Kootenai County delays decision on two Elder Road zone‑change requests after hours of testimony

Kootenai County commissioners on May 8 heard more than three hours of testimony in a combined public hearing on two zone change applications for parcels along Elder Road and Highway 95 — ZON24‑0007 (Elder Road East, ~27 acres) and ZON24‑0008 (Elder Road West, ~33 acres) — and continued deliberations to a date certain of June 12 at 10 a.m.

The applications, filed by property owners Brent Ottoson and Connie Brand, seek rezoning from agricultural/rural designations to commercial. County staff, echoing the March 20 hearing examiner recommendation, urged denial. Vlad Finkel of Kootenai County Community Development summarized staff’s view that the requested rezones are susceptible to spot zoning, conflict with the county comprehensive plan’s “country” designation and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s integrated resource management plan, and would alter the area’s rural character. “The request is susceptible to spot zoning,” Finkel told the board, and staff noted the closest county commercial zoning is about a mile northeast of the parcels.

County Community Development Director David Callahan elaborated on the county’s spot‑zoning concerns, saying spot zoning is historically judged by whether a rezone “unjustly enriches one individual's property to the detriment of the community.” Callahan and other staff noted prior approvals on the parcels: separate conditional use permits (CUPs) issued about a year earlier allowed a rental/warehouse use on the parcel straddling Highway 95 and a commercial resort (an RV park) on the…