Sizable Annexation Faces Rathdrum Hearing Tonight Pleasant Way Village Plan Calls For 240 Manufactured Homes

Rathdrum may grow by about 32 acres and 240 manufactured homes just west of the Prairie Estates subdivision.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will hear public testimony tonight at 7 at city hall on the proposed annexation. Dan Bedwell, the landowner, and Ken and Scott Way, builders, made the request.

“It is going to be a nice park. It’s not going to be a shabby place and run down,” Bedwell said.

He foresees a recreation center, horseshoe games, a picnic area, volleyball, open park areas, recreational vehicle parking, storage and new, affordable homes, all packaged into a development named Pleasant Way Village.

“I think there’s a real need for it. It’s the kind of housing that everyone can afford,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of open areas.”

Rathdrum has been one of the fastest growing cities in North Idaho, according to the Census Bureau.

So far, that growth hasn’t been anything Rathdrum can’t handle, said city planning administrator Jan Hale.

“We’ve been lucky. The city of Rathdrum has been very fortunate that we’ve been able to keep up with growth,” she said. “Our population was estimated in 1990 at 2,000. Now it’s 3,400, so that’s a substantial increase.”

Some neighbors say the increase Pleasant Way Village will cause is too much.

“Rathdrum is fast losing its small town atmosphere because of all the recent construction in all areas of the town,” wrote Debbie and Michael Schueller in a letter against the annexation to the Planning and Zoning Commission. They live in nearby Roth Addition.

“We moved to Rathdrum 19 years ago because it was a small town. It has been sad to see the unrestrained growth in the surrounding areas turning the area into an extension of Spokane, Wash.”

But Bedwell says it’s too late for Rathdrum to cling to its quickly vanishing rural character.

“It’s already lost the ruralness for me. It’s developed right up to my property,” he said.

“It (Pleasant Way Village) is kind of an island right in the middle of the city, anyway. It’s developed on all sides of it.”

The fire protection district has given its approval of the project, and a staff report on the proposal suggests working out some sort of annexation agreement to ease the impact the development will have on existing city services.

Bedwell points out that he has donated easements on his land for the sewer line that pumps all of Rathdrum’s waste to the Post Falls treatment plant. He also donated right of way on his land for a 15-inch sewer main, which serves the Thayer Industrial Park, Betty Keifer Elementary School, Prairie Estates and other subdivisions.

Pleasant Way Village would add about 269 students to the school district, estimated Lakeland School District Superintendent Robert Jones.

“The greatest impact would be Betty Keifer Elementary. That’s the one that serves the area where that subdivision would be located,” he said.

Bedwell said he does his part to support schools from taxes he has paid as a resident for the past 18 years, through the business he’s operated in Rathdrum for the last 20 years and through the taxes the future residents of Pleasant Way Village will pay.

And after the development is finished, he still plans to stick around.

“I don’t want this to sound like we’re big shot developers. This is a one-time thing,” he said. “I’m not just some guy who’s moving in and building a development and then is leaving.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: PUBLIC HEARING The Planning and Zoning Commission will hear public testimony tonight at 7 at city hall on the proposed annexation.