Group seeks change to land use regulations

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SANDPOINT — A local grassroots group is seeking to amend Bonner County’s land use regulations in an effort to protect the county's rural character.

Keep Bonner County Rural is a newly formed group that aims to restrict urban sprawl, keep rural density low, and reduce “unbridled growth” in the community. The proposed amendment is an attempt to preserve current zoning designations, which have been in place about 15 years or longer.

KBCR members said the proposed amendment would toughen the standards that need to be met to justify changes to current zoning. The intention is to slow the flurry of zone changes that have been approved in recent months, which has led to increased density and development in the county’s rural areas, the group said in a press release.

"When someone applies for a zone change, it nearly always increases density," Dave Bowman said. "Zone changes do not require a land use study to examine the impacts on natural resources, traffic, schools or neighboring landowners, even though zone changes often lead to developers subdividing and selling off parcels."

The group pointed to what it says were two cases where county officials not only changed zoning but changed the Comprehensive Plan as well to accommodate developers.

In the last two years, KBCR said the zoning of more than 2,800 acres was changed, much of which increased density in rural areas, according to public records collected by KBCR and Project 7B. Meanwhile, in just the past year nearly 190 minor land divisions have been applied for, and nearly all have been approved, resulting in the creation of 380 to 760 new buildable lots without any advance public notice or input.

“The combination of rubber-stamping spot zoning and the administrative approval of subdivisions is creating an unsustainable pace of development in our county,” Bowman said. “The level of public services and the quality of our natural resources are going to suffer as a result.”

Earlier this year, KBCR appointed Bowman as the group's chairman. On Oct. 22, Bowman submitted a Title 12 text amendment application to the Bonner County Planning Department on behalf of the group.

The application aims to change over one page of text at the beginning of Title 12. Title 12 is a section of Bonner County Code that addresses land use regulations. The 236-page document functions as the final word on what can and cannot be built in the county.

“We want to make it harder for developers to destroy our rural way of life,” Bowman said. “We are not calling for a moratorium or shutting the door on growth, but we do want to close the floodgates.”

In part, the amendment calls for applicants to provide “irrefutable evidence that the meaning of the text in Title 12 and/or the Comprehensive Plan is flawed.”

“I don’t think this is poorly written code,” Bowman said, “but there’s wiggle room left in it. And If we had county commissioners who were interested in upholding the comprehensive plan we wouldn’t have had to write this code.”

Although a hearing date for the proposed amendment is still undetermined, Bowman said he expects the hearing to be held in February.

In the meantime, Bowman said KBCR is collecting signatures on a petition to support efforts to protect the county’s rural quality of life.

The current version of Bonner County Title 12 can be found at codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/bonnercountyid, select ‘Title 12 Land Use Regulations’ in the left-hand column. The proposed amendment can be read at bonnercountyid.gov/FileAM0021-21, select "Application."