Kootenai public hearings (homes, construction, quality of life)

[elousv]

From Nickel's Worth

"Be Aware – The Future Of Your
Community Is Being Decided!
Bev Twillmann
On May 27 at 5:00 p.m., May 28 at 8:00 a.m., and
June 1 at 5:00 p.m., your Board of County
Commissioners will be holding public hearings on the
newly revised Comprehensive Plan for Kootenai
County. This is a document that is basically the “road
map to the future” for this area of North Idaho we all
love so much. The direction this Plan takes will dictate
what the future will bring in this precious area we call
home . Ignore what is happening now and you will find
yourself regretting it later.
From the beginning over two years ago, this process
to get a new Comp Plan for Kootenai County worked
hard to involve all the citizens living here. There were
the infamous “Meetings in A Box,” held openly for any
interested parties in numerous locations throughout the
County. Hundreds of citizens attended these, and time
after time one common thread of thought came from
each of those meetings –
• preserve our natural resources,
• save our rural communities,
• respect our quality of life and
• make sure growth is sustainable and located in
areas with infrastructure to handle it.
This general train of thought coming from these
meetings was summarized with the Kezziah-Watkins’
report, still available on the County’s web site. There
was no doubt what the majority of citizens in Kootenai
County placed as goals for the area’s future.
Then the process of re-writing this important
document went to the County’s Planning
Commissioners, a dedicated, totally volunteer group of
educated and diverse citizens committed to and
charged with writing this Plan for the benefit of the
citizens of Kootenai County. For almost two years these
individuals spent hundreds of hours and gave up their
personal as well as professional time to listen to and
gather data from local, state and even national
agencies, organizations, groups and individual citizens.
They traveled all over the County offering their
“Traveling Show of Information” and held two to three
“open to the public” workshops a week to make sure
they drew up the most fair and comprehensive Plan
they possibly could. Never before in the history of
this County had more time and consideration been
offered to all segments of our community.
I personally attended many of those meetings and
workshops. Sometimes I was only one of five or fewer
citizens in attendance, and though I was surprised at
the lack of interest from most of the area’s special
interest groups within our community, I never
regretted my time spent going to those meetings as I
learned a tremendous amount. I saw the process
working, and as new facts came forward from
another state agency or local organization, I began to
truly understand why certain decisions were being
made to include or not include certain specifics in
this new Comprehensive Plan. Did I agree with all of
it – no – but I did understand and more easily accept
what items were being written into the Plan itself.
Now this new Comprehensive Plan is going before
the Board of County Commissioners for final
approval. Hearings will be held on those dates
mentioned above, and once again, the public is being
invited to offer comments and voice their concerns.
This is fair. But what I see now happening in our
County is a defined effort by a handful of special
interest groups working hard to get people to fight
this plan and change it to suit their specific needs.
These are the same individuals who have been absent
for the past two plus years in the development of this
Plan, yet now they want it more to their liking.
I would hope our Board of County Commissioners
would listen to the public that elected them and
approve this plan, and not alter or scuttle it because
special interest groups want last minute changes. This
County cannot go forward with the attitudes of the
past – our growth cannot be dependent on
construction of homes when we already have a
flooded market, or on roads that tear up the land and
lead to nowhere, or on continued attitudes that the
Lake is not polluted and homes should be allowed
anywhere around it. I would hope the County
Commissioners would enact implementing
ordinances to enforce our healthy future growth, and
not be derailed in this as was deliberately done in
1994 because of pressure from special interest
groups.
Voice your concerns, attend the hearings, and let
the County Commissioners know they represent you,
and you want a future which is sustainable and
healthy, not one catering to the special interests of a
few."

[ejay]

I never heard of any of these meetings or I would have went to them. I will be definitely going to the future ones.