Blaine County's presentation Wednesday evening of its big-picture goals for managing growth received widespread—but not universal—support.
A full house of citizens and government leaders listened intently as consultant Clarion Associates and the county Board of Commissioners rolled out a preferred growth scenario during a public workshop at Wood River High School in Hailey. The scenario, in a nutshell, is geared toward protecting the environment and working to steer density toward the five cities in the county. The planning effort is intended to prepare for anticipated population growth over the next 20 years of some 10,000 residents.
On Thursday, Clarion, the county Board of Commissioners, the county Planning and Zoning Commission and a number of community policy advisors hashed out details of the implementation plan, addressing several issues that were evoked during Wednesday's public meeting. In addition to dozens of clarifying questions about the proposed scenario, citizens, including city mayors, other elected and appointed officials, planning staff, attorneys, developers and nonprofit activists gave a solid hour of public comment during the two-and-a-half-hour meeting at the school.
The growth option being reviewed is based on a planning vision gleaned from months of public outreach that has preceded the final phase—ironing out how to enforce the vision for city-focused growth management. The preferred scenario came out of a common desire to protect open space and sensitive land such as hillsides, wetlands and riparian setbacks.
The vision was once again upheld during Wednesday's meeting. However, several people raised concerns that some aspects of environmental protection as proposed are insufficient and some zoning changes appear to be arbitrary decisions, rather than policy based on objective data.
Clarion and the Board of Commissioners acknowledged that specific research into how implementation of the new vision will impact things like the county tax base and sufficient workforce housing has not been completed. Rather, the proposed implementation plan is supported by anecdotal trends in growth throughout the West.
Other watchdog issues for the public include questions about how the new plan for growth will mesh with the need for workforce housing that is situated to reduce commute times, utilizing efficient public transportation.
Gadfly for the common man, William Hughes, of Hailey, offered up some classic social commentary, pointing out that of the available undeveloped public land, Sun Valley has the most to offer, yet south county cities are feeling the pressure to supply workforce housing.
Sun Valley Mayor Jon Thorson pointed out that his city was the first to adopt a community housing ordinance that applies to all new development, and Rebekah Helzel, executive director and president of Advocates for Real Community Housing, said that workforce housing belongs in the cities.
Sarah Michael, chairwoman of the county Board of Commissioners, introduced the workshop with a story about two development alternatives as they played out in the San Francisco Bay Area during her youth. Michael compared Silicon Valley's blanket sprawl that supplanted farms and orchards to regional development in the North Bay, where a bank of 1 million development rights has been established on what is considered some of the most expensive land in the country. Success there has succeeded in protecting aspects of the community that are shared in Blaine County, like protection of sensitive land and agricultural areas.
Sun Valley City Administrator Virginia Egger tossed out the notion that as the county looks for sending and receiving areas for development through proposed transfer of development rights proposals being crafted by Clarion, her city could be a valuable resource for buying out development rights.
Although the county already steers development away from the hills and riparian areas, for example, the goal in light of development pressure on the community is to further strengthen protection.
To implement protection the county has been broken into four planning areas: remote areas and rural hills, agricultural areas, canyons and city annexation areas.
A draft map of the preferred growth scenario shows proposed zoning ordinance changes and other land-use regulations and provisions. Taking into account Wednesday's public comment in addition to comment already received during outreach campaigns of the past few months, Clarion will now shake out options for policy decisions that will, in the words of Clarion partner Chris Duerksen, "invoke" the vision the county has identified.
Where the Wednesday night meeting was fairly cordial and polite, considering the full house, Clarion's discussions on Thursday were more heated as planners hammered out language of proposed ordinances. Duerksen pushed the Board of Commissioners to settle policy matters, but agreed to bring draft options for review, particularly in the case of a proposed transfer-of-development-rights program.
At the behest of Commissioner Dennis Wright and the counsel of Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Larry Schoen, Clarion will produce three variations of the program for consideration. As Idaho law only allows TDR programs to be voluntary, Duerksen recommended that the program be sweetened as much as possible for those who participate.
In the agricultural planning areas, a wetlands and agricultural protection area is proposed from Picabo east to several miles west of the Timmerman Hill junction. Landowners would receive development credits, for example eight credits for a 160-acre parcel, which could in turn be put in a land bank and used in receiving areas. One such area proposed is the area south of Bellevue and north of Pero Road.
South County rancher Katie Breckenridge said farmers will be watching very closely how the county handles agricultural zoning and TDR programs.
Final decisions regarding growth management policy will shake out in the public review process, which will begin when final drafts of proposed regulations are brought before the county Planning and Zoning Commission in about one month's time.
The primary tool on the table for managing growth for remote areas and rural hills is a rezoning of property classified A-10 to a new Rural Zone District (RR-40). The new zone would have lower allowable density, reflecting the difficulty in providing cost-effective county services to remote rural areas. A sliding scale possibly to include even lower density in the most remote areas is also being considered. Legal parcels that were smaller than the minimum lot size in the new RR-40 Rural Zoning District would be granted a grandfather clause.
One clarification for A-10 areas to be rezoned that was added to the consultants' heavy writing task for the next month was an acknowledgement that not all areas zoned A-10 in the county are essentially rural. It is possible that some cluster development will still be allowed on A-10 property that is not remote, such as parcels that are near highways.
Clarion will also be drafting subsequent legislation for the limitation of planned unit developments and clustering of developments that will be in keeping with the desired rural character and open space aesthetic that prevails among people who have participated in the county's outreach campaigns.
Natural resource-based regulations will be penned for the public process and, as in the case of wetlands protection, Clarion's final draft could include a pair of options for development.
Canyons outside areas of city impact are to be downzoned from A-10 to A-40, which would allow one unit per 40 acres. Canyon property currently zoned R-5 would maintain the same zoning classification, but clustering would become mandatory if changes are approved.
The county hopes to finalize area-of-city-impact agreements with each of the cities before the current development moratorium ends in July. Development of a new city remains an option for any who may want to propose a plan for one, but for the time being the commission has chosen not to draft any new codes governing the concept.
Summing up a common thread in public comment, Hailey City Councilwoman Carol Brown and developer Rod Keagle both agreed that "city should look like city and county should look like county."
Keagle added that he wants to see a clear line between the two. Most agree that over the next five months the key to success in the planning process is regional cooperation for public, private and nonprofit entities. As Bellevue City Councilwoman Tammy Eaton pointed out, the community must emulate the cooperation that already exists between the many police and fire departments in the form of mutual aid agreements.
Lesli Ellis, senior associate with Clarion Associates, reiterates the common values behind the county's preferred alternative for managing growth in the county over the next two decades.
Clarion Associates consultant Chris Duerksen rolls out implementation strategies for the county's preferred growth alternative to keep density in and around the county's five cities. Photo by David N. Seelig
