Bonner County continues appeal on Priest Lake vacation rental occupancy; applicants seek records

Bonner County planning staff approved a renewal of a vacation rental permit for property in the Huckleberry subdivision on Priest Lake on May 19, 2025, but limited maximum occupancy to nine people because the property shows three off-street parking spaces, Planning staff said.

Alex Vann, planning staff, told commissioners that Ordinance 707 (adopted in 2024) changed occupancy limits and requires all parking serving a vacation rental to be located on the same property as the rental. "When the applicant submitted a request for their vacation rental permit renewal, they were required to meet the standard set forth in the current ordinance," Vann said, and the county therefore changed the permit's occupancy from 12 to 9 based on available on-site parking.

At the meeting the applicants were represented by attorney A.T. Miller of Kutak Rock's Spokane office. Miller said Bill and Karen Ferguson have used an HOA common lot for overflow parking and argued the property owners have a property interest in that common-area parking that would allow the 12-person occupancy to continue. "If you analyze the ordinance, they just need to have a property right in the area where cars are parked, and they do have that," Miller told the board, adding the common parking areas are about 200 yards from the cabin and that the applicants have not caused on-street parking or safety problems.

Karen Ferguson told commissioners she had not known the ordinance had changed before filing her renewal. She said the renewal form did not include a place to add additional off-street parking and that, had she known, she would have submitted a revised site plan showing use of HOA common areas.

Commissioners and counsel discussed whether allowing use of the HOA lot would violate BCRC 12-4-84, which requires off-street parking space to be located on the vacation rental property and prohibits on-street parking in connection with the rental. The applicants asked the board to hold the record open after they received documents from a county public records request. The board agreed a continuance was appropriate and voted to continue the appeal to July 8, 2025, so the applicants can review the records and participate by Zoom if they prefer.

The continuation was made by motion and second; a roll-call vote to continue was taken with no public objection. No decision on the underlying appeal or on whether HOA common-area parking can be counted toward the rental's required off-street parking was made at the July 1 meeting.

The board's next consideration of the item will be at its July 8, 2025 meeting; the applicants were instructed to stay in contact with planning staff about the Zoom link and any additional exhibits they intend to submit.

Ending: The appeal remains pending; the renewed permit currently remains limited to nine occupants per planning staff's May 19 approval until the board issues a further decision after the continued hearing.