About 100 people attended Tuesday night's meeting on the proposed 224-lot Whitetail development west of McCall, but they did not get a chance to comment on the details of the proposal.
By the time the McCall Planning and Zoning Commission was finished discussing whether to annex the 730 acres where Whitetail is proposed, the time was 10:30 p.m. and commissioners elected to table the proposal until Feb. 1.
Tabling the proposal will give P&Z commissioners a chance to visit the site and developers a chance to do some homework assigned by the P&Z.
Before it adjourned, however, the P&Z did recommend that the McCall City Council annex and assign a zoning designation to the land, on which owners of the Whitetail Club want to build an exclusive gated community of 221 homes.
Before that decision, the P&Z heard testimony at the McCall Golf Course clubhouse on whether to annex the land, which Summit Resources of Idaho purchased last year from Boise Cascade Corp.
Two other public hearings - on Whitetail's general development plan and a preliminary plat for the project's first phase -- were delayed until the Feb. 1 meeting.
Site tour scheduled
Technically, the meeting will be continued on Jan. 28 at noon at the parking lot of the Whitetail Club when P&Z commissioners, city staff and developers will visit the proposed project site.
The public is allowed to attend, but public hearings on the general plan and preliminary plat will not be conducted that day.
On Tuesday, the P&Z decided unanimously that, if the council decides to annex
the land, the city should grant Whitetail developers' request to zone the land for a mixture of four units per acre, one unit per acre and one unit per five acres.
The size of the home sites generally gets larger as the development moves to the west.
The decision was made by three P&Z commissioners -newcomer Robert Youde, Dottie Moore and Chairman Don Bailey.Commissioner Phil Feinberg did not take part in the discussion because he is a property owner in the nearby King's Pines neighborhood.
Commissioner Jeff Schoedler left the proceedings because he works for Network Architects, which has a Whitetail owner as a client.
221 home sites proposed
Plans for the Whitetail subdivision show 224 lots, including 221 home sites and three, multi-use/mixed residential" parcels.
The plan also includes a maintenance building and employee housing for at least 20 employees, as well as more than 250 acres of open space.
The homes would surround the existing Whitetail Golf Course west of Boydstun Street and south of Idaho 55. The project would likely be developed in four phases, dictated by the real estate market.
Lots in the development are projected to cost between $290,000 for parcels close to town to $885.000 for parcels near Valley County's border with Adams County.
Buyers would become members of the Whitetail Club and would have access to the club's golf course, marina and lodge on Payette Lake.
On Tuesday, Summit Resources President John Sabala told the P&Z that Whitetail would be a "quality development" that would contribute an estimated $150million to $200 million to the city of McCall's tax base if annexed.
Sabala also noted developers' intent to provide public access through the western portion of the land for a greenbelt that could stretch from Little Ski Hill to the proposed Riverfront Park site near the McCall Smokejumper Base.
Amenities touted
McCall attorney Steve Millemann, representing Whitetail, said the project would provide "fabulous amenities" to both property owners in the project and to the public.
Millemann also said the development would help the city take a giant step toward building water, infrastructure west of McCall, including a million-gallon water storage tank.
Developers are proposing three access points into the subdivision, which Millemann acknowledged would likely become the central issue of the debate over the project.
Plans show vehicle access points at the entry to the golf course on Boydstun Street, as well as through Gun Hill Road and Club Hill Boulevard.
Both Gun Hill Road and Club Hill Boulevard are maintained by Valley County and are used by residents along the roads.
The P&Z received a copy of an e-mail from Valley County Road Superintendent Gordon Cruickshank that said Whitetail would be required to help with the cost of improvements to the roads.
Millemann promised the P&Z developers would work with the county to make sure the roads are up to par.
But he urged commissioners to focus on the issue of annexation and zoning and avoid becoming "referees" in the contest over the two roads.
The three access points are important to developers to ensure the effects of traffic from the subdivision are spread out among the neighbors, Millemann said.
"We have and will continue to resist eliminating any of the access points," he said. "We are not going to placate one group of residents over another."
Traffic, noise, dust cited
During public testimony, Boyd Paulson said the city should take care of its current residents and pave streets in Rio Vista before annexing more land.
Chuck Griffin asked the P&Z to require developers provide more specifics of their project.
Dan Ostermiller said Whitetail should eliminate the gates from their subdivision.
"If you're going to coming into the community you should be a part of the community," Ostermiller said.
Cindy Dowling voiced concern that noise and dust from construction traffic would destroy the "peace and serenity" of her home off Gun Hill Road.
New Meadows attorney John Hucks, representing homeowners in King's Pines Estates, said the city should do a comprehensive study of annexing the land to determine whether it would benefit the town.
Hucks also blasted developers for not giving specifics on their plan and said there is no reason to annex the entire tract when it could be annexed in phases as developers are ready to move forward.
"They're saying, `We want you to reserve a block of rooms but we're not going to tell you when we're going to check in or if we're even going to check in," Hucks said.
Supporters lend voice
Several people also spoke in favor of the project.
Ron Sabala, who is John Sabala's father, called tactics used by opponents "deplorable." Ballard Smith noted that homes in Whitetail's development would likely be vacation homes, where people would visit for only a short time but would contribute greatly to the town's tax base and merchants.
Jean Odmark called the proposal "the best project I've ever seen."
Bill Eldredge said he hopes the project would take some of the tax burden off people who live on Payette Lake.
Ray Alford said he favors the development because of the proposed greenbelt.
Ultimately, the three P&Z commissioners decided that there would be no harm in annexing and zoning the land, and that considerable discussion would have to happen concerning the development plans.
The city council will hold a public hearing on the annexation request, but the date of that hearing is not yet known.
Before they adjourned, the P&Z commissioners gave Whitetail developers a few things to think about before the Feb. 1 hearing.
Those items included a concern about the steepness of some lots, cul-de-sacs that are longer code allows, a general opposition to gates that shut out the general public, and the need for a schedule for development of the greenbelt.
