New West Network

<< Newer articles <<    Home     >> Older articles >>

New West News Brief

The Associated Press' Mead Gruver takes a look at the Wyoming real estate market today with two stories: One about a slight cool down in the pricey Jackson Hole area and another about the still slightly tight overall statewide situation.

New Census numbers show Wyoming is ninth in the nation for the lowest vacancy rate in the first quarter (1.7 percent, compared to 3.2 percent West-wide), tied with Hawaii and Oklahoma. New energy workers moving into the state have helped the market, as has the reluctance to go hog-wild with new construction.

In the Teton Valley, Gruver reports there is a little dip in home sales, although the median price continues to climb. (It's at $1.1 milllion.) And, with a proposed moratorium on new building while the county finishes a management plan, those prices might just continue their rise.
[more]

from timberlands to subdivisions

The dust kicked up by closed-door negotiations between the U.S. Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Company to amend forest road easements brought Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey to Missoula Monday, where he apologized for keeping western Montana counties in the dark but did little to ease concerns that local communities will increasingly bear the burden of Plum Creek's transition into residential real estate.

Rey, a Bush Administration appointee and overseer of the Forest Service, said he's "extremely sensitive" to the effects the development of Plum Creek's timber lands could have -- increased firefighting in the wildland-urban interface, road maintenance and other public service costs, plus environmental impacts -- "but that sensitivity does not empower me to write new laws," he said, and in the end Plum Creek can do whatever it wants with its land.

"You ought to think harder about executing these responsibilities yourselves," he said, whether through zoning or other means. [more]

NewWest.Net Conferences

The Designing the New West: Architecture and Landscape in the Mountain West Conference is wrapping up here in Bozeman at the historic Gallatin Gateway Inn. Put on by NewWest.Net and sponsored by the Sonoran Institute, the conference brought together designers from all over the country to explore innovative design ideas, identify best practices, and better understand how to bridge the gap between good architectural theory and sometimes-messy building practices in the fastest growing region in the nation.

A mix of presentations and engaging panel discussions tackled pressing Western issues like sustainable development, land design and the special challenges of urban, rural and resort design, historic preservation and affordable housing.

Click on the photo or here for a slideshow of the days' events. Click "more" for a recap of the conference. [more]

growth and rivers

Streamside setback regulations protect a stream from “death by a thousand cuts” hydrogeologist Dr. Chris Brick told City Club Missoula at its monthly luncheon Monday.

By themselves, a single home or a stretch of rip-rapped bank do not present much danger to a stream, but collectively, all the structures, armored stretches of bank and cleared riparian vegetation do, said Brick, the staff scientists for the Clark Fork Coalition, an organization focused on community development and environmental protection of the Clark Fork River.

“What we’re concerned about is how we can maintain our Montana values for our streams and rivers in the face of lots of people wanting to come here,” Brick said. [more]

Boise office will close

The Boise office of Tamarack Resort will close this week, according to reports from KBCI, the Idaho Statesman and others.

The Valley County resort, led by CEO Jean-Pierre Boespflug, is in financial crisis after Credit Suisse foreclosed on a $250 million loan for which payments had stopped. Boespflug and his partner declared bankruptcy.

Independent contractors have filed at least 20 liens against the resort to recover their unpaid bills. There is now no construction active at Tamarack.

Boespflug told the Statesman that about 20 employees are affected by the closing.
[more]

"a secret, closed-door plan"?

Elected officials are raising red flags after finding out about alleged back-room negotiations between the U.S. Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Co. aimed at easing Plum Creek's transition into residential real estate by amending road use regulations.

Last Thursday, the Missoula Board of County Commissioners wrote Montana Sen. Jon Tester an open letter alerting him of private dialogue on forest road easements that could, they said, significantly affect communities in Western Montana where Plum Creek owns large swaths of land.

According to Plum Creek spokeswoman Kathy Budinick, Plum Creek has not acted deceitfully.

"It has been characterized as a process that occurred behind closed doors and that is inaccurate, and in fact, just the opposite is true," said Budinick. "The easement amendment was heavily vetted really at all stages of its drafting." [more]

missoula ducks downturn (mostly)

There's good news and bad news for potential home buyers in Missoula, according the 2008 Missoula Housing Report: While the national real estate downturn has affected Missoula, it hasn't been hit nearly as hard as other parts of the country.

The report, compiled by the Missoula Organization of Realtors and its Housing Report Coordinating Committee, was presented to the public Monday morning at the Double Tree Hotel.

Committee member George Masnick, who has been affiliated with the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard for 30 years, called the report a "mixed picture" -- the national housing crisis has been slow in hitting the Mountain West and Missoula in particular. Last year the number of homes sold in the city decreased for the first time since 2002, but it was still the third-highest total ever. [more]

going green

In this golden age of green, even a dilapidated, baby-blue grocery store can become an architectural Cinderella story.

Home on the Range, the former Billings store turned headquarters for the Northern Plains Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils, was awarded the prestigious “What Makes it Green Award” by the American Institute of Architects Seattle Committee on the Environment. The award was announced April 7 at the ReGeneration Conference in Seattle and recognizes the top “green” projects in the Northwest and Pacific regions. [more]

New West News Brief

The divorce of millionaires Edra and Tim Blixseth has turned nasty, as they find themselves in a court-disputed power struggle over the operations of the Yellowstone Club, reports Scott McMillion of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Edra claims that the Yellowstone Club is on the brink of bankruptcy due to overdue court settlements and drained assets for Tim’s Yellowstone Club World venture, McMillion reported from the Virgina City courtroom. She asks to be reinstated as the chief operating officer and have her estranged husband banned from the offices. Tim claims this is a legal move to circumvent the court process in California.

“There is no competent evidence that Blixseth has raised or can raise sufficient cash to solve the crisis and stabilize the club without effecting ‘firesale’ lot sales. He has also lost the confidence of the club’s creditors and employees,” as reported from Edra’s court papers.

Click here for the full story.

Update: The Chronicle reported after the continued hearing, Judge Loren Tucker stayed all motions from the 12 lawyers until a deposition is received from the Yellowstone Club's loan holder, Credit Suisse. Tim Blixseth will remain in his position overseeing the club at this time. It was also reported that Boston financier Sam Byrne backed out of purchasing the club due to the overdue settlement to Greg LeMond and other minor shareholders, and the bad publicity that followed. [more]

Resort Market not holding

The application for a large-scale base area development at Bridger Bowl Ski Area, outside of Bozeman, Montana has been withdrawn.

After hundreds of public comments in April and May of 2007, the Bridger Canyon Partners asked the Gallatin County Planning Department to table their Planned Unit Development in order to continue discussion and come to an agreement with the Bridger Canyon Property Owners’ Association (BCPOA).

The Bridger Canyon Neighborhood Zoning, established in the 1970’s by the BCPOA, shaped strict rules and regulations about development in this pristine canyon, particularly when it came to the proposed 452 overnight units, 75 recreational home lots, a commercial village, a recreational lodge and employee housing.

The Bridger Canyon Partners decided the timeline, including reasonable agreement with the BCPOA, water rights and permitting, coupled with housing downturn, makes the project unfeasible at this time and withdrew their application on March 26th. [more]

<< Newer articles <<    Home     >> Older articles >>