County to form official consultant proposal, moratorium information brought to light

SANDPOINT — After much debate, Bonner County commissioners agreed to move forward in drafting a proposal to hire a third-party consultant to review the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, a discussion that was originally tabled at last Tuesday’s business meeting.  

Commissioner Brian Domke brought forth the request to once again evaluate the potential need for a consultant to “peer review” Bonner County’s draft comprehensive plan. 

The comprehensive plan is currently under review by the planning commission — a group of seven appointed Bonner County residents.  

Local advocacy group Project 7B applied for a grant that has the potential to award the county $5,000 toward hiring a consultant to review the plan. If awarded and accepted, the county would be required to provide a 10-50% match.  

When it came time for the board and community members to discuss the potential of hiring a consultant, mixed reviews filled the room. Both Commissioner Ron Korn and Planning Commission Chair Allan Songstad shared their hesitance with hiring a consultant, suggesting that an outside perspective may not have a complete understanding of the comprehensive plan.  

“After discussion and review of the proposal, the PC (Planning Commission) decided that the retention of a consultant would not be helpful to the PC either for the already updated comprehensive plan components or in the evaluation of the draft land use component,” said Songstad in an email to county commissioners.   

Several community members, along with Domke and Commissioner Asia Williams, shared their support if the grant was awarded to the county.  

“We have people who truly care about our agriculture, our forest lands, our people who live here ... Everybody’s putting a lot of time, both county and civilian, so let’s get it right this time,” said Amy Lunsford, Bonner County resident. “Let’s get this third party to look at our information, and let’s make sure that we are catching things and doing it right the first time.” 

After public comment and thorough deliberation, it was determined that Domke would move forward with drafting a formal proposal to obtain a professional consultant to peer review the comprehensive plan.  

In other business, community members raised concerns over an issue that was brought up in last Tuesday’s business meeting — an individual leaked information about a moratorium on minor land divisions and family exemption applications, causing one contractor to submit several land division requests before the moratorium was put in place.  

Under the questioning of a community member, Commissioner Korn stated that when he found out about the moratorium, he shared the information in an effort to get community members to come forward and speak out against the way the meeting had been run.  

“I shared it. And I want to be very clear that the term ‘leak’ should not be used. It was not leaked. If this would have been properly noticed in the 48 hours, as it should have been, then maybe some of the people that were in the process, and mostly finished with the process, could have finished it,” he said.  

Korn also told the public that he did not tell a developer/contractor.  

Williams made one comment on the matter before returning the meeting to public comment.  

“My only comment is ... the rest of the board members did not follow open meeting law appropriately. We receive advice from legal, we address the issue the way that legal advice,” she said. “I understand that people don’t like the process, but we follow with legal’s advice.”