A Rift Remains
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
By Ben Cannon
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The general elections in Teton County, Idaho, last year marked a shift in power from the county’s traditionally conservative, largely Mormon, increasingly rare agricultural ways to a political and cultural environment of so-called newcomers, a varied set that has trickled into Teton Valley over the last 30 years.
The successful bids for the county’s board of commissioners by Larry Young and Alice Stevenson, along with new county clerk Mary Lou Hansen – all of whom ran as Democrats – happened somewhat against eastern Idaho’s traditionally conservative fray.
The state as a whole has long been and remains largely Republican (with a few Democratic pockets, such as Sun Valley) and though local and county politics do not always indicate a trend of a state’s play in national politics, the transfer of three key elected county positions from the old-line conservatives to Teton Valley non-native Democrats was something of a momentous event.
But a movement to ouster Commissioners Stevenson and Young is underway and the two face recall on a special November ballot. In a county where a recent survey revealed that 70 percent identified the rate and manner of growth as the most important county issue, the divisiveness of the maneuvering to remove two electives who came in as part the new regime might indicate the lengths at which the old guard is willing to maintain the conservative status quo in Teton Valley amid the rapid development now transforming it.
In late March, Stevenson and Young called for a moratorium on new subdivision applications to help alleviate the workload of an overburdened and understaffed planning department. That six-month period, in which permits would not be limited but new development applications would not be accepted, was also meant to be a time to review county ordinances and help streamline an application process bogged down by superfluous meetings.
The call for a moratorium passed 2-1, with Republican Commissioner Mark Trupp voting against, but it immediately sparked an uproar and allegations of two rabblerousing county commissioners colluding to marginalize the rights of landowners. That the item appeared on a regular meeting agenda at a last minute was somewhat by design – to prevent a last-minute rush of application filings – but it also fed a sense among some that the two commissioners were aiming to rule by executive fiat.
A lawsuit co-signed by members of some of the valley’s old, established family names soon followed, and a district judge overturned the moratorium in April. The subsequent weeks saw applications continue to pour through a strained county pipeline, with 86 subdivisions and 7,800 single-family lots currently in the development application process.
A petition to recall the Democrat commissioners reportedly began to circulate on a Monday morning, the same day the moratorium was set for a hearing. By Idaho law, as many voters have to vote in favor of recall as elected them in the first place – in this case about 55 percent of last year’s voter turnout. A successful recall would depose the two commissioners, and Idaho Gov. Butch Otter would select replacements from a pool chosen by the Teton County’s Democratic party (though in Idaho, individuals do not register with a party and a candidate can declare affiliation going into election).
Later this week, Clarion Associates, a Colorado-based planning firm tapped to help Jackson Hole work through a major revisions of its comprehensive plan, is set to arrive in the Teton Valley to help that county assess its own comprehensive plan, adopted in 2005, and weigh the effectiveness of ordinances that should flesh out the philosophies of the guiding document.
Even that move has engendered debate, with critics – those tending to be recall petitioners – saying the county is aiming to upset a system that, while undeniably imperfect, has been hammered out through due process and public input. It will be interesting to see if Clarion, a firm vaunted for its experience in bringing conflicting interests together, can help cull a working dialogue among the Teton Valley’s electives and stakeholders.
Nolan Boyle heads up the Teton Valley Alliance (TVA), a conservative advocacy group founded last year that has recently earned a reputation for itself by spearheading the move to remove Stevenson and Young. Boyle and wife, Barbara, helped lead a grassroots effort to collect over 1,100 signatures on two separate petitions calling for the recall of each. That number is well over the 20 percent needed by Idaho law to get a recall on a ballot.
TVA’s website regularly posts editorial-style letters that aim to vindicate the cause to remove Young and Stevenson, alleging closed-door dealings. But Boyle maintains the recall movement is not rooted in sour grapes over a moratorium that will be seven months defunct come the November election.
“They have violated the open meeting law many, many times,” Boyle said. “They just want to rule from their chair.”
Boyle, whose roots in Teton Valley go back three and four generations (“not that long,” he said), formerly served as county clerk before losing last year to Mary Lou Hansen in a race that surprised many on both sides of party lines.
Boyle acknowledged that “old families,” which historically are Mormon, “as a rule are more conservative.” The mission statement on his TVA website, which also quotes John Adams on the sacredness of property as equal to the “laws of God,” says the group aims to preserve “out heritage through planning stability and economic growth.”
Many of the old-time families, long steeped in the valley’s agricultural traditions, owned or still own large parcels of land. While some have sold off the acreage, relics of a dying farming industry giving way to a major land development boom, others have not, but most likely will. Where 200 acres 20 years ago meant a modest plot of working land, today, given the location and a developer’s vision, that parcel could sell well into the millions.
Keith Kunz has a place west of Victor where he farmed potatoes until the 1980s. Kunz, along with 30 of his relatives bearing the same last name, signed the petition to recall Stevenson and Young. The 73-year-old whose family homesteaded in the valley said he has been approached to sell his “few hundred” acres, but has not yet decided what to do with the offer.
In a phone interview, he said commissioners Stevenson and Young had “very liberal intentions,” and did not appear “completely honest in the situation.”
When asked if he feared the valley was developing too rapidly he said, “I don’t know if it’s too fast. I know that you can’t stop it.”
On Main Street in Driggs stands the county’s old courthouse, an aging structure the county has outgrown but cannot afford to replace on its own. Because of this, the Huntsman Springs development, a major subdivision in progress just up the road, has offered the county a new site and some help in the construction of the building. Such a scheme will anchor a commercial square on the development, which some estimates say could double the size of Driggs, the county seat, at build out.
From her office on the second floor last week, County Clerk Mary Lou Hansen worked amid the constant rumblings of heavy trucks passing by. Hansen said she and her staff spent more than 80 hours verifying signatures on the petition, given to her by Boyle, her predecessor.
“I’d say that was more than just an underlying distraction when the county has huge problems to deal with,” the county clerk admitted.
Hansen said the move to oust Stevenson and Young is unjust and that under fire the two plod on, contributing 40-hour county workweeks on top of their livelihoods.
“Commissioner Stevenson is a real stickler for following the law,” she said of allegations that Stevenson and Young have violated open meeting laws with secretive email exchanges. “You know, if there’s this perception that this is going on, [Nolan Boyle] is the one perpetuating it.”
In the planning office down from Hansen’s office, Sandy Mason, a member of Valley Advocates for Responsible Development (VARD), reviewed subdivision applications to prepare comment for them at county planning and zoning meetings.
“I’ve had developers tell me they think [the county application process] is such a pushover here,” Mason said. “It’s complete night and day from Jackson Hole.”
Mason cited, as commissioners Young and Stevenson often have, that the county has a massive landfill issue, completely lacks a capital improvements plan to address impacts as well as a land use plan, and has a current planned unit development that allows dense developments to go up slipshod across the valley.
“There’s a certain hardcore group” of opposition, “and you’re never going to change their minds,” Mason said. “But I think people will start to realize that the commissioners are moving the county in a good direction.”
There is a sense among those opposed to the recall that many who signed the petition did so either in a heated reaction to the moratorium, or, later, when community ties and a familiar face asking for a signature in the living room could have led some to feel obligated to sign. (Idaho law says a witness – here, probably the one collecting the signature – must co-sign each petition.)
“In some cases people called me and said they had been pressured at their home to sign,” Commissioner Stevenson said. “They couldn’t just leave the petition somewhere. One member of the LDS Church said a petition had been left in the church.”
She added that the list of petitioners, printed in full in the Teton Valley News, appeared to boast a majority of signers belonging to the LDS Church.
Boyle has said he feared retribution against petitioners by way of business boycotting, but said, in the end, the list may encourage others to support the recall.
Stevenson and Young have both said they do not intend to put any energy or resources into a campaign to counter the November recall votes, but they hope the county’s Democratic party will campaign for them or against the move on their behalf.
“We tried so hard to be open and legal that it seems a shame to me that this is happening,” Stevenson said. “We moved meetings, we even scheduled them for the evening so more could attend.”
To help pay for rising planning costs, law suit, and hire the consulting firm, the county set up a planning capacity fund that raised over $80,000 from a handful of donors. The largest came by way of the Huntsman group, the builders of the mammoth Huntsman Springs, and Grand Targhee Resort owner Geordie Gillett. Those contributions alone totaled over $60,000.
David Hensel, a local contractor, also pitched in, though his $500 contribution was modest compared to those of major developers. Hensel, whose wife sells real estate in the valley, acknowledged the peculiar duality of a man depending on the successful economic development of the valley and his sense that a thoughtful approach – one advocating limitations and moderation – is what is best in the end.
“People might see that as odd or unusual,” he said, “but good planning is good for business. It’s not about either shutting down the valley completely or letting it grow out of control. … The old-timer perspective is you don’t have to worry about growth, we’re all going to make it. But they no longer get to choose who sits at the table.”
Photo by Derek DiluzioNolan and Barbara BoyLe, who helped gather many recall petition signaturesPERMALINK:
A Rift Remains | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories
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