For the week of November 21 - 27, 2001

City should protect hillsides

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Before the city of Sun Valley breaks its arm patting itself on the back for averting hillside development in the proposed Triumph Springs subdivision, it should get to work on better hillside protection and tighten up development ordinances.

Nature and developers abhor vacuums and that’s exactly what the city created when it concocted its Special Sites designation in its comprehensive plan.

That’s the designation carried by the land proposed for Triumph Springs’ seven-unit, 67-acre subdivision.

In hearings it became clear that not even the officials who drafted city rules had any idea what kind of development, if any, was contemplated by the Special Sites designation.

Twenty years of foot dragging on enactment of hillside-protection measures made matters worse.

The plan calls for the city to approve what it likes and reject what it doesn’t like in the several large and very visible areas called Special Sites.

It’s a kind of "we’ll know it when we see it" development approach that probably seemed sly and canny to its authors. It leaves everyone else befuddled.

Sun Valley’s open spaces are far from secure. Before someone launches another open-space development bombshell, the city should get its house in order.

 

 

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