Should the city of Hailey create a historic district covering the downtown section of the city known as Old Hailey?
The Hailey City Council will begin to discuss this and more tomorrow night—Thursday, Oct. 19—at a special public meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
At the meeting, the council will consider a final report by the Hailey Historic Preservation Commission. The commission's report recommends the creation of a Hailey Historic District within the city's existing Townsite Overlay zoning district.
The recommendation requests that the historic district not cover that portion of the Townsite Overlay to the east of Fifth Avenue and the Wood River Trail bike path, however.
The adoption of an ordinance creating a historic district in Hailey would allow the city to adopt rules and regulations in the ordinance governing the alteration, erection, restoration and demolition of buildings built prior to 1941.
The Historic Preservation Commission has drafted two additional ordinances that would establish what regulations govern the historic district.
The first of those ordinances would create procedures for the Historic Preservation Commission to review various types of building project applications in conjunction with the city of Hailey's design review process.
The last ordinance would for the most part define the powers and duties of the historic commission under a section of the Hailey Municipal Code.
The final two ordinances could only be considered for approval after the Hailey City Council has first approved the ordinance establishing the historic district.
At the request of the Hailey City Council, the commission began to prepare recommendations for the creation of a historic district last summer. The language creating the historic district is patterned after similar districts that exist in the cities of Boise and Pocatello.
