Zone change plan prompts concerns

SANDPOINT — Residents packed the planning and zoning meeting Monday evening to express their concerns about the city’s proposed changes to zoning regulations.

In an effort to bring zoning policy in line with a comprehensive 20-year plan for the city, Sandpoint Planning Director Jeremy Grimm introduced a plan that would redefine light industrial areas of Sandpoint into new categories, thereby relaxing restrictions for businesses within the area.

“The new zoning attempts to create a regulatory framework that limits restrictions on use,” Grimm said. “The old zoning tried to identify all types of businesses allowed and not allowed. This new zoning is much broader.”

Zoning classification would shift from light industrial to three new categories: industrial general, industrial technological park and industrial business park.

The vast majority of Sandpoint’s current industrial areas would be considered industrial general, a classification that eases up on regulation while limiting commercial, retail and residential development. 

Those limitations provoked concerns among current property owners in the area. Many individuals attended the meeting worried that the new regulations would impede their current everyday operations.

“I understand the need for rezoning, but we do have some concerns,” Litehouse representative Doug Hawkins said. “We don’t want to be in the position where we constantly have to ask for permission to do what we’ve done for 35 years.”

Other business owners fretted that their plans for future expansions would be hampered by new structural and use guidelines. Several members of the Eagles fraternal organization attended the meeting saying the new regulations jeopardized their intent to build a small dining hall and kitchen alongside their primary building. The facility would serve as a location to host benefit dinners, the organization’s primary means of fundraising. 

“If you change zoning requirements, we can’t add that building,” Eagles member Gene Holt said. “That’s just like stabbing a stick down our arm, because that was our total plan.”

Similarly, Rod Miller, owner of Miller’s Handyman Services and Miller’s Country Store at 1606 Baldy Mountain Road, said the new regulations would end his hopes of opening a dining area for the deli at his general goods store.

 “For us, this is a matter of survival,” he said.

With those concerns in mind, the planning commission resumed discussion about amending the zoning reform. According to Grimm, the policy changes have been in the works since July 2010.

Since then, a total of 12 meeting have shaped the proposal, which will likely not see its final state until the end of February.