For the week of July 18 - July 24, 2001

High school property sale completed

Hailey P&Z recommends annexation

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By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

A significant step has been taken toward construction of a new Wood River High School with purchase of the necessary property, adjacent to the existing high school.

Blaine County School District attorney Rand Peebles said the district’s purchase of the 17.3-acre property, for $604,099 from Stoney Burke and Fred and Clay Judd, became final Tuesday afternoon.

In another positive development for the proposed new school, the Hailey Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended annexation of the property, now within Blaine County, during its meeting July 10. Annexation will allow the school to have city water, sewer and police services.

The recommendation goes to the city council Aug. 13. City Planner Kathy Grotto said the council will base its decision on the city’s comprehensive plan, the zoning, the difficulty of extending city services to the school and the fiscal impact of the school on the city.

Another piece of property, 5.4 acres, will be considered for annexation in conjunction with the district’s property because otherwise an island of county property would exist inside city limits. Composed of five parcels owned by Julie Fox-Jones, Maxine Fox, Mark Pesja and LaRue Tingey, it is adjacent to Deerfield and Foxmoor subdivisions. The district’s 17.3 acres borders the north and east sides of the current high school’s Homer Field.

Grotto said at a June council meeting that all the property owners had been contacted and that none of them objected to the annexation.

The commission also heard, for the first time, an application for a planned unit development for the high school building project, along with a request for design review approval, but the commission decided to continue those matters so members would have time to study the applications.

John Gaeddart, of the Corporation for Land Planning and Engineering and representing the school district, told the commission that the district was applying for a PUD because it wanted to be freed from two zoning conditions.

PUDs are a means by which a developer can bend the rules of the city’s zoning ordinances, if a developer can show a benefit to the city.

Gaeddart said the first "waiver" would be the city’s restriction on building height of 35 feet. He said the heights of the proposed high school’s gym and auditorium would be from 7 feet to 12 feet higher than allowed.

The second, he said, was the number of parking places the school district is offering--1,361 versus the required 1,419.

The benefits to the city, in return for those waivers, would be public education, shared use of the high school campus and open space.

The school district asked for approval of the high school’s design, but the P&Z voted to postpone that decision to an unspecified September meeting.

Design review deals with such things as traffic circulation, landscaping and parking associated with the project.

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