Development rejected

Putting a new city of homes on the Rathdrum Prairie isn’t smart planning and could harm the aquifer, the Kootenai County commission ruled Thursday in denying a project that developers called one of the first attempts to provide affordable homes for the working class.

The commission unanimously rejected Copper Basin Construction’s request to change the zoning on 290 acres of farmland to allow five homes per acre. The change would have allowed the Hayden-based company to build 700 single-family homes priced from $135,000 to $200,000.

“That would make it the fifth-largest city in Kootenai County but with no services,” commission Chairman Rick Currie said.

Copper Basin officials characterized the decision as disheartening and questioned how the commission can acknowledge a lack of affordable housing but not embrace the company’s attempt to find a solution.

The development along state Highway 53, between Pleasant View and McGuire roads, would have included a sewage treatment system. Plans called for the company to store treated effluent in lagoons and use it to irrigate about 80 acres of open space, where high-voltage power lines and a natural gas pipeline bisect the property.

Building such a system over the aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for more than 500,000 people in the region, concerned the commission. Post Falls officials said they had no intention of annexing the land or taking over the sewer system.

The commissioners acknowledged that there aren’t enough homes on the market for people earning less than $50,000 a year. Yet they weren’t sold on Copper Basin’s commitment to affordability and said that the price range of the proposed homes still seemed too expensive for many families. They said the prices probably needed to start at $100,000 to really address the housing shortage.

“My daughter is looking for a house and can only qualify for $130,000,” said newly-elected Commissioner Todd Tondee, who owns a pizza shop in Post Falls. “Other people at my business qualify only for $100,000.”

He said that the county needs to work with Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and the other cities to form a housing commission to pinpoint the need and figure out a strategy to help workers buy homes.

The idea is in the works after Coeur d’Alene commissioned a housing study, which is the first local effort to compare housing prices with what local workers can afford to buy or rent.

Commissioner Rich Piazza, who also was elected in November, said he isn’t sure if there really is a shortage of affordable housing because he thinks the market is correcting itself. Yet he said it’s worth studying.

All the commissioners said the problem with housing prices isn’t enough to change the zoning to allow 700 homes to be built on the prairie.

“The guys at Copper Basin feel very disappointed today for the working men and women in Kootenai County,” said attorney Paul Daugharty. “There aren’t a lot of developers out there lining up to do this kind of project.”

Copper Basin hasn’t yet decided whether to appeal, Daugharty said.

Hayden-area residents Phil Clements and Doug Wall, who are active with neighborhood groups wanting to preserve the county’s rural regions and protect the aquifer, came to watch how the new commission interacted.

“They seem to be open and listening to the people,” Wall said.