The Blaine County Scheduling and Zoning Commission on July 7 at the time yet again declined to forged a vote in favor of or in opposition to a planned-unit improvement application that would subdivide a large part of Quigley Canyon into 24 heaps and extra than 500 acres of preserved open place, citing uncertainty around the city of Hailey’s assist for the venture.
Quigley Ranch plans connect with for a few primary residential clusters on the canyon ground, each individual configured about a cul-de-sac. The enhancement would sit just east of the county line and adjacent to the up-and-coming Quigley Farm community within just Hailey metropolis limits.
Quigley Ranch developer Dave Hennessy—also the developer guiding Quigley Farm—has prepared lots between 1.3 and 5 acres, with the major 6 plenty bounded to the north by the Blaine County Recreation District path. Residences would be accessed via Quigley Road, which Hennessy hopes to pave for about a mile starting at Buttercup Trailhead.
The applicant team has proposed shifting component of the present-day gravel road to the south to accommodate the larger sized six plenty and make Quigley Road much less prone to avalanche risk. The team is additionally planning to build about a dozen parking stalls outside of the asphalt portion of Quigley Highway, together with 8 places in a parking large amount that would double as a snowplow turnaround.
The designated parking would improve basic safety by allowing for people today to “not sense like they have to wander on the road or highway shoulder” to obtain the canyon, according to challenge representative Samantha Stahlnecker of Opal Engineering.
Mayor initially requested for ‘more compact’ challenge
Criticism of Hennessy’s prepared-unit improvement software has largely centered about the development’s perceived damaging impression on big-sport animals, improved visitors and the prepared rerouting of the area’s well-liked Nordic path procedure.
Various Blaine County citizens have reported that paving Quigley Highway would lessen its appeal among the the a lot of inhabitants, together with seniors, who walk it for physical exercise, and irreversibly adjust the character of the location.
Because late March, the Hailey Town Council, as well, has questioned Hennessy to reconsider his paving system thanks to “heavy” use of the gravel highway by pet walkers, bikers, hunters, snowmobilers and other consumer groups.
In a draft July 11 letter to the county, which was released on the web as aspect of a council packet agenda, Mayor Martha Burke tackled quite a few considerations about turning the filth road into an asphalt highway. The entry adjust would hinder recreational entry and force recreational use even more out the canyon, “grossly” impacting parking, road plowing and winter season wildlife, she wrote.
“The city does have considerations pertaining to the vehicular circulation of the proposed design … We see substantial leisure use from the Quigley Highway portal, in which about 100 autos for every working day park at the mouth of the canyon, approximately 20 cars at a time,” Burke mentioned.
“Recreational obtain from the Fox Acres portal, managed by the Blaine County Recreation District, sees very similar or increased volumes of buyers.”
About two-thirds of Quigley Highway users choose the present gravel road to the new one-observe BCRD trail designed in 2020, Burke mentioned.
“The road is extra gradual and permits aspect-by-aspect strolling. We believe it is entirely unrealistic to consider that the greater part of end users will carry on to park at the mouth of the canyon and walk the 1.1 miles of pavement,” she wrote.
The mayor’s draft letter also requested to re-orient entry to the new subdivision from in just Quigley Farms in its place of Quigley Highway, allowing Quigley Highway to continue being unpaved. It went on to point out that if the subdivision is not redesigned, the metropolis of Hailey would refuse to preserve the Blaine County part of the street outside of Buttercup Trailhead.
“We find the street layout far too problematic to enter into a shared agreement,” the letter claimed.
If the street would have to be paved, Burke claimed the town would insist on a bare minimum of 25 parking areas at the end of the pavement, more room for wintertime snowmobile parking and trailer parking and overflow parking spots on the street shoulder. Quigley Street would also require to be striped with bicycle symbols, she wrote.
“We, the metropolis of Hailey, consider now is the option to mutually prepare for a more considerate 24-great deal subdivision in Quigley Canyon,” she wrote.
Burke wrote that the Town Council would, however, be ready to modify Hennessy’s initial 2017 arrangement that annexed Quigley Farm into Hailey and established the overall Quigley Ranch layout.
“The metropolis would be receptive to modifying our Annexation Agreement and annexing a more compact 24-lot venture into the metropolis of Hailey. Accessibility could appear from in just metropolis limits, near the Sage College,” Burke wrote.
Developer Dave Hennessy hopes to pave Quigley Road, seen right here, for about a mile to obtain the tons of Quigley Ranch.
Convey photo by Roland Lane
Revised letter from mayor commends project
Throughout a Hailey Metropolis Council conference on July 11, Burke presented a substantially revised and shortened letter that removed her requests to reorient the street entry, “mutually strategy for a extra thoughtful” design and style and modify the annexation arrangement.
The letter expressed assistance of the software, commending Hennessy for “providing this [gravel] parking space to much better serve the numerous users of the canyon” and discovering that the challenge “supports public obtain.”
It also observed a new proposal from the developer to construct “a 5-foot-huge separated gravel path along with Quigley Road from the mouth of Quigley Canyon and terminating at the parking region east of the proposed subdivision.”
Stahlnecker said through the July 7 P&Z meeting that the developer would be “happy” to build the route, reversing study course from before discussions.
“This would deal with recreators that don’t want to wander on paved roadways,” Stahlnecker explained to the commissioners this thirty day period. The path would get started at current paving and operate on the south aspect of Quigley Street.
Burke also preserved her first request for highway striping and requested Hennessy to ensure that community parking is not prohibited.
“We have reviewed the proposal prior to Blaine County, and we aid the software, proposed density and site program, as it is consistent with the 2017 Quigley Farms Annexation Settlement,” Burke wrote in the revised letter.
Burke clarified to the Specific on Thursday that she and other metropolis officials experienced revised the letter on Monday. Council members noticed the more crucial letter prior to the get started of the meeting, she stated, but were handed paper copies of the remaining edition when the conference commenced.
No negotiations with Hennessy’s crew experienced taken spot in between drafts, Burke mentioned this week.
“I personally haven’t satisfied with Hennessy and his crew for a extensive time. I really do not know if workers has,” she explained. “The stage is, we wrote a far better and considerably less controversial letter with clearer assistance. We did not want to be bossy, but we also preferred to [express] the price of that filth road.
“The citizens of the Wood River valley have walked out on that dirt road for good,” Burke continued. “As another person who’s walked it for years with several different puppies who are now long long gone, my hope is that in the long term, access will continue to be as very low-crucial and rural as doable. I respect that automobiles really do not use it considerably, and I’d like it to keep precisely the way it is. In my brain, the hope was that when Dave Hennessy place together the undertaking, the road would be utilized in the similar, reliable way.”
Burke added that she hesitated “to get in the middle of” the software.
“It’s not my place—this is a county [issue]. I know the canyon is transforming. Certainly, dialogue is ongoing,” she stated.
Local community Development Director Robyn Davis stated that the catalyst of the letter revision “really boiled down to the annexation arrangement.”
“When we glance at the software and we assess it to our annexation arrangement it is dependable,” Town Attorney Chris Simms reported.
The council permitted the letter in a unanimous vote on July 11. 
