Shelley’s City Council shoots down Fox Crossing development

SHELLEY – The City Council denied construction of the Fox Crossing neighborhood – a 375 home development — before an overflowing chamber of a concerned citizen. 

On Tuesday, July 27, community members came out in droves to see what the city council would do regarding a proposed 375 home development on E Center St. Last week, the Shelley Planning and Zoning Board approved by majority vote (one abstaining) the development, which set off a firestorm of citizens against the development.

“As I read through the different comments from the public hearing of the P & Z, our fire chief Randy Adams basically said if you don’t have enough driveway space, you get too many RV’s, trailers, and toys, making it hard to fire,” Shelley Mayor Stacey Pascoe said. 

The fire chief had expressed concern about recreational vehicles in the small-lot development at the Planning and Zoning Meeting.  However, Mike Hicks, of Anderson Hicks, the developer, said that would not be an issue as the development covenants would restrict such vehicles on individual homeowner’s lots, and a third party Homeowner’s Association would enforce it. 

The 375 plots would have been built on 104.5 acres. Each lot would have been around 8,500 square feet. To comply with Shelley’s zoning laws, the homes would have been a minimum of 20 feet apart. That is 10 feet from the foundation of the home to the property line. All new developments within the city are required to have a 10 foot offset from the property line.

The homes, built by Bateman Hall, would have been between 1,700-2,100 square feet, single-story, 4-5 bedrooms with basements and two-car garages.

Pascoe also said he spoke to the school superintendent, who told him if the school district’s population increases by thirty children or more per grade, the school district would need modular classrooms.   

Councilmember Leif Watson followed by expressing his concern that the school cannot levy if a large amount of growth occurs immediately. 

“It doesn’t meet the Comprehensive Plan. The planning and zoning officials didn’t take enough time to review the plan,” Watson said.

Adam French said he sees it differently. He’s concerned about where the children would play. He was also concerned about traffic along Center Street. 

French quoted Police Chief Rod Mohler, who wrote to the Planning and Zoning board, “I believe we should all remember why we live here, and what our way of life means to each and every one of us, if we do not wake up and become good stewards of our community, we will most likely lose it.  And once it’s gone, it will be forever a memory.”

“With our infrastructure at this time, this development will put us over the edge,” Councilmember Earl Beattie said. “To the P & Z, I Love them, I think they do a really good job, but they failed to look at the comprehensive plan.  Even though the guidelines were met, they didn’t look at the big picture.”

With this comment, he made a motion to deny the development as planned.  The rest of the council agreed, and the preliminary plat for Fox Crossing was denied.

The City Council discussed the Fox Crossing Subdivision starting at minute 10:02 and ending at 35:50 in the video below.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Shelley Planning and Zoning board member Jeff Kelley is a co-owner of Community Pioneer. As such, Kelley had no input on the writing of this article.