A new fight for couple

Beth and David Tysdal haven't achieved everything they had envisioned for their Stateline Road farm.

Last month, their permit to use their century-old barn as an event venue was revoked, when the Kootenai County commissioners deemed the use appropriate for only commercially zoned property.

Now the couple is facing another snag.

The county recently informed the Tysdals that they can't conduct farming classes on their active farm - again, because the use is commercial, and doesn't fit their rural-zoned acreage.

This is one decision they find hard to accept, Beth said.

"I fully believe they're wrong," the Post Falls resident said. "It's perfectly legal for us to sell products on our farm, but to teach people how to raise what we're raising is somehow commercial."

She thinks the county is misinterpreting the law, she said, adding that the Tysdals feel like the county has been treating them unfairly.

But Scott Clark, executive director of county Community Development, said it has been spelled out how the Tysdals can use their property.

Farming classes, he said, had been included in the scope of activities allowed under their now revoked permit.

"The use they had proposed is not allowed," Clark said.

Beth said the couple has considered putting on classes since they started farming on their 80 acres two years ago.

Throughout their efforts of raising cattle, chickens, pigs and vegetables at Cable Creek Farm, Beth said, they have fielded requests from county residents wanting to learn to do the same.

"We've heard from people probably weekly since we opened this farm who are excited about locally raised food and wanting to raise chickens," she said.

The couple decided to hold classes, charging $10 a person to cover costs, where they would demonstrate how to choose chickens for raising, how to personally process chickens and more.

"We want to provide a service to the people of Kootenai County," Beth said, adding that she and her husband had to learn to hand process chickens by watching YouTube. "People don't give hands-on education on these kinds of things."

But before they could hold the first scheduled class, the county received a complaint about their plans.

Then the Tysdals got the call.

"If we offered these classes, charging $10, it would be considered commercial and in violation of county zoning ordinance," she said.

Beth doesn't understand why the class is considered commercial, she said, but not the couple's practice of selling the farm's meat and produce that is delivered to customers' front doors.

"We're on a farm, we want to teach people how to actively farm, and I don't think there's anything commercial about that," Beth said.

It's all in county code, Clark said.

Under county law, general farming activities are allowed on rural property, which includes production of crops or animals.

"It's not production," he said of the classes.

The Tysdals do have options, he added. They could apply for another conditional use permit with a different scope of activities than previously proposed. They might even be able to get approval for the classes as a private school, depending on how they wanted to pursue the project.

"You can do whatever the code allows," he said.

And the county is in the process of rewriting all its county ordinances, Clark said.

"This may be something that the public, as well as these landowners, would like to engage in to provide testimony on how these things might be dealt with," he said.

The Tysdals haven't decided what their next step is, Beth said.

Beth, who is leaving her job as KXLY assignment manager to farm full time, said she hopes the community will stand behind her about the farming classes and write to the county.

"Write an email to the commissioners," she urged. "Let them know your thoughts."

The couple's pursuit of holding events at their barn is over, she added.

The Tysdals could teach farming classes for free, Beth acknowledged, or for donations.

But this is about the principle, she said.

"We're actively farming, and we want to teach people how to come and actively farm," she said.