City Council - Regular Meeting

2:53 – 3:39•JMJordan Morales

I'd like to request that we, the roll call tonight on this one, I will not be supporting this motion. This is the second nomination that we've had from County Commission in my short time here on Council where, yeah, their District 19 legislative candidate, I think that looking at their platform, looked at some more information, I couldn't quite see the it may be the value that could be brought to this commission and i would like to see if we can get more um geographic representation on the commission as it is now thank you clerk nash yes ted yes willis yes corliss yes holly burton yes morales

5:44 – 6:31•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Madam Mayor, if I could just add one more. Bill, thank you for continuing to serve our city. As it's been noted, these are all community members. They're volunteers. They're volunteering their own expertise, whether it's professional expertise or lived experience. And it makes our decisions on council easier. A lot of times you're making a decision at an airport level, commission level, or a parks and rec level that are filtering all the way up. or even people who have specialty in plumbing and mechanical stuff that we aren't going to have that same level of technical expertise and that makes

13:20 – 14:12•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yeah, Madam Mayor, just to be clear on this one, we're not declaring a drought emergency with this ordinance. But really what we're doing is acknowledging the challenges that we have with water in Boise, especially with years like we saw this year where we have low snowpack and not as much water. and making sure that going forward that we have the ability to declare an emergency and go through measures if we need to and really those measures come in a phased approach that we talked about during our work session today starting with education and outreach moving to voluntary action and then in a

15:03 – 20:13•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Mayor, maybe I can kick us off here. I imagine that there will be a couple of other comments from other council members and perhaps you as well. This is an ordinance that some of our staff, and I'd like to recognize Emily Brie, our legal team, has put a lot of work into helping navigate what is sort of a situation where technology has evolved faster than regulations. and really what this ordinance is doing is defining what an emoto is and what an emoto isn't so a lot of times we see these new devices that are on the road and maybe it's an e-bike maybe it's an e-scooter a skateboard a one-wheel

24:12•KCKathy Corless

Not in there. Yes, I was going to make a comment on the emotes, but I will.

24:20 – 26:27•KCKathy Corless

um it's been so long since we've had a full meeting um remote that i'm not looking at the screen go ahead council member okay thank you i will just uh take a quick minute to kind of put a comment also in for a district three i hear a lot i mean public safety is our most fundamental uh responsibility and i feel that's exactly why um for me and many council voting yes tonight i want to take a moment to explain why i believe this action is necessary and urgent Over the past several months, our offices heard from parents, neighbors, and community members across Boise who are alarmed at what they'r

28:12 – 28:27•JMJordan Morales

Any questions for staff man mayor yeah just to reiterate our conversation that we had when this was before us before. The so we're getting for home sites, but each of those four homes could have an ad you so potentially eight units of housing, but for home sites correct. That is correct thanks.

31:55•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yeah, Madam Mayor, just one quick question. So I think that this one originally came in front of us at an earlier date, and then it was deferred. Any reason for the deferral?

32:12•JHJimmy Hallyburton

So technical error caused the deferral, technical error asking for the rezone. That's correct. Hopefully tonight we can fix a couple of technical errors. All right.

33:24 – 33:48•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yeah, Madam Mayor, just real quick. You know, usually when there's a rezone, there's a lot bigger discussion, a lot more stuff going on. You know, we've got some really old maps of the city, lots that have been developed a long time ago. And so sometimes we end up seeing these errors on the map where things just don't make sense. And so I think this is pretty straightforward, pretty easy, making sure that we're just getting the line where it needs to be and following all the existing code that we always follow. So, yep.

39:29 – 39:49•KCKathy Corless

I have pointers of clarification for Matt. So as I understand, the square footage today is roughly 8,400 square feet, and they're moving to 14,000 plus square feet. Is that correct? Or are they adding 14,000 more?

40:00 – 40:14•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Matt, Mary couple questions when I think more just sort of on the process side, so this is coming up for to us as an appeal today had it not been appealed would it still would have come to Council as a cup or a variance request or would it not have.

40:21 – 40:48•JHJimmy Hallyburton

uh provide the final decision on condition to use permits so the only time that council would decide our condition to use permit is if it was through an appeal like this process then what about the variance part um i guess if the applicant agrees to the variance in the or agrees to the conditions that are put in the pnz meeting it doesn't necessarily come but typically if there was a variance um for some reason i thought that that would have come up through us as well had they been asking for that variance

41:18 – 41:45•JHJimmy Hallyburton

got another question I think it falls outside of the grounds of the appeal i've never seen us put in a condition to require permeable pavers before and i'm wondering if that is somewhere. Somewhere in our comprehensive plan or code I definitely understand the intention with groundwater retention, but I also understand how expensive permeable papers are so. I know that that might be a little bit on the edge of what we're discussing tonight, but could you speak to that a little bit.

42:08 – 42:41•JHJimmy Hallyburton

I guess you know, maybe I would just add in if you have a comment i'd love to hear it. We love permeable papers right like. They're great. You know, we've got them in our alleyways. We've done a lot of work to do there for that groundwater retention. But there's also some other ways that people can do a parking lot as far as the way that the water, you know, runs off and recharges into, you know, different drainage areas to do some recirculation. Do we require any, you know, that separate one where we use like a pave areas and swales and stuff to recharge or is that not within our code either?

43:01•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yep, that are capturing some of that drainage and going back into the groundwater system.

43:11 – 43:33•JMJordan Morales

Madam Mayor. Hey, Matt. Thank you for being here. As you mentioned, this is on a roadway that's a collector street. I know this is ECHD's purview, but do you have kind of a basic definition that you could give of collector street? And just kind of confirm that I would say that all collector streets aren't equal in terms of how much they're handling in terms of traffic throughout the city, right?

44:39 – 45:02•JMJordan Morales

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and then follow up kind of good segue into Greenbelt. I think there was a little bit of confusion during planning and zoning on this pathway being Greenbelt, because maybe it's not what you'd expect. The Greenbelt along the river, right, that doesn't have road crossings or curb cuts. But we have a few spots throughout the city that are like this, where they tend to go briefly through a neighborhood or whatnot, have curb cuts, and I'm correct.

58:03 – 58:59•JMJordan Morales

Yeah, Madam Mayor. Brittany, first of all, thanks for being here. And I just say I've been on a lot of your communications and never came across like there's a personal vendetta. And I think I did see that comment and other public feedback. And I think that we all are... you know, deserve dignity and, and, um, noble intent in what we're presenting here. And I appreciate you laying out, you know, exactly what your issues are so that hopefully we can find a solution. Right. Um, what, I guess my one question for you is regarding the green belt and the curb cuts. Um, one curb, I don't even like sa

59:11 – 59:32•JMJordan Morales

um i'm not i i guess i don't even know like how that would happen is that something the city would initiate or can the neighbors initiate that or i well feedback potentially then the applicant could be prepared to talk about if they thought about it potentially that could be feedback for the applicant council that we can consider but just wanted to know so that's that's the answer that's good thank you thank you for your question

59:35 – 1:00:50•JHJimmy Hallyburton

yeah madam mayor um again thank you for being here it's never easy to stand down there um even when i go and testify sometimes at the state it's a lot easier to sit up here than it is to be standing yeah um i'm presenting so thanks for being here um you know one of the challenges i think that we sometimes face on city council is that when we hear public testimony you may hear somebody who's entirely for something or an audience who's entirely against something and we don't necessarily um stand up here kind of tallying you know who's in favor who's you know who wins that way and it really just

1:02:27 – 1:02:45•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yep. Thank you. And then any others? So you've kind of cited, I think, some safety concerns, some compatibility concerns, some fire access concerns. I was on that fire, by the way, when I was on the Idaho City Hot Shots back in the day. Any other ones that you wanted to highlight?

1:06:04•KCKathy Corless

The record, however, does not support this claim.

1:17:57 – 1:18:19•JMJordan Morales

Mademir, thanks for being here, Pastor. Appreciate your comments as well. Thank you for sharing those ahead of your remarks. Kind of brought this up with Brittany. So curious if throughout the iteration process for this development, I mean, considering the pathway and it is frequently used, especially on beautiful Sundays in Boise, has there been thought to routing a pathway behind the building and

1:18:49 – 1:19:12•JMJordan Morales

Yeah, great. When I'm looking at it, it looks like you said, your property seems conducive to it. It's got that rear setback along the eastern edge. Would there be, and I guess this is something maybe for you guys to discuss, but an opportunity to propose having a, you know, if you would be willing to grant some sort of kind of pathway easement along that setback that you're not using anyways.

1:20:02 – 1:20:47•JHJimmy Hallyburton

pastors and maybe city council members are good at saying yes to a lot of really good ideas when sometimes the reality might be a little bit different. um so with the pathway and easements and a variety of other things that go in there certainly i think something to look at my question is more related to specific conversations with the fire department and if you could kind of expand a little bit more on any questions concerns that they've had or if that actually isn't a reality you can speak to that as well but just wanting to note that that was one of the concerns that was brought up to us i

1:21:12 – 1:21:45•JHJimmy Hallyburton

great that's kind of what i figured usually they're flagging stuff for us i'll follow up with staff on a similar question related to conversations with with fire um generally i think i would disagree that uh more parking is the solution and not the problem on a lot of things i can see how that's probably the case uh you know with a church when you've got that many people coming in and out um do you think that this will reduce the amount of people that are parking on the street do you think that there will still be some on-street parking can you talk a little bit about the impact that you may h

1:22:18 – 1:22:41•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yeah, I would imagine even with that max capacity in your church, hopefully people are carpooling or coming with family. So it probably operates a little bit different than you might see in a regular household. Thank you. I guess the only other thing that I would note is that while, again, I'm going to say I love the idea of these permeable pavers, whoever your architect, but mainly the fundraiser, I think was my concern when I brought that up because I know how much

1:41:04 – 1:41:15•JMJordan Morales

Great. Thank you. Madam Mayor, quick question for Brett before you get back there. Yes. Awesome. Answer briefly. Yeah, it's just a yes or no. Does a pathway around the back of the property get you as hyped as the pastor?

2:08:42 – 2:09:11•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yeah, Madam Mayor, a couple quick questions. Sometimes when we have a development come in front of us, whether it's a CUP, rezone, subdivision, sometimes they're required to do street improvements. So when there's additional traffic that's coming in, that they're adding additional safety measures, I'm wondering if you know in the history, you know, when the church was built, if it had to do any modifications to the green belt, you know, that section, if it was responsible for paying for any of those costs, or if it's been involved in any of the, you know, kind of bike ped improvements that are

2:12:37•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yeah, Madam Mayor, a couple of questions here. I'll start with, I don't think we have anyone from ACHD here, right?

2:12:48 – 2:13:02•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Oh, wonderful. If ACHD could just speak to a little bit as far as their requirements for when they have to do a traffic study or the requirements that they would have on an application like this as far as weighing what sort of changes may or may not need to happen.

2:13:18 – 2:13:58•JHJimmy Hallyburton

thank you mayor uh and council member uh sorry while you were asking the question i was loading into the zoom so i wasn't able to capture it yep no worries at all um now i can actually see you while i'm asking the question so the question is there was quite a few folks who uh had some questions related to why wasn't there a traffic study required for this and that they believe that there should be i'm wondering if you can speak to when achd determines whether or not a traffic study needs to happen with the development and then also what are you know the requirements that are what are you weigh

2:14:13•JHJimmy Hallyburton

And I might interrupt. I'm a little hard of hearing you. See if you can talk maybe just a little bit louder.

2:17:32•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Great Thank you that was really helpful and again I appreciate you hanging in here all night with us it's almost 830 and you're still here, so you might probably started at 9am in the morning, so thank you.

2:17:45 – 2:18:05•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Yeah, Madam Mayor, not related to ACHD. So the other question I think that we've heard a little bit is related to fire. And I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about that process, the conversations that we have with fire, how they weigh whether or not they approve, and did they in fact, you know, look at this application and let us know that there wasn't concerns on their end related to fire access?

2:19:23 – 2:20:06•JMJordan Morales

Matt, so just looking at condition six and seven, looking at those mitigation, trying to get more safety. I think the videos are presented were really insightful. I think. Is there an opportunity for this applicant to consider new new methods of safety and security, such as, you know, we're talking about this, you know, public pathway easement along the back, which would take Idaho Power, you know, connection on the other side. So it's not something that could necessarily be wrapped up here tonight, even if they wanted to. But, you know, that would kind of be wrapped into those discussions tha

2:21:07 – 2:21:43•KCKathy Corless

Madam Mayor, I do have a question for staff. We heard a lot tonight about the loss of the community garden in the area. and i understand that this is um as i read through this i believe that this is actually private on private property with idaho power and i wondered if you could just explain how that does or does not impact um what we're calling for our city's goal for food production and local food production not america council member corliss thank you for the question

2:23:16 – 2:27:57•JHJimmy Hallyburton

Madam Mayor, I'm going to give a motion to shot here. It's a little bit new to us with these de novo bills and making sure that we're doing it correctly. So I'm going to move that we partially deny the appeal and partially grant the CUP with changes to condition five related to the permeable pavers just making sure that they're meeting the requirements that we already have for paving runoff and groundwater recharge and then modifying condition six to include on both intersections when evaluating safety to consider the use of a raised crosswalk so that when they're going across the greenbelt th

2:31:01 – 2:34:33•JMJordan Morales

Madam Mayor. Thank you. I want to thank Brittany. I want to thank all the neighbors that came out. I think President Berg of the Southeast Neighborhood Association really hit it on the head about how this, the differing, as we said, multiple viewpoints that came out. But I want to specifically call out, especially tonight, the way that that was shared. Council Pro Tem Corliss and I attended a conference last November. We learned about the Dignity Index. and um you should all look it up the dignity index this was all five plus on the index which was which is good that's where we want to be so i

2:38:14 – 2:40:38•KCKathy Corless

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to echo Council Willett's statement by saying I really appreciate everyone coming out tonight. You have a lot of choices with your time and what you can do. And I think helping to talk about these projects, whether you're for it against it or want to see some modifications, again, our voices together make a better outcome for these type of projects. I will be supporting this motion tonight. I read through the record. I listened to PNZ. I read through all the comments from the original and new ones that we received. And while I may have personal opinions on the pr