Development code hearing set for Aug. 16

Revised development code supports high density development, which gobbles up views of open space. PEGGY HAMLEN photo

FREMONT COUNTY — The Fremont County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the revised development code at 6 p. m. Monday, August16 in the courthouse in St. Anthony.

The code proposes major changes that could change Fremont County’s rural look and lifestyles forever.

The draft code allows small subdivisions to be developed without being presented and discussed in a public hearing.

The draft also raises building densities well beyond those in existence now. The existing development code assigns residential densities of one home per 2.5 acres on ground that is not productive farmland, wetlands, or in a stream corridor. The farmland density in the present code is one home per 40 acres. In wetlands with slopes of more than 30 percent the density is one home per 25 acres. The density in stream corridors is one home per 10 acres.

The draft sets densities per 100 acres as follows: Rural Conservation Zone (all of Island Park) – 25 lots; Rural Living Zone – 50 lots; Rural Infill Zone – 200 lots. Since the code has an open space requirement, the lots will be clustered together, not spread out over the 100 acres.

All these densities are contingent on state departments of Environmental Quality, Health, and Water Resources regulations. In general, DEQ recommends a density of one home per 2.5 acres. DEQ and state Health Department officials have often warned that densities higher than this will compromise water quality if septic tanks are allowed. High-density development that has taken place in Island Park created serious water quality problems in the 1970’sthat led DEQ to impose a building moratorium on the community until septic tanks were replaced by a wastewater treatment plants in Mack’s Inn and Last Chance.

Lee Nellis, the nationally known land use planner who helped craft the county’s first development code has blasted the Planning and Building Department’s draft of the revised code, saying the county will lose “its place in the world” if it passes the code as written.

The code was approved in an ordinance passed in February 1992. Records show that dozens of people from throughout the county participated in the code’s development and that maintaining the area’s water quality, open space, farmland, and wildlife habitat were top priorities in all areas of the county. Because the code protected the area’s natural resources, the Fremont County Planning and Zoning Commission was the recipient of the 1992 Sheldon R. Gerber Special Merit Award for Excellence in Environmental Planning, “the development, adoption and implementation of the Fremont County Comprehensive Plan and Fremont County Development Code."

In 1997, the National Awards Council for Environmental Sustainability presented the county with a Certificate of Environmental Achievement because the code protects natural resources and farmland. The certificate recognized the county’s land use planning efforts in the Renew America 1997 Environmental Success Index.

"What's ironic is that the draft offers nothing to property rights advocates or champions of economic development. It is less procedurally elegant than the original and will make applicants' tasks more, not less difficult, while doing the same for the staff and planning commission. It is less flexible and to the limited extent that it is less stringent, it will diminish the property rights of those who have long been attracted by Fremont County's pastoral and natural landscape, while providing a minor advantage to those who are willing to place speculative gain ahead of community values,” said Nellis.

This is part of the July 29, 2010 online edition of The Island Park News.

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