Council Meeting: July 21, 2008 (Opinion)

One brief highlight for tonight – I’ll get the rest of the meeting summarized in the next day or so. This is just my opinion of what I saw tonight. ~ Karen

It was like watching a very sorry 3-ring circus tonight as the council dealt with the plat amendment for Stack Hill. Recall that Cohen (the developer) asked for two changes that were forced on him by the previous town planner – to make the side yard set back the same as the rest of the town and to build a house on Lot 12 rather than preserve a southern view of the trees along the Ruston Way hillside. At the public hearing a few weeks ago, after there was clear support for approving Cohen’s request, Council Member Huson offered a compromise.

That compromise was presented tonight in the form of Ordinance 1261. It would have applied the same residential zoning code that everyone else in town lives with to the Stack Hill development. Cohen would have to give up 5 feet in building height, increase his front yard set backs, decrease side yard set backs but he would have been allowed to build on Lot 12 (which is now 21’ lower than when the Asarco Master Plan was written).

The council members each gave their view points on the issue and 3 (Hunt, Albertson and Stebner) felt the old Master Plan requirement of a view corridor should remain (no home on Lot 12). After the vote, Hunt moved for reconsideration and wanted to strike just the portion of this ordinance that dealt with the view corridor. After some confusion, she withdrew her reconsideration so the issue could be discussed in conjunction with the development application for the lower part of the site.

When the issue came up again, Hunt again moved for reconsideration so the council hear from Cohen. It was decided to allow the public to also comment.

Cohen was very polite, considering this is the second go around on these issues. He likened this debate to the saying “If you live by the sword, you die by the sword”. Treating people unfairly hurts everyone. This view corridor takes his private property but does not provide a benefit to the town. He is only asking to use his property the same way anyone else is allowed to. He can’t “keep getting screwed every step of the way”. He encouraged the council to save the battles for the big issues.

When it was time for the public to speak, Stebner wanted only the Anderson’s to speak (who agree with him and support the view corridor). Albertson said it was fundamentally unfair to only allow some of the public to speak but not others. There were 10 comments, 4 wanting the view corridor and 6 wanting it developed. Of those comments, 3 were from folks whose view would be directly impacted by this house. 2 supported it being built, 1 did not.

The council refused to move on the reconsideration and the issue died. There was a lot of confusion on what to do next. Hunt wanted to give Cohen the 7.5’ side yard setbacks. After some discussion, Huson called for a special meeting on Thursday night to consider a new plat amendment ordinance and Resolution 429 so the final plat could be approved.

I’ve only highlighted some of the confusion and fumbling we watched tonight. It was painful, embarrassing and the decision fundamentally unfair. For a council that comes to many meetings with their minds made up, ready to vote without any discussion, this was hard to witness. I hope we can find the balance between seemingly predetermined votes and the circus we saw tonight.