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Bonner County affirms planning decision limiting Priest Lake vacation rental to nine people
Summary
The Bonner County Board of Commissioners upheld the planning director’s interpretation that a Huckleberry Bay cabin’s maximum occupancy must be limited to nine people because required designated off‑street parking was not demonstrated.
The Bonner County Board of Commissioners voted to affirm the planning director’s decision to limit a Huckleberry Bay vacation rental’s maximum occupancy to nine people, upholding the staff calculation tied to designated off‑street parking.
The decision came after a contested administrative appeal by Bill and Karen Ferguson, who sought to restore a previously allowed capacity of 12 people for their Priest Lake cabin. The board’s motion to affirm the planning director’s ruling adopted the staff memo and the required written reasons under Idaho law.
The appellants' attorney, Alan Miller, argued the Fergusons had property rights to use two nearby common areas for overflow parking and asked the board to interpret the county ordinance to permit the larger occupancy. “My clients have a property right in both the tennis court parking area and the overflow area for boat trailers,” Miller said during the hearing.
Karen Ferguson described the rental as family‑oriented and said the household has followed county rules. “For 4 years, we did not, we abided by every single Bonner County rule,” she told the commissioners, adding that short notice before renewal harmed her booking reputation.
Homeowners association members and nearby residents opposed the appeal. Terrell Black, a Huckleberry Bay resident and HOA board member, told commissioners, “Their grievance regarding this, as far as I’m concerned, is with the homeowners association, not with the county,” and urged the appellants to use HOA procedures to resolve the shared‑parking question.
In deliberations commissioners and staff focused on Bonner County Code provisions that require designated off‑street parking spaces tied to each parcel for calculating maximum occupancy. The planning staff and several commissioners said the common parking areas described by the appellants operate on a first‑come, first‑served basis and are not shown to provide “designated” spaces reserved for the Fergusons’ parcel. That lack of demonstrated designated parking was the principal basis for upholding the planning director’s calculation.
The board’s motion affirmed the planning director’s decision as rendered for project file VRP2021‑30 and adopted the staff analysis and reason statement required by Idaho Code 67‑6535. The motion carried on roll call; the transcript records the action as “Motion carries.”
The board noted that code changes or clarifying amendments could be pursued if stakeholders want different standards for shared parking to be recognized in future permit calculations. The Fergusons and some public speakers pointed to homeowners association governance as the venue to resolve shared‑parking rules; the commissioners said the county’s calculation must follow current county code and the evidence submitted for the permit.
No further appeal outcome or next procedural step was recorded at the hearing.
