Friday, December 29, 2006

Bellevue no longer a sleepy burg down south

Annexations, budgeting and flooding among top issues in 2006


By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer

Express file photo Three proposed annexations were among the top issues faced by the city of Bellevue during 2006. The larger of the two annexation applications?on a combined 560 acres owned by Wood River Valley landowners Harry Rinker and John Scherer?are for the moment being considered by the Bellevue Planning and Zoning Commission. The two adjacent properties, shown here, are located south of Bellevue and east of the Gannett-Picabo Road.

Bellevue City Hall was a busy place in 2006.

From responding to the threat of flooding along the Big Wood River in May and June to working to revitalize the city's downtown core on a shoestring budget and considering just how large the community of Bellevue should become, pressing issues have seemed to pile on one after another since Jan. 1.

Some of these issues were resolved during the year in some fashion or another—like the Bellevue City Council's decision to enact two separate affordable housing ordinances in recent months—while others still hang in the balance—like the three major annexation proposals city officials are considering.

While they are by no means the only ones city officials faced in 2006, the following issues were arguably the most significant:

- Annexations: Like last year, three major proposed annexations are among the top issues facing Bellevue. If approved, the 100-acre Slaughterhouse Canyon annexation proposal by Ketchum developer Jeff Pfaeffle along with even larger annexation proposals by landowners Harry Rinker and John Scherer would more than double the current size of Bellevue.

For the moment, Pfaeffle's annexation application is the furthest along of the three proposals. The application garnered the support of the Bellevue Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 7 of this year, and it is now under consideration by the City Council.

The combined annexation proposals by Rinker and Scherer—located side-by-side on 560 acres of land south of Bellevue and east of the Gannett-Picabo Road—are currently going through the public hearing process at the P&Z level. Expect a decision by the P&Z within months.

- Affordable housing: During the months of October and November the Bellevue City Council acknowledged the city is no longer the affordable housing option it once was by approving two separate affordable housing ordinances.

On Oct. 12, the Bellevue City Council approved an inclusionary housing ordinance that requires developers to provide a certain percentage of affordable, deed-restricted homes in new residential housing projects throughout the city. Several weeks later on Nov. 2, the council further approved a workforce housing linkage ordinance. The ordinance requires developers to mitigate for housing demand created by new construction, whether residential or commercial.

- City government: The way Bellevue citizens elect city officials also changed in 2006.

Rather than holding municipal elections in April as the city has for years, the city in the future will hold general elections on the same day as the rest of the state—the first Tuesday following the first Monday of November. Because Bellevue is the only remaining Charter City in the state of Idaho, the change was required to gain the approval of the Idaho Legislature. Key to getting the change through the Legislature was Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum.

- Budget issues: As has been the case for many years, budgetary issues were among the top concerns for Bellevue's elected officials in 2006.

On their way to setting the city's approximately $1.5 million budget for the 2006-2007 fiscal year, City Council members cut many budgeting priorities, including the hiring of an additional Bellevue police officer.

As a way to get around the city's budget woes, the City Council is now in the early stages of considering whether to ask city voters to approve a levy rate increase. The first date any such vote on a Bellevue levy increase could happen is May 22, 2007. A 60 percent majority would be needed for the levy increase to pass.

Increasing the city's levy rate could provide additional funding for essential city services like police and fire protection, Bellevue officials contend. They further point out that Bellevue's levy rate is among the lowest in the state.

- Urban Renewal District: In recent months, the City Council has made progress on creating an urban renewal district on a large portion of the city's downtown business core and some nearby residential areas. The council has already approved the creation of an urban renewal agency board to oversee the actual urban renewal district once it's created.

Following that, the Bellevue P&Z just last week gave approval to the urban renewal district concept. The proposal now goes back to the City Council.

Urban renewal districts fund infrastructure improvement projects cities are unable to fund. They generate funds without increasing property taxes.

- Flooding: Perhaps as big of an issue as the record-setting flooding itself was the way the city decided to respond to the waves of water that threatened Bellevue's low-lying areas in May and June. While homeowners in areas north of Broadford Road hailed the city's response to the flooding in their neighborhoods, the way the city responded elsewhere was a little more controversial.

Faced with what he saw as an imminent threat of flooding along Riverside Drive in the southwest corner of the city, Mayor Jon Anderson on May 18 decided to pull out all the stops and have crews erect a temporary earthen dike to direct floodwaters back to the river.

The project worked—at least to the degree that water ceased to course down Riverside Drive—but at least one adjacent homeowner experienced higher floodwaters due to the water being redirected over their property.

In a separate but related item, the City Council chose to strengthen several key aspects of Bellevue's floodplain ordinance in the months after the flooding.




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