County P&Z gives thumbs down to subdivision proposal

December 17, 2011

The Boundary County Planning and Zoning Commission met Thursday evening to accept public comment on a controversial 30-lot subdivision proposal, and after more than two hours of testimony and deliberation, voted unanimously to forward to county commissioners a recommendation that The Estates at Copeland Landing be denied. That recommendation and the P&Z commissions findings will go to Boundary County Commissioners and a second public hearing will be held before commissioners make the final decision, likely in February. Presented by Fox Enterprises and James Fox, whose family has owned prime farmland in the Kootenai River Valley since the 1930s, the application was the first platted subdivision application in the county since 2005 and the first under new zoning and subdivision laws approved in August, which allow "cluster" subdivisions. Under the clustering concept, smaller lot sizes are allowed within each zone district, including the newly created prime agriculture zone, though the overall number of residential lots established by the minimum lot size doesn't change. The additional acreage in the parcel is then set aside as restricted from future development. In The Estates at Copeland Landing, the 30 lots proposed, ranging in size from 2 1/2 to three acres, would have been "clustered" on around 80-acres along the west side of the Kootenai River at the Copeland Bridge, and 300 acres of prime farm ground would have been restricted. The nearly full main courtroom at the county courthouse Thursday evening was the largest gathering of county farmers and farm families since the county fair, all concerned about the incompatibility of high-yield farming in close proximity to residential use. James Fox, whose family farmed the land for a time before leasing it to Victor Amoth three generations ago, said he had in the past operated everything from farms to feed lots, and that he'd been in land development since the 1960s, specializing in making home sites and farms work together. His proposal he said, would provide prime waterfront residential lots while at the same time preserving the best farm ground in perpetuity. Farmers in the area expressed concerns about everything from septic systems leaching into the river, traffic to the availability of water, but the two most common concerns were protecting the dike, which runs through each lot proposed, and the potential loss of the ability to farm because of complaints by those who would build homes there. Several cited the Rathdrum Prairie, not long ago prime farm land where mostly grass was grown. Once residential use began taking hold, they said, it wasn't long before complaints and lawsuits made it impossible to continue farming operations there. In the end, the P&Z commission agreed with the farmers, saying it would be irresponsible of them to okay a proposal that would so adversely impact a use established there for decades. They also expressed safety concerns over traffic and the lack of assurred protection for the dikes, which had been maintained by Drainage District 9 until the association was disbanded several years ago.