ITD agrees to exclude portions of scenic byway

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."