Hearing Tonight On Silver Village

County planners think the Silver Village development shouldn’t be approved because Athol city officials don’t want it.

Kootenai County planning commissioners will hear Panhandle Resources, Inc.’s request this evening for a comprehensive plan change needed for its commercial and residential project.

The “comp plan” is the master document guiding growth in the county. Requests to change it are unusual.

Today’s planning meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the county administration building in Coeur d’Alene.

The final decision will be made by the Board of County Commissioners. Even if it’s approved, Panhandle Resources, Inc. also would have to get approval for the zone changes and, ultimately, their specific development plan.

Silver Village could provide businesses that Athol residents would like, such as a grocery store and bank. But its subdivision could more than double the number of people now living near the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and state Highway 54.

The site just east of Athol may well be a logical place for expansion of the 500-resident town, “if and when the city is interested in growing,” senior planner Rand Wichman has written in a memo to Kootenai County planning commissioners.

He added: “It is staff’s opinion that growth should not be forced upon them, especially if it does not meet their standards and long-term objectives.”

Athol Mayor Lanny Spurlock wrote that the city finds “completely unacceptable” Panhandle Resource’s plan to put wastewater treatment lagoons just south of the city limits. Officials are worried that the lagoons will smell bad.

“There can be odor, but there shouldn’t be,” said developer Gary Callihan, who promised it would be properly engineered. He said he lived for a year next to the Kootenai-Ponderay sewage lagoon and never noticed bad odors from it.

City officials also objected that the proposed lot sizes are too small. The city requires at least one-third-acre lots, and the developer’s plan calls for 375 lots of about one-quarter-acre each.

“I expect because we are in the city’s area of impact, we will probably have to reduce the number of lots,” Callihan said.

Mayor Spurlock also noted that the city will not provide water for any development outside its limits. Callihan said wells would be dug for a private water supply.

Callihan and Panhandle Resources president Frank “Rowdy” Davis, contend that building Silver Village would help the environment, because it would not create more drainfields above the region’s main source of drinking water.

The area now is zoned rural, allowing for drainfields, but only one house per five acres. That would mean about 26 more drainfields above the aquifer.

The developers have said the project would cover 134 acres of land, 100 of that north of Highway 54. The county planner’s report puts the acreage at 118 acres, citing assessor’s records.

Davis said he owns 40 of the acres, and has options to buy the rest.

Much of the land is covered with small pines. Twelve of the acres along U.S. Highway 95 already are zoned commercial.