Weiser City council approves annexation, zoning request

The Weiser City Council has approved annexation of property south of town where Maverik, Inc. plans to build a new store.

 Last year, property owner David J. Toussaint sought annexation and a C-3 zoning designation for a 4.39-acre parcel located on the west side of Highway 95, south of the Weiser River Bridge. The property is bordered on the north by the Weiser River.

 Maverik, Inc. is under contract with Toussaint for purchase of the property, but the deal was subject to a successful annexation and zoning request.

 Council members voted 5-1 in favor of approval during a special meeting on March 23, with Alicia Fowler, attending via conference call, voting against.

 The approval comes with a development agreement, which will give the city assurance that Maverik will follow through with its stated plans once it begins to build.

 “This will be the first time the city will actually enter into a development agreement on new development,” said Mayor Randy Hibberd.

 Now that the annexation and zoning has been approved, Maverik can move forward with its construction plan, which includes ITD requirements that call for the entrance to be located at the south end of the property to help mitigate congestion near the bridge. 

 “It’s a very appropriate place because of the curvature, the arc of the bridge,” Maverik Senior Development Coordinator Todd Meyers told the council. “From that position, you can look toward the bridge and you see over the arc, so … line of sight is good at this location.”

 ITD has other requirements regarding the highway itself.

 “We [will] expand the width of the street through our frontage to create a center turn lane,” Meyers said. “This helps with both turning into the property and also turning out. It’s really a safety factor and it is also a comfort factor for our customers; we want them to have a good experience.”

 Other requirements include a right-hand turn/deceleration lane to help traffic flow. Also, the west sidewalk going over the bridge will be extended along the property’s frontage.

 “Obviously, we love pedestrians coming into our store,” Meyers said. “Come buy your Bahama Mama, cinnamon roll; we’ve got one for you, too.”

 Meyers said Maverik has been working with the owners of an RV Park proposed for the east side the highway, across from the future new Maverik.

 “We’ve worked with them and have a strategy to make it so they (pedestrians) don’t have to walk across the street,” Meyers said. “If we get ITD on board, we are working together to extend a pathway, so they could go underneath the bridge and not across the street to be able to come over.”

 Finally, Meyers said Maverik is willing to extend an easement along the south side of the river.

 “It’s a floodway; it’s not something that could ever be developed by us,” he said. He offered the easement to the city in case it ever wanted to pursue pathways on the south side of the river.

 Meyers indicated that the building will reflect the company’s latest design, but would want the development agreement to allow for upgrades and updates to the structure 12 or 15 years in the future.

 One resident spoke in opposition of the future project, citing a previous study conducted by “the Corps of Engineers” that recommended not building in the identified flood plain directly adjacent to the south side of the river.

 “I find it interesting; there’s beginning to be quite a deviation from those recommendations,” said Mark Stubblefield of Midvale, who owns farmland west of the future building site.

 Meyers provided an explanation in his rebuttal. 

 “We have mapped out the floodway and the flood plain and that gets back to what I was talking about earlier, the northern third of the property you really cannot develop, which is why it makes it a very good place for a pathway, so the rest of the time of the year, the residents can walk there, but yes, we need to keep the structures and so forth further south and out of that,” he said.

 Mayor Hibberd said he has no issues with Maverik’s plans.

 “From what I understand, that property, where they are locating it, is above the flood plain,” he told the Signal American. “Also, the environmental part of it, that property slopes south, away from the river, so if there happened to be a spill, which is very unlikely, it would flow away.”

 He also spoke to the fact that Maverik will have to bore underneath the river in order to connect to the city’s water and sewer mains.

 “The EPA has pretty stringent rules for the industry,” he said. “Those lines will be 30 feet underneath the river, so it’s quite a ways down. The chance of it leaking into the river is pretty much nil. Is there a chance? There is always a chance, but you also have to be realistic to what that chance is.”