Towns, county join forces to manage open land

No longer are Kootenai County’s prairie towns jockeying for turf.

Instead Post Falls, Hayden, Rathdrum and Kootenai County officials are working together to jointly manage the remaining Rathdrum Prairie. The idea is to ensure the towns can grow while leaving enough prairie to separate the communities and retain their individual identities. That will also preserve some open space.

“It’s a pretty unique approach,” Kootenai County Planning Director Rand Wichman said. “It’s never been tried before.”

The Kootenai County Planning Commission approved the draft of the interim Area of City Impact agreement Thursday, and the towns’ planning commissions are reviewing the plan. The County Commission and the three city councils must all give final approval.

Coeur d’Alene isn’t involved because it doesn’t border the prairie.

The agreement calls for a two-tiered area of city buffer zones. That means the towns and the county will decide the exact boundaries for where Post Falls, Rathdrum and Hayden can eventually grow, known as the area of city impact.

The individual towns would control and manage these areas. In the current draft, Rathdrum and Hayden would give up some of their current area of city impact while Post Falls would gain a little ground. Post Falls is growing so quickly it has already reached its northern growth boundary.

The remaining land, which would essentially be the middle of the Rathdrum Prairie, would be jointly managed by the county and the three towns. The zoning in this area, which is mostly agricultural, couldn’t be changed unless all three towns and the county agreed.

The towns and county would change their laws to push homes and businesses into the city limits. That would stop the current practice of allowing 5-acre housing developments on the edge of town, which planners say is sprawl that chews up too much land. The goal is to prevent the prairie from eventually looking like Spokane Valley.

“It’s a unique opportunity,” Kootenai County Planning Commissioner David Weinstein said. “It would be stupid to stand in its way.”

To figure out where the city limits should be for each town, the entities need to know the best way to provide sewer services to these areas. The agreement proposes a study to find out if each town has the capacity to provide sewer or if a regional sewer system is a more efficient idea.

The county Planning Commission wants to urge the County Commission and city councils to make sure that study is completed as soon as possible.

A North Idaho Building Contractors Association representative was the only person to comment Thursday on the draft agreement. Spokeswoman Pat Raffee said builders support the idea but want to make sure all the studies are done quickly because nobody likes the idea of a moratorium of building on the prairie.

Rafee said preventing any zone changes in the agricultural areas until the sewer study is complete is essentially a moratorium. “It gives everyone sort of a chill,” Raffee told the commission.

Since 1990, about 10,000 acres of prairie land has been annexed into cities or subdivided. That means about 1,000 acres of prairie is converted every year. Only about 10,000 acres remains.

“It buys a little time to plan collectively,” said Post Falls Senior Planner Collin Coles.