County to hold hearing on land rules

Local residents are finally getting the chance to compare Kootenai County’s proposed new rules for how to divide and classify land.

The Kootenai County Commission recently finished putting together new drafts of rules for subdividing and zoning land. Until now, residents have only been able to comment separately on the two laws that actually work together.

The commission is having a public hearing June 24 on both proposals.

“They do need to be heard together so everyone understands what the full package is,” County Planning Director Rand Wichman said.

For more than a year, staff and the county Planning Commission have worked to rewrite both sets of laws. During that time there have been several public hearings and many residents, developers and environmentalists aren’t happy with how the rules are shaping up. And they’ve argued there hasn’t been enough public involvement.

Yet there’s no disagreement that the laws need updating, especially with the population boom in Kootenai County.

After reviewing the new drafts, North Idaho Building Contractors Association spokeswoman Pat Raffee said the County Commission made very few changes that people suggested during past hearings.

“That’s definitely a concern because you wonder if they are really hearing,” Raffee said. “People drove all the way from Harrison to comment.”

The biggest change in the zoning rules is how homes will be allowed on transition land between agricultural and urban areas.

The commission wants one home allowed on each two-acre lot in agricultural/suburban areas. Currently people can put five houses per acre in these areas, which the commission said is too dense. In early drafts, the Planning Commission recommended allowing one home on every three acres but the county commissioners decided that was too sparse.

Raffee said that one home per two acres seems like a fair compromise. The contractor group had lobbied for one-acre lots.

The county wants to create a middle step between rural and urban areas, especially because many people want more open space.

The County Commission also rewrote the section in the zoning rules on planned unit developments, which allow for a mixture of uses such as homes and businesses.

Wichman said the new version works better with the subdivision rules.

The biggest difference in the commission’s draft of the subdivision rules is that it eliminates a recommendation to have a 75-foot buffer to protect shorelines and wetlands.

Currently the county requires people to build at least 25 feet from these sensitive areas.

Wichman said the commission opted against the wider buffer because it would conflict with the current site disturbance ordinance and because the county needed to do more research.

At the suggestion of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the commission also changed requirements for the availability of groundwater.

The commission also rewrote the section on homeowners associations.

Wichman said it’s unknown if the commission will make a decision after the hearing.

“It’s really a question of whether they feel they need to make more changes or that they can adopt it as it sits,” Wichman said.

If the commission were to adopt both drafts, the new laws would probably take effect in mid-July.