Get involved and attend meetings

What a pleasure reading Bob Gunter’s column last week in the Daily Bee where he wrote about some of our streets names and their significance. My historic 100-year-old single family home located on Boyer Avenue lined with grand old maple trees, where I have raised my family for the past 17 years, is part of that original 1898 platt homesteaded by L.D. and Ella Farmin. It is thought to be part of the “original” working class neighborhoods of Sandpoint.

Unfortunately, my home and hundreds of others in north Sandpoint of which some have referred to as the “ghetto” part of town is under attack to be re-zoned, re-modeled and re-done by Studio Cascade, the consulting firm in Spokane hired by the city, the comprehensive plan steering committee and the planning department.

The comp plan map, the vision for Sandpoint for the next thirty years will effectively gut this historic part of town by allowing “mixed use” commercial and high density housing to be built. Ironically, south Sandpoint is left untouched, undisturbed and undeveloped even after repeated requests by the public to address this inequity.

If you care about our historic neighborhoods, if you don’t feel it’s fair only one part of Sandpoint shoulders major changes in zoning, if you worry about commercial traffic on Division where our children walk to school, I strongly urge you to come to the May 6 planning meeting held at city hall or contact city council members and attend those meetings.

KARLA PETERMANN

Sandpoint