Bannock County commissioners decline to validate historic extension of North Beehive Road

Bannock County commissioners voted to deny a request to validate a historic extension of North Beehive Road in Pocatello, concluding the claim concerns only private parcels and that validating the road would require the county to assume development and maintenance responsibilities.

The decision followed a staff report from Kyle Burmester, the county Public Works director, and public testimony both for and against validation. Burmester told the commissioners that the county found no record of maintenance or use as a county road, and that the subject route does not appear on the county-maintained right-of-way map or in assessor records for recorded easements.

The application was filed on behalf of property owners who say historical maps and surveys show an extension of North Beehive Road providing access to two southern parcels. Eric Olsen, legal counsel for the applicants, told the commissioners the paperwork cites Idaho statute Title 40, Chapter 2, and asserted the application fits the elements of the cited statute and the historical-rights framework referenced as RS 24.77.

Heather Ann Larson, who said she conducted a site visit with a licensed surveyor and an archaeologist, told the commissioners the surveyor took waypoints and that maps from 1901, 1935, the 1940s, a 1961 survey and a 1966 map show the same road location and a cabin site. Larson said the topographic maps depict the route as a double-lined, excavated, improved way and identified a cabin shown on the historical documents.

Opposition testimony focused on lack of public maintenance and on environmental and property-rights concerns. Preston Carter, representing the Slagle family, argued that statutes governing roads withdrawn from the public domain in 1959 require public maintenance to establish a public road and that the record contains no evidence of public maintenance before 1959. Carter told the commission, "No public road. 1959. No public road," and also raised due-process concerns after parties submitted evidence shortly before the hearing.

Several neighbors and property owners said the corridor is a wet, marshy area and that access historically was permission-based, not public. Bobette Roselegel, who identified her address as 7060 North Beehive, said the corridor identified by applicants crosses a wetland and runs adjacent to the South Fork of Pocatello Creek and that the neighborhood has long cooperated to maintain private trails and driveways. Chuck Slagle and other residents described fences, gates and locked chains that had restricted motorized access for years. Ron Dyckman testified that he purchased an easement for access in 1999 and said he placed gravel and barriers on portions of the way; he said he has been the primary party to add gravel and maintain the portion he uses.

Commissioner Mueller asked staff whether the contested route would reach any public land and Burmester replied it would not, saying the county-maintained portion currently stops well short of the two southern parcels now at issue. Burmester told the commission that if the board validated the route, the county would then assume responsibility for developing and maintaining it beyond the present maintained terminus.

After public comment closed, a commissioner moved that the board "do not make this a public road, that it is a civil matter between landowners and this is still a private road." The motion passed on a voice vote; there was no roll-call tally recorded in the hearing transcript. The board chair concluded, "It remains as is. Thank you."