The proposed annexation by Bellevue of 100 acres in Slaughterhouse Canyon is mired in the details of planning minutiae and hung up on a potentially deal-killing water rights issue.
The city has hosted more than a dozen meetings on the issue since an annexation application was filed by Ketchum developer Jeff Pfaeffle early in 2005.
The City Council decided Tuesday that to give the lengthy process more momentum, it would begin considering the application item-by-item. The thinking was that breaking the huge application into smaller tasks could make it less daunting. In all future meetings, the council will face only one issue at a time.
Under Pfaeffle's development proposal, up to 150 houses would be built during four distinct construction phases. The name of his proposed development is Strahorn Canyon Ranch.
At odds are a number of significant stumbling blocks related to traffic, water availability and, most apparent on Tuesday night, the development's potentially detrimental effects on resident big-game herds.
According to wildlife maps provided by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Pfaeffle's project is in the vicinity of both a mule deer migration corridor and elk winter range.
Addressing the issue on Tuesday, Councilwoman Beth Robrahn suggested the city should use Fish and Game maps to determine where open space areas in Pfaeffle's development should remain free of development.
"So we have native vegetation in those corridors," Robrahn said.
Another topic of even greater significance has the potential to delay a final decision on Pfaeffle's application even longer.
The dispute is over one of Bellevue's primary water sources in the Muldoon Canyon area east of town. In the simplest sense, the dispute concerns whether the city in years past abandoned its rights to draw water from springs located on private property there.
Lawyers for the city and the private property owner are actively working on the issue and attempting to bring it to conclusion.
Advising the City Council on the matter, Bellevue water rights consultant Fritz Haemmerle said the city shouldn't approve any annexation application until the water situation has been resolved.
"I think it would be a mistake to agree to any annexation application," Haemmerle said.
Near the end of Tuesday's meeting, Bellevue City Councilman Shaun Mahoney summed up the thinking of the rest of the City Council about the troubling water issue.
"Until we get over that stumbling block, nothing matters," Mahoney said.
With that in mind, the council unanimously approved a motion to not make any decision on annexation applications until the water issue is decided.
"If it's not resolved we're not going to be able to move forward at all," Robrahn said.
The City Council will renew its discussion of the Pfaeffle annexation application at its next special meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 28. At that meeting, specific issues related to parks and open space for wildlife will be discussed.
