[Vision2020] Latah County Land Use Ordinance

[Jeff Harkins]

URGENT POSTING

After digesting the 82 pages of the proposed Latah County Land Use 
Ordinance, I call your attention to this document and urge you to read the 
proposed revisions carefully.  In all my 22 years in Latah County, I have 
not seen a more intrusive collection of policies proposed for property 
owners.  Virtually every provision attacks or limits your rights as a 
property owner in Latah County.  The link is:

http://www.latah.id.us/Dept/PB_ZoningOrdinanceDraft.pdf

Here are some highlights:

The ordinance is divided into 9 articles as follows:

Article 1 - Administration
Article 2 - Definitions
Article 3 - Land Use Zones
Article 4 - General Land Use Regulations
Article 5 - Overlay Zones
Article 6 - Zoning Map Amendments
Article 7 - Conditional Use Permits and Variances
Article 8 - Divisions of Property
Article 9 - Design Standards

One or more of those articles should get your attention.

Keep this in mind - there are some 117 individual provisions to this 
omnibus ordinance - many of them restrict your rights as a property owner 
and will require a fee-based conditional use permit (CUP) in order to 
comply with the ordinance.

No doubt some of the proposed rules are reasonable, but all need to be 
given the greatest scrutiny before they are considered by the County 
Commissioners.

You might want to know that the Planning and Zoning Commissioners have 
stated that they have worked on this document for seven (7) years.  They 
advertised the draft document for the public hearing (held last week) 
during the first week of January.  The draft document discussed at the 
hearing was dated January 11.  This provided you and I about one week to 
digest the details of this ordinance.

Here is something that struck me as a problem.  Apart from the blanket 
statement that the purpose of the ordinance is to "promote the health, 
safety and general welfare of the people of  Latah County ...", the 
document provides no detailed purpose statements or context statements 
which attempt to define why the specific regulation is needed, what is the 
problem or issue being addressed, etc.  Furthermore, none of the 
regulations provide for a measurement or assessment standard that would 
allow citizens to determine whether the regulation or policy is effective.

After you read the document, perhaps you will appreciate why I am proposing 
an ordinance of my own - no public policy or regulation or rule affecting 
land use should be adopted unless the proposed policy, rule or regulation 
provides a clear and unambiguous statement of purpose - detailing precisely 
what the problem or issue is that the County officials are trying to 
address.  Further, as applicable, the proposed policy, rule or regulation 
should have a means of assessing or determining whether the rule is 
effective at dealing with the problem.  Over time this may help to 
highlight those rules or policies which should be eliminated.

After review, contact me directly or post your comments back to 
Vision2020.  I know it may be difficult for all to find the time, given all 
the other major public policies being debated just now (water issue, 
highways, public schools) but this document  - when combined with the 
impact of the other major issues being decided - has real and significant 
consequences for all of us.

I look forward to your comments (oh, horse owners, dog owners, home 
occupation folks, farmers that use apprentice housing, rural property 
owners and individuals planning to use wind powered generators should be 
sure to review the document).