It may be due to a different time of year or a different body of officials reviewing the issue, but interest in Sun Valley Co.'s request to make changes to the city's comprehensive plan has mushroomed.
More than two dozen people attended a City Council meeting Thursday, mostly to express displeasure with the company's request for revisions to the text of the 2005 comprehensive plan update and the land-use designation of the future land-use map as they apply to Sun Valley Co. land.
One of the more controversial changes requested is to the proportion of multi-family to single-family homes on Prospector Hill, above City Hall on Elkhorn Road.
The P&Z, which recommended approval of changes June 30, held several meetings on the application in spring, with little public input. That changed last week.
"I learned one thing as I came into the room," said Wally Huffman, Sun Valley Co.'s director of resorts and resort development. "There's a significant difference between the Planning & Zoning meetings and the City Council meetings, and that is that people show up for the City Council meetings."
Some residents said the notification and the process—especially having meetings in April and May—did not facilitate public input.
"That's the one time of year when you expect most people not to be here," said Sun Valley resident Peter Palmedo.
The comprehensive plan is not a zoning plan, but rezones of any magnitude typically need to be reflected in a comp plan before they begin a rezoning process.
"We had months' worth of meetings with the Planning and Zoning (Commission) to discuss the revisions we proposed to the comprehensive plan," Huffman said. "It's always been our intent and still is our intent to cause to happen a rezone that actually codifies the number of development units that we have to the number that we proposed, and codifies where those development units could occur."
At the city's request in 2002, the company presented it with a master plan.
"That started a planning process on the part of [Sun Valley Co. owner] Mr. [Earl] Holding," Huffman said.
That vision includes preservation as well as development.
Residents such as Peggy Tierney said density, especially in a high-profile area, is a step in the wrong direction.
"I don't think you need a wall of more townhomes," she said. "It's not going to affect us. I'll be long dead, I'm sure, before anything might go on there. But don't encumber the shoulders of the people 20 years from now who have to look back and say, well, it was approved."
Latham Williams, Sun Valley resident and former City Council president, said he and other former council members were forced to approve Crown Ranch, a controversial subdivision in Elkhorn, because of zoning that was in place.
"I hated that project," he said.
The zoning, he said, was prompted by a master plan that envisioned density there.
Negative impacts from higher-density development on Prospector Hill, he said, could include view and migration corridors, pedestrian safety and traffic.
"These are some big, significant changes," he said. "The scope and magnitude of this deserves a bigger hearing, and it really should be dealt with in the process of an update with the community and the comprehensive plan."
Palmedo said city leaders, Sun Valley Co. owners and representatives, and residents should remember the impact their actions have on future generations.
"I hope that at the end of the day, like houseguests, we just leave this town a better place than the day we arrived," he said.
Huffman said Earl Holding has been a good steward of the land.
"A lot of people have emotional, deep-rooted and, I think, positive thoughts about what should happen with the land in Sun Valley. I think that's a great thing," he said. "Do not lose sight of the fact that this is private land. [Holding] hasn't done anything to it that anybody could not be proud of."
The council, which by state law reviewed the application for the first time last week, scheduled a site visit for Aug. 17. Council members will have another meeting on the subject on Aug. 18.
Councilman Nils Ribi suggested looking into the public notification process.
"There are various alternatives that we've used at P&Z to reach to a farther extent," he said. "Let's discuss that."
Rebecca Meany: rmeany@mtexpress.com
The city of Sun Valley is considering future development of Prospector Hill, a piece of land above City Hall, left, and owned by Sun Valley Co. Photo by Willy Cook
