ALLISON BATDORFF Billings Gazette | Posted: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 12:00 am
WAPITI - The regular meeting room of the Park County Planning and Zoning Commission simply won't do tonight - not with the contentious Copperleaf Subdivision on the agenda.
The Cody High School cafeteria will better accommodate the crowd of 100 or more that is expected to discuss the 553-acre development proposed for the North Fork.
Northfork Communities Inc., a partnership of Jeff Darragh, John Parsons and Bob Kudelski, is behind Copperleaf, which is intended to be an upscale, gated community of 131 homes and 24 townhouse units. Homes will be clustered on 1.7-acre sites, and the rugged bank of the Shoshone River will be turned into a park with a pavilion and outdoor fireplace. With 155 home sites, Copperleaf could double Wapiti's fluctuating year-round population of 350 to 400 people.
"The real burr under the saddle here is change," said Park County Planner Bo Bowman, who has received 45 written comments about Copperleaf, most of them opposing the project. "People buy a piece of property based on what they see when they buy it. As a general rule, they're not aware of development potential or zoning. They want to keep it a snapshot of what they had when they bought it."
But Copperleaf doesn't just affect those living nearby, says the group Northfork Citizens for Responsible Development.
"We will all pay for it," said Hans Johnson, vice president of the citizens group. Rural subdivisions like Copperleaf cost more than they bring in, he said, citing a University of Wyoming finding that for every $1 of tax revenue brought in, $1.13 of taxpayer money is spent providing public services and amenities to the subdivision.
The group maintains that Copperleaf also will exact a toll on the environment and the aesthetic beauty that made the North Fork highway Teddy Roosevelt's "most scenic 50 miles."
"The developer proposes in excess of 130 individual wells and sewage disposal systems. This is an area where people have trouble finding enough water and quality water and where individual sewage systems can and do fail," said Viki Davis, a spokeswoman for the group, in a letter addressed to the Planning Commission. "The mission of the Planning and Zoning Commission is to safeguard the public health, safety, and welfare, as well as to protect the County's natural environment and long-term fiscal liabilities. The applicant's sketch plan has serious, numerous defects and omissions that endanger and/or threaten all of these goals."
Developer Jeff Darragh told a meeting of Wapiti residents in October that the plan would not compromise the North Fork. Copperleaf will be 53 percent open space and will avoid the high-intensity lighting and "hodge-podge growth" of previous North Fork developments, he said.
"I want to build something we can all be proud of," he told the residents last month.
Darragh has experience in resort-style developments. Home sites in his South Florida Renaissance community start at $150,000 and run to $350,000 and above. He and his partners expect to close on their contract to buy the 553 acres of the Rocking M Ranch in February.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will hear comment on the developer's special-use permit and sketch plan tonight.
One board member, Dick Geving, has recused himself from the decision because of a possible conflict of interest. After the board makes its ruling, the proposal goes to a hearing before the Park County Commission.
The hearing begins tonight at 6 in the Cody High School cafeteria, with a possible continuance date of Dec. 21, depending on how many people wish to speak.