GROWTH: Notification is key

Regarding the “Growth Committee.” Will the meetings be live streamed and noticed to the public? How can the public submit ideas?

I’d like to see honest notification of significant projects. Notification currently just publishing a small notice in the classified “legal section” of one newspaper then posting a small temporary 12-inch sign on the site, and perhaps sending a letter to property owners within 300 feet of the project parcel line.

Who reads the legal notices on a regular basis, especially when many of us get the news digitally now? The tiny sign posted is impossible to read unless you walk up to it. The property owners within 300 feet could be the same group trying to do the project, it might be vacant land, it might be a neighbor that hopes to see the project happen so they can get a high price for their 20-acre piece and sell-out.

Let’s change the process for growth notification. My proposal is the following: First: Publishing the notice is done in a special growth notice, development notice section and listed in large type is the city, the hearing and what is proposed. It doesn’t get mixed in with name changes, bid notifications, etc.

Second: Any zone change, variance request, PUD, Street realignments, more than 10 units, is required to post a minimum 2-by-4-foot sign 5-inch letters on the site.

Third: Notify a minimum of the greater of 500 feet or 20 local residents nearby.

HOWARD BURNS

Post Falls