.
Mixed Use Interchange (MU-I): The purpose of this designation is to call-out areas where
construction of future SH-16 interchanges is likely to occur, and to acknowledge that this
land will have a high degree of visibility. These areas will be served by highway
interchange ramps and restricted local access. There are two interchange areas, one
located at US 20-26 and one at Ustick Road, that differ from the other Mixed Use
categories in that a much stronger emphasis will be placed upon gateway elements and
traffic flow/trip generation factors when reviewing new land use applications. Uses in
these areas will need to be compatible with the impacts of a freeway interchange. These
areas are not intended for high volume uses such as retail. The intention is to protect the
immediate vicinity of the interchange from traffic conflicts and shift the high traffic-
generating uses away from the immediate vicinity of the interchange.
In reviewing development applications, the following items will be considered in MU-I
areas:
o Land uses within the MU-I areas and adjacent to the SH-16 corridor should be
carefully examined for their potential impacts on nearby existing and planned
retail and restaurant in Commercial and Mixed Use areas.
o A traffic impact study may be required for larger developments in these areas.
o Vehicular access points are prohibited near interchange ramps. Future uses
should be planned to integrate with a frontage/backage road type circulation
system.
o Any new development at or near MU-I areas should promote a nodal
development pattern where buildings are clustered, off-street parking is screened
in the rear of the parcel and, where practical, development is inter-connected with
adjoining parcels.
o The SH-16/US 20-26 interchange will be one of only two regional gateways to
the City of Meridian for travelers coming from north of the Boise River (the
other being Linder Road). As such, buildings, landscaping, and other design
features at this interchange should reflect Meridian’s heritage, quality, and
character.
o Regional ridesharing, park-and-ride and transit transfer facilities are strongly
encouraged.
o The MU-I area at Ustick Road, west of SH-16, should minimize retail and auto-
oriented services and transition rapidly from the interchange to residential uses
near the county line.
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o Examples of uses include schools, post office or library branches, office uses,
light residential developments, athletic clubs, and technology/research parks.
Mixed Employment (designation is specific to the Ten Mile Interchange Specific Area
Plan): encourage a diversity of compatible land uses that may include a mixture of office,
research and specialized employment areas, light industrial including manufacturing and
assembly, and other miscellaneous uses. These areas generally do not include retail and
consumer service uses serving the wider community. However, a small amount of retail
and service establishments, primarily serving employees and users of the Mixed
Employment areas or nearby industrial areas, are allowed. Such retail would be the
exception and not the rule.
Mixed Employment areas should provide a variety of flexible sites for small, local or
start-up businesses, as well as sites for large national or regional enterprises. Mixed
Employment areas should be designed to encourage multimodal travel and convenient
circulation to supporting uses located within the area. This would include multiple access
points to help disperse traffic, and a complete system of streets, sidewalks and pedestrian
and bicycle paths to provide circulation within the area and connections to the
surrounding roadway, pedestrian and trail systems.
Mixed Employment areas should be designed as lower density suburban-style
developments. Design and development standards are recommended that would help to
make developments more attractive, engaging and accessible places. While there are no
fixed limits on size of establishment or development intensity in Mixed Employment
areas, it is anticipated that buildings will range in height from 1-4 stories, have total floor
areas of 10,000-1,000,000 square feet, and that FAR will exceed .75.
Land Use Types in Mixed Employment Areas
o Corporate and business offices.
o Research facilities and laboratories.
o Light Industrial uses including manufacturing and assembly.
o Occasional, complementary uses which focus on serving area employees and
users, such as business services, child care, and convenience retail.
B. Comprehensive Plan Policies (https://meridiancity.org/compplan):
The following policies are relevant to the project:
3.04.01B, Maintain and update the Unified Development Code and Future Land Use Map
to implement the provisions of this Comprehensive Plan.
The primary purpose of this application is to maintain and update the Future Land Use
Map. The proposed changes will more accurately depict future land uses that are in
alignment with service planning and in coordination with partner agencies.
3.06.01A, Maintain the Future Land Use Map to reflect existing facilities.
The proposed changes will better reflect existing facilities and no longer suggest them in
locations that are privately owned.
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VI. DECISION
A. Staff:
Staff finds that approval of the proposed CPAM application is in the best interest of the City
and recommends the P&Z Commission recommend to Council adoption.
B. Commission:
The Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission heard this application on April 21, 2022.
The Commission did not have any concerns or changes and recommended the application
forward to City Council for approval. There was no public testimony provided during the
hearing.
C. City Council:
Enter Summary of City Council Decision.
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VII. EXHIBITS
A. Area Exhibits
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B. Future Land Use Map (with all changes)
A full size exhibit of this map will be available in the project folder on Laserfische, here:
https://weblink.meridiancity.org/WebLink/Browse.aspx?id=251825&dbid=0&repo=MeridianCity
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VIII. CITY/AGENCY COMMENTS & CONDITIONS
As of April 11, 2022, only Ada County Development Services has submitted comments
associated with this application. They are supportive of the application, with no conditions.
The Ada County Highway District has previously requested the change for their project on
Franklin Road, but no comments have been received.
Any comments can be found on Laserfische here:
https://weblink.meridiancity.org/WebLink/Browse.aspx?id=254980&dbid=0&repo=MeridianCity
IX. FINDINGS
A. Required Findings from the Unified Development Code
1. The proposed amendment is consistent with the other elements of the comprehensive plan.
The proposed amendment is maintenance of the Comprehensive Plan and which contains all
seventeen (17) elements required by Idaho State Statute. Staff finds the amendment maintains
this consistency as no changes are substantive to policy.
2. The proposed amendment provides an improved guide to future growth and development of
the city.
By maintaining and keeping the Comprehensive Plan relevant, Staff finds that the proposed
Plan provides an improved and more relevant guide to future growth and development with
the City.
3. The proposed amendment is internally consistent with the goals, objectives and policies of
the Comprehensive Plan.
Staff finds the proposed amendment is consistent with the goals of the Comprehensive Plan.
Maintenance of the Plan is directed by policy.
4. The proposed amendment is consistent with this Unified Development Code.
Staff finds the proposed amendment is consistent with the Unified Development Code, as no
policies in the Comprehensive Plan modified, and no development proposed.
5. The amendment will be compatible with existing and planned surrounding land uses.
Along with improving consistency between the area of city impact and other planning work,
the primary purpose of this amendment is to better relate existing and planned land uses.
Staff finds the proposed Plan will be compatible with existing and planned surrounding land
uses.
6. The proposed amendment will not burden existing and planned service capabilities.
Staff finds that the proposed Plan will not burden existing and planned service capabilities.
This amendment improves the relationship between service planning, and better reflects
coordination with partner agencies in service planning.
7. The proposed map amendment (as applicable) provides a logical juxtaposition of uses that
allows sufficient area to mitigate any anticipated impact associated with the development of
the area.
The proposed amendment is minor and intended only to address existing uses and changes in
service planning. Staff finds that the amendment does not require mitigation of impacts
associated with development.
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8. The proposed amendment is in the best interest of the City of Meridian.
Staff finds the proposed amendment is in the best interest of the City; it implements adopted
(existing) policy, and maintaining the plan improves visibility and relevancy.
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