The Sun Valley City Council voted Thursday to disband the city's Historic Preservation Commission.
Though the commission was formed only in August, city officials determined that the authority it would wield under state statute was an overly heavy-handed approach to preservation of the city's nine historic structures, all of which are on property owned by the Sun Valley Co.
Mayor Jon Thorson said the commission's role put company owners Earl and Carol Holding in the position of "looking at the commission as if they were potential adversaries." Instead, Thorson said, the city will designate one or two people to propose informal discussions with Sun Valley Co. to create a long-term plan to protect the resort's original buildings. Earl Holding has stated that neither he nor other family members will do anything to harm those buildings.
Thorson said the commission's work will still be useful in that role.
"We all owe a real debt of gratitude for the effort they put forth," Councilman Blair Boand said.
Council members Boand and Lud Renick voted in favor of the move, while Nils Ribi opposed it.
In other action, the council voted to charge fees to the public for copies of city documents. Regular copies will be 5 cents each and color copies will run from 25 cents to 50 cents depending on size. Citizens will need to pay for employees' time to obtain documents if their requests require more than two hours of employee work. City salaries run between $20 and $50 an hour.
"Ninety-nine percent of what people request can be done within two hours," City Administrator Virginia Egger said.
