Meridian council, sick of sprawl, turned down developers. Until Mr. Right came along
Lately, suitor after developer suitor has courted the Meridian City Council.
Let me be the one to build houses near your fair city’s southern limits, they pleaded.
No, the council replied. The council denied a 330-house subdivision called called Cedarbrook planned by Toll Brothers. We love the project, councilors said, and thanks for the roses, but keep them. We’re just not ready.
But then, Mr. Right came along. David Turnbull, owner of Brighton Corp., proposed a planned community that made the council gush.
On Tuesday, the council approved 357 houses proposed by Brighton, a Meridian developer whose housing projects include the city’s Paramount, Tuscany and Spurwing Greens subdivisions, on the northwest and southeast corners of Locust Grove and Lake Hazel roads. It’s the first phase of a planned 2,000-home development. Multiple council members said the development “set the bar” for other new subdivisions in the Boise suburb.
Meridian’s love doesn’t come cheap. To get the subdivision, named Pinnacle, approved, Brighton offered to help make road improvements and build a new roundabout at Lake Hazel and Locust Grove. Brighton will also set aside 10 acres for a future elementary school site, in addition to building a 550-seat Gem Prep Charter School nearby to provide additional school capacity.
“This is the bar that you need to clear to get large-scale development approved in South Meridian,” said Councilwoman Liz Strader, who has been vocal about how unfettered growth can strain public infrastructure, like sewer, police and fire stations, and schools.
Meridian’s City Council has lately been vocal about requiring such infrastructure before development can go in. The council is also in talks with the West Ada School District about how to better prepare for growth so schools don’t fill to capacity soon after opening, as they have in the past.
That was the council’s main concern with Cedarbrook, which council members worried might overburden the school system. It would have also pushed dense development into an area supported only by rural roads.
Brighton has won favor with the city by including school sites in previous developments, such as the Hillsdale Elementary site in the Century Farm subdivision on Eagle and Amity Roads, where Brighton also built the new YMCA.
“You have seen, probably, the ways that developers try to maximize return,” Turnbull told the council. “We don’t think of it in those terms. We think of our development opportunity as how do we maximize return to the community. ... We’re probably the only developer addressing school capacity issues and transportation issues the way we are.”
Strader said there was a reason for that: Brighton often finds itself building on the edge of city limits, which strains the city’s resources. She cautioned that the future phases of the Brighton’s project, and other projects in the area, might place additional pressures on the city’s resources if they aren’t handled the same way.
“My expectation is that other developers are going to be helping to solve community problems and be real partners,” Strader said. “This is a much better outcome — having this big master plan — than having smaller communities that are not as integrated.”
Besides houses, Pinnacle will include a public amphitheater and community center, with a cafe and business center at the northwest intersection of the two roads. Brighton hopes the new commercial district will be called “SoMe” for “South Meridian.”
“We’re inviting South Meridian to have its own identity, and we think Pinnacle sets the tone for that,” said Jon Wardle, Brighton’s president of development.
Asked about the possibility of a future grocery store, Wardle said he didn’t think that this was the right spot for one. But Brighton does own 80 acres on the corner of Lake Hazel and Meridian roads that Wardle said would be a better location “for some of that higher automobile-driven retail use.”
While the council praised the project, some neighbors living on large rural lots nearby argued against it. They said they didn’t want the property rezoned to allow for 32 alley-loaded duplexes, which will feature garages and driveways in the back of the house.
“There’s a need for larger lots,” said Marcella White, who raised her children in Meridian. “I know we have to have growth. I would like to see it maybe not be so dense.”
Those are the same types of complaints that Meridian has been getting for years as it approves more closely packed, single-family homes where farmland once stood.
Councilman Luke Cavener, who grew up in Meridian, said he remembers when families could choose only between buying a “big house on a big lot or a small house on a big lot.” He said projects like Pinnacle, which included a mix of lot sizes, provide more choices.
“This is a showcase piece,” Cavener said, “to show how diverse housing can .... create community.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 10:54 AM.
