Central Idaho county rejects noise-mitigation wall

KETCHUM (AP) — Officials in the central Idaho resort area of Ketchum and Sun Valley have rejected a noise-mitigation wall along State Highway 75 because it would detract from the scenic value for motorists, many of whom are tourists.

“A wall in the scenic corridor is antithetical to every part of Blaine County Code,” said Larry Schoen, commission chair, at a meeting earlier this week.

Blaine County commissioners said the adverse economic and visual impacts of the 8-foot high wall that would be 610 feet long outweigh the desire of residents at a mobile-home park to reduce traffic noise.

“You should think of such a wall as a giant horizontal tombstone (marking the death of the Scenic Overlay ordinance),” said former County Commissioner Len Harlig, the Idaho Mountain Express reported.

The ordinance says any wall over 4 feet high in the area is a violation of county code. However, the wall would be within the state right-of-way and out of the county’s jurisdiction.

The next step in the process is for the plan for the wall to go to the Federal Highways Administration where the desire of park residents will be weighed against the opinion of the commissioners.

Opponents of the wall say the mobile-home park and a berm in front of it are both non-conforming and allowed only because they predate the county’s ordinance, and that another non-conforming structure shouldn’t be allowed.

Residents of the mobile-home park south of St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center say the wall is needed because of traffic on the highway. Park resident Richard Frasier said drivers accelerate from an intersection on the highway, creating loud engine noise.

“Everybody’s hard on the gas, and that’s why there’s so much noise at that corner,” he said. “You cannot even hear yourself think.”

But Steve Cook, representative of the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission, said the decibel level in the park is only one decibel over the reasonable level as set by the Idaho Department of Transportation.

“For one decibel, are we going to protect a non-conforming use?” Cook asked.