Broulims Rezone: Will Victor City Council Reconsider?
Victor Elementary School
photo: tsd401.org
Victor City Council recently voted to rezone the Old Victor Elementary School site to accommodate a new Broulim's grocery store despite strong opposition from a number of folks throughout the valley . . . . and Neil Albert, a neighbor across the street from the property, happens to be one of them. As directly adjacent homeowners, Albert and his family meet Idaho’s statutory definition of an “affected party” which grants them the right to request reconsideration of the council’s recent decision to approve Broulim’s request for a rezone from CIV to CX - and that’s just what has happened here. Albert has paid the $1,205 city appeal fee and submitted a formal Request for Reconsideration to the City.
In his appeal, Neil Albert states that prior to closing on their home, his family “researched the Victor comprehensive plan and zoning code to understand what the future planned growth of the area would be.” He alleges that the rezone will also negatively impact their quality of life and goes to say, “Because the correct process was not followed and the criteria for a rezone were not factually addressed, this has led to a rezone of an abutting property that will cause me actual harm in the quiet enjoyment of my property.”
The request for reconsideration can be found attached to Victor’s staff report HERE. The appeal lists 5 key issues and defficiencies with the Council's decision to approve the rezone:
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Incomplete Rezone Application Referencing a Draft Comprehensive Plan
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Incomplete Staff Reports Basing their Analysis on a Draft Comprehensive Plan
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Lack of Facts and Analysis in Support of the Approval Criteria
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Criteria for a Rezone not Met
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The City’s Conditions of Approval Postpone Several Critical Studies which Require Public Review Prior to a Council Decision Per I.C. 67-6512(b)
The Victor Coucil will meet at 7PM on Weds June 23rd to consider this appeal. The Council is faced with the option of reconsidering their original decision or affirming their original decision. However, the staff report for this appeal simply reads, "Staff recommends reconsidering the decision and affirming the original decision.” The nature of reconsideration is for the Council to determine whether affirming the prior decision is the right course of action or whether they should choose to go back and cure procedural deficiencies and factual errors. At this June 23rd meeting, the council can only consider the original facts of the matter, which means that no more public comment will be taken during this meeting.
What is VARD’s position regarding this Request for Reconsideration?
It is well within the Albert family’s rights to file this request that the City reconsider their decision to rezone the property. It’s never a bad idea for a local government to take a second look and review the merits and issues behind such a huge downtown planning decision that, in this case, will impact all of downtown Victor. As the saying goes, it’s best to “measure twice and cut once.”
Looking at the five issues outlined in Albert’s petition, issues #3 and #5 really speak to the core problem here: this approval was granted by the City Council without any real studies and analyses to support the rezone. There simply aren’t many facts in the record to support the change in zoning while effectively mitigating the impacts of the zone change - with traffic being the biggest one.
While the staff report advises Council to reconsider and affirm the original decision which sends a “full steam ahead” message, we hope the Council takes pause and considers the need for a deeper look at developing a fact-based record for their decision.
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