For the week of August 5 thru August 11, 1998  

Convenience store concept canned


By ALYSON WILSON
Express Staff Writer

Convenience was dubbed, well, inconvenient for champions of affordable housing last week.

The Blaine County Housing Authority struck a section of its community housing planned unit development ordinance draft that would have allowed for "neighborhood services"--markets, professional service offices and café spaces in buildings measuring less than 1,000 square feet.

"It can only bring more grief than good," housing coordinator Karl Fulmer said of pursuing neighborhood services through the ordinance.

Planning convention in Blaine County allows commercial and retail operations to group in and around city centers.

To force a change in that paradigm--if affordable housing rules encouraged convenience stores to serve new developments outside city limits--would only mean trouble, contention and delays for the authority in hearings.

"The sentiment at this point is so strong that I just don't want to lose any time," housing authority member Mo O’Connell said.

Several East Fork residents, up in arms about a verbal proposal to build 25 to 50 affordable housing units at the mouth of their canyon, have already expressed discontent at the "neighborhood services" proposal.

The authority agreed to avoid any such stalls to passing their community housing ordinance and canned the whole concept.

Fulmer, who once lived between Hailey and Ketchum, said he still supports the idea in theory, but thinks the community housing ordinance is perhaps not the right place for such a planning matter.

"Neighborhood services should maybe be addressed in a greater context...in the subdivision ordinance and not just in the affordable housing context," he said, adding, "We like the idea [of neighborhood services], but we’re not married to it."

 

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