BOCC continues Long Bridge Marina hearing for fourth time

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

After a two-and-a-half-hour discussion Nov. 5, the Bonner County Board of Commissioners once again continued its public hearing on the proposed Long Bridge Marina expansion to Monday, Dec. 21, at 10 a.m. to await new information. 

The continuation gives developers an opportunity to revise their site plan based on BOCC input, and planning staff time to prepare a written opinion on whether Bonner County code justifies the application’s proposed variances.

The county will publish the revised site plans at bonnercountyid.gov/departments/Planning by Tuesday, Nov. 17, and the commissioners will accept written public comment on the revisions and variances until Monday, Dec. 14.

Located at the intersection of Lakeshore and U.S. Highway 95, the 45-slip marina sits on an approximately two-acre parcel zoned Recreation. Developers Long Bridge Land Holding Company, LLC, represented by HMH Engineering, filed for a conditional use permit that would add 47 slips to the marina and reorganize its parking lot and rental shack location. The current iteration leaves the lot’s single-family residence and two rental cabins as they are.

The Idaho Department of Lands further granted an encroachment permit to expand the marina to 268 slips, which would require an additional CUP and lot modifications. Developers have “no current plan” to expand the marina to that extent, according to HMH Engineer Dan Tadic.

Public opposition has centered on increased traffic at the already dangerous intersection; however, IDL, Bonner County Road and Bridge, and the BOCC have all agreed that the current infrastructure supports the expanded use at this stage, though the proximity of the marina’s driveway to the intersection makes the area “problematic.”

Commissioner Brian Domke, who had been absent from previous hearings due to illness, led the Nov. 5 discussion, focusing on several requested deviations regarding the property’s landscape buffer and impervious surfaces, including its parking lot and driveway.

Bonner County Revised Code 12-465 requires that parking lots must include a 25-foot landscape buffer separating them from any adjacent highway. The applicants requested a reduction to 10 feet in certain areas, citing “steep slopes” and the parking lot’s existing encroachment. Domke disagreed with their reasons, arguing that the landscape supports a 25-foot buffer, but “the scope of the project is too large for the size of the site to be able to comply with our code.”

“A significant portion … of that intended 25-foot buffer zone is actually shown for stormwater mitigation, which is necessary for the parking lot, but it’s not existing conditions — [such as] slopes and adverse site conditions — that prevent a 25-foot landscape buffer,” said Domke. “It’s the fact that the parking lot and the stormwater mitigation systems are within that 25-foot space.”

Further, in an effort to reduce the adverse effects of runoff, BCRC 12-713 states that impervious surfaces cannot cover more than 35% of any given lot adjacent to a body of water. Impervious surfaces currently take up 62% of the property, but proposed changes would reduce that by 4%. While technically a reduction, Domke argued that the increased parking lot use added additional “contaminants” to the site that offset the benefit and increased nonconformity.

“Ultimately, this project and parcel with its existing impervious surface area, with its driveway, is an existing nonconformance, and existing nonconformances are not supposed to be expanded per our code,” said Domke.

When asked for additional information, Deputy Planning Director Alex Feyen said that the staff report did “not provide an opinion of whether or not” the deviations — especially regarding the buffer zone — were “consistent with code.” Commissioners then voted unanimously to continue the meeting and instructed staff to prepare a written opinion before they could make a final decision.

The public can attend the Dec. 21 meeting either in person at the Bonner County Administration Building (1500 U.S. 2, in Sandpoint) or online via Zoom at bonnercountyid.gov/meetings.