REGIONAL NEWS ROUNDUP: McCall Planning and Zoning: Too many exemptions being sought
Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two scheduled to appear in Sunday’s Tribune.
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McCALL, Idaho — A developer seeking to build more than 50 new homes along First Street in McCall is seeking too many exemptions from city code, the McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission said Tuesday.
The Westmoor Crest Subdivision, proposed by Rick Williams of Star, Idaho, would build 47 single-family homes and townhomes on 66 acres at 500 First St., or near Colorado Street.
Meanwhile, the Blackwell Subdivision, also proposed by Williams, would build six single-family homes on less than an acre at 520 First St., near Railroad Avenue.
The proposed subdivisions, which would be linked by new private roadways, request several alleviations from city code, including minimum lot sizes, building setbacks and minimum road widths.
The commission, however, suggested scaling back plans to eliminate the need for the code alleviations, which city code allows for planned unit development applications.
“It’s just too tight to ratchet all of these homes in here,” commissioner Tom Mihlfeith said. “With fewer units, it seems like you might be able to meet code requirements.”
The commissioners did not vote on the two applications at Tuesday’s public hearings, which were continued to the commission’s May 7 meeting to give Williams time to refine the proposal.
Plans seek to reduce front setbacks from 20 feet to 15 feet and to reduce the minimum roadway width from 60 feet to 24 feet for both subdivisions.
Commissioners worried granting both city code alleviations would cause parking problems since larger vehicles would not fit in 15-foot driveways and narrower streets would not be suitable for on-street parking.
“I think it would be a nonstop issue with snow removal,” commission Chairman Robert Lyons said. “I just hate to see something down the road that’s gonna be nothing but a battle.”
Short-term rentals would be allowed in 18 of the homes and five of the townhomes. The other five townhomes would be reserved for people who live and work in McCall under the city’s housing program.
Kate Snodgrass, who lives near the proposal, cited the number of short-term rentals as problematic for the neighborhood.
“That seems like a huge number of vacation rentals to me, for the area, and for the street,” Snodgrass said during a public hearing on the Woodmoor Crest Subdivision.
Michael Walters, another neighbor of the proposal, worried that traffic from subdivisions would harm the “livability” of the rest of the neighborhood.
“Hearing tonight about all the requests and (city code) alleviations, they all sound like ways to pack more units into a space than should actually be there,” said Walters, a First Street resident.
Meanwhile, James Bode of Eagle, who owns a home on First Street, spoke in support of the subdivisions and the public infrastructure upgrades that would come with it.
“It appears like it will be a drastic improvement for our area of town,” Bode said.
First Street would be rebuilt from Railroad Avenue to Colorado Street, or along the property frontage of both subdivisions, under current plans.
That would include widening the roadway near Colorado Street, moving the street about 9 feet further west, and replacing an outdated water line beneath the roadway.
— Drew Dodson, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
A new director for Dayton library
DAYTON, Wash. — Ellen Brigham is happy to step into her new role as the director of the Dayton Memorial Library.
“I’m just really excited to step into this new year with a fresh slate of ideas and positive outlook going forward,” she said.
Library science is the perfect field for her, she said with a smile.
“It was just a childhood dream of mine,” she said. “When you’re little, you look at the library and think it’s a perfect place to sit and read. I never really let it go.”
As a busy adult, she doesn’t have as much time to read for pleasure as she would like, but she still manages to carve out some time from her busy schedule. She shares what she reads with the public in her weekly online newsletter.
Brigham gave a nod of appreciation for the well-appointed library building and staff she inherited from former Library Director Todd Vandenbark.
While she wants to continue with some of his ideas, she does have plans of her own.
One of these is to revamp the children’s picture book section located on the library’s lower level. Right now, the books are filed by the author’s last name, on shelves too tall to be user-friendly for the youngest “readers.” She plans to purchase shorter shelves and organize the books by subject, placing them in bins with the book covers facing out. This arrangement will make them more open to exploration, she explained.
She also plans for some adult-size furniture for the lower level, including a study carrel so parents can sit or work on the computer while their kids are occupied.
Brigham also wants to invite speakers from the Washington Humanities Bureau and local authors to share their areas of expertise with the public. Additionally, she will offer more craft programs and looks forward to partnering more closely with the local schools to help fill gaps where their library collections are a little thin or out of date.
Though attacks over challenged material in the collection are fewer, Brigham was recently targeted by someone using her identity to fill out a form at an entertainment company to book a drag queen for storytime. The new director immediately informed the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office about the situation.
“I only found out when the drag queen entertainment company emailed me saying, ‘Thanks for filling out our form, unfortunately no drag queens are available.’”
To her it seemed like a ploy to get people up in arms.
“That kind of rabble-rousing is not conducive to a good society,” she said. “If people have issues with the library, they are free to come and talk with me.”
— Michele Smith, The Times (Waitsburg), Thursday
