One last round of public comment on the new McCall Impact Area boundaries will be accepted by Valley County during a public hearing Wednesday afternoon at the McCall Public Library.
The Board of County Commissioners is set to take public comments on its proposal for revised impact area boundaries and regulations tomorrow at 1 p.m. A final decision is not expected until October.
The county favors a 94% reduction in the size of the McCall Impact Area, a planning boundary around city limits that is under county jurisdiction, but has historically been subject to zoning laws resembling those in place within the city.
The county’s proposal would shrink the impact area from 16,670 acres, or about 26 square miles, to 1,079 acres, or 1.7 square miles. The new boundary would not include land around Payette Lake, nor land fronting Idaho 55 south of McCall.
The county also plans to overhaul the administration of development applications within the impact area. If adopted, county code would apply to the impact area instead of zoning laws similar to those in place in the city.
The county would assume responsibility for reviewing all development applications in the impact area. Currently, the McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission makes recommendations to the county commissioners on land use decisions in the impact area.
Updated boundaries for the impact area must be adopted by the end of the year to comply with a new state law that established stricter criteria for determining impact area boundaries. The criteria include utility availability, anticipated growth, geographic factors, transportation infrastructure, and other public service district boundaries. It also requires land in impact areas to be “very likely” to annex into the city within five years.
County officials have said the new criteria left them little choice but to shrink McCall’s impact area, particularly due to a lack of sewer availability outside of city limits. The county has also expressed doubts on the likelihood of annexation within five years, which is typically initiated only by developers or individual property owners.
McCall: county proposal ‘highly subjective’
On Aug. 26, McCall Mayor Bob Giles sent a letter to the county in opposition of its proposal. The letter was critical of the county for drawing new impact area boundaries “based primarily on informal conversations with landowners about possible short-term annexation.”
“This approach is highly subjective, undocumented, and inconsistent with state law,” Giles said in the letter.
The city’s letter asks the county not to adopt the proposal, but says new county zoning codes should be developed if it is adopted. It also said the county should hire more staff to accommodate additional impact area planning responsibilities that are currently handled by city staff.
Earlier this summer, the City of McCall proposed updated impact area boundaries that largely resembled those currently in place, as Valley Lookout reported.
The city’s proposal, however, called for expanding the impact area by about 3,776 acres to avoid splitting parcels and subdivisions, which is not allowed under the updated state law. Mostly, the boundaries would be expanded to include the entirety of large public lands parcels around Payette Lake, many of which are split under the current boundaries.
The city’s proposal was based on an overlay of data related to criteria in the new state law, including existing pathways, major roadways, utility infrastructure, anticipated growth, geographic features, and public service.
Donnelly to have larger impact area?
In May, Valley County adopted new boundaries for an impact area around the City of Donnelly. The updated boundaries reduced the size of Donnelly’s impact area by about 20%, but mirrored the proposal submitted by the Donnelly City Council.
Giles noted that Donnelly, with a population of about 250 residents, is set to have a larger impact area than McCall, which is home to more than 4,000 residents.
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“The City of Donnelly proposal was a much less detailed analysis than what the City of McCall provided, but the justification follows much the same line of reasoning that the City of McCall followed,” he said. “This inconsistency belies the deeper arbitrary and capricious approach the County has taken with McCall’s Impact Area.”
Zoning differences
Valley County does not use traditional zoning in which a designation applied to land dictates acceptable types of development. Instead, it relies on a multiple-use concept in which development applications are reviewed for compatibility with neighboring properties.
McCall, which does use traditional zoning, fears this approach could have environmental consequences.
“The county’s regulations risks removing important protections for water quality, scenic corridors, and IDL-managed lands, and threatens the ability of McCall to grow in an efficient cohesive way, and the community character essential to McCall’s economy and environment,” the letter said.
