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May 25, 2006
Blaine County Commissioners
Blaine County Courthouse
206 1st Avenue South
Hailey, ID 83333
Dear Commissioners:
The Nature Conservancy is pleased to provide the
following comments on the draft amendments to the Blaine County Zoning
and Subdivision regulations.
We commend the County Commissioners for their
efforts to provide a vision and a plan for guiding growth in Blaine
County consistent with community values. The Nature Conservancy’s
community-based conservation efforts at Silver Creek have resulted in
the protection of over 10,000 acres of land through fee acquisition and,
more importantly for the majority of this land, through the donation of
the development rights off these lands by neighboring farmers and
ranchers.
For the past few months we have been engaging with
many of these same neighbors to continue discussing a shared vision
where agriculture, abundant wildlife and a world-renowned spring creek
flourish together. Our loose coalition has included landowners,
ranchers, and realtors as well as the Wood River Land Trust and Citizens
for Smart Growth. Although The Nature Conservancy is submitting our
comments separately from this coalition, we acknowledge the importance
of this collaborative effort in finding balance and seeking new
solutions for managing growth in Blaine County.
Idaho lost 290,000 acres of farmland between 1997
and 2002 to urban development. The explosive pace of change both in the
Wood River Valley and across Idaho means that The Nature Conservancy
must explore alternative approaches to achieving our goals of conserving
important wildlife habitat, native plants and natural communities, and
in protecting the 30 year investment we have at Silver Creek.
Specific comments:
1. The Conservancy supports market-based incentives
that will protect wildlife habitat, wetlands and other sensitive lands.
We support a voluntary and viable Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)
program as proposed in Ordinance 2B as the primary means of achieving
the County’s land use goals.
2. We are very appreciative of the County
identifying the initial TDR Sending Areas as the Wetlands/ Ag Protection
Area south of Baseline Road. Protection of these lands will protect the
majority of the headwaters springs for the Silver Creek ecosystem.
We encourage the County to consider expanding the
TDR Sending Area to other parts of the county as soon as is feasible.
Expansion of the sending areas should be prioritized to remove
development rights from the County’s important agricultural and
ecological lands, especially in the remote canyon areas containing
significant wildlife and fisheries habitats.
3. TDRs should be used to discourage development in
agricultural lands, wetland areas and wildlife habitat while encouraging
higher-density development closer to the existing cities in the county
including Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue. We encourage the TDR Receiving
Areas to be located in and around existing towns, as outlined in the
Preferred Scenario.
We do believe the initial TDR ordinance should
include designated sending and receiving areas. We recommend the County
establish a Citizens Advisory Board to explore the expansion of the
sending and receiving areas.
4. In order to facilitate the TDR program and
ensure its viability, we acknowledge that some downzoning to RR-40 is
appropriate within the A-10 and A-20 lands. However, we suggest that
A-10 and A-20 lands that are in close proximity to existing towns not be
downzoned.
5. We believe that Planned Unit Developments (PUDs)
are inappropriate in certain locations such as in remote areas, near
working farms and ranches and near important wildlife and fisheries
habitats. Also, PUDS in inappropriate locations could easily undermine
the effectiveness of a county-wide TDR program while negatively
impacting agriculture, wildlife and other natural resource values. The
county should strengthen its ability to deny inappropriate subdivision
applications in these areas.
6. We support a provision to allow ranchers and
farmers to make limited lot splits for family members.
7. We support the review and improvement of the
Wildlife and Riparian Overlay Districts. The Nature Conservancy has
ecological information and expertise we would be willing to provide to
assist with this process.
The above comments are accompanied by a commitment
from The Nature Conservancy to assist the County in implementing the
results of the Blaine 2025 process. We are committed to protecting the
remarkable resources of the Silver Creek ecosystem and we are a ready
partner should you seek our services.
Thank you again for this opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
Laura Hubbard
Trish Klahr
State Director
Silver Creek Watershed
Program Manager
cc: Idaho Chapter Trustees |