For the week of June 24 thru June 30, 1998  

Berm, baby, berm

Dirt piles mound unrestrained in Blaine County


By ALYSON WILSON
Express Staff Writer

24blazer.gif (15842 bytes)Towering over the passing Suburban, this berm-in-the-making near Gimlet Road has raised a few commuters’ eyebrows. It’s not going to be this big when it’s done.

Wildflowers aren’t the only thing popping up along State Highway 75 this spring.

Berms, the view-blocking heaps of dirt piled as private fortification from traffic’s noise and unsightliness, have sprouted in a smattering between Ketchum and Hailey.

No rules for height, slope or plant covering limit these formations in Blaine County, but that may not be the case for long.

Though county planners and commissioners chose last winter not to make passing a local berm law one of their 1998 priorities, they have decided it is time to dust off the berm file and re-think the issue.

"We drafted an ordinance, but it never quite got as far as hearings," Blaine County Planner Tom Bergin said, affirming, those who want to build a berm don’t need a permit or any official review the project.


What if I was some kook and was just going to leave it there? I don’t think there’d be any law to stop me. Chris Haugh, Gimlet area berm owner


The draft, which suggests a misdemeanor criminal penalty of $300 in fines, six months in prison or both, "for each day of noncompliance," has sat somewhat dormant in county dockets since 1992.

However, calling one especially ponderous berm being erected south of Gimlet Road this spring "the straw that broke the camel’s back," administrative assistant to the county commissioners Denise Jackson said, "Berms are an active topic again."

That Gimlet area berm is owned by Chris Haugh and shields two lots.

Interestingly, Haugh is adamantly opposed to berms, and spoke out against the one at Lane Ranch just south of Ketchum in its public hearings.

"The highway was going to look like a luge," she said, describing her concern during those late 1980s hearings.

Haugh explained she recently purchased the Gimlet lots to remodel and re-sell.

Berm-sheltered lots will fetch a better price than they would without, she said.

"For whoever’s going to live behind that berm, life’ll be better," Haugh said.

She said her berm, which will eventually be "smaller and more attractive" than it is now, could serve as a caution for locals.

"What if I was some kook and was just going to leave it there?" Haugh said. "I don’t think there’d be any law to stop me."

Haugh’s berm is joined with new additions to a berm north of Golden Eagle subdivision and a handful of other, smaller projects this spring.

Older berms, even the yearling ones, are carpeted with green, indigenous plants and trees in something of a non-native mix--those unfamiliar with the highway’s old view corridors probably wouldn’t notice anything unnatural.

Haugh said berms seem to be par for the course now on the highway--more the rule than the exception.

But the look of a berm isn’t the problem for many opponents.

In a letter last summer to the Blaine County Commissioners, Steve Wolper of the Idaho Conservation League called berms a "monstrosity."

"It is a tragic irony that so many people who come from states, counties and cities that have strict fence height and view corridor restrictions forget those ideals when they move to Blaine County," Wolper wrote.

Berms could prove a costly obstacle if State Highway 75 is ever to be widened, and some say they are a winter hazard making the highway more icy with their shade.

In a 1992 "Berm Survey" of 161 Blaine County residents, 105 people "agreed" berms should be regulated along Highway 75.

Comments from locals who thought to the contrary ran along the lines of "too much government," "another ‘big brother’ governmental attitude," and "earn your right to do as you like on your property."

Berms came up last building season, as well.

Then, an over-1,000-foot-long berm was built by landowner Mike Willard about two and a half miles north of Hailey, on the east side of Highway 75.

At that time, the commissioners corresponded with Willard citing letters from "many other" displeased Blaine County residents.

"It would be preferable for you to remove most, if not all of the berm/wall you have created as an expression of your desire to be a good neighbor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

Needless to say, Willard opted not to comply, and nothing further than some berm-related discussions ensued.

The county commissioners will take the berm matter up next week, their assistant Jackson said.

 

 Back to Front Page
Copyright © 1998 Express Publishing Inc. All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited.