Copeland Bridge subdivision an important test

December 5, 2011

For more than five years, James Fox, whose family owns and manages a considerable amount of land along the Kootenai River bottom, has been keeping close tabs on the progress of this county's comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance. He didn't provide input, just watched, and he liked the direction the county was taking. Allowing cluster development, by which the holders of large tracts of land might condense residential development while preserving the best attributes of farm and timber land, seemed to make good sense. He's the first to test this county's new subdivision laws, beginning with a public hearing before the county planning and zoning commission December 15, but his proposal to develop 30 small residential lots along the Kootenai River at the Copeland Bridge is sparking considerable concern, even though it will set aside around 300 acres of the best farm land as being restricted from further future development. "On it's face, everyone agreed that cluster development was a good idea," said zoning administrator Mike Weland. "Based on the comment I've recieved thus far on this application, while it may meet the criteria, I don't know if lives up to the intent. That will be up to the planning and zoning commission and county commissioners to decide." Official information on the application is available at http://www.boundarycountyid.org/legals/11061fox/legal.htm. While little comment has yet been entered into the public record, concerns have been raised regarding the ability of Copeland Road to safely handle more than a dozen new driveway entrances on the south side of the bridge and a new road to the north; whether those people who might buy river front property on the river will have respect for the dikes that control flooding. Farmers up and down the valley have expressed concerns that if that many home sites are built, and even if the initial buyers understand that they're buying in the best farm land in the county, land might be lost to agriculture due to complaints over the dust, noise, smoke, pesticides and other essentials of farming that will likely infringe on the homes that would be built. They've seen it across the country, they said, as close as the Rathdrum Prairie. Where homes settle where farms once were, that's the slow end of farming. Nothing else is ever planted except the lawn. The land on which these lots are proposed aren't being tilled, being along the dikes or right along the river, but those in the area say they are being used for grazing. "This isn't idle land," said one farmer. It may well be prime waterfront land for residential development, some say, and developed homes along the river would benefit not only the developer but the county tax roll, but those opposed point out that Boundary County has been fragmented by many such subdivisions over the years with the best intentions, which now sit empty ... without homes, without productive farms, without productive timber and without those who'd invest in either of the latter because of the potential that they could become homesites. And this application is only the first. "There were two more similar applications filed the same time this one was, situated to the south of the Copeland Bridge, for around 70 more lots ranging in size from 2 1/2 to three acres," Weland said. "Because they were filed so close to deadline, I wasn't able to get two of them scheduled for public hearing, but they will go before the county planning and zoning commission in January." The planning and zoning commission will make a recommendation to county commissioners on each, and commissioners will hold a second public hearing on each, each on its own merits, before a final decision is rendered. No matter what their decision is, whether they approve or deny, it can and likely will be challenged in a court of law. "This first application is going to have long-lasting implications for the county," Weland said. "It's going to set precedent. That's why I hope that everyone with an opinion, be it for or against, takes time to make their voice heard so that the decision made by the county is sound and defensible in a court of law." The deadline for written comments on the proposal is 4 p.m. Thursday, December 8. Written comment should be sent to Planning and Zoning, P.O. Box 419, Bonners Ferry, ID 83805, or emailed to planning@boundarycountyid.org. Those interested should not attempt to contact their P&Z representative or their county commissioner; Idaho open meeting laws and the right of due process prevent them from taking any comment not in the official record or outside public hearing.