Project's report raises more questions than it answers

At exactly the same time that Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was supposed to be at the town square — 5 p.m. today — to initiate the telemark events at Schweitzer, an event of much grater impact will be taking place at the Bonner County Courthouse. The Planning and Zoning Commission will be holding a public hearing on whether to rezone 126.4 acres south of Highway 200 for expansion of the Hidden Lakes golf course and residential development. The zoning change would be from agricultural to recreational.

Villelli Enterprises, Inc., the property owner, projects eventually a 500-unit residential area in association with the golf course complex. The recreational zoning would allow "urban residential densities." Of the 126.4 acres under consideration, 16 acres will be designated for residential use.

I obtained 11 pages of the 14-page staff report for the March 9 hearing (the rest was apparently still being prepared). The report raises more questions than it answers. Can the various publicly-funded highway, school, water, sewage and solid waste systems of Bonner County handle a development of this magnitude? What will be the effect on plant and animal wildlife in the area? How will the projected five-acre wetlands fill impact the Pack River estuary and the lake itself? With a change of zoning to recreation, whose recreational needs are being served? What further recreational possibilities lie in wait ahead? What further recreational possibilities lie in wait ahead? Is development on this scale and of this nature what the people of Bonner County really want?

Before the final decision is made, it is time for the citizens of Bonner County to become informed and be heard.

GRETCHEN WARD

Sandpoint