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Hearing examiner closes record on Christian Center gym expansion after staff recommends conditions
Summary
Kootenai County staff recommended approval of a 30,500-square-foot gym addition at Christian Center, noting prior approvals and agency conditions; Hearing Examiner Carl Grandth closed the record and will write a recommendation to be forwarded to county commissioners.
Hearing Examiner Carl Grandth closed the public hearing on CD26-00004, a request to add a 30,500-square-foot gym at Christian Center, after county staff presented technical analysis and recommended the proposal could proceed with conditions.
An unnamed county staff member told the hearing that the project involves three adjoining parcels of roughly 15 acres on Prairie Avenue and that the proposal is a substantial change requiring conditional-use review. "We support the application," the staff member said, recommending conditions drawn from agency comments. The staff presentation said the gym is intended to separate athletic activities from worship functions and that the applicant does not expect enrollment to increase; staff said the student count would remain "around 240."
The staff presentation recounted the property's history: the church was established in 1979, the site has undergone prior modifications, and a navigation easement related to the nearby airport was recorded in 2012. Airport staff recommended non-reflective façade and roofing materials to reduce pilot glare, and those recommendations are included in the staff report as conditions of approval. Staff also noted that property-line encroachments on the southern parcels will require a value-adjustment process to address setback encroachments before permits issue.
Examiner Grandth asked whether the existing on-site swale and proposed site-service permit would adequately handle roughly double the prior impervious surface. Applicant representative Trevor Price said the project team has engaged a site-permit consultant and that stormwater details will be processed through the county's site-service/permit review. The staff member confirmed stormwater and grading will be reviewed through that separate permitting process.
The examiner said he had sufficient evidence on the record to form a recommendation and closed the record for CD26-00004; he will prepare a written recommendation within his stated two-week window and forward it to county staff and, ultimately, the county commissioners, who hold final decision authority.
The next procedural step is the examiner's written recommendation and the county staff/commission review; no decision or vote was made at the hearing.
