Step by Step with Links
Step 1 (minute 0:00 in the video): Go to the Bonner County Current Projects here. These are all the in-progress applications for conditional use permits, subdivisions, and so on. From here, you can look at files for an individual project, and research what the project proposal is.
Step 2 (minute 1:29 in the video): The Idaho Secretary of State business search is here. Use this to find out who is running a development company listed on a Bonner County application, for example.
Step 3 (minute 2:08 in the video): If you want to search Bonner County’s property records, such as deed and ownership history, go to the Assessor’s property search page here.
Step 4 (minute 4:18 in the video): If you want to look up the land referenced in the current project, the interactive Bonner County maps to look up parcels are here and the video tutorial on how to use them is here. Click the search button at the top and look up data by owner, parcel number, or address. Click on surrounding parcels to compare acreage size, for example. You can also look at the Comprehensive Plan designation, or the zoning, by selecting those layers.
Step 5 (minute 8:26 in the video): You can check county code on the The Bonner County Planning Department website here, such as Zone Change Standards for Review and the Density and Dimensional Standards.
Step 6 (minute 11:26 in the video): Look at agency comments within the application files to see if there appears to be adequate road, sewage, and water services for the parcel, and if there are other issues to consider (such as wetlands).
Step 7 (minute 13:55 in the video): If you’re planning to go to a hearing, you should make sure it’s still scheduled for the originally-listed time. The main page for Bonner County is here. Scroll down about halfway to find the interactive Meetings and Events calendar. Meetings are separated by department. Click on the meeting you want in the sidebar to see the individual meeting page with the Zoom link and the agenda.
Step 8 (minute 15:00 in the video): If there are past hearings that are relevant to watch, you can find them on the Bonner County YouTube here. This particular file was considered by the Zoning Commission on July 23, 2026, and you can see their deliberation here. Among other things, this is a good case study in why code agreement between Bonner County departments is important (“We have one part of the county that thinks there should be a trip generation letter in the file, and another part of the county that doesn’t”) and why zone changes are significant. The representative states (4:19) that the zone change is merely a zone change, not a request to subdivide the property into smaller parcels. However, barring any major obstacles, developers are allowed to subdivide their property down to whatever density is allowed within their zoning. This is a common path developers take in order to subdivide property into smaller parcels, and thus increase their property value. At hour 4:42, Ellisport Bay Sewer District says they were not asked if they could serve the property, and if they had been asked, they would have said no. Due in no small part to the fact that the application failed to prove there was adequate sewer, the Zoning Commission recommended the file for denial.
Step 8 (minute 17:39 in the video): If you want to draft a comment letter to the county based on all your research, see our tips here. If you want to prepare spoken comments for a public hearing, consider our tips here.
Bonus: If you have ten business days or more, and you still cannot find the Bonner County land use documents you’re looking for, you can submit a public records request for land use documents (or something else) here.