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ITD agrees to exclude portions of scenic
byway |
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March 28, 2012 |
After seeing the negative impact scenic byway
status on a portion of U.S. 95 had on county
businesses, county commissioners in October
requested that the Idaho Transportation
Department remove that portion from the Wild
Horse Trail State Scenic Byway, and earlier this
month, ITD agreed.
Before the decision, the scenic highway
designation included U.S. 95 and Highway 1 in
all unincorprated areas from Sandpoint north to
the Canadian border.
Commissioners were notified of the decision
after the last ITD meeting March 14, and on the
same day they passed Resolution ITB12-08 to make
the change official, de-listing about 11 miles
of U.S. 95 from scenic byway status, from Naples
to the south Bonners Ferry city limit and north
of Bonners Ferry from milepost 508.3 to milepost
511.15, a point just north of Moutain View
Mennonite Church.
The ITD ratified the resolution in a letter to
county commissioners dated March 20, saying,
"the Idaho Transportation Department supports
and encourages the economic growth and
well-being of Idaho's communities through
responsive administration and management of the
state highway system."
The issue arose after several businesses who had
off-premise signs along that corridor, ranging
in size from the billboard in front of Sharon's
Country Store advertising the Log Inn Motel,
necessary so as to give south-bound motorists
looking for a place to stop ample time to slow
down and make the turn, to a small sign at Three
Mile Junction advertising Meadow Creek Computer
Works, a business tucked out of plain sight on
Meadow Creek Road.
Under scenic by-way status, off-premise signs,
meaning signs that aren't on the same parcel as
the business they are advertising for, are
strictly prohibit. In both cases cited, the ITD
undertook legal action to have the signs taken
down, even though the county had approved the
Log Inn sign as a conditional use, declaring the
sign on-premise because the owners, Dave and
Jill Jurgensen, own both parcels and conduct a
portion of the Log Inn business on the parcel on
which the sign sits.
During an arbitration hearing several years ago
with ITD representatives and legal counsel, Dave
Jurgensen, backed by county commissioners,
argued in 2006 that, as a small local business,
the placement of their sign was essential, as
the speed limit on U.S. 95 past the motel is 60
miles per hour.
"By the time a potential customer traveling
south had time to read a sign on the motel
premises, they'd be half-way to Bonners Ferry
before they could slow down enough to turn," he
said.
Despite the logic, and the county commissioner's
argument that, because the area in question has
long been used as commercial and key to the
local economy, and that it wasn't noted for its
scenic value, either, strict interpretation of
scenic by-way laws adversely affected a
struggling local economy, ITD prevailed, saying
the sign was off premise, in a scenic by-way,
hence illegal.
They ordered Dave to take it down.
Dave told ITD that if they wanted it down, they
could do it themselves.
The sign still stands. Though state scenic
by-way laws provided clear directions for
determining that a sign was illegal, there was
no mechanism or funding to actually enforce it.
Gary Gage, owner of Meadow Creek Computer Works,
made much the same arguments the Jurgensen's did
with the scenic by-way enforcement officer, but,
after watching the Jurgensen fiasco and on
advice of the county zoning administrator,
deciding to simply agree that, yeah, I'm in
violation. If you want it down, you go through
the process and take it down yourself.
That sign, too, is still standing, still
availing benefit to a local business and to the
local economy, legal threats and coercion
notwithsdanding.
"I appreciate the beautiful scenery along
Boundary County's highways as much as anyone,"
said Commissioner Dan Dinning, who spearheaded
the effort for the de-listing. "Not all economic
development occurs inside city limits, and the
restrictions were hurting small local businesses
that are the foundation of our local economy,
and were being strictly applied to protect areas
of the highway that most of us wouldn't consider
particularly scenic." |
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