Council approves Madrone Village annexation, prelim plat despite traffic and school capacity concerns

The Kuna City Council on an unspecified date voted to approve case numbers 2408AN and 2405S05S, annexing and preliminarily platting the Madrone Village development near the southwest corner of 10 Mile and Kuna Road. The approvals authorize annexation into C-1 (commercial) and R-6 (residential) zoning and a preliminary plat covering a project that includes roughly 354 buildable single-family lots, seven commercial lots, a donated school lot, a city park lot and a donated fire-station lot. The council motion to approve the applications included the conditions listed in staff’s packet and passed following a roll call that recorded a mix of yes and no votes.

The decision matters because the project ties several near-term public needs — a proposed fire station site, a donated school site intended for a Sage International charter school, on-site parkland and extensive developer-funded roadway and utility work — to the timing and buildout of a large new subdivision. Council and public speakers emphasized potential traffic impacts at nearby intersections, the school-district capacity consequences, and substantial off-site utility work needed to make the donated fire station buildable.

Developer and staff presentation: Kuna senior planner Troy Beheunin summarized the application and staff’s recommended conditions. Stephanie Hopkins of KEM Engineering and Jamie Markosian of Kittleson and Associates presented the project layout, open-space calculations, access plan and traffic analysis. Hopkins said the project provides more open space than code requires (staff said 10.5% is required; the developer is providing about 11.7 acres, roughly 15% of the site). Hopkins described a layout of 421 total lots on paper (seven commercial, 409 R-6…