Major subdivision proposed for Stanley
Citizens concerned about 46-lot project’s scope
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
The city of Stanley’s small-town, mountain flavor could
soon get a sizable jolt from resort-style development.
A Boise developer is proposing to sell 46 lots on 66 acres
around Valley Creek and on the adjacent hills. The lots—formed in two
subdivisions—would collectively be called the Stanley Sawtooth Estates.
Among the "CEO lots" proposed
for development are two on top of the rock bluff across Valley Creek from
the Stanley Community Center. Wetlands in the foreground also are within
the 66-acre project area. Express photo by Greg Stahl
The developer, Steven Hosac of Hosac Co. Inc., said he
believes there will be a healthy market for the lots.
"I wouldn’t be surprised to see a fairly strong
market for these lots for people from the Hailey, Sun Valley and Ketchum
area as an alternative to Ketchum or as a get-away from Ketchum—maybe as
a third home in Stanley," said Hosac, who jokingly calls some of the
lots "CEO lots."
He said it’s likely he’ll market the lots in The
Wall Street Journal and on a Web site he’ll later put together,
though such strategies aren’t finalized.
Among the "CEO lots" are two that are on the top
of the rock bluff across Valley Creek from the Stanley Community Center.
Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) landscape
architect Tom Streit said Hosac contacted the Forest Service to suggest a
land swap, which never panned out, for the knoll-top lots.
"He specifically showed the Forest Service the top of
the rock bluff and told them that’s one of his prime building spots. He
told the Forest Service that if they didn’t want it developed, the
Forest Service should trade him for it."
The trade proposal proved very time-intensive and
complicated, Streit said, and both the Forest Service and Hosac lost
interest.
Last week, the Stanley City Council postponed
consideration of lot line shifts for the subdivisions and scheduled a
public hearing on the matter for Feb. 28. The hearing will begin at 7 p.m.
at the Stanley Community Building.
Valley Creek runs through Stanley and joins the Salmon
River between Stanley and Lower Stanley. The developer plans to build in
most of the Valley Creek area and surrounding hills inside the city’s
boundaries.
"We cannot stop him," Stanley Mayor Hilda Floyd
said, "but he’s going to have a lot of agencies he will have to go
through before he can build."
She said the subdivision meets the city’s zoning
restrictions and ordinances.
"We really don’t have much in the way of zoning
restrictions," she said. "We don’t have a hillside ordinance,
but it’s too late to put one in now.
"All we can do is go by our ordinances and our zoning
laws, and outside of that, that’s the position the city is taking."
The subdivision is nothing new. It was approved by the
city in 1972, but most was never built on, and Hosac only purchased the
land this summer.
Of the 46 proposed lots, 28 are in or near the wetlands
surrounding Valley Creek. Of the proposed 18 hillside lots, six have
already been built on.
Construction by prospective buyers on the wetlands lots
may prove difficult.
To build in Valley Creek’s designated wetland areas,
approval would be needed from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Idaho
Department of Water Resources, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, National
Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and possibly the
Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said Fish and Game regional
fisheries manager Mike Larkin.
"It’ll have a lot of review," he said.
"If there is any development in those wetlands, it would have to be
very limited. That flood plain would have to remain quite
functional."
Corps of Engineers project manager Robert Flowers said he
worked with the developer in the fall to officially designate wetland
areas. Flowers said he hasn’t seen the current subdivision proposal but
added that if any of it is planned for wetland areas, permits for those
areas will be mandatory.
"If the corps gets involved, then the Endangered
Species Act will become pivotal in the issuance of any permits," he
said.
Valley Creek is habitat for endangered Chinook and sockeye
salmon and bull trout.
Despite apparently inevitable complications in wetland
areas, Stanley City Clerk Margaret Oveson said the city’s residents are
concerned.
"We don’t want Sun Valley-type houses over
here," she said. "We don’t want our taxes going up."
Hosac said he will institute a homeowners’ association
to govern architectural styles in the subdivision. That’s a proposal
that doesn’t sit will with Stanley residents either, Oveson said.
"He wants it to look like a perfect little
subdivision. That’s not what Stanley residents want."
The city will not vote on the pending lot line shifts
until a meeting on the first Wednesday of March, after the city council
has had the opportunity to digest public comments collected at the Feb. 28
public hearing, Floyd said.
"We would like to hear what the citizens of Stanley
and residents of the Stanley Basin have to say. What are their concerns
and fears?" she asked.
Agencies typically involved in attempting to preserve the
Sawtooth Valley and Stanley Basin from aggressive development are not
directly involving themselves in the pending development of the
subdivision.
The development area is in Stanley’s city limits and is
up to Stanley to regulate, Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) and
Sawtooth Society officials said last week.
The Sawtooth Society, however, may have found a way to
participate indirectly.
"Because of its size, scope and location, [the
subdivision] certainly has potential to have impact on Stanley and the
surrounding area," Sawtooth Society executive director Bob Hayes
said.
Hayes said the society has offered the city up to $2,000
toward hiring a planning consultant.
"You never suffer from too much information," he
said.
Floyd said Stanley will probably accept the offer, as long
as there aren’t any strings attached.
"We don’t want any hidden agenda from the society
or the SNRA," she said.
If everything falls into place, Hosac said he will begin
improving the subdivisions’ roads, an access bridge and utilities this
spring and begin marketing the lots sometime this summer.
