Families Fight Rural Land Plan County Commissioners Table Development Changes

Alice Taylor is worried that she won’t be able to give her six children land that’s been in the family since 1906 if new subdivision rules are passed.

“We always wanted our children to have this piece of property,” Taylor told Kootenai County Commissioners Monday. “It has roots …(and) it’s nice to have the children close.

“Is there a chance for an exemption for me?” asked Taylor, who lives near Hayden.

Testimony from Taylor and others prompted the commissioners to table a new ordinance that makes it more difficult to subdivide rural land.

“I share your concern over the family splits,” Commission Chairman Dick Compton said. “We need to make sure we’ve addressed that in some way.”

Most of the eight people who testified said there is a need to give families the ability to divide land among the next generation. But that shouldn’t become a loophole for poor development, said Jeff Coulter of Citizens Network for Responsible Growth.

Existing loopholes “have allowed a lot of property in the county to be divided willy-nilly,” Coulter said.

The proposed ordinance would end the practice of allowing landowners to split their property one time with no county oversight. It also mandates county oversight when land is split into lots up to 20 acres in size. Currently, parcels of 10 acres and larger are exempt from county regulations.

Most people who testified want the county to continue allowing the one-time split.

George Bloomsburg of Worley, who owns land on the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene, called the 20-acre threshold foolish.

He also complained that he cannot get a permit to remodel one of two houses on his lake land because county rules say there can only be one home per piece of land. There have been two houses there for 30 years and that’s the way he wants it to stay, Bloomsburg said.

Dwight Hamilton, of the Eastside Highway District, encouraged commissioners to reconsider requirements for private roads associated with subdivisions. Once roads are built it is difficult to change the grade, the radius of the curves and the size of the right of way, he said.

So the proposed ordinance should require those roads be built to county standards whenever possible, he said.

, DataTimes