Sandpoint planning commission workshop weighs switching to impervious-surface standard to enable small‑lot infill

Sandpoint — City planning staff on Tuesday proposed rewriting lot‑coverage rules to encourage small‑lot infill and modest increases in multifamily capacity, presenting a draft that would replace a separate maximum building‑footprint limit with a single impervious‑surface standard that scales down as lot size increases.

"The gist of it is we were proposing eliminating the max building footprint standard and going to a single impervious surface standard of 70% in residential single family and residential multifamily," said Jason Welker, Community Planning and Development Director, summarizing the staff proposal and earlier public hearings.

Staff said the change is intended to make it easier for property owners on small historic lots to build additions or accessory dwelling units (ADUs) without changing setbacks, while preserving neighborhood scale on the town’s larger lots. Welker told the commission a third‑party GIS analysis to map lot sizes was cost‑prohibitive, so staff used in‑house tools and flagged the numbers as approximate.

Why it matters: Sandpoint’s existing 35% building‑footprint cap can prevent common housing types on many small lots. Welker cited examples…