Ordinance could offer extensions

COEUR d'ALENE - More time. The Kootenai County commissioners will hold a public hearing next week on a proposed emergency ordinance that would extend deadlines on land use approvals and financial guarantees for up to two years.

COEUR d'ALENE - More time.

The Kootenai County commissioners will hold a public hearing next week on a proposed emergency ordinance that would extend deadlines on land use approvals and financial guarantees for up to two years.

"There are some subdivisions out there that we have been informed need this ordinance to happen soon from an economic standpoint," said Commissioner Rick Currie of why the ordinance has been given emergency status.

The extension - which would apply to myriad projects, including various sized subdivisions and permitted activities - would be intended to help those who have struggled to meet county deadlines on approved construction work due to the constraints of the recession.

"Things are tough out there," Currie said. "If you have a subdivision that is being held up because of the economy, then it's something that we should look at."

The ordinance draft states that construction projects often involve a multitude of expenses, including land purchases, engineering, survey work and construction.

Those who can't complete projects by the county's deadlines lose that investment, "thereby further slowing Kootenai County's economic recovery," the draft reads.

The ordinance would provide up to a two-year extension on land use approvals including: Planned unit developments, conditional use permits, variances, special notice permits and any bonds or financial guarantees.

Various subdivisions, condominium plats, replats and site disturbance permits could also benefit.

The extension would apply only to applicants whose final time extensions expired in 2009 or 2010. Applicants would have to submit a written request providing good cause for an extension.

The commissioners could consider time extension requests at any regular meeting, according to the draft. Extension approvals would automatically modify the original permit.

No additional hearings would be required.

County Planning Director Scott Clark didn't know how many projects in Kootenai County had missed deadlines because of economic issues.

"I wouldn't say a lot, but there have been some (in that situation)," Clark said. "I think that there will be some projects that will benefit from that as an opportunity."

Bill Johnson, member and past president of the North Idaho Building Contractors Association, said he couldn't think of specific projects that fit the bill either, but he favors the ordinance.

"With the economic times, things are tough in the development world," Johnson said. "I think it would save developers a lot of money and heartache."

But Terry Harris of Kootenai Environmental Alliance worried that the draft has holes.

There is no set standard to quantify who qualifies for the extension, Harris said, nor does it address whether projects will still be mitigated to accommodate neighbors and the environment during the extended work period.

"Is the standard being financially unable to complete the project, or is it a hardship? And if it's a hardship, how much of a hardship? None of that is in the draft," Harris said.

He also wondered why this was put on the fast track of an emergency ordinance, which moves through the approval process quicker than usual and is only in effect for 182 days.

"If it's really an emergency based on the economy, that's been going on for two years now," Harris said. "How it got to be an emergency this week is a little concerning."

Currie said more details about the extension process will be hammered out at Thursday's public hearing.

He added that the commissioners were recently urged to consider the ordinance by the Idaho Association of Counties and Bonner County, which enacted a similar ordinance earlier this year.

The commissioners also received letters from citizens requesting the measure, he said.

Clare Marley, Bonner County planning director, said her county's emergency extension ordinance has proved helpful.

"Many projects (approved by the county), I think there were 30 or 40 that had reached the last of their expiration dates just because of the way the economy has gone, and a lot of them hadn't been able to complete their road or sewer and water improvements," Marley said, adding that the Bonner County ordinance offers no more than a two-year extension for expiration dates.

So far about a dozen have requested the extension, Marley said.

"In their letters they remarked it was a blessing for the board to grant the additional time, because they were facing foreclosure and were out of money and out of hope," she said.

The public hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. May 27 in the board chambers in the Kootenai County Administration Building on Government Way.

Kootenai County gives no more than two year deadlines on land use approvals, Clark said, the longest usually assigned to subdivisions. Extensions are also given for no more than two years.

The new ordinance would allow another extension for those who have exhausted the final extension the county currently offers.

Currie added that those who end up at that point must halt their projects and start the approval process again from scratch.

"Some of these developers are individuals, not necessarily corporations, and so it does become a hardship," he said. "We talk about economic development, and this is one of the few tools we have to help."