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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2022.01.13 Gallipoli Letter (2)Communities in Valley County are in crisis. We must act now to change the destructive trend we are wit- nessing. Seasonal workers are living in cars because we lack affordable housing. Restaurants and other busi- nesses are forced to close several days a week because they cannot hire enough employees. Up to 25% of emergency calls face wait times. In an interview with the Star-News, “McCall Police “Deputy Chief Travis Smith said, “We’re staffed to take care of 3,500 peo- ple, not 30,000 each weekend.” The recent nationwide migration trends are adding to the number of people that Valley counties first responders are capable of handling, creating a threat to the safety and welfare of residents and visitors. A Building Moratorium Proposal for Valley County The unprecedented growth of vacation homes, used as short-term rentals, places stress on city water use. This June, “McCall’s” water treatment plant set a record for water consumption. Alternate-day water restrictions were put into place in many communities, but enforcement was absent. An ongoing study is being conducted for a toxic algae bloom found on the North Shore of Payette Lake. Refuse collection could not keep up with demand, and most vacation rental visitors do not recycle, resulting in recyclables in the landfill. We need new studies on how leaching landfills, new wells, and new septic systems impact the watersheds of Valley County. The City of McCall is aware of a problem that is an imminent peril to the public health, safety, or welfare of visitors renting the homes and neigh- borhood residents where large rentals are present. Planning Manager Michelle Groenevelt referred to large rentals,” They’re essentially functioning as small hotels in our neighborhoods.” But the large rentals do not meet fire codes for small hotels. More visitors to the county also impact wildlife and wildlife corridors from increased use of motorized vehicles in all seasons and the increase of all rec- reationists who enjoy the beauty of Valley County. Naturalist Says Outdoor Recreation Can Have Huge Impacts On Wildlife (mountainjournal.org) The natural world is far more complex than we once thought. Professor of forest ecology Suzanne Simard writes in her new book, Finding the Moth- er Tree, “Ecosystems are similar to human societies — they’re built on relationships. The stronger those are, the more resilient the system. Our success in coevolution — our success as a productive society — is only as good as the strength of the bonds with other individuals and species. As an avid fly-fisherman, in less than four years I have witnessed the increased warming of the North Fork of the Payette River from drought conditions and inconsistent, cold-water releases from Payette Lake. Temperatures exceeding 70 degrees kill Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, and our native Whitefish. This year I witnessed many fish belly up in the river and other creeks. High mountain lakes are lower and warmer than I have ever witnessed. And if these, as some would say, are just outlier years, then they are becoming more frequent and consecutive. Increased development will only add to the existing issues for our already threatened waters. It makes me wonder if I will have the opportunity to lead my grandchildren by their hands to my favorite fishing holes to fish for Trout or Whitefish in future years. How quickly our natural world can be destroyed. The North Fork was a healthy native fishery fifty years ago. Idaho Fish and Game needs to stock hatchery fish because of the loss of our native fish. A healthy fishery supports waterfowl and hundreds of other species, our forests and our drinking water. And what a tragedy it would be if our grandchildren never get to see a healthy water- shed in Valley County. The continued approval of houses and develop- ments being built close to the river creates non- point pollution issues that are difficult to enforce and mitigate once they are built. Basic Information about Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution | US EPA A moratorium would give us the time to consid- er the complexities of the natural world we are surrounded by and enjoy every day and how more development would impact our natural world and the species that coexist with us. Our county also faces many threats from devel- opers unfamiliar with a community’s identity, spirit, history, and housing problems. A company called Trident recently threatened to develop state endowment land that surrounds McCall’s Payette Lake. Even with the unanimous opposition from the greater McCall community, Trident ignored the community’s concerns and sent their proposal to the State Land Board. Trident’s goal was not to pro- tect or preserve McCall or the ecosystem as they stated in their proposal; to the contrary, Trident’s goal was to exploit the land and watershed to make money for investors, not the goals of preserving or protecting. Many other developers are submitting development proposals that do not have the inter- ests of communities or address the impact their developments would have on the greater Valley County ecosystem. Perpetua Resources and Stallion Gold companies also threaten the Greater South Fork of the Salmon River ecosystem with their proposals to mine gold. Past mining in the Yellow Pine area destroyed the salmon fishery and land. The impact from new mining would hurt the ecosystem, watershed, fishery, and impact recreational use. If we consider the impact of emissions from a proposed fleet of trucks and worker and service ve- hicles for the life of a fifteen year mine the carbon footprint will be huge, adding to our already smoky season of wildfires and prescribed burns. A moratorium would give us time to study the health impact for children and adults from those proposed emissions, air quality and what addition- al sprawl from new housing demand would mean for the communities of Donnelly, Cascade, McCall, and the ecosystem that draws so many visitors to Valley County. lakes, rivers, and creeks with swimming salmon, steelhead, and wild cutthroat trout. Our vast forests provide habitat for many wildlife species, including bald eagles, calliope humming- birds, black-backed woodpeckers, and endan- gered species such as the grizzly bear, gray wolf, woodland caribou, and the North American lynx. Visitors come to Valley County for every season to enjoy everything the natural world has to offer. Many people have retired here, and many more would love to live and work here, presenting us with a dilemma of growing in a thoughtful way that protects and preserves what we all love and would like to pass on to future generations. Many towns and cities in Colorado (Breckenridge, Aspen, Crested Butte) are implementing solutions to solve the same issues mentioned. And many more western towns and cities, Bozeman, Mt, Jackson, WY, have failed to address their issues, forcing people that want to live in these places to leave because they can’t find housing or make a living wage. Valley County is fortunate that we are not Aspen, Breckenridge, Bozeman, Jackson, or any other western towns and cities that were not proactive on the issues they faced. Solutions to consider: • A plan must include solutions so growth im-pacts will not destroy communities, ecosystems, wildlife, and watersheds. • We need input from scientists, ecologists, hydrologists, and wildlife experts, and Native communities. They need to be included in any growth plan conversation. We can draw experts from our county. A moratorium should not be implemented until many of the above are in place. Hailey adds ‘green’ government positions | Hailey | mtexpress.com Native Knowledge: What Ecologists Are Learning from Indigenous People - Yale E360 • An Affordable housing plan should be a prior- ity. Collaboration between employers, state and local government, and the private sector can be explored. • Increased taxes can be considered because of the significant impact of vacation rental home-owners, with the revenue going into affordable housing funds. • We must follow the lead of other resort areas. Other Colorado resort towns cracking down on STRs | News | aspendailynews.com • A higher tax on high-dollar real estate trans-actions can be considered and used to fund affordable housing. • Current laws’ limits and caps need to be re-ex-amined based on the latest science and impact on infrastructure, water, sewer, septic, wells, and ecosystem realities. • Existing P&Z laws need to change to address the issues we face as a county, state, and nation for the 21st century. • Limit development in the forest expanse to re-duce wildfire danger and watershed destruction. The rapid growth of the U.S. wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk | PNAS A moratorium will not impact current projects or permits, maintenance, remodeling, or municipal projects. Construction companies and businesses related to the construction industry would not be affected because they have backlogs months and years out. And supply chain issues may be with us for another year. A new growth model would help prevent boom and bust cycles. U.S. Housing Starts Fall, Driven by Multifamily Slowdown - Bloomberg What we all have in common is our love of the place we live. We are steps from wildness, moun- tains, rivers, forests, lakes and, wildlife, and fish (358 species, not including insects) at our door- steps. fseprd685355.pdf (usda.gov) Approval of zoning and building permits is an indi- vidual case-by-case process that does not account for the impact and hidden costs on people in our communities or the natural world that surrounds us. A moratorium would give all the people who live here a voice in the future of how we grow. With insight from scientists, knowledge from native communities, and political leadership, we can create a growth model for the 21st century. Over and over, we are getting scientific wake-up calls about the damage from uncontrolled growth but continue to embrace traditional growth mod- els. The failure to act now will give us a continuous corridor of sprawl from Cascade to McCall. The county will need roads to accommodate more traffic. More traffic will lead to more accidents, commuter traffic, and air quality issues. Public land will be less accessible. New develop- ment will advance into our forest expanse, where wildfires the size of recent California fires will be more common here. Housing developments will need more services to meet basic needs resulting in more shopping centers and commercial businesses that will fill the land where we now see livestock and crops. In twenty years, populations will triple (McCall 10,000, Cascade 3500, and Donnelly 1000) based on present growth trend charts. The vacation rental growth in all the communities will grow from 30,000 to 100,000 visitors a month in the McCall area. Emergency services response times and budgets will not be adequate for the population increase. Love is one of the most beautiful characteristics we have in our human nature. I hope we use that love to save this unique place we live to pass on to future generations and not cave in to the term “growth is inevitable,” but instead, choose to act and defy the “inevitable trends” that will ruin this place we love. We have a moral duty to hand Valley County over to our children and grandchildren so we may walk with them in places that will be the same for them as we enjoy now. To change direction, Valley County Commissioners need to implement a moratorium on building in Valley County. Under the Local and Land Use Planning Act (LUPA), Idaho Code 67-6523, a local government has authority to issue a temporary moratorium for up to 182 days if the governing board finds that an imminent peril to the public health, safety, or welfare requires the adoption of such an ordinance. The purpose of a moratorium is so that a locality can have the time to study the potential effects of types of development and establish new, perma- nent regulations of that use. I believe that significant and unprecedented exter- nal actions in Valley County are already creating imminent peril to the public health, safety, and welfare of Valley County residents. These actions include: • The lack of affordable housing continues to grow, increasing inequality in many of Valley County’s communities. We cannot ignore or deny the data on this growing problem. 7 statistics that illuminate the housing crisis - NewsBreak • Unprecedented growth exacerbated by the “zoom boom,” or people moving to more rural areas due to COVID and the catastrophic events of wildfires, drought, and climate change. One influential 2018 study, published in The Journal of the Associa- tion of Environmental and Resource Economists, suggests that one in 12 Americans in the country’s Southern half will move toward California, the Mountain West, or the Northwest over the next 45 years of climate influences alone. How Climate Migration Will Reshape America | Pulitzer Center • Water requirements for additional population demands will not be adequate without a plan based on current migration trends. • Water and septic demands need to be considered because they are connected to the aquifers and the larger watershed. https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/local/ arizona-environment/2019/12/05/unregulated-pump- ing-arizona-groundwater-dry-wells/2425078001/?utm_ campaign=coschedule&utm_source=face- book_page&utm_medium=American%20 Rivers&utm_content=Megafarms%20and%20deeper%20 wells%20are%20draining%20the%20water%20be- neath%20rural%20Arizona%20%E2%80%93%20quiet- ly,%20irreversibly • The significant uptick in real estate purchases as second homes being used for short-term rentals creates housing prices to inflate beyond the wages of workers that live here. ://www.idahostates- man.com/news/local/envirohttpsnment/arti- cle254694732.html • “Valley County has approximately 78% second home ownership and 772 short-term rentals; the effect on neighborhoods is considerable;” • Lack of enforcement of safety, fire, and building codes for vacation rentals places visitors and resi- dents in danger. ORD-20-10.pdf (valley.id.us) • A labor shortage is hurting local businesses because people who want to work cannot find housing. • Water treatment and sewer plant issues exceed the population’s capacity in communities that are serviced by treatment and sewer facilities. Toxic Algae issues in Payette Lake are now present in our drinking water. • The development and growth of an expanding population are creating recreational stress on our ecosystem, wildlife corridors, and watersheds. Nat- uralist Says Outdoor Recreation Can Have Huge Impacts On Wildlife (mountainjournal.org) • Traditional sprawl in the county is not a solution to growth issues. Examples of other communities in the West are confronting those issues. Crested Butte Inches Closer Towards Housing Crisis Be- cause “Zoom Boom” (unofficialnetworks.com) • Sprawl would create fire risk and additional pressure on wildlife corridors and the greater ecosystem. No, Human Development Does Not “Create” Wildlife Corridors (mountainjournal.org) Managing Wildfire Risk and New Development | SPUR • Emissions from the growth of thousands of additional vehicles, recreational vehicles and our smoky summers and prescribed burns require a study of air quality for Valley county and what the health effects will be for children and adults that live here full time. • Emergency services response times are increasing because of additional development and more peo- ple than Departments were designed for, threaten- ing the health and safety of residents and visitors. A moratorium would give Valley County and the public the time to collaborate and find solutions to the issues we are now facing. Valley County is unique. We live and work in a beautiful place sur- rounded by mountains, ancient forests, mountain If you support a moratorium, I urge you to share this, offer your ideas and make your voice heard to all County and City officials that you agree there is an ur- gency to act and implement a building moratorium. —David J Gallipoli McCall, ID