Steamboat Pilot & Today

Hayden — The Hayden Planning Commission requested a site visit and a consideration of open space possibilities and larger lot sizes before moving ahead with plans for a subdivision.

General contractor Paul Flood has proposed a 25-home neighborhood on a 12.86-acre plot of land located immediately south of the fire station.

The commission reviewed the sketch plan submitted by Flood at Thursday's meeting, and although the commission appeared pleased with the proposal, commissioners did raise a few concerns with the plans.

Flood's proposal calls for 1.62 acres of open space, about half of the 3.2 acres needed to satisfy a town law requiring up to 25 percent of new development be dedicated as open space.

"We're going to have to solve that problem," Commission Chairwoman Donna Hellyer said.

The commission could accept cash in lieu of additional open space land, though Hellyer said she preferred open space.

The commission asked Flood to prepare an open space trail plan.

Several commissioners expressed concern over the size of seven of the smaller lots, particularly their width.

"I really have a problem with the size of these lots," commissioner Andrea Hayden said.

Flood said the smaller lot sizes and smaller homes would satisfy the needs of some families.

"I think there's a need for something in that size range and hopefully that price range," he said. "I'd like to think I could build some nice little 1,200-square-foot homes and sell them for about $180,000. Little Victorian (homes) with front porches could look real nice in there."

Proposed lot sizes range from 6,300 square feet to 81,000 square feet.

Commissioner Karen Fox said the smallest proposed lots exceeded the town's 6,000 square feet requirement and didn't need to be any larger.

"Our law says lots have to be 6,000 square feet," Fox said. "I don't think it's fair to say it has to be 6,000 square feet and (meet certain dimensions as well)."

The commission will visit the site with Flood Wednesday. The commission will wait until after the site visit before deciding whether to move on to a preliminary plat plan, the next step in the approval process.

Also at the meeting, the commission recommended that the Hayden Town Board explore funding options for implementing the CommunityViz software program.

CommunityViz software uses 3-D visualization, forecasting models and scenario analysis to help cities and towns make planning and development decisions.

Phase I of the program, which includes a basic impact model and basic 3-D visualization, will without question help the town, the commissioners said.

"I think Phase I is a logical first step," Commissioner Tom Rogalski said.

Implementing Phase I will cost the town $8,640, according to a proposal from CommunityViz. Phase II, which is much more detailed and includes training town officials to use the planning software, costs $29,950.

Aspects of Phase II could be implemented in the future as the need arises, the commissioners said.