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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLETTERS - Between Shoshone and Mill Hollow - Rezone from RR2 to LDR with ProMarsha 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 letter 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. It is not 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 Larry has told me the same thing. I can understand that Larry wants it quiet when he is reading so he relishes empty offices and silent parking lots. I prefer to read with my windows wide open so that I can hear the boys playing basketball or baseball and 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 them simply because we love them. 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 town 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 2 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 a.m. 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 4 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 E I 7VV RR2 to LDR Zone Change LDR Professional Overlay N WE S I JF— Proposed Zoning Change sy— 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 FINDINGS OF FACT OF THE REXBURG PLANNING & ZONING COMINUSSION FOR REQUESTED ZONE CHANGE & OVERLAY 1. On November 3, 2003, A. Lyle Smith presented to the Rexburg City Clerk a Request and Application for a rezone on a parcel of about 12 acres of property located at approximately 512 S. Millhollow in the City of Rexburg, the requested rezone of the property was from Rural Residential 2 (RR2) to Low Density Residential (LDR) with a Professional Overlay. 2. On December 16, 2003, the City Clerk sent the Notice of Public Hearing to be published in the local newspaper on December 17, 2003, and January 5, 2004. A notice was posted on the property and sent to all property owners within 300 feet of the above mentioned property. 3. On January 8, 2004, Sally Smith appeared before the Planning & Zoning Commission for the City of Rexburg requesting a rezone from Rural Residential 2 (RR2) to Low Density Residential (LDR) with a Professional Overlay on the property located at approximately 512 S. Millhollow (The said property is located between Shoshone Avenue and South Millhollow Road. The north/south boundary is south of Rolling Hills Drive and north of 512 South Millhollow Road in Rexburg, Madison County, Idaho, and more particularly described as follows: see attached map. A portion of the NW 1 /4 of the SE 1 /a of Section 29, Township 6 North, Range 40 East, Boise Meridian, Madison County, Idaho. There was some input from some of the neighbors who strongly opposed the requested zone change. A motion was made by Planning & Zoning to recommend to the City Council that the request to change the zone from RR2 to LDR be approved; however, the Planning & Zoning commission further recommended that the request for the Professional Overlay be denied, as it was inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan in that it did not represent a transitional area between commercial and residential areas Furthermore, it was not consistent with the general plan for residential use within the area as evidence y the property owners in the immediate vicinity. These findings accurately and completely represent the facts as they have occurred as of this 4 t ' day of February, 2004. vco-4- ZA%:;rt— S City AAdhey