Public comment period on proposed Comp Plan Map updates closes Feb. 15

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

The Bonner County board of commissioners had to cut the Feb. 11 regular business meeting short to attend an emergency meeting regarding a potentially “significant financial loss” to the county. 

When Commissioner Ron Korn, acting as Chair in Asia Williams’ absence, opened the meeting for public comment, the commissioners briefly addressed the 9:30 a.m. emergency meeting, which was noticed at 8 a.m. Feb. 11, regarding a confidential issue.

“There is right now the potential for immediate, significant financial loss — tens of thousands of dollars, potentially — if we’re not able to act today on an issue that has come to our attention this morning. That is the reason for this special meeting,” said Commissioner Brian Domke.

He agreed that the BOCC “should, whenever possible, provide what level of information we reasonably can to the public for such a special meeting” but couldn’t offer any more detail on the meeting’s subject.

Before entering into executive session, the commissioners briefly discussed public comment on the Comprehensive Plan map update and plans to alter the Bonner County Ambulance Service District’s “old rules.”

The district has faced financial uncertainty for months, relying on a $2 million tax anticipation note from Umpqua Bank in November 2024 to continue operations. The commissioners have since been working with the ambulance district to get the budget under control in the long term.

Going forward, Domke said the BOCC wants to better understand “the history of how [the ambulance district] was established and the — what I’ll call, ‘old rules,’ that we are currently operating under and how we might need to modify those in order to operate correctly in the future.”

He did not propose any specific changes during the meeting.

Domke later reminded members of the public that the Bonner County Planning Department and Commission will be accepting feedback on their proposed updates to the Comprehensive Plan map until Saturday, Feb. 15.

Planning staff have been traveling from city to city since December, hosting workshops to answer questions and receive feedback on the proposed updates. Organizers held the last workshop in Sandpoint on Feb. 11 and have since put out a final call for public comment.

Interested parties can submit feedback and view the interactive draft of the proposed map, along with all related information, at bonnercountyid.gov/departments/Planning.

Proposed changes include reducing the number of land use designations from 10 to seven by eliminating the Prime Ag/Forest and Urban Growth designations and combining Alpine Community and Resort Community into the Recreational Resort Community designation. The commission determined that the “urban” designation is unnecessary, as even the most populated portions of Bonner County are still suburban, and that soil type and slope should no longer factor into potential use, thus removing the “prime” label.

The commission has also proposed eliminating the 10-acre overlap between Ag/Forest 10/20 and Rural Residential 5/10 by reducing the Rural Residential designation to strictly five acres.

Additional proposed changes include renaming the Transition designation “Mixed Use” and cleaning up the map’s borders to better account for property lines, city limits and waterways.