Drive-through ban is at top of a disturbing iceberg

While some cities are worried about drive-bys, Sandpoint made national news over the weekend for its stance on drive-throughs.

From a distance, a ban on drive-through services in certain residential areas of town might make sense.

Who wants a line of cars idling next to your home while the occupants wait for a Big Mac?

But the drive-through ban seems to be the tip of a disturbing iceberg.

The bigger problem is a growing sense that this council isn’t communicating, is anti-business, isn’t doing its homework and that a handful of unelected people are pulling strings through this current crop of elected and appointed representatives.

I hope this isn’t true.

Lost in the whole drive through brouhaha, is another amendment that would suffocate any new business that would need more than 20,000 square feet.

This new rule would require nine site and contextual planning standards which include using “exterior building materials and colors that are aesthetically pleasing…” Who is going to determine that? Who is going to enforce that rule?

What kind of message are we sending to current residents as well as people who might want to relocate a business to Sandpoint?

We are so lucky to live in and around a beautiful place like Sandpoint and I believe this city’s best years are still ahead of it.

It would be my hope that our civic leaders would spend more time bringing us all together to improve and protect our way of life as opposed to finding opportunities to shift businesses and the tax base to another town.

A little more communication might lead to some more cooperation and understanding.

• David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee.