Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Hailey sidewalk plan snags at P&Z

Residents call for more flexibility in design process


By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

An effort by the Hailey Planning Department to establish design standards for sidewalks and bike lanes met with resistance once again on Monday from residents of Old Hailey.

Planning Director Beth Robrahn said she would bring more flexibility to the sidewalk design process in Old Hailey before the next Planning and Zoning meeting on Nov. 1.

Property owners in the historic residential area of Hailey have been using city rights of way for more than 100 years for landscaping and parking. About seven blocks of Old Hailey has sidewalks, dating from 1908, and they are in bad repair.

Robrahn said that when new sidewalks went in on Second Avenue and on Elm Street a few years ago, residents were alarmed that they had not been notified prior to the construction. She also said Hailey residents have contacted her in support of sidewalk construction in the city, to provide pedestrian and biking safety.

In response to these concerns, Robrahn formed a 14-member citizens advisory group, held public workshops and wrote a Complete Streets plan establishing 12 designs for sidewalk and bike lane configurations for Hailey's streets. The plan, if implemented, would add sidewalk and bike-lane standards to the city's established street standards.

Under the current plan, a resident would have to show that "extraordinary conditions" exist to be exempt from the sidewalk design standards.

At three public meetings in the past two months, no one has objected to establishing sidewalk design standards for new subdivisions or for recently developed ones like Woodside. But when it comes to Old Hailey, many objections have been raised. These include concerns over the loss of parking and snow removal issues.

"I have walked and biked in Hailey for 31 years and it is completely safe," said Helen Stone at a Planning and Zoning meeting Monday. "I love Old Hailey and I don't want to pave it and make it look like a subdivision."

Stone and others have installed irrigation systems on city rights of way and tend gardens and lawns on city property. By contrast, a Safe Routes to Schools sidewalk that was built on Elm Street three years ago is bordered by dirt and gravel at the road's edge because the city did not include funding for landscaping along the sidewalk.

If and when the Complete Streets plan is implemented, homes on streets prioritized by the Planning Department for sidewalks could see sidewalks sooner than later. These include streets that are close to schools and the downtown core and are used heavily by walkers and bikers.

The Planning and Zoning Commission passed the Complete Streets plan last month, but it was rejected by the City Council two weeks ago, on the grounds that design standards within the plan needed to be further defined by the P&Z.

After reviewing the plan's standards Monday, the P&Z sent Robrahn back to the drawing board to add more flexibility to the sidewalk design process, especially as it applies to old Hailey.

Commissioner Michael Pogue, a resident of old Hailey, said he was troubled by the need for exemptions to alter the design standards.

"I'm concerned that a street should look 'like this' unless you can find an exemption," he said.

Assistant Engineer Jim Zarubica said the challenge of designing sidewalks in an eclectic neighborhood was solved in Ketchum while he was working for that city. He said sidewalks were designed to curve around trees, were sometimes made from wood, and sometimes intruded onto private property to make everyone happy.

"It can be done on a block-by-block basis," he said.

Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com




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