The fate of a development that would build hundreds of homes in southeast McCall could be decided next month by the Payette Lakes Recreational Water and Sewer District.
The district board is set to consider annexing a 90-acre parcel that would be part of Pine Creek Ranch, a 158-acre subdivision proposed near Payette Lakes Middle School. The parcel must be annexed into the sewer district to connect to the sewer system.
A public hearing on the annexation request will be held on July 10 at noon in the basement of Idaho First Bank in McCall.
All public comments must be submitted to the sewer district in writing due to an arcane provision in state law that only allows the board to consider written comments.
“The statute is very clear that any objections to the petition must be done in writing (and) that the board can’t consider objections that aren’t in writing,” said Adam Christenson, the district’s contract attorney.
Written comments can be submitted at the district’s office at 201 Jacob St., mailed to the district office, or emailed to Business Manager Tammie Richardson at [email protected].
Access at stake
Development prospects for Pine Creek Ranch are largely reliant on annexing the 90-acre parcel into the sewer district, despite the other 68 acres in the subdivision already being within the district.
Limited access would make it difficult to develop only the 68-parcel, which is east of the existing Woodlands Subdivision, because there is only one road in and out of the Woodlands, developer Craig Groves of Donnelly told Valley Lookout.
Including the 90-acre parcel in the subdivision, however, would provide access through Fox Ridge Lane, Stockton Drive, and Sheila Lane, in addition to Woodlands Drive.
Conceptual plans for Pine Creek Ranch call for 615 homes, including 324 single-family homes, 181 townhomes, and 110 multi-family units.
Even if approved for annexation into the sewer district, plans for the subdivision would still be subject to review by the McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission and the McCall City Council. Groves has not yet submitted a formal application for the subdivision to the city.
Conditions of annexation
Last month, the sewer district board set conditions that Groves must meet if the district agrees to annex the 90-acre parcel.
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The conditions outline about $1.5 million in specific projects that Groves would need to fund to annex the 60-acre parcel into the sewer district. A host of other work with an unestimated cost could also be required.
However, the board could still change those conditions before deciding whether to approve the annexation request.
If approved for annexation, then Groves would also need to pay nearly $8 million in sewer connection fees for the 600+ homes in the subdivision.
Engineering recommendations
The conditions approved by the board are a combination of recommendations by District Manager Jeff Bateman and JUB Engineers, the district’s contract engineering firm.
The engineering recommendations are based on a model run of how sewer flows generated by Pine Creek Ranch would affect existing sewer infrastructure.
The model determined that about 300 feet of new sewer line would need to be installed along Deinhard Lane, with another 900 feet of sewer line upsized to accommodate increased flows.
Meanwhile, nearly 1,300 feet of sewer line on Woodlands Drive would need to be upsized, according to the modeling.
The Deinhard Lane work is estimated to cost about $950,000, while the Woodlands Drive work is estimated to cost about $425,000, according to a sewer master plan the district completed earlier this year.
The engineering model also indicates the additional sewer flows would require installing a larger pump in a lift station near the North Fork Payette River bridge on Deinhard Lane. There is no estimated cost for that work.
District manager’s recommendations
Additional conditions recommended by Bateman include repairs to eight manholes through which Pine Creek Ranch’s sewage would pass.
Groves would also be required to contribute about $242,000 to a phosphorus offset project the district is being required to complete by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
The offsets are tied to repairs planned for a leaking liner in a storage pond containing treated wastewater on the south side of Deinhard Lane.
The offsets would grant the district a set amount of phosphorus that can legally be discharged to the North Fork each year in exchange for work that limits other phosphorus sources, like building fences to keep cattle away from water or connecting homes that currently use septic systems to central sewer.
Bateman’s other recommendations include design standards for lift stations in Pine Creek Ranch.
