The prospect of developing an entirely new town south of Bellevue will enter a new phase Tuesday when the Blaine County Commission opens discussions on the looming proposal, which would require changes to the county's comprehensive plan.
The concept has been batted around by local citizens and community leaders since fall 2006 when Robert Kantor, of The Kirk Group in Ketchum, introduced his plan to develop a new town near Timmerman Hill.
However, the proposal, known as Spring Creek, failed to garner a hearing or formal discussion from the county commissioners, who since January 2005 have been immersed in a massive effort to rewrite the county's land-use ordinances to better protect natural resources and rural open space. That process, called the 2025 plan, all but wrapped up this month.
If Spring Creek—or any other new town proposal in Blaine County—has any chance of materializing it will require changes to the county's comprehensive plan.
But as Kantor points out, the same goes for a new airport.
"This isn't just about Spring Creek," Kantor said.
And that's exactly what county commissioners plan to address on Tuesday.
"The resolution and comprehensive plan amendments were submitted to the county by representatives of the Spring Creek Ranch and propose to specifically include general language that would allow for the development of a new town in order to address regional needs," a news release from the County Commission states. "The proposal also identifies locations for possible new towns and re-located airport to be classified as 'Special Planning Areas' in the comprehensive plan."
The preferred site for a new airport is near the southern boundary of the county, about six miles south of Spring Creek Ranch.
Commissioner Dennis Wright said the commissioners "make modest little changes to the comp plan all the time. It's not an impossible task."
County Commissioners Sarah Michael and Tom Bowman have been mum on the prospect of a new town. But Wright is a supporter, specifically at the Spring Creek site, which is tucked into a small valley adjacent to state Highway 75 a couple miles south of Timmerman Junction.
"I always thought that expanse right there could be the site to take a lot of pressure off the development in our south valley," Wright said in June. "There could be a number of benefits to the county as a whole, not the least of which that it would provide enormous numbers of workforce housing (units)."
Spring Creek would include between 2,000 and 3,000 units condensed on about 800 acres of the 2,800-acre ranch. About 70 percent of the housing would be entry-level, priced for the average Blaine County worker, according to Kantor.
"In the development patterns we're establishing I can guarantee you none of the people who commute today will be able to afford to live here," Wright said. "All we're doing is an enlargement or broadening of what we got, which is problems."
Kantor has touted the development as a solution to Blaine County's housing woes. There are fewer than 60 community housing units in the county, and free-market home prices are now too high for most of the county's workers to afford. As a result, there's a daily seesaw of workers commuting in and out of Blaine County from places like Jerome, Shoshone and as far as Twin Falls.
According to a Housing Needs Assessment conducted earlier this year, about 17 percent of workers (2,796 people) commute into Blaine County from homes outside the county. Of those, 74 percent said they would rather live in Blaine County.
The result is a significant loss in potential revenue, Kantor claims.
"The cost of Blaine County not providing housing for 3,000 workers is probably, in terms of revenues, somewhere in the range of $700 million a year," Kantor said. "The real fiscal cost to this area's businesses is extraordinary."
Linda Haavik, a former county planner who's now a consultant for The Kirk Group, said a new town would also reduce sprawl.
"It could ultimately help the county and serve its own goal of keeping open space," she said. The alternative is developing on the edge of existing cities, "which a lot of people feel contributes to sprawl."
While Kantor stresses that Spring Creek will be self-sustaining and not cost the county or its taxpayers, skeptics are concerned that it will do exactly that. Others are concerned about increased traffic, water consumption, public transportation, service costs and the notion that the new town could actually contribute to sprawl in the south county.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is also keeping an eye on the proposal. Dave Parrish, regional supervisor of Fish and Game's Magic Valley Region, said Spring Creek Ranch supports important elk and deer habitat.
Spring Creek discussion
When: Tuesday Dec. 5, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Where: Old County Courthouse, Hailey.
