For the week of March 3, 1999  thru March 9, 1999  

Who wins with transfers of development rights?

Cities to the north have differing opinions on accepting densities from south-county farmlands

This is the third installment in a series of articles about managing development and preserving open space in Blaine County using a proposed transfer of development rights program. Legislation sponsored by Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, is traveling a hazardous route through the Statehouse.


By KEVIN WISER
Express Staff Writer

A lot of talk has been going around lately about preserving the rural character of the Wood River Valley and maintaining the quality of life people in this community have come to appreciate.

In surveys and polls the residents of this valley have consistently identified quality-of-life ideals as important, even vital, to holding together the social fabric that exists here.

Pressure on the quality of life in the Wood River Valley has been fueled by growth. Growth in the Wood River Valley is inevitable, part of man’s natural tendency to expand and progress. The issue in question is where and how this growth should occur.

The future of the county’s wide-open expanses is at stake, something deemed vital to maintaining the expected level of quality of life.

State Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, has introduced legislation in the House that she hopes will provide an alternative to developing the remaining open spaces in Blaine County and throughout the state.

The legislation was conceived in Blaine County to guide future development and deal with the transition of farm and ranch land. With this legislation currently working its way through the Idaho Legislature, the future of land management in Blaine County and the Wood River Valley hangs in the balance.

The proposed transfer of development rights legislation allows local governments to establish programs through which agricultural landowners could sell the development rights to their property to builders in other areas, rather than subdivide and build themselves. The result would be the preservation of significant farmlands and open spaces, while compensating the landowners who participate in the program.

The county would establish sending areas in its agricultural zones and receiving areas in and near the populated cities of Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley.

In previous articles of this series, the opinions of the ranching and farming community in the sending areas, as well as real estate and development proponents, have been printed.

This article focuses on the opinions of representatives from the four cities targeted as the receiving areas for the proposed transfers of development rights.

Opinions were varied in relation to the needs and goals of each city and the great diversity that exists in Blaine County.

Hailey

m3development1.jpg (10542 bytes)Hailey City Councilman Scott Basolo explains the impacts of implementing a transfer of development rights program and which areas are targeted for development.: (Express photos by Willy Cook)

Hailey City Councilman Scott Basolo stopped at the end of Quigley Road east of Hailey to talk about the program. The sounds of the interview carried on the wind scaring up a covey of chukar from a bare stand of aspen along the side of the road. The nervous birds scooted across the snow on crazy short legs toward Marvin Gardens to the north.

The area is a snapshot of the agricultural sending areas of the south-county.

"The TDR concept is one of the biggest and most important issues that the Wood River Valley has ever faced as far as community planning and land management goes and what the future of this county is going to be," Basolo says.

Basolo refers to the county’s comprehensive plan and its central intent and goal of preserving agricultural lands.

This is a daunting task in light of the huge development pressures being placed on these lands, coupled with the current economic situation surrounding agricultural and livestock operations, according to Basolo.

Transfers of development rights would give farmers and ranchers the opportunity to make a living and keep their land without being forced to turn it into a conglomerate of sprawling ranchettes and subdivisions, Basolo said. This type of sprawl development, according to Basolo, would ruin the rural character of the community and destroy the social fabric that makes the Wood River Valley a beautiful place.

The added pressure and significant cost that sprawl development puts on local governments contrasts sharply with the advantages of compact development directing building densities toward existing infrastructure and public services, Basolo says.

Sprawl development may also pose a risk to the aquifer, he warns, through an increase in septic systems and the increased potential for groundwater contamination.

Basolo also emphasizes the importance of preserving the community character as a whole, saying the human characteristics of south-county create the character of the entire Wood River Valley-- the warm and friendly attitude that make Hailey, Bellevue and Ketchum such special places to live, such unique communities.

According to Basolo, it’s this rural character that people in the cities are seeking.

A pause in the interview allows a moment to observe the surrounding area, which Basolo has identified as a potential receiving area under the transfer program.

Rolling mountains rise up to the east like huge white elephants trekking across the horizon. Gray-green tops of sage break through the snow on the southern-exposed slopes. Across the fields to the south, in the shadow of the mountains, a canopy covered haystack stands next to a pair of silver silos, reminiscent of the farmlands to the south that the transfer concept is chartered to protect.

The sight begs the question of whether neighboring residents would be in favor of such development.

The question sharpens the focus of the controversy surrounding the transfer program and the justification of preserving agricultural lands in the south part of the county at the expense of increased densities along the borders of cities to the north.

Ketchum

TDRs could result in public opposition if the city of Ketchum was perceived as receiving too much density as a result, says city administrator Jim Jaquet, whose wife, Rep. Wendy Jaquet, introduced the legislation.: (Express photos by Willy Cook)

The benefits to landowners in the sending areas in the south part of the county seem obvious. Concerns expressed by cities in receiving areas, however, center around the issue of increased densities and the potential for over-development.

The TDR concept is a policy issue that the Ketchum City Council will have to address at the appropriate time," Ketchum city administrator Jim Jaquet says.

Jaquet referred to the Fields at Warm Springs affordable housing development and Ketchum’s decision that it was appropriate to increase densities so people who work in Ketchum could afford to live in the city.

However, Jaquet noted that there would be public opposition to a TDR program if the city of Ketchum was perceived as receiving too much density as a result.

"The challenge of land management is big enough that we have to attack the problem with as many tools as are available," Jaquet says. He added that the TDR concept is a good tool, but that it will have to be approved by cities in the receiving areas and dealt with city-by-city on a voluntary basis.

Jaquet agreed that public services would be centralized through a TDR program and more efficiently provided in cities. But he added that in order for the city of Ketchum to adopt the TDR concept it would have to be perceived as in the good of the public interest.

"We’re all part of the same Wood River Valley community," Jaquet said. City residents enjoy the benefit of driving south and seeing preserved open spaces.

 

 

Bellevue

m3development2.jpg (13427 bytes)Bellevue Mayor Monte Brothwell says his city can’t afford the program.: (Express photos by Willy Cook)

Bellevue Mayor Monte Brothwell’s comments concerning the TDR concept reflect the challenges and reality he faces as mayor of a small community often bypassed by the tourism dollars enjoyed by the resort communities of Ketchum and Sun Valley to the north.

"Whose going to pay for the added density?" Brothwell asks. "From my perspective--and the general concession of the Bellevue Council—you have to worry about the TDR situation and the expense of acquiring land to protect south-county resources."

According to Brothwell, the current Bellevue infrastructure can’t handle an increase in density, and the city doesn’t have the money to upgrade public services to meet the demand.

"It’s not that we’re not for the TDR concept as a tool in land management," he says.

Brothwell added that the space between Bellevue and Hailey, for instance, needs to remain open for things like parks and open space areas, rather than development.

According to Brothwell, the TDR program doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the land will be left open.

Sun Valley

Sun Valley has adopted a wait-and-see stance on the issue of TDRs, says community development director Jack Cloud.: (Express photos by Willy Cook)

The transfers of development rights haven’t come up in city council discussions, according to Sun Valley community development director Jack Cloud, and the city is taking a "wait-and-see attitude" regarding the concept.

Sun Valley is a small community and couldn’t take in much as far as development and added density, Cloud says.

Sun Valley is in a different position compared to other communities in the Wood River Valley regarding TDR’s, according to Cloud, in that people there want to lessen densities rather than increase them.

The general concept of taking density and putting it somewhere else to preserve open space resources is a good idea, Cloud adds. However, he said Sun Valley was mindful of market conditions and the fact that the transfer of development rights from the south county to Sun Valley does not represent an apple for an apple situation.

"How many development densities from the south does it take to make a lodge in Sun Valley?" Cloud asks.

Creative solutions

The Wood River Valley is a unique community due to the diversity that exists between north to south, according to Basolo.

Because of this unique situation, Basolo said, traditional methods don’t always work well and creative solutions, such as the TDR concept, are needed to guide growth and deal with the future of land management in Blaine County.

A transfer of development rights program could be crafted, Basolo said, to meet the individual needs of the Wood River Valley community and the cities that choose to participate, and to promote the orderly and logical growth of a community destined to increase in size and population.

Basolo sees the TDR concept as a way to allow the county to grow and at the same time maintain its rural character.

Opposition to TDR legislation, Basolo believes, is due to the fear of the unknown and the fact that many people don’t understand the concept because of its complexity.

If one city, such as Hailey, could get the program going and show that it can work, Basolo says, the transfer of development rights concept would gain the support of the community and the other cities in the Wood River Valley.

Substantial amendments to the transfer of density rights bill, H157, introduced by Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, has resulted in the legislation being returned for rewrite. The subsequent document will be reintroduced in committee as H319 to begin the journey anew.

The Bills

Two land-management bills sponsored by House minority leader Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, are currently working their way through the Idaho State Legislature.

House Bill No. 145, which would allow counties and cities to issue bonds for the purchase of open-space easements for scenic and recreational purposes, has been approved by the House of Representatives and is now being considered in the Senate. The bond bill will go before the Senate Local Government Committee today.

The evolving TDR bill, formerly H157 and now H319, has been re-written due its many amendments and will head back to the House Local Government Committee on Thursday.

 

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