Ledges ruling stays on hold

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners put off a decision on a controversial housing project at Morton Slough Wednesday after the Sagle Fire District rescinded its approval of the development’s fire access and mitigation plans.

Sagle Fire Chief Rob Goodyear has said his district’s equipment could navigate some of the steep grades at the Ledges Over Pend Oreille project, but told commissioners on Wednesday a mid-slope road in a forested area was unsafe and a singular access point did not meet the standards of the International Fire Code.

Goodyear’s invocation of the fire code appeared to catch commissioners off guard. Pressure has been building on the commission for years to reinstate the code, which was jettisoned when prior commissioners disbanded the building department upon taking office in 1997.

Goodyear said discussions with the developer about the project’s fire safety plan began before an Idaho deputy attorney general concluded that fire districts are empowered to enforce the fire code because the state has adopted it.

“As a chief of a fire district, I must do the right thing,” Goodyear told commissioners. “The project should be subject to the International Fire Code.”

Developer Rich Curtis’s legal counsel and land use planner objected to the invocation of the IFC, emphasizing that the application must be judged against the county’s road standards and development code.

Attorney Bill Berg added that single access points are permissible if the homes they serve have residential fire sprinklers installed.

“The code provides that you can have a single access road,” said Berg.

Marty Taylor, the project’s planner, said the district’s position on the fire code would have ramifications on future development in Bonner County.

A dozen people testified at the hearing, with nearly all of them urging the county to either adopt Goodyear’s conclusion or adopt the code itself.

“Why not adopt the International Fire Code? It’s a minimum standard. If the project is unsafe, it is unsafe. Period. The end,” said Ron Ragone, one of the Ledges’ opponents.

The board opted to postpone further deliberations until Aug. 13 because Commissioner Joe Young, a member of the state’s emergency communications inter-operability council, had to catch a flight to Boise. Commissioners agreed the matter needed ample time for the discussion and a full quorum.

“This is sort of precedent setting,” Young said of the developments in Wednesday’s hearing.