2008 04-03 SpecialMeridian Plannina and Zonina Special Meetina April 3, 2008
Meeting of the Meridian Planning and Zoning Commission special meeting of April 3,
2008 at Epi's Restaurant was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Chairman David Moe.
Members Present: David Moe, ,1oe Marshall, Tom Obrien and Wendy Newton-
Huckabay:
Members Absent: Michael Rohm
Others Present: Anna Canning, Sonya Watters, Caleb Hood, Ted Bair.d, Machelle Hill,
Bill Parsons, Jaycee Holman and Shaun Wardle. _
Item 1: Ro11-Call Attendance:
Roll-call
O Michael Rohm
X Tom O'Brien
X David
X Wendy Newton-Huckabay
X Joe Marshall
Moe - Chairman
Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda:
item 3. Consent Agenda: None.
Item 4. Downtown Meridian Urban Update Presentation by Shaun Wardle,
Administrator, Meridian Development Corporation:
Wardle: Thank you very much Members of the Commission, staff. For those of you
that don't know me I am the Administrator for the Meridian Development. Corporation,
which is Meridian's Urban Renewal Agency charged with redeveloping the downtown
corridor. So just to orient you with the agency, it is essentially from the freeway to
Cherry Lane and 4th Street to 4~h Street, very generally; we run along some specific
boundaries fhat I will share with you in just a second. But, I am here today to talk about
some projects and things that we have going on as well as the initiafives that we have. I
appreciate your time and I can tell you that in my former life as Council Member, you
probably don't hear this enough, but really we do appreciate your service; you address
many, many issues that are very important to projects and I just want to extend that
thank you very much for your service. And if your City Council Memb.ers are not
thanking you regularly, they should and you can tell fihem I said that.
Canning: Shaun and Commissioners, fhis is an appreciation dinner for you also, since I
was very negligent and didn't get you your Christmas presents as I was supposed to do.
This is part of your appreciation day. So, we do appreciate all you do so much and you
get so little credit for what you do and it is really nothing that you can take forward with
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
Page 2 of 12
you a lot of times other than training for City Council and that is really a mixed blessing,
so thank you again for what you do.
Wardle: I also would like to thank Epi's and thanks Kris for having us here and thanks
for being in our downtown, you are doing a great job. So, with that I am going to talk
just in general about a couple of initiatives that we have. Let you know first off that if
you like to come to a meefing, we would like to have you .there. It is the second
Wednesday of every monfh, with a couple of exceptions and April being one of those
excepfiions. We meet at 7:30 a.m. at City Hall. You can always call me and you are
welcome and we would like to have you fhere if you are interested in some of the
projects going on. I am on kind of a speaking tour right now in terms of some of the
things that we are doing. We have got a 3D modeling effort, which I am going to show
you in just a minute, which is pretty exciting for our downtown core. In addition, you
probably' have heard a lot about the split corridor and the transportation improvement
plan and we have got engineering drawings and I am going to show you what that
landscape is going to look like. So wifih that, I am just going to jump right in here and
Jaycee I am probably not going to be on the mike the whole time. Do you want me to
hold that? So a couple of projects - did you all receive this in your packet? We have
got a couple of things happening and I will just touch real briefly - as you know the Boys
and Girls Club has selected a new site, the former Administration School District
building and are currently doing renovations to that. They have a fund raising campaign
and they are looking to build a gymnasium and really spruce that property up and we
have been involved with them . in that process. They do and just for a little plug here,
they are having a Boys and Girls Club auction on Saturday, fundraising campaign, so if
you want tickets they are still available. So there is my one fundraising
acknowledgement for you. In addition to that we have a streetscape improvement plan
that we are working on implementing and I will talk about that briefly. The streetscape
improvement plan is a complete and comprehensive plan, which I believe that you have
seen in some form or other and have approved its portion of the downtown development
guidelines. We have costed out what it would take to really do the improvements
ourselves through our increment and we have really found that it is about $500,000 a
block face and a block face meaning from street to street, not four blocks, but just one
block face, so that entire block if we had to take it firom zero to finished product, it would
be nearly $2 million. Just to give you a little insight as to our budget. Our budget last
fiscal year was $828,000. Our budget fhe year before that was $420,000 and our
budget fhis year is roughly $1.5 million. So we are a very young agency and have only
been in existence since 2002 and are really looking for areas where we can maximize
our dollars. Streetscape improvement plan is very, very important to us. We are really
right now getting those improvements through project development and parfinering with
those developers. That being said, I am taking to the Board on Tuesday a plan to
replace the benches and~ trash receptacles in fhe downtown area. They were done
nearly 20 years ago by fhe Chamber of Commerce. I don't know if you noticed, but
some of them are in need of - we didn't even look at repair - need of replacement. So
we expect to have some of those things happening and would expect to see those
improvements no later than the City Hall opening, which is expected sometime in the fall
of 2008. Right, Ted?
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
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Baird: Right.
Wardle: So, fhat brings us to our New City Hall project, which is a catalyst project for
downtown. I want to talk briefly about what we feel that project is going to bring to
downtown. Not only is it going to consolidate all city employees into one area, but it will
consolidate all of those people doing business in the city. The one thing that I can tell
you first off and I would like to thank fhe Planning staff and the Clerk's Office, too, as I
didn't really realize how much work there was to be done until I have been on the other
side, the staff side of this operation and they do work very hard. I can tell you that
fhere are a number of people that come in for many, many meetings and we expect to
see that City Hall have a constant flow of traffic all day long between the hours of eight
to five and then certainly other meetings, commission meetings and that is going to
really generate a lot of activity in the downtown core. We have a project on the corner
of 2"d and Broadway. The Development Corporation recently purchased what is known
as fhe H&H Building or the former Meridian Hardworn Implementation building. We
purchased everything on that half block from 2"d Street to 3~d Street. We are currently
and that is where you see that mixed use development proposal in your pedestrian
friendly area up here. We are currently under - we went out for RFQ to have
developers propose projects - the committee has met a number of times and is
`expected to make a recommendation to the Board of Directors Tuesday morning. So,
that will all be out and like I said we have to proposers and two very exciting
development plans. In addition to that fhe 2"d Street area is intended to become very
pedestrian friendly. We had a very - I can tell you a brief history of 2"d Street between
Main or excuse me between Broadway and Idaho Street and we looked at how do we
make that more pedestrian friendly? Potentially even closing it down to vehicular traffic.
When working with fhe Fire Department, one of the concerns is that street does provide
access for the Fire Department to access those buildings. We don't feel at this time or
the Development Corporation at least, is not pursuing a complete prohibition of
vehicular access and so we are working with the property owners and developers in
how can we make that an amenity to the city and how do we encourage people to get
out of fheir cars to utilize their bikes, to get the strollers out of their cars and take the
kids for a walk? And we look for all of those opportunities and certainly that is a
discussion as development continues. I am just going to move down the area here. A
project which has been proposed, which you haven't seen yet, Main Five project is on
the corner of Bower and Main Street. This is the current rendering and again I don't
believe there is an application pending, Caleb, but fhis is a proposal that is currently
being massaged by the developers. I mentioned the 2"d and Broadway property here
which is the project that I just spoke of. This was an original plan for the potential for -
this would obviously be prohibiting vehicular access in some sort of a water amenity.
We are still frying to figure out how to make that a reality and still achieve business
goals and the goals of the urban development area. We discussed streetscape
improvements. These are the plans that you will be seeing. This is the bench and the
trash receptacle. These are recycled materials. One of the things that we had a
discussion about was that solid metal bench becomes really, really hot in the summer
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
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time and so we have gone to certainly some sustainable materials which have some
added benefits. All right, Phase 1 of the split corridor.
Newton-Huckabay: Shaun can f ask a question before you go on?
Wardle: Sure.
Newton-Huckabay: How many square feet is the Boys and Girls Club gaining by
moving to fhat new location?
Wardle: That is a great question. I don't have the exact answer. I believe the
administrafiion building is nearly 16,000 square feet. I could certainly get you some
more information, but the former Police Department building is less than 5,000. So I
think they have at least tripled that. Sorry - 10,000 square feet building and I don't -
they will again be expanding that with a gymnasium very shortly and I know their
fundraisings are going very well. Phase 1 of the split corridor. This is the plan and I will
get into this in just one moment, but Phase 1 is expected to begin, potentially
eonstruction in this fall. It is a project slated for 2009, which means the Highway
DisfiricYs fiscal year is from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010. It will be going
from the couplet at fhe freeway to Franklin and I will get to that in just a minute. I am
going - you are very familiar with this project, the Waltman project and I understand that
you approved that and sent it forward to the City Council. We are currently working with
fihis developer on partnership with the Development Corporation. For those of you that
don't know this project, it does fall under our urban renewal area and is one that we
expect to generate a large increment for us in terms of their taxable value. It is currently
taxed as an agricultural land and when retail and mixed use development which you
send forward becomes a reality will really be a generator of revenue for the
Development Corporation. Any questions so far? So I am going to talk briefly about our
involvement with the split corridor plan. The Meridian Development Corporation also is
partnering wifh bofh the City of Meridian and the Highway District to landscape this
project. Originally the Highway District said we are going to do the road and we are not
in the business of landscaping and the Development Corporation felt fhat the entryway
to our city is an important invitation to the city and especially to the downtown core. So,
I am just going to point out real quickly as you will see on fhe bottom left hand corner
our entryway feature, the sign will be moving and relocating up into the front corner of
this proposed landscape plan. The one item that I might address here real quickly is -
we talked about - talked about in what they would like to see in planting materials. My
assumption was fhat they would want a mow strip that they could come in and maintain
in a short period of fime. That really wasn't our preference. Working wifih the Parks
Department we have actually got now - all these little dots on the screen represent
individual planted grasses, so tuff grasses which require first off very little water usage
verses turf and also very low maintenance in terms of you certainly don't need to go out
and mow those tuff grasses. So that is what you are going to see up and down that
corridor. In addition, you see fhese strips in through here represents a taller grass, so if
you are familiar with the small tuff grasses and I have got planting materials in just a
minute - but, small tuff grasses are going to have up to finro feet of natural grasses.
Meridian Planning 8 Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
Page 5 of 12
Again, low water utilization, but it will be one of the first areas of landscaping in this
valley fhat utilize Idaho native materials. For those of you who don't know, Kentucky
Bluegrass is not nafive to Idaho. Moving down the area you can see we are
landscaping both sides of Main Street. We really are not focused on Meridian Road
right now. Portions of it have been improved through redevelopment and we expect the
western side of that to continue to be redeveloped or landscaped as redevelopment
comes in. .
Newton-Huckabay: Shaun I was confused on that diagram. Where is the sign moving
from where it is today?
Wardle: The current sign location is right here -
Newton-Huckabay: -- oh, so it is just moving forward?
Wardle: -- and it is going to move all the way up to here. And the other thing that it
does is it gets it completely in the right-of-way. It is clearly a relationship that we share
with the private property owner. One of the other items to discuss about the
landscaping - our streetscape design program calls out for heritage lighting in the
downtown corridor and one of the items that is of concern is that lighting is spaced
roughly 15 feet apart in the urban core. To do an entire half mile stretch at that spacing
would be very, very expensive. So what we have done is we have found a lighting
standard fhat is similar, almost identical but can be 24 feet tall and so we have got them
spaced 90 foot on center. So what you are going to have is a transition zone from the
suburban freeway area that will transition very nicely into the downtown urban core.
That will be one of the major impacts that you see here and will really have a nice effect.
One of the areas where we have got some constraint is along the speedway area as
you see here on the south and so rather than leave that blank, we have actually utilized
some screening materials, some (inaudible) type of materials which will screen those
grandstands. In addition to that, we have asked the Highway District to purchase some
right-of-way. Let me address the pathway. This pathway is a ten foot asphalt pathway
which will be a multi use pafhway instead of your standard on street curb, gutter and
sidewalk; we expect to get that traffic and that separation from traffic. It was nice that
we had additional area, with the exception of the constrained area you see here to the
bottom corner of the page, the Highway District will be acquiring some right-of-way from
the Dairy Show Boards who will allow us to put some improvement in there so you won't
have a blank strip befinreen there and the park. We really felt that it was important to
landscape those areas. This is what I am talking about. It is not a lot, but it is certainly
more than there is. This is the planfing materials that I was talking about - fhe shrubs
and trees and some of those things. These are documents that are available, if you
would like to review them further, but I am not going to take the time to go through
everyone now. So, just (inaudible) will be along that screening area in front of the
speedway and decorative flowers and these are the grasses that I was talking about;
fountain grasses -
Marshall: (Inaudible--)?
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
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Wardle: 1 believe - I may have misspoke. i am going to have to check that for you.
These are the fescues and the tuff grasses that I was talking about. With that I am
going to take about a two second break and let you guys get settled with dinner here
real quick and I will show you our other exciting project: So as you are enjoying your
dinner here I have got a project that we are very excited about. We have contracted a
company called Visual Genesis to provide us a 3D model of downtown, the urban
renewal area and what we have far, I met with them Tuesday and by the way this is a
draft presentation and I asked the consultant to prepare something so I could show you
really the bare bones of what this project is going to be. The first portion of that is a
base mapping effort. So what our consultant has done has taken a recently flown aerial
image of the urban renewal area and they take in a contour and they combine those
images and fhat is really the base layer of what we are looking at. So this is the base
layer that you see here. What they have done is they take that base layer and' they go
out and shoot pictures of the area and essentially skim the existing condition with a 2d
picture. So, as you see these images they are a combination of fihat base layer, that 3d
model that is created and they essenfially built them up into finro dimensional objects -
this is obviously a shot from the freeway coming in.
Marshall: They are not skimming a 3D object like a(inaudible) object or something like
that?
Wardle: What they have done is they have essentially massed the building. So the
building itself is there and they skim what is left and then after that, the next step in the
process is to go in and remodel what could be done downtown. So, I probably didn't
answer your question technically, but that is not my expertise.
Marshall: I am just assuming, but Visual Genesis is that the company that is doing all
the sketch up in downtown Boise? ~
Wardle: Yes. In fact, I brought the Boise model to show you essentially what will
happen. And their sister company 3D-I does the groundwork. So here is a very high
level overview of the urban core. As we come a little closer into you can see the level of
detail that we are getting into. This is the corner of Main and Idaho and you can see the
former Nazarene Church building, Generations Plaza in through here and the Heritage
building. Since we were going to be having dinner here tonight - I had them put Epi's in
and the level of detail, at least for me, was very impressive in terms of where fihey go.
This again, they have done some photography and embedded that into the images
here.
Marshall: Are they going to place this on Google Earth like Boise has done
Wardle: Our initial plan is yes; to make fhis available through Google Earth. It is
probably t~he easiest delivery method for most people to be able to manipulate it. This is
the reverse of Generations Plaza shot looking out south down Main Street. I put this
shot in here to talk about the level of detail that we are currently seeing. You have got
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission Special Meeting
APril 3, 2008
Page 7 of 12
this corner of 2"d and Broadway. This will allow us really to in the future take a look at
what was the existing condition and we expect this entire block very quickly to
redevelop. So, we will have a lot of ability to go back and say this is what was on fhe
ground in 2008 and if we do our job correctly as a redevelopment agency it will look
significanfily different than it does today.
Canning: And the planning (inaudible).
Newton-Huckabay: But it will maintain the historic character it has today?
Canning: The design guidelines don't specify that architectural (inaudible), so a lot of
those elements will get (inaudible) that way.
Wardle: So let me talk just briefly about what this shot is. This is the current property
that I was talking about, 2"d and Broadway. This is MDC's current property and as you
can see, we didn't go out and map everything. We only mapped commercial buildings
which we felt would be important for reference points. What we have got right here and
what our ne~ step in the process will be is that we can go and mass what we feel or
what we fhink will become the urban core. Meaning - well, you can do anything. We
can say put a 20 story structure on this and fhen fly around it and see what that would
look like. Certainly a 20 story structure at this location doesn't meet the guidelines, right
Anna? But, it probably wouldn't be feasible in the market. But, that is one of the next
steps for the consultant and us and really the community to say now that we have this
base layer IeYs take a look and see what it looks like, understanding that private
development is going fo drive everything that happens downtown, but can we look and
see how those projects interact with one another? Anofher example of that corner and
how you can see that relationship on how it interacts with the rest of the horizon and
some of those view corridors. This is a new project that you probably have seen on
Bower Street between Main and Meridian that is currently under construction. So we
really have captured what is really a new development in the urban core and how that
relates to some of the older buildings and obviously a shot of the automotive. These, by
the way, are still shots of the model that I have asked the consultant to take and I am
going to get real quickly a fly through so you can see some of the more exciting
capabilities. Okay, here comes the animation portion of this. So we are beginning at
the freeway, I-84 and this is just one of many camera angles and views we can utilize in
this model. One of the things that Caleb and I were talking about is that you see -
peopie talk about where are fhe opportunities in downtown Meridian and fhe thing is
with that aerial view, you really don't have any density today. It is very, very open in
terms of its ability to redevelop and bring that density. I am going to~show you right now
the model that the consultant did for Boise and I should of set some catchy music but I
didn't. This is available online. This is really where our model is going to go. I am
going to show you one more project specific thing. So that is essentially Boise's model.
This is a project specitic - if you are not familiar wifh the Aspen building, which is
currently under construction and a parking garage on 9th and Capital on Front, the
skinny building. So what the Aspen did is they took their building and they put it on this
3D mapping and a lot of people said how are you going to get a 17 story building that is
Meridian Planning 8 Zoning Commissiom.Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
Page 8 of 12
only a few "x" number of feet wide and what it is going to look like. So, they put it on
fihis model as part of their presentation in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
So that was the Aspen building, I showed you that project specific simulation for two
reasons. First off, our consultant is currently mapping one building and that is City Hall.
So you will have that level of detail for the New City Hall building built into the model.
The other reason I show that to you is the Aspen utilized the base mapping technology
that CCDC picked for them, which is Capital City Development Corporation. They used
it to put their project on top of to show synergy and to really bring that. as part of the
presentation to the entitling bodies, which are Planning and Zoning Commission and
then City Council, in addition to CCDC because they are part of that regulatory agency.
So one of the things that our Development Corporation has really expressed an interest
in is to make this available to developers, make fhe technology available so that when
they go and take the Main Five building for example, the architect on the project is
actually the Chairman of our Directors and we would anticipate that as they make their
presentations, they can now put that building onto fihe base level and show existing
condition, in addifion to some of the other things that will be putting in future
development, future massing of buildings and structures. So any questions on the 3D
stuff? Pretty cool and this is real draft and we are really excited about that.
Newton-Huckabay: I think these are great because they really do an awesome job of
getting people a perspective that you can't get either way. Can we have one for every
subdivision that has undeveloped land around it?
Wardle: We are seeing some of those people go out and do it on their own. If the
technology is available you can base map any area of the aity. Okay that ends my
formal presentation. I know fhat you have some questions for me in terms of future
plans for the Development Corporafion, things that are going on downtown and I will just
open up for questions. I am tired of talking.
Moe: S'haun, I want to know where is the first parking garage going ,and when is it going
to be done?
Wardle: That is an excellent question. We are working on a financing plan. In our
current fiscal year budget is a financial plan for parking activity. We are asking for
money to begin not only looking at that parking facility, but engineering and I don't have
a definitive location for you. If I did, I would tell you. One of the issues right now that I
can tell you is both on my Board of Directors and Council level is is there a need for
structure parking in the downtown core? I think - just a practitioner at the urban
renewal area, it certainly will alleviate parking and allow for additional development.
There may not be the need today for a 400 car structure, but it is not too far off the
horizon, especially with fhe New City Hall going up.
Moe: That is my next question. Where is everybody parking that works at City Hall?
Are they planning to walk in?
Meridian Planning 8 Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
Page 9 of 12 '
Wardle: I know that the Council
are assernbling properties - the
use development, it will have so
solution for you, I wish I did.
is working on some items in terms of parking and we
2"d and Broadway property, even fihough it is a mixed
me component of parking as well. So, I don't have a
Hood: I can probably help answer some of that, at least. I have been working with
Keith and the Mayor's Office on onsite parking for City Hall that is currently there. I
don't know if any of you are aware, but we are in the process of condemning the Buich
property at the old Shell Station and fhe majority of that may be converted to surface
parking. Now there may be some opportunity in the future to go vertical with that with a
garage or something. So with the existing City Hall site the surface parking is there, the
Buich site and the City Hall parking site will be roughly 150 parking stalls in that one
block around City Hall.
Moe: So the development that was planned for that was - I realize it is past time, but
they are not looking to do that now?
Hood: I don't know what they are looking to do - I know that City Council -
Baird: We cannot talk about that on the record.
Hood: Oh, okay.
Wardle: Other parking questions which I might answer?
Canning; I wanted to note that - I don't know if Evelyn Grimes - the Villas at Lochsa is
going before Council on Tuesday. You guys remember fhat project? I don't know if
Evelyn Grimes had the animation for you all. Did she have an animation for you? She
came into City Council with an animation that came in at eye level and walked you
through the whole project and showed what it looked like going down Linder - you know
with the landscape buffer, with the pedesfirian path and the receding area and what that
would look like (inaudible--) and also what the recreation area would look like and
Council approved it wifh relatively little conversation for a multi-family, 72 acre type of
development. I was just kind of blown away. But, it shows what a powerful tool these
animations are when you have folks that have a hard time visualizing 3D. I mean, it is a
difficult task and it is something that we sometimes take for granted because we do it all
of the time. But, it really is an incredible powerful tool in helping people visualize what
the look and the feel of the development is. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't see
more of it. I mean, I was blown away. I think the Mayor had a few comments about
guest parking and fhat was about it. So, it really went over quite well.
Moe: That was fhe one where we wanted more -
Canning: Right, you wanted a little more open space on that one.
Moe: Did it come with more, or -
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
Page 10 of 12
Canning: It did come with a little more, yeah.
Marshall: Civil 3'D 2008 has automatically incorporated field (inaudible) right into it and
(inaudible) to automate your areas.
Canning: And - I don't know what she was using, but man it was a powerful tool for
getfing support of us and it also helped that no neighbors came to it to. But, it was
impressive.
(Inaudible discussion)
Marshall: Well, it is a lot more complicated than pushing a button, but at least it is all
incorporated into one package so when you do your design then you can plot I want an
aerial to follow this path and it takes a while to set it up, but you don't have to learn a
whole new fhird party software, exported out of this, imported and then run the
animation from a whole other software. ft is all in one package and the look and feel
while you are creating it is much easier because you are using one single software.
Wardle: One of the things about technology is that it is really becoming much less
expensive. The one thing that you just saw and our budget for this project is $25,000 to
$30,000, but the most expensive portion of that is the base map. Once that base
mapping is done then it is up to fhe individual firms and there are other programs that
allow you to take essentiaily the model and flip it~ up on its side and do whatever you
would like it to do. So, expect to see rnore of this. I know that that is one of things as
we evolve into a much more sophisticated, larger development area, you will probably
as Anna indicated see those not just in fhe urban core, but other areas. One of the
things that I might mention is we are having a discussion right now and we are going to
be massing and what I mean by massing is essentially taking the downtown area and
replacing some of those existing single family homes, existing one use businesses and
placing things such as three, four and five story buildings in areas. Our expectation
right now is the area essentially befween Main Street, the railroad traaks, 3~d Street and
then Carlton and potentially farther north will become more of an historical type area.
You asked where are we going to maintain some of that significance. There aren't a lot
historical per se buildings that have historic value, but the downtown guidelines really
has to create the stone sfiructures, the more historic look where it may not have been
there, but it looks more historical. South of the tracks we are having some discussion in
some real meat kind of opportunity to take the structures potentially vertical and farther
than fhree to four stories, potentially six, seven stories and to be a little more modern in
terms of their materials - glass, steel and some of those kinds of things. There are
discussions that the Development Corporation is having wifh planning and what is
appropriate and we are really going to need input from the community. That is
community decisions. It doesn't mean that you won't have fhem on a case by case
basis as projects come in; but it helps me when people say I am ready to go, I like what
is happening in the downtown Meridian. The only way for me to pencil a project is for
me to take it seven stories and I want to do some housing involved. You know, then I
Meridian Planning 8 Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
Page 11 of 12
could steer them to the southern portion of our downtown core instead of looking at the
center.
Canning: I would guess that MDC is looking at - they would have more parking than
you would see in the downtown structures and that you are really trying to get people
out of their parking lots and these might have more parking around fhem and be a little
more (inaudible).
Newton-Huckabay: So what about the speedway?
Wardle: Cars go left and - we have - I get that question a lot. It is early in operation,
however, that property just intuitively given the development, the freeway, given the
transportation improvements that at some point and time fhat property will become
much more valuable than its current condition and we expect it to redevelop. We are
working with a number of people that would like to do a project there, but as you know,
ownership in that entire complex as well as some of the grants and easements fhat are
on the property is adjacent or even near are challenging.
Newton-Huckabay: You are just waiting it out?
Wardle: Um --
Newton-Huckabay: You don't have to answer that.
Wardle: Well, we are working on a lot of stuff and those of you that know me know that
I don't like to wait very much. So we are working on some options. Don't expect
anything this fiscal year.
Newton-Huckabay: I have been waiting my whole life for that.
Wardle: We are going to screen it a little bit. All right, ofher questions? Thanks for
giving me the opportunity to come in and -
Canning: I hope we can make this an annual event at this location. That was a
delicious meal.
Newton-Huckabay: Just to clarify, nothing against the speedway, I just spent my whole
youth there watching my father and brother race at the speedway.
Canning: Usually people that grow up in Meridian like fhe speedway. So, I was a little
perplexed.
Newton-Huckabay: Well, I have enough bucket of beers to last a lifetime.
Wardle: All right, well thank you and again fhanks for your time and for your service.
Meridian Planning 8 Zoning Commission Special Meeting
April 3, 2008
Page 12 of 12
Moe: Well, that was the only issue on fhe agenda, so if there aren't any other questions
or comments in regards to Shaun's presentation, if not there is probably another motion
that could be had.
Marshall: Motion to adjourn.
Newton-Huckabay: Second.
Moe: All those in favor say aye.
FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. MOTION CARRIED.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:25 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDI'NGS.)
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