Beware of Idaho County (Boise, Lewiston: for sale, 2009, lease)

[bammie21]

The only purpose of this posting is to inform people considering retiring to Idaho County, Idaho....Kooskia, Kamiah, Stites, Grangeville outside city area, etc. of the pitfalls that may very well happen to spoil your retirement. I wish we had had this info before we spent our retirement money settling here. We will move with the first acceptable offer on our home/land. Can't wait to get out....sadly. We had planned on living our lives out here.

We moved to Kooskia, in Idaho County (north central Idaho) along the Hwy 12 Clearwater River corridor between Lewiston and Missoula, Mt. in 2004. It is such a beautiful area! But beware......darkness lurks in all that beauty. In the form of LACK of Government. There is no Land Use and Planning. On Feb 20, 2009 Knife River Corp (Boise or McCall) along with Deatley Crushing (Lewiston/Clarkston area) leased the hill across the road from us from a non resident landowner. They set up operations at an old rock pit that had been defunct for about 15 years. The only time there had ever been a rock crusher was about 1993 when the road was built for our new subdivision (Quailwood Estates) and on to meet the other side to Kamiah. The first 2 weeks they ran about 21 hr a day average. Since then they have run at least 20 hr a day from before 5 a.m. until midnight or after Monday thru Friday with other extremely noisy "maintenance" on some weekends. Nobody at the state or county levels will help us at all. There are 3 of us retired couples that moved here for the peace and quiet. We have lost every single right in life......except to leave until it is over (will it ever be? they keep lying). It was supposed to be 28 days and as of Fri, April 24 it has been 48 days of mind shattering noise and dust. I will add more later. But please see a couple of sites if you want more info:
Idaho County Realty
Bammie21’s Blog
YouTube - bammie2148's Channel

[ejay]

Welcome to the club the developers kinda did to all of Idaho. Look at all the people who bought acreage only to have a housing development go in right next door. They thought they were safe too. None of us are safe, Idaho is for sale and everyone is buying it up piece by piece.

[bammie21]

We bought 10 acres and put a home/shop/garage on it and it was wonderful until Feb 20. The noise and dust from this is unbearable and NO ONE should EVER be kicked out of their own home in a county approved subdivision or any home under any circumstance let alone so some landowner can make big bucks $$$$$ The owner of the "pit" land does not even live here. Nothing is right with that picture. Besides, their latest update on the ending time of this misery is somewhere between May 6 and 11. I doubt they will be out then either because of all the lies from all concerned.

[ejay]

It's an uphill battle and it's only going to continue unless people actually start protecting quality of life.

[bammie21]

After 5 years here we thought all was ok. We loved it until this happened. We want people to know that if it can happen to us and our neighbors it can happen to anyone who moves to or lives in Idaho County. Our quality of life is completely gone. Thing with this is they have 5 year lease on the land and an option for another 5 on top of that. No land use and planning....and the commissioners refuse to address it. Skip Brandt, our district commissioner, refuses to come to our home to see how bad it really is and he said in newspaper article in lewiston tribune to just let him handle these things one at a time. Well, obviously his method of handling is to just completely disregard the issue. Thanks for the comment.

[3~Shepherds]

Originally Posted by bammie21

After 5 years here we thought all was ok. We loved it until this happened. We want people to know that if it can happen to us and our neighbors it can happen to anyone who moves to or lives in Idaho County. Our quality of life is completely gone. Thing with this is they have 5 year lease on the land and an option for another 5 on top of that. No land use and planning....and the commissioners refuse to address it. Skip Brandt, our district commissioner, refuses to come to our home to see how bad it really is and he said in newspaper article in lewiston tribune to just let him handle these things one at a time. Well, obviously his method of handling is to just completely disregard the issue. Thanks for the comment.

The same company has done the same thing in Valley County and those poor people have to just live with the noise and the dust.
One lady had just moved out to the county, because where she did own they had put a concrete company behind her house. She sold and moved to the country within 6 months right back to dust and noise!!

Got to love development!!!

[shades_of_idaho]

Interesting you say the Land Use Subdivision Ordinance can not be enforced. Why is that? As City clerk here in Midvale we are revising the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning , Subdivision and Development Ordinance.BTW it has to be done every 10 years. I have been looking up State Statutes like crazy trying to be sure it is all done right and under State law. Makes me wonder how the Midvale Ordinance would be enforced. Need to look further into this to be sure something like this does not happen to the citizens here.

I know in Cambridge ,Idaho the EXACT thing happened to a buyer and the Rock Pit is still running and it is even the County running it. BUT the people that bought the land got their money back on the adjacent property. They had not built on it yet but had done extensive fencing. I do not know all of the details. Was about 2003 or so. Try to Google it. I just got home from a hard day at work and my brain has turned to mush=off. I need to keep looking these things up for my own City so if I find something for you to look at if you have not already I will pass it on right away.

Look into Statutes.
Idaho Statutes

This might be in the area of what you need more.

Idaho Statutes

Then look further in to 67-65 series and see if there is anything there that can help you. I just can not get into it right now too tired.

Chris

[shades_of_idaho]

bammie21. Try 67-6509 d (d) Any person may petition the commission or, in absence of a commission, the governing board, for a plan amendment at any time. The commission may recommend amendments to the land use map component of the comprehensive plan to the governing board not more frequently than once every six (6) months. The commission may recommend amendments to the text of the comprehensive plan and to other ordinances authorized by this chapter to the governing board at any time.

[bammie21]

I have looked up every law at the state and county levels and brought them to the attention of the Idaho County Commissioners, state reps, state sen, epa and you name it. No one will help us here because Idaho County has NO LAWS No land use and planning.....even tho it is required by state law.
Thank you so much

[shades_of_idaho]

Well Bammie, This really is bad news. What I am trying to keep from happening here. I do know the pit I talked about before has been running for 10 years. I am not sure if it is still going since I have not been back up there for close to a year. We lived below it and guess it was the lay of the land to us being above we heard the noise but only when the cat was on the edge of the hill towards up. The dust from the crusher went down on the people that owned the pit. So they really ate it. We sold our house for other reasons and come to think in it when I was there last summer I do not remember hearing the pit running. But I was not paying attention to it either.

I would plant some fast growing trees across your property line. YESTERDAY!!! Something dense and tall. Block the view and lower the dust and noise levels. Maybe it will quit soon. For your sake I hope so.

Chris