The purpose of the commercial portion of the proposed Firenze Plaza development at the corner of S. Eagle Road and E. Amity Road is the construction of an shopping plaza anchored by a 57,500 square foot Albertsons grocery store. As part of the shopping plaza, a proposed gas station, convenience store, bank with drive-in lanes, fast food establishment with a drive-thru, along with additional shops and restaurants will be built. The commercial portion of the development will occur in Phase 1 along with the proposed construction of the connection of E. Mount Etna Drive from the existing intersection of E. Mount Etna Drive and S. Montague Way to S. Eagle Road. Additionally a new street will be built from the new portion of E. Mount Etna Drive to E. Amity Road, directly behind the new shopping plaza (see image below).
To accomplish this, an application has been filed with the City of Meridian through their Planning Division (located in the DOCUMENTS section under the INFO tab above). The application seeks to zone 16.33 acres as C-C (Commercial) and 24.05 acres as R-8 (Residential up to 8 units per acre). The R-8 designation for the residential portion of the development is what we currently have here in Tuscany. The residential portion of the development will be divided into two sections by E. Mount Etna Drive. The section to the north will contain 4-6 units per acre and the section to the south will contain 6-8 units per acre.
The application further seeks to change the Future Land Use designation from Low Density Residential to Mixed Use Community (see red highlighted area below). The impact of this change would be that appropriate zoning districts allowed in the MU-C include: TN-R, TN-C, C-C, R-15 and R-40. This is taken from page 5 of the Staff Report from the Planning and Zoning Department (located in the DOCUMENTS section under the INFO tab above). According to their report R-8 is not an acceptable zoning code within MU-C. Further on Page 11 of the same report they state that the residential portion of the area highlighted in red below shall be zoned R-15 to allow for a greater variety of housing types. In Section B. Exhibit B - Agency & Department Comments under letter k, "If the minimum of 6 units cannot be achieved on on of the parcels, the other residential property shall make up the difference in density." This means that if the area north of E. Mount Etna Drive does not generate sufficient density, the developer would have to generate higher densities on the other parcels, which could include town homes, patio homes, attached dwellings, etc.
The application further seeks to change the Future Land Use designation from Low Density Residential to Mixed Use Community (see red highlighted area below). The impact of this change would be that appropriate zoning districts allowed in the MU-C include: TN-R, TN-C, C-C, R-15 and R-40. This is taken from page 5 of the Staff Report from the Planning and Zoning Department (located in the DOCUMENTS section under the INFO tab above). According to their report R-8 is not an acceptable zoning code within MU-C. Further on Page 11 of the same report they state that the residential portion of the area highlighted in red below shall be zoned R-15 to allow for a greater variety of housing types. In Section B. Exhibit B - Agency & Department Comments under letter k, "If the minimum of 6 units cannot be achieved on on of the parcels, the other residential property shall make up the difference in density." This means that if the area north of E. Mount Etna Drive does not generate sufficient density, the developer would have to generate higher densities on the other parcels, which could include town homes, patio homes, attached dwellings, etc.
Based upon the traffic study (located in the DOCUMENTS section under the INFO tab above), it is estimated that the ADT (average daily traffic) of the E. Mount Etna Drive / S. Eagle Road intersection will be 4,200 at the buildout of the development. 2,000 ADT is the threshold for a local road according to ACHD (page 61 of traffic study). According to the traffic study (page 5) "While the local street ADT threshold is expected to be exceeded on E. Mount Etna Drive, the roadway is expected to function more like a commercial access or a commercial collector road as opposed to a typical local street with residential homes and driveways. Therefore no changes are recommended." I would add that once you get west of S. Montague Way, what we have are residential homes and driveways. Yes, not all traffic will flow past us, but more will than does today.
The traffic study looked at all of the access points the new shopping plaza would have and identified traffic counts at today's levels, 2018 levels and 2020 levels. However, the traffic study did not identify any traffic for the following three intersections; E. Santo Stefano Drive / S. Montague Way, E. Mount Etna Drive / S. Montage Way, and E. Taormina Drive / S. Montague Way. This deficiency was pointed out to ACHD and a revised traffic study is being undertaken to correct this deficiency.
The traffic study did identify that S. Montague Way would have an increase in ADT by 2020 solely from the new development of 290 ADT north of East Amity Road and 360 ADT north of E. Santo Stefano Drive. Burgo Way (S. of Zaldia) would see an increase in ADT of 190 by 2020.
The traffic study looked at all of the access points the new shopping plaza would have and identified traffic counts at today's levels, 2018 levels and 2020 levels. However, the traffic study did not identify any traffic for the following three intersections; E. Santo Stefano Drive / S. Montague Way, E. Mount Etna Drive / S. Montage Way, and E. Taormina Drive / S. Montague Way. This deficiency was pointed out to ACHD and a revised traffic study is being undertaken to correct this deficiency.
The traffic study did identify that S. Montague Way would have an increase in ADT by 2020 solely from the new development of 290 ADT north of East Amity Road and 360 ADT north of E. Santo Stefano Drive. Burgo Way (S. of Zaldia) would see an increase in ADT of 190 by 2020.