Plan to fix ULUC released

COEUR d'ALENE - A 31-page plan to fix Kootenai County's controversial Unified Land Use Code was released Thursday for public review, and commissioners are planning to hold a workshop to decide how to proceed with the proposal.

"I want to try and go through this to see how we are going to deal with it," Commissioner Todd Tondee said during a Thursday meeting on the issue.

The $5,400 prospectus was developed by the county's land use consultant Kendig Keast Collaborative. It details a plan to overhaul the ULUC. Commissioners want to make it more user friendly by incorporating public input into the document.

The prospectus was developed at the request of the county and the county's Planning and Zoning Commission after they tried to hold hearings on the controversial land use code earlier this summer.

The ULUC hearings drew hundreds of people to its first meeting, most of whom oppose the plan. That meeting was eventually shut down by the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department because the meeting room was over capacity.

Commissioners said if they decide to move forward with the plan in the prospectus, the consultant said it would take 340 hours to complete. They did not say how much that would cost the county, but a previous proposal from the consultant listed their fees at $150 per hour.

"That doesn't even get us to the end of this," said Commissioner Dan Green. "To just keep taking bites out of this thing makes me a little apprehensive."

If accepted, the consultant's bid would fix the ULUC and usher it though to the end of the planning commission hearings that are expected to resume next spring.

The county would still have to revise the land use plan again to incorporate the input it receives during the hearing process.

"I am struggling with the open checkbook here," Green said, adding the commissioners could decide to pursue parallel options to finish the process.

In the meantime, commissioners have to decide whether they want to accept the plan.

"I want the Planning Commission to review it first and then make sure the board and the Planning Commission are going in the same direction on this," Green said, "If they come back and say we need another prospectus, then we are in trouble."

Commissioners instructed Planner Scott Clark to release the prospectus to the planning commission, and to set up a workshop around the first of October.

"It will be going out to the public as well," Tondee added.