Friday, October 6, 2006

Is new zoning plan right for Camas?


By GEORGE MARTIN

This coming Tuesday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m., the Camas County Planning & Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing at the Senior Center to present its recommendations and visions of a revised zoning ordinance and new zoning map.

This meeting will affect the future of Camas County forever.

It is very important that county residents attend to make sure the P&Z's recommendations reflect their visions, ideas, and how they want the county to look in the future.

While I haven't seen the new zoning map yet, I hear rumors it will immediately rezone more than 20,000 acres, including high-density residential and commercial areas. As a full-time Camas County resident, developer, builder and Realtor, I am for, and will promote, quality growth. While I have both business and personal experiences regarding growth in very high-growth and high-density areas in Washington state, I have seen both the good and the bad impacts growth can have on an area.

My concern is that without the proper ordinances, mitigation fee structures and so on, rezoning this large of an area without having the legal ability to make or force developers to pay for the additional infrastructure required—i.e. roads, power, schools, fire, police protection, etc.—that rezoning this much land at one time will have a very negative effect, not in just the way the wildlife migrate and on the beautiful open spaces we all expect and enjoy, but through a very heavy-handed hit to our wallets and checkbooks through huge tax increases to pay for these developments.

Development must pay for itself if we are all to benefit from growth. It shouldn't just be the developers, builders, speculators and real estate agents who benefit through dollars made.

It is important that we revitalize our economy so our kids will have jobs in the future, but this must be done in a thoughtful, orderly fashion. Grants are available for professional help to make sure we are doing this right. Many people spoke in favor of taking our time through the process when the comprehensive plan public hearings were held. Get professional help, research smart growth—that's what many testifying said. What happened with our citizen requests?

According to the "Legal Notice Of Pubic Hearing," a copy of the zoning map won't be available until the evening of the hearing and will be shown to the public at that time. I'm not sure how anyone can study something of this magnitude that affects such a large area and has such a long-term effect in this short of time. But also be aware: Pubic testimony may also be limited to three to five minutes.

Again, what happened to the requests of "Please take your time?" The future of our county is at stake and these are very important community decisions.

Questions must be answered before we immediately rezone thousands of acres. What cost projections have been made regarding road improvements? Do we have our power issues resolved regarding Idaho Power? What impacts will this have on our schools? Do we have enough funding to add additional police and emergency services? If not, how do we pay for it without raising our taxes? Have we looked at our various streams and floodplain areas in regards to where we are going to allow homes and businesses to be built? If we adopt this new zoning map, how will the county be affected regarding possible lawsuits should Proposition 2 pass, since other counties and cities are rewriting their ordinances to help protect their citizens' tax dollars?

With the expansion of Soldier Mountain Ski Resort in process, plus rumors of a new airport after recent talks with Bruce Willis and the Federal Aviation Administration, growth is about to happen like Camas County has never experienced before. Our common concern should be making sure we all have a voice on how, when, and where growth will happen. We must also identify who, specifically, will benefit from it and make sure everyone knows who will pay for it.

Once we agree on these major issues, we must then make sure our elected officials take the necessary steps to protect the citizens of our community by working with legal council to draft the necessary ordinances and resolutions, protecting this beautiful, pristine area all we love: Camas County, Idaho.

See you at the meeting.




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