Meridian council reviews Destination Downtown design standards for Old Town

Meridian — Consultants presented a draft set of Old Town design standards to the Meridian City Council during a work session on Aug. 26, 2025, recommending changes intended to strengthen downtown’s pedestrian character and guide infill redevelopment.

The consultants, Chris Danley, Trivium Planning project manager, and Aaron Qualls of SCJ Alliance, said the standards are meant to align with Destination Downtown and the city’s existing plans and to provide clearer, more predictable rules for building orientation, materials and facade rhythm, and parking requirements.

The consultants told council the standards focus on three subareas of Old Town: parcels fronting the railroad corridor, a higher-intensity spine adjacent to the corridor, and neighborhood enhancement areas closer to established residences. Recommendations highlighted the railroad corridor as an appropriate place for taller buildings — “closer to a 100 feet” in places — with stepped-down heights of roughly 75 feet in the adjacent core and lower heights in neighborhood areas. Aaron Qualls said, “a successful downtown area is a place you wanna go and see people and be seen,” and that the standards are intended to preserve that human-scaled quality while making code administration clearer.

Why it matters

Council members said the standards could shape the scale and character of future development, influence tax revenues from redevelopment, and affect…