County considers Ohio Gulch subdivision
Concerns about winter elk range
encroachment raised
By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer
The possibility of encroachment into
winter elk habitat dominated discussion last week of a proposed subdivision off
Ohio Gulch Road before the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission.
Ohio Gulch resident Brian McCoy would like
to create the 17-lot Bluegrouse Ridge subdivision on an 80-acre parcel
straddling Ohio Gulch Road.
Fifteen of the lots would be developed off
a newly created private road to the south of Ohio Gulch Road. McCoy already has
his own home in that parcel.
The remaining two lots would be developed
north of the road. One would contain a duplex, both of whose units would be sold
as deed-restricted affordable housing.
Engineer Dick Fosbury presented the
proposal during a P&Z meeting Thursday. However, lack of time and a stack of
late-arriving documents prevented the P&Z from issuing a ruling, and the matter
was continued to July 8.
Neither P&Z members nor the four local
residents who testified appeared to find much to criticize in the proposal.
"Because of our hillsides, there are very
few places that development can get done," said commissioner Chip Bailey. "This
is one of the places that development can occur."
Peter Jackson, a resident of the nearby
Heatherlands subdivision, called the proposal "a wonderful addition to the
area."
Concerns were raised, however, about the
area’s use by elk in the winter and by migrating deer. David Parrish, Magic
Valley regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, had
submitted a letter recommending that no development be allowed on the property
north of Ohio Gulch Road.
"The loss of native vegetation and
subsequent increase in human disturbance will displace elk from important winter
habitat," Parrish wrote in the September, 2003 letter.
Fosbury told the commissioners that he and
McCoy were sensitive to that issue, and had situated the two lots north of Ohio
Gulch Road on level ground to avoid interference with the elk, which generally
congregate on the hillside to the north.
Fosbury also pointed out the irony of the
Fish and Game commission’s objection to the proposed subdivision after the Idaho
Attorney General’s office had obtained a court decision granting it an exemption
to county zoning law to open a gravel mine on state land just up the road.
"It’s almost as if the state of Idaho
doesn’t talk to the state of Idaho," Fosbury said.
Discussion of the proposal focused on two
additional concerns increased traffic on Ohio Gulch Road and the possibility of
groundwater contamination by the nearby, and uphill, county landfill.
Fosbury suggested that the county condemn
a small corner of a Heatherlands lot to allow a curve on the road to be
straightened. He said the road itself would not need to encroach on the lot, but
the borrow pit and snow storage would. The alternative, he said, would be to
move the road to the other side, requiring a cut into a hillside.
Regarding the water supply, Bob Erickson,
environmental health specialist with South Central District Health, said samples
had shown no groundwater contamination. However, he said, "whether or not
something is going to happen in another 10, 20 or 30 years down the road, who
knows?"