Developer seeks approval for Sandpoint industrial building
If the proposed north Sandpoint industrial building is approved and developed, it could introduce significant changes to the economic environment and employment landscape of the area.
Photo by ERIC WELCH
SANDPOINT — The city of Sandpoint's Planning and Zoning Commission will soon review a site plan application from a developer seeking to create a 25,500-square-foot industrial facility in north Sandpoint. A traffic impact study conducted for the project indicates the facility could employ about 150 people once constructed.
The proposed building — referred to as “Project Bulldog” in planning documents — would be constructed on a vacant 7.57-acre lot at the corner of Great Northern Road and Woodland Drive and feature a 10-space loading canopy area and five dock positions sized for semi-trucks.
The company that would operate in the facility has not yet been announced; the applicant listed on the site plan is Ambrose Property Group — an Indiana-based real estate development firm specializing in distribution facilities.
During a Dec. 4 Sandpoint City Council meeting, Mayor Jeremy Grimm alluded to a proposed project taking place at the corner of Great Northern Road and Woodland Drive, describing the site as potentially hosting a new employer “very large for our region.”
In the general notes section of publicly available civil engineering plans for the project, a note instructs that “Amazon signage” is provided and installed by construction and specifies typical sign font to be set in “Amazon Ember” — which Amazon lists as its master brand font on its website. All occurrences of the word “Amazon” were redacted in the document but were observable by removing a black bar that obscured the text in the digital file.
According to Ambrose Property Group’s website, the company has developed built-to-suit warehouse facilities for Amazon in Pasco and Wenatchee, Wash.
Jason Welker, Sandpoint’s community planning and development director, said the identity of the tenant for a facility like the proposed industrial building has no effect on decisions made by city staff or members of city commissions.
“The city is agnostic as to who's occupying this facility. It's honestly not of interest to us as city planners,” Welker said. “It has no bearing on the review process that we are required to do by city code.”
Welker added that the civil engineering plans containing the redacted information came to city officials with the redactions already in place, and Sandpoint did not conceal any content in the documents.
He also emphasized that the process by which developments arise ultimately traces back to Sandpoint’s comprehensive plan and the public input that shapes it. The city’s guiding document — which received a major update in July — includes zoning designations regulating which types of properties are allowed in which areas.
Prior to the update, Sandpoint fielded public input through community engagement opportunities and integrated it into the document. With the comprehensive plan and zoning map in place, according to Sandpoint Planner Bill Dean, landowners and developers are able to “submit applications and pursue what the zoning might allow.”
“We build the map, and then the market decides what goes in,” Welker said.
The lot for the proposed Project Bulldog facility has been zoned as Industrial General for more than a decade. North of Woodland Drive, the area is designated as Mixed Use Residential; a housing development in a Rural Residential zone lies west of Great Northern Road across a railway.
Nearby residents were notified by the city Dec. 4 that a developer had submitted a site plan and were told to send the city comments no later than today if they wished to provide feedback. The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the comments as it reviews the project and will ultimately choose to approve or deny the application.
Within 15 days of the ruling, either the developer or a nearby resident may choose to appeal that decision. If the commission confirms the decision, the appellant may appeal again and bring the decision to the Sandpoint City Council. If the site plan application is approved, the developer will need to obtain a building permit from the city before construction can begin.
In addition to the proposed Project Bulldog facility, north Sandpoint is an area of interest for real estate builders. Several housing developments are taking shape in the area immediately north of Woodland Drive, including federally subsidized multi-family affordable housing and senior-specific dwellings. In all, about 250 housing units are likely to become available to residents in the coming months.
The influx of housing may affect Sandpoint’s median value of owner-occupied homes, which according to U.S. Census Bureau data was 4%, 18% and 39% higher than Bonner County, Idaho and the nation, respectively, between 2019 and 2023.
“That's almost 10% of our entire housing stock in town that we're talking about coming online or being approved in the next couple months,” Grimm said of current housing developments in city limits during the Dec. 4 meeting. “I think you'll see the market respond to several hundred units of housing coming online.”
If both the Project Bulldog facility and nearby housing developments come to fruition, the area could be the epicenter of changes to Sandpoint’s employment and housing landscapes.
Application materials for the Project Bulldog facility are available on the Current Projects page of Sandpoint’s website. Residents neighboring the proposed facility can submit comments to the Planning and Zoning Commission by emailing cityplanning@sandpointidaho.gov or mailing a statement to Sandpoint Planning and Building Services, 1123 Lake St.