Several members of the City of Meridian’s Planning Department shared aspects of the comprehensive plan and specific elements aimed to improve mobility options and access in the downtown corridor.  Additional presenters included Jay Gibbons, Parks & Pathways project manager, Meridian Parks & Recreation; Justin Lucas, transportation manager, Ada County Highway District;  Charles Trainor, director of planning, Community Planning Association(COMPASS); and Mary Barker, transit planner, Valley Regional Transit.

• Jay spoke to elements of the Pathways Master Plan, which can be found here.
• Justin covered the split corridor initiatives and how ACHD is involved with different mobility components within Meridian.
• Charles detailed plans involving the Meridian Interchange, which is currently anticipated to begin construction in 2012.
• Mary shared her knowledge about the routes currently centralized in Meridian and flex route services.

Following the conclusion of these presentations, each of the Livability, Mobility, Prosperity and Sustainability committees met to review their initiatives and share ideas. Caleb Hood, planning manager, City of Meridian, also shared his thoughts on the meeting and how members of the community can become more involved:

Developing this atmosphere involves a number of components, which are broken down into three areas of focus: Public Art & Beautification, Entertainment & Gathering Places, and Downtown Housing. Late last month, we were lucky to have one of our local art experts and supporters present an overview of public art at our Meridian Development Corporation Board Meeting, which was very valuable to our education and ongoing efforts.

Meg Glasgow from the Meridian Arts Commission shared her background and insight into the different forms of public art, the processes involved to plan and create a project and the potential partnerships available.  Her full presentation can be found here but here are some key elements and quotes that reflect what the Livability Committee hopes to accomplish.

Public art

•     Is a true symbol of a city’s maturity

•     Expresses a community’s sense of identity and values

•     Creates opportunities for small local business to thrive

While the first two points are pretty self-explanatory, the last may not be as apparent to everyone but it is vitally important.  Public art not only helps beautify an area, it draws people to it and adds both character and familiarity to an area.  Ultimately this drives people to visit and congregate – benefiting local businesses from both foot traffic and often in an increase in real estate value.  Clearly public art has a role in any thriving city and we are excited to learn more and explore the opportunities ahead to incorporate public art into our Livability efforts.

If you are interested in learning more about Destination Downtown, our Livability Committee or any of our other areas of focus please join us at an upcoming committee meeting and look through this website to learn more.  The more engaged our community is in this process, the better the results – and you can take pride knowing you helped shape our community.

-Chad

P1 – Encourage investment in and redevelopment of the southern portion of the MDC Boundary. 
Status: not a priority at this time, need to focus on the “core”.
P2 – Complete, open and promote The Ground Floor business incubator.
Status: Open and operational, currently reviewing RFQ responses for new management and marketing ideas
P3 – Facilitate Land Assembly
Status: not a priority at this time, MDC has acquired the land that is planned for the COMPASS/VRT project, and has acquired        two pieces of land on Main street (need to address long term plan for these properties)
P4 – Create a destination that fosters social retailing.
Status: High priority
P5 - Improve the diversity of business activity and retail vitality.
Status: High priority
P6 – Develop catalyst project on MDC owned parcel at 3rd & Broadway.
Status: Underway
P7 – Integrate existing businesses into the fabric of downtown as the area experiences new investment and growth, while protecting their  ability to operate. Status: High priority

At the meeting they also addressed and discussed the following points:

• The status of the MDC-owned property at 2nd and Broadway. MDC is proceeding with construction documents for a 16,000 s.f. two-story building to house COMPASS and VRT – a Catalyst project. The project is to include a public parking component. This addresses Project Number P6.  We need to leverage the fact that development is going to occur in downtown Meridian – through marketing, press releases, etc.
• Discussed the fact that the Catalyst project at 2nd and Broadway moving forward could assist the McFadden building project across 2nd Street. Need to further discuss the continuation of streetscape improvements to link Main Street to the Catalyst project.  Also facade improvement program may assist the project in moving forward.
• Discussed how to deal with two types of downtown businesses, the “new” businesses and the “survivors”.  What can MDC and the Prosperity Committee do to make both successful?  Discussed CDBG funds, facade improvement program, etc.
• Discussed focusing on the “core” of downtown.  We must gain traction within the “core” and add additional businesses and development prior to development occurring outside of the “core”.
• Committee member Paul Stark discussed Copper Canyon restaurant in downtown Nampa and an adjacent kitchen accessory business as “hidden gems” that make the area inviting to customers and residents.  We need these types of businesses in downtown Meridian.
• Group was in consensus that the area including Generations Plaza, Flatbread Pizza, Rick’s Press Room, the Smoke shop and the Ground Floor has a positive look and feel and needs to be expanded.  Discussed that the Library Coffeehouse is another example of the type of business that is needed, the problem is that there is not connectivity to the rest of the downtown businesses from the Library Coffeehouse.  We have to eliminate the gaps.
• Paul Stark committed to try and recruit additional committee members
• A land owner on State Street has requested a list of types of businesses that are desirous and that the committee feels could be successful.

Committee members in attendance: Bill Dietz, Craig Slocum, Brenda Sherwood, Paul Stark

- Craig Slocum

S1 - Protect Private Property Rights
Status: This item is already in the city’s plans and is more so stated as a reminder that we are dedicated to the existing stakeholders in downtown, and we should always remember how to keep their interests in mind.
S2 – Coordinate planning efforts between City and MDC.
Status: With Pete on our team, we are already discussing ways to ensure both plans respond to each other, from Zoning to Comp Plan back to the Vision Document. We will likely create a similar situation that we have with the Streetscape Plan as indicated in the MDC documents and watched over by the efforts of the City Zoning Department and MDC Administrator.
S3 – 3D Model
Status: This is already a part of the MDC annual budget, and we will look for ways to develop the remaining areas of the URD, as well as potentially show a “build-out vision” of what the city could look like in the future. We will need to find ways to coordinate this information to the stakeholders, so they may be able to utilize it for their benefits. We need to establish what those ways may be, and how to get that information distributed.
S4 – ACHD and City, coordinate fair impact and connection fees.
Status: We need to establish a meeting with ACHD, DPW and our portion of the MDC focus group on sustainability to discuss what our current requirements are, how we can incentivize local redevelopment (possibly a use of deferred fees as one idea), and how we can ensure everyone is finding the best interest of incentivizing growth within the URD.
S5 - Promote innovative & progressive development.
Status: Using items as suggested may help once the market picks back up, and several of these items are already in place with the city’s Zoning plans.
S6 – Incentivize sustainable development.
Status: directly connected with S5, this item is quickly becoming an industry norm. A window decal system for the downtown business that show they are doing things in a sustainable fashion, whether through operation, remodels, or new construction, is a system that sounds like it may make sense within our URD. We need to find a project champion specific to this item. We also would need to promote and advertise this through the MDC, to create a desire for people to want to be involved.
S7 – Greenbelt pathway network.
Status: As stated above, this is in existence with the Parks Department and will be a major focus of our group.
S8 – Infill development.
Status: At this time, we are encouraging any development within the URD. Once the market picks back up, we will need to return to this project as a focus.
S9 – Increase landscaping downtown
Status: Urban food production is going to be considered within the Zoning Department, as well as zeriscape. In addition, our Streetscape plan has set guidelines for any redevelopment. It would be nice to find ways to encourage more landscaping, and maybe even find ways to encourage more social gathering areas (similar to Idaho and Main) in the URD.
S10 – Promote cultural events.
Status: This is another item high on our priority list, and we may have an individual specifically targeted that would be an excellent fill for being this project’s Champion. This would require specific efforts to create more events in the URD, as well as utilize the MDC and City as resources for promoting and funding these events. We also currently have some art installations underway in planning, and would like to promote more art in the downtown core.
S11 - Open government initiative for Meridian.
Status: We feel our city is already very transparent, and our goals would be to continue this. For this project, we would simply want to use it as a check in the future ensuring our project goals are still being met.
S12 – Regular enforcement of local laws and ordinances including zoning and parking.
Status: This is already a focus of our Zoning Department and will continue to be such. There are two officers that regularly patrol enforcement of these ordinances.
S13 – Update Comp Plan and incorporate Downtown Vision.
Status: We will be meeting with DPW, the City of Meridian Comprehensive Plan Coordinator and Parks Department to discuss the Greenbelt Pathways. At that same time, we will also discuss the most efficient ways to ensure the Comp Plan, Zoning Ordinance, DPW and Parks Department Plans are all talking to each other, ensuring the goals of all organizations are being consistently coordinated and enforced.

Next Steps:
The majority of them are items the city is already coordinating, but there are a couple that will require our specific efforts to initiate. Since Pete works with the city zoning department, he will be an excellent partner in our team, and we are already discussing ways to integrate the MDC plans into their Zoning plans.

Most importantly of all these “Projects” is our request within our team to find more projects that would be applicable to the sustainability of our city’s future, within our three areas of environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability. 

We are also encouraged to find one to two more people to bring with us to our next meeting, making sure we have the community involvement to start achieving the objectives as noted above. A plan is just that, unless we have the interested parties within our community step it forward into action.

One specific item we spent time on is the S7 Greenbelt Pathways “project”, which is a highly ranked priority for our group (as well as the S10 social events “project”). Mark has specified interest in the Greenbelt Pathways since he is a Licensed Landscape Architect. The city already has a plan established and is soon going to start taking action in bringing it together. With that said, we have set up a meeting to meet with Public Works, Zoning and the Parks Departments. That is scheduled for: September 24th from 11:30-1:30

- Jim Escobar

If you have an interest in participating in the Prosperity Committee, we’ll be focusing on three areas: Job Creation, Balanced Retail, Integration of Existing Businesses.

This will include such action items as: Integrating existing businesses into the fabric of downtown as the area experiences new investment and growth, while protecting their ability to operate; creating a destination that fosters social retailing; and developing a catalyst project on the MDC parcel at 3rd street & Broadway. See theImplementing the Vision document for more details.

- Craig Slocum
Prosperity Committee Chairman

If you have an interest in participating in the Mobility Committee, we’ll be focusing on three areas: Transit Supportive, Transportation Destination, Pedestrian/Bicycle Friendly.

This will include such action items as: Improving the walkability of downtown, planning for a multi-modal transportation hub, developing signage and wayfinding infrastructure, and improving the bikeability of downtown. See the Implementing the Vision document for more details.

- Julie Pipal
Mobility Committee Chairwoman

If you have an interest in participating in the Sustainability Committee, we’ll be focusing on three areas: Economic Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability and Social Sustainability.

This involves items such as downtown greenbelt connectivity, alternate modes of transportation, generation of cultural events/activities, promoting support of current businesses, utilizing Google 3D modeling to promote our core, working with the city to interconnect planning activities, etc. See the Implementing the Vision document for more details.

So please join us for this inspirational opportunity. Come take part in the future of the city we all enjoy, and know that you are doing what you can to help continue making Meridian one of the best places to live in the USA. This plan will only come to reality with the support and involvement of us, the community that cares about our future.

Accountability is the solution…

- Jim Escobar
Sustainability Committee Chairman

If you have an interest in participating in the Livability Committee, we’ll be focusing on three areas: Public Art & Beautification, Entertainment & Gathering Places, Downtown Housing.

This will include such action items as: creating more places for community gathering, negotiating a long-term lease for use of Union Pacific property and Locating a sports facility or stadium in Downtown Meridian. See theImplementing the Vision document for more details.

- Eric Jensen
Livability Committee Chairman