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March 4, 2010 PZ MinutesMeridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 18 of 28 Marshall: It has been moved and seconded to continue CPA 09-007 and RZ 09-005 to the next hearing date of March 18th. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 7: Public Hearing: CPA 09-010 Request to amend the Comprehensive Plan future land use map to change the land use designation on 60.74 acres of land from Medium High Density Residential (MHDR), Medium Density Residential (MDR), Green Space and Park Land (PARK) and Mixed Use Commercial (MUC) to Mixed Employment (ME) for Southridge West Commercial by Cabra Creek, LLC -NEC of S. Ten Mile Road and W. Overland Road: Item 8: Public Hearing: AZ 09-010 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 5.63 acres from RUT in Ada County to the M-E (Mixed Employment) district for Southridge West Commercial by Cabra Creek, LLC -NEC of S. Ten Mile Road and W. Overland Road: Item 9: Public Hearing: RZ 09-006 Request for Rezone of 9.33 acres from the R-8 zoning district to the C-C zoning district for Southridge West Commercial by Cabra Creek, LLC -NEC of S. Ten Mile Road and W. Overland Road: Marshall: All right. At this time I would like to open the public hearing for CPA 09-010, AZ 09-010, and RZ 09-006, for the sole purpose of continuing it until the next hearing of March 18th, 2010. Newton-Huckabay: So moved: Marshall: Can I get a second? Freeman: Second. Marshall: It's been moved and seconded to continue CPA 09-010, AZ 09-010, and RZ 09-006, to March 18th. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 10: Public Hearing: CPA 09-008 Request for Comprehensive Plan Map Amendment to modify the Future Land Use Map by replacing the Public / Quasi-Public designation with a new Civic designation; changing the future land use designations for current and former churches and hospitals that are designated Public /Quasi-Public; adding new symbols to the Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 19 of 28 legend for future facilities (i.e., schools; parks, fire stations, transit stations); incorporating the land use designations of the Ten Mile Interchange Specific Area Plan; removing the water and sewer line designations; updating the roadways designated as entry way corridors; and removing the roadway classifications by City of Meridian Planning Department: Item 11: Public Hearing: CPA 09-009 Request for Comprehensive Plan Text Amendment incorporating the changes associated with the concurrent map amendment; add text to clarify and define fire station and school sites; update old text in the recreation and park section of the plan (Chapter VI and VII) and incorporate language regarding the Marshall: At this time I'd like to open the public hearing for CPA 09-009 for request for Comprehensive Plan Amendment to modify the future land use map by replacing -- well, by staff and I'd like staff to give the staff report. Hood: Thank you, Mr. Chair, Members of the Commission. I'd like to say it my pleasure to be before you tonight. No. I really do. I have missed you guys and it's good to be back. The Planning Department is proposing a couple of Comp Plan amendments. The title in the agenda is kind of hidden in there, but we are proposing a map amendment and a text amendment to, hopefully, make them better tools for us all as you deliberate at public hearings and for potential developers and property owners to really understand what the vision for the city is. Currently there are -- there are some pretty significant changes and I'm going to go through and highlight those more significant changes. There is also a majority of the changes that are of the clean-up variety. But I will, again, try to highlight those two, just so you can get a good understanding of all the changes that we are proposing. So, first, we are proposing to delete the public/quasi-public designation on the map and replace it with a civic designation. There is also some associated text on page one -- on page 106 of the Comprehensive Plan, the new civic name and updated definition are proposed. The definition explains that this designation will be used primarily for just some public schools, fire stations, libraries, post offices, utilities, cemeteries and other government- owned properties. So, we are removing, essentially, privately held parcels of land from having apublic/quasi-public designation. We are also proposing to our definition in the text for fire stations, to clarify that there are two types existing and proposed. The definition of schools on page 106 of the text, that is proposed to be updated to better define the symbols on the map and the intent of that designation. So, existing public parks, schools, and fire stations, will all be designated civic and colored green on the map and they will also be given a symbol to designate the use. So, as you can see on this map, which I understand and realize that the scale isn't that great, but the greens on there are the new civic designations. On those green areas you will see some other type of symbol and I have called out just a few of them on the exhibit on the screen to show an existing park, a existing fire station, and future parks and schools and fire stations. And, then, there is an inset as well that shows that City Hall, the post office, parks and government-owned facilities in Old Town are also identified on the map Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 20 of 28 where before it was all just OT and kind of that pinkish color on the map. In the future public parks sites, fire stations, and schools currently owned by the city will also be designated civic. So, again, color green, but will be given a different symbol in the legend designating the facility as planned but does not yet exist. This is the halo type symbol and I have called out -- and, again, I know that scale is very, very small. You can kind of see around this future transit station that halo and this is blown up, so that they really appear that large, but all these have halos around them. So, as to not designate an exact property that we are looking for or an exact location for that future civic use, but a general vicinity that we are looking to put that future civic use. Then, I wanted to also talk about -- let's see. Where we haven't acquired the property, but we still want to have a future civic use in the area, the underlying feature land use has not changed color, but, again, there is a halo in that site showing that that's where property needs to be acquired. Sorry I'm fumbling with that a little bit. Let me clarify. So, there is three different types of designations. Your existing facility which is green and has a symbol. Some property that a government entity owns, but does not yet have that facility on that property, that's also green, but has a halo symbol. And, then, the third option is there isn't any property that's been acquired by a government agency, but we still desire to have a park or a school or a fire station and that just has a halo or the underlying land use color. So, sorry to not explain that very clearly. And, then, there is associated text on page 107 that explains how those symbols are intended to float on the map and be those more general locations than which symbols represent more fixed -- or parcel specific locations. I do want to point out that planning staff did work with the Parks Department and Joint School District No. 2 in updating the map to accurately reflect the park and school sites. We had some pretty gross errors. It just hadn't been updated in awhile, but didn't really reflect -- we had future parks where existing schools were and some similar type errors. So, we really just took an opportunity to update it. The Parks Commission, excuse me, did comment on their desire to designate a few new future park sites on the map. However, the changes are of the clean-up variety and staff believes that the parks action plan should be amended before amending the future land use map to reflect any new future park sites. I will just real quickly point out the three locations that they ask for new parks to be put on the map. Up in this four square area mile, which we recently -- well, within the past couple of years added to our area of impact, they want to add a new future park location up in there and that is not in the parks' action plan, it was in the future land use map, so we -- we don't -- we are not opposed to that, but we need the parks to kind of lead that charge. And, then, there is two parks that are in the Ten Mile specific area that are in the parks action plan, but the parks action plan is older than the Ten Mile specific area plan. The Ten Mile specific area plan did not designate any public parks in that area, as you can kind of see. There are some linear parks and open space within the Ten Mile area and some other civic designations. See if I can kind a couple of the civic designations. They are the pinkish color, if you can see that right here up in the Ten Mile area. But no other true park sites were identified. So, there is going to have to be a sitting down and we are going to have to talk about that a little bit more with the Parks Commission. So, we kind of have put that on hold for now on updating or adding, excuse me, any new parks to the map. Associated with updating the text of the plan, the definitions of parks in Chapter 7, page one of six, and recreation in Chapter 7 of page 58, are also proposed for updating. Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 21 of 28 When the Comp Plan was adopted in 2002, the Parks Department was in the process of adopting their action plan that they currently have on the books now and that's the language in the current text that the Comp Plan says. Well, we have been using that document for seven, eight years now, so we are proposing to just reference the document that's actually been adopted and is being implemented right now. It is kind of just a stop gap. It isn't the cure all for the definition of what parks and recreation are in the city, but it is at least better than what's there now. It does at least let the reader know that there is a parks action plan and you should go see that, because the still has adopted one. We will be fully modernizing our document, being the Comprehensive Plan, throughout the rest of this year. In fact, I'm just kicking it off here this past month or two and have been starting to work on the existing conditions report, which I will share with the Commission and maybe I will just plug right now. You should have received notice. There is going to be a joint meeting between yourselves and the City Council on May 11th to discuss that. Yeah. May 11th, not April. To discuss the existing conditions and kind of where staff is heading with the Comp Plan reformat and update. So, you will get your first bite at the apple then and, then, we will be working throughout the rest of the year on trying to compose that document and putting some subcommittees together and things to update some sections and even come up with some new sections. So, I'll get back to the business at hand, but I did want to give a quick plug to fully updating the Comprehensive Plan. There is a -- the park locations map -- you can see there have been -- have been quite a few changes that have been made. Blue ones are -- as it says added. The green means included being they are already on the future land use map and there have been no changes and removed are they have been removed. In fact, some of them -- like an example maybe up here where the park wasn't necessarily fully removed, it was rather moved to right here. You can see a couple of examples where you still try to keep a park in, basically, every section. There is Champion Park. So, that -- you can see it just shifted to really reflect where it's built. It's right here. Not -- we missed it by that much. So, that's the diagram that was used for the Parks Commission in their discussion. I will move past that. In conjunction with the public/quasi-public, the civic name change, staff is also proposing to change the designation for all current and former church sites and hospitals that are currently designated public/quasi-public. The individual church slash religious institutions and hospital sites will, instead, carry a future land use designation that most closely represents their current zoning and is compatible with adjoining land uses. So, this map shows all of those sites and I have it here, something like 32, I believe, properties that are actually changing. These were or still currently are all designated public/quasi-public or that green and we constantly struggle in the Planning Department when somebody is looking at the future land use map and it's colored green, it could be anything from, again, a church or a hospital or a park or a fire station and so we are trying to make it more simplified, so, really, you can get under a -- some type of government or quasi-government ownership versus private property. And the hospital, for example, St. Luke's -- technically or typically those are an office designation. So, zoning them L-O for professional office just seems to make sense, rather than it being a public/quasi-public use. Not to say that the general public doesn't use that building, but, anyways, it was more to clarify where our parks and those civic uses really are than to call these types of uses out. So, I will touch a bit on that -- bit more on that in just a Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 22 of 28 second. The Planning Department is also proposing to add to the adopted -- add the adopted future land uses in the Ten Mile interchange specific area plan onto the map itself and into the legend. Currently, the -- those land uses are great out on the map and you have to go to a separate exhibit to see what those land uses are in the Ten Mile area. By adding the Ten Mile interchange specific area plan land uses to the map, all of our future land uses for the city will be in one place, so you can see that I have cut this out of this map and kind of blown it up a little bit, but you can see here are all the citywide future land use designations and, then, here are the Ten Mile interchange specific land use designations. So, all of these apply to the Ten Mile area and, then, everything else citywide. Likewise, there is language, again, in the text on page 98 and the notes as you can see as well that clarify that the Ten Mile interchange specific area plan is different than the citywide designation and go see that plan for further explanation of what those land uses mean. The sewer main line designations and the domestic well designations are also being removed from both the legend and on the face of the map. Let me jump ahead to the next slide real quick. You can see those. So, this is the current -- what we currently have on the books for existing domestic wells and potential domestic well sites and, then, sewer main lines, we are proposing remove those three out of the legend. The main reason, the Public Works Department has maps and plans that do that and they are updated more often, they are more accurate than our map, and they can change theirs, where ours we don't update as often, obviously. So, we are -- that's not to say we won't use those maps, but we are going to rely on Public Works to let us know -- or as they are in pre-apps to designation where those locations should be. We will also probably have exhibits when we do the total reformat of the Comp Plan, have other maps and exhibits in there that do show what the -- where the sewer main line plans are and domestic well sites are, but not on the future land use map. It just gets too busy and people don't really use it for that purpose anyways. No one goes to the future land use map to find out where sewer lines are planned, they go to Public Works to find out where sewer lines are planned. So -- and staff also believes that principal arterial, minor arterial, major collectors, section line, and interstate roadway designations -- where that star is kind of rotating on the slide, should also be taken off of the map, as there is no value added. Again, they are lost among the other colors and designations on the map. They do change quite frequently, although you don't get Fairview's changing designations too often, but there are changes throughout our area of impact between minor and simple arterials, collector roadways. And, again, we are proposing to just remove them from the map. Again, that's not to say we won't -- we don't need to know where arterials and collectors are, but we have other maps that do that and we use those as well, so -- the future interchange or future overpass are remaining on the map and, in fact, there is a new designation proposed for the map. I'm going to jump back, hopefully, real quick to show -- and I have highlighted on this front one -- that's the approximate location where State Highway 16 is once it gets across the river and comes into Highway 20-26. Some day we expect an interchange about two miles away from Meridian Road, although it's probably going to be offset to the west just a little bit to avoid a subdivision. And, then, we are also proposing to take off the Locust Grove overpass, as it's there today. So, we are proposing that you leave those designations on there, as we do believe they add value. And, then, the city's area of impact, I mentioned the four square miles up there Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 23 of 28 that were recently added and, then, we also had some area you may recall back up near the river that we added to our area of impact, again, within the past couple of years. This area up in here is fairly new to the city's area of impact. And, then, these four square miles. We are proposing to update the entryway corridor designation and you can see -- and the legend here where we have the existing ones and we are proposing new ones and where we have removed some that were on our fringe when we went a quarter mile south of Amity and now to our new future city limit boundaries. Again, there is text also in Chapter 7 of the plan that further defines what an entry corridor is and does and what's required of development as you develop along an entryway corridor. In Chapter 7, page 72, text of the plan was modified to include East 3rd Street that has nothing to do with the map, but that is a text amendment. The City Council last year adopted a resolution that supported an alignment for 3rd Street in downtown and so we are adding a little blurb in the Comprehensive Plan about as development occurs on East 3rd Street that we need to have right of way set aside to extend 3rd Street. I think that's the last thing I wanted to point out. We do believe that all these changes are intended and we do believe make the map and the text of the Comprehensive Plan more user friendly and provide a better guide for development in Meridian. Back -- I said I would get back. The church and religious institution and hospital discussion earlier. We did have a neighborhood meeting on December 7th of this last year and we didn't have a huge turn out. I think we had about six representatives. There was about ten people, but some of them came in multiples, and I have talked to some other property owners. They certainly have questions, but I have not heard anybody in opposition to what we are proposing. That goes not only for the churches and changes them to their future land use designation, but anyone else for that matter, I haven't received any negative comments or letters that I'm aware of in opposition to the two applications that are the table this evening. So, I believe that will end my presentation, unless you have any questions. Marshall: Commissioners, any questions or comments? Freeman: Mr. Chairman, yes. That's a lot of work that went into that and it's obvious that's going to be way more informative than what we had before. So, I'm impressed with what looks to be the new way to do these maps. I like that. I do have one question. Did I read something in here -- do I understand that this is kind of an intermediate step approving this, because we are still -- there is ongoing work on the Comprehensive Plan and the maps? Could you clarify that for me? Hood: Sure. Yeah. Mr. Chair, Commissioner Freeman. Yeah. The map -- we really don't anticipate too many changes to the map itself. We are undertaking a pretty good revamp and reformat of the text of the Comprehensive Plan. It's pretty archaic and needs to be updated and it's just not very easy to find those things. So, we are going to group things together a little better. We have some goals and objectives and action items that are over here and some that are over there, but they are really interrelated. So, parks and recreation are a good example. We have got some of parks in Chapter 7 and some recreation in Chapter 6. That should all be in some other combined section where it easily reads through and you know after you read it what you're supposed to do Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 24 of 28 or what the vision is and what actions we can take towards furthering those goals for the community. So, the map -- again, the map we think is a pretty good product and we don't envision -- you know, there may be some tweaks, you may get some Comp Plan amendments and things like that where somebody wants to change a designation, so this product itself we aren't proposing anymore changes to, but, again, the text we will get -- those are a pretty significant and substantial reformat. We are not throwing away our goals and objectives and action items and the policy direction we receive from the Council, because we think we are heading down the right track, but what we are trying to do is update some of the information, most of it's from the 2000 census. So, we have doubled and, then, some in the population and we have a business community that's established and we have -- so, we just want to feed in some of that information and kind of, again, update what we are doing and where we -- where we have come over the past eight or ten years. So, that will be a pretty substantial undertaking, with some community input, too. We are adding a few sections -- I will just quickly let you know, too, arts, we don't have anything on arts right now in our Comp Plan. So, we are going to have something in arts and quality of life. Sustainability. We don't have anything on sustainability. That's something that's relatively new over the past seven, eight, ten years. So, we are going to add some -- some new chapters, but it's primarily taking what we have and updating it. Freeman: Okay. Mr. Chair. So, if I understand the text changes that you're making now are very much tied to these map changes to make sure they are' communicating together and that's kind of phase one of the text changes and phase two is kind of a, excuse me, Comprehensive Plan revision of the format and everything of the text. Hood: Mr. Chair, Commissioner Freeman, that's a lot better summary that my long- winded answer, yes. Freeman: Oh, good. Thank you Friedman: A couple more things, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. As Caleb said, since the original plan was adopted in 2002, you indicated now that the parks action plan seems to be old. Well, I will be going through some updates. But the city is now undertaken more robust kind of functional plans. Sewer master plan. Water master plan. So, one of the goals will be to try to either marry those or create the appropriate nexus or connections between our Comprehensive Plan and, then, those functional plans. So, yeah. Freeman: Great. Marshall: Caleb, I would ask you to go back to the proposed map legend notes page that you had up. A quick comment or question first. Is there a difference in definition between civic within the Ten Mile interchange area and civic within the citywide area? Hood: Mr. Chair, Commissioners, there is a difference in the two. The one in the Ten Mile -- and I don't have it memorized, but it is pretty specific to that area. It does allow Meridian Planning 8~ Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 25 of 28 for different things. That's why we have that note saying, hey, all land uses in here -- don't go read the civic designation in the Comp Plan referring to all citywide properties, you need to go to the Ten Mile interchange specific area to read what the definition of civic is, because there are -- I mean there are some ideas of what civic -- like civic here is a church. This is a church and, then, they have some green space that is more of a park. It doesn't necessarily mean -- Friedman: You have a transit center, too. Hood: Yeah. Transit center up in here that's also got a civic designation. So, it is very specific and different. It has different meaning. We may -- may look at updating that to -- and we tried to, quite honestly. We looked at having one legend to simplify all of the land uses. But Ten Mile is a -- went through a special process and has very specific goals and designations and definitions for those designations that it isn't -- it just doesn't transfer over to the rest of the city's land use definitions very well. Marshall: I understand. I just -- I just foresee some confusion from novices and others not familiar with the Ten Mile and the difference between Ten Mile and having difficulty in reading this, because you have got a dark green civic for citywide, a dark green space park land for Ten Mile, and they don't know where the Ten Mile is. Hood: Right. Marshall: And, then, civic is in pink and, then, civic is in green. And being able to differentiate that and having the same name, you know, isn't there some way we can call it civic Ten Mile area or something like that that specifies, hey, this is different -- this civic is different than that civic, even those it appears to be one legend, I know that it's two, but is the average citizen going to be able to tell the difference? Hood: Mr. Chair, that -- I think they will. What I didn't point out to you is there is -- and you can see -- if you can actually see it. I can't really see it from where I'm at. There is a line that goes around and you can kind of see it up here. There is a line that goes around the Ten Mile interchange -- Ten Mile interchange specific area plan that shows a demarcation line between citywide and Ten Mile interchange. So, I think -- it's right here. I think that will help. Now, will everybody understand that? No, probably not. And, again, I think we can probably look into maybe modifying just the simple name changes of civic Ten Mile area, but it's -- there is no really -- there is not another pink designation and citywide, they can't find any other civic area outside of this box for Ten Mile and be confused on what that is, because it's just -- it's not here. So, the only option is to have it be in the Ten Mile area. Is it perfect? No. But I think it's -- it's a lot better than what we have and these are some -- some ways we can improve it and make the clearer that we put, you know, some other symbols or something in there that make it clear that this is only applicable in the Ten Mile area, because I think it is pretty intuitive for folks once -- if you look at a full size one, I think it really does pop a little bit better and I think people can understand it for the most part. Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 26 of 28 Freeman: Mr. Chair, I would agree, it seems like there has been a lot of thought that has gone into this and the way that they have divided this up. They are dealing with a lot of data and a lot of complexity and to try to go another avenue, like combining them all, I think probably has the potential of creating even more confusion. But the way they have separated it, I think this is probably not perfect, as you said, but probably a wise route to go. Marshall: I would not be recommending combining any of it at this time, Isimply -- my thought being that somehow specify -- since civic in the Ten Mile is different than the civic in the citywide, somehow specify that it is different by name, because it's called the same name, and if somebody looks up and sees civic in pink, well, that area and, then, they look up the Comprehensive Plan and they accidentally look up the citywide civic -- but, you know, I -- overall I'm very impressed. This looks great. I think it's a very good move. Picky comments that I'm making, okay? Hood: And, Mr. Chair, if I may just real quickly, it wouldn't be the end of the world if somebody in that scenario did look at the civic, because they are not like, you know, miles apart. I mean they both are, essentially, civic, quasi-public, public type definitions. So, it wouldn't be that we are asking -- you know, they get totally sent off down the wrong track if they by chance looked at the opposite -- or, you know, the other definition. Marshall: Comes from a background in thematic cartography, so -- Newton-Huckabay: Mr. Chair? Marshall: Commissioner Newton-Huckabay. Newton-Huckabay: Caleb, I just have one request. As we get along farther in this process, can we possibly, even if it's just printed off of a poster printer or something, get actual -- a map, so that we can kind of see in its totality what we are looking at? Because I find when I'm trying to make -- participate in things related to the Comprehensive Plan map, it's very difficult without actually having it in front of you, and, you know, I don't want to -- I'm not asking to spend a lot of money printing them, but maybe, you know, just get some, you know, large poster color copies or something and -- or a-mail me one and I will print it myself before I come, but that would be really helpful for me. Hood: Mr. Chair, Commissioners Newton-Huckabay, that's no problem. Yeah, I can definitely -- and I thought about that, too. Its not a huge cost. I was hoping that you could make out, you know, a lot of what's 's going on just by the PowerPoint, but definitely will make a note. Would you like to see that next -- even -- it's going to be continued, so do you want me to bring -- Newton-Huckabay: No. Hood: -- full size for -- Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission March 4, 2010 Page 27 of 28 Newton-Huckabay: I don't think you need to bring it for the next time. I just -- as we get closer to -- like when we start reviewing with -- at the joint City Council meeting and I think that's -- Hood: Sure. Newton-Huckabay: -- where it would probably be most helpful for me as we say, okay, this is what we are thinking and we can view the whole. It would help -- I think I would be more -- I would give more benefit or helpful input. Marshall: So, seeing how these two items probably need to be continued, can I get a motion? Newton-Huckabay: Mr. Chair, I recommend we continue public hearing CPA 09-008 and CPA 09-009 to the regularly scheduled meeting of March 18th, 2010. Freeman: Second. Marshall: It has been moved and seconded to continue CPA 09-009 and CPA 09-009 to March 18th. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. Marshall: There is one more motion. Newton-Huckabay: Mr. Chair, I recommend we adjourn. Or I -- Freeman: Second. Newton-Huckabay: -- move we adjourn. Marshall: It has been moved and seconded that we adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed? MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT. Marshall: We are adjourned. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:20 P.M.