Please show up Wednesday April 20th at 1:30 1st floor conference room of the County Building for
The Selle Valley Reconsideration Hearing for a 714-acre Rezone application

File no. ZC0028-21
Applicant: Pack River Partners, LLC

This is an important hearing! Approval of this gigantic rezone will open a gateway of other rezones all over the county.

If the County Commissioners do not see our faces, they think that we don’t care so we must show up in numbers again. If you can’t attend in person, that’s ok, you can attend on Zoom:

https://www.bonnercountyid.gov/BOCCHearings

This rezone application allows the property owner to DOUBLE the allowed density by reducing the lot sizes from 20-acre lots to 10-acre lots. This will allow 71 lots to be built instead of the currently allowed 35.
Recap

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of this application.

That commission has now been disbanded.
The County Commissioners approved the application anyway with the exception of Steve Bradshaw who voted for denial (credit to Commissioner Bradshaw for voting with the people). Jeff Connolly and Dan McDonald voted to approve this application.
KBCR volunteers spent many hours writing an appeal to the commissioners to convince them that the decision for approval should be reconsidered.

Thanks to Dave Bowman, Kris Kingsland, Susan Bowman and Pat Myers.

Many people surrounding this property agreed to sign on to the appeal as “affected parties” and if these people had not agreed, we would not be able to have a reconsideration hearing.

KBCR also hired a land use attorney, Preston Carter of Givens, Pursely.
The County Commissioners decided to allow a reconsideration hearing but have limited their consideration only to the effect on public services.
KBCR volunteers again set out on a mission to contact many public service agencies urging them to comment on the effect this double density will have. The County Planning staff also reached out to public service agencies but they did so with their same old bias toward the applicant.

You can find their staff reports and all of the application materials here: https://www.bonnercountyid.gov/FileZC0028-21
of the history so far:

AT THE HEARING:

Planning Staff will first present their biased and opinionated staff report. KBCR’s attorney will give a presentation to convince the commissioners to deny the application. The applicant’s attorney will also likely give a presentation. There may be rebuttal by both attorneys and questions from the commissioners.
You are important – they must hear from The People.
The public will be allowed their 3 minutes for each person. I recommend that you speak if only to say that you are against this rezone and want the commissioners to deny it. This sends a message that The People don’t want this. We are not sure but it is likely that Dan McDonald will limit the comments to public services only. This can be worked around by saying things such as:

I am against this rezone because spot zoning such as this will burden our public services.

Or

If you approve this rezone, it will show us that you are biased toward high density development that burdens our public services.

Or

Rezones are a discretionary decision by commissioners which means that the power is in their hands to approve them or deny them. We don’t want higher traffic volumes, overcrowded schools, law enforcement stretched thin, dried up wells, etc...

But if you can stick to actual public services, this is best so you don’t get shut down by McDonald.

Here are some talking points and pointers on decorum:

Be respectful. Thank the commissioners for allowing a reconsideration.
Thank Steve Bradshaw for voting with The People the first time.
Don’t accuse any commissioner of taking bribes or anything like that.
Tell them what you are FOR: We are FOR keeping our zoning in tact because the larger lot sizes keeps our county rural and doesn’t burden our public services.

Use WE and OUR instead of I as much as you can so that we look united.

Our attorney will be making the legal case so you don’t have to. This is your opportunity to tell the commissioners how you feel about them allowing density increases beyond what OUR Zoning Map allows.
Emphasize that rural character is woven throughout OUR Comprehensive Plan and in order to keep to that plan, we need the larger lot sizes. After all, it was

The People of this county who came together to make the Comprehensive Plan.

Jeff Connolly is the person we have to convince. Dan McDonald is on the side of high density. Ignore him and focus on Jeff and Steve when you speak.
Water is a HUGE issue and is directly connected to public services and you can talk about your own well or Oden Water all you want. You can talk about drought and the fact that the commissioners have no idea what the capacity of water is in the Selle Valley.
Land use with low densities as we have now is OUR only protection against burdening our public services.

If we don’t win this, we will be forced to sue the county in court, which burdens the taxpayers and those us who will pay for the lawsuit. These lawsuits are VERY expensive and we will need to do fundraising to go to court. KBCR will have exhausted most of its coffer toward this reconsideration. Together, we can win this.

Dave Bowman Chairman, KBCR

Together, we can win this.

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