Bellevue starts comp
plan process
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
The Bellevue Planning and Zoning Commission will begin public review of a
proposed new Bellevue Comprehensive Plan tomorrow.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Bellevue City Hall.
Diane Shay, city planning and zoning administrator, said the comp plan has
not been updated in 20 years. She said it is important to enact a new plan due to
considerable development during the past five to six years with annexations and
subdivisions.
The plan, she said, is "a guide to everything—building, growth,
land use, schools, transportation."
The draft plan includes proposed new zoning boundaries.
The plan’s writers estimate that Bellevue’s population will
increase from its current 1,848 to 4,720 by the year 2020. The plan predicts that current
residential land will be built out by 2006, creating a shortage of affordable housing.
Citizens planning to attend the meeting can pick up a copy of the proposed
plan from Bellevue City Hall today.
In another meeting planned for tomorrow, the Bellevue City Council will
hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. at the Roark Law Firm building, 409 N. Main St. in
Hailey. The purpose of the meeting is to inspect the building for consideration as a
donation to the city of Bellevue.
The city has set the end of 2001 as a goal for moving into a new building
and has been looking into possibilities. The current city hall, a home moved from Muldoon
Canyon, was donated by Jim and Donna West in 1977.
Shay said that at a little over 2,000 square feet, the current city hall
is now too small. And, she said, it is "falling apart." Furthermore, she said,
"in summer the meeting room is a furnace and in winter council members have to sit
through meetings with their coats on."
Last summer, according to Shay, a fluorescent lighting fixture fell to the
floor, almost landing on two little girls. Several of the timbers that make up this log
house have rotted and had to be replaced.
Bellevue Marshal Jeff Gunter showed how the floor of his office
sags—a filing cabinet literally leans away from the wall. The door leading from his
office to the library and meeting room sometimes doesn’t open or close. The jacks in
the crawl space meant to correct this have "become a permanent fixture of the
building," Gunter said.
