Council addresses zone change requests

SANDPOINT — City Council members partially approved a zone change request of a North Boyer Avenue property on Wednesday that would allow for residential development.

While the landowner, Don Eickhoff requested approval to rezone the entire 8.52-acre property at the corner of Mountain View Drive and Boyer, council amended the plan to only allow rezoning the eastern half of the property. The western half of the property falls within the airport’s lateral safety zone.

“It is a little unusual to rezone a portion of a property, but per legal council it is possible,” said city planning and economic development director Aaron Qualls.

Wednesday’s public hearing was a continuation from May 15, when the decision was tabled for council members to get clarity of the city’s comprehensive plan regarding development adjacent to the airport. While about half of the property is in the lateral safety zone, nearly the entire parcel falls in the airport overlay zone, which essentially regulates height restrictions.

During the May meeting, Qualls said a zoning decision should be in accordance with the comprehensive plan, as it was designed to be a guiding document for such decisions. Before bringing it to council, the proposal failed to gain approval by the Sandpoint Planning and Zoning commissioners, who recommended council deny the application.

According to the May 15 City Council minutes, Eickhoff told council members that he bought the property with the intention of building affordable housing.

Council approved another zone change on June 5 of a two-acre parcel on Woodland Drive owned by Eric Cookman. The property is also in the airport overlay zone, with a sliver of about 4,000 square-feet falling under the lateral safety zone. Council members unanimously approved the zone change from industrial general to mixed-use residential.

Another rezoning request is still up in the air after the ordinance was vetoed by Mayor Shelby Rognstad shortly after it was approved by council members in April. Steve and Maureen Tillberg

own two parcels, making up approximately 8.5 acres at the corner of North Boyer and Schweitzer Cutoff Road. The property is located near the north end of the Sandpoint Airport, though not directly connected. The couple went through the procedure of changing the property from single-family to mixed-use residential, though Rognstad announced his intention to veto the ordinance during the April 17 City Council meeting, stating that he felt there should have been an additional opportunity for public comment before council made the final decision. The Tillbergs have been outwardly frustrated by the mayor’s veto, listing a number of reasons for the couple’s disappointment of the veto, including that they spent months and thousands of dollars, properly following Sandpoint City Code and processes to obtain approval.

The Tillbergs hired Marty Taylor, a certified land use planner with James A. Sewell, who also represented Eickhoff and Cookman in their rezoning requests, to determine if the property met all the requirements for the zone change as set forth in the regulations and codes. After determining it did, they went through the city’s steps for approval.

Maureen Tillberg told the Daily Bee in April that while she and her husband currently do not have a development plan for the property, one of the reasons for the zone change request was because of the “extreme need” for affordable housing in Sandpoint.

A request for reconsideration of the veto went before the mayor on May15, though he held firm with his decision.

“It remains my view that a public hearing before City Council, for the purpose of allowing additional public comment on this matter, should be conducted before this zone change takes place,” Rognstad said, adding that a public hearing would be scheduled with a written request by the Tillbergs.

During the public comment portion of the June 5 council meeting, Steve Tillberg said he would be submitting a request for a public hearing for the July 17 City Council meeting.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.