Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part two, with part one having appeared in Saturday’s Tribune.
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CASCADE, Idaho — The 31-lot River Fork Ranch subdivision was approved for a second time by Valley County Commissioners on Dec. 23, following the vacation of a previous approval before the board.
The development was proposed by Dave Callister of Boise on a roughly 44-acre property about four miles north of Donnelly. The south half of the property borders Spink Lane, and the north half is near Lake Fork Creek.
The proposal includes 30 buildable lots and one common lot. Previous plans included nine duplex lots, which are no longer part of the proposal.
The application was first denied by the Valley County Planning and Zoning Commission following a public hearing May 9. An appeal was filed with Valley County Commissioners, who then approved the proposal in a split vote July 29, overturning the P&Z denial.
Commissioners then vacated their approval on Nov. 18, asserting that more consideration was required related to road access, future phases of development, effects on water quality, wildlife, neighboring properties and other issues.
The most recent decision Dec. 23 echoed the July 29 approval by Valley County Commissioners, with Commission Chairperson Elt Hasbrouck and Commissioner Sherry Maupin voting to approve the application and Commissioner Neal Thompson dissenting.
Recapping the proceedings, Hasbrouck asserted that the development should be approved because they complied with the Valley County comprehensive plan and county codes.
“As far as I can see, they’ve done everything the county has asked them to do by ordinance,” Hasbrouck said Dec. 23.
Thompson voted nay on the motion to approve the application, saying that the proposed density of 0.69 homes per acre was too dense for the proposed area.
“This is not the right place for this type of subdivision, right in the middle of the valley floor. It should be out toward the perimeter of this valley,” Thompson said.
“This subdivision should be toward sewer systems, city services, somewhere in those locations,” he said.
Subdivision plans show a road that could connect to more development to the north. Callister’s company River Fork Ranch LLC owns about 276 acres of land to the north and northeast of the development.
Callister’s attorney, Amy Holm of McCall, told commissioners that there were no other phases currently planned.
Six people spoke in opposition to the proposal at the Dec. 23 hearing, including Boise attorney Abbey Germain, who said she represented six clients.
Germain asserted that the development should be denied based on several regulations in Valley County code, including the section Commissioner Thompson cited in his vote against the approval, urging higher-density development “adjacent to the valley perimeter.”
Germain also objected to the proposal’s effects on wildlife, neighboring properties, traffic at the intersection of Spink Lane and Idaho Highway 55 and the possibility of another development being proposed on Callister’s land to the north.
Floyd Loomis, of Donnelly, raised water quality concerns with 30 additional septic tanks being installed so close to Lake Fork Creek, which flows into Lake Cascade.
“DEQ (the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality) and the EPA have listed Lake Cascade as impaired and it is at the breaking point already, it has not met its goals to reduce pollution for some time now and continues to have periodic health advisories,” Loomis said.
“This county’s water table, while it is huge and active, is being asked to handle more than it can bear,” he said.
Boise attorney Katy Riker testified on behalf of her client Harry Bettis of Emmett, who owns hundreds of acres of land in Valley County, including the property to the south and east of this project.
Riker asserted that the project would increase property values, making land traditionally used for agriculture likely to be developed.
“As a consequence of that, it essentially chokes out agriculturalists and folks who might be interested in purchasing property for farm purposes,” Riker said.
— Max Silverson, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
McCall Heritage Ski Foundation celebrates 100 years of local skiing
McCALL — The McCall Ski Heritage Foundation will display vintage ski photos and equipment for the McCall Public Library’s first gallery opening in a newly remodeled space.
The art installation comes while the City of McCall celebrates 100 years of skiing after a local ski-jump competition called Blackwell’s Jump was created during the inaugural McCall Winter Carnival in January 1924.
The library will host an opening reception from 3-6 p.m. Jan. 15.
The McCall Ski Heritage Foundation provided canvas photos from 1924 and vintage equipment which will be displayed for three months in the gallery.
The installation contains photographs spanning decades of local cross-country and alpine skiing Winter Olympians, including Lyle Nelson, Patty Boydstun-Hovdey, Hayley Duke, and Scott and Caitlin Patterson.
The gallery will include old photographs of past ski teams from the 1940s through the 2000s, a collection of old ski boots and Corey Engen’s 1948 Olympic sweater, said Craig Johnson, a director with the foundation.
Johnson, the nephew of Kenneth Johnson, provided his uncle’s account of the first McCall Winter Carnival and first ski-jump competition in 1924.
Kenneth Johnson recounted how his father had an idea to clear a ski jump after local children built jumps in his backyard. He also thought of creating a winter carnival and persuaded local businesses to participate.
He brought in Oly Olson, a ski-jumper from Cascade, to teach participants how to jump.
According to Ski Idaho, Blackwell’s Jump was located on Timber Ridge, 2 miles east of McCall on the south side of Lick Creek Road. The ski-jump’s base elevation was at 5,040 feet and had a length of about 30 meters, or 98.4 feet. The ski-jump was used through 1937.
Crowds traveled from Boise and Cascade on special trains for the carnival and journeyed from the train to the ski-jump on logging sleighs.
“The carnival supplied kind of a break in the winter,” Kenneth Johnson said. “There weren’t any roads open into McCall, and we couldn’t get out except by railroad in the winter time, up until about 1930 when the highway was built.”
According to Ski Idaho, ski-jumpers traveled from all over the U.S. and Canada to compete at Blackwell’s Jump. A local baker named I.O. Prout decided to go over the jump in just a toboggan.
The youngest jumper was Kenneth’s younger brother Loyd, who took the jump at 7 years old.
“He was supposed to be the world’s youngest ski jumper,” said Kenneth Johnson.
For more information about the event, visit mccall.id.us/library.
— Sierra Christie, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
