Ponderay gearing up for Comp Plan update with open house and public meeting

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The city of Ponderay will host an open house and public hearing Thursday, July 24 focused on its updated Comprehensive Plan.

Bringing together consultants, Planning Commission members and city staff, the open house is scheduled for 4-6 p.m. in the lobby of the Ponderay City Hall (288 Fourth St.). The event is intended to gather feedback and answer questions from the public ahead of the 6 p.m. meeting of the Ponderay Planning Commission the same day. Then, commissioners will hold a public hearing before considering whether to recommend approval of the plan before it goes to the Ponderay City Council for final adoption.

Idaho statute requires that municipalities have a Comp Plan in place to inform the vision for a community’s future growth, alongside its goals and policies — including guidance for zoning and other rules that determine how city leaders and staff consider future development.

“While the city of Ponderay does not desire to be, nor is it anticipated to become, a large city, Ponderay is making good on its promise of being ‘the little city with the big future,’” Ponderay City Hall stated in a news release. “This plan envisions a bold future, but at an incremental pace, ensuring services and infrastructure are in place to support new development.”

The city has been working on the plan over the past year and a half, gathering public comment through surveys, information booths at community events, communications with local organizations and service districts, as well as Planning Commission and City Council meetings.

According to a proposed future land use map provided by the city of Ponderay, a mix of commercial and multi-family residential is envisioned for the southernmost portion of city limits between Highway 200 and U.S. 95, with single-family greenways interspersed with mixed-use neighborhoods, medium density and cluster housing to the north.

The plan also includes master-planned mixed uses to the east and north, with single-family greenway and medium density/cluster housing surrounding the Field of Dreams sports complex in the heart of the city.

North to south on both sides of U.S. 95 would be planned for regional commercial use, while pockets of industrial and “live/work spaces” are intended along the city’s southeastern boundary along Highway 200. 

Finally, large swathes of parks, open space and recreational uses are envisioned along the Lake Pend Oreille waterfront, Sand Creek and encompassing the northernmost portions of the city — the latter including master-planned mixed uses.

Renderings supplied by the city show a conceptual neighborhood west of the Field of Dreams, with broad, tree-lined streets featuring vegetative islands and a roundabout — anticipating a scenario when utilities would be made available and development occurs consistent with the land use map — as well as a pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly shopping corridor with small businesses and plantings on Bonner Mall Way, provided portions of the mall parking lot are redeveloped.

Looking out 25 years, the plan’s central elements include “maintaining and enhancing Ponderay’s small-town feel and identity, delivering more walking and biking possibilities, enhancing recreational amenities while preserving natural features, providing new educational facilities and opportunities for Ponderay’s youth, ensuring a diverse mix of housing types, supporting business innovation and opportunity, and creating destination hubs for neighbors to gather,” city officials stated, later adding that the plan is intended to ensure that “the values expressed by the community have been carried into its policies.”

View the proposed Comp Plan at cityofponderay.org/planning-zoning/projects. Contact Ponderay City Hall at 208-265-5468 or email at [email protected] for more info or with questions.