Valley Club proposes ?West Nine?
117 acres could be developed in mid-valley
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
A large new development is proposed for the mid-Wood River Valley in an application that would add an additional 9-hole golf course to The Valley Club and build 60 new homes, including 12 units of community housing.
Project representatives are touting the community housing and the project?s high percentage of open space as some of the plan?s biggest boons. Golf course fairways are part of the quantified open space.
In June 2003, The Valley Club Inc. bought the 117.35-acre property, immediately west of the existing neighborhood and golf course and east of the intersection of Highway 75 and Buttercup Road. It is now seeking to subdivide the land as a planned unit development and obtain a conditional use permit for the expanded golf course.
The subdivision and golf course constitute two separate applications, and, if approved, construction could begin as early as next summer.
The Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission started reviewing the applications on Thursday, Nov. 4. Another meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18 at the Old County Courthouse in Hailey.
The hearing last week served primarily as an opportunity for The Valley Club to present its application to the P&Z and give a broad overview.
?We have spent hours and hours and have gone through schemes and schemes getting to where we are today,? said project architect Jim Ruscitto.
The Valley Club Inc. first submitted its application to the P&Z on Jan. 30, 2004, and it has been under review by county planners since. Thursday was the application?s first public review.
?It?s a vast piece of property and difficult to get your bearings,? Ruscitto said.
The golf course would lie in between the proposed home sites and the separate community housing units, which would be located very close to Buttercup Road?s intersection with Highway 75. The golf course fairways would extend north and south.
As part of the subdivision and planned unit development application, The Valley Club is asking for two primary waivers to the area?s underlying zoning: R-2 (one home per two acres). Both waivers attempt to reduce minimum lot size requirements, and homes would be clustered near the center of all 18 holes.
The Valley Club is also asking to reroute a portion of the Wood River Trails bicycle and pedestrian path through the new neighborhood.
Moreover, the applicants are seeking permission to set aside land for a new fire station, approximately 2.4 miles south of the Ketchum Rural Fire District?s Greenhorn station.
According to Ruscitto, project planners have conducted an Environmental Assessment that determines the development would not adversely affect wildlife species or native plant communities. The northern 20 acres of the property remain undisturbed, and the remaining 97 acres consist of cropland.
To mitigate for some of the lost native vegetation, the applicants have proposed to create 32 acres of sagebrush steppe to replace the 20 acres lost to development.
?While talking about wildlife, it is important to understand that we do not have any critical winter habitat of elk or deer,? said project environmental planner Will Miller. ?The area really gets a clean bill of health in that respect.?
Miller pointed out that irrigation canals and water diversions that thread the property would be altered to produce three small ponds.
From an environmental standpoint, he stressed the 87 acres of golf course as open space and indicated the 32 acres of upland habitat that would be created.
The existing Valley Club planned unit development was approved in May 5, 1994. The Valley Club consists of 99 residential lots, golf course, clubhouse, recreational amenities and four employee housing units.
The Valley Club Inc. is a private country club consisting of approximately 568 golf members and 52 social members who do not have golf privileges. About three-quarters of the members own lots in the existing subdivision.
