Citizens sound off on Rathdrum comp plan

RATHDRUM — Citizens voiced their concerns on Rathdrum's comprehensive plan during an open house Monday.

Required by state law to be updated every five years, a comprehensive plan looks at how a municipality has developed and is projected to be in decades to come. It considers factors like land use, housing, public services, natural resources, and economic development and aims to guide cities into the future. 

"We're really hoping that people see a little bit more of what we do for planning and get feedback from the people because that's the whole purpose of the plan," city administrator Leon Duce said.

Work on the plan began last January, but because of COVID-19, the city put the project on hold for several months. Since picking back up, the planning and zoning commission has conducted interviews with residents, business owners, developers, and services.

On many citizens' minds at the event was growth, what it has done to the community and remediation plans. Those in attendance heard recurring comments on water and sewer, roads, schools, and housing.

Tim Burke and Dave Reed, who moved here a few years ago, said they've watched growth similar to what is happening in Rathdrum become problematic.

"Both of us came from California. We've seen cities in California, and there is no more land. What they've done is they've taxed everybody out of their homes," Burke said. "What happens is they allow all this growth to come in and then need more infrastructure, another fire department, another police department. It's a vicious cycle."

Reed, who moved from a ranch in Wyoming, said he is in the process of building a home in the Rathdrum area that is skyrocketing in cost because of the influx of new residents. 

"I regret moving here," Reed said. "We just did our taxes, and it's ridiculous."

They touched on the idea of limiting the approval of projects that would affect property taxes.

"I'm not against growth. I just want slow, moderate, very well-planned growth," Burke said. 

Michael Fox, a Rathdrum resident of eight years and North Idaho for over 15, supported a similar plan. A member of the Responsible North Idaho Growth Facebook group, Fox has begun filing for a citizen initiative to enforce limitations on development. 

"We want to set up a management plan as to how many buildings or dwelling units can be constructed during a 12-month period," he said. "Instead of just letting them go and approve as much as they can, it's going to be based on what benefits those developments provide — whether it's schools, parks, help with transportation, or whatever it is."

He argued that the updated comprehensive plan is a "total diversion" from what the citizens want. He said it supports expansion, annexations, and the loss of open space to housing developments.

"The biggest problem I think we're facing, and I don't know the answer to, is a lot of people are complaining about the cost of housing," Councilman Steven Adams said. "It's the basic economic law of supply and demand. If you restrict the supply of something, in this case, houses not being built, that's going to cause the cost of the existing houses to go up." 

What sparked Adams' campaign for office was a letter to the editor he wrote to The Press. In it, he talked about Ventura County, Calif., and the series of Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiatives passed in 2016 that required municipal projects to be approved by a majority vote to rezone unincorporated open space, agricultural or rural land for development.

"As long as a new comprehensive plan has some nebulous language that favors people who don't want to see growth, we can fall back on that," Adams said. "But if they take all that stuff out and make it ironclad, pro-development, there's no way to stop it."

The final draft of the comprehensive plan will be edited in alignment with citizen input over the course of more public outreach, Duce said.

"We're not here telling people what we want to do or what we think they should do. We're trying to get a feel for what they would like for the city, the council, the mayor, and the staff to do within the framework of the laws," Mayor Vic Holmes said.