Residents organize to protect rural area

Residents living south of Coeur d’Alene near Mica Flats and Kidd Island want to preserve the rural character of their neighborhood and stop the county from allowing tract housing, ministorages and convenience stores.

Neighbors recently formed the Mica Kidd Island Property Owners Association and intend for members to keep tabs on all development in the area that might change the character of the large fields, small farms and waterfront homes.

The nonprofit group is sending about 1,000 fliers to property owners within the Mica Kidd Island Fire District and will have its first meeting Aug. 18. The group says it will elect a board and set up committees to watch any development proposals or plans submitted to the Kootenai County planning department, the Coeur d’Alene School District or the local highway district.

“We don’t want to wind up looking like the (Rathdrum) prairie where we have tracts of housing projects,” said Nancy King, who is helping organize the association. “We want to be a unified voice for the community.”

The group’s ultimate goal is to develop a comprehensive plan – or a road map for how growth should occur in the area – and get the Kootenai County Commission to adopt its findings. That means the county would refer to the plan before making any decision about allowing more homes or commercial businesses in the area or along U.S. Highway 95.

This is the first area in Kootenai County to organize with the idea of creating a neighborhood development plan. The association will develop the plan on its own because the county doesn’t have the staff to work with the group.

County Planning Director Rand Wichman said the group’s work would be useless, having no more weight than public comment, unless the county adopts the Mica plan.

“The county couldn’t use it as a basis for any decision,” Wichman said.

Commissioner Chairman Gus Johnson said the county is unlikely to adopt the neighborhood plan on its own. He encourages the association to participate in this fall’s revision of the county’s overall comprehensive plan. At that time, the association could present its plan to the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission for consideration, he said. The planning commission could then elect to incorporate it into the county’s growth blueprint. The county commission would have the final say.

“This probably has merit,” Johnson said.

“We’ve got to listen to the folks that live out there.”

Spokane County has neighborhood plans that are part of the county’s overall growth blueprint, Wichman said.

But Kootenai County doesn’t yet have the staff or the resources to help neighborhood groups come up with those plans. He wonders if the county will have enough staff to even get its comprehensive plan revision started this fall.

Johnson warns that the property owners association shouldn’t try to put a “moratorium on building or take away people’s private property rights.”

“That’s crossing the line,” Johnson said.

Association organizer Chris Shelton said that’s not the intent.

“We don’t want to create any covenants or any restrictions,” he said. “We want to work with people to maintain this rural lifestyle.”

Shelton got involved this spring when a neighbor proposed putting a ministorage on 15 acres at the corner of U.S. Highway 95 and Carnie Road. More than 300 people signed a petition against the proposal, which developer Timothy Lenarz soon withdrew.

Shelton said that made the neighbors realize they needed to stay more informed of development requests.

“We want to be proactive and not wait for something major to happen and then have a big fight,” Shelton said.