Public hearings are, in the most basic terms, hearings that are open to public comment. A public hearing is an opportunity to offer your perspective on a potential subdivision, or some other current project, such as a conditional use permit or zoning change. A public hearing is overseen by one or multiple officials. Typically, at the end of the hearing, the official makes some kind of determination about the project in question. What that looks like depends on the official.
Elected officials, such as county commissioners or city council members, make final determinations about whether a project is approved or denied. Non-elected officials make recommendations. Planning commissioners and zoning commissioners are not elected, and often work on a volunteer basis.
Public hearings are just one kind of public meeting. Officials may sometimes also hold workshops, for example. These are considered public meetings, as long as a quorum is present, but have less stringent rules than public hearings. No formal decisions are made during workshops, but they still require public notice and the public has a right to attend.
Wether they are elected or not, all officials are required to consider what the code says, and apply it to each project on its merits, rather than decide based on their personal preferences.
Officials who might oversee a public hearing
Planning Commission: In the City of Sandpoint and in many other places, Planning and Zoning are combined. In Bonner County, the Planning Commission is separate from the Zoning Commission. The Planning Commission looks at regulatory changes, such as changes to underlying land use code, and considers Comprehensive Plan amendments.
Hearing Examiner: In Bonner County, the Hearing Examiner is one person who can recommend projects for approval or denial. They consider applications that the zoning board might otherwise consider. This redundant role exists to prevent a public hearing backlog, since the zoning commission holds public hearings twice per month.
Zoning Commission: Zoning commissioners consider zone changes, conditional use permits, and variances asking to build something closer to a road or stream than is typically allowed, for example. A zoning board may recommend the project for approval or denial. As is the case with any meeting, if there is missing information or if the meeting runs too long, they may also continue the hearing to a later date.
Board of Commissioners: County or city commissioners (or council members, such as the Sandpoint City Council) make final decisions about projects as well as code changes. They consider the recommendations made by non-elected commissions, the reports prepared by staff, and public comments. Ultimately, they are supposed to make decisions based on their interpretation of the code.
Are public hearings the same thing as public noticing?
No, they are separate things, although any public hearing does require that the public be notified. Public notices about public hearings are published in the newspaper of record — in Bonner County, they are published in the Daily Bee’s legal pages here. Public notices are also mailed to neighbors. Idaho’s Local Land Use Planning Act requires here that the public be given at least 15 days notice about public hearings. Failure to do so can invalidate land use decisions.
A public notice may be required even if a public hearing is not required, such as with short plats in Bonner County. With short plats, which are subdivisions of four lots or fewer, the public has the opportunity to comment via letter prior to a decision about a project, but no public hearing will be held.
Implications
A few things may become clear as you think through the implications of these rules:
- Code should not be ambiguous. While it’s easy to write things like “subdivisions should have adequate services,” that can be interpreted any number of ways by different commissioners. Is five parcels sharing a single well “adequate”? Is it enough for a developer to say “we will have adequate services,” or should the developer have to prove that the development will not adversely affect existing wells, public surface water, wildfire risk, and so on?
- Code should be consistent, even across departments. If the Road and Bridge code says one thing, and the Land Use code says something different, which one is correct?
- Having conscientious officials and clear, consistent code can save taxpayer money. If commissioners appear to make arbitrary or self-interested decisions, it typically increases the number of court cases filed by developers, or by neighbors who don’t want a particular development. People are allowed to file lawsuits like this under LLUPA, Idaho’s land use act.
research Links
Idaho’s Public Records Act is here and its open meetings rules are here. These are the laws that say public notice must be provided for things like subdivision applications. Idaho’s open meeting manual is here.
Idaho’s Local Land Use Planning Act is here.