Rather than risk having their development proposal denied by the Blaine County Commission later this year, the developers of the controversial Cove Springs subdivision elected to go back to the drawing board.
On Wednesday, the results of the developers' work were submitted to the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Department. The revisions are meant to address concerns expressed by the public and the county planners during the months-long public hearing process that stretched across much of 2006 and into this year.
In its recommendation to the Blaine County Commission earlier this year, the P&Z Commission recommended denial for the Cove Springs subdivision application during a nearly six-hour-long meeting on April 19. As originally proposed, the development—the largest single development proposal ever brought before the county—was to have 338 lots spread across a 600-acre portion of the much larger 4,630-acre Cove Ranch.
The proposed subdivision would be located five miles southeast of Bellevue, and would be capable of supporting more than 1,000 residents.
Among the twists in the road was the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's request that the county deny the Cove Springs development because of its potential impacts on wildlife and wildlife habitat on the largely undeveloped ranch.
During an interview at the Idaho Mountain Express on Thursday, Steve Beevers, president of the Cove Springs development group, said his team listened to the concerns expressed by both the public and county officials when making changes.
"Density and wildlife and water were all addressed," Beevers said.
One of the more significant changes to the Cove Springs development plan is undoubtedly the shortening of four separate development "fingers" that jut out from the proposed subdivision's core. The placement of the upper ends of the peninsula-shaped neighborhoods into what the Fish and Game deemed critical wildlife habitat was of great concern to many people who spoke during the P&Z public hearing process.
Under the developers' revised plan, the peninsula-shaped neighborhoods were shortened by between 300 and 1,000 feet. On the uppermost fingers in the heart of the cove, the number of end lots has been reduced, and they were reconfigured as larger "conservation lots," thereby reducing the density in those areas, Beevers said. A portion of the lots will also be designated as non-disturbance zones where the native character of the land must be retained, he said.
Elsewhere, the number of upper lots on the remaining finger or peninsula-shaped neighborhoods has also been reduced.
In all, a total of 40 lots have been removed from these areas and instead placed on a section of flat agricultural lands immediately adjacent to the core of the Cove Springs subdivision.
What this has done for wildlife is effectively increase the size of wildlife corridors on the property by an additional 1,700 feet, Beevers said.
Marty Flannes, a local Wood River valley attorney and consultant on the Cove Springs project, said ongoing wildlife monitoring by the Cove Springs project team over the past six months influenced how the development proposal was redesigned. The changes are an actual reflection of on-the-ground studies, not simple conjecture, Flannes said.
"These changes reflect site specific studies," he said. "The project has studied what is there."
The reconfiguration eliminates nearly a mile of internal roadway from the development, Flannes said.
While some agricultural lands were sacrificed to accommodate the moving of the 40 lots, the newly impacted areas only constitute about 200 acres of the 1,200-acre area that was originally proposed to remain as working farmland, Flannes said. A little more than 1,000 acres would be retained as productive farmland.
During their consideration of the original proposal, the P&Z members thanked the developers for striving to retain farmland, but suggested they reconfigure the balance of farmland and sagebrush steppe areas being retained.
"The project listened and rebalanced it," Flannes said.
Other changes included in the revised plan include a switch from a single water system to dual water system separating culinary and irrigation water, the significant expansion of the buffer zone between dense residential areas and productive agricultural land and the elimination of any lots extending into the county-designated mountain overlay district. The developers are also proposing to add 22 community housing lots to their plan in exchange for receiving a 10 percent density bonus the county's Planned Unit Development ordinance provides for in such instances.
Flannes said while the Cove Springs developers aren't obligated to provide these affordable units because their application was submitted before the county approved an affordable housing ordinance, they chose to do so.
Not changed under the newly revised plan are agreements to provide land and other public amenities in cooperation with the Blaine County School District, Wood River Fire District and the Blaine County Recreation District.
"Those have not changed," Flannes said.
Another change to the development plan would place a covered bus shelter and 20-car parking lot next to the Gannett-Picabo Road.
In another wildlife habitat-related change, the developers have committed to pay $1,000 per lot—for a total of about $281,000—that will be placed in an open space fund. The fund could be used for a variety of offsite purposes including Blaine County's Transfer of Development Rights system for acquiring conservation easements or for habitat restoration projects. The developers also propose to devote an additional $100,000 for offsite sage grouse habitat restoration.
Flannes said they've been working with county P&Z staff and that the changes to the development plan aren't substantive enough to require an entirely new P&Z hearing process. He predicted, however, that the County Commission, which is scheduled to begin considering the application Aug. 28, may want to have the P&Z make comments on the revisions.
"They consider it a revision and not a new application," Flannes said of the P&Z staff.
Express file photo
Beyond the Gannett Road entrance to Cove Ranch, flat farmland stretches off before ending near hills surrounding the proposed site for the Cove Springs subdivision. A newly revised development plan submitted to the Blaine County Planning and Zoning department on Wednesday addresses concerns expressed by county officials and area residents over potential impacts to wildlife, water and the place?s rural nature.
