City Council - Regular Meeting

Are we good?

All right. Good evening. I will call tonight's Cobalt City Council meeting to order and welcome those who have joined us. So, thank you for coming here tonight. First on the agenda is the invocation which tonight will be offered by Eddie Hancock of Cross Point Church. Please stand if you're able to join us in prayer. [laughter] Thank you for the opportunity. Our father, we thank you for this time and place. We thank you that we as a community can gather together and and uh watch the process of governance. We thank you for these men and women that serve us. We thank you for the city staff. We know how hard they work on our behalf and we know how often they are successful. I pray that you would give them continue to give them joy in their work. May it fulfill them. May it challenge them professionally. And uh we pray the same for our city leaders, Father, for the mayor and the council. May the work be rewarding to them. Make may it make a difference in the city of Caldwell. Father, we give you all these things and we ask for your wisdom. We pray this in your name. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The next item on the agenda is roll call. The clerk, will you please call the role? Councelor Tilmont here. Councelor Stodd here. Councelor Register here. Councelor Williams here. Councelor Algood, he's been tonight here.

All right. Thank you. Next is the conflict of interest declaration. Are there any members who have a conflict of interest to declare tonight relating to anything on tonight's agenda? All right. Next on the agenda is the discussion for the 2026 firefighter staircia, captain call the fire department. I'm also the captain of the 2026 firefighter ceream team. Uh this year we got nine of us going from the fire department this year. It's our biggest team we've had for call the fire uh to do this event. Uh we are going up to Seattle March 8th and we're going to climb the Columbia Center 69 flights full turnouts on air to raise uh money for leukemia and lymphoma. So at this time like this is my ninth year. This is Jose's eighth year. Uh, Blendell, these guys got two years, I think, going into this. Um, we've we've came to you guys in the past, uh, previous years. You've guys been very grateful and donated thousands of dollars every year to our team. So, we're just asking for a donation again to the Califire Ser Clan team.

All right. Thank you. Are there any counselors who are against cobble fire participating in this event? All right. Um, since you all are supporting it, I think the right course is for the finance director to move forward with this and allow the firefighters to participate in the stair climb you just discussed. If that meets council approval, Raylin, do we have anything on that? As long as it's council recommendation, I can move forward with it. Uh there's $4,000 in the council budget, so it's within the budget of council. So, thank you. Well, it looks like you're going to have some stairs to climb.

Yes. I mean, this is 35th anniversary, so I started on the 25th. So, this is going to be a good year, I think, for all of us. Hopefully, we'll make it the best year for Call of Fire Sarah Climb team and the money and times that we can get get up them stairs. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for coming and presenting that tonight and uh good luck on your endeavor. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, Council Williams. Ray, do you need a motion and a vote or are we good? No motion. We're good. I I took from the the there was no objection that that was council recommendation. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, councelor Denver.

If we may, can we have uh the stair climb captain come back up here? I've got a couple questions, you know, that I would uh would you please come forward for councelor Denver's questions? Okay. So, first of all, thank you for your what you do as a firefighter for the city of Calwell and also a captain at station three.

Okay. Thank you. And thank you for participating in the stair climb for these years. So, tell me a little bit about the stair climb. Why is it important to have a big team? Why can't you just do it? Well, also it just for moral support for like me. I've done it by myself and it's you get up there and you're just by yourself to have a big team. It's that camaraderie to go up there and we all climb together. We get to the top, we go out and have dinner together, whatnot. That's on our own dime. Um but just the moral support to push yourself to climb uh raise money. Raising money is a the number one goal for us. It's not about our time or how fast we get to the top. It's about how much money we can raise for the leukemia and lymphoma society. 100% of our donate or the money we raise goes straight to cancer cancer research and patient out services. None of it none none of it goes to overhead. 100% of that goes to what the cause is.

So then when you guys make the trip to participate in this dare climb, are you paying your own way to it? And then uh everything that you raise goes straight to the cancer and the lymphoma societies. Yes sir. So everything we pay for our own hotels, pray for our own fuel, flights, whatever we however our mode of transportation to get up there. So that is all paid for out of our own pocket and everything we raise is does go towards uh the cause for for the foundation.

Is uh is a nine member team a goodsized team, an averagesized team or are you still trying to build on that? So for Caldwell, that's a great size team. I mean, we only got we got 72 members and nine nine people. You get Boisey, they'll have 30 members going, but they've got still got over 300 firefighters. So, uh I would say our percentage is a little bit higher than theirs with the amount of people we have going and the amount of members we have to their 300. They got what 10% of their fire department going. So, we're probably what a little over about 15%. So almost 15% of our our department's going up there. So it's it's awesome. I mean hopefully next year we can have 12, 13, 14.

We just got to work our way around who who's on duty. [laughter] All right. Well, thank you very much and good luck. All right, any other questions? Uh, see no other questions. Thank you, Captain Once again. Good luck. And thank you, Councelor Denber, for the follow-up questions. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is the railroad quiet zones. We will hear from our public works uh deputy director, Bruce Mills. Um to help the council better understand the issue. We will not be hearing public comment tonight. That will happen the council workshop on Tuesday, January 27th from 5:00 p. p.m. to 7 p.m. And we'll start with Bruce Mills, our deputy transportation director, public works. Thank you. Welcome, Bruce.

Thank you. Uh thank you, mayor and councel. Uh just waiting for the PowerPoint to come up here in a minute. But uh so hey, we got that tough one out of the way though. So now for something easy. So anyway, uh I I'll start while we're waiting for the PowerPoint. So what is a railroad quiet zone? Essentially, it's one where safety measures are put in place so that the trains do not not longer have to blow their horns. uh with the caveat that if the engineers see something ahead on the tracks, any type of uh potential danger, they can still blow their horns for that. Uh it means that the gates will still come down, that the lights will still flash, you'll still have those little bells that dingle. Um so, so that all continues to take place. Um as far as quiet zones that exist here in Idaho, it's fairly new. There's only three right now in Wrath Drum, East Hope, and Bonner County, all up in the panhandle to the north. Uh in the United States, there are over a thousand quiet zones that cover about 5,500 crossings. And then how do you establish a quiet zone? Well, takes a while. I I started here in February um two years ago, so I'm almost to the two-year mark. And that was one of the first assignments I was given was to see what it would take to uh to get the quiet zone moving. We had a uh um a study done in 2014 uh and after that uh it came up with some big prices that kind of languished for a while. So I was assigned when I came here to see what I could do to to get the thing moving again. So, so first of all, you have to decide which zones you want to have, which crossings you want

to have in a quiet zone. Then design mitigation improvements that meet the um the um Federal Railroad Administration, the FRA, I'll say that quite a bit probably in my presentation. That meet all their requirements. Then they asked that a diagnostic team be held and representatives from ITD, from Union Pacific, uh from the state, uh several organizations come together. We all went around to all the crossings. They I took notes on what they wanted to see in the quiet zone and incorporate that into our design. Then I submitted a notice of intent to form a quiet zone and that went through a three-month process and that was okay. Then I submitted a public application through FRA which took several more months. And in last uh July, I believe it was August August 13th, we received approval for the quiet zone from the Federal Railroad Administration. And at this point, um, the next thing to do then is to, uh, bid the project out to get a contractor on board to do the the, uh, mitigation. And following the mitigation, then you can declare a notice of establishment, and within 30 days, the horns could stop. So that's kind of the process. Anyway, so we've gone quite ways through the process. So the history again I mentioned in 2014 we hired Horox engineering. They did a feasibility study on six crossings. Um they came back with approximate costs of 1.7 to 2.4 million to put in a quiet zone.

Um in 24 um again I started uh looking at the quiet zone and after learning a lot uh I found out you could do it a lot cheaper than that. And so this year I put in the budget $400,000 to do the quiet zone. We've received bids. I know that they're not going to be considered tonight, but with all the bids, all the costs, it's probably going to be closer to 238 $240,000 to establish this seven crossing quiet zone. And those are at 5th Avenue, Kimble, 9th, 12th, 21st, Lynden, and Eustic. Um, how many trains go through Caldwell in a day? Well, uh, in the evening from 6 p.m. to 6:00 am there are typically eight and in the daytime 6:00 am to 6 pm there are nine. So 17 trains a day is the average. Got that from Union Pacific. Uh to mitigate the quiet zone. Um is this thing working? Now this is different from mine. So I don't Anyway, [clears throat] that's the old uh that's the old quaisonone study. So I I had emailed you the quiet zone with do we not have that? All right. Anyway, let's keep going. So So to establish a quiet zone, you have to make it safer at the crossings if they're going to quit blowing their horns. And there are different ways that the FRA will allow that to happen. One way would be with with quad gates, which means instead of just a gate coming down, two gates would come down on each side of the track, so nobody could get around them. Uh, that's an option. It's very

expensive. That's probably why they came up with their large estimates back in uh uh 2014, but there's there are cheaper ways to do it. One is to put in uh raised median as you approach the tracks, so cars cannot go around the tracks. The median stops them. uh which is what we elected to to do. The other thing is you have to close any driveways that are close to the railroad tracks. Um and fortunately for us, we didn't have very many of those, but the ones that we had um were mostly parking lot access points, so it really wasn't that critical to to close those off. And then you have to install warning signs, no train horns, and put those up not only on the for the cars, but also for any pedestrians if you have sidewalks that go across the tracks. So, so one question I've heard is are quiet zones safe? So, uh, the Federal Railroad Administration did a study in 2020, uh, of 330 of their thousand quiet zones, about a third of them, and they came Oh, thank you. Here we are. All right. So they did uh this study and the quotes from the study say that this is statistical analysis says there's no difference between a before and after really. Um the other thing is that the way we're doing the quiet zones which is um calculating the quiet zone risk index actually the way we're doing it those particular crossings decreased in accidents by 42% in the study. So, and again, even if the engineers do see some

sort of conflict on the tracks ahead, they can always blow their horn even after the quiet zone's in place. So, what are the benefits of a quiet zone? Well, there's a lot less noise. Obviously, th those train horns are 96 to 110 dB. So, it's about like a jet engine really um on the higher end. So, uh, so it's a lot less, um, noise to all the nearby residents and everyone else. Um, and they're more safe in many ways because right now somebody could drive around the the gates as they're in place, but we're putting up things that will prevent that from happening and uh, putting up warning signs, etc. uh the schedule uh the quiet zone and the costs I already mentioned in 2014 those costs and uh the costs here in 2026 with the bid we got we got a very favorable bid um would be about 238,000 that's for uh all seven crossings. Uh, as far as maintenance go ongoing, because we're not going with fancy gates and other electrical devices, going with concrete curbs that don't require a lot of maintenance, the maintenance will be next to nothing on keeping this quiet zone in place. Basically, just keeping up the signs uh and the delineators that we have to put in a few places. So, uh the implementation of this obviously will depend on this process this week and next week, but uh uh we have a contractor that if we choose to award, uh they could get started in the next few months and probably be done by uh late spring or early summer. And what'll happen next? Uh of course um after tonight and we'll do a lot of question answer. serves my understanding

uh but not public comment but next week we'll have a workshop here next Tuesday on the 27th and the public can weigh in at that point and then the following week on the 2nd uh would be the contract for consideration by the council and whether to proceed with that contract. So, uh, that's, uh, my presentation and with that, I guess we can start the questions and answers. Thank you, Deputy Director Mills, for that. Um, any questions from council? Councelor Stodd.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was just curious. I had requested the, lack of better words, town hall meeting to be in end of February sometime. Uh, was that denied then or? Uh, not at this point. We're going to follow up. Um, okay. I'll follow up on an email. Okay. After that. Okay. Uh Bruce, I think what we need to emphasize here again is safety. All the emails I've gotten is people think that it's going to be more unsafe with these quiet zone uh facilities that you set up. And I guess the numbers prove that wrong, don't they? Uh they do for the way we're setting up the quiet zone with the with the curbs that we're doing

with the reduced uh risk factor. It actually makes it safer. Okay. And the other thing I just want to make sure everybody understands too is that federal law says the engineer has to still pull that horn if he sees there's a danger at the crossing. Is that correct? That is correct. If he sees anything ahead, a pedestrian, a a vehicle, debris, whatever, he can pull his horn and even after the quiet zone's in place. Okay. And then the uh cost estimates on this, it's much lower than we were told originally. Are those local contractors that are going to do this or Yes, they are. We we the low bid was extra low, if you will. It was it was about almost 80,000 under the second bid. So,

okay. All right. Good. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, councelor Stoic. Any other questions? Going once, going twice. All right. Um, we appreciate hearing you from you tonight. Just to be clear, there will be a council workshop next week from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on January 27th to hear public comment. If that changes, we'll put out a notice on social media and imagine to the press if uh we're going to change that date. So, see no other questions. Thank you. Okay.

All right. Next on the agenda is audience participation. And this section of the agenda is reserved for residents wishing or or guest to address the city council regarding city related issues that are not on the agenda tonight. Persons wishing to speak will have up to three minutes, which we have a clock up here that um we'll be able to set that with and follow. Comments related to pending public hearings, including decisions that may be appealed to city council, are out of order and should be held for public hearing. Repeated comments regarding the same or similar topics previously addressed or out of order and will not be allowed. Comments regarding performance by city employees are inappropriate at this time and should be directed to the mayor's office either by subsequent appointment or after nice meeting if time permits. In order to ensure adequate public notice law provides that any item other than emergencies requiring council action must be placed on the agenda of an upcoming council meeting. As such the city council can't take action on the items raised during an issues of the same meeting but may request additional information or that item may be placed on a future agenda. Do we have any? There's no one signed up tonight. So, um, next on the agenda is approving the consent calendar.

Mr. Mayor, yes. I make a motion to amend the agenda to move item 29 from the consent calendar to new business for further discussion. All right. Do we have a motion? A second. We have a motion in a second to move that item to regular agenda. All right. Um, all those in favor vote I and any opposed vote no. I I All right. The any All right, the eyes have it. Um, that's been moved to the regular agenda. I will now entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar as amended. So moved. All right, we have a second. Second.

Motion second to approve the consent agenda as approved. Um, all right. Uh, stand by.

All right, go ahead and uh vote with your clickers. Uh, a yes would be to approve it and a no would be to not approve the amended agenda. All right, the eyes or the yeses have it. All right, next on the agenda is new business. And first up is item being removed from the consent calendar. Consider resolution accepting the bid proposal for emergency removal of Blaine Street Bridge 12190 project and authorizing the notice to award the bid to Big Bite in an unbudgeted amount of $119,366. I will now open the floor um up for discussion, but would you like to present?

I'm just here for questions. Yeah. Do you have any questions, Mr. Mayor, councelor Tilmont. Um, considering I'm the one who asked to have this moved. Um, Bruce. Yes. Main reason I wanted to main question I had is it's unbudgeted. We're looking at what about $120,000 to fix the bridge. Where are we getting it from?

Uh, typically in our capital budget, we have about 33 projects this year. Some of them wind up for whatever reason getting delayed. Uh, some of them come in under budget. For instance, we had a a project over a College Avenue pedestrian project that actually came in about 70,000 under budget and that project's already been done. So, there's 70,000 there already. And so, we will find it in projects that slip a little bit in the schedule or or get delayed for whatever reason or come in under budget. Okay. So, we're not going to have any major projects put on hold or anything pushed back? No, sir.

Okay. Last question I had, and I know it's always difficult, but um especially considering the governor just was talking about cutting ITD's budget. You had mentioned that um the highway assistance council might be able to kick in some as well. If ITD doesn't kick anything in because their budget cuts, do you think the assistance council will kick in anything? And if so, do you have any idea what that ballpark number might be?

Yeah. And and Mr. Mayor and Councilman Tilman. Uh I I don't know the number because they're they haven't committed to me, but I I know that the 10th Avenue project where we're re we've been doing a b bunch of repairs on the girders and the and the joints that has come in under budget. That was an eltech project. And I do believe that, you know, we can twist their arm and try to get some of the leftover money there moved over to pay for a good portion of this. Uh that's my hope. the the game that's going on right now is Eltech is saying, "Oh, how much are you going to put in ITD?" Right.

And so, we're waiting on them first to get a response, but I I believe that there will be some money. The city probably will still have to chip in some other money, but uh but yeah, I I think we'll get some matching funds. And now I've heard both. Are we replacing the bridge or are we actually filling it in? We're actually removing the bridge. This was an old bridge where Indian Creek crossed the road there. Uh when the bridge was abandoned, they shoved a bunch of gravel underneath there.

And unfortunately, it kind of created also an area where moisture was trapped. And anyway, the girders have accelerated in there and now are in a condition that they're poor. So, we're going to go in there with our contractor. They're going to get out their their big giant excavators. They're going to beat this thing and haul the concrete away. We'll fill in the hole with gravel and pave it. So, the bridge will be gone. That's it. Any other questions? Can you just confirm um about how long this would take as projected?

Yes. The contractor is uh assuming award tonight. The contractor will start next Monday and he thinks it'll take three weeks is his best guess. Uh four would be the max. So, I think we're looking at uh February 20ish or maybe to the 26th, something like that. But, uh 3 to four weeks. All depends how hard that concrete is to break up. Well, hopefully sooner than later. Um that's going to be a major shutdown when that happens. Any other questions? All right. I will now entertain a motion on this item. Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve agenda item 29.

Second. All right. A motion to second. All right. All those in favor, vote I. Those against it, vote no. Mr. Mayor, can I just make a a point of clarification? This is actually new business agenda item number one. Since it was pulled from the consent agenda,

my apologies. My mo I'll amend my motion to new business. Mr. Mayor, I move to approve resolution accepting the bid proposal for emergency removal of Blaine Street Bridge 12190 project and authorizing the notice of award to Big Bite in the unbudgeted amount of $119,3636. Moved from consent calendar to new business for further discussion. All right, we have a motion and a second to approve the resolution accepting the bid proposal for the emergency removal of Blaine Street Bridge uh project 12190 and authorizing the notice of award to Big Bite in the unbudgeted amount of 119,3636. There was moved from the consent to new business for further discussion. All right. All those in favor vote I and those against please vote no.

All right, the motion carries. All right. Next on the agenda is a public hearing to report the data and progress on developing the 5-year CDBG consolidated plan and FY 2026 annual action plan and to allow public participation for comments and feedback. First, we will hear a presentation from Robin Collins who explain the important work that is planned for the next few years. Good evening, uh, mayor and council. Thank you. Robin Collins, community development director. Um, as the mayor mentioned, this is a presentation on our five-year consolidated plan for the community development block grants. Um, HUD requires us to have a every five years to redo our plan. consider it kind of like a master plan that has all the public participation and then a five-year strategic plan that will guide us on what projects and and what type of funding that we want to put towards those. Just kind of an overall general budget line item. They're not specific. Um and so we went out for RFP. We hired a consultant to help us with this because it's it's a lot of work. Um and Karen Dash Consulting is our consultant. Um, the HUD requires us to have two public hearings. So, right now, this one is not to approve anything or it's really just to update you and then to be able to take public comment um to satisfy those HUD requirements. And then when she's all done with it, she'll come back and she'll present the final plan to city council for consideration. So, I'm going to turn this over to our consultant, Karen Dash, and she's going to go through um what she's heard so far from people. Thank you.

Thank you, Robin, Mr. Mayor, and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. U may I ask, will I present? Oh, there it is. Great. Thank you. Um you can move to the next slide if you'd like. So this we're going to talk about the consolidated planning process. Um you can see here we have the uh two two QR symbols for folks who wanted to take our public survey a community survey and we can move to the uh first slide of the presentation. Thank you. Um, so as as Miss Collins mentioned and thanks to Miss Collins, Miss Railen North, and Morgan Bau for the opportunity to work on this initiative. It's been a pleasure to work with them. We are talking about community development block grants. These are provided by HUD. They're provided to communities around the country based on a formula that's based on population, on housing data, housing issues, poverty statistics, and so on. The grants are are pre presented annually uh so that cities can utilize them. Cities and counties can develop viable communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment and also expanding economic opportunities with a focus on low and moderate income people. Uh some jurisdictions can receive other sources of HUD funding including home funds, emergency solutions grant funds which are for for homeless uh people homelessness and hapwa funds. Uh we can move to the next slide. Please if anyone has any questions, please feel free to jump in. So the the grants the funds can be used for a lot of different activities. they kind of fall into to these three different categories in terms of revitalizing neighborhoods. Uh also

providing economic development opportunities for the community and if there's a need to improve community facilities or services, a portion of the funds can be put toward those. The program has national objectives as you can see here. Um these are to mainly focus on benefiting low and moderate income people um to prevent or eliminate slums or blighted areas in communities. And if there are urgent community development needs um these funds can be applied to those as well. You can go to the next slide. So we have as as as uh Miss Collins mentioned we have some some significant reporting responsibilities. We have a five-year plan, the consolidated plan. We also have an annual action plan and that will be uh developed as well to say what are we going to do in each year of that consolidated plan. We look at fair housing issues. So we conduct an analysis of impediments to fair housing. Uh lastly, we put together a citizen participation plan. Uh and that is where we we determine what is the best way to to bring the community into this process. So it is a community-based plan and we can go to the next slide. So here we are. There are these there are overlapping elements but you can see we've moved through them. Uh we've done our background research a lot of of uh census research, housing market research and so on. Um we've we've uh been able to gather citizen participation and continue to do so. We've been analyzing this data and we're in the the developing HUD documents um phase. We should be um the the documents I believe in early March, I think it's around March 9th, they will be available for a 30-day period for the community to comment on them. We will finalize the documents, present them uh as Miss

Collins mentioned, um I think it's in in early June of their there thereabouts and then we'll finalize them and submit them to HUD. As I mentioned, we want this to be a community-based plan. Um, thus far, we've had over 60 Caldwell citizens and over 10 agencies have given their feedback. Uh, some very good and detailed feedback. Uh, we're having these four public hearings and focus groups. Um, we had two in November. We had nine agency participants. We've had interviews as well with key partners and stakeholders. I think we're up to around 10 right now. um interviews with more scheduled. Um we've had close to 50 surveys. We had another one that came in after this uh presentation was put together. We're hoping to get a little more feedback. Um but we're we've been happy with with what we've learned thus far. So this the next few slides are just going to give you a sense of who's responded to the survey and kind of what we're seeing, what what some of the priorities have have been. uh the priorities align well with what we've been hearing in our focus groups as well as in our our interviews and so we're presenting them today in this format. But you can see in terms of the survey um we had 46 respondents. They could check as many of these boxes as applied in terms of what what is their interest or their work in the housing field. So we've had uh 24 citizens. We've had 23 folks who identified as nonprofit agency staff and then a variety of other folks as well. And we appreciate everyone's perspectives. About twothirds of of the folks uh who responded own their own own homes. Uh you can see about 29% are renters and then another 9% fall into these other categories where they're staying with friends or family. um they might be

homeless or living in a shelter or extended stay hotel and then there were a few in in the other category and other I think was just basically also saying they were staying with other people temporarily. So the next several slides just give you a sense of what the community is saying this is what we need. We asked folks to rate um in different categories several different items on a scale of one to three. So if it's close to three, that's that's the highest need and one indicates the lowest need. So as you can see here, affordable rental housing was a 2.94 on a scale of three. And then as you can see, a lot of other housing uh needs were identified as being 2.5 or greater. uh looking at housing for veterans, for people with special needs, for seniors, also providing home ownership assistance, down payment assistance, and then repair assistance um for owner occupied homes. In terms of infrastructure, uh transportation was rated most highly um but others were were rated um you know well as also in terms of public service needs. We saw, you know, pretty high uh um consensus around the need for more mental and behavioral health services um within the Caldwell community. Also highly ranked were services for homeless persons, child care, seniors, health, uh persons with disabilities and and services for people with domestic violence um uh conditions and problems also rated highly. And then lastly, we we asked about economic development and financial assistance. And you can see very very highly rated was the need for emergency assistance um for utilities, for rent uh rent issues or for fuel. Um and then the

others all still rated highly as well in terms of job job creation, training, credit counseling, and so on. That's a really quick overview. Again, I just wanted to underline that what we saw kind of tracks with what we're hearing um in our our focus groups and in our interviews as well, but I'd like to open this up to any questions or comments you might have council

any questions from council. All right, now we Sorry. Thank you Karen, of course, Robin for um the information. Now we'll open up to the public hearing. If anyone has signed up to testify, now is our opportunity to speak for up to three minutes. All right, we have uh no one signed up. And while this is an action item, there is no motion required this evening. All right. Next on the agenda is a public hearing to consider an application for the preliminary plat by Ideal Custom Homes for Deal Subdivision, a residential subdivision with six single family attached town home units. The site was reszoned from R2 medium density residential to TN traditional neighborhood on December 2nd, 2024 and has an approved development agreement for the proposed project. The subject parcel is.3 acres and is located on the corner of North Thirdrd Avenue and Joliet Street in Coal Ido. The application was recommended for approval by the planning and zoning commission on Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. We'll now open the record. We will hear from the applicant.

Hello, I am Kathy Deal. The applicant was officially Katie Deal, who is our daughter. We are a uh small um Idaho based builder. where have been building homes in our area for 31 years and um we're really excited about this project. Um we've had some experience with this. We um being Idahoans, we are kind of opposed to urban sprawl and we're kind of excited about infill products that would provide housing for um people that and attainable and um affordable housing for people. We have young adults, children, and we're concerned about their ability to afford a home someday. And this product is um great for many reasons. Uh it's a area of town that's depressed. It's um the lot has an abandoned home on it that uh it appears there's drug use going on there. And we would like to remove that and put in these six homes that would provide an ability for people to um buy a home that couldn't otherwise. We're hoping to keep these under 350 a piece. Um a an opportunity for people maybe that are living in some of the apartments here in Caldwell to be able to afford a home. Um today I looked on the MLS and there are only six homes in Caldwell for sale right now under $350,000 and those are all over 20 years old. This would be a brand new project. It's a brand new home. Um these are not starter homes what you would consider. We we uh very we build very quality homes um with higher, you know, mid-range appliances and whatnot. So, it isn't just uh uh I don't know. It's a it's a really good product. I guess I

should probably be flipping this and sending a picture. I'm sorry. So, this is a picture of of uh a rendering, I guess they're called, which would Do we have more than one? So, they would we're hoping to make them look very individual from each other and unique. Um, we think it'll make the the neighborhood look really nice. Um, they are twotory. They have a onecar garage. They uh are between 1300 and 1400 square f feet, three bedrooms, two baths, and like I said, they're they're some of the most they'll be some of the most affordable homes in our town. Um, and brand new. Um [sighs] we have done a subdivision not not this probably but but of town houses in Cal not in Calwell in Nampa in the you know starting about I don't know like 20 to 21 and um we've sold it out and it was very wellreceived uh a wide variety of uh customers buying them and um we're just really proud of them. We've also done quite a few town homes in Homedale. Um, and that's that's where we're from and people really are liking them. And so we're really proud of this product and we're excited about it. And um, so I think that's all I'll go through about the rest of our pictures. Um, so there's more pictures of what they look like. Um, top view, there's the floor plan. So on the base floor you have your living area and kitchen. And then upstairs you have the three bedrooms, one bath and the laundry area and whatnot. So and here is a letter from the Caldwell School District in very much support of this because it is uh it would be a great product for people to be able to

own a home and um walking distance from the school and whatnot. So I think that's all I have to say. All right. Thank you. Any questions from councel for the applicant? Mr. Mayor, councelor sonic, uh, these are traditional, you said. Are there any will these uh homes butt up against any single family story homes at all or are they going to be in an area? Yes,

they will. So, you'll be these homes will be looking down in people's backyards. Oh, well, I think there's there's potentially a home to Oh, now I've run out of slides. Um, there's potentially a home behind them. One there and then potentially on on one side. So So just one home I behind all of them. Oh, I I haven't been over there lately. Well, for one, the side view. So one side is the street, the front is the street, and the other side is an alley. And so there there would be one home behind it I think. Okay. So the second story would be looking across the alley into a

No, this see if you look at this slide that blue wall would be one alley would be an alley and then the other end would be an alley and then the front would be a street but then behind the fence and we will be building a fence would be a home. I don't I don't know their foliage or tree situation off the top of my head. All right. I'm always concerned about when we build two-story homes if it doesn't match the current neighborhood. Right. Looking in people's backyards. The I hear I see somebody nodding their head. So, what's They have some really good slides. [laughter] They're better at PowerPoint than we are.

I'm sorry, Mayor and Council. I was just going to ask it if they'd switch over so I could show the map and that would give a little bit better idea of what we're talking about. What page is here? There we go. So, the project site is right here. So, it does have some single family surrounding it. The backyards would back up right here. And they have a 15 foot a 15t yard setback in the back. And then on this side there is 20 feet. Is that 20 feet before the alley? Then there would be an alley or does that include the alley?

I believe that includes the alley. So right here you'd have 15 foot and that's the back of the homes and then you'd have 20 feet over here. Is that helpful to see that? Yep. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? Councelor Ta. Um Mr. Mayor, um, you might not be able to answer all of these, but I did have one quick question. Um, you have two commons, lot one and lot eight. For these six units, are you doing an HOA? Yes. For just six units. Mhm. Okay. Um, second would be an irrigation question. I do know this is

Am I allowed to defer to the builder? [laughter] Yes. So, I can't do this part. I may have have him come up and do the rest. [laughter] I'll excuse myself. No, no, thank you for coming up. I'm Burke Deal. Okay. Um, I know this is Golden Gate Irrigation that you're going to be part of and we've been having issues with them.

So, my question is, um, on your exhibit drawing, you had stated that you would be tying into a private pump for your irrigation. Now, is that going to be a Golden Gate pump or I mean, how are you tying that in? And is that something that the city, this might be a Mr. McDonald question, and I don't mean to lambash you with it, but it was just a question of is this going to be built to city standards so that if this comes down later to where we maybe take over Golden Gate that we'll be able to tie in without any issues. So um the requirement so it's it's uh gravity irrigation currently and then uh the requirement I think it was the city's requirement that we we um construct our own pressurized system with the water that we have. So they're going to have you know the city will have oversight of what we do.

Okay. But we are relying on Golden Gates just basically flooding their ditch if you guys get water or not. Correct. Um to your We're relying on Golden Gate for the water. Yes. Okay. Mayor and Councilman Telmont, if you have more questions on that, we do have our city engineer here that might be able to shed some light on that. Yeah, because my only question was just with us having the issues with Golden Gate. Yes, I am. It's coming down the line.

Yes, absolutely. So we do require for development to provide a letter that the irrigation district that they are within can supply water. If the irrigation district that they are within cannot supply water, that is when we require the development to construct a well on the property to supply their own irrigation water. So it would be the city's requirement um to have a well, a small well to be able to supply irrigation to the properties. Yeah. I'm just concerned because of the issues we've been having with Golden Gate. Yes, absolutely.

So, um, and about the only other thing that I would comment on since I do this for a living as a detailer is we are meeting all of the city standards and not ACD's standards for the project. Correct. Most of your notes on your drawings were referring to ACD's standards. Oh, well, everything we've done has been through all the channels with the city. So I just wanted to make sure cuz like I said I actually do read the notes on a lot of these detailed drawings. So that because that's what I do for a living. So I just wanted to make sure that we are doing it to the city and not to ACD. So

yes and Councilman Tommont we will make verify that during time of construction documents. We typically just review um for the overall capacity of our systems at this time. That's it. That's all I got. All right. Thank you councelor Del. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] Uh, next we're going to hear from the staff. So, please staff please come up.

Thank you, mayor and council. Katie Wright, senior planner, 205 South 6th Avenue. Uh, before you tonight is deal subdivision SUV 2412. Um, this application was originally submitted in early 2024 prior to current code and prior to current comp plan. So, it has been analyzed against the code and comp plan that was in place at the time of this submitt. The project location is.3 acre parcel located southeast of Third Avenue and Juliet Street. The project's currently surrounded by single family residential in all directions as well as some industrial to the northeast and some commercial to the southwest. Because of the reszone that was approved in 2024, which I'll touch on a little bit later, this site is zoned traditional neighborhood and staff finds the development is in compliance with the traditional neighborhood zoning code. The comp plan designation and development is traditional neighborhood as well and it meets the density as called out in the comprehensive plan. The applicant is requesting um a preliminary plat for the parcel outlined in red. The applicant submitted for a reszone Z2401 from R2 to TN in 2024 which was approved. This approval included a development agreement that included concept plans for a six lot single family attached subdivision which is what they're proposing today. The applicant submitted the preliminary PLA uh application at the same time as the reszone. they just had a few things to button up before coming before you. Uh, which is why the development agreement was put into place essentially to ensure that they'd be held to construct the plan they originally brought before you. The applicant is proposing a preliminary plat for six single family attached homes. This plat is in alignment with the development agreement on this parcel and the proposed development project has been analyzed for compliance with city codes and policies and staff finds the proposed development will be in compliance with all parking and

landscaping requirements, bulk standards for lot size setbacks, frontage and height of buildings and all other zoning and subdivision ordinances. The proposed development will have adequate site access and all utilities will be available as outlined in the engineering staff report and public agencies were notified and asked to provide comments. The only agency that had any comments was Caldwell School District. They mentioned they believed this would provide attainable housing opportunities for families within the school district and the schools in the area have plenty of capacity. They also mentioned they're wanting more crosswalks and signage for uh safe walking routes adjacent to this development. And there were no public comments submitted. On December 10th hearing, the planning and zoning commission recommended approval for the application with a few additional conditions of approval such as prior to submittal of building permits. The applicant shall work with staff to improve the architectural elevations of the town homes to include more masonry type materials such as stone, brick, etc. Uh based on the applicant's presentation, it does look like they're working towards that. Uh staff will ensure that the elevations at time of building permit reflect the modifi modifications necessary. And the other condition the commission added was regarding conversation around the existing power lines on the property. Uh these power lines are to remain unless otherwise required by Idaho Power. This condition has been removed as it has been met. And in summary, staff concludes that the development proposal is in uh conformance with all city codes in the comprehensive plan and all approval criteria as listed within the code. However, council has the ability to approve or deny the application once they've heard all testimony and evidence of record. If council decides to approve the request, staff recommends that such request is subject to conditions as specified in the findings of facts, conclusions of law, and order of decision. Thank you. And I stand for questions.

All right. Thank you. Any questions from council for staff tonight? Councelor Dberg, go ahead. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Katie, thanks for your presentation. I appreciate it. And I appreciate the presentation by the uh by the applicant. And so I'm just looking down through a list that we were uh provided here earlier today. And so I want to ask these questions specifically and and and uh and and and since this is a court and you're testifying uh I I want to ask these questions to make sure that these answers go in the record. And so the first question is is uh is this plat in compliance with all the city code? Mayor and councelor Denbury. Yes, it is.

Okay. The second question is is this plat consistent with the comprehensive plan? Mayor and counselor Denbury. Yes, it is. And I would suspect that these are gratuitous questions and you wouldn't be up here if they weren't. But I just want to make sure that as uh as we answer these questions, if there is a possibility to deny this, we can go back to each and every one of these and uh and take to task what you're answering here. So, uh public services and amenities are available to the development

mayor and counselor. They are or will be available um as outlined in the engineering staff report. Okay. And uh is the plaque consistent with uh the city's transportation and engineering plans with regards to access to the property? Mayor and counselor. Yes. Okay. And then the final one uh it does the subdivision according to our comprehensive plan meet the uh meet the elements of what would be included in a uh in a subdivision or in a development that takes into consideration the surrounding area. Mayor and counselor. Yes. At the time this was submitted. Yes, it does.

And so with with all your questions answered in the affirmative that this does meet the strict requirements of uh of our comprehensive plan which does meet the strict requirements of of Idaho code. Is there anything that was sidestepped or skipped or or did we overlook anything in this application to grant uh this favorable uh outcome?

Mayor and counselor. Um they they requested no waiverss, no variances. Um when they did the reszone, the development agreement was put in place. That concept plan is in that development agreement. And what they've brought forward today is merely the exact same as it is in the development agreement. So they're in compliance with the development agreement, the code, the comp plan when it was submitted. Um so they they have not asked for any waiverss or variances of any kind for this this project. Thank you,

mayor and council, if I might interject. Um, thank you for asking through those questions. However, I want to remind the council that we do need to wait until we get through public testimony and go through due process for all the evidence of record before council can determine if it truly does conform with the city code and the comprehensive plan. Thank you. Any other questions? Been duly noted.

M Mr. Mayor, if I can if I can write right in on that comment too. I just want to make it clear for the record that the opinions of staff are are recommendations and not to be the findings for the council, but it is the recommendation of staff. Just to make that clear.

Thank you, officer. Any other questions? All right. Now, we'll open up the public hearing to anyone that has signed up to testify. Now is their opportunity to speak for up to three minutes. Um, here's the signup sheets. We have Thank you. You may be seated. Um, we have none in favor. There's no neutral. And we do have four opposed. Uh, they I believe they left, but they did not wish to provide public testimony. So, with that, [clears throat and cough] since we've completed the public hearing and there's no further council questions, um, the public hearing is now closed. The council can discuss the application before making motions and voting. council register and then we'll follow up with councelor Denver.

Thank you. Um do do we have any information on the people that left why they were opposed to it? No. Okay. Um as we were going through this, I think I'm almost positive that I walked through one of your town homes in Nampa. Um, I don't you don't have to tell us where it was, but I I I remember seeing a development like this in Nampa, southern South Indian, so I don't know if that was yours or not, but it was very nice. Um, I love that this is not in Valley View School District. Um, I love the price point. I think it's very thoughtful. I like what you're doing with the um, elevations. I like that you're going to be taking out a home that maybe isn't serving the area anymore. I think that it looks really nice and I just wanted to put that out there and I hope that um whatever goes going on with the irrigation is going to work for you. Um, but I just wanted to note that and then just see if we had any information as to why they were opposed to it because to me it looks like a nice project that's not too big in in going to enhance that area. No, nothing.

Mayor and counselor, I do not know. Uh, we didn't receive any public comments, so unfortunately I'm not sure why they signed up in opposition. Do you have Were you guys told anything of any opposition? Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Council Register. Councelor Dinberg,

Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Uh I want to um Yeah, maybe I don't want to say anything. Uh this is a great project. It It looks good. It's an infill project. It's what we need in this area. And um and and I would hope that our that our our standard is when we look at projects like this and we consider whether or not they're a good fit for our community that we are determining whether or not they are in in accordance with what we've outlined in our comprehensive plan. And I think that it meets that criteria. Uh, and if the criteria is is that uh we shouldn't build duplexes or twostory houses next to a to a one-story house, then I have three houses on my street I would like you to remove because they're potentially interfering with the view in my backyard. So, uh it's uh I understand that that is a concern, but uh I don't think it's a legitimate concern to uh to turn down an application. Um uh so having said that based upon the findings of facts and the conclusions of law I make a motion that we approve preliminary plat for deal subdivision a residential subdivision with single family attached uh town home uh dwelling units and approve the development as proposed. All right, a motion. Do we have a second?

Second. A motion in a second to approve case SUB24-00000012 preliminary plat for deal subdivision, a residential subdivision with six family single family attached town home units. All right. All those in favor for that motion, vote I. And those against no. All right, that motion passes. All right, next on the agenda is bill number one and ordinance number 3735 to annex Valencia Village subdivision phase number one in the Cobalt Municipal Irrigation District. Do we have a motion for that? Mr. Mayor.

Yes. Um, I'd like to make a motion to sponsor bill number 83, ordinance number 3735, annexing Valencia Village subdivision phase number one into the Caldwell Municipal Irrigation District.

All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? All right, that's a motion to sponsor bill number 83, ordinance number 3735, annexing Valencia Village subdivision phase number one into the Cobalt Municipal Irrigation District. All those in favor vote I and those against vote no. All right, the eyes have it. The next item on the agenda is the finance report. Mr. Mayor,

yes. The finance committee has reviewed curtain accounts payable amount of $3,629,96.14 period ending January 13, 2026 and net payroll of 925,77858 for pay period December 27th, 2025. I move that the accounts payable in the amount of 3,629,000 96.14 represented by checks number 190700 through 191081 in electronic payments and payroll for the amount of 925,77858 represented by checks numbers 4691 through 4701 and direct deposits be accepted, payments approved and vouchers filed in the office of the city.

Just real quick, did anyone have any questions for Raylin before I entertain a second? All right, we have a motion from councelor Stoic. Do we have a second? Second. All right, a motion is second. Motion is approved the finance report. The council members now can cast their votes in favor or against. All right, the motion carries. All right, the next item on the agenda is reports from council and then the mayor. Um, we will start with councelor stood this week. Rotate. Nothing council register.

Um, the only thing I want to say is that I'm still going to the Golden Gate irrigation meetings um every month and they are plugging along. Um the we are having some brainstorming sessions um about just some different things that I'm going to be bringing to the mayor at some point and then I guess you'll decide what you want to bring back to council if anything at all. Um but we're still not officially I guess um going to the meetings, but I'm still going to the meetings. Um and I think that was pretty much it. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Williams. Nothing tonight.

All right. Nothing tonight. Councelor Denber, Councelor Tilmont. Wow, it was a quick meeting. Um, just want to say, you know, this is my third week on the job. I can't believe how wonderful the staff is. You guys do so much behind the scenes that a lot of the public does not see. I think our first responders here, they have a very hard job and they do it admirably and they do it well. So, I just want to say I'm thoroughly impressed on our staff and of course our first responders that are protecting us each and every day night. Other than that, uh hopefully we can get this bridge replaced in a quick and timely manner so we don't uh detour traffic for too long. So just please tell your family, friends, if you know they travel the area that's going to be closed down here soon. And other than that, uh this meeting will be journed for tonight. Thanks for your time and attention.