Idaho County Realty

Your subdivision may be on a flood plain.

2009-05-25T09:03:00.001-07:00

Your subdivision may be on a flood plain.

Because Idaho County’s flood plain ordinance has no provisions for enforcement, you will need as a buyer to be aware that your chosen subdivision may be located in a flood plain. Year round — except for late May to early June — your river’s edge property may look safe from high water, but you’ll need to explore the possibility that during spring runoff, parts of your property could be flooded.

You also will need to determine if the subdivision’s roads are safe from high water and where household sewage will go if you plan to build. Only a sewer system that pumps sewage away from the river would ensure the subdivision will not be illegally polluting the stream. Such pollution could result in costs to lot buyers, costs they did not anticipate in advance of buying.

While government agencies may force lot owners to pay for fixes, no government agency is likely to be enforcing flood plain regulations before you buy in Idaho County. Additionally, once you begin building, you may discover that flood plain homeowner’s insurance is hard to find.

Below, two photos show a subdivision currently being developed that appears to be in a flood plain. The swollen river in late May 2009 laps at the feet of the “Lots for Sale” sign. This subdivision’s design may meet all of the county’s flood plain regulations, or it may not. You are the one who will need to find out if it does or doesn’t.

Your neighbor could be a "public nuisance"

2009-05-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

Your neighbor could be a “public nuisance”

Public nuisance ordinances are designed to protect the health, safety, welfare, values and aesthetics of properties by controlling nuisances such as loud noises, stagnant water, ongoing dust, abandoned vehicles, accumulations of junk, and fields of tall weeds and grass.

Right now, in some Idaho County towns and all non-incorporated settings, you will find numerous congregations of abandoned vehicles obscuring the yards of rundown houses or trailers and piles of junk surrounding occupied and unoccupied houses and old buildings. You will also find sand and gravel pits operating loud machinery next door to private homes. Along the Clearwater River between Kooskia and Kamiah, you will find about 5 miles of recently stored rusty railroad cars spoiling the view of property owners all along the route.

Were you to buy property here, your current or future neighbor could be one of these public nuisances, but because Idaho County has no land use plan or nuisance ordinance, no regulations apply to these nuisances. That means, you could not file a nuisance complaint, could do little to stop the nuisance, and town/county governmental bodies would have no basis to help you.

Your subdivision may be a fire trap

2009-04-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

Your subdivision may be a fire trap

As the Associated Press reported on April 25, 2009, the Sun Valley, Idaho, Planning and Zoning Commission recommended that the city council reject developer DeNovo Independence’s 15-home subdivision plan to add 428 acres to the town. The subdivision’s lots sit on slopes ranging from zero to 25%, and some of the development’s roads would include 12% grades. Sun Valley’s hillside ordinances ban all development on slopes greater than 25%, and most development on slopes between 15-20%.

Commissioner Ken Herich said, “The main reason for denial was that the development was putting people in harm’s way. … It was … just not accessible to existing firefighting equipment…” He also noted that ‘a fire starting in the canyon where the development is planned could reach the ridge within 20 minutes.’ That leaves little time for personal escape and no time for saving anyone’s home.

North of Sun Valley, in Idaho County, where the existing subdivision ordinance asks only that developers identify the degree of slope in a development, there is no maximum degree of slope. That means a developer in Idaho County could sell you a piece of land with a 15-25% slope or greater and with roads at 12% or greater. In other words, your lot may be unreachable by firefighting equipment and, should a fire start, could blaze uphill exceedingly fast.

Most years, during July, August and September, Idaho County experiences wildfires. If you are considering buying real estate here, be aware that you are the only person responsible for the fire safety of your lot and home. Because no comprehensive land use plan exists, no planning and zoning commission exists, and the existing subdivision ordinance sets no limits on subdivision slope, your subdivision may be a fire trap.

Access to your subdivision may be via a substandard road or dangerous bridge.

2009-04-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

Access to your subdivision may be via a substandard road or dangerous bridge.

Although Idaho County adopted a subdivision ordinance in 1983, enforcement has varied. County commissioners have tended to view ordinances through a philosophical lens that sees any encroachment by government on personal property as akin to the replacement of the U.S. Constitution by the Communist Manifesto. Historically, therefore, lack of enforcement has sometimes resulted in substandard subdivision roads and bridges, safety issues, lack of public services, damaged property values, and public vs. government conflicts.

An example is the ongoing Elk Meadows Subdivision bridge conflict. Even though the subdivision was county-approved, homeowners can count on neither the developer nor the county to fix the bridge. Since the bridge is substandard, the county refuses to provide public services that require crossing it, and homeowners risk injury when they cross it.

Once again, subdivision lot buyers in Idaho County must beware.

Your new neighbor could be a gravel pit running a 24-hour rock crusher

2009-04-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Your new neighbor could be a gravel pit running a 24-hour rock crusher

County commissioners are currently facing a conflict between the noisy, dusty rock crushing operation of road construction company Knife River and Back River Road subdivision residents Bev and Chuck Mangum.

Each party has made some effort to compromise. Knife River graveled the Mangums’ driveway and at times sprays water to control dust. The Mangums tried to negotiate with Knife River about limiting hours of noise. But eventually, in hopes of regaining enjoyment of their home and a good night’s sleep, the Mangums took the issue to the Idaho County Commission.

In response, Commission Chair Skip Brandt declared himself the one person “to take care of [such] issues one at a time.” Instead of relying as we in a democracy expect — upon laws, statutes, ordinances and land use plans, Brandt said, “…In Idaho County we have more freedoms than anybody else and I want to leave those in place, so if need be we [the commissioners] will be a hammer on the bad apples." (Lewiston Morning Tribune, Mar.27, 2009)

The commissioners attempted to “hammer” the crusher conflict with a site-specific contract that would have held the crusher’s use and noise to specified daily hours. Knife River replied that it would sign the contract only if it were applied to all rock crushing operations in the county. Clink! One hammer broken.

About a thousand gravel pits exist in Idaho County, some in nonresidential or remote locations, and there is no limit to how many more could exist. If you buy real estate in the county, a gravel pit could locate near you.

The application of an in-place land use plan could have prevented the above conflict and could avert similar future conflicts by preventing gravel pits and subdivisions from being located next to each other — so that everyone’s private property rights would be protected.