Area of impact outcomes could affect future development
North Idaho cities are scrambling toward a deadline at the end of the year to ensure that areas of impact are confirmed by Kootenai County commissioners.
New legislation, Senate Bill 1403, revised state practices on annexation and how cities define potential expansion areas in 2024.
Although the cities had areas of impact before this change, they oversaw their own projected areas of growth.
During the April 1 Post Falls City Council meeting, it was noted that the past Post Falls area of city impact was jointly established with Hayden and Rathdrum in 2004. Since its establishment, Post Falls officials said they have experienced little conflict.
Post Falls Mayor Ron Jacobson called the legislation a “solution for a problem that didn’t exist” after Boise area cities were annexing into each other’s areas of impacts.
“We've had no issues up here," Jacobson said. "We’ve had great working relationships with county, with the neighboring cities."
Post Falls officials have met with Coeur d’Alene, Hauser, Hayden and Rathdrum leadership to work on resolving overlapping areas.
Coeur d’Alene city administrator Troy Tymesen said while no major boundary issues have emerged, changes may be in store for Coeur d’Alene’s footprint.
“Coeur d’Alene will most likely shrink its area of impact based on the legislation,” Tymesen said.
The county's responsibilities are to forward requests for development, rezoning, conditional use permits or other county processes within the area of impact to the respective cities and to consider their comments within the county’s review.
David Callahan, the county's community development director, previously said he is willing to work with the cities.
Counties now have more discretion over an area’s bounds, limiting them to a maximum of 2 miles from city lines and mandating a five-year review.
Hayden City Administrator Lisa Ailport said city staff have tentative agreements for boundaries of the new area of impact.
So far, the hardest part of the new legislation for Hayden has been the requirement that cities demonstrate they are likely to grow into an area within the law’s five-year timeline, Ailport said.
“This is a major change in the law and one that will be hard to predict since growth can be sporadic and ever-changing,” Ailport said. “However, the city of Hayden staff believe that our boundary will reflect this requirement on its merit.”
City administrator Leon Duce said Rathdrum is in good shape to move forward because it has already reviewed its area of impact.
"We are finalizing that boundary line for submittal to the county," Duce said.
Callahan said no cities in the county have completed their area of impact yet, but he anticipates smaller cities like Dalton Gardens will move quickly through the process.
Post Falls deputy city administrator Warren Wilson said Post Falls has concerns about public infrastructure differing from city to city if developers want to build.
"Before the legislative change, the focus was broader and addressed areas where annexation may never occur but where land use changes could impact city residents," Wilson said. "I worry that loosing that broader lens will make it harder in the future to look out for the interest of city residents."
The ability to predict development trends and what developers may seek has also emerged as an issue while looking at the scale of the area of impact for expanding cities like Post Falls.
“It becomes a bit of a mystery how to draw this map,” Wilson said.
Idaho law prohibits cities from annexing beyond the area of impact limits, but Callahan noted no enforcement agency oversees the boundaries put into place by the legislation.
Enforcement would only be potentially set in motion “by some aggrieved party bringing a lawsuit’ against a city, Callahan said.
The current draft for the areas of impact for Post Falls. Post Falls officials will need to submit the draft to the Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners and have it approved by the end of the year.