City fine-tunes zoning codes

SANDPOINT — The City Council passed its much-anticipated comprehensive plan earlier this year, but the arduous task of transforming the plan from a stack of paper to a set of zoning laws is just beginning.

The plan was drafted to help guide the city’s growth over the next 20 years, but the document has no teeth until the council approves an overhaul of its existing zoning laws. Planning Director Jeremy Grimm was tasked with drawing up the zones, which will likely take more than a year to complete. Using the comp plan as his guiding document, Grimm will bring the framework for new zoning laws to the Planning Commission for polishing. The commission will add its mark to the documents before sending them to the council for final approval.

The council passed an interim commercial zone in May, but the ordinance sunsets on Dec. 31 unless a permanent zone is in place. Planning commissioners are currently working on three potential commercial zones, and Grimm said he hopes to have the documents to council by November.

Among his myriad challenges, Grimm said his most difficult job is finding a balance between respecting the city’s historic feel and preparing it for inevitable growth.

“We’ve got to develop a code that both looks to the future, but is also accommodating to what’s on the ground today,” he said.

“One of the overarching directives of the comp plan is to use land as efficiently as possible, so we don’t have to spread out. We need to absorb population, while at the same time making downtown and commercial areas vibrant and accessible to neighborhoods.”

The Planning Commission will discuss commercial zones at its Oct. 6 meeting, held at City Hall at 5:30 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.