No clear solution

WALLACE — The future of 40 acres of land atop the hillside of Downtown Wallace (unofficially Printers Peak) remains up in the air following a Wallace City Council meeting Wednesday night.

At the meeting, councilwoman and Parks & Recreation Committee member Heather Branstetter reported to the council on what she and fellow councilman Rick Schaffer had been presented by land owners Chuck Jones and Ryder Gauteraux.

"They don't want to develop that property that is visible within the viewshed of the city," she said. "They don't want to fight with the city or anyone else, like the county or anybody who wants to protect the hillside — because that became an issue recently."

Jones and Gauteraux LLC purchased 500 acres of land, located south/southeast of Wallace, earlier in 2020 from Layton Land & Timber. Included in this land deal was 40 acres of property around the top of Printers Peak.

Once word got out of the purchase, concern over what the land’s new owners were going to do with the property had sparked the creation of the “Save the Hillsides” group and even spurred a possible change to Shoshone County's Comprehensive Plan.

Jones and Gauteraux detailed out in a previous meeting that there are four perceived paths forward of what to do with the land — three of which involve city/community involvement that lead to the land being used for outdoor recreational purposes.

First, sell the land to the city of Wallace (an asking price has not been disclosed by Jones and Gauteraux). Second, trade the land with the Bureau of Land Management — who owns land surrounding the property. Third, sell the property to a local owner or group who would facilitate public usage. Lastly, put the property out on the open market.

Branstetter argued that the best, most feasible option in her opinion was the land trade option, which would involve BLM exchanging some of their land for the 40 acres in question. Gauteraux stressed that BLM only trades land if the trade would be for the public good (i.e. usage for a park or other public activity). Branstetter added that the land being thrown out on the open market would be the least favorable option, especially if the city wants to "keep the hillside a little more pristine."

Wallace Mayor Lynn Mogensen stopped short of being against any of the options following Branstetter's presentation, but voiced concerns over the city being involved with the land.

"You're talking about some foot trails going in there. There's probably some ADA compliance (with that), then once you get people in there, you do have to start getting roads up there. Then you have dirtbikes, side-by-sides and ATV's mucking it up," Mogensen said.

Branstetter pointed out that motorized access was not included in their idea for the land, but Mogensen reaffirmed that it could cause problems.

"If you start inviting people and make it so people can get up there and someone gets hurt, we're then obligated to have safety roads put up there and vehicular access. There's a bigger picture than, 'let’s have a set of stairs and walk up the mountain.'"

"I'm not opposing this, I'm just saying that before we get into anything, there's a ton of questions…We can't just jump into this and open up a huge liability for our taxpayers, that is what I'm worried about," she added.

Gauteraux explained after the meeting that he and Jones wish to move on from the 40-acre property due largely to the movement that formed following its purchase.

"That part of the property would have sat stagnant," he said. "We had no intentions of doing anything on that piece of property.

When specific people picked a fight to take away property rights based on unfounded rumors, we decided to come up with a plan that would be used for the public good or we will sell it to someone willing to defend their property rights as the new owner."

"I'm not interested in fighting a fight for something I don't want to do," he added.

Hillside development on the 40 acres and the perceived threat to the city's viewshed was what motivated Wallace resident Courtney Frieh to submit proposed amendments to the county's Comprehensive Plan in September 2020. Initially starting with seven proposed amendments, the P&Z commission ended up recommending two of them (one amended) in October 2020 to the Board of County Commissioners for adoption. The commissioners have yet to take any action on the matter.

After listening to the Wednesday meeting, Frieh believed that no legitimate proposals were actually presented to the city.

"Mr. Gauteraux and Mr. Jones were just throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what would stick," she said. "Unfortunately, they bought landlocked property and they are desperate for access to it. Their idea of a city park, a land swap, a conservation easement, or any perceived goodwill towards the city or viewshed is nothing but a smokescreen to get access to their property so they can develop it. In fact, the next agenda item by Mr. Gauteraux centered on his threats and demand for access from the city."

Moving forward, Branstetter plans to explore the proposed options further and see if a deal can be reached that is in everyone's best interests.

"As far as the current owners are concerned, they want that to turn into a park for the people or visitors of Wallace for non-motorized purposes, such as hiking, snowshoes, mountain biking…or backcountry skiing," she said. "As a Parks and Rec. person, I would certainly try and make another park happen. That would be cool."