SHORELINE: Hold them accountable

I would like to comment on the front page article of 5/10/12 entitled, “Commissioners scrapping shoreline proposal.”

While it is commendable that the commissioners are supposedly abandoning the taking of more private property through unnecessary regulation, I am far more interested in why it was proposed in the first place.

According to the article, the “shoreline buffers are intended to protect water quality by restricting nutrients entering the water.” According to who? Dan Redline, Regional Administrator for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is quoted in your article as saying, “. . . couldn’t confirm the amount of nutrients waterfront properties contribute.” And that “The DEQ doesn’t have a stance on what the shoreline buffer should be.” Well if the Idaho DEQ doesn’t know how many “nutrients” waterfront properties contribute, how do our Commissioners know, or the geniuses at Kendig Keast for that matter, that they are attempting to take by force of law the private property of persons in this county under that guise?

This article refers to lake-front property. Not mentioned here is property that adjoins streams that feed the lake. Stream-front properties have been held to a 75’ foot buffer zone since at least August of 2010 (Kootenai County Ordinance #445). In my case, that is a taking of over an acre of my almost six acres for “buffer protection.” And to answer Mr. Bret Bowers’ question – No, I was not “grandfathered” into anything. I can now do NOTHING with that acre of land, as evidenced by the citation I received for putting a free-standing round pen on part of it.

In short, it appears to me that the commissioners have taken a step back from their progressive land grab, until the elections are over, and once re-elected, they will take two steps forward. In my opinion, this entire land use proposal is part of a nationwide/worldwide effort to destroy private property rights in rural areas. It is time to hold our elected officials accountable to their oath of office. We need to elect new commissioners, fire Kendig Keast, scrap their land use proposal, and restore private property rights in Kootenai County.

J.D. GAINES

Coeur d’Alene