Landowners seek down-zoning near Kootenai

KOOTENAI — Landowners east of town are asking the Bonner County Planning & Zoning Commission to return approximately 515 acres to rural residential and agricultural zoning.

The planning commission is slated to take up the citizen-initiated request during a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014. The 6:30 p.m. hearing will be held at the Bonner County Administration Building at the corner of U.S. Highway 2 and Division Avenue.

Those lands north of Highway 200 were to be rezoned from Agriculture to Suburban as part of the countywide zoning and land use code updates in 2008. But before that occurred, the county amended its comprehensive land use plan to designate the area as Urban and Suburban Growth Areas.

Urban and Suburban Growth Areas are areas adjacent to incorporated city limits that may have future urban services, which gives them potential to grow at a higher density.

“Basically, these folks are saying, ‘That’s not where we want to go with our land,’” said Bonner County Planning Director Clare Marley.

Much of the land — approximately 50 parcels — remain in larger tracts and landowners want to retain their rural lifestyle, prompting them to propose down-zoning and a comp plan amendment.

Suburban zoning allows minimum lot sizes of 10,000 square feet to 2 1/2 acres and permits limited agricultural uses.

The down-zoning would allow rural residential uses and a full suite of agricultural uses.

The proposed Rural-5 and Agricultural/Forestry-10 have minimum lot sizes of five and 10 acres, respectively.

Marley said there is consensus among landowners to restore the rural residential and agricultural zoning and there is currently no opposition to the proposal. A staff report on the zone change request and comp plan amendment is being drafted and will be posted to the county’s website as the public hearing date draws closer.

Landowners west of Sandpoint are also contemplating down-zoning from Urban and Suburban, but they aren’t as far along in the process as the landowners east of Kootenai.

“They’re going to watch this file as well to seek if they should seek a change in their area,” Marley said.

The Bonner County Farm Bureau is also monitoring the down-zoning efforts and supports retaining agricultural lands.

“We want people to stay in Ag as much as we can,” said Alton Howell, president of the Bonner County Farm Bureau.