City Council Regular Meeting

City Council Meeting Minutes February 20, 2007 The regular meeting of the Star City Council was held on February 20, 2007 at the Star Fire Station at 7:00 pm. Mayor Nathan Mitchell called the meeting to order and all stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll Call: Council persons Tammy McDaniel, Dustin Christopherson, Tom Erlebach and Chad Bell were all present. Approval of Agenda: McDaniel moved to approve the Agenda, Christopherson seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Consent Agenda: The Consent Agenda consisted of Approval of February 6, 2007 Regular Meeting Minutes; Orion Park Subdivision Extension of Time, and Landscape Innovations Annual Maintenance Renewal. Christopherson moved to approve the Consent Agenda, McDaniel seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Public Input: Law Enforcement Report - Sergeant Ramage introduced the City of Star officers - Deputy Tammy Kennedy, Deputy Zack Walls and Deputy Adam Babbitt. Sergeant Ramage reviewed the monthly report. Public – No one from the public chose to speak. Public Hearing: Mac Land Comprehensive Plan Map Amendment, Annexation & Zoning. The Mayor reviewed the public hearing rules, opened the public hearing and ask the applicant to speak. Becky McKay, Engineering Solutions, 1029 N. Rozario, Meridian, stated that she is representing Mac Land who requests an R4 zoning designation and a Comprehensive Plan Map modification. The name of the subdivision will be Alamo Creek. A development plan has been submitted, along with a landscape and traffic study. There are approximately 142 acres and of that 70.91% is designated as medium density with 20% or 40 acres designated as low density on the Comp Plan. The reason for modification request is that they are proposing a density of 435 instead of the 473 they could have. The average lot size is 9,100 sq. feet with the smallest at 3,841 found in the attached home section. McKay showed the Council pictures of the attached homes. They include shared driveways and garages are attached. They will look like standard single family dwellings. Patio homes are in demand now and are going for up to $300,000. McKay is trying for a mix of 25-35% in home types. There is a collector road coming in off of Pollard. There will be a pool, pool house and gazebo. There will be 1 micro paths that feed into the pool area. They do have larger lots to the outside of the development. They have had two neighborhood meetings. Property owners requested stub streets and they have been provided. The property is contiguous to the Castillo property. There will be 18 ½ acres of open space. North, east and south of the property the density is medium, with some mixed use to the south. The low density is north, northwest and southeast. Overall density is 3.13 dwelling units per acre. Services will be coming up Plummer Road where Star Sewer and Water want main lines to up Pollard. This is a multi-phased project which has flood plain and flood way considerations next to Pollard. The improvements for Pollard will be on the east side. Erlebach asked about the flood way. McKay stated that the flood plain bubbles out around Pollard, but the flood way follows Pollard. Christopherson asked where the low density was. McKay showed the location of the low density. Christopherson asked about the lot sizes to the north west of the subdivision. McKay stated that they are half acre to one acre lots. Erlebach asked if the developer is planning on grassing the hillside. McKay stated that it will be graded and manicured. Christopherson asked about the neighborhood meeting and how it went. McKay stated that there were transportation concerns, a stub street request to the west and there are animals llamas, cattle that they are looking at different fencing options to keep neighbors animals in. They have come up with a couple ideas on fences, but are still exploring options. Christopherson stated that the developer is requesting a zoning of R4 and asked why it couldn’t be R3. McKay stated that there is a certain threshold to make development financially feasible. The Mayor asked if the lot behind the Ballards is a common lot. McKay stated that it was. McKay discussed options with roadways and Ballards are not affected by this application. There will be detached sidewalk along all roadways. McDaniel asked how many affected land owners attended the meeting. McKay stated that there were ten to twelve at the first meeting and about eight at the second. Mrs. Johnson is working on another neighborhood meeting. Bell stated that they are requesting an R-4 designation, but the land around it is all R-3 - not R-4 and also includes low density. Bell wants to know how McKay believes this will fit in the Comp Plan. McKay stated that if you have all R-3 zoning - you don’t have any differences. A lot of builders are looking at higher density subdivisions to build in. Meridian’s economic study says that anything R-3 and lower won’t pay for itself. When densities are low it’s hard to provide different amenities. The higher density is broken out in different areas. They would have to eliminate 19 lots to get to an R-3 density. 2 McKay stated that Castillo was a standardized subdivision to the south. McKay wanted some variety and thinks that is what Star needs to look at. Bell asked McKay if she was aware that there are no minimum lot sizes and that you could still see the same amount of lots with the same acreage. You can take an R-3 and R-4 and allows for open space with same numbers of lots. Bell believes that we can achieve what we need without going for an R-4 designation. Erlebach believes that larger lots should be part of the variety. Erlebach asked if there is a club house. McKay stated that there was a swimming pool, pathways, play equipment, basketball court and many more amenities. Some of the area amenities will depend on what type of people buy. Erlebach asked how many lots there are. McKay stated there are 435 lots and so there will be about 2.8 people using the swimming pool. McDaniel asked if the northwest corner is the low density for which they are requesting a comp plan map amendment. McKay stated that it was, - total acreage is 40 acres. The east area is already in the comp plan as medium density. Low density is along the west and north. Erlebach is opposed to small lots away from the City, but we will be at Highway 16 soon. Staff – Mary Taylor, City Planner pointed out that the staff report found that R-4 would be a reasonable designation with respect to existing development and surrounding area to provide diverse lot sizes and amenities. Public – Lori Ballard, 2361 Pollard Lane, stated that she is speaking for husband and herself – they live on one acre lot and are surrounded by this development. She feels it is too dense and is concerned about heavy traffic. She believes there needs to be a traffic light installed. She has submitted two letters from themselves and the Johnsons. She researched ten subdivisions in Star and they were all given an R-3 zoning. She felt that it is going against what we have done in the past few months by granting this at R-4. Her biggest concern is that she has no voice in the process, she didn’t get to vote in the recall and she would like the Council to hear her. Ron Wineger, 8998 W. Floating Feather, stated that this is the first time he has seen the map. He has concerns about density – it is way to much for that area of town. He is not part of the City and has not been annexed, but is now having these type of decisions impacting them. The density needs to grow from the city out and this seems to be flying in the face of that. It doesn’t look like R-4 fits in with that. The infrastructure does not appear to fit in. He is opposed to project. Tony O’Neill, 1910 Mountain Vista Lane, stated that he is part of the Comp Plan Revision Committee. He can’t imagine that this is a good idea. They have outlined the zoning which says this is not a good idea. Common sense says you have to think about the impact and trips up and down Floating Feather Road. He stated that at Pollard there 3 have been at least three people dug out of the canal. Now you’re adding a thousand cars and people flying down that road. Common sense has got to prevail. Mike Sessions, 8866 Floating Feather Road, stated that he does not oppose growth - we are going to grow. He would like to see us stick to the plan – we will see failure if we don’t stick to the plan. Thought needs to go into the Hwy 16 expansion – we don’t know where that will go and this will create a bottleneck. He doesn’t think this is a good idea and doesn’t support it in any way. Ed Price, 3560 Verdant, in the Trellis Subdivision, he is looking at the density and he knows what traffic looks like at Beacon Light. If the golf course ever develops there is another 191 lots that will be developed – if it ever develops and they are talking about around 500 homes – unless you have an idea of how you’ll handle traffic – you need to plan for it. Stand by for a war on the development of golf course. It’s all about the money – the more lots you put on a piece of dirt. We need to rethink this. He understands that the Council has restrictions. He should have never left Salmon. Zelphie Winegar, 8998 W. Floating Feather Road is opposed to the higher density and higher density around Highway 16 makes her nervous as well. Applicant – McKay stated that we are talking about the R-3 versus the R-4. The house difference is 435 to 416 lots. She believes they are providing a quality project and it is important. Star has the lowest density. Boise is upping their density to R-4 and some want R-8. McKay doesn’t think eight is appropriate and some are finding it hard to hit R- 4. The 435 is a lower density. She is bringing a quality development and coming up with ideas to make it more palatable. They are looking at realigning Hwy 16 and looking at more east west corridors. This subdivision is to be built in phases, maybe 40 to 50 homes to a phase, with maybe a four to six year to build out. They have done a traffic study and have shown the improvements that will be required for this area. She believes this is a good quality project and will benefit this area. The average lot size over 9,000 sq ft. and 7,600 sq feet is the smallest lot size. Everyone is seeing upper end homes are sitting right now. We’ve got to make sure we create something that everyone can buy and the community is going to need. Erlebach stated that ACHD is doing a study that won’t be done until May – what if ACHD re-aligns, where will the road go? Bruce Mills of ACHD stated they are studying the alignment now, but have no plans. One might be to extend through cemetery and one plan might be to go through the Rosti property. As more gets developed the more it shuts down more roads. McKay pointed out to the Council that the alignment is through the Welton property. The way the project is designed it could be realigned. Erlebach asked if they had thought about tiling the canal. McKay stated that the Corp of Engineers preferred that it not be tiled as it is the flood way, they want them to work 4 around it. Ada County Highway District will require the developer to put in a vertical curb. The Mayor asked McKay if they are showing the canal as part of the right of way. McKay stated that is showing outside the right of way. It is platted as common lot. Discussion was held on the alignment. Bell is not convinced of a need to change the Comp Plan, can we continue with annexation if the Council doesn’t change the map? McKay stated that the applicant is out of town right now. She would like Council to have a discussion and if owner didn’t sign the development agreement, then they would not proceed. McKay stated that they have purchased the entire property. They would probably want to move forward. McDaniel asked if the property owners would want this all to go to an R-3. McKay stated that she believed that they would and it would be acceptable. McKay believes the residents are wanting to see R-3 zoning. The Mayor closed the public hearing. Christopherson stated that it does not make sense to approve this as it is. He believes that if any part needs to change it needs to be changed to lower density. If the golf course develops – it makes sense to keep this low density. We need a variety of densities – from apartments to an R2. We have approved a lot of R-3 – this low density makes senses to leave it as it is. He is not in favor of approving this. Erlebach agreed, annexation is good, but he doesn’t like the overall plan. He wants more open space and another swimming pool. He would like to see an R-2 or 2.5 houses per acre. There is a lot of traffic that we need to be concerned about and he is opposed to the development. Bell is opposed to this as we are close to a new Comp Plan Map and he doesn’t feel we need to change now. To take 40 acres out of low density now and put it into medium density is not okay, if they want to make this low density that’s fine. He wants bigger lots closer to other surrounding bigger lots, with more density toward Pollard. It is not prudent at this time when we are this close to a new Comp Plan map to do this. Bell would recommend denial and to start over, we’re on the wrong foot with this. He believes there has been a lot of thought going into the amenities. He is not in favor of R- 4 that far out, unless he had a development agreement with larger lots farther out. McDaniel agreed with other Council with regard to changing the density on the low density, but they have put in a variety of lots sizes and are almost at the R-3. She doesn’t know where we are at with the map. She thinks we have a catch 22. She is in favor of having the 40 acres go to R-3 with the entire project zoned R-3. Christopherson proposed a question to the Council – do we still annex the property and put a designation on it. 5 The Mayor asked what the thought process was. Christopherson stated that they would follow the Comp Plan and zoning designation that is compliant. Legal Counsel, Paul Fitzer stated that this is a category A annexation where the property is tied together with annexation and zoning and Comp Plan Map Amendment. They are asking for an R-4 not an R-3. You can technically do this. The applicant can withdraw the application. Fitzer stated that it can be tied in with a development agreement and if they don’t sign it then nothing is annexed. Christopherson moved to deny the Comp Plan Map amendment request, Erlebach seconded the motion. Christopherson, Erlebach and Bell all aye; McDaniel – nay: motion carried. New Business: Tacoma Park Subdivision Final Plat – Staff had no further comments. Bell stated that the only changes were minor lot line adjustments. Bell moved to approve Tacoma Park Final Plat FP-07-05 with the 14 recommended conditions of approval, Erlebach seconded the motion. Mitchell asked if ACHD was involved with discussion regarding a bridge over the canal. McDaniel asked about the statement that says it doesn’t meet the landscape requirements. The trees every 35’ can be added to the CC&R’s. The Mayor stated that it is a condition of the approval. Motion – All aye: motion carried. Fiore Springs Subdivision Final Plat Phase 1 – Staff had no further comments. Christopherson moved to approve the final plat, phase one for the Fiore Springs Subdivision, file #FP 07-04 with the stated twelve conditions, Bell seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Parkstone Subdivision Final Plat Phase 3 – Staff had no further comments. Applicant – Becky McKay stated that she wanted to inform the Council that this is the third phase and ACHD has changed from swales to drainage ponds. The ground water in this area has gone down about two feet further than what was expected. Erlebach asked if run off will go into ponds and if it would hurt the fish. McKay stated that it would but there are no fish in those ponds. An aqua swirl will be installed in the wet ponds. Erlebach moved to approve the final plat, phase three for the Parkstone Subdivision, file #FP-07-03 with the 13 conditions of approval, McDaniel seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Collina Vista Subdivision Final Plat Phase 1 – Staff stated that the applicant has requested to have this tabled until the next meeting in March. Christopherson moved to table the final plat, phase one Collina Vista Subdivision to the next Council meeting on March 6, 2007, Bell seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Blake Haven Park Designs – The Mayor stated that there are three different options – Staff is looking for guidance as we need to move forward. 6 Bell moved to go ahead with site plan number one, Erlebach seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Streetlight Ordinance Interpretation – Question is whether the Council wants to stay with streetlights placed along highways, collectors and arterials every 100 feet. It was the consensus of the Council to stay with that requirement. The Council would like to review the streetlight ordinance again and look at dark sky concepts and down lighting. They would also like to review the lights that shine upward. Reports: Staff – Taylor stated that all the staff have been working on updating maps – very close with Keller and should have some by next Council meeting. Council – McDaniel missed an ACCEM meeting Christopherson attended a Mule Days meeting – it was the kickoff meeting. Mayor Mitchell stated that there is a retirement party for Reinhard Schuster on Friday the 23, and everyone invited. Mitchell stated that he attended a meeting on Tuesday night regarding a community college signature drive that is going on. There is a valley wide group getting signatures. Local efforts through Governor office. Our Economic Development Committee is very active in this. Update on City Hall plans – the Mayor met with Benchmark and they are putting numbers together. This will be on the agenda for March 20. Adjournment – Christopherson moved to adjourn the meeting, Bell seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm. Respectfully submitted: Approved: ________________________ ___________________________ Cathy Ward, City Clerk Nathan Mitchell, Mayor 7