Friday, November 11, 2005

County seeks comments on growth patterns

Series of town hall meeting wraps up Tuesday

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By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer

Jan Edelstein, Kathleen Turner, Robin Garwood, Kaz Thea and Carol Cole share their core values and opinions about managing future growth in Blaine County at a presentation of the "Blaine County 2025: Where and How Will we Grow?" traveling road show, which made a stop Wednesday evening at the Old Blaine County Courthouse in Hailey. The public can weigh in Tuesday with a computerized polling exercise similar to that used in the television program "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire."

The county's series of traveling town meetings to gather comments about growth will make its final two stops Tuesday. The public can catch the "road show" at Ketchum City Hall at noon and the Old County Courthouse in Hailey at 6 p.m.

The county designed the series of innovative community meetings county staff have been leading throughout the county over the past month to understand the public's vision for future growth. With support from the Orton Family Foundation and Citizens for Smart Growth, the presentations provide residents with visual examples of growth patterns and scenarios and input-gathering surveys taken at the meetings elicit feedback on public preferences.

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Three-dimensional, interactive models that will be used again Tuesday give residents a realistic picture of future development patterns and their impacts on the landscape. Residents will then be asked to vote on the different patterns using keypad polling technology similar to that used in the television game show "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire." This technology gives all participants an equal voice, allowing people to see the immediate results of their collective input. Captured feedback from these meetings will then be used to develop a number of possible approaches to growth, including denser cities, cluster development or the creation of new towns.

The meetings Tuesday, Nov. 15, will be held at Ketchum City Hall from noon to 2 p.m. and in Hailey's Old County Courthouse from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. People who are unable to attend either of these meetings can visit the project Web site at www.blainecounty2025.org for an opportunity to participate in a virtual town meeting. Like the live meetings, the virtual meeting will guide participants through a presentation focused on community values and a variety of growth scenarios. Participants can cast their votes online to register their core values and express their preference for where and how growth should occur.