COUNTY: Don't buy the Bullitt

The Kootenai County Planning Commission is tasked with producing a Comprehensive Plan that puts in writing what the county residents want for their future. This plan is then used as a guiding document for future land use codes.

The Bullitt Foundation (bullitt.org) is a Seattle-based environmental group whose mission is to promote “sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest,” a subset of the mission of the United Nation’s Agenda for the 21st Century (Agenda 21). Their tactics include “shaping public opinion” and “Directly influencing important decisions in the public sector.” They grant approximately $5 million per year to groups and organizations that will advance their agenda.

Grant recipients include the Tides Foundation (George Soros), ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability (Agenda 21), Idaho Smart Growth and our very own Kootenai Environmental Alliance (KEA) has received $135,000 from Bullitt. Why? In part for “…participation in (Kootenai) county’s process to revise its comprehensive plan and adopt a zoning ordinance.”

Why would a Seattle environmentalist organization give tens of thousands of dollars to KEA to influence our comprehensive plan?

The previous 1995 Comprehensive Plan was developed after sending out 58,000 questionnaires, each with 37 questions, to every Kootenai County resident. The current 2008 plan was developed after asking only a few hundred residents and non-residents just seven questions.

Economic conditions in the county have changed dramatically since the Comprehensive Plan was conceived in 2006, a time of rapid growth. It is time to review and revise the Comprehensive Plan so that it accurately reflects our vision.

BRENT REGAN

Coeur d’Alene