Council needs to reject conditional use permit's OK

On November 16, 2021 I attended a Sandpoint Planning and Zoning Commission meeting/public hearing that I found very disturbing.

The topic was to approve or deny a conditional use permit for a proposed project of 107 townhouse apartments just to the west of the north end of Runway 02-20 of Sandpoint’s airport. Many Sandpoint pilots do not think this is a good idea.

Some background is that back in May 2019, the Sandpoint Planning and Zoning Commission approved changing the zoning in this location that would allow a similar type of development. It was at this point the City Council discovered the airport and its specific requirements were not addressed in the city’s Comprehensive Plan and added an airport chapter to this plan.

The pilot group proceeded to present our thoughts as speakers against this CUP with facts such as: both the FAA and the Idaho Transportation Department guidelines recommend against multi-family developments within the critical zone of the airport, and also that this particular location is within the most dangerous area in proximity to the runway based on FAA accident data and it is also under the left hand takeoff pattern – the area with some of the highest probability for a fatal accident to happen.

The CUP as approved by P&Z should be strongly denied by the Sandpoint City Council. There have been 372 public airport closures in the U.S. between 1990 and 2020. Issues like the one being discussed, could be a reason why.

DONALD McINTOSH

Sandpoint