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Home My WebLink AboutWRITTEN RESPONSE - Professional Office Overlay - Between Rolling HIlls Dr & 512 S Mill HollowMarsha Lee Sparhawk 37 South Third East Rexburg, Idaho 83440-2001 February 4, 2004 Mayor Shawn Larsen Rexburg City Council 12 North Center Street Rexburg, ID 83440 Re: February 4, 2004, Hearing on Smith Application to allow Professional Office Overlay on their land adjacent to Mill Hollow Road and Shoshone Street Unfortunately I have another event on February 4 and will be unable to attend this hearing. Therefore I would like to submit my testimony in this letter to be placed in the record for this application. I hope that you will give it serious consideration as you make a decision on this appeal. We have been instructed when addressing the City Council and Planning and Zoning Meetings that we must present facts and not emotions:. This ldter will not be emotional; but it. will address the noun; emotion,as a fact in the discussion of this zoning issue and all other zoning issues pertaining to already zoned residential areas in our city wherein the city is trying to introduce mixed zoning: First of all, I support all the comments made by people in the January 8, 2004, Planning and Zoning hearing who are opposed to the proposed zoning change to allow professional office buildings in the residential area adjacent to Mill Hollow Road and Shoshone Street and commend the Commission for denying this request. J tis I'lot my intention to repeat all the facts presented in that meeting, but. rather to address the basic, bottom-line fact of this issue which has not been previously presented. Neighborhoods are emotion; professional offices are not. Trying to mix the two is harmful to both communities. First, the neighborhood is weakened and eventually will be destroyed; second, it limits the boundaries of professional growth so that there can be no growth when needed unless further destroying the neighborhood by purchasing and demolishing homes. Sally Smith quoted a statement from Larry Thompson in the January 8, 2004, hearing. It came as no surprise to me because m'p Larry has told me the same thing: I can understand that -Larry wants it uiet when -he -is readin so he relishes q g empty offices and silent parking lots_ I prefer to- read with mywindows wide open so that I can hear the boys playing basketball or baseball arid the girls giggling and acting silly. I love hearing a lawnmower: It gives me great satisfaction to know my neighbor is out working hard while I'm lazily reading a book — and I love the smell of fresh cut grass. It gives me a feeling of peace knowing all is well in the neighborhood. Although Larry would have us believe that all is well in his end of the neighborhood, his wife has told me several times that she has nearly been hit or has nearly hit a car on many occasions because of the traffic into and out of the Madison Professional Park. Larry's statement seems to indicate that he prefers empty office buildings and silent parking lots as neighbors. My question is this: When the Thompsons were unable to travel to their children's homes for Christmas the past two years, did those empty offices and silent parking lots invite them to Christmas dinner? The answer is no. The Sparhawks did — not out of charity or duty or guilt, but because we love Larry and Carolyn as neighbors and friends. We wanted to share our Christmas day with thein simply because we love diem. The Thompson, like all of us in our neighborhood, have needed help occasionally. Did the empty offices and silent parking lot help them on those occasions. No. Their neighbors did. I think the above examples prove the fact that emotion is important in a neighborhood. The fact is, emotion is the lifeblood of a neighborhood. I don't understand why doctors who are in the business of saving lives can be so intent on sucking the life out of our neighborhoods. Dr. Packer and Dr. Mills' wife both testified that they do not want professional offices in their neighborhood. The irony of their testimonies is that both doctors seem to have no problem with the location of their offices in our less affluent neighborhood. I guess the old adage is still true: "What goes around, comes around," yet I support them in not wanting professional offices in their neighborhood; I don't either. In January 2001, my husband was on a bus with other community and chamber officials who were going to Utah to check out growth in Provo and Orem. The headlines in the Post Register newspaper read, "Bring a bit of Utah to Eastern Idaho. *** Rexburg, U.S.A. What's ahead for the eastern Idaho town may be influenced by ideas brought home from Utah towns by city leaders. *** Utah trip gives Rexburg business, civic leaders ideas to try at home." It seems the city of Rexburg had already been planning for months to systemically dismantle our neighborhood. When John Watson announced their plan on that bus trip, he didn't realize that Don lives in the neighborhood they were planning to destroy. Thus began our 2 -year odyssey defending our residential neighborhood. — and we are sure that it is not over yet. Maybe you need to take another bus trip to Provo, Utah, and see how things are working two years later. You would discover their state of the art zoning laws aren't working too well. My sister lives in a condominium on North University Avenue in Provo. Shortly after she and her husband moved there, an upscale mall was built across the street from their home. It is not a 0 square box; it is not Albertson's and Wal -mart. The architectural design is trendy and eye catching. The stores are expensive — Talbots, Franklin Covey, Bath and Body, Victoria's Secret, Borders Bookstore, Yankee Candles, Color Me Mine, Beauty supplies and salon, Jos. Banks (Men's Clothing — high end), Copeland Sports, Abercrombie and Fitch, Williams and Sonoma, and numerous other gift and specialty shops. Some, such as Papyrus, GAP, and GAP Kids, had to leave the Shops because they were losing money. High-end restaurants such as Toucanos, Romero's Macaroni Grill, China Lily, and some on the level of steak and burger places, Hogey Yogi, Bajio's Mexican food, frozen yogurt, etc. The Wynsong Movie Center has over six theaters. The developers of Shops at Riverwoods thought they had a great idea. They decided to mix commercial stores, professional offices, and residential dwellings together. They built condominiums above the trendy stores thinking they would sell like hot cakes. Well, think again. They can't unload them. It seems the consumer doesn't want to purchase residential property and share their space with store owners, professionals, customers and their cars. In front of my sister's condominium, there is a string of "for sale" signs. It looked so bad that the Condominium Association required all for sale and for rent signs removed, and they put up one professionally -made sign indicating that information on sales and rentals was located next to the postal boxes. Signs are also appearing in the windows of specific condos indicating that they are for sale or for rent. It seems these people don't want to live across the street from a commercial business district which moved in after the residents did. Rather than their property appreciating, it is depreciating. One of her neighbors had to lower her selling price substantially and took a loss in order to sell her condo. My niece and her husband lived just around the corner from her parents. They just purchased a condo and moved away from this mixed zoning mess. Let me quote an e-mail I received from her when I sent her a rough draft copy of this letter. "I can certainly relate to formerly being right across the street from the Shops at Riverwoods! Every time a movie would get out at night when Karl and I were trying to sleep, we could see the headlights of cars glow in our bedroom window as they would make U-turns. The drag racing that went on was absurd! We had to call the police on numerous occasions while we lived across from the Shops. Also, like clock work, Wynsong Theatre would clean their carpets at around 2:00 am. and we could hear right into our bedroom that loud humming sound. Once again we had to call the police numerous times concerning this! And there are "for sale/or for rent" signs where we used to live also." 3 The fact is these people understand emotion. It takes emotion for a neighborhood to function and thrive. I have one more example to substantiate my position. Late last March, my husband and I had to be out of town. Don was not able to take our son Andrew to an important meeting of our church which fathers and sons attend together. We told Andrew to call a buddy knowing he has dozens of friends and any one of them would be happy to share his dad with him for one evening. Imagine our surprise when we returned home a few days later. Andrew did not call any of his teenage buddies. He called Larry Thompson. Andrew loves, admires and emulates Larry Thompson. Larry is his neighbor and friend. The fact is Larry Thompson needs his neighbors and his neighbors need Larry Thompson. Empty offices and silent parking lots don't cut it. They can't step up to the plate and help out their neighbors when their neighbors need help. They can't breathe life into a neighborhood, much less sustain it. Hilary Clinton's famous book, It Takes a Village, can be applied to Rexburg's zoning problems and it can be made even more specific. It takes a neighborhood to raise a child. My child, your child. My children, your children. Emotion — that is the lifeblood of the neighborhood and it is a fact that neighborhoods thrive on their emotion. It is a fact that you are considering a life and death situation in this and similar zoning issues. Strong neighborhoods build strong communities. Isn't that your end goal — to have a strong, thriving community? By weakening and ultimately destroying neighborhoods, you will be destroying the very community which you have made an oath to protect. I plead with the Mayor and City Council to settle this issue once and for all. Protect our residential neighborhoods by denying the Smiths' request and others like it. Provide for professional offices by designating a currently undeveloped area far from established neighborhoods for the building of professional offices where there is opportunity for continued orderly growth as the city of Rexburg grows. These offices will still be only minutes away from the hospital. We need professional office buildings with their adjacent parking lots and we need residential neighborhoods for the families in this city. We don't need them trying to occupy the same space. Sincerely, Marsha Lee Sparhawk ii Distribution of Letter City Officials Mayor Shawn Larsen Councilman Paul Pugmire Councilman Nile Fullmer Councilwoman Donna Benfield Councilman Farrell Young Councilman Rex Erickson Councilman Garth Oakey Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Winston Dyer Commissioner Robert Schwartz Commissioner Mike Ricks Commissioner Steve McGary Commissioner Jerry Hastings Commissioner Mary Haley Commissioner David Stein Commissioner Joseph Laird Commissioner Randall Porter 5 THE KELLERS 518 Rolling Hills Drive o Rexburg, ID 83440-2517 City of Rexburg Blair D. Kay, City Clerk 12 North Center Rexburg, ID 83440 Dear Clerk Kay: We oppose the "Professional Overlay" proposed zone change for the property located at the corners of Mill Hollow, Shoshone, and Rolling Hills. The medical plaza and zone changes are not good for our neighborhood. As homeowners in a clearly distinguished residential zone, we want to • Maintain the integrity of an already zoned residential neighborhood • Avoid checkerboard zoning • Restrict excessive traffic flow through neighborhood • Discourage the introduction of strangers entering our neighborhood. Please keep this area a family residential zone. Thanks, Christi A. Keller Rodney D. Keller February 4, 2004 RE: Professional Overlay on Mill Hollow Rexburg City Council 12 N Center Rexburg, ID 83440 Dear Honorable Mayor Larsen and Members of the Rexburg City Council: My name is Ezekiel C. Barnard Jr. I reside at 429 Rolling Hills in Rexburg. I am writing you this letter because I cannot attend your meeting tonight where you will be discussing whether or not to overturn the decision made by the planning and zoning committee on the professional overlay on Mill Hollow Road. I urge you to please reject the appeal on this overlay. This is a residential neighborhood and should remain as such. There is already too much traffic in our neighborhood. I bought my home several years ago with the intention of living in a nice neighborhood with great neighbors not the congestion and noise and property devaluation that will result with this professional overlay. I find it interesting that the City has plans for Rexburg that seem to fly out the window with almost every development request that comes before the you. I doubt that your new comprehensive plan that is still in process of being developed would include a professional overlay in our neighborhood. Please do not make the same mistakes of councilpersons before you and make decisions contrary to your new comprehensive plan. You should have a vision for the future land use for this great city of ours and make decisions based on that vision. Otherwise, developers and investors whose interests are not commensurate with our vision will decide our land use in the future. We need to put together our comprehensive plan, get it approved and then only approve development that falls within that plan. All other uses that are outside the Plan, such as the request before you tonight need to be rejected. If you approve this overlay, this will be just one more example of the City of Rexburg enabling the developers and investors to control the destiny of our city. Please do what is right for our neighborhood and reject this appeal. Thank you for taking time out of your busy calendar to read my statement. Sincerely, Ezekiel C. Barnard Jr. V 429 Rolling Hills Rexburg, ID 83440 208-359-9633 37 South Third East Rexburg, ID 83440 February 4, 2004 Rexburg City Council Unfortunately, I am unable to attend the hearing this evening concerning a proposed Professional Office Overlay on property along Millhollow Drive. However, I wish to express my opposition to this proposal. Our family lives in a lovely, older residential neighborhood near Smith Park. This has been a residential area ever since Rexburg was established in the late 1800s and has raised several generations of families. A few decades ago, the interior of a nearby city block that was surrounded by homes was developed as Professional Plaza and now contains a number of professional offices. For many years, the homeowners and professional businesses in Professional Plaza lived together peacefully. However, in recent years doctors within Professional Plaza started buying some of the homes adjacent to their offices. These doctors are hoping to persuade city officials to allow them to expand the existing Professional Office Overlay and to turn these homes into offices and parking lots. What began as an innocent enough plan for a few offices is now threatening the existence of an entire neighborhood. These businesses got a foothold in our neighborhood, and today they argue that this is a neighborhood transitioning from residential to commercial use. The homeowners in our neighborhood have been fighting this proposed expansion of professional offices for more than two years now and it has not gone away. I encourage the City Council members not to allow another Professional Office Overlay to spread into yet another neighborhood. If this plan is allowed along Millhollow, it would not be many years before businesses are in need of even more space and commercial development will continue to spread into another lovely residential area. Please protect the people of Rexburg, who overwhelmingly wish to live in family neighborhoods that are distinctly separated from commercially zoned areas. Sincerely, 0-&-Vt sra4�� Don Sparhawk To: City of Rexburg Planning and Zoning Commission We the undersigned do respectfully request that the Planning and Zoning Commission deny the request for a professional overlay in the residential area of the City of Rexburg which lies within an area bounded by Shoshone Drive, Rolling Hills Drive, Millhollow Road and the northerly boundary of Harvest Heights Subdivision. This request is based upon the following considerations: 1. This area was annexed into the City of Rexburg very recently. At the time of the annexation, the owners of the property requested that they be annexed as LDR property. No mention was made as to a professional overlay or other development of a similar nature at that time. The undersigned either supported the annexation or did not oppose the annexation because we believe that the proper use of our property and the property in question is strictly residential. During the intervening 7 months since annexation of the property, we believe that circumstances have not changed and that a professional overlay is not warranted. 2. The Rexburg Zoning ordinance provides that a professional overlay is appropriate to transition from residential areas to commercial areas. The proposed area is bounded totally by single family residential development. A transition into commercial development for this area is inappropriate and not in harmony with the comprehensive plan. 3. The South East area of Rexburg is the only remaining area in the City which is solely single family residential. All other areas of the city have commercial development, medium and high density residential, and professional offices scattered in them. We believe that this area should continue to remain single family residential. 4. We are concerned that: A. the construction of buildings and the operation of businesses associated with a professional overlay will adversely affect the value of existing homes in the area. B. Traffic generated by businesses which might be located in the professional overlay is not the type of traffic consistent with residential neighborhood traffic. C. Outdoor lighting and unsupervised parking lots are not in harniony with residential uses which will surround the area. D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. Name ✓'LZ j"', Address 3 e5` 5: "' _ �h Z I- c 455 Mza'd" D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. Name ;:�� '' - W"' -O Address I-lq 7 pit.., //% &— - O /ajw 6, D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. Name Address 301 MbkCILIk L4 Z2 e 2 w o S ZS`� M OVI.O..., k Z A H R I�� C I l 1�7�► �d` L D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. 1,11pro.m Address 9-40 <;LQS�m-per CIO 3 !r ::nI, 116 t I 3 Sze 5��. D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. Nam' - Address 3 781 L z� (C�;' 4 E-',' t k/ �yZ S. Ll 'e7 ;4z . 7)-�, S yf4 C ,�-Ie) 5mell?l �1yv �, �el? e D. The implemen.a.;,-n of an overlay mai- lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. reasons. *%,%-e again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in --r-,a be denied. 'Name Address 9�Z S Y —1 _V!5 -5i 5—+ . S av �� S ef - &/ -� V t-� �? . Mal L-2 2, cl S -C) 76- ? r`� //j 76 - //j J D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. Address �Q v f� ��- A)ez- Peval A✓c s-2 ZVO 4/�-3-K 11 a( d�� 4vg D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. Address Z, 9. S- i�'� L W/ 5 � s J -Z&) ,. ..5 � 5 ��a.Ki c �Q. c► 53c) C.cvnao( ke Or Csn7e�;r"4c D. The implementation of an overlay may lead to future uses such as surgical centers and future requests to locate related commercial ventures such as pharmacies in the area. For these reasons, we again respectfully request that the professional overlay proposed in the area be denied. Name r Address Jam- T� V r -r.1. V, b�- 3 � / Or (7 4�A 3 5 nib . �16y %tom YsX -, 45D XiW 111 /o7