What’s in a law, a regulation, an ordinance, a rule?
In baseball, rules are everything. Locally, we’re not so sure these
days.
In Blaine County, some rules seem to be things to be broken now and
negotiated later.
In Ketchum, the rules seem to be becoming something to be followed until
someone can find a way around them. The city is entertaining an ordinance that could allow
developers to sidestep zoning laws.
Blaine County has allowed the developer of the Golden Eagle Ranch to
flaunt its rules on the size and setback of highway berms—with no serious
repercussions. The ranch brought a portion of its outsized berms into compliance at the
county’s request, but left more than 100 yards—the length of a football
field—in violation.
A developer’s representative seems confident the county will issue an
"as-built" variance and OK the blatant defiance of an ordinance in a highly
visible development adjacent to Highway 75.
So much for respect for county ordinances, respect for democratically
elected representatives who approved them, and respect for the public they are intended to
serve.
Unlike Blaine County, Ketchum planners seem very willing to join the
Let’s Make-It-Up-As We-Go College of Land Use Planning.
The Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission is considering an ordinance
that would allow the city to create customized zoning for specific sites with
"unusual" characteristics.
For example, it would enable the city to preclude office and medical uses
from a zone where those uses would otherwise be allowed, but are deemed incompatible with
their immediate surroundings.
Just who would do the deeming is unclear. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 27.
The city’s desire to be "flexible" is understandable, if
not wise. It’s the same pressure baseball umpires feel on a close call on a slide
into home plate when both coaches exit the dugouts and start yelling.
Cities who carry out the will of the people as written in zoning
ordinances are constantly criticized by developers, engineers and architects as
"inflexible." This ordinance could change all that. City officials and planners
might get back on developers’ Christmas card lists. However, it could mean the death
of zoning in the city.
What self-respecting developer, architect, engineer could not find
"unusual characteristics" on a site in an effort to squeeze more bucks out of it
or achieve a particular vision?
The city and the county need to quit pussyfooting around their own
ordinances, avoid making fools of people who abide by them and see to it that everyone
plays by the same rules.
