Sandpoint planners review draft commercial zoning and preservation rules as staff readies binders

Sandpoint’s Planning and Zoning Commission spent its May 5 meeting walking through a near-final draft of the city’s commercial zoning update and a new historic preservation code, as deputy director Bill Dean delivered a binder for each commissioner with maps, a crosswalk of ordinance changes and a proposed schedule for hearings.

The discussion matters because the draft will reshape where and how commercial and mixed-use development can occur downtown and in adjacent neighborhoods, and because the preservation chapter establishes a legal pathway for protecting historic properties. "You're gonna get a real good picture of that when you get these binders," Dean told the commission, promising one-on-one briefings before matters go to hearing.

Dean said the packet includes a large-format zoning map, a crosswalk table that maps existing ordinance provisions to the draft text, and separate tabs for general provisions, commercial zoning, residential follow-ups and a 13–14 page historic preservation chapter. "Every single word in here can be changed again after I give it to you," he told commissioners, urging them to flag areas that need more work before hearings are…