No decision on proposed bike park

SAGLE — The Bonner County hearing examiner chose to not make a decision Wednesday regarding a conditional use permit application for the Panhandle Bike Ranch, which will be located off of Five Lakes Estates Road in Sagle.

Following over two-and-a-half hours of comment given during the public hearing, the examiner decided to take the full five business days allowed to deliberate over her decision, per law.

The total hearing lasted almost exactly three-and-a-half hours in which locals were given the opportunity to provide comments in support and against the proposed park. While negative comments given at the meeting far outnumbered the comments advocating for the park, prior submitted comments on the issue saw roughly 60% in support and around 40% against it.

However, some locals questioned the validity of those comments submitted prior to the hearing. Bonner County resident Brandon Cramer spoke during the hearing, suggesting that the issue had been spread around online to garner support from across the world.

“I know for a fact that the individuals who are championing this conditional use permit put out there into Reddit and other major social media sites asking other like-minded individuals who like mountain biking to submit comments in support of this,” he said. “Some of those individuals may be residents of Bonner County, but I hope that that number, as it is taken on its base value, the report is looked into in more detail because the vast majority of those individuals are not residents of Bonner County.”

The hearing focused solely on the granting of the CUP, not a rezone request of the 170-acre property, which is currently zoned as Rural-10. Bonner County Planning Director Jake Gabell said in a follow-up conversation that as long as the CUP is approved, the landowners would not need to rezone the property at all to run the bike park, as the permit would allow all proposed functions on the property.

According to the presentation given by Sandpoint mayor and Whiskey Rock Planning and Consulting owner Jeremy Grimm — who represented property owners Scott and Jennifer Kalbach — the proposed bike park is in full compliance with the Bonner County Comprehensive Plan and procedures are in place to check every box of the conditional use permit before the park officially opens.

“We fully support the staff report,” said Grimm. “We concur with its findings and we believe that it supports the decision-making needed to approve this application, both in the standards of the Bonner County revised code and the elements of the Comprehensive Plan.”

Scott Kalbach was also in attendance at the meeting and got up to introduce himself to the community.

“This is going to be a family-run business,” he said. “My wife Jennifer and my two sons, Lance and Nick, are all going to be heavily involved in this, as I will be. This isn’t some corporate-owned business with big investors. We’re funding this whole project out of our own finances.”

The reason he brought that up, he said, was to note that there would not be any big investors expecting immediate exponential growth out of the park. The family plans to run the bike ranch as a small-scale operation “that does fit within the rural character of the community,” he said.

People of all ages showed up to the hearing, where not even standing room was left in the meeting hall. Attendees spilled into the lobby, craning to hear what was being discussed and waiting for their chance to speak.

A few teenagers brave enough to speak in front of the packed room quipped that having more access to outdoor recreation options would keep kids like them off the streets, out of trouble and off their screens.

“It’s a recreational opportunity for families,” a woman said in support of the park. “Kids, adults, grandparents come to watch their kids. It’s also a place to camp. This recreational facility is affordable. For the kids in the area, young adults and people of all ages, it’s a great activity for getting them outside, doing something with their friends. It brings a smile to their face. It’s a good lifelong activity.”

Multiple people spoke in favor of the landowners proposing to turn the parcels into a bike park rather than splitting them up into smaller parcels to build houses on and sell for a larger profit.

“I appreciate the owners,” another commenter said. “They could be like all the other people that split up all the tens and fives along Westmond Road and this particular use [of the bike park] will be much less impactful to the valley … I want to thank the owners for buying a parcel and putting it to public use and not making it look like all the tiny other lots around Westmond.”

“At the bike park in Sagle, there will be much more flow and jumps instead of rough, rocky trails,” another said. “It will be better for the environment than up to 34 houses [that the parcels could legally hold].”

Other commenters agree with the sentiment that the proposed bike park will create a different style of trails as opposed to the bike trails at Schweitzer.

“These trails will be a completely different style of trail compared to the other trails in the area,” a gentleman said. “We have traveled to many different bike parks all over the area and are excited for the opportunity to have these unique trails so close.”

Many locals had raised concerns online that the increased traffic to the area will greatly magnify the amount of trash left not only on the property itself, but along the sides of the roads leading up to the property as well. Additionally, concerns of higher crime rates were voiced on various social media platforms. However, the gentleman said he did not think that would be the case.

“The people we have met at all these bike parks have been respectful, encouraging and just wonderful and like-minded people who enjoy the outdoors,” he said. “You could have one horrible neighbor that could create worse issues for the neighborhood than this whole bike park.”

While many voiced their excitement for the proposed park, even more spoke up about concerns, disagreements and complaints regarding the “shadiness” of the proposal, the lack of studies done on the property and the negative impact this park could have on the surrounding area.

“It is clear that the application doesn’t address all applicable criteria listed under the conditional use section of the code,” one commenter said. “The applicant’s narrative is vague at best, with a severe lack of depth that shows how this commercial enterprise will impact the community. There is a list of questions and concerns that were left ambiguous and unanswered in the application.”

Another commenter, who mentioned he was born in the area and has spent most of his life here, said that Bonner County is quickly turning into an overpriced area like Lake Tahoe, where he lived for a period of time.

With world-class resorts quickly moving in that only offer seasonal work and non-livable wages, he speculated that most, if not all, of the county’s locals and working class will soon be priced out of the area.

“It is always the little guy and locals that suffer when our leaders can only see dollar signs,” he said. “If the Planning and Zoning commissioners were truly wanting to create economic growth in our communities, they would be looking to entice clean, year-round businesses that will pay a livable wage.”

After the comment section of the public hearing closed, Grimm gave a rebuttal to some of the concerns given by the community.

“To suggest that staff has missed not just one minor, but virtually every single element of analysis in their staff report, when these are professional planners who review and administer hundreds of applications, is — well, you’ll be able to digest that,” he said.

Grimm said the planning staff was professional as well as unbiased and their report should be respected.

Scott Kalbach said he hopes the park will bring nothing but good to the community, and that if the CUP is approved, he and his wife plan to hire multiple locals for trail building crews and patrols, bringing more work opportunities to Bonner County.

“I want to give a quick shout out to the local trail organizations,” he said. “Ponderay Peddlers and all the volunteers — they’ve done an amazing job building the local trails and building the current mountain bike community that’s here. We’re hoping that adding the Panhandle Bike Ranch will just be one more step to the Sandpoint area becoming a real destination for mountain biking and that it’s going to bring in additional revenue and jobs.”

The Bonner County hearing commissioner will have until Wednesday, April 24, to make a decision on this issue.