Friday, February 17, 2012

MOD debate remains unresolved

Commissioners urge ‘conservative’ and ‘reasonable’ approach

---

By KATHERINE WUTZ
Express Staff Writer

The white-shaded area above shows the area known as the Cold Springs Bench, a 40-acre piece of land behind St. Luke’s Wood River. County Commissioner Tom Bowman has suggested removing the area from the Mountain Overlay District, which would open the parcel for development. Express graphic by Erik Ellison

Debate over considered changes to Blaine County's Mountain Overlay District heated up again Tuesday, as the benefits of pristine hillsides were pitted against the benefits of affordable housing.

The Mountain Overlay District is an area that the county has determined to be unsuitable for development due to the land's steep slope.

The district was defined by former county Planner Jeff Adams using computer-mapping software. However, the software was not accurate to a fault, and in setting the district boundary it divided property lines and included flat areas that could be safely developed.

The county commissioners set out to fix those flaws in December, and continued discussing which of 41 sites should be removed from the district and why.

Debate over one such area, the Cold Springs Bench behind the hospital, has characterized the discussions over the district so far.

Former County Commissioner Len Harlig said last month that the 40-acre property was deliberately included in the district when it was created in 1991 for a number of reasons, including emergency access.

During a county commissioners meeting Tuesday, Planning and Zoning Commissioner Lili Simpson said she agreed, as the original text ordinance clearly urges Blaine County not to create a "patchwork" of developable areas and undevelopable areas across the valley's hillsides. The district has worked so far, she said, to prevent that from happening.

"When we look up there, we look at it as a whole, a visual whole," she said. "That word, patchwork, is indicative of what we are not to create."

Julie Cord, a representative of a property owner on the bench, said opening the Cold Springs Bench to development would not violate the spirit of the ordinance at all. She said the property she represents is 68 acres total, but only 13 acres of it would be excluded from the district if the bench is opened.

"It's not a hillside," she said. "There's no slope. It's flat as a pancake."

Cord, like many other members of the public, said she supported the hillside ordinance and its intent to keep development off scenic slopes. But opening the bench wouldn't ruin the scenery, she said.

"Nothing is going to be built on the hillside," she said. "I don't want to see houses all over the hills either. I don't think anyone in this room wants that."

But, she continued, development on the bench would not be on a hillside and could provide much-needed affordable housing in the valley.

Again, no decisions were made at the county's Tuesday meeting, despite lengthy public comment and a comment from County Commissioner Angenie McCleary that she hoped to see as "conservative" a district as possible. Fellow Commissioner Tom Bowman said he agreed, but only to a degree.

"I want to be conservative, too, but I want to be reasonable," he said.

Bowman is the commissioner who recommended exclusion of the bench from the district, despite a Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation to the contrary.

The meeting has been continued to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, at the old Blaine County Courthouse in Hailey.

Katherine Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com

buy viagra
acheter viagra
comprar viagra