Planning and Zoning - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome tonight's to tonight's planning and zoning commission meeting for May 7th. At this time, I would like to call the meeting to order. The commissioners are who are present tonight for this meetings evening's meeting are here at city hall. We also have staff from the city clerk, city attorneys and the city clerk's department as well as the city's planning department. If you're joining us on Zoom this evening, we can see that you are here. However, your observe your you may observe the meeting. However, your ability to be seen on screen and talk will be muted. During the public testimony portion of the meeting, you'll be unmuted and then be able to comment. Please note that we cannot take comments until the public testimony portion of the meeting. If you've got a process question during the meeting, please email city clerk@mercity.org and they will reply as soon as they can. If you simply want to watch the meeting, we encourage you to watch it on our city's YouTube channel and you can stream that at meridiancity.org backlive. With that, we will begin with roll call. Madame clerk.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Delamino, Commissioner Perau, here. Commissioner Stole here. Commissioner Smith here. Chairperson Lure here. The first item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. There are no changes to tonight's agenda. Could I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? Move to approve as presented. Seconded. It's been moved and second to approve tonight's agenda. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda, which are to approve the minutes of the planning and zoning meeting from April 16th. Could I get a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Seconded.

It's been moved and second to present or to accept the consent agenda. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. At this time, I would briefly like to explain the public hearing process. We will open each item individually and begin with the staff report. Staff will report their findings on how the item adheres to our comprehensive plan and our unified development code. After staff has made their presentation, the applicant will come forward to present their case and respond to staff's comments. They will have 15 minutes to do so. After the applicant has finished, we will open the floor to public testimony. Each person will be called only once during public testimony. The clerk will call the names individually for those who have signed up in advance. On our website, you may come to the microphones and chambers or you'll be unmuted in Zoom. Please state your name and address for the record. You will have three minutes to address the commission. If you have previously sent pictures or presentation for the meeting, it will be displayed on our screen and our city clerk will help you run the presentation. If you've established that you are speaking on behalf of a larger group like an HOA where others from that group will allow you to speak on your behalf on their behalf, you will have up to 10 minutes. After all those who have signed up in advance have spoken, we will invite any other people on Zoom or in chambers to testify. You may press the raise hand button on Zoom. You may come to the microphone in chambers. Or if you're on a telephone, please press star 9 and wait for your name to be called. If you're listening on multiple devices, such as a computer and a phone, please be sure to mute those extra devices so we do not experience feedback and we can hear you clearly. When you have finished, if the commission does not have questions for you, you will return to your seat in chambers or be muted on Zoom and no longer have the ability to speak. And remember, we will not call upon you on a second time. After all testimony has been heard, the applicant will be given another 10 minutes to come back and to

respond to public comments. When the applicant has finished responding to questions and concerns, we will close the public hearing. The commissioners will have an opportunity to discuss and hopefully make final decisions or recommendations to city council as needed. The first item on the agenda is item 2026-007 Eustic Commercial at 59 West Eustic Road for annexation preliminary plat and a comprehensive plan amendment. I spoke with our city attorneys um today because me personally as a c citizen of Meridian but also a member of this um commission I live at 6330 West Eustic which is less than a quarter mile away from the proposed property and in the statute it does say that um if there's an immediate or direct economic impact of any um plan uh planned use for land that I need to recuse myself And because this may increase or decrease the value of my property being so close to this area, it's in the best interest of the city that I recuse myself. So, I'm going to hand this to Jared who is the vice chair and he will take it from there and when this application is done, I will come back. Thanks.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Think we'll just wait one moment and then we'll begin with staff report. Thank you commissioners. Uh presenting the first item for you this evening as um com president or president madam chair lord has mentioned uh first item is the US commercial and mcustic subdivision application before you. The requests are a comp plan amendment, annexation, and a preliminary plat. The reason why you see the applications broken up the way they are is because uh as you are aware with comprehensive plan map amendments, the city processes those twice a year. uh this particular application was uh the the comp plan amendment was submitted prior to the December 15th 2025 deadline and later the annexation and the ply plant came after that date. So that's why you have a 2025 application number for the comp plan amendment and then a 2026 application number for the plat and annexation. Um you can see here on the screen that future land use designation for this particular property is currently medium density residential. It's currently in Ada County zone RU and it's u it does have a county residence on it and the site is approximately 4 acres and it's located at 59 5900 West Ustik Road and that's roughly the northeast corner of McDermac bypass and Ustick Road. So, um, first application I'll spend some time on is the comp plan amendment. And the reason why I want to at least spend the most time on this is, as you probably are aware, staff is recommending denial of this particular application. Um, you can see here the applicant is proposing to change this 4 acres from

MDR to commercial. Um, as part of the application submitt, the applicant did provide written justification as to why they felt commercial made more sense on this particular site. Um, as part of the comp plan, and I'll get into th the their justification a bit in my presentation. As part of the comprehensive plan map change, staff also requested that ACHD require the applicant to go through a a full traffic study. Typically a development of this size, we wouldn't do that. But because of the transportation impacts in the area or all the transportation improvements in the area, we felt that it was warranted. Uh given the fact that our current comprehensive plan, as you can see on the excerpt on this slides, we're trying to minimize access to those u to uh USIK and we're also trying to minimize intensive land uses next to the state highway 16 interchanges. And so that's why it was critical for this applicant to provide justification. Um so this graphic that I'm showing you now shows the the chip the trip generations between the proposed use and the current use. You can see based on numbers um that ACD provided to staff. The commercial would have significant increase on the adjacent roadways in the area. Um and that was one of the primary reasons why staff is recommending denial of this particular project or the comp plan amendment I should say. Um so here is the the applicant's justification. Again this is is paraphrased from their narrative. Uh uh the narrative itself contained five pages and is part of the public record. Um you can see the applicant has three three themes to his justification of why commercial makes sense on this site. uh one is why two is why residential doesn't work here and then timing of development. I think some of the commission's also aware that there's an adjacent development uh next to this property. So the

applicant has also been working with other developers in the area for the coordination of utilities to this particular property. I think the commission is aware that ACD is is currently in the process of widening USK road uh in conjunction with the Hawaii High School when it went in. That's one of their requirements and also with the state highway 16 project. And so as you know when the new road is finished uh ACD will limit the amount of curb cuts you can have in that road for the utility extension. So when Dayring subdivision to the south of this particular development came in, the developer was able to work with the city on a uh cooperative development agreement for the extension of the sewer the Mcder McDermac sewer trunk line from McDermott Road all the way down through Eustic to serve not only their site but also other developments in this property. And so the applicant wants to make sure that if that is happening that utilities can be provided to this site. Um here you can also see in this graphic the Durango development which is will be in front of you on May 28th. I won't go into too many de details uh re regarding that project but in our staff report we did note that this does have an impact as to why the the applicant is proposing commercial on this site is because they're coordinating with them in that effort as well. So quickly, I I won't go into all of staff's reasons for denial, but u basically uh primary reasoning reasoning is timing. Um as we mentioned in the staff report, there's uh quite a few a lot of commercial planned in the area. There's a node next to Hawaii High School as part of the mixeduse regional area. It's about 4 acres as an applicant did note and that has not developed yet. The multifamily portion of it is nearing or under construction, but the applicant has no tenants or anybody uh slated for that particular development. As I mentioned to you, there's Dayr to the

south of this development right along the same US stick corridor. They were part of a mixeduse neighborhood on that side south side of the road. They had a commercial component as part of their development. Now, again, the reason why we don't see it is because sewer isn't available yet. That's really the the timing component of this. So, um, in staff's opinion, waiting until uh, all of this come to fruition and services are available is probably the best course of action from staff's perspective. And then, of course, uh, the applicant did provide a concept plan and I'll get into that a little bit more, but a lot of the uses on those that concept plan are autooriented uses. So, it didn't seem like it blended in well with uh the surrounding residential development in the area given the fact that the comp plan does and the UDC limits access to those major highways, major roadways like a UTIC and trying to maintain the integrity of the interchange there at State Highway 16. So as I mentioned to you the applicant is um if the comp plan amendment is not approved then the annexation and the plat will also not be approved because the project is predicated annexation and the preliminary plat are predicated on approval of the comp plan amendment but I did at least want to highlight some of the the work that the applicants provided on this application. So again, commercial comp plan designation is what is being proposed and to go along with that is the annexation to reszone 4.31 acres of land to the uh CC zoning district. Um this is the legal description that the applicant provided with the application. As part of that, they were also required to provide a proposed concept plan. Again, it shows um the the pro potential for development of a sea store and a fuel facility at

the hard corner. Um the coffee kiosk and then an oil changing a loop facility um located in this area here. Um and another drive-thru business as well. So again, you can see here a lot of drive-through activity and auto oriented type uses which uh didn't seem to fit um the vision for the property um in our opinion. Additionally, uh as I showed you with Dango coming around this, there is a potential for uh Stub Street to this property to the north. Um you can see here the applicant has provided a pedestrian connection there but with the the width of the sky pilot drain staff is unclear how that will provide adequate transition to the adjacent subdivision as well. And so uh we don't believe that these uses are compatible with the adjacent subdivision or future uh development as well. Again here's the proposed preliminary plat. applicant is proposing four lot subdivision. Uh you can see here one access is proposed off of McDermott bypass uh which is currently under the jurisdiction ITD and won't I staff does not know when ACD will take jurisdiction over that roadway. And then you can see here the applicant is proposing a rightin ride out onto UTIC to be shared with the adjacent property owner. Uh based on ACD and city policies, uh ACD is not supporting the right in ride out access to ACD, nor does our city policy allow for that access point. Uh ACD did state that they are open to the Mc McDermac bypass uh access because it's a lesser classified roadway than Ustic is. So this will be a future collector potentially um is what this will be designated as. And Ustic is an arterial. So again, if the if and when

ACD gets this um and the applicant um is successful with their project and they would have to work with ACD in the future as ITD has said no to the access currently. And then of course with uh the development of the property, the applicant will be required to put in landscape buffers along both Ustick and McDermate bypass roadway. The applicants also provided conceptual building elevations for the proposed structures on the site. And I also wanted to step back to one that Durango graphic here too. I also wanted to mention that the applicant is required or would be required to is working with the developer to get cross access across these lots here to tie into the local street network as well. And that's why ACD was supportive of that access and felt that this access alone could be supported by the commercial development if it's approved. So if I had a chance to look at the public record, uh staff has not received any written testimony on this particular item. Again, staff is recommending denial of the comprehensive plan map amendment. Uh therefore, that subsequently denies the annexation and the pre-plat. With that, I'll conclude my presentation. staff for any questions you may have.

Commission have any questions for staff? Mr. Chair, uh Mr. Vice Chair. Yeah, Commissioner Justina. Uh Bill, quick question. Has uh ITD provided any written comments on the application yet? Uh Mr. Vice Chair, members of the commission, they did after the print date. their their right their comments are in in the record and again they said no access to the bypass but uh they had no concerns with the development. Thank you. The applicant like to come forward please state your name and address for the record.

Thank you commissioners. My name is Ethan Mansfield with Hawkins Companies, 855 West Broad Street, Boisee, Idaho 83702. Um, I'd love uh I just want to thank Bill for uh presenting kind of the nuts and bolts of the application. Um, it certainly is autocentric and I'm going to spend a lot of my time tonight kind of explaining a little bit about why that is. So, as you know, here is the project. It's located on the northeast corner of McDermott Bypass and Ustick Road. It's about a third of a mile east of the state highway 16 on-ramp. Between the on-ramp and or sorry, between McDermott bypass and the on-ramp is mixeduse interchange. And that's the area that the city has decided to reserve for non-intense uses. Just to be clear, that area is on the left side or west side of the McDermott bypass, not on the right side of the McDermott bypass. So here is our conceptual plan and I do want to be clear we've had interests from multiple users more users than this site could support. So what this comprehensive plan show or concept plan shows is the most likely scenario for the development of this site and I'll talk to you about why we chose these users um momentarily. So, a couple notes. We do plan to add a landscape buffer per UDC1-3B-9C along the south side of the drive aisle or north side of the development. Um, we coordinated with Nampa Marine Irrigation District. This is the way the easement has to look. They're okay with the road in there, but they will not allow vegetation other than grass and they will not allow trees. They'll allow vegetation, not trees, in the easement. So, we thought this would be a good solution to allow them an access road and access to our development. Um, and

we will put the buffer on the south side outside of the ement so we can actually plant trees. Um, and uh this is what we're proposing comprehensive plan amendment to commercial annexation and zoning to CC community commercial and uh four lot prelimin. Um, another thing I'd like to add quickly before I move on is when we received the ACD correspondence, um, we, uh, are in agreement with the removal of that access to and from Ustick. So access would be taken solely from the McDermott bypass and I've spoken with Kendrick extensively at a at ITD and I've spoken with Dawn, Mindy and Christy at ACD and everyone's kind of rowing in the same direction with the transfer of the McDermott bypass to ACD and it will begin in three the process will kind of begin in three or four months which aligns perfectly with our timeline. we're not going to be able to start construction on this um for quite some time. So, we are not concerned so much about the timing. Um we're we're very much aligned with ITD and ACD about that. So, let's talk about the uses. So we are proposing autocentric uses and we're proposing autocentric uses because state highway 16 uh is an autocentric corridor. We we the community spent almost up to $700 million in vehicular transportation infrastructure for this corridor. We're literally building a river for cars and we're expecting up to 110,000 vehicles a day by 2045. And I double checked uh ACT or ITD study from 2020. 72,000 vehicles per day is expected uh in front of Ustick road. So

like along IT along state highway 16 on the Ustick bypass. So 72,000 vehicles. In addition, we have Eustic Road. ACD is widening Eustich to five lanes, two in either direction with a single uh turn lane in the middle. $10 million investment again in vehicular transportation infrastructure. The the stated goal of these these improvements is to move cars quickly from one place to another. It's it's it's to make commuting better. It's to make car driving a better experience. This is expected to serve 35,000 vehicles per day. So, I think about it kind of like this. If I'm building an if I'm investing $600 million in an office park, I'm anticipating office uses. If I'm investing $700 million in a vehicular transportation corridor, it would make sense to anticipate vehicular uses along this corridor because cars require gas, they require lubrication, they require cleaning, they require um people driving them require coffee. And so if it were not for a 600 or 700 million public investment in in this vehicular transportation infrastructure, this area probably wouldn't be under consideration for development at all. It probably wouldn't even be for sale. And you'll hear from the person who's selling it about why they're choosing to put it up for sale and move. So, as I said, you know, it it should come as no surprise based on our priorities as a community and where we're investing our money that this would develop with autocentric uses.

In addition, neither ACD nor ITD requested a traffic study for this project. It was requested solely by the city of Meridian. Um, and ACD approved the project with standard conditions. Hawkins is planning to pay for the 10-foot uh pathway, detached pathway frontage improvements along Ustik and along McDermott. Um and it's going to be constructed in concert with the Ustick road widening. Um so we will pay ACD will pay the road trust deposit. Um ACD says no mitigation is required and no alternative mitigation is required. Again, um it seems like we are all anticipating this sort of use along this corridor based on our investment priorities. So next I'd like to spend a little bit of time talking about autooriented uses and their impact on the comm on the surrounding road network. Um you know the staff report suggests and I think there's a widespread assumption that autocentric uses means there's more congestion more trips increased vehicle miles traveled more negative impact on the community and this simply isn't true. Um like if you look at the the data you can see that 65 that's twothirds of customers visiting this site based on our traffic analysis are pass by trips. What that means is they're already driving past the site. They're already driving past the site. They're already on the roadway. They're already in the area and they're turning right into our development. only a third of the trips are actually new trips added to the network as a result of this development on this corner. So, it's important to consider that that while you might have 2,950 trips coming in and out of the

driveways, 1,900 of those were already going to be on the roadway anyway. Another way to think about this is impact fees. Impact fees that are assessed by ACD literally measure the impact of the development on the public roadways. Impact fees fund the construction of new or expanded roadway infrastructure needed to accommodate the traffic generated by the development. It's in other words, it's the proportional cost of roadway capacity that new development is expected to consume. So when we look at impact fees, it gives us a really, really good idea about how impactful the development will be to the roadway network. So what it does is it avoids double counting, right? So we're not counting trips that start somewhere and end somewhere else but just stop by. And that's important because those trips are going to exist anywhere somewhere at any anyway, right? They're going to exist. Maybe just not on this particular place. But what that means just really quickly is that if they're not stopping here, those trips are stopping somewhere else, which means just inherently just in the way people make decisions, they're traveling farther than they normally would. So you're actually increasing vehicle miles traveled. And I'll explain that a little more in a minute with a map. Um, but I'd like to just talk about impact fees associated with our proposal, the Durango commercial, and then the Daypring commercial to the south. just so we can compare and understand the true impact. Our proposal is shown here. Here's the table of impact fees up at the top. Just so you know, I'm not blowing smoke. Um, our proposal would generate $191,000 of impact, right? Impact to the surrounding roadway system per acre. That's 47750. $47,750. the Durango commercial, which includes

no drive-throughs and a 32,000 square foot area of, you know, shops. That could be restaurants, salons. The important thing is it's retail without a drive-thru per acre generates $14,493 in impact per acre. Now, again, this isn't like revenue to ACD. What this is is ACD collecting money that reflects the impact of the development. So, if you look at Daypring, which was recently approved to the South, they're proposing 60,000 ft of shopping center, no drive-throughs, no gas stations, 97,962 per acre. So, truly truly based on math that ACD engineers are doing, the impact on the surrounding community and on the roads is double for those uses. Um, here's a quick comparison between three different restaurant categories. In case you don't believe me, ACD is charging more for the impact of fast food with no drive-through and fast casual than they do with food with drive-thru. So again, these are just math equations that represent the anticipated impact of these different uses on the road. And because we're asking for a comprehensive plan amendment away from medium resid residential dens medium density residential, excuse me, to our proposal commercial, I just wanted to do a quick comparison there of the impact fees associated with each eight units per acre of medium of single family homes is $46,424 uh per acre in impact. Our proposal barely more than that. And again, that's because of the pass by trips. That's because there's already going to be thousands and thousands of trips on this network that we're building to

accommodate vehicles. And you can see with this square, this square outside of in outside of this, there are no, I should say, there are no gas stations inside of this square. There are no coffee shops with drive-thru inside of this square. They're all on to the right on that name of that road escapes me, but they're um not within this square. So any trip any trip that originates or ends in this square and is driving to Highway 16 to get gas or driving to Highway 16 to commute, if they get gas anywhere but here, they're increasing the vehicle miles that they would travel to do it. They're adding more stress to the roadway somewhere else. That's why you see gas that gas stations at the intersections of state highways, state freeways, because that's where the most cars are getting on and off and using the transportation infrastructure. It makes sense to put auto oriented uses here so you get fewer of them other places. So, let's just talk a little bit briefly about the impact of noise, light, and odor on residential development. Um, you know, medium density residential would suggest, um, the current land use map would suggest that you should put medium residential up on Ustick. That's 35 ft. There's a 35 ft buffer requirement from the edge of Ustick pavement. There's 35,000 vehicles per day anticipated to be driving up and down Ustick. It truly may not be the most appropriate place for residential single family homes. Alternatively, we could put commercial here to the north. We could put residential. Those residences would be subject to 4580 vehicles per day and they would be 61 ft from that with a buffer provided

by the um Durango subdivision to the north. and they'd be 183 feet from our closest building. As you'll see momentarily, as well as our as well as our landscape buffer here. And you'll see momentarily that this is reasonably um common. Actually, this is much much farther than the distances provided in many other residential developments as a buffer. You know, here's Dayr. You can see the nearest roadway is 31 ft from the fence. The nearest building is 65 ft from the fence. Here's a few other buffers. 84 feet from car wash to building. 38 ft from coffee to building. 70 feet from building to Walmart. 140 ft from this building. But there's two drive-through lanes between it. 60 ft from building to gas station. 50 ft. 75 ft. So this is not an it's actually it's a much greater distance than most of these. So finally, you know, we're looking at, you know, where is the appropriate place to put residential? It's probably not on the corner where you have 35,000 vehicles stacking at a lighted intersection throughout the day and throughout the night. It's probably much farther north where you're buffered by commercial uses and and you can look and see that the number of vehicles is substantially similar. There's a couple hundred more when you when you combine both ours and and Durango, but not more than that not more than um Daypring to the South. So, I've done the market analysis in

summary. Auto oriented investment drives auto oriented uses. The uses that we are proposing are less impactful to the roadway network than other commercial uses and similar in intensity to residential uses. Residential units on Ustick would be far more negatively impacted by noise, light, and odor than where they are currently proposed. And we have interest for more tenants than we can support on this site. And each of these users has performed an extensive amount of market analysis to optimize site selection. So with that, I'll just respectfully request approval or recommendation of approval for 2559 and 2607 to city council. Thanks.

Thank you. Are there any questions for the applicant or staff? Mr. Perau,

thank you. Um, so I pulled up the city of Nampa's future planning and uh current applications and whatnot and I don't see that there's anything actively going on there on uh on the other side of McDermott on the west side of McDermott. Have you reached out to them? Do you have any idea kind of what the intention is? because obviously we have Nampa, Meridian, and Eagle that are all going to have access to 16 and be invested in Highway 16 financially. And I'm just wondering, you know, if is this the place for this to go if if we have I mean, should it be in the city of Nampa and not in the city of Meridian? um or you know and and Eagle you know the where they're developing that's a little too far north for kind of the central area but curious if you had looked into that or not.

Yeah actually um Commissioner Perau uh Commissioner Smith I we have actually spoken with the city of Nampa a little bit. This corridor is in a highway 16 specific plan in Nampa and it is designated for um mixed use. I can't remember the exact terminology but basically multifamily and neighborhoods serving commercial uses. Um does that so you didn't see any commercial designations? No commercial designations there. Correct.

Okay. Um, can you talk to us a little bit about the timing of this hearing versus waiting for the Durango hearing and why that decision was made?

Yeah, certainly. So, I did not schedule the hearing. So, I was hoping that we could be heard concurrently with Durango. I actually recommended that to staff when we made our application just because I thought it would be helpful to see how the two um commercial areas interacted with one another. Um, one of the reasons that Durango was deferred from June or July was because we brought to their attention a cross opportunity um for their portion of the subdivision that was north of the sky pilot south of the sky pilot drain I'm sorry. So that roadway that runs across there that was originally proposed kind of to isolate our 4acre piece and we said well why don't we just do a do cross access so that it creates like a cohesive commercial corner that doesn't interact negatively with the residential. Um so we were really hoping that they could come in together. actually

um I didn't see on the concept plan for the commercial buildings uh a any kind of pedestrian connection to the east. What would that look like if that develops as office right there directly to the east? What is is there anticipated to be coordination for movement?

Uh Commissioner Perau, absolutely. So, we have a few connections to the east as well as we've kind of committed to straight straightening out this connection to the north. Um, it currently has like this little jog that looks like this. So, I just really quickly wanted to mention that we're committed to straightening that out to make it a real easy uh pedestrian connection into the neighborhood to become like a corner store amenity for that neighborhood. Um on on the east side we have the main sidewalk that runs south of the drive aisle. We have one shown in the middle here and we have one shown south of building D as well as the 10-ft pathway along the frontage that's going to be required of all you know it's going to be constructed with the Ustick. So, um, we can absolutely commit and we have already started. We're still very preliminarily site planning, right? Because this is a hearing about use, but we've absolutely committed to planning for connectivity there. We're not going to build a sidewalk into a back of a building.

So, to kind of follow on the question about Durango, um, Bill Ry, we do see pins twice a year. Is that right? So I think then this is our first one this year. So obviously I understand the time value of money and you want to get things done sooner than later, but is there any reason um why you know if Durango getting pushed back? Um I I'll kind of lay my cards on the table. I also agree that it doesn't I don't have maybe the same problems that staff might with automotive um or commercial uses here, but I'd like to see you know the existing commercial how that's going to look first. I don't want to take anything for granted all that kind of in given all of that. Is there any reason why you didn't say hey let's wait for that second CPAM once Durang goes through? Commissioner Smith, that's a great question. Um, we wanted Durango to come in first, but they were held up because of the sewer and also because of this little cross access situation that we we in a way kind of accidentally held them up because we wanted to have cross access here. So, the sewer was the biggest thing though, right? And so, what we've done is we've chatted with Toll Brothers to understand the timing of the sewer. The timing is essentially now. They're starting to gear up to install it. So really the sewer access to this area is what is now triggering so much interest in it and the people who understood that sewer would be coming are the people who got ahead of it, tried to entitle it, worked on entitling it like Durango. So really um I would be interested to know from staff why Durango hasn't been scheduled earlier because we really truly wanted it to be scheduled with us. The reason we didn't wait is because we felt like it had already been submitted. Um, everything had been applied for. They

weren't making changes to the application. Um, as far as waiting to see how the area developed, um, I'd like to just point really quickly to the regional mixed use that Bill was speaking about and just talk a little bit about that development's trajectory there. Um, I think it's important So the regional mixed use that Bill's referring to exists here. Um you can see that it is completely bisected by Highway 16. Right. So that's where um I I was under the impression that that's where the city has communicated that they do not want intense uses to go is immediately adjacent to Highway 16. So I'm a little confused by why the regional mixed use exists over Highway 16. Um however my main point is all of this with the exception of a small I don't know maybe 4 acre piece has developed into residential. So there is 4 acres of commercial. It has been been we know the broker quite well. He's actually Bronson's brother. We've been communicating with him and we even looked at purchasing it. The access is so so challenging. It's literally the off-ramp to that uh to to the from the state highway 16. So the access is is bad when we speak about you know where do users want to go? We've seen so much interest in this corner and they've been trying to lease their mixeduse regional corner with bad access for two years. So we know we can get leases on this one. Nobody wants to go on that one. To us that says something. To us that says this is the right place. That place may not be right.

Commissioners, any other questions? Commissioner Stole. So I'd be interested in hearing from staff on the potential of one at the same time.

Yeah, commissioners. happy to give you context on that. As applicants mentioned, there's a lot of moving parts here. Um, when the applicant first started working with us, um, we actually introduced them, I think, to Durango and said, "Hey, if we're going to do something, let's let's work together and try to make it and piece it together." So, have to give the applicant kudos for reaching out to them and and starting those conversations because they were in quite be a lot earlier than what they had anticipated. And so they went back to the drawing board, but part two of it uh Ethan the applicant is correct. The was the sewer. We met with the uh applicants, design professionals for Durango. We said, you know, we can go forward. You're continuous. There's nothing that says we can't annex you and do you plat but more than likely until we know how this cooperative development agreement works out for sewer between toll and the city uh more than likely you may get a recommendation for denial because you don't have services available to you. So they were uh gracious enough to pause their application, go back to the drawing board, uh try to add more office to their uh their development, work with the applicant. Unfortunately, when the applicant had to meet their deadline to get a comp plan amendment in, they were forced to meet that December 15th deadline and Ethan was very quickly reminded of that your preop said, "We wanted an annexation and a preop to go concurrent." And at that time, this property wasn't contiguous to city limits. He could not apply for annexation. And so staff extended some grace to the applicant on this application and that agreement got recorded and lo and behold Dayring to the South was annexed in Febru midFebruary and at that time Durango wasn't quite deemed complete yet either. So again as you know there's always a

timing component and things required and unfortunately it got close but we didn't get close enough. So we were we were three week three weeks apart. Um, and that's why we scheduled the special meeting for May 28th because the likely there may be an opportunity to get Durango caught up to this applicant at city council. Um, but at this point, that's kind of what's happened between the two applications and why they aren't coinciding or going together. Um, and that's why you have all of the comp plan amendments grouped up tonight because we try to take all those together at one time. So we're trying to to meet internal policy, also meet land application requirements, deadlines, and and then also making sure things are happening, properties are contiguous. So there, as you know, again, a lot of moving parts here to try to make that all work.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Sto, just confirm. So May 28th, we're going to be hearing Durango. Yes, you're going to be hearing Durango. Okay. Commissioners, any other questions? Possibly. One more. Commissioner Stole Ethan, uh, when do you you said construction is going to happen somewhere in the distant future. When do you expect to start?

Yeah, this is a great question, Commissioner Stole, and it relies kind of upon um infrastructure improvements arriving at the site as well as our preliminary plat. So, I anticipate, you know, that we could start, you know, if all goes well here, could start moving dirt, um, you know, as early as this fall. Um, I we'd like to, um, but again, there's so much contingent upon others and and, uh, the preliminary plat progressing through the system that I don't want to predict opening dates or anything.

No, that's fine. Any other questions? Thank you. Um, at this time we will take public testimony. Um, Madam Cler, has anyone signed up to testify? Thank you, Vice Chair Smith. I have Corey Faker and he has a presentation. Great. Uh Corey Thcker 5900 West property and question. You can use the arrow on the keyboard to kind of toggle through your presentation. Okay, it's up on the screen.

I actually had an entire presentation with all of this, but Ethan did a pretty darn good job. Uh, the thing that I want you to take a look at, this is what I bought. Th this is what happened in 2011. McDermott wasn't even next to my property. There was no Highway 16. There was no neighborhoods encroaching. It was it was heaven. It was exactly what I wanted property away from everything. Traffic was just minimal. Nothing there. Quiet. Then without asking people basically I mean they had their hearings but no one cares my opinion. They put in McDermott right next to my property. Then of course what they did is they put in Highway 16. Then what they did is you know contrary to the Idaho State Constitution ACD used the 2005 US Supreme Court to say no we're going to steal some of your property. I got six horses. The increase the changes what it's done to me. I've had one horse already killed by being hit by a car. I've had one horse because of the the McDermott bypass the they sprayed something and it got into my pasture. I come home and she's laying down and she can't even move. I had to put her down. I had another horse after the increase in traffic that it had to be a bullet hole cuz I can't explain what the hell it was. I've had all this kind of impact and now what if I'm forced to stay any longer? If I'm forced to stay, I'm confronted with out my front door a shopping center. I'm confronted with being surrounded by I think what is it 1,400 houses across the road, 700 houses behind my house. Uh you know, it's just kind of one of those things where it's like I no longer have my peace.

it's been taken from me. And so I sit there and I go, "Hey, let's look at the other factors." It's like, "All right, with a w being built after I had bought that property." Well, in the mornings when a w is in business, basically I can't even get out my own my own driveway. There's a 300 uh foot uh code. If I build a house, I have to have a driveway 300 ft away from the intersection. But guess what? HD, ACD, they didn't care. My driveway is 242 ft. They built their intersection inside the code and their resolution is for me to take away more of my pasture by moving my driveway. What? Where's my rights? Where's my consideration? Who's asking me what what happened to me? Because I didn't ask for any of this. I wanted my I wanted my peace, my heaven, this. I wanted this, but I'm not going to have it. In a year or two, I'm going to be just absolutely stuck. So, if you guys don't actually give me what it is that I'm begging you for. Make it commercial. It only makes sense that it's commercial. I just sit there and I watch the traffic every single day. I watch everything going on every single day. It's not a residential. Even if we put more houses on this, it is not residential. It's not safe. This is a commercial property. The state has turned it into a commercial property. So, please Thank you, commissioners. Any questions? Thank you very much, Madame Clerk. Well, signed up to testify.

Thank you, Vice Chair Smith. We have Rachel Thcker. And then likewise, if you could just state your name and address.

Good evening, commissioners. Um, my my name is Rachel Thcker. I reside at 5900 West Eust Road, Meridian, Idaho 83646. And I hear you all saying improvements, but again, I I am on the same page. It's not improving my quality of life at all. Um, when we bought our property 15 years ago, it felt like an oasis. It was peaceful. Traffic was light enough that my now 18-year-old was four years old and could walk safely across the road to our neighbor's house to uh Ralph and Julie Powell's house. This was the kind of community community this was. It was safe and it was quiet and it was connected. Over the years, especially after a was built, everything changed. Traffic has increased substantially. What used to feel like a rural residential area now feels like a dangerous corridor. Sorry, I got emotional at this part. When my children rode the school bus, I lost count of how many drivers ignored the flashing stop sign on the school bus and sped past a bus while my kids were trying to get on and off safely. Every parent here knows that moment of fear, wondering if today is the day that someone doesn't stop in time. This year is the first year I don't have someone driving the bus or riding the bus and it's been amazing. Except now my teenagers are driving themselves to school. One of them turns left to go to Meridian. One goes to Hawaii. To turn left out of our driveway every morning I sit there and wonder if today's the day they're going to get smacked by a car that they didn't see coming because the string of cars in front of our house in the morning. Insane. The traffic is already there. It is not coming. It is there. We invested. We bought this property believing that it would be our forever home. Like many families here, we intentionally chose not to live in the middle of the city or next to major

traffic routes. We invested in peace, safety, and quality of life. But little by little, those things have taken had been taken away. This is no longer the environment we purchased. It is no longer conducive to residential living. The safety of my family and our animals have been compromised more than once because of the increased traffic and development around us. That is heartbreaking for families who never intended to live in the middle of a hightraic commercial corridor. We built our lives here believing this was where we would stay. And the hardest part is this. Many of us now feel like we're being pushed out of every out of the very homes we worked so hard to build our lives around. My kids have friends close. We have ev everything that we've it's all been right there. Growth is inevitable and we understand that. But growth without thoughtful planning, without consideration for the people already living here comes at a cost. And right now that cost is being paid by the families who called the area home. I'm asking you to remember that behind every road, every traffic study, and every development plan are real people. families, children, homeowners who deserve to feel safe where they live because a community should not grow at the expense of the people who are already a part of it. At this point, the reality is that the only practical future use for this property is commercial and not residential. Placing the proposed businesses on this parcel will not increase traffic. It will simply serve and capture the booming traffic that is already here.

Thank you very much. Any questions, commissioners? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. No one else has signed up.

Is there anyone online who would like to testify? Is there anyone in the audience or room tonight who would like to testify? Okay. Um, then would the applicant like to come back forward? Thank you, Commissioner Smith. Commissioners, um I guess just a couple points. You know, as you can see, there's um clearly the investment in vehicular travel impacts those on the corridor. And I think, you know, it it makes sense to create uses there that capture some of the trips that are generated by places further a field. it makes sense to not be a destination but a service pass. So maximizing pass by trips is actually probably one of the best things you can do for this corner as opposed to either creating more houses immediately adjacent to some of the concerns these folks were mentioning or creating sort of destination commercial where people are trying to get to it. And I think there's a this very distinct difference between those those two types of commercial uses. And as you saw by the traffic study, these are very different things. This is much more of a pass by use. And I think that's truly what the city actually wants here um based on their investment decision. Not the city's investment decisions, but the community's investment decisions in these major roadways. And then I'd also just like to just touch a little bit more on the coordination that we've done with Durango since Bill mentioned it. I just want to stress that we have in fact really been coordinating very intensely with Durango. We share the same engineer KM Engineering and uh Stephanie's here

not representing anybody from Durango or us tonight, but she's with KM and we love working with them. Um and I yeah, so we have the same engineer. We're coordinating to pipe the canal. We've already spoken with ACD extensively about the routing of the canal. Nampa Meridian wants us to pipe the canal. The canal serves as a nice buffer between the residential uses and the commercial uses. There's just a lot of things that make sense here from a timing perspective. I think this truly is the right time. The roadway will be torn up while we're constructing utilities. we don't have to go back and cut into the five-year pavement moratorum, which would happen if this was to wait three years. Um, then you go cut into a brand new roadway, you make a giant cut. Not only is it more expensive, it's less efficient for the community because you have to shut down roads. So truly, this is kind of the time when this area is initially developing to initially develop with it. And we're really looking forward to that opportunity and we really would appreciate that opportunity. and we can commit to providing something that I think the community can be really proud of. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioners. Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Bro, so can you um walk me through the buffering again there on the north side? Um if I remember correctly, the intention is to have all that buffering on your property. Um, and obviously because nothing can be um can be added to that easement. So, can you kind of talk me through what you expect that to look like? Are is there going to be any actual standing structure or is it just meaning a fence, a wall, something or is it just space? So,

or distance. I will start. Commissioner Perau, this is a great question. I'll start from the north side where the fence is at the neighbor's house and then kind of walk southward so we can get a full cross-section. I think would that be helpful? Yes.

So on the north side each of these homes will have fences obviously associated with them. Um you can see the residential buffer in this picture here. Um they the fence is on the edge of the canal easement. So within that they can't build trees but they have gotten permission to build shrub or to build to grow uh plant shrubs that are a max height of six feet as well as some additional shrubbery in the 7t planting bed. Then there will be a 5-ft pathway kind of right you know basically 7 feet from the fence and then there will be 38 feet of open space to the property boundary. Then there will be an additional uh whatever 38 + 5 + 7 61 - 38 + 5 + 7 is between the property boundary and our street. Then there will be a buffer like a landscape buffer but no trees, a sidewalk and that's where we can then plant trees. And we're not consider we here's what I'll say. If a wall or a fence, if a fence is deemed appropriate, we can construct that. What we don't want to do is give the feeling of like this like weird little fenced corridor with nothing in it. We we can still build a fence. Um but we just didn't want to like uh create like a road with two fences on either side of it, but we can um if that's of interest, but the fence cannot be constructed within. It has to be constructed outside of the easement. We can also consider looking at placing evergreen shrubs in the easement, although I'm not sure exactly how close we can get to the pipe with those shrubs. Mr.

Vice Chair, Mr. Bro,

thank you for going over that again with me um to get more clarity on that. So, is Napa Meridian Irrigation said anything about having a fence on I mean, I assume there's going to be a subdivision boundary fence on the north and then if there were to be a fence uh or excuse me, on the south of that of of Durango and there were to be a fence on the north side, is there concern that they would have in terms of like security, safety, access? Commissioner Perau, I can't speak for them, but I would imagine that as long as that roadway was not obstructed by a fence between the road and the actual pipe, they would be okay.

Okay. Thank you, commissioners. Any other questions? I have a question that I've learned my lesson not to close public hearing and then reopen this. Um I have a question I guess for staff regarding the timing. Actually before I even get there question regarding Durango there's something you mentioned that do do they are they required to have a CPAM as well? They're not. No commissioners they are not.

Okay. So, I guess my question is if we were to continue this, for example, because I'm I'm not we we don't have the conditions for approval written tonight. Um, so if we were to approve, we'd need to continue ideally in my head. And I'm asking this because I also would like your input based on what staff has to say regarding the timing of getting the CPAM in, you know, uh, before city council. Like what what are the cut off dates there? I'm thinking theoretically if we're hearing Durango on the 28th, could we first week of June hear this with that additional context? Would that work in the timing? Oh, we don't have that meeting. Yeah, commissioners that that third meeting, third week.

So, there's a couple things in code. One is the submittal of the application and then two, the council has to act can act on them no more than twice a year. So that's why we try to bundle them up and take them all at one time. So, but the reason why we're having the May 28th hearing is because the June 4th has has to be cancelceled due to public works week. Um and

um so the next soon if this were to be continued then we'd have to coordinate the other ones with with this one at city council and then Dango would have to catch up with all of that as well. So, uh, may not be impossible, but just know there's also a provision in code that, um, we have to get applications from planning. If you make a decision on application, we have to get that in front of city council within 70 days is is what the code reads. So, within 70 days of your decision, a recommendation or it appearing your recommendation. Recommendation. Yeah.

Okay. So, is there a date, you know, the city council has to act on a CPA PAM by or is it just we tend to phase it twice a year, midway through the year? Yeah, commissioners, we try we try to phase them and keep them close together um like like we're doing tonight. That's the intent.

Okay. And I guess regarding continuous on the process side again we we don't have the conditions of approval here um on the continuence side of things if you know in the worst case scenario is there is there a substantive difference between when this could come back between if it gets recommended for denial or if it's continued and say the timing doesn't work out they can withdraw or pause. Is there a material difference for the applicant? I want to also be fair to to you. Um because it seems like we're all kind of in a bind here around timing. To be candid, I guess where I'm at is I don't think there's a way that I could support approving this tonight without having staff have time to look over additional conditions and things like that. So, I'm trying to find the, you know, trying to find the needle uh or thread the needle.

Yeah. Commissioners, I'm not trying to advocate one way or the other either. I'm just giving you kind of the lay of the land. Um, but and certainly we want you to have know what you're approving if you were to go that direction. U, but just to give you a peak behind the curtain, we do have draft conditions of approval drafted up just in case this were to change. So, uh, we typically kind of think outside the box when that happens because we just don't know where everyone's going to land on application. And so it's we're writing staff reports so we might as well do some of that extra work too just in case and be prepared for these types of situations. So I don't want you to think that I don't want to circumvent your decision in looking at them. But again, if you feel comfortable taking that approach, you can certainly say work with staff on appropriate conditions of approval and then we could take those up with city council. I know it's a little unorthodox for you guys to do that, but um just want you to know that we do have something drafted up and we certainly work with the the applicant. Would you do you have any comments or thoughts,

Commissioner Smith?

I have a lot I always have a lot of thoughts. Thanks for asking. Um so our strong preference would be not for a denial and then a reconceiving of this project. Our strong preference our our strong preference would be for an approval and working with staff through conditions. Um, if that is uncomfortable, um, then I have no issues going with being heard at planning and zoning with Durango concurrently. Um, I also have no issues with um, if it makes sense. I I mean, that would be our second preference is to wait and be heard concurrently with Durango. Third, I don't think we would throw a fit if we waited until after Durango. I'm not sure how it works if the you know with city process I think city process is in place to protect everybody but I think if we all mutually agree that it's e if that makes sense if it's either denial or it's just waiting a little bit longer to be heard in in in mid June or something that would be okay too but I think my preference would be to be heard concurrently with Durango if not approved with um working with staff with conditions because frankly Bill's great to work with.

Um, any commissioners have any, I guess, questions specifically because we can discuss those in deliberation, but any questions before we close public hearing? Yeah, Commissioner Sto,

thank you. Uh so Bill, you said you do have draft um conditions if we were to recommend approval and so those could be added to the packet for the May 28th meeting to be held currently with Durango. There would be no other additional delays that would be necessary because of the hearing process if we continued. uh commissioners, I that's that's one possibility to do it. Yes. But just understand that as these other two applications go forward, depending on the outcome of tonight, then we'd have to play catch-up at city council sometime. But again, I I still think we could probably get there. Um the other thing that I'd also mention to the commission is, you know, you also have the ability to tell us what you want to see as part of some of those conditions. So, I don't want you to think, I know you don't have them in front of you, but for example, if you didn't like two drive-throughs on this site, you can say we want no more than one drive-thru on the site, or if there's something you want added to the site plan, or better circulation, or um more buffering or landscaping, those are certainly things you can direct staff to add or incorporate as part of a recommendation if that's that's what you want. So, I don't I don't want you to just circumvent the process and think you don't have any input. You have a lot of input here. Um, so if that's something that you want, you may want to think about too. Um, again, I I don't know all the draft conditions off the top of my head and what they say. So, um, I can tell you something along the lines of no use no access to UTIC will definitely be one one requirement. Um and then the buffering cross access with jacent properties you know are are typical conditions of approval put in the required landscaping. There's plat

conditions that they have to record the plat. So again I don't know if the applicant intends on getting a building permit before the plat records. I mean there's a lot of different things here um that would probably behoove us to discuss at a at another hearing. So again, I know we don't try to to dictate that or have that discussion as we're doing the public hearing. We try to buy ourselves some time and come back. But certainly happy to possibly gener if if you want to continue this um to the 28 certainly could put together a memo with some draft conditions for your guys' consideration. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioners, any other questions? Great. Uh, can I get a hearing to or can I get a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? All right. Um, I guess I've kind of made my thoughts clear. Any thoughts from other commissioners? I commission stole 28. Let me just angle it.

I recommend I I lean towards continuing so that um we can see what the conditions are for the um approval um to the 28th. Mr. Vice Chair, Commissioner Smino, I will concur uh with my colleague, Commissioner Stole. Uh it's always important to have the full context, the full picture. Uh can't finish a puzzle without all the pieces. So, um, I would be in favor of a continuence to get a a little additional more context on the picture. Thank you, Commissioner Bro.

Uh, I feel like I have enough information to make the decision this evening, but I am not opposed to continuing it to a later date.

Okay. Um, yeah, I think I think I'm kind of following with the the consensus this evening. I think really my main concern again it's it's one I I appreciate Mr. Mansfield. I feel like he'd ask for some maybe some easier projects. Um but I also appreciate the theers and and and I I you know I sympathize with uh what what you have gone through. Um it's always our hope and and sometimes we can get it right when development can you know a rising tide can lift all boats and there's not a zero sum game and it's mutually beneficial. Uh but sometimes you know the the mark isn't isn't hit and sometimes um sometimes their you know development can can have a positive and it also can have a negative impact. So I do um I do uh feel for you. Um, I I also don't necessarily think that this is a bad fit for for the location. Um, I just really I wouldn't feel comfortable without it being heard specifically after Durango. So, it can be on the 28th, but I would still prefer to hear Durango first. Um, just knowing that, you know, CPA, we do it twice a year. There's just some extra care I want to make sure we give to kind of getting it right and having all the context we can. Um, so, um, if someone wants to make a motion, you can. I can make the motion. Um, I'll leave it as

Mr. Vice Chair before you may be doing this, but we need to have a motion to open the public hearing again. Number one, and then we can have a second motion to continue. No, I thought I I thought I did it right, but I didn't. Yeah, I guess we would need a motion to reopen the public hearing that I was trying to avoid. Move to reopen the public hearing. Seconded. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Vice Chair, Commissioner Stole,

I move to continue file numbers H--2025-000059 and H--2026-00007 to the hearing date of May 28th um for the following. Do I have to give No, that's seconded. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? All right, the motion carries. Thank you. Um, I guess we can go get Chairman Lure and I can hand back over the packet. I guess in my last act as chair for the moment, we'll take a quick bathroom break um for a few minutes.

All right, we would like to open the next application, please. The next item on the agenda is item number 3, H2026-00006, citywide comprehensive plan MAP amendments, and we will begin with staff report.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the commission. My name is Carl Anderson, long range associate planner here with the city of Meridian. Uh tonight you have before you a city initiated tech comprehensive plan future land use map amendment uh case file H-2026- 0000006. The request before you uh contains uh two separate sections to for a total of seven seven different areas. So the first um is to uh reflect existing anticipated land use uses for West Ada school district. um from their existing future land use map designations to a designation of civic and redesate multiple city of Meridian owned properties also to civic. Uh there are some minor amendments adjacent to some of these sites uh which I'll cover during my presentation and the total area for that's included within this is approximately 77 acres including right away. So, the first site here is located on Locust Grove, just south of Franklin. Uh, property address is 33 u 335 South Locust Grove. Uh, this is the West Ada school district um property covered by the area of change here that you see here going from an industrial and mixeduse community designation to a designation of civic. Uh staff are anticipating that the commission will hear uh an application in the future for um the West School District CTE center at this location at some point in the future. Um of note as well, uh the industrial component of this was amended uh I believe sometime between 2020 and 2022 from the mixeduse community to industrial. Um just would like to note that for the commission as well. The next location we have here is at Meridian Elementary here in Oldtown. Um,

from the existing designation for Oldtown to designation of Civic. Um, still Oldtown there on the right. Um, it's it would just be Old uh Civic, not Oldtown Civic for clarification. And again, to reflect the existing land use here. Next, we have uh the site at 1752 West American Fork Drive. um the West ADA school district property um two designations high density residential and high medium high density residential to civic as well. This uh area is 2.41 acres of the total parcel area of 11 and 50.51 acres. The next location here is uh south of Chinden west of Blackat another west school district site um from medium high density to civic land use. You'll note the uh school icon here reflecting the anticipated planned uh school site location in this area. Um this is to reflect the future anticipated use of the property. We're getting into the city Meridian uh portions of this application. Um Bear Creek Park uh you'll notice on the left kind of have the square reflecting the park here. Um that square does encompass a few private residential parcels on the northern portion and where the corner of the square um moves to the northeast. Um those sections would be redesated from the their existing designations from civic to low density residential to match the full property. You can't really see it well here um at this scale um as it's covered up in the area of change boundary. Um but that's a little bit of cleanup that we're doing here. Um the little pathways you'll note connecting to the residential neighborhood are all owned by the city of Meridian as well um with low density residential designations um and designated the civic. So essentially a cleanup to reflect what's there currently.

Uh the the next application we have here is fire station number eight and north meridian police station off of Storm. Um this is site is medium density residential uh as well as a parcel owned by the HOA for their landscaping. Um this would be redesating the site for mix medium density residential to civic again reflecting what's there currently. And finally fire station number seven just south of Lake Hazel um medium density residential to civic as well. Uh all notification requirements for this application have been met. Um it's being citywide courtesy notice has been sent to property owners whose parcels were included in the application for the cleanup as well. Uh no public comments have been received on this application and we did receive four agency comments which are included in this staff report packet. U staff recommends approval of the comprehensive plan future land use map amendment and happy to answer any questions commission may have.

Okay. Okay. So, since the city is the applicant here, is there any else but anyone else from the city that would like to make comments before we open anything else? We're good. Um, Madame Clerk, do we have anybody um signed up for any public testimony? Thank you, Madam Chair. No one has signed up. Commissioners, do we have any cla uh questions for staff before we close the public hearing? Okay. I will take a motion to close the public hearing. Move to close the public hearing. Second.

It's been moved and second to close the public hearing on H2026-00006 citywide comprehensive plan MAP amendments. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, this seems pretty straightforward and logical since it is the time that we are reviewing the comprehensive plan and any changes. Um, I don't see anything that's um out of line, especially considering a lot of these are administrative adjustments of things that needed to be done. Commissioners, do you have any other comments in regard to this? Madam Chair,

Commissioner Perau. Well, I just want to say I appreciate the staff's um diligence to stay on top of these things. Obviously, as folks are moving into our community, the more accurate our map is, the better for them decisions they're making, especially regarding where schools are going to be. So, appreciate the diligence in doing that. All right. With that in mind, after considering um all staff uh who is the applicant and public testimony, I move to recommend file number H2026-006 as presented during the hearing date of May 7th, 2026. Second.

It's been moved and second to approve H2026-006. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. The next application before you is item 2025-000057 the fields for annexation zoning preliminary plat and comprehensive plan map amendment. Um again I would like to state uh my address is 6330 West UTICK which is on the east side of Highway 16. This proposed development of the fields um doesn't start until the west side of Highway 16. After consulting with um the city attorney um we feel that the distance especially since the highway is in between um the beginning of the fields which continues to go west and our small parcel would not be a conflict of interest. So I am going to go ahead and participate in this application and we will begin with the staff report when you're ready. Good evening, commission. Um, Linda Ritter. So, tonight we are talking about the the

fields um project. It is an application for annexation, a comprehensive plan map amendment, and a preliminary plat. So, this site consists of 480.26 acres of land. Um it's currently zoned RU. Um and it's located south of McMillan and north of Eustic between Cana Road and Hawaii Storm Avenue. So just to give a little bit of history on this. So this property is located within the fields um sub area plan um which is bound by Eustic Road, McDermott Road, Chenden Boulevard and Canado Road. The field sub area plan was adopted on December 21st, 2021 by resolution number 21-2302. The field sub area encompasses approximately four square miles in the northwest portion of Meridian and represents one of the city's final major growth areas. The plan provides a framework to guide development in a manner that is consistent with the vision of Merid of the Meridian comprehensive plan by supporting expansion of the employment base by integrating highquality neighborhoods, parks, pathways and school. So this area is adjacent to the city of stars impact area to the north and the city of Nampa's impact area to the south and the west. The visions for the field sub area is to create a series of interconnected community oriented neighborhoods organized around a central uh mixeduse activity center. The center is planned at the intersection of Star Road and McMillan Road and the is envisioned as a pedestrianoriented main street.

The center is um excuse me um and it environmental featuring a uh central green integrated civic and commercial uses and direct connections to the fivem creek pathway. A variety of residential types including which include vertically integrated live work and medium highdensity housing will support and activate the core area. The plan emphasize emphasizes connectivity through the enhanced greenway and pathway system. There are several waterways including the five mile creek and its feeder um and the sky pilot drain and are anticipated to include pathways along their corridors. These improvements will allow the field sub area to connect to the broader meridian pathway network work with regional linkage linkage extending west into Nampa and North the star and the Boise River system. So in this fields area we have the inner mountain gas um um building and there is an um buffer around it which means that there no residential stuff can be here and this area right here is our park location. The city of Meridian has purchased this property and again no residential stuff can be uh can be built on it. So that's why it's perfect for the park. You have the whims pipeline going through here. There are restrictions for building along the whims pipeline. They do have a development manual that will have to be adhered to for this development. The applicant submitted a con conceptual um site plan um for this area. Um so at this time the conceptual plan is for illustrative purposes only as um presented. Um we have we are not

approving the conceptual plan. We are looking at planning areas 2 3 4 6 7 8 and 9 which is the preliminary plat for west veil. Um all other um planning areas within here in this conceptual plan will be reviewed with development applications. And at that time um with the de development application, the applicant will be required to submit for a development agreement modification to create a new development agreement for the development that they are proposing. And they will also be submitting new conceptual plans that adhere to the sub area. um field sub area plan. The applicant also created design guidelines to go um with their application for development that happens within the annex um area annexation area. So all development within that um annexation area within the fields area will be required to adhere to these development guidelines. the design guidelines as long as well as the field sub area plan, the city's UDC code and any ASM standards that we have for um design review. Sorry, something clicked on here. I wasn't supposed to. So you had design for commercial industrial for residential signage pathways. So this is like an overall development program that is part of the field's plan and um what we have um here shows how

this area is supposed to be developed with um square footage residential units. Um with the fields area plan um submission um there was for the commercial area. This does not include any residential. There's like uh 322,447 square ft of mixed use um area within here. Um this area was intend uh anticipated for a range of 610 um,000 square ft of mixed area over the full buildout of this plan. So based on what we have, that's kind of half of the mixeduse um community um development for this area. Uh we did not again we did not include the residential portion for this. It's just this is just kind of a snapshot of what is happening there. Um again a lot of the stuff that was proposed within this mixeduse area at currently does not adhere to the u field sub area plan. So, some changes will need to be made prior to um them coming in to submit for their development. And again, I just wanted to call out the things that we're looking at tonight. We are looking at the annexation comp plan map amendment. These two blue areas are for the comp plan map amendments and then um the preliminary plat. A traffic impact study was done over this whole annexation area. Um the traffic impact study evaluated development impacts on the study um area intersections and roadways for the buildout year 2040. The traffic impact study provided an evaluation of what

improvements may be needed beyond those planned in ACD's capital improvement plan. So the tables that you're looking at include the intersections and roadway segments in the traffic impact study and noted existing travel lanes and intersection configurations. what improvements are planned in their capital improvement plan and the master street map and what improvements would be needed beyond those in the capital improvement um plan and the master street plan to mitigate the total traffic impacts of the fields in 2024. So, as you can see, there are areas that will have um intersections are needed um and all the improvements that ACD is looking at for this area. Okay. So, let's talk about annexation. So, again, this 480.26 26 acres um going from RU in the county to um these are the zoning districts that they are looking at. We have um 42.87 acres that they want to bring in for community business, which is the CC zone. Uh neighborhood business, which is the CN zone, that's 45.64 acres. Medium density residential, which is a RA, they want to do 194.44 44 acres, medium highdensity residential, which is the R15. They want to do 100.63 acres, and traditional neighborhood residential, which is the TNR, 45.05 acres, and light industrial U 51.64. This is the annexation and these are the zoning that they are requesting. So staff did look at their annexation and um

what they are requesting and has no opposition to what they are proposing. So now we'll look at the comprehensive plan map amendment that they are proposing. So they are proposing for this area which is in the um southwest corner of their annexation area adjacent to Hawaii Storm um Avenue and Eustic Road. Currently it's medium density residential and mixeduse community. They would like to change it to highdensity residential and commercial. They are proposing the Hawaii Center in this location and in this location they want to do um multifamily. Um this area is um biseected by um I think that it's a sky pilot um drain that goes through there. And um as as it is currently um they could build um residential there and um would not have to have it interact with the mixeduse community that is below it because they are in two separate zones. um they have provided um in their concept plan but again there's still work to do. They are showing where there are connections from the residential to get to the commercial area. So even though there is not a crossing on the um uh sky pilot uh drain, they are they have avenues that come along the roadway um sidewalks, pathways that come along the roadway that connect in to this area and then there are 10-ft multi-use pathways that

are along um Hawaii Storm and they have access to this area also and there will be a 10-ft multi-use pathway along along the road along here. So, there are lots of pedestrian um connections along here. And the next one is a city's property that is currently um general industrial, but because it will be a park um we are requesting civic for that for the park. Um and reviewing um the findings for this um staff had no objection to this request um to make these changes. um because you are you have residential already. The medium I mean the high denser residential will be there to support the um commercial portion for the Hawaii Center. Now we move on to the subdivision. This is a legal description for the preliminary plat. So the preliminary plat and future development again they will be required to comply with our code for R8 and R15. Um they are the plat includes minimum lot sizes of 2,000 ft to 4,000. Um, and they require I'm sorry. So, the minimum lot size they are proposing is 3,984 square ft. Um, the maximum lot size is 10,610 square ft and the average lot size is 5,725 ft. They are proposing 14 common driveways with this subdivision. They provided common driveway exhibits that

demonstrated that there were no more than three units served from um a common driveway. So based on what they are proposing here, all the lots within this subdivision currently are vacant except for the property that is located in the um southwest portion. There is a it has existing structures on it that will need to be removed and meet the current standards for um the city. They are taking access to this preliminary plat. There are several u access points they are taking. Um they don't have direct access to Eustic Road, but there will be a road that is coming through here um which will allow them access into the U subdivision. There is an access point off of Star Road. Currently the way this is achievement um street the way that it is designed the um ACD has asked them to instead of um connecting it to um stopping it at this um parcel that is in the county they have asked them to bring it around and connect directly to Star Road. So that is a collector or that will be coming through here to access into the subdivision. And then you have um several access points off of um Hawaii um Storm Avenue to access the property. And then they will be stubbing this road up here to the um FiveM Creek. Um and they will be paying their portion to do it uh crossing along um 5mile creek to get to the um other side of this for development that is being proposed on that side.

These are the street layouts they are proposing for Star Road and Hawaii Storm. Ahetor Storm will be um widened to three lanes. Um Ustic Road currently is in the process of being widened to five lanes. Um currently it runs at a level of service of F but once the U widening has been completed it will perform at a uh acceptable level for ACD. And then Star Road they are uh required to provide additional rightaway along Star Road for future widening. And these are just the streets within the subdivision as far as how they will um be developed. Most of the streets will have a five- foot sidewalk and 8 foot planter be um landscape planter behind them. Um several of the streets will have the 10-ft multi-use pathway along them with the planter behind them. And um most of the they're uh proposing lots of parkways along this development. There are several streets that extend the 750 block uh face length. Um but in reviewing it um it says that the streets cannot be longer than a th00and um um feet in length. Um you have several roadways as I have listed here that don't quite meet the uh 1,00 ft but they are past the 750. um staff has no objection to h um these proposed streets being this length. Um then you have several that exceed the 1,000 um feet, but they are not supposed to go past um 1,200 without um council waiver. So these don't quite meet that. Um so staff

has no objection to these roads. Um they are working with ACD to do some traffic common along these streets so that they don't become a raceway within the neighborhood. But there is one street which is West Achievement that does exceed that that they are requesting a U council waiver for they exceed their open space requirements. um they are well past the um 15% that is required. These are the amenities that they are proposing for um their preliminary plat and their the DA requires them to provide these amenities. Um they have 40 amenity points which is um yes they have 40 amenity points for this. So uh tons of amenity, tons of pathways along here that will um provide um lots of entertainment for everyone there. You have um the clubhouse, picnics areas, fitness course, um common open space, uh common open space with shelters, dog park, dog way station, outdoor fire ring, uh swim and pool changing facilities and restrooms, uh paved sports courts, um pedestrian and bicycle circulations, multi-use pathways, and a bicycle repair station. This is the pedestrian connection. Um as you can see they are providing um plenty of pathways along here as per the um field sub area plan. They are providing the multi-use pathway along the five mile creek along the sky pilot drain. Um

they were asked to continue this up to um Star Road. Um, and they will also be providing a 10-ft U multi-use pathway along the Whims pipeline. Um, it's not shown here, but that is a requirement that they have. Um, as you can see, there's lots of um, interconnectivity for people to walk through this area. These are the building elevations that were presented for this for the single family detach and attach um three four units. Um and staff has put a provision that any houses that are along a collector or the arterial will need some um articulation and different um designs like bumpouts and things to um kind of provide better um so so it gives a little bit more um design to it along those um heavy traveled waves. This is their conceptual phasing plan. So, currently there is not sewer in the area. Um the city is building a lift station at the corner of um Canado Road and U McMillan. um with and the trunk line goes all the way to Star Road. And with that, Star Road, I mean, McMillan Road has been is being widened at three lanes. At um this point, the applicant cannot submit for a um final plat until sewer has um been um

brought down to this area. and that is um a condition of their um development agreement. Um even though there is no sewer in this area, um there was a determination made by the community development director and the um public works director that even though sewer is not there, but it is coming, that we could annex properties in. um but they're not allowed to um receive any kind of permits or anything until sewer is readily available at their site. So that's why they're starting on this side because they'll have to bring sewer down from McMillan on Star Road to their um project. So, we did not receive anything from the school district, but the city put together um this table based on um information from the school district site. Um so it was generated. Um so in looking at this you can see that um the elementary school is um pass its program capacity. Um the middle school is over capacity and so is the high school, Hawaii High School. Um we hope to have something from the school district before we go to city council. um these other numbers. And then we did add in a section um even though um we didn't get a number of units in the other areas that um will have multifamily in them. We did put together something estimating low and

high dwelling units um outside of preliminary plat. Um and you can see that um the maximum count is about 645 multifamily units. Um, so what 12 1,210 single family units and 645 multi-family units, which would result in approximately 722 school age children of all grade levels. So even though we didn't have anything, we used our estimates based on um dwelling units per acre to come up with these numbers. Again, this is the property that has the um existing home and out buildings on it. So, I just wanted to point out a few de of our de development agreement for revisions on this. Um again it's one of those all other areas that are part of the annexation and comprehensive plan map amendment shall prior to any future development and once sewer service is readily available at the site submit the following for review and approval. A development agreement modification to create a new development agreement a preliminary plan to further subdivide the property if required and amend the concept plan to be consistent with the field sub area plans. the field development guidelines um our comprehensive um plan and the UDC. Again, no development shall commence on the property until sewer services ready available at the site and meets the following. The connection to the city sewer collection is actively being installed by the applicant or sewer has already been stuck to the site.

the uh future development show u comply with the Williams um pipeline handbook and ACD um may require a uh TIS with development applications if they feel that there's a change to the field's master planning uh master plan planning area that may alter traffic impact projections. So that will be at the sole discretion of ACD. So the final plat for this application shall be recorded prior to submittal of any building permit applications for the commercial or residential portion of the development and prior to the issue issuance of any certificate of occupancies within the commercial portion of the development. And again we talked about the road trust that they will need to provide for the crossing um of five Mile Creek. and they have to install a um a signal um kind of like a hawk signal at the intersection of a Hawaii storm and achievement intersection. Um ACD is requiring that and they need to meet ACD requirements and that is my presentation for tonight. Um, I tried to break it up because there was a lot to talk about and so that we wouldn't get confused, but I confused myself. Um, it's been a long process and um, we are here tonight and so at this point I will stand for any questions you may have. Oh, my apologies. We did receive several um, public comments on this. There was about eight um that we received and um they the gist of the u public comments um hit on

traffic. Um the infrastructure not um sufficient to handle um all the traffic that will be generated in this area with this development. schools being over uh maxed out um not having enough capacity for this development. Um it talked about um individuals moving to this area to get away from what is now being proposed in this area. They moved to this area so they would not be around all the traffic and now all of a sudden it's coming to where they are. Um and um the traffic from Hawaii High School and then the um with the development um Baratza um at the intersection of McMillan and Black Cat Road with the traffic from that development and then what's being proposed here how McMillan um doesn't have the capacity to handle all this traffic that is being generated and Then um that our um emergency services um are not sufficient for what is being pro proposed. Um then that there may not be enough of fire or police to service these areas. Um so the um you'll I try to um provide you with the information from the um comments in your um handout there. So those were the gist of the comments and um so again at this time I'll take any questions that you may have.

Okay. Thank you very much. Would the applicant like to come forward? Good evening, Madame Chair and Commissioners. Emily Mueller, 839 South Bridgeway Place with Mark Bottles Real Estate, and we represent the applicant team tonight. There are eight different owners that make up this 480 acres. Um, and so it has been um a long process with everyone. Um, I want to thank staff. Um our first pre-application meeting on this or pre pre-application meeting was about two years ago. Um so we have been collaborating with the city both current planning staff I want to thank and long-term planning staff really everyone. Um we've had multiple meetings with ACD with ITD with the West Ada School District. So this has been um two years but even before that I was here testifying when the specific area plan was adopted. So, we have been stakeholders in this area for a long time and are really excited to be here. Um, and as um I want to also start out by saying is that we agree with all of staff's conditions. We agree with all of ACD's conditions and have met with ITD. They didn't prep provide a letter for today, but we agree with all of their conditions as well. So, I want to start off by saying that um as staff mentioned, our applications tonight um are for annexation and initial zoning with the DA for the full 480 acres, a comprehensive plan map amendment, and finally a preliminary plat for West Veil subdivision, which is about 200 acres of the project. And before getting into the project, I also briefly wanted to touch on the benefits of master planning. It allows for comprehensive public planning, enabling coordinated long range planning

for transportation, parks, which we're excited to have um donated half of the value of that park, um schools, utilities, emergency services, and other public infrastructure. It provides for an integrated community design, which is what the specific area plan envisions for this area. um providing cohesive land uses, coordinated access, shared design principles, um pedestrian pathways and everything that really provides a sense of place. Um we provided design guidelines that we worked on um as a group and with um our um agents um to provide to make sure that this develops out with a sense of place and we're really proud of those design guidelines. Finally, it allows for future um planning and predictable private investment. So that is private investment. Those are employers coming in, retailers, and also even on the individual level, individual property owners who come in buying a home knowing what's going to be developed down the street. Um, and so it really provides a predictable private investment at all of those levels. And we can really look at other master plan communities in Meridian and around the area to see how once these goals are aligned early, again this is a big project, 480 acres, but once goals are aligned early, the city can absorb that project in a really seamless, well transitioned way. Um, so we've seen that proof of concept and those success stories. This is part of the field sub area plan. And as I mentioned, I was here in 2021 testifying for that plan and we are really excited to see this vision come to life. The field sub area plan is prefaced by saying that the measure of a comprehensive plan success is to see um its vision implemented um and to take actions to implement that vision. So, we are very excited to be here implementing that vision um for this area again with the park, with the pathways, with the design principles, and everything that

we get to present this evening. In alignment with the future land use map, we're requesting a total of six different zones across the 480 acres. This mix of zones provides a truly comprehensive master plan, including commercial, industrial, single family, multifamily, and public facilities. As staff mentioned, we um for the entire annex area for the four 480 acres have a concept plan that we put together to envision uh future uses, densities, and all of those things that make this comprehensive planning process worthwhile. Um we will be referencing that a lot and it's designated into planning areas. Um and because we'll be referencing it, we printed out copies. I also for anyone in the room we have copies on the back table so people as we reference that tonight can follow along. Importantly a very important part that staff mentioned and I want to stress again is that a DA modification will be required for the majority of this project at future dates. That gives the city this body the city council certainty and staff certainty that um you will be able to approve exactly what gets developed. Um the the buildout for this will be long. So it makes sense to say, you know, in foresight, this is probably going to need a development agreement in the future anyway, and we agree with that. Um, so we want to have that certainty there that you will get another chance to look at this and approve exactly what um is built. So starting with the first area being annexed is the industrial area. It consists of 51 acres on the far western portion of the application on the southeast corner of Canada and McMillan. The blue star indicated there is where we have donated area for the city lift station that is being constructed. This is really going to be a valuable industrial and employment asset within the city. It's smallcale. It's set away from Highway 16, so it really lends

itself to smaller scale industrial. It's going to be a great employment base for growing businesses um within the city. Moving east is the park. Again, we were excited to donate um I think the appraised value on that came about to be about $3.6 million of land donation to the city for this park. Um and it's large enough to accommodate a lot of community events. So, while the amenities are not planned for it yet, they envision that there will be sports fields, destination playgrounds, sports courts, restrooms, um pathways that will all be connected. Um there's a little, you know, pedestrian pathway um as well to be able to allow people to, you know, bike, walk to the park. Moving further east, PA12 is the McMillan Center that staff touched on earlier. This is an important area of the field sub area plan and um is envisioned to be a kind of a mini main street of the area. When we were here five years ago, uh we shared similar graphics here. Um this is a two-scale picture of bound crossing in East Boisey. And um we have designed it with the same street sections um with oversized um sidewalks with pavers to really create a pedestrian feel um providing ample landscaping, bicycles, on street parking. So again, you get that many main street feel where you're pulling in um and pulling out as you grab a cup of coffee. This is an important area of the field sub area plan that I know staff would like to um work with us further as we refine the concept and we are excited to do that. Um and in the meantime, staff has requested that moving forward we don't have any drive-through shown. So, while in our design guidelines, we provided a lot of information about how you can design drive-throughs to still create a pedestrian feel, we will

acknowledge and accept and agree with staff's condition that we will not have any drive-throughs along this main street area um going north, south, or east, west. Moving then to the Aahe center. This area is referenced as PA1 on Ustick and Aah storm. And this area which is also a part of our comprehensive plan map amendment is located near um UTIC and the highway 6 interchange highway 16 interchange and is walking distance from Aahi High School. So this is a really important area of commercial use and I'll talk about it with this the comprehensive plan map amendment but the intention in this comprehensive plan map a amendment really was to increase the amount of commercial. Um so in a in a MUC's designated area you would have needed by code to include 30 to 50% residential and we said we want this full 27 acres just to be commercial. Um we think that there's a need there. We were talking with West Ada School District last week and they said, "What tenants do you have lined up that we want? We need some commercial in this area." So, we agree and we envision this area transitioning um on the western side, which is where single family homes back up, would be singlestory, multi-tenant buildings, perfect for an orthodontist or a medical user. Um, and then as you transition further to the east, um, and again along Ustick would where we would have some drive-throughs, um, fast casual restaurants and things of that nature. The entire annexation includes three multifamily areas, um, PAS 5, 11, and 13 with R15 and TNR zoning. Future applications for these areas would include a cup would be required for the R15 zone. Um again a DA mod and preliminary plat applications if

necessary there. So we have provided um design guidelines for these multif family developments along with um pools and amenities and um everything in this area and have been cited in areas that are near transportation corridors pathways and will be integrated into the commercial um throughout the rest of the project. The last part of what is just included in the annexation and part of the conceptual planning are the single family portions that are not yet platted. So that includes PA 16, 15, 14, and 10. And these areas will be platted in the future with a development agreement modification. Again, these areas will include detached single family homes and town homes um with densities that are consistent with the specific area plan. They will be developed subject to the proposed design standards and further important pedestrian pathways and connectivity throughout the area. Now moving to the next portion of our application is the comp plan amendment. As I discussed earlier, the uh main onus behind the comprehensive plan map amendment is that we wanted a larger commercial space in this ustic oah center. Um we think that commercial is needed here and would be supported here. New commercial in this area will be important for internal trip capture. So to allow people to access some um you know the drive-throughs that aren't really allowed anywhere else in the fields area without getting on the highway or without getting on Chinden. Um so it's really important for internal trip capture for the high school. Um and and so again we think that this area really lends itself to commercial. I do want to note that our application um requested that then the MDR be changed to MHDR. I believe staff said um at highdensity residential, but we're requesting medium high density residential. And again, the the original part of this was to still integrate some

of the higher density residential next to the commercial as was originally intended with the mixeduse concept. The second comprehensive plan area as staff mentioned is the industrial area that we are requesting be redesated to civic to support the park. Now moving on to the third application is the Westville Preliminary Plat which consists of 200 acres zoning of R8 and R15 with a gross density of 4.49 dwelling units to the acre. It consists of 899 homes um in total with 602 single family single family detached 297 town homes. The average lot size in the R8 is 5,741 and the average lot size in the R-15 is 2400. including um throughout this project, we'll be having roadway improvements, including expanding the pavement along Star Road and pedestrian facilities there, turn lanes, as well as widening Aahi Road to a three-lane road, installing a pedestrian crossing near Aahi High School, and constructing the new east west collector through the middle of the site, which will also help reduce traffic off of McMillan. We are excited to be providing um 43 44 acres of open space within this plat which constitutes 21.81% total open space which is significantly above the 15% that's required. Westville will provide an array of desirable amenities including pool, clubhouse, extensive pathway system. Amenitized um the pathway system will be amenitized with petway stations, pollinator gardens, seating and outdoor fitness stations. The um home renderings for the

preliminary plot were included and comply with the field sub area plan modern farmhouse aesthetic and sense of place that is um designated in the specific area plan including gabled roofs and slanted roofs um board and bbatten siding with neutral color palettes and natural accents. Finally, with Westvil, um we are proposing to develop the subdivision over seven phases, um with 167 homes in the first phase. If construction is able to start in 2027, the first home sale, the earliest it would be would be, you know, July, late summer of 2028. So, this will not develop all at at once. Um and really from, you know, now to the last home sale would probably be in 2035 at the earliest. So, a long a long lead time there. We are excited for this application for all of the reasons discussed in and of itself. Um, but in addition to that, we are proud of the contributions that the project is making to the community, including donating the 1acre sewer lift station property. Um, a portion, it was a a part sale, part donation of that park with the donation valued at $3.6 million. um as well as a well lot on one of the sites. West Veil alone, just the subdivision before the rest of it comes in alone impact fees will be $16.4 million in estimate. So that contributes a significant amount towards city plans, fire, police, um water, sewer, and really significant contributions towards ACD's improvements. So, um, as mentioned, we are really grateful to staff for their recommendation of approval, are proud of this project, the community it's going to bring to North Meridian, and would stand for any questions.

Do the commissioners have any questions for Emily before we um ask for public testimony? Madam Chair, Commissioner Perau, thank you. Um, so is the is the park is the city park intended to replace the the park that was planned for Cherry Lane um Cherry Lane or is that do you do you have any idea was that a conversation that you had with staff?

Madame Chair, um Commissioner Pro, I'm not aware of a Cherry Lane park. Um the the park that when we were discussing with staff um if I can go back to as shown on the field sub area plan was um on star. There was a park um along Star if you can see here um we controlled a small amount of that park and to get it to a larger size park and actually there's a lot of waterways and and kind of funky stuff going through where that park was planned. Um so to get it on a contiguous piece of ground that's not all cut up. So that is the park and I don't know so that I'm not aware of a cherry park but um this was the park in our discussions with staff that we talked about. Thanks. Yes,

Madam Chair. Commissioner Smith. Uh kind of as a continuation of that um kind of because of this kind of shifting westward of the park. I'm wondering what or yeah westward. Um I see in the in the rendering there's a kind of a connector to the north across I think it's NM Creek. Um, what about connections? Are there any planned connect like pedestrian connections to what eventually I assume now will be housing going eastward? Yes, I know I saw there was a pedestrian map. I think when in staff's report, I was looking for that in the

Madame Chair and Commissioner, I I think I exited out of this. I wanted to bring up that pathways. Um, I don't know if you can help on there.

Try the arrows. Yes, I'm trying that. There we go. Um, so, Madame Chair and Commissioner Smith, um, there will be pathways um, all there will be a a pathway all along um, connecting the park um, in in really multiple areas. Um, it's going to be hard not to be able to access um, along the south portion of subdivisions all the way over to Star Road. Um that path will then continue along five mile creek um and also jot down on the teeter drain. Um so there will be a lot of ways to access the park from pedestrian facilities. Did I answer that question? Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

I do have one more question on a different topic. So I'm um you know if anyone anyone on the commission can confirm that mixed use is kind of a pet area of mine. And so I see kind of a distinction between the the sub plan um and kind of having two key mixeduse areas. And I see here that one of them I think is already it's it's still at listed it's not listed as mixed use in the actual comp plan or in the in the actual flume. Um, but I'm noticing this this bottom right one that's that borders Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii High School, this south uh souththeast section. Um, you're trying to change that from mixed use to residential neighbored with commercial. Can you kind of go over the decision process? It seems like there's a little there's mixed use is already kind of dwindling in the city and it seems like we're kind of a maybe excising a little bit of that here. So could you speak to that concern?

Yes. Um Madame Chair and Commissioner Smith, our original application um left this as mixeduse community and really just floated the designation.

So um it was mixeduse community and under code you can float a designation 50% um before you require comp plan amendment. I think we were within an acre of that float um to where we again we were trying to expand the mixeduse community area saying here's the residential, here's how it connects. We're going to have these wayfinding elements and there is a a sky pilot drain in between it which makes it a the connection a little bit harder but um focusing on and and it's cut off of this screen but some of the connectivity points. So the original request was really just to expand that mixeduse commercial. Um after we submitted and so our original narrative actually had that as mixed use um mixeduse community um it was recommended that we just go ahead and designate them as as the two different future land use map designations that they're actually going to um develop out as which would be a medium high density residential and then just really a purely commercial product. Um and that was the desire from the beginning was to have uh a more intensive commercial product on this not live work um homes here. Um we think that this is a perfect place for commercial.

Okay. And then that that kind of first half of that I um it's the Star McMillan Center in this sub plan. um as is listed as kind of this northern little red spot in the flume. It's uh listed as medium high density residential, but I'm curious about that uh development as well. If you could expand on that,

Madame Chair and Commissioner Smith to confirm this is the area on McMillan that you're discussing. Yes. So, again, we have um been able to manage this property since about 2019, I want to say. So, we've been involved in the the specific area planning for this area and um at the time um we actually one of the bubble plans that our consultant had was put into the specific area plan. So, it's focusing on commercial on the hard corner which we have here um with really our concept chose a neighborhood ger we think would be perfect in this area. So, a smaller scale um neighborhood ger not a big one. Um and then transitioning into that mini main street and again uh our focus there was to really emulate bound crossing. Um it doesn't need to be huge and you know really big but it just needs to be designed right um to attract the kind of use that you want. Um, and also I'll go back then we have this really does need a little bit further revision um, again for the DA modification because the area the green area in the south is designated on the field spec specific area plan for maybe a type of civic use and we've brought that up in all of our pre-application meetings of you know this area is available if if the library needs something and we really haven't had any takers. So, we think that this is going to fill in um or could be park space or could be used to develop a little bit more of a east-west main street. Um but again, we were leaving that open for you know some type of civic use um where that can be developed. But from the beginning we really I mean almost this same slide was presented 5 years ago um of showing a bound crossing and then transitioning over to the medium high density residential. Um I think in the specific area plan it shows urban housing is what it says. So, apartments, urban housing, um some of that got pushed over because the part the portion of the property on the far northwest corner was sold to Idaho Power for the

development of their power station. So, um we think it really meets the intent of the specific area plan and will be further refined taking away the drive-throughs um some of those things moving forward. That's helpful. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Do we have anybody signed up to testify? Thank you, Madam Chair. We have Carrie Hubby. She has a presentation. She's also indicated that she's representing an HOA. Carrie's not here.

Okay. All right. Thank you. The next person is Eric Small. All right. Send you a little map. Yes. Do you want me to show it? I think it's should be like one, two, three, four. Yeah, that's good. Now, are you taking over for her to represent the HOA or are you uh just as No, we we tried to get more people here. There probably is, but um No, I'm not representing the HOA itself. He's the HOA. Okay. Well, so if you can state your name and address for the record, that would be great. Um, Eric Small, 5314 West, Meridian, Idaho 83646.

Okay. Thank you. So, I already went through that, but my name is Eric Small, and I live at that address. But, um, my wife and I are residents of the, um, Oaks neighborhood, which is part of that HOA, which is the which is north of McMillan and east of Rustic Oak and west of Black Hat. We have lived there for three years now in the toll community. But before I get started, I want to ask by a show of hands, if you guys will do it, how many of you guys live in this area that they're proposing? And I think you're one of them. I'm I'm one of them. And as a commission, we represent um all parts of the city, right? So I disclosed mine, but be rest assured that we we try to broaden that so that we all have some kind of input. Okay.

Throughout the city.

That works. Um, so what is concerning to my wife and I and many of the neighbors is a lot that was brought up in the emails that she mentioned and I'll probably be going through it again. Um, and what and the mark the bark bottles planning of adding 899 homes to what they are calling the fields. This is a situation I'll say you're putting the cart before the horse because there is no infrastructure put into place whatsoever. Um, let's look at the new planned community. These homes will be built west of Aahi High School or Aah Road, north of Eustic, south of McMillan. It will feed into Ustick, which currently is only a two-lane road, but is getting expanded. I understand that, to whatever it is, the five. Um, then there's also Aah right now, which is only two. And to the north, it's McMillan, and it's only two. and in her presentation she mentioned the whiting of the the two streets never once brought up McMillan Road at all. Um I know there's work on McMillan going east of Star Road um to Canada Road and it's currently being doing some piping and infrastructure that's going on down that road. So let's put this project into some numbers. They say there's going to be 899 homes, but on her other presentation, there was 985 on the agenda. But anyway, let's just go with the 885. Let's add two cars average per household. That's 1,800 more cars on McMillan, the two-lane road. This needs to be four lanes before any construction is started. I mean, any construction. At last night's Highway 16 meeting, they brought up the roundabout at Black Cat and McMillan, which was also mentioned here earlier, which will help move traffic in the future, but the budget constraints say that roundabout won't be built until 2028.

So much for infrastructure. You also brought up Ustick within the proposal. I can't remember the number of cars that the guy said they were going to have, but I think he said something like 30,000. So, now we're gonna add another, you know, bunch there. and also the other homes that are that are planned in number 10, four, and three. So, there's going to be a lot more homes being done in the future. What's going to happen when these 900 homes go in and the traffic gets backed up on McMillan even more than it already is? I mean, you can probably look at the impact that it's already having at the um intersection of Black Hat and McMillan right now. It's already backing up because of the people at school. Um, McDermott might be an option for people to go home, but if you go up McMillan, you can't get to Shin, you can't Mcder, you can't get to Shinden. Now, um, if it gets backed up anymore, they're going to go up Rustic Oak and they already go up Rustic Oak speeding up Rustic Oak. If they don't like that method of transportation, they're going to make a right-hand turn down going H. Your mic shut off, so I'm not sure what happened. if you could just wrap up. Um, and if you could check the bottom of your mic, there should be a green light on it.

No, at the bottom at the base of your microphone. The microphone. Microphone. There's a button on the other side. Okay, there we go. Okay, I'll Okay. Um, also probably about the studies, but I I propose that this project not be approved at all until the end. You if you want to approve it, go ahead. But I think all the roads need to be in first no matter what. All right. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Madam Chair, the next person is Garrett Post.

Hello. Hello. Sorry about that. Um, I do represent my local HOA. I live at 6600 West Windshare Street. And your name again? Garrett Post. Garrett. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, this is my first time speaking at this, so if I start rambling miles an hour, just throw shoe at me. And which HOA do you represent? Uh, Aviator Springs. Aviator Springs. Yes. Um, so I have some of the similar qu uh concerns as the gentleman who spoke before me.

Those roads already in the morning are a nightmare to deal with. Houston gets backed up for a couple blocks. McMillan from all the way from Chinden gets blocked up gets backed up down Star uh there. So, it's already an absolute nightmare. And then when I see this plan, I look at that and go, "Wow, that looks a lot like California," which, you know, unfortunately is where I fled from to get away from this exact stuff.

I understand there's a lot of money involved in this. We were kind of looking forward to some of the industrial stuff coming in. Like we're looking forward to maybe getting like, you know, kind of a out indoor outdoor shopping mall, whatever was going to be put there. Um, but there's not nearly enough commercial space in this. Like I understand they're going to put houses in. It is what it is. But 900 residents when all the schools, especially the high school, are already full is not conducive to a, you know, healthy community in my opinion. I've seen this happen so many times. Um, but here's some questions that my HOA and I were talking about during the meeting. So, if it's a little disorganized, I do apologize. I did throw it together rather quickly. I wasn't anticipating speaking.

Okay.

I would have worn a less political shirt. So, I do apologize for that if that's against the quorum. Um, but you know, we talked about um the West Asia school district. Have they reviewed it? And does nearby schools have the capacity for this many new residents, which considering they're already all full of hazard to guess no. Um um and are they going they're already reszoning all the schools. Are they going to continue doing that? Um have the police, fire, and EMS been expanded to support this development? Um I don't know if you guys know the police station that's across the street from the high school. They don't have any full-time officers there. It's basically just a satellite station. Excuse me. Uh with this many new residents and commercial stuff coming in. We are going to have a like, you know, we're just going to get more crime stuff. It's it's going to happen. It's, you know, just reality. Uh and we need the services to deal with that. We have nine firefighters stationed at that fire station. There's three there at a time, which is one truck. That's not nearly enough to support what's being proposed here as well. um you know, which I understand this will bring in a lot more money to support um the growing, you know, police and fire stations. Uh just the other day, we had to wait about 2 hours for an officer to come take a trespassing report at our pool at the HOA. Um, so I can't imagine how much worse that's going to be when you have 900 more residents and I don't know like six, seven, eight more HOAs individually that is being proposed here that we're going to have to deal with. Um, so I also I don't know if the boundaries are this is all proposed to be in Meridian or if it part of this is going to be in Nampa. If that's the case, um I don't know if you guys have talked to them and worked out how inner city cooperation would work with the

emergency responses. Um that's something that I've thought of too. Uh we also just kind of want to know what buffers, landscaping, fencing setbacks will separate existing homeowners from the commercial and industrial. Uh what protections are being put in place to reduce noise, lighting, and late night commercial activity affecting the nearby homes. Um, and then we want to know how the traffic study was conducted and what does it and does it account for the future growth already approved nearby. Um, let's see. There's what uh specific road improvements are planned to handle again nearly 900 residential units and the commercial and industrial traffic. We already like I already mentioned the high school traffic is horrific as it is. Um, I do think there needs to be a light put in at achievement in a Wahhee Storm. That's something that would definitely benefit us because we have one way in and one way out. I know you guys are putting in the second way. It looks like it's about to be finished. Um, that road's definitely going to need some speed bumps on it cuz teenagers are going to love to drive down a nice kind of little windy straight road. Can't blame them. looks fun, but my house is right at the end of that road, and I would prefer to not have uh some new holes in my house from cars coming flying around the curb. Uh, one of the other things is we already have to deal with a lot of parking issues in our community from high school kids parking in there and we need to know if we're allowed to put signs up or if we have to go through the city to do that for like residential parking only. Um, I know that's not quite related to this, but it is something that does affect the community. Um, we're also, you know, concerned about negative effects of our home property values if there's too much stuff that detracts from it. Um, let's see what else we have. Mention that.

Um, yeah, we also want to know if we have the ability to restrict our parking. I mentioned that. Uh the our biggest concerns are school traffic and property value. Um I'm also curious in this development where the school zone is going to be if it's going to be extended or just left where it is like if any of the new things are going to be considered part of the school zone. Um but you know that's just my opinion of this which I know doesn't really mean a lot. Um, you know, some of this looks nice, like having some industrial would be nice in the area, right? Currently, if we want to go shopping, we to go to the Walmart on 10 mile, 5 minute drive, not a big deal. But it is nice to have stuff close. It's just it will not be able to support 900 homes and figure an average of 1,800 people are going to be added into this area. It's just not enough infrastructure to support it. Like the gentleman said before me, these roads probably need to be doubled. um in terms of their size, especially with adding the freeway off-ramp and the development from the first meeting today. Um going in like there's going to be 110,000 cars in 20 years coming through there daily. We we just do not have the infrastructure for this unfortunately. It's just not in place. And I get it. It was a rural area. Developments happened very rapidly in the last six years in the valley. Totally understand that. Um, but that's just something that we as a community really need to consider in order to not get buried in traffic because I have been buried in traffic. I can promise you it's not fun. Um, but I won't take any more time. That's that's all I had to say and I actually have more time than I thought. So, thank you so much.

Well, thank you so much for coming to testify. Having your voice heard is very important and thank you so much for having us. Thanks. Madam chair, the next person is Greg Thris. Oh, okay. Do you have any you good? No. Okay. All right. Um, okay. We have Irma wrist stove. Just work our way down the list. Diane Graham. Oh, no. Irma is here. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Come on. You're good.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Serena Kristoff and uh we own a property in 4190 Northstar Road and how everybody was comment. We are not against the growth or development. We just have the concern how that's going to change around us. The gentleman already mentioned the traffic right now. It is it is bad. We take a time to take a left turn and we don't have anyone around us. And again, we are not against the growth development. We we support it. my family supported. We have in concern also how transition between our existing RUT property and the new high density residential development plan around us. We would like to understand that type of buffer it is going to happen or the houses they're proposing exactly in the property line. That is one of the concern. The other one is the drainage plan and the irrigation. We have irrigation canal which coming to the upper property. We haven't concerned about that uh with that construction and how that's going to be bring that to us. We I did not maybe that's a detail in the development but I just want to share that few concern and um that what it is.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you again.

Okay. The next person is Diane Graham. Um, Lisa Brit Betain. Okay. John Lingall. Madam Chair, there is one person online. Their hand is not raised at this time, but no one else has signed up. Is there anybody else in chambers that would like to make a comment to the commission before we ask the applicant to come back up?

Emily, would you like to come back up, please? Madam Chair, thank you. And yeah, thank you to the neighbors who come and testify. We um have met with them um several of them before on our neighborhood meetings and and really appreciate that collaborative process. Again, when you do it for two years, um it's been great. So, um I do want to um pull my PowerPoint back up if that's possible. I will start with um as it's loading talking about schools. Um we did talk with West Ada School District last week and we've spoken with them a couple times and I did want to make one correction to the record. Um they have said they didn't submit a letter, but they said that instead of going to Pleasant View Elementary School, West Ada, they they will be going to Ponderosa Elementary School. So, um that was part of their recent redistricting proposal. Um and we understand um that schools um experience strain s you know we we absolutely understand that and um West ADA I did want to highlight a couple things that actually their CFO and COO highlighted um COO on the phone with us and then their recent board of trustees hearing um was about House Bill 636 and if this commission isn't already familiar with it um it's really important piece of legislation that um gives the school districts a lot of hope for the funding of future development and maintenance and um h how schools will develop in the future. So Aahi High School as we know is is already um was really built for this area. Um Aahi High School has a lot of students coming in from Star. Um and the next high school

that Westa School District plans to build is in Star. They already have the property for it. Um they don't have the funding for it. So, House Bill 636 amends the Idaho School District Facilities Fund. It allows eligible state dollars to be used towards lease purchase payments, which are a different mechanism than bonds. They're actually underwritten kind of like a bond is, but it's just a different mechanism for funding. Um, and this creates a path um forward for capital projects without relying solely on voter approved bonds. And actually, when I was watching and listening to the school district hearing, the CFO stated, you know, he said maybe, and it's a big maybe, but maybe we'll never have to go back to voters again for bonds um to fund these projects, which is just really exciting. So, um that doesn't change, you know, when students might be enrolling from this application in 2028. Um this district has been able to do some redistricting which we understand is not ideal um to send kids further than what the closest school is to them but the district does it really intentionally and really carefully um and we just have a lot of respect for them. Um so while certain areas of Meridian are experiencing surges and certain schools are experiencing capacity strains overall the district actually has been um decreasing in student enrollment. So there is capacity available maybe just not at the closest school. So again in this instance um kids would be going I think the bottom table here shows that students would be going to Ponderosa Elementary School um not Pleasant View Elementary School. So that's just one example of how how the school district is being creative uh lobbying the legislature um to make sure that the West School District continues to operate, you know, in the same manner this has always always happened is is growth um happens and schools get a little strained and then a new school's opened. So um I did want to touch on that. Um I would love to talk about

traffic. Um we um as mentioned um Aahan STAR will be widened by our project by this first phase. And um I know that this commission understands how traffic impact studies work, but for um the gentleman that was up here testifying, our traffic um engineer collaborates with ACD on which intersections to study. Um they count the AM and PM peaks and the total traffic throughout the day. Um, in our case, the traffic engineer was instructed to study over eight intersections and eight roadway segments, expanding all the way up to Highway 2026 and then all the way down to Franklin. Um, and the the good news here is that there are so many improvements coming. If you read ACHD's report, um it says that, you know, a lot of the needed mitigation is is coming is already planned for in our um in either the city of Nampa's work plan with Eustic um up on Chinden and then with State Highway 16. Um so with the ACD really provided us with two traffic impact study reports um or two reviews of our traffic impact study. One was for the preliminary plat and those were the comments that I mentioned um earlier which is widening in Aah adding turn lanes I think two turn lanes additional on Aahe in addition to a through lane um star road adding widening pavement um to 17 ft adding a shoulder sidewalk and turn lanes there um and then this this map here in the blue shows what is um part of ACD's CIP funding um So I I understand um and I you know live I live with traffic too and I understand that it is frustrating to see development approved ahead of when you think um roads should be improved but again um as part of our just this one plat that's

that's how you fund those improvements that's how the CIP ACD CIP funding is set up. So um as part of our mitigation and improvements um this is a slide we prepared to show we will be providing um our proportionate share of ITD improvements. So those include improving or adding signals to um along Highway 2026 um northbound southbound ramps on state highway 16 and um additional improvements here. Um so that's for our west preliminary plat. Um, we then the ACD and RTIS also analyzed what traffic would be out would be with our full buildout. And that's not just our traffic. That includes background traffic. That includes all of the other um compass modeling for density and um projected growth moving into into 20 um 40. So that does start to address and start to trigger those other improvements. So um that's when as as our future plans come in. So if we come in with the commercial um we will do another traffic impact study updating it. ACD will review it and see if any of these highlighted items are triggered at that time. This is a really we had a project recently in Nampa and I just loved one of the commissioners comments of this is the way traffic impact studies should be done. Again the comprehensive planning because nothing slips through the cracks. Um if you just look at a preliminary plat and it accounts for 4% of traffic and therefore doesn't trigger mitigation here um our that 4% which is just for our first plat gets to 12% and then it triggers the mitigation. So you don't count um development that we do as background traffic if that makes sense. Um so we end up probably doing more than we would if we came in with individual plats. This is a great way to do traffic

planning. Um and again those ACHD CIP funds are just going to continue to increase as we come in with more preliminary plats. Um for our neighbor to um around us on Star Road, the Histos um we are we will be doing she commented about drainage. Um we will be doing that with our engineering plans. So we don't do full engineering plans at this point. So, um, but we will be coordinating with them, um, as we start to develop and making sure those engineering plans, um, are consistent with what their site needs. Um, she talked about the transitioning. Right now, they operate, um, a a storage facility that pretty much spans almost, I think it's expanding, so I apologize if I'm misspeaking, but just got expanded to continue to run an outdoor storage facility. So, that's really operating as a commercial use. um and our densities um and our you know our our zoning around there is consistent with the comprehensive plan. So that's what we have planned there. It's a big parcel. There's is a big parcel. It's going um eventually to redevelop and so to plan around that and is currently operating as a commercial use in the county. Um with that I think I hopefully covered most of the questions would stand for any other questions.

Commissioners, Madam Chair, Commissioner Jose. Uh just uh a quick clarification point. You showed in your presentation one of the uh sort of a timeline a phase by phase you know especially with the residential uh that starts you know in 2027 uh first home sale could be. So, is this phase uh ladder, let's for lack of better words, is this going to include the entire project or just residential the the residential homes that will be will be built?

Um, madame chair and commissioner, this just includes residential. So, um, but if I can maybe guess also what you're wondering, somewhere in here, um, probably sooner than later once sewer gets a little bit closer, I'm guessing our next, um, time before you will be bringing in that Aahe commercial center. Um, so that'll more more than likely than not develop somewhere in this timeline and potentially also the McMillan commercial center. So, um, this, you know, we're not going to wait to do the other commercial development only when this ends. Um, it'll be mixed in the middle.

Understood. Thank you. And Madam Chair, just as a a follow-up question. Um, you we touched on West Data a lot throughout the presentations. uh and you mentioned that you rec that there is the recognition of a strain on uh the uh enrollment and and the capacity of the schools have to the extent that we can has there been any feedback any comments from teachers because West ADA yes it's a body that represents the the school district but it's our educators that also I I grew up in the California school system in Southern California. I went to one of the the best high schools in Southern California uh up until high school. Our capacity was always full. I went to a high school where there were 4,000 kids. My graduating class was a thousand kids. Um one of my government classes was over 80 students for one teacher. Have we had any feedback from teachers on this uh on this project?

Madame Chair, Commissioner, um I have not talked with any teachers um that these students um that this the subdivision would filter to. Um so no um I do not I we haven't received any feedback from them. Thank you.

I'll make one comment on that, Commissioner Delamino. Um our high schools are designed only to hold 1,800 kids. They're not going to be the super mega big schools because what happens is is that once our neighborhoods grow up, not everybody leaves. And so if you end up with a high school that has, you know, capacity for 4,000, yet you have parents and empty nesters and grandparents, you sit with a very big building that's very empty. And West Data has recognized that for a long time. And the reason I have some authority on this is that um I work for the state uh Idaho PTA for about 16 years and have been in the school and I've also been substitute teaching um for the last four or five months. So I'm in the schools including Aahi High School. Um so one of her maps showed that there's a future elementary school site adjacent to Aahi High School. I also know that they own land at Blackat and Eustic as a possible additional site. And once those capacities start getting to a point where it starts getting really uncomfortable, then that's when West Data says, "Okay, it's time to build a new school." And um they work with developers to get, you know, land donated. And if there's a new mechanisms through the legislature to be able to fund that, then it happens quicker because it takes about it takes about three years to build a high school and um a little over a year to build a middle school and and within a year for an elementary school. So, um, they can move fairly quickly. Um, but, um, I'll make the comment now that I'm not really worried about enrollment because their phase out's not till 2040 and a lot can happen with, um, their development plans, the way the market kind of shifts and how things go that I think that assimilation will happen relatively naturally. So, um, we're never going to West a school district, I can't speak of any other school districts, but we'll never have those kind of super schools. are always designed just to have about 1,800 definitely under 2,000 people.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That that brings a lot of um ease to my mind. Yeah. Um any other questions for Emma? I did have one. Um so your phase one, you're at McMillan and Star, but your preliminary plat that you're suggesting is at Aahi and Eustic. Is that correct, Madam Chair? Um no. So our and just so I'm following, we're not quite touching McMillan here. So we're just south of the drain. We're on Star Road where that first preliminary plat yellow is Star and McMillan. Sewer will be at Star and McMillan. Um so we will be pulling it down from there.

Right. But I mean the preliminary plat that you're suggesting that we include in our applica in your application tonight, is it for phase one? That was I looking at it upside down or was that more at USIC? Um this is the this is the entire preliminary plat. Oh okay. So um the last phase would be down on you stick. Gotcha. I gotcha. All right. So it's the whole thing not necessarily just one of one through seven. That would correct. Yes. The the application for the preliminary plat the 21.8% open space that covers all one through seven here. Our TIS was done for all one through seven. It's all one preliminary plat just different phases.

Okay. Very good. All right. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um wanted to address something that um Commissioner Smith said when you were talking about the Star McMillan Center um and the plume for that area and the zoning. So that is currently um the future land use map shows it as mixeduse community. So they're not changing anything there. They're just zoning um a portion of it um TNR, which is allowed in that area. Thank you. I don't have it up anymore, but I must have just been looking at the wrong spot, which just wanted to make that clarify.

Thank you. I appreciate that. May I get a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Seconded. It's been moved and second to close the public hearing on the fields. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, as somebody who lives in this general vicinity area, knowing that the Fields has been coming for what, the last 20 years, they got approved as as a sub area in 2021. Hawaii Storm was built at the same time. When you build a school, they come. And for those who live in the area that were unfamiliar with these growth plans, um, I'm sorry that you didn't hear about it. I've been um in this area for about 15 years and I've always known about it. It's just a matter of time. So, the most important thing is can a developer come in and do something that's thoughtful that can work with our agencies, not only our city, but our county and our um state highway district. Infrastructure comes when rooftops come. It it kind of all comes together. And of course during construction it's just a mismatch and it's very uncomfortable. McMillan is restrained because of those high power um utility lines. Those big power poles are not moving. I guarantee you that. So McMillan's always going to be small. Ustic has always been planned for to parallel highway 84 as a as an alternative road including o overland so that people can move east west without necessarily being on the freeway. that's always been part of the plan and um to have a developer come in and being able to you know phase houses in over the next what 20 years or so um working with our school districts working with our municipalities and being able to do that. The most important thing is to collaborate with a developer who's going to do it in a thoughtful way in my opinion. Um and this obviously impacts, you know, the area of Wahhe Storm and everything else. This is a thoughtful um

development plan. It's overwhelming because we're so used to just open farmland. And of course, we would love nothing to change and everything to just be wide open spaces. But these farmers have have sold their land many years ago and have retired. And they have a right to be able to sell their land to a developer and a developer has a right to develop those lands. So, um I think this for this portion of the fields, remember this is just one section of a four mile bigger thing. So, there's going to be more coming. Um is a good way to be able to do this. We know that Toll Brothers is doing the the USIC portion of the sewer in 2027 along with those other road improvements and starting at the lift station at McMillan where that water already comes is is probably a smart way to go. Commissioner Smith.

Madam Chair, yeah, if um try not to go on too long, but if if I'm if I'm allowed to soap box a little bit. I also grew up in Southern California. Um I don't know that I went to such a snazzy high school as Commissioner Justino. Um I actually spent probably half of K through 8 in uh in portable containers. I can still remember the the sound stepping of walking up them. It's kind of burned into my brain. Um there are kind of two things uh two sayings that I think really stick with me a lot um in life and and also in planning and one of them is you're not in traffic you are traffic and two is there's no such thing as a free lunch. Um I I think someone who moved here um to also kind of escape high costs and to be able to afford a house and to have a family um you know the acknowledgement that I am someone who drove up h housing prices for someone else and that's how the market works uh of supply and demand. I think it's important to understand that this is you know this is a plan is to ensure that Meridian can grow responsibly to be um you know built for business and designed for living for native Idahoans for people who move here in 2 years in 5 years in 10 and 20 years um and I think that this plan um this this uh proposal accomplishes that. Regarding school funding and infrastructure funding, I I fully agree that we our our schools and our roadways are underfunded. I'm glad to see some movement in the legislature. Um but, you know, when we ran a levy in 2023 to pay for two new schools in West ADA and to expand existing schools, it failed. Um you know, we have some money getting clawed back from ITD and from schools to help cover, you know, uh shortfalls due to tax cuts. And none of this is to say that's good or bad, but this is just the reality that our school districts are are facing uh you know an increased

demand but not uh enough uh and our roadways as well are increased demand but not enough funding to cover you know increased costs increased uh student attendance and so I understand the need need for for funding these things and I think this actually while can't solve every problem that are you know that that we're facing with growth and with our infrastructure I think this could be part of the solution. I think the impact fees um can help go to, you know, we've seen ACD push back a number of projects due to rising construction costs due to material and labor. Um these kinds of projects and the impact fees that come from them go a long way to make sure that we can continue to improve our transit corridor. um while while we can't push impact fees to schools in Idaho, um this can hopefully help um you know move uh move the needle on their transit network. Uh and again, like I said, I'm excited to see um some of the impacts of the legislation coming out that allows maybe some some better funding for schools um with those leases. But I'm in support of this.

Thank Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Josamino,

my my colleague, Commissioner Smith, took a lot of the words right out of my mouth. Um, and I do remember those portable rooms as well and then walking up the ramp. Uh I will say I I do sympathize and and understand the concerns uh of the public around the the discussion and the funding of funding for both infrastructure, the lack thereof as well as uh for the school uh school districts. I will say that as I've been here for the last 16 years and I've had experience from at the state level and at the city level and I will preface this that this is not a statement to you know be on a political soapbox uh whatsoever but it it is an observation um as someone who has studied uh you know governance and and public policy. It is my hope that the public will be as sympathetic to us as a city, as a body, as we are to their concerns because we are also members of this city. We are also citizens. We're your neighbors. We're your friends. uh that we as a city have also been put in a difficult position by a legislature who tends to hunt their responsibility off on to the lower municipalities because they may not deem it a priority for their body, but it then ends up on our lap. and whether and so it is my hope that the public

will continue to be sympathetic that we are doing the best we can with the mindset that we are doing the best for their interest and holding their best interest and the city uh the city's best interest at heart and mind in the decisions that we take and in the votes that we we place in this commission and uh city council does in their body. But that we are also doing what we can. Uh under the uh under the uh unfortunate circumstance that uh circumstance that a higher legislative body tends to choose to not address or prioritize uh projects that they could have a greater influence on. But for this project, I I do agree with my colleague, Commissioner Smith, that it is my hope that this project will be a part of that solution.

Okay. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Commissioner Perau, thank you. Um, unfortunately, I am not in agreement with my fellow commissioners. That's why we have these conversations.

Yep. So, uh, we learned from, as some of you know, I've been making decisions with the city on land use for for about 10 years now and just see seen this entire area grow uh grow from from the fields out probably starting in Meridian Road actually and I I've lived out in this area for that time. Um, and one thing we learned with the 10mi area plan was that what was originally envisioned did did not come to be. So that has changed significantly. Um, and unfortunately the addition of the district at 10mi is straining the uh the transportation and the resources significantly. And so we have to learn from those things and do something different next time when we have a specific area plan. And so um hopefully we'll we'll learn from that and and bring in those lessons in um in this situation. Yes, it does make planning easier. the larger um project that you have, the the the earlier you have a concept plan, the earlier you have your plat in that sense, it's easier to kind of control the outcome. Um however, uh what we also learned in 10 mile is that things significantly change over 15 years time and um or 10 years time. And so for that reason, I'm not in favor of approving a preliminary plat that is going to take 10 years to build out. Um I also know that the city um has 40 acres that it's owned. It's public information. They own approximately 40 acres near McDermott and Cherry Lane that's intended to be a regional park. And um the city doesn't

have funding to build that out. So, I don't know how the city would then um be able to build out another 45 acre park uh not quite 2 miles away and uh generate the funding for that. Yes, there'll be impact fees, but those impact fees aren't going to cover um even close to cover the the cost of those two parks. Um those impl impact fees obviously don't get um collected until all these homes are sold. And so we're a long time out from getting funding for um for that park that's in this plan and then our other park um that is planned there on Cherry Lane. Um so I I'm hesitant to agree to comprehensive um map amendment for that park because we already are hearing so much that we're short on industrial in the city of Meridian. And so I don't take lightly losing industrial for a park area when we have a regional park that's close enough um to to access from this area. Um as far as the the fields sub area plan, I I had the opportunity to be a part of that development. um lots and lots of hearings, lots of meetings and conversations and just really excited to see how that was going to play out because it's been in conversation for so long. And um the whole idea and what I believe is is stated in our comprehensive plan is for this to look and feel different than the rest of Meridian. And I don't think this looks or feels different than any of the rest of Meridian. and the the element of placemaking that's really unique to the Fields area plan. I just don't see it here. Um I I don't see a Bowen crossing. I don't see a Harris Ranch. Um you know section um 12 that has the the little

main street that's that's 12 acres. It's a very small part of this that that isn't being um replicated throughout. And they're they're really to me and what what I see are not centralized areas in the residences in the residential area. There's not centralized sort of community areas where people are meeting. There's not centralized sort of parks and plazas. I think there's a lot of reliance on this larger park um in instead of implementing those spaces in into the residential area. Yes, the the percentages look great. 20% open space. That looks fine, but that's all broken up in a bunch of different areas and it's not sort of centralized. Um, and having sort of this this main street feel that the Fields area plan is intended for. There is supposed to be somewhat of a main street on the north side, but a majority of the residential can't even access that by foot. It's just too far away. Um, and so all the three different sort of projected concepts that are in the comprehensive plan for what the Fields area was intended to look like, um, I don't I don't really see that here. I see parts of it. I see sections of it, but given this significant amount of space, significant amount of residential, I'm not getting that this is meeting the intention of what the Fields area plan has. Um, and so that's my opinion as commissioner. Having been involved as a decision decision maker in our comprehensive plan, having been involved as a decision maker in our fields area plan, um, I just don't see this meeting the intent of that. I just see this being additional subdivisions just like we already have. We already have a regional park that we have land for. um we we'll be losing industrial that that

so many um developers are saying that we need um so for me this I I'm not in agreement um with this as it stands. I do want to say that I understand and I don't say that any of this lightly because I understand and appreciate the incredible amount of time and manh hours and money and coordination with our staff and ACD staff and ITD that goes into this. So, I don't say any of those things lightly, and I'm not I'm not saying that I don't think that there are parts of this that look um that look really great. I'm just super hesitant to bite off this amount of um of annexation and this amount of of homes and um and um 200 acres of of residential development at one time. I just would really like to see this come in a little bit slower, a little bit more phases so that we have that opportunity to adjust uh over 10 years time um and so we don't have a project that looks entirely different than it was originally intended to be.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Stall,

join into the uh comparison of graduating classes and stuff. I proudly say I graduated in a class of 175 people and I was very happy with that. No portables. Um I also moved into this area in 1993 uh when the city of Meridian was a little over 10,000 people. Um, and my uh real estate agent at the time told me, "You don't want to move into Meridian because the property value is not going to increase like it will in Boise." um we held off and we actually bought in West Boise at the time. lived there for 9 years and then we quickly moved into um East Meridian uh in an area that we said we weren't going to move into because we didn't want to see farmland being developed and we we enjoyed running um along the roadway and um but we quickly uh recalculated our decision and um bought a house that we've lived there for over 26 years um and have watched Meridian grow and blossom during that time period. I also witnessed um the development community coming to uh Ada Planning Association, ACD and the city of Meridian with a North Meridian growth plan of how they would develop and put in the adequate infrastructure needed for North Meridian. and all the bodies said no because they didn't plan have um a desire to grow in that area. And what we ended up with was a lack of comprehensive planning and investment into the North Meridian area because

we didn't agree with what was coming our way and we yet we knew what was coming our way. And then so we ended up with smaller uh developments that it's kind of like plaque in the artery just starts building up in your arteries and eventually you're going to have a heart attack. This is not ideal, but it is a fairly large piece of property where we know what investments are going to be made in the in transportation system. Um, and I have grave concerns if we say no that it's going to be bite-size de um developments that will be worse for the traffic that we have because our revenue system for transportation is reactive uh to growth and that's an artifact of uh state law and how our system is set up. We can't, we are not going to put in the roadway system before the development comes in. Um, some people would argue that the impact fees are too high. Um, I'd argue that they're too low and they need to be higher. Um, but that's not going to change um at the legislature. And until we get additional revenue, we're going to be much more reactive to the transportation needs of the region and of the state. But I think this is a good proposal. Um that we have adequate it'll be phased over time. It'll be adequate infrastructure coming into place. What we do see with ACD and their impact fee program is that they do use it judiciously. It's just not enough money coming into them. Uh, and they will get the improvements to the targeted spots that are most crucial as soon as they can.

And with that, I'll stop. Okay. All right. Thank you very much,

Madam Chair, Mr. Smith. Um, after hearing all applicant, staff, and public testimony, I move to recommend approval to the city council of file number H--2025-0057 as presented in the staff report for the hearing date of May 7th, 2026 with no modifications. Seconded. It's been moved and second to approve the fields uh for annexation, zoning, and preliminary plat. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? Opposed? Name. Um, so it's three uh a yes and one no. Motion carries. Four.

Oh, excuse me. Four yays, one nay. Motion carries. That's it. Okay. All right. Motion carries. Period. Um, just a reminder for this month, commissioners, we have a meeting on the 21st and the 28th, not June 2nd. So, please make sure that's in your calendars. And I will take one more motion. Move to adjurnn. Second. It's been moved and second to adjurnn. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much, everyone.