Close to 40 landowners in the Glendale Road and mid-Bellevue Triangle areas signed a petition stating opposition to the 2025 planning effort to control growth in Blaine County and accusing county officials of conducting a "flawed" and "unfair" process.
But their effort may not have been necessary.
The petition—which contains 37 signatures, mostly from residents in the Glendale Road area west of the Bellevue Triangle—was delivered to the County Commission Tuesday morning prior to a scheduled 2025 hearing. It focuses primarily on a proposal to downzone all A-20 land in the county to A-40 (except within a three-mile circle of the cities).
"We do not support a downzone in A-20 lands," the petition states. "We believe the proposed ordinances are definitely immoral, legally flawed and are not supported by the majority of farmers/ranchers and landowners.
"We believe the ordinances are written solely for the interest in the Bellevue Triangle and do not take into consideration the vast majority of other farm lands."
But last Thursday, county commissioners made a couple of significant changes to the ordinances that should have relieved the grievance and prevented a petition entirely. During that hearing, the commissioners decided that all land north of Baseline Road and in the Glendale Road area should be zoned A-20, and not face a downzone. Visit www.blainecounty.org for more information.
Most of the signatures on the petition were dated June 5.
The Bellevue Triangle is the staging ground for the county's proposed Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program, which is a key component in the 2025 plan. The TDR program seeks to discourage development in the southern area of the Triangle near Silver Creek—by downzoning lands to A-40—while focusing it in the tip north of Pero Road closer to Bellevue. Landowners in the Triangle south of Baseline Road, an area that is splattered with wetlands, will be compensated by being allowed to transfer their development rights to a receiving area north of Pero Road.
But the areas between Baseline and Pero roads and west of Highway 75 along Glendale Road were still subject to a downzone from A-20 to A-40, with no compensation.
Until now.
Three-mile buffers
A source of lengthy discussion on Tuesday surrounded the three-mile buffers around the cities. Introduced in April by Larry Schoen, chairman of the county Planning & Zoning Commission, the proposal would allow all land within a three-mile sphere of the cities to retain current zoning standards. The idea flows with the overall goal of 2025—encourage density close to the cities while discouraging it in the remote sections of the county.
But one potential glitch in the proposal is that the proposed three-mile buffer around Sun Valley would stretch over mountains southeast of Elkhorn and encompass Triumph, a remote community in the East Fork of the Big Wood River drainage. Commissioners Tom Bowman and Dennis Wright both agreed that allowing Triumph, home to several mining claims, to retain its current zoning would be counterproductive to the overall goal of limiting density in remote areas.
The commissioners decided to reduce the sphere around Sun Valley to one mile to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, the buffers around Picabo and Carey were changed again, this time to three-quarters of a mile. Gannet's sphere remained at a quarter-mile.
Family Parcels
The county commissioners continued to express support for a proposal to allow subdivisions on farmland for immediate family members.
The proposal is a joint effort between Greg Van Der Muelen, son of rancher Pete Van Der Muelen, his girlfriend Ryan Waterfield, and fifth generation Blaine County residents and sisters Julie Cord and Sarah Gardner.
The commissioners had initially expressed skepticism over the idea, fearing it could be abused for financial gain. But they have since warmed to the idea.
On Thursday, Waterfield restated that the family lot split would include an eight-year deed restriction and the minimum lot size would be 2.5 acres, which is similar to the cluster development ordinance.
"This would be a real good process for P&Z to look at," Bowman said. "We will get a date for that P&Z session and figure out how to write some language out. It's something we can put on next week's agenda."
Regional Planning
Several members of the public on Thursday urged the commissioners to take a closer look at regional planning efforts, and to possibly hire a full-time regional planner.
Bowman has repeatedly stated that this is just the beginning of the 2025 effort and more fine-tuning, such as regional planning, would be implemented in the coming months and years.
