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John and Tammy Schafer Testimony'V y ~I~,a~- @ C~e~ G~x City of Meridian Notice of Special Hearing, Wednesday, November 6, 2013 Application: RZ 13-009 By Haden Homes Idaho, LLC for Rezone of 4.38 acres of land from the R-4 to the R-8 zoning district AND PP-13-023 for Preliminary Plat approval consisting of sixteen (16) single family residential building lots and three (3) common/other lots on 4.38 acres of land in a proposed R-8 zoning district for Village at Cold Creek generally located North side of W. Ustick Road, approximately % mile east of N. Ten Mile Road. This will serve as testimony from John and Tammy Schafer, 2788 West Ustick Road, Meridian, Idaho. I recall what Council Member Charlie Roundtree said about a previous application for this same parcel of property some years ago when it was an R-4 application -- "You're trying to put 5 pounds of coffee in a 3 pound can, and it just isn't going to work." Now they are applying for a zone change to R-8, with this acceptance, but they are still trying to put 4 pounds of coffee in a 3 pound can as the R-4 was in place to protect this exact thing from happening. Even though it is a better design than in the past, there are faults and setting precedence to what they claim meets the R-8 requirements. And if it does, common sense needs to be considered. If you review the lot layouts for 2/1, 3/1, and 4/1, lot 2/1 is a corner lot to the right or east of the main entry on Quarrystone Way. So, the setback from the corner for the driveway will need to be on the east side of the lot which will be right next to a common/shared driveway for both lots 3/1 and 4/1. Say it's Bunko Night or a football game is on, one of the home owners invites friends over for any one of these lots or possibly 2 houses at one time -- where is the parking on the street for guests? The width of the road on North Cold Creek is a reduced width and will cause problems for 2 way traffic, let alone parking on the house side of the street for these lots as well. Only to make things more congested, lots 7/1 and 8/1 are on a radius corner, so 7/1 will need to be creative for the driveway and 8/1 will be using the sewer easement for the driveway approach to this lot (with no street parking for these lots either). The developing engineer was discussing the sewer easement to be an access to a possible pedestrian bridge/sewer suspension crossing over the 5 Mile Drainage Canal. Do you really want a pedestrian access to be a combination automobile driveway with the opportunity of a dangerous mix use situation??? I was very disappointed with the Planning and Zoning Commissioners shrugging this off like it is nothing to be concerned about, but took up to what seemed like 10 minutes to debate how many bike parking racks needed to be placed in amulti-family dwelling under review prior to the hearing on Cold Creek on October 3. I am also the irrigation lateral manager which supplies the gravity irrigation water downstream from Settlers Irrigation District Head Gate #59. Once it leaves the weir box at Head Gate #59, this piped irrigation lateral traverses in a west/northwest direction through several developed subdivisions and provides a sump location for the Bledsoe Residence to pump from just west of Sundial Subdivision, and then continues on to supply water to 5 existing water rights holders downstream to remove water from this lateral, which was once all farm ground. The water was distributed per water rights per the size of each parcel and the amount of water provided by Settler through the lateral and was on an irrigation rotation schedule for flood irrigation of the fields. Unfortunately, our property is the only active flood irrigation parcel that is left due to development or the water users keeping their ground un-irrigated. This is where water rights and use of become an issue. With the development of the Mc Nelis property on the NW corner of Ustick and Ten Mile it became very apparent there were problems ahead. All agencies approved the plan for the McNelis Commercial Subdivision with an irrigation pump station on the property which requires water each and every day to fill, what I would guess is a 500 gallon concrete box with an overflow for a water holding tank and what water that is not used runs thru a drainage pipe into Nine Mile Creek to the west since this is the end of the lateral. Mr. Mc Nelis and I had several heated discussions about the water and Mr. McNelis claimed they needed water 24/7 for his development which does not work with the existing flood irrigation system used in farming applications. He finally turned it over to his property manager and we have tried several different options, one which was they used the water each day for 4 hours to water what landscape they had prior to any building lot development prior to this year. That just did not work by having to open and close head gates every day for what once took 5 days to water then turned into a 10-day ordeal. So in the past, I would just take the water for the 5 days every 3 or 4 weeks depending on the weather conditions that it took to flood our parcel for irrigation and then would turn the water back down the line. I discussed this with Erickson Civil at a meeting at our residence and Russ stated had no problem with us using the total water supply to water our parcel just for the record, but I can see issues on the horizon now that the McNelis commercial subdivision is beginning to develop after several years of inactivity. Once it is fully developed they will be requesting water 24/7 and will not want to give up the water for the established irrigation rotation schedule which is grandfathered to this lateral, and then adding to the load for the Cold Creek Subdivision things may become difficult between all. I can't blame anyone person or agency, because this will continue to happen with growth, but we simply want to protect our right to the water as grandfathered. Property development construction drawings need to be provided to the irrigation districts, even though the district does not own or maintain the lateral line, so that they may be viewed by the lateral irrigation line manager for future reference and ease of access to maintain the water line. Another issue that came up last year was a clog in the lateral irrigation line in a concrete box placed for a predetermined length of run of the lateral line or change in direction for cleaning the lines of sediment buildup. The concrete box was set too low to the surrounding landscape and became a trash collector for lawn clipping, leaves and debris in the Sundial Subdivision. Fortunately there was no flooding that occurred because the ditch rider for Settler's Irrigation would not turn the total water to be supplied down the ditch as it would not handle the full flow due to the clog. In previous years we have had an issue with another residence in the Fieldstone Subdivision I think #5 where a willow tree was planted in the irrigation lateral easement and the line has filled with tree roots. This resident was nice enough, with a little persuasion by Settler's Irrigation, to accept his responsibility to maintain a clean line. That repair took 5 days, meanwhile the fields and landscaping was drying up and causing all downstream users to want the water all at the same time once repaired. I don't feel there is enough information provided to the property owners or the homeowners' associations to prevent this exact thing from happening again. The owners don't want to see the manhole rings and covers, so they cover them with landscaping and bushes and then you will not know where the manhole covers are unless they overflow like the home with the tree roots in the pipe that backed the lines up to the point of overflow. I stepped into the lateral manager position after a good portion of the irrigation ditch became buried lines and boxes. I will be requesting from the City of Meridian, through a Public Information Request, for record drawings so we can locate each and every manhole and irrigation box in the irrigation easement for ease in location and access in case there is a clog or backup. As all of us are aware, no one likes someone entering your back yard unannounced through a fence or gate to investigate these manholes in the middle of the day or even at night since a clogged line can occur at any time. We do try to notify the homeowner when we are going into their backyards to look for the clog only to have them not answer the door thinking we were solicitors, only to come out once we were in their back yard to see what we were doing. I always try to leave a note on their door prior to entering the backyard in hopes I don't get shot! There still is a gray area after discussion with the city development department as to who is responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the laterals and boxes within the subdivisions and keeping them clean. I left with the understanding it was the responsibility of the homeowners association, if there is one, but trying to get them to clean the line may be another issue they feel they are not responsible. Can you shed some light, or perhaps legal counsel could provide information to clean this area of contention up so that information can be provided to the homeowners associations indicating they are responsible for maintaining the lines. Again,. I was .very disappointed that legal counsel and/or council members of the Planning and Zoning Commission would not let me testify to this fact in the October 3rd public hearing, stating they felt the irrigation issues were irrelevant. I'm only trying to make things easier for the end users and I'm sure this is not the first time this has come to a head in similar locations. I appreciate your time and hope you will consider this information and place requirements by developers, real estate agents, homeowners associations and homeowners as to what can and can't be done and whose responsibility it is to correct these issues. Sincerely, ~ ,-- John and Tammy Schafer 2788 W. Ustick Road Meridian, ID 83646 Hand-submitted to the City Clerk's Office October 29, 2013