This downtown Meridian area is deteriorating. Can the city make it cool? Or even save it?
Meridian’s urban renewal agency wants to improve roadways and sidewalks, fix up old buildings and draw new people and businesses to a neglected area north of downtown.
The 106-acre area has been part of the downtown urban renewal district for 19 years, but little has been renewed. The area has failed to draw interest from developers.
Now, Meridian city leaders want another try, but time is running out. The urban renewal district expires five years from now, leaving little time for the city to dangle urban renewal money to entice them.
The answer: To spur interest and help improve downtown, the Meridian Development Corp., the urban renewal agency, wants to break off this area from the renewal district and create a new one.
At the same time, the agency wants to add a block from the existing downtown district to a different existing district.
The city’s original Downtown Meridian Revitalization District, which spans from Interstate 84 north to Fairview Avenue and Cherry Lane, is sun-setting in 2026. The development corporation attributes the lack of developer interest to the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19.
Redevelopment a ‘challenge’
“The areas studied are areas we want to focus on,” said Cameron Arial, director of community development for Meridian, at a City Council work session on Tuesday, July 6. “These areas have challenges, there are older buildings and things that make redevelopment and funding for redevelopment less feasible.”
In 1965, the Idaho Legislature authorized cities and counties to create urban renewal districts in blighted areas. The government agency is required to establish a board that oversees the districts. Once a district is established, property taxes for all of its existing taxing jurisdictions are frozen for 20 years. The revenue produced from any increase in property valuations over the district’s lifespan goes into public infrastructure like roads and pathways, sanitation services and recreation features.
By creating smaller districts, the development corporation can direct tax increments toward those specific areas, the corporation wrote in a memo to the City Council.
With public infrastructure improvements, the corporation hopes to bring more private development downtown.
For now, the two districts are study areas. The City Council approved two reports from Kushlan Associates, a planning and management firm in Boise, that determined the two areas were eligible for urban renewal. The two areas are named the Northern Gateway district and the Idaho Block.
The development corporation will next draw up plans for the districts and bring them to the council for approval, officially creating the two new districts. The goal is to have the plans ready for the council around December.
The Northern Gateway District would be de-annexed from the downtown district and included in a new district. The district would include areas in the existing Downtown Development District and add some area outside of the district.
One-third of area ‘deteriorating’
The Northern Gateway district would be 105.6 acres, bounded roughly by Meridian Road on the west, Cherry Lane and Fairview Avenue on the north, Fifth Avenue on the east and Pine Avenue and Washington Street on the south.
The Kushlan Associates study found that 56 properties, or 34% of the area, can be categorized as deteriorating. Most of the buildings were built in the first half of the 20th century, the study found, and many are old homes converted into office spaces. Over 28 acres in the study area are vacant, qualifying the area as an “economic underdevelopment.”
The study also found connectivity issues throughout the area, with streets interrupted and breaks in the street grid pattern. There is also a lack of complete sidewalks in the district.
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In addition to the acreage in the existing district, the Northern Gateway district would include some land that’s not currently in any district. One of the new areas to be added is a large property at the northwest corner of Meridian Road and Cherry Lane that is being used as agricultural land. The area, 17 acres, is in unincorporated Ada County and is being annexed into Meridian.
According to the study, the properties within the Northern Gateway district are residential and commercial. Residential properties make up about 26.9% of the area and commercial is 56.4%. Vacant parcels make up 28.7% of the area.
“This area was chosen primarily because of, not only redevelopment opportunities, but also opportunities to do infrastructure improvement that will help accomplish the downtown destination plan,” Arial said.
The Destination Downtown plan is a 26-page document from the development corporation that outlines the agency’s goals for downtown. The main goals are to make downtown Meridian pedestrian friendly with street-oriented businesses and retail and public art.
More vacant lots downtown
The Idaho Block would be de-annexed from the downtown district and added to Meridian’s third urban renewal district, the Union District.
The block consists of 1.5 acres of downtown between Main Street and Idaho Avenue and between Idaho Avenue and 2nd Street. The block has 11 lots, three of which are vacant.
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Arial said a city can expand an existing district by up to 10% of its original area. This is why the Idaho Block is ideal to annex in, because it meets that requirement for the Union District.
Rachel Spacek covers western Ada and eastern Canyon counties. Have a story suggestion or a question? Email Spacek at rspacek@idahostatesman.com.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
