An approved storage complex on Samson Trail should be moved further away from the road, the McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission said Tuesday.
Plans for the 37 storage condos contained within three buildings at 450 South Samson Trail will now be re-designed and presented to the P&Z during a public hearing at its April 1 meeting.
The P&Z’s directive follows a hearing last month in which it requested more information regarding groundwater and the location of two potential septic systems on the 2.8-acre site.
Jeff Hatch of Hatch Design + Architecture, representing Cam Echanis, told commissioners that the Alpine Storage Condos may now instead be served by a vault toilet, eliminating the need for septic tanks that were influencing the placement of the buildings.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing it off the road a little bit more,” P&Z Chairman Robert Lyons said in response to the change. “If that could be done, it would definitely lower the impact on the scenic route.”
Samson Trail’s designation as a scenic route means that it is subject to stricter design standards “to preserve and enhance the scenic quality” of the routes.
P&Z commissioner Dave Petty agreed that moving the buildings, which as designed would be about 20 feet off Samson Trail, would help comply with the scenic route rules.
“Moving it even eight to 10 feet more to the west would be a considerable improvement,” Petty said.
Neighbor: vault toilet ‘insulting’
The change from septic system to a vault toilet was not well-received by Joe Baugh, a neighbor to the project.
“If that starts to stink, I can swear we’re going to deal with it,” Baugh said. “That’s about the biggest insult they can do other than building that building they want to build.”
Baugh, who was also represented during the hearing by Nampa lawyer Dan Goodman, also is skeptical that the proposal can be designed to fit within the scenic route.
“This is an eye sore,” he said. “It is going to be the death of your scenic route—no question about that.”
Aesthetic concerns raised
Goodman, who made the initial request to move the buildings further off Samson Trail, raised additional aesthetic concerns about the design.
One concern was that updated renderings Hatch provided at the request of the P&Z still showed mature landscaping and did not represent what the storage complex may look like immediately after construction.
“You’re making a decision not based off of what this is going to look like in 20 years, but also what it’s going to look like in one year, in five years,” Goodman said.
Goodman was also critical of metal paneling proposed for a fence designed to retain snow on the north property line of the storage complex.
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“Even if it were compliant, it’s, frankly, ugly,” he said. “We’re not dealing with an industrial zone here.”
The P&Z agreed with both of those concerns and requested more renderings of the proposed design as well as a re-designed fence.
Valley County reversal
The P&Z previously denied the conditional use permit needed to develop the storage condos, but that denial was overturned by Valley County Commissioners.
The county had jurisdiction over the land use application because the proposal is within the McCall Impact Area, which is county land that is administered under zoning rules that closely resemble those in place within city limits.
Despite the land use decision reversal, the city has authority over the design of the site and the buildings and must approve the plans before construction can begin.
