County planning commission member, Suvia Judd, carefully described all
aspects of the proposed ordinance including a few hypothetical
illustrations, augmented by county planner Gerard Billington's description
of a concrete example along the Troy corridor.
I will not try to explain the ordinance in this post. I encourage
interested parties to visit Dennis Geist's website to review the actual
language of the proposed ordinance--http://www.uidaho.edu/~dgeist--and to
attend the two forthcoming town meetings (Tuesday in Deary, Wednesday in
Moscow).
Last night's participants offered several questions and comments regarding
individual property owner's rights versus preservation of ag/forest
land, effects on property values/taxation, fire protection
requirements, and their view of how responsive the planning commission has
been to last year's citizen input. There were many clarification questions
concerning parcel size, number of buildable sites/splits, adjacent
property considerations, how zones (rural vs. ag/for) were established,
definitions of "productive" versus "non-productive" land, comparisons
to the "40 acre" rule, and effects for large versus small land owners.
The two-hour town meeting concluded with a straw poll. The question posed
was: Is the proposed ordinance a strong improvement, mild improvement, or
step backwards compared to the existing 40 acre rule. Results from the
Potlatch meeting:
Strong improvement 16
Mild improvement 1
Step backward 0
No response 5
I invite anyone who attended to add your observations.
Susan
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| Susan Palmer Phone: 208-885-6616 |
| Education Programming FAX: 208-885-9494 |
| Coordinator e-mail:susanp@uidaho.edu |
| Women's Center |
| University of Idaho "People convinced against |
| Moscow, Idaho 83844-1064 their will, hold the same |
| opinion still. |
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