Picabo cabins sent to P&Z

Picabo landowners who ask for a permit to build three recreational cabins on Silver Creek will have to go through a county review process, Blaine County Commissioners decided Monday.

Bud and Nick Purdy plan to replace a cattle feedlot with three guest cabins near Silver Creek. The cabins would be used for a recreational hunting and fishing operation run by the Purdys.

The commissioners denied an appeal lodged by the Picabo landowners to consider the cabins as accessory dwelling units, which need only a building permit. No hearing would be necessary.

In contest was a decision by the county Planning Administrator Deborah Vignes.

Last January, the administrator told the Purdys their cabins would have to go through hearing by county P&Z as a conditional use.

At the time the Purdys thought their project to build three 2,000-square-foot hunting and fishing cabins was an accessory use, "expressly authorized for private use," stated Purdy attorney Ed Lawson in a letter to Vignes.

Instead, the commissioners said the cabins are "conditional uses," and must be heard by the county P&Z.

The commissioners based their decision on legal analysis by Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Doug Werth.

The appeal has raised questions about uses of land, subdivision and the appeal process itself.

Following this denial, another appeal, this time judicial, could be on the horizon, Nick Purdy and his lawyer said.

"The conditional use process is a time consuming and expensive process in which they place controls over the [Purdy’s] property," Lawson said. "

Further, as part of a conditional use process the P&Z could determine in its hearing that the three new cabins represent a subdivision.

"We don’t have any idea why they brought up the subdivision in the first place. The subdivision ordinance has nothing to do with my client’s application," Lawson said. "There is no subdivision intended."

Commissioner Len Harlig agreed that if there is no reason to summon talk of subdivision, it will not be brought up again.

"If everything is owned and operated and managed by the Purdys, then I would guess that the subdivision issues doesn’t come up [again]," Harlig said.

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The three-cabin project is planned for 7.75 acres on the Purdy’s RR Ranch cattle feedlot, where the Nature Conservancy holds a private conservation easement.

That land lies between the Nature Conservancy’s Silver Creek Preserve and the townsite of Picabo.

The Nature Conservancy has offered an amendment to the original conservation easement deed with the Purdys.

"The changes will improve the purpose of the conservation easement, which the Purdys... donated to the Nature Conservancy in 1995," wrote Silver Creek Area Manager Paul Todd to the county P&Z office.

"In particular, we feel that replacing the cattle feedlot at the RR Ranch Area with a maximum of three fishing cabins will improve Silver Creek’s water quality and fish habitat."

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The appellants were as put off by the manner in which the commissioners handled their appeal as they were by the decision.

Claiming they were working in a "quasi-judicial" capacity, because they were handing down a decision based on county attorney Doug Werth’s comments, the commissioners took no comment from the applicants.

"The process isn’t supposed to work this way. It’s supposed to be a discussion and explanation," Lawson said.

Nick Purdy agreed, "It sure isn’t what it was like in the old days when you could sit down and talk. The little guy is at an extreme disadvantage today."