Bonner County commissioners defend emergency moratorium on minor land divisions; debate continues among commissioners and public

Commissioners and members of the public at Bonner County’s April 15 meeting debated a recent emergency moratorium on Minor Land Divisions (MLDs) and family exemptions and discussed related county priorities including ambulance-district finances and code updates.

Commissioner Brian Domke (District 1) explained the board’s rationale: that the existing MLD and family-exemption processes allow higher residential density without verifying adequacy of water, sewage disposal and fire protection. "If you look at a 20-acre parcel that's zoned Rural-5 … that 20-acre parcel would be allowed to support up to a total of six dwellings," Domke said. "If that same 20-acre parcel were divided into four parcels of five acres each through a minor land division, that could result in a total of 16 allowable dwellings across that 20 acres. That's a residential density increase of 267% without accounting for important safety factors." He said…