March 5, 2004
The Boundary County Planning and Zoning Commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 18, and in addition to two public hearings, they’ll open the discussion phase as they consider expanding areas available for businesses.
Currently, the areas zoned for commercial use in the county are predominantly in population pockets, including Naples, Three Mile, Eastport and Porthill, and in spots where businesses have been long established, including the Hemlocks on Highway 2, the Mission Creek Store on Highway 1, and the Good Grief on U.S. 95 near Eastport. While any area of the county may be considered for commercial use through a conditional or special use permit application, those concerned with promoting economic development in the county feel the limited availability of property specifically zoned for commercial enterprise have hampered growth.
While only in the very preliminary stage, P&Z will take a closer look at the possibility of amending the county zoning map to add rural community/commercial zoning in an area between Mirror Lake Golf Course and the south Bonners Ferry city limit and from an area near Sam Wohali’s Classic Auto north to the south side of Stampede Lake. To help guide the process, zoning administrator Mike Weland last week sent a letter and questionnaire to property owners in those areas being considered to gauge their thoughts on the idea.
Both areas under consideration lie along U.S. 95 and are areas where several businesses, most of them “grandfathered,” already exist. Under the Boundary County Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance, the rural community/commercial zone district allows a mixture of residential and commercial use on lots ¼ acre in size or larger. Rather than require a conditional or special use permit to establish a business, requiring a public hearing and notification of surrounding property owners, businesses in the rural community/ commercial zone district can get started by obtaining a commercial zoning certificate following a site plan review by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The change in zone district designation in itself would have no affect on property taxes, as Idaho Code requires those taxes to be assessed by what’s actually on the ground, nor would it open the way for indiscriminately reduced parcels as subdivision requirements would still apply. They require public hearings and the recording of a certified plat any time a parcel is split into more than four lots.
Should the Planning and Zoning Commission opt to proceed in amending the zone map following the March 18 meeting, at least two public hearings would be held, each requiring that all property owners affected be notified in writing of the date and time of those hearings as well as legal publication in the county newspaper of record, the Bonners Ferry Herald.
Before proceeding that far, however, the nine members of the P&Z commission want to gauge the feeling of the community, and they invite written comment pro and con. Letters can be mailed to Planning & Zoning, P.O. Box 419, Bonners Ferry, ID 83805, faxed to 267-1205 or emailed to mweland@boundarycounty.org.