Tetonia P&Z Wants Help, and Time, on Pinnacle Peak

TETONIA — Members of Tetonia's Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) said Monday they need a lawyer, more planning help and more time to review Pinnacle Peak, a proposed 150-home subdivision.

Commissioner Josh Weltman asked for "an attorney" to advise the commission and for the city to hire "another planning director who can work with us and represent the city." Commissioner Sharon Fox, who ran the meeting, wanted "more input from legal counsel." Later, Weltman said "this is beyond our pay grade," and the commission needed "more professional help." Contract city planner Ashley Koehler told them, "We will definitely have the city's legal counsel attend future meetings."

PFG Idaho LLC, represented by David Ferrette, wants to build 90 single-family homes and 60 townhouses on 38 acres at the city's northwest edge, land the City Council rezoned for high-density housing in 2025. Koehler showed it as the first phase of the developer's larger master plan, with a baseball resort planned to the west and commercial land to the north, on ground the developer has separately asked the city to annex.

Fox told the developer's team the city has "very limited budgets" and "we've never seen anything like this," calling the project "tripling the size of Tetonia in one smooth move." Ferrette said, "We don't anticipate getting very many second homeowners here. The cost point is going to be much lower."

Monday's session took no action. Koehler said the city's code "required this step": once an application is complete, P&Z has 40 days to "weigh in and ask for any additional information." The city deemed Pinnacle Peak's plat application complete Oct. 13. After Monday, the code gives P&Z 35 days to hold the public hearing, which would put it "at your December 7th meeting," with the revised documents and the development agreement ready for the public by Nov. 20. Many comments from the agencies that review the plat, including the Idaho Transportation Department, hadn't come in. She said the schedule "might be too quick, too tight."

Weltman said the commission "had 2 days to go over this since we got the information last Thursday." When Koehler offered to follow up with the developer about timing for the hearing, Fox cut in: "We're not going to be able to meet that timeline. That's just not possible." Koehler said the developer had asked for accommodation, including changes to regular meeting dates, with a public review period and December holidays ahead, and suggested P&Z might meet twice in some months. "I don't understand why it's on our plate to meet their deadlines," Weltman said. "It takes as much time as it takes."

When Koehler asked whether staff should measure the project against the 2009 comprehensive plan, which is still in effect, or the draft the city is now writing, Weltman said "it doesn't make sense to evaluate anything with the old comprehensive plan" and that the public input on the new one "was over a year ago when it was a completely different universe as far as development pressure." Ferrette answered, "We were directed at the start of this project to use the existing comp plan," and reminded commissioners, "But you guys have approved the rezoning … already."

City engineer Rob Heuseveldt told P&Z the city's sewer system has "approximately 88 units of capacity" left, fewer than the 150 homes Pinnacle Peak would add in Phase 1.

A third aerator, added to the city's two, "should get you up to about 138 units," Heuseveldt said. Past that, Tetonia would need another treatment lagoon and more land to sprinkle its treated wastewater on.

He told commissioners to write those thresholds into the subdivision's development agreement: "They cannot approve an additional phase until you have that capacity." When Fox asked whether the full 40 acres was possible, he answered, "No, no, no, not right now. They have to do improvements in phases." Those improvements would have to start in Phase 1: "You don't want to wait until you're right at the threshold. You want to start those improvements before you hit that threshold."

The water system has "capacity issues," Heuseveldt said. The city doesn't have the storage its current needs require, and it's already building a 475,000-gallon tank to replace the old one, a project that "really has nothing to do with this subdivision." For Pinnacle Peak, the city will require the developer to bring culinary water rights and "put in a well with this very first preliminary plat, the very first phase," then design it, pay for it and turn it over to the city. He also pointed to the council's new water mitigation ordinance: "anybody that's doing more than 2 units for building permit, they're required to bring their own water rights."

Ferrette said the transportation department will make the developer "build it all out at the first phase" where the project meets the highway, including two traffic signals.

The city has no easement to cross the rail trail along its west side, Heuseveldt said: "The only easement we have is prescriptive for your existing sewer line." The mayor and council are negotiating with the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation for crossings. His concern is "2 separate nodes of the city that aren't connected easily without having to go out to the highway and come back in." Ferrette said the developer would route around the trail until the city gets the easements: "When you get those, we will then cross it."

The developer has proposed maintaining the new roads for five years, except snowplowing, and the parks for three. The larger, dark-green open space on the preliminary plat would be dedicated to the city. Commissioners balked at the city mowing and watering scattered green space. Around the townhouses, Fox said, "it should be the HOA, in my opinion, because that's who's going to be using it."

Near the end of the item, Fox asked clerk-treasurer Jacque Beard whether the application was on the city's website. "It's not on the website," Beard said. Fox asked to have it posted: "I would really like the public to have a chance to see what we're doing here."

Koehler will send the commission's requests to the developer in her review letter. No hearing has been scheduled.

What to watch: P&Z and the City Council meet jointly Nov. 16 on the draft comprehensive plan and its future land use map, which the city's consultant, Sunrise Engineering, is revising. "We need to talk to the city council on the 16th," Fox said of the staffing and comprehensive plan questions.