Smash Recreation Center Appeal Punted

DRIGGS — Teton County's planning and zoning commission deadlocked 3-3 on Smash Recreation Center's appeal Tuesday, then voted 6-0 to send the decision to the county commissioners without ruling on it.

SMASH Recreation Center was set to open on Sept. 4. The facility, about 20,000 square feet, sits on a 20-acre lot at 2540 S 5000 W in the unincorporated county. Its turf and nets are installed. The county's land development code has no use category for an indoor recreation center.

Jason and Sidney Wilcox sublease the building, a former potato storage warehouse on ground the county zones Rural Agriculture. They have installed three batting cages, an indoor soccer and lacrosse field, golf driving lanes, a sprinting lane, and workout equipment. At the hearing, Jason Wilcox estimated the building would hold 42 or 43 people at full capacity, and said he did not expect it to run at capacity often. "Kids go to school," he said. "Adults have jobs."

"It has far exceeded when I came up here initially and spoke about, like, leagues," Sidney Wilcox told the commission. "I thought that we were helping out sports just because my son is in sports. Once I found out with how large the youth adaptive community is in need of a space, it quickly became something that I heard a cry and the responsibility from my community that came to me and poured it onto me."

A determination letter from Planning Administrator Joshua Chase, dated Aug. 31, tested the use against two categories in the county's use table. He found it was not sufficiently similar to an outdoor recreation field, citing differences in "building intensity, operational characteristics, staffing, traffic generation, and commercial nature," and not substantially similar to a special event facility. He then classified it as an "Indoor Commercial Recreation / Recreation Center," a category the use table does not contain. "As such, the use is not permitted except by adding a new use to the table," he wrote.

Under the current county land development code, a principal use not specifically listed is prohibited. The Wilcoxes appealed, and the planning department began drafting code to add indoor recreation as a new use. Both tracks were running Tuesday night, and the commission moved the draft-code item up the agenda so the appellants could weigh in.

Six of the commission's seven members were present when the hearing opened. Vice-Chairman James Weber presided; Chairman Wyatt Penfold joined by Zoom, as did Commissioner Carl Kohut. When Weber asked for disclosures on potential conflicts of interest, Harley Wilcox volunteered, "So I will bring to your attention that Jason Wilcox is my nephew; I have no business interest in this deal. Don't even really know much about it, and I don't feel like that's conflict." No other commissioner objected.

One neighbor spoke. He said he lives about three-quarters of a mile west of the building. "I'm not really for or against it," he said. "I would just be sensitive to lighting and hours and noise and those types of things." He recalled that the building's previous operator ran floodlights around it continuously. "We have a dire need for this type of facility," he said. "The cities and the counties have been talking about putting something like this together, and it's a very slow movement."

Harley Wilcox moved to overturn Chase's decision, but it failed 3-3. A motion to affirm the decision also failed, 3-3. "We've had two motions, both for and against this," Weber said later. "They've both been 3 to 3."

Commissioner Collin Hunter joined by phone after both votes, and someone raised the possibility that he could break the tie. "I was just doing some research, and it looks like the Idaho state law does not allow a latecomer to vote," Kohut said. "I think we need to be careful treading down this path." No statute was cited, and the claim was not checked with the county's attorney. Hunter did not vote.

With the tie-break closed off, Penfold moved to send the appeal to the county commissioners. "Since we're in deadlock, this is the easiest way to get it," he said. "Essentially no decision, and I think they are afforded a decision, and I think it's better to do it with a group that was there for the whole conversation," another commissioner said. As the roll was called, Weber summed up what the commission had done: "Consensus to not make a decision."

The county's appeal rules let a reviewing body affirm, reverse or modify the decision under appeal. Referral is not among those options, and neither is the remand staff had offered as a third possible motion.

No date has been set for the commissioners to take it up. The county stamped the appeal received Aug. 31, the same day Chase dated his determination. Its code gives the commission 60 days from a completed appeal to issue a written decision.

County staff found no building permit on file documenting a certificate of occupancy or completion, and wrote that the structure "was likely considered to be an exempt agricultural building." Under the county's code, an agricultural building cannot be a place used by the public. The staff report asked the commission to clarify that the determination addresses land-use classification only and "does not constitute a determination concerning building-code compliance, the legality of the existing structure," ADA compliance, septic capacity, fire and life-safety requirements, or eligibility for a building permit.

"We're in somewhat of a holding pattern waiting for the county to determine if it's a legal use or not," Deputy Chief Kevin Brown, the county's fire marshal, said on Wednesday. His preliminary research suggested, "it is possible that the building would require some work to be code compliant." If the county approves the use, Idaho law brings in a licensed architect: "When an occupancy changes classification to a higher hazard, an architect must determine all necessary life safety changes." The architect would look at "use, occupant load, changes to exiting, fire-resistive materials, fire suppression." Stamped plans would then go to the building official and the fire marshal.

"While this may seem like another step of regulation, it ensures that no single bureaucrat is overzealous in their interpretation of the code," Brown wrote. "I know from working closely with the building official that neither of us are interested in being overzealous and instead focus on the safety of the public."

What to watch: The commissioners take up the appeal Monday, Sept. 28, as an action item with no set time. The planning department's draft indoor recreation code is still in progress.

Updated Sept. 25: The commissioners' Sept. 28 agenda, posted after this story ran, lists the appeal as an action item.

County Planners Deadlocked on Smash Recreation Center

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