March 15, 2012
Teton County Commissioners denied the conditional use permit application for the LDS Church that proposed a 19,000 square foot building that was slated to be built along 7000 South in Victor after a public hearing that lasted more than four hours Thursday evening.Commissioners Kathy Rinaldi and Bob Benedict voted to deny the application, while commissioner Kelly Park voted to keep the application alive, supporting the conditional use permit.
Rinaldi said the application did not meet three of the four criteria laid out in the conditional use permitting process. She said the application did not meet the criteria based on the location of the building and infrastructure impacts. Rinaldi also said the application did not conform to the current comprehensive plan for development that was adopted in 2005.
More than 100 people showed for the meeting at the courthouse, with most in attendance in favor of the application by show of hands. The majority of those who commented publicly during the meeting were not in favor of the application and largely reflected concern over the location of the church proposed in a rural, residential community of Victor's area of impact.
Benedict said during the commissioner's deliberation that, in his opinion, the application was incomplete. He said the application lacked specifics in terms of the building's use and said the application did not include a more thorough traffic study.
"My primary problem with the application was with the information in the initial application doesn't agree with what we have proposed," he said. "I didn't pick up that anyone was against the church, but there was some fundamental questions that weren't answered."
For more coverage of Thursday's meeting, please see next week's Valley Citizen.
