Hoodoo Valley rezone stages comeback

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey
Reader Staff

A map of the Hoodoo Valley area, with the 160-acre Daum Construction property highlighted in blue. Courtesy of Bonner County Planning staff report.

Bonner County  commissioners will hear a familiar file Thursday, Dec. 16, as Hayden-based company Daum Construction requests a Comprehensive Plan amendment and zone change of 160 acres in the Hoodoo Valley from agricultural/forestry to rural residential, as well as a 10- to five-acre parcel minimum — a proposal that has already spurred a slew of Bonner County hearings in 2021.

The Dec. 16 meeting, slated for 5:30 p.m. at the Bonner County Administration Building, is Daum’s second attempt at altering its Hoodoo Valley property, splitting the land into smaller pieces in an effort to prepare it for a possible subdivision development. The construction company, along with representative Jeremy Grimm of Whiskey Rock Planning + Consulting, argued that the acreage in question does not accurately reflect its current ag/forestry classification under the Bonner County Comp Plan.

“Unlike a detailed zoning map, the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map is intended to represent a watercolor or ‘fuzzy’ layout of potential land uses within Bonner County,” according to the company’s Comp Plan Map Amendment application. “The Future Land Use Map cannot possibly be applied at the same granular level as a zoning map, which is why an extensive narrative helps to describe the particular land characteristics in any given designated area.” 

According to applications, the Daum property, which is located on Spirit Lake Cutoff, “has no mapped water bodies or water courses, is mostly flat and is” — as the applicant stated — “misclassified as Ag/Forest,” since the property doesn’t feature the “prevailing” steeper slopes, private roads, poor soils and hazard areas typical of that zone type.

Because none of those characteristics are found on the site, and nodding to the Comprehensive Plan goals, including to “grow and support expansion of housing needs,” Daum and Grimm made the case that a rural residential, five-acre parcel minimum is “most appropriate” for the area.

Though the applications currently in question are only for land division and classification, Daum has been transparent about its plans for future homes in the area. For instance, in making the case for how the zone change would address “population” objectives under the Comp Plan, Daum’s application stated that it will help address the county’s current “population challenge by providing compatible rural housing opportunity.”

The applicant also points to subdivided parcels northeast of the property, where 35 of the 50 parcels are “already developed at or near the one dwelling unit per five-acre density.”

“We believe this feature alone is enough to clarify that the appropriate zoning for this property should be R-5,” the zone change application stated.

Both the Comp Plan Map amendment and zone change applications are going before the Bonner County Planning and Zoning Commission for the second time. Earlier in the year, the commission followed planning staff guidance in recommending denial of the proposal. However, when the file went before the Board of Bonner County Commissioners for the final decision, commissioners approved it. Following an appeal, commissioners voted June 24 to send the file back to the Planning Commission due to discrepancies between the original staff report and the one presented to the board. Deputy Prosecutor Bill Wilson said the action would “kind of reset the clock to make sure that everybody’s on a level playing field procedurally.”

Now, with the “clock reset,” planning staff once again asked agencies to comment on the proposed zone change. While the West Bonner County School District submitted an official “no comment,” Idaho Fish and Game expressed concerns about possible impacts to wildlife and water sources should five-acre development be allowed.

“Hoodoo Creek is unique in the fact that its tributaries do not connect via surface water,” IDFG officials stated, “but go subsurface in the porous soils and join Hoodoo Creek through springs and hyporheic flow [beneath river or stream beds]. … 

“Doubling the number of septic systems in close proximity to Hoodoo Creek could have negative effects to water quality due to additional nutrient input through the porous soils in the area,” the agency stated.

Additionally, the Spirit Lake Fire District has been a consistent voice of concern regarding any future development in the area. Chief John DeBernardi, in a Dec. 2 email to the Bonner County Planning Department, stated that “there are deficiencies in the current infrastructure that should be addressed prior to approving a split” of the Daum property.

The fire department is encouraging that there be “two points of access/egress” in the area; a traffic analysis be conducted on Spirit Lake Cutoff “due to the increase in home density”; and the speed limit of the roadway “be evaluated and adjusted due to density and road conditions.”

Spirit Lake Fire also shared in its comment letter that “there has been a 10% increase in vehicle crashes (injury and non-injury) in the past year” and “ due to the current traffic load, our emergency response has been hampered in those areas.”

The Planning Commission will hear the file in the first-floor meeting room of the Bonner County Administration Building, located at 1500 Highway 2 in Sandpoint. 

View Daum Construction’s applications, as well as other current Bonner County Planning projects, at bonnercountyid.gov/departments/Planning/current-projects.