A rift runs through it
Some Silver Creek access in jeopardy due to dispute
Forcing Purdy to participate in another hearing process
would give the public a chance to determine whether the Purdy cabins are a
"sham" or a "bona fide agricultural business operated by
the applicant."
Doug Werth, Blaine County Citizens for Smart Growth
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
With the "simple click of a padlock," rancher
Nick Purdy states he could block access to key sections of the
world-famous Silver Creek, an angler’s Mecca that every year attracts
thousands of fly-fishermen.
Nick
Purdy, Double R Ranch owner
In a letter to the Mountain Express Sunday, Purdy
threatened to stop hunters and anglers from "climbing our fences and
walking across our property," unless the general public refuses to
support opposition to his plans to finish building three guest-ranch
cabins on a portion of his property protected from development by a
conservation easement.
The first cabin, completed recently, has a floor area of
3,782 square feet and a value of $305,000, according to the Blaine County
building department. The large size and what some call "luxury"
of the building has caught the attention of conservationists who say it
violates the easement agreement and the intention of Blaine County
planners to allow Purdy to build small cabins for short-term rental only.
If enough people agree with that view, and Purdy
successfully imposes his access restrictions, sportsmen would be required
to float into two areas of the stream between the U.S. Highway 20 bridge
over Silver Creek, west of Picabo, and the North Picabo Road bridge,
rather than walk in as they do now.
Additionally, Purdy threatened to revoke his "gift of
the easement" on his 3,500 acres, an action the easement agreement
allows for if an "unexpected change of conditions surrounding the
property" occurs. A judicial proceeding would be required.
When asked if he thought Purdy could successfully revoke
the easement, Silver Creek Preserve director Mike Stevens said, "That’s
a good question."
A popular fishing site on Silver Creek at the U.S. Highway
20 could be lost to anglers if Nick Purdy, the property owner, follows
through with a threat to withdraw public access.
The causes of Purdy’s wrath are actions taken by the
county planning department and by Blaine County Citizens for Smart Growth,
a local advocacy group connected with the Land and Water Fund of the
Rockies.
Purdy says members of the county planning department
fostered their "private agendas" by faxing on Feb. 12 an
important public document related to the cabins to the Smart Growth group
without being asked to do so. The document listed people to whom the cabin
had been rented between September and December. The county requires Purdy
to submit the report to show the cabin is an income-generating venture,
not a private residence.
"We are so tired of trying to get fair treatment from
Blaine County government, that this action of theirs is the final straw
that could break our back," Purdy stated.
Smart Growth founder Steve Wolper denied Purdy’s claim
that someone at the county voluntarily faxed the document, saying he
requested it.
Wolper, in a telephone interview, said his group is not
specifically "trying to pick on Nick Purdy or anyone else."
Rather, his group wants to fix the county planning process, which it
considers "at fault."
If the process worked better, he said, it wouldn’t allow
Purdy and others to take advantage of it to the detriment of the public.
Specifically, Wolper and Smart Growth lawyer Doug Werth
say that Purdy in several ways violated the 1995 conservation easement
agreement he entered into with The Nature Conservancy, which was
responsible for preserving much of Silver Creek through easements and land
purchases.
The 28-page easement agreement states that its purpose is
to preserve the wildlife habitat and open space contained on the
3,500-acre Purdy ranch by permanently restricting development there. In
exchange for the restriction, Purdy is entitled to a tax break, though he
says his small income and the complexities of tax law mean he realizes no
financial benefit.
In 1998, Purdy and The Nature Conservancy mutually agreed
to amend the conservation easement to allow additional building
construction, a highly unusual move that unleashed a firestorm of
criticism from conservationists who had believed such easements were a
flat-out prohibition on development.
The amendment allows Purdy to build three
2,500-square-foot "single family homes"—Purdy calls them
"cabins"—with attached garages that "may" be leased
to "other parties."
In exchange, Purdy agreed to not build homes at two other
possible locations on his property and to remove a 500-head cattle feedlot
near the bank of Silver Creek and thought to be polluting the stream with
the 260 truckloads of manure it produced each season.
Occurring nearly simultaneously with the amendment was
Purdy’s application with the county planning department to build the
cabins, a process that turned out to be highly contentious with an appeal
by Purdy to the board of commissioners.
In November of 1998, the county granted Purdy permission
to build three 2,500-square-foot residential structures, each to include a
two-car garage. Whether the floor-area of the garage was to be included in
the 2,500 square feet is unclear.
Wolper believes Purdy’s construction crews were able to
get away with building the nearly 3,800-square-foot cabin because the
county’s planning process is not sophisticated enough to prevent it and
because the planning department does not have an enforcement officer to
police construction.
The cabin’s size and "luxury" is especially an
affront, in Wolper’s view, because the cabin is built on land protected
by a conservation easement. That fact could tarnish the public’s view of
conservation easements in general and hurt The Nature Conservancy’s
ability to negotiate them in the future, Wolper said.
Also, Wolper suggested that the new structure may in fact
be serving as someone’s long-term second or third residence, rather than
as a guest cabin available for short term rental to the general public.
That difference is important, Wolper said, because the
cabin’s use as a long-term residence would represent a de facto
subdivision of the land, which could make future land development in the
area easier.
Purdy’s rental report states that the cabin was rented
on four individual nights from September to December by Judie and George
Argyros, sometimes along with other guests on the same nights. Another
home owned by the Argyroses in Sun Valley was destroyed by fire in
October.
The Nature Conservancy and Purdy are currently negotiating
"to mitigate a misunderstanding concerning the height" of the
cabin. Purdy stated that he has offered as compensation a piece of
property adjacent to Silver Creek "worth a six-figure value."
Silver Creek director Mike Stevens declined to discuss the negotiations.
Purdy, contacted Monday by cell phone at an Albuquerque
restaurant, declined to discuss matters surrounding the cabins in detail.
He said the point he wants to make is that the county planning department
should not have faxed the rental report, which he however acknowledged is
a public document, to Smart Growth—"That’s just the way I
feel."
Considering everything, Purdy may find it difficult to get
his second and third cabins built.
Largely, that’s because his deadline to acquire a permit
to build the second cabin expired on Dec. 31, 1999, and his deadline to
acquire a permit for the third cabin expired on Dec. 31, 2000.
Now, he’s asking the county for an extension, something
Smart Growth is working hard to prevent because, Wolper said, there’s no
legal mechanism for it.
Also, Werth wrote in a five-page, Feb-14 letter to county
planner Deborah Vignes, forcing Purdy to participate in another hearing
process for re-approval would give the public a chance to determine
whether the cabins are a "sham" or a "bona fide
agricultural business operated by the applicant."
Tuesday morning, Vignes said she had not yet read the
letter.
But Purdy had read it, and he responded by asking in his
letter to the Mountain Express whether Smart Growth is simply
trying to "cause the controversy" that gives them
"visibility and solicits their funding."
"No," Wolper said.
As for the public access across his property that he
provides, "it is totally at our pleasure," and if he meets with
continued opposition concerning the cabins, it may no longer be
"worth the effort" to continue providing the access.
Just what impact that would have on the ease of fishing in
the world-famous stream is uncertain. The Idaho Department of Fish and
Game provides other access from state-owned land, but Purdy says his
access is better.
However, Sun Valley outfitter Bill Mason and Silver Creek
Outfitters owner Terry Ring, who consider themselves friends of Purdy and
who believe continued healthy business means maintaining that friendship,
said the denial of public access at the two sites would be only a minor
inconvenience.
