For the week of August 14 - 20, 2002

County TDR plan 
irks Hailey 
residents, officials

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

After a brief but telling discussion Monday about the county’s proposed transfer-of-development-rights program, Hailey city officials said they want a closer look at recent changes to the plan that could dramatically affect outlying areas of the city.

Mayor Al Lindley and members of the Hailey City Council exchanged views on the county’s updated TDR plan, which proposes to control development on agricultural lands south of the Wood River Valley by shifting density to so-called "receiving areas" adjacent to Hailey and Bellevue.

In the end, the group agreed to hold a public hearing during the scheduled council meeting Monday, Sept. 9, to advance the city’s efforts to establish an "area-of-city-impact" agreement with the City of Bellevue before taking a formal position on the TDR plan.

The decision came after a brief update on the county TDR plan by Hailey Associate Planner Diane Shay. She noted that a new map drawn by county officials to outline areas influenced by the plan is "considerably different" than a previous version put forth last year.

Shay told the panel that she believes Hailey and Bellevue must speed up efforts to complete the area-of-city-impact agreement—which would help define the future of some lands between the two cities—so the TDR issue can be properly addressed.

"It may behoove us to get together with City of Bellevue staff to look at the area of impact and the TDR," she said.

The county TDR proposal aims to establish "sending areas" on agricultural lands in a triangle-shaped area between U.S. 20, Highway 75 and Gannett Road, from which development rights could be sold to landowners wanting to increase density in the designated "receiving areas."

County officials last month proposed to establish receiving areas in five new locations, including Croy Canyon and Quigley Canyon, both of which are in rural areas outside of Hailey.

Lindley on Monday said he was "disturbed" by some of the proposed changes to the TDR plan.

Tom Bergin, land-use planner for the county, told Lindley and council members that county officials will offer the public an opportunity to comment on the TDR plan at a public workshop scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 25.

He said the county is working on a fresh revision of the TDR map, noting that the proposed receiving areas between Bellevue and Hailey will likely be deleted from the plan.

"However, the rest of the areas designated on that (existing) map continue to be part of the proposal," he said.

Several residents of Croy Canyon—joined by citizens’ advisory board member Larry Shoen—told Bergin outside the meeting that they were concerned the plan would simply shift density and sprawl from southern areas to predominantly rural areas outside of Hailey.

Bergin encouraged the residents to communicate with county commissioners and attend the county’s Sept. 25 workshop, as well as Hailey’s Sept. 9 public hearing.

Bellevue Mayor John Barton has also expressed concern about the TDR proposal.

He was scheduled to discuss the revisions to the plan with Bellevue City Council members Tuesday night. The discussion was scheduled as an agenda item from last Thursday’s council meeting, which was rescheduled because of the lack of a quorum.

 

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