Zoning code uncertainty stalls real planning progress

Dear Editor:

 Since resigning from the Planning and Zoning Department I have been attending the Board of County Commissioners meetings held on every Monday to follow if there are any efforts made on the changes to the zoning code and a new P & Z Commission.  After two of the BOCC dismissed the Planning and Zoning Commission, these same two commissioners are in a hurry to get a new P & Z commission appointed. These two voted on Dec. 1, to change code so that new P & Z members could be appointed at any time deemed necessary rather than in March as stated in code. 

 Why the hurry to appoint a new P & Z commission. Seems to me these two commissioners are putting the cart before the horse. What is a new commission supposed to do with a land use code that has been interpreted differently by the Prosecuting Attorney and no work has been done to put a revised code in place?  

 Is this new commission supposed to go to the PA and ask each time they are presented with a land use application how the code applies? Because when I left P & Z in July the only person that knew what qualified and what didn’t for a 20-acre building right was the PA and nothing has been done to clarify the code and nothing has been put in writing. 

 It appears these two commissioners and the PA are not willing to put the new interpretation of code in writing? I had actually submitted my application to be on the new P & Z Commission but after today’s BOCC meeting I have withdrawn my application.  With no clear direction, in writing, of the new interpretation of the land use code there is no need for a P & Z Commission.  

 Nate and Gordon need to look at the process and see that they are just spinning wheels or are they hoping a new P & Z commission can accomplish the work they seem unwilling to do. Either way, this county is just going to keep sinking into the big, dark hole these commissioners and the PA have dug and there will be no climbing out.  

 Realtors and title companies have got to be beside themselves with the lack of progress on code.

 Realtors cannot advertise land with a building right without verification of the building right and title companies are not going to deed search or guarantee building rights. That was part of the business the P & Z Department handled. The frustration felt by these entities and people concerned about our county is substantial. Time to get off the pot boys and deal with the business at hand. You can’t move forward without taking care of the code.

Cindy Womack-Steele,

Weiser, Idaho