Houseboat ordinance capsizes

SANDPOINT — A proposed ordinance that would have banned non-navigable float homes in Bonner County is dead in the water.

Bonner County commissioners voted last week send the legislation back to the Waterways Committee, which has already groomed and pruned it over the past year.

The proposed ordinance was meant to outlaw a type of float home officials contend was designed to skirt a state moratorium on traditional houseboats on Panhandle waterways.

The ordinance would have applied to non-navigable dwellings mounted on a boat hull or two or more pontoons — craft which the U.S. Coast Guard classified as vessels.

Although only one of the vessels has been spotted on Lake Pend Oreille, Waterways board member Cary Kelly said more can be expected once the economy recovers.

“They’re going to bring more here,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time when the economy turns around.”

The Waterways Committee initially contemplated regulating the quasi-float homes, which have 280-gallon holding tanks for septic waste and limited mobility. County commissioners later decided that banning them would be easier than trying to regulate the vessels.

The ban was aimed at resolving concerns about the potential for illegal discharges of the high-capacity septic tanks and the vessels’ seaworthiness on Lake Pend Oreille.

But the measure listed badly and capsized on Tuesday amid concerns about the proliferation of government regulations and whether the problem was pressing enough to warrant legislative intervention.

“The ordinance on houseboats addresses a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Sagle resident Lou Goodness.

Commissioner Cornel Rasor also considered the ordinance needless since existing codes could be applied to illegal discharges.

“I don’t accord an ordinance a magical ability to stop a crime,” he added.

Commissioner Lewis Rich suggested more investigation into local marine and terrestrial pump-out providers’ ability to service the houseboats, but Kelly said that research has already been done.

“I just don’t see, right now, the immediacy (of an ordinance), Commissioner Joe You said.