Sagle planning meeting tonight

SAGLE — The Bonner County Planning Department is hosting a meeting tonight to gather input on land use goals south of the Pend Oreille River.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Sagle Elementary School.

There will be workshops and small group discussions followed by a roundup of what was discussed.

The department hosted a well-attended workshop last week concerning the Selle Valley. Future workshops are expected to drill down on land use in the Priest River and Clark Fork areas.

Planning Director Milton Ollerton said the county decided to begin sounding out the public on land uses in specific areas of the county because specific areas such as the Selle Valley are given as little as a paragraph of description in planning tools such as the comprehensive plan.

“There’s so much there that it deserves more than just a paragraph to describe the area,” said Ollerton.

Ollerton added that the county is receiving applications for zone changes and comp plan amendments, which is spurring discussion because individual requests have the potential to undermine planning objectives.

“Pretty soon you’ve diluted your maps. We don’t want that to happen,” said Ollerton.

So far, the consensus in the Selle Valley seems to be maintaining the status quo.

“They don’t want any change,” said Ollerton.

In Sagle, meanwhile, residents have expressed less of an interest in further commercial development, Ollerton said.

The county’s motives have fallen into question following the shakeup of the planning department and the volunteer Planning & Zoning Commission.

Ollerton said a fictitious map was circulated which claimed that the county was poised to rezone Selle Valley to 2 1/2-acre lots.

The planning director said that the county has no ulterior motives in initiating discussion of sub-areas of Bonner County.

“We have no preconceived notions on what folks wanted. We just wanted their input,” said Ollerton.

The P&Z board is schedule to discuss the Selle and Sagle sub-area updates during a workshop on Thursday. The workshop starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Bonner County Administration Building.