Mayor breaks tie vote to approve 375 home development

SHELLEY — In a tiebreaker vote Tuesday night, the City Council approved the preliminary plat for a 375 home development.

Earlier this year the Shelley City Council rejected the preliminary plat for the Anderson Hicks Group’s 375 home Fox Crossing development. After revisiting the matter, the Council brought it up for a vote. However, this time the votes were split down the middle.

Councilmembers Jeff Kelley and Adam French voted against and Leif Watson and Kim Westergard voted in favor. Mayor Stacy Pascoe broke the tie by voting in favor of the preliminary plat.

“They really have followed all of the ordinances that were there. So if we denied it simply on how we feel or how it looks, I don’t think that would go very far,” Watson told Community Pioneer.

He said he understands that his constituents may feel that he wasn’t looking out for their interests with his decision to vote in favor of the plat.

“But, I feel that we can help this development grow in the right way and in the right timeframe and make it a nice place for the growth of the city,” Watson said.

Watson said he believes that the people of Shelley have some misconceptions about the development.

“A big misconception from all the open meetings that we had is that it’s out of compliance – the subdivision is. It really is not. They have the wider streets. They have the curb and gutter. The setbacks are correct,” Watson said.

French told Community Pioneer that he voted against the plat because he doesn’t believe Shelley is ready for the amount of growth the development could bring.

“It wasn’t so much that I was against it as much as it was that I think we’re not ready for it,” he said. “The sewer is still in question. We still don’t know if that’s going to get done. So I was not ready to bring a motion to accept it.”

Now that the development is going forward, French explained there are options for the City Council to work with developers.

“With the developer agreement, I think that what we should do is control how much they build. And also make sure that the things they have promised and said will indeed happen. I’d hate to see empty promises,” French said.

Watson also said that he wants the City Council to negotiate with the developers to make the development better.

“Hopefully we can negotiate with them on a good plan moving forward and a good number of houses they build per year,” Watson said.

City of Shelley Clerk Sandy Gaydusek explained that the next steps in the development process can take several months.

In the next step of the process, the developers will draw up their infrastructure development plans and submit them to Gaydusk who will then send them to the city engineers for a 30 day review period.

“Our city engineer goes through that with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that it meets all of the requirements of the Idaho Administrative Procedures Act code, and our city ordinances,” Gaydusek said.

If there are no issues with the infrastructure development plans, the developers can move forward with the final plat. Gaydusek explained that she and the city engineer will review the final plat to make sure it is in compliance with the preliminary plat and development agreement.

If everything is in order, the City Council will review and vote on the final plat. If approved, the developers can then start construction.