Fruitland P&Z board denies request

By JESSICA KELLER — ARGUS OBSERVER
Thursday, September 6, 2007 10:05 AM PDT

FRUITLAND — The Fruitland Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday night denied a recommendation for a conditional use permit from the Payette County Recreational District to construct a soccer complex situated off of Whitley Drive, next to the Catholic Church.

The commissioners decided to deny the request because of lack of information.

For the second meeting in a row, a representative from the Payette Recreation District did not attend a public hearing to answer questions from commissioners.

Before closing the public hearing, however, Fruitland Mayor Tom Limbaugh, acting in a private capacity, testified before the commissioners on the matter. Limbaugh told the commissioners, in the event they decided to grant the recommendation for a conditional use permit and send the matter to the City Council, he would recuse himself from the discussion and the decision.

Limbaugh, who previously owned the property on Northwest Seventh St., sold it to the Catholic Church. Limbaugh said the Catholic Diocese in Boise has all control over the land, and diocese officials had a list of conditions for the Payette Recreation District included in a draft of the ground lease agreement between the two parties that is yet unsigned. Limbaugh said he had read the ground lease agreement, and he and his wife, Connie, are in favor of the conditional use permit only if the conditions in the ground lease agreement are adopted as part of the permit. The lease conditions can be changed at any time between the Catholic Diocese in Boise and the Payette Recreation District, but once adopted as a conditional use permit, those conditions cannot be changed.

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The conditions Limbaugh asked the commissioners to include are: the installation of a six-foot chain link fence, with privacy slats on the east and north sides; the premises should only be used for public purposes for 12 and younger youth soccer and football activities during soccer and football seasons, or approximately from April through November and that the recreational activities on Monday through Friday end no later than 8 p.m.

Other conditions include: The church taking possession each weekend at 2 p.m. Saturdays and all day Sunday; no alcoholic beverages, overnight camping, public announcement systems or nighttime illumination allowed; if a gravel parking lot is installed at the entrance, it is preferred a solid fence is installed on the east side of the church property instead of the chain link, to cut down on noise; the portable restrooms should not be situated on the property lines. However, the commissioners chose to deny the recommendation because they did not have enough information on what the complex was going to include and where amenities on the complex were going to be situated, among other things.

“I’d hate to see the county put a lot of money in something that they don’t own,” Fruitland Planning and Zoning Commissioner Terry Heitz said. Before they denied the conditional use permit, however, the commissioners also voted to close the public hearing.

“I don’t know what the recreation department wants on the (the land). They’re not here two times in a row,” Fruitland Planning and Zoning Commissioner Dave Burt said.

Fruitland Planning and Zoning Commissioner Rick Schultz said he got the idea the plan was in limbo anyway because of recreation district budget constraints and plans to move ahead with the McCain Middle School complex in Payette.

Fruitland Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Watkins said if the Payette Recreation District decided to move forward with the Fruitland soccer complex idea again it could, but officials would have to reapply for the conditional use permit and go through the entire process again.