As Nov. 7 election debates heat up over what constitutes a "taking," the city of Sun Valley may soon have its first regulations protecting Trail Creek riparian areas. What the City Council will do with recommendations to create buffer zones along stream corridors will hang in the balance likely until the end of October.
In the meantime, however, property rights are pitted against government's right to regulate.
Following a morning of substantial public comment and a lunch-hour revision on Thursday, the city's Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend a comprehensive plan ordinance, which would be known as the Riparian Zones Ordinance. The recommended ordinance would provide standards "to maintain land adjacent to natural streams in a vegetated state in order to enhance and maintain water quality, protect stream channel wetlands, minimize stormwater runoff, reduce sedimentation and erosion, conserve plant and wildlife habitat and protect wildlife corridors."
The proposed action—a new chapter in the city's design and development regulations—is one of a dozen items currently under review and pertaining to the city's comprehensive plan. The commission hopes to push all the new legislation forward for City Council consideration prior to the Nov. 7 election, which includes a vote on Proposition 2, an anti-takings ballot measure that would require communities to pay for an owner's loss of development rights in the face of zoning laws.
In response to Proposition 2, the city enacted a development application moratorium May 25, 2006. It was scheduled to expire in late-October, but the City Council voted unanimously Thursday afternoon to extend it by 45 days.
As the latest draft of the riparian legislation was passed out at the start of the meeting, critics of the riparian ordinance were concerned in part about the apparent haste with which the commission was working.
Explaining to the commission that although he is actually against Proposition 2 and would not be personally impacted by the proposed laws, Michael Saphier, a Sun Valley resident, said the commission's recommendations on riparian areas as they were laid out at the beginning of the meeting constitute a takings.
"It is the kind of thing that you are trying to do ... that make (proponents of Proposition 2) say, 'No. And, we're going to make you pay for it,'" Saphier said, reiterating the Proposition 2 argument to resounding applause from many members of the audience.
As the commission and city planning staff hustled to revise language the commission could agree on, Commissioner David Brown took time to address Saphier's comments and his use of the word "taking" to ramp up the debate on the Proposition 2 issue.
"Every single planning and zoning law is a taking," Brown said, explaining the commission's motivation for passing along their recommendations. "The (comprehensive) plan tells us to come up with ordinances to protect riparian areas."
Commission Chair Joan Lamb said new titles under consideration Thursday for the city's comprehensive plan have actually been in the works for the past six months.
Details of the riparian ordinance, like how wide buffers should be and what type of setbacks should be included were controversial topics for the commission, which ultimately charged Sun Valley Community Development Director Mark Hofman with drafting a compromise over the lunch hour.
"I'm going to need a Diet Coke for this," Hofman joked as he headed to his office to pen the final version.
Similarly critical of the proposed legislation, Sun Valley Co. General Manager Wally Huffman shared concerns that the legislation, as proposed, might preclude him from certain future golf course development and other improvements.
Hofman explained that the ordinance made room for exceptions to the rule including non-compliant buildings. Also, man-made water features would not be affected by the riparian recommendations, which will include proportional and 25-foot buffers with 10-foot setbacks in "natural" riparian areas, depending on whether a stream is perennial or intermittent.
As the commission was awaiting Hofman's updated riparian ordinance draft, they considered and approved a recommendation of a comprehensive plan amendment including natural resource maps, special sites, and amendments to the Horseman's Center and Gateway Land Use Planning areas.
