Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Hailey leaders contemplate changes to zoning laws


By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer

A proposal to create a new type of zoning district allowing small neighborhood business zones to be formed in dispersed residential areas throughout Hailey was rejected by the City Council Monday night.

Casting "no" votes to reject the proposal were Councilmen Don Keirn and Rick Davis. Voting to allow the new type of zoning district were Councilwomen Martha Burke and Carol Brown. Casting the tie-breaking vote to deny the proposed text amendment to Hailey's zoning ordinance was Mayor Susan McBryant.

The proposal to create the new zoning district is just one of many changes to Hailey's subdivision and zoning ordinances that the City Council considered Monday.

After discussing the series of amendments late into the night—the Neighborhood Business district proposal included—the council made a series of motions, essentially straw poll votes, declaring whether they would support each individual text amendment or not. Based on the motions, Hailey city staff will make revisions to the two ordinances before a public meeting on Monday, Oct. 30.

At that meeting, the council will make a final vote on the revised subdivision and zoning ordinances with all of the approved amendments included.

The proposed text amendments run the gamut and include clarifications and revisions to design review guidelines, permitted, conditional and accessory uses within various zoning districts and bulk regulations.

One specific proposal to quit allowing property owners to keep horses within the Limited Residential zoning district was rejected by the City Council and will not be included in the revised zoning ordinance on Oct. 30.

The proposed text amendments considered by the council are only just a few of the many that the city of Hailey is considering during a series of marathon planning sessions ahead of the statewide vote on Proposition 2 on Nov. 7. If approved, the property rights initiative would require governments to pay Idaho landowners whose property values are reduced by land-use laws approved after the proposition becomes law.

The Hailey City Council on Thursday, Oct. 26, is scheduled to consider a related city-initiated amendment to the city's zoning district map. The amendment would change the zoning on two separate parcels of undeveloped land in the Woodside neighborhood from Business to Neighborhood Business.

However, because the amendment that would have created the new zoning district was rejected by the City Council, the amendment to the zoning district map will no longer be considered, Hailey City Clerk Heather Dawson said Tuesday.

Still, the amendment to the city's zoning district map will remain on the meeting agenda for Oct. 26, Dawson said.

That's because the members of the City Council who voted to reject the proposed new zoning—Keirn and Davis—could make a motion to reconsider the item at that meeting.

"It could be potentially discussed," Dawson said.

In related Hailey City Council news:

· The council on Monday authorized the first of three readings for a series of text amendments to the section of Hailey's zoning ordinance governing the city's Townsite Overlay zoning district. Specifically, the new rules, among other things, will require townsite lots to be 7,000 square feet or larger if accessory dwelling units are to be built, limit the size of accessory dwelling units to 900 square feet in the district, and limit the subdivision of lots in Old Hailey to the traditional east-west layout of lot lines, except on corner lots where historic buildings still exist.




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