Stack Hill Hearing

It was an interesting meeting with no decision tonight. The council agreed to have this on their agenda for the next regular meeting on July 7th, but no more public comment will be taken on the issue. They are not supposed to talk to anyone about this issue again until after they make their decision.

The meeting began with the mayor laying out the procedures: 1) Point Ruston presents, 2) council questions and rebuts, 3) public gives testimony (but cannot ask any questions). The town attorney asked the council a list of questions, which ended with asking them if any of them had had communications with anyone on this issue outside of this hearing. All the council members responded yes. After each explained their individual contacts with the developer and residents, the public was allowed to challenge the council’s assertion that they could remain impartial. No one offered a challenge and the hearing began.

Bill Lind (attorney) and Gary Petersen presented for Point Ruston. I won’t repeat the points made by Loren Cohen on the previous post below. Mr. Lind noted that legally the town is not allowed to require things from the developer that have no public benefit. They don’t feel this view corridor provides any benefit since it is very limited, but takes property away from the developer. Mr. Petersen noted that the assessor defines a view as view of the water. He also pointed out that the area has been excavated 21 feet, and the houses provide much more open space than the large buildings that were allowed under the Asarco Master Plan for this area. It was that plan that contained the view corridor requirement.

Mike Cohen acknowledged the original view corridor was reasonable (at higher elevations with very large buildings as shown above). But it is no longer fair to take his property with no public benefit. I don’t think I’m doing Point Ruston’s team justice in my interpretation here, but I’m happy to provide a copy of the meeting to anyone.

The highlight of the council questions and discussion was when Council Member Huson agreed that the view corridor was unfair to the developer, but that he felt other aspects of the development were unfair to the town. He felt requirements that applied to the rest of Ruston should be applied to this area, specifically the height limit should be 25’ on all of Stack Hill (30’ is allowed on the interior lots) and regular lot coverage and other set backs should be used. Cohen said he was willing to look at those issues. The 30’ allowance was a suggestion by Ruston’s former planner.

During public comment, 5 spoke generally against the proposals plus one letter from someone who could not attend, 7 were in favor and two were somewhat unclear (one wants view protected, but did not have a strong feeling on this view and one felt that strict land use controls benefited the overall community with improved aesthetics). I’ll list some of the reasons I found interesting for or against, beyond what was presented by Point Ruston.

Against:

• Point Ruston promised to honor the community desires.


• This opening allows wind from the water to flow to the homes on the hill.


• A deal should remain a deal.


• Even 1 inch of water view is important if it’s your view.


• Views should always be protected.

Support:

• Lived on Commercial Street since the smelter was operating, seen the views change dramatically over the years. When the houses were built across the street, they had no say about the huge loss of views they experienced then.


• Don’t like the idea of a vacant lot, it would be unused and could become unsightly.


• The views have been improved dramatically for everyone in the area with the lower elevation. This view corridor has only a limited view of the water that will soon be covered by trees. A temporary view corridor was not worth saving when there had been permanent improvements already done.


• Views are an emotional issue, but this is a legal question.


• The plat has been under discussion for 2 years, its time to get it done.